men fight wars. women win them
"GREAT JOB TODAY," said Takeda-sensei, sitting before the group of teenagers with his soulmate beside him. "I'm sure that you're already thinking about tomorrow but please, allow me to say this. Congratulations on your important victory at nationals."
"Yeah!"
Kiyoko and Yachi applauded the boys, the latter wearing an amazed yet excited look on her face.
"All right, let's talk about tomorrow." The boys sobered up, turning serious. "I mean...the reality isn't gonna change," started Keishin, face darkening in slight distress, "so I'll just say it. We're going up against the second-place team from this year's Inter-High. Inarizaki High School, representing Hyogo. Well, you know...You can call them the favourites to win this whole thing."
The older players frowned whilst the younger ones, with the exception of Yachi and Yamaguchi who were silently panicking, were ecstatic.
"First—"
The door to the room slid open with a slight bang, all attention directed over to the lavenderette walking into the room, arms full. Just as Ennoshita stood to help the girl, Mizuki dumped the files onto the table, sighing at the release of pressure on her arms.
"A-Ano, Sayeko-san. What are these?" Takeda asked, Keishin reaching forward to grab one of the files, eyes widening as he flipped one open, statistics and images of a familiar dark-haired male presented at the front.
"I did my research on Inarizaki," she said, shocking the boys. "I've drawn up counter attacks and techniques we can implement into our defence."
"You did all of this?" awed Asahi, grabbing a file and looking through the information on the ace of Inarizaki, Ojiro Aran.
Mizuki nodded.
"When did you do all this?" Sugawara asked, he and the rest of the team grabbing the files they could get their hands on.
"Over the break," she answered. "I researched all the teams going to nationals."
"A-All of them?!"
She nodded again.
"Why?!"
"What do you mean why?" Mizuki furrowed her brows, genuinely confused. "This is my job. I'm Karasuno's analyst, your analyst. My role is to help improve your overall plays and provide strategies against opponents."
Tears of gratitude gushed out of their eyes.
"Sayeko-san!"
"Sayeko-senpai!"
"MIZUKI-SENPAI!"
She smiled faintly.
"Now–" the seriousness in her voice had them ceasing their actions. "It's time to get to business." Mizuki plopped down on the side, grabbing the first file and going over everything she wrote, each play, technique, strategy. Everything she did for her team.
They spent the whole night going through videos and the files, Mizuki pointing out vital information.
Come the next day, she knew they were prepared. It was going to be difficult, but they could do this.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
Walking through the arena's hallway, Mizuki was stopped by a woman with a microphone and a man with a camera pointed in her direction. "Ah, Sayeko-san! You're the analyst for Karasuno, right?"
Kita Shinsuke, who had been talking to the two before, paused in his footsteps.
"Yes. How can I help you?"
"Could we ask a few questions?" said Machino, one of the announcers for nationals.
Mizuki arched a brow but nodded.
"Wonderful! We heard from a source that you declined an invite to the All-Japan Youth training camp that took place in December. Care to comment?"
"I'm Karasuno's analyst," she replied, the lady waiting for her to continue when she realised that that was Mizuki's final answer.
"Ah, okay. What's it like to be part of Karasuno? It was a big surprise to hear that Karasuno defeated Shiratorizawa! They must be very lucky!"
"There is no such thing as luck in this world." Mizuki's statement surprised the two, the cameraman zooming in on her stoic face, lilac eyes frozen over. "Rules, prerequisites, psychological states...There are numbers of invisible factors that combine to produce an unpredictable but inevitable result. The victor of each game is decided before it even begins. Chance is never a factor."
Be careful of that girl. There's a fire burning behind her frozen eyes. She makes kingdoms fall— and monsters wish they'd never been born.
"I-Is that so?" Machino didn't know what else to say.
"If that's all, I'll be taking my leave. I need to help my team warm up." Mizuki bowed politely to the duo, ignoring the calls behind her and walking to the gymnasium. Kita watched her leave, gold eyes gleaming with interest.
"Well, aren't you a cutie?"
Mizuki looked over to see a familiar male walk up to her, a playboy smirk on his face. Atsumu Miya, her mind supplied. She tuned out his flirting, discreetly sizing him up. His skills are impressive, but his attitude is deplorable.
Osamu stood beside his twin, recognising her. "Aren't you Karasuno's analyst?" This took Atsumu by surprise, who watched as she nodded.
