Title: A Game to Die For
Author: NoirRouge
Summery: Kagome, a 14year old local school girl, loves nothing more than volleyball. After becoming the best girl on the 16 up team, the head coach of young athletes' 'Youkai' volleyball organization moves her to the male 16 up team. Kagome has only one problem, her team captain, Inuyasha. Inu/kag San/Mir
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, please don't sue -
Enjoy the game. . .
#$
"Fish."
"Fish."
"Fish."
"FISh."
"FISH!"
"FIIISSHH!!!"
"GIRLS! KEEP IT DOWN!"
"Well so much for the fish game." Kagome stated. "Want to watch a movie?"
"Not really. How about hand in boot?" suggested Sango.
"We need at least three people. Maybe I can get my mom and Souta to play."
#$
An hour later
"Two sixes to Sango, that makes a natural, and I discard my 3. I'm out!" Declared Kagome finishing the game.
"Oh man. I had only three cards left!" Souta complained.
"Well now they count against you." She said smiling at her little brother. "Sango how many cards do you have left?"
"Only five. But I have a three!"
"Ha ha! That's minus 500 points!" exclaimed Souta. "Me and mom win!"
"Up for another round Sango?" Kagome asked.
"Sorry Kagome, but you both need to get to bed. You have a Game tomorrow. Meaning you both have to get up early, and its all ready 10:30." Ordered her mother.
#$
That morning Sango and Kagome both woke up at 7. They both showered, ate, and changed into their jerseys.
Sango had the same one that kagome used to have. A skin tight black jersey with a green stripe down the sides, and poison green letters that spelled "Y O U K A I". With the saying "Are ready to spike" right below it. Sango also wore her Asics brand spandex the went a little above mid thy, and all the way up to mid stomach. She had her black and green tube socks with her black Asics brand knee pads.
Kagome had a different jersey than her this year. She had a jersey that was baggy with the color red, and black stripe down the sides and black edges, T-shirt style. It had the number 35 on the left side of her chest. On the back in black was the same style "Y O U K A I". With the saying "peak performance" right below it. Kagome also wore red and black tube socks with black knee pads as well.
"Ok girls you got five minutes to get to the car!" Exclaimed Mrs. Higarashi from down stairs.
"Ok!" they both chorused.
"Hey Sango, did you pack the goods?" Kagome asked hauling her bag onto her shoulder.
"Yep." Stated Sango, patting to the side pocket of her gym bag.
"Good! Were off!" yelled Kagome racing down stairs with Sango in close pursuit.
"Shot gun!" shouted Souta running in front of his sister.
After every one piled in the car with the gym bags in the back of the mini van, they started their hour and half trip.
They were heading to the Y.M.C.A. center in the next town. Sango didn't have her first match till about noon, but kagome played first. Inuyasha had informed everyone who would go in first. It was Miroku in first, Kouga in second, Kagome in third, Hojo in forth, Inuyasha in fifth, and Shipo as lebero for Hiten when ever he was in the sixth spot.
"Mom can we listen to radio?" asked Kagome
Mrs. Higarashi turned the knob for radio and switched the station to one that was playing Elvis's 'take my hand'
"Noooooo" chorused every child in the car.
take my hand, take my whole life through
"The pain!" exclaimed Souta.
Finally the song faded to a stop and the radio guy stated that the next song would be 'pour some sugar on me'.
"Whoop!" shouted Kagome in joy.
"Step inside, walk this way, you and me babe! Hey hey! " Kagome and Sango sang while banging there fists in the air.
#$
"Look Sango! A stick!" Kagome stated, making fun of another teams ridiculously tall thin member.
Sango lit out a small laugh. "Look at her run! She looks like she is about to snap."
"Kagome!" Came a call from the opposite side of the girl courts.
Kagome whirled around to see Shipo waving at her.
"Sorry Sango, I have to go now."
"Don't worry about it. I will watch your first match. I'm sure it will end before mine even starts."
"Ok, see you then Sango, bye!" with that kagome clutched her bag tightly and ran over to Shipo and the other few members of her team gathered together.
"Kagome since your new and all you don't know any of the cheers right?" asked Hiten.
Kagome nodded
"We all decided that we have five minutes before our first game so we would show you all the cheers we have." Stated Hojo kindly.
