Chapter Six: An Interesting Team

"I'M SORRY!" SHŌYŌ EXCLAIMED AT HIS SENPAI as he bowed at a ninety-degree angle towards the older teen. "Tanaka, I'm sorry!"

The shaved-headed boy shook his head while tying up the plastic bag with his soiled pants. After what had happened on the bus, Tanaka had to change into his shorts. Though after Shōyō threw up on his upperclassmen, just about everyone was worried about the ball of sunshine. Who knew how he was doing after this. The upperclassman waved his hand dismissively, "I told you it's fine. What about you? Are you okay?"

Shōyō nodded his head vigorously, causing the others to think that he was going to make himself sick again. "Yes, I got some rest and I feel fine now that I'm off the bus."

"Great! Good to hear! The outcome of today's game depends on how well you operate!" Tanaka exclaimed which caused the younger boy to suddenly freeze up. "I want you to let me hit the ball freely just like in the three-on-three."

"Tanaka," Suga called out in an urgent whisper as he climbed off the bus, "Don't pressure him."

"What's that you say?"

"I-I'll do my best!" Shoyo stuttered out shakily as he broke out in a sweat. Once again his stomach rumbled unhappily which caused him to clutch it as he started to waddle away, "I've gotta go to the washroom!"

"So it's coming out both ends now?" Tanaka laughed, not seeing the problem like a clueless idiot, "You're a busy guy!"

Kageyama glowered as he watched the queasy boy walk away. "He's doing it again? That's pathetic!" He rolled up his sleeves and moved to march after him, "He needs a good, motivational whack."

"Hey, what are you saying?" Suga grabbed him before he could get too far, "You know he's not the type that responds to that stuff!"

Endo eyed Kageyama with a raised eyebrow and leaned over towards Daichi and whispered not so subtly, "He is such a violent little boy."

"You never know unless you try," Kageyama insisted on his violent tactics.

Suga continued to try and hold the boy back but it was turning out to be a bit of trouble. How was this kid stronger than him? "Tanaka, hold this simpleton back!"

"Yessir!"

"Just one whack!" Kageyama continued to fight against them.

Sakura then stepped off of the bus with half-lidded eyes as she heard the threat to her brother. The orange-headed girl is usually impassive on certain things, but when it comes to physical threats upon her family, she tends to become less than friendly. Especially when they come from people who doesn't like all that much. She pinpointed Kageyama as he struggled in Tanaka's arms, though he paused once he could feel the cold stare on the back of his head. Really, Sakura was the only one who had a glare that could rival that of Kageyama's. If anyone had to say, they might say that Sakura was the female Kageyama, but looked exactly like Hinata, it was unsettling.

"Please restrain yourself from beating up my brother." She clicked her tongue and casually strolled over to where Kiyoko was talking with Takeda. "Or you'll have to deal with me." Her dark brown eyes glinted in the light as she passed by him, "Got it, king?" Kageyama shivered at the unamused stare that she was pointing at him. She just continued to walk away with a satisfied feeling, seeing that she intimidated him at least a bit. Kageyama let out a sigh of relief once she was far enough away. Who would have thought that the Kageyama Tobio would be rattled by a girl far smaller than him.

Endo walked up to Kageyama as the boys still watched the intimidating girl walk-off lazily. He swung an arm around the frozen first-year with pursed lips. His blue eyes were alight with both amusement and fear, "Christ, Hinata-chan is one scary girl."

---

Outside of the gym, while heading to their practice for the day, two players of the Aoba Johsai Boy's Volleyball Club spoke idly with each other. One of them was Kindaichi Yotaro, a first-year and former student of Kitagawa First. Yes, he was on the same volleyball team as Kageyama, an unfortunate happenstance, he would say. The other boy was Yahaba Shigeru, a light brown-haired second year on the team. The two were currently talking about their opponents for their next practice match. Karasuno High; the flightless crows. A school that used to be extremely good, however, fell off a while ago and no longer was a powerhouse like they might have been. Yahaba continued on their discussion about the other high school, "All I know about them now is that they have some super hot babe for a team manager."

"They have a girl?" The first-year asked in surprise.

"Yeah, she's got this sexy vibe about her..." Yahaba said, nodding his head happily. It was always fun to have a manager, especially one who was good looking, sadly Seijoh didn't have one. Another thought then struck him, "Oh yeah, they've got some cocky foreigner on the team and another one of their team members looks like a thug. He's got a shaved head, mean eyes, and he looks kind of dumb."

