Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to these characters.
Kuroo chuckled to himself as he strolled towards the Higurashi Shine. Earlier he had received a text from Kenma saying that Souta said that Kagome was entering her 'paranoid zone' once more. Next weekend, the team would be traveling to Shinzen for their summer training camp, and is seemed that Kagome was freaking out over the preparations—again. She probably forgot that they had a date today. Oh well. She would either go out with him as planned, or she would be hauled out of the house and go on the date. It's a win-win for him regardless. Maybe she will calm down about preparing for these training trips at some point.
Shaking his head, he climbed the steps to save the miko from herself once more. And after being allowed entry into the home, he was informed that Kagome was up in her room grumbling about something or other.
"She's completely gone around the bend, Kuroo!"
"All right, Souta. I'll deal with it."
"Good luck!" With that the boy ran off to his room to hide.
Kuroo took a deep breath before he entered Kagome's domain to find her once again, obsessing over lists and schedules. "You know… I'm starting to feel very neglected in this relationship."
She flinched in surprise at the voice that penetrated her bubble. "Wha—?"
"Well you're not obsessing over me nearly as much as you are over your notebook."
Kagome blinked in disbelief before snorting at him. "If you wanted someone to obsess over you, then you should have dated Kitori-san."
"Ouch! That's just cruel Kago-chan!"
Laughing at his dramatics, Kagome set down her pen and turned her full attention to her pouting boyfriend. "And what are you doing here, Rooster head?"
"Kago-chan, you disappointment me. You seem to have forgotten our date." He watched as her eyes widened in shock and then become apologetic. "Now, put that paperwork down. We are going out."
"Tetsu-kun, I'm so sorry. But I have so much that I need to go through—"
"Tsk, tsk, Kago-chan. No excuses! We are going out, and you are taking a break." He reached out and tugged her out of her chair by her hand.
"But—"
"No buts! You can walk out of here, or I can carry you out. You decide." Kagome rolled her eyes and huffed at his back as he guided her down the stairs and to the front door. Once they retrieved their shoes and headed out, Kuroo threw his arm over her shoulders and looked down at her. "After our day out, I'll help you go over the forms and schedules. I am the captain and I'm not dead weight like Watanabe-baka was. You don't have to carry the weight on your own you know."
Kagome looked up at him and smiled softly. "Thank you. What would I do without you?"
"Work yourself into an early grave or very deep hole. And with how tiny you are you would have a heck of a time getting out of it."
Her smile morphed into a small frown as she jabbed her fingers into his side. "And there you go, ruining the moment. Jerk"
His cackles echoes across the grounds as the pair descended the stairs to the town below.
The weekend flew by for Kagome. Kuroo was able to distract her from her worries during their date and he followed through with his promise to help her go over the needed paperwork for the training camp. She only had to resist the urge to strangle him twice, which was an improvement to say the least. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right, she needed to learn to delegate some of the work to him. Kuroo may act like a scheming cat, but he did take his responsibilities as captain seriously. Now, does that mean that she will no longer fret and stress over the preparations before training camps and tournaments? Probably not. So, she'll just have to deal with his antics as they come.
Smiling softly as she shook her head, she refocused on the task at hand. She needed to finish her projects before they left for Shinzen early on Saturday morning. She knew that the other managers would love and appreciate the results once they were complete. However, she still had a lot of footage to sift through—and her breaking into laughter ever few moments didn't help much.
The boys will not appreciate this to be sure, but they'll get over it. Eventually.
Kuroo was more than a little concerned about his petite girlfriend. Granted her freak-outs over the upcoming training camp have calmed down since he helped her over the weekend. But that wasn't what was worrying him. Kagome seemed to be distracted lately. As soon as practice was over, she would rush to get home and mumble to herself. Most disconcerting was when she would randomly start giggling as she would look over her notes in her notebook. Here he thought Fukunaga was a bit odd when he would suddenly start laughing to himself, but now Kagome was giving him a run for his money.
So, there are a few possibilities for this. One, she's finally cracked from all the stress of managing the team—though he doubted this. And two, she was plotting something—a far more likely scenario. Especially since there have been no messages from Souta reporting that his sister was nuts. Well, he guessed that he would just have to disrupt her plans as much as possible. With a plan in mind, Kuroo smirked to himself as he continued walking home with Kenma, never noticing the glances of concern and suspicion that he received. The two friends parted ways and readied themselves for an early bus ride the next morning.
