Team

Sora POV

"That's it! Let's wrap it up!!" Ukai yelled as I wiped my sweat on my forehead and panted a little bit. I smiled and looked at the score board, 25-23. A close match, my team had scored the first the set but the regular's, Daichi's team won the second.

I turned to my part time teammates and patted them on the back. "Good job guys! That was great!" I said and they nodded while giving me a smile back. "You too! You were amazing Akiyama-san!" Yamaguchi said and I smiled at him. "Thanks! Your serves are coming along too! Keep practicing!" I say and look over at Sugawara.

"Your tosses are great! Thanks for letting me hit your sets!" I said as I patted him on the shoulder and gave him a huge smile. "It's been a little while since I was able to hit some sets like that." I said and he smiled at me. Sugawara scratched his neck at the compliment and blushed a bit. "No it was nothing!"

I chuckled and looked over at the other second years. "Don't say that you were great Sugawara-san!" I say and pat the fellow second years. "You three were great! Ennoshita, nice receives and observation, nice blocks Narita, and your serves and spikes are turning out great as well Kinoshita!" I say and they all smile at me. "Thanks! Good job out there too! Your spikes looked really cool." Kinoshita said.

I chuckled "Thank you!" I walked over to my bag and dug through it finding my water bottle. I opened it up and drank some water. As I did so I was approached by Kageyama. "Um..." I stop drinking and turn to look at him.

"Yes?" I ask and close the bottle and put it back in my bag. "Good game. Your spikes and form was good. Your intuition was good as well...." he said and I saw that the members looked at us and watched some with wide eyes. I nodded my head. "Thanks!" I said and watched him fiddle with his hands and look in different areas.

"Do you still have something to say?" I ask and look at him. "Um, I-i I'm s-s-sor-ssorry, for underestimating you." he mumbles and I look at him and observe his actions. I smile slightly seeing that he was genuine. I raised my brow and chuckled while patting him on the shoulder.

"It's fine. As long as you know. Besides it was a fun game and I was able to get a feel for the entire team and understand some of the team as well. So it's all good." I say and smile at him. He nodded his head with a slight hint of pink. "Did you get water?" I ask and he nodded his head.

"Haha, well that's good. It seems that Ukai-san will be wrapping up practice." I say and Ukai calls over the boys. "Gather round!" he calls and I stand in the back watching them.

"That'll be it for the day. We'll discuss our game play and what happened in this practice match tomorrow morning. You guys played hard like in any other match! It was a good game change and something new to see. Clean up and get some rest! Dismissed!" Ukai said and the team scattered.

"So-chan, wait for me as I clean up!" Shoyo said and I nodded and walked over to the court to take down the net.

"Oh, thank you.." I hear a voice and see the Ace standing beside me taking down the net as I helped him. I smiled at him. "It's no problem. Good game! It was interesting and fun!" I say and he nods with a small smile. "I don't think I introduced myself, I'm Azumane Asahi. Third year and ace." he says and I bow to him.

"Nice to meet you Azumane-san! As you heard earlier, I'm Akiyama Sora, second year, wing spiker." I say and help hold the net as the captain got the other side and walked to us. I helped hold the net up.

"It was a good play. Nice to meet you Akiyama-san. I'm Sawamura Daichi, the captain and third year." the teen with short black hair and a built build says. I smile at him as I take the net from his hands. "Nice to meet you too Sawamura-san." I say and walk to the storage room and place it down. I walk back out to help put the poles away but was stopped by the libero.

"You don't need to do that, you can help with this." He says passing me the mop. "I can't let a lady do the carrying." he says and I nod while taking the mop. "I'm Nishinoya Yuu, libero and second year! Nice to meet ya!" he says and I look down at him and smile.

"Nice to meet you Nishinoya-san, Akiyama Sora, second year and wing spiker." I say and start moping the floor with the others. "Did you see that Ryuu!! She smiled at me!!" I heard the libero say in excitement to his friend on the team. At hearing that I chuckle and continue mopping.

Once I was done with my section, I put the mop back in the storage room and was stopped by a member. "I didn't introduce myself yet! I'm Tanaka Ryuunoske!" I blink at him as he makes a pose and points at himself while smiling. I nod my head. "Nice to meet you too Tanaka-san." I say and leave. "Don't you think their trying to hard to make first impressions?" I hear Sugawara whisper.

Daichi whispers back "Ah, don't worry about it. Their going to do that regardless." he says and I make my way to my bag.

"Alright! Time to head out!" Daichi says and all of us files out of the gym and the boys head over to the locker room to grab their bags. "So-chan, wait for me! I'll be right out. I'll walk you!" Shoyo says to me energetically as he rushes up into the club room. I chuckle at him and wait down by the stairs.

