───● The Middle School Basketball Club Girl is Sometimes Weird ●○●
After my university classes were over.
I only had second and third period today, so it was just past 3 PM.
Even though we were heading into the evening, the un-spring-like sun was mercilessly beating down on the ground.
Where on earth has the pleasant spring weather gone?
There was still some time before my part-time job, so I decided to follow my Friday routine. I went home once, then headed to the nearby park.
Even though the peak heat of the day had passed, it was still hot.
I took a towel out of my black backpack, which was accented with blue lines, and lightly wiped my sweat.
Just a little further to my destination.
“Alright. Finally made it in time. ”
It was a park with lush greenery, where the air always tasted delicious. In one corner, there was a solitary basketball hoop.
“The drawback of this world is that you can’t just casually play sports…”
Ever since before I was transported, I’ve been a pretty big fan of sports.
I like moving my body, and I was even pretty serious about basketball and baseball.
That’s why I still get the urge to play here sometimes…
“The public gyms are full of girls, so it’s a bit hard to go in… and the clubs, I’m not even sure if they’re actually playing sports properly…”
I thought about checking out the badminton circle Koumi is in, but for some reason, Koumi strongly advised against it.
I don’t have any friends at university I’m closer to than her, so if she tells me not to, I have no choice but to obey.
“Well, I can play here without worrying, and best of all, there aren’t many people.”
This park often has people here on weekends, but on weekdays, it’s not crowded. I put my backpack on a bench and took out the basketball.
I bounced it two, three times on the ground to check if it needed air.
“…Alright.”
I’d made sure to pump it up at home, so it seemed fine. The ball bounced back from the ground and felt familiar in my hands.
Just as I was about to take my first shot of the day toward the hoop…
“H-Hey, Onii-san!”
“Hm?”
I was in the middle of forming the perfect “the left hand is just for support” pose when a cute voice from behind made me stop.
Standing there was a girl in full basketball attire, holding a ball under her arm, striking a defiant pose.
Her short, glossy black hair was accented by a pretty blue floral hairpin, creating a nice contrast.
Her black, easy-to-move-in shirt with its cute pink lines gave her a girlish charm.
She was only about chest-high to me, yet she stood in a cute way as if she were trying to look down on me.
“T-Today, I will be victorious! And… you will cede this place to me!!”
“So you’ve come, little one.”
“I’m not a little one! My name is Yuka, and I’m in middle school now!!”
My association with this little one… Maeda Yuka, goes back to just after I was transported here.
Desperate to play basketball, I bought a ball and looked for a place nearby where I could play, and I found this spot.
I started coming here frequently after that, but apparently, Yuka had been playing here for a long time before me, and our times, both using the court in the evening, started to overlap more and more.
At first, it was a one-sided communication from me, saying things like, “You can use it if you want, I’m leaving anyway~” but one day she approached me and asked, “Would you like to play basketball together?” and I think our distance shortened quite a bit after that.
And at some point, for some reason, it turned into this thing where “if I win the match, I get ownership of this place.” …Hey, this is a public facility, though.
“T-Today, I will take this place back…!”
But I didn’t dislike this back-and-forth with this girl.
“Hahaha, have you ever won against me, even once, young lady~?”
“T-Today, I have a secret plan!”
She was in the 6th grade when we first met, and now she’s a first-year in middle school.
As a first-year university student, there’s no way I’m going to lose.
To begin with, basketball has an absolute wall called ‘height,’ so it would be fundamentally difficult for Yuka to win against me. …But.
(This kid is seriously good…)
I don’t really know the standards in this world, but Yuka is just incredibly good at basketball.
This is a world where women’s professional sports are more popular, so maybe the perception is that girls are better, but even setting that aside, this kid is too good.
Right now, I’m picking up wins using the incredibly cheap factor of height difference, but once she goes through her growth spurt and her height reaches a decent average, I don’t know what will happen. In fact, I’ll definitely lose.
“Wh-what are you spacing out for! We’re playing one-on-one, r-right?”
Yuka often adopts a posture that’s hard to tell if she’s being assertive or timid. Her innocent, jade-green eyes wavered powerlessly. She’s probably having trouble gauging the proper distance with an older person of the opposite sex. Well, that’s what’s cute about her, though.
“Alright~. But make sure you warm up properly, okay? You’ll get injured.”
“O-Of course. I’ve already finished that.”
“Eh? You just got here, didn’t you…?”
Where on earth did she do her warm-up?
“Just, l-let’s go!!”