Saturday morning arrived, and Kenma was watching Kuroo and Kagome from a bit of a distance as everyone loaded up into the bus. The ride to Shinzen wouldn't take too long, but that didn't mean that things couldn't go wrong in the meantime. Kuroo, for whatever reason, has been getting an early start in pestering Kagome. Normally this would not be a cause of concern or caution for Kenma, but this appeared to be a single-minded focus to provoke Kagome.
There had to be a reason behind it, because Kuroo was generally not that crazy in challenging the Tiny Tyrant's temper. The tick that occasionally formed above her eye was a testament to just how annoying she was finding the current captain's antics to be.
"Hey Kenma? Any idea why Kuroo is courting death this morning?"
Briefly glancing up at Yamamoto from the corner of his eye, Kenma shook his head. "It might have something to do with how Kagome had been acting the last few days. But I'm not sitting right next to them on the bus if I can help it."
"Hmmm. Good call. Think she'll kill him?"
"Depends on how irritating he gets."
Yaku and Kai wandered up behind the pair to observe the couple in question. "Are we going to have to promote Kai from co-captain to captain soon?"
"Not yet."
"Has she tried to strangle him?"
"Nope, but you can tell she thinking about it."
"I think his height is saving him for the moment."
As they moved to enter the bus, they heard Kuroo let out a yelp. Shaking their heads as they chuckled at their captain's misfortune. However, if they thought that that would be the end, they were wrong.
Kuroo had decided that the next tactic he would employ would be to drop his voice into a lower register as he peppered her with questions. Observing how she straightened her spine in hopes of containing her reaction, he smirked as he proceeded to distract the team's manager as much as he could while he sat next to her on the bus.
"Come on Kago-chan. When are you going to tell me what has you so distracted lately?"
Narrowing her eyes, she promptly dug her elbow into his side. "Right now, I'm being distracted by how obnoxious you're being."
"Ouch, Kago-chan. That's just mean!"
"You'll get over it."
"So… tell me what you've been working on."
Rolling her eyes, she huffed at his persistence. "Why on earth are you so anxious to know?"
"The fact that you are being secretive is concerning! You're not thinking about dumping me for someone else, are you?"
Kagome snorted and returned her focus to her notebook. "Yes, I've decided to trade you in for Bokuto. I can't resist my feelings for him any longer. So, I was planning to declare my heart and soul to him once we arrived at camp."
Kuroo squawked in horror, drawing the attention of the boys around them. "Oi! I'm way better than that airhead!"
"I don't know about that. I mean he is one of the top aces in the country. It's kind of hard to resist that." Kagome was struggling to hold her laughter in. She knew that Kuroo was well aware that she was teasing him, but she also knew that the mere idea that she would favor Bokuto over him would drive him up the wall.
Kuroo saw that her shoulders were shaking in silent laughter and scowled. "You'll pay for that, Pocket-chan." He then quickly grabbed her notebook out of her hands and tossed it down the aisle towards the front of the bus.
Feeling the now familiar tick reappearing over her eye as her hands clenched, she slowly looked up at her smug boyfriend. She stared into his eyes before lowly hissing, "Death."
The team snickered in humor and fear as they slid down in their seats. While they listened to Kuroo's yelps and cries, they figured it was safer to remain out of sight. The rest of the trip passed in relative peace, and they arrived safely at Shinzen.
They all piled out of the vehicle with wide grins as Kuroo stumbled out with cheeks red and sore, and a lump on his head. Kagome was quite pleased with herself as she collected her things with the rest of the team.
As they were busy unloading, the bus for Fukurodani Academy parked. Bokuto practically leaped out to greet Kuroo only to pause at the look on his face. "Hey, hey, hey, Kuroo! What happened to you?"
Kuroo rubbed his face while giving Kagome a side eye. "Got attacked by a feral kitten."
Bokuto and Akaashi blinked as the rest of Nekoma snickered. Kagome simply turned her nose up and huffed at Kuroo's complaints as she strolled with Yukie and Kaori up to the school.
The first day of camp was running smoothly for the most part. Kuroo still insisted on irritating Kagome when he could to the horror and amusement of the others. When it was finally later in the afternoon, and practice was paused for breaktime, many of the boys were hanging out by the outside sinks. Goofing off, the captains of Fukurodani, Nekoma, Ubugawa, and Shinzen along with a few others of their teammates hassled and teased one another. Bokuto was trying to figure out why there was no water coming out of the hose, failing to see Kuroo grinning and standing on it to block the flow.
Kenma sat off to the side with Kai and Yaku, watching the antics, and noticing all the managers beginning to approach with the watercoolers. As the scene progressed, the three boys' eyes widened in horror.
