Volume 3, Prologue
The most important number for volleyball was three.
Receiving, tossing, and attacking was the basic strategy. To receive, one planted their feet on the ground, prepared their shoulders, and received the ball. Each team of six was split into two groups of three and victory was determined by whoever won three sets first.
It was not a simple sport that could be won with just three people, but three powerful players could greatly increase a team’s overall offense and defense.
The summer game tournament was the big event just before summer break and Fujita Mutsuki’s class had placed their three most athletic members on their volleyball team: Jiyuuni Ange who excelled at all sports, Satowa Lucia who did the same, and Kurikara Saya who was captain of the girls softball team.
Ibekusa Machina and Tomono Sakae had also been placed on the team and Mutsuki himself was only there to bring the total up to six.
Machina had been an unexpected boon for the team. While she would not take the initiative, she was perfect at accurately placing the ball in the perfect spot for the attacker to make their move.
However, the three most promising players had an unexpected flaw.
“Wah, wah, wah! Knock it up a little higher than that!”
It was afterschool on the volleyball court at one corner of the school grounds.
Ange panicked as the ball tossed to her stopped at about knee height. She still managed to flip around in midair and hit it to the opposite court, but her legs got caught in the net.
“She got tangled up again!”
Her own team laughed cheerfully.
“Hey, hey. Did you see that, Mutsuki-kun? She really is clumsy. Touching the net is a foul, isn’t it? F! O! U! L!”
“Y-yes, it is. Now, Lucia-kun, can we start practicing?”
Even though he was laughing at Ange, Lucia was still learning the rules himself as he clung to Mutsuki.
As the class representative, Sakae was also leading the volleyball team, but he only smiled bitterly and shrugged.
Mutsuki felt bad that it was his roommate and friend arguing, so he turned to the last member of the team.
Kurikara Saya sat on the edge of the bench and showed no sign joining them as they practiced.
She was wrinkling her brow and clearly looked unwell.
Mutsuki was worried she was sleep deprived, and then their gazes met.
“Ah.”
She would normally smile whenever she saw someone, but she looked away a little awkwardly.
Each team was taking turns using the practice court, so after a set amount of time passed, they let the next team take over. The five of them moved to the bench they had left their things on, which was in the opposite direction from Saya.
“Sigh~ I don’t have any complaints about our individual abilities, but we might not even be able to win the first round like this.”
Their teamwork could not have been worse, so Sakae gave an exaggerated sigh.
He had not been trying to match the other boy, but Mutsuki gave a quieter sigh of his own.
Their individual athletic abilities were ten times as amazing as Sakae had imagined.
They were hiding their identities, but Fujita Mutsuki was surrounded by representatives of heaven, hell, and the human world: Jiyuuni Ange, Satowa Lucia, and Ibekusa Machina respectively. Their physical abilities far surpassed those of a normal human.
However, Lucia was mostly just having fun, and…
“Wait, Ibekusa! Toss the ball to me a little better than that! I can’t reach it!”
“Jumping any higher than that would seem unnatural. You should restrict yourself to the height I provide you. Using the powers of an angel for sports is unfair.”
“I don’t care!”
Machina did not want to show off any athleticism that went beyond the category of a normal student, so Ange’s abilities went to waste with her assistance.
They only had three days until the ball game tournament. These were representatives of hostile organizations, so getting them to work together by then was not going to be easy.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about a bad luck. Our very first match is against the teachers team led by that Demon God.”
Resignation filled Sakae’s voice as he watched the next team begin practicing.
“I guess I should count myself lucky for the rare opportunity to see Katsue-sensei dressed like this.”
They had given up the court to the teachers team which was checking on their formation.
One of them was Katsuie Subaru, homeroom teacher of Mutsuki’s class.
She was a beauty who looked at home in an intelligent outfit. She usually wore a crisp suit, so seeing her go through her warm-up exercises in a red track suit was a new experience.
Megutono Academy’s game tournament was incredibly largescale. It included volleyball, soccer, baseball, and even more sports and teams were formed by year, class, and club.
The teachers were no exception, so there was even a teachers team. It was originally meant as a way for the teachers to deepen their friendship with the students, but a lot of the teachers could be immature.
“Let’s get started, Katsue-sensei, Daima-sensei! …One!”
“Twoooo!”
“Threeeeeee!”
An immature sound of attack rang across the court.
Mutsuki and the others were up against the volleyball representatives for the teachers team in their first match, but those teachers were intent on winning.
