Start of the Tournament

After a not-so-great first meeting, Axel offered to buy lunch for Mishima as an apology.

Even though Mishima was a little awkward in the beginning, once Axel managed to break his outer shell, he became a chatter box.

It was like he exploded with rumors and gossip. He talked about all kinds of things that were happening, not just about in school but outside as well. However, no matter how Axel tried, Mishima just wouldn't talk about anything relating to Kamoshida.

A couple minutes before the bell, Mishima turned so Axel couldn't see his face and said, "Axel, I don't know what your trying to do, digging up info on Kamoshida but it won't end well. The school doesn't care what he does so be careful or he might…"

Without finishing, Mishima quickly left. Axel gave an appreciative smile to the wounded youth before falling into thought.

'Kamoshida's influence is stronger than I thought so I'll have to be careful. However, that doesn't mean I have to leave him alone.'

A small amount of laughter escaped Axel's mouth as a mischievous smile plastered itself on his face.

The sound of the bell quickly brought Axel out of his thoughts. With a smile, Axel walked to his class.

A couple minutes later, Axel entered the classroom only to be glare at by Kawakami as she lazily said, "Your late… again."

With a wry smile, Axel sheepishly muttered, "I was at the other side of the school when the ball rang so…"

Kawakami rolled her eyes at Axel before allowing him in. Once everyone was sitting and waiting, Kawakami stood up from her chair wearing the biggest smile anyone's ever seen and said, "Okay class, from now until the end of school you'll all be participating in a volleyball tournament."

Before she could continue, Axel stuck his hand up. Kawakami gave Axel a glance before allowing him to speak.

"Sensei, will we be competing against other schools?"

Students around class began whispering to one another about potentially having to compete against another school. However, Kawakami quickly dashed those rumors as she said, "No. It will only be a friendly competition between other classes in the school. Also, their will also be 'teachers vs students' match' later on but if you want to play you need to sign up."

Speaking up to here, Kawakami grabbed a paper from her desk. She looked over it for a second before handing to the closest student and saying, "For those who wish to participate in the 'teachers vs students' matches, please sign up on the paper that will be passed around."

Once the paper made it around to Axel, he noticed almost no one signed up. However, the names that were on the paper intrigued him.

With a small smile, Axel thought, 'Mishima and Ann, huh.' Before quickly writing his name and passing the paper on.

After a couple minutes, the paper circulated around the whole class and ended up back in Kawakami's hands. Looking at the three names in the paper caused Kawakami's face to twitch but she quickly covered it up with a nod.

Suddenly, the door opened, revealing someone very familiar to Axel.

'Makoto!?!'

Yes, the new person that appeared happened to be Makoto. She had an especially happy smile on her face as she directly stared at Axel, causing him to shrink into his seat from the stares of his classmates and the death glare he could feel from Ann.

Kawakami noticed the subtle change in the atmosphere of the class. With a quickly cough, she brought the focus of the class back as she handed the sign-up paper to Makoto and said, "Here are the people willing to participate in the 'teachers vs students' matches."

Makoto scanned the paper and smiled when she saw Axel's name. She gave a small nod to Kawakami and said, "If you'll excuse me…" but before she left, she turned and gave Axel a wink.

Luckily, the only people who noticed her actions were Ann (If a glare could kill, Axel would be dead), Mishima (He had stars in his eyes, like he had just met his idol), Kawakami (She gave Axel an amused glance as she found the whole situation funny) and the recipient himself, Axel.

Axel gave Ann a wry chuckle which earned a quiet snort from her as she turned away while pouting, which Axel had to admit was quite cute. Then he looked at the reverence practicality radiating from Mishima and sighed.

Mishma saw Axel sigh and sheepishly laughed while rubbing his head. Strangely enough, both boys felt closer for some reason. Axel didn't even need to look at Kawakami as she made no effort to hide her amusement.

Axel felt his face twitch but quickly managed to calm himself down. Kawakami told everyone to quickly get changed and meet up at the gym.

The girls all quickly left for the changing rooms while the boys couldn't be bothered and changed in class.

After a couple minutes, everyone met up inside the gym as Kawakami was waiting for them. She did a quick roll-call and only when everyone was present did she smile.

"Ok class, we'll start by forming 4 teams of 6. Make sure you properly consider which position you'd like to play." Said Kawakami.

Fairly quickly, the class split into four small groups. Somehow, before Axel even realized, he was in a team with Ann and Mishima.

Mishima had an excited but anxious look on his face as he keep staring at the volleyball net with a small fire in his eyes. However, his stare froze for a second before his eyes suddenly lost that flame.

Axel turned to see what happened, only to discover a tall, well built man walking in through the door. Leaning towards Mishima, Axel silently whispered, "Mishima, who's that who just walked in."

Axel had a feeling he knew who it was but he wasn't quite sure as he's never met the person yet. However, his guess proved correct as Mishima replied in a monotone voice, "That's Kamoshida."

Kamoshida had long black unkempt hair, thick eyebrows and a broad and square jawline. He wore a white sport T-shirt and black sport trousers with double white stripes.

Axel glanced at Ann from the corner of his eyes and saw her shivering slightly. Due to his time in the forest, Axel's hearing was much better compared to the average human and he could hear what some of the other students were muttering.

"Isn't Kamoshida dating Ann?"

"I heard that the two of them have been in a relationship for a while now."

"You think they do it?"

Every sentence he heard made Axel want to flip out on them but when he looked over at Ann, who silently accepted the judging stares of her peers with her head hung low, he quickly calmed himself down.

However, his resolve to get some payback burned brighter.