Hearing the end of the conversation, said stupid, bald-headed delinquent peered around the corner. "Hmm?"

The two Aoba Johsai students jumped at his appearance. They certainly had some bad timing. Yahaba cleared his throat, "Um, hello."

"Don't mock my team, bro," Tanaka told them as he, Tsukishima, Kageyama, Endo, and Yamaguchi stared at them as intimidatingly as they could. Well, most of the boys were doing a good enough job, Yamaguchi still looked as cute as ever. He really couldn't intimidate many people, maybe children if he really tried. "We'll tear you apart..."

It almost sounded like there was a distant caw of a crow. The two Seijoh players bristled in fear at their opponents who were doing a pretty good job at giving them a fright. This murder of crows was certainly good at scaring their opponents.

Tsukishima shook his head, "Come on, Tanaka. There's no need to talk like that." He smirked menacingly at the two as his golden eyes became half-lidded, "I mean, look at what you've done, the hotshots from Aoba Johsai are practically shaking in their shoes."

"You idiots think we're afraid of you?" Kindaichi shouted at them in offense. After all, why would a school like Aoba Johsai High be scared by a flightless school like Karasuno? They were the players who were on the powerhouse team! So who did these guys think they were to act so intimidating.

"Oh yeah, good thinking," Tanaka laughed hauntingly ignoring Kindaichi as if he didn't talk at all, "it'll hurt worse when we kick your ass on the courts instead."

The other blond then tilted his head and looked down at the other boys, "Besides, they don't have to be scared of us." Endo pompously said with a wide cheeky smile. His electric blue eyes stared down at the two players with a steely glare. The blond may not have been able to be as scary as Tanaka with his appearance alone, however, he did his best. If anything, Endo looked insane with that cold look in his eyes and smile that left a lot to be desired. His eyes gleamed in crazy arrogance, "all you have to do is recognize greatness."

"Hey, knock it off!" Daichi screamed as he came zooming around the corner, enraged by his team's behavior. "I cannot take you two anywhere!" He grabbed Tanaka and Endo's heads and forced both of them onto a deep bow. "Please, excuse them."

"Uh, it's fine," Yahaba said in confusion at the display.

Daichi scowled at the two of his teammates who pouted, "Don't make that face at me."

Another person then came around the corner lazily with a hand shoved deep into her pocket. The camera around her neck swayed from side to side as she ran her other hand through her messy orange hair. She yawned loudly and turned to the group of boys gathered around each other. It was an interesting sight to walk in on, she thought. It seemed like her team was going to end up making a fuss, as usual. All they'd do is embarrass themselves. She rolled her eyes and looked around them to see a slightly familiar face. It was that kid who she had run into during Shōyō's first volleyball game. She tilted her head and spoke in a bland voice, "Oh, look, it's onion-head." Those around her snickered at her words, while said onion-head blanched at her. Even his own teammate couldn't help but snicker at her words, which earned him a sharp look from Kindaichi.

"Hinata-chan!" Daichi shouted loudly, like a father scolding a young child. Why were the underclassmen such a pain to handle!? Honestly, Daichi felt like he was in charge of a bunch of five-year-olds.

She just shrugged her shoulders, indifferent, "What? It's not like I know his name."

"Let's go, now!" He commanded her, in his father-like voice.

Sakura waved her hand dismissively and started to walk off to the gym without looking back at the group, "Hai."

The group of crows started to walk away from their opponents to head into the gym. The last thing they needed was to cause a big scene just before their practice match. Kageyama was doing his best to ignore his former teammate, but Kindaichi wasn't going to let him go so soon. "Long time no see, King." He sneered, "I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of dictatorship you're running."

The setter was quiet for a moment before nodding his head, "Yeah." Kindachi stared in shock as Kageyama walked off with the rest of his team. His dismissal and non confrontational attitude earned himself a slap on the back from Tanaka and Suga. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Learning self-control I see, eh Kageyama." Endo marveled while wiping away a fake tear, as if he was a proud father, "I'm so proud!" His dramatics earned himself a shove from Kageyama who shouted at him for being so weird. Though what else did he expect from the drama queen.

