Cheering Squad

Today I'd come to the school gym to watch Arisa's volleyball match.

A small tournament was being held with our gym as the venue, and since the chance had come up, I'd made good on my promise to cheer her on.

Public gyms don't always get the okay from the Protection Officers, depending on the situation, so it was nice this one was at our school. Security was easier here, apparently.

Our school's gym is large, and like a public civic gym it even has spectator seating on the second floor. We were sitting near where our school had set down its bags.

"Shouya! Morning! Thanks for coming! Good morning to you too, Sakamoto-san!"

Arisa came running up to where I was sitting in the spectator seats to say hello.

Today her usually-loose hair was tied back in a ponytail. It played up her energetic image and showed off the nape of her neck, which had a sexy quality to it too.

"Mhm. Morning, Arisa. Do your best today."

"Good morning, Komine-san."

Satsuki-san and I both returned Arisa's greeting.

"I might not get a lot of court time today, so… if it gets boring you can go home, okay?"

"Mm-mm, we're going home together today, so I'll stay until the end."

Arisa is a third-year middle schooler, so by rights she should already have retired from the club. But since our school is a combined middle-and-high school, retired third-years join the high school team for practice.

And today, Arisa was playing in a small tournament for the high schoolers. The "going home together" part was because Kaede had proposed a sleepover.

Arisa was looking forward to the maids' cooking, by the way. I'd asked them to pack a bento for her too today.

"Got it. Then have fun today! I'm going to go warm up."

Arisa bowed to Satsuki-san and headed back down to the floor, where the other teams were already running spike and receive drills. The gym was filled with the smack of balls being hit, the scuff of shoes on the floor, and energetic shouts.

The time must have come, because the teams on the court switched out and our school's turn arrived.

Sure enough, with middle schoolers mixed in, our team's average height looked low. But since mostly the high schoolers would be playing the matches, maybe it didn't matter… and yet, watching Arisa warm up, it started to feel like the middle-school thing didn't matter at all.

To my amateur eye, she didn't look any worse than the other teams' spikers… no, she looked even better. Kaede had told me beforehand that 'Arisa is the ace,' after all.

When warm-ups ended, there was an opening ceremony and the matches started right away. The gym was split into four courts. Given the size of the place, apparently they could fit even more.

"Shouya, how's it going? Are you having fun watching?"

Arisa had come back to the spectator seats to check on us. Our high school [Keisei Academy] wasn't scheduled to play right off the bat. A bye, maybe?

"Mhm. First time I've seen this live, so the intensity is amazing…"

"My match is going to be even more amazing!"

Arisa said it with full confidence as she sat down beside me.

"When's the match our school is playing in?"

"That'd be right after the match on the first court ends."

Someone else answered my question before Arisa could.

"Ah, Buchou, good work!"

It seemed to be the captain of the high school volleyball club. Arisa stood up to greet her, and I stood too and gave a small nod of acknowledgement.

"Um, you're Izumi-kun, right? Thank you for coming today. Everyone on our team is really fired up thanks to you."

The captain extended her hand, so I took it and returned the greeting.

"Good morning, Buchou-san. Sorry to intrude today."

The captain went still, my hand still clasped in hers.

"Hey, Buchou! Come back to us!"

Arisa's loud voice seemed to startle her back to her senses.

"S-sorry… I just never imagined you'd actually take my hand… Ahem! The tournament runs a league round in the morning and a knockout round in the afternoon. We're picking the winner from sixteen schools."

Once she'd recovered, the captain picked up where she'd left off.

"Our league is the match being played right there! And once that ends, it's our turn. I'll send you today's match schedule!"

Arisa worked her phone and sent me the day's pairings and progression chart.

"That said, our team should clear the league round easily. It'll make for good practice for the middle school division."

"Our school is that strong, huh…"

"W-well, of course!"

I'd meant to praise the team, but for some reason the captain went red and puffed herself up proudly.

"Hey, Buchou! He was praising the whole team!"

"That's right! It's not fair you got to shake hands with Izumi-kun all by yourself!"

I could hear protests from the other club members further away.

"Sorry for the noise, Izumi-kun…"

"No… it's lively, kind of fun."

When I smiled at the captain, the team members piped up again with 'she smiled! So cute!' and 'I want a picture…' and the like.

"Buchou, Shouya doesn't get in a bad mood over little stuff like this, so it's fine! Right!"

"Mhm… Buchou-san, you really don't need to worry about it."

"I-is that so… well, if you say so…"

While we were talking, the previous match was wrapping up, and Arisa and her teammates began getting ready for theirs.

"Well, Shouya, I'm heading off!"

"Mhm, off you go."

Arisa and the others took the floor, did some light warm-ups, and the match began immediately.

To my surprise, Arisa was in the starting lineup. The starters were all middle schoolers, in fact. From the opposing side's perspective, would they think they were being looked down on? Or would they stay on guard because, middle schoolers or not, this was a powerhouse school?

After lining up and doing the coin toss, our team won and took the serve.

Everyone took their positions, and at the back of the court was Arisa, ready to serve.

