Libero of Aoba Josai

Chapter 1

"Lancer-san! Oi!"

I looked up with a awkward smile. "Hey?" It was Kaori Hikaru, a boy I met just before coming to Seijoh. Since moving to Japan. Because of a...incident in America.

"Lancer-san, you can play volleyball, right?"

I wrinkled my nose. "You don't have to add the 'san', you know?"

Hikaru flushed. "I couldn't do that. We barely know each other."

I scratched the back of my head, amused. "Sorry." He sent me an annoyed look. I know i didn't even sound sorry. I remember Hikaru's reaction when I first called him that. It was more of a joke now. I knew the language, but I didn't have the culture down.

Hikaru taped my shoulder. "So? Volleyball?"

I brightened up. "Yeah! You play? Ooh, what position do you play? I'm a Libero-"

Hikaru laughed. "Chill out, Lancer-san! No, I don't play. You sign up, yet?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm gonna. Heard the team is one of the best in the prefecture."

Hikaru sent me a disbelieving look. "You don't pay attention, do you? Girl's team sucks."

I blinked. "Really? Oh well, I'm still gonna play."

Hikaru smirked. "I figured that. Hey, do you think you could make the boy's team?"

I snorted out a laugh. "Boy's team?"

I looked down at myself. It was after school, so I was in a t-shirt and shorts. My brown hair was cropped short around my ears as I never wanted it to get in the way. As weird as it was my chest was barely there, but I could hide that too. I shook my head from even thinking about it. "What? No."

Hikaru's smirk widened. "What, think you can't?"

I was turning away, but I stiffened, turning back around. I asked lowly. "You don't think I could?" I puffed up a little. "I so could."

Hikaru snickered. "Alright-"

I smacked him on the back. "You got a deal, Hikaru."

He flushed red again. "I told you to stop that!"

I yelped as he smacked me over the head. "Ow!"

/ / / /

Next day I dressed in my volleyball clothes ( sneakers, t-shirt and shorts). A couple of first years were there. A couple of first years were there. Kindichi and Kunimi. Two students my age that were close to each other and in my classes. It's how I recognized them. Kindichi had gravity defying hair and Kunimi was sleepy looking. I was amused at how much gel Kindichi must use.

I saw a couple other guys already in uniform who looked to a little older. I automatically looked at the guy with the Number 1 over jersey. Which made him the Captain. The other older players were wear over jerseys with numbers on them too. The Captain was smiling. He was pretty with overly styled brown hair and brown eyes.

Suddenly, Number 4 smacked Number 1 on the back, saying something to him him. Number 4 had spiky black hair and green eyes. The Captain made a face at Number 4, saying. "Fine, Iwa-chan."

I can bet that's not his name. I'm going to wait to I hear his real one. Oikawa smiled, looking over at us first years. "I remember some of you from Kitigawa Daichi, but-" His dark eyes went to mine.

I stiffened a little at his attention, but nodded my head. "Yeah, Jamie-" I stopped myself short and shook my head a little. I almost forgot that Japanese used their last names first. "Lancer Jamie." I remember manners. "Thank you, uh, for having me." That still feels weird to stay. I just nodded my head. I felt it would be too weird to bow. I knew my voice was accented, I couldn't help that.

The Captain looked over all of with a beaming grin. "I'm Oikawa Tooru. Your Captain. Welcome!" He bowed a bit toward us and the other two on either side of me bowed about 90 degrees. I tilted my body forward a little.

/ / / / /

After that was tryouts. The Number 4 was Iwaizumi Hajime. He was the spiker and Ace along with being the Vice Captain. He seemed very activated at Oikawa, but not genuinely pissed off. The two coaches were on the sidelines, just watching the practice. Watari Shinji was the older Libero on the team. I was pretty awed at his clean and nice receives. It was amazing.

I was working on light and simple receives with the others. I heard Oikawa say. "Little American-chan? Your position?"

