"Send it my way!" Receiving the loose ball, I ensure it lands towards Suzui. Currently we were passing the time using a rudimentary net on the beach. A few members of the volleyball club felt the urge to play at the behest of Kamoshida, I was going to take advantage of the situation.
As the ball arched in the air Suzui jumped surprisingly high from the sand, tipping the ball right over the net.
"Game! Good work on that last spike, Suzui-san!" Kamoshida said after a moment. "If you play like this, we'll have a good chance at nationals."
"Thank you." She replied with more formality than one might expect. He was a teacher, but they had been working together for about a year now. Well, not like she could quiver and stutter in public otherwise the ruse would've been uncovered a long time ago.
"Good work." Placing my hand at shoulder height, I was awaiting a specific friendly gesture.
"Same to you. You've come a long way from the start." She responded with slightly more energy and reciprocated the gesture. Our hands meeting in the air with a small clap to verify the connection.
"It's only been a week." That was how long I had been going to this school and how long I had been practicing volleyball seriously.
"And that was all you needed to catch up. When I say that, it frightens me." My physical abilities made up for most of that, I wasn't particularly involved with the strategies, specific timing or any of those things. But when it came to sheer physical power, top speed and agility, I was close enough to Kamoshida's level that it was essentially a handicap to the other team.
"There's still plenty more I can learn. You've got a lot more experience, I would be grateful if you didn't mind teaching me now and then."
"But-" She looked sideways towards the edge of the net, I knew who she wanted to see the reaction of. And I knew that was why she would agree to my request. "...Sure. Is there anything you had in mind specifically?"
"If I had to pick one thing... It'd be timing. We've been getting by with reactions and reflexes but before long I'll need to learn the signals for different tempos and formations."
"That's more of a team thing."
"I suppose. But with a skilled setter I'm sure you can get me up to speed quickly. It means I'll be stealing quite a bit of your time to work together, but would that be alright?" She has special status in this club and in Kamoshida's eyes. I wonder how he'll feel when that little birdie he kept chained up is set free? Whether she wanders into another cage after the fact is a whole different issue.
"I don't know, wouldn't it be better to try and gather some of the boys and practice that way?"
"With them I won't be able to spike your sets." The focus of the training session needed to be on Suzui. Her role was a setter, it was specialised. She was the pace and playmaker of the court. I needed her to know that her volleyball prowess was what I valued first and foremost.
"Of course, you're on the boys' team. It's only normal to practice with your own setter." I needed to be delicate. Passionate but not overbearing. So long as I keep within boundaries, I'll be fine. She'll accept it. After all, she's dealt with much worse all this time. For now I need to capitalise on the fact that she's far safer by my side than anywhere else. Instinctively she knows that the club is only hospitable due to my joining, however that could quickly change.
"In my mind you're more qualified than our setter. The only difference is what team you're on." Suzui truly was hard working and did have some talent, even without personally practicing as a setter I could see that much. I was trying not to exaggerate heavily. Suzui has been trapped in this club with those that want to take advantage of her, I can't give off the same smell, or she'll quickly flee. Better the evil that you already know than the unknown, at least in theory.
"...It's a pretty big difference." Was she moved by my words or beginning to back off? It doesn't matter. I can take certain liberties with my approach, that was the silver lining of this unique situation.
"It's a pitiable difference. If the matches weren't sequestered by gender, there's no reason you couldn't be setting for me." Was that too much? I could've said 'us' or 'our team' but it didn't feel right. Was the ego getting to me?
"I appreciate it, Ayanokouji-kun. But seriously, it's better to do that sort of practice with your team... But if it's just basic training or a random match... You can count me in whenever you want, y'know?" Volleyball really is her main motivation... I was worried I might be coming on too strong, perhaps it was the volleyball skills I had fostered that changed that opinion in her mind.
"Really?"
"Of course! I'd like to think we're friends, that's normal right?" I'd like to think that too...
"...I was worried. I have very few friends here, so I thought I might be being a bit pushy." Sakamoto was well... A friend of sorts. Though that friendship was one-sided, it didn't appear that way on the outside.
