The fact that Arae-san approached Amami-san by herself was surprising, but what she said was even more surprising.
After all, she was Arae Nagisa, the girl who had been mocking Amami-san and Umi's plays, the girl who said that she could wipe the floor with both of them if she wanted to and proceeded to do everything by herself during the practice match.
Class 11 managed to win thanks to Umi's tactics and her special training with Nitori-san and Houjou-san, which focused on specific tactics since there was a high chance that such situations might occur in the real match.
Their tactic was to win as a team and deal with Arae-san and Amami-san properly as they were the only ones worth noting on the opposing team.
Meanwhile Amami-san's practice was focused on slipping away from her markers and supporting Arae-san as much as possible because she was the ace of the team.
Her goal was to not give up even when things went south for them.
Of course, there was no way that Arae-san would know about all this.
Why the hell did she decide on this right on D-Day?
Amami-san's expression that had returned to normal immediately soured again.
"…What do you mean by that, Arae-san?"
"Did I stutter? I'll be your support for today, so go and do your thing. You practiced properly for today, right?"
"…Sure, I don't mind doing that, but are you sure?"
What she meant to ask was, 'we'll lose if we do that, are you sure?'
The other day, our class lost to class 11, but until the middle of the second half, the score was even and Arae-san did all that by herself.
If she backed down a little and cooperated with the rest of the team, she would be able to preserve her stamina for the whole match and would most likely be able to win it.
Arae-san wasn't an amateur, she should know this much.
"Of course. I mean, I don't really care."
She brushed off Amami-san's question with a laugh before continuing.
"Why are you so worked up, Amami? This whole thing is just for fun. Winning or losing, it doesn't matter, the goal is to deepen our friendship. I don't want to be a tryhard and ruin this for everyone."
"B-But, on the practice match you…"
"I was just trying to put that little girl over there in her place, nothing more. Well, now that I think about it, I should have acted more mature back then, huh?"
I couldn't believe that this girl who had always been spewing poison whenever she spoke could manage to speak so smoothly like this. She was like a completely different person.
Did she regret her actions back at the practice match? But then again, if she was a decent person, she wouldn't try to make trouble for Amami-san in the first place.
…Still, this was better than hearing her poisonous words.
"Well, a lot of things happened, but like I said when we first decided on the team members… I would do just enough to not embarrass our class. I'll leave the rest to you, Amami. If you want to win, go for it, if not, that's fine too, I'll support you either way. That's all, see ya~"
"A-Arae-san, wait!"
When Arae-san was about to leave, Amami-san quickly grabbed her shoulders.
Arae-san's face turned grim for a moment before turning carefree again in a mere second.
"Your strategy will be a problem… I told everyone that we will move to support you so you won't get isolated like last time, so we've been practicing while treating you as the ace…"
That was the strategy she came up with since Arae-san had been avoiding her.
She had to convince the whole team because of it. Everyone disagreed with the arrangement at first, but since Amami-san insisted, they eventually agreed.
In any case, that was the best strategy available for them in this situation.
Honestly, Umi and I weren't content with that strategy either, but we decided to respect her choice and kept our silence.
And then this happened. Let alone Amami-san, even us bystanders had this urge to tell Arae-san off.
Umi and I were about to pounce on her.
I gently squeezed Umi's hands, who had been clasping mine tightly for a while now.
"Yeah, I heard that, but it isn't much of a problem, no? Just use the same strategy and treat you as the ace, I'll support you. Besides, isn't that more convenient for you? Aren't you two competing against each other?"
"We aren't, we won't bring our personal circumstances into the match…"
"Ah, I got it. You two are fighting for that Maehara over there, aren't you? You're trying to show off and steal him from her, aren't you? Damn, girl, you got a pretty face, but what you're trying to do is actually nasty."
"…"
I was the first one to react to those words.
She was probably just taunting Amami-san, but that was going too far.
We were lucky that there was barely anyone here, or else it would start another unpleasant rumor.
I let go of Umi's hands and confronted Arae-san directly.
"I can't just let that one slide, Arae-san. Take back those words and apologize."
"H-Huh? T-That was a joke, okay? You don't need to be so serious… B-Besides, Amami–"
"Arae…"
"W-What? Y-You think just because you're in front of some cute girls you can act all hot and bothered? F-Fine, I'll take back my words, I-I'm sorry… A-Also, I have to get changed now, bye…"
"Oi, apologize properly—"
Arae-san forcibly shook my hand off and tried to run away.
So lame…
At that moment, I could hear someone's voice from behind me.
"Eh?"
"Arae Nagisa, you're so fucking lame!"
When those words were thrown at you in a loud voice, even the fleeing Arae-san couldn't help but react.
"…What did you just say?"
"Come closer if you can't hear, I'll say it to you again, loud and clear. Ah, you don't need to be scared, unlike you I'm not a bully."
"…Hoo…"
A wrinkle formed between Arae-san's brows before she walked toward us.
Then someone walked up to face her. It was Amami-san.
Yes, it wasn't Umi who said all those insults, but Amami-san, whose face was red in anger.