New Arrivals?!!

Madoka was in an excellent mood today, having met a really cool senior that school who helped her work on her curved shot - she couldn't help but keep glancing at her phone in class until the teacher glared at her to stop.

By the time classes ended, Madoka was already running out of the door and back into the magical tree line that led her back to the clubhouse of Hanamura Blossoms.

But on her way there...

"Where is it...Haru swears she dropped it somewhere here..."

There was a girl there, crouched on the side of the road and seemingly looking for something. Haru spotted Madoka staring at her and gazed back with the cutest pair of eyes, almost as if she were asking for help.. From here, Madoka could see her green hair in long twin braids and green eyes that made this girl feel like a forest fairy, though her uniform was obviously from Hanamura High School. The soft cardigan she was wearing gave her a soft gentle frame along with those long sleeves that hid her hands made this girl some sort of...teddy bear!

"H-hello, can you please help Haru? Haru just dropped her student ID and now Haru has no idea where it is..."

Madoka nodded at that, a comforting grin on her face.

"Don't worry, I'll help you...umm...what's your name again, so I can look for the ID?"

"Oh, Haru's full name is Haru Shikimura. You are...Madoka Ishikawa-chan, aren't you?"

"H-how did you know?!"

But before she could ask any further, the girl was already wandering off into a bush in search for her missing ID. Madoka could only...stare at her, before reaching into a bush of her own...

"Student ID...student ID..."

But no matter where she looked, nothing turned up...Madoka stood up and scratched her head, to see that Haru was tilting her head and just staring at Madoka. But then...Madoka spotted something that looked suspiciously like an ID card on...

"Shikimura-san..."

"Mm?"

Madoka slowly pointed to Haru's breast pocket. There was an ID card there. Haru slowly looked down and jumped a bit in surprise at seeing her own smiling face there.

"Oh, it's here! Thank you for helping me find it, Ishikawa-chan."

'You could have find it yourself...' Madoka thought, unsure if she truly helped with anything or just...sped the inevitable up. But still, a question remained in her mind - how did Haru know who she was? But before she could ask, Haru was already picking up her backpack off the ground and kept on walking forward in the direction of the football field itself at a surprisingly fast speed!

"S-Shikimura-san, wait up! How did you know my name?!"

"Oh, Chizuru-senpai told me!"

"EH?!"

By the time Madoka caught up to her, they were already at the field and a few people were already there warming up like Tsubaki, Saya and Hina. Seeing the two new arrivals, Tsubaki glanced up from the ball and gave them a greeting wave while Hina looked like she was going to somersault over had it not been for Saya keeping her focus on passing the ball around.

"Ishikawa-san, and Shikimura-san, good afternoon. Shikimura-san, I'm glad you can finally join us today."

"Ehehe~ sorry for missing yesterday, Haru had to help with cleaning up after orientation~"

Madoka was the one who interrupted the conversation with a loud 'WAIT' and looked at Haru who just tilted her head.

"S-Shikimura-san, you are a...Hanamura Blossoms player?!!"

"Oh! Did Haru forget to tell you? Sorry, Haru is so forgetful, she thought you knew...hehe. Haru is actually a second year too!"

And right then and there, the mini Madoka piloting Madoka's social engine just exploded on the spot and she froze. The redhead first year just had this vacant wide-eyed look at Haru, who was waving a hand in front of her face just to see if she would blink.

"Ishikawa-chan? Hello~~ Earth to Ishikawa-chaaan!"

Madoka's brain barely sputtered alive.

"Y-You're a second year?! A-And I didn't call you 'senpai'?!! I-I'm so sorry, please, forgive me!!"

Madoka bowed her head down low, almost groveling in hopes that Haru would be merciful to Madoka and her transgression. Oh gosh, what if Tsubaki saw this and she told Chizuru that Madoka had a poor attitude to seniors and-

"Okay, forgiven!"

Madoka looked up at her.

"R-Really?"

"Yup! But with one condition!" 1 finger was pointed up. "Can I call you 'Madoka-chan' instead? And you can call me Haru in return!"

Oh...that wasn't bad. In fact, that was amazing compared to be kicked off for disrespecting a senior! Madoka took in a deep breath to steel herself...

"H-Haru...senpai."

Haru made an 'X' shape with her pointer fingers "No no, Haru!"

"H-Haru-senpai."

Haru's cute pouty cheeked puffed out then finally exhaled in a little disappointed sigh. "I suppose we can work on it! Madoka-chan, let's go change together!"

Before Madoka could protest, she had already been dragged away by Haru while the other three girl went back to training. And it was...so incredibly awkward to change in the same room as someone else! Even when they were facing the opposite wall, Madoka could not help but feel self-conscious about her body.

Oh gosh, she should have kept up with her conditioning, she looked so squishy. She was too skinny, but probably like skinny fat (was she? What constitutes as skinny fat anyways), like her stomach had no six-pack abs that someone like Shion probably had and it was probably too soft and-

Out of nowhere, Haru suddenly called to her.

"Madoka-chaaan, have you been enjoying the club a lot?"

"E-eh?" Surprised at the question, Madoka turned around and...

Haru was also mid-change as well, which made Madoka blush bright red. But then the 'nerd' part in her brain couldn't help but zoom into Haru's build: strong, muscle-bound arms, back and core; a build of an athlete, and not just any athlete, an elite power-based one. In layman's words...

Haru was STRONG!

"Oh! Madoka-chan peeked!"

"I'M SORRY! THAT WASN'T MY INTENTION! I-I was just surprised and..."

But Haru was just laughing teasingly at her, pulling her number 4 jersey over her head. She casually walked to the door as if that entire ordeal did not put a DENT in Haru's demeanor...though the green-haired girl did turn back to say something before leaving.

