"No," Ruto Oka whispered, trembling. "It can't be. This wasn't supposed to happen!"

Snarling, Ayano grabbed Oka by the shirt collar of her uniform while Kageyama watched as a figure rose from behind the billowing black smoke.

"What kind of demon have you summoned?!" she demanded, her eyes blazing as she held a knife to Oka's throat.

"Don't kill me!" Oka pleaded. "I'm the only who can send it back...!"

"Send what back?"

"What the hell is going on here?" Kageyama muttered, rubbing his eyes. This smoke was seriously getting irritating. And that mysterious lardy shape was not helping anything. His heart raced with fear and he longed to run for his life but his feet were rooted to the ground.

And then the smoke dissipated, revealing—

Ayano's eyes widened.

Kageyama stared.

Oka swallowed before sighing in relief.

"Thank god it's not—"

"Fiona?"

Shrek, in all his green glory, had arrived.

Earlier that week...

"Whoa, who's the new kid?"

"Kyaa! He's soo hot...!"

"Is he a transfer?"

Kageyama Tobio yawned to himself, completely oblivious to the comments that several girls were making about him.

So this is Tokyo. He glanced at the sign that said "Welcome to Akademi High" before continuing on his way, passing through the school's iron gates.

I wonder if the volleyball club here is any good.

Naturally, Kageyama had gravitated to the prestigious Shiratorizawa Academy as his first choice for high school, but he had flunked the entrance exams, having not even scored double digits.

Karasuno High had been his second choice, but then his mother had suddenly announced they were moving to Tokyo so she could take up a job offer there.

And now here he was, changing into his indoor shoes while drinking a carton of strawberry milk.

His locker was located right next to a girl with an unusually large bust size who wore her hair up in two purple drills.

Noticing that she was in the presence of a new student, she smiled and said to him, "Hi there! You must be new around here. I'm Haruka Kokona, a third year."

"Oh, erm, Kageyama Tobio. Do you know where class 1-2 is, Haruka-senpai?"

"Oh! It's on the first level. All of the first year classrooms are." She smiled at him. "Hey, since you're new around here, why don't I show you around? It's my duty as a senpai, after all and class doesn't start for another hour."

"Ah, okay." He bowed respectfully to her. "Thank you, Haruka-senpai."

As Kokona led him around the school and it's various facilities, Kageyama's mind was only on one thing. And that one thing, of course, was volleyball, the game that he had completely immerse himself into.

"... And the incinerator's over here." The girl grimaced. "The delinquents hang out here but they won't bite too much if you pass peacefully. Don't respond to any of their taunts or else you'll be in big trouble. Thank goodness that the leader's not around otherwise they'd be a hundred times worse."

"What happened to him?" Was he expelled or something?

"Her," Kokona corrected as they returned to the main building and to the courtyard, where a lovely fountain sat in the centre. "And she was suspeneded for her violent tendencies."

Wow. I didn't know that girls could be so violent. He glanced around the courtyard. ... Tokyo is so different from Miyagi. A pang of homesickness hit him. I wonder how different things would have been if kaa-san hadn't gotten the job.

"I'll leave you here," Kokona said cheerfully, joining a group of girls who were engaged in gossip. "Just talk to me if you need anything, Kageyama-kun!"

"Ah, wait! Where's the volleyball club?"

"Volleyball club?" Kokona's voice wavered nervously as she saw the intense look Kageyama was giving her. "Umm... you might be better off talking to the President of the Sports Club about that..."

To say that he was disappointed was an understatement. At first, he had been royally pissed, sullenly sitting through class with a glare so fierce that even the teacher avoided unnecessary contact.

But now, all he felt was hollow disappointment as he sat on a bench at the roof, pulling out his bento.

I can't believe there's no volleyball club.

Students milling about the roof cowered at the dark aura he was giving off but Kageyama didn't notice.

"I can't believe this," Kageyama said to himself, unable to accept the damning reality of there being no volleyball club. For the genius setter, this was an absolute nightmare.

He had nearly finished eating when a shadow of a girl swept past him, a determined look on her face.

The girl had dull black hair that was tied back in a ponytail, her choppy bangs framing her heart-shaped face nicely.

But that Kageyama noticed most of all was just how sneaky she was being. As she neared a corner, she squatted and waddled as close as she could to whatever was behind that wall.

Suspicious, he got out of his seat and followed her, making sure to keep his footsteps quiet.

"... Ever since my mom died, my dad's been drinking a lot," a familiar voice drifted through the air as he neared the black-haired weirdo. Kageyama paused to listen to Kokona seemingly pour her worries out to her friend.

Kokona went on to explain that when her father got drunk, he sometimes came into her room. She cut herself off then, much to Kageyama's ire.

What kind of trouble was his upperclassman having at home? She might have been eighteen, but she was still a girl. What if her father was hurting her?

At that moment, the black-haired stalker stood up to her full height, the crown of her head bashing into Kageyama's chin.

"Fuck!" both of them shouted at the same time out of shock and pain.

Kageyama rubbed his chin while the girl cradled her head, both looking extremely ticked off.

As if I don't have enough shit to deal with, Kageyama thought.

"How much of that did you hear?" the girl demanded, her eyes narrowed in accusation.

"I should be asking you the same question," he growled. "Is stalking people and eavesdropping on their conversations a pastime of yours?!"

Granted, he had done pretty much the same thing, but that was beside the point here.

"One of my many hobbies," the girl said flippantly. Kageyama gave her a skeptical look, unsure whether she was joking or not. He sincerely hoped that she was. She glared st him suspiciously. "Stay out of my way."

"You stay out of my way."

"Tsk." With that, she was off. By the time Kageyama got his bearings together and turned after her, she had vanished.

He blinked at the near empty rooftop. The only other student up there at this moment was a green-haired ditz that liked to bother this indie game developer with emails containing pointless and tedious questions.

Or at least that was what the rumours said.

The black-haired girl remained in his mind for the rest of the day and not in a good way. As he walked back home to the apartment he shared with his mother, she still plagued his mind.

There was something off about that girl. Stalkerish tendencies aside, she was creepy.

Tch. Weirdo.

Too bad that things were only about to get stranger around Akademi High.

A/N: Welcome to my latest disaster in making. Please try not to kill yourself too soon.