Chapter Thirty-Five: Center Ace

SO MAYBE THEY SHOULD HAVE PRAYED A little harder. While Nishinoya and Tanaka were barely able to scrape by with their grades, Shōyō and Kageyama weren't as lucky. So it seemed like they would have to stay behind and take their supplementary classes. Sakura was baffled at the fact that her brother actually would have passed his exam if it wasn't for the fact that he filled his answers in off by one. That was certainly disheartening. Her brother and Kageyama had actually put in a lot of work to do well. Sakura could do nothing but applaud them for their effort and encourage them to do better next time. Plus she knew that they were going to rush to get here. Apparently, Tanaka had offered his older sister as a ride up to the camp. Sakura was surprised to learn he had an older sister and that she would agree to that, which she somewhat doubted.

Though right now she just had to focus on waking herself up after the decently long car ride. She had taken a short nap on the way over to make up for waking up early, which Yachi had questioned her about. "Why are you coming with us to the practice camp?" Yachi had asked her before Sakura fell asleep. She just blinked slowly, about to answer with something along the lines of "I can for the photography club" but Tsukishima beat her to answering with a snide remark. "She's her brother's shadow, wherever he has to be, she's there."

It's safe to say that just hearing his voice put her in a bit of a mood. Though she made sure to keep him from knowing that. However, now they had finally gotten to the Tokyo school, energized enough to start their first long day of practicing. Some of Nekoma's players were waiting outside as Karasuno arrived, really the last team to show up today. Jumping out of the bus, Nishinoya and Tanaka stared up at the tower in front of them with large eyes. "Could that be…" The two screamed, "The Skytree?!"

Kai Nobuyuki, wing-spiker and vice-captain of Nekoma, just shook his head, "No, that's just a transmission tower." The hyena laugh that came from Kuroo seemed to be warranted with how the two Karasuno dummies kept thinking that it was the skytree.

The two dummies just screamed, "Here we are, Tokyo!"

With tired eyes, after quite the ride here, Asahi blinked, "The scenery's not that different from Miyagi."

"Well," Suga shrugged, "we're in the suburbs."

Endo climbed off the bus, "It would be nice to go into the city. I know the best cafe for something to eat." He was slightly dejected, hoping to have been able to go out on the city if they were close enough. Endo loves going on little trips to the city, especially with friends. He's definitely always in for a fun time of hanging out, shopping, and eating when they go. Still, the camp will be fine.

Behind them, Tanaka and Nishinoya were pushing poor Tsukishima towards the school shouting, "Walk faster!" A sight that Sakura was more than happy with seeing, since it annoyed him and she wanted to see him suffering somewhat.

"Actually, hey…" Kuroo glanced around, noticing something, and leaned over to the Karasuno captain, "Aren't we missing some people?"

Daichi scratched the back of his head, "Actually…"

Sakura passed them with her own yawn, "The idiots didn't pass their exams." She just hoped that they didn't rush through the exams this time to fail again. They would be going as fast as they could so they could leave as soon as possible to get here. The last thing that they need is to fail the supplementary exams as well, and add onto their problems. Though she has a feeling that they were just nervous the first time they took their exams, so this time they should be fine. After all, she's been working on being a bit more of an optimist than a realist, so she'll have some optimism about their exams.

Kuroo nodded his head, the group now walking into the school, "So the power duo's taking some supplementary exams right now?"

"Yeah… But, well…"

"Th… Th…" They looked to see that it was Yamamoto who was gaping at the newest addition to the Karasuno team. He fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face, "There're three girls now! Now they've got a pretty one, a gorgeous one, and a cute one!" 

Sakura blinked, disturbed by the Tanaka-clone's behavior. She certainly hadn't missed seeing Yamamoto especially now that he was going to bother them for Yachi being around now.

Tanaka made it a point to slide on over. With his arms stretched out, an air of superiority surrounding him, "Do you see, Tora? This is what Karasuno's true ability looks like."

