Tokyo?

Time Skip

Sora POV

It's been a couple weeks spending time with the team and practicing with them. But after every practice I would close up after the team, I would tell them that I would practice some more before heading home. Which at that time Nakamoto-san would come to the gym and train me as we did our regular training schedule that we had been doing for the last years together.

Starting with the hundred spikes and improving on my form and getting some new moves that Nakamoto wants me to learn as well. He would bring his tablet so we could watch different plays and professionals. This way I could try to do the same as them.

Doing breaks we would do we would have talks where we would discuss on what to do during some situations that occur during the court. Also him giving me advice on what I should work on and focus on when I practice during the time with the team.

Nakamoto would often come near the end of the practice and see me hold back on my spikes at times in strength wise he would reprimand me on holding back when the blockers are in my way. Normally when that happens I would make the spike softer and try other techniques to throw them off like feints when we have practice matches with each other.

But normally with the team its practicing spikes, receives and blocks as a group together. Though I see that the whole team lacks experience with other teams.

Flashback

"Okay team gather round!! I will be explaining how things will go from now on with Akiyama here. As you may have seen and now that she will be spending time practicing with us through a program that she's in. In this program it allows her practice with a variety of teams in our prefecture as well as our team. Bu to keep it short for you guys. She came from an advanced team so you guys will be able to pick some techniques and stuff from watching her as well. Akiyama has also agreed that if you have any questions or want to ask her something volleyball related than it would be fine. So make the best out of this opportunity to learn some new skills doing practice, whether she is is spiking, receiving, or blocking. Or when we do practice matches with each other. Practice, Practice, Practice. Nothing is changing except the fact another person has joined." Ukai finished up saying and I nodded my along with that. I looked over at Ukai and gave him a thumbs up.

I speak up "I look forward to working with you all! If you have any questions you want to ask me or want to give you tips than feel free to ask." I say and give them a smile.

Daichi nods his head and smiles. "Then, welcome!" He and the team says after. "We look forward to working with you!" they shout as well. I smile at that and nod.

Flashback end.

Even though Ukai had said all of that I gave some help to Shoyo and whenever they need help they sometimes come up to me. But I don't give it my complete hundred percent when spiking its more of 70 or so maybe less, I guess? Though with receives and blocking, different serves like light spinning serves I practice more on instead of my heavy ones. I also take notes to myself on Nishinoya on how he receives heavy spikes like Asahi-san's. Even though I'm a good receiver, I still lack on the skills that a good and amazing Libero has.

I sighed as I walked through the halls of school and thought of the past weeks. Ukai seemed to use me as an example and help the spikers out with my advice and such. Or if they have any opinions on their moves or helping them out. I would definitely say that they are slowly improving and tried to use my ways to help improve. Though of course, improvement does not come instantly and needs time.

"Sora~ Let's go!" I hear my new friend, Hina, call out to me from her class. I smiled at her and walked towards her. "Let's go!!" she says as she hooks her arm with me and we head up to the roof of the school. As we walk through the halls I wave and smile at other students that say hi. "You've been here for a while and your already popular~ Must be tiring with everyone's eyes on you." Hina says beside me. I nod my head. "I guess, but everyone here is nice. Plus I don't mind as long as I have my friend Hina beside me." I say and bump her.

She gave me a cheeky smile. "Of course! Hina the great captain of the girls basketball team!" she says as we made our way to the stairs and start walking up. I laughed at that and opened the door that leads to the roof. As soon as I open it a gush of wind blows through ruffling my hair and my skirt.

"Woo! The wind!" Hina says as she holds down her skirt, I do the same but don't worry to much about it. She looks at me and smiles while heading to our regular eating spot. "Your barely holding down your skirt. Your holding it down but your not so much fazed or worried if it blows up." Hina teases a bit and I laugh at that walking past other groups.

"I hold it down but I'm wearing shorts under it so it's not so much a problem. Plus I'm holding my lunch with one hand and I don't want to drop it or mess it up. I can hold down my skirt with one hand just fine." I say as I sit down. "Hmm." she says back as she back while opening her bento.

I unwrap the cloth and take off the lid of the bento. I smile at in joy. "Ah it's so good~" I say while chewing in happiness. Hina giggles at me. "Is it really that good?" she says and she eats some rice. I nod my head. "Yes~ I love homemade lunch like this~ Back when I was abroad, I ate cafeteria food that was healthy and focused on your muscles and things like that but it was American style." I say and she nods her head.

"Eh, you didn't eat any japanese food there?" she asks and I nod my head. "I never had much time to make my own meals there plus the school offered it as well. The only thing I made was breakfast which was a toast with avocado or yogurt." I say and she gives me a look. "What?" I ask and she starts sniffling. "That's so sad! I won't be able to make my own meals or eat anything too healthy, food here is the best!" she says.

I laugh at that and nod my head. "It truly is!" I say.

Soon enough the school bell rings and the both of us get up from our spots. We start walking down the stairs and we come across some third years wing. We walk pass them and I see the three volleyball upperclassmen from the boys club. I smile at them and do a small bow.

