Kaede's POV
"Wawa… Yuuya-kun cheered me up…!"
As Kaede moved to the starting point, she thought back to Yuuya's words earlier and blushed.
Although she felt that they had become a little closer again after spending the summer vacation playing together, Kaede wanted to get even closer to him.
"Hah… I wish I were a little taller…"
That is why Kaede was honestly envious when it was decided that Rin would participate in the three-legged race with Yuuya.
She was confident in her running speed, but there was nothing she could do about that.
"No, no, no! Since Yuuya-kun cheered me on, I have to do my best in the scavenger hunt…!"
As she braced herself once again, Shirase's announcement rang out.
"The next scavenger hunt will be decided by two things: how easy a subject you can draw and how quickly you can find the item you need to borrow! Are you all ready? Now then──"
Following Shirase's announcement, the event finally gets underway.
Then, all the students started running at once, but Kaede, who was confident in her speed, was the first to reach the platform where the subjects were lined up.
"Let's see, if I draw one from here, it's…!"
Kaede takes a sheet of paper without hesitation and opens it on the spot.
And──.
"Eh?"
Kaede froze at the subject written there.
The other students also picked up the subject one after another and started to check it on the spot.
"Haaaaaahhh? W-what is the legendary sword?"
"V-vice principal's wig, you say…?"
"Is there such a thing as the Greatest Treasure of Human Connections?"
"Damn it! A girlfriend, you say… You were taking advantage of me being singleeeeeee!"
It is truly an agonizing scream.
None of the subjects were straightforward, and they all had everyone scratching their heads.
"Oops! All players have not moved from their assigned locations! Ohki-sensei, what do you expect to happen from here?"
"Yes, well… the organizers have tried to make some of them achievable while mixing in some crazy ones… but unfortunately, it seems that all of them didn't get the right one…"
Shirase and Ohki-sensei continued to explain calmly, but Kaede was unable to do anything about it.
"T-this subject is… b-but I can't win if I don't bring someone with me…"
Kaede was confused.
Then, Yuuya, who was in the waiting tent, raised his voice.
"Kaede! Are you okay?"
"Yu-Yuuya-kun…"
At the sight of Yuuya, Kaede decided to prepare herself and rushed to Yuuya's side.
"Yu-Yuuya-kun, please come with me!"
"M-me? G-got it!"
Yuuya, who understood in an instant that Kaede's borrowed object that fit the theme was him, jumped out of the tent, grabbed Kaede's hand, and started to run.
Although she should be happy to be in a situation where she was holding Yuuya's hand, Kaede is not in the mood for that right now.
But as luck would have it, Kaede and Yuuya were able to finish in the first place because the others had not yet obtained the desired borrowed items.
"The first one to cross the finish line was Kaede from the red group! And with her, hand in hand is our school's hottest new student, Yuuya! What on earth was the subject?"
"Right… Well, let's just say we'll leave that up to your imagination."
Kaede, who had received a somewhat warm gaze from Ohki-sensei, turned her head down, her face reddening.
"Phew… I'm glad we made it to the finish line without incident. It seems that I was the right person for the borrowing subject… but what kind of subject was it? A transfer student, perhaps?"
"Eh? Oh, y-yeah! Right! That's the kind of subject it was!"
Kaede hurriedly answers Yuuya's question.
"(I-I can't possibly say that! I can't believe the subject was "Who's on my mind right now"…!)."
Kaede and Yuuya were good subjects in the eyes of the TV station, and they were unaware that the camera was immediately filming them.
＊＊＊
"Now, the scavenger hunt, in which only a few of the competitors made it to the finish line, was over. The next event was the ball throw!"
I was the one who reached the finish line with Kaede as a borrowed object that fit her subject, but it seemed that most of the others didn't even make it to the finish line.
T-that's right… I don't know where to borrow a legendary sword or something like that either…
More importantly, the next competition was the ball throw.
Many students, including Shingo-kun, participated in the ball throw, but Yuti was from the white group.
But at the same time, Kaori is also participating as a member of the white team… What in the world is going to happen…?
"Well, are both groups ready? Then… Start!"
"Hmph!"
At Shirase-san's signal, Yuti was the first to move and kicked up the countless balls rolling on the ground in one go. Then, in an instant, she retrieved the balls floating in the air and tossed them one after another into the basket.
"──[Meteor Shower・Athletic Festival Version]."
"Whoa! After Yuuya just now, Yuti is the next most talked competitor from the middle school division! With her incredible physical ability and throwing technique, she manages to put one ball after another into the basket!"
"Oh… Tenjou is tremendous in PE, but she's amazing too. I'm looking forward to seeing her come to the high school." [T/n: PE = Physical Education.]
As expected, the game was Yuti's sole domain, with Yuti accurately placing balls into the basket from one end to the other. Incidentally, the number of balls prepared for this ball game was much larger than that of a regular school, and on top of that, the baskets were large and multiple.
Therefore, a very intense game of ball throwing was being played…
"Eii!"
"Guhahhh!"
"Ta-Tanaka! Bwaaah!"
"Sa-Saitoooooo ── Gahahh?"
"Oh, participant Kaori! All the balls are flying in the wrong direction and ── It's dangerous!"
Kaori, a member of the same white group as Yuti, had sent every ball she threw flying in an unbelievable direction. Moreover, whether on purpose or by accident, the balls struck the students of the red group, and one after another, the red group's camp fell.
"W-what is this? Kaori's violent throw caused the number of participants in the red group to decrease!"
"W-wild pitch!" [T/n: In baseball, a wild pitch (WP) is charged against a pitcher when his pitch is too high, too short, or too wide of home plate for the catcher to control with ordinary effort, thereby allowing a baserunner, or the batter (on an uncaught third strike), to advance.]
Kaori is shocked by Shirase's announcement, but… T-this might be called a violent throw…
The red group, who managed to survive in front of their fallen comrades, had to avoid the still continuing throws from Kaori as the ball was being thrown in the air.
"Ueeeeeee! I-it's impossible to throw while avoiding this!"
"Don't worry! I, the [Ball-Throwing Nobleman], am going to ── Buhh?"
"Akiraaaaaa!"
"I-I'm sorry! B-but if I don't throw, the game is…!"
Kaori apologizes for her poor control but continues to throw it seriously because it was a game.
As a result, the game had turned into yet another competition in which they had to keep avoiding balls of a speed that even I, who was improving my level, would lose sight of.
After the wildly exciting ball game was over, the results were announced.
"L-let's see… just now, thanks to the efforts of Yuti and Kaori, the red group has a total of fifty balls, and the white group has three hundred balls, so the white group is the winner…"
"Victory."
"Ahaha…"
Yuti mouthed the words in her usual tone, then turned her gaze to me and sent me a V-sign.