After finishing my errands with Rasal-san, I returned home. Since it was already evening, I headed out to the backyard to look after Bell and Rin before dinner, only to find Aoi-chan and Hina-chan already there.
Hina-chan seemed to be animatedly telling Aoi-chan something, while Aoi-chan wore a complicated, weary expression.
"What's going on with you two?" I asked.
"Ah, Kaito-san... Actually, it's Hina-chan..."
"Kaito-senpai! We should enter this together, the three of us!"
"Uh, okay?"
Hina-chan, looking quite excited, thrust a flyer toward me. It was covered in gaudy, colorful text that screamed: World's Top Exciting Sport! Flying Board Tournament Now Being Held!!
The lettering was pointlessly vibrant, and the flyer itself was so flashy it made my eyes hurt. It looked incredibly shady.
"...What is this? Flying Board?"
"Hina-chan apparently picked it up at some weird place..." Aoi explained.
"It wasn't a weird place! I was just jogging when a person in a bizarre outfit running a stall gave it to me."
So, basically, a weird place. The fact that she herself described the person as wearing a "bizarre outfit" made the sketchiness level skyrocket.
"It's a three-person team competition, and apparently even beginners have a real shot at winning!"
"...Aoi-chan, what do you think?" I turned to her.
"It's suspicious," she replied bluntly. "The prize money is oddly high for a sport I've never even heard of. Hina-chan seems to be suffering from a bout of Youthful Passion Syndrome—she wants us to do something 'youthful' together."
Hina-chan did seem like the type to get swept up in that kind of athletic festival spirit. I glanced back at the flyer. The grand prize was one Platinum Coin, the runner-up got five Gold Coins, and even third place paid out two Gold Coins... If we translated that to yen, it would be ten million for first, five million for second, and two million for third. That was a staggering amount of prize money for a sporting event.
Yeah, no matter how I looked at it... it was extremely dubious.
"Why don't we ask Lilia-san about it? If the prize money is really that high, it might be a famous tournament that we just haven't heard of yet."
"That's a good idea," Aoi agreed. "This world does have things like WANAGE, after all—sports that don't exactly fit our common sense."
We decided to consult Lilia-san, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that the flyer was incredibly sketchy.
Lilia-san happened to be free at the moment and made time for us right away. After explaining the situation and handing over the flyer, she looked perplexed and showed it to Luna-san, who was standing behind her.
"...Luna, do you know anything about this?"
"Hmm... I feel like I might have heard the name somewhere a long time ago. The venue is in the Hydra Kingdom. It wouldn't be surprising for that country to host unusual competitions, but..."
"But this location... I'm fairly certain it's in the middle of nowhere," Lilia-san added. "A tournament with prizes on this scale in such a remote place?"
"It is odd. Between that and the suspicious look of the flyer, it certainly feels off."
The outlook was becoming increasingly questionable. If even Lilia-san and Luna-san considered it an obscure minor sport, it had to be niche indeed.
Was this actually some kind of scam? Aoi-chan looked troubled, and even Hina-chan was starting to look a bit uneasy.
"...Alice, do you know anything?"
Since neither Lilia-san nor Luna-san had the answer, Alice was my last hope. I called out toward the air behind me, and Alice appeared, taking the flyer from Lilia-san as she spoke.
"It's not a scam, for the record. The sport of Flying Board definitely exists. I wouldn't call it totally obscure, but it's definitely minor. However, it has a bit of a cult following. The people who are into it are obsessed enough to bet their lives on it. Because of that, they sometimes land oddly big sponsors. Hmm, if I had to compare it to something from your world, Kaito-san, it might be similar in recognition to the Birdman Contest?"
"Oh, that actually makes a lot of sense. The people into that really go all out."
So it was a sport where many people had heard the name but few had actually seen it, yet the participants were driven by a terrifying amount of passion. At least it was a relief to know it wasn't a scam.
It still sounded like a strange sport, but Hina-chan's face lit up immediately. Depending on what the competition actually involved, it looked like I was really going to end up entering this with Aoi-chan and Hina-chan.
Serious-senpai: "WANAGE's Return?"