Forest Germ

0. Upbringing in the Forest

「Image from the anime movie "The Garden of Words" by Makoto Shinkai-san. A reference of what her home looks like.」

〔3 months old〕
Only the forest knows how she got there. A baby abandoned by humanity and crying for warmth. Left in a basket and a half ruined birth certificate. The animals around the newborn raised her as if she were the child of the forest.

〔2 years old〕
The child found an abandoned gazebo in the forest. It was on cliff like hill over looking the forest and a city a far from nature. She decided that this place would be her home.

〔4 years old〕
The child somehow found her way to garbage site from the forest. About 35 minutes walking distance. It was littered with various things she never seen. Crushed up automobiles stacked on each other like bricks pocketing various surprises. The child found big T-shirts she could wear and oversized slippers for her tiny feet. They were very big but it didn't bother her. She puts them in a duffel bag she spotted to take with her home.

She spotted something peculiar that caught her eye. A round white ball with this weird stitch pattern. She picked up the ball and looked at it with curiosity. Bouncing the ball on the ground, it flew up and came down. She tried to catch it. Only to hit her head and fall on her bum. She decided to take the ball along with her other treasures back home. Slowly but surely back home.

〔5 years old〕
She now had two homes. The gazebo for the spring & summer seasons. The garbage dump for winters and fall. Sometimes she would go to the garbage dump for safety from the weather. She began learned to speak from listening to the sport radio in the cars that still worked. But she still didn't know what this ball was.

One day, she decided to venture into the suburb area near the forest. What she likes to call Fantasyland. It was interesting. She saw lots of people like herself. Big people who were adults; little people like herself and lots of buildings as big as the trees. She noticed two big things in the Fantasyland.

One: They were clean like the people in the picture books and she was dirty. She thought it was not a good idea to interact with them especially during the day. It showed how more dirty she was more compared to the people outside the forest. It showed she didn't belong in their society. When people saw her they immediately ran away and said many mean things. It just made her case worst and more scared of people.

Two: This was a ball and it was called a volleyball. It was used in a sport also called volleyball. She knew about the game from listening to the sport radios, but she never saw it. On one of the nights she decides to venture, she spotted a volleyball ball game playing on the light box thing known as the tv. She was entranced. She wanted to play. She wanted to learn. She wanted to be a libero. Someone who can save ball and forever make the game go on forever till her side wins.

〔7 years old〕
She learned how to receive the ball. She was able to find a hand pump in the garbage dump for her precious ball. She would practice everyday and would go into town at night to watch the tv playing volleyball matches. She never left her volleyball home. It was always with her.

One day, she came across a recreation gym. It was about 1 hour in walking distance from her home. She went in and found her excitement; a volleyball game. It looked like a local game, but it was enough to make her excited.

〔8 years old〕
Ever since traveling around Fantasyland, later comes to know as Tokyo suburbs, she was able to maneuver herself within the city well. She wanted to go to school, but she didn't have the expenses to go to school nor knew any. She opted to go to the library from time to time to learn various things; math, science, literature and etc. She learned to wash herself at the river to make herself a little more presentable.

One of her garbage dump finds were wrist/ankle weights. Random finds are most of the time useful to her. Of course the weight were heavy. She opted to using only a 5 gram bars on her legs and decided to gradually add more as she grows. She wanted to train with them get herself to move faster to receive the balls. To be able to have the burst of energy when she goes after the ball.

She also got better at receiving. She was able to ask the people in the gym to teach her to receive better and spiked for her some times. Most were adults who taught her. She had yet to make friends her age. She also gained a habit of keeping away from people at a distance because of her fear people will find her smell disgusting.

〔10 years old〕
Life has been flowing well. She's now is able to play matches with the adults. Since she wants to play libero, the height of the net never changed as her role cannot attack.

She stills has the same routine everyday:
- Wake up early at 5 o'clock: Morning training
- Warming Up (Stretches)
- 30 minutes of lonely pass/receive practice
- 30 minutes of up hill sprints (with weights)
- Rest for 10 minutes
- 30 minutes horizontal sprints training (with weights)
- 30 minutes jump drills
- Rest for 10 minutes
- Repeat till 9 o'clock am
- Wash up at the river
- Goes to library till 2 o'clock pm
- Goes to train in the gymnasium till 9 o'clock pm
- Goes home
- Wash up at the river
- Sleeps by 11 o'clock pm
- Repeat the next day

One of those days at the gym, she over heard the adults talk about volleyball nationals. Specifically high school volleyball. The one phrase that stuck to her was, "It seems like Itachiyama Institute will win this year." The two talked about other schools, but it was the first school she heard of.

She decided she wanted to go to this school. She didn't care about the school's prestige. She just want to play in a team. She wanted to play a volleyball match; where there is a tournament between different schools.

〔15 years old〕
That day she took the high school entrance exam at Itachiyama Institute. Probably the most nerve-wracking thing in her life. She was somehow able to fill out her official documents by herself. She never had an address so she would go to the school everyday to see if she was accepted.

A week or so later, she was told she was accepted into the school under a scholarship. One of teachers told her, she needs to take supplementary classes to gauge her education level. Then, place her in a class as she never took junior high or elementary school. She receives a list of items for high school students since she was new to the education system and will provide her a uniform. Most of the items on the list were unattainable so it didn't matter to her.

She later learns Itachiyama was a school for rich kids. A lot of families that own companies, have high paying jobs or famous family history send their kids here. Kids from middle class also came here. Just not a high population.

Soon April came. Mori [F/n] is ready to start her high school journey...