"Not at all. You're only being friendly, what's there to complain about?" Try telling that to Kamoshida. His intrusive 'friendly' thoughts cross the border into criminal behaviour.
"In that case would you be interested in doing something later?" We have five days in Hawaii, it may be a bit too soon, but I need to make good enough progress to fully convince him... Or at least get him on the right track.
"What did you have in mind?"
"Ryuji wanted to play in the sea later. If you're interested."
"Sakamoto-kun, huh? It's been a while..."
"You know him?" I had heard that Suzui and Takamaki were close friends and there seemed to be unresolved tensions between Sakamoto and Takamaki as well... Let's just hope that things don't become awkward because of that.
"...Me and Ann were friends with him back in elementary school."
"It didn't end on bad terms, did it? I wouldn't want to force you into meeting if that's the case." There was a chance that Suzui would renege on the agreement overall if that were the case. I could always ditch Sakamoto to hangout 1-on-1. But that depended how Suzui would react to the idea.
"No, no. Nothing like that! You just naturally drift apart from some people. We haven't really spoke to each other since entering Shujin."
"I suppose if you used to be friends, meeting again may revive that friendship."
"...Possibly."
"Why don't you ask Takamaki if she wants to join us as well?" Suzui may feel awkward if she's the only girl in the group, it also gives me the opportunity to see how they all interact with each other. I just need to keep Sakamoto in mind.
"Sure, why not? It's been a while it might be fun!" Though it was rocky at the start Suzui had agreed readily enough. Still, there was something off about this. Rather there was something strange about Suzui herself.
Thinking back that bird cage came back into mind, Suzui dressed in what could only manifest in a pervert's lucid dreams, trapped in an iron cage suspended from the ceiling. Within an arm's reach from the king's chair. Counted amongst his harem, yet she was purposely isolated. Did he lack the means to open the cage? Or was it something else?
[Phantom Opera: White Soliloquy]
Ayanokouji was sat beside me on the beach. His gaze resting on the rushing tide. I had been alone with him before, though I was much more conscious of it now. Ryuji and Ann were still playing in the water a distance away. It was nice to see her with a genuine smile on her face for the first time in a while. Ryuji was also recovering fairly well. I had heard of his leg back when the track club was disbanded. But what do you know; he was running around on the beach without a care in the world. He could manage at least that much, what a relief.
"You know you don't need to wear things like that if they make you uncomfortable." There's no reason for me to feel that way... not here.
"...What do you mean?" I couldn't help but feel his question was strange, perhaps there was an issue with the swimsuit? I was sure it was something boys would like, I even had Ann help me choose the specific bikini I was wearing.
"You wore a jersey and usual PE kit for the game earlier. I know I invited you to come here but you don't have to be in a bikini for it." What made him think that I didn't like wearing it? He wasn't completely wrong... There were more eyes on me than usual. But that's just the nature of the location. It wouldn't make my stomach lurch like a different place.
"No, it's nothing like that..."
"It's just... These sorts of things can be implied implicitly and sometimes people feel that they have to comply with them." He wasn't wrong, this sort of thing was kind of expected of girls when they came to the beach. I'm sure there were girls that thought the same thing for the boys, hoping for a bit of eye candy.
There were a few reasons for my sudden decision to wear this... The expectation placed on me wasn't one of them.
"I'm sure there are girls and boys like that all over the place, after all you aren't topless like most other men here." A thin jacket was draped over his body, loosely zipped. It didn't seem like he had any reservations of being seen, or rather he didn't have anything to be embarrassed of. The musculature that I could see was rippling, practically chiselled. As if I was standing before a statue, an appreciation of the human form instead of a human itself.
"...There are reasons for it." Even though that was the case he placed the jacket over my shoulders.
"Just make sure you give it back to me before we go back out." I couldn't help but notice that he had immediately hid his back by lying on the sand...
"I guess we both don't want to be seen, huh?" I had already done what I needed to do, for now I can relax in the surprising warmth of this thin jacket.
"That's part of life." Grasping a handful of sand he replied without missing a beat.
