Raiden dashed down the hallway trying to find his cousins energy. Not very long after,! Cynil Arrived shortly in the hallways, nearly bumping into him. She looked on silently at Raiden. "Sorry for being late. I had some things to handle."
"It's all good. Are you sure you want to participate though? We can talk to Mamba now about it."
"I already agreed to do it. Do I really have a choice at this time?
He thought about it for a second. "No I guess not. Don't let it get you down or anything, come on!" He quickly led the way back towards the gym. Cynil followed him toward the gym, anxious.
Raiden got back into the gym with Cynil behind him. He stopped and scanned the room once again, whispering to Cyni.* "Hey, a lot of our family is gonna be here but don't worry! Our time should be good enough to suffice-" He thought for a moment and the realization hit him. "Shit! We need one more person!!"
"Looks like we're dead to rights on that. We don't know anyone else."
Raiden looked around quickly trying to see if he could find anyone that could possibly sub in for the final teammate needed. Just like Mamba thought Mura had texted her that morning talking about some kind of sickness. That little fucker.
Noelle entered the expansive gym and sat down next to her brother and father. She had a mask covering her eyes to prevent her mind from collapsing and creating chaos in the gym. "Cynil! Yuki! I love you! Please do well!"
To Raiden's view, there was a person similar to their age in the lower seats of the gym. He seemed to be alone. Raiden looked over to the boy and walked over to him. He had no time to really think it through on this one. "Hey! I got a question."
"Yeah? Oh, Raiden Otizawa, right?" He raised an eyebrow to him. "Aren't you about to play? What gives?"
Gharma looked over at his brother. "We're getting eyes already? That's ridiculous. Jeez..." Gharma thought about the amount of weight these games really meant. He sighed catching a ball from a ball boy and bouncing it. "I mean seriously can we really play volleyball? Are we that coordinated?"
Raiden pointed at the boy and then at Gharma. "You know how to play Volleyball??" He asked almost randomly at what would be a shock to the boy most likely. "We need one more teammate and it looks like you got nothing better going on right now."
"As much as I can play anything else. You don't have anyone else? Someone like you?"
He pointed at himself confused from his question. "Someone like me? Nah, we need one more person and there's nobody else."
"Hey! Raiden! Is he gonna play? The game is starting soon.." Gharma looked on at the situation walking over to raiden and scoffed at the boy, rolling his eyes. Gharma and his feminine tendencies. "What the hell does he want?"
"Oh, it's the other one. Gharma I think? Hard to believe you two don't have anyone else. I'll do it, sure. It could help me too."
The canine watched the banter between the three, crossing his arms as he sighed, leaning back on the wall with Kasaru. "Got to take what we can get? I thought there'd be another showing up, but we could use a stand in if there wasn't someone coming."
Kasaru looked toward Joseph. He knew what he was saying was true. "With any hope whoever we're waiting on will show up."
Raiden pointed over to the remaining group members. "Just head over there with us and get yourself situated. We have to get ready right now."
Yami looked over at Noelle and her head garment, he placed his hands on either of his children's seats and breathed deeply as he awaited the action.
Kasaru got up from the wall and walked over to the group, standing near Raiden as he refastened his bandages tighter. lCouldn't come quicker. Yeah, ok. This could work."
Joseph let out one more huff before pushing off of the wall and stepping over, putting his hands in his shorts pockets. "I suppose it'll have to."
Kokkaku walked up behind Raiden. "So, hey. I know this is for some qualifications to the next exams. What are you getting out of this?" Raiden thought about Kokkaku's question and answered it quickly. "Well. I guess besides the fact we have to represent the school, we get to fight in the upcoming tournament too."
"I mean, yeah. A lot of pressure, if you don't win this you'll disappoint everyone. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that."
"Apparently he wants a party out of it. That's been his main motivation. So much so he's willing to step to our parents for it." Gharama walked up and caught another ball before passing it back with a bump, the ball flying toward the other side to one of the practice members.
"A party? But what if you lose?"
"Ask Daft Punk over here. I'm just helping out because i'm returning the favor. A party is always fun as fuck but what worth is it if we're not celebrating anything? What're we gonna do? Celebrate nothing?" Gharma laughed. "This is also serious to Mamba. I imagine that if I dissapointed her she would spazz the hell out. I don't need that."
"You're doing it for Mamba? You have a crush or something?"