I open my bag to find my jacket as I shiver from the cold. "Cold~" I say as I shiver and pull out my jacket. I put it on and rub my arms making myself warmer. 'It's much colder here than in California at this time.' I think to myself as I zip up my jacket and put my bag back on.

"So-chan let's go! I have so many questions to ask and talk to you about!!" Shoyo yells down at me as he comes down the stairs. "Hinata don't yell!" I hear Daichi call out as he walks down with the other third years as well.

"Ossu!" Shoyo says and I bow towards the third years. "Thanks for the game! I'll see you tomorrow." I say and look at Shoyo. "Ready?" I ask and he nods taking my hand.

"Yep! Ne ne So-chan! What have you been doing the years when you were away?" He asks as he grabs his bicycle and the team walks behind us or some of them walk ahead. I hum at that. "Training and studying. But mostly training." I say looking at him. He nods his head and a look of disappointment appears on his face. "That's it? Just training? What kind of training?" he asks becoming energetic again.

I tap my chin a bit "Training I did? Well, I did lots. I did strength training where my coach had me lift weights and work out in the gym. He also made me do a lot of repetition of things like the normal things that you did today at practice. But I also was able to play with other amazing people and got experience." I say and he nods his head at me with excitement.

Sugawara from the back who was listening spoke up. "Um Akiyama-san, if you don't mind me asking. Where did you go to train? From what it sounds like you left the country or moved." He asked and I turned to look at him and saw that others around us looked at me as well wondering.

I nodded my head. "Sure I don't mind. You guys will learn more about me as we spend time together. Plus Ukai-san will tell you more about my situation probably tomorrow or soon." I say and look up at the sky as I walked. "I left to in my second year of middle school to go to America, the states. Well, to be exact the middle of my my second year." I say and glance back at them. They widen their eyes.

"What really?!" Sugawara said and I nodded my head. "Hmm. Yeah, I got scouted I guess and there was that option to train and become stronger in volleyball." I said and Tanaka spoke up shortly after.

"What was the stuff about you being an elite and stuff back there in the gym with Tsukishima?" he asked and Daichi shot him a look. I hummed at that. "Tsukishima? The tall guy with the glasses right?" I ask and Shoyo nodded his head. "Yeah him! He's such a jerk!" Shoyo exclaims as Yamaguchi turned around and shot Shoyo a look.

I chukcled at that. "Hmm. Well elite? Since he brought up my old school, then he must be talking about when I attended Niiyama Girls junior high back here in Miyagi before I left. My time as a second year was as the Ace. The girl's team back then, we were able to win Interhigh." I said. "Ehhh! You were apart of Niiyama Girls team?! Isn't that the all girl's school who also has the high school that goes to Nationals?!" Nishinoya said.

"Yeah, though I just came back, it seems that Niiyama still does really well." I say. "Wow~ You're really good, no wonder Tsukishima called you an elite. Your a hot shot." Tanaka said and I laughed at that.

"I wonder though." I say and continue walking down passing by the Hill bottom store. "Here I'll treat the guys to Meat buns. You want some Akiyama-san?" Daichi asks me and I smile at him. "If it isn't too much of a problem. Than sure, I'll take one." I say and he shakes his head. "No, it's fine." he says before heading inside.

Sugawara comes up to me and pats my shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Since you'll be training with us, you'll also be like apart of this team. Plus it was fun and exciting playing with you." Sugawara said and gave me a warm smile. "Thank you!" I say with a warm smile on my face happy of what I heard.

"Here come get some meat buns! Tsukishima and Yamaguchi you want some!?" Daichi yelled at them as they walked further ahead. "No thanks Captain!!" Yamaguchi yelled as they continued walking together. Daichi sighed and passed the bag over to me. I took the bag "Thanks!" I say grabbing a bun and handing it over to Sugawara.

"Meat buns! Meat buns!" Shoyo chanted as he grabbed one and starting eating it. I looked over at Kageyama to see him grab one as well and he held a look of excitement and joy. I held in a laugh and bit into the bun. My eyes sparkled. "Yummy~" I say out smiling at the taste closing my eyes.

'Cute~~' the third years and other second years that saw that thought as they watched.

"Thank you Sawamura-san! It was very good!" I said and he chuckled "It's no problem." He said and we all started walking together. Shoyo and I started walking ahead of them and I heard them chatting away together. I smiled at that. "Shoyo, it looks like you got yourself a great team with amazing upperclassmen." I say and he turns to look at me. "I know right!! My upperclassmen are the best!!" he exclaims and I could sense that they heard it as well and some chuckles from them.