"Ehhh?" His eyes trailed over her body, lips pursing. "So you're the one Tobio-kun was going on about." He recalled how the goody-toe shoe setter kept talking about the upperclassmen that had helped sharpen and hone his ability, along with his teams' — the same person who denied the request to join the national youth camp.
Mizuki rose a brow.
"Say, let's go out sometime after our match." Asumu continued on with his flirting, his teasing expression returning to his face. "When we beat your team, of course."
"How can you be so sure you'll be the victors of this match?"
Asumu couldn't help but laugh. "We're the stronger ones here."
"Don't underestimate my team," she said coldly, taking the two by surprise. "Crows, when together, overpower a single great white eagle. They can easily shred apart a fox or two."
In the eyes of this prophetess, the twins witnessed a world burning and wild shadows dancing in fire. The madness in her was inspiring.
"Sayeko-san?" Mizuki looked over, seeing Narita watching her with a concerned expression. "Everything okay?"
"Yes." She left without a goodbye, heading straight to her team, a fire igniting in the depths of her body, scorching the insides of her body. She brushed off the flirting, but, oh, the insult to her team? Mizuki was going to take them to the grave.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
The match began, the cheering of Inarizaki's audience irritating Mizuki. Her eyebrow twitched, arms crossed over her chest. Though all those feelings dissipated when Hinata ran up, arms swung back, knees crouched and ready to take flight.
"Because people don't have wings," she said, a small smile tugging at her lips as she watched Hinata jump, pushing the momentum to the balls of his feet, "they look for other ways to fly."
But, of course, nothing ever came without some type of faults.
Hinata forgot to spike.
He forgot to fucking spike.
"If you can't jump and hit at the same time, don't even try, dumbass!"
Mizuki squeezed her the bridge of her nose, her head down. Only Shoyou would do something like that.
"You don't need to be that depressed about it," replied both Tanaka and, strangely enough, Atsumu.
Hinata turned to his soulmate for support, but he was denied that; he only received a threat of no more sets going his way. He straightened up, nodding, genuine fear coursing through him. "Hai!"
Mizuki's eyes stayed on Tobio. She knew what he was thinking. Hinata's contact point changed drastically with his new jump, throwing both of them off. Her worries diminished as a grin curled at Kageyama's lips, excitement sparkling in his deep blue eyes.
Kageyama was more than capable of catching up to his vicious soulmate.
Saeko soon appeared with her friends and their drums, balancing out the rhythm and breaking Karasuno out of their stump. However, Mizuki's eyes widened in surprise as the Miya twins imitated the freak-duo's quick attack.
Atsumu glanced at the analyst, smirking. How'd you like that?
He continued to throw glances at Mizuki throughout the match, winking every time he scored in hopes that she would acknowledge him — which she did because he was a fantastic setter. Standing above on the spectator area, her soulmates glowered with jealousy, especially a certain bi-haired ace. Bokuto burned with a fury unlike any other, golden eyes piercing into the setter that dared flirt with his soulmate.
He clenched his fists, ready to go down there and wipe the smirk off his face.
"Don't, Bokuto-san," said Akaashi, recognising the signs. He was jealous, too, but he had the decency to cover it up. "Remember what Mizuki said. She's ours."
"I still don't like it!" he yelled, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting.
Akaashi had to agree with him.
Mizuki sat on the bench beside Kiyoko, Yachi forced to watch from the sidelines since she was the second manager. There's nothing more I can do, she thought. The rest of this match lies in their hands. She gave the boys everything, trained them, supplied them with information of their opponents. Everything was up to them.
Seeing Tsukishima take flight, Ennoshita stepping out of his comfort zone, Yamaguchi accomplishing a service ace, Asahi finally acting like the ace he was, Tanaka getting out of his negative dump and hitting an amazing cut shot, the return of 'Kalm' Kageyama and his shut down of Ojiro's spike...seeing Hinata pull off a perfect receive, watching Tanaka hit a fiercely sharp line shot, Kageyama's keen awareness, the passion and trust between the first-year soulmates, the trust Tsukishima put in Hinata being there to receive, the reassurance and time to cool down provided to the team by Hinata, the support from Daichi once again, the relentless attacks the boys pulled over and over and over again, refusing to give up for even a second, the first-year duo shutting down the twin's fast attack from the back...all of these things...
Mizuki was glad they won.
Karasuno was going to the third round of Nationals.
"The Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium is absolutely shaking from the roar of the crowd!"
The team jumped onto Hinata and Kageyama, screams of relief escaping their mouthes, hugging them as tightly as they could.
"Seriously, what the hell are you two?!" exclaimed Sugawara with watery eyes. "Damn it, you jerks!"
