In the end, Kamijou and the others were forced to do some weeding behind the gym.
It was a damp area that the sun never really reached, but the weeds seemed to grow there quite well. One glance at the huge amount of green weeds and he lost all motivation for the job. It felt like there was no need to make the area look nice because no one ever went there.
But there was something else that kept his motivation down even more.
"Damn it. Tsuchimikado and Aogami Pierce have disappeared."
Only two of the four ordered to do the weeding were standing out there: Kamijou and Fukiyose.
As he looked at the area stretching out behind the gym, Kamijou's shoulders drooped. Beyond the thin gym wall, he could hear the energetic and happy voices of the volleyball team and basketball team enjoying their afterschool activities. That only made the mental shackles of the harsh job seem even heavier.
And yet complaining about Tsuchimikado and Aogami Pierce disappearing wasn't going to get rid of those weeds.
Kamijou got a wheelbarrow to transport the weeds to the dumping area and put on some work gloves.
"Y'know, it'll be past the time we're allowed in the school before we're done with this. We might as well weed at a leisurely pace until they kick us out."
"If only we could get a Pyrokineticist to help out. We'd be done in no time," Kamijou further complained.
Fukiyose complained about being punished along with the others as she pulled weeds up more efficiently than Kamijou.
When Kamijou got tired of weeding after about 5 minutes, he tried striking up a conversation with Fukiyose who was bent over working a bit away.
"Hey, Fukiyose."
"What?"
Fukiyose must have been bored too, because she quickly joined the conversation.
Kamijou spoke as he continued working.
"The October midterms have been called off, but you're still spending all of your free time studying on your own. Why?"
"What kind of question is that?" Fukiyose responded. "With no midterms, our second term grades are going to be riding on the final exam. And the material on the exam is going to be twice what it would have been otherwise. That means we need to be working even harder."
"…"
"And before you ask: I won't let you see my notes."
Kamijou had been ecstatic that they weren't going to be having midterms, so Fukiyose's indifferent attitude was like salt to the wound.
Upon receiving this unexpected damage, Kamijou went into contrary mode.
"H-hmph. Academics aren't everything, you know?"
"You make it sound like I can't do anything except academics."
"…Oh, you can do other things?"
"Of course I can!!" Fukiyose yelled from deep in her gut. "I may not look athletic, but I can throw a forkball. I don't really care about baseball, though!!"
"Eh?"
Kamijou let out a stupid noise.
"You probably just learned it through a correspondence course or know some way forkballs keep you healthy or something."
"I-it doesn't matter how I learned it; it only matters whether I can throw one or not! So quit looking at me like you don't believe me and I'll show you!!"
"Yeah, but we don't have a ball."
Kamijou had said that out of surprise, but then Fukiyose Seiri pulled a large ball out of her skirt pocket.
"You need to be more prepared!!"
"…Um, that ball says 'squeeze this ball 100 times a day to provide yourself with healthy α-waves' on it."
Kamijou was just in complete shock, but Fukiyose didn't seem to mind. She seemed pretty fired up over this and was scraping her feet on the ground to smooth it out.
They now had a ball, but they had no catcher's mitt. However, Kamijou didn't seem to have much of a choice, so he put on several layers of work gloves and squatted down a distance from Fukiyose like he'd seen catchers do.
Kamijou spoke in monotone almost like he was sighing as he spoke.
"Okay, go ahead, Fukiyose."
"Okay, Kamijou. Watch this 150 kph strong fast one and don't fall down!!"
"A 150 kph forkball!? I'm about to fall over from shock at that bluff!!"
Kamijou was flustered.
Fukiyose seemed to be really into it as she gripped the white ball and moved her body into position.
She was building up her power when Kamijou yelled out.
"S-st-stop, Fukiyose!!"
"What!?"
Fukiyose yelled while wobbling in her interrupted pitching form.
Kamijou was hesitant to explain the situation, so he gave only the core of the information.
"Your skirt!!"
"…?"
Fukiyose looked confused at this comment and then she noticed where Kamijou was looking. When she looked down at her hips, she saw that the leg she was holding up was flipping up her short skirt making her panties with a cute design visible.
Fukiyose Seiri threw her strong fast pitch.
Kamijou screwed up his timing and the soft rubber ball hit him straight in the gut. It made a very loud noise.
As he writhed in pain, he spoke in a shaky voice.
"…Th-that was no forkball. It flew in a completely straight line…"
"That one didn't count!!"
Fukiyose declared that with a little too much force in an attempt to fool him and took the ball back.
"It'll be a forkball this time. It'll jerk down, so hold the mitt down low."
She went back into pitching form, but she must have taken heed of Kamijou's warning about her skirt because she kept the movement of her legs to a minimum.
That may have been why her body was wobbling a little off balance. Even so, she managed to give the ball incredible power. It slammed into Kamijou's glove-covered hand with a loud noise. His hand stung afterwards even though they were using a toy ball instead of a proper hardball. Also, Fukiyose wasn't throwing underhand like a softball player; she was throwing overhand like a professional baseball player. And quite well, too.
Kamijou softly squeezed the ball he had caught.
"…Did that fall?"
"Yes!! What were you looking at it? Couldn't you see it jerk down right in front of where the batter would be!?"
"Ehh? It looked like a normal pitch to me."
"K-Kamijou!! You can't tell because you're not looking from the batter's perspective!! If you were holding a bat, you'd be able to see the effect of the forkball clear as day!!"
"Oh? Now you've said it, Fukiyose."
Kamijou smiled and grabbed the 50 cm long plastic handle of a small broom that they had prepared just in case.
"You're on."
He gripped the broom kind of like a baseball bat and swung the end with flicks of his wrist as if he was measuring its timing.
Meanwhile, Fukiyose caught the ball Kamijou lightly threw to her and a daring grin appeared on her lips.
"You think you can hit a ball thrown by a major-leaguer like me? Ridiculous."
"I'll hit a homerun."
"Then I'll have to let you feel the disgrace of losing to a true forkbaaaaall!!"
"It's goin' outta the paaaarrrkkk!!"
She threw the white ball.
It flew through the air.
If he waited to see whether the ball would fall or not, it would be too late to hit it.
As he was measuring her true intentions and her true skill, he began to move.
Power and tension ran throughout his body.
He calculated his timing, gave a short breath, gathered strength in his legs, swung his hips in unison with the movements of his legs, and swung the broom in his hands as hard as he could.
And…