Chapter Seven
"Kashiya-saaaaaaaaaan!" Someone yelled and Kashiya seemingly winced, her friends pausing and turning toward the voice who had called her. The one who had called her was no other than Hinata.
"Kashiya-san, can you help us?" The ray of Sunshine was dragging Kageyama along with him, their English notebooks in their hands. Nervously Kashiya scratched the back of her neck. "Uh...why don't you ask Tsukishima or Hitoka-chan?" She mumbled.
"Tsukishima-kun doesn't want to teach us and we can't find Yachi-san anywhere." Hinata said and looked at her with hope in his eyes. She got a bit more insecure and then just brought out this "U-Uh..."
"Kashiya-chan." A voice called and turning towards it, Kashiya came to face the beautiful dark haired third-year manager. With a bow toward Hinata and Kageyama, she said "I'm sorry." Then she went over to Kiyoko and asked "What can I do?"
Next to her already stood Hitoka. "I thought that we should go and gather information on the teams we might face in the spring tournament." Kiyoko said with a soft smile. "So you mean that the three of us should go out and gather information about all of those big schools which we could go against?" Hitoka questioned the third-year, who nodded in response.
Kashiya's eyes widened "D-Does that also mean schools like Shiratorizawa Academy?" Again Kiyoko nodded, making the two first years go pale. So many tall and strong players. Hopefully neither of them had to go observe Shiratorizawa.
"I thought that maybe you could go to Shiratorizawa, Kashiya-chan." "E-EEHHH?" The first-year screeched, shocked, even paler than before. Hitoka also seemed like she was about to faint, though it wasn't her who assumingly had to go to Shiratorizawa.
"Kashiya-chan, Asahi told be that you enrolled for Shiratorizawa." Kiyoko then gently said. Slowly a depressed aura surrounded Kashiya. Indeed, she had enrolled for Shiratorizawa but because of one failing grade she didnt make it, which kind of pissed her off or rather depressed her.
"One failing grade..." Kashiya mumbled and sighed. "Well, they would've accepted me under a few conditions, but by then I already got accepted to Karasuno. Mostly for the sake of my brother I then declined their offer..." "But that's still amazing!" Hitoka said in awe, making the other first-year blush slightly in embarrassment "O-Oh, it's nothing."
Kiyoko then said "We could ask them if it were alright for you to join them on a practice match, to watch them." "They do practice matches with college schools a lot, don't they?" Kashiya cautiously asked. Kiyoko nodded and again the younger Azumane looked like she was about to faint. So many tall people!
After a lot of thinking and reconsidering, she then nodded, sighing lowly. "A-alright. I think we should go ask Takeda-sensei if he could arrange it." Kiyoko then started to smile and took Kashiya's hands in hers "Thank you, Kashiya-chan!" Kashiya started to blush a dark red and began to stutter "I-I-It's n-no problem, K-Kiyoko-senpai!" "Lets go then!" Kiyoko said with a smile and then went off, the first-years following the black haired beauty.
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"Oya, oya, look who decided to call."
Kashiya sighed, a small blush spreading on her cheeks, as she dug her free hand deeper into the pocket of her jacket. "Hello to you too, Kuroo." "I told you to call me Tetsurō." The bedheaded captain of Nekoma replied and even through the phone she could hear his smirk.
"Anyways, Kitten, what does me the honor of you calling me?" "Well, on one hand I beg you to not get on my nerves for the next few hours, because I'm going to be around a lot of lamp poles. Nearly two weeks ago our faculty advisor managed to get me to join a practice match at Shiratorizawa." Total silence from the other end of the line.
"Kuroo?" Kashiya cautiously asked, as she came to a stop at a red light. Still no response. "Tetsu?" She then asked, even more cautious. Slowly the captain said "You...you're allowed to join Shiratorizawa? The Shiratorizawa?" "Yeah. Well, I almost got accepted to that school, so..." "I didn't know my girlfriend is such a genius!"