Sakura watched them with a raised eyebrow as she glanced at the onion-head out of the corner of her eye. She couldn't imagine what it was like to see how much Kageyama has changed since middle school. Even just watching that one match, she knew how much of a jerk Kageyama probably was. Yet now, he was a bit less controlling on the court. It was a good thing for them, but a confusing one for Kindaichi. She figured that this match was going to be interesting to watch.

The Karasuno Crows entered the large gym to find that the Aoba Johsai team was already warming up. It was far larger than their own gym, which certainly wasn't overwhelming in the slightest. At least not for most of the team...

"I-It's huge!" Shōyō called out in shaky amazement, "The gym is huge, the players are huge..."

He was right. Not only was the gym much larger than the one at Karasuno, but the players were also quite tall. Karasuno had their fair share of tall players(Tuskishima for example) but when compared to Shōyō, they were much taller overall. Sakura was actually mildly impressed with the team and how large they were. This definitely looked like a powerhouse school with an elite team. Why didn't Shōyō go to a school like this? He would definitely go far on a team with skills like this. Though then she remembered that he chose Karasuno based on the fact that his idol attended there. Oh, well, it's not like she would have liked coming to a school like this anyway.

"Greet!" Daichi called out as the entire team bowed to the Aoba Johsai players, "Thank you for the game!"

"Thank you for the game!" The other school reciprocated the greeting before going back to their warm-ups.

"Every Aoba Johsai player has above-average defensive and offensive skills." The Karasuno captain commented as they watched the other boys practice their spikes, receives, and serves with each other. "Their guys can compete for ace no matter where they go."

Suga nodded his head next to him, "They're also famous for their power blocking."

Endo tilted his head as he observed all of their opponents. He pursed his lips just a little bit as he watched Aoba Johsai. He knew about this school and their reputation as one of the best volleyball teams out there, who didn't? He figured that it was going to be an uphill battle in this practice match, especially since they were up against the man himself, Oikawa Tooru. Though as he looked around, he didn't see the annoyingly handsome guy anywhere. That certainly made the blond happy. Maybe they did have a chance! Endo placed his hands on his hips and cheekily smiled, "They're not bad looking either, eh?"

Suga elbowed him in the stomach lightly, "calm down, Endo, we don't need a repeat of our first year, do we?"

The near scary look on his face caused the dramatic boy to shake his head reluctantly. "No, I guess not," he huffed at Suga ruining his fun, "but what's wrong with just looking?!"

"What's wrong with both of you?" Tanaka then cut into the third-years banter loudly, "We have Hinata-kun to shake things up! Right?" He didn't even seem to register the fact that the first-year was blue in the face and shaking like a leaf. Sakura just stood beside her twin with a blank expression and watched the interaction with a critical eye. In her mind, she was counting down the seconds before Shōyō bolted for the bathroom again. "I already know how much you suck, so I'll be there to cover you."

At the mention of having someone there for him, Shōyō lightened up slightly. Okay, so maybe Tanaka can be a good upperclassman sometimes. Even Suga, Daichi, and Endo were surprised by his words, "Oh!"

"But remember you're all alone when you serve. Don't fumble it!" And Tanaka just ruined it. Just about everyone blanched at him and his possible attempt of a joke. He should really work on reading the room better. Maybe then he would have noticed Shōyō's sickly appearance. Tanaka just laughed, "Just kidding! Fumbling a serve is no big deal! Don't let it get to you and just keep smashing that sucker-" He looked down at where Shōyō was only to find him missing, "Huh? Where'd Hinata-kun go?"

Yamaguchi was the one to explain, "To the washroom."

"Not again!"

Yamaguchi looked between everyone with a worried expression, "Should we go after him?"

Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed heavily. She knew that today was going to be a bit chaotic, but this was a little too much. Shōyō could get nervous extremely easily, but she could have thought that he would have been able to control himself at least a little bit. She grabbed the back of the annoying second-year's jacket and started to drag him away. It was a bit of a struggle since she wasn't that strong, but it worked nonetheless. "Tanaka, let's go."

"Why do I have to come with!?" He whined but still allowed himself to be dragged by the small girl. After all, it wasn't common for Sakura to be physically close to him, at least voluntarily. She hated it when he tried to hug her or something, so he'd take what he can get!

Sakura's sharp eyes turned to Tanaka, which caused him to shiver, "You're the reason he freaked out, so let's go."

"Yes, ma'am!" Tanaka clamed up real fast as he scurried off to find their ball of sunshine with Sakura trailing behind him.