"Huh?"
"Everyone hides a bit of themselves away, whether they don't want to bother the other person, or they just want to be independent. There are many different reasons. You've just got to hope that a person comes along that makes you want to reveal that part of yourself to them." A wanderlust in his eyes as small grains of sand fell through his outstretched fingers.
"...That's an unexpectedly romantic viewpoint coming from you."
"All loners like romance, it's a major component of fantasy. Am I wrong?" The idea of Ayanokouji-kun the romantic... I couldn't quite picture it.
"No, I like the idea." It was just unfortunate that fiction and reality are inextricably linked. Those kinds of stories existed on paper, not in the real world.
"..."
"Ah! Is this your attempt to woo me?" Desiring a change of topic and tone I couldn't help but go on the offensive for once.
"I could never be so bold. If anything, aren't you the one doing that to me?" A swift rebuttal. As I should expect from Ayanokouji-kun. Even if it was just once I wanted to see that mask slip for a moment.
"Hmmm? I dunno, for a guy that really doesn't want to reveal his body you decided to get all cozy on the sand and strip right next to the girl of your dreams." How's that?
"It was an unnecessary gesture from my own misunderstanding, forget it."
"Oh, don't worry I thought it was sweet. I imagine if I had a little brother, he might do something similar."
"That doesn't feel like a compliment..." Ayanokouji muttered under his breath.
I giggled lightly in response.
"Besides, how do you know what I was dreaming about?" If I had been drinking anything it likely would have spurted straight out of my mouth. I could only repress a guffaw in reply.
"..."
"Okay, that's unfair. You can't say that with such a straight face, or I'll end up taking you seriously."
"This is my usual tone, I can't change that."
"Still there should be something we could do... I got it! Hand signs."
"Pardon?"
"You have to get used to them for volleyball anyway. We can use it like a secret way of communicating!"
"Hand signs, huh? Like sign language?"
"Nothing that complicated." Did he actually know how to speak... Is it; speak sign language? That doesn't sound quite right... Gesture sign language? Oh forget it, does he know sign language? To be honest it wouldn't surprise me if he did, Ayanokouji-kun was just strange like that. I feel like you could say most things about him, and I'd agree. The only outlier being; he's a very emotive person.
"Keeping it simple is usually the best policy in this case... How about a sign for if you're serious and a sign for if you're joking?" That would cover quite a wide range, and we wouldn't need to memorise a bunch of things.
"Like what?" He asked. Crossing your fingers was a universal sign for lying. A bit too on the nose, what was the point if everyone knew from a single glance? But it should still be simple...
"How about raising your little finger if you're ever joking about something." The only problem that might arise from this was if Ayanokouji was the type to hold a cup like that... For some reason that posh sort of etiquette didn't seem incongruent with his character. He was somewhat sheltered.
"Do I seem like the type to joke around?" One of his hands was obscured under the sand, the other was resting behind his back, completely out of view. Cheater.
"Hahaha! That's unfair you can't hide your hands behind your back, there's no point to the signs then!"
"I promise, I'll use this whenever I'm joking." He said with his pinkie finger raised by his side. Goofball.
"Not fast enough." Before he could react, grasping the pinkie finger with my own. It was a promise.
I haven't done something like this since elementary school. You should know you've put your finger on the line now. If the saying is anything to go by; tell a single lie or break that promise, and you'll have to swallow a thousand needles, Ayanokouji-kun.
"And now for the truth... Go like this." I held my hands in a heart shape over the left side of my body.
"That looks incredibly embarrassing."
"You have to take this seriously Ayanokouji-kun. When speaking the truth you have to speak from the heart, it has meaning and purpose." Pfft. And it was also the exact pose that maids did in cafes.
"Now repeat after me; Moe-moe~kyuuuun. You try!" Sneakily grasping the phone by my side, I prepared to take a video of this moment. Maybe then I can see his expression change slightly!
He didn't follow suite. Instead he looked at me stock-still, dead in the eye and said, "I really was dreaming of you last night." His hands were still in the heart position...
