PROLOGUE
THE BELL JAR RESTS HEAVY on her shoulders. Her vision was distorted. The world around her was muffled like everyone was talking to her all at once underwater.
She blinks rapidly to clear the fog, desperately hoping that each blink will sharpen her senses back to normality.
The ball hits the ground like a cannon--there one second, gone the next. The sound echoes loudly, cutting through the silence of the court. The stinging of her palm was the only indication that she was still here despite the nauseating feeling rising up her throat. A smile fights its way onto her face.
"What's the score?" She shouts over the muffled cheering that slipped through as the bell jar slowly started to lift above her head. "What's the score?" she asks again with more urgency while she stumbled towards her teammate, a hand landing on the girl's shoulder to stop herself from tripping over her own feet.
"25-23."
Two numbers, like the hands of god, violently rips the bell jar off her head--everything hitting her at once. The blinding stadium lights. The loud cheers from the stands and her teammates. Her vision begins to sharpen as she watches the faces of the opposing team burn with frustration and defeat. The unforgiving pain throbbing in her right knee that the brace did little to soothe.
"What?" she grips the shoulders of her teammate to balance herself. She couldn't believe what the girl had just said to her.
"25-23, Takizawa," her teammate places her hands on top of the confused girl's shoulders. "We won!" she smiles through the exhaustion of playing a third set.
She mumbles the score under her breath over and over again, afraid that if she stops, she'll wake up in her bedroom to the sound of her alarm instead of the cheers.
It's over.
The tired girl looks up directly to the stands despite the glaring overhead lights and the rush of girls running to her side. There he was with the rest of them. The sight of him almost immediately caused her to frown, her muscle reflex and brain fighting for dominance for a brief moment--her smile wavers enough for the both of them to notice. Not knowing why he invoked such emotion from her at a moment like this, she forces her eyes to tear away from his gaze.
The crow flies again, and with a stinging hand resting on her knee, Minami Takizawa prays that she hasn't flown too close to the sun this time.
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Stinging Sensation (Haikyuu!!)
FanfictieShe looks a her red palm, the ghost of the ball lingers between every crease and ridge. The stinging sensation pulses from the point of contact with the ball to the tips of her fingers, awakening every adrenergic receptors in her body. In that momen...
