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Ao-kun drags his friends into volleyball, and they all take a liking to it, surprisingly. He didn’t expect that, and he didn’t expect Kii-yan’s pocket dimension abilities to come in handy with volleyball of all things.
They spitball names for their little trio sometimes.
They aren’t famous or anything, not like the Clappy Trio or anything, they just…bounce a volleyball between them on the beach, and somehow they’ve managed to get famous for it.
Ao-kun might be the leader, but he doesn’t know why they’ve gotten so popular, why people are searching for something to call them.
Maybe it’s Kii-yan and his abilities with the pocket dimension. Maybe it’s their skill. Maybe it’s that they’re a group of performing kids, and there aren’t many kids in Rhythm Heaven.
Aka-chan is the one that proposes they call themselves the Toss Boys. If it were Kii-yan, he probably wouldn’t accept it, but if Aka-chan is okay with it then he can be too.
Even when it makes him a little uncomfortable. Ao-kun tells himself that it’s just because Aka-chan is a girl, so they aren’t really boys.
(It isn’t the truth.)
Ao-kun shoulders a reporter out of the way when she goes to ask Aka-chan, because the only question they ever ask Aka-chan is why they’re called the Toss Boys, why she’s okay with being a part of it.
She pushes back against Ao-kun. “I came up with it,” she answers. “Because I am one of the boys.”
“Don’t ask that again,” he says to the reporter. “I mean it.”
And he does. He doesn’t know what he can do to the reporter girl, but she’s small, and he has muscles.
“You don’t need to protect me, you know,” Aka-chan tells him.
“I just…it feels invasive for them to be asking that. We call ourselves what we want. And…you’re always a part of us.”
“I mean, one of the boys in more than one way.”
Kii-yan looks over at them. “Come on, guys, let’s get out of here.”
Aka-chan flashes him a smile and follows Kii-yan, leaving Ao-kun in his confusion.
They hang out a little bit outside of practice. The three of them were friends when they started their group, but it’s recently felt like the tossing is all that brings them together.
(Oh, and what a togetherness that is; Ao-kun feels like he’s at peace, if only for a moment.)
“I wanted to tell you both something,” Aka-chan says.
“What is it?” Ao-kun asks.
“I just want to clarify that I am a boy. That they made a mistake with me, but I’ve known for a long time.”
“Okay,” Kii-yan says.
“Do you want us to call you something else?” Ao-kun frowns. He wants to accommodate Aka-kun(?) as best as he can.
“I think Aka-san works,” he answers. “It sounds like what I went by before so it doesn’t disrupt what we do, and I like it.”
Ao-kun reaches out to him. “It’s okay, you don’t have to go with something you’re uncomfortable with.”
“No, I actually like it,” he answers. “Ao-kun, you need to be honest with yourself.”
“What do you mean?” he asks, but he doesn’t deny it.
“I think you need to look into trying something new.”
“I’m not like you. I don’t have the privilege of knowing myself well.”
“It’s not just this or that. There’s more than two options.”
How does he know? How does Aka-san understand so well?
Ao-kun knows he wouldn’t be the only one to be neither. But as far as he knows, Cam was always as they were, and so were the Stepswitchers and the space dancers.
So he (they?) would be different.
But, they suppose, “different” isn’t the worst thing to be.
The knowledge helps them feel a little more settled, less tense. They find suddenly that they’re okay with being a part of the Toss Boys, and maybe they were projecting their feelings of not being a boy onto Aka-san. But that doesn’t matter now.
So they tell the others that they’ve decided who they are, and Aka-san plans with them how they can both tell the world.
The next time the three of them gather a crowd amidst their tossing that includes a reporter, he lets Aka-san handle them. Ao-kun is certain that he can handle it, and they can’t wait for him to say the words.
“So, I see that they call you something different now, Aka-san. What’s with the honorific change?” The reporter shoves a microphone in his face, and Ao-kun resists the urge to intervene. Neither them nor Kii-yan is supposed to intervene in Aka-san’s coming out. “And what’s your position on being a part of the Toss Boys?”
“I’ve been promoted,” he jokes. “Just kidding. And why don’t you ask Ao-kun that question, they’d be happy to answer.”
She’s of course perceptive enough to pick up on the pronoun change. “Ao-kun? You’re…”
“Aka-san is one of the boys. And as it turns out, I’m not,” Ao-kun answers, with a smile on their face. “But we aren’t changing the name. We’re still the Toss Boys, whether I’m a boy or not.”
“Okay,” the reporter says, “what inspired you two to come out now? Is it Golfer’s transition?”
“As it turns out, Aka-san knew himself before I realized,” Ao-kun says. “He just took a while to get the courage up to say it. And I had no idea that Golfer is transitioning.”
“Everyone kept asking, and it kept reinforcing the thought that I could never be anything except a girl, even though I knew that I wasn’t,” Aka-san announces. “And they had a hard time because it didn’t occur to them. Even though Cam exists.”
“Stop it,” they say, playfully shoving Aka-san and rolling their eyes. “It’s not like we’re different species or anything.”
“This is Rhythm Heaven. It’s not like anyone will judge,” the reporter says.
Ao-kun and Aka-san smile at each other. This is Rhythm Heaven , and they’re together in this world where they won’t be denied.