Chapter 55
“Yeah, you can obviously lose a game. Losing is bound to happen sometimes….”
Justina let out an endlessly deep sigh.
“……But the process was just too ridiculous! What was that?! What are you going to do about this utterly miserable atmosphere?!”
In the end, even Kairos, for all his prowess, could only hang his head in silence beneath her thunderous scolding.
Seeing Kairos so dejected…. I stepped forward, extending a hand as if to calm Teacher Justina.
“Don’t be so hard on him. It was only the first game.”
Of course, I wasn’t stepping in because I felt sorry for Kairos.
It was solely for the sake of the second game, which would take place in three days.
Baseball is a sport of momentum.
If the entire team lost confidence and the atmosphere sank, they could absurdly lose even a game they should have won.
I continued, giving Kairos’s shoulder a few pointless pats.
“Kairos must have learned something from what happened today….”
“No! Simply learning from it isn’t enough!”
Teacher Justina barked, raising her voice.
She turned to me with eyes as sharp as a hawk’s.
“Whatever else may be true, we absolutely have to win at baseball! Baseball is our Petrus dormitory’s last remaining pride!”
Teacher Justina wasn’t entirely wrong.
The reason I had once been called ‘the Hope of Saint Petrus’ was that, after Big Sister Erica graduated, I was the one who finally reclaimed for Petrus dormitory the overall first-place title it had never once won back.
And the foundation of that overall first-place result wasn’t merely our department exam scores; the high placing in the annual inter-class baseball tournament also accounted for a very large portion of it.
The third-year team without me probably wouldn’t take first place in this tournament. If we wanted to aim for first overall again this year, the first-year team absolutely had to win the tournament and make up those points.
“Rene!”
“Yes.”
“You can skip class tomorrow!”
“……Huh?”
“I’ll grant you and Kairos special leave using my authority as dorm supervisor! By any means necessary, turn Kairos into a perfect pitcher before the second game begins!”
“……”
In other words… was she telling me to stick with that guy for the next two full days and teach him about baseball?
“No! Students still have to study!”
I shook my head in genuine disgust.
“One day is fine! When I was a student, I used to skip class and go out to have fun at least once a year too!”
“Eek….”
So a delinquent student like that had become a teacher at Luminus?
Teacher Justina ignored my incredulous expression and turned to Kairos this time.
“And Kairos! Anyone can make a mistake. But a true man never repeats the same mistake, no matter what happens. You understand what I’m saying?”
“Yes, Teacher.”
“Good! That’s an excellent attitude! Then come back before me as a truly perfect man!”
After saying that, Teacher Justina stomped away from us, planting each foot down forcefully.
As if firmly declaring that she would brook no further objections.
‘I had no idea Teacher Justina was like that….’
I’d known for a long time that Teacher Justina had a fiery side, but I hadn’t expected her to be this utterly unyielding.
As I merely stared blankly at her receding back, I sensed Kairos quietly turning toward me.
“Uh… then… I’m counting on you? Rene.”
He sounded like he was letting out a sigh deep enough to sink the earth.
※※
Teacher Justina’s declaration of leave hadn’t been just talk.
Early the next morning, with the chatter of students heading to class audible in the distance, Kairos and I had already changed into athletic clothes and come out to a small vacant lot in the school’s back garden.
“Let’s finish this by morning if possible.”
Oh, what a fate. I approached Kairos with a deep sigh.
The guy had been fiddling with a baseball in one hand, but he immediately raised his head at the sound of me approaching and asked,
“Did you sleep well?”
His voice was absurdly carefree. How could he sleep well after throwing pitches like that in yesterday’s game?
I gave a perfunctory “Yeah.” and stood beside him.
“So what on earth were you thinking when you threw a pitch like that yesterday?”
Before getting into the actual pitching lesson, I asked the single most important question first.
Kairos hesitated, murmuring “Hmm….”, then scratched his head with an awkward smile.
“I guess… I thought it might work this time?”
“You thought it might work?”
“I mean throwing the ball with magic directly infused into it. What you taught me last time felt too textbook, so this time I tried tweaking it a little and throwing it my way.”
“You tested it at such an important moment?”
“Ahaha….”
……I couldn’t exactly punch him.
“You really are brave in all the most pointless situations.”
I swallowed my rising irritation with a sigh.
I swept my bangs back once, then turned to face him head-on.
“First, hold out your hand.”
“My hand?”
“Yes. Quickly.”
Kairos held out his right hand with a puzzled expression.
I immediately enclosed his hand gently in both of mine.
“R-Rene?”
“Today, I’m going to focus on teaching you how to use the feel in your hand when you throw.”
To be honest, I hated being this physically close to a man, especially Kairos.
But unless I addressed this fundamental, most important flaw, I couldn’t turn him into a truly useful pitcher.
I looked up at him, forcing my expression to remain calm.
“Kairos, you clearly have excellent baseball instincts. For a beginner who’s pitching for the first time, your throwing form is quite good, and your pitches are astonishingly fast too.”