Kagome looked blankly at everyone not knowing if she should say something.
"Well. . ." started Kouga, breaking the silence. "The first one is the ace cheer. First you say spell ace," Kouga demonstrated spelling Ace while stomping his feet. "Then you do a mock serve and yell 'you know!'." Kouga demonstrated all of this as well.
"A-C-E ace!"
Stomp stomp space jump stomp
"You know!" He shouted in a very deep loud voice.
Kagome tried this and every one laughed as she imitated Kouga's voice sounding constipated.
"The next one is the side out." Stated Shipo.
Shipo showed her this one as well. It continued till the team captains were called to meet.
Every one partnered off. Kagome with Shipo since he was closer to her in height. Shipo started by throwing the ball with one arm. Kagome copied. They switched warm ups until it was their teams turn to practice spiking.
Kagome got in line holding a ball till it was her turn. She tossed the ball high to Inuyasha who set the ball toward her in return. She did the approach she new oh so well and spiked as hard as she could. Perfect right in the center.
"Nice set Kagome."
Kagome blushed slightly in shock and retrieved her ball. Inuyasha had just complemented her for the first time. And he used her name as well!
After 2 minutes they switched to practicing serving. Kagome served landing the ball in the center of the court again. In excitement she twirled a little. She had improved on where she could hit the ball. She wasn't really good at it yet but she was better than before.
When their time was up the shagged all the balls (retrieved them), and went to the side of the court to wait for the other team to finish their drills.
Kagome searched the stands quickly finding her mother, her little brother, and Sango all packed together in the stands waiting for the match to start.
"OK guys," Kouga started. "We've got first serve. Inuyasha and I are the setters, ok. No matter what try to get us the second ball?"
A whistle blew, and the up reff Signaled for the teams to meat. Kagome ran with the others on the side of the court turning at the beginning of the net and low-fived every one on the other side of the net and wished them all good luck as they passed. Oddly enough, Kagome swore she herd a few of them snickering. She new they were laughing at her.
Kagome and the boys all huddled in the center of the court.
"First game is always an easy win." Kouga stated with a smug grin.
"For you or the other team?" Inuyasha asked sarcastically. "This is where we decide if we are going to win this tournament, no matter if it's easy or small. We have not practiced hard to take it easy on them. I want to see you play as hard as you can. That way they defiantly know they are out matched and were polite about it. (It's insulting to take it easy on another team because they aren't as good. Bad sportsmanship!). Now let's go win!" every one on the team made a deep "Hu-ha" sound and they took their spots on the court.
"Go Youkai!" Shipo shouted from the bench. He wouldn't be going in for Hiten till they switched to defense (other side has serve).
Their coach was there as well. Kagome hadn't even known the guy was the coach. She had seen him around during practice but he was mostly supervising the younger boys. Because there was only one coach for all the boys' teams usual had a parent or the team captain run the drills. The coach had his black hair pulled back into a pony tail. He was a little taller than Inuyasha. Kagome recognized him as Onigumo. She knew him because he was always very rude to the head coach of the girls' teams and their team captains. He didn't believe girls were strong enough to play sports, let alone run them.
They all stood in their places waiting for the down reff to check and make sure they were all in their right spots. After about 3 minutes the reff signaled everything was good and the up reff started the game.
The reff stretched out his arm then bent his elbow toward himself and blew his whistle. This was the signal to serve. Miroku gave the ball two good bounces before throwing the ball and making contact with it in mid air. It was a low serve, and it was hard. The other team was not so experienced with this and a short boy in the back was not prepared for this and ducked. The line judge put his hands in front of him signaling the ball in.
Every one including Kagome moved to the center and chanted their ace cheer. Kagome looked over to the side to witness Sango giggling at her little manly display. Kagome turned around and gave Miroku a high five like every one else saying "good serve Miroku! Do it again Miroku!"
Miroku served again this time it was a high one, a 'free ball'. The other team got three hits in with the third as a touch. Kagome got on one knee and threw her arms under the net bring them around as fast as she could yelling 'DIG!', hitting the ball high to the server behind her, Kouga. He set the ball across the court to Hojo, who spiked the ball to the corner in front of him. The other team didn't even get within two feet of the ball. The up reff signaled the point to their team.