She took the ball she’d brought and bounce-passed it to me.
At the same time, she got into a defensive stance. It seems I’m on offense first.
As for the ball size, I’m using hers to match her, of course.
The adult size is a bit too big for a middle school girl.
“You’re in a hurry… Alright, here I go~”
I received the ball and closed the distance with Yuka, dribbling. Even if the ball is a little smaller, it doesn’t affect my handling.
I immediately cut in to Yuka’s left.
“I won’t let you…!”
What’s amazing about her is her agility.
As I made my move to the left, she quickly moved in front of me, blocking my path.
“This is as far as you go!”
“Ah!”
However, I knew she could keep up with that much. We’ve played one-on-one quite a bit.
The move I chose was a sudden acceleration followed by a sudden stop. And then a shot from there. I immediately went into my shooting motion and made the shot from mid-range.
“Alright, that’s the first point~… Hmm? Yuka-chan?”
After successfully sinking the shot, I went to pick up the ball to return it to Yuka, but she was frozen in place.
Come to think of it, since I took a jump shot right in front of her, I thought she might jump to block it even if she couldn’t stop it, but I don’t think she made any such move.
“…What’s wrong?”
“Haeh…”
Her face was slightly red. Hmm? Could she be sick?
“Hey, your face is red. Are you getting heatstroke? Want to rest on the bench?”
“Ah, ahhh!? No, no! I’m fine! Q-Quickly, give me the ball! I’ll tie it up right away!”
Yuka scurried back to the starting point. What on earth is wrong with her?
I bounce-passed the ball to Yuka, and now it was my turn to play defense.
If I’m not careful, she can easily get past me, so I lowered my stance and prepared for Yuka’s drive.
“Here I come…!”
No sooner had she said that, Yuka cut sharply to my left.
It’s Yuka’s specialty, a drive to her dominant hand side.
“I know that one.”
Without hesitation, I blocked her path. I’ve had her use her favorite moves on me so many times that I have them memorized.
However. From that right-handed drive, Yuka instantly did a crossover… and shifted her weight to her left.
(As I thought, she’s fast… but I know this one, too!)
One of Yuka’s techniques when she can’t get past on the first try. That was this crossover.
Since she suddenly shifts her weight to the opposite side, it’s quite difficult to react to it the first time you see it.
But I had seen this before, too.
“That’s what I expect from you, Onii-san…!”
But today’s Yuka had something more.
“Wha—!”
After crossing over, Yuka had already turned her back to me.
(…A roll!)
A technique where you use your back to shield the ball from the opponent and use your rotation to get past them… a roll.
Yuka was about to use her magnificent quickness to blow past me in an instant—or she should have.
“Ah…!”
Perhaps it was, after all, a lack of warming up.
As she rolled, her feet got tangled, and Yuka lost her balance.
“…Whoa!”
I have to say, my reflexes were good.
I dove from the side to support the falling Yuka, and by becoming a cushion myself, I protected her from the impact of hitting the ground.
My vision flipped, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
The heavy impact on my back made me grimace, but it was only for a moment.
“Oww… Are you okay? Yuka?”
“…”
Thump, thump… The only sound was the ball bouncing as it rolled toward the basket.
“Yuka…?”
Our current position was very, very bad.
Yuka was completely on top of me.
…She smells nice.
Ah! Crap! This makes me look like some kinda lolicon sex offender!
“Hawa…”
“…Hawa?”
She was light, so it wasn’t a problem at all, but if she didn’t get off soon, things would get bad… I was thinking, when Yuka finally showed a reaction.
“Hawa hawa hawa hawa”
“Eh, what’s wrong!?”
Yuka’s face turned bright red, and then she short-circuited like a piece of fried electronics.
While still on top of me.
“What the hell is going on…”
Having no choice, I carried Yuka on my back to a bench in the shade of a tree.
I laid her down on her back and folded up a towel to place under her head as a pillow.
Looking at her like this, she really has well-defined features. Her eyelashes are long, and her fine-grained skin is fresh and dewy.
Right now, her youthfulness is more prominent, but she has the kind of face that makes you think she’ll grow up to be an incredible beauty.
(Wait, what am I doing, calmly analyzing her…)
I still don’t know much about her.
She’s at an age where it wouldn’t be strange if she had a boyfriend. Middle schoolers these days are precocious, after all (I’m sure of it).
“…Guess I’ll do some shooting practice.”
For a while, I fanned her with a pencil board from my backpack, and eventually, the redness in her face subsided, so I decided to head off for some solo shooting practice.
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