Chapter 4: Volleyball

Laura awoke in her hotel bed at 6am at the dot. That was an hour before the campus opened up to guest visitors. Till 7, only staff and students were allowed in on weekdays, and Fridays weren’t an exception.

After quickly getting ready, she ordered room service and sat down at a table in her suite. Her research continued. Margret had managed to acquire the campus design documents along with a bunch of room plans. Laura was committing them to memory. Her plan was simple: she’d wait till 9 when the new edition of the school’s newspaper was released online. She’d check it, hope for something, but whether there was any news or not, she’d head on over to investigate the campus herself.

She had a tab open for every web-page on the school’s newspaper site. Sure enough, it updated right on time. It was in the sports section of the website that she found what she was looking for.

A headline read.

“Hobbyist Team Tournament Continues Today. Will the Star Player Cinch Victory Again?”

And there, right below the headline, was a color picture taken at the previous event. It featured a few women on the indoor volley ball court where the scoreboard showed 23 | 20. One of the women, jumping up in the image for a serve, was a student with purple-hair.

The small notation beneath the pictured credited all visible students from left to right. It was there Laura got the name and year status.

“Etsu.”, she said aloud. “Second year student.”

“So that’s who I’m looking for.”

She shut the laptop’s lid and slid it away for now. Hurriedly, she finished ‘suiting up’ the last bit of things she thought she’d need before heading to campus.

“If only the site actually archived issues older than a week. I would've seen the picture earlier then, perhaps. Could’ve gotten there yesterday...”

When finished, Laura was clad in a thick-fabriced executive suit ensemble. If anyone asked, she was on the campus to scout talent for a new Tokyo division of her company. If need be, there were plenty of gadgets beneath her garbs to defend herself with, as well as a sleek stealth-oriented, brown-spotted yellow costume clinging to her skin beneath all the business clothes.

--==--==--==--

The game wasn’t till 4:00PM, which was past the end-time of many classes at the university. With her sunglasses on, Laura managed to evade recognition as she wandered about the campus. Even as a brown-haired foreigner she didn’t stand out too much, as the university had quite a few international students and staff as well.

The heroine had been hoping to spot the purple-haired woman earlier. But, the target seemed to be staying in her dorms all day, she figured. Laura’s leading theory was that Etsu just wanted to relax before the game. It ultimately didn’t matter too much for Laura. She got a good grip on all the buildings and how to navigate the campus well before the scheduled match would take place.

About an hour before the match, Laura found an inconspicuous spot to stand and wait near the gymnasium building. It was only at 3:45, a scant 15 minutes before the game, that she at last saw the purple-haired woman show up with a gym bag slung over her shoulder and carried with ease.

Etsu was clad in a red and white athletic uniform, with white sneakers and white socks. The thin-fabriced shorts were red, as was the sleeveless jersey she wore. The latter had the numbers “01” on the back and front in white. A small scrunchie in her hair had it styled in a loose ponytail, but it was purple and recognizable all the same.

Laura debated chasing after the woman. However, the heroine reasoned that, if feeling threatened, Etsu could simply say she had to get away to the locker room to set down her bag and get ready for the game. An entirely reasonable excuse to evade questioning.

So, Laura waited a couple minutes. Following the signs in the large sports complex, she eventually found where the game would be held, brought a ticket, and found a spot to spectate on the front row of some bleacher-like seats.

--==--==--==--

Etsu walked onto the court just a few minutes before the game started, much to the chagrin of her team. It didn’t matter though, she was more than prepared for whatever the opponents had in store: as always.

Given that it was a simple hobbyist game, there were no stakes involved other than the little intercollegiate tournament victory in and of itself. This wasn’t even the quarter-final match either, let alone the grand finals.

Just a friendly game in a friendly tournament that Etsu intended to win with ease, but not too much ease.

The whistle blew and the games began. Etsu did her usual strategy of securing an early lead, then slowing down as things went on. Each of her actions was correct, but not so overwhelming to her opponents that it drew any suspicion.

Her serves were powerful, and a few went right past the opponents attempt to block: but only just barely. She knocked back the ball when her teammates would have otherwise failed to do so, but the calls were close.

She was winning, but not obviously so.

Etsu was always aware of her surroundings, though she didn’t think to give them special attention during her sports time. Still, she had no issues noticing the curious guest watching her from the front row bleachers.