Yamamoto cringed under the blinding radiance coming off of them."So bright!"

"OI! Don't pester them!" Yua called out to Yamamoto, watching the strange interactions, "You're being creepy!" She walked up to Yamamoto and tried to get him to stand back up, since it was strange that he was on the ground crying. Though she did find it slightly amusing that Tanaka was standing over Yamamoto triumphantly as he cried in defeat.

Though Yamamoto continued to cry, "Two… managers."

Yua huffed, "Hey, we've got a manager too, me!"

"But you're not cute or gorgeous," Yamamoto continued to sob in despair. 

Yua took a moment to process what he said before her eyes twitched, "What did you just say?" It was safe to say that Yua had quite an intense scolding for Yamamoto. He really needs to learn to either keep his mouth shut or not say things about her like that. Though after two years of knowing each other, Yua was unsure if he would ever learn.

"Let's go," Kiyoko was barely affected at seeing the display of patheticness before just ushering Yachi away.

Yachi nodded her head nervously, "R-Right…" It was all a bit overwhelming, being around all these new guys, and she's only seen a few of them. Sakura had made sure to warn her that quite a few of them are quite over dramatic and energetic, so Yachi had an idea of what to expect. She already knew this week was going to be quite loud.

"How long do you think it'll take for the troublesome duo to get here?" Endo asked as he and Asahi walked side-by-side towards the school.

Asahi shrugged his shoulders, "Soon, probably. They were determined to get here as fast as possible."

"Hm," Endo eyed him with pursed lips. A smirk slowly grew on his face, "Let's make a bet. I say that they won't make it in time for a game. Safe to say you think they will." Asahi nodded his head, "So If I win, we'll go out to eat this saturday. What do you want if you win?"

"Out to e-eat?" It wasn't something completely foreign for the two to go out to eat. They used to do it a lot when they weren't so busy with school or club stuff. Either they would go out with others or just the two of them, nothing too out of the ordinary. However, maybe it was an accumulation of some mounting feelings and revelations that made it feel a bit more… intense to Asahi. At least, he wasn't sure how to explain it at the moment. He didn't necessarily know why, but it was certainly making him nervous. 

Oblivious to the fact that his best friend was now over thinking things, Endo asked, "You want the same? Hm?" He finally saw how dumbfounded Asahi looked with added pink cheeks. Endo tilted his head in confusion, "Are you okay, Asahi?"

Asahi jumped out of his thoughts, "Y-Y-Yes."

He just blinked at the way that Asahi became a bit jumpy, "All right. So whoever wins gets to pick the place to eat, sounds good." 

Kuroo and Kai continued to lead Karasuno into the gym. There were already quite a few teams who were there going about their practices. The scuffing of sneakers and the bouncing of balls echoed in the gym as they all took in their opponents. "All right. When you're all ready, come to the gym." Kuroo said, "The other guys are already there."

There was a hardened expression on the majority of the Karasuno crow's faces. They were ready to take on the challenge of taking on these teams. Daichi nodded his head, "Yeah."

They all then had to get ready. The boys changed into their practice clothes and squared away their belongings in the classroom they were sleeping in. Sakura stuck to staying around Yachi for the most part, helping her out with anything that she might need to do. After all, she didn't really have anything else to do at the moment and she wasn't sure what to do. They were introduced to the other managers of the teams, which meant that Sakura had to deal with talking to Yua again.

"Hina! So good to see you again!" Had Sakura not jumped out of the way, she would have been swept off her feet by the Nekoma manager. The managers had come together to help each other set up their places to sleep. All of them had been nice and greeted the Karasuno girls happily, though most of them were quick since they all had to be on the court with their own teams. The only one who seemed to make it a priority to have a conversation with the newcomers was Yua. Her sparkly green eyes were bright with happiness that Sakura was there as well as all her other friends. After all, it's not all the time that she gets to hang out with other managers. She then spotted the blonde girl next to Sakura and bowed to her, "I apologize for Yamamoto's behavior earlier, he really doesn't know how to act around girls."