When the whistle blew, Arisa tossed the ball high, started her run-up, kicked off the ground hard, leapt, and unleashed her serve. The ball curved gently and dropped onto the very back edge of the opponents' court, threading between players. Or rather, "slammed down" was the more accurate description.

I'd never noticed from video, but watching live, I was startled at how fast a volleyball travels.

And in my previous life, female players hadn't moved like this, as I recalled. In this world, women's physical abilities are heightened, so they put on the kind of acrobatic display you'd see in men's volleyball back home.

After high-fiving her teammates, Arisa turned and waved at me. I quickly waved back, and Arisa broke into a delighted, beaming smile.

Arisa launched another powerful serve, but this time it was kept up. The opponents had thickened their defense, wary of her serves now.

The ball reached the setter and went to the spiker. The opponents' attack was set up in perfect form.

The instant I braced for a fierce attack, the ball was already back on the opponents' court.

It had been shut out by a flawless block. So this was the strategy called "serve and block." A clean execution.

What stood out the most was that our team's middle blocker was tall. Even against the high schoolers she didn't look outmatched. Except for the opposing middle, she had every other player beat on height. She was the one who'd stopped that ball with the block just now, and she really was the linchpin of the defense.

And Arisa's spikes could only be described one way: ferocious. Even when high school blockers came up, her power was so tremendous she could aim for a block-out.

When the tall middle blocker started marking her, even Arisa had a rough time of it, but she'd target the fingertips, or skip the full strikes entirely and toss the opponents around with rebounds and pushes, showing a cleverness you wouldn't normally see from her.

After that, the match progressed smoothly, and the result was a straight-sets victory. To take it in straight sets against high schoolers… a powerhouse school really is a fearsome thing.

Arisa and the others had refereeing duties, it seemed, because they didn't come back to the spectator seats after the match either.

"Shouya-sama, may I ask you something?"

"Yes, what is it?"

I'd been watching another match and Arisa's refereeing when Satsuki-san spoke up.

"That… why did you think to hire me?"

"At the interview I thought you were a serious person, and your martial arts marks were top of the group, so…"

"Th-that's not what I… I'm sorry. Let me rephrase… Shouya-sama, do you not find my face frightening?"

I see. Up until now she'd been turned down because her face was scary and she was tall and busty, and then someone willing to hire her suddenly appeared. It must seem strange to her.

"Hmm… not really frightening… your eyes do have a sharp look to them, certainly…"

"I-is that so… I just… worried that Shouya-sama might be forcing himself…"

So she'd been worried I was hiding being scared…

"I'm fine. Besides, I wouldn't shake hands with someone I was scared of, or call them by first name."

"Shouya-sama… I understand. From here on as well, I will protect Shouya-sama with my life."

"O-oh, don't… don't say 'with your life'… I don't want anything happening to Satsuki-san either… if you got badly hurt, everyone would be sad, you know?"

I'd come to understand that all too well myself, recently. I didn't want her to treat her own life lightly.

"…! That's true. I'll be sure to always remain by your side."

Satsuki-san's face went red as she declared her resolve. I'd never seen her shaken by anything until now, so if my words had moved her heart even a little, that made me happy.

"Wha～at, you two getting all lovey-dovey?"

The instant our conversation ended, Arisa's voice came from behind. I turned to find her with her cheeks puffed out and her arms crossed.

"W-we weren't being lovey-dovey!"

Satsuki-san was unusually flustered. Getting flustered there is basically as good as admitting it, you know…

"Hmm～… well, whatever… more importantly, Shouya! Did you see me out there?"

When Arisa's interrogation ended, Satsuki-san let out a relieved breath.

"Mhm! It was amazing! Your serves were incredible! And on top of that, it felt like you were the axis of the whole offense!"

Remembering Arisa's huge performance, I got carried away despite myself.

"Hehe ♪, when you praise me that much I get embarrassed…"

Arisa's face went red as she scratched her head.

"And the middle blocker was really tall, huh, she was stopping a lot of spikes."

"Mmph… what about me?"

"Eh, ah, s-sorry…"

The moment I brought up another player, Arisa puffed out her cheeks as if jealous… I kind of want to poke them.

She looked so cute that I wanted to play a little prank on her, so I tried poking her cheek, and the air slipped out of her lips. Arisa's cheeks have almost no flesh to them, and the soft, springy feel of the skin was the dominant sensation.

"Buuh!… Hey, Shouya!"

"Sorry… it's just, you were so cute I wanted to tease you a little…"

"C-cute… w-well, if that's the reason, then fine!"

Arisa went even redder and looked embarrassed.

"And anyway, I'm happy when teammates get praised too, so I wasn't really mad!"

So Arisa hadn't been jealous to begin with after all.

"Arisa-chan, the match is starting soon, so…"

"Mhm, got it! I'm coming right now! … Well, Shouya, I'm heading off."

When the tall middle blocker called her over, Arisa poked me back in the cheek as if in retaliation and ran off. Her refereeing was over, it seemed, and she'd only come to grab her things.

Our team won the league round in straight sets with only middle schoolers, and in the knockout round the high schoolers took the lead, though Arisa and the tall middle blocker and others kept playing in the matches. The knockout round was also won handily through the overwhelming strength of the high school members, and our team took the championship at this tournament.