Of Cats and Crows (Sugawara Koushi)

Fated Rivals

It was finally the fateful day that Tokyo University would go head to head against Miyagi University. This was the game that both teams had been begging for to happen.

TokyoU was sitting in a circle in the grass. The ladies were preoccupying their minds by passing a volleyball to a person in the circle to the beat of a song. Riza had the most hype playlist of anyone. So, her playlist blared over the Bluetooth speaker one of the guys let her borrow.

"Ah!!! Ishida!!!" Takahashi really had no sense of rhythm at all. She scrambled to toss the ball to a random team member and missed the beat. Everyone, including her, laughed at the failure. The spiker scooted out of the circle and watched everyone move inwards before continuing.

The game continued until it was just Mitsumi and Makoto. The music started again. It had a faster tempo than the other songs. Mitsumi kept up with ease. This wasn't anything difficult compared to what she had to do in her rhythm classes. Her mind was glad there weren't any crazy polyrhythms or odd syncopations. It was just a steady beat.

"No fair!" Makoto missed a beat as the tempo increased. "She's literally a music major!"

Mitsumi swooshed her ponytail over her shoulder. "What can I say? I did have to take a rhythm class last semester. And I got an A."

"Someone needs a slice of humble pie." Makoto stuck her tongue out. When it came to games, she was a bit of a sore loser. She huffed and crossed her arms, which made her upperclassmen laugh.

Mitsumi stuck her tongue out as well. Just to prove she was capable of doing so. Some people started a second round while others decided to lay in the grass and scroll through their phones. A few of them were using this downtime to update their social media.

The libero selected a photo of the team huddled up in a circle. They all had bright grins and shining countenances. She paused and tried to think of a caption. She was horrible at these things.

Get ready for the Inter-Collegiate Spring Volleyball Finals! Go Dogs! #TokyoU #DogFight #TokyovsMiyagi #LiberoLife

She tagged her teammates and clicked the post button with a satisfied smile. Surely, there would be more news to post that evening. Mitsumi had been taking the time to send pictures of her day to her family throughout the course of the week. Mostly so they didn't feel left out. Megumi had been emailing her all of her shots, to which Mitsumi would send them out to the rest of the team. The younger Mitsumi was developing one heck of a portfolio.

"There you guys are!" Noriko spotted her daughter lying lazily in the grass. "I was worried that Tetsuro was lying to me."

"Mom!" Mitsumi stood up as fast as she could. "Is Dad with Megumi?" She gave her mother a tight hug.

The older woman nodded and gave her daughter a squeeze. "Yes, he is. They are claiming our seats for the match and taking care of some cameras or something." Her husband was working on the media crew for one of the news stations today. "Anyways, I got a call from Watanabe to bring some goodies. So, I made some fruit salad and brought you all some protein bars for a midmorning snack."

Mitsumi's lips shaped into an O.  "I'll introduce you to Riza then. She'll take the food." She brought her mother over to the manager who was looking for the next song on her phone

Riza smiled warmly at the guest. "I can take the bags! It's a pleasure to meet you, Mitsumi-san."

"Call me Noriko." The mother insisted as she handed the bags over. "Glad to see everyone is in high spirits. I was scared for you all yesterday."

The manager laughed and took the food bags from the mother. "Nothing we couldn't handle." The ginger flashed a grin.

"I'll let you find the rest of the crew." Mitsumi was going to help get their snack distributed. She found it a bit odd that Watanabe reached out to her mother of all people for food. Her manager was most likely in a pinch to find food and knew that Mitsumi's parents didn't live too far away. She shrugged it off and watched the older lady walk off.