Chapter 134
The next Day and the Second day of 9SC.
The game that will be featured today is called Crowd Ball, which is a game where 6 cm diameter foam balls are shot into the competition area using compressed air. Players from different schools compete by using a normal-looking racket with no magic if they can or magic to force the balls to hit the opponent's court which then counts as a score.
One set lasts 3 minutes, and a ball is added or shot into the court during the set covered in a transparent box every 20 seconds, leading to 9 balls being on the court simultaneously to up the difficulty for the Students. Who got the most points will be declared the winner as usual. Women have 3 sets per match while Men will have 5. In the olden days, this game was called tennis.
"Gooood Morning Japan!" Takamori shouted in front of the camera "Welcome to the second day of our coverage of the Nine School Competition and this program is brought to you by Kudou Family and Four Leaves Technology." He said.
"Ohh... What I heard is real?" Naoka asked. Takamori nodded in response.
"Then, do they have any special requests from us?" Takeru asked.
"Kudou family or to be special the Head of the Kudou family, Kudou Retsu wants us to cover more Second High games" Takamori answered.
"Understandable, they want the whole of Japan and the World to know the next Heir of the Kudou family." Naoka nodded.
"That's right and as for the 4LT, they said that the Kudou family just dragged them to this though they wanted to say Good Luck to all of the students and asked them to check their CAD, we don't want any accident happening involving a defective CAD," Takamori said with a frown.
"Well, that was ominous," Takeru muttered.
"Anyway, gentlemen what is your expectation on today's Crowd Ball game? would the Second High upset the fan favorite to win, First High" Takamori said with a smile.
"I have to give it to Second High for having a strong BS magician but I will still give my support to my horse on the race dominating this day." Naoka answer.
"I hate to break it to you my friend but Saegusa-san dropped out of the Crowd Ball and the reason is she's not feeling well," Takeru said,
"Really?" Naoka turned to Takamori for confirmation and the latter nodded "I didn't know that" He said as he leaned back.
"What about you my friend?" Takamori asked.
"You know my answer already" Takeru smirked
"Third High it is! Now let's go to the Crowd Ball venue to let the listeners watch it live."
----
Meanwhile in some kind of gathering of middle-aged and old people.
"It seems we don't need to do anything to the Saegusa"
"Indeed then the only thing we need to do to ensure the Third win is to do something about the Second High player"
"Can our agents inside do something about that?"
"Unfortunately, they can't as the player is a BS magician"
"Then we can only wait until then we will find the wealthy man who bet in the Second High"
"If we find him?"
"Disposed him and the money is ours to take."
---
Another Meanwhile
In certain households and inside an office
A skinny-looking man with dark eyeglasses is working on the table doing paper peacefully but gets interrupted by a sudden shout.
"Father!" a girl with brown hair, a bob-like hairstyle, and two ribbons open the door abruptly. The girl had a green eyes.
"Kasaumi. I'm working!" a man shouted at the girl whose name was Kasumi.
"Forgive her father, she is just worried for our sister" a girl with brown hair in a straight bob that goes down to her shoulders and bangs that reach her eyebrows.
"I don't need his forgiveness, Izumi." Kasaumi retorted to the girl whose name was Izumi.
"Your sister? Did something happen to Mayumi?" the man asked.
This place is the Saegusa Household and the man is Mayumi's father, Saegusa Kouichi.
The gentle-looking Izumi explained what they heard on TV earlier.
"That's odd, I don't think Mayumi would just give up like that," Kouichi said though he did not care if Mayumi lost, he still found it odd.
"Then you don't know?" Kasumi asked which made her father shake his head. "Then we'll go to her and see if there is any problem with her," She said with determination.
"Just call her phone!" Kouichi said.
"No, I want to go there personally because what if something bad happened to her" Kasumi replied.
"She just wants to escape studying, Father," Izumi said calmly with a smile.
"Izumi" Kasumi gasped in surprise after hearing what her twin sister had said.
Kouichi sighed and started thinking for a while if he was going to let them go to the 9SC venue. "Fine you can go but you have to call me if something really did happen to your sister," He said.
The Twins nodded but Kouchi stopped them as he said "And also try and approach the Koudo heir if possible"
The Twins frowned but nodded nonetheless before leaving. Kouchi then smiled as he thought that if one of the twins can successfully woe the Kuodo heir then it's a win for him.
---
Preliminaries of the Crowd Ball.
Even though it's only the prelims, the crowd is already filling up the seats as they expect to witness another spectacle from the Second High Students but to their disappointment the girl from the Second High is just not doing anything special though it's still special because the girl or Tsubaki is using tennis racket with a long handle to it to bring the ball to the opposite side. Though it's not as flashy as Akeno did yesterday.
However, to others like Tatsuya and Leonhard who are scouting Tsubaki's capabilities, this is an impressive fit because every swing of that unusual racket is so strong that even Leonhard might have a hard time taking a hit from that swing.
"How hard this girl can hit.? I kind of want to know." Leonhard said casually making Tatsuya turn his head slowly and he stared at him with disappointment.
Sona and Rias watched Tsubaki with a smile as she demolished her opponent just using brute force during all the 3 sets. This happened to all of her matches up to the quarter-finals making the crowd who want to witness some flashy thing happen gradually lessen with each match as they do more productive things like preparing for their respective game that they join.
