Akane sat nervously, fidgeting as she looked over the menu. She’d deliberately chosen a table at the far edge of the little sushi restaurant across the street from her college campus, hoping to be out of earshot of most of the patrons for the conversation she hoped would take place.
Maybe she should have worn a dress instead of jeans. Come off more approachable. She was going to, but Ranko had stopped her. You need to project strength, and that doesn’t work for you when you go soft. You gotta be a badass today, she’d told her. Save the cute for me. Easy for Ranko to say, considering her fiancee was less than two days from an athletic competition she’d killed herself training for since September, and was going to do it in a pleated miniskirt and a glittery hair bow.
Akane looked down at her watch, sighing. Ten minutes late. She was afraid of this. She’s not coming. I made a total ass of myself, didn’t I? She waved for her waiter, preparing to ask for her check to pay for the cup of tea that still sat full on the table in front of her, when she noticed a bright green ponytail bobbing its way between the tables toward her. Akane waved hopefully, catching the eye of the college junior.
It took a few moments more for her to make it through the lunch-rush crowd between full tables, but eventually, Nanami Ikehara made her way to the chair opposite Akane. Figures. She wore a dress.
Akane smiled brightly. She came. There’s a chance. She stood, offering a polite bow. “Hi, Nanami. I’m so glad to finally meet you.”
The junior bowed in response, a little skeptically. “Yeah, you too, Akane.”
Both sat, and Nanami picked up her menu, glancing at it with one eye still focused on the freshman who had invited her to lunch out of the blue with no context whatsoever. She didn’t even know how the girl had gotten her phone number, but she had seen on the sports minute on the news that Akane had previously been on the Mystics volleyball team, so it might have come from there somehow. It was weird to be sure, but free sushi was free sushi. Hope she knows I’m seeing someone, Nanami thought.
“So, I don’t mean to sound rude or anything, but… why am I here, exactly?” Nanami nodded in thanks as the server handed her a cup of tea while she was speaking.
Akane gulped. So much for the small talk. “I wanted to talk to you about volleyball.”
The green-haired girl scoffed. “Why? Volleyball doesn’t exist anymore, as far as I’m concerned.”
With a nod, Akane tried her best to say with her eyes what she didn’t want to say out loud in a crowd this size. “I know why you left the squad, Nanami. I was there that day, when Reiko and Saki told you.”
Akane’s lunch companion bristled. “Yeah? And even if you did, what business is it of yours?”
Lowering her voice, Akane leaned forward a bit. “Because they did it to me, too, for the same reason. Well, essentially.”
Nanami nodded, her posture loosening a little. “That sucks, Tendo. Sorry ‘bout that. I haven’t really been watching, but I heard you were pretty good.”
Blushing a bit, Akane smiled. “I’ve heard the same about you.”
The girl with the green hair smirked, a little confidence returning to her face. “Second-leading scorer on the team two years running.”
“How’d you like to make it three?” Akane shot a glance to their server as he made eye contact, giving him a slight shake of her head to encourage him not to approach yet.
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“You kidding? Fuck those girls. I hope they don’t win another game.” Nanami sipped on her tea, sighing. Her eyes appeared more full of hurt than anger. “Besides, if they booted you too, where are you coming from with this?”
Akane sighed. “Coach Anada found out what happened. He apparently never knew. I have no idea who tipped him off, but it had to have been one of the other girls on the team. No one else could have known. He kicked Reiko and Saki off the squad, and invited me back. Made me captain, too.”
“Oh! Well, hooray for you, I guess.” Nanami shook her head. “Glad to see he finally could be bothered to give a shit.”
“Nanami, come back to the team with me.” Akane folded her hands in front of her, hoping it looked more like a position of relaxation and not one of begging, though she wasn’t sure it really was.
The elder girl shook her head. “What’s the point? They’re just gonna get their asses kicked anyway, and they deserve it. Every one of those girls went along with what happened. I was better than them before, and I don’t feel the need to prove it now. I don’t owe them anything, and I damn sure don’t need to crawl back to them.”
Akane bit her lip, nodding. “That’s a fair position to take, and I felt the same way too, when Coach first asked me. But here’s the thing. You know those girls. Most of them are afraid of their own shadows, at least when it comes to losing their scholarships. Sure, I wish they’d stood up, but I at least understand their position. Hell, I knew what happened to you, and I joined the squad and kept my mouth shut about… stuff, for a while, because I wanted to be part of the team. So, I guess hate me along with them if you want. But I’m not going back to help them, and I’m not going back to beg forgiveness, because I didn’t do anything wrong, and neither did you.”
The server, who could wait no longer given the crowded room, approached the table. “Hey, girls, can I put something in for you?”
Akane nodded. “Please! Let me do a unagi roll, and a vegetable tempura for the table?” And then go away?
Nanami smirked. “Let me get an ikura and a spider, please.” She closed her menu, handing it up to him. If that girl’s gonna waste my time like this, she can pay for it.
As the server sped away, Akane continued. “I’m going back there to show them that girls like us don’t back down, and we aren’t going anywhere. I’m going back because nobody gets to tell me I can’t have what I want.”
“Well, congratulations, you can go show them how noble it is to be part of a losing team. They have no hope. What does that have to do with me, Tendo?”
Akane thought quietly for a moment. “First, they’re not eliminated from the playoffs yet. It’s gonna be an uphill fight for sure, but there’s still a chance. With me, a better chance. With both of us? I’m pretty sure of it. We can do this, Nanami.”
The green-haired girl sat quietly for a moment, and Akane sat back with her tea, giving her the space to think.
“What’s her name?”
Akane blinked. “Excuse me?”
“The reason you left the team. What’s her name?”
Akane blushed, looking down at her hands. Her left one, in particular. “Ranko.”
“Yeah?” Nanami nodded in thanks to the server as the tempura appetizer was delivered. “And what does Ranko think about all this?”
“She…” Chuckling, Akane took a piece of the fried sweet potato to buy a second to think about how to answer. She was broken-hearted when they ran me off, and honestly, I think she’s just relieved not to feel guilty about it anymore.
Swallowing, she continued. “She’s proud of me. She supports me.”
With a nod, Nanami pressed. “And she thinks you should go back to a team who treated you like that, with your tail between your legs? She’s proud of that?”
Akane sighed. I don’t know that she necessarily wanted me to go back to the team or anything, but she’s glad I’m in a better place now. She knew it was eating me up, even when I tried to hide it.
“She thinks the girls were wrong, but other than Saki and Reiko, figures they were mostly just too scared to speak up. I mean, one of them had to tip off Coach, and even she won’t come forward and say who she was. She wants me to show them what courage looks like.”
Nanami waved a battered bit of lotus root in the air with her chopsticks as she spoke. “Courage, huh? What, to show them that girls like us don’t know when we’re beat?”
Akane didn’t break eye contact with Nanami even as the server placed her sushi roll in front of her.
“To show them that girls like us can be champions.”