Ready for some volleyball? Akashi vs Asaka!
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Amidst the voices echoing throughout the gymnasium, Ritsu was chatting around with a group of girls, sometimes giving a curious glance at the ongoing volleyball matches. Today's PE class was volleyball and quite a special one as well. It was a joint lesson.
While her eyes roved the gym, she spotted familiar heads. Momoi waved at her as soon as she caught sight of her. Ritsu smiled and waved back, though she actually never spoke to the latter – just for a brief seconds in fact. Still, first impressions made her look like a rather cheerful and sympathetic girl. Well, with Midorima next to her, she sure was bright. The green-haired boy returned her gesture with a plain greeting while Akashi and Aomine showed more sympathy.
"Look at them, aren't they cool? They've been the topic of our school since they got admitted into the famous basketball club's first-string on their first try!" One of the girls popped up next to her.
"Heard it was unheard of in the club's records! They must be amazing!" another one added with the same enthusiasm. "Seriously, I should have signed up for the basketball club as a manager!"
"Talk about motivation. At this rate, it will be the basketball club's downfall." Yagami poked fun at her.
"Yagami, you meanie!" The girl stuck her tongue out in response. "You say that, but you can't deny that those three have their charm! Oh, speaking of charm, between Aomine-kun, Midorima-kun and Akashi-sama, which do you like?"
The girl clapped her hands and her eyes were suddenly filled with sparkles.
"«Akashi-sama»? Isn't that a bit too much?" noted Yagami, a bit shocked.
"Non-non, it's perfect for him! Doesn't he give off the prince charming vibes when you see him? Right, Asaka?"
"W-Why ask me?" Ritsu tittered, forced to join in the conversation.
For sure, Akashi was a well-mannered and kind boy and this ideal image of a prince charming suited him in many aspects, but the impression she had of him was a bit different, particularly after he gave her this strange piece of advice: «You shouldn't belittle yourself.»
Since then, Akashi and her haven't talk to each other again, though she did give some thoughts to his words.
"Your seat is just behind him in class! Must be sooo nice to see him up close everyday!"
"If you ask me, the best seats are the one right next to him, certainly. You can catch a better glimpse at his looks." Ritsu followed up, which caused her classmate's eyes to light up.
"You do understand, Asaka! He's a feast to the eyes!" The girl grabbed her by the shoulders as though she found in her a new fellow with whom to share her crush on Akashi. "I wish I could be close to him and talk to him everyday. Ah, but if our eyes were to meet, I'd be unable to hold his gaze...!"
"In terms of beauty, I think Kise from 1-B beats him. He's tall and has good looks. I really like his face, there's something innocent about him that I don't catch in Akashi." Yagami declared while ignoring the astonished looks she earned from the girls, though a faint blush came to redden her cheeks by the long silence.
"What, Kise-kun's your type?! I would never have figured it out! You just look so serious!" a girl squealed.
"It's not a big deal. I just say I like his face." Yagami tried to downplay it.
"Yeah, yeah, we all know the story!" Ritsu's classmate giggled. She then inched closer to Ritsu. The grin plastered on her lips told all about her intention. "What about you, Asaka?"
Even though Ritsu praised Yagami for her spur of honesty, she'd rather want to stay out of this embarrassing conversation.
"I've never really thought of it. What would be my type in your opinion?"
At the question, the girls exchanged glances and grinned all of a sudden.
"Akashi! You two'd pair up well together! Like an old married couple!"
"A...An old married couple?" Ritsu repeated with apprehension.
"Uhuh, if I imagine you two as an item, I can already see you doing stuff like sitting on a veranda talking about the weather or drinking tea while looking at the garden and listening to the wind chimes. Just like my grandpa and my grandma!"
"So harsh...!" Yagami blurted out.
"Yagami!" interjected Ritsu, expecting at least some support from her volleyball partner.
"Sorry, sorry, but they aren't totally off the mark, you know. You're kind of plain and a bit quiet."
"What's wrong with wishing for a peaceful life?"
"Nothing at all," Yagami said as she regained her composure. "...but talent can't just come to an ordinary and peaceful thing, Hibari-senpai said this to me not long ago."
