Back with another Chapter!
In the previous chapter, we have cleared a little of a faint connection between Irie and Nishida, and the events in Episode 4.
This chapter will continue the events in Episode 4. But with more additional events, to make sure I didn't just copy the whole anime outright.
Now, to reply the reviews:
Enilorac Eiram;
Glad to see you be active on FFN again! And I'm glad to see you curious on Irie and Nishida's possible pasts.
You're on the right track! I would tell the plot later in the story though, not going to spoil XD.
What to say? A band consisting of four females without any males, a very prone target of compromising situations, don't ya think?
Yeah, again that's how I pictured Sekine and her pranks XD, so I guess I tried to put a "wingwoman" kind of prank this time, and what do you think will happen if Irie really took the prank seriously and really ended up with Nishida? That might be one possibility, right?
Thanks for the reviews!
Here's the chapter!
Chapter 7: Recruiting More Team Members
(The first glimpse of a memory)
-With Hinata and Otonashi-
The two guys (not gays) managed to find Matsushita go-dan just at the forest. The judo expert apparently was training himself on one of the trees. The go-dan noticed the two colleagues approaching. "Oh, Otonashi, Hinata, what is it?"
"Matsushita go-dan, I would like you to join my team for the upcoming ball game. What do you think, buddy?" Hinata asked, very confident that the judo expert will eventually join the team.
"The ball game? Oh, I've joined up with Takeyama." Matsushita said, shocking the blue-haired guy.
"W...WHAT...Why, Matsushita go-dan? Aren't we best buddies?"
"Yeah, we are. It's just Takeyama had promised to give me all Meat Udon tickets he get after every mission."
Silence, the certain blue-haired guy coudn't even say a thing. "M...Meat?"
"Just a few minutes ago, this guy's like. "He's a true friend, I'm kinda embarrassed. Haha..", so that's it?" Otonashi said with a little laugh, and with the same pose as Hinata had done.
"Don't laugh at this matter!" Hinata said.
"Okay, okay, let's just continue our search. So who's next in line?"
"We'll ask T.K. next. T.K., I'm counting on you." Hinata mumbled.
"Alright then. Matsushita go-dan, we'll be taking our leave. Good luck with the training." Otonashi greeted before leaving the judo expert.
"Yeah, take care!" Matsushita replied before continuing on his practice.
-Nishida's side-
"Irie-san!" Nishida called onto the lilac-haired girl who was walking near him. Apparently Irie heard the call and turned her head on Nishida's direction. Nishida could see very clearly on Irie's red eyes and puffy cheeks, as if she had been suppressing a tears' stream.
"N...Ni...Nishida...-san?" Irie replied, choking her own tears. "W...Wh...What is...it?'
"Calm down, take a long breath, Irie-san." Nishida replied softly, patting her shoulder. "What happened? Why are you crying?"
"*Sniff*...N...Nothing..." Irie replied.
"I could bet that it's not alright at all." Nishida replied. "I might be able to help, don't hesitate to talk about your problems, Irie-san. Tell me what's wrong."
"I..." Irie stuttered, blush remained on her cheeks.
Nishida's gaze was fixed on the lilac-haired beauty in front of him. He's expecting an answer.
"I..."
-With Hinata and Otonashi-
"Anyway, why does everyone call him T.K.?" Otonashi asked.
"That's what he calls himself, he's a mysterious guy, no one knows his real name." Hinata replied. "But I do believe in him."
Hinata coolly claimed, very sure that T.K. will join him. Only to find out that he was already taken by none other than Takamatsu,
"GOD DAMN!" Hinata exclaimed, now like a possessed man.
"Geez...now you do sound like T.K."
-With Irie and Nishida-
"So, that's it, Sekine told you to find me and join my team?" Nishida asked the girl in front of him.
"Y...Yes, but I...I can't do it." Irie stuttered.
"W...Why? You didn't want to?"
"No...I mean, I wanted to, but..." Irie stuttered, slowly her soft pale cheeks turned its color to a shade of pale red.
"But...what?"
"I...I was just too embarrassed."
That response was nothing out of ordinary. Nishida might expect this kind of response, but apparently he didn't expect it to be coming from Irie and directing to himself. 'What part of me makes her embarrassed?' he thought.
"There's nothing to be embarrassed for, Irie-san." Nishida said. "You can just go and ask me outright, nothing to be embarrassed for. We're colleagues, one part of SSS, so nothing's going to be awkward and worthy to be embarrassing."
"B...But..."
"Oh well, okay then, how about I reverse the role instead?" Nishida asked, earning confusion from the lilac-haired drummer.
