3 The Spark

*Knock Knock

"Haruto, are you awake already? It's been 10 mins already since I last knocked and you said that you'd come out 5 mins ago."

…

Akane was met with silence. She frowned slightly and opened the door to her brother's room to wake him up since at this rate they will be late on their first day of elementary school. As she walked in she saw a messy room with various clothes stacked onto a chair and many types of manga piled up near a bed. On the bed was a young boy with messy black hair sleeping soundly.

Seeing him drooling slightly Akane was somewhat annoyed so she opened the curtains letting the morning sun pour in and took the covers off the boy's bed. Seeing him still not wake up she pinched his nose and soon enough the boy quickly woke up startled.

"You didn't need to wake me up like that, you know. You could've just gently shook me." Haruto slightly frowning while rubbing his nose.

"I did that and took off the covers and you still haven't woken up. Hurry up and get ready, you have 20 mins or else we're going to be late." Akane quickly said returning back to room to put on her uniform

Haruto absently nodded and went to his bathroom quickly. He took a quick shower and proceeded to wear his elementary uniform. It was a collared white short sleeve with the school's logo on the right hand side. With it came dark gray dress pants and black colored shoes. He quickly dried his hair and made it presentable. After making sure it was acceptable he quickly went to the dining room and ate the breakfast that was already prepared by the caretakers. His parents were already gone and went to work but this was the usual since his childhood. After eating he brushed his teeth and went to the front entrance seeing his sister already waiting for him.

"Just in time I thought you would take longer when eating"

Rolling his eyes he opened the door and walked alongside his sister to the car that will drive them to their elementary school. As they started to drive off their driveway Akane turned to Haruto and asked.

"Why did you sleep in today? You usually are on time for these types of days?"

Haruto looked at her and smiled slightly "Well there was this feeling I was having and I just couldn't sleep for some reason.. Maybe I was just being too excited haha"

Laughing slightly he turned away and looked out the car window. Akane continued to stare at her brother worriedly and kept silent, her thoughts being only known to her.

When they arrived at the school they were able to see many children with their parents going into the school and going to the classrooms trying to find which ones their kids were in. After thanking the driver they went into the school and walked to class 1-3, happy that they were in the same class they found some seats.

Akane sat down and started reading a book while also greeting some people she knew. While Haruto excitedly greeted some of his friends that he made in kindergarten. After a while the teacher walked in and caught the attention of all the students.

"Good morning students! My name is Miki Hanada you can call me Miki-sensei and I will be your teacher for your coming school year."

""Good morning Miki-sensei!""

"Good now why don't we have a quick moment to introduce ourselves to get to know each other. Just say your name and one thing that you like, It can be your favorite food or maybe animal whatever you would like to choose."

After that one by one the students started to introduce themselves, some of them said their favorite animals and some said their favorite type of videos to watch which I was surprised how many of them loved to watch cat videos. Next up was this boy next to me, he had black hair styled in a bowl cut with dark brown eyes. He had eyebrows that were thinned out in the end and had a sharp look

"Hai! My name is Tsutomu Goshiki and my favorite sport to watch and play is volleyball!"

*Badum

I suddenly froze. I felt my heart beat out of my chest and some indescribable feeling started to well up inside me. But as quickly the feeling came it suddenly left making me feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Next student ple-"

What was that? What was that feeling of excitement that filled my heart right now?

"Excuse me, are you feeling alright?"

I quickly snapped out of my thoughts and saw my teacher looking at me. Some other students and my friends started to look at me wondering what was wrong.

"Sorry sensei, I was just thinking what my bento would be today. I was trying to remember what it was because they wouldn't tell me and they said to wait since it was a surprise! How rude of them I just wanted to know!"

The other students started to chuckle and sensei also gave a small giggle

"Well it's still morning so you just have to be patient and wait. Well go ahead and introduce yourself and say your favorite thing"

"Yes sensei"

I introduced myself and sensei started to do her lesson. It was basic math so I just pretended to pay attention and complete the worksheet that was given to me. While solving basic questions I started to think about the feeling that I felt earlier. I turned to my right and looked at the bowl headed kid and decided to talk to him later.

