Chapter Five: Sabotage

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NEVER HAD SHE thought that she would be standing in the court as one of the players for her class. Y/n was still annoyed at the outcome, regretting some of her decisions. 'I really should've just considered running away from this match,' she thought to herself while standing beside Osano and Raibaru. Nendou gave out one of the biggest smiles at the sight of her pal on the court. "Hey, Pal! How nice of you to join us!" She attracted so much attention as she waved her hands up high in the air.

'It's not like I had any other choice, I really didn't want to join,' Y/n responded internally despite the fact that no one can hear her. 'Saiki's joining!? Now I really need to up my game!' Teruhashi straightened his figure, seeing his crush standing at the opposite side of the court with a stoic look on her face. 'Another one, huh? They've been switching their players so much, it's like they have no idea what they're doing,' Aso commented internally, seeing how the opposite team's strategy was really bad.

The psychic couldn't help but agree with the Sports Club Leader's thought, her classmates weren't really good in sports. Y/n glanced at her hand, thinking of how she'll have to try her best to mask out and control her actual strength. Ayato served the ball normally as it flew over the net which was soon received perfectly by the opposite team. 21-16, they were surely so behind the other class. "Rito!" Teruhashi set the ball to the ace and captain of their team.

Aso smiled at the view of the ball flying over to him before he ran and jumped to slam it down to the other side. Osano jumped as he tried his best to go and block the best player in the court. Unfortunately, it ended up being a touch ball. "Ah! I touched it!" He told his teammates quickly in panic so that they'll try and receive it. What made it worse was the fact that most of his classmates were frozen right on the spot. Y/n clicked her tongue in annoyance.

She couldn't just stand there and watch her classmates act like idiots. Adrenaline rushed over her as she ran towards it to attempt and save it. Although what she had done was certainly a mistake.

A huge mistake.

The vamp of her shoes saved the ball with a kick before it could make contact with the smooth wooden floor. Everyone watched in disbelief, unable to process what had happened. Due to the fact that it was so sudden, Y/n wasn't able to control her strength. Y/n stumbled on the floor due to her action. The ball was spinning rapidly as it zoomed past the net, falling down with a fixed direction. It was heading right towards their libero who was Pippi Osu.

He wasn't able to recieve the spinning ball since he noticed how strong the force the said ball had. He unconsciously avoided the ball in surprise and the ball flew just right on the line. Everyone watched the ball roll off in silence. Aso went to pick the ball up but noticed that there was a dent right on the floor where the ball landed. His eyes widened in surprise although the others didn't notice the new dent that formed right after that flawless recieve.

He blinked, studying the dent the female player just made as the others turned to her in awe. "Woah! That was amazing, Pal!" Nendou marveled out with a huge smile. "Great job, you have really good reflexes, Saiki-san," Raibaru praised their classmate with a joyful smile. "T-that was unbelievable, how were you able to do that!?" Osano couldn't believe what the psychic just did in front of their eyes.

Students from the opposite side of the court aside from Nendou were surprised also. They didn't know someone can pull of that stunt so easily and calmly. 'W-wow! Saiki's amazing!' Teruhashi had a blush on his face as he admired the (h/c) haired girl. Aso returned back to the court with the ball on his hand before tossing it to the other side of the court since it was the other team's time to serve again.

"That was incredible, that girl is really good. How come she wasn't picked to be on the starting line-up?" Amao mumbled loud enough for Aso to hear. Aso narrowed his eyes suspiciously st the psychic girl, never had he met someone who was able to pull something like that. Sure her way of receiving was kinda basic for liberos but, the fact that it had a fixed direction with an incredible speed was very much impressive.

He couldn't forget how the ball flew with so much force when it wasn't even slammed down but received instead. That piqued his interest. "Yeah, we better keep our guards up if we want to win this," Aso watched the black haired student hold the ball once again for a serve. "Well... I don't really mind if we lose─" Amao cutted himself off as soon as he received a questioning gaze from the competitive athletic classmate.

"I mean... yeah, we're going to win!" He took his words back and nervously chuckled in result.