Yachi nodded, "I-It's okay."

"Honestly, he says he's jealous of any team that has a female manager when I'm his manager!" Yua huffed and looked at the younger girls, "I'm cute too, right? Gorgeous? Adorable?" She shook her head before anyone could give her an answer, "Don't answer I already know I am. Anyway, it's lovely to meet you, I'm Yua."

Yachi's eyes were wide at the energetic nature of this older girl. Though after being around the Karasuno volleyball team, she's used to some eccentric personalities. Yachi just smiled, "Nice to meet you too, I'm Yachi Hitoka."

Yua cooed, "Oh, Yamamoto was right, you are cute!"

"Don't bother my friend," Sakura grumbled, pulling Yachi away from Yua's clutches.

The brown-haired girl gasped, "You admit you have friends!" Since she last saw Sakura, she hadn't talked much to her. Yua knew that Kenma and her had become friendly and would text every once in a while. She may have tired to get Sakura's number from him, since she certainly wanted to try being friendly with her as well, but Kenma kept that information to himself. After all, he found it kind of creepy if he just gave her Sakura's number. Though as far as Yua could tell, Sakura wasn't one for having actual friends. Oh, she found it so heartwarming to see that Sakura does have friends.

Sakura just deadpanned, "Don't you have managerial things to do?"

"Oh, you're right! See you girls on the court!" With that, Yua skipped away to go do her managerial duties. Yachi blinked at Sakura, definitely not as prepared as she thought to meet some of these people.

After a while, Karsuno finished putting their belongings away and became acquainted with a few others. Now it was time for the boys to get ready to join in on the practicing. "Once we're done with our warm ups," Kuroo explained to Daichi, "we'll regroup and the teams will play each other in rotation." There were four other teams that were practicing around the gym. Most of them Karasuno had never come close to competing against in the past. Though Karasuno was definitely not going to waste this perfect opportunity to learn how to play against a variety of different play styles or meet these other players. 

"Right."

Kuroo continued, "The team who loses their set will do a penalty lap of diving drills around the court."

"Diving?" Yachi asked with a tilt of her head.

Kiyoko answered her, "They're going to act like they're diving to receive a ball. They'll slide across the floor on their chests, with their arms stretched out in front of them."

Surveying the other teams, Sugawara noticed someone unfamiliar from the cat's team. He asked Asahi and Endo next to him, "Hey, was that guy with Nekoma the last time we had a practice match with them?" The trio looked over to see that there was a gray-haired, green eyed boy staring directly at them. He definitely wasn't with Nekoma when they had their practice match together.

Asahi jumped slightly at the piercing gaze, "The one who's staring hard at us?"

Suga nodded, "Yeah."

"No… I don't think so."

"Hey! Green eyes!" Endo called over, causing the gray-haired boy to focus on him now. He stuck his tongue out at the boy, "take a picture, it'll last longer!"

Lev Haiba, the half-russian middle blocker for Nekoma, just tilted his head slightly at Endo's shout. He wasn't flustered over the fact of getting caught staring at them, he just turned back to continue practicing. The trio gaped at just how tall he actually was, even if he slouched just slightly. He definitely was going to be a bit of a difficult opponent. Though that just meant they were going to hopefully learn and evolve as a team at this camp, right?

---

The shiny idea that Karasuno was a powerhouse school was dampened slightly. While they weren't some mediocre team or the fallen crows they used to be, they were still suffering through the penalty over and over again. They just couldn't get a hand up against their opponents, which made sense. Karasuno sure has made a name for themselves in Miyagi, but some of these teams from Tokyo were on a bit of a different level. A level that they would have to rise to soon.

Another loss was racked against Karasuno, this time at the hands of Fukurōdani. When the whistle blew signifying the end of the game, the score was 16-25. On the sidelines, Ukai, Takeda, Kiyoko, Yachi, and Sakura stood up from their seats with solemn expressions. "As we suspected," Takeda grumbled, "they're very strong."