"Hey that one with the beauty mark under his eye with silver hair." Hina says as she nudges me with her elbow as we pass them. I look at her and raise an eyebrow. "Sugawara-san?" I say and she nods. "Yeah, you know all the girls in the first year class talk about him a lot. They all go "Kyah!" at times when they see him, they think he's cute and nice." she tells me and snickers thinking about it.

My eyes widen and I laugh at that. "W-wah! Really?! That's too funny! I mean he is nice and cute or handsome like. But the 'Kyah' reminds me of another person as well. It's just too funny." I say and she nods her head. "I know right!" she says back.

"But I also heard rumors about the tall third year with the beard. They said that he is 5 years older and got held back, he participates in fights, tires to sell illegal stuff, and that he's a real baddie." she tells me. This time I full out and laugh and put my arms around me as I walk earning looks from others. "No way!~" I say and wipe some tears away from my face.

Hina nods her head and looks at me seriously, "Do you really think that's true?" she asks with a tilt of her head. I pat her shoulder and laugh a little more. "No not at all!! I practice with the boys and got to know them a little bit. But Azumane , the guy with the beard is no where like that. He's really nice and soft." I say.

She nods her head as we were in our second year hall. "Well I'll see you Hina!" I say as I stop at my classroom. "Yeah see you!" Hina says back as I enter the classroom.

________

My last class finishes and I pack up my books and notebooks away. I walk out of the classroom waving at some classmates. As I close the door I look up to see Ennoshita with Kinoshita and Narita. I smile and wave at them. "Ennoshita, Narita, Kinoshita!" I say and they look back at me and smile widely. "Hey Akiyama." they say back.

I walk over to them. "Going to practice right? Mind if I join along?" I ask and Ennoshita shakes his head. "Yeah you can." he says with a smile. "Thanks." I say and we walk towards the gym and towards the club room.

As we walk their I converse with Ennoshita about school stuff and our classes while Narita and Kinoshita talk behind us.

I separate from them as they head to the club room and I stop at the girl's locker room. I walk inside and put down my bag. I start changing and pull out my gym clothes from my bag. Just as I finish changing I hear the door open and see Kiyoko come in. I smile at her and wave. "Hi Shimizu-san!" I say and she comes over at smiles at me.

"Hi Akiyama-san." She says and I pack my clothes away in my bag. As she goes to her locker I sit down on the stool. "I'll wait for you Shimizu-san so we can go together." I say and she looks over at me and shakes her head as she changes. "No you don't have too." she says softly.

I smile at her and wave my hand "Nah, it's fine! I want to plus I wanna spend more time with you Shimizu-san and get to know you! Your really nice and fun to talk with!" I say and she looks at me with wide eyes and a big smile than I've ever seen makes it way on her face. "Thank you Akiyama-san."

I smile back "No its nothing. Oh and you can call me Sora if you want!" I say and she nods her head. "Okay thank you then Sora-chan." she said with a smile smile. "You can call me Kiyoko, if you wish as well." she said as she finished up.

As soon as she was done we headed over to the gym and entered. I left Kiyoko as she went to do her thing and I went to stretch and warm up. As I was stretching "Akiyama-san, do you need help stretching?" I look up to see Nishinoya looking down at me with an excited face. I blink my eyes at him and I hear "Noya, don't ask her that she's uncomfortable!!" from Sugawara and some snickers form Tsukishima as they also start stretching.

"Uh.....It's okay. Thanks though." I say and give a small smile at him and continue stretching by myself. Nishinoya looks down and has sad and disappointed look on his face. I almost feel kinda bad. I look over at Kinoshita and Ennoshita next to me "Did he really look forward to it that much? " I ask and Ennoshita sweatdrops and shakes his head. "No you shouldn't worry about it." he says and nod my head.

"Ok let's start!!!" Ukai says as we get up in a line and listen to his instructions. Ukai splits us up into two teams as red and white. We started playing a match. I watched as Asahi slammed the ball down and Hinata and Kageyama jump to block. The spike goes off and Narita gets it as I Kinoshita follows up. I stop as I see Daichi get it as he sends it back over.

We play 6 sets as we start to wrap it up and Shoyo yells over to Kageyama to practice some more spikes with him. While some of the third years and second years cool off by stretching and the rest stays off at the side. I sigh and smile at the group. "Oi Shoyo!" I say once he finished hitting a set. He stops and looks at me. "When your doing regular quicks you need to make sure your form doesn't fall out. Try to keep your legs like you did before and when you go into the spike bend back a little then release it down spiking the ball." I say as I went over to him.

Shoyo nodded. "Gotcha! Thanks So-chan!" I nod at him and pat Kageyama on the shoulder. "Good work today, your sets were on point!" I say and watch them practice some more.

"Ahh!" I look over to see Takeda opening the gym door and falling down on his face. My eyes widen and I walk over to where he is along with the members. "You okay Take-chan?" Tanaka says.

