Before reading: We have a new OC character coming soon, if you want to know about her, read the last part posted. I will also talk it about it at the end of this part.
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(Ayanokoji POV)
As we made our way back to the room, Horikita walked away from Yuuichi. Seemingly avoiding him at all costs.
After the incident with Ryuuen, Horikita seems to have given up on trying to get information out of Yuuichi.
She just doesn't realize yet, that it may be better for her to stay in the dark.
Going a different route back, we happened to pass a game room. It had ping pong, pool, and even a little soccer game with plastic people.
"Horikita, can you call Chiaki?"
Yuuichi looked over to Horikita, who was currently standing away from him.
"Why, did something happen?"
"No, just tell her that I asked her to come."
Despite being angry at him, and slightly confused, she still called Chiaki. Showing she at least still had a bit of trust in Katagiri.
After speaking with Chiaki for less than a minute, she came back.
"She agreed to come way to fast after I mentioned your name...why did I need to call her anyway?"
Despite being questioned, Katagiri walks into the game room.
"I just thought it may be fun..."
After walking in as well, I can see that this game room is actually bigger than I thought. The walls are green, with the carpet red.
Despite looking this fancy, it seemed no one had actually come in here yet.
"Ayanokoji."
I turned to see a paddle coming towards me.
"Do you want to play?"
The rules to ping pong seemed simple enough.
"Sure."
—
We practiced hitting the ball back and forth a few times. The main goal of this game is to keep your eye on the ball, and coordinating your movements to hit the ball. You also have to keep the ball within a certain range when hitting it, so it does not fly off the table.
You want to try to hit the ball on your opponent's side of the table, with them missing it, to gain a point. Hitting the ball off the table, would give your opponent a point.
"Ayanokoji, I'm going to speed it up a little."
We had only been passing the ball back and forth slowly until now.
He hit the ball, with more force this time.
Following the ball with my eyes, I hit it back, with more force.
Yuuichi followed it as well, but the sound of the door opening caused a mix of movements.
The ball hit the side of his paddle, and went flying towards Chiaki, who had just walked in.
She calmly caught the ball in her hand.
"Starting with out me?"
She brought the ball back over to Katagiri.
"No, me and Ayanokoji were just getting a head start. Now we can play doubles."
"Yay! Let me get a paddle!"
Katagiri grabbed one from under the table, and grabbed another one for Horikita.
"I don't know why you assume I want to play with you. Do we not have more important stuff to do?"
He placed the paddle in her hand.
"For now, let's just have fun. Think of it as a team building exercise."
She sighed, and walked to my side of the table.
"You played good when practicing. Have you played before?"
"Only once."
—
Horikita seemed to think Yuuichi had something up his sleeve here, that this was all part of the plan. She wasn't exactly wrong, but she wasn't exactly right either.
From what I've seen so far, Katagiri Yuuichi was not a normal high school student. He possessed abilities that even pass those of an adult.
I have also seen that he has no limits when it comes to winning. He will do what ever it takes to win.
It made him and I more alike than I thought.
But, right now, he just seemed to want to live a normal high school life. Playing a simple game with friends. I had absolutely no rejection of that.
This ping pong game would be nostalgic for me, but that was for a reason he didn't know yet.
—
Chiaki decided to serve the ball. It came blazing towards Horikita.
She made her best attempt to hit it back, but I resulted in it going off the table towards Katagiri.
He saved it, and sent it flying back.
It went towards me, so I sent it back with a spin.
Chiaki didn't flinch though, and saw exactly where the ball was going.
She has clearly played this game before.
She made a rather bad pass back though, and it went over Horikita's head.
Horikita slightly hit it with her paddle before it went off the table, resulting in their point.
We had decided to play until someone hit 5 points.
It was now 1-0.
(I do not remember all of the rules of ping pong so bear with me. I think you are supposed to play until someone hits 21 points, but that would be a 10,000 word chapter with nothing but ping pong.)
Horikita made a fly ball serve, giving Chiaki that opportunity for a well placed hit.
"Here we go!"
She sent it flying towards me, I hit it as hard as I could on their side, causing it to fly in the air.
It would have gone over Chiaki, but Yuuichi was tall enough to hit back down.
It barely didn't make it over the net.
1-1
"Was that serve on purpose Horikita?"
Chiaki was asking if Horikita has purposely set them up for that hit.
"Hmm...maybe."
She looked to Yuuichi as she said that, to provoke him, because that is always his response to her.
He ignored her, and set up a serve.
Horikita at least looked like she was interested in the game. I couldn't tell if she was having fun, but at least she had decided to play.
Katagiri made a regular paced serve to me, so I hit it back with little force.
Chiaki spiked it in the middle of both of us.
We both went for it, causing our rackets to hit together, and the ball went no where.
2-1
"Let's call it out if we are going to hit it."
I made a simple suggestion that Horikita nodded to.
I decided to test something out, and I hit the ball with a big spin.
But the force was to strong, so after hitting their side of the table, it recoiled back over to us with out them even hitting it.
