REINCARNATE

12.5, appearances can deceive.

Y/n stood in front of the mirror, drinking in her appearance. She wore a simple white T-shirt over her old black volleyball shorts, her hair pulled back out of her face. It was a familiar and comforting sight. She scowled then, thinking of what Kenta would probably say if he saw her now.

See? I knew you couldn't stay away.

UGH, she could just SEE his smug face. Lastly, before she left the change room, y/n took a deep breath and pulled out a makeup wipe, revealing the scar that marked her face. After all, only psychopaths played sports with makeup on.

Changing was one thing, walking into the gym was a whole other battle. She wasn't like Kenta, she didn't carry the imposing air of a threat that he did, with his height and build and his unwavering confidence. Once, she'd stood proudly, but now all she felt was shame, her old glory was gone, and she felt uncertain.

"Ok. You can do this, they're your friends, they're not going to judge you." She glared at herself in the mirror. "All or nothing, right Kenta? No twinkle toes on this side of the court."

"Twinkle toes" was Kenta's tease for those who hesitated too long to receive a ball, because the way they shuffled around, debating their next move, was like a ballet dancer moving around on their pointe shoes. "Move or don't move." That was his policy, no hesitations. If you're going to go for the ball, go for it and dig it out without flaw. If instinct told you to leave it for someone else or that it was out, then leave it, don't change your mind last minute or may cost you even more.

Their stares bore into her like acid as she bravely walked to the side of the court, setting her things down and warming up. She needed to be careful, an entire year without any training other than occasional jog would mean her body needed to be broken in or else she would be injured more easily. Y/n carefully stretched and jogged two laps around the gym before joining the boys at the net.

"We'll start with some three on three, King's court."

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Fun fact:

My teammates and I used to play King/Queen's court during practice and it was super fun. So basically how it worked was that one side of the court belonged to the king/queen team with the challengers on the other side. Let's say you're a challenger, if the king/queen scores a point off of you, then you rotate out and another team challenges them. If you score a point, the king/queen team rotates out and your team takes their place as the new king/queen with them as new challengers. To win the game, the king/queen team must stay on the court and score a total of 15 points, and the losers have to do 3 rounds of diving suicides (yikes).

~ author :)

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Y/n found herself teamed with wing spikers, Aran and Ginjima. She had observed both of them carefully as well as the type of sets Atsumu delivered. So coach wants me to set? Alright. They eyed her warily when she took the setter position at the front of the net.

"Y/n, do you want me to set?" Ginjima offered.

She shook her head, "I know I'm at a disadvantage with a small field of vision, but I've been working on my hand-eye coordination, it was part of my physiotherapy and I think I'm pretty good at it now. I will adapt, just trust me."

WOW THAT SOUNDED REALLY COOL Y/n silently cheered to herself upon seeing Aran and Ginjima's impressed expressions.

Like she promised, it took her two tries to acclimate to her blind side. The first time she accidentally shanked a pass and was tempted to curl up and die from embarrassment but she was already on the court, there wasn't any point on backing down now.

Y/n's biggest struggle still proved to be her limited field of vision but luckily Aran and Ginjima knew what they were doing. They positioned themselves more to her right and called out whenever the ball passed close to her blind side so she had time to move accordingly. Y/n proved a good setter, she liked to put a slight spin on the ball which made it hover at the point of impact a second longer, allowing her attackers more freedom to fight at the net.

Y/n hadn't felt this at ease in a very long time, she felt alive. The familiar squeaking of her shoes on the court floor, the rush of adrenaline she felt every time the ball slammed loudly into the ground(on the other side of the court of course); the way the ball would settle perfectly into her hands like it was meant to be there.

"Y/n!" Aran called, setting the ball to her.

He set to me? Unfamiliar excitement fizzed through Y/n. Although she wasn't formally a wing spiker, her teammates often spent extra time training to be all rounders so they had a more diverse edge when it came to forming the starting rotation.

Y/n flexed her fingers and gave herself three steps for her run up. She saw Suna leaping up to block, a smirk gracing his face at the thought of stuffing her. Her mind instantly wandered to a familiar boy's voice resonating in her head.

'If you know you're going to be stuffed, you don't have to waste a good set by tipping or rebounding. Rotate your torso, bring your shoulder higher, twist around and spike it right past them.'

Knowing it was a boy's net, she had to take her height into consideration,  she needed more momentum in her jump to reach the tape. Her thighs burned as she firmly planted her feet and jumped as high as she could, feeling right arm whip through the air and the sting of the ball impacting her palm. Her attack was shortly followed by the satisfying sound of the ball hitting the court. Perfect.

"LET'S GO!!" She cheered with Aran and Ginjima, they won the game so they didn't have to do any diving drills. For the first time in a long time y/n felt free, her joy was openly evident in the way her flushed face broke into a large smile and melted into her laugh. She locked eyes with Suna, carefully rubbing it in with a smirk. He wanted to glare at her but he couldn't help but grin and shake his head, feeling oddly warm inside.

'She was already beautiful, but if only she could see herself now...............n i c e'

"How come we've never seen you at Nationals?" Aran piped up while they were taking the nets down.

"I played volleyball outside of school, the inter-highs and nationals are for high schools."

"Oh really? Cool! What club?" Akagi sat down next to her, panting heavily from finishing his set of suicides. 

Y/n smiled awkwardly and dropped her gaze to the shiny gym floor. "I uh, I don't really remember. It's been a while."

"How did you manage to evade Suna? He had his entire body in your way."

"You put your entire torso into the swing instead of just your arms and it'll give you a broader range so you can get around these elephants we call middle blockers. It doesn't really work for everybody though, I lose a lot of strength and momentum when I twist so it's not really conventional. I learned it from one of my old friends, he was a middle like Suna. He could spike with all his strength while rotating his upper body at will, it was really interesting to watch." She cried out indignantly when she felt someone flick the side of her head. 

"Who are you calling an elephant?"

She stuck her tongue out, "You."

"Full of surprises aren't you?" Suna said, his bag slung over his shoulder. His lazy green eyes studied her blue ones, he noticed that without makeup y/n had a light dusting of freckles on her face and he resisted the strange urge to touch them.

"Well, appearances can deceive." Y/n replied, smiling one of the smiles that didn't reach her eyes.

"You did good today, how do you feel?" Kurosu told her.

Y/n beamed, "I feel....great. I actually feel sort of ashamed that I ever even thought about letting go of this."