Despite everything, my friends know me too well.

Sometimes I think they know me better than I know myself.

They know what will make me feel better. They think ahead and act on what I should do before I even realize it myself.

Running while watching the ball soar toward the sky was more refreshing than I expected.

Even though my body was drenched in sweat—a situation that would normally make me feel uncomfortable and irritated—I enjoyed the feeling of the ball hitting my palm. I liked how my classmates shouted "Nice!" at me, and I liked hearing Mom and Dad's voices from far away.

Koko called my name over and over as if I were some sports star.

It's problematic when a cheerleader focuses on just one person like that.

The actual volleyball team members didn't seem to mind much, though.

I had thought that Koko and I were somewhat famous in our class, but apparently that story was much more well-known than I had imagined.

Not only did we look alike, but we were always stuck together, and occasionally people would see our mom whom we both strongly resembled.

Koko's fondness for me and how she always followed me around was so well-known that everyone seemed to accept her biased cheering as normal.

"Good job, well done!"

Yuka shouted praise that she rarely gave even when we were fighting with swords.

Actually, would that be appropriate praise for sword fighting? I suppose such cheerful exchanges wouldn't really fit that situation.

Honestly, I wasn't the best player on the volleyball team. Yuka with her good basic physical abilities and dynamic vision, the captain who seemed to have played volleyball for quite a while before, and the other team members who had joined specifically to play volleyball were all much better than me and contributed more.

But somehow I managed to blend in with them, and as we all ran around together, I was being cheered for along with everyone else.

Slap! Palm hit palm, making a sound. Not applause, but a high-five.

We scored points while raising one arm toward the sky, jumping up, and hugging teammates.

Harumi was right.

After a while, I didn't really care about the score. Whether we won or lost, I was just running with all my might while watching the ball.

No other thoughts—all I could see was the ball and my friends.

It felt like my mind was clearing up for the first time in a long while.

*

Although it's called a sports day and it is indeed a school athletic competition, we couldn't possibly cover all Olympic events. There simply weren't enough students for that. So the sports we played were all things that could be done reasonably well on the school grounds.

Of course, none of the students were serious athletes, so suddenly doing too much running could lead to serious injuries. Above all, even with a limited number of events, completing all the finals in one day wasn't as easy as it might seem, so the school had prepared some light competitions in between to help everyone relax and simply enjoy themselves.

"Honestly."

I said this while wiping the flour off Koko's face with a towel.

Koko was grinning with a candy in her mouth.

Having lived with us for several years and having been in school for quite some time, Koko knew better than to use her abilities whenever she wanted.

More than anything, Koko didn't want to deviate much from this appearance. Even when fighting, she only transformed her hair.

At first, I thought parts of Koko like her eyes, nose, and ears were just imitating human features. After all, when I first met Koko, she was... well, an extremely squishy nose.

But thinking about it again, if she had originally been some kind of slime, she would have just remained slime-like rather than taking the form of a giant nose. When Koko was first born, she looked like she was randomly imitating parts of a human body.

In fact, maybe it wasn't random imitation—perhaps all those created organs functioned properly just like humans'?

Having been abandoned for a long time, perhaps she simply didn't know what form she should take, so she just existed in that state.

"Delishush!"

"Wait. If you talk like that, you'll spray flour all over me."

Although Koko didn't show her fighting form, she still ran at full speed on her two legs.

And she buried her face in a plate full of flour to find candy.

Well, it was cute, I suppose.

Mom was also busy filming the two of us with her camera.

...

Well, whatever.

Come to think of it, there's no reason to add anything after "it was cute." Let's just leave it at "it was cute."

Surprisingly, the volleyball team had only one final match left.

I had been helpful in my own way, and above all, our teamwork was quite good. Probably because the captain was prepared to lead us in that direction, and the rest of the team, including Yuka and me, showed complete trust in her.

"Let's do well."

Yuka patted my shoulder and said. There's that prince-like demeanor again. I wondered if Yuka had this impression in the original work, but I just shook my head.

Well, in a girls' high school, being called a "prince" means having a gallant attitude rather than looking like a boy.

And it generally refers to pretty characters too.

"Yeah. Let's do well."

"Kotone is awesome!"

Fortunately, when Koko shouted that, she had already wiped most of the flour off her face, so I didn't get any more flour on mine.

"What about Yuka?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Yuka is awesome too," Koko answered.

"That sounds like you're just saying it to be polite."

Yuka burst out laughing as if she couldn't believe it.

"Kotone, don't be too nervous!"

Harumi, who had approached us, shouted.

"I'll cheer for you!"

Mako too.

Both were in cheerleader outfits. They both suited them for different reasons. For Harumi, the image matched her incredibly well, while for Mako, it was the gap—a refreshingly different atmosphere from usual.

And then,

"Yuu looks awesome too," I said, looking at Yuu who was standing a little behind the two.

Caught off guard by my sudden attack, Yuu's eyes widened slightly before narrowing again. Yuu glared at me.

"Yuu is awesome too!"

"See, I told you earlier it was just being polite. But Yuu does look awesome."

"That's right. Yuu is awesome, awesome."

"It suits you really well!"

After Koko, Yuka, Harumi, and Mako complimented her in succession, Yuu's face turned red instantly.

Her glare at me intensified.

Well, I didn't say anything wrong.

Isn't Yuu kind of like a prince in a different way? Or an ice princess?

Well, such impressions are definitively determined by whether one takes on the role of a prince in the cultural festival play.

...

"You're thinking something strange, aren't you?"

"No, not really?"

I was just thinking that maybe our class should decide on a play for the cultural festival.

And I'd recommend my cousin for the prince role.

Well, since it's a co-ed school and not an all-girls school, I'm not sure if the kids would accept it or not.

"..."

Yikes.

As Yuu's expression became truly fierce, I hid slightly behind Yuka.

And Koko hid behind me. Probably without any particular meaning.

I could hear the children laughing. I laughed too, hiding behind Yuka.

Click.

Kagami seemed too busy taking photos to say anything to Koko and me, seriously holding her camera.

Dad was laughing beside her, finding something amusing.

*

Even though this wasn't a competition leading to a national tournament or one with a huge prize, the children's cheers seemed to pound in my ears.

I knew intellectually that it wasn't that kind of competition, but somehow receiving such cheers made me feel like I had to run hard.

So I really did run hard.

With a feeling of squeezing out every last bit of strength I had left.

"There!"

"Got it!"

I jumped powerfully toward the ball. Barely managing not to fall, I bounced the ball up into the air with both hands.

Right near the net.

A player from the opposing team jumped up powerfully—

And right in front of them was Yuka.

Yuka also jumped high toward the sky.

Cheers erupted. Both those cheering for the other team and those cheering for our team were all shouting loudly as if their team's victory was assured.

Then, with a "bang," the sound of hitting the ball made everyone suddenly quiet.

The ball hit Yuka's hand.

The ball, powerfully driven into the floor, bounced up high and went outside the court.

It was a perfectly executed spike.

"Yuka!"

I found myself shouting Yuka's name.

Landing on the floor, Yuka stared at her hand somewhat blankly before being tightly embraced by teammates rushing toward her.

Somehow it seemed like all the girls from our class, not just the volleyball team, had run out.

To Yuka, who was looking at me with a slightly dazed expression while surrounded by those girls, I gave a grin and a thumbs up.

I couldn't help but laugh when I heard Kagami's cheers among the children.