Chapter one
It was a gray and stormy afternoon. Sato Yokoro walked along in the rain, his head sunken onto his chest, rain pouring onto him fiercely. This wasn't working. His old seeker, Natsumi, was in a freak accident, slamming her face into a cliff while practicing in an abandoned area of the Grand Canyon, and was killed ruthlessly.
Now it was up to Sato, captain of the National Japanese Quidditch Team, to find a new seeker who could hopefully match Natsumi's skill. Still, he missed her bitterly- despite her stunning skill.
The tryouts lasted from Wednesday to Friday, and on Thursday, there was still no luck. If worse came to worse, he would ask Millie, their hyper-active beater, to step in as seeker. It was much easier to find a new beater than seeker, but Millie was too easily distracted for the job, really.
She had been seeker in school, but she probably couldn't handle being a professional seeker now. Thinking about watching Millie when she was still a teenager made him wonder if there would happen to be practice going on at Japan's School of Magical Studies: Gakkou-Mahou.
Unable to shrug off his curiosity, Sato turned on his heel and apparated to Gakkou-mahou and walked through, relieved that there was no magical barrier. He began his descent down the long hallways and out the back gates, to the Quidditch Stadium. Sato had been the best student in his times at the school, and was sure no one would mind if he dropped in for the game, especially not the headmaster, Joyaung, for they had been good friends. With this in mind, Sato began climbing the staircase to the teacher's box. It was probably the best place to watch a practice game, after all.
To his utter surprise, he found it full of chattering teachers, some squabbling about which team would win and some discussing some sort of dinner party. His eyes flickered quietly over the rainy field to where three chasers were swerving without much of a nice form. It would have been easy for his team to have not only stopped the chasers, but beaten them with bludgers and have the snitch caught in front of their noses in a blink of an eye.
"And a great shot is made by Yoko and that's ten points for his team!" the announcer's voice was excited, and Sato let out a small tittering laugh. Pathetic
The teachers all turned, most of their eyes brightening in joyous recognition, other's darkening with dislike. Even a few unfamiliar face's clouded with unrecognition.
"Ah, Yokoro Sato!" Boomed out Joyaung, springing to his feet jovially and opening his arms to embrace Sato heartily.
"Sensei," Sato said respectfully. He was beginning to notice how other teachers were eying his spiky blue hair reproachfully.
"And Katono has spotted the snitch!" boomed the tiny student announcer.
All the teachers turned back to the match, stiffening with interest.
"It's not that we are surprised," Joyaung told Sato. "Miyu is quite the seeker."
Sato turned his eyes with interest to a speeding bullet on the other side of the stadium, fast approaching the teacher's box.
The girl was puny, with a dark blue Quidditch robe obviously to big for her. Her twin black pigtails whipped out behind her like a cloak, the same way Natsumi's elegant blond hair had. She maneuvered her broom almost perfectly, and Sato assumed it was a Firebolt until her saw the golden blur of letters spell out 'Nimbus 2000.'
By now, the other seeker, a lean, towering boy, was also in hot pursuit of the snitch. Within a few seconds, he had managed to bring himself head-to-head with the girl, which Sato found disappointing. Still, the girl was keeping strong, never once leaving to trail of the tiny golden ball.
Finally, the snitch made a sharp turn left. The boy snatched out as it passed him-a completely inexperienced move. Of course, he missed. The girl however, dropped down and flew under, bringing herself up in the snitch's trail. Again, the boy caught her, but this time she rammed him into a stand. Many gasps, boos, and cheers rose up from the crowd, and Sato himself found this move impressive, but still needed some polishing. The girl reached out, her hands mere centimeters from the tiny ball. A bludger came rocketing toward her head, and she managed to duck away just as her fingers wrapped around the golden ball.
She wouldn't have been so lucky if Millie were the beater, he somehow thought.
Her face, once serious, became a ballet of joy and she came to a sudden stop, waving the snitch up in the air. Yowls of joy echoed through the rainy air, but Sato also heard some boos and grumbles. He heard an extremely loud howl of victory from one of the teachers.
"Ha! That's five gallons Mr. Ryo." The student announcer grumbled and dug out some golden coins out of his robe pockets.
Sato covered his mouth with silent laughter, for some reason giddy at the seeker's success as if it were his own team playing.
That seeker could probably leave all of the other tryout players in the dust! Sato marveled, eyes dancing.
"Yokoro, would you like to stay for a mug of…" Joyaung began, but Sato was already sprinting down the steps of the box and out to where the changing rooms were, running so fast that when he tripped over a rabbit hole, it took all of his effort to return to his feet.