The teens made their way through the halls looking for the nearest bathroom where Shōyō most likely was. Eventually, they found it, though they also found Shōyō talking with a few Aoba Johsai team members. It was the boy with an onion-shaped head who was speaking, "He's a self-serving king." Sakura didn't dout that he was referring to Kageyama. She could figure out from the venom on his tongue that the boy hated Kageyama in middle school. "He's supposed to be a setter, but he can't set up a ball for the spiker at all. What he wants is a mindless pawn who does whatever he wants. Anyone he can't use for his own victory goes in the trash."

Tanaka then chuckled, trying to act cool, as he leaned against the adjacent wall with Sakura by his side, eyeing them boredly. The other boys jumped at their appearance as Tanaka started to speak to them, "You'll have to play to find out if Kageyama has changed or not since middle school, Onion-top."

"Huh?" Onion-head exclaimed in confusion.

The second-year just turned to Shōyō, "Right, Hinata-kun?"

From her spot beside Tanaka, Sakura could see the cogs turning in her brother's mind. She may not have heard everything that they had talked about, but she got the gist of it. Now, she could tell that Shōyō was going to stress over Kageyama discarding him when he wasn't playing well. Sakura didn't have much faith in Kageyama to begin with, however, from the practices that she's seen with them she believed that Kageyama has changed a bit. He may still be a jerk, but Sakura could tell that he was willing to work with anyone if it meant winning. Though her brother wasn't smart enough to see it. Shōyō bristled before making a beeline back into the bathroom, "My stomach is killing me!"

Seeing the panic in Shōyō, Kindaichi snarked out, "Okay, we're looking forward to it."

Sakura watched her brother bolt back into the bathroom. She clicked her tongue and crossed her arms over her chest, "So pathetic, doesn't have the nerve to play a proper game." He would definitely need to get over his nerves and soon. If he wanted to reach his goal of being like the Tiny Giant and get to Nationals then he would have to build up his nerves to play in a game. He couldn't be getting sick before every single game he has!

Kindaichi looked down at the girl he had briefly interacted with and tilted his head, "He's your brother, right?"

The short girl turned to gaze up at him lazily and smiled sarcastically. What a stupid question. "No, we just happened to look exactly alike," Sakura rolled her eyes at his stupidity, "of course, he's my brother, Onion-head."

"That's not my name!" Kindaichi exclaimed at the girl who was slowly getting on his nerves. The last time that he had seen her in middle school, he was slightly scared of her. It was a brief interaction, but it had installed a certain fear in him that he never knew he could have. A fear of short orange-haired girls.

"I don't care." She blandly replied before turning on her heels and stalking off with her hands in her pockets. She didn't want to deal with whatever drama the onion-head was trying to trudge up. His past grudge with Kageyama might well-founded and something she could understand, but she didn't want to care about it.

The trio was now back in the gym, setting up for the practice match to begin. The boys had gotten their practice jerseys on and started up their warm-ups. There was just one thing, it was quite obvious that Shōyō was still extremely nervous from the way that he was still shaking and overreacting to just about anything said to him.

Sakura just watched him with her brows furrowed. Get a hold of yourself Shō-nii, she thought to herself. Sakura brushed it off for the time being before approaching the team's beautiful manager, "Kiyoko-senpai, am I allowed to sit on the bench?"

Kiyoko turned to her and nodded her head, "For practice matches, I think so. Though for real games, only the manager is allowed on the bench and I believe that applies to photographers as well."

"Okay," The first-year said before walking towards the bench with Kiyoko.

Though before they could get too far, Daichi approached them and stage whispered to the third-year girl. "Say! As manager, can you offer the first-years a word of inspiration?" He figured that getting some encouragement from their manager would help Shōyō with his nerves.

However, seeing what he was trying to do, Sakura tried to interject, "I don't think that's a good idea, Daichi."

"Why not?" He turned to the younger girl as Kiyoko walked up to the nerve-stricken Shōyō.

"Hey, you." Shōyō jumped at the girl's voice and faced her. He froze as soon as Kiyoko placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'm counting on you."

It took a moment, but Shōyō suddenly exploded with his face completely red in embarrassment. Sakura shook her head, that's exactly why. Her brother usually had trouble with talking to girls like Kiyoko. He always goes stupid when he's confronted with a beautiful girl. Sakura should have tried to warn them sooner, but it was too late. She sighed, "I think that might have just made it worse."