"Shes my distant cousin. So honestly that might be worse than having a crush in terms of the weight of what's going on. I don't win this and she spazzes out for at least three or four family reunions. I won't hear anything but you lost until next year. I'd rather not."
Raiden sighed and bumped another ball up into the air to match with his brothers. "Daft Punk? The hell is that... and I agree it's a lot to just make sure nothing bad happens to us, but I still want to get my Mana License, those things are like having a drivers license but even better, yaknow?."
"I guess that makes sense for the both of you. I definitely expected more though."
"Expected more like what? What you thought we'd have some deep meaning or reasoning for playing? Why are you playing? We don't even know you." He looked to Raiden.
"Given that you're the sons of the king I'd expect more than some party or avoiding a cousin or whatever."
Raiden nodded agreeing with his brother for once, getting weirded out by what Kokkaku also said, "Well, we're normal people too, I want to explore... it's not easy being stuck in the same cities all the time because of your status either."
"I don't really care about out dad. I mean I love him and respect him but i'm my own person. I've got other things to worry about..I'm involved in things that don't involve him..and nothing i'm doing is for him..it's for me..and I think he respects that. I think my mom respects it to. Taking my own path you know?"
"Same... I love my parents to death but I want to explore, see what the world has to offer, not be judged by my status or who I am descended from. So it's definitely not the greatest thing but it's something for us."
"You two? Normal? Yeah, right. No one would ever classify you as normal."
"I never said I was normal..that would imply average. That was my brother over here. I'd prefer the word different. "Plus I don't think we were ever normal in the first place. We have fucking Dog Man on our team. If we were normal it would all be people but here we are."
"Is there an issue with me being here?" Joseph had overheard their conversation and furrowed his brow at the comment, taking it somewhat offensively since it came off as such.
"Im just saying you're not exactly normal. You can stay or go as you please. I would prefer if you played because of your height we need in you in the front.." He looked back at him, not acknowledging him being offensive. Maybe he just didn't care either way. "Either win or don't. Feel free to leave if you'd rather not. There's plenty of space for losers in the world too."
Raiden looked over at Gharma then to Joseph, feeling bad for Gharma's comment. "Well I would prefer if everyone stayed and we worked things out so we can win, they're gonna be a heavy hitting offense so we have to play smart." Raiden watched Yoshiwara warm up from the corner of his eye. He was very observant of any indicators of a play style of some sort.
"Right. Don't care if you're a dog a mouse or some kind of chimera." Gharma rolled his eyes at Joseph, not even looking at him anymore when they spoke.
"Well, the way you'd said it made it sound like you had rather me leave, that last one didn't really help that any either." Joseph looked away, sticking beside Kasaru now, his tail flicking back and forth with a sort of irritation behind its motion.
"Good evening class mates." Everybody stopped to look upward. A girl around the age of everyone playing looked down from the rafters. "I see that both teams are full..So without further wait we'll get started!" The crowd cheered as it was a packed venue. Packed to the brim. People were standing by the door just to watch what was going to happen. "I'll now explain the rules. Everybody can settle down."
Kokkaku looked up, attent to the following rules.
With a loud bang, the other door to the gym was kicked open. The person responsible standing with his leg raised slightly. Everyone turned to the interruption."Yeah! Just in time!" Everybody looked toward Matsumi and Vermelha as they arrived, late as their classmates waited a bit away from them.
"Pretty lucky this was the right door." Matsumi laughed enthusiastically. A few seconds passed before the pink haired girl started to speak once more.
"First off we want to welcome our King and leader.The man that leads us all with a flame of hope. Please welcome Rai Otizawa!" The crowd screamed for their king, admiring and looking up to him for his deeds in the past.
"The king? He's here?"
"Seems so..He's gotten a great ovation."
"I can tell! It's really loud!"
"Yeah..maybe a bit too loud..." A petite and skinny woman walked over to the two in the midst of cheers. She was a bit taller than Tengoku. She looked on at the two while the crowd cheered. "You must be our last two members."
"Yeah! I'm Matsumi!" He exclaimed, trying to talk over the crowd.
"You can call me Shizu. You missed practice but it'll be alright. We're pretty in sync. Tengoku told me about you two. If he chose you I assume you're good. He has a good intuition for things like this."
"We'll be fine! Nice to meet you, Shizu! We can sync up too!"
"You seem confident in that..What's your ability then?" She looked on at him curiously. "If we win we get home they advantage in the tournament which is huge. We haven't won in the past 3 years since Mamba was playing."
