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Why more than one? Obvio cuz I cudn't choose.
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"Hm? Is someone there?"
"-no, nothing" the reason he was here got back to her, "uh... sorry Suga-san, I kinda... got lost too." she admitted with great difficulty while rubbing the back of her head.
He laughed, "It's alright, you were taking too long so Daiichi-san told me to find you guys. It's not like anyone can catch up with Hinata, it'd be a surprise if you did."
Nah, it's just that those days were over.
"Sorry" she sulked
He shook his head, "Let's go find Hinata"
They finally found him and called out loudly.
"Man, we were looking all over. Even Nami-chan got lost while trying to find you."
"Ah I said I'm sorry!" Nanami said
He laughed with closed eyes with a hand on his hip apparently finding it fun to tease her.
Hinata ran back, "I'm sorry. I was dashing, then got lost."
"You're too fast when you go all out Hinata" Nanami said as they jogged back.
"Sorry"
"Hinata, you go all out in every practice, don't you?" -Suga
"Yes. But I still need lots more training. I don't have enough strength yet. It makes me mad I'm treated as a set with Kageyama, and not as a full-fledged individual. Regardless, I want to play at the match. I want to stand on the court."
'Feels like there'll be problems in the future.'-Nanami
Suga suddenly stopped and they did too.
"Me, too. I want to stand on the court too. So I'm going to fight my own battles, my way. Come on, or you'll be late for lunch." Suga ran again past the two.
"Oh right! I had to help with the food!" Nanami shouted flinching and ran ahead, "Ahh! I just wanted to run one round and go back!"
"Sumimasen! (sorry!)" Hinata shouted.
'But it really does seem like there'll be tons of problems in the future.'
However it was just like every team.
"Why'd they let her be the starter?"
"I mean she's good, but she's only a first year. What about the third years, they're good enough too and they're leaving this year. Heard she was born out of an affair and has no father, she was just born to steal positions."
"Shut up everyone! How could you say something like that?! She could hear it!"
"Come on it's not like you don't feel the same way"
"Aren't you just jealous you can't do as well as her? She's working hard while you whine and complain and then you won't even get to be on the bench insignificant swines."
'No, it won't do any good to remember it. You never cared about it before Nanami, so don't now.'
"Whoa! Nami-chan you can run really fast too!!" Hinata said in awe catching up.
"Yeah I didn't know you could be this fast!" Suga shouted catching up after them too.
"I don't do it often! It's an emergency!"
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"Shimizu-senpai! Take-sensei! I'm so sorry I'm late!! I got lost!" Nanami shouted panting out of breath standing at the kitchen entrance with her hands on her knees and sweating from going all out.
"It's alright, can you cut the salad after washing up?" Shimizu said with a helpless smile.
'God I'm so irresponsible'
"But why did you get lost, didn't you stick with the group?" sensei asked checking the rice, "oh it's done"
"Ah well... Hinata ran too fast without looking and I gave chase but lost him and myself in the process. I didn't think it through." Nanami used a towel to dry herself and washed her hands before chopping the tomatoes that were already rinsed.
"Oh Ukai-kun did say you were prone to getting lost" sensei said.
"Sensei... please don't speak too much about that." she said with a depressed air.
He chuckled.
She carried the salad bowl to the table when there was a sharp pain in her foot and hissed with an eye close.
'Guess I really-'
"You must have overdone it today, sit back and let us arrange the table" Shimizu said with a hand on her shoulder.
Nanami looked back, "Oh no I'm fine, I already came late-"
She smiled, "Work has already become much easier for me after you came. It won't be too much for me to handle one day. You can work hard after you recover, sensei's helping me too."
"Is it your injury? You ran a lot today right? You should sit down Nanami-chan, do you need some something or should we go to-?" sensei asked.
"No it's alright... some rest should do it." Nanami sat down.
But as she watched them arrange the table from her seat... there was this deep feeling inside of her. All of a sudden, she felt isolated, and depressed, losing herself in some black void and them turning into a distant vision. Yeah, it's been like this for quite some time. She was just getting delusional.
"Nami... Nami!"
She jerked out of her thoughts.
"You haven't touched your plate" Shimizu said with a worried look.
"Oh right, sorry."
"What's wrong?" Asahi asked.
"No nothing, I was just thinking... about something is all" she smiled with closed eyes. 'I should seriously stop worrying them like this, Shimizu senpai is also really worried now. It's not like I haven't done enough.'
Noya was arguing behind somewhere about making Tsukishima eat something. However she resisted and persisted, sometimes a mini part of her still wondered if he did have a point about everything.
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Later she went to see Keishin for a bit since sensei told her that he was looking for her and found him sitting on the tatami floor, looking at the white board in his hands. She peeped in from behind his shoulder, "The positions?"
He noticed her presence and then looked back at the board with his hand near his chin, "Hm, what do you think?"
She punched him on the head, "Are you still asking me for advice? I'm not going to help unless necessary. I think you're doing a great job already as a coach. Now what brought this on?"
He was surprised for a moment and shouted embarrassed, "I was just asking for your opinion since you were already here! Not advice!" he shouted, and then paused with the same frown, "Suga talked to me earlier about giving the position to who'll contribute most to the team. Did you talk to him?"
