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Matsubara High – During the Cultural Festival
Second Gymnasium
POV: Togawa, Basketball Club Member
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"Alright then, if we win, you’ll treat everyone here to a meal—except me, of course."
"Sure, I’ll accept that kind of penalty game."
Thanks to some spur-of-the-moment discussion between Captain Sanada and ex-captain Satou, it was decided that if we lost this 3-on-3 match, we’d have to buy lunch for those high school girls.
A penalty game? More like a reward, honestly. If it means we’ll have a reason to meet up again later, I’ll gladly take it. Should I just throw the game and let them win?
"Hey! Togawa! If you let your guard down, you’re gonna get hurt! Don’t hold back, come at us seriously!"
Yeah, I hear you, Maejima. But the truth is, there’s a brutal physical gap between guys and girls. You know that, don’t you? That’s why this match isn’t really a fair fight.
In 3-on-3, the first team to reach 21 points wins.
But for today, to keep things moving quickly, the game ends at 15 points. The time limit’s also short—just 10 minutes.
We let them take the first offense. Not that it makes much of a difference.
The moment the game started, Satou-senpai tossed the ball toward the basket.
But it clearly wasn’t going in. That wasn’t a shot.
BANG!!
…Huh???
The ball, which I didn’t even think was a pass, was caught mid-air by the foreign girl, who then slammed it straight into the basket.
"Alright, that’s one—wait, make that two points!"
"Hey, underclassmen! No need to go easy on us, you know?"
Maejima and Satou-senpai grinning like kids.
Wait, wait—what just happened!?
That foreign girl barely looks 160 cm tall. So how on earth did she pull off an alley-oop into a basketball hoop that's 305 cm high!?
Even I, a 177 cm tall guy, can just barely touch the rim if I really jump—but I can’t dunk. If your hand doesn’t reach above the rim, you physically can’t do it.
So how did she manage it? She’s a girl, meaning she should have less muscle, and she’s like 20 cm shorter than me. How is that even possible???
Now it’s our turn on offense.
Calm down. First, let’s use our height advantage and keep the ball moving high above them—
"Watch it! Sanada-senpai!"
Too late. Sanada-senpai’s careless pass was intercepted by that same foreign girl who had just been somewhere else a moment ago.
What is she? She’s unbelievably fast and has insane jumping ability.
"Hey Togawa! That ninja of ours, she’s such a physical powerhouse that even with less than six months of experience, she got scouted for the Japanese national women’s volleyball team!"
Tell me that kind of thing first!!!!
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That surprise move shook us, but once you know it’s coming, it’s no big deal.
"Nrgh… ngh!!"
She’s got crazy jumping power, she’s fast, and her raw athletic ability is impressive. But no matter how hard she tries, she’s still a small and slender basketball newbie.
The only moves this foreign girl can really make are layups or dunks by getting close to the basket. So all we have to do is keep her from getting under the hoop.
It might not be very mature of me, but if I block her path like this, she stops right away.
She bumps into me a few times, but she’s so light and slender that I don’t budge. It’s like wind hitting a willow tree. There’s no way I’m losing my position over that.
…Though every time I stop her, she smells nice and I get all kinds of soft impressions, which is a whole different kind of challenge…
Anyway, she’s too light to force her way through without fouling, and she doesn’t have the skill yet to get around me cleanly.
Huh? Looks like she realized she couldn’t break through and backed off. Right away, a pass came flying in from Satou-senpai.
That was perfect timing. Gotta admit, that was impressive. Shows how close they are. Guess that’s what you’d expect from a couple. She’s probably aiming to shoot from there, but… yeah, that’s not going in.
The one-hand shot she put up actually looked decent—but as expected, it just hit the rim and bounced off.
Hmm…
Probably, she just doesn’t have the height. That kind of shot only works if you’re at least around our height. She was probably trying to imitate Satou-senpai’s form, but their body types are way too different for that to work.
When it comes to shooting form, sure, there’s a basic model—but in the end, you’ve got to find the style that works best for you.
That only comes after hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of practice shots.
So anyway, to stop this foreign girl, someone’s got to stick to her and make sure she never gets close to the hoop.
But if I’m glued to her the whole time, I can’t go after the ball. So the rest of the match is in the hands of the other two.
Maejima tries to pull off a sharp drive and layup—sharp for a girl, anyway.
But she gets blocked mid-air like it’s nothing.
…Maejima and the foreign girl both have the same issue—if they had just a bit more size, they could force their way into the shot path, but they keep getting shut down by the harsh wall of physical difference.