Ritsu cast a puzzled look at Yagami when she mentioned the volleyball team captain.
"True, true, you're a brilliant pianist and you even manage to be a regular in the volleyball team in just a couple of months. That's kind of amazing, but somewhat...how should I put it...Hm, you don't stand out much."
Well, it wasn't her intention to be the center of attention nor was it strange for her to hear about her lack of personality. She had been told several times she looked very ordinary, and in fact, she was pretty much fine with it. With such a bright background, she found it unnecessary to make herself stand out more than she had to. Besides, she liked to be around people without feeling a gap. That's how every relationship works.
"It's not like I need to stand out."
As her classmate was about to speak, a whistle instantly drew her attention on the central court. The current game came to an end and the two teams left the court.
"Next teams! Gather on the court when you're called." their PE teacher instructed.
After reading his team lists, he then called out the six players for the next game.
"First team: Aoyama Satomi and Shimizu Yayoi from 1-C and Akashi Seijūrō from 1-A." He paused while looking at said students walking up to the central court. "Second team: Maeda Hanako and Takeda Shinnosuke from 1-C and Asaka Ritsu from 1-A."
"You're going up against Akashi-kun!" her classmate cried.
And she wasn't the only one to be surprised by the selection. Here and there, some mutters started to rise and some curious looks shifted to the central court, momentarily leaving the on-going games on the two other courts.
"That's two challengers for you! The Volleyball club's new bloom vs the Basketball club's young lion!"
The girls gawked at her before some were struck by a fit of laughter at the stupid nicknames.
"Hey, don't laugh at me! That sounds super cool!"
"Doesn't that sound rather weird? I mean, it's obvious that it's Asaka who has the advantaged here. She's a regular in the volleyball team. No matter how talented Akashi is at basketball, volleyball's not the same sport." a girl in the group remarked.
Ritsu added nothing further to the facts. On such a premise, her chances of winning were quite high and she believed in it. However, it was no reason to let her guard down around the opposite team. In this case, victory didn't depend on her alone. And Akashi didn't seem to be the type of player to overlook such a detail.
- So far, I've never met someone who failed to meet my expectation.
- You totally trust and respect those around you, don't you, Akashi-san?
He did say so.
"It almost seems unfair. The teachers should have put you, Yagami, in Akashi's team to balance out the power."
"You're looking down on Akashi and his teammates by saying that. And Asaka's team too." Yagami remarked, her brown eyes locked on the small group of players gathering on the court. "Skillwise, Asaka is certainly above the rest, but she's not playing alone. The same goes for Akashi. And those factors matter a lot in a match."
Teamwork was the word, and also the main requirement of today's PE evaluation. That was why she couldn't rely solely on her individual skills to win in order to not throw off the balance of her team's strength. If there is one good thing about team play, it'd surely be the fact that each player can compensate the shortcomings of another through various plays and styles.
In other words, even a team with no great skills could claim victory with rock-solid team play. So taking it easy would not be wise, especially against a promising basketball player as opponent. Isn't basketball also a team sport?
"Both teams have their chances of winning. Either way, there's nothing or nobody to pity before a game."
Ritsu caught Yagami's gaze, the strong glint in her eyes put a smile on her face.
"Uwaa...Yagami, you're so not funny when it comes to sports."
The navy-haired girl laughed it off and gave a friendly slap on her partner's shoulder.
"Have a blast, Asaka!"
"Count on it!"
As she joined her new teammates, she caught Akashi's gaze. The latter smiled at her and she did the same. A silent greeting between challengers.
"Heard you're in the volleyball club, Asaka! Seems like I'm a bit lucky to have you as a teammate! I was damn right to count on PE to raise my grades! Good thing we're evaluated on volleyball!"
A tall boy came to greet her in his own way, he must be Takeda Shinnosuke. Looks like the perspective of a good grade had him all fired up.
"You know how to play volleyball?" Ritsu asked.
"I've got my volleyball basics down pat! No sweat! But..." He paused and motioned his head to his right in a petty manner. "Can't say the same for her though."
