これはテニスじゃないです

That, and she had nothing better to do.

He continued to sling sports equipment across the gym. Fuuro even had to dodge the stuff a few times. She was pretty quick to anger, but noticing this boy’s dismay, it was best to keep it in. 

"If you say so… Logically, gyms are supposed to have all kinds of sports equipment. It’s safe to say that some kinds of equipment are harder to find than others.

Fuuro joined the sports player in his search for a net. Did she have any intentions of playing badmitton with him? No. But it gave her something to do.

"Hmm. It's a pain. The only thing I brought with me was my racket. Maybe if I bothered the bear..."

No. Bad idea. He muttered a few words about how bothersome it'd be. Isamu paused rummaging around for a few seconds to hold his hand out. Very awkwardly. Because people shook hands regularly, right? Wait, they're Japanese. Bowing is the thing. Whatever. Shaking hands before and after a sports match could just be his excuse. Good save.

"Miyawaki-kun... Right. Nice meetin' you. I guess. Weird situation but it could be worse. Ahem. ... Ecology, huh. So... sciencey stuff. That's. Cool."

…What?

He peered into the doorway, examining the area. Low vision capabilities didn’t give him much in the way of a good idea as to what the room was, exactly, until he sorta. Caught on.

That was a basketball. And there was someone in that gym.

Someone mysterious.

"Hey!"

He hollered into the room, still just. Peeking around the side of the door.

"Be mindful of your balls, jackass!"

Usually, Isamu would just ignore a passerby but, man, this guy was loud. He's just going to let jackass name-calling bit slip. Without turning his body, he craned his neck around to take a good look at the newcomer. You know. Like the weird head tilt they do in the Japanese animes. Yeah.

"Huh? Balls? I don't have any of 'em. Shuttlecocks are preferable."

Isamu continued digging through the closet, wondering where the nets were. Why didn't the shelves have any goddamn labels? Didn't everybody do that? No? Oh. He huffed impatiently then made his way over to the shorter boy, taking a good look at him up and down. Is this what was in these days? Funny. Oh wait, the jacket belonged to the goddamn bear, didn't it. Did bears wear jackets? Weren't they warm enough already with all that fur? What did Monobear need extra layers for? MonoShrek? Speaking of jackets, he wasn't wearing his. Now he's cold again.

Okay, the red headed girl seemed to ignore Fuuro. Which was perfectly okay. Not that Fuuro longed for a conversation, despite going out of her way to attempt to chat. It irked her in a slight way, yeah. But she’d get over it, more than likely. 

Shaking that poor attempt at conversation off, Fuuro got distracted by someone else. Such foul language from a young man. Not that Fuuro was one to talk, she cusses like a sailor. Perhaps this person would me better at attempting to talk than the last girl? She sure as heck hoped so. 

Well, conversation wasn’t exactly a need for the ecologist. But she was bored, and a nice conversation would probably do her some good. By talking to fellow students, Fuuro could determine who was smart, and who she should avoid. But by doing that, she’d be putting her pride off to the side. 

Which was fine, for the time being. 

"A…net? Did you say a net? I think…I think it’s pretty logical to assume that there would be one here. Y’want me to help you look? Normally I don’t mess with the affairs of other people, but hell, I don’t have anything better to do." 

Isamu glanced back at the girl and almost immediately continued searching through the closet without a second thought... until he yanked out a tennis racket. He slung it across the court and turned to face the other properly. She didn't see that.

"Yeah. A net. I dunno, apparently it's not a rule to always have proper badminton equipment on hand. That's stupid. Help sounds..."

Come on, Isamu, you can look cool.

"... Nice."

Goddamnit.

Now that he's stopped moving frantically, the cold finally got to him. Why did he have to be so sensitive to low temperatures? Maybe if he used a jacket properly, he wouldn't be shivering right now.

Mami let out a small chuckle after Isamu was done with his spiel, and just shrugged it off. Literally.

"Alright man, jeez! Hahaha, take a chill pill. I already know you’re an asshole, there’s no need to try to backpedal for… what, friendship? We don’t even know each other, man! Like yeah, whatever, we share a name, but the obvious thing is that we won’t get along.

It happens. Not much we can do but let it happen. So, yeah, go work on your sociability or whatever, I’ll be somewhere else if you need me. Not that you will, most likely.”

Walking towards the door leading into the complex proper, she looked behind her.