"..." The phone fumbled from my hand as I lost grip with reality. I could feel my face flush red.
"Hey, you said that you would stick to the hand signs... You're supposed to use the pinkie when you joke around." Damn robot, I almost felt something from that. He definitely didn't mean it that way though, there's no way, right?
"Who's to say I'm joking?" You aren't allowed to turn the tables on me! That's unfair. I'm supposed to be the one doing the teasing!
"Liar. You were holding your pinkie up earlier."
"Busted." Damn fool.
"Ahokouji."
Fumbling through sand my thumb slipped on the phone accidentally playing the video I had taken. Ahhh, embarrassing! I need to delete it...
"I really was dreaming about you last night." My face flushed red a second time as it played. Looking up, I noticed that the figure in the video was turning away. His back was flat against the ground, though his face was actively escaping from my direction. Acting coy all of a sudden. Hold on a minute... This is my chance!
"...What's this, what's this? Is the great Ayanokouji-kun, ace of the Shujin High volleyball team perhaps a bit embarrassed?"
"I didn't realise I sounded like that. This is mortifying, please delete it." A grim and malevolent laugh naturally emitted from my mouth. Whilst his back was lay on the sand I begun to repeat the video at max volume in his ears.
"Torture... Torture... Please, spare me." He had begun to cover up his ears, attempting to prevent the dulcet tones of his voice from penetrating his eardrums. I clambered atop him straddling him and ensuring that the sound could be heard. He continued to squirm.
Hehehehe! A bit more, just a bit more...
"Shiho-chan, what are you doing?" Oh Ann and Ryuji are finally back. I should tell them all about it, they'd love this...
Come to think of it...
The situation looks a little bit...
"Uh..." It was only at this moment that I noticed most of the onlookers at the beach had stopped what they were doing and begun to stare at the quite public display of... Well, I don't know what to call this...
Shame!
Is there a Shiho sized hole somewhere on this beach which I can sink into? Let the tide take me, it's over.
---
Word count: 3047
Did the interaction between Shiho and Ayanokouji warm your hearts? No...? Damn, that's what I was going for...
In all seriousness romance and that area of stuff isn't something I'm very well versed in so I can only try and approximate something like that. You might think; why is Shiho so forward with Ayanokouji considering she's basically being groomed by Diddy-shida?
The answer is something that people might not agree with, but it's my interpretation of the character. Shiho is incredibly rebellious. She hates Kamoshida with every fibre of her being and even these small moments where she is sought out by another man make her feel levity because she knows that Kamoshida dislikes it, is jealous of it. When you are viewed as mostly just a sex object like Shiho probably has been for at least a year, she normalises it to herself.
That which is used against her she eventually accepts as part of herself and in the struggle, she has coming to terms with her trauma, she attempts to use the same weapon that's wielded against her for her own sake. Basically, she thinks that it's better to be on the attack than to be assaulted. This is why she's so brazened with her antics with Kiyotaka and clumsy because she has never willingly wanted to utilise them, it's simply an artefact of survival.
Maybe it would be better if I didn't go this into depth on things like this, it might ruin the fun for readers (let me know). Perhaps I should just focus on the chapters ahead instead. This is just my understanding of the character, because in the future things are going to get a bit darker. I could be flawed in my interpretation of her, and it might not track for someone more experienced or who have lived through similar events in real life. If you disagree with this, feel free to drop a comment and give me your point of view, it's always appreciated.
Sorry, bit of a yap session. Practically a full page by itself...
Hopefully you all enjoyed the chapter, let me know any of your thoughts in the comments below.
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Piracy? Unchanging Facade in a new world!
Phantom Opera: White Soliloquy
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P.S. It's been taking a bit of time to get these out due to other pursuits. Particularly I've been practicing drawing a bit more.
I can't exactly post pics here, annoyingly enough. But feel free to check them out if you're interested.
I can still only really copy from reference, but it's enjoyable. Feel free to see on the patreon, you can sign up for free and I complete one a day. Soon enough I'll start adding original illustrations to each chapter. Hopefully next month.
Until next time.