Ukai nodded, "Yeah."

The boys started their lap of diving, which made Sakura cringe. She never would think of having to dive onto the floor like that. Personally, she thinks that it would be painful. Another reason why she would never be on any sports team. She just shook her head, why some people put themselves through this baffles me, she thought to herself. As much as she thought that being athletic was impressive, some of the training that they put themselves through just seemed masochistic to her. In her opinion, she's more of a sadist than anything.

During most of the games, Sakura had been helping Yachi with understanding some nuances of volleyball, to make her job as manager easier. Yachi, the scholar that she is, had already done quite a bit of studying on her own. However, she could never go wrong with asking questions or getting insight from someone who watches volleyball almost daily. Sakura explained as much as she could, the rules, positions, terminology, whatever Yachi wanted to know, Sakura would explain it. It felt nice to at least do something productive while sitting there. She didn't see a point in doing her job as a photographer at the moment, so being somewhat useful to Yachi was fulfilling enough.

"It's not that we're not on top of it." Ukai grunted, "This is just what it means to be a team that competes in the nationals."

They then heard the shouts from the game besides them and watched as quite the intense serve. A serve that was not able to be returned at all. Yachi jumped in worry, "Their arms are gonna snap off!" The power behind those serves would certainly tear the limbs off of anyone, in her opinion.

"Everyone on that team is a very strong server," Kiyoko said.

Yachi perked up, "The manager from Ubugawa mentioned that. They put their all into their serves."

Kiyoko nodded, "Yeah. I think it's a bit harsh how they have to do a hundred serves at the end of their practices. Ubugawa High School's serves are its ultimate attack."

Ukai smirked, "But once we're able to return that serve…"

They watched as all of the boys on the court continued to play. The team playing against Ubugawa all started to run up to the net, confusing anyone on just who was going to end up spiking the ball. "Whoa! They're all moving at once?!" Yachi marveled.

"That was an amazing combo," Kiyoko marveled.

"Th-There are people jumping up everywhere." Yachi said, taking a moment to try and comprehend it, "I can't tell who's going to hit it."

Sakura tapped her chin in thought, "it creates the perfect amount of confusion for their opponents." Maybe something that Karasuno should attempt to do, she could only hope that they could actually do it.

Kiyoko nodded her head, "They are indeed the masters of using combos. Shinzen High School."

The group turned around to stare at the game behind them. Takeda pursed his lips, "And then we have our destined rivals…" They turned to watch the cats as they were playing against Fukurodani.

Ukai's lips turned up just a little bit, "Those are some excellent receives, as usual." Even if they were their eternal rivals, doesn't mean he can't be impressed with how disciplined they were with their receives.

"The school that's known to pick up the ball, connect, and wait for the perfect chance to counter attack: Nekoma High School."

They all were enraptured by the game between Nekoma and their opponent. Ukai blinked, "And…"

The white and black haired ace of Fukurōdani shouted out loudly, "Akaashi!"

"Bokuto-san!" His setter responded in kind as he set the ball for him. Just from watching from the sidelines, everyone could feel just how powerful the teen was as he run and jumped up towards the ball.

"Just like Ushiwaka, he's one of the top five aces heading to the nationals," Takeda explained. They watched as his spike broke through the Nekoma's blockers, Kenma and Lev, super easily. It even caused Sakura to cringe a bit at the sight of it. It definitely was an extremely powerful hit.

"Damn it, Kenma!" Coach Nekomata bristled on the sidelines, "Don't run away!"

Kenma just shrugged his shoulders, "But my arms are gonna break off…"

"They won't!"

"All right!" The ace shouted, "I'm so awesome! Hey, hey hey!" 

"Why are volleyball idiots so loud," Sakura wondered, her ears certainly wishing for a break after so much yelling.

Meanwhile, the Nekoma manager was bouncing on the balls of her feet, "Good job, Bo-kun!" Her eyes were wide in admiration and wonder, as any hit by Bokuto always impressed her. No matter how many times she's seen it.