"Haru's glad Madoka-chan is enjoying the club...Haru really loves Hanamura Blossoms too."

And she was gone...leaving Madoka alone just staring at the door.

'What was THAT all about?'

The door slammed open without hesitation, and Shion walked in without even caring that Madoka was still inside.

"Oh, Ishikawa-san."

"H-hello..."

Was this NORMAL here?!

After that embarrassing incident, everyone had practically arrived and started warming up on the field, except for Chizuru who still had not shown up despite it being 5 minutes before practice already. After reporting back to Tsubaki for any bumps or knocks, Madoka joined the others in just passing the ball around. Specifically Haru, who was just standing around playing by herself while Shion were teaching something to the Yukimura twins.

"Haru-senpai, do you mind playing with me for a bit?"

Haru's eyes lit up with joy.

"Of course! What do you want to work on right now?"

"Well...this is just me thinking to myself, but I want to improve on my dribbling, do you think you can teach me?"

Haru made a cute 'hmm' sound like she was pondering something deep before smiling. "Haru's not the best dribbler on the team, that would be Hina-chan, but she can try!"

Haru placed the ball she was holding down to try and get a feel for the thing first before turning to Madoka with a grin that made Madoka think of a cute plush bear trying to act scary.

"Actually, why don't we play 1v1 to see how it works in practice?"

"Oh, okay!"

Facing each other, Madoka slowly lowered her stance a bit to help improve her center of balance. She moved her foot a bit backwards, then forward, as if she was trying to anticipate where Haru would be going and tried to get a read on her.

Haru, however, stayed remarkably relaxed.

"Are you ready? Here comes Haru!"

She opened up her left foot and drove left! Madoka immediately lunged there, already aiming for a tackle or a poke to get the ball away...but out of nowhere, Haru suddenly changed direction mid-movement! It was an explosive burst of speed as she suddenly changed the direction of her drive, and Madoka could barely turn in time to accelerate after her.

"Madoka-chan is fast, huh?" Haru was smiling like nothing was happening, like Madoka wasn't even bothering her...which made it feel scary rather than if she was not.

Madoka got a single hand on Haru's frame...but no matter how hard she tried to move her, Haru just wasn't budging at all! Eventually, they reached the end zone of the field where the senior made a stop for Madoka to catch up to her.

"Hah...hah...s-senpai, how are you not tired from running that hard?"

"Mm? That was a light jog for Haru! Madoka-chan is fast too, so don't worry!" Haru patted her on the back with each hit rumbling the poor girl's ribcage. "That move I just did was just a simple cut! What you want to do is simply drive in one direction...and sorta like go BAM on the other!"

She handed Madoka the ball.

'Okay...so inside...and then outside'

Madoka moved just like Haru instructed, delivering the ball inwards with her left foot...then moving in the other direction! But...something still felt a bit off with it.

"Senpai, why doesn't mine feel as fast as yours?"

"Mm..." Haru thought about it "Maybe it's because you are not loading up your weight on your driving foot?"

The green-haired girl pointed at her own left foot

"For example, when Haru drives to the left, she loads up a LOT of weight on her left foot here...and when she changes direction, she's just not changing her body direction, she's pushing off from the ground as well! And Madoka-chan should also slightly drop her shoulder while during that moves, it helps a lot!"

Madoka tried doing it...and this time, it was much better! But nowhere near as fast as Haru's cut. And that left Madoka feeling a bit unsatisfied...

"Mine still feels a bit awkward..."

"That's because Madoka-chan is not used to it! And it's because it's Haru's cut! You should find something that fits you too!"

"Fits...me?"

Haru nodded. "Yup! It's good to always be willing to learn new things, Haru thinks that's super cool! But when Haru learns, she doesn't always remember everything. Look, Haru tried to learn from Hina-chan over there!"

In that direction, Hina was playing football like it was a dance! Chops into elastico into rainbow flicks...it looked like magic. Haru clapped her hands like she was watching a show, and Hina gave a thumbs up before flipping the ball onto her head and juggling it there.

"...but Haru realized she cannot! A skill is only truly useful when...Haru herself can use it, so Madoka-chan doesn't have to be that worried about not knowing how to do something perfectly! Haru thinks Madoka-chan has her own weapon too."

"Senpai...thank you very much!"

Again, it was such a simple concept, similar to how Chizuru told Madoka to not let her knowledge be a shackle...but it was true that Madoka currently had a massive amount of skills from all her solo training and learning from everywhere she could that...

She was both everything. And yet nothing at the same time.

It was then that FINALLY, after official practice time has started for 10 minutes, Chizuru's white hair emerged from the tree line...followed by two girls.

"Alright girls, gather 'round now..." she announced with the enthusiasm of a retired 50 year old salaryman "Starting from today, Hanamura Blossoms would like welcome two new members to the team, both are first years and lack experience with football. So I would like everyone to give them a warm welcome and to help them through learning football and playing with the team."

The first girl stood up with a strong and stern expression on her face...she was massive, only a hair shorter than Shion herself. Her skin was a tanned chocolate tone that made Madoka imagine the harshest of summer days, with her grayish pixie cut.

"My name is Yaichi Tetsumiya, it's an honor to meet everyone."

Everyone clapped.

The second girl walked up...and Madoka's eyes widened in absolute SHOCK. She saw orange, she saw that smile, she saw that hair and that expression...and she could not help it but scream out.

"AKIKAWA-SAN?!"

Natsu Akikawa, the supposed VOLLEYBALL PLAYER, was standing here, at the fields of the Blossoms, with a big grin on her face.

"Hello everyone, it's super duper nice to meet you!"