Daichi turned his hollow expression to his last hope to try and get the first-year middle blocker to calm down. "Hinata-chan, can you please try to calm him down?"

Sakura pursed her lips for a second before nodding her head, "I'll try." She walked over to her frozen brother and bonked him on the head to break him out of his stupor, which it did. While her twin rubbed his head in slight pain, Sakura crossed her arms over her chest. "Shōyō, you need to get yourself together. You won't be able to play if you worry over everything." Her eyes narrowed while glaring at her brother slightly. The annoyance was starting to get to her now, with how her brother was acting. It took quite a bit to annoy the short girl, but her brother was an exception, as most people with siblings would probably feel the same. He had gone on and on about actually getting to play and now he was going to mess it up by being so nervous! "This is what you've always wanted, right? To play on an actual team? Don't waste this chance because you were too nervous."

Shōyō jumped at his sister's cold voice and nodded his head rapidly, "I-I'll try!"

"Good," Sakura said as she relaxed slightly before ruffling his hair making it even messier, "remember to have fun too."

"Now, let's begin the practice game between Karasuno High and Aoba Johsai High!" The starting line-ups then got onto the court for each team to bow and thank each other for the game. Dawning the red jersey with the number three on it, Endo was more than happy to start up their match. It had been a while since they actually had one and against a school like Aoba Johsai will definitely be fun. Whether they won or lose, it didn't matter since it wasn't an actual match, but this will hopefully solidify them as a team and understand their playing styles. Winning isn't an objective for Endo, at least not for a practice match. His objective is to understand how the newest members play with them to improve it for an actual game. Though it would be a bonus if they won against Seijoh, even if Trashykawa wasn't playing at the moment. Endo would definitely wanna hold that over his head.

At the blow of the whistle, Sakura let out a deep breath, trying to hide the fact that she was also nervous for her twin's first practice match. There was no need for both of them to be nervous about this, she needed to be the voice of reason for it all like she always is. "This is going to be a mess."

The match started with Aoba Johsai serving to Karasuno. The serve was simple and easy to receive, nothing fancy at all, so it would be easy to return it. "I got it!" Daichi called out, more than ready to receive the ball as it came right for him. "Leave it to me!"

Though before he could properly bump the ball over to Kageyama, Shōyō jumped in front of him in a frenzy and received it instead. Kageyama raged, "You idiot! It obviously wasn't your ball!"

"I'm sorry!" Shōyō shouted out his apology as their blond third-year ran out to get the ball back into center court.

Endo called out, setting it for the second-year, "Tanaka!"

"Got it!" He shouted and jumped to spike it, only for it to be blocked and hitting Karasuno's side of the court. 1-0 for Aoba Johsai. Sakura watched with pursed lips at her brother's mistake. She could already tell that this was going to be a terrible game.

Daichi approached the shaking orange-haired boy, "Shake it off! Hinata, calm down and look around you."

"I'm sorry!" Shōyō instantly bowed as everyone realized just how badly he was cracking under the pressure.

So the game continued on, with plenty of more mistakes from Shōyō and points lost for Karasuno. He ran into his own teammates, tripped over his own feet, and even knocked over the judge's tower at one point. Kageyama had grown so frustrated with him that it took a laughing Endo to hold him back from beating up the poor tangerine. Of course, despite all of his mistakes and nerves, Sakura made sure to capture the events forever on her camera. Oh, she can't wait to show their mother just how amazingly terrible Shōyō was today! No doubt in her mind that Natsu would also find it hysterical as well.

At one point, Kageyama had finally exploded at Shōyō and got his hands on him. He shouted at him angrily, "Hey, stop being so nervous already!"

Shōyō shook in Kageyama's tight hold and tried to push him away, "One more chance! Please give me one more chance!"

"What?"

"Okay!" Daichi intervened before one or both of their first-years got hurt, "Let's take back those points, one by one!" He said confidently, like a captain should, and tried to encourage them all, "The next one serving..." He blanched now seeing Shōyō lining up to serve the ball. This didn't seem good. Such terrible timing. "Hinata, relax!"

While Shōyō had his own internal freakout over his serve, Endo leaned over to Daichi to stage whisper, "are we sure that Hinata-kun will survive this game? I have a feeling that his nerves might just kill him."

"Have some faith in him, Endo." Daichi shook his head trying to convince himself that Shōyō could do this. They knew that he was a good player, so they shouldn't doubt his skills.