"Hm? no, I didn't get the chance to, why?"
"That's what I actually wanted to ask you. Idiot. He really is amazing that guy. I underestimated him." he lowered his head with a small smile and eyes closed.
"Ok, but what did he say?"
"Ok?" he sighed at the lack of response, "well, he told me to choose the person who'll get them the ticket to the top, even if it is Kageyama. And if Kageyama's down he'll take his place then. It was exactly like you said so I wondered if you talked to him or something. But he thought of it all on his own."
"Oh I really underestimated him."
"That's what I said"
"But no, I didn't think of talking to him. This is something they should settle amongst themselves. If an outsider intervenes... it'll only make things worse. As a coach you have more authority and could've settled things, but you should be glad it happened before you announced the positions. They really are amazing" she smiled
'You know about it huh?' he thought and looked back at the board, "yeah, I am glad. And I'm the temporary coach" he reminded.
"We'll see, you became that in the first place because you were too weak to refuse." she smirked.
"No, I'm going back once this match with Nekoma's over" he said 'sounding' stubborn with closed eyes and arms folded.
'I don't think coach Nekomata's gonna let you though.'
"Anyways, you gotta focus a ton on the holes while keeping up the attack force and strategies."
"Why're you saying that now?"
"Nekoma's defense is still as strong, and their middle blocker's not a joke. I ran into him today when I got lost while jogging"
"What?! You ran into Nekoma's middle blocker?!" he shouted turning around. He already knows she got lost but wasn't filled in on what else happened.
She covered her ears, "Don't scream! He's their captain. Anyways it happened, don't be so surprised. I told you what I found out. I've heard a ton about him too from one of my friends back in Tokyo."
"Their defense is just as strong huh?" Keishin said in thought holding his chin, "You're right, we need to step up."
He opened one eye back at her with an irresistible grin, "but am I really doing great as a coach?"
She grinned back, "You're only gonna get that compliment once. I'll say it next time when you've levelled up again, the xp meter for level 2" she gestured a level above the ground and pushed it down to the lowest position on the ground, "is this low right now"
He dragged her down giving her a noogie on the head with a grin, "Stop using gaming terms on me, you've been playing too many of those at night banking on sleep."
She pressed a pressure point making him release me and got up, "Stop doing that" she glared and he exclaimed at the pain.
She turned around, "Alright I'll be going nowww-aah! What's with you now!?" she shouted as he pulled her back by the collar and she fell back to the ground.
"Where's my eye mask?" he asked with a strained smile and catching her in a head lock again.
She looked away guiltily, "wh-what do you mean?" 'he figured it out?! But I wasn't prepared crap-'
"You're a terrible liar unless you've practiced."
"You really know me so you should also know I can't sleep without them."
"You could have asked."
"Would you have given it easily without a condition?"
He was caught, "...well..."
"Yup, so stealing it was easier, it'll be 200 percent profit on my side."
"Well, now you're caught aren't you? Don't you think you should return it 400 percent?"
"Am I caught really?"
"Huh?"
The door swung open just as she spoke, with Takeda sensei there and it looked like she was being choked by Keishin.
"Sensei, Keishin's trying to kill me for stealing his eye mask. He's being too petty don't you think?" she smirked.
"U-Ukai-kun!? What are you doing? That's your sister!" sensei screeched with a hand near his mouth.
Keishin let her go immediately and she got up in a flash, "Good night bro, Take-sensei" she waved with a wink and tongue stuck out to Keishin from behind sensei and walked out whistling and leaving him to deal with it on his own.
She walked down the stairs and saw Sawamura there telling the second years to get going for their shower.
"Oh Sawamura-san..."
He flinched, "N-Nami-chan, you're still here?"
"I was talking to Keishin. Well, I'll get going, good night." She turned to walk away when,
"Oh!! Nami-chan! You still didn't leave?! Do you wanna stay back for-" Noya jumped out and spotted her to his right until he saw Sawamura there too.
Apparently he still did not forget what happened last night, nor will he unreasonably forgive, "What are you doing out here?"
Same went for Tanaka with the same reaction.
"Huh, What? I was just telling you guys you can go shower, I can't even do that?" and also apparently he was getting annoyed by their constant glares.
And apparently Nanami was getting annoyed by their behaviour, them glaring and him getting flustered around her.
"Hm? What's wrong?" Ennoshita apparently walked out.
"Nothing!" all of them answered at the same time, weirding him out, "...ok, I'll... get going then... uh well if you're leaving after this, good night Nami-chan."
She nodded and also wished Narita and Kinnoshita together who replied back too, "good night!"
After the three left with only Tanaka, Noya and Sawamura remaining, "Sawamura-san... sorry for this in advance," she punched him in the head taking them all by surprise.
"What happened, was something by accident, please collect yourself. At the rate you're going you might even start losing focus during practice. I'm sure that's the last thing you want. I don't care about the rest."
"Nami-chan! Can you hit us t-"
"No, I'm leaving, once again I'm sorry." she bowed and turned to leave.
'Whatever happens back there is not her problem anymore.'
