Regarding the fact that my best friend is a magical girl

"Wang!"

I'll take that as an affirmation.

"So, who do you want to cheer for?"

"Woof, woof!"

"Hehe, even if you call me that, I still won't understand~"

The excited Golden Ship rolled around on the beach, its long golden fur getting covered in sand.

call out--

Miss Yin Wei blew her whistle at me.

"Alright, warm-up's done, it's almost time to start the competition."

As the referee, she also reminded everyone: "Friendship first, competition second, good manners third. Stop when you've made a point, and don't hurt anyone."

This statement should be directed at the "Miluno + Antarctic Star" combination. Their magic can add offensive effects to volleyballs, making them clearly more dangerous than us.

I patted the Golden Dog's head, making it follow the maid named Zara to the side, and then stood next to Miss Sirius.

"Start from the left side."

Miss Yin Wei tossed a coin and then tossed the ball to Miss Miluno on the right side of the net. After exchanging a glance with me, she turned her attention back to the volleyball in her hand...

Miss Miluno seems to be very serious.

"The match begins."

Snapped--

Miss Milno didn't use magic; she simply swung her arm to serve. Unlike a straight spike, a parabolic serve, if used with too much force, could cause the volleyball to fly directly out of bounds.

However, I am perfectly capable of catching serves at that speed!

"what!"

He summoned the ruby ​​wand and swung it around. A ring of bubbles expanded on the surface of the volleyball, and it lost all its "power" and floated in mid-air.

call out--

Before he could even show his triumph, the piercing whistle rang out again.

"Cerunno commits a foul while holding the ball, Milunno and Antarctic Star team score one point!"

"Huh!?"

Is this a foul?

Ms. Yin Wei explained, "Magic is an extension of the magical girl's body. Using magic to catch the ball is naturally equivalent to committing a foul."

I looked at Miss Sirius with some grievance, but she nodded in affirmation of Miss Yin Wei's statement.

"That makes sense, let's rule it that way."

The black-and-white-haired maid under the referee's chair flipped through the scoreboard.

One point given away for free.

Miss Miluno continues to serve, and the early setback is frustrating.

Perhaps feeling dissatisfied with her first serve, Miluno gave her second serve to Antarctic Star. What kind of result will this magic that can alter weight produce...?

Snapped!

A crisp, clapping sound.

The serve seemed ordinary, but the volleyball fell straight down in a way that defied mechanics just after it crossed the net. I quickly put on a bubble wrap to eliminate gravity and removed it before it expanded to prevent a foul.

"Well done! Watch me!"

Miss Sirius extended an arm woven of light from behind her back and slapped the ball back.

It was a powerful shot, but Milno had already jumped on the other side of the net and reached out to block the volleyball's path.

But they couldn't stop it.

She was thrown backward by the inertia of the volleyball in mid-air, almost losing her balance.

then……

She disappeared from my sight for a moment, and with a whooshing sound, the volleyball hit my feet.

"Wow, so fast! Miss Miluno did this?"

However, the volleyball had already been torn apart, leaving only a shriveled shell.

Just as the maid in charge of keeping score was about to turn over a point, Miss Yin Wei called for a stop.

"Stop for a moment, check the playback with the high-speed camera."

"So thoughtful?"

There were indeed several cameras set up nearby, Sirius shrugged.

"After all, Miluno-chan's magic is really hard to keep up with."

The replay footage from the camera showed that Ms. Miluno decisively released the volleyball, then quickly landed, rushed towards the landing point at a speed faster than the volleyball, lifted the ball back into the air, and swung her arm to swat it back down—this was completely beyond my reaction time…

However, the volleyball exploded in mid-air.

"Continuous touches resulted in a foul, and the volleyball broke. Sirius and Serono's combination gets a point!"

Miss Sirius said, "Since that speed would destroy the ball, she will definitely tone it down afterward."

If it's split evenly, both sides are essentially giving away freebies.

The game continued, and the maid outside the court threw a new volleyball. Miss Sirius served the ball over the net as usual. Antarctic Star lifted the volleyball, and Miss Milno jumped up to smash it. The ball was still fast, and I was afraid of missing it, so I hooked a piece of air cushion in front of the net to form a defensive shield.

result.

The bubble shield was easily pierced, but the volleyball landed perfectly intact on the beach.

"what happened?"

I didn't react for a moment.

"Serno-chan, that's their combination attack."

Miss Sirius used light to tie her blonde hair back.

"This is really a tricky situation."

Despite saying that, his face showed excitement.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Universal Gravitation

(Albinocotyledon)

The score was 21 to 08.

In the best-of-three beach volleyball match, Nanjixing and I won the first set with a huge advantage.

After the game ended, Sirius arranged a ten-minute break, obviously to discuss countermeasures with Seruno.

But what can they do?

Seruno's eyes couldn't keep up with the volleyball after my "acceleration." The magic of the South Pole Star can increase the "relative mass" of objects and also increase their destructive power to targets. Therefore, it can easily penetrate their defenses woven from air cushions and solid light. Of course, they can catch it if they want to, but if the volleyball breaks through their magic (hands), they will still be the ones who lose points in the end.

"Miss Miluno, is your magic merely acceleration?"

While taking a break to drink water, Antarctic Star raised a question.

"It's about acceleration. Why are you asking that?"

The penguin girl explained earnestly, "The ball that you hit is faster, but its mass decays more quickly. It returns to its original mass before it even touches the ground. I'm worried that they might use this as a weakness."

After all, this is time acceleration. A spell that could originally last for more than ten seconds will only last for a few seconds after acceleration.

Nanjixing seemed to have figured something out from this, but didn't say anything.

"This is indeed a problem."

I stroked my chin, deep in thought.

"Perhaps we should prepare a backup plan."

------

As expected, Sirius came up with a countermeasure at the start of the second game.

The super-heavy, high-speed ball, resembling a cannonball, crashed into the angled, soft air cushion. Not only did it not break, but it was also guided into a circular track made of light for "deceleration and weight reduction." Because the ball did not stop, it cannot be called a "handball." Only after its speed and mass decreased will it be released by Sirius, allowing it to easily launch a counterattack.

They cracked my combination technique with Antarctic Star.

But that's not all. Sirius slapped out more than a dozen volleyballs, but only one of them was real. The rest were fake projections, smokescreens to mislead us. Even knowing this, there was no way to deal with it. Even at my speed, I didn't have time to confirm whether each ball was real before it landed.

Therefore, the chance to counterattack has become a lottery, entirely dependent on whether I can touch the volleyball before landing.

Under such unfavorable conditions, they ultimately suffered a crushing defeat by a margin of seventeen points.

"Ha ha……"

With my stamina nearly depleted, running back and forth on the sand at ten times the speed required to exert force was a considerable test of my physical endurance, which is why beach volleyball is more difficult than traditional volleyball.

We were given a ten-minute break, and Nanjixing brought out some chilled lemonade.

"Miss Miluno, I was unable to help."

Nanjixing was raised to be quite polite; you'd never guess she was an emperor penguin. The joint research station was staffed with refined scholars, so it's no surprise she developed such manners.

I took the cup, and the condensed water droplets on the cup wall dripped onto my leg, causing a slight irritation.

"This is no one's fault. I didn't expect Sirius to resort to such methods."

I shook my head, but my sideburns stuck to my wet face. I was also sweating and covered in a lot of sand, which made me feel uncomfortable.

"Isn't that kind of goaltending a foul?" she asked again.

"Of course not. She didn't add any more magic after she released it. If that's considered a foul, then our magic is also a foul."

Nanjixing nodded blankly, without expressing any dissatisfaction.

"So what countermeasures can we take?"