The Strange Life Of Mikoto Ishida (Yutaro Kindaichi)

Challenge

I held up my new uniform. How did I manage to even get myself in this mess? Oh right, Oikawa's a dick...

As the coach was asking me if I would be joining the club, Oikawa butted in. Well, you can guess what happened next. It led to an argument and Oikawa calling me a crappy player. Needless to say, that got me a bit irritated.

"Is that a challenge?" I half growled at the other setter. While I might not have been the best on my former team, I was still good enough to be on a nationals level team.

Oikawa could tell he was beginning to get under my skin and smirked. "I'm calling you out," he said, speaking more clearly. "My team versus yours. If I win, you do as I say and join the club."

He probably only wanted me to join so that he could order me around. That only left me one option: win. "Three on three or six against six?" I asked, still keeping up the fierce act.

"Three."

Quickly looking over the players, I knew the two I wanted. One was because he was a friend. The other was simply to keep Oikawa from having him. Plus I figured he was probably the strongest. And maybe because they were the only two whose names I actually knew.

"I get Spiky and Iwaizumi," I said, my voice firm. Since I was at a disadvantage because I'd never played with any of them before, it was only fair that I should get the first pick.

Oikawa glared at me for just a moment before smirking. "Makki." The guy who'd called him gay earlier stepped forward. "Matsun." The guy with Akaashi hair stepped up. The two stood at Oikawa's side while Kindaichi and Iwaizumi joined me.

Once the match had gotten started, it took some time to get coordinated with my two teammates. Luckily though, I was able to adjust to Kindaichi quite quickly and surprisingly made quite a pair. Iwaizumi was a little bit tougher to get used to. But once I had done it, my team quickly improved.

However, by then it was a little too late to make a comeback. Oikawa had some really nasty serves and he knew all about his teammates. I, on the other hand, was merely average with my serves and had the disadvantages of being the shortest of the six and knowing nothing except what little I'd been told by Kindaichi before coming here.

And now here I am, standing in front of my new teammates. Yeah, I lost. Despite all my big talk before, I lost to Oikawa. If I'd had teammates that I knew before the match, then maybe I could have won against him. But I guess for now I'll just do what can.

"Look Iwa-chan," Oikawa grinned, pointing at me. "Miko-chan's even shorter than you are." That comment earned him a glare from me and a kick from Iwaizumi. At least I wasn't the only one who got annoyed by him. Though it was pretty irritating to be called short.

As a girl, I'd been considered tall. There was even a time when I got picked on because of it. But now as a guy, I was a bit on the smaller side of average. Being 173 cm tall, I found that I was the second shortest here.

But setting my height aside, I wasn't so sure I liked Oikawa suddenly calling me Miko-chan. Back when I was at Fukurodani, that was something only the guys who'd been crushing on me had called me. Plus Bokuto. Bokuto always insisted on calling me Miko-chan because he insisted that it was cuter. My friends and teammates only called me Miko, which was different.

It didn't take anyone long to pick up on my irritation at their... I mean our captain. However, no one seemed all that bothered about it. "Don't call me that, Oikawa." I was really tempted to use Iwaizumi's nickname for him, but as his first rule as captain, I was was forbidden to call him any of Iwaizumi's insulting nicknames.

"You did say it was your nickname," the ace of the team was quick to point out.

I scowled. "I said my friends call me Miko. I never said anyone could call me Miko-chan." That wasn't a nickname I had really cared for. Miko I didn't mind, but Miko-chan was off-limits. "You can thank a bunch of creepy idiots for ruining that one." And one guy who really didn't understand the concept of the word 'no'. I didn't dare say that out loud though. The less they knew, the better.

"Oh? Is adorable little Miko-chan angry?" Oikawa taunted, an irritating smirk on his face. Oh, how I wanted to just rip it off. Let's see how he likes that.

"Screw you Oikawa," I hissed, glaring at the captain. Some of the second and first years' mouths dropped open. Okay, so maybe it was rare for someone to say something like that to the setter, but he was touching the wrong nerves. Not to mention I was a bit sore about losing to him.

Oikawa scowled at me. "Rude!"

"Yeah well you're a dick," I mumbled, just barely loud enough for those standing closest to me to hear it. That was only Kindaichi and Yahaba, who I seemed to have been getting along with the best. I turned around and left the gym.

The practice wasn't over yet, but I didn't consider myself to officially be a part of the team yet. Not to mention that I couldn't change around those guys. Can't have them finding out that I'm a girl. Though at tomorrow's practice, I'd better make sure I got there as early as possible, or else there could be trouble.

But hey, I should be fine as long as I'm careful, right?