Y/n scoffed, regretting ever making an action to save that ball. 'Darn, I really should've just kept my guard up and let us lose that point. Now everyone thinks I'm a good player or something, their likability of me is increasing unfortunately. I really need to do something about that,' the young Saiki clenched her teeth in irritation. Somehow, things don't really go her way which is was really unfortunate of her.

'I should stay back for the rest of the game, that'll keep their minds off of me and let Raibaru have the spotlight again,' Y/n finished thinking as she stood on her spot, aware of her surroundings.

As the game continued, Y/n kept true to her words and didn't try to get into the spotlight ever again. All she did was receive the ball while controlling her strength. She won't try doing any attacks since that's basically the action that earns so much attention. Their defense did increase because of her, they didn't have a decent libero but now Y/n won't mind if she was one. That means she doesn't have to be in the front all of the time.

They were able to catch up to their opponent with a close 24-23.

It was Nendou's turn to serve.

They ended up unlucky with that.

Nendou served the ball too strong that it landed outside of the court. The female laughed at her mistake, caressing the back of her head as she told them she'd do better next time. Now it was down to 24-24. As soon as Raibaru served, it was received flawlessly by Aoi with a blank expression on his face. Teruhashi gritted his teeth as he tossed the ball to Aso for an attack. Osano and Ayato jumped in order to block the ball.

Although Ayato didn't like being close to Osano he just had to be a middle blocker with him unfortunately. They successfully blocked Aso and it landed right on the opponent's court which earned cheers from everyone. One more point and they might actually win this. Y/n threw the flip scoreboard a glance as a student flipped their score. 25-24 with them on the lead. They might actually win the match after all.

Raibaru smiled at the scoreboard before turning back to their opponent. Raibaru served the ball again towards the other side. Amao received the ball as Teruhashi ran to toss it to their best player as always. Aso gathered all of his strength before jumping high in the air to slam the ball down on the other side. Osano did all of his best to receive the ball which ended up flying to Y/n.

Y/n blankly watched the ball going to her direction as she analysed the situation. Unagi was their setter but she wondered why Osano gave her the ball. It all took a second for her to realise how Osano wasn't really good with receiving which was the reason that it was flying towards her direction. It was unintentional. Y/n scoffed as she got lost into trying to figure out where she will set the ball to.

She could just dump the ball but there's a chance that it wouldn't work or the opposite one. But, she couldn't just take the glory and get their likability of her increasing once again. Y/n's (e/c) eyes scanned the area near her quickly, contemplating who to give it to. Unagi and Ayato were the closest one to the net, she could give them the ball for them to attack. But, Y/n didn't want to give it to either of them. Her eyes darted to Raibaru who was at the back of the court.

Could that work?

Y/n was a psychic for God's sake, she knows when it will work or when it will not. She could just guess the future with her precognition right now if she wanted to but she didn't. Y/n trusted Raibaru for this one, a back attack might be unexpected but she had a feeling that it will be effective. Y/n made it look like she'll pass the ball to Unagi which made Amao and Teruhashi jump up to block them. The psychic tricked them and immediately tossed the ball from the back without ever facing Raibaru.

Everyone blinked at the unexpected action.

Raibaru's eyes widened as he realised that toss was for him only. He jumped as high as he could and slammed the ball down from the back of the court. The opponent wasn't able to block that action due to the fact that they were tricked by the psychic from thinking that she would toss it to Unagi. The ball fell down on the opponent's side of the court as they breathed heavily. Class 2-1 rejoiced and crowded Raibaru almost immediately, praising him with all they can.

Y/n watched the crowd and almost let out a sigh of relief.

Luckily, she made that decision wisely or she would've been the one on the spotlight getting praises from everyone. "Fumetsu-san you're incredible!" The voices of her classmates continued to cheer the yellow orange haired man who felt flustered at their compliments.

At least their likability of her didn't increase anymore.

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Ayato clenched his teeth at the thought of the annoying man that manages the Info Club. Sometimes he wondered why he's always believing that man. He didn't have any reasonable explanation on why he has to help him with eliminating Osano. Info-kun did say that it benefits him also, but how? He couldn't put the right word to describe him, he was dangerous and mysterious but he doesn't fear him at all.

