"What the hell is this…?" Chie scowled at the purple gunk coating the inside of her locker, eye twitching softly. Looking over from her own locker, Shiori blinked softly. "Looks like you got on someone's bad side, maybe that guy you turned down last week?" Chieko furrowed her brows, and then let out a quiet sigh. "Probably…."
Chieko was putting away the last book in her locker she wouldn't need for her class when someone hit the locker beside hers loudly. Slowly, she closed the locker and looked at the boy leaning on Shiori's locker, scowling softly. "Can I help you?" He was handsome, raven hair framing a perfect face and sapphire eyes that were a nice bright shade like the stone itself. "Ishiga-Senpai….?" He was the Captain of the Kendo team, now she recalled who he was because of that one time he asked her to bake some cookies for his cousin's birthday. "Hey, Chieko-Chan." He sang softly, looking her over. "I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me later? Maybe a movie at my place…." He grinned at her, and Chie was pretty sure she knew his real intentions. "There wouldn't be a movie waiting to be watched, and I really don't have any desire to watch a movie or do what you really wanna do." Chie slung her bag over her shoulder, turning to leave but he grabbed her upper arm tighter than she expected. "Oi come on I can promise a good time-"He froze when a large hand suddenly landed on top of his head, pulling him away from Chie rather roughly. "Chie-Chin, I forgot where class was can you take me?" He blatantly ignored Ishiga, who was glaring daggers at the back of the Titan's head. "….Yeah…." She spoke to the taller man slowly, who just had that stupid smile on his face as he followed her down the hall. Chieko didn't look back at Ishiga's face, she didn't need to. She knew he was pissed off.
Snapping from her train of thought when she heard her name, Chieko looked toward Shiori who looked mildly nervous. "You sure you're gonna be okay?" Shiori looked truly concerned for her friend, but Chieko nodded. "Yeah, gotta clean my books. Tell the teacher what happened, will ya?" Shiori nodded, heading off as Chieko slowly pulled the books from the locker with a small frown. "Disgusting…."
Shiori ran into Himuro and Atsushi on the way to class, the two looking mildly confused. "Where's Hisoka-San?" Himuro asked the question Atsushi was about to, the girl sighing. "Someone put a weird gunk bomb in her locker, thankfully it went off before she completely opened it so she's fine, but all her books and stuff are covered…." Atsushi frowned, amethyst eyes narrowing. "Who did it?" Shiori didn't question the darker tone then he usually would have, but she shrugged. "Dunno, Chie thinks its Ishiga-Senpai getting revenge for getting rejected the other day though…" Shiori sighed, smiling tiredly. "Excuse me; I have to go tell the teacher." She went into the class, Himuro looking up at Atsushi. "What do you think?" All he got was a shrug before Atsushi went into class, Himuro following behind with a soft sigh. He just hoped nothing went sour.
Once more, practice went on without a hitch, besides the missing Titan Atsushi Murasakibara that is. Chie was there, sitting in the bench with a box beside her. No one bothered her, until everyone noticed that a certain giant had wandered in, wearing his uniform. "You finally came!?" Masako struck him in the back with her Shinai, making the Titan yelp and look down at the small woman with a frown. "That hurt Masa-Chin…." Masako twitched. "Masa-Chin!? Call me Coach damn it!" Shiori giggled behind her clipboard, Himuro looking rather amused as the large man walked over to Chie and knelt down in front of the tall girl. "Bring any sweets?" Chie blinked, glancing at her backpack silently. Atsushi reached in and pulled out a box of cookies and ate a few before tucking them away. Standing, he pat her head softly with his large hand and went over to Shiori.
"What do you want me to do, Shi-Chin?" Shiori blinked slowly at the nickname, smacking Fukui when he snickered with her clipboard. "We'll be doing a practice match, uh you can play with Himuro since you're both First years….It's a three on three your third man will be…" She looked at the second string list to pick one, but Masako decided on her own. "Shinju-San will be your third player." Shiori nearly choked on her own breath before she looked up at Masako. "M-Ma'am I don't think-"Masako waved her hand. "You said you used to be a Point Guard for your Middle school team, didn't you?" She rose a brow, Shiori sweating under the pressuring gaze. "It was a middle school team, not for Yosen or anything just a bunch of girls getting together for fun!" Masako shrugged her shoulders calmly. "Still, Hisako-San you won all three games you played." Shiori sent said girl a sharp glare. "Did she neglect to say she was playing, too?" Chieko looked away calmly, making Shiori grumble softly. "She did, but I still want you to play." The Coach's words were final, and Shiori grumbled as she went to the locker room to pull on the smallest uniform they had.
