Sixty-First Spell: Rules of the Game
"Quiet, Dōkutsu!" Inku snapped, glaring at the older female student with the dirty-blonde hair. "You don't need to get all excited! This boy just doesn't know what Quidditch is."
"How can he not know?" The older female student looked carefully at Haru, then her eyes widened. "Wait, you're that Osozaki everyone's been talking about!"
"Yep, I'm him," Haru admitted nervously.
"What's your name?" Asked the older female student, holding her hand out to shake.
"I'm…Haru Ryuji," said Haru as he held his hand out nervously.
"My name's Seiko Dōkutsu," said the older female student as she shook Haru's hand gently. "I'm the current Suzaku Quidditch Team Captain."
"That's neat, I guess," remarked Haru as he was trying to be polite.
"So why are you here looking up Quidditch?" Seiko inquired. "Is it because of that whole Quidditch tryouts event for the First-Year Secondary Students?"
"Pretty much. Inku was just showing me to the shelf where the book Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp is."
A snort escaped Seiko's mouth. "You don't need some book to tell you what Quidditch is when you could just see it for yourself!"
Taking Haru by the arm, Seiko dragged him out of the library and over to the outer wall of the school castle. She then took him on a well-worn path on the western side of the island which led to a semicircular cove. Along this cove were rows of wooden seats facing the ocean, where metal towers and hoops were arranged in the same manner as a soccer field a little ways out from the cove itself.
"Is that where Quidditch is played?" Haru asked.
"Normally, the game is played on a flat green field of sorts," Seiko explained. "But since we don't have anything like that around here, our school had to improvise by making this ocean cove our playing field."
"Is it safe?"
"Oh, no."
Haru didn't like the way Seiko said it so bluntly. "Then why do people play this game?"
Seiko paused. "I'm not sure how to answer that question. The only thing I can compare it with is the feeling you have when you ride a broom for the first time. It's frightening, but so exhilarating at the same time. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah, I guess. But I got dropped from Flying Class the first week of Spring Semester."
"Did you fail the Lion's Test?"
"Technically."
"Gōgu-Dono can be such a grouch sometimes," Seiko remarked. "But I guess he's ultimately just trying to keep kids from getting hurt. Rumor has it he was initially opposed to the Quidditch tryouts for First-Year Secondary Students for that reason, but Dōmeki-Sama apparently managed to talk him into it by assuring him that safety would be a top priority for the exhibition match."
Just then, a bunch of older kids showed up wearing uniforms consisting of brown pads and red cloaks. Seiko quickly went into the woods and emerged wearing a similar uniform before joining them. After mounting their brooms, they flew out into the part of the cove where the towers and hoops were.
"What are you doing here, Ryuji?" Asked Hikari, who was dragging a large trunk behind her.
"Could ask you the same," Haru retorted.
"Very funny," Hikari said sarcastically. "I offered to carry the balls for the Suzaku Quidditch team in exchange for watching them practice to prepare myself for the tryouts."
"You're doing the tryouts?"
"Of course! I am one of the best students in our year's Flying Class. But you wouldn't know since you and your Remedial Class buddies got dropped."
"Thanks for reminding me."
As Haru walked away, Hikari looked back at him.
"Were you hoping to do the tryouts too? Is that why you're here?"
"I was brought here by your team's captain."
"Dōkutsu-Sempai brought you here?" Hikari folded her arms. "I don't believe you!"
"But it's true! She said I could learn the game better by watching it instead of reading about it in a book."
Hikari glanced out at where Seiko was flying. "That does sound like something she would do. But she only shows that level of kindness to people who interest her."
"Genma!" Seiko called. "Throw the balls out here so we can get started!"
"Okay!" Hikari said and opened the trunk.
Looking inside, Haru beheld strange-looking balls of various sizes. One was made of leather and inflated like a basketball, two were made of metal and wiggling in their casings, while the fourth was small like a golfball but golden in color.
"Since you're here, you might as well help me get the balls out," Hikari said. "In exchange, I'll tell you the basics of Quidditch since Dōkutsu-Sempai is clearly occupied."
Finding Hikari's offer too tempting to refuse, Haru nodded in agreement.
"The best way to understand Quidditch is to see it as a combination of Manai sports, though particularly soccer, cricket, and basketball," Hikari said. "For instance, each team has seven players with different roles: there's a Keeper, who guards the hoops out there, three Chasers, who fly across the field with a ball to score points, two Beaters, who guard the other players and knock another set of balls around the field, and a Seeker, who has to catch a third kind of ball to win the game for their team."
Haru's eyes drifted to the three metal hoops on each side of the cove and back to the balls in the trunk. "So what does that have to do with all of these balls?"
"Each one serves a different purpose." Hikari picked up the large inflated ball and tossed it to Haru, who caught it in his hands. "That one is the Quaffle, which the Chasers grab and throw between each other to toss into one of the hoops to score 10 points each."
"And the Keeper prevents the Chasers of the opposing team from tossing the Quaffle into the hoops on their side," Haru realized.
"Exactly!" Hikari took the Quaffle from Haru's hands and threw it toward the nearest Suzaku player, who caught it.
To be continued…