I stared at him with a blank look. That better not be a regular nickname."Libero." I noticed Watari look over at me. I was set up for more receives, but these were more spread out and more powerful. Both from serves and spikes. Kindichi seemed to be a blocker and Kunimi a spiker.

The crazy thing was trying to receive Oikawa's serve. It bounced off my arms hard, smacking into the wall. I guess he wanted to test it against me. Dammit! That was almost too fast to see, let alone receive. Oikawa looked like he expected that, but it annoyed me. I need to do better.

Soon, it was over and Oikawa was smiling at me, Kindichi and Kunimi. "Congratulations, you made it." I tilted my body with them, not bowing, but close enough. Iwaizumi went to explain that soon we'd get our jerseys and our number. Also, Monday was no practice and we had it Tuesday-Friday. In the morning and after school.

/ / /))))/

I jumped on Hikaru when I saw him after practice. I threw an arm over his shoulder. "Hey!"

He jumped a little "Woah! Lancer-san! How'd it go?"

I grinned, tightened my arm. "I made it and nobody ever knew." We were meeting after school again.

Hikaru smiled back at me. "That's great."

I let go of him. "Thanks for the idea, Hikaru. Ow!"

"What did I tell you about calling me that? I swear you do it to annoy me."

He sent me a look of disbelief as I grinned at him in answer. I huffed at him when he smacked my arm. "Hey!"

Hikaru rolled his eyes skyward. "Why am I friends with you?"

I sent him a smug smirk. "Because I'm awesome."

Hikaru snorted. "Sure." I could hear the sarcasm. It was cool. Me and Hikaru weren't friends for long, but I felt like I've known him for a long while. Me and him couple make fun of each other and not get offended.

/ /) / / /)))))

Next practice, Watari was working with me on receives. He called out. "Lancer-san!" But I already going for a flying receive. It bounced off my arms and went over the net, to be smacked down by Kindichi.

Watari smiled at me, grey eyes lightening up. "Good receive!"

I smiled back, flushing a little. "Thanks." If was great getting praise from another Libero. I was only one on my old team.

"You play in Middle School?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Starting out on a team since 6th grade. Played for fun before that."

Watari looked confused. "6th grade?"

I blinked as he words came back to me. " Oh, I mean First Year."

Watari nodded. "I guess that makes sense." Kindichi and Kunimi were practicing spiking, receiving sets from Oikawa. Two of the third years I didn't remember the name of were practicing with Iwaizumi and Oikawa. Kunimi was looking a little tired. It made me wonder why a tired person was playing volleyball, but to each his own I guess.

I was amazed as I saw Oikawa serve again and Iwaizumi's spike. They both were powerful.

"Sure is something, isn't it?" I jumped a little turned to see their other setter Ya-something.

"Yeah." I coughed. "Hai." Sometimes the switch was hard.

The setter smirked at me. "Don't worry about the English words so much. Were not stupid, you know? We can understand a little bit." I felt my face twist, trying to explain myself, but he smacked my shoulder with a laugh. "Relax. Just joking." My shoulder stung , but in a good way.

I scratched the back of my head. "Yeah..." I was reaching for his name. I was bad at those.

The setter sent me a dry look. "You don't remember my name, do you?"

Watari snickered, hitting a volleyball back tears the net. I smiled awkwardly, flushing a little again. "I'm bad at names."

"Yahaba Shigeru."

"WATCH OUT!"

I snapped my head toward the noise to see a fast volleyball headed toward me. I steaded my legs, spreading them a little and putting my arms in the receiving position. It was received cleanly to the other side. I smiled. That was a good receive. Iwaizumi grinned in our direction. "Good receive."

Number 2, who had black hair and eyes, laughed, grabbing Iwaizumi's shoulder. " Our little kohai just received your spike. He something alright."

I gave a half smile, beyond proud I was showing what I could do. Being a first year, I didn't know the play time I would get. My wrists still burned from the spike, it was another type of good burn. They were bright pink, almost red. As a Libero, I didn't have to worry about serving, but I had one import job. Keeping the ball off the court. The rest I could leave to the team.