Kuroo rounded on her with a ticked off expression, "Don't cheer for the enemy, Yua!"

Yua whined, "But that was so cool!"

"Thank you, nee-san!" The owl on the other team shouted in thanks with an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Back over with Karasuno, those on the sidelines were taking in the power of Fukurōdani. It was one thing to hear about such a good player like a top five ace, it was another to see it in person. "We're very thankful…" Takeda started, "a school whose powerful team is led by a powerful ace to compete in the nationals: Fukurōdani Academy. To be able to take on such amazing teams…"

"Yeah. However, this is no time to be scared of how strong our opponents are." Ukai grunted, "We have to be on the same level as these guys."

Sakura clicked her tongue, "Let's just hope that they can rise to the challenge." 

---

Karasuno had to do yet another penalty lap. At this point, they should just expect having to do it once they start a game. They really were trying their best, but they just couldn't get the edge over the other teams. Maybe that was because these teams have been playing at a higher skill set than Karasuno for longer, or that Karasuno still had plenty of kinks to work out. Either way, Karasuno was missing something to give themselves that push to triumph over the other teams.

While it wasn't necessarily her job, and she should probably let Kiyoko and Yachi do it, Sakura took some notes. Since she didn't really see a point to taking photos at the moment, especially with Karasuno's performance. Though she was just making small notes that she deemed important. Mainly just weaknesses that she noticed were quite blatantly obvious. Such as one specific player having a bit of difficulty blocking on one side of the net, a player having shotty footwork, or a player's receives being less than stellar. She did it for every team. 

Sakura has always been analytical, to a fault. Constantly taking mental notes about herself and others caused her to be critical about some little things as time. Though she does try her best not to be judgemental. Either way, she knew that she was going to at least share these notes when needed. They could do what they want with that information once she told them. Though she wasn't going to tell them what to do with it. She knew that they would use whatever they could to their advantage. She just hoped that it worked.

"How many times have they lost already?" A boy from another team asked.

Another shrugged his shoulders, "They're not exactly weak, just sorta… mediocre."

"Who are the first-years that Nekoma had such a hard time with?" A third asked, "Maybe Nekoma was exaggerating."

From a little further away, Yachi bristled at their comments. She didn't really like the fact that they were undermining Karasuno as a team. She's only just officially joined the team, but she's certainly grown attached. Yachi definitely didn't like any bad mouthing of her friends.

Kiyoko just giggled lightly, "Calm down, Hitoka-cahn. There, there. It's okay." She found it cute that Yachi was defensive of the team already.

Sakura patted Yachi on the shoulder, "Just 

The door to the gym then opened up. A woman with short blonde hair, and quite the badass appearance was standing in the doorway. She was panting, as if she just ran quite the marathon to get there. "Hey, they're still at it. We totally made it. Not bad at all."

Everyone in the gym looked to see who had come in and it was Karasuno who was more than happy with their arrival. Nishinoya's eyes sparkled, "Ne-san!"

"Wait, that's your sister?" Asahi asked, not really seeing the resemblance. He knew he had three older sisters, but she didn't look like a Nishinoya, to be honest.

Nishinoya shook his head, "No, she's Ryu's sister."

Suga, quite tired after all the games, puffed out, "Now that you mention it, they do look alike." 

Endo was suddenly quite enraptured with her appearance, "now she looks cool." He just felt like he had to do his best to befriend her, she just seemed like such fun.

Tanaka looked up at the group as they walked into the gym, "Glad they made it in one piece." He could imagine what the drive over was like, since he's been subjected to his sister's driving before. So the fact that they made it relatively safely was more than impressive. 

Everyone else was looking at the new arrivals, some questioningly others enthusiastic. After all, the mysterious Karasuno duo were finally here to play with their team.

"So the stars are showing up fashionably late?" Kuroo smirked, "How annoying."

Sakura just rolled her eyes and grumbled to the two managers, "they really just like being dramatic." That caused them all to giggle just a bit.