Next to him stood a shy girl, Maeda Hanako. If Takeda had the frame of an athletic boy, it was true that the latter girl looked rather out of shape. Though, overall, she did have a good build. She was a medium-tall girl with long legs.
Speaking of which, her legs were completely shaking. When Ritsu curiously made eye contact with her, the shy girl flinched and bowed.
"I-I'm Maeda! I-I'll try to not be a b-burden...!" Maeda introduced herself in an awkward manner.
Ritsu could almost feel her nervousness, it was so palpable in the air. Now she came to understand the source of Takeda's discontentment, she did look no good, like some weak and clumsy girl who fails everything she does.
"You're not good with volleyball?" She inquired.
"N-Not good at all, I can't do anything, not even toss the ball correctly...I-I'm really, really, really, really, really bad at sports, let alone team sports. At least in individual sport, I'm not burdening anyone..."
That was a lot of «really» in one sentence. It somehow made Ritsu smile. Maeda obviously lacked confidence in herself, certainly due to bad experiences and constant failures. Nevertheless, it didn't mean Maeda didn't wish to play at all, she just didn't want to cause trouble to her surroundings because of her incompetence.
"So, it's fine to ignore me on court...I understand..."
"In that case, you'll be burdening us, whether you play or not." Ritsu blurted out, which almost made Maeda's heart stop in shock. "Ah...eeer, sorry, I was a little bit too blunt but what I'm trying to say is that giving up when the game hasn't even started is a losing attitude and it will cause us more trouble than not doing well in the game. We're three players, there's a reason for it. So even if you think yourself as a burden, why not take the option in which you try fighting alongside your team?"
Maeda nodded without much confidence, but her legs seemed to shake less than before.
"Moreover, we're not asking you to absolutely win. Just take it easy, Maeda-san, alright?"
"Sorry to spoil the mood but I WANT to win!" Takeda chimed in, glowering at his classmate. "Let's hope she won't get in our way."
By the looks of things, teamwork will not be easily achieved with those two.
"Akashi against Asaka...Might be an interesting game to see for once." Aomine commented, his blue eyes looking around the central court. "I still wish it was basketball...I don't get volleyball at all."
"If it was basketball, this match would be no different from the other. The odds would simply tip in Akashi's favor and as a matter of fact, it would have been of no real interest."
Midorima showed no peculiar interest in the match, giving more care to his lucky item of the day, a hand mirror. Upon seeing a fingerprint on the glass, he breathed on it and carefully wiped over the surface with a microfiber cloth.
"Because Asaka's team will definitely lose?" Momoi asked, tilting her head from side to side. "But wouldn't that be exactly the same for Akashi-kun in volleyball?"
"No, I saw what Akashi is capable of. He already has what it takes to be a fair challenger and make a game worth watching. In terms of probability, Akashi has an eighty percent chance of winning in basketball and fifty in volleyball."
"Huh? A fifty percent of winning for Asaka in volleyball too? Both have equal chances of winning...Isn't it a bit wrong for her chances to be set this low? "
Momoi raised an eyebrow, then she cast a perplexed look at her childhood friend for support, but the latter just shrugged his shoulders in indifference. Yet, she frowned even more when she caught sight of a faint twitch at the corner of his mouth.
"In what way is it low? A fifty percent chance of winning for both sides is just fine for a game to be good!" Aomine retorted, leaning his back straight on the wall and fixing his gaze on the ashblond-haired girl's back. "Asaka might surprise you. She might even use a secret technique that can blow the court away!"
"I doubt that will ever happen, idiot." Midorima outright countered him.
"She's not a regular of the volleyball club for nothing, so there's always a chance that can happen. She does have a fifty percent of chance of winning, you said it yourself!"
His logic was so far-fetched that Midorima left it at that. He didn't mean to have such a biased opinion of the game, yet those probabilities were just a reflection of the type of players Akashi and Asaka were.
"Do you dislike Asaka that much to not believe in her victory, Midorima-kun?" Momoi asked to tease the green-haired boy.
"That has nothing to do with it, she just doesn't give much of strong impression as a player."
