Behind a strong man [Ushiwaka /Oc]

Chapter 2 - A Setback

I might turn it into a thing to post a chapter with a selfdrawn image of the story.

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Behind every strong man

stands a woman rolling her eyes

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Tamiko sighed when the school bell rang to announce the beginning of the first lunch break. She loved math but today her mind kept wandering. How annoying. Her stomach began to grumble and she decided to go and get something to eat. Shiratorizawa Academy was a very large facility. It offered the students many activities and rooms to expand and fine tune their skills. It took her about two weeks to find her way around without looking at the signs and getting lost. Now she used the lunch breaks on the sunny days to enjoy the scenery. She stood by herself gazing over the riding area when she heard someone approach her.

"Tamiko." she heard a low voice behind her.

She turned around to see a tall man looming over her with a stern expression.

"Toshi-kun." she greeted him.

Ushijima Wakatoshi was a tall guy for his 17 years of age, she herself only going to his shoulder. And he had to be since he was the captain and ace of the volleyball club. Only recently had she found out that he was going to represent Japan in the U19 volleyball world championship. It was a title the school bragged about, but he himself never mentioned it. A small thing she like about him. If he weren't so serious all the time, she might even consider him to be boyfriend material but he certainly wasn't, at least not to her. Many girls he had dated said he was so focused on volleyball that he never had time for them. He hardly talked to them either. He only spoke when he had something to say and strangely enough, he always had something to tell her.

"I met your brother yesterday." he said.

"Yeah, I heard. He mentioned you when he came home." she told him. "He seemed very fired up."

"His friend was interesting as well." he added, gazing into the distance.

"Hinata Shoyo?"

Tamiko had never met this kid her brother called his friend. She had only heard of him, of his nativity, his jumping power, his orange hair, his height.

"Yeah. He has incredible jumping power." Ushijima noted.

Her eyes lingered on his face that still gazed into the distance, the mind in the past. She tried to find to spot he was looking at in the distance. A small group of crows took to the skies by a power line. Karasuno. The fallen powerhouse. The flightless crows. They had healed their broken wings.

"I did hear about that. Tobio-kun told me how proud he was of their quick spike. They call it the weird quick." she remembered.

In the corner of her eye she saw his mouth twitched up into a small smile. She could tell that this was something he couldn't wait to see and face for himself.

"I guess they challenged you?" she asked.

"Spring tournament. If they can fight their way into the finals." he said without looking at her.

"Isn't winning boring after a while?" she wondered.

To this he turned his head, his olive eyes piercing into hers.

"Why would it be? Winning is always better than losing." he answered bluntly.

"I think it's time that you taste defeat. I wonder if my brother can give you that." she grinned at him and he glared at her.