Conquest ۞ Haikyuu! Kenma X OC (on hiatus)

~ 8 ~

Mirai sat on the bench with her newly acquired clipboard. She didn't know what to do with it, but she had seen Shimizu scribbling on one when she visited Noya at Karasuno. She made a mental note to ask her later that day, maybe during lunch.

Coach Nekomata had welcomed her with a smile, but that creepy close-lipped and also close-eyed smile was practically a permanent fixture on his face, so it didn't count for much. At least Coach Naoi was nice.

Now, Kuroo stood next to her, to introduce her to the team she already knew. 'Okay guys, starting today we have a manager to help us, this is Mirai-chan. Please be nice to-'

Shibayama raised a hand, 'Kuroo-san, we already know who she is.'

'Shush, let him finish,' Yamamoto pushed the first-year behind him, eyes wide as he stared at the two in front of him.

'Please be nice to her. As you can see, she is hurt, and can't help as much with clean-up or other stuff yet, but she'll be up and running in no time. If she stops trying to do them just four days after breaking her leg.' The last sentence was directed at her when she tried to speak up.

'Mirai-chan will write stuff down, calculate stuff, just stuff managers do. I wouldn't know since we've never had one before.' The mohawked boy called, 'Hear hear!'.

'Unlike other managers, Mirai will give us pointers too, because she is, was, is... a talented player, having played both libero and setter before. So she knows a bit of everything,' Pause. 'Make that a lot of everything.'

'I will be assigning someone to help her in general, since I don't trust that redhead wing spiker in her class. Too bouncy and smiley.'

'I don't need help.'

He raised a finger to silence her, 'You can't even get up the stairs, Mirai-chan. This person will be... Kenma.' Cue the protest from both of them.

'The rest of you, make sure to keep Tora and Lev away from her during practice. That is all.'

The indignant squawks from both teammates were drowned out by the gradually loudening thuds of volleyballs hitting the ground.

Mirai sat quietly and took it all in.

Lev's receive practice with Yaku was brutal, the demon senpai yelling continuously, not even pausing to draw breath, the poor poor beanpole getting whacked in the face multiple times by Fukunaga's serves.

Yamamoto and Kenma had a new quick they were practicing, Kai suggested it a week ago, and they were slowly getting the hang of it. The success rate was still at 64% though, from what she had observed. Shibayama tried to leap around receiving them, even the off course ones.

Inuoka had a giant grin on his focused face as he listened to Kuroo slowly go over the concepts of read blocking again.

Mirai realized she liked watching them practice, surrounded by volleyball without the getting herself all sweaty and gross. But she already missed the familiar feel of the ball bouncing off her arms, the satisfying thud as it's sent straight to the setter with its spin absorbed.

Practice was over in what felt like an instant, and Mirai pushed herself to her feet clumsily. The cast weighed a ton, and she had to lug it around permanently for months. She wanted to bang her head against a wall repeatedly.

'No, Kenma, you have to take care of Mirai at all times. Put down your phone!' The pudding-head stumbled towards the girl, reeling from the shove.

'Hi.' A small voice emerged from behind a sheet of hair.

'You can go on first, Kozume-san, I'll be fine.'

He shook his head slightly and offered a stiff arm, not unlike the gentlemen from a hundred years ago. Mirai took it gently, hesitantly.