𝕊𝕜𝕪𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 {Hinata Shouyou}

Prologue

"Maybe one day, I'll learn to fly again."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

One step, and another.

Stoop down, push up.

Reach the summit,

and then swing.

That slap against the palm of my hand ripples, and the ball slams straight down onto the other side of the court. An erupting thud, and the ball bounces away.

One foot, then the other down, and I land. The point I had made was ours.

I yell out in succession, my teammates yelling just as loudly as they gave me pairs of hands to high five.

Match point. One more. Just one more.

"That's her, she's that girl, right?"

I hear the stands cheering my name, clapping and drumming in an organized manner,
"Nice kill, Skybound! One more time!"

We serve, they received. Their receive had shook very clearly, the setter had passed it to their Number 6, then did a hurried cross shot.

I sent it flying back into the air, skybound, the lights almost blinding,

I shouted, "Give it to me!"

I came up from the side. The toss was far from the net, a bit too far. I had to reach out to get it.

"I remember her, she's Seiren, that incredible wing spiker!"

One step, and another.

Stoop down, push up.

Reach the summit,

and then swing.

The sudden impact took me by surprise, I shut my eyes.

"She was part of those fancy magazines as an All-Japan youth representative even, why did she quit?"

A searing pain shot through my calf, my muscles tensing up midair. My knees were already bent in preparation for a spike, and yet I couldn't stretch out my right leg.

I needed to land on my feet. My feet, I needed to land on my foot, and then the other. I needed to ground myself once more.

Abruptly, I touched down all too quickly, with a terribly, terribly loud thud.

I screamed in pain.

"I heard that in her final year, in the Nationals her knee was messed up so bad that she couldn't continue."