It wasn’t *too* odd to have a foreigner in the stands. The games weren’t the most popular thing in the campus. Woman’s sports drew less spectators than men’s, and hobbyist teams of course drew far less than any actual competitive sports divisions. Yet, students and staff had free time. They got bored, and when bored they’d wander in the gym to watch a sports bout from time to time.

However, Etsu hadn’t seen them before. She knew they obviously weren’t a student given their dress and mid 20s age: unless they were a grad student killing time before a presentation. She also knew they weren’t staff, as anyone in such clothes would be a professor whose face she’d recognize. No, they were Laura Yeal, a famous American CEO she had seen in an article once and remembered just like she remembered everything else that hit her expansive senses.

Then the woman, Laura, had said something. Faintly under her breath, she had said the words “impressive” in regards to one of Etsu’s more forceful serves.

It was that moment Etsu knew who it was. Etsu didn’t usually opt to see through people’s clothes, but her sensory awareness was absolute even when miles tall. She recognized the voice as belonging to that strange costumed woman near the manor at Kramston: the city she had toyed with just yesterday.

Etsu had another question though: did she know? Could she possibly know? Was this just a coincidence that this woman, a CEO and secret costumed crime fighter, would be at Momo University, on business, with enough free time to watch a game?

The purple-haired woman doubted it. No, this “Leopard” character, Laura, had to know what she had done. But, that was impossible far as Etsu knew.

She had to find out.

Of course, finding out would be trivial for Etsu. She could find out in an instant what Laura knew: everything the woman knew. But, Etsu didn’t see the fun in that. There were better, more entertaining ways to discover such things.

She had a plan, and she’d act it out real soon.

--==--==--==--

Laura kept watching, perhaps a bit too obviously so, but she did her best to try and keep Etsu in her peripheral rather than the focus.

So far, everything seemed roughly normal to her. Yes, Etsu was great at the game, that much was sure. But, the young woman didn’t seem to be abnormally adept. She seemed human. Sweat dripped down the athlete’s forehead and pooled on her arms as slight droplets as well as accumulating other places. Etsu’s breathing picked up too, albeit not as much as the others.

Laura knew something was up, but she wasn’t seeing it yet.

At least, she didn’t for just a little while longer. Then, it became very clear to her something was up. All it took was one special serve of the ball.

--==--==--==--

It was time for another serve. Etsu’s teammate was supposed to do it, but at the last moment Etsu was chosen instead. No one on her team could complain much, given how all her serves thus far had been real solid.

Etsu took the ball in hand. Her knees bent and she lept up with a squeak of her sneakers on the shiny gym floor, as she had done many times before. The ball was tossed upwards for an extra bit of velocity. She took a glance at the woman on the other side of the net, feet on the floor, hands locked to try and hit the ball she was about to send down.

Within the span of those few moments, the purple-haired student smiled, and brought her arms back for a powerful swing.

Etsu served the ball--right through her opponent’s chest.

The ball cut through the opposing team member like a hot bullet through butter. As blood spurted out the volley-ball-sized wound, the crowd let out gasps of horror.

The horror was not over.

The ball came out the other side of the athlete and hit the gym floor. It bounced at an impossible 90 degree angle, hitting the athlete immediately to the first victim’s side. From there, it went in a straight line, never once dipping, towards a spectator in the bleachers to Etsu’s right. Then, it bounced off there and went right through the skull of another one of the players on the team opposing Etsu’s.

Carrying the poor woman’s brain on the front, the ball showed no signs of stopping. Back into the crowd it went, but on the opposite bleachers. The deadly sports ball bounced from victims to walls and back again, and overall moved in a nearly unpredictable fashion that seemed to eviscerate or decapitate at last one person with every bounce.

The crowd went into a panic. They went to the doors, which were of course locked and sealed. That didn’t stop much of the players, staff, and spectators from piling up at the door, pounding to try and get out. Yet, the glass wouldn’t budge.

Etsu laughed, they had stacked themselves up nice and tight, and the volley ball just so happened to bounce back their way. Tens died as it tore through their bones and bodies like nothing. It blended their viscera together.

Then, it bounced straight back, looping over the net, to cut through one of the athlete’s cowering by Etsu’s side. Yes, even her own teammates weren’t safe. The deadly, physics defying ball cut through them just as easily and mercilessly as anyone else in the room.

As the ball filled the court with the sounds of its bounces and of carnage, Etsu added to the macabre melody her own chortle.