***

Lunch time came around and I got up to go talk to the bowl head. He seemed to scare off some of the kids with his sharp gaze but I can see that he was feeling a bit lonely.

"Hi, my name is Haruto Watanabe! I was wondering if you wanted to eat lunch with me?"

He was startled that someone talked with him but he quickly gained a smile and greeted back "Hello Watanabe-san if that's fine with you I would be happy to! Oh I forgot I'm Tsutomu Goshiki!"

Laughing slightly I asked "Do you mind if I call you Tsutomu? Ah you can call me Haruto in exchange"

He smiled and said "sure that's fine with me Haruto" He brought his desk over and connected it with mine. We started talking and I asked him a question I was dying to ask.

"You said that your favorite thing was to play volleyball right?"

He quickly turned to me and excitingly asked "Do you also play volleyball! What position do you play? Are you a setter? An outside hitter? Or maybe you're a libero. Did yo-"

"Wait wait wait, calm down a bit. I just wanted to ask you if I can join you the next time you play since I'm kinda interested in it seeing how excited you are"

Seeing him calm down a bit I started to get more excited. I never felt this excited in my life so far and that term outside hitter gave me a wisp of nostalgia that I can't seem to figure out where it came from. After bowl hea- I mean Tsutomu calmed down a bit he said to me.

"I heard that after school today the gym will be open and we can try and get a volleyball and play around if you're alright with doing that"

"Sure I'm down to go. Wait, I just need to tell my sister since I would be staying after school for a bit and I go home with her" After he nodded I went to Akane and told her about going to the gym after school. Surprisingly she said that she wanted to come and watch which I agreed since why not the more the merrier.

***

School ended and Tsutomu and I packed our bags and started to head toward the gym. I introduced Akane to Tsutomu and he greeted back with a smile while she just nodded her head.

While we were close to the gym we turned the corner and went through the door. While going in, a person walked out and I caught a glimpse of her long silky blonde hair. I turned around to look at her but she was already gone by the time I looked.

"Are you alright, what are you looking at?" Tsutomu asked and peaked where I was staring at.

"It was nothing, let's just ask about the volleyball and play" Tsutomu nodded and went to ask one of the teachers. While he went to get a ball Akane sat down near the wall and opened up a book that she brought. After a while Tsutomu came back with a ball and taught me how to fold my hand together in order to receive.

I started to put one hand over the other and connected my thumbs together. Holding my hands like this felt strangely familiar and I naturally spread my legs a bit and slightly bent my legs as if it was the most natural thing to do.

"Hey, are you sure you haven't played before? You seem to have really good form for just learning it today" I just smiled and shook my head and told him that I wanted to try and pass the ball.

He nodded and threw the ball in my direction. I positioned the ball to hit the part of my forearm that was close to my wrists and used my legs to pass the ball back to Tsutomu. He was impressed and started to teach me how to volley a ball. After a while we started to rally the ball back and forth.

The slight burn on my forearms while passing and the feeling of the ball on my fingertips while volleying. I can feel my heart beating and the excitement started to fill me once again just like that time in the classroom. I can feel it. Some sort of spark that was extinguished inside was once again re-ignited.

"Are you okay Haruto you're crying right now." Tsutomu asked with concern

I touched my face and felt my cheeks slightly moist. I smiled and just said

"It was probably the dust that went in my eye. You don't need to worry about it."

"Tsutomu I think I found something that I want to put my very best into and maybe someday reach the top."

Haruto looked at Tsutomu smiling while his sapphire blue eyes gleamed

"You better get ready since I feel like I might take the seat of best ace if you're not prepared"

!!!

"Huhh no one can take that title away from me, not even you Haruto!"

I started to smile and continued to bicker with Tsutomu. On the side Akane was staring at her brother and hid her face with the book she was reading. Her eyes slightly watering and a gentle smile rested on her face.

***

Whew, kinda a big chapter I must say myself. I wanted to show the feeling of once again feeling that first spark you get when you find something you want to put your whole passion into and I hope I was kinda able to convey that. The next one is finally the chapter where Haruto will meet the main duo of the series. Anyways thank you for reading and till next time Peace!