Courage (勇気)
Prologue 1
"Life's a bore if you don't challenge yourself." —Yuu Nishinoya
"Whatever you decide to do, make sure it makes you happy." —Makoto Murasakime
"HATOYAMA!"
The sound of the crowd's cheering surrounded the gigantic gymnasium.
"Fly! Fly! Pigeons of the Sky!"
The lively cheers of the crowd always out their team at ease when playing against their opponents.
"GO! GO! SUZUMEBACHI!"
Muffled cheers from the opposing side seemed to be overpowered by the boisterous crowd of the champions.
Breathe in... Breathe out...
"Left!" Called one of the spikers.
Their setter took a very quick glance, that went unnoticed by the opponents, at her teammate before she made the decision to toss a fast one at her.
"Finish it in one shot, Ace!" Yelled the setter with golden eyes glaring at the ball that was tossed by her.
168.29 centimeters to the right and 8 centimeters away from the endline... 48% amount of power and 52% amount of control used... Their libero will assume things wrong from here.
Whilst on the mid air, their Ace fixated her eyes away from the ball to the opposing libero.
Even if she noticed it coming... She won't make it in time...
*WHAM!*
"OUT!" Suzumebachi's libero called out.
It was such a crucial moment as silent befalls across the stadium. The sound of the ball being spiked on the opposite court can only be heard.
Suzumebachi's libero stared at one of the line judges as they started to squint their eyes at the end line where the ball somewhat touched.
Hatoyama's Ace landed on her feet, straightening her position, her purple eyes lazed all over the opposing side.
The line judges slightly moved their arms, startling them due to this dreadful moment.
Fweh... It's decided that we get to play more—!
Her head started to throb in pain, making her wince at the sudden sensation. She grabbed her head with her left hand as she tried to focus her attention to the judges.
Why..? Why does it have to be now?
Her breathing became unsteady, her head is starting to spin. And her knees are about to give in. The Ace suddenly shook her head to get her attention back to the line judges.
They pointed their flags downward, indicating that the ball was in bounds.
The referee blew the whistle. Hatoyama just scored from thier set point. They won the fourth set. One more and they'll win the nationals. Meaning, that they will play more.
The crowd burst in loud cheers, proud and happy at their team's capabilities.
"YOSHAAA!"
Throwing their fists in the air, the girls cheered out happily, grateful at the fact that they will play in the final set.
Their setter, a short brunette with blonde roots and ringlets, ran to their Ace and jumped at her to give her a deadly hug.
"MAKOTO-CHAN! We get to play one more set again!"
The Ace, a slightly taller ravenette with light purple streaks, just looked in horror at the incoming canon, preparing for the hug of her life.
"Ah wait, Senritsu-senpai! I'm not in good condition to-!" Without finishing her protest, Makoto was tackled onto the ground by the said incoming canon of a small setter.
After getting up, the senpai pulled their Ace back to her feet. "Well, my name is not Senritsu Harukawa if I don't give my kouhai an amazing hug~!"
Suddenly, a tall girl with straight black hair approached them with a mischievous smile.
"You can't call her 'senpai' if she's in the same grade as we do, Makoto."
Makoto caught her breath slightly before bowing to the black-haired girl.
"Captain!"
Senritsu pulled her back up before sending their captain an incredulous look. "Misako Akiyama-chuan. Why would you say that? We're two years apart!" The supposed senpai pouted like a kid wanting to know why she can't eat candy before dinner.
Chuckling a bit, Misako's metallic eyes glinted with mischief. Seeing this, Makoto sighed exasperatedly.
Here comes the husband and wife argume—!
There it is again, the throbbing pain.
Makoto wince visibly, she held her head while shutting her eyes to ease the pain.
She looked around, everything seems to be spinning wildly. Then she looked at what's in front of her, her teammates are arguing once again.
"The word 'senpai' comes from levels and rankings, not age and intelligence! Come to think of it, you're not even intellligent to begin with!" Queried the captain.
The blonde turned brunette setter tried to think of a good comeback but no avail.
Misako sees this then decided to push further. "Well, it's your fault for repeating your last year of middle school twice after all. I'm surprised that you even managed to go to high school, it makes me think that your repeated your school year on purpose just so that you won't graduate before us."
"Wha..? That's not—!"
"Um... Senpai, Captain, Coach Nishinoya calling us now. We need to get going." Weakly, the raven-haired Ace interfered, not wanting to know where this argument would travel to.
The duo looked at each other beofre shrugging in defeat.
Senritsu put her hands behind her head the started to walk to their bench, the two ravenettes followed suite. "You're right. You know how Coach is, she lectured me throughout the entire time out all because I couldn't block Suzumebachi's Ace during the second set..."
"That's your fault, idiot." Misako commented, not letting the brunette to finish her potential long story.
"I suck at jumping, okay?! Even Fuyumi jumps higher that I do!"
"If our libero jumps higher than a setter like you, then why don't you start practing once we won? It's beneficial since you're so short, idiot." Misako stated bluntly.
The setter turned around sharply, sending the captain a dirty look. "Excuse me? You call me SHORT?! Isn't it that my height is just average?!"
Makoto stepped in before another argument will commence. "No, it's lower than average. Saki's height in 157 centimeters is the average, compared to your 154 centimeters."
The blonde turned brunette just grumbled under her breath at Makoto's answer. "Doesn't make any difference to your lousy 159 centimeters of a height..."
Misako just sighed at the sight she just witnessed. Glancing at their Ace, she noticed that Makoto looked so much paler than her skin is supposed to be. "Hey Makoto, you okay? You looked awfully pale right now."
Startled, the Ace decided to put up a front. "Am I? Must be from the last hit, I did a lot crictical thinking on that one after all... Hehe..."
"I see..."
There's the throbbing pain again, it's much more painful this time.
The world started to spin rapidly.
She looked around.
The pain won't stop.
It's still there.
It won't go away.
She held her head once again, tightly this time.
She grunted a few more times.
Her knees are about to give up once again.
Her breathing became more shallow.
Her eyelids felt heavier at every second.
She looked around once again.
Everyone was chatting so happily.
Her body felt numb, but her head doesn't.
Noises started to muffle out.
Her vision became blurr.
Nothing but pain is left.
Then everything went black.
Author's Note: Since when did playing Rolling Sky made me come up with this story? Don't ask me, it just came.
Okay, I actually came up with this in the middle of the night when I was rereading some NoyaXOC on wattpad. Besides, this is my first ever Haikyuu! fanfiction so I wanted to give it a try on a CanonXOC story. Besides I haven't touched my account for like almost two years so I wanted to give it a new start with a new story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Haikyuu! except for the OCs. Haikyuu! belongs to Furudate Haruichi and Shōnen Jump. This story might go according to the manga.
~松原文子ちゃん