Suruga Court

When the day to settle things with Kanbaru finally arrived, that day was a Sunday. Well, since I don’t have a lot of space I won’t go into detail, but recently, that girl had ascended to a practically intolerable level. Me aside, when I learned that even Senjougahara was bothered, I finally decided that the situation had gotten serious. It would be the right thing to scold her as her senior while it wasn’t too late.

If I don’t show my dignity as her senior at this point, I would be setting a bad example.

And, with that, we had a duel.

I wrote a letter of challenge to Kanbaru.

I really did write it.

With a brush.

For times like these it was important to set the mood and everything, so I even went to a DIY store and assembled all the equipment, and for the first time in a while I rubbed out ink from an inkstone. I wasn’t able to write out the characters quite as well as I had planned, and doing so took just about the entirety of my Saturday, but I’d say it went all right.

The designated location for our showdown was a sports center on the outskirts of town, and the event of our showdown was basketball, i.e. Kanbaru’s field of expertise.

No, rather than a field of expertise, considering that she’s in a class of the national level, you could very well call it her stronghold—heheh, are you saying that I would have had a chance if I had just challenged her in mathematics?

Well.

I will defeat Kanbaru in a one-on-one!

"…Huh, Araragi-senpai, you’ve come looking awfully sporty."

I, who had come to the meeting place enthusiastically and talking big, was greeted by Kanbaru-san, wearing heels and a frilly skirt and a lacy blouse, her hair arranged with pink ribbon, and though I don’t know if it could accurately be called gothic lolita she nevertheless seemed to be wrapped up in a very gothic lolita-like fashion that seemed excessively decorated.

It was a perfect mismatch with her bandaged left arm.

"……"

It certainly contrasted with me, wearing basketball shoes chosen for me by Karen with shorts and a tank top and even a towel wrapped around my head, but when the two of us were lined up like this, we ended up looking like a cosplay combination.

No no no no.

I myself was fine.

"Er, well, Kanbaru-san. This may be a foolish question, and perhaps it may be a rather absurd question, but what ever might that unusual appearance be?"

Was my thoughtless, clumsy response.

"Were you the type of person that wore skirts and stuff?"

”? I’m always in a skirt, right? For my school uniform.”

"You could say that, but…"

"Well, it’s true that I did try to be conscious of my fashion, for once. After all, it’s my second date with Araragi-senpai."

"……"

The letter of challenge had failed to convey its intentions.

This girl was the kind of person who didn’t just listen to what people said, she didn’t read what people wrote to her.

And , my battle with the ink yesterday had been on the level of playing badminton with my sisters, too.

I should’ve just settled it with a text message.

"But that’s my Araragi-senpai. If I were to talk about how sleeveless clothes suited you, I’d probably say they don’t. There’s a proverb that goes something like ‘sleeves that aren’t there won’t shake’, meaning you can’t make something from nothing, but Araragi-senpai would end up shaking even the sleeves that aren’t there."

"Is that really supposed to be praising me? Also, I don’t remember becoming yours at all!"

“‘The Araragi-senpai that has my respect’, was what I was abbreviating.”

"Don’t abbreviate it!"

"I did praise you, Araragi-senpai, by saying you were stylish, but I didn’t do so out of complete honesty; conversely, I was only able to say it since I knew you wouldn’t misunderstand by thinking I was saying it to compliment or flatter you, but really, there isn’t anyone else like it. A person who looks cool with a towel wrapped around his head."

"Then you really weren’t praising me, were you!?"

"But coming here all the way from your house in that style takes a lot of courage, so I’m seriously in admiration."

Kanbaru said so with a smile.

To her, she might seriously be trying to praise me, but it also had the effect of punishing me.

"So, what kind of date is it today? That is, what kind of date are we going on, Araragi-senpai?"

"Please, read at least a single line of the letter before coming. Did you think we were going to do anything other than basketball at this sports center?"

"Though I think there are other things that we could do… But ah, I see."

Kanbaru nodded.

"I thought something like this could happen so it’s a good thing I brought a basketball with me."

"It wasn’t on purpose!?"