So the troublesome duo were subbed into the game as quickly as possible. They were up against Shinzen and were giving the team a run for their money. While the majority of the team was tired after playing so many games and going through so many penalty laps, they were at least a bit rejuvenated by having the freak duo back to play. By the end, Karasuno actually won! The score was close, with Karasuno barely getting the edge with a score of 25-21. Though the boys were grateful that for once they didn't have to do a penalty lap.

Shōyō and Kageyama seemed to be thinking quite high and mighty of themselves. After all, they came back from their tests and gave their team the edge that they needed to win a game. So maybe their egos were a bit inflated. So they stood on the court, catching their breath and thinking that they looked quite badass after the game.

Tanaka slid in as he said menacingly, "Don't act all cool, you tardy test flunkers." That caused the pair to deflate just a bit. They might have been a big help for the team, but they 

Karasuno marched their way off the court. Daichi took a deep breath, "So in our ninth set, we finally got a win. We finally don't have to do the diving drills." It was such a relief.

Nishinoya shouted, "I'm starving!"

"You usually are," Endo commented, handing him a water bottle as they all came over. Nishinoya didn't even refute it, since it was true.

Now that they could rest, the boys were watching the other teams play. "Looks like it's Ubugawa High versus Nekoma over there." Tanaka commented, "Given the time, that might be the last game today."

"Yeah." Nishinoya nodded.

Sakura walked over to her brother, silently handing him a bottle as he was deep in his thoughts. He barely even registered that she was there, which she knew was because he was thinking about the game. Not that she minded, she knew she got the same way when she was thinking about school or photography. Though the shouts of the Nekoma game drew the twins' attention back to the court to witness what was happening. The main thing that grabbed their attention was the long limbed, gray-haired, green eyed, player for Nekoma. The new addition that was somewhat of a mystery to them all. They watched as he swung his hand back like a whip to spike the ball over the net. Quite intimidating, if they were all to be honest.

Asahi breathed out, "Wow…"

"That #11…" Suga started, "At first glance, it's hard to tell because he's slouching, but he's pretty big. He might be over 190 cm."

Asahi marveled, "His arms and legs are so long."

"Who the heck is he?"

"Yua was telling me a bit about him." Sakura commented, noticing that her brother was watching the newest addition to the Nekoma roster. "That's Lev Haiba."

Sakura didn't get all too much information about the boy from her. Just that he was annoyingly tall and relatively new to volleyball. Not really much to work off of if Sakura was honest. Yua just wanted to get to know her more than talk about her team. She wasn't necessarily in the mood with dealing with Yua and her aggressive manner of making friends, so Sakura had retreated back to her bench after getting a bit of information about Lev.

Shoyo spun around to her, "did she say anything else about him!?"

Sakura shook her head, "no. I couldn't tell if Yua just wanted to talk with me about being friends again, or was hiding things about Lev to keep his play style a mystery to me. It was infuriating."

---

"Your quick was as amazing as ever, Shōyō." Ikuoka exclaimed as he, Shōyō, Kenma, and Sakura was sitting around in the room that Nekoma was spending the night in. Technically, Sakura wasn't allowed there, but she was mistaken for her brother and got to hang out with them. After all, it meant that she could avoid the ever persistent Yua. That girl seemed adamant about becoming great friends with Sakura and learning everything she could. Sakura wasn't sure why, but Yua was doing the same thing to Kiyoko and Yachi. Sakura just figured Yua was a strange girl. She would much rather hear Inuoka and Shōyō's excited babbling while watching Kenma play his game from over his shoulder.

"But at this rate, nothing's going to change," Shōyō whined. He came here to get stronger, and he wasn't doing all that much improvement just yet. A thought then struck him, "Hey! Who the heck is that middle blocker?"

Sakura perked up a bit at her brother's question, also interested in knowing more about Lev. While she had questioned Yua a bit about the new addition to her team, the older girl wasn't all too descriptive about how Lev played or anything like that. Perhaps she wanted to keep that a secret from Sakura so Karasuno wouldn't have an upper hand over Lev when they played against each other.