"Yeah I uhh...I haven't figured it out yet. Verme says I'll find out later! But it's ok!"
Shizu looked him up and down examining him. "Not very tall..Not very muscular either. maybe you can play in the center. I think that would fit your height the most."
"I don't care what spot you put me in, as long as it's fun. I'm all in." He gave a huge smile, his teeth beaming.
"Well if you've got some strength in your arms I think you'll have fun. If you're uncoordinated or weaker i'm not sure if you'll have fun. Have you ever played volleyball before?"
"That's the best part. I haven't! I'll be learning how to play in the moment."
"You can't grab or catch the ball, You can't scoop it or carry it in any sort of way. It has to be a hit of some sort or we lose possession of the ball and the other team gets a point. As long as you know those rules you should be fine. Tobit should be explaining soon."
"Just hit it over? Ok, simple enough." Matsumi bent down, taking off his roller blades and setting them down to the side. He'd been using them this whole time. "This'll be great."
"Just try to hit it so it lands on the opponents court and not just over the net. We'll give you a pass or two to see what you're capable of. We're fine just giving off two points if it means we can see what you're capable of."
"Got it. Sounds good to me!"
Kasaru watched as the rules were explained intently, making sure to pick up all of the information. "Alright, with any hope this game will be simple enough." He refixed his bandages tightening them, wincing slightly.
Raiden watched the crowd before crossing his arms and preparing for the game to start, he knelt down and tightened his boot laces and stood back upright, watching the crowd go wild over his father still. Rai waved down to the crowd, the noise made him wince, ringing his ears from all the commotion but he still smiled and waved.
Yuki tossed her ball back to the wall and cracked her knuckles. "I'm ready! I can't wait to destroy the other team!!"
"Alright settle down. I'll explain the rules now." She cleared her throat as everybody settled down. "This will be a best of three event. The winners will go on to headline the Mana Exams. By extension they'll have the ability to host the next best of 3 event. The MVP of this contest will automatically be issued a Mana License as well!"
Raiden put his fist up in excitement. "I'm going to win that damn license!" He turned to his team. "We're gonna go all out with this alright? We can't let nobody take this opportunity from us."
"it would be incredibly disappointing to lose now." Kasaru said as he finished wrapping his bandages tighter, looking up at Raiden.
"I'll try my best..this won't be a walk in the park though. We're talking about a fresh team versus a team that's probably more coordinated..More synced..More chemistry..but you're my brother so i'll do it." Gharma put his hands behind his head sighing.
Raiden looked at everyone. "We can become better then them we just have to work with each other. I know for sure we've got dodgeball and capture the flag we just have to focus on volleyball as well."
"Here are the rules for volleyball. There is no catching, or grabbing the ball. It must be a clean hit on the ball, and the use of any weapon or technique that can destroy the ball is prohibited. However, feel free to exhibit your power and strength. This gym is built to withstand large amounts of mana usage. Failure to exhibit a clean hit, or if the ball touches your respective floor will result in a switch of possession over the ball and a point for the respective team. Any questions please ask now..otherwise the game will start."
Raiden stretched one more time before getting the okay to start the game. Kasaru remained silent, standing next to Raiden as he awaited the okay.
"Please decide your formations now. Team captains please step to the plate!"
Raiden stepped onto the court, he had motioned Joseph to move up front as well as Kasaru and Gharma and finally himself. He pointed to Yuki and Cynil, as well as Kokkaku to be positioned towards the back row.
"Who's the leader? Is it you, Shizu?"
"No..Just a member of the Yoshiwara council. Tengoku is actually the captain."
"Oh, okay. Can I just stand anywhere?"
"Stand in the middle on our side. I think that'll work for us."
Raiden watched the other team with a brow furrowed watching their formation carefully. Mamba interjected, drawing up the play in her head anyways to help. "Alright. Joseph, Kasaru and Gharma in the front. Raiden Yuki and Cynil in the back."
"Please shake hands team captains. Let's have a fair game now." Tobit called the two leaders towards the center of the court. Raiden moved to shake the team captains hands before going back to his side.
"Right, the middle it is." Matsumi moved over to get in position. Even waving over to the opposite team.
"Yoshiwara has ball first. Is everyone ready?"
"We're ready!"
Raiden didn't question Mamba. He knew she was the king of this competition and any help would help a lot. "We're ready!"