𝚕𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚌𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚢 𝚐𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚝 [𝘧𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯]

🏐 SIXTEEN 🏐

"We're going back to nationals! Isn't that awesome?!" Kataoka couldn't believe that he was a starter and he was going to get to play at nationals. Yusei rolled her eyes as the team walked to the bus.

"Alright, everybody already knows the rules, correct?" Kanai confirmed, and they nodded as Yusei yawned. "Demon king?"

"Yeah, all good." She replied, her hands going behind her head. The coach rolled his eyes before allowing everyone onto the bus.

They had played aobajohsai again the week before, and it had been a lot of fun. In the end, Anaguma managed to take the most sets with Aobajohsai only two behind.

They had stayed the weekend at Aobajohsai, and Yusei had become friends with some of the second years. Her and Oikawa, however, had a little run in.

What the hell was that demon king hiding? Oikawa asked himself as he headed to the changing rooms to grab his jacket he had left there.

Opening the door, he started to walk in but stopped at what he saw. Yusei was in there, just about to pull her shirt all the way down...

His eyes widened, that was a binder..

"Ak! Sorry!" Oikawa turned away, his cheeks tinted pink as he looked down at the floor wide eyed.

Yusei groaned, her grey eyes rolling back into her head in annoyance. "Decent." She muttered as soon as she was, in fact, decent. Clearing his throat, Oikawa turned back to her, looking expectant.

Walking past him, Yusei grabbed the door handle, only for him to grab her hand. "Are you not gonna explain?"

"What's there to explain exactly?" She shot back at him.

"Ah-well, uh, a lot actually!"

"Like what?"

"Like, I don't know, your gender and pronouns!"

"I'm a girl but as long as I'm playing I go by he/him." She explained. "You can still call me Yusei-chan though." She winked, making the brunette setter blush.

"O-okay.."

"Did the famous Tooru Oikawa just stutter?"

"No! You must be imagining things!" He pouted, his face flushed. Yusei snickered, then opened the door and walked out.

As soon as the door shut, Oikawa put a hand over his face. He was scared. For some reason, the fact that Yusei was a girl and that she was playing again him made her appear hotter than other girls, even his girlfriend...

Shaking off the thought, he decided that he'd ignore his feelings because he was, in fact, happy where his life was at the moment, even if he couldn't beat Ushiwaka or Yusei.

But she could bring more to my life...

NO!

Sighing, the brunette setter left the changing rooms and headed back to the gym after grabbing his jacket.

Yusei grumbled annoyances as she remembered the encounter, and Nishioka snored on her shoulder. The rest of the ride to Tokyo was spent sleeping, the coach playing soft and pretty music in the background.

When they arrived, they split into three rooms, one for the coach, and two for the players. Three people to a room, and they only had nine players so that wasn't a problem.

"Nishi, Ozaki and Akagi in one room; Udai, Kataoka and Yakoya in one; Sadow, Sanada and Miyake in the other." Coach instructed, so they nodded and went to their respective rooms.

"I call sleeping with Yusei-kun!"

"Hey no fair!"

"Seriously?"

"Wow am I popular or what?"

"Shut up Yusei-kun."

~•~

Back on the bus.

Anaguma was not okay, including their demon king. They hadn't done anything wrong, made no unforced errors.

It was just that Itachiyama was better. Not to mention they were put against them the first round, what rotten luck.

The coach could see their spirits were down, so instead of playing soft music to help them sleep, he played some well known songs so they could jam out.

On the six hour drive back to their prefecture, only two out of the nine people on the bus actually got any sleep. And surprisingly, one of those people had been Yusei.

She was tired, but most important, she had felt the sting of defeat for the first time in one hell of a long time. The ace realized she had been slacking off on her training, content with just staying the way she was.

Yusei knew now that she actually needed to work instead of just waiting for the victory to come. Now that she was focused, it would be a whole lot harder for anyone to beat them again.

Nishioka noticed this change in attitude at the beginning of the ride, but took it for the slums of defeat and maybe her being depressed over it. He had nothing to worry about, Nishi would soon realize.

"You guys played a good game," Coach Kanai told his team as they sat around him in a crescent, "no matter what the scores said. I can tell that a lot of personal growth is coming out of this, so I'm giving you the week off." He said, then dismissed them.

Yusei and Nishi walked home in silence, neither really wanting to talk anyway. They were both too in their heads to even think about the other.

Yusei turned into her house, closing the door behind her and walking to her room. Setting her bag down, she sat on the bed. For a moment she didn't do anything, just sat in silence and pondered life.

Then, grabbing her phone and earbuds, she strapped it to her arm and got up. It's been a long time, she thought to herself as she exited her house and put the earbuds in, since I've been out running.

Yusei ran a half a mile before turning back, her body not used to long distance running as of yet.

I'll get back into it, she thought as she panted in front of her door. Once she had her breathing under control again and she was back in her room, Yusei took out her phone.

Scrolling through her contacts, she paused at one. She never thought she'd be asking for his help, never in a million years.

"Tenma, it's me. I want you to teach me how to use the block."