Takeda lifts his head off the floor and I see that his nose is bleeding. "W-We're going, right?" he says and I lift a brow at him confused. "Hah?!" Ukai says.

"Where?" Shoyo says and Kageyama jumps in "You nose is bleeding!" he says as I dig in my jacket pocket and pull out a tissue handing it to Takeda. He takes it and lifts up a piece of paper while fixing his glasses. "Tokyo!" Takeda says.

"Tokyo?" Shoyo says as the rest gulp and make sounds of surprise. "You-you mean!?" Shoyo says and has a look of happiness and shakes in his spot. "Huh?" I say and tilt my head. "A practice match?" Kageyama.

"But we won't be playing against Nekoma this time. The Fukurodani Academy group. It's a group of schools from the Kanto region that includes Nekoma. Apparently they hold practice matches regularly." my eyes widen at this. 'Tokyo? Nekoma, a highschool and Fukurodani....Fukurodani Academy group??? Is that the school with...'

"Thanks to coach Nekomata, we'll be able to take part this time." Takeda siad and looked over at me and smiled. "And Akiyama, I had mentioned you to Coach Nekomata and he said that you are also invited to come to the camp with us as well, you'll be able to practice with us as well." Takeda said and I widened my eyes at him.

"Really!? Thank you so much! That means a lot to me!" I say and give off happy and energetic vibes as I bow to him. "WOAh!" Tanaka and Nishinoya said in awe. "Awesome!" they said and hi fived each other.

"Groups like that are created through relationships built over the years, so its not easy to get in without connections. We'll have to thank Coach Nekomata. " Ukai said and looked back at the team. "And Mr.Takeda over here, who I'm sure kept persistently asking him." Ukai finished off.

"No I didn't..." Takeda said as he waved his hands "Ukai's name helped a lot!"

"Thank you!" We all said and bowed towards him. I smiled brightly as I bowed. 'Powerful opponents!! More practice! Nice!!!' I screamed inside my head.

"Over the years Karasuno, we've lost connections with other schools in the prefecture that we used to be friendly with. There are many schools where the coaches that were once close to Coach Ukai are gone. We shouldn't pass up this opportunity!" Takeda says as we got up and looked at him.

I smiled in pure excitement and pulled Shoyo in a hug. "Yes!! Isn't that great Shoyo! I can come with you guys! I'll be able to watch you guys play as well as see your improvement in action!! I can also see all the other cool and strong players too!!" I said as I squished Shoyo in a hug.

I let him go and he sparkled and jumped in front of me. "I know right!! I'll introduce you to Nekoma's setter!! He's so cool!" He said and I nodded. "Sho-kun, I heard the Ace from Fukurodani is really strong and amazing! I really want to meet him and maybe get to play in a game against him!" I said as flowers and bursts of energy radiated off me and Shoyo.

I high fived hands with him. "Yay~" I said. The rest of the team watched with smiles on their faces with some hint of redness to them. 'Too cute and sparkly!' they thought watching us. I turned my head to look at Takeda. "Thank you so much Takeda!! I'll have Nakamoto treat you out somewhere!" I said and he shook his head. "No its fine!"

I shook my head. "Nah it's all good! I'll tell him and he'll take you and Coach Ukai as well!" I said and smiled brightly. I turned around to see Tanaka and Nishinoya look pumped up. "Let's do this Tanaka! Nishinoya!" I say.

"YEAH!" they scream and I high five them. "This time I'm going to protect us till we win!!" Noya yelled as he pumped his fists.

"Woah! We're gonna take down that city boy alliance!" Tanaka yelled and I looked over at him. I tilted my head. "City Boy Alliance?" I say again and look over at Ennoshita beside me. "You know it really doesn't sound like City Boy...." I say and sweatdrop while Ennoshita laughs beside me. "No it doesn't. It sounds absolutely stupid and horrendous." He says and this makes me laugh as well.

"Um the only thing is, their prelims for interhigh start this weekend, so it won't be far away. Also at this point, we've only received an invitation. There are some things that we have to work out still, but I'll give you the details at another time. " Takeda says calming all of us down. He looks at all of us who are smiling. "But of course you guys."

"Of course!..." Daichi starts "We'll go!" we all say with excitement.

"I've got a staff meeting so I'll see you guys later!" Takeda says before leaving.

"C'mon! Hurry up and clean and we'll go home!" Ukai says and I go up to him. "Oh it's okay Coach Ukai! I was going-" I got cut off. "Akiyama, I know that you practice a lot even after without us. But you need to get some rest too, overworking yourself isn't good for you. You can stay behind and practice more another time. But for now rest!" Ukai says while patting my shoulder.

"Hmm. Okay." I say and nod my head while puffing out my cheeks a bit and run to the storage room to grab a mop. "Akiyama, it's good to rest a while too! So listen to Ukai and rest for the week okay?" Sugawara says giving me a small smile.

I nod my head and send a smile back. "M'kay! Will do Suga-san!" I say before head to the storage room.