𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍'𝐒 𝐀𝐂𝐄

01: ryuen seishun

"ryuen-sama!"

seishun tilted her head, her sharp eyes were half-lidded. "seriously, why do ya keep calling me that?"

okabe tomi was one of the two first years on the team, and one of seishun's admirers. she was also a wing-spiker, who had big dreams of becoming like seishun. she had even initially entered niiyama just to play with the nation's ace. "because! ryuen-sama deserves the utmost respect!"

seishun scoffed in amusement with a tilt of her head. she nudged the girl beside her with a sly smile. "hear that, dai?" she said. "i deserve the utmost respect."

"she does not," yokoyama dai, the captain of the team, exclaimed. "if anything, she deserves no respect!" dai was the strict captain and middle blocker of niiyama's girls team. both dai and seishun had played together throughout all of their years of high school and middle school together. they had known each other since they were younger and often played together since they had been neighbors their whole lives. dai was someone that knew the most about seishun, and vice versa.

seishun wrapped her arm around tomi, who stared up at the ace with innocent eyes. "i'm thinking that tomi, here, should take over your spot as captain. you don't deserve it. we need more people with morals like tomi on the team!"

dai replied with a middle-finger. "you better shut your mouth, ryuen, or i'll bench you the rest of the season!"

"ooh, consider my timbers shivered!"

dai began warm-ups the minute all of the players on the team arrived. luckily for dai, everyone on the team was well-behaved, besides seishun. they all listened to their captain and vice-captain's orders, similar to tomi. 

while seishun stretched from side-to-side, the vice captain of the team nudged her. "so, ryuen, you think dai's gonna put you in for longer than a few points, today?" 

"nope," seishun replied. 

inou kumi, the third-year setter and vice captain, chuckled. "it's almost like she does it out of spite, yeah?"

dai, who heard this, narrowed her eyes at her co-captain. "i heard that," she huffed. "how many times do i have to tell you two? we gotta keep ryuen under the radar!"

"you do know that that's, like, impossible, right?" said nakamura miu, the third-year defensive specialist. "everyone knows who ryuen is." 

"yeah," seishun piped in. "if you ask me, that's a pretty dumb tactic!"

dai's expression went flat. she placed her hands on her hips and let out a long sigh. "fine, you can play two sets, today." dai paused and tossed a ball to seishun. "don't forget, you're playing every point during nationals, unless you get injured."

"gotcha, captain."

the team began warming up for their match without any issues. the stands began to fill with families and students, the chatter bringing a much more upbeat aura to the team and its players. 

eventually, the chatter had become too loud for seishun. sneakily, she asked dai to check if their opponents had arrived. dai agreed easily, and seishun skipped off. 

the second that seishun had stepped out, a soft sigh left her lips. seishun liked her alone time. most of the time, she was with dai, miu, and kumi. they were all in the same grade, and were very close friends. kumi was quite loud, always chatting with seishun. dai and seishun were often bickering about random topics. lastly, miu and seishun were often complaining. seishun enjoyed the presences of her friends, but also enjoyed when it was quiet.