"Oh yeah, you might want to not go outside. Ever. Your legs’ll freeze right off unless you got some actual pants. Ta ta!"

And there she went.

"Take a what? Take a chill pill? For friendship? What the shit? I? What? I don't fuckin'-- I don't understand? What the fuck?"

The only part he got was that they didn't get along. But... She just called him an asshole with a smile on her face? People do that!? If she didn't run off, he would have probably punched her right there. Chasing after her probably isn't worth it. Perfect timing.

Isamu proceeded to stand in that exact spot for a while. Will he ever put on those boots? Will he ever use some proper pants? More importantly, will they ever get along? The answer to all of them is no. Who knows.

"For... friendship... Never... Why the fuck would I... How... I didn't mean... Shit..."

Was he touched in the head?

Maybe.

Mami didn’t know. He was either a bit nuts or just a spoilsport. Probably the latter. Or both.

Ah, whatever, Mami had to try and rerail this conversation.

"Uh, you ok there, sport? (Hah!) You seem kind of… how do I say this… are you havin’ a bit of trouble speakin’ there? Ah, well."

"I find it interesting how you keep calling yourself "the" player, like being -A- player just ain’t good enough for you. …which you just said. Are you really THAT stupid? Other players exist, you know. Ones younger, older, worse, better. My joke wasn’t entirely without merit. You’re not the only player on the planet.

Also, wow, rude, thanks for dismissing my talent as worthless. I did notice that, dick. Guess I’m leaving you as a footnote. Work on your people skills.”

This guy was both nuts and a spoilsport. Haha. Sport. Funny. Too bad Isamu can't tell what a joke is since he is one himself.

"I'm perfectly fine. I can speak... Perfectly... Fine..."

Oh boy. Isamu took in a deep breath and straightened his back, ignoring the jacket and allowing it to fall on the ground. He clenched his fists, shoving ideas of violence out of his head. He can't do any of those things, they'll just make him look even worse. (Is that even possible? Definitely.)

"I didn't realize that it was a joke. I take everything seriously. I am aware of other players and I'm also aware that I am simply one of the best. I am an excellent player. There. Is that better?

That's not what I meant either. I am unsure of anything that deals with socializing, as you can see. I was not thinking negatively about your talent. I do need to work on my people skills. See? I even fuckin' agreed with you. You're fuckin' welcome."

Oh, wait. Yes. The person she actually asked the name of. Actually continuing that conversation would probably be polite.

"Huh, a badminton player? You? Never would’ve guessed."

A small chuckle came from Mami, letting the other Isamu realise she was being sarcastic.

"Also, I’m pretty sure you’re not THE badminton player. Otherwise it wouldn’t be much of a sport, would it?"

And then she started to laugh. Mami, you shit, try and be nice.

"Hahahaha, anyway… my name’s… Mami Isamu. Hope’s Peak named me the Super High School Level Reporter recently. ‘Bout time, I say. So anyway, Yomomo, how you holdin’ up? I’m pretty sure your attire right now isn’t conducive to… staying alive."

Her last words had a devious undertone to them… but she didn’t mean anything by it.

"The badminton player 'cause I'm sure that someone as skillful as me shouldn't be referred to a badminton player. It sounds awfully ordinary. That's not me at all."

He's not even trying to act humble or modest anymore. Scratch that, he never intended to do that from the start. Hold on. Did she just call him Yomomo? He's going to pretend he didn't hear that at all. It's kind of hard to forget though. He's going to be patient, since it's their first meeting. Impressions like these never seem to go well.

"... Right. It's... nice... to meet you... Isamu-kun... It's... nice to see that you're confident in your... abilities, if I may call them that. I am doing very... nicely... I can put up with the snow and... ice. Fuck. I'm running out of words."

Shedding her coat, she walked over to the hangers, and hooked it up, vaguely recognising the presence of another person. She turned her head towards him, then scanned the room for anyone else…

Nope! It was just them.

Good.

Mami quickly walked over to him, and fumbled for a notebook and pen (which may or may not be there) as she struck up conversation.

"Hey there! Looks like you’re one of the people stuck in this mess along with me. Can’t say I’ve ever seen you before, so… what’s your name?"

Oh. There was someone here. Of course. Isamu looked up from his discontinued mental discussion on shoes to see... quite a familiar person. Not that he's recalled seeing her before, it's just her general appearance reminded him of the people who would swamp him with questions about his match. Great.

Time to think of a remotely polite response.

