After school.

I came to the girls’ basketball club room together with Iwabuchi-san.

The club room was about half the size of a classroom.

Lockers were arranged in a U-shape and several folding chairs were placed around a long table in the center.

The study session among the club members was being held in that environment.

While feeling nervous in a space full of girls I was teaching Iwabuchi-san but...

"Yeah yeah I get it if this is the goal then I just need to think about the angle of incidence and throw it here so it bounces properly and the bank shot goes in right?"

"I-I didn’t say anything like that... right?"

Iwabuchi-san started saying things that didn’t even make sense for any subject and it was clear her brain was about to overload.

It looked like steam might start coming out of her head at any moment.

Then her body started swaying side to side and suddenly.

"Uhohon ohoh ohhooohn! Nhoh hooo!"

"I-Iwabuchi-san!? Stop making weird noises!"

"Ah don’t worry about it. It’s normal for her."

Across from us was Sakura-san, a first-year junior I had spoken to a bit during the training camp who had an oddly imposing presence.

"I-it’s normal!? This is!?"

"Yep. Among us she’s known as ‘Oho-voice Ayami’."

"Iwabuchi-san snap out of it! You’re losing your juniors’ respect!"

I grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

Every time I shook her a sweet scent drifted over and it just made me more confused.

"...Hayama-kun?"

"Thank goodness you’re back to normal."

"I see... so the midterms are already over right?"

"Don’t run from reality. They’re just about to start."

"Nhooooooo!"

"Ahh not again!"

I didn’t want to see Iwabuchi-san like this.

"Hayama-senpai once she gets like that it’s already over. Just leave her alone. Also she’s just straight-up noisy so please don’t touch her anymore."

"Y-yeah... at this rate..."

There’s no way I can teach her anything.

The club members including Sakura-san were giving awkward smiles so I decided to leave her be.

I couldn’t disrupt everyone else who was working hard to avoid failing.

Iwabuchi-san was this bad at studying huh...

How did she even get into this school...

No, maybe she’s just especially bad at math and science.

She might end up being seen as a complete idiot but when I asked about her past test scores it turns out she’s only in danger of failing math-related subjects and modern Japanese and her scores in memorization-based subjects weren’t bad at all.

Memorization subjects rely on repetition so since she’s good at sports she probably doesn’t struggle with them as much.

After deciding to leave Iwabuchi-san alone I ended up helping the first-year members with their studies.

Meanwhile Iwabuchi-san remained like an empty shell.

"Um, do you think Iwabuchi-san can recover?"

"This time it’s pretty serious. So maybe you should grab that ball and get her moving a bit?"

"In the gym? Is that okay?"

"Well a little break during studying should be fine right? Also we really need Iwabuchi-senpai to avoid failing. Our club has a rule that if you fail you can’t join the summer training camp."

Club activities are under school supervision so they’re strict about grades.

"I see... is it at the same training camp place again?"

"No. Through our advisor’s connections we can use a big facility in a seaside town. After practice we can play in the ocean so senpai is really looking forward to it."

"The sea... the sea... I want to return to the sea..."

Iwabuchi-san stared into the distance and stretched out her arms like she was trying to grasp something but she was trembling from how drained she was and it was painful to watch.

"So yeah just go play with her a bit. Also honestly she’s just loud right now so..."

"Iwabuchi-san here a ball. Let’s go refresh ourselves a bit."

I placed the basketball Sakura-san handed me onto Iwabuchi-san’s lap.

Life quickly returned to her vacant eyes.

"Uooooooo! I am the genius basketball player Ayami!"

She sprang up from her chair and dashed out of the club room at a speed like a predator charging forward.