He caught up with the crowd and caught sight of black loose pigtails. He swerved under two wrestling beaters who looked like they would fall over any second in fits of laughter, and caught up with the girl- Miyu Katono- who currently had her arms thrown tightly around a good looking boy, no doubt in his senior year.
Sato's throat closed up, and he looked down in embarrassment. When he finally saw the two pairs of feet turn away, his hope of not being seen by a fan was shattered.
"Hey look- its Sato Yokoro, captain of the Japanese Quidditch Team!" yelled a small girl.
"Uh…. No…" Sato protested weakly, the crowd pressing in on him, shouting out praises and asking for autographs. "er, uh…"
"Hey!" came a curt call, and Sato saw Miyu Katono yelling at the crowed, a few of which turned instinctively to her. "Leave him be, you must be suffocating him!"
That did nothing to stop the crowd, who were crazy with lust for a simple signature on their favorite piece of paper.
"Hey, did you see Miyu-san's catch?" somebody called out.
"Yeah, it was a close game, but Miss Miyu is the best!"
"It was a faulty save!"
"Yeah, she should have been fouled for hitting our seeker!"
"That's just because you're seeker is too weak to avoid an attack!"
"Are you here to ask Miss Miyu to join your Quidditch team?" asked the same girl who had first pointed him out. "I heard that Natsumi died two weeks ago."
Hearing about Natsumi's death so bluntly made Sato's heart ache, but he said calmly, "actually… yes! Miyu, come to Quidditch tryouts tomorrow." He explained the location, satisfied at the shocked and embarrassed expression on Miyu's face.
"But what if…" somebody called out. Sato ignored them, hearing about Natsumi made him aggravated. He turned and walked back to the gates, ignoring their squeals of delight that they had seen Sato Yokoro.
XXX Miyu's POV XXX
Miyu Katono-the star seeker of her team- pressed her head deeper into the pillow. All in one day, she had had a stressful day at school, Quidditch match, been accused of cheating multiple times in the match, and been asked to join the Japanese National Quidditch team. All in all, it had been a wonderful, joyful day!
Yeah, right! Miyu thought, removing her head from the pillow and plopping down on her bed. Miyu bit down her lip, very near to drawing blood-a bad habit she had whenever she was thinking hard. Sure, being asked to join Quidditch teams wasn't anything unusual. Already, she had been offered many scholarships to Magical Colleges for her seeking, but didn't seem interested in any. Because of that, many at her school thought the shy, timid little seeker as a stuck-up brat. Why, Miyu didn't know nor care. She just didn't want to spend her life on a broomstick. Was that so hard to understand?
Normally, I'd probably turn down this one too! Miyu admitted to herself. Maybe I should. Of course, to little Miyu that was harder than it sounded. On normal circumstances, she would have turned down this opportunity, but Sato Yokoro, the head chaser and captain of her country's Quidditch team, and Miyu's favorite celebrity, had come to the school and asked her to join.
I could always turn him down, Miyu assured herself, I could not show up at tryouts, I can tell him I can't do it. She began to map out her plan in her head, but somehow seeing the tall, handsome spiky-blue haired boy made Miyu unable to even think the word 'no.' Frustrated, she bit her lip down harder.
At that moment, the door burst open and in flew Hana, the brunette idiot of the school, but also Miyu's closest friend and roommate. Upon seeing Miyu, she squealed in delight, and in less than seconds was at her side.
"Miyu! They asked you to join the Quidditch Team!"
"Yes," Miyu blushed. "I know."
"Oh, just think of it!" Hana ogled. "You'll see yourself on big posters, waving around the snitch, and you'll have so many fans!"
"Hana," sighed Miyu. She was making this much less than easier. "I don't think I want to see my face on big posters."
Suddenly, for the first time, Hana looked annoyed. Very annoyed. In fact, she looked like she was about to murder Miyu, and Miyu shrunk back slightly, wondering for the first time why Hana always talked so loudly.
Hana took a tiny breath, opened her mouth and screeched, "YOU ARE GOING TO THOSE TRYOUTS, BAKA!"
"B-b-b-buh…" Miyu spastically stammered, her eyes wide with shock, and beads of spit on her face.
"Now," Hana smirked. "Get out of bed and scootcha bootie down to the tryouts!"
"But," Miyu finally found her voice. "They're, uh," she wondered if this would cause Hana to scream again. She swallowed. "That is, the tryouts aren't, um, until… tomorrow." She flinched.
"Oh yeeeaaahhh." Hana sighed, and wandered dreamily to her bed, where she flopped down and was snoring in milliseconds.
A/N READ AND REVIEW AND PLEASE NO FLAMES! thanks