The whistle then suddenly blew which freaked Shōyō out causing him to serve wrong. The volleyball had no arch to it, there was no way that it was going to get over the net. It would have just hit straight into the net... If it wasn't for Kageyama's head being in the way.

Everyone froze once that ball fell to the ground. It was silent for a moment as everyone processed the fact that Kageyama was just hit in the back of the head by Shōyō's serve. Sakura was surprised by it, and may have a bit of fear for her brother's well being at this point, but she smirked. She stared down at her camera to see that she had snapped a picture of the moment of impact. Oh, this was definitely going to become her favorite picture ever!

Laughter then broke through the silence as half of Karasuno's team couldn't help themselves. Tanaka shouted out, "Hey, is the back of your head okay?"

"Nice head shot!" Tsukishima joined in on the laughing.

Endo was nearly on the floor as he choked on his words through his laughter, "Great aim!"

"Don't make it worse!" Suga exclaimed irritated he also turned to Sakura as she let out a small snort, "you too, Hinata-chan!"

"Stop it, you guys!" Daichi reprimanded the three with his captain/fatherly voice. The victim then turned around and started to approach his attacker who backed up at each of Kageyama's steps. Daichi tried to stop him, but the setter was not listening, "Hey, Kageyama!"

Shōyō, now realizing that his life was most likely in danger, he started pleading with Kageyama, "W-w-wait! We can talk this over! Kageyama, listen! Wait!"

"Look..." Kageyama finally said after invading Shōyō's personal space.

"Yes?" Shōyō answered as he broke out into a sweat.

He bent down to get into Shōyō's face with every sentence he said, "What's making you so nervous and freaked out? Is it the tall opponents? Is it because it's your first practice game? What's more frightening than nailing me on the back of the head with a serve? Tell me."

"Nothing is more frightening," Shōyō said hollowly, most likely accepting his death at this point.

"Then you have no reason to be nervous anymore, right? You've already gone and done the most frightening thing." He then shouted out angrily and pointed at the court, "Now get back on the court, you moron!"

So maybe Kageyama wasn't going to kill him yet as he walked away from the shorter boy. "W-wait," Shōyō gasped out, "so you mean I got away with that?"

"Huh? What the heck are you talking about?"

Shōyō bristled now seeing that he had gotten away with hitting Kageyama on the back of the head with no consequences. Though hopefully, he doesn't try anything else to get himself into this much trouble again. As much as it was an entertaining sight, Sakura would much like to go home with her brother in one piece. Though now it seemed like Shōyō had gotten over the fear of upsetting Kageyama, at least a little bit.

The teams then lined up to start up the second set, since Aoba Johsai had won the first one. Though after they bowed, Shōyō was once again fearing for his life, this time from his senpai. "Hey, you," Tanaka stoically walked over to the first-year, "Hinata-kun. You..."

Shōyō instantly kneeled down at his feet, "Yes?"

"Are you thinking you gotta be as good as the other experienced players?"

"I-I have to do my job right," Shōyō stuttered out, "or I'll be swapped out. I want to play for the entire game."

"Hey, don't mess with me! I know full well how much of a klutz you are!" Shōyō froze at his harsh but honest words. "Daichi put you in the game knowing that as well."

"What?" Daichi himself asked in confusion as everyone watched Tanak yell at the boy.

Tanaka continued, "You can start worrying about being swapped out when... um... ...when you're actually swapped out!"

"What?" Shōyō asked.

"Just stop worrying so damn much!"

By the bench, Takeda watched the spectacle worriedly as he leaned over to Suga, "Shouldn't we help him?"

"Uh, no," Suga answered, already figuring out what Tanaka was trying to do, "it should be all right."

Sakura idly flicked through the few photos that she had taken already and commented to the teacher and vice-captain, "Shōyō usually learns a lesson when it's yelled at him like this." With how much of a moron her brother can be some times, she knows that what Tanaka was saying would get to Shōyō eventually. He usually needed a rough push in the right direction to get things done correctly.

"Now listen!" They were drawn back into Tanaka's speech as he continued on, "The thing about volleyball is each and every guy on this side of the net is your ally! If you suck, bring it! Make trouble for us! Hold us back! We're here to back you up! We are a team!" Shōyō now had stars in his eyes at the second-years words. Yup, he definitely had cheered up the boy. "We are your upperclassmen! Now call me Tanaka-senpai."

