The Cannonball Execution Arc is the 4th Story Arc of the Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun manga series.
The arc centers around Iruma taking part in the Misfit Class' dodgeball Cannonball Execution exam in order to increase his demon rank. However, said exam gets tougher for Iruma when it turns out that he ended up on the opposite team as Azz, who's the current highest ranked student amongst the misfits. Thanks to some training from Sullivan's servant, Opera, Iruma manages to pull off a counter where he throws Azz's powerful fire-enhanced ball back at him to win the exam. Iruma's rewarded with an increase to Rank 2 (Bet) for his efforts.
The arc consists of chapters 14 to 16, and was adapted into episodes 9 and 10 of the 1st season of the anime.
Cannonball Execution Arc Summary
Chapter 14: A Striving Effort
Sullivan agrees to help provide Iruma some special training for the "Cannonball Execution" exam by teaching his grandson how to use magic. During practice, he orders Iruma to shout "libera" while throwing the ball; resulting in Iruma firing off a burst of magic in the form of a dragon head taking the ball with it up into the sky. Despite firing off such a powerful looking move, Iruma isn't satisfied as he wants to win on his own power rather than borrowing from Sullivan's magic that's stored within his Ring of Gluttony. Sullivan happily agrees, and instead enhances his grandson's hands with a strengthening spell so that Iruma can take the exam using his normal human skills, but not have to worry about being destroyed by demon-enhanced ball throws, which Iruma accepts.Afterwards, Sullivan assigns his butler, Opera, to continue training Iruma for the "Cannonball Execution" exam. Opera proceeds to thoroughly teach Iruma how to properly catch a ball, which the training proves to be quite exhaustive. Azz and Clara join the training as well having witnessed how hard Iruma is training for the exam, and eventually, Iruma finally manages to catch a ball thrown by a demon. Sullivan and Opera deem Iruma ready as the day of the exam arrives.
Chapter 15: Fierce Battle with the Cannonball Execution!!
Using the campus underground gym for the exam, Kalego proceeds to explain the dodgeball rules of "Cannonball Execution" to his Abnormal Class. The main difference being that the demon students are allowed to go all out using their magic abilities to help their team win the exam. The students are then split into two teams, which Iruma and Azz are surprised to find that they're on opposite sides. The game plays out with all the Abnormal students showing off their magic abilities against one another, but are purposefully avoiding Iruma believing that it would be a wasted effort due to his high evasive skills.Iruma does eventually manage to catch one of the throws, but he realizes the pickle he's in having never been taught how to properly throw the ball. Sabro takes over and does the throw for Iruma, but it's easily caught by Azz. As the game plays out, it reaches a point where only Iruma and Azz remain on opposite sides. Azz originally plans to throw the game for Iruma's sake, but upon seeing how serious Iruma's taking the exam, he realizes that such a stunt would be insulting to Iruma's efforts. Thus, Azz begins to power up his fire-magic to max strength prepared to go all out against Iruma. In return, Iruma prepares himself to catch Azz's max power throw.
Chapter 16: First Step Forward
Ameri is seen making her way to the "Cannonball Execution" exam interested in seeing how Iruma will do. Meanwhile within the exam, the Abnormal students are all excited at the rematch that's about to go down between Iruma and Azz. As Azz prepares to throw his max power fire-enhanced throw, Iruma thinks back to his training with Opera. During a break, Opera explains to Iruma how within the competitive demon world, the one who suffers fear is the one who suffers defeat. Thus, the key is to turn fear into excitement. Returning to the present, Iruma follows those words, and proceeds to charge towards Azz rather than sit back in fear, much to everyone's surprise.Having reached max power, Azz throws his fire-enhanced ball at Iruma. It hits Iruma square in the hands, but he struggles to contain the power of the ball throw, and is on the verge of letting it slip out. Thus, Iruma comes up with the idea to pull off a counter throw by going with the flow, and spin his body with the ball until he's able to throw the fire-enhanced ball back at his opponent. Azz is taken by surprise as the ball bounces off him, and Iruma's team are declared the victors. For ranking evaluation, Kalego admits that Iruma has taken a step forward showing good judgement on defense and offense. Thus, the teacher rewards Iruma with a rank-up to Rank 2 (Bet); leaving Iruma feeling a sense of excitement that he's never felt before being the first time he achieved something working towards his own goal. Ameri then steps in congratulating Iruma for taking his first step towards his ambition.
