Ace Tall Libero

Apologies

"HE DID WHAT?!" Mao shouts

"Shhhhh. Not so loud," Anko tries to quiet her teammate, being too embarrassed to say it again.

"Not so loud?! I should be getting all the girls to storm the boys' practice to knock some sense into him," Mao argues.

Anko hides her beet red face in her hands, "Please don't do that. I think it may have been an accident and it's too embarrassing anyways."

Mao places a hand on her shoulder, "He can't get away with this. Knowing Noya this was somehow planned. He has always been girl crazy and for Asahi to just stand there makes me so mad!"

"Can we please go to practice and deal with this later?" Anko pleads as she tries to fold in on herself becoming more timid by the second.

"But they need to pay!"

Yui walks in right then, "Who needs to pay? And for what?"

Anko shakes her head 'no' nearly causing herself whiplash. Mao sighs, seeing her shy friend not willing to talk about it more.

"No one, Yui. Let's get to practice," Mao quickly turns to leave the locker room.

Yui looks to Anko for clarification, but she also quickly gets up and heads to practice not wanting to explain the awkward encounter with the boys' volleyball players. Yui only gets more suspicious, choosing to ask again after practice.

The girls are practicing serves while the other side receives. Anko is showing some of the first years how to bend their knees and move with the ball to give a more controlled receive.

"Take a quick break then switch sides," their coach shouts.

Anko gets some water then heads to a wall to start warming up for her jump serve. The door to the gym opens but she pays no mind assuming it's a teammate or the coach coming back.

Some complaining and groans of pain can be heard making Anko look from the corner of her eye. She squeezes the baller tighter, feeling frustrated and embarrassed seeing four of the boys' volleyball team here. Their backs to her as they head towards her Captain.

This is our practice time. How dare they interrupt, she growls in her head.

She turns around fully to confront them and stops dead in her tracks seeing Asahi, Tanaka, and Noya rubbing their ears in pain. Daichi stands over them looking annoyed and angry.

He softens his expression when he sees Yui approach.

"Hi Daichi. What are you all doing here," Yui glances at the guys in pain unsure what's going on. She holds a longer glare at Tanaka for embarrassing Anko a few days ago.

Mao steps forward with arms crossed and having a knowing look, "Yes. Please explain why you are here."

She looks over her shoulder to see Anko squeezing a volleyball extremely tight. A few of the other girls look over at Anko, surprised by her tense expression even in volleyball mode.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but these three owe an apology to Anko," Daichi explains glaring at his teammates. Then softening his expression and stepping away from them to see if she is there.

He flinches seeing Anko standing at the other end of the court. A dark aura grows around her causing Daichi to flinch and almost show sympathy to his teammates with her volleyball mode turned to the extreme.

"To Anko?!" Yui grabs Daichi's arm to get him to explain further. She doesn't understand why Asahi and Noya are there too.

Anko sees the boys complaining about their ears and being dragged off from their own practice. She throws the ball up and spikes it in front of the three making it fly straight up into the air. The three culprits fall on their rear ends. Everyone freezes before looking at Anko, who is pissed.

"How dare you cause a commotion during our practice! This is not the time and will only be a distraction. Today I was going to finally get my jump serve perfected," Anko's fury remains unwavering.

The ball comes back down smacking Tanaka on the top head causing him to fall over and groan.

Yui scoffs, "Serves you right, embarrassing one of my teammates like that. You're lucky we kept our focus to win against Aoba Johsai."

Yui knows not to bring it up in front of everyone again. Anko may be in volleyball mode but that kind of embarrassment will instantly make her shy again.

Noya laughs at Tanaka, "That hit you right on the head like she planned it. She doesn't have another ball aimed for us, does she?" Noya stares with panic at Asahi before looking to Anko again.

Asahi stiffens knowing he is digging their graves further, but can't help but look out of fear of her possibly having another ball aimed at them.

"What do you mean for you? What did you do?!" Yui loses all focus knowing Noya's girl obsessed reputation. She has repeatedly kicked him out of their practices last year.

"Oh that. We came to apologize for me falling into Anko. Not realizing it and indirectly rubbing my face directly into her chest. And Asahi is sorry for watching the whole thing without being able to intervene out of shock," Noya blurts out as if it was the most normal occurrence.

Anko freezes recalling every awkward detail. She sees all eyes on her to see if it is true and how she will respond.

"I. You see. I," she takes a small step back not liking all the attention. Which turns into a full run out of the gym.

Daichi walks up to Noya and Asahi, slapping both of them on the back of the head, "That is not what I meant by make it clear why you are apologizing."

"Why'd I get hit?" Asahi complains.

Mao walks up to Asahi and grabs him by the collar, "Because you stood there and did nothing... again."

"Technically he was sitting on the ground this time," Noya and Tanaka laugh.

"Ouch!" They all complain, getting hit upside the head again.

"I'm sorry Yui. This didn't work at all like I planned. We will get out of here," Daichi grabs them all and drags them out of the gym while they complain.

Yui is annoyed but looks to Mao, "So you knew about this?"

She rubs the back of her neck awkwardly, "Yeah I did. She was too embarrassed to confront them before practice. I was going to suggest it again afterwards."

Yui drops her head into her hands, "They are all idiots aren't they?"

All the teammates shake their heads in agreement, still unable to vocalize the absurdity they all witnessed.

The coach comes back in to start practice up again. Only to notice one person missing and the extra quiet demeanor of the team.

"Where is Anko?" the coach asks.

The entire team collectively sighs knowing shy Anko won't be returning to practice.

"She had to leave."

"She won't be back."

The coach is caught off guard by their short responses, but pleased to see everyone get back to practice without fuss.