"W...What do you mean?"
"Irie-san, would you mind to join our team for the upcoming ball tournament?"
"E...Eh?" Irie was shocked with the question. Not because she wasn't expecting the question, but suddenly a glimpse of memory hit her.
-Memory-
-Irie's PoV-
It was the day of the annual school class sports tournament in Meguro High School. As a member of the school, specifically in Class 2-C, I also had the right to join any of the sports game.
At least, I had, if I had the courage and the skill to play too.
My friends already knew me too well that I'm well-versed in music, but not in sports. So usually I walked myself off any team recruitments.
Not that my friends ever tried to recruit me, anyway.
Well, that's what I've been thinking, before...
"Irie-san," Suddenly I see a classmate walked towards me.
"Oh,*****-san, what is it?"
Strange, I didn't even remember his name...
"Have you joined any team for the sports tournament yet?" the guy asked.
"Er...no, and I don't think I will." I replied back shyly. Didn't this guy know that I'm not good at sports...
"Why is it?"
"Eto...I'm not to keen on sports, I thought I'll be a burden to the team if I ever joined one."
"Oh, really?" the guy replied. "You looked athletic enough to me, surely you got quite some skills."
"That's because I got the build from playing drums at my band." I replied. "Drummers had to move almost all his/her entire arms and legs in a pace. Sometimes it was so fast that you'll buff up your limbs after the performance."
"Oh, what a shame, because I would want you to join my rounders team for the competition. Are you sure you don't want to join?"
"Err..."
"Sorry, probably I was too bad-mannered, maybe I'll ask you a bit more politely, so, would you mind to join our Rounders team for the upcoming sports tournament?"
-End Memory-
Could Nishida be the one asking me to join the rounders team before? But of course that's not possible, I mean, we have never met before, right?
"Irie-san?"
"A...Ah...sumimasen..." I replied, awaken from my blank state.
"You're spacing out. Is something the matter?"
"N...No...nothing, it's only a little somehow deja vu on my part." I replied. It was the truth, anyway, but it has nothing relating to Nishida-san, so I won't bother hiding it.
"Oh, that's good to hear. Anyway, about my request, have you got an answer?" Nishida asked again, waiting for my answer.
Oh right, Nishida had requested something on me. Something like joining his sports team. I knew exactly that he's talking about the upcoming Baseball tournament.
Hey, what makes me think? Didn't I wanted to join, but decided to hold only because I'm embarrassed? But now the situation was definitely a half-circle turn, because I don't have to ask for joining, and got requested to join instead.
B...But, I'm not good at Baseball...
"I guess, I...I could join you, Nishida-san, but I'm not good at the game. What if I'm a burden to your team?" I asked. I suppose Nishida would re-think on recruiting me.
Not that I expect might happen, anyway.
"In that case, We'll be helping you, Irie-san. Don't see yourself as a burden, okay." Nishida replied, much to my shock.
"E...Eh...,"
"Anyway, should we ask Sekine to join us to? Or had she joined any teams yet?"
"Um... I don't think she wanted to. She said that she'll pass on this tournament." I replied.
"Alright then, the others are probably waiting. Come on, follow me." Nishida said as he took Irie's hand and began to walk.
"Ano, Nishida-san, you don't have to hold my hand like this. It's embarrassing." Irie softly whispered.
"To think about it...you're right." Nishida replied as he released the hand. "Anyway, Irie-san?"
"Hm?"
"You've joined the SSS longer before me, so do you have any idea what ball game we are playing?"
"Well, it's..."
-3rd Person's PoV-
-With Hinata and Otonashi-
"Anyway, what kind of ball game are we playing?" Otonashi asked to his blue-haired friend, which was looking distressed at the moment.
"Baseball..." Hinata grumbled.
"So, we need six more members, probably won't be happening..."
"Ah...I see you're in trouble, Heh...Heh...Heh..."
The two boys turned to see the source of the voice, and, much to their annoyance, is the said pink-haired girl which had made their ears burst that morning thanks to her overactive act.
"Well, if it isn't just Miss-Choked-Herself-in-Her-Death-Metal-Performance, I see." Hinata replied with such disgruntled voice, obviously not interested in the girls' appearance...only to fire up the girl's fury as she scurried towards him. "Do I look like the type to put a performance like that?"
Considering what she had done that morning, it's freaking obvious that Hinata's reply was none other than:
"Yeah, you do, totally."
Hinata's disinterested face now turned, glaring at the annoying pink-haired girl. "So, what do you want?"