"Tanaka-senpai!" Shōyō instantly responded happily.

Suga deadpanned, "He just wants to be called senpai."

Endo nodded his head before sighed sadly and slouching, "yeah... so do I..." Maybe he should try to do this too to get the first-years to respect him as their senpai. After all, as a good senpai, he must look out for his kohais when he needs to. Which he would certainly do at some point. Honest.

"Yeah, but I'm glad he's here." Daichi commented drawing Endo and Suga's attention, "That sort of thing sounds best coming from someone who's honest to a fault." He wasn't wrong, Tanaka's brutally honest nature was perfect to match Shōyō's stupid and oblivious mentality. Tanaka might just be a perfect key to helping control Shōyō at times.

With Shōyō now pumped up, the match continued. Now, Endo was up to serve, and he was more than ready to show off his serving once again. He bounced the ball a few times in front of him before the whistle was blown. He smirked, "watch and learn boys!" With that, he threw up the ball and ran up to hit his jump serve. For the Aoba Johsai team, it was eerily similar to someone else's serve that they've seen. They weren't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Though the ball was received, albeit a bit shakily, and was enough to allow Aoba Johsai to attack. Tsukishima was the one to receive it this time and let Kageyama set it. Now that Shōyō was more controlled, it was time to try the freak quick. In a blink of an eye, Shōyō was already in the air as Kageyama set him the ball. Though it didn't work. The ball landed on the ground without Shōyō having even touched the ball. He had closed his eyes like normal but had missed the ball completely.

Seeing that Shōyō had messed up, Kindaichi snickered on the other side of the net. There was no way that the little shrimp could actually hit one of Kageyama's royal serves. It was nothing but a fluke, he thought. "You have to hit balls like that or the king will get mad at you."

"Hinata!" Kageyama shouted, which caused the boy to bristle in fear. Though it was unfounded as Kageyama just apologized, "Sorry, that toss was a little too high."

That certainly shocked his former teammates. Shōyō just bounced over to him, "I am willing to forgive you!" Though he yelped in pain once Kageyama grabbed him by the head with a scary expression, "Ow, ow, ow! You're hurting me, Kageyama! I'll go bald!"

"Bakayama!" Sakura shouted at him with narrowed eyes. Kageyama instantly let go of her brother, though tried to act as though he wasn't at least a little bit scared of the girl. There was no way that Kageyama feared her, not in the slightest!

The next point was played and this time, the freak attack actually worked. Which surprised their opponents immensely. Everyone expressed their happiness that it actually worked this time, even Sakura. Though it was really just a small smirk and a spark in her eyes that indicated she was happy with the play.

Karasuno celebrated their point together which Shōyō marveled at, "Th-this is so team-like!"

"Huh? There's nothing "like" about it." Tanaka said and smirked happily, "We are a team."

Shōyō then exploded in excitement, "Yessir! Yessir!"

They then set up to play once again as Kageyama spoke, "Now that Hinata is in action, let's start our counter attack." The team was more than happy to agree with that statement.

The game continued with Shōyō being a good decoy and spiker for the team. He certainly was making up quite a bit of the points that he had lost in the first set. Karasuno was starting to earn some good points with Daichi's receives, Tsukishima's blocks, Tanaka's spikes, Enod's serves, and the troublesome duo's freak attack. Eventually, Aoba Johsai became so intimidated by Karasuno's sudden strong plays that they had to call a timeout.

The entire team was buzzing with excitement now that they had gotten into the groove of things. Kageyama scowled at Shōyō who walked over after sharing some words with Daichi, "You're slow."

"You're doing good, Shō-nii," Sakura commented and shoved Kageyama away from them. She was truly happy to see that her brother had gotten over his nerves for this game. It only took losing one set, but he eventually got there. That's all that mattered to her.

Shōyō beamed at her praise with a smile that nearly blinded his sister, "Thanks, imouto!"

"He only messed up about a hundred times beforehand," Tsukishima commented as he and Yamaguchi approached their fellow first-years. Sakura rolled her eyes but didn't say anything. She just turned her head and made it seem as though she was indifferent to his words. In reality, she hated how Tsukishima was poking at her brother, but she bit her tongue. She figured that Tsukishima was just always like this, saying mean things just to get a rise out of people. So she wanted to control herself enough and not give him the satisfaction of being affected by what he says.

