The Shy Empress

Chapter Twelve; Surprises

Chapter Twelve

After the first match day, she heard everything from her brother after he came home. During the second, she then heard that they've advanced to play against Aoba Johsai, which made Kashiya unbelievably happy and proud. Now they could show those guys that they were a new force to not be reckoned with, incomparable to what they've seen at Interhigh.

She had tried to convince her mother to drive her to the Sendai City gymnasium but her mother was persistent and sadly didn't, so Kashiya had to wait at home for the results of the game.

She didn't even get a text of any sort, that they've won. Why are they keeping her in the dark? Groaning frustratedly, Kashiya leaned back in her seat on the coach, closing her eyes. Her knee was aching, but she tried to ignore that.

Her eyes shot open as she heard the front door being opened and she immediately jumped up, nearly falling over in the process. Quickly she grabbed her crutches and headed towards the hallway.

There she saw Asahi and Tsukishima. "How was it?" She asked as she got closer, hoping they'd won. The two males first pulled off their shoes, before then stepping forward, remaining silent. Slowly she got a feeling that they lost, until her brother then said "We won. We're playing against Shiratorizawa tomorrow."

Kashiyas eyes widened and a bright smile made its way to her lips, as she then literally jumped towards her brother, hugging him tightly. She couldn't believe it, they actually made it! Her crutches had been long forgotten, now laying on the ground.

After hugging her brother, she then hugged Tsukishima tightly, smiling so bright that it hurt her cheeks. "I'll come with you guys tomorrow and you won't stop me!" She then said, making the two guys chuckle. "Alright." Asahi said and smiled at the couple in front of him, before heading into the living room to greet his mother.

"You actually made it!" Kashiya then said to Tsukishima and looked up at him. "I'll tell you everything." He said and a small smile was seen on his face. A sincere smile, not his usual smirk. "Are you okay? Who are you and what did you do to my Kei?" Kashiya asked and tilted her head slightly, making him chuckle.

"You're just so adorable when you're happy. Am I not allowed to smile?" Tsukishima asked and raised an eyebrow at her, making her blush. Then he picked her crutches up for her, nudging her forward to the living room gently.

There he then met her mother and even asked if it was okay for him to stay the night. Kashiya was a little surprised at that, but her mother happily agreed, as long as they didn't do anything inappropriate. Then the two went up to Kashiyas room, after her mother told her that she'd prepare the guest room for Tsukishima.

In her room she then sat down on her bed, sighing lowly. "I can't believe it, we're going up against Shiratorizawa tomorrow!" She said and looked over at Tsukishima, smiling. He sat down beside her and pulled her close, resting his chin on top of her head.

"I can't either. But they'll crush us anyways." Tsukishima mumbled, making Kashiya pull herself out of his arms shortly so she could look at him. "Are you serious? Tsukishima, I didn't design that schedule for nothing! You'll definitely win against Shiratorizawa. You have to."

Kashiya leaned against him again and closed her eyes, relaxing in his arms. "You have to win for me. Promise?" She mumbled and then heard him hum in agreement "I promise."

That made her smile and Tsukishima then began to tell her everything about today's match day.

-

Kashiya smiled as she stood in front of the Sendai City gymnasium. Today was the day! Today they'd finally go up against Shiratorizawa!

She and the guys then went in. She noticed how tense and nervous most of the boys were but didn't say a thing. She too was unbelievably excited, but gladly not too excited like her brother, Hinata or Yamaguchi were or would be as soon as they'd be on the court. After all, this is their first time playing on the center court and with camera crews around.

On their way, Kashiya noticed someone very familiar. That person noticed her too and began to smile a little. Her friends also turned toward Kashiya and they all smiled at her. Kashiya began to smile brightly. Her old team was here.

She hadn't noticed how her team had stopped as they noticed that Kashiya was a bit behind. "Go ahead you guys." She quickly called to them, before then heading to her old team.

"Kashiya!" Saeko was the first to speak as she then went to hug her old captain tightly. Kashiya smiled brightly and felt tears come to her eyes, tears of joy. "You're here, you're all here." She said happily as she hugged Saeko back with one arm, before then the rest of her team hugged her.

"Of course we're here, you're playing against Shiratorizawa! We wouldn't leave you alone in such an important match!" Akira said, to which Akane added "After we saw that article, we started to follow the preliminaries and when we found out that your team would play in the finals today, we thought that we had to be there."

"What kind of team would we be if we wouldn't cheer for our old captain?" Chiyuki then asked and they all laughed. "Thank you so much you guys. I've got to go now and try to control the boys a little, they're unbelievably nervous." Kashiya said and smiled at her former team, before quickly heading off to enter the gym.

The tense air hit her like a truck. It reminded her of the days when she played herself. To her disappointment though, half of her team were a lost cause and she could do nothing but watch.

Suddenly she heard many people call "Shiratorizawa!" Looking up, she noticed how massive the amount of people was who were cheering for Shiratorizawa. They even had cheerleaders.

"Something you should expect from them..." She mumbled and sighed. then one of them called "All right, here we go!" The others followed his example. "Our opponents today are..." Kashiya raised a brow. "Karasuno High School."

"Nice to meet you." "Are they a greeting squad or what?" Kashiya asked herself and then looked over at the boys. Somehow they seemed calmer and less nervous now.

Then her attention was pulled away as people suddenly started to cheer loudly. So, they're here.

Kashiya looked over to their rival and a smirk made its way to her lips as she found Ushijima glaring at her. So she decided to greet him.

Kashiya headed over to the team, pulling them to a stop. Well, Ushijima stopped, so his team followed his movements. "So you finally decided to show up." Ushijima said. "Where were you the past few days?"

"Did you miss me?" Kashiya replied instead, teasingly, and tilted her head slightly. "I've come by to actually say hello but I've changed my mind. I'd rather tell you that you should prepare yourselves to lose." Kashiya then said and smirked at the super ace in front of her.

"Everyone loses sometimes. Nobody is invincible. Not even you, Ushijima." She said and turned around to head back to her team. "Your words have no meaning, Azumane." Ushijima loudly said "We will crush you." "No you won't." Kashiya replied in a sing-sang voice. This would be fun.