"You said that you need more members, right?" Yui asked, tugging Hinata with the elbow. "Then I could be an asset for your team."
"A...Asset?" Hinata asked, before his mind formed an idea.
"Wait a minute, if she was hit on a pitcher's wild pitch, then it would take out the enemy's pitcher."
Too bad his thought were easily read...
"If she gets hit! Come on, join then."
Instead, the girl just gave him an awfully piercing glare. "I can read your thoughts, senpai, your brain tissue is leaking and melting from your nose..." and decided to hit him on the back of the head.
"What the...I'm your senpai, you little..."
"My apologies, Honorable senpai, your Honorable brain tissue is leaking and melting from your Honorable nose, is it not?" Yui mocked an apology and patted Hinata's back of the head."
"AS IF!" Hinata said as he kicked the girl on the face.
-Meanwhile-
"That commotion, what has Hinata got himself into..." Nishida said, hearing the scream from the outside of the school building. "Let's go check it out, Irie-san."
"Eh, but shouldn't we meet the others...oh, I think I knew..." Irie-san was confused, but then her lips formed a kind of smile. A sweet smile, even for Nishida's standards.
"Right on there, Irie. Hinata was my teammate, and so do Otonashi. So that commotion might have told us where they are right now."
The two purple-hairs paced quickly on the direction of the teammate which is somehow in 'trouble'.
-Outside-
"Senpai, Itai-desu!" Yui writhed, her body just twitched in pain.
"I'm hurting too, you know." Hinata said.
"Oh, hurting, I see..." The two heard the sound of their teammate approaching towards them. On his back was their colleague from the diversion team, the shiest one, to be specific. "Did you two really hurt physically? Or I did sense that love-related hurt is in the air?"
"Shut up, Nishida! Nothing's going on between me and this idiot girl!"
"Well, at least she looked athletic..."Otonashi remarked, only to be interrupted by the said blue-haired friend of his.
:What are you talking about, Otonashi? I don't want to have a girl as brainless as her in my team!"
"Itai-desu..."Yui flinched on her senpai's remark.
"But even if you said that, our colleagues had been turning us down lately."
"Yeah, I saw it too. That's why Yui-nyan decided to join your team."
One word had caught the blue-haired guy's attention. With a deadly glare he turned to the girl.
"Huh, try saying it again?"
"Yui-nyan..." Yui replied using her 'cute' pose.
"THAT PISSES ME THE MOST OF ALL!" Hinata said as he locked Yui's body in a hard deadlock.
"Kyaaa...I give up...I give up..."
"You two, just stop already!" Nishida and Otonashi shouted respectively, while Irie stayed silent, speechless by the commotion.
The group of five then made their way to the storage room. Apparently they're going to invite the quietest member of the Battlefront.
"Shiina-cchi, where are you, Shiina-cchi?" Hinata asked. The others also helped him searching. However they just wasted their energy as the said girl showed herself, or at least, all except her right part of her body.
"Oh, there you are. You've got good reflexes, right?" Hinata asked.
"I never measured them." Shiina replied quietly.
"Oh c'mon, you'll do fine. Baseball, let's play Baseball."
"Ever since that day, I've been in here pondering how can I fall behind a newcomer."
"You mean the operation Drop to the Guild?" Hinata asked, remembering the operation where the newest member of the Battlefront at that time was able to survive until the end.
"Eh, what operation is that?" Nishida asked.
"That's the operation where everyone dropped into the guild. Although I didn't participate since I'm in the diversion team, I knew from Yuri that the one surviving until the Guild are only Yuri herself and Otonashi-san." Irie explained to him.
"At that time, you're still on your recovering state after being stabbed by Tenshi, so you also didn't join the operation, making Otonashi the newest member of the Battlefront that joined the operation, and it's also a legend that Otonashi was the only one besides Yuri to survive." Hinata continued.
"I was just lucky."
"Oh, that explains why I haven't seen this girl before ever since I joined this Battlefront." Nishida said. "You must be Shiina, correct?"
"Right, and you must be the new member, Shugo Nishida, who managed to defend Yuri from being stabbed by Tenshi." Shiina replied. "Continuing from where we left off, Otonashi, in terms of power and skills, I should have surpassed you, except in one thing: Concentration." Shiina said.
"I bet you surpassed me too on that part." Otonashi replied.
"Ever since that day, I've been balancing this broom on my finger." Shiina replied as she showed herself fully, a broom was visible on her right index finger, standing in balance.
The other members just jaw-dropped.
"She's an idiot, isn't she?" Yui whispered to Hinata.
"That idiocy gave her strength."
