Her expression of disbelief and confusion slowly dissolved into a loud laughter. "Me? A manager of a volleyball team?! I can't~ HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She doubled over in giggles and snorts of laughter.
"Pfft- Is there something wrong with that?" Kuroo tilted his head to the side in confusion, smiling.
"I promised myself that I'd never go to another volleyball game. Trust me, it's for my own good." She waved them off as she drew back into position and released another arrow into the target that narrowly missed the centre. "Anyway, I tried it back at Aoba Johsai and I don't think I'm gonna be much of a help to your other managers."
Pulling back the bow string, she sent the arrow into the side of the target as the Nekoma players exchanged looks. "We don't have any managers…" Yaku admitted bashfully.
"How did you guys even take care of all that stuff by yourself?" She asked in astonishment, not taking her eyes off the target.
"We learn how to do it during our first year… But we thought a manager might be a lot of help." Kuroo explained, inching forward with a charming smile.
"Ay, stay further away from me. If my bow malfunctions, it'll snap you in the face or the arrow could leave a claw mark on your pretty face." She glared at them. Kuroo quickly stepped back, not used to seeing the more serious side of Kitsune.
"Anyway, would you at least think about it?" Yamamoto begged. "Imagine Karasuno finding out we have a national archery champion as a manager, that'll knock them off their high horse… But Kiyoko-san is so sexy and Yachi-chan is so cute…" He trailed off as he dreamt about them.
"Did you say Yachi? As in Yachi Hitoka?" That got her attention. Whipping her head back to face the target, she launched one swiftly, hitting a bullseye. "Sign me up. My only condition is that I can't go to any Aoba Johsai games where Oikawa might be, and you need to secure a practice game with Karasuno. You just need to agree to that and I'm in." Her devilishly mischievous eyes twinkled. Wow, Hitoka. It had been a long-ass time.
"We'll get that practice game with Karasuno and we won't force you to come to any games with us to Aoba Johsai but we'd appreciate it if you could…" Kuroo leant in, trying his hand at puppy-dog eyes.
"Mmmm…Fine, but I'll only go on 3 conditions. Number one, Oikawa can't be there. Number two, you need to tell me a week in advance, and number 3, if any of Oikawa's fangirls are there, I'm immediately quitting." She stuck her hand out towards him. "Deal?"
"You drive a hard bargain." He smirked, before shaking it. "Deal."
Cheers of excitement filled the archery range as Lev, Inouka and Yamamoto tackled her into a group hug. "Be careful of the arrows…" She grumbled as she was squeezed between them. "Oi, idiots, get off the poor girl." Yaku kicked Lev's ass as he lectured the other two.
"Welcome to the volleyball club, Kitsune-kun." Kenma nodded at her as Yaku pulled the 3 crackheads of Nekoma off her.
"It's nice to be here."
- Back in Aoba Johsai -
"Have you heard from her these days?" Iwaizumi looked over at Oikawa, who was scrolling through Kitsune's Instagram page of old photos of them together. "Oi, Shittykawa. Don't ignore me."
Sighing, he looked up at Iwaizumi. "Of course, I haven't."
"Really?" Iwaizumi stared at the text she had sent him.
"What's that?" Oikawa tried to look at his phone. Iwaizumi quickly moved away from him. "Mind your own business, Jerkawa." He scoffed.
"Iwa-channnnn… You're so mean…" He whined. Just then, Oikawa's fangirls burst through the doors to the gymnasium. "Oikawa-senpai!" One of the girls squealed loudly.
"Oi, Oikawa. Isn't that the girl we saw bullying Kyuubi the other day?" Iwaizumi nudged him in the side as he gestured towards an overly excited girl wearing a pink bow and a short school skirt which defied many of the school rules. Seeing him look in her direction she squealed in a super high-pitched voice, thinking he had finally noticed her without Kitsune around.
She spun around and whispered to her friend excitedly, staring at him. Oikawa glared coldly at her, then spun his head and gestured to Kindaichi and Kunimi, who nodded. He got up from where he sat on the bench. "Oi, Oikawa. Don't do anything hasty. You remember what she said, right? That she would hurt Kitsune's family if you knew?" Iwaizumi grabbed his wrist, holding him back.