I smiled at that and ruffled his hair. "Indeed, they are very very amazing and nice as well. You have a lot to learn from them." I say and hear Kageyama shuffle from behind us. "You too Kageyama, you have lots of things to learn from Sugawara-san too." I say.

Kageyama nods his head. "Ossu." I chuckle at that. "Oh So-chan! You said that you trained a lot and got to meet lots of cool people too right?! So what kind of people were they!? And you must have had a team as well?" I nodded my head.

"Yeah, back there they had two teams that I was apart of. There was a girl's team and a mixed team. Where it was a mix of girls and guys. Though it depended on what kind of tournament or thing we were doing at the time. But on both teams that had amazing players. I got to meet and befriend them as well." I said. "One of them came here to Miyagi with me. Though he goes to a different school but I played some games with him and also trained with him along with two other people. I would say it was very interesting." I finish off with seeing Shoyo have stars in his eyes.

"Wow~ That's so awesome~" Hinata says in amazement. Kageyama spoke up and moved to my left side. "What are their setter like?" he asked me and I raised an eyebrow and thought for a bit on how to describe them.

"Bye guys! See you tomorrow!" the upperclassmen said and waved us goodbye. "Bye!" Shoyo said and I waved at them and Kageyama gave a nod. I looked back at Kageyama to answer his question.

"Some of them are tricky and calculative, kinda like Oikawa-san. While some of them are harder to read than others." I say and look at him. He widens his eyes at me. He opens his mouth but Shoyo beats him to it. "Woah~ You know great king too? Is he really that well known?!" he asks.

I shrug my shoulders albeit. "I've seen his plays and his style in recent games. But, I also met him years ago at a small area. We talked for a bit and met each other here and there. But we never knew each other more than a week." I said and Shoyo nodded.

"What recent games have you seen him play?" Kageyama speaks up interested even more so with Oikawa involved. I raised my brow and nod my head at him. "I've seen him and Aoba Johsai play at interhigh." I say and they both seemed to freeze. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

"You were there?!" Kageyama and Shoyo yelled at me, one being serious while another was shocked. I nodded my head. "Yes, the day of the interhigh was the day I had just arrived and my coach wanted me to watch the games...So I saw their matches." I said and Shoyo looked at me and tugged on my arm.

"Did that mean that you watched me play!? Did you see me out on the courts!?" he asked after shaking his head of some bad thoughts. I nodded my head. "Yes, you and your team surprised me. Especially seeing that super quick the fast time. It had me really interested, but since I saw it up in the stands I was able to kinda understand it. But its not the same as experiencing it in person on the court." I say.

"So that's why you weren't all that fazed." Kageyama said and I nodded my head. "That and when your in the game, it doesn't help you if you stay in a state of shock or panic of something new tossed your way." I say and look up at Kageyama a little bit since he was a little taller than me.

I continue on "Here's something that you two should consider on the court." I say and they both look up at me. "Something that I've learned and picked up, is that is something unexpected should happen on the court you should compose yourselves and find a solution to it. But seeing how your team is and knowing you Shoyo. You should both calm yourselves at that moment. Take a deep breath and calm down, refocus at the task at hand. Because once your on the court and the opponent stands on the other side, they will give you no mercy to recollect yourself a moment later." I say and both nod their head at me.

"Understood." Kageyama says and I look over at Shoyo to see if he understood. "That makes sense, calm yourself if something bad goes wrong right?" he says and I nod my head. "Yes, you want to make sure that you're calm if your nervous or something like that, you'll get lossed and loss focus of the thing right in front of you. Whether it's an opponent or something else."

I look back at both of them and they nod. "Glad to see you understand." I say and we continue walking with Kageyama leaving us as Hinata and I continue walking down the street. "I really missed you Sho-kun." I say and pat his head.

Shoyo turns to me and smiles "I missed you too as well! But now I can show you that I can become the little giant!" he says and I smile. "Your already one step towards that goal." I say and he sparkles at me. "Well I'm heading this way. You still leave up on the other side of the hill right? You better hurry and get home safely. We can talk more on the weekend or at school." I say and wave at him.

He nods his head. "Bye So-chan!" I wave goodbye watching him ride his bike up the hill and over. I turn around and start walking. I looked around the neighborhood seeing that since I go to a new school my route changes a bit and I now walk past the small area with the trees and benches. With the perfect view of the sky and stars.

I stopped once I arrived at this familiar spot. I smile and look at the bench where I used to sit and stare up at the stars. "How nice~" I say and walk over to the bench and sat there. I closed my eyes and relaxed myself. "It's been a while Miyagi. I missed you and the people here." I say quietly to myself.

After a couple minutes of silence I got up from my spot and left the area continuing my way home. 'It's been a long day.'

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A new chapter for the New Year! Hope everyone is doing well and safe!