Relay Preparations (3)
“I-I mean, it’s not like that or anything… right, Shuhei-kun?”
“Yeah, I guess not.”
Hasumin quickly withdrew her finger, cheeks tinged with red.
—Or so I thought, until she started poking her own index fingers together.
Then, when our eyes met, she turned away with an exaggerated huff.
Comical—and kind of cute.
Watching us with a smile was Date, quietly observing like always.
…Hey, Date.
What’s with that gentle expression, like a grandpa watching his grandchild grow up?
If you’ve got something to say to me, just say it, you.
“Well, enough joking around. Seriously, Oda-kun, you’re good at everything, aren’t you?”
“You’re fast too. I bet if you joined the track team, you’d become their ace without even trying.”
“Thanks. I’m not gonna pretend I don’t enjoy the compliment.”
“See, he just says it so smoothly.”
“I’m aware I’m a bit above average, at least.”
Even if part of it comes from a bit of a cheat, pretending to be humble now would just come off as insincere and annoying.
And then—
“Wait, what were we even talking about again?”
At Hasumin’s words, we all realized how far off-track the conversation had drifted.
“Date’s still got club stuff, so let’s cut the chatter and get back to talking baton passes.”
“Yeah, let’s.”
“Come on, everyone. No more goofing around!”
“Says the one who started all the goofing by playing with Oda-kun.”
“W-We weren’t playing around or anything…”
“Sure, sure. Okay, Oda-kun, how about you ignore this one and keep the discussion moving?”
“O-Okay, got it. My take is, passing the baton while running at full speed is pretty tough. So maybe we should focus on getting clean passes, even if that means slowing down a bit. Prioritize success, basically.”
Drawing from how practice had gone so far and everything we’d talked about, I made that suggestion.
“Ah, I agree with that too~! I was thinking the same thing—everyone in the other classes is probably new to baton passing too, right? So they’re not likely to be much better at it than we are.”
Hasumin added a solid rationale to support my idea.
“Yeah, Hasumin’s right. The other teams are all newbies at this too. As long as we stay calm and make clean passes, we’ve got a solid shot. Everyone in our class is fast.”
“I see, that’s certainly true. There’s no need to take unnecessary risks, huh.”
“We’re not the only ones bad at baton passes, after all.”
Following Hasumin, both Date and Nitta-san chimed in with their agreement.
“Safety first. Let’s call it Operation Safety First. If we drop the baton, we lose everything.”
“Yeah, I like that. I’m in—Oda’s plan gets my vote.”
“I think it sounds good too.”
“Same here~”
“Alright, so the main plan is Operation Safety First—secure baton handoffs first, start running after the pass. But, if we fall behind and drop into the lower ranks, then we pull out a risky, all-or-nothing baton pass.”
“Mmm, got it!”
“Are we allowed to make that judgment ourselves?”
“Yeah, I’ll leave that part up to each of you. Just know that even if someone drops the baton, no one’s allowed to blame them. If it happens, it’s not your fault—it’s Sir Isaac Newton’s precious law of gravity. Sports Day isn’t a competition, it’s a festival. I want us to have fun with it.”
“Got it, loud and clear!”
“Well, I’m still gonna aim for first place with everything I’ve got. If I slack off, the seniors on the basketball team will chew me out…”
“Then let’s all aim for first place and have fun doing it.”
“Nice one, Mei~ That’s what I like to hear… Hup!”
With that, Hasumin suddenly hugged Nitta-san from behind.
Her arms wrapped around not just Nitta-san’s stomach—but clearly a bit higher. In a close, almost full-body embrace, she pressed herself snugly against her.