Barely looking up from his game, Kenma answered, "Oh… That's the first-year, Haiba Lev. He's half Russian and half Japanese."

Shōyō's eyes sparkled, "H-Half?! So cool! Just like Endo-senpai! L-Le…"

"Lev," Kenma said, he still had yet to look up from his game, "What does it mean in Russian again? Tiger?"

Inuoka brightened, "It means lion! Yup, lion!"

Sakura tilted her head, "He wasn't with the team the last time you played Karasuno."

"Yeah. Lev started volleyball in high school." Kenma said, finally pulling his attention away from his game to explain properly. "When we went to Karasuno around Golden Week, he still hadn't played very much, and only the regular members went."

It seemed to amaze Shōyō that such a new player was able to hae the skill that Lev has, "He just started and he can play like that?!"

"Yeah. And when we were paired together, it was really difficult." Kenma explained, "No matter how hard I tried, our timing was off. I'm used to it now, though."

Shōyō blinked in thought, "Huh…"

"Kenma-san couldn't stop sighing," Inuoka laughed. Sakura could certainly picture that, since she's seen Kenma do it so often.

Shōyō blinked, "I guess there are times when even you can't read people, Kenma."

Now looking back at his game, Kenma continued, "Lev is just too special. Right now, he's mostly working with his innate physical abilities and instincts, and his height."

It irked Shōyō at the reminder, "Yeah, his height totally isn't fair! I want some!"

"He's been blessed with too much!" Inuoka exclaimed, "But I'm not gonna lose!"

Sakura cringed slightly at their loud shouts. She was starting to get tired and their yelling was not helping her. Truthfully, she was only hanging around with this trio so she could see Kenma. There was just a click between the two quiet teens when they met that first time. Sakura liked the fact that Kenma was mellow and not that loud to be around, and Kenma liked how she was 

"Well, he's a powerful asset, honest, and not a bad guy." Kenma shrugged his shoulders, "Though he's too honest at times. Oh, but his passing basics are still completely bad. He's worse than you, Shōyō." Said boy blanched at his comment, "His serves are worse than yours, too, Shōyō."

"Am I the guideline of what's bad or not, Kenma?" Shōyō raged.

Sakura just raised an eyebrow at him, "But you are bad at those things." Shōyō just deflated even further at her words. Though it's not like he could really argue against them. He really does need to work on most of his skills other than spiking. Looking at the time, Sakura figured with the boys coming back to their rooms to sleep, she should do the same. "I'm heading to bed," Sakura said, standing up, she then grumbled under her breath, "Yua might start searching for me." The last thing that she needed was the Nekoma manager starting a search party to get Sakura to bed. It would just be more of an issue than it needed to be.

So the boys all said their goodbyes to her, even Yaku, Kai, and Fukunaga who had just come back from the bathroom. So Sakura started moseying her way down the darkened corridors of the school. Some might think that it was creepy to 

Just as she was turning the corner, she nearly got run over by a gray-haired ace. They caught themselves before either could fall, more like Sakura since she was nearly pushed over, and collected themself. Once Sakura collected her barings she had to look up to see who she had run into.

The boy finally registered who he had run into and exclaimed, "You looked so cool while doing those jumps!" He shouted, his golden eyes sparkling, "I can't wait to play against you at some point, your jumps are crazy cool!"

It took Sakura a moment to collect herself at his sudden appearance. He was almost like an excited puppy as he stared down at the younger girl. It was Fukurōdani's top five ace, from what she remembers. Getting a closer look at him, she could see why he was considered a top ace. He was tall, looked strong, and had the gleam in his eyes that screamed he lived for volleyball. 

Sakura shook her head, "I don't play volleyball."

The boy blinked at her in confusion, he tilted his head like a confused owl, "But you were on the court today…?"

"No, that was my brother. We're twins."

He nodded his head slowly, "Oh. That makes sense. Though you guys looked exactly the same."

