11 Back Home

Time Skip 2 and a half years

Sora POV

I look out of the huge window that looks out on the city and airplanes flying in and out of the city. I smile at the familiar setting and area.

"You ready?" a voice says to me and I turn around to see my coach Nakamoto. I smile at him. "Yeah." I reply back.

He nods his head and fixes his backpack "Well let's send off Sean and his coach before they go into the city." he says. I nod my head back and grab my suitcase rolling it with me while following Nakamoto.

We soon see them, Sean and his coach Chris. I smile and run up to Sean. "Sean!" I yell at him and he turns around and waves at me with a smile. "Yo! Sora! We just got off our flight." he tells me as I smile Coach Chris before Nakamoto goes to talk with him.

I nod my head excitedly. "So, welcome to my country and home, Miyagi Japan." I say while doing jazz hands. He chuckles at my action. "Why thank you" he says in japanese this time.

We both laugh a bit and he smiles while fixing his bag on his shoulder. "Man, I still can't believe that we both got accepted into YVAO (Young Volleyball Athlete Organization)" he says and I chuckle. "Mhm, yeah. It's good for us though. It allows us to pick up on some new techniques that we haven't known or see new things here in Japan." I say remembering memories.

He nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah but it really amazes me that we got to do this. Like with this program it opens up a lot of things for our volleyball career and let's us train even more. Plus the experience of a new country!" he says excitedly. I chuckle and he looks back at me "Well new experiences for me."

I think back and smile "Ethan and Lizz must be so upset and sad that they couldn't come here with us. But they get to experience another country though!" I say and he laughs at what they might do. "Don't remind me." he jokes.

"Well youngsters, sorry to separate you two. But we need to get going." Chris says while picking up his suitcase. We both nod our heads and make our way out of the airport to the parking lot where we both will catch a taxi.

"Hey Sean, enjoy Japan and if you need help or wanna talk as usual you have my number." I say and hug him. He smiles and hugs me back. "Thanks, I had a fun couple years practicing with you at our school back in America. I'll see you around in Miyagi and at tournaments." he tells me before getting into the taxi.

But then Chris yells out to us as he packs the bags in the trunk, "Don't worry you'll see us sooner than that!" I tilt my head confused at his words. He jumps into the car and leaves.

Nakamoto and I watch as they drive off. Nakamoto turns towards me and pats my shoulder. "Here's our driver." he says as the taxi pulls up and we load our bags into the car.

As we drive, I look over at my coach and ask him a question that I have been wondering forever. "Um Coach. Where are we heading?" I ask and he smiles. "Why of course we are going to your house so you can meet your parents. Then after we have some games to watch. The inter high prelims are happening." he tells me and I smile brightly at him.

He continues "But after the games, we'll head back to your place so we can discuss this program with your parents and the school that you'll be enrolling." he tells me and I nod my head. "I already have a school in mind." I say smiling at fond memories. He raises a brow and takes out his phone.

"Well since school started about over a month ago, so you'll be starting late. So you''ll need to catch up with studies that they have started. But you should be decently fine since the school you've been learning at is a little farther than them. Plus, you'll still be training under me even though this program puts you under different circumstances." he says while looking at some paper work.

"Understood!" I say and look out the window. 'I'm back.' I say in my mind looking at the buildings and sky of Japan.

~Time Skip~

Both Nakamoto and I unloaded our luggage and arrived at my house. I knocked on the door and waited for a while before hearing "Coming!" My eyes started to get a little teary and the door opened up showing my mom.

She gasped at the sight of my and covered her mouth before she started to cry. "Hey Mom. I'm home!" I say and pull her into a hug. She hugs me tight and cries harder causing my dad to come. "Honey What's wro-" he stopped his sentence seeing me and ran to the both of us, joining the hug.

"Welcome home!" he says and we all come in and my parents greet Nakamoto. As they talk and have Nakamoto explain some things to my parents, I walk around the house looking at the kitchen, the dinning room, the hallway and enter my room. Seeing that everything was just how I left it. I put my suitcase and bag in the corner of my room and look at the trophies and medals that I got. Along with multiple team pictures that we did in my second year before I left and my time in my first year.

I smiled fondly and I moved my attention to other pictures that were placed on my drawer, the picture with Shoyo. I smiled and picked it up. "Sho-kun....I'll be making that wish and promise of yours." I say as I place it back down before going to change my clothes into something more clean and fresher. Picking out a pair of jeans and a T-shirt that I tucked in. Now leaving my room to go talk with my parents.

My parents and I talked for a bit and caught up as well as having Nakamoto talk to them about what's happening.

"Well, Mr. and Mrs.Akiyama. I'll be back another day to speak more to you guys about this program that Sora is in and schooling. But I'll be taking her to watch the prelims that should be starting soon." Nakamoto says while looking at the time.

I get up from my spot and hug them. 'I'll be back later on tonight!" I say and put on my shoes. "Bye!" my parents say as Nakamoto and I leave the house and catch a taxi to drive us to the venue.

