Another Manager (Akashi Seijuro x OC)

(((Last Spring - High School in Miyagi)))

Ai moved to Miyagi a week and a half before school started. It was a big change from the city of Tokyo to the hills and rural feeling of Miyagi Prefecture. She explored the area by walking to the supermarket and stores with her mother.

They moved into a two-story house, with the entirety of the first floor being her mother's dream shop. They unpacked boxes and boxes of craft supplies, designed paper, and stamps. Ai lined and organized the shelves with card stock and separated the ink pads by color and shade. While her mother loved customer service, she enjoyed writing checklists and keeping inventory in the back room; it made up perfectly for her mother's dislikes of running a store.

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(First-year at Karasuno)

Upon enrolling at Karasuno Public High School, she was placed in Class 1-4. It was there she'd met Ennoshita and Narita. They were classmates, and her seat was in the very front row corner next to Narita's; the perks of sitting in alphabetical order.

At first, the two of them didn't speak to her, and neither did she. She joined the sadō club first, but since the mandatory lessons were only once a week, she wandered to the First Gymnasium. There, she found the boy's basketball club and girl's volleyball team practicing. After watching the guys for a day, she was uninterested. Teikō's team had been much more entertaining and enticing. She wasn't passionate about playing volleyball with the girls either, despite her mother's voice in her mind telling her that she should play a sport instead of sitting around all day.

When she learned that there was another gymnasium on campus, she went there. She saw the two familiar faces and the rest of the boy's volleyball club using the Second Gymnasium.

One short guy noticed her and yelled, "Are you a manager, too?!"

"Nishinoya! Quiet!" someone else said.

That day, she met and talked with Kiyoko about the manager's position on the volleyball team. She considered it.

———

The next morning, she got to her seat by the sliding door. Narita and Ennoshita arrived to class later, probably from having a morning meeting for club. The taller one broke off from their light conversation first and sat down next to her.

Turning toward him in her seat, she spoke to her classmate who shuffled through the contents of his backpack. "Hello. Narita-kun, right? You're in the volleyball club?"

Narita stopped and looked at her. "Y-yeah." He seemed cautious from his seat beside hers.

She was used to this reaction. People frequently found the color of her eyes to be creepy and weird. "I'm Ai. I was thinking of joining the club too, as a manager."

He nodded fast.

"Hey, Ennoshita!" A guy with light brown hair and big eyes came to their class. She recognized him from the previous day, but they were basically strangers.

The visitor looked down in front of him. "Oh, hey, Narita." He glanced at her next. "Who's this?"

"I'm Ai. Nice to meet you." She stood up and extended her hand to shake.

He obliged but seemed unused to the custom. "Are you the one who came during practice yesterday?"

"Yes. I'm thinking of joining the club."

He smiled. "Thank stars, our captain's scary as hell. You'll be a sight for sore eyes."

"Kinoshita, don't speak ill of the upperclassmen." Ennoshita walked over. "But, he's right. It'll be nice to have you around, Akatsuki-san."

"Please, just call me Ai, Chikara. I'll look forward to seeing you after school, Hisashi."

"Just wait until you meet the other two," Kinoshita laughed.

For the rest of the school year, she enjoyed having the two club members in her class. Ai submitted her club application form to the teachers' office and converted from the religion of basketball to volleyball. Although it was a change from working with Momoi, Ai developed a new rhythm alongside Kiyoko.

And, since they had the same homeroom class for all subjects, she and the guys became close friends. She often studied with them and Kinoshita while tutoring Tanaka and Nishinoya. The three classmates bonded together, but she also had inside jokes with Kinoshita. Of course, her relationship with Nishinoya was just as dear and close. While Tanaka preferred her mentor, Kiyoko, over Ai, they were still good friends.

Before she knew it, Ai was as inseparable from her five Karasuno classmates as she was to the Generation of Miracles.

In her second year, she was in the same class with the two again. While they were a part of Class 2-4, the rest were separated. Nishinoya was in 2-3, Tanaka in 2-1, and Kinoshita was 2-2.

***

Author's Note:

Sorry for the tedious explanation of Ai's character background! You can ignore it if you want to! >~<

If you have any questions, feel free to ask anything!!