The two teams went up to the net to shake their opponents' hands, Mizuki's lips curling upwards as she heard the words of Inarizaki's setter. "Shoyou-kun."
"Oh, hai." Which one is he?
"I'm gonna be setting to you one day." Hinata tilted his head to the side in surprise, Kageyama wondering what the blond meant by that. "But before that happens...I'm going to crush you at the Inter-High, so you'd better be ready."
"Talk about a sore loser."
"Huh?! I didn't lose!"
"The hell are you saying?!"
"I mean—"
As her team went to express their gratitude to their spectators, Mizuki turned to see Kuroo and Kenma watching them from behind the barrier placed around the courts. Their team stood behind them, waving and congratulating the team's win, pumped to fight against each other next.
Mizuki walked up to her soulmates, eyes trained onto the faux blond. "How are you feeling?" she asked, taking Kenma by surprise.
"How...am I feeling?"
"Mhm. I could feel your exhaustion."
His eyes widened. Just how strong was their bond now? How much had it been developing? And how did they not notice?
"Congrats on your match!" Yaku exclaimed, hands on his hips and a laugh slipping past his lips. "It physically pained me to watch it!"
Mizuki glanced back at Inarizaki, eyes drifting over to the captain, who had only come out in the second set, turning the tide in Inarizaki's favour temporarily, and Atsumu, who was an amazing setter, especially with that low set he pulled off with his twin.
She knew that one day, Atsumu's love for volleyball would make him one of the best setters Japan had ever seen. Even if he had a shitty attitude.
"Mizuki."
Said female turned around, brows furrowed in concern.
"You okay?" she asked Kuroo. He didn't answer; instead, he reached over the barrier and pulled her close by her waist, pressing their lips together. Surprise washed over her at the action, but, inevitably, she melted into the kiss, eyes fluttering shut and arms snaking around his neck.
Kuroo's were open, deliberately locking with the blond setter as he kissed his soulmate deeply, eyes glinting darkly, arm wrapped around her waist possessively.
The teams both wolf-whistled, snickering at how jealous the middle blocker was.
"He was muttering threats under his breath every time Miya looked at Sayeko," Yaku whispered to Sugawara, amusement in his eyes, a hand covering the side of his mouth.
Sugawara perked up, mischief gleaming in his hazel-brown eyes. "Oh?"
Mizuki pulled back with a gasp for air, lungs sighing in relief at the flood of oxygen.
Bokuto grinned from where he watched, proud that Kuroo made everyone aware that Mizuki Sayeko was their soulmate and she was taken — many had talked about Karasuno's gorgeous third-year analyst and manager, how lucky the fallen powerhouse was to have them by their side. Several recognised her ability and wondered how they were able to score such an intelligent girl. Those that were older, like the youth camp coach, all knew she was excellent. Her aunt, Akira, happened to brag a lot about Mizuki at work, and word did go around quickly because the woman was quite influential with her status in the world — both as a fashion icon and a respectable businesswoman.
"Tetsur–"
He pulled her in for another kiss, swallowing her words.
They pulled back.
"Done?" she asked, panting heavily in his grasp.
"One more."
He tilted her chin upwards, capturing her lips in a softer kiss, and Mizuki looked up at Kuroo — really looked up at him, as if just noticing him for the first time. She noticed the way his eyebrows rose a centimetre or two, lined with something between worry and concern, and his eyes, his eyes twinkled with amusement as if he knew something she didn't. They glazed like honey and turned into a million shades of gold as light from the artificial lights in the gymnasium reflected off them. His eyes were like melted chocolate. Warm, and oh so addicting.
Her lips spread into a smile.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
Sat in the bathroom, encompassed by the warmth of the water, Mizuki soaked in deeper, exhaling a deep sigh. Kiyoko and Yachi had finished their bath earlier, allowing her to have some time to herself.
you love them?
no.
i don't know.
but i do like them.
that's allowed.
it is.
they're pretty.
they're so pretty,
it makes my bones ache.
with what?
that's not appropriate.
but the other day, they smiled at me and
i think i stopped breathing.
i think they broke me a little.
they cause you so much pain?
my chest aches around them.
i feel like I'm swallowing dying stars.
maybe you should like them less.
yes, that would be the sensible thing to do.
and yet
and yet?
it feels like i could bear the pain
over and over.
every second i'm with them,
i can bear the pain.
every second i'm with them,
it hurts less.
that sounds an awful lot like love.
it could be.
you're not scared anymore?
they make me brave.