Chapter 14

Chapter XXXVI: Two Stick, One Pocket Another break is given to the Class 2-A students from the tiring activities their teachers had given them. One of the gang suggests that they'll go on a hangout again. Tengen then suggests that it would be a different place for different vibes. All of them agree on what Tengen said. The following day, Enmei arrives at the fountain and sees nobody again. Ten minutes later, Kota arrives, followed by Tengen and Hanako. Gin also arrives at the scene. Enmei, looking annoyed, says,"For God's sake, not again.""Do you have somewhere to go?", asks Tengen."No, but maybe there'll be an emergency at home that's why", Enmei replies back to him. After that, they go to a different mall which is located north of the city. While entering the mall, Asahi shows up. Since it is lunchtime, they go for grilled food at the mall restaurant. However, at this point, Asahi distances himself and tries to listen to music, so lonely. The others chat with one another about the mall they went into."You know what makes this mall different, that this was one of the biggest shopping centers of the region ago before the others", says Kota though he already researched about it. He adds,"Commercials began to increased here since it's a metro area. Most of them enlarged their businesses until this mall isn't getting much attention anymore."The others are surprised of this fact although Hanako lives near the place and only goes there on rare occasions. After their lunch, they begin to explore the mall, having Asahi to go ahead of them. At the third floor of the mall, one can locate billiard pools. Having already the experience, Kota positions the ball in the triangle. He then asks them who'll be the striker. The others get their own sticks and try to strike the cue ball but no one can. Leading up to this point, Tengen slides the stick to the ball, a powerful force spreads the balls to different parts of the pool. Enmei picks the teams for fairness. Team 1 comprises of Enmei, Hanako, and Tengen while Team 2 composes of Gin, Akiko, and Kota The match between the two teams begins with a drastic strategy yet clever with Enmei shooting a solid ball into one of the holes having Team 2 to be cornered with the other solid balls. Gin tries to geometrically calculates the position of each striped balls and finds a slight opening and strikes it. It doesn't get in but the chain reaction knocks the other striped balls to block the pockets. Hanako's turn to put a ball in the hole with a hard strategy. As she slides the cue stick, Tengen then says,"Hey there, be careful. I think you're stroking my stick." The gang gets suspicious with this but when Hanako looks at the stick, she realizes that it was his. She gets another stick and tries to get a potential force to maximize the striking energy needed for the ball. At this point, the stick hits the ball but it slightly hits the other balls, making a large opening for the stripes to be pocketed. Though she watched many films involving billiards, she needs to find a great spot to strike. Since the cue ball is hard to reach, he sits on the pool table and begins to stroke the stick and with accelerating force, she pockets a ball. Due to that, the other balls ended up spinning horizontally. Tengen tries to slide the stick with one stroke and one of the balls get in. He tries to shoot another but a stripe gets in, making Team 2 to garner another point by default. As it's Kota's turn, he chalks up the tip of his stick and with a powerful potential energy radiating from his arms and shoulders, he strikes two striped balls into the pockets. The others are amazed with his tactic. Tengen also remark that he may be the new Magician. A lot of balls are still on top of the table so the second turn comes up. At the start, the same pattern applies until it reaches Akiko. She goes straight for the hole and she pockets two others. Tengen's turn dissolves as he accidentally hits a foul. With strategic compensation, Kota ends the match as he strikes the 8-ball into the pocket. They begin to start again but the facilitator comes and tells them that time's up. They all go home but Akiko wants to persuade Kota to have a match with her. Kota complies and their match is set for tomorrow. The day of the match comes and the two meet up at the fountain. They go to the billiards for the game. Kota positions the balls with the triangle."Ok, who'll break it?" (Kota)"Bish, if you like I could break you" (Akiko)"Hey, not my balls pls, just these balls" (Kota) Akiko laughs and strokes her stick, slightly breaking the formation of the balls."You may be strong to break me back then, but you weren't strong enough to break these balls anyway lol" (Kota)"Mf, my stick just slipped" He laughs at it and says,"Let me show you how it's done." He aims at the solids, striking it making the balls to go different directions. Some of which have been pocketed."Damn, you really are a shooter", Akiko remarks. Kota smiles at this and shoots two more solids until he gets cornered by a wrong angle. It's now time for Akiko's turn. He aims at the ball then suddenly disproportionately strikes at the edge, making the ball to go zigzagging through the gaps until it slightly hits a stripe, falling into the pocket softly."That's one", she says. She then goes around the table to find a position. At this rate, since the aim of the cue ball to the target is wide, she does her signature style and snipers the whole thing like a crusader aiming for the head. It swiftly hits the ball but it doesn't get in. Kota begins to turn up the heat by shooting more balls with great aim and angle. However, when he tries to hit the 8-ball, the cue ball ends up flying due to the impact. Akiko strikes again hitting two more balls with one hit while another hit goes straight for one more ball and the 8-ball to be pocketed. On her third turn, she loses some force, making the cue ball to be plummeted with the 8-ball. Kota sees a nice angle but as soon as he is about to make the shoot, Asahi interrupts them by calling them. He shoots the ball but their time is up. With Asahi garnering Akiko's attention, Kota can't do anything but be silent at that time. Since he is feeling this, he tells them that he's going home. The two wave goodbye to him and carry on chatting. While he is going home, Kota thought to himself about Asahi intervening which was the same thing again back then in Junior Highschool when he tried to chat with Akiko during their science project and relating much. Asahi intervened at that point and somehow, communication breakdown happens between him and her because of this. At home, Kota hugs his body pillow for comfort 'til he falls asleep.