“Gahhh! This isn’t fair! That Demon God’s very existence isn’t fair~”
Sakae paled as he imagined going up against that attack. Mutsuki’s eyes were also naturally drawn to Daima-sensei who had made the attack.
At 190 cm at least, the teacher was a head taller than the rest.
She did not seem slender and powerful. The face below her short-cropped chestnut hair was young enough to pass for Mutsuki’s age, but her height was another matter entirely.
She was Daima Makoto, Megutono Academy’s PE teacher.
She was something of a “big sister teacher” and she was popular among the girls due to the sense of security brought by her sociable personality and her height.
However, that friendly side had led to her gaining the nickname Demon God as a pun on her family name.
“It won’t even be about winning or losing against that. We have to pray we don’t get injured.”
“Maybe so.”
Mutsuki smiled bitterly.
He glanced over at the girls, but they seemed to have stopped talking about volleyball.
“Are your injuries from Miss C better?”
Ibekusa Machina sat next to Ange while handing her a drink bottle.
The two of them were enemies, but Machina was from the moderate faction and she had started worrying about the other girl a lot recently.
Ange was not exactly friendly, but she could not stir up pointless trouble when her duty was to protect Mutsuki. She took the bottle.
“I didn’t have any injuries to begin with.”
“I see.”
“…I am going to crush Black Cat.”
She kept her voice low so the others could not hear.
“We know Black Cat is somewhere near Mutsuki and has approached quite a bit. Next time, it’s my turn to strike back.”
Ange’s words were sharp enough to sense a sword-like edge to them and Machina only lowered her head a little.
She closed her eyes as the angel tried to read her reaction.
“Miss C is currently undergoing an inquiry. Even if she is in danger, I am not obligated to help her. However…”
Machina stood up.
“If the two of you were to fight, your odds of victory are below 2%. And she still has a few tricks hidden up her sleeve.”
She quietly said she did not recommend fighting this enemy and then she walked away.
Ange was left all alone.
“Hmph.”
She crushed the plastic bottle without taking a single sip.
“Don’t act so proud, human.”
The bottle dented in the shape of her slender fingers until it burst from the middle and fell to the ground. The edges of the bottle were smooth, as if it had been melted rather than split.
“I know where Black Cat is.”
She glared at Machina’s back and then looked to the opposite bench.
A girl sat their all alone. She looked perfectly normal, except for a dangerously crazed light deep in her eyes. It was Kurikara Saya.
Saya was looking back their way from that opposite bench. She was staring at Lucia, Sakae, and Mutsuki.
“What!? Wait a second, Mutsuki! What the hell is this!?”
“Wh-what is what?”
Sakae raised his voice, which drew Ange’s attention.
Mutsuki’s student handbook had fallen from his uniform on the bench. Sakae had picked it up, but…
“What the hell is this!? This was our friendship album! It was just for the two of us! So why is someone else in here!?”
He shouted angrily at Mutsuki after seeing the final page.
Lots of photo booth pictures had been placed there. There were twenty of them that he had taken with his friends since elementary school.
It was natural to place a special photograph up at the very top, so that was where he had a picture of him and Sakae, his best friend.
But now, the one he had taken with Ange was right there next to it.
“Dammit! It used to only be me! This was the special spot reserved for me, the best friend in the world for Mutsuki!”
“S-sorry, Sakae. But it was my first one with a girl.”
“No fair! I want a photo like that too! Let’s take one together, Mutsuki-kun!”
Jealous Sakae and opportunistic Lucia pressed in on Mutsuki.
However, this was still a friendly sort of anger.
“…What’s all this about?”
As Mutsuki tried to get by with a bitter smile, the handbook that had moved from Sakae to Lucia made another move to someone else. When he noticed who, he paled.
Ange, on the other hand, grew beet red.
“What is this!? This is…from back then!? You brought that back with you!?”
“S-sorry. But it came out really well.”
“This isn’t a joke! You…!”
“Ah, wait. Don’t peel it off so roughly. It’s going to tear.”
Mutsuki was right about it having come out well. They looked just like a couple. Ange pulled at it with her fingernail, but it was stuck on there good and would not come off. The boy tried to stop her, but the two jealous boys pressed in on him.
Below the clear sky of an early summer afternoon, lively voices filled the volleyball court.
“…”
Ibekusa Machina calmly watched those four argue.
As did the vertical pupils of a feral cat.