Capítulo 36: Volleyball Tournament Part 2
Thanks to Shiho, Axel and the girls managed to get back on track now that the awkward situation was adverted.
They all huddled up in a small circle on the ground before discussing a game plan for fighting against the teachers.
Unlike the other teams that basically sat together and chatted away, Axel's group actually formed proper strategies thanks to having actually members of a volleyball team, namely Shiho and Mishima.
Mishima mainly added in bits and pieces while Shiho built a game plan from the ground up.
Axel fell into a short daze as he stared at her in awe as her previously downtrodden face turned into an excited smile as she passionately discussed different moves and strategy.
Her eyes seemed to gain a spark of light while her way with words managed to kept everyones attention. However, what surprised Axel most was her voting to make Axel the team captain.
Waving his arms in a flustered manor, Axel gave Shiho an exasperated looked before saying, "I can't be team captain! I don't even know how to play volleyball properly!"
The team didn't seem to mind his lack of knowledge about the sport as Makoto proudly said, "It's ok! I don't know how to play either." She paused as she leaned next to Axel's ear and whispered, "Lets do our best to learn together~"
Makoto's breath tickled Axel's neck as a slight blush appeared on his face. Ann silently grumbled something before pulling Makoto away from Axel.
Axel watched as Makoto gave Ann a quick glare before turned back to Axel while pouting. Before Axel could speak, Shiho started to cough.
Seeing that she successfully managed to gather her teams attention, she gave every member a small frown as she said, "Guys, you should take this more seriously. If you guys haven't noticed, we'll be up against Kamoshida, a gold medallist. If we don't take this seriously, we won't even know how we lost."
Her words sent everyone into thought. A couple minutes later, Ann put her hand up and said, "Shiho, can I say something?"
Shiho turned towards Ann and nodded while smiling. Ann took a deep breath and said, "No offence Shiho but I don't really mind if we lost. I mean, we ARE going up against the volleyball team couch who also happens to be a gold medallist. Winning is gonna be next to impossible."
Shiho's smile faltered a bit before quickly trying to mask it. She manage to pull the wool over mostly everyone present. However, Axel managed to see it.
Axel began running through a multitude of different reasons for why she would want to win so badly.
After a couple seconds, as if a light was turned on inside his head, Axel looked towards Ann and said, "I think she wants to prove herself."
Silence covered the group for a few seconds as Axel's words settled in.
Axel quickly noticed that while Shiho remained silent, her body was slightly trembling. But before he could think to deeply about it, Ann's voice quickly brought him out of thought.
"But why would she want to prove herself? She's already an exceptional volleyball player. Who would she be trying to prove herself to anyway?"
Ann seemed to have asked the question that was on everyone's mind as the entire groups focus snapped back to Axel. Even Shiho was looking at him, silently waiting for his response.
Seeing that everyone was waiting for him to speak, Axel stared at Shiho and said, "I think she wants to prove it to herself. That she made the right choice and that playing volleyball wasn't a mistake. She wants a reason to keep going."
Silence overcame the group again as everyone fell into thought.
Since he was staring at her while he was talking, Axel noticed that Shiho seemed to be on the verge of crying as her shoulders started to tremble and the stifled sobbing he could barely hear, even with his enhanced senses.
'Guess I was right.' Thought Axel as he sighed.
A couple minutes passed by in silence as the group were all wrapped up in there own thoughts.
Ann was concerned that her friend was feeling insecure and was trying to think of different ways to support her while Makoto just sat there in a daze, thinking about how she could help her fellow peer. Mishima, on the other hand, had a complicated expression, as if he wanted to say something but decided against saying it.
Luckily, the couple minutes of silence allowed Shiho to calm down even though her eyes were slightly red and puffy.
Once everyone calmed down, Axel somehow naturally took on his roll as temporary captain and began talking about strategies with the enthusiastic assistance of Shiho.
She smiled as she knew her decision to recommend Axel as captain was correct. He had a certain charm about him that made him easy to talk to and approachable.
Not to mention the fact that the only common ground everyone in the group had was Axel.
It definitely isn't because she felt happy that he understood her.
After almost 15 minutes, the team was in the midst of having a half-serious, half-fooling around conversation when the gym doors opened.
Kawakami and another teacher came through the door, gathering the attention of Axel and all the other students gathered.
The teacher next to Kawakami glanced at all the students, making sure their attention was focused on him and said, "The first couple games are finished. We'll be taking a short break before the next round, which will be the 'Teachers vs Students' matches."
Except the group Axel was apart of, groans and moans sounded out from the gathered group of students.
Before anyone could speak, the teacher said, "Quiet! I know the 'Teachers vs Students' matches were supposed to be later but a last minute change happened. If you want to complain, complain to the principle."
All the students kept quiet. The teacher sighed before leading everyone but Axel's group inside, saying they needed to meet their new teammate.
Axel looked at the tired female teacher before him with a look caught between a smirk and a smile while trying his hardest not to laugh.
Kawakami looked extremely tired and irritated, muttering, "Why me..." over and over again.
Releasing a small chuckle, Axel said, "Welcome to the team, Kawakami-sensei."
Almost instantly after Axel spoke, Kawakami glared at him with as much anger as her tired body could muster before releasing a sigh.
Rubbing her forehead, she said, "Thank you for the kind welcome." And walked over to the team.
Since most of their game plan was already thought out, Axel quickly filled her in on the details.
After hearing everything, Kawakami glared at him again and roared, "ARE YOU CRAZY!?!"
Surprisingly, no one on the team supported her claim as Axel calmly said, "We'll only use that tactic as a last resort. We all fully know how dangerous that is, that's why it's a failsafe."
Kawakami started ruffling her hair in irritation before storming inside the gym.
Everyone outside wryly smiled to each other before quickly following her.
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