Chapter 18, Owls

THIRD POV

After the match with Nekoma, both team complimented each other. It was a sweet gesture, and both felt confident. Their defense is really top tier, and Shirome knew that well with everyone.

Spotting the silver head from earlier, she walked to him. He noticed her and stopped, slightly blushing. She stopped infront of him, craning her neck as she looked up to the tall boy.

"Hello, can I know your name?" She calmly said.

He blinked rapidly before responding, "U-Um, Lev Haiba. I'm a first year and I play middle blocker. And I'm the ace of the team! Although if I said that, Taketora-san will get mad at me," He slightly shivered, before smiling down at Shirome, "How about you?"

She hummed, "Shirome Furumi, I'm also a first year. I play setter," She smiled, making the silver head heat up as his whole face was red.

Shirome was oblivious and continued talking, "I just wanted to say, if you want to match Kenma's tosses, you need to stay relaxed and jump at your own pace while also matching Kenma. You have potential with your height, Lev. You might have just started volleyball just recently, but with time your skills can improve over time. And then, you'll be the offical ace of Nekoma," She beamed and waved at him. She walked back to her team.

Nekoma watched as Lev stood frozen for a few seconds. And then, the poor boy jumped, his nose was bleeding.

"Lev!" Yaku rushed to him with tissues as he helped Lev with his nosebleed.

Kenma stared at him, slightly disgusted, "You're that flustered by Shirome? That's lame."

Lev's eye twitched, "Who wouldn't?! She was literally shining!" Kenma just sighed and walked away, preparing for their spiking drills with the girls. Nekoma was teasing Lev, amused at the 1st year's reactions.

It was time for the spiking drills and Nekoma lined up.

As usual, Shirome observed with her clipboard which she will give to Nekomata later, she listed weaknesses and solutions to improve them. She snickered as she looked at Kenma who was dead and bored on the ground. Kenma heard her and looked up to glare at the ½n½.

She approached him and gave Leki, the one who's been helping Kenma, the clipboard as she helped Kenma instead.

"Kenma, come on. Don't slack off," Shirome softly said as she pulled Kenma by his shoulders and gently forced his back to be straight.

"I'm cooked," Kenma sighed, "Why are we even doing this?"

"It helps," She said as she pushed Kenma to the ground, soft hands on his small back. Slightly scared, she just applied light pressure. This goes on for a few minutes, with Kenma occasionally whining at her, telling her to be gentle.

Finally, stretching ended–much to Kenma's delight. Shirome stood up and got the clipboard from Leki as she took last notes. Kenma was flexible, he just doesn't want to stretch for so long. The other's were really flexible too, some are improving. Finally done with the notes, she gave the piece of paper to Nekomata who accepted it with a smile. She bowed and went back to their team's bench, finding them resting and drinking. Some were on their phone. She frowned.

"Fukurodani's our next match. Put away your phones and get ready. Something tells me this match won't end fast, and that we'll struggle a bit," She paused as she glanced at Bokuto who was proud at his spike and constantly asking the ravenette setter if his spikes were awesome, "Koutaro is a hard hitter, and his aim is really great. Not to mention their setter is collected and he knows how to handle the team. Koutaro trusts their setter with his tosses. What we need to do is to put pressure on the setter, but whatever you do," She paused again, a cold look appeared in her red eyes, making the team shiver.

"Don't ever pressure Koutaro. Just try to receive his spikes, make him spike to Ameri so she can pass to me. If things go down hill, I'll hit when necessary," She said as she sipped from her bottle.

Leki huffed, "And why don't we need to pressure their captain? He's literally their best player–He's the ace. Why don't we need to weaken him?" She rolled her eyes.

Shirome turned to her with a dark aura, but her face remained calm, "His emotional phases are hard to deal with, and when he goes through those phases, Ameri gets pissed off. She won't hesitate to smack him on the head to make him come back to his senses. I don't want anyone laying a finger on him."

The team hesitated but just agreed with her, although it isn't fair. It's just a practice match, so it won't be a problem if Fukurodani had won over them. But Fushichou is one of the top 5 strongest girls team in Japan, Fukurodani's win rate is unanswerable.

Fukurodani's recent match ended and it was time for them to play. Everyone was interested in the match of a strong girls team, against the best team in the camp so far. So they sat around their court to watch.

The referee wanted the captain to shake hands before the match, and know which team will be serving first.

The gradient head approached the owl captain as she smiled at him. He smiled at her sweetly, almost making Shirome go weak at his adorableness. But then again, who could resist the child like captain of Fukurodani.

"Shiro! Finally we get to play against each other. It has been kinda long since our encounter at the party," He chirped at her.

"Yes, Koutaro. You better not hold back, because we won't. Although, if you want me to, just tell me," She lightly winked at him. He pouted then laughed, ruffling the smaller captain's head. They only met once–if you excluded this time.

Few people raised their brow at the gesture, but brushed it off.

He shook her hand, "Oh well, we'll be serving first," He said as he glanced at the side where the coin landed.

They waved to each other as they retreated to their positions, the match has begun.

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