Philophobia 2.0

The Kimura

"Uwah!" Ginjima exclaimed excitedly after Suna and Osamu finally told him about the pretty new girl. "Why didn't ya tell me sooner that she was the Kimura Ai!"

School had ended by now, and the team was warming up for volleyball practice. The second-year players, Ginjima Hitoshi, Suna, and the Miya twins, were grouped for a few drills—which was when Ginjima began grilling Osamu and Suna about Ai. Ginjima happened to be the classmate who was sent to bring Atsumu back to his class, and he couldn't help but find Ai's appearance familiar, even if it was a vague awareness.

"Eh?" Osamu raised his eyebrows.

Ginjima was dramatically, but genuinely shocked that he was the only person that knew about the Kimura. Even though her time as a genius player only lasted throughout her childhood and middle school days, Ai was a renowned volleyball celebrity and before her injury occurred, there was a surplus of high school coaches that had the mind to scout Ai away to their schools. When she tore her ACL, many throughout the country mourned the loss of such a skilled player of her standing.

"...Y-yer all jokin', right? Don't tell me none of ya honestly never heard of her before?" Ginjima stammered.

It was already enough for Ginjima to be surprised that nobody else seemed to know about Ai's experience in the world of volleyball—but seeing the confused and questioning expressions on Suna and the twin's faces made Ginjima want to scream.

"What's the big deal?" Suna drawled mid-yawn.

"Guys, c'mon," Ginjima gaped before his fanboy aura descended over his typically innocent demeanor. "Kimura Ai was a genius libero for her middle school team—and before that, she was one hell of a spiker! Even though she's on the shorter side, she'd always find a way to destroy her opponents, and the only reason she became a libero was because the former one couldn't dig out spikes as flawlessly as Kimura could! She even went to that one fancy school in Miyagi—Kitagawa Daiichi. I remember watching the nationals every year—they won hands down whenever Kimura played!"

Ginjima was talking a bit too excitedly for any of the trio to take him seriously, but Osamu couldn't help but think back to when Ai mentioned her knee injury. Although his expression exhibited no particular emotion other than boredom, Osamu began to wonder what she'd be doing or where she'd be right now if she hadn't hurt it. Personally, he wasn't planning on playing volleyball past high school. Still, the idea of a potentially career-ending injury ruining the rest of his court time at Inarizaki stirred something inside Osamu.

"Miyagi... That's where Ushijima is, huh?" Atsumu wondered, already fantasizing about the game he and his team would be playing against Shiratorizawa later on in the season.

For a moment, Ginjima looked like his head was going to explode.

"Yer missin' the point here, guys!" Ginjima huffed. "Sh-she's here now—studying at our very school! A-an' I got to see her in person! The Kimura Ai!"

However, despite how much he tried to run the facts through their thick skulls, all Ginjima got in response was a massive wall of deadpanning expressions. Osamu, Atsumu, and Suna were realizing how much of a little fanboy Ginjima was, and they were just grateful he wasn't in the same class as Ai.

'Imagine how much more he'd go off if he spent the entire school day with her.'

Interrupting everyone's thoughts, the spiky-haired libero of the team, Akagi Michinari, walks toward the quadruplet. "Hey guys, any of ya seen Kita?"

The four second-years were silent, wondering how it was they didn't notice the lack of a cold atmosphere—usually by now, Kita would have scolded them for chattering like gossipy schoolgirls.