A moment later, her eyes were back on the court! She slipped right through the ring of players surrounding her with agile ease, shaking off her pursuers and speeding toward the basket! The other team shifted their formation in an instant. They weren’t about to let Aiba make it to their basket that easily, and practically formed a human wall to block her path.
But as Aiba caught the pass one of her teammates threw to her, the look on her face told me that she wasn’t about to let them stop her. She sprung into action, dashing forward! The thing about basketball, though, is that you’re not allowed to just run along with the ball in your hands. You have to dribble it—bouncing it along the ground as you run—and from the perspective of an amateur like me, it looked really hard to pull off.
Aiba, however, manipulated the ball with incredible ease, like it was as much a part of her body as her hands and feet. It almost seemed like the ball had a will of its own, slipping through the crowd of defenders before it and bouncing obediently back into Aiba’s hands on the other side. She pulled feint after feint, dodging, sidestepping, and sometimes even spinning around entirely as she forged ahead.
It looked like she was dancing with the ball—like Aiba was a dazzling prince, escorting a rather round and incredibly small partner across the ballroom floor...okay, no, that simile was probably a step too far. The point is that she was just that graceful, just that gorgeous, and just that unhindered as she made her advance. She wouldn’t let anyone get close to her, much less bring her to a stop.
Finally, she made it to the three-point line and sprang into the air. Aiba was going for another three-point shot, with pretty much the exact same setup as last time, and yet something about her form was completely unlike the last shot she’d taken. This shot had an elegance to it, I guess? Something about it made her look even cooler than ever, and it was enough to take the breath away from all of us up in the stands.
Before I knew it, the chaotic tumult of the gymnasium had vanished, replaced with a pure and reverent silence. At the peak of her jump, Aiba let the ball fly. It danced a perfect arc through the air, plunging directly through the hoop with a quiet little whiff!
The gym erupted in a deafening roar of celebration. At that same instant, a whistle marked the end of the match. It was a complete shutout—Aiba’s team had scored twice as many points as the opposing team. Nobody was rooting for the underdog, though, no matter how overwhelming Aiba’s victory had been. The sheer skill she’d displayed was enough to charm any observer into a passionate frenzy.
The most amazing part was that all of that didn’t just apply to us up in the stands. The other members of the basketball club—even the ones who’d been playing against her—were just as elated by her performance. I’m sure part of it was that they appreciated the chance to test their skills against an incredibly talented player, considering that the summer tournaments were just around the corner, but that probably wasn’t the only reason.
I would’ve bet that the basketball club had chosen to call Aiba and Momose in for the match specifically because they knew that the two of them would draw a massive crowd. After all, in the best-case scenario, some of the people who came to see the Sacrosanct might end up coming out of the experience as fans of the basketball club too! Some of them might even turn up for the club’s upcoming matches!
In other words, Aiba had had a lot of expectations riding on her when she went into the match, and she met them all with ease. She was without a doubt the coolest friend I’d ever made, and when I watched her do her thing, I couldn’t help but feel dazzled.
✦ ✦ ✦
The moment I stepped out of the gym, it suddenly felt like a weight had been taken off my shoulders. A sigh slipped past my lips. The intensity of the atmosphere in there really had been stifling—so much so that it felt cool and refreshing outside, even though the muggy heat of summer was well on its way to setting in.
Momose let out a sigh as well. “I think I must be sweating as much as Rinka was.”
“You really went wild when she won, huh?” I noted.
“Of course I did! After all, to the victor go the spoils!” Momose declared, flashing me a broad, toothy grin.
It was so, I dunno, belligerent? Hot-blooded, maybe? Point is, it was such a seemingly out-of-character thing for her to say, I couldn’t help but grin right back at her.
“Hey, Yotsuba?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s too hot to be loitering around outside, so why don’t the two of us head on our way?”
“Huh?!” It was such an abrupt suggestion, I froze up for a second. At first I thought she was just messing with me. Supposing she wasn’t, though, and I really did run off with Momose, leaving Aiba all by her lonesome...
I glanced around the vicinity. Plenty of other students were waiting around outside the gym, fiddling with their phones, chatting with their friends, and generally killing time while they waited for what was without exaggeration the second-biggest event of the day, in their eyes: seeing Momose congratulate Aiba on her victory as she left the gym.
Aiba was showering off inside and the two of us were indeed waiting for her, in theory. Her reunion with Momose was sure to be straight out of a storybook. The gallant prince, returning victorious from the battlefield to the lovely princess’s side! What words of gratitude would Momose convey to her knight in shining armor? Everyone, and I do mean everyone, was beside themselves with impatience to find out!
But what if I took Momose up on her offer, and we just...left? The day’s second-biggest event would go up in smoke in an instant! Accepting her proposal was, therefore, totally out of the question...but at the same time, I wasn’t anywhere near brave enough to turn her down offhand. Just as I came to realize what a pickle I was really in, though...
“Yotsuba!”
“Huh?”
...a voice rang out behind us, calling my name. I turned around, and there she was: the only person in the whole school who called me by my first name, other than Momose. Well, really, she wasn’t so much standing as running. Straight at me.
“Whaaah?!” I squealed as Aiba wrapped her arms around me and very nearly hugged the life out of me. Her grip was shockingly powerful thanks to her firm, muscular arms, which couldn’t have contrasted more with the almost otherworldly softness of the chest she pulled me right into. I was immediately overwhelmed by the sweet aroma of what I assumed was some sort of deodorant spray. “A-Aiba?!”
“Sorry to keep you waiting!” said Aiba. She’d already changed back into her uniform, and I could tell she’d done so in an awful hurry. She looked pretty sloppy, honestly, but it sort of suited her, or at least didn’t detract from her overall image.
“I-I wasn’t waiting—that, I mean, er,” I stammered.
“Rinkaaa?” growled Momose, cutting into our little exchange. She did not sound happy either. And, well, of course she wouldn’t—Aiba was supposed to give this treatment to her, not me!
Wait—oh, crap! Suddenly, it felt like a bustling crowd’s worth of stares were all focused upon me...probably. I mean, I’d never really been the center of attention before, so it wasn’t exactly a sensation I could identify with any real certainty. Maybe I was totally imagining the whole thing! Still, though, I was pretty darn certain that the fans who’d been eagerly awaiting the Sacrosanct’s touching reunion would’ve probably really appreciated it if I’d butted out and minded my own business. Who knew how many enemies I’d just accidentally made for myself?!
“I was waiting too, you know?” pouted Momose.
“Oh, right, of course!” said Aiba. “Can’t forget to give you a hug too, huh, Yuna?”
“You don’t have to bother—gwah!”
Aiba released me, stepped over to Momose, and lifted her up in a bear hug. Ph-Phew! We’re back on script! Everything’s the way it should be again...I hope, anyway.
Unfortunately, though, the unpleasant, nagging sensation that I was being stared at and the cold sweat dripping down my back lingered for quite some time.