"I'll dial it down to merely injuring her instead or murder." He shook Iwaizumi's hand off, his eyes glowing with fury as the three boys approached the girl. The girls squealed loudly, to the point that every student was looking at them. Oikawa was walking towards them, Alpha-style, his eyes seemingly glowing. He was a beautiful man, all right. But they misinterpreted his murderous instincts for friendliness.
So, when he started to push girls aside to get to the pink bow-wearing girl he was looking at, they stared at him in confusion. Iwaizumi face palmed as he raced over to stop Oikawa from straight-up murder. As soon as he reached her, he smirked and grasped her wrist firmly. Her delighted face when she thought Oikawa had noticed her was quickly overshadowed as he towered above her menacingly. Kindaichi and Kunimi surrounded her, forming a wall around her, preventing the girl from escaping.
"You're so cute." Oikawa crouched down and remarked in a mocking voice. "But I'm afraid this flower has been coughing out venom." He traced her jawline with his finger. Her eyes filled with terror as her eyes met his icy cold ones. She felt a shiver go up her spine as the angry volleyball captain faced her. "I know you forced the love of my life to break up with me." He got straight to the point, glaring intensely at her. "And I have 10000 ways to make your life miserable. Be ready for the repercussions tomorrow. And if you dare lay a finger on her, I'll kill you personally." He drew a line across his throat with his finger. "Do we have that clear, Ava-chan~" His voice drew back into a cute but deadly tone as he pushed her onto the floor.
"Get this whore out of my sight, Kindaichi, Kunimi." He didn't give a second look at the girl who lay on the ground, wailing loudly. He spun his head around to face the rest of his fangirls. "If I find any of you guilty of bullying my Kyuubi, I'll hunt you down and kill you like cattle." His devilish, murderous look was enough to scare the shit out of all of them.
Kindaichi and Kunimi grabbed the girl who lay on the floor in shock by her arms, walking out of the gym and setting her down. "You fangirls are too much." Kindaichi scoffed, before they returned to the gym, locking the entrance.
Iwaizumi had gotten rid of the rest of the girls by that point. Oikawa sat back onto the bench and sighed. "You know, you could just text her and tell her you knew what happened and make up." Iwaizumi smacked him on the back. "You're clearly head over heels."
"How poetic, Iwa-chan."
"Shut up, Shittykawa."
"Maybe I should. But I'm sure she doesn't want to talk to me now. She said I didn't spend enough time with her anymore, and I'm sure she's forgotten all about me by this point." Oikawa sighed thoughtfully. "I hope she's been taking care of herself in Tokyo."
"We have a practice match with Fukurodani soon, maybe we can ask her to take us around the city like we used to." Iwaizumi suggested, sipping on his water bottle.
"I wonder which school she's even in." Oikawa tried to hide his sad smile at imagining her having new friends, laughing and having fun, winning more archery tournament, maybe even finding a new boyfriend.
"I heard a rumour that she's in Fukurodani and another one that she's in Itachiyama." Iwaizumi reported. Truthfully, she had not told him her new school, but both of those schools had fairly well-known archery clubs.
"I guess we'll be seeing her soon then."
"Yeah."
- Back to Nekoma -
"There she is, our manager!" Inouka ran up to her, high-fiving her as she walked in.
"You look good in the Nekoma jacket, Kitsune." Kenma smiled at her, eyes flicking to her for only a second before turning back to his game.
"Thanks, Kenma-san."
"Huh, you guys never told me you recruited a manager. About time, don't you think?" Coach Nekomata raised an eyebrow as he walked over to greet the girl.
"Coach Nekomata. I've heard wonderful things about you."
"I've heard nothing of you, on the contrary, but I hope you'll be able to install some sense into this team's brain." Coach Nekomata snickered, ignoring the protests from the team. "Our last manager graduated years ago, it's nice to see a girl in the middle of these crackheads."
"Ouch, I feel that one personally." Kuroo feigned a heart attack, clutching his chest dramatically.
"Alright, you big baby. Everyone back to practice!" Coach Nekomata shook his head, returning to the court. "Kitsune, a word."
"Yes, Coach?"
"I heard you had a set of demands for the boys before you came in here, and that one of those was that we had to organise a practice game with Karasuno… May I ask why?" Coach Nekomata sat back onto the bench.
