Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to these characters.

As the team worked their way through the first part of practice on Friday afternoon, Kagome fought the malicious grin that wanted to stretch across her face. There was a small, teeny-tiny, part of her that felt a little bad about what she was about to unleash upon her boys. However, that side was overpowered by the sheer joy that began to build within her. Maybe she was beginning to understand some of the sadistic glee that Sesshoumaru seemed to radiate during her training?

That excitement to watch your student struggle and suffer, knowing that you will then be full of pride as they grow and evolve. Well she was about to enter the first half of that process, so she'll reserve judgement until they reach the last half before she can determine if that was probably how Sesshoumaru felt. Though, she was certain that he was just a sadist—mostly.

"All right everyone. Let's go for a run."

The boys looked up from their water break to see her holding the door open for them. "You're going to run with us Kagome?" She smiled at Yaku and nodded telling them that she would lead them to where they would be performing their next conditioning task.

When her eyes slit open to watch everyone head for the door, Kenma flinched as an ominous chill ran down the back of his spine. He watched Kagome carefully as there was something about that glint in her eyes that reminded him a little too much of the time when she had warned Souta that his punishment for trying to dodge his homework was coming.

The club jogged through the various streets taking twists and turns, Kagome remined in the lead with Kuroo not far behind her. After about 15 minutes into the jog, she ran a little faster to gain more of a lead before she came to a stop by a torii gate. She turned and waited for the others to catch up. It was that familiar gate that caused Kuroo to say what Kenma was thinking. "Ah hell."

Gaining curious looks Kagome had a serene smile as she addressed the group. "Now that everyone is here, your next task is something we can simply call the stair master." She lifted a hand and pointed at the stairs that the majority of the club hadn't looked at yet and nearly cackled as she watched them all pale in horror.

"You are to run up the stairs until you reach the top, and then turn and walk down the stairs for one complete set. You all must complete three sets total." Taking in their wide eyes, she allowed them a moment to absorb the information, "Be sure that you walk on the way down. I don't need any of you falling and cracking your heads open. I'd have to go through the trouble of sending your spirit on if that happened."

As the chorus of cries broke out amongst the teens, a younger voice piped up behind them. "Wouldn't be the first time nee-san had to help spirits move on either. But dying on the shrine stairs would be a new one." The club members froze and turned to look at the elementary student behind them. "Kuroo! Kenma! What are all of you guys doing here?"

Kuroo and Kenma waved hello to the child. When they were nudged about how they knew the younger boy, they answered that he was Kagome's kid brother.

"Souta-chan, the team is here as part of their conditioning."

Souta's eyes just about fell out of his head at his sister's statement. Whipping his head around he looked at the team in terrified horror, "You are having nee-san train you?! Are you all insane?!"

Kagome smirked and looked down at him. "Souta, you could always join in. It would help you with your soccer training."

The team watched as the child paled, and his voice became high and squeaky as he panicked. "Look at the time! I would love to stay nee-san, but I have homework to get started on! Bye guys, and good luck!" With that he darted full speed up the stairs and out of sight.

"We are officially doomed." Seeing the others look to Kuroo in askance, Kenma offered one sentence to clarify. "Souta usually tries to avoid homework."

Once all eyes slowly drifted back to her, Kagome gave them an innocent look and clapped her hands together. "Meh, if he has homework then that's that. Now let's get started!"

She knew that she should be more sympathetic, but the giggles just kept escaping as she watched the boys practically crawl over to the water bottles. The sets on the stairs just about wore them out. That was the beauty of the stair drills. The first round was generally not too bad, then the second alerted you to the struggle you were feeling, and then the third was pure misery that felt like it dragged on forever. Afterwards they jogged back to the school, and then she had them do two flying laps around the gym. Normally that probably wouldn't have exhausted them to this extent, but the first half of practice did possess a lot of drills.

After seeing their energy levels drop, she decided to have some mercy on them and not add anymore to their workload. This would give her a chance to research more conditioning methods for volleyball players and see how she could maybe tweak them. She shook her head and collected the towels and empty bottles to be cleaned, leaving the team to begin cleaning up before they all left for the night. As she settled into her task, she thought about the conversations that she had as all the members trained.

While they were running up the shrine steps her grandfather's old friend wandered over for their weekly game of shogi.

"Good afternoon, Ishikawa-san."

"Ah, hello Kagome-chan. What is going on here?"

"They are the members of the Nekoma Highschool Volleyball Club. I'm having them run the shrine steps as part of their training."

The older man shook his head and chuckled, "They'll be feeling that later until they get used to it. This is a drill that you do yourself every morning isn't it?"

"Yes, though I'm not having them do as many as I normally do. I'm more use to this exercise and they need to work up to that number. The team is strong with a lot of potential, but they have weaknesses. If they want to make it to Nationals and do well, then they need improvement."

"Good goals to have, for sure. Their stamina and leg strength will improve with drills like this."

Kagome nodded and the two fell silent for a moment as they watched the progress before them. "Ano, Ishikawa-san?"

"Yes?"

"The sport center that your family runs… It has a few indoor beach volleyball courts, right?"

He grinned as he could see where her thoughts were going. "They don't get used much in the summer months since most just go to the beach. You are wanting to maybe use them for training?"

"If that is all right? I'll need to get approval of course. But I thought I should check with you first."

"My dear girl, the courts are yours. Just let me know what days you would like to use them."