I positioned his two fingers precisely over the red stitching.
“But your biggest problem is that you do nothing more than ‘throw’ the ball with all your strength. You’re only making your hand shape look convincing; you have no idea what that hand shape and finger strength are actually for, or how to make the ball spin.”
I pressed down over his hand with mine once more and looked up at Kairos.
“When you throw a ball, it’s important to maintain the strength in your fingertips until the very end. Right before the ball completely leaves your hand, you need to grip it tightly with your fingers and give it a strong snap until that final instant.”
I held his hand and slowly moved it back and forth as if mimicking a throw.
One, two, three, four, five. I repeatedly tensed and relaxed my hand over his, letting him directly feel exactly when to ease the tension in his fingers and when to apply it.
“Do you have a better feel for it now?”
Only after repeating it several times did I look up at him again.
Kairos, who had been staring blankly down at me, startled at my question and hurriedly nodded.
“Uh… yeah! I think I get it now!”
“I’m not entirely convinced.”
I glared at him suspiciously and released his hand.
When Kairos, who had been repeatedly clearing his throat, subtly turned his head away, I caught sight of the tips of his ears, flushed an unmistakable bright red.
‘Just how much does this guy like Rene….’
After being told something that harsh, you’d think he might give up.
I watched in silence for a moment as he hurriedly began miming throwing a ball by himself, then, pretending not to notice, casually tossed out a question.
“Kairos.”
“Yeah.”
“You know… are you hiding something from me?”
“……Huh?”
Kairos stopped what he was doing and quietly turned to look at me.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
He asked me in return with a strange expression, seeming somewhat tense.
What was with that reaction? After thinking for a moment, I made up a suitably casual excuse.
“Nothing. I mean, something about demons, maybe.”
I’d truly tossed out the question without any particular meaning, but he had reacted so strongly that I couldn’t help becoming suspicious.
I looked him straight in the eye with the most nonchalant expression I could manage.
Kairos’s eyebrows twitched for an instant, then he let out a deep sigh.
“……I guess you’d already figured it all out too.”
Then Kairos lowered his head.
“……”
I swallowed involuntarily. Could Asta’s warning—[Be careful of Kairos]—have really been true?
Kairos paused for a moment, then raised his head again.
“How did you figure it out?”
The question came as naturally as if the answer were obvious.
“……”
I barely managed to hide my reaction and slowly closed my eyes.
‘……I’m screwed.’
I was genuinely flustered. How was I supposed to react here?
I could confess that I actually knew nothing and had only said it to test the waters, but if I did that, the slight psychological advantage I had maintained over Kairos would obviously be destroyed in an instant.
I paused for a moment, then slowly opened my eyes again and answered.
“I could tell right away from your expression that you were hiding something.”
“My expression….”
Kairos mulled over my words for a moment.
“Whew, I guess I can’t fool you, Rene.”
Kairos soon nodded as if convinced.
Then he ran a hand over his face and began to speak.
“That’s right. The truth is, I deliberately lured that demon out.”
“……”
“Of course, I wasn’t trying to put you in danger, Rene. My original plan was to lure the demon to some remote, unpopulated place and quietly deal with it without anyone knowing, but…….”
“But?”
“……Because I wanted to spend a little more time with you.”
Kairos spoke while subtly avoiding my gaze.
In other words, it seemed that he had deliberately lured toward himself the demon that had chased us to Burgundy, and because it had appeared a little earlier than expected, he had been forced to allow the commotion at the clothing store.
‘It was… more ordinary than I expected.’
It wasn’t particularly surprising. I’d known for a while that Kairos went around hunting demons, and that strange not-quite-date at the clothing store had been nothing more than a sudden, accidental incident.
“Are you angry?”
Kairos cautiously looked up at me.
“Not particularly.”
I continued lightly, as if it were no big deal.
“Just don’t do anything that dangerous from now on. I don’t want to get mixed up with demons for no reason because of you.”
Anyway, one thing had become certain from this: those demons had only been interested in Kairos.
‘It wasn’t about Asta’s warning—[Be careful of Kairos]—but… still, a gain is a gain.’
I cleared my throat once more and returned to the original subject.
“All right, then, let’s get back to talking about the ball. So, do you have a rough idea now of how to use your fingertips when you throw?”
“Hmm….”
Kairos alternated his gaze between the baseball in his hand and my face as though pondering it, then opened his mouth.
“No. I still don’t really get it.”
“Sigh… all right, I appreciate your honesty.”
I let out a deep sigh and took his hand once more.
As I went back to massaging his hand and teaching him when to apply pressure, Kairos gave a faint laugh and said,
“Rene.”
“What?”
“……No, it’s nothing.”
“……?”
I narrowed my eyes and glared at him.
Kairos giggled, then nodded emphatically and continued.
“Let’s definitely win the second game. With the two of us working together.”
‘……Anyone listening would think I was the one who couldn’t pitch.’
I let out a small sigh and nodded.
“Yeah, let’s see you give it your best shot.”
Either way, whether I liked it or not, I was destined to spend the day with him.