"Hey Kuroo! Is there a reason why you are antagonizing the Tiny Tyrant?"
"Yeah, Kuroo-kun. I thought you have more sense than that!"
Kagome and the girls paused in their approach. They could see her narrow her eyes in confusion as the cogs in her brain turned. And then, as if in slow motion, Bokuto turned the end of the hose away from himself as Kuroo lifted his foot up. The shrieks of the managers pierced the air as they were all hit by the water.
The boys quickly scrambled to shut off the faucet as fast as possible, but the damage was done. The five girls were drenched and frozen in shock as silence reigned. Slowly anger began to radiate from most of the them, but Kagome was another matter. She just stood as still as stone, and that terrified Kenma more than anything. He watched as she finally, slowly raised her head up with a pleasant smile upon her face.
"You guys should really be more careful."
The boys and the girls were stumped. "Uh… Kago-chan. Are you feeling ok?"
"Of course! Well the five of us need to go change. You boys will have to fill the watercoolers for us." With that she urged the girls to set down their burdens and head inside the school.
Cautiously, Yaku leaned into the others. "Did that seem strange to you guys?"
Kai watched the girls disappear out of sight as he nodded. "I've never seen Kagome react like that."
The two older boys turned to Kenma for his thoughts. "I'll text Souta tonight."
"Good idea."
Practice was finally over for the day and nighttime had descended upon the volleyball teams. Yamamoto was standing in the darkened hallway not far from the room that Nekoma would be sleeping in, chatting with Fukunaga. The taller boy was leaning against the window looking down at the book in his hands as Yamamoto laughed at the joke that was read to him. Pausing for breath, Yamamoto nearly choked when he looked up at the window to see an eerie pale figure with long dark hair hanging in their face move behind him in the reflection. He stood frozen in shock and unable to look away even as the apparition vanished from sight.
Fukunaga, realizing that Yamamoto had been silent for too long, looked up at his pale form. Before he could question his teammate, they were approached by Kuroo, Bokuto, Akaashi, Goura, Ogano, and several others.
"Fukunaga, what's wrong with Yamamoto?" Kuroo, receiving a shrug in confusion, looked closely at Nekoma's ace player. "Yamamoto?"
"Did you—Did you see th-that?"
"What?"
"There was s-s-s-someone in the reflection behind m-m-m-me. Someone, w-w-who didn't seem to have eyes, and g-g-glowed."
All the boys looked at each other nervously. "Um, it was probably just your imagination, Yamamoto!"
"Yeah, just the light of the moon playing tricks on you!"
"A-are you sure?"
"Yeah, i-i-it's just in your h-h-head. Everything is pe-pe-perfectly fine."
Nodding enthusiastically, the group struggled to ignore the icy sensation that began to creep along their spines. The feeling increased slowly as they stood in the darkened hall. Flinching when they suddenly could hear a faint scraping sound echoing in the still air. Drawing closer, and closer to their paling forms until there was a loud 'CLACK' from right behind them. Wiping around they grabbed onto each other as they were blinded by a several bright flashes of light as they screamed in terror at the top of their lungs.
Kenma quickly entered the room that Nekoma was assigned while staring down at his phone. He was finally able to send a text off to Souta, inquiring about Kagome's strange reaction earlier.
"Ne, Kenma? Have you heard from Souta-kun yet?"
Looking up at Kai, he shook his head. "I just sent him the message a little bit ago." His phone chimed, and he glanced down.
-Kenma! What happened? Tell me everything!-
Frowning in thought, Kenma typed out about Kuroo pestering Kagome all day, her responses, and every detail about the incident in question. He reviewed the text briefly and pushed send.
"He asked for more details as to what happened. We should hear soon as to what to expect."
"I hope so. Maybe we are just being overly paranoid?"
Kenma shrugged, but he doubted that they were. And the longer that it took for Souta to respond the more nervous he felt.
-Souta?-
When his phone finally chimed with a response, he froze at the words written. Yaku, Kai, and a few of the others, crowded around him to read over his shoulder once they saw his reaction.
-Tell Kuroo that I'll light some incense for him…-
A chorus of screams and a loud crash ripped through the silence causing the boys to flinch and Kenma's phone flew up and out of his hands. Luckily, Kai regained his senses to reach out and catch the device before it fell.
"W-w-what was that?!"
"Was that a flash?"
Slowly the group crept towards the door, and Kai handed Kenma his phone as they slid it open to peer into the hallway. And there, just a bit down the hall, was a heap of limbs. Faintly they heard other doors sliding open from the other rooms as Kenma's phone chimed once more.
