Crowd Ball is a game where 6 cm diameter foam balls are shot into the competition area using compressed air. Players compete by using a racket or magic to force the balls to hit the opponent's court.
One set lasts 3 minutes, and a ball is shot into the court, covered in a transparent box, every 20 seconds, leading to 9 balls being on the court simultaneously. Women have 3 sets per match while Men have 5 sets.
Haru was on the side, watching Mayumi's match as her engineer. He looked at the audience's reaction and could see how famous Mayumi was. Looking at her opponent, he somehow felt a bit pitiful toward the girl and had a feeling that Mayumi would defeat this girl without mercy.
<The first match starts!>
Along with the announcement of the referee, Mayumi's opponent used a "Movement Magic" to direct the ball to a place that was difficult to return, but…
Mayumi only stood there, holding her gun-shaped CAD, then used her magic!
*Doon!*
Mayumi's opponent could only watch this scene in shock and was unable to comprehend what was happening.
Haru, who was on the side, could only shake his head since the difference in ability between the two was too far apart.
The magic that Mayumi used before was Multiple Bounce.
Multiple Bounce is a Speed Type Magic that focuses on the manipulation of kinetic vectors. This is with the intention of reversing the movement of the object of interest. Usage of this magic does not involve any precise adjustments being made to the target's trajectory but purely rejects all targets back.
With this one spell, Mayumi rebounded the ball back to the opponent's side. Although there was a chance that the ball might lose its kinetic energy on the floor or walls and then fail to reach the opponent's court due to low elasticity, as a direct descendant of the Ten Master Clans, she had enough magical ability to act as if the risk didn't exist.
The opponent sent out one ball one after another, moving from one side to another with very fast movement, but Mayumi only stood there in place, holding her gun-shaped CAD, rebounding all the ball back to the opponent.
Haru looked at Mayumi's opponent whose sweat had dripped all over her body and despair was shown on her face. As for Mayumi, she was still beautiful and there wasn't any single sweat on her face or body, showing the elegance and mastery over her magic.
*Doon!* *Doon!* *Doon!*
Mayumi kept scoring and the score kept increasing that it couldn't be stopped until it was the end of the first round.
"………….." Haru.
Mayumi's opponent plopped on the ground before she walked weakly toward her rest area.
Mayumi was still calm, walking chicly toward Haru as if she had done nothing.
"Good work, Mayumi-senpai." Haru gave a towel and a tea to Mayum.
"Thanks!" Mayumi smiled, wiped her face with a towel, then looked at the tea. "What is this?"
"Well, it is tea. I made it," Haru said.
"Eh? Really?" Mayumi was surprised, then tasted the tea slightly and became even more surprised. "It tastes good!" She looked at him and asked, "I have heard that you're good at cooking from Rin-chan, is that true?" She became quite jealous of Suzune at that moment since she knew that Haru and Suzune often cooked together.
"…Is it really time for you to ask something like this?" Haru was speechless and said, "Well, it doesn't really matter since your opponent is going to withdraw after all."
"Eh!? Withdraw? Why?" Mayumi was dumbfounded.
<First Match: player's withdrawal notification>
"!!!" Mayumi was surprised.
Haru shook his head and thought that an airhead girl was really cruel.
—
After the first match, Haru and Mayumi went to the maintenance tent to prepare her CAD. His maintenance was very smooth since there wasn't any problem with her CAD.
Mayumi, on the side, watched Haru who maintained her CAD curiously while drinking the tea that was made by him. She thought that it would be good to have a cookie with this tea, but she was in the match after all.
"Don't drink too much, or else, you'll be troubled with the toilet," Haru said.
Mayumi's lips twitched and said, "Haru, has someone told you that you lack delicacy?"
"I'm just trying to remind you." Haru then ended the maintenance and returned the CAD to Mayumi. "Looks like you have been tuning in well on your own. I didn't make any changes to the software that is worth mentioning."
"Thank you, Haru." Mayumi nodded with a smile then received her CAD, but when it happened, their hands touched each other. Her face quickly became red, but she didn't say anything.
"What's wrong? Do you want to go to the toilet?" Haru asked with some confusion.
"It's not!!" Mayumi was almost mad at that moment. She snorted and was ready for her match again, but when she turned, there was a smile on her face, thinking that it was very nice to just talk to each other like this.
When the second match began, Mayumi felt a strange feeling on her CAD. 'What's this?' She was confused, but she didn't expect her CAD to become several times better and smoother than before, it was also very easy to use, which made her very dumbfounded!
Just like before, Mayumi massacred her opponent, but she didn't care much about her opponent and strode toward Haru. "Haru, you liar! Although you said that you didn't change the software of my CAD, why did the efficiency increase?" She pointed her finger at him and looked at him as if she had found a big secret.
"………." Haru took the glass of tea and gave it to Mayumi. "Calm down. Drink it first.
"Ah, thank you." Mayumi sipped the tea and calmed herself. She felt her entire body was so comfortable, but then she realized that she had been fooled by him! "Explain it to me, Haru!"
"I didn't change anything, and if the efficiency of your CAD increased, then it should be because I got rid of the bloatware," Haru said.
"Bloatware?" Mayumi asked while sitting next to Haru.
"Un." Haru nodded and explained. "File fragments from the previous updates remain in the CAD system area by erasing the unnecessary data, the efficiency more or less rises."
"Then… that's…" Mayumi quickly stood up, bowed her head, and apologized. "I'm sorry for calling you a liar, Haru!"
"No, you don't need to worry, it is a very negligible change, but you have noticed it, as expected of you, Mayumi-senpai." Haru looked at Mayumi with a smile and said, "Now please concentrate on your match."
Mayumi looked at Haru's smile for a while, blinked her eyes, but then she nodded vigorously. "Of course, I will!"
Then as expected, on the second day of the Nine Schools Competition, Crowd Ball's girl's division, Saegusa Mayumi from First High School, achieved victory!
Haru looked at Mayumi's opponents and could only shake his head since Mayumi was too merciless, right?