She really didn’t read to the end.

So we went to the reception desk and paid for two hours (since it wasn’t a date we split the cost) to borrow a half court. Even with the two of us it was still a bit too wide.

There was a place to rent sportswear, but Kanbaru said “it’s all right like this”. If I were to tell the truth I would have told her I didn’t think that gothic lolita fashion really suited her all that much, but it seemed that she liked it and didn’t want to take it off.

Well.

I felt like I was being looked down on with someone with that fashion as my opponent, but I wasn’t going to be too strict about it.

First of all, wasn’t it awfully unusual that Kanbaru didn’t want to take off her clothes?—Well, though I don’t know if it was going to last.

It’ll be too late to say that you want to take them off when my score is double yours, okay?

"Let’s see. Since it’s a half court, we won’t decide offense and defense, and for scoring, shall we go with streetball rules, Araragi-senpai?"

"Go with whatever you want. I’ll at least let you decide the rules. Since I’m not going to let you decide to shoot."

"That wasn’t very good."

From Kanbaru came an unexpected criticism.

Well, since I was going to be in a position of overwhelming victory soon enough, I should at least be tolerant and allow this much.

Incidentally, as for why I have so much confidence despite the fact that we were battling it out in Kanbaru’s field of basketball, you might be thinking it’s a bit strange.

Well, I don’t need to tell you too much about it, but for one, just after I went to deliver the letter of challenge to Kanbaru’s home yesterday, by chance! Really by chance, though I didn’t have any special reason to, in exchange for a snack I had Shinobu drink some of my blood, so my body’s capabilites had been raised to beyond ordinary, and since it’s not unrelated I guess I’ll mention it.

Unfair?

Perhaps.

However, I decided to think that I had simply descended into the evil ways for the sake of my junior, and made the question of fairness become rather ambiguous.

"Now, Kanbaru! Let’s go!"

"Yeah!"

And with a dribble, I attacked Kanbaru—and I can’t really remember what happened after that.

It was that chronic disease that would overcome me like what happened when I spotted Hachikuji, i.e. that memory loss thing that’s been going around recently.

Eh, you mean it’s not going around anymore?

Well, I forgot about that too.

What I was certain of was, after two hours, the scoreboard read 120 to 0, and far from a double score, it was showing a skunk.

A basketball skunk, that is.

Was that possible?

"Well, if you called it a whitewash, then somehow it feels like you didn’t lose…"

"Araragi-senpai, you’re being surprisingly positive, huh?"

Sweating profusely after having moved around so much, Kanbaru spoke to me hanging my head in shame on the court. If you looked closely she was only holding the ball with her left hand. What kind of a grip does she have.

"But really, it’s amazing that you were able to play for two hours straight. Although, that might sound like I’m consoling you."

"…If you think that way then you should’ve gone a little easier on me."

120 to 0.

She had scored one point every minute—if I said it like that, I wonder if it would sound like I had fought bravely to some extent. But even that sounds hopelessly positive, doesn’t it. My mind was spinning. As was my vision.

"What do you mean, going easy?"

Kanbaru laughed.

"It’s been so long since I could play basketball at my full power, so why would I do something like that?"

"……"

"With my left arm like this, the only one who could be my opponent would be Araragi-senpai, who has the power of a vampire."

Thanks, Kanbaru said.

While she was carrying the basketball in one hand—I hung my head deeply.

I didn’t say anything.

Jeez.

Really, she interprets anything and everything to be good for herself, this junior does—the truth is, after being separated from basketball for so long recently you were looking down, and yet you were acting like you were energetic as usual and it was intolerable, and Senjougahara had started worrying, though I only worried for a little bit.

But I was able to see the basketball club’s ace play from the nearest of the nearest special seats. I was able to see that dunk that had no forgiveness for her opponent who was a senior, and that vivid, blissful smile that she wore—

Even I was able to feel happy because of it.

Well, to be honest, I really did want to win, but, even so, this was surely the best of days.

…By the way, she had so audaciously moved around the court that I had ended up seeing what was beneath her skirt.

Let’s just keep that our little secret.