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Nanami woke up in a jump while sweating and trembling in all darkness. She scrambled to remove her eye mask after realizing it was there and threw it to the side, hugging her elbows with her shaking hands to try and calm down and not think about it again and not panic again.
She's been getting better. There's no need for another relapse.
It's been getting more and more frequent these days for some reason.
The last two times thankfully Shimizu was there to help so she was fine but the girl was sleeping now.
On a futon on the floor right beside Shimizu's bed, she was breathing in a heavy rhythm.
Chasing something, feeling like she was falling down again in some strange void, and then people's faces popping up, voices. When she reached out to hold a ball to find comfort it'd just disintegrate to ashes. Running away from something. One after another like opening different doors while the memories of her childhood ran in her head of a hope long lost.
She fumbled around in the dark and quickly turned her phone on, the light a little comforting now that she could see and remembering to take deep breaths, remembering her mom's words, her friend's, jii-san's, Keishin's, to breathe.
She leaned against the wall behind her and relaxed after checking if Shimizu was gonna wake up but she was turned the other way.
The numbers and letters, if she just focused on it with deep breaths, she'll be fine.
Weirdly to anyone else, her wallpaper was logarithm tables and periodic table. It was ridiculous, but to her, but during these times, as long as she focused, distracted herself with what was long familiar to her and memorized, she'd feel slightly better. She had purposefully made it her comfort zone.
Just then she got a text.
Unknown
From
Heyyy
Cat's attractive cap here✋🏻
Said I'd text you didn't I?
Oh sry, sleeping? Tired after manager duties?
10:03 pm
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'Why would I reply to the next question if I was asleep?' she stared with a deadpan.
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To
Yes, I'm sleeping.
Try another time.
3:21 am
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'Let me pretend to be busy for a while. I let him call me Nanami but babe too? Behaving nice after that isn't gonna work on me.'
She decided to get something to do and brought out the notebook on everyone's progress. She brushed on it under a half open blanket with the help of the light from her phone and its calculator.
After some time, "What are you doing?" a sleepy voice sounded.
Jolted, Nanami looked up to see Shimizu half holding her body up on the side of the bed and in the process of putting her glasses on.
"Oh sorry senpai, did I wake you up?"
She leaned forward to look on the side of the bed where Nanami's notebook was, when she slipped off the edge with a yelp and fell right beside Nanami, squished between her and the side of the bed.
Nanami started laughing while rolling slightly to the side so she could get up too. She laughed too, finding it contagious, after some time and they calmed down by sitting up.
"sorry... huh? you're recording their progress?" She asked adjusting her glasses and spotting the notebook.
"Yeah, they could get a clearer idea, I remember getting graphs like this too so I thought it'd be helpful. But I can't exactly operate as professionally on a computer, I'm making do with this."
"That's... I think it'll help them a lot. Since it's hard, want some help?" she asked with a smile, "we can finish it faster."
Nanami asked if she didn't want to sleep but she insisted it was fine.
On the inside, Shimizu had a hunch on why Nanami was awake at this time of night and decided to keep her company.
As they did it on separate books, splitting the work by the team members, "Were you doing this from the start without sleeping?"
"Oh no, I woke up in the middle and couldn't fall asleep again, so I thought of doing something productive"
"Are you worried you're not able to help much?"
Nanami paused surprised, it wasn't exactly that-
"Ever since we told you to sit back and rest after straining your ankle, you've been out of it. And now you're doing something again since you weren't able to sleep." She said calmly.
Yeah... normally she would've played something instead of this. She didn't exactly have to do more than necessary for the club but felt like she should do this. She wanted to.
She also gave her number to Kuroo as a manager, cuz she thought it'd be useful.
And when she felt weird in the afternoon when told to sit down...
Her eyes widened slightly... Why did she suddenly want to do so much for the club when she never did before?
Shimizu smiled, "You don't have to think too much about it. I felt the same way when I started in this club. I started doing more and more, learning everything about volleyball from scratch and what I have to do to be like a manager. It'll be like that when you first start. Don't worry and just go with the flow, oh and also remember not to stress yourself too much. It's okay to take rest like today when it's necessary so you can work properly again. It's a very basic work ethic you know."
'It was such a simple thing, if I had done that... in volleyball, I wouldn't have had to quit.'
"You're still learning, so don't pressurise yourself too much." she smiled warmly.
Nanami smiled with a seriousness in her tone, "I love you Shimizu-senpai. You're so amazing."
She chuckled, "Aw I love you too Nami. I can't make you take the senpai off of that but you can at least call me Kiyoko. Being called senpai like that is kind of embarrassing" she said looking down with a blush and then up.
Nanami's mouth opened, "Whoa, Kiyoko senpai, you can be really cute too huh? I wonder how everyone'd flip at that if they saw it. Tanaka-san and Noya-san would be the first to faint maybe" She grinned.
"N-Nami...!" she protested with wide eyes.
"Sorry, not" she snickered.
Just then her phone tinged right between them since they were sharing the phone's calculator together.
"Cat cap'...?"
Nanami had an incredulous expression, "What time is it? Why's he texting back?"
"He?"
"U-um well that's..."
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