Every one walked up to Kagome Giving her pats on the back and high fives while saying things like "way to be there Kag!", "Nice Dig Kagome!" and "Keep it up!". Even Inuyasha gave her a double high five, making her blush a little again.
Miroku served again. This time he hit two hard with the low serve, causing it to go out of bounds. The other team rotated and waited for the score keeper to record the points. When they signaled they had it to the up reff the up reff looked at Onigumo and nodded. He patted Shipo on the back, who ran onto the court and switched Places with Hiten.
Shipo hade the exact opposite color for his jersey. Instead of Black stripes on red, he had red strips on black. This was common for Lebero players.
They up reff signaled for the other team to serve. Shipo got the ball as high as he could to set the ball strait to her. Kagome did the approach and instead of spiking set the ball to the corner of the court where no one was playing.
"Go Kagome!" Sango and Souta yelled from the bench.
Kagome smiled and waved at them while they rotated. It was now Kouga's serve.
It continued like this for about 10 more minutes before they won the first game, and then switched places. The game was a short easy win. Kagome did exactly as Inuyasha told her; she played at her hardest and was sweating, and out of breath. Kagome walked over to her team coach who quieted every one and approached Kagome.
"Kagome Higarashi?" he asked with a rather annoying smirk. "Not bad for the first game. Welcome to the team." He stated and shook her hand.
Maybe he wasn't that bad. . .
#$
"Hey Kagome! Great game, see you at the hour break. I have to go do warm ups with the girls." Sango said while hugging her friend.
"Ok, say hi to Kagura and Kanna for me." She called as her friend ran to the other courts.
"Hello honey, good game." Mrs. Higarashi congratulated her daughter. "I'm Going to meet Sango's mother and we will take Souta and Kohaku to their basketball game, then I will come back and watch Sango's match. I'll see you all right."
"Ok mom, see you later." She said hugging her mother then walking back over to the team.
"Hey Kagome your to late." Shipo stated. "We have to reff now. You and I are stuck as line reffs."
After about 10 minutes Kagome and Shipo took their positions as line reffs. Onigumo was up reffing, Inuyasha was down reffing, and Miroku and Kouga were doing the score keeping, while Hojo kept track of the game sheet.
#$
It was about 1 in the afternoon, and after two more victorious matches, and all the teams were allowed a two hour break. Kagome and Sango's mothers were talking in a cafeteria like are, Souta and Kohaku were at a basketball tournament in another part of the building.
Kagome walked down the hallway that connected the gyms, and walked over to where Sango and she had decided to set up 'camp'. Usually at volleyball tournaments people like to bring blankets, pillows, and coolers with drinks or snakes. She claimed her spot next to Sango who was listening to music while waiting for her.
"Welcome back." Sango stated taking off her head phones. She picked up a red apple and threw it at Kagome. "Apple for your thoughts?"
"Thank you." Kagome said taking a huge bite out of the apple. "Do we have any Gatorade left or did Souta steel it all?" She asked reaching over Sango into the cooler beside her.
"There should be some propel in the bottom of the cooler."
"Whoop! Kagome I would personally like to thank you on the lovely view." Miroku shouted, coming down the hallway towards her and Sango. Hojo and Kouga were also with him.
Kagome sat down immediately, pulling her shirt down over her skin tight spandex. All the boys on the team choose to wear baggy basketball shorts instead of spandex. It, after all, was only required for the younger boys. She glared at Miroku, embarrassed.
"I'm sorry Kagome it was an accident. May we sit with you?"
"Pull that again and I will "accidentally" spike a ball onto your head!" The boys chuckled at her little threat. Kagome and Sango scooted a bit making way for the three boys. "Where is Shipo?" She asked looking at them.
"He is with Inuyasha. They are scoping out some of the competition." Hojo Filled in.
"Who might your lovely friend be kagome?" Miroku asked glancing at Sango.
"I'm Sango," She stated shaking his hand. "I'm Kagome's best friend. Your Miroku right?"
"Yes I am. It's very nice to meet you." He said leaning forward placing his other hand on Sango's chest.
Sango not expecting this let out a little "eep" and started at him for a minute wide eyed.
Miroku just smiled at her.
"Five, four, three," Kouga started to count. "Two, one . . ."
At that exact second a rather loud slap echoed through the hall way.