As we get out of the car I see a familiar persons waiting outside of the venue. My eyes widen and I look at Nakamoto. "Is this what he meant earlier!?" I asked and he chuckled while nodding his head.

We walked over to Sean and Chris. "Sean!" I call out to him and he looks up from his phone. "Hey, its about to start soon!" he says and we all make our way inside the building.

Sean puts his phone away in his pocket and looks at me. "Hey, when I was waiting outside. I saw this play boy talking to a group of girls and his team mate came out and hit him with a volleyball in the back of his head!" he said while laughing "You should have seen it!" I look at him and chuckle. 'Why does that scene sound so familiar I thought.

"Mhm, that sounds pretty funny." I say back after laughing and make our way onto the the stands to find a place to watch. We walk around for a while looking out onto the games that are playing right now and I stop once I see the teams out on the courts.

Sean notices me stop walking as our coaches walk off somewhere. "Sora? Oi what's wrong?" he asks while looking towards where I'm looking. A happy grin makes its way onto my face and I grab his arm and motion my head towards the team in black. "Them." I say.

He looks at me confused "Them? Do you find them hot or something?!" he asks with mischief. I give him a look and shake my head. "No, it's just that I know a player. Though it's been a couple years." I say and take him to find a perfect spot to watch the games. As we walked to find a seat some people that we past looked at us and stared.

Once we found a seat, we sit down and watch them warm up. Sean speaks up soon after and asks me "So did you find a school that you wanna attend?" he asks and I nod my head. "Hmm. I was thinking Karasuno." I say and look over at him. "You?"

He shrugs his shoulders and watches the teams warm up. "I'm not sure yet. I don't know much about the teams here so I'm still deciding." I nod my head and hum. "Well good thing we came here then. You'll be able to find a school and see which schools are in the area of them so we know which school's we'll be helping out and stuff." I say.

He nods his head and looks around the venue and takes out a paper. I lean over to look at the paper to see that it was a pamphlet of the games and branches that they have. I looked over at the A branch seeing that Karasuno is going against Date Tech in the next round.

I hum as I look at the teams listed on the paper. I stop at familiar names and smile slightly.

3rd POV

Some students and individuals that saw the two individuals walking in the stands looked at them as they passed by. A relativly tall girl who was about 5'7 and a taller boy at 5'9 about. The boy had brown hair, dark brown eyes, tan skin, with a lean build. He looked Asian but not full. While the girl with him looked Japanese and she had brown mid length hair. She looked pretty with hazel eyes, slightly tan skin, who looked fit.

Boys looked at the girl as she passed by them and girls who came to support the teams looked at the boy admiring his looks.

All of them wondering who this pair might be. Some of them thought that they saw the girl from somewhere though. She looked very familiar to them. But they couldn't place it.

Sora POV

The whistle blew announcing that warm ups have ended and the games will begin. The teams lines up and bowed as the captains meet and shook hands. Once they shouted "Thank you for the games!" a crowd for their school started chanting surprised me causing me to jump a bit.

Sean who noticed this laughed at me and I elbowed him playfully. The cheer squad chanted "GO GO LET'S GO DATE TECH!! GO GO LET'S GO DATE TECH!!"

The teams meet with their coaches and soon the players made their way on to the court. Some guys near us spoke up "WOw! No way that number 10 is their middle blocker!" I smirked at this while Sean just raised his eyebrow. He glanced towards me and gave me a confused look at my expression. "Just watch." I say.

I got up from my seat and made him stand up by me leaving our seats to lean at the edge to watch better. "You'll be surprised." I said to Sean as I looked down at the courts.

The serve started with the opposing team that played from Karasuno, they received it and passed it over to the setter. Four players ran up to the net and the setter #9 gave it to #5,the baldy.

He spiked the ball hard and got passed the two man block, once he landed back down he screamed and was joined in by the Libero. I just chuckled as I watched this as Sho-kun jumped in the back.

As the screaming continued the captain came over and yelled "Shut up!!". I snickered at this much like Sean did as the ref blew the whistle giving them a warning.

"Wow a lively bunch." he commented earning a chuckle from me. "Isn't that Karasuno? You sure your gonna join that?" he said pointing down at them. I laughed again and nodded my head. Many others in the stands laughed as well.

The next play started with a serve from #5, Tanaka sending it over with an attack from the opposing team. The libero quickly dived and sent it back up as the captain bumped it up for the Ace. He smacked the ball down earning another point.

Soon after his spike people in the stands next to us commented "Wow, its a full grown man. I heard that he was held back by 5 years. He's got to be at least 30"

I chuckled at the rumors as Sean full out laughed at them causing another arrow to go straight through Asahi, the Ace.

The game proceeded, I gripped onto the railings as I saw #10, Sho-kun, run up to the net in anticipation. My eyes widened and sparkled as I saw the wings on his back as he jumped up high and spiked the ball across the court earning a point.

My grin grew wide as many people in the stands watched in awe and had their mouths open in shock. "Wow, Sho-kun....Show them how to fly." I say as I watched my childhood friend in the court below.