"I'm more than aware." She scoffed, "I'm Hinata Sakura."

"Bokuto Kōtarō." He said boisterously, causing Sakura to cringe at his loud personality. "You said your name is Hinata Sakura?" The owl-haired boy asked as he got uncomfortably close to Sakura.

She just stared at him with her pursed lips, "...yes… why?"

"Oh, I know an old classmate of yours!"

"Really?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, confused as to who he might know and why they would mention her. Sakura hasn't had any real friends until recently. She may consider Koji and Izumi to be friends of hers from junior high school, but she knows neither of them was at Fukurōdani. Perhaps he knew an acquaintance of hers from junior high, but it was still a toss up to who would talk about her to him. So who could Bokuto know?

"Yeah, Sato Hitoshi!" She froze at Bokuto's exclamation, "It'll be really cool to tell him that we saw you here!"

Sakura's jaw clenched, "Why would he care?" The discomfort at the mention of the bully started to wash over her. Her stomach churned and turned at the bitter reminder of him. She had pushed the thought of him out of her mind for some time now, honestly, she never thought she'd ever have to hear about him again. Though here she is…

Not even noticing her change in mood, Bokuto continued on, "Well, he talks about you a lot, always wondering what you're doing in high school!"

She stared at him in confusion, "He cares about what I'm doing? That's… strange."

"Oh?"

Sakura's eyes narrowed at nothing in particular, "Let's just say, Sato and I didn't get along, especially after we graduated from junior high." The distasteful stare of his sharp blue gaze flashed through her mind. Maybe back then she didn't always see how jealous and petty he was, but she recognized it now after reflecting on it. Though why he would mention her to someone at his high school is beyond her. Unless Sato was making some unsavory comments of some kind, but Bokuto didn't seem to be disturbed by her if he did hear those types of comments.

Bokuto just blinked. Whether he could see the bitterness in Sakura's expression and ignored it or didn't sense the mood she was in now was uncertain. "Ah, well he's mentioned you a few times while in school. He's a part of our school yearbook as a photographer and mostly focuses on sports."

Sakura clicked her tongue, "Hmm, looks like we've taken a similar high school career."

"Wow! That's really cool!"

Pursing her lips, Sakura sighed heavily through her nose. She bowed respectively to the older boy, "It was nice to meet you, Bokuto-senpai." She didn't even wait for him to reply as she started to briskly walk past him.

"Oh yea!" Bokuto called after, "See you later, Hinata-chan!"

She marched back to the room she was staying in with the other managers. The need to just go to bed and attempt to forget the mention of Sato was strong in her mind. She didn't need any sort of reminder of that bully since she had finally gotten somewhere with her self-confidence. Thinking about him would do nothing but bring back those memories and possible doubts. 

It wouldn't have been completely surprising to hear about Sato again. There was always a possibility of running into him or a connection to him at some point considering where they live. It's a small world, and Sakura doesn't usually have the best of luck. Though to hear from someone that Sato speaks about her to others caused her stomach to tighten. He must be saying some bad things about her to his new classmates. Talking about the useless little shadow who, while smart, didn't have her own voice. Probably saying that he was so much better than her, at everything. Knowing that he could still go around saying her name and talking bad of it. 

Perhaps a part of her knew that he would still think of her that way, she wasn't going to change the opinion of someone who shouldn't matter to her. She wouldn't think he'd change his opinion considering they weren't at the same school anymore. So he could say what he wanted to his new peers. Though to have one of those peers now in the same place as him saying that Sato talks about her is a bit jarring, in her opinion.

Though it really shouldn't shake her as much as it should, she thought. She's stronger now, more confident, so whatever he might think shouldn't bother her. Still there was just that small inkling in her chest that won't go away. So as she changed into her pajamas, made some small talk with the managers who were still awake, and climbed into her bed. All that she could do was go to bed and forget about it as best she could. She just hoped she didn't have to talk to Bokuto again, lest he make fun of her for what Sato might have told him.