A dark blush spread on her cheeks. The stoplight turned green, making her continue her way. "Tetsurō, I'm not your girlfriend." "But we're on first name basis." "That doesn't have to mean a thing. And just because you kissed me twice, doesn't mean we're dating or whatnot." "Slow down, Kitten. You kissed me too, y'know?"
The young Azumane let our a sigh and then said "Tetsu, I'm almost there. I'll hang up now, okay? And I'll put my phone on silent." "Alright, alright. I'll talk to you later. I love you, Kitten." "I don't." "You know you do." With that, Kashiya just hung up and turned her phone on silent. Then she stood in front of the giant buildings of Shiratorizawa Academy.
The brunette first-year shoved her phone into her bag, as a tall person then jogged past her at a fast pace. "U-Uh, excuse me, could you help me please?" She called, quickly following, easily catching up. The man didn't stop though, he just kept running. With a low sigh she continued to follow him until they reached a gym. "Excuse me!" She then repeated.
The man turned to her and to her surprise it was no one other than Ushijima Wakatoshi. He gave her a cold stare and stated "You followed me." "Well, I did ask you if you could help me, but you didn't answer. So I followed you, as you are the only person around here right now. And as I now notice that you're the infamous lefty Ushijima Wakatoshi, you already led me to where I wanted to go." The first-year bluntly replied, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
Ushijima just continued to stare at her coldly, until he said "Azumane Kashiya. I know who you are. Or rather who you were." Immediately her gaze also turned ice cold. If this were a normal person, they'd most likely get a little scared now, but Ushijima didn't falter.
"Just because of what happened in the past, doesn't have to mean that I am incapable of staying number two. Watch out what you're saying, number three." She hissed, Ushijima slowly beginning to glare at her. "What do you even have to tell me? You're a first year." "That has nothing to do with the fact that I am very most likely better than you, Ushijima."
Just as Ushijima was about to backfire, a voice called "Oh? Wakatoshi-kun, you shouldn't glare at cute little girls!" Both of them turned toward the voice. To them came a guy with red hair. He reminded Kashiya of Bokuto from Fukurodani. Along with him came probably the rest of the team from their jog. So Kashiya came just in time before their training would begin.
"We'll settle this later." Kashiya simply stated, glaring at Ushijima one last time, before then heading toward the entrance of the gym. She took her shoes off and replaced them with her gym shoes, before heading over to the coaches. They stopped their conversation as the first-year came closer.
Quickly she bowed deeply while saying "Thank you very much for allowing me to join you today!" When she looked up again, the coaches nodded and the younger seeming coach said "You should thank your faculty adviser for being so persistent." I should've known...
"I'm terribly sorry, if he annoyed you too much." Quickly she bowed again, to which the younger one said "Don't bother about that. Just because we have you watch us, does not mean that you and your team will be able to defeat us." Kashiya looked up again and pressed her lips to a small line, holding back what she desperately wanted to say.
"If you have something to say, then speak." Ushijima all of a sudden said behind her, his voice still as cold as before, if not even colder. "I am terribly sorry to say this, coach, but I know my way with tactics and counter attacks. After all, I'm not assistant coach of my team for nothing, considering that I am a first year."
"That doesn't mean anything." He began but was then interrupted by Kashiya, who had a sudden boost of confidence. "Coach, I may have only been to nationals once. Yes, my team and I were crushed because I wasn't there for them when they needed me. I was number two spiker of the girls when I was only in junior high. Everyone set high expectations for me, if I wouldn't have injured myself.
"Before you interrupt me though, hear me out. I don't care if you call me weak. I don't care if you're still sticking to your opinion, that watching you won't help our team at all, because it surely will. And I surely don't care if everyone here thinks me to be weak, thinks that I have lost my ability to play volleyball like I did two years ago, because I didn't. Put me on the court if you want to, let me play a three on three match against your oh so great Ushijima, but don't be surprised if he ends up being defeated. I'm not as weak as you believe me to be. I still am worthy of my title as the Empress.
"If you want me to leave now, then fine. I admit that I might've messed up my chance here, but take my words into consideration that you shall never judge someone by mere appearances or things that have happened to them in the past of which you know. Because the past doesn't define people. The present does — and what they may do in the future."