However, when he looked at Aomine, he still was taken aback by the faith he had in the girl. Well, Aomine wasn't totally wrong regarding the interest of this volleyball match. That undetermined outcome excited him in some kind of way.
And the cause of it lay before him. His eyes were dead set on his new rival in the basketball club, a certain red-haired boy.
The match began with Shimizu's serve. The ball flew across the court. Takeda received it successfully and connected it with Ritsu, positioned near the net. She took a quick glimpse at the players behind the net before deciding on an attack plan. Shimizu and Akashi were getting ready to block Takeda who was dashing straight to the net. If she made the toss to him, Takeda didn't stand a chance against the opposing wall and they would lose the point. Out of time and option, she was about to pass the ball to the boy when she saw the shy girl, stuck at the middle back not knowing how to participate in the team play. But, even if Maeda didn't have the least idea of what to do, Ritsu had one. Here was a way to get off to a flying start.
"Maeda-san! Go for it!"
Ritsu quickly tossed the ball in the direction of the girl. Akashi and Shimizu would not have the time to react to that change and thanks to that Maeda had a clear sight of the opposite court. Still, Aoyama remained, but if she had to choose between a wall and a person, the answer was already given. And Maeda would have a higher success rate against Aoyama alone than Shimizu and Akashi together.
"M-Me?!" Maeda panicked and darted a helpless look at Ritsu.
As the distance between the ball and her narrowed, her mind went completely blank. She raised her trembling arms in the air and closed her eyes with anxiety after putting herself approximatively under the trajectory of the ball.
In a loud thump, the ball crashed on the parquet just a very few inches away from the girl, leaving behind a long silence. Ritsu was struck numb, Takeda gaped in shock, and the rest of the students were practically showing the same bewilderment by what just happened. Then, the referee's whistle broke the silence and he raised his arms toward the opposite team.
The point went to Akashi's team.
"Seriously?! You missed the ball! How could you miss a pass from your own team, you dumb girl?" Takeda stomped in her way, shooting deadly daggers at the poor shy girl.
"S-S-S-Sorry! It was so s-sudden, I really really really wasn't hoping to be part of the game so soon...! I-I thought I was just under the ball and..." Maeda fumbled for words, her voice even lowered in fear as she tried to keep a low profile in front of Takeda.
"Don't be so hard on her, it's also my fault, Takeda-san." Ritsu spoke up for the shy girl. "I decided to send the ball at her at the last moment. My bad, Maeda-san, I've put you in a tight spot."
Meada looked away while apologizing for her blunder.
"Speaking of which! Why didn't you send it to me? "
"You would have been blocked. Akashi and Shimizu were already set on you before you even jumped to attack."
"You should have taken the risk! I could have handled it on my own."
"There's no risks to take so early in the game. Besides, even if it were me, I wouldn't have been able to break their wall easily."
Takeda sighed with exasperation. "I don't need to hear that from a volleyball team regular. We didn't lose the point, we gave it to them for free."
The boy returned to his position while Ritsu looked at him. He did have a point. She wanted to take the first point in a smooth way, all in order to boost her team. If Maeda had been able to allow her team to gain the lead, she would have gained more confidence in herself and Takeda would have a better opinion of her. It would have been killing two birds with one stone. However, she had caused the opposite effect by thinking in such a way. Because of that, she probably hadn't put enough trust in Takeda's skills and had been too hasty to put Maeda under the spotlight.
Ritsu shifted her attention to the shy girl. Was she too weak to be under the light yet?
Shimizu served again. The ball sped to Maeda who tensed at its sight. Not wishing for another blunder from the girl, Takeda shouted at her to move aside. Yet, with such short timing, he only managed to receive the ball awkwardly, hitting it too hard to have proper control. Asaka ran to the right sideline to get the ball and kept Maeda in her line of sight, primed for her next action.
"Maeda-san, jump now!" Ritsu shouted as she set the ball for her. "Don't close your eyes and focus on the ball!"