"Quite a mess, indeed. It's too cold and I haven't even left the building. Yomohiro Isamu's the name. Mind tellin' me yours?"

He turned around properly to face the girl. Not keeping eye contact was pretty rude, even for someone like him.

"... You did? Hmm. The cold must be getting t' me."

The sportsman tapped the screen a few times, still trying to adapt to the updated technology.

"Languages, huh. I only know Japanese and English. A little bit of Italian. You must know a lot if people think being trilingual is... Airquotes. Cool. End airquotes. Ahem."

As soon as he heard the word tennis, he almost snarled but let out a sigh in place of it. So they both had to repeat their titles. Right. He would have probably punched his lights out if he was annoying. Thank goodness he wasn't. He stuffed the card into his jacket pocket, waiting a few seconds after Ashland did the same.

"Badminton player. Everyone gets the sport wrong. It's fine. I'm not going t' stress it out. Try to not let it happen again."

You know when you wake up, and you try to figure out what you had planned for the day, but you can’t quite remember it, so you decide “fuck it” and go back to sleep for another while? Yeah, that’s how Mami Isamu, the SHSL Reporter, felt like. Waking up in some waiting room in some place she’d never seen before with the air this cold was not her idea of being conducive to waking up. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She just conked right back out, and only woke up about 5 minutes later, realising that something was incredibly wrong, when everyone else had left.

Way to go, Mami.

Quickly following where the rest of the people had PROBABLY gone turned out to be a… somewhat decent idea. She was left wandering around for a few minutes, but eventually found the main exit where everyone else had gathered… and managed to catch the words “kill” being tossed around. “Murder.” Mami’s face became one of surprise, but not exclamation. This was… this was a great chance for an amazing story.

Some weird monochromatic bear kidnapping a bunch of Hope’s Peak’s best and brightest and forcing them to murder each other for… what? Sport? Who knows. What Mami DID know is that it was the perfect chance to get her name in even more lights. This was the scoop of the century!

"…"

After the bear had finished, and everyone started to filter out, Mami took her leave as well, and decided to go explore this weird place. Maybe she could see what was behind the big ol’ door… figure out where she was a little.

So, she did just that. Grabbed the coat on her hanger (odd… she’d never been here, why was her name here?) and proceeded outsi WOW THAT WAS COLD.

Ok, she was in… the arctic, or Canada, or something.

Noted.

Time to head back inside.

And so, Mami got back inside, and stayed at the coat hangers. Maybe someone was still here, who knows?

So he made a sharp 180 turn and marched down the corridor, finding himself staring at the large footwear, quite deep in thought. Should he take his sport shoes off first? Or should he wear the boots over them? Decisions, decisions...

"................"

"Scared? Of what? That bear? Hah. I'm sure that everythin's going t' be fine. But I have to say, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. ... Well. At least that hard. It's not like anybody's actually dead yet so don't worry. Worrying brings your performance down."

Isamu popped another cracker into his mouth before taking one more. Poor kid probably never intended to share with anybody in the first place. Too bad that he didn't care.

"Hmm. What a coincidence. I usually don't have company but you're going t' be an exception."

Whether or not the bribe worked, the badminton player let Ashland join him anyway. Before setting off, he fumbled around with the map, nibbling on the cracker in frustration.

"While I'm gettin' the hang of this... You didn't tell me your occupation. Title. Whatever. I assumed that it's got somethin' t' do with some sort of study."

"Hollic-kun. Right. I'll remember that."

He confirmed the new name with a firm nod. Okay, his thought on Ashland has changed already, starting from the moment he let him have a few crackers. Wow. He didn't actually expect that.

"... Really? I can? I'm allowed to take some? To a stranger too. How... generous. You have earned my respect."

Might as well scare this guy if he's going to keep speaking like that. He blinks a few times before retrieving two crackers and sneaking one into his mouth. After a few seconds of sort of silence and quiet chewing, Isamu spoke up.

"Also... You might want to think somewhere safer. Like in bed or something. It's much more comfortable. I was on my way to the dorms, actually."

"... You're sorry. I get it. No need to say it again.

Well, at least he's sorry, right? After yet another mental war against himself, Isamu reluctantly held out his hand to help the kid up. Not even waiting for a response, he impatiently snaps.

"'You gonna take it or not, huh?"

Then he eyes the crackers.

"... 'You gonna share some o' that?"

Wait, what? Stop pointing at that. Isamu then bit his lip and coughed into the palm of his other hand.