3-1
"What were you even trying to do?"
"I just wanted to test something."
I would have to be careful and not put all of my strength into the ball, or it may go right over the table.
Horikita served it, and Yuuichi hit it back in the middle of us once again.
"I-"
"I got it."
I cut Horikita off to test something else.
I hit the ball back with even more force than I had before, but I spiked it so it would not fly in the air.
The ball flew past Chiaki, almost causing her hair to go up a little. She didn't even have an opportunity to flinch for it.
3-2
"J-jeez Ayanokoji."
Chiaki seemed slightly bewildered.
Yuuichi seemed unsurprised.
I found Horikita staring at me.
"What?"
"Why didn't you do that before?"
I shrugged.
"Hurts my arm."
She didn't seem to believe me, but she didn't have more time to think.
Yuuichi hit the ball barely, so it went over our net the slightest amount, causing us both to go for it.
Horikita hit the ball, after leaning over the entire table.
Chiaki took the opportunity to spike the ball back.
But since no one was in Horikita's spot since she was sprawled on the table, it went right over her and off the table.
3-3
Horikita went back to her spot. She now seemed to be completely in the game.
"It's almost like he planned for that to happen."
She was referring to how Katagiri barely hit the ball over the net.
If he did do that, he was purposefully giving us a point.
Chiaki hit it over to me, so I hit towards Yuuichi. He hit it back to me with more force.
I knew this would happen sooner or later.
I hit it back to him with more force, and it almost went over his head. He put his paddle to his chest to hit it back. I leaned over to hit back with little force.
He spike it over, but I spiked it back over to Chiaki who was unprepared for the shot.
3-4
That battle had come to a brief end.
Chiaki looked slightly annoyed, so she hit the ball back over to me.
I hit it to Yuuichi, who I knew would set up the next battle that needed to take place.
He hit it to Horikita, who hit it back to Chiaki. It was now a fierce battle of strength between the two. Me and Yuuichi did not matter now.
Horikita hit it with all her might, but Chiaki got it and hit it back with a fierce spin.
It went right over Horikita's shoulder.
4-4
That battle had come to a brief end.
It was now time to settle one final thing.
I served it to Yuuichi who hit it back to Horikita.
She had expected the hit, and spiked it over causing a fly ball to Yuuichi.
She seemed to have expected hit to spike it, but he hit it with as little force as he possibly could, and it barely went over the net. Horikita jumped for it, leaning over the table, but to no avail. It bounced over her laid out paddle.
5-4 Game Over.
Chiaki breathed a sigh of relief and held out her hand to Yuuichi, who met it with a high five.
It was good to see him genuinely smile.
I looked to Horikita who didn't seem that mad.
"Good job, Ayanokoji. I didn't expect that from you."
She was referring to my earlier hit.
"Good job, Horikita."
I held out my hand, and we settled with a hand shake.
Now that it was almost dinner time, our group decided to go to a restaurant.
Horikita was now fine to walk near Yuuichi.
The game had done its job.
—
(Third person POV)
On the other side of the ship, Class C's leader, Ryuuen, was currently having a meeting with his group.
"I haven't seen you do much, Kotonoha. You talked a big game, but I haven't seen you do anything yet."
He looked to the girl sitting in front of him. She was wearing a smile he had seen before.
"But don't you think it's fun to see what he does~? It almost gives me chills!"
This girl had no fear of Ryuuen.
"You seem to know all of his movements, yet you refuse to tell me anything."
"I like to observe. One day, I'll be able to stand right next to him, and play his game right along with him~."
"You really are a handful Katagiri Kotonoha. Can you really talk like this despite being in our class?"
His body guards decided to make a move on the girl, to hold her.
"Hmm?"
With little effort, she picked up Ishizaki by the throat and held him in the air.
"Ayanokoji held you just like this, didn't he?"
She slammed him on the ground.
Albert made a move forward.
With one swift movement though, she took his sunglasses right off his face, and delivered a high placed kick to his stomach and face. Causing him to fall backwards on the ground.
"Hm...strange. I didn't know my leg could go that far."
Still wearing the same smile, she tossed the sunglasses aside, breaking them on the floor.
In quick movements, she climbed on the table Ryuuen was sitting on, and pulled his hair as high as it would go.
"You really are some b***h, aren't you?"
"Hmm~?"
She pulled it higher, not even giving him a chance to fight back. It all happened to quickly.
"Let me tell you something."
She put her face right in front of his, with a smile even scarier than his.
"I will never let my Yuuichi lose to someone like you."
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Next chapter: The second day of the exam
A/N:
Before anything I should probably mention that Kotonoha is not a love interest for Yuuichi, so there is no need to worry about incest. She is just possessive.
This chapter ended up being the longest chapter I have written yet, which surprised me.
So, what do you think of the new character, any major thoughts?
I am sorry if she turns you off to the book, but I think a book of Yuuichi and Ayanokoji having the same enemies as in their respective works could be a little boring since those battles were already decided.
If you want to know more about Kotonoha, I made an introduction chapter about her. But, there is still little information so far...