"If you want to win, become stronger."

Shoyo glared down at Kageyama as he walked away, the bitter sting of defeat thrumming through his chest. He could feel his eyes prick with unshed tears, his throat raw from frustration. He did his best, he knew that well, and yet it wasn't enough to overcome the wall in front of him. He vowed to become stronger and push himself to his limits. This is a loss he'd etch into his heart. He'd defeat Kageyama. Someday.

"I see that went well. Are you good?"

An arm slung around his neck as his head turned to look at the amber-eyed girl, her normally half-lidded eyes fully alert and her brows furrowed in concern.

"Hai!"

His response made her smile.

"If you say so."

"Come on guys, we need to practice! We're not gonna win if we don't!"

"Whatever. It's not like it's important, anyway."

"Aki-chan, we're not the boys' team. We don't need to win this, we're girls. We just aren't good at this stuff."

She hated how content and satisfied they were with how they are. She hated how they thought it wouldn't matter just because they were girls. She hated how they would throw condescending looks at her for wanting and trying so hard to excel at a sport and be taken seriously. She hated how complacent they were when they could all be so much more.

The buzzer sounded like a death knoll rather than the end of a match.

'111 - 11'

Akiko stared in horror at what her team had done.

'111 - 11'

Realization crept on her like how bile went up to her throat. They completely mocked and played their opponents. They weren't a team. They all played by themselves, scoring points against one another instead of playing against Meiko. Even Meiko's points were orchestrated.

'111 - 11'

She felt sick. She couldn't believe they would do this. Her hand covered her mouth in shock, her eyes flicked to where a redhead stared at the score in blatant satisfaction. She couldn't believe he let them do this. This wasn't the team she helped form, helped reach the top. This wasn't her team.

'111 - 11'

Staring back at the score, she felt something in her break. What she couldn't stop thinking though, was that she had a hand in this.

Screaming her throat raw at her team did nothing but cause her grief and be dismissed as a lunatic. Too blinded by their hunger for victory, they couldn't see what they did wrong.

...

'Generation of Miracles Dominates Meiko'

'Kamizaki Junior High B-ball Player, Jumped Off Building'

'Dojizamaki Basketball Team, Blames Generation of Miracles for Teammate's Suicide'

'Meiko Basketball Club, Disbanded out of Trauma?'

Akiko's eyes grew dimmer with every news article she read. 'Ever-Victorious' her living ass, all it did was make them blind with the victory. She felt guilt eat at her with every news written about the tragedy. She still couldn't grasp how all this escaped her for at least half a year. She knew they were changing, no, she already knew they did, but it never occurred to her that they were capable of what she witnessed at that final match at all.

Her trail of thought was broken when she felt her bed dip and she hurriedly turned her phone off. Turning her head to look at the trespasser of her room, her gaze met a pair of crimson eyes along with a pout he will forever deny.

"You're upset."

She scoffed at the verb he used.

"Understatement. I'm disgusted at what you guys did."

Akiko couldn't help but feel her gut churn at Akashi's confused expression.

"But we still won. That has always been what's important, wasn't it?"

She pursed her lips at his response. They've argued about this countless of times, and they were both too stubborn to admit defeat. So she called for a truce, she didn't want their friendship to end over this. She valued their relationship way too much for that.

"So what are you going to do, Tetsu?"

Akiko lazily slipped on her vanilla milkshake as she waited for her former teammate to respond. She didn't have anything better to do this weekend, so she decided to check on the Phantom Player.

"I'm joining Seirin, they have a good team. I'll show them that their basketball is wrong."

She admired the steel in his eyes as he proclaimed his intent. She admired the strength that he had and smiled wryly.

"That's good. Someone has to beat that in their heads after all."

She paused for a bit, not quite sure how break the news to her friend before she mentally shrugged. She was never one for softening her words.

"I'm moving out of Tokyo. And I'm quitting basketball. That match..." Her smile slipped off her face as she stared at her drink.

"When I helped Sei build the team, everyone loved the sport and even though we were all first years, we reached the Nationals. I envisioned a team, a family who supports each other through thick and thin. That match showed me the exact opposite. When you're strong enough, teamplay becomes nothing but a notion to you. Reading those news articles? How many lives did I ruin by spearheading those monsters?"

'The only one who can beat me is me!'

Her hand tightened to a fist at the memory. Deeming the memory a distraction, she banished it and smiled again at Kuroko.

"I wish you all the luck, Kuroko. If you need any help, anything at all, just let me know. I'll try my best to help you."

Hinata Shoyo's leg bounced as his anticipation made his ADHD act up. Today was the day Akiko moved back in after spending most of her life in Tokyo. He only found out about it a week ago, when she face timed him and told him she wanted a break from basketball. It was then that he convinced her to go to Karasuno with him and join Volleyball. If he noticed her bloodshot eyes and runny nose, he never mentioned anything about it.

Akiko's eyebrow rose as the yellow and blue ball rolled over to her.

"You do know I don't know much about Volleyball, don't you?" She said as she picked up the ball. Her lips twitched as he started waving his arms around.

"Come on, it's fun! Here, I'll toss. You just have to 'Woosh' and 'Gwah' and then 'Boom'!"

She snickered at his inarticulate response. She put her book down and jogged over.

"Alright, alright. I'll give it a try."

Shoyo tossed the ball at her, to spite him from taking her away from her book, she caught the ball and shot it, free-throw style. Watching him splutter in indignation, she let out a laugh.

"Maa, maa. I'll do it right this time. Promise!"

Bouncing back, Shoyo fetched the ball and tossed it to her. Running up to the net, she jumped as if doing a dunk and smacked the ball as hard as she could down to the other side of the court.

The resounding smack had her looking at her hand. It felt good, letting her aggression out on the ball. It felt different from basketball. She could see why her twin fell in love with it.

And to her surprise, she could see herself falling in love with it too.


( Hey guys! I know I have two other stories, that I still haven't updated lately, but I've been obssessed with Haikyuu lately and I've always wanted to write a KnB fic, but they always felt lacking. The idea formed and evolved in my head during my finals. I just HAD to write it down. Hope you guys like it! If you got ideas or any suggestions, then please comment or PM me. Thankssss~)