Special Property (BxB)

Chapter 53. Foursome

School is year around at St. Catherine's, making summer school mandatory. The upside is that the schedule is light and involves many extracurricular activities, including many outdoor classes in survival techniques such as fishing, foraging, camping activities, and so on. With 5 square miles of property, there were plenty of fun things to do during the summer.

—Summer School at St. Catherine's

Kato and Takahashi spotted Murata and Nakamura, who had already been setting up the site for their picnic. They dropped their bags there.

Nakamura invited all to a spot not far from the picnic spot and started to demonstrate what he expected of everyone. Kato learned that Nakamura and Takahashi would play the parts of the tori and, much to his annoyance at the vocabulary, Kato and Murata would play the roles of the uke.

In the hour that they practiced, they learned some simple techniques that, if they practiced a lot at, could help them defend themselves. In spite of Takahashi's ankle, he did not hold back or go easy on Kato.

They all sat down in the shade for lunch, each couple on the opposite side of the food. It was a warm day, but Kato felt it was a little chilly in the shade.

"Thank you, Nakamura-san, for teaching us today," Kato said.

"It was nothing," Nakamura replied.

They all ate in peace for a bit, then Takahashi pulled out his guitar and started plucking away.

"Nakamura-san. What do you want to do this afternoon?" Murata asked.

"Ping pong."

"What? Don't you get tired of me beating you?" Murata grinned.

"Yeah, right. Did you hit your head or something getting out of bed this morning?" Nakamura replied.

"I dunno, maybe I did. But it didn't seem to impair my ability to remember yesterday's ass-whopping."

"You cheat," Nakamura said flatly.

"I do not!" Murata protested.

"What would you call it? Creative score-keeping?" Kato realized that he couldn't read Nakamura's face, just like he could never read Takahashi's. Is he upset or not? Kato couldn't tell.

"Hey, not my fault if you can't count to 20!" Murata jabbed back.

"Maybe we just need an independent scorekeeper." Nakamura looked at Kato. Kato looked at Takahashi. Takahashi looked at his guitar.

Murata laughed. "You have no allies here, Nakamura-san."

"Apparently not," Nakamura replied.

"Tell you what. I'll let you win a few today to keep you interested. How about that?" Murata smirked confidently.

"Bring it on."

Kato smiled watching these two interact. They seemed to like to jest with each other. He was a little jealous, though, because it seemed every time he tried to jest with Takahashi, Kato ended up being the butt of the joke.

Takahashi started playing some songs that they all could sing along to. Then after a set, he started to sing some solo songs, and a couple love songs. Kato truly loved to listen to that voice. After the music was over, and clean up of the picnic area, they all decided on doubles ping pong.

Kato and Takahashi were outclassed, and everyone knew it. So they didn't keep score and just horsed around for an hour until Takahashi called it.

"Thanks for the games but I need to rest." Takahashi bowed out. Kato thanked them too and followed Takahashi out of the building.