"Thank you, Ishikawa-san!"

She had almost forgotten that Ishikawa-san's sport center even had a large sand pit for volleyball. However, she was glad that she did remember and lucky for her that the Vice Principle stopped by to check in on the team after they returned from their run. As they stepped aside to discuss the club's progress and handing over the completed paperwork that was caught up, she mentioned taking the club members over to the center and using the sand pit there. The Vice Principle, thankfully, approved of the idea and informed her that they would need to sit down on Monday after class to discuss the schedule.

'Everything is finally beginning to fall into place. And the new coach will be here on Wednesday… Then if all goes well, Coach Nekomata will come back after the Inter-High Prelims.'

Now she just needed to decide if she should keep that last little tidbit to herself or not. She was well aware that Kuroo was hoping that the former coach would return, and if he laid off calling her 'pocket-sized' for a while, then maybe she'll be nice enough to tell him that the coach that inspired him is planning to make a comeback.

After the gym was cleaned, everyone headed home for the night. "Kago-chan! Did you have to be that cruel?!" It was slightly irksome that he could be dragging his feet and she still had to walk fast to keep up.

Kagome scoffed at his complaint, "Well, you did say that you wanted my old sensei to coach for a few days. Think of me as a kinder version of him."

"That was kind?!"

"Yes, he would have made you do those until you threw up. And I did not want to have to clean that up. Sweeping the stairs is enough of a chore without adding scrubbing into the mix."

Kuroo released a groan as Kenma cringed. They had heard passing mentions of how intense of a teacher her old sensei was, and the more that they learned, the more they were glad that he wasn't their coach. Any misery that he could have doled out to the third years was not worth the pains that would be assigned to them. "Anyway, we'll stick to all of you doing three sets for now. As you become more used to it, then we can add more."

"What do you mean more? Three sets are more than enough!"

"Oh please, three sets are nothing. I do ten every morning."

"Ten?!"

Kagome stopped at the duel squawks and realized that the two where no longer next to her. Looking over her shoulder, she took in their frozen forms and blinked. "What?" All the boys did was stare at her, much to her confusion. She glanced down at her phone to check the time, and her eyes widened in shock. "Ah! I have to get home and help mama cook dinner! I'll see you both later! Remember dinner is at 7!" With a quick wave she darted around the corner and was out of view.

Kuroo looked down at his friend, "She does ten sets?"

Returning his look, "Apparently."

"And we have to climb those stairs again soon."

"Yup."

Groaning in defeat, Kuroo and Kenma continued on their way towards their homes. "At least the food will be great. Higurashi-mama is a great cook."

"True. And Kagome is cooking with her."

"Our meals at our training camps will definitely improve!"

"Were they that bad in the past?"

"Eh, when we trained with the other schools, the food was good. But when it was just our team, the upperclassmen would make the rookies cook. It was edible at least."

"Ah."

Kuroo should have known that he got off too easy with his mother when she didn't grill him after he got home from his date with Kagome. He should have known that she would find some way to punish him for his offense. Instead he allowed himself to feel relief and assume that she called Higurashi-mama and forgot all about his transgression. Well she did call her, but she did not forget.

Here they all were at the Higurashi Shrine, Kagome had been immediately enveloped in a giant hug by his mother as she gushed over how she had grown. Then once Kagome was released, he released a cackle after she pouted at his mother while pointing at him. "Kuroo-mama! What have you been feeding him? His height cannot be natural!" The room devolved into chuckles and his parents began catching up with Kagome's mom and getting to know her grandfather.

Souta and Kenma vanished upstairs to play games as per usual, and he wasn't sure if he would have been safer with them or not at this point. The initial conversation was to be expected even though it was kind of embarrassing. Their mothers both gushed about him and Kagome and how they made such a cute couple. Then they began to giggle over the idea of future grandbabies. Both his and Kagome's faces flushed with color, her eyes immediately looked to her lap while his went to the ceiling.

'Isn't it a little soon to be planning for that?' And just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, his mother dealt him a devastating blow.

"After we moved and found out that you had moved as well. Little Tetsurou was so distraught. He kept looking for Kagome-chan everywhere in hopes of finding her. In fact, anytime he heard someone say 'Kagome' his little head would whip around and frantically search to see if it was her. Now that I think of it, it reminds me of that animated movie with the house and the balloons. The one where the dogs could talk and get excited whenever someone said 'squirrel.'"

Kill him now and get it over with. That was the last thing he wanted Kagome to ever hear. He was certain that his face couldn't get any redder at this point, and then he heard the quiet giggles. Groaning softly, he glanced down at the dancing gems that were looking up in his direction.

She lowered her hands away from her lips and smiled. "Aww, so I was your squirrel, eh? That's so cute!"

"Oh, hush you."

Kagome snickered softly then leaned closer to him and lowered her voice. "I looked for you too." She gave his hand a squeeze and stood up to go the kitchen to check on the food. He watched her leave and felt himself calm down. Yes, he was embarrassed but knowing that he wasn't the only one searching made it barrable.

A soft smile crept across his face and he decided that it was time to vacate the room and hide with the gamer duo. He figured that if his mom revealed anything more, then ignorance was bliss. His mother won this round and he's been thoroughly reminded to be cautious when challenging her. She simply had too much blackmail material at her disposal.

That and he refused to suffer the family's antics without his 'squirrel' by his side.