V1C2 Part1

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

1. BENCHWARMERCan we get an f in the chat for Ibara, who is looking like she’s not going to show up in the anime

Also the “Princess Briar Rose” part of the title is a pun on Ibara’s name, which means “briars” and the Japanese name for Briar Rose is Ibara-hime

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Two meters and twenty-four centimeters and,

Two meters and forty-three centimeters.

What are those numbers, you ask? Those were the heights of

the nets at the high school volleyball nationals. The first one was for girls,

and the second one was for boys.

The difference between them was nineteen centimeters. In

other words, boys played at a place nineteen centimeters higher than girls—that’s

what it seemed like, but I don’t think it was so simple. There was a difference

of twenty centimeters between boys and girls just from comparing the average

heights of vertical jumps for a typical high schooler. If you add the

difference in average height and arm length to that, then it should be a

difference of forty or, if one was unlucky, fifty centimeters.

Boys

competed even higher in the air above the net, which was nineteen centimeters

taller than the girls’. When I watched intensity of the boys’ midair fight, it

made me think how cramped and constricted we in girls’ volleyball were, just running

around close to the floor. Of course, in Japan, girls’ volleyball was traditionally

more popular, and there were many people who found the fun of volleyball in the

combination plays and successive rallies that were distinctive to girls, so I

would like to add this was purely my personal opinion. …But still, let me tell

you, those rallies only lasted because of the “react-able” power and speed of

the girls’ spikes. We weren’t able to react to boys’ spikes.

I was enchanted by the way the boys played. I was genuinely

longing to play like them.

“Sorry, sorry, you’re from girls’ volleyball, right? We’re

supposed to have a meeting today. Err…”

A remarkably tall boy spotted me and rushed over. Although, the

width of each step was so big that it looked like he was calmly walking over

here. He was like a giraffe…I thought, immediately overlapping the image of that

tall and thin herbivore peacefully strutting in the African savannahs over him.

“I’m Suemori from 2-A. Hello.”

After curtly giving my name, my eyes returned to the court. The

boy who had been standing out since earlier was just about to spike. He jumped

so high that his hips were above the 2.43-meter net and slammed in a glorious

spike along with a yell of “Rah!”

“Oops,”

The aforementioned lanky giraffe-like boy stretched out his long arm and stopped

the ball that came flying with a big bounce. While rolling it back with his

foot, he called out in an exasperated-sounding voice, “You’ll hit a girl, you

idiot. Be careful!” The way he spoke, like it lingered on the tongue, and his

low-pitched voice really did remind me of a giraffe (although I’ve of course

never heard a giraffe speak or even make a sound). I, who was 173 centimeters

tall, was among the tallest in my class, including the boys, so I wasn’t

treated like a girl often, but it seemed that I fit into the standard for a

girl in the eyes of Giraffe Boy. On one hand, I felt embarrassed, but on the

other hand, it made me feel uncomfortable.

“Soooorry.”

The boy who hit the ball just now went to the back of the

spiking practice line again while throwing back an apology that didn’t sound

particularly sorry.

“Um…so, let me introduce myself again, Suemori-san. I’m Aoki

from 3-C.”

“I know who you are. You’re the vice president.”

Ah, nice to meet you, Giraffe Aoki-senpai said, the

corners of his mouth turning up into a smile like he was eating leaves.

“Is that first-year Kuroba Yuni?”

“Eh? Oh, you know him?”

“I don’t really know him, but he’s my kouhai from middle

school, so I recognize his face at least.”

Watching

that first-year who was bouncing in place impatiently for his turn even though

it wasn’t a long line, I was shocked, wondering if that was really the case as

I confirmed it for myself. The reason for the questioning form was because he

was very different from the impression I had of him in middle school. Speaking

of Kuroba Yuni, wasn’t he the flunky of Kuroba Yorimichi—who was one of the “Big

Four Guidance Regulars” handed down through the history of Monshiro Middle

School—and a uselessly big liberal arts-type of boy?

“Boys can get pretty good all of a sudden.”

A line I heard someone said suddenly came to mind. Who

said it…oh, it was Ayano. My chest ached a little as I recalled.

I heard that last year, the boys’ volleyball team at my old

middle school achieved the good result of fourth place at the summer

prefectural tournament. When I was there, the year before last, the boys’ team was

far from a weak team…it couldn’t be called “existing”, but apparently there was

a transfer student who somehow brought a miracle to the club.

“Is that kid the only one from Monshiro Middle joining this

year?”

“Monshiro Middle? …Hah, I think it’s Kuroba and Nagato over

there?”

I’ve seen that first-year called Nagato before, so he wasn’t

that transfer student.

“I heard that there’s a great setter among our kouhai, but

he didn’t come here, huh…” I murmured, but just I finished my sentence, Giraffe

Aoki-senpai suddenly started coughing violently.

“…Are you alright?”

“Yeah, um, it’s just a cloud of sand.”

“Boys’ volleyball is pretty soft, I see.”

“You

sure are harsh, Suemori-san.”

With another light cough, Aoki-senpai shrugged, looking

embarrassed.

“It’s just how I am.”

I answered curtly on the surface, but on the inside, I was

fed up with myself, thinking, Ah, I did it again. I knew full well that

comments like these could hurt people.

Fortunately, Aoki-senpai didn’t seem particularly offended.

“Well, I can’t deny that, so it’s fine. Now, let’s have a

discussion. Oh, I’m the vice captain. The captain is that Oda guy over

there…Oi, Shin. We’re talking about the ballgame tournament!”

Nanafu Seiin Prefectural High School, located in Nanafu

City, Fukui Prefecture. It took twenty-five minutes by train to go from the

town of Monshiro, where my and Kuroba’s houses were located, to Nanafu Station.