Now, he was doing simple favours for the mysterious man just to get information for their elimination attempt of Osano Najimi. You may ask what he was doing at the moment must be something urgent? Unfortunately, it was horrible. Taking pictures of female students underwear isn't actually something that he wanted to do. He found that Info-kun was a creepy and disgusting man. He ended up doing dirty works just for that horrible and evil entity.

But, he asked for this after all. He was too dedicated to his senpai to be complaining about this. Any normal guy might get caught easily if they try and take pictures of a female's underwear but he was actually a professional at risky situations. It was all taught by his mother, Ryoba Aishi. His mother knew so many things that he could use to his advantage for his situation. He was glad she taught him those.

The black haired man tightened the grip on his phone as he finished taking pictures of some random female student's underwear. He thought back to the things that happened the other day. He had sabotaged Osano's disgusting attempt of wooing his senpai with a simple bento. He did listen to their conversation and found out about the food that he cooked for the upperclassman. He found that was his chance of making Taeko dislike Osano.

When Osano left their classroom, Ayato had put some emetic poison into the bento that Osano was going to give to his senpai so that she won't accept any more food from him in the future. Although that action did hurt his senpai but he was able to destroy some further attempts of making Taeko fall in love with Osano. Ayato thought if he could do the same to Osano and use a lethal poison instead that will kill him instantly.

Unfortunately, that will only bring down his senpai's sanity because they would always eat lunch together. Ayato couldn't also kill Osano out of the blue because Raibaru was always following him wherever he goes. Many elimination thoughts found its way into Ayato's mind as he watched his senpai peacefully read a book on the fountain. As always, she brought a smile on his face just by existing. That innocence that she had, he'll protect it always.

'My senpai is so cute.'

As soon as he sent those underwear photos that he had taken earlier to Info-kun, he received more information that might have fuelled his anger even more. Of course, the beauty of his senpai was so appreciated by many that he found out that it wasn't only Osano who liked his senpai. Before he met her, she already interacted with other people that actually had a crush on her.

There were a total of 8 love rivals that he had while one of them was the clingy younger brother of his senpai and a few people from the other class. He noticed how tough his mission was but of course, he won't give up. His senpai is only his and he'll do anything in his will for her to be his. It seems like he will be doing some more elimination after all. Whether it be the safe way or not, he'll stop anyone who gets to be in his way of love for his beloved senpai.

Before the anyone noticed him stalking, he left the area to go back to his classroom or a private place to have a proper conversation with Info-kun. His mind was preoccupied with so many things regarding his rivals, he had to eliminate them one by one. And he'll start with Osano, he'll start clean and safe this time. He'll just have to sabotage every important things about Osano that concerns the upperclassman.

He won't do any killings.

Yet.

Right after he snapped out from his thoughts, he unintentionally bumped into a shorter student that he couldn't even care less about. His gaze lingered on her for a really short time before mumbling an apology to her. "Sorry," His apology was short and straightforward accompanied with his blank expression and even his tone. He only received a nod of acknowledgement from the student before he could continue walking.

As he got farther from the lockers, he was unaware of the gaze lingering on him with deep suspicion. She knew something was wrong about him. Now she had an answer why the upperclassman was rushing to the bathroom the other day. She didn't think that would actually involve him. Y/n gritted her teeth, disliking the feeling that she was having. Ayato is a dangerous person and whoever his ally was─they didn't differ from him.

'Sabotage, huh? That's his way of getting Yamada to dislike Najimi, smart plan but if he ever does something overboard then I'll make sure to step in,' Y/n commented inside her mind before leaving the lockers. 'It seems like I need to watch out about that guy more or he'll do more than just sabotaging rivals. I might have to stop his menacing schemes, I won't let anyone die upon his hands,' the psychic added to herself.

'Teenagers and their love issues, good grief.'

That was a start of something new to the young Saiki's life. A challenging one to be exact.

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𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗚𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳. | 𝗬𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿

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