Finals of the Crowd Ball
Tsubaki who had a relaxed expression was wearing a sleeveless white tennis top that highlighted the curves of her body, she partnered it with a green skirt that made her want to see what was underneath but whoever was lucky enough to see that would be disappointed that she is wearing shorts. The teacher didn't allow her to just wear a skirt as that is against the moral code of the School, and the same thing for Akeno yesterday.
Tsubaki will be playing against a Senior third-high student instead of a First High Student.
Miyuki is with her Almighty Tatsuya and his band of Weed friends with the exception of Honoka and Shizuku as they are Blooms, the same as Miyuki. If someone does not know yet the School has some kind of Division too. The Blooms are the best of the best while the Weeds are a low-class, low-born type of thing. This division tends to lead to discrimination as history has proven it already.
Anyway, as they wait for the finals of Crowd Ball to start. They just talked about random things from time to time until they saw the group of Second High Students enter.
"It seems like Yotsuba-kun is not with them." Erika quipped as she observed the group.
"Erika, we already talked about this" Miyuki said as she reprimanded and gave her a stern look.
"I know, I know, I just can't help it you know, the Yotsuba are scary," Erika said but stopped before shaking her head "No, MI magic users are quite scary as you don't when or where you have been attacking by illusion that felt real." She said with a frown "And also reading someone's mind without permission is not a good look." She added.
"Reading mind sounds cool at first but yeah, just as Erika said the Yotsuba or MI magic users are a scary bunch in general as they can alter your mind easily," Leonhard said while looking at the Second High Group. "I don't know how they can stomach hanging out with someone that can do that" He added.
Miyuki and Tatsuya sighed as started thinking if they would still consider them as their friends if they knew that both of them were Yotsuba.
"Maa, Maa, Maa, maybe they trust Kamisato that they won't use it on them," Honoka said innocently.
"What if he already used it to them to trust him?" Erika retort. Honoka fell silent and did not argue with Erika.
"There's no way for you to stop hating on them are you?" Tatsuya asked.
"Nope," Erika said straight up.
"Then you're just like them," Tatsuya said while pointing to a certain group. They all looked and saw the First High group with a Bloom.
They then all look back at Erika which makes the latter sour her mood being lumped together with them. "Okay I accept that I'm being hateful like them but you have to admit they are scary," She said.
"Maybe you are just scared of Kamisato-san because can do those things you said," The usual silent Shizuku said calmly "And maybe Kamisato-san is the only MI magic user that can do those that will make the Yotsuba jealous." She added, "Remember what the Chairman said that night?" She asked.
They then remember that Retsu said that the Yotsuba might claim or kidnap him for his unique application of MI magic.
"Then I hate Kamisato. that's fine right?" Erika said. However, they thought that's still not fine but they don't want to talk about this anymore.
If Oreki is here he will probably gonna insult Erika's haircut for hating him.
---
Rias and Co.
"Is Akeno still asleep?" Sona asked.
"Why are you asking me again? we sleep in the same room" Rias retorted angrily.
"I have not returned to our room since morning remember?" Sona reminded Rias that she had been watching all of Tsubaki's games to support her Queen.
"No, She is still asleep even after I tried to wake her up during lunchtime, she won't even budge," Rias said with a sigh.
"Jealous?" Sona asked with a smirk.
"Not really, I'll be in Akeno's position eventually" Rias answered casually "Unlike you" She pointed at her with a smirk.
"Your just lucky" Sona quipped while adjusting her glasses.
"That's part of stats so I'm not going to deny that" Rias shrug.
Sona clicked her tongue while her peerage with her stated that they would help her no matter what.
Eventually, players enter the field Crowd ball field. Cheers came from both sides when they introduced themselves to the crowd.
Tsubaki and the Third Student stand on the opposite side facing each other as they get ready.
The countdown started and when it ended, the first ball entered it went to Tsubaki's side. She then easily hit the ball to the other side but she did not use that much strength making other observant wonder why she did not use her strength much.
The third student gladly took advantage of this as she hit the ball back to the far side of Tsubaki and that was a good shot.
However, Tsubaki did not chase after it and used Mirror Alice to reflect back the ball double the speed to the Third High.
The opponent had no time to think and chase after it eventually she was able to hit it back to Tsubaki but just like the first time, Tsubaki just stood there as controlled the Mirror Alice reflected the ball back again.
The audience cheers as they finally see something cool from the Second High even though they don't understand how she is doing it she is so cool standing there as if she is ordering the ball to go to the other side.
Tatsuya uses his elemental sigh to see how Tsubaki is doing it but he can see a glimpse of something and he can also tell that every time she uses that something to return the ball, the ball's speed double.
"Mizuki what do you see?." Tatsuya asked.
"I see a Mirror moving around at her command," Mizuki said with her glasses off.
"She's reflecting it back but double it," Tatsuya said in his observation. He wonders if she's going to be able to reflect his mist dispersion.
"Another BS magician?" Miyuki asked.
Tatsuya nodded before saying "We should expect that the group that Kamisato-san's leading are all BS magicians"
"If this is kept up then we have a clear winner," Erika said which the others agreed.
Back the to field
The girl from third high eventually lost the first set after the other balls entered the field and unfortunately for the girl what happened to the first set also happened to the second set resulting in Tsubaking winning.
The audience cheers and claps except for the Third High Students.
Sona and her peers excitedly clap and are happy for the Queen.
Competitors shook their hands before Tsubaki waved to the audience emotionless.
"Let's meet her back," Riss said with the others agreeing to it.