"Come on then, Otonashi. Let's fight it out." Shiina challenged the newest member beside Nishida and Takeyama.
"Hey...hey, if you want to fight it out, fight it in securing a score on the following baseball tournament!" Hinata said, trying to keep the two from fighting.
"In that case,I accept." Shiina replied with a serious face.
"That makes six of us." Hinata said. "We have no choice but to take him in."
The group made his way onto the riverside. There, they spotted a familiar Battlefront member training on his halberd-wielding.
"No one's gonna invite him. He didn't listen to anyone but Yurippe." Hinata said.
"In that case, he's an idiot as well." Yui replied.
"However, we can use an idiot, anyway." Hinata said as he approached the halberd-wielder. "Besides, no one could swing a stick as good as him."
"You finally come, huh, Both of you?" Noda pointed to Otonashi then to Nishida. "Let's settle things outright, Otonashi. After I'm finished with you, I'll be taking you on, Nishida."
"Okay, which part of you do you want me to shoot this time?" Nishida said as he began to unload his 9mm...
"Nishida-san, don't..." Irie said, unconsciously holding his right arm, which was on its way to his gun.
"Hey, stop it, stop it. Why don't we battle it out in a baseball game to see who has better reflexes?"
"Why?"
"Strength alone won't impress Yurippe." Hinata said, smirking.
There was an awkward silence, before Noda smirked and gave out his hand. "I accept."
"What a moron, he didn't know he was being used." Yui whispered to Nishida.
"You're not wrong about that." Nishida whispered back, before realizing his hand was still grabbed by Irie while he had released his grip on the gun. "Huh, Irie-san?"
"Yes?" Irie replied, before looking that Nishida was staring at his right hand, and recognizing that her hand was still holding his, with the purpose already long gone.
"E...Eh...sumimasen..." Irie apologized with another blush.
"Okay then, that makes our team seven." Hinata said. "We're going to have a full team!"
However, most SSS members are already in the other teams by now, and so their search was reaching a dead-end.
"So, what do you think we must do? We're short of two members." Shiina pointed out.
"I'll think a way. In the meantime, could you please drop that broom of yours?" Hinata said.
"I'll drop it when my concentration is interrupted."
"In that case, then..." Yui started to put some roundhouse kick to the certain ninja, only for the ninja to dodge, her finger still balancing the broom."
"N...Nani?" Yui screamed in amazement.
"What are you doing, girl?" Shiina asked.
"Have you thought of a way, Hina...?" Otonashi turned into Hinata, only to see the blue-haired guy looking at the sky above, like he was remembering something.
"H...Hinata?"
"Oh, sorry, I'm just spacing out..." Hinata said. "It can't be helped, let's recruit some from the regular students.
"Alright, I'll be recruiting my friends!" Yui offered while being "tamed" by the said ninja.
"F...Friends?"
After a few minutes, Yuri came back with some of her friends.
"W...We're" Girl 1 said.
"We're fans of Yui." Girl 2 said.
"We're like her groupies." Girl 3 said.
"We're glad to help Yui-nyan." Girl 4 said.
"Yui-nyan's not the type who's stuck up with skills." Yui said with pride. "I've been accumulating experience from street performances."
"Okay, I know you have a lot of friends...but we need only two members, why you bring four, and nothing but trendy girls?" Hinata scolded the pink-haired girl.
"Well, the more the merrier, right?" Yui asked.
"Dammit, we'll be overloaded with members..." Hinata growled. "And only a few of us actually got some skill."
"Calm down, Hinata. We can just recruit all of them and have two acting as substitutions, then." Otonashi said. "That'll make a full team."
"Alright then, all of you are in." Hinata said. "I wonder how will our team progress."
On the other members part, this might be only a routine check-up, but for a certain individual, this will be a key step towards the moment of truth.
A/N: Okay, I'll stop until here! I actually wanted to continue, but to balance the number of words per chapter, I decided to stop right here, because the next sessions might take a long time, since I might cover the game in quite more detail, if I could.
Maybe for the ones who had watched the anime, everyone knew that Hinata's group only consists of 8 members, with 3 being Yui's groupies. However in this story I changed Yui's groupies into 4, and added by Nishida and Irie, it makes 11. I have a plan for those, so don't worry.
Next chapter will be the ball game and also the moment of truth, or at least, the truth for one of "them". And maybe, since this story is more Nishida-centric, some of the episodes will not be included, be replaced or not fully taken.
Please R&R! Constructive Reviews are appreciated while flames are prohibited, thank you.
See You Soon!
Kage