"Ah, I have a friend from there who I haven't seen in a long time and I thought it'd be nice to see her again." She shrugged. It was a personal answer, but it was the truth. He narrowed his eyes at her, before nodding gleefully. "I would've done the same thing if I were you. I should have set a list of demands when they first scouted me to train Nekoma." He sighed.
"Anyway, we've managed to contact them and they agreed to a practice match in 3 days, which is… Saturday. That good with you?" He nodded at her.
"Perfect."
"Alright, now can you fill up the water bottles and grab towels for the boys? They'll need them." He dismissed her with a wave of his hand. Bowing to him, she quickly ran to the other side of the gym to grab their bottles and clean towels.
Subconsciously, she watched the game progress. She admired Kuroo, especially. The black-haired captain of Nekoma was a real sight to behold, especially when he was spiking or serving.
She bit her lip as she tried to carry the box of water bottles. It was definitely manageable but it was pretty heavy. She sighed. Only for these boys would she put up with this bullshit. Not even Tooru?
Maybe Tooru. She answered herself in her head. She still regretted how suddenly she had to end the relationship. She still thought about him at night, and she loved to look through his Instagram of him just being an idiot with her and Iwaizumi. She knew for a fact that their relationship was the longest lasting of all his previous relationships, and took some pride in that. She had fought the fangirls off for the longest period of time, but that had gone to waste. They'd won anyway.
Her mind blanked for a second. Suddenly, her phone rang loudly in her pocket. The boys turned to look at her, to which she quickly dropped the crate of water bottles and towels next to the bench and excused herself. "Hello?" Her irritated voice must have gotten through to the other line because they clearly heard it.
"What's the matter, Kitsune? Someone hurt you?"
"Iwaizumi-san? Why are you calling?" She raised an eyebrow. She'd changed numbers, how did he even get her number?
"You didn't answer the question."
"I'm fine, now what do you want?"
"The team is coming over to Tokyo for a practice weekend with Fukurodani. Are you in that school?" He asked directly.
"Ah, no. I'm not. But did you just say you'll be in Tokyo this weekend? Wow that's way coincidental."
"Coincidental…How?" His voice took on a wary tone.
"No matter. I'll talk to you soon?"
"Wait…"
"What's up?"
"Oikawa asks if you could bring us around your part of the city? He knows it hasn't even been a whole week since you two broke up, but he'd like to make sure you're doing well."
"Ah, I'm really sorry but I can't…Too soon, Iwaizumi-senpai."
"I understand. We'll talk soon Kyuubi-kun."
"Okay, bye!" She pulled the phone away from her ear and hung up. Her face lit up in a panicked state. Oh god, oh god, oh god.
She hurried back into the gym, where they were taking a break. "Ay, Kitsune-chan. What were you talking about?" Kuroo greeted her. "Something happened? Your face is all white."
"Aoba Johsai is coming to Tokyo…" She mumbled.
"What?"
"AOBA JOHSAI IS COMING TO TOKYO!" She repeated, a little too loudly. Covering her mouth, she shuffled to a bench to sit down. Lev shoved past Kuroo, shouting, "REALLY? WOW SO OIKAWA IS COMING?" Both Kenma and Kuroo shot him what could've been a death glare.
"OI, SHUT UP!" Yaku kicked him away with a flying roundhouse kick. "Give the girl some space!" He lectured.
"When Oikawa comes, so will all his beautiful fangirls…." Yamamoto near-squealed. "I can take this chance to steal them away with my signature charm~"
Inouka rolled his eyes. Being the observant Kouhai he was, he got Kitsune a cup of water. "Kuroo-san's right, Kitsune-san. You don't look too good. Is there something wrong?"
"They'll be coming this weekend, the same time as Karasuno. And Iwaizumi-senpai asked me to take him and Oikawa around and it's too soon and I can't think straight- "She massaged her temples. "Where is Fukurodani Academy?"
"They're 2 streets away." Kenma responded, staring at her.
"Alright, just need to make sure I don't go past that street… Um I disturbed your practice, right? You all should get back on the court, go!" She waved them off as she contemplated her issue on the bench.
"All right, but if you need anything, you tell us." Kuroo ruffled her hair and walked back onto the court, followed by the rest of the boys.
OH GOD WHAT WAS SHE SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?!