Satou-senpai is decent, as you’d expect from last year’s captain, but you can tell he’s rusty.
Basketball shooting is tricky—takes ages to master, and only a short break to lose your touch. They say skipping one day costs you two days to get back, and that’s probably true.
So yeah, Satou-senpai’s shooting isn’t exactly sharp.
He’s not someone we can underestimate, but as long as we stay sharp, we’ll be fine.
…Ah!!
BEEP!!
"Ugh, we lost!!"
"We managed a surprise attack while they didn’t know about Yuuri, but that’s about it, huh…"
"Sorry, I missed so many shots…"
We blew it…
15–13
I went all out thinking we might actually lose if we didn’t play seriously—and then we won...
Wait—our treat-them-to-lunch plan that was actually a disguised date is ruined nowwwwwwwww!!
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Perspective Change
POV: Tachibana Yuuri
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As expected of a current high school boys’ basketball team.
They were only surprised by my impressive physical abilities at the start—after that, they quickly adapted and completely neutralized me. In terms of raw strength, they had a massive advantage. We fought hard, but in the end, we lost…
“Hey, Togawa! You really are amazing. I mean, it’s like there’s no way I can even compete with you anymore!”
“All I did was focus on stopping that foreign girl. Besides, Maejima, why do you look so happy even though we lost?”
“Losing sucks, sure, but it’s been forever since I got to play basketball seriously! And you know, back in elementary school, you were so hopeless at this. I never thought you’d get this good.”
“That was four years ago, you know!”
…Mirai looks like she’s having a lot of fun.
I don’t know exactly why, but…
“Asuka.”
“You don’t even have to say it… I know. I want her to stay on the volleyball team—not just now, but next year and the year after too. Not just because she’s strong, either. But…”
Asuka didn’t finish her sentence. But I understood.
Mirai really is just a one-time helper this year, huh…
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During World War II, it’s said that some French prisoners of war, driven to the edge by the harsh conditions, all imagined a shared imaginary girlfriend to cope with the stress.
In Japan, during the era of strict samurai education—especially when relationships between men and women were considered impure—there was reportedly a culture in Satsuma of dressing up beautiful young boys as girls instead.
What I’m trying to say is: whether male or female, when high schoolers brimming with hormones are deprived of an outlet, they’ll resort to imagination to fill that void.
At Matsujo, there was a "Mr. Handsome Contest."
And here at Matsuko, there was a contest called “Surprise! An All-Boys Beauty Pageant.”
According to Yuuki and Yuta, this has been the grand finale of the school festival every year.
Is Matsuko really going to be okay?
But I guess I can’t talk—Matsujo’s festival ended with a pretty boy contest too.
…What do normal co-ed schools even do?
“Alright! Leave the makeup to me!”
“If you’re going to do makeup, at least get the basics from your mom or someone first…”
“Someone! Sorry, but could you run to the convenience store and grab some foundation?!”
And so, we somehow got roped into this rather fruitless beauty pageant (?). We ended up participating too.
Apparently, the boy in question—a classmate from Kaori’s middle school—was slim and pale, and he was forced to enter the contest without a say.
But after all, they’re just high school boys. To be blunt, their makeup skills are terrible. About on par with mine right after I turned into a girl. When we happened to see what was going on, we couldn’t just ignore it—we ended up helping him with his transformation.
Look, just throwing on a wig and wearing a skirt doesn’t cut it.
From the perspective of someone like me—a professional in full-body crossdressing—this doesn’t count as proper crossdressing!
That said, Asuka and the others didn’t really get it either. This is, after all, a contest meant for an all-boys school. Harsh realities don’t matter here. What does matter is looking cute to guys—makeup and styling that appeals to them.
“Ehh, isn’t this way too over-the-top?”
“If someone like this were in my class, she’d get totally iced out.”
“I mean, I don’t think any actual girls dress like this in the first place…”
Asuka, Mirai, and Kaori all had their complaints—but this was fine.
Cutesy and obviously trying too hard? Who cares? In a boys’ school, this is justice!
And thanks to our efforts (?), Kaori’s middle school classmate ended up winning the pageant.
But just as we were proudly walking out of the gym, satisfied with our masterpiece’s victory, we noticed something odd.
“Wait, that was a guy inside, right?”
“Yeah, but… he was kinda cute…”
“Is it weird if I started feeling something…?”
…I thought I heard some rather troubling comments, but I’m sure it was just my imagination. Yeah.
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