-Kenma, whatever you do! Don't stand anywhere near Kuroo for a while! It won't be safe until her need for screams are fulfilled. Good luck…-
Suddenly Kuroo's head popped up above the mass to shout, "KAGOME!" They watched for moment as he and the others scrambled to untangle themselves and dash for the stairs. Looking at each other in shock, they retreated into the room and shut the door.
"So that was Kagome's work?"
"Seems like it, or at least Kuroo think's so."
"Let's move his bed to the far corner."
"You really think she would do something to him in here?"
"Do you really want to take a chance?"
"…Good point."
Kagome was running for her life as she darted up the flight of stairs. Desperately she searched for a decent hiding place. The evidence had to be preserved, and if she didn't hide quick then all would be lost. She couldn't go to the girls' room yet, that would be the first place that they looked. And hearing Kuroo bellow out her name solidified how dire her situation was. If he catches her before she could do what was necessary to protect her precious cargo, then she was doomed and the picture would be gone forever. A travesty to be sure.
She really couldn't have planned the events that happened, nor could she have arranged it. It was serendipity, and she took full advantage of the situation. She had just entered the hall after showering to hear the boys talking about what she assumed was a ghost sighting. Seeing the tense forms, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to freak them out a bit more. So, she released her aura full of icy malicious intent—cause hey, they doused her and the girls with water, and have apparently dubbed her the 'Tiny Tyrant.' She was not going to feel bad about this.
Gently she sent out her aura to creep along the floor and slowly snare them in its grasp. Then she began to lightly drag her slippered feet across the floor as she crept closer. It was pure luck that she happened to have her phone with her. The kami-sama must have been smiling on her at this time, so she would not allow it to go to waste. She brought her phone up and readied the camera before stomping her foot on the ground. Watching the boys whip around in terror was almost more than she could handle! Thankfully she had enough control to quickly snap several photos before she made her escape.
Shaking her head, she quickly refocused on her current task. Hide. She needed to hide. Darting passed the girls room she quickly dove into a nearby classroom. She could hear the thundering footsteps of the boys running up the stairs after her and the slightly muffled voices crying out. Thinking fast, she typed up a message to the other managers and waited until she could hear the boys talking to Yukie and the others.
Kuroo was irked to say the least. He should have known that something was up when Kagome didn't erupt after she and the girls got drenched. After yelling out at her disappearing form, he scrambled to get untangled from the others quickly.
"Bokuto! Get your arm out of my face! We need to catch her!"
"How are we going to catch a ghost?!"
"Why would we want to catch a ghost?"
"You idiots! That wasn't a ghost! The was Kagome, and that flash was a camera!"
There was a pause as Kuroo's words penetrated their brains, and then a mad dash to get free and chase after petite menace. Slipping and sliding across the floor in their desperation, they climbed the stairs and ran for the room that the managers were sharing. Knocking emphatically on the door they waited until it was slid open to see Kaori and Yukie standing before them frowning.
"Hey, hey, hey, Yukippe! Is Kagome here?"
The girls raised a brow as Eri and Mako peered at them from the side. "No, she was down in the bathrooms the last we saw." Multiple chimes went off in the room, and Yukie pulled out her phone to see that she had a text. Bokuto, seeing that the text came from Kagome, snatched it out of her hands.
"Hey!"
"Guys the boys are looking for me. I'm going to hide outside, let me know when the coast is clear. I'll explain later!" Bokuto looked at the others after reading the text aloud. Shoving Yukie's phone back in her hands the group darted off down the stairs at a rapid pace. If they to could spread out they could catch her and prevent whatever shenanigans she had planned!
The girls retreated back into their room in confusion over what had happened.
"What on earth was that about?"
"I don't know. But if that simpleton steals my phone again, I'll never loan him any more money!"
Eri smiled at the girls before frowning. "Should we text Kagome that the boys know where she is?" Before anyone could respond, the door to their room slid open and closed behind the manager in question.
"Kagome?"
"Shhhh! The evidence must be preserved!"
"Huh?"
Instead of answering, Kagome's fingers flew across the screen of her phone while she mumbled to herself about needing to move faster. Then finally she must have finished what she was doing because all their phones chimed once more. Seeing Kagome's form finally relax and an evil grin stretch across her delicate face, the girls cautiously reached for their phones.
"Oh my!"
"No way!"
And the room dissolved into hysterics.
Author's Note: Ok, I've been wanting to write this chapter for a while. In fact, it's kind of what made me think of this story. Hopefully you all enjoyed it! Until next time!
