Ogawa Michiru. Class 3-C, Karakura Highschool. Under 20's championship basketball regular. Eighteen-years of age.
"Mi-chan~ I-so-gu! They'll sell out if you're too slow," Ayaka whines from the gym door.
Panting heavily, Michiru smiles at her best friend, before quickly doing a lay up. The ball slides from her hand, turning on its axis and rebounding off the head-board, before it landed with a swish in the hoop. She drops and a jolt of pain courses through her leg as she hits the ground, smiling through the pain she hopes no one noticed, they didn't.
"Sugoi Mi-chan!" Ayaka screams, stars in her eyes.
"Eh~? Sugoi, sugoi, why didn't you tell us you could play basketball?" Tatsuki exclaims, unbidden curiosity upon her face.
"Maa maa Ayaka-chan, I'm not that good," Michiru scratches her cheek, a gesture of embarrassment.
"H-h-hah? Ie, ie. I'm not that good Tatsuki-chan," Michiru exclaims shaking her head vigorously.
"I agree, so hurry up, I'm hungry," Naruka-chan bemoans clutching her stomach.
A fist comes and smashes Naruka's raven head. There, a red swollen bump raises slightly, crocodile tears run down her face and she glares at her friend.
"Maa, don't listen to Na-tan, she's just hungry!" Ayaka smirks at her younger sister, holding her fist up triumphantly.
"Who cares how good she is, all the cute girls are outside!" Keigo pouts, pointing at the school festival.
Suddenly Keigo's face is smashed into the ground. A red bump bruises his face and his eyes turned into swirls.
"Urusai, Asano-san," Mizuiro chirps, polite smile in place.
Mizuiro bows in greeting, while Keigo cries crocodile tears in the corner. Laughing, Tatsuki walks forward, dragging Michiru to the washroom. Michiru bites back a yelp of pain, reluctantly walking with Tatsuki.
Shrugging her duffle over her shoulder, she steadies herself, sends her friends a smile and with a barely noticeable limp, she walks towards the washroom.
With practiced ease, she slowly sits and rolls down her socks. Frowning at the swollen lump of pink, purple and blue, Michiru takes a first aid kit from her bag and takes the gauze and ointment out with practiced ease. Holding back a yelp, Michiru lifts her leg and lays it on top of the bench.
"Kuso," she curses lightly.
A look of utter concentration flickers across her face, as she first opened a lid to her ointment. Her leg burns at the feel of it, hot and soothing, like the sting of a hot springs bath after particularly gruelling training. Holding back another curse, she slowly begins to unravel her gauze. Before she can wrap her leg up, a pale ivory hand gently takes the gauze from her finger.
"Yare yare Mi-chan, it's troublesome when one is unaware of a friend suffering," Ayaka says, sitting down and moving Michiru's leg atop of her lap.
"Maa maa Michiru, let me," Tatsuki says, gruffly yet kindly taking the gauze from her gentle fingers.
Michiru looks up in wonder, she'd thought Tatsuki would stay outside, giving her enough time to fix this bothersome injury.
"A-ah. Suimase, Ayaka-chan," she apologises meekly.
"Arigato, Tatsuki-chan," Michiru offers softly.
Looking up into Ayaka's orbs, Michiru's greeted with silent acceptance in emerald eyes.
"You really should stop pushing yourself so violently, this is the fourth time this month you've re-injured that leg,"Ayaka scolds lightly, taking care to wrap Michiru's leg tightly.
"Eh~"
Laughing softly at her friends confusion, Ayaka pats Michiru's uninjured foot.
"A good friend always notices when their friends are hurt, Mi-chan," Ayaka's whisper barely reaches her ear.
"Go easy on yourself, Michiru-chan. If you don't, you mightn't be able to play next regional comp," Tatsuki scolds.
Smiling at her friend, Michiru pushes the gentle scolding from her mind, grateful to have such a good friend.
"C'mon, we should head out before all the yakisoba is sold out and Na-tan throws another fit."
"Okay, we should head out now," Tatsuki says, standing abruptly.
"Hai," Michiru replies, smile her face, because it doesn't matter
It doesn't matter that she'd seen darkness control beauty, that she'd seen weird unexplainable things, because she's grown. Sure, she sometimes still made the same silly mistakes, but she's no longer the naïve fifteen-year-old who cried when it all went to hell. Ogawa Michiru is strong, resilient and she's grown. Of course it still hurt, hurt that she got glares from people she considered her best friends and excuses, that she people who so close to only a year ago, we're strangers now, but it's fine because she's grown.
She'll always train a little too hard, for a little too long, but now she knows she has people to count on. People who hopefully won't leave her, so Ogawa Michiru stands and beams at her friend before limping out the washroom behind her, hoping that this friendship will last.
Who knew writing about someone with virtually no back story would be so hard? Anyway, thank you for reading and if it's too vague, Michiru's vice is her love of sports. Namely basketball, as she continues to push herself well and beyond her limits. Thank you for reading