"He's like a little giant!"

That's what I heard the announcer shout over the TV.

It was only a moment's glance, but in that moment the rest of the world melted away as I was completely captured by what I saw.

I stood there in total awe as I watched as a player only 5'7'' stood on the same court as players over 6'' tall and scored point after point— It was as if he grew wings as he jumped up to meet the tall blockers faces, slamming his palm into the ball. The crowd cheered as the black-clad ace scored another point.

The Little Giant, they called him.

I wanted to be like that.

I practiced hard, every chance I got, the corner of the gym, the field, even in the halls. I had no club, no team to practice with, but I was grateful for every toss my friends sent me when they got a break from their own clubs. I worked hard. I worked hard, but...

In my final year of middle school, I finally had a team— three miracle first years and my two friends who volunteered, just enough, just enough to enter a tournament, my very first volleyball tournament.

We were going to win, and win again, and keep winning and go to nationals!

... At least, that's what I swore.

It was over in a mere 31 minutes. Sets won; zero.

We lost our first match.

"If you really are the king who rules the court, then someday I'm gonna beat you, and I'm gonna be the one who gets to stay on the court longer than anybody else!"

That's what I swore.

But life has a habit of not going as planned.

A tall, tall wall looms in front of me.

What's the view on the other side? What does it look like?

The cool night wind brushes against the cheek of the lone figure upon a building. Their cape flutters behind them as cards dance in the air around them. Before them, the town glitters with lights against the night sky; a breathtaking view.

A distant ringing echoes in the air, like the ring of a bell, calling.

Calling for me.

With a twirl of a sleek golden staff, a pair of shimmering translucent wings appear on their feet.

What's the view on the other side? What does it look like?

It's not a view I could ever see on my own.

But I'm not alone.

With practiced grace, the figure leaps from the building and—

THUMP!

Shouyou groans, slowly opening his bleary eyes, a singular tear escaping as a dull ache radiates from where his head had met the cold hard floor. Well, he's not unused to falling out of bed— he's always been a restless sleeper.

Still, that doesn't make it any more fun to wake up to, he mindlessly thinks as he pushes himself up off the floor.

"Shouyou!" He hears his mother call from down the hall. "I heard something fall, are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Shouyou answers, kicking his legs around in an attempt to get himself untangled from his blankets before stumbling to his feet.

Once upright, he glances over to his clock.

1:12PM.

Shouyou stares at the clock for several seconds, before his eyes go wide.

"I'M LATE!" He shouts, jolting into action and scrambling around his room for some clothes. Shouyou stumbles to and fro in his room, pulling his head through a blue hoodie while simultaneously reaching for his phone on his nightstand, subsequently stubbing his toe on the leg of the counter.

With a strangled squawk, he falls back, thankfully landing on the soft mattress of his bed.

Wincing with tears in his eyes, Shouyou takes a deep breath. Once the pain subsides, he flips open his phone.

... Only to wince once more.

12 unread messages. Two missed calls.

Ugh. Koji might actually kill me this time. Shouyou thinks mournfully.

He scrolls through the several texts before sending his friend a quick message with an apology, explanation, and short 'omw', before he jumps out of bed and finishes getting dressed.

With great speed, Shouyou grabs his bag and rushes out of his room. He stops only momentarily to give his mother a short greeting and briefing before putting his shoes on and running out the door, jumping on his bike, and speeding down the path.

By the time he screeches to a stop in front of the library, it's 1:31 and Koji is slumped on one of the benches by the doors, looking bored out of his mind. His eyes light up when Shouyou comes into view, but quickly narrow with fond annoyance.

"Sho-chan!"

"I'm sorry!"

Koji huffs and storms up to him. "Aren't you serious about getting into Karasuno?" He asks.

"I am, I am!" Shouyou cries. "I swear I didn't mean to oversleep, Koji! I just... had a really weird dream?"

Koji raises an eyebrow, looking almost skeptical. "What was it?"

Shouyou blinks. "Umm..." He raises a hand to scratch the back of his head. "I... I don't really remember?" He laughs sheepishly.

Koji's expression falls flat and unimpressed.

"I mean," Shouyou stutters. "There was... It was night. And... There was something... calling me?"

"Stop," Koji raises a hand. "I don't really care about whatever weird dream you had. It's whatever. Let's just go inside and get to work, yeah?"

Shouyou nods quickly. "Sure! Lemme just lock my bike up real quick!"

"Sho-chan,"

The pencil rolls across the table, then back.

"Sho-chan."

With another breath, Shouyou blows it back, only for it to roll back towards him again.

"Sho-chan!" Koji whisper-shouts, shoving his friend, who lets out a strangled cry of shock.

"Sorry, Koji!" Shouyou cries, earning a shush from Koji. "Sorry," he says again, quieter.

"Come on, Shouyou," Koji stresses. "Okay, one more problem, then let's take a break to go get lunch or something, how about that?"

Shouyou perks up straight in his seat. "Yeah?" He grins. "Okay, okay!" He turns to his notebook with determination, twirling his pencil in his hand. Shouyou begins by carefully reading the question, except...

"Hey, Koji, you hear that?" Shouyou looks up.

"Hm?"

Shouyou squints, looking around the library. "It's like... a ringing sound?"

Koji raises an eyebrow. "Sho-chan, are you sleeping?" He asks. "There's no ringing sound."