Including the travel time from my house to Monshiro Station, as well as the

travel time from Nanafu Station to school, it took about an hour to get to

school, but it was a school where there were a few people here and there from

Monshiro Middle.

The

ballgame tournament “Seiin Ballgame Festival,” which would take place in late

June, could be called the main event of the first semester at our school. There

would be six events: mixed boys’ and girls’ softball, mixed boys’ and girls’

futsal, girls’ basketball, boys’ volleyball, and girls’ volleyball. Under the

supervision of the executive committee, each sports team would assist in the operation

of the event. Incidentally, for many clubs, this overlapped with the time of

the year when the prefectural qualifiers for summer national tournaments, so they

shouldn’t have time to devote to school events by all rights, but our school

didn’t have any teams that could go to nationals, so there was no problem.

Rather, it was a time for a breather after being eliminated from the

qualifiers.

Therefore, in the volleyball division, the boys’ and girls’

volleyball teams had to send staff members from each of their teams to run the

event, but since the boys’ team was actually traditionally few in members, it

was an annual custom for the girls’ team, which in contrast traditionally had a

large number of members, to send out helpers.

And so unfortunately this year, the one sent in to the boys’

team in that coordinator role was me, girls’ volleyball second-year, Suemori

Ibara. I said unfortunately because…being designated as a coordinator was

synonymous being branded as a leftover as a player. In the girls’ team, it was

a empty job where those who were judged useless were sent away.

“…So, if we follow how we did it last year, a teacher will

be the chief referee, but from the club members, we need one person to be the

assistant referee, one to be the scorer, two ball retrievers, and four

linesmen. If it’s okay to leave out moppers, then then we need eight people for

a single match. The girls will provide the two ball retrievers and two

linesmen. We can’t spare anymore than that because we have to manage the girls’

side too. From the boys, please send out four people for the assistant referee,

scorer, and two linesmen for each match. I think it will be difficult to divide

up roles so that it won’t overlap with the people who will be in the match. Do

you have any questions so far? You’re both third-years, so I think you probably

knew all this, but…”

I, who had dropped my eyes to the memo I took

over from my senpai in the girls’ club as I explained to that point, raised my

head and saw the unreliable and worried looks on the two third-year boys, which

strengthened my concern. I don’t know how to put this, but was there nothing

that could be done about this vague herbivorous feeling that was common to all

creatures called boys’ volleyball team members?

The aforementioned third-year who was so long and thin that he

reminded one of a giraffe was the vice captain, Aoki Misao-senpai. In contrast,

the captain, Oda Shinichiro-senpai was—it was rude to say this—a “pint-sized”

boy. He was probably about ten centimeters shorter than me. Even if you

discount the fact that I was tall for a girl, I was still way below the average

height for boys. Is he a libero…? However, according to the rules, the

team captain couldn’t be the libero in games, so there must have been some sort

of inconvenience if the team captain was the libero.

If Aoki-senpai was a giraffe, then Oda-senpai was…what was

he, a dog…yes, a dog. A Shiba inu. Crap, now I could only see him as a Shiba

inu. I even saw a hallucination of him wagging his tail. Why was I talking

so seriously while face to face with a giraffe and a dog? I was dying to tell

someone about it…I wish I could talk to Ayano…

“Also, I’m working until the day before, not the day of, but

team practice starts next week and I have to help with that as well. I’ll be inside on the day of the event for boys’ volleyball, but there will be days where I’m outside practicing…”

Since

you could only take two courts in the gym, and there were four courts when you

counted the outside court, boys’ and girls’ volleyball and the basketball teams

competed for them. The fact that being inside was treated as “winning” and

outside was “losing” was the same as marking out space for normal club

activities. The ground on the outside court was dry, and if you tried to do a

sliding receive, you would end up choking on a cloud of dust and your jersey and

ball would turn chalk white, and depending on the weather, it’d be boiling or

freezing, so we were being prejudiced against at any rate. And the tragedy of

being wet and muddy after the rain didn’t need to be said.

As a result of a lottery, the venue for this year was

determined to be outside for girls’ volleyball and boys’ basketball who drew

“blanks”, and inside for boys’ volleyball and girls’ basketball who drew

“success.”

“…You had good luck this year.”

When I muttered that in between conversations, Oda-senpai

and Aoki-senpai both stiffened slightly and exchanged glances. “What is it?” I

knitted my brows at this exchange that was like accomplices making eye contact

with each other.

Oda-senpai sighed with a glum look on his face, and then

gave a sidelong glare to Aoki-senpai.

“About that…actually, because of this guy’s cheating…”

“Hey, it’ll be awkward if you tell that to someone from

girl’s volleyball. You were the one who said you wanted to be inside this year

no matter what.”

“I never said a word about cheating. If the girls’ team

doesn’t accept it, they might have to redo the lottery, which I don’t mind.”

While

feeling a headache from the hallucination of a Shiba inu hounding a groaning

giraffe and the giraffe laughing like an idiot and bending his long neck back, something

occurred to me. Aoki-senpai was the vice president of the student council. The

ballgame tournament was organized by the student council, and it was customary

for the vice president to serve as the executive committee chairman. It would

be possible for him to set up a cheating scheme for the lottery.

“I don’t see how it’s a problem. I won’t tell on you.”

I tried my best to sound indifferent.

“…It’s for Kanno’s sake, isn’t it?”

The two senpais blinked and exchanged glances once again. And

then, Oda-senpai looked awkward, as expected, and Aoki-senpai didn’t look the

least bit ashamed, but they both smiled bashfully.

“Yes.”

They

said in unison and nodded.

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