/ / / /))))))

When I walked back into the gym next practice, Oikawa was whining, which wasn't a surprise. "Tobio-chan is on a team. We have to play them."

Coach Irahita was sending him an exasperated look. " Do you even know the name of the team?"

Oikawa nodded. "Karasuno."

Number 3, who had light brown hair. "Karasuno? The Wingless Crows?"

Number 2 (I really needed to learn their names). " Yeah, they haven't won anything."

Kunimi and Kindichi's faces went dark, though Kindichi's was more obvious. They got like that at the mention of 'Tobio-chan'.

Iwaizumi smacked him in the back of the head. "Don't be so obsessed, CrappyKawa."

I hit my grin, that's hilarious. Oikawa squawked. " Don't shorten the insults...and I'm not obsessed."

Coach Irihata nodded. "Fine, Oikawa. Their administrator won't leave me alone either."

Oikawa grinned, actually giving out a peace sign. "Great." Our Captain was sort of ridiculous.

The team moved around, I walked over to Kunimi and Kindichi. "Who's Tobio-chan?"

Kindichi started glaring, scowl on his face. "A tyrant."

I looked over at the calmer boy. "Huh?"

Kunimi voice was monotone and his face blank. "Kageyama Tobio. Played with us in middle school along with Oikawa-san and Iwaizumi-san in our first year. He...had insane tosses no one could hit." He was silent for a moment. "So, in our last game, we ignored his toss."

I felt my breath catch in my throat. Just the thought of a teammate ignore my receive filled me with horror. But from what they said, he wasn't a very accommodating setter. I licked dry lips. "Oh."

I then heard Yahaba call. "Are you first years gonna practice or gossip?" We all jumped, scrambling to get back to practice. Last thing we needed was penalty laps.

/ / / / / / /

By next practice I leaned the black haired was Matsukawa and the brown haired one was Hanamaki. They seemed like they were close. At least I wasn't calling them numbers in my head any more. It was also the day of the game. Instead of Oikawa meeting us, it was Iwaizumi. He had on a green over jersey with a 1 on it. Where was Oikawa? Iwaizumi looked over all of us gathered. " Oikawa is injured. He sprained his ankle.' Iwaizumi looked beyond annoyed.

My eyes widened and everyone was talking at once. Iwaizumi raised his voice. "Hey, quit it!" Quickly, we all settled down. " Yahaba is going to set for the match." Yahaba looked a little nervous, but ready to go. Iwaizumi looked over at me and Watari. "You two will switch off during sets since it's a practice match."

I looked over at Watari to see if he looked angry or bothered, but he smiled at me kindly. Watari was a real cool guy and I didn't know him for long. I couldn't help, but feel excitement, but nervousness fill my chest. My first game since middle school. Matsukawa and Hanamaki were tossing out jerseys to us all. I grabbed the green one with the L on it, shrugging it on over my blue t-shirt we all wore.

Iwaizumi looked over us all. "Karasuno isn't that good, but let's not let our guard down. Even without our Captain, Seijoh's going to win."

My teammates around me called. "We'll do our best!" I tried to mimic that, but I never did things like that in America.

Iwaizumi said. "Meet back here in 30 minutes if you want to wander around." He sent all of us a stern look. "Don't go getting in trouble." We all quickly nodded, the older boy could get scary when he wanted to. None of us would disagree with him when he gets like that.

I wondered out of there, looking for Hikaru. I wandered into library where he said he would be studying. "Hey, Kaori!"

I was shushed by everyone, including the librarian and Hikaru himself. I gave a sheepish look, walking over to him. Hikaru looked at me. "The practice game is today, right?"

I hopped on my toes. "Yep."

"You playing?"

I grinned excitedly. "You wanna watch?"

Hikaru shrugged. "Sure " He trapped his books and followed me out of there.

We walked toward the gym. Even playing a mediocre team made me excited. It's been awhile. I couldn't wait to face Karasuno.