Chieko stayed silent until Shiori returned; looking quite awkward as she shifted the shorts she had to wear. "Whose are these….?"
"Fukui-Kun's." Okamura chirped, the Point Guard grinning at her grumble. "Shall we begin, then?"
It took three jumps before Atsushi stopped grabbing the ball before it hit the right height to be caught, and Shiori realized she'd have a lot to work with when it came to getting Murasakibara ready for the games to come. Generation of Miracles or not, he was a stubborn case, but she learned to deal with Chieko, she could deal with him.
The ball hit Shiori's hand and she was hit with a nostalgic feeling of getting to play again, but quickly snapped from that when Okamura headed right for her. Swiftly passing the ball to the left right as Okamura got in front of her, Himuro caught it and slipped past Wei Liu's guard. He always did make the best fakes. Shiori tried to keep Okamura back, but she was too small and the Gorilla moved right past her and after Himuro. He was too late though, Himuro jumped and the ball went flying into the net. "3 point's right off the bat, not bad." Masako hummed as she watched the game.
Atsushi stayed primarily under the net, so they were down one really tall man, but there was an upside to this. No one could get a ball past Atsushi, every single time they tried he smacked it away like it was an annoying fly. "Good job, Atsushi!" Himuro called as he ran off with the ball he'd smacked away from Fukui's attempt at shooting over his head, the purple haired man merely yawning. "Mhm…." Okamura slid into Himuro's way though, and Himuro quickly stopped but tossed the ball to the side and Shiori caught it. "Ah shit, Shiori!" Fukui swore as Wei ran towards the girl as she quickly shot the ball from the side of the court. Another swish and that was 6 to 0.
"She's better than I thought…." Masako mumbled as Shiori wiped her sweat on her shirt, well Fukui's shirt. "As cute as it is to see her in my shirt, we're getting our asses handed to us in the First Quarter." Fukui grumbled to Okamura and Wei Liu. "It wouldn't quite be so bad if they didn't have the set of Aces…" Wei mumbled as he glanced at Himuro and Atsushi. "There's still three left, we're good." Okamura slammed his fists together, grinning. "Let's go!"
Despite his attempt at cheering his team up, they were crushed pretty hard. 89 to 6 because Atsushi stopped paying attention twice when he yawned and got caught watching Chieko eat her cookies. They took that chance to toss in two three pointers thanks to Fukui and Wei Liu, but in the end Atsushi proved to be invaluable to the team.
Now, if only they could keep him at practice….
Sweating hard, panting hard, and looking like hell Shiori dumped water on her head. "Haven't played in so long…" She groaned, her body burning from the ache of all that moving and running she wasn't quite used to it. "You look tired…." Chie noted as Masako joined them. "Very good, hit the showers before the boys get in there." Grunting, Shiori got to her feet and managed to hobble off to the showers. "She's going to be feeling that tomorrow…." Himuro chuckled as he walked over and grabbed a towel. "Shiori works out once a week; she spends most of her time working for the team with her books and stuff…." Chieko mumbled as Captain Okamura came over. "Chieko, did you bring them?" The girl nodded and picked up that box that had been beside her for a while, handing it over to the large man. "Ahh, thank you mom's gonna love these!" He grinned, and then handed over some cash to the girl. "Enjoy." She mumbled, tucking the cash in her bag. "Hmm?" Atsushi blinked, sitting down beside Chieko.
"He wanted me to make cookies for his mother." She explained with a shrug, not sure why she was explaining herself, really. "Mom's been craving them since I brought some home from the party, this should last her a couple days." Okamura mused as he went to put the cookies in his locker. "Captain Shiori is still in there." Himuro had an oddly dark smile on his face that made the Captain flinch. "S-sorry I forgot!" He was being honest, but that didn't make the scary smile go away. "Muro-Chin is scary…" Atsushi whispered to Chieko, the girl nodding a bit. "Indeed…." Both looked away when the smile turned to them, both sweating profusely under such an intense gaze.
Later when Shiori returned, hair damp but looking much cleaner than she had, she didn't quite understand why the team was acting so…distant toward her. She wasn't aware that Himuro was rather scary in his protective nature, and no one bothered to explain his little scary side to her.
Practice was over, so Shiori and Chie helped clean up while the boys took their turn in the showers, and right after the set of freshmen went to the sweets shop together.
Everything was great, but no one knew about Chie's repeated issue with the purple gunk bombs in her locker, not even Shiori.