“Keheheh”

--==--==--==--

In mere moments, a normal volley ball game turned to a bewildering bloodbath. Laura was no stranger to carnage, but the sheer shock of everything easily had her among the gasping crowd at first.

Laura acted fast. Once she realized the ball wasn’t gonna stop, she dived to the side of the bleachers and undid the buttons of her suit coat. Though there were still layers to hide her spotted Leopard costume underneath, this did give her access to some much needed tools.

The heroine had to face the facts, she couldn’t save everyone.

From her cover, she noticed the ball heading towards one of players on Etsu’s team. Laura pointed her right arm forward and hit a button located on that arm’s wrist. A small, concealable grappling hook shot out towards the ball, knocking it off its course.

Though she couldn’t see Etsu from her current position of cover, she heard the purple-haired woman laugh.

The ball veered off its original trajectory at a near 90 degree angle. It bounced off the right-most wall, from Laura’s perspective, then came back at a zig-zag. The woman Laura had briefly saved soon had a gaping hole where her chest used to be. The ball then went Laura’s way, faster than predicted, and bounced mere inches from her face.

Laura ran out from behind the bleachers and slid across the ground. She moved to fire the grappling hook, which had since recoiled, about Etsu’s legs. To her surprise, the purple-haired woman was on the other side of the net now, back turned. The hook, of course, missed and Laura slowly moved to a crouch as it winded back into its slot on near her wrist.

Precious seconds, during which the ball kept bouncing.

Laura saw Etsu spin around, her gaze perfectly following the sphere no matter where it bounced or how it turned. The crowd was thinning. Bodies were piling up. Blood was raining everywhere. Etsu’s left face was painted red with the blood of a few victims.

The heroine saw how, despite having enough kinetic energy to rip through people, it didn’t so much as leave a crack on the paint of the walls, nor bust through or break any door nor window it bumped into. It didn’t even crack or knock-over the scoreboard as it bounced off it once.

Not that Laura didn’t already know, but this was not natural. The laws of physics were being defiled. That young woman, Etsu, was not normal. That much was clear.

Laura stood up, just in time to notice a player running towards the far doors. Her shoes stomped the viscera on the way over. Her hands gripped the handle, which was slick with blood. The poor woman couldn’t have opened it anyways, as the only two other living beings in the room knew.

The ball tore through her with ease, then bounced back towards Laura.

The heroine saw the ball coming, and threw a sharp little boomerang at it. The ball didn’t pop, but it did veer to the side just enough to miss Laura.

Etsu stared back at the heroine now. She smiled, seeming amused. It angered Laura, but not so much that she couldn’t think fast as always. She pointed her arm again and shot the grappling hook. To her amazement, Etsu caught the front of it with her left hand. Laura gasped, as the force the gadget fired with would’ve been enough to break a few fingers if snatched like that.

Laura was even more bewildered when Etsu squeezed and crumbled the metal tip of it like tin foil: no, more like how a compacter scrapped trash. It was a dense cube with deep finger trenches into it at the time Etsu let it drop to the floor.

Laura heard the ball bounce. She ducked, but it hit the other wall even faster this time. Back it came. Laura threw another one of her little smart-tech boomerangs at it, but this time the gadget just flung off to the side.

Laura heard her chest rip before she noticed it. She felt the pain as her intestines slumped out like noodles spilling from a bowl. It took nearly all the strength she had to keep standing.

The ball bounced off the opposite wall once more, this time coming back through the gaping hole in Laura’s abdomen.

In front of her, she saw the ball finally stop its rampage. Instead of hitting the other wall, it looped around Etsu several times. Each rotation it slowed, until it started orbiting her at a diagonal angle. It looked like a little moon circling around the blood covered college student.

Etsu clapped.

“I’m impressed you’re still standing.”, said the purple-haired woman in perfect English.

Laura moved to talk, but she spat up blood instead. She stumbled, falling down on one knee.

“Maybe I spoke too soon. Kehehehe.”

Laura fell backwards, her strength fading.

“W-why?”, she asked.

Etsu sauntered over. Her sneakers squeaked against the floor as usual.

“To see if you remember.”, she said.

“I don’t understand.”, muttered Laura.

“Save your questions for later.”, replied Etsu.

The young woman raised a leg over Laura’s face. The heroine could see its clean white sole hovering overhead.

“See you soon!”

--==--==--==--

Etsu stomped down on Laura’s face. The suited woman’s entire head exploded like a crimson pumpkin. Blood and bloody bits shot everywhere.