Shōyō would have verbally retaliated against the blond giant but he eyed the bottle of water in his hand. After having played this game for a little while, Shōyō was quite parched. He tried to grab for the water bottle, but Tsukishima easily held it over his head. "Hey, I wanna drink!"

Tsukishima then pushed the bottle into Shōyō's face and taunted him, "Wanna drink? Oh, sorry. Your face is lower than I thought..."

Sakura clicked her tongue with a bland expression, "Are your insults limited to mentioning how short he is all the time?" She pursed her lips, "I thought you were supposed to be smart, shouldn't you be more original?" Not even Yamaguchi could help himself from letting out a small snicker at that. Though Kageyama and Shōyō were laughing a bit loudly at her words since they caused Tsukishima a bit of plight. The blond scowled harshly at Sakura before tossing the bottle at Shōyō who caught it clumsily.

The time-out was called off and the game resumed. Eventually, Karausno took the lead with 18-17. Well, now, it was 19-17 once Tsukishima was able to spike a ball over the net thanks to Kageyama's pin-point set. Something he made clear freaked him out a bit.

On Karasuno's bench all of the benchwarmers, Kiyoko, Sakura, and Takeda watched the match with wide eyes. Karasuno was definitely looking to be a better team now more than ever. With the addition of their new members, they were rounding out to be a team to look out for, which was good for them. Not only did Kageyama and Shōyō end up being a strong pair in the game, but Tsukishima was proving to be an intimidating blocker.

"Oh, I see." Takeda started as he looked over the setup that the team had for the match, "Every time they take a point and get serving rights, they rotate. Right now, Kageyama, Tsukishima, and Endo are acting as forwards."

Suga nodded his head and leaned down to look at it as well, more than willing to explain more to their advisor. "Yes, right now their positions are exactly the opposite from the start of the game."

"When Hinata-kun is in the front, our overall attack success rate increases thanks to his decoy tactics." Takeda observed, "On the other hand, when the ball goes to Tsukishima, his intimidating blocking is every bit as good as Seijoh's team."

At the net, Tsukishima and Kageyama stood next to each other as they were getting ready to block an attack. The blond glared at Kageyama, "I forget, are you good at blocking too? Just try to stay out of my way."

"Be careful not to get blown away, you gangly bastard," Kageyama said as he scowled in return.

"You first-years are such a hassle!" Endo chuckled from next to them.

Tanaka then jumped at them angrily, "I keep telling you, the enemy is on the other side of the net! Hey, they're coming!"

The three-man block was a success, though it resulted in an argument between Kageyama and Tsukishima about who blocked it. Endo watched them in amusement as they were reprimanded by their captain and Kageyama started to attack Shōyō about him laughing. Yeah, this team was definitely a lively one, and he loved it.

The second set came to an end, with Karasuno being the winners. It was definitely a confidence boost to come back like this. The entire Karasuno team was more than elated with how the tides had turned, even Sakura had let slip a small minuscule smile at the win. Aoba Johsai though were finding that they had certainly underestimated the crows quite a bit. Sure, in the beginning, Karasuno wasn't that organized with each other, but they fixed that quickly and proved to be a good competitor.

"Right on! Let's keep this up to take the final set!" Tanaka exclaimed and clapped Shōyō on the back harshly. The two of them then started to chant, "Victory! Victory! Victory!"

Sakura watched them from beside Kiyoko and snorted, "they're a bunch of idiots."

Ennoshita approached his captain and offered him a water bottle, "We're lucky they don't have anyone who can serve like Kageyama."

"Yeah," Daichi agreed and took a swig of his drink, "'cause out receiving is marginal at best. Thanks."

"Ne," Endo jumped over to them and crossed his arms in front of him in an 'x', "don't jinx it, captain!" Of course, he knew better, after all their actual official setter was missing. Endo knew for a fact that they had a player who could serve like Kageyama... Actually the more he thought about it, their serves were almost exactly the same. Wait didn't they both go to Kitagawa? Why didn't I realize this sooner, he thought to himself as he started to put the pieces together. Oh, well.

Kageyama then walked up to his upperclassmen with a slightly troubled expression, "Don't let your guard down. It's just a feeling, but I don't think their setter is their official setter."

There was suddenly a multitude of girls who screamed happily at something. Well, it was more like someone. That someone was Oikawa Tooru. Kageyama's senpai from his middle school. They were in trouble now.

Endo smirked as his eyes flashed in an immeasurable amount of excitement, "there he is."