“Eight, ten.”
Kyoumi finished the course with plenty of room to spare.
She flicked the pebble up with her toe, caught it neatly on the top of her shoe, hopped out of the grid, and spun around.
“Mm, that puts me on square eight this time.”
“You’re really not holding back at all!
Acting like a veteran bullying the newbie~!”
“This is technically my first time too. Didn’t I step out of bounds a few times at the start?”
Kyoumi casually kicked the pebble toward the girl as she spoke, then paused.
“One, five, eight, and ten are all mine now. Remember not to step on them, okay?”
“Yaa~ This isn’t the hopscotch Yoshino had in mind at all! Miss Kyoumi, you wouldn’t happen to be secretly tweaking the rules in your favor, would you?”
Yoshinon waved its tiny paws like a detective dramatically pointing at the culprit, hiding a hint of real accusation behind the comical tone.
“Hopscotch rules vary all over the world.
The version Yoshino suggested is just hopping in order. That kind would be too easy for us even if we played hundreds of rounds, right?”
“That may be true, but isn’t it a bit too competitive, Miss Kyoumi? Yoshino is a complete beginner! No special beginner privileges?”
Perhaps because Yoshino and Yoshinon were two separate personalities, the girl seriously kicked the pebble into the second square and hopped in on one foot without interrupting Yoshinon’s verbal sparring with Kyoumi at all.
“Victory and prizes are the most important parts of any competition, no exceptions. Besides, is Yoshino really a beginner? She’s actually ahead of me right now, though I’ll catch up this round.”
“That’s only because Miss Kyoumi made mistakes~ Getting overtaken is only natural~”
Their conversation didn’t distract the girl in the slightest.
She used her landing foot to kick the pebble into the third square, switched feet, and repeated the process for the fourth, sixth, and seventh.
The seventh square was Yoshino’s territory.
According to the rules Kyoumi had set, she could rest both feet on the ground for a few seconds without having to keep hopping and kicking.
She paused for several seconds, taking slow, deep breaths. Her gaze focused on the ninth square.
The eighth was occupied by Kyoumi, so she couldn’t step there.
Because she hadn’t known the rules at first, the ninth hadn’t been claimed by Yoshino either, so she couldn’t rest when she landed there; she had to immediately kick the pebble again and hop out.
The tenth was also Kyoumi’s.
In a ten-square game, when hopping out of bounds at the end, the pebble had to stay balanced on her shoe.
If the opponent were an ordinary human girl, this would count as outright bullying.
No matter how you looked at it, Kyoumi explaining the rules and then immediately claiming the tenth square felt like she had steered everything to her advantage.
No wonder Yoshinon was protesting.
Even for Yoshino, this was a challenge that required focus and composure.
Arms spread like a tightrope walker’s pole, a rare glint of determination appeared in the girl’s eyes.
She stood on one foot, kicked the pebble with the other, and leapt nimbly after it as it skimmed the line into the ninth square.
Without pausing (she wasn’t allowed to by the rules Kyoumi made), she kicked the pebble again and bounded after it like an agile little rabbit.
Hop, twist in mid-air, carry the pebble, skip over the tenth square.
She stumbled, arms flailing for balance, but it wasn’t easy.
Just as she was about to fall backward, she gave up trying to stay upright and simply thrust her empty foot forward, catching the pebble perfectly on her toe.
“…I won…!”
Her body tipped backward, but she had completed the entire course, and the pebble stayed on her shoe, at least until the moment she fell.
“If I hadn’t made those earlier mistakes, this round would’ve been mine.”
Kyoumi, already standing at the finish, didn’t let the girl hit the ground.
She caught Yoshino’s stumbling body with both hands while voicing a slightly reluctant remark.
“Ya-ha-ha-ha~ Squares two, three, four, and six, four squares belong to Yoshino! Whether she claims seven or nine this time, according to Miss Kyoumi’s own rules, the first to control half the board wins. Yoshino is the undisputed champion!!!”
“Yes, yes, best of three, Yoshino takes the deciding game. But we still have to follow procedure. Which square do you want to claim, Yoshino?”
“…The ninth square!”
Yoshino looked up at Kyoumi with ocean-blue eyes shining with joy, her voice a little louder than usual.
“Mm, then congratulations on your victory, Yoshino~”
“How’s that! Yoshino is cute, right?! Yoshino is amazing, right!!!”
The most excited one about Yoshino’s win was actually Yoshinon.
Technically Yoshino’s victory could be considered Yoshinon’s as well, but it still gave Kyoumi a strange sense of déjà vu.
“You can’t come down here and face me yourself, otherwise I’d take you down 2-0.”
Kyoumi curled her index finger against her thumb, flicked Yoshinon’s forehead through the puppet, and slid her other arm around Yoshino’s waist to steady her.
“Yaa! Violence is prohibited! Striking the referee is a foul! Deduct points, deduct points! Penalty: one extra wish!”
Even though a hand puppet shouldn’t feel pain, Yoshinon let out an exaggerated yelp, covering its face with its tiny paws that couldn’t possibly reach and swaying dramatically.
As the interactive participant who couldn’t actually play, Yoshinon had self-appointed as referee, though it had never received official recognition from Kyoumi.
Pure self-amusement.
“The agreed prize is one not-too-excessive wish from the winner. It never included ‘beating the referee’ as an extra option. Objection overruled~”
Kyoumi straightened Yoshino’s hood, which had gone crooked from all the movement, and, before pulling her finger away, poked Yoshinon’s ear for good measure, earning another round of indignant protests.
“Of course, if Yoshino’s wish is to have three wishes, I can throw in seven more to make it a nice round ten~”
“Objection! Objection! This is discrimination! Yoshinon wants three extra wishes too!”
“No can do for non-participants. This is the winner’s privilege.”
“…U-um… that’s too many…”
“Hm? Even if you wished for ten, I wouldn’t grant them. I was just being polite~”
“…Ah, no, that’s not…”
The thrill of victory faded, and Yoshino’s timid side resurfaced.
She waved her hands frantically, trying to prove she wasn’t that greedy. Her lips moved.
“Playing… with Miss Kyoumi… was really fun…”
“Mm. So, shall we exercise the winner’s privilege?”
“…I want… to play together again someday…”
Yoshino looked up at Kyoumi.
“My wish… is this… is that okay…?”
To be honest, spirits who didn’t know each other were like two separate lines that might cross once by chance, but meeting again was incredibly difficult.
But according to Kyoumi’s experience, if you have a strong desire to go somewhere, it becomes much easier to manifest there.
So…
“Of course. Whenever you manifest and it’s raining, if I’m in this world too, I’ll come here to keep you company. How’s that?”
“Mm!”
Yoshino nodded quickly.
Yoshinon clapped its tiny paws in agreement.
“Since we’re tired from playing, do you like listening to stories, Yoshino?”
“…I like them!”
“Oh my? Miss Kyoumi can tell stories?”
“Hmph, of course. There’s very little in this world I can’t do if I feel like it.”
“You still lost at hopscotch to Yoshino~”
“Then Yoshinon doesn’t get to hear the story~?”
Kyoumi’s expression stiffened for a split second before she answered with nonchalance.
“Ehh~ Unfair! This is deliberate retaliation!”