Natsu's volleyball journey

September, 2019.

The bell jingled and the brakes creaked loudly as twilight fell in the small yard of an old-fashioned house. The girl sitting atop the bike swiftly hopped down from the saddle before it could come to a complete stop, taking advantage of the inertia to park the bike neatly next to the car in the yard. She then buckled up her schoolbag and strode into the house.

"I'm home!"

"Is that you, Natsu?" Mom's voice rang out, while an enticing smell was filling the whole house.

"Smells so good." Natsu's nose immediately picked it up. She ran straight to the kitchen and was able to locate its source immediately. "Wow, we're having tonkatsu today? I'm starving after club activities."

Her mother, who was in the middle of preparing the tonkatsu, briefly stopped to give her daughter a knock on the head. "Put away your schoolbag and wash your hands first!"

Natsu giggled and managed to run out of the kitchen before mom could knock on her head again. Glancing toward the front door, she noticed the leather shoes next to the sneakers she'd just taken off, and the lights in her parents' room. That meant dad had just returned home too.

So her whole family was now home, except for Shouyou, Natsu's older brother, who was living across the country.

There were three bedrooms in the house, and the siblings' rooms were on the same side of the hall. Shouyou's was the outer one, and Natsu's was the inner. As she passed the open door of her brother's room, her gaze lingered for a moment.

The room hadn't changed much since Shouyou started living away from home. Mom kept everything tidy, so there was almost no dust gathered. Mom said it created the feeling as if he was still at home. Only the volleyball that used to roll around all over the room every day had now been given a new residence, which was next to Natsu's bed in her room.

Since Shouyou decided to pursue volleyball professionally, he was hardly at home anymore. After two years of pouring out blood, sweat and tears in Brazil, now he had returned to Japan. However, not in their hometown of Miyagi, but as far as Osaka.

After having dinner, showering, and doing homework, Natsu took the volleyball out to the porch. Solo practice sessions had grown into a habit for whenever she didn't know what to do in her spare time. Before, she didn't understand why her brother enjoyed spending time alone with the ball so much.

Now that she was his age then and had had similar experiences with volleyball, she finally understood the joy. The quiet evening atmosphere, the starry sky, and the company of the ball - "being friends" with it. Also, the company of her private thoughts.

However, Natsu thought when bumping the ball, it would be more fun if Shouyou was here to play with her sometimes, like when she was younger.

Mom often said that Natsu and Shouyou were too much alike. Alike even as in having a seemingly inexhaustible source of energy. When he had too much energy, Shouyou needed to exercise to relieve some of it, and Natsu gradually imitated that habit of his. One of the most effective ways was to play volleyball, through club activities, evening practices on the porch, or practice sessions with any team that they could participate in, including those of the local women's volleyball association.

The ladies of the association found the two children of the Hinata's endearing. They always told Shouyou to bring Natsu along more often, so the then ten-year-old girl usually got to follow her brother roaming the different sports fields in Yukigaoka.

Every time seeing the two kids walking up to them with the bike, the women all grew merry, sometimes even giving up a part of the court for them.

Natsu was especially keen on spiking. She loved the feeling of the ball hitting her hand, then soaring over the net into the opponent's court and scoring. That was the reason she chose to play in the position of a wing spiker at present. Every session she would quickly grab a ball for herself and scurry to practice spiking, but was too often stopped by her brother and told to practice something else, like receiving his spikes.