Shouyou pauses and looks back to Koji, confused. "No, there's something ringing."

"Are your ears okay?" Koji questions, slowly becoming concerned. "Isn't ringing in your ears a bad thing?"

"No, no, it's not like, in my ears it's kinda coming from..." Shouyou looks around. "Over there?" He hesitantly points to a hallway across the library.

Koji follows where his friend is pointing, then looks back at him skeptically. "There's no way you can hear anything from all the way over there."

"I'm serious, Koji!" Shouyou's voice raises an octave, which Koji quickly shushes.

Koji leans back in his seat, still looking at Shouyou dubiously. "Alright, maybe we should stop here for today." He suggests. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom real quick, then we can just go get lunch, okay?" He says, rising from his seat.

"Huh?" Shouyou blinks. "Oh, okay," he replies, even as his friend is already walking off towards the bathrooms.

Shouyou watches him walk away, before his eyes inevitably slide back towards the hallway across the library. It's still ringing— it's still...

Calling.

He blinks, before shaking his head. Calling? What am I talking about? He chides himself with a quiet laugh. Turning away from the sound, Shouyou gathers up his books and slides them into his backpack, tucking his pencil and eraser into the bag's side pocket.

Slowly, he finds himself looking back to the hallway, curiosity gnawing away at his mind.

He stares for a moment, before whipping his head around. Koji was still in the washroom, the few other people meandering around the library are absorbed in their work or their phones, and the library attendant seems focused on her computer...

Biting his lip, Shouyou quietly slides out of his seat, swinging his backpack over his shoulder and inconspicuously makes his way towards the hallway, letting his feet guide him as he follows the sound.

Heart hammering in his chest as he reaches the hall, he scans one last look over the library to make sure no one was watching him, Shouyou dashes into the hall.

Out of sight from everyone else, he lets out a soft sigh. He's pretty sure he's not supposed to be here— or at least, there's nothing down the hall that's meant for the public. Following the ringing, he wanders down the hall, passing a staff room and staff bathroom—

He stops.

In here, he thinks.

A storage room.

Wiping his sweaty palms on his pants, he reaches for the door handle, finding it unlocked. Gently, Shouyou pushes the door open and steps inside.

It's not a very big room, though it is a tad long. Inside there's a few bookshelves creating thin aisles, a table in the center of the room, and several boxes laying around. The bookshelves are filled in the back with a variety of books, old and new, though the front of the shelves are much more sparsely filled.

Shouyou keeps following the sound to the back of the room, turning into the last aisle on the right and—

It stops.

Confused, Shouyou looks around. The aisle isn't very big, and it's cluttered with several more boxes and stacked books, but nothing stands out to his eye. Curiously stepping forward, he cranes his neck to look around for whatever was calling him— no, whatever was ringing, he meant, because it wasn't calling him, that's silly.

Unfortunately, so caught up in his thoughts, he trips, knocking over several boxes and sending books crashing down over him, smacking him in the chest and face, he squawks.

Craaap, he panics, I hope no one heard that...

With a groan, Shouyou sits up, pushing the box of books off his lap.

And.. at his feet rests a large pink book, with gold edges and elegant golden designs in the form of a winged lion behind a sun, dotted with stars. Something about it captivates him, almost in the same way he'd been so drawn in by the Little Giant three years ago, and he slowly reaches for the book.

When his fingers brush the cover, a spark of something like static shocks him, and the winged clip that sealed the book shut suddenly snaps off.

Carefully, Shouyou picks the book up, flipping it open. He was surprised to find that instead of pages upon pages of words, the inside was instead hollowed out and filled with elegant pink cards.

He plucked the first one off the pile. The card depicted a pretty, wispy looking woman in tones of pink, and at the top it read 'Wind' in kanji; however the bottom was written in English.

"Umm... What was it again?" Shouyou mumbles to himself, climbing to his feet with the book and card in hand. He'd just been going over English with Koji, too... "Wi... Wi?" He mumbles, walking idly out of the cluttered aisle. "Win..."

"Windy?"

Instantly, a light lit beneath his feet and a rush of wind burst forth, eliciting a startled shriek from the boy as he shut his eyes tight, letting the wind whip his hair and clothes back and forth, listening as it knocked over boxes and books alike— Until it stopped all together.

There was a pause, before Shouyou hesitantly opened his eyes and looked around. Things were far messier than they had been when he walked in, but it didn't look like anything was broken or torn. With a sigh, he sunk to his knees, letting the book fall from his grasp and to the floor.

What in the world was that? He asks, mind running wild with confusion, staring at the card in his hand. It was almost like...

However, Shouyou never got a chance to finish the thought, as the book began to glow. He squeaks, scrambling away, and watches as something began to emerge from the cover, small and yellow. A pair of small white wings unfurl from it's back, and a fluffy little tail swishes back and forth. Slowly, it raises its head.

"Hey there!"

Shouyou screams.

A/N:

I know I still have to work on Rebirth and manage PreV3 but listen. Listen. Cardcaptor AUs are Always Good.

I haven't watched ccs in 300 years. Don't come at me with continuity errors because I don't care. Tsubasa? What the FUCK is that. Clear card doesn't exist. Canon is a box of scraps in a cave that I pick and choose from. Please review. Thanks. fdnhshwdjajhjndsf