The girl was staggered for a second and yet in a spur of courage she jumped as she was told, thinking of Ritsu's instructions as a way to make up for her blunder. In the air, she raised her arm but when the presence of the ball got closer to her, she unconsciously closed her eyes and smashed the ball too late. The ball hit the base of her palm and was fiercely pushed downward. Obviously, it never crossed the net and almost knocked Takeda out in the process.
Once again, Maeda silenced the central court, even Akashi seemed to not believe his eyes.
"Tell me you're doing it on purpose, Maeda...You're supposed to aim at the OTHER side of the net! Not ME!" The boy darted his gaze at Ritsu. "And you, what are you playing at?"
"I wanted to test something out."
"Like what? Is that even the time to test something out? Even though it's just PE, it's still a freaking game we have to win! Think about my— our grades and be more serious!"
Poor Takeda, he sure had it tough, his grade had to be awfully bad to be so desperate. That aside, he had a good attitude toward sports – he wanted to give his best to achieve victory. He wanted to win. However, his focus on victory (and on his own grade) made him lose sight of his own team potential. Takeda's mind was set on winning at all costs, even if it meant to cast aside one of his teammates. And for Ritsu, this was the one thing she would never do. In a team, every player was essential. She didn't want to achieve victory at all costs, but with everyone's efforts.
The true beauty of team sports didn't reside in victory itself but in the players' accomplishments. And she would put her effort into making it happen. More importantly, wasn't teamwork the main requirement of this evaluation?
"I'm taking it quite seriously. Call it observation if you prefer."
"Don't care how you put it, we gave them another point!"
"And it's the last we'll give them for free..." Ritsu claimed, which changed the boy's expression into puzzlement. "At the sole condition that Maeda-san and you believe in each other."
"Ah?! You're kidding me? Why do I have to rely on her when I can handle things on my own?"
"Simply because we won't win without a solid basis. Our general level is too heterogeneous to center our play on each of our individual skills and built a strategy around it. It's clear that Maeda is the weakest link among us," said girl didn't contradict, she almost nodded in agreement, "But if we let her become our Achilles' heel, we're bound to lose, no matter how hard you fight, Takeda. That's why if we can't completely increase our fire power with talent, we'll do it in a more roundabout way, which is boosting our team play."
"In other words, we have to support Maeda so that she won't drag us down?"
"You have the gist of it."
Said like that, she was consciously putting extra pressure on Maeda. She, who didn't wish to be a burden for her team, had forced the others to support her. It was like a blow for her little self-confidence, for sure. But setting things straight was the best for her sake, instead of letting countless failures destroy her confidence bit by bit, as Takeda did when he didn't let her touch the ball.
The boy didn't believe in her and Maeda didn't believe in herself, and at this rate, both would keep chaining failures; the former out of overconfidence and the latter due to a lack of confidence. That's the reason why they had to believe, even a little, in each other.
"Maeda-san fails because we're letting her carry too much weight compared to what she actually can. For now, I'd like her to keep on receiving and passing the ball around the team. Can you do it, Maeda-san?"
"That's-"
Before she could contradict, Ritsu cut off her sentence. "We have your back. Even if the ball flies off to some unknown direction, don't let the ball touch the ground. Takeda and I won't let it as well."
Maeda nodded in response while Ritsu glanced at the boy who scowled, he was still reluctant about the whole idea.
"Fine! I hope you know what you're doing." Takeda gave in, stomping away.
Ritsu hoped so too. However, if Maeda could gain confidence by being useful to the team, then it was surely worth to give it a try. She might be too weak to stand under the light, yet a glow like hers had two options: either be engulfed by radiance or be part of the light.
Shimizu served for the third time, but her concentration had lacked and the ball strayed from the trajectory, going straight to the middle back. Takeda and Maeda were positioned at the back. When they both sighted the ball, neither of them moved an inch, thinking the other would receive it. And, what was bound to ensue, did happen.
For her fourth serve, Shimizu sent the ball to the same spot, seemingly seeing an opening for an easy point. This time, both Takeda and Maeda moved to react. When they saw each other rushing to the object, they froze at the same time and allowed the ball to hit the floor with no great difficulties.
[4-0] Seems like it'll be long way for both of them to be on the same wavelength. Oh, did she forget to mention communication?