#$
"Hey Kagome!" Shipo plopped down next to Kagome.
"Get any valuable information?" she asked teasingly.
"All the teams are going to be pretty easy to beat." Inuyasha stated leaning against the wall. "Except for one team, Gokuraku. They have won all their matches so far. We most likely will go against them to decide the winner of the pool play (a game set up to find the winner of a tournament.).
"Well looks like Inuyasha will be satisfied with at least one good game this time. He's going soft." Remarked Kouga causing everyone to laugh
"Feh," was the last thing they her out of him for the rest of time, not including an occasional comment.
Kagome and the boys chatted about random things while Sango made sure to keep distance between her and Miroku. This was the first time she had talked to the boys about anything outside of volleyball. This was also one of the few places she could.
#$
Inuyasha had been right about the easy wins. They were in their last match of the pool play against team Gokuraku.
The Gokuraku team had rather tall muscular players. Kagome looked like an elementary student compared to them. But the rest of her team mates looked thrilled to have a good match. Kagome had a rather annoying nag in her stomach she always got when she was nerves.
They all ran through their warm ups and went to the spots they had in there first match. Kagome looked at the guy across the net from her. He looked like he could squash her with one spike.
The Up reff Signaled for Miroku to serve. He did two bounces then used his in-famous low, fast serve that did about the same thing as a spike. They easily returned the ball with two paces and a spike.
Shipo tried his hardest to get under the ball. It turned out it hit him square in the face. A scream echoed through the court. The game was called to a stop.
Kagome ran over to Shipo who was sitting on the ground teeth gritted, and eyes squinted shut with tears seeping through. Kagome watched at a few drops of blood fell from Shipo's hands onto the floor. Kagome stared wide eyed, the spike had broken Shipo's nose.
#$
They had lost the first game and won the second game. The tie breaker wasn't looking to good for them. The score was 15 to 17. One more point and team Gokuraku would win.
Kagome was dead tired and sweating very heavily. The serve came again. Kouga got the first pass, and Inuyasha set it right towards her. She had become to tired to spike so she set the ball over the net, giving them a free ball. They returned it with three hits as usual. Hojo got the ball but it went strait for her, and she knew Inuyasha wouldn't be able to get over to her in time. Also Kagome knew they would be expecting 3 hits so she stood facing toward Inuyasha as if to set to him, but instead she jumped bending at her side setting the ball over the net sideways.
Kagome was right! They hadn't been expecting this. She was back to her serve. She grabbed the ball and served to her favorite spot in the corner. ACE! Kagome had gotten and ACE! The other team was tired as well and couldn't get to the ball. She did the same thing again.
On the Third serve, the crowd stood and started to clap. It was game ball for both sides. Kagome served. This time the ball came over on one hit. Kouga ran up setting the ball strait behind their back row players. They all herd the ball hit ground.
Before Kagome new it every one on her team was hugging her and cheering. The crowd cheered loudly for them as well. They had won the first tournament of the season.
#$
It was almost nine o-clock, and it was dark out side. Kagome had been sent to retrieve the blanket they had left in the 'camp out' spot. She hurried over to it folded it and stood back up.
Kagome felt a hand on her shoulder and whirled around. Inuyasha was standing behind her holding the medal necklace they had received for their victory.
"What is it?" she asked staring at him blankly.
Before she knew it Kagome felt Inuyasha hugging her tightly. After a few odd silenced seconds Kagome herd Inuyasha whisper in her ear "thank you, lazy girl."
With that he walked away.
After standing in place for a few seconds Kagome felt something heavy around her neck. She looked down and saw the medal. Inuyasha had given it to her. . .
#$
Kagome played with the medal on the way home, blushing lightly at the memory. She leaned against the window staring at the dark sky for a few moments.
She fell asleep lightly leaning into the window. She had determined one thing out of her confusion.
Today had been a very good day.
#$
YEAH! Third chapter is a long one huh -?
I appreciate your reviews!!!!!! Please once again if you read my story I would be the happiest person in the world if you reviewed. Even if you just say 'I read the story. I await the next chapter.' I would be very pleased.
Flames welcomed!
Next chapter: Gokuraku has some history with Inuyasha and Kouga, and they want revenge. . .
R & R!!!!!!!!!!!!!