Using the gloves and balls Alice had thoughtfully provided, I intended to play catch with Illness-san, but one detail gave me pause. For some reason, she had prepared four gloves and two balls. While having a spare ball made sense, four gloves was definitely strange. It wasn't like Alice to miscount; knowing her, there was surely some hidden meaning behind it, but I couldn't figure it out yet.
For the time being, I decided to just play a normal game of catch with Illness-san, using one glove each.
"Should I... throw this ball toward you, Kaito-sama?" she asked.
"Yes. Not too hard, just toss it slowly in an arc so it's easy to catch. Let's start fairly close together."
"Yes~."
I gave a brief explanation to Illness-san, who was playing for the first time, and we began. There was a great sense of security playing with her. Had my partner been Shiro-san, I would have had to emphasize the need for restraint. If Shiro-san miscalculated her strength by even the slightest margin, I could easily be turned into mincemeat. I knew from our time at the beach that she could adjust her power perfectly, but there was still that lingering fear of a careless mistake.
(I am slightly dissatisfied. It seems necessary to correct your mistaken perception. We should play catch together next time.)
No, I don't think my perception is wrong. I knew she was capable of perfect control, but the anxiety was still there. Regardless, I told her I'd be happy to play with her another time.
(Then it is decided. We shall engage in Lovey-dovey Playing Catch next time. My business here is done. Excuse me.)
She casually tossed in that "lovey-dovey" part, but playing a romantic game of catch sounded pretty difficult. Anyway, for now, I focused on my game with Illness-san.
"Is this... about right...?" she asked, tossing the ball.
"Yeah, that's perfect. Here it comes back to you."
Illness-san threw the ball with an exquisite, gentle arc. I caught it and threw it back. I could have handled a faster pace, but since I wasn't used to the glove either, I was worried about fumbling it. We continued at a leisurely pace, chatting as we played.
"I see... this is quite interesting," she mused. "Moving the body slightly while talking... it keeps things from getting dull. It doesn't feel so much like a sport as it does... a unique way of chatting."
"You're right. You don't move enough for it to really be a sport. It's a nice change from just sitting and talking. I actually quite like... hm?"
We had been tossing the ball back and forth when I suddenly felt someone watching us. I stopped and looked over to see the couple from the flying carpet staring at us with great interest. Realizing we had noticed them, they looked startled and bowed their heads in a flustered apology.
"O-our apologies. We didn't mean to interrupt..."
"No, it's fine," I replied. "Did you need something?"
"No, we were just curious about what you were doing. If we made you feel uncomfortable, please forgive us."
"It's no problem at all, don't worry about it," I assured them.
It seemed they were just fascinated by the novelty of the game. Illness-san had mentioned that baseball was a minor sport here, so many people probably didn't know what "playing catch" was.
Wait... oh, I see. That's why Alice prepared four gloves.
Serious-senpai: "Just as Kaito guessed, this couple has the air of nobility. They're clearly intimidated by him. Considering they seem to recognize him, they're likely nobles of the Kingdom of Sinfonia."