Karasuno High Volleyball Club

(10 mins before Hinata arrives)

*Kaching

Hearing the door open I turned towards it and was surprised to see who walked in.

"You.."

Not only me but the person who came in was also in shock not expecting to see the person who beat in the Junior High Meet to be here. He was around 5"11 with black hair that is cropped short and sporting a fringe that hangs between his dark blue eyes.

"What are you doing here.. shouldn't you be at Shiratorizawa right now?" He asked with a confused expression.

I shrugged "I didn't want to go to Shiratorizawa since I felt like I wouldn't be able to synergize well with their team. I can ask the same thing to you, shouldn't you also be at Shiratorizawa?"

Hearing my question, his face hardened. "I didn't get accepted." I was surprised to hear that since Kageyama is a very talented player that matches Shiratorizawa's criteria. But then I remembered seeing what happened during the Junior High Competition last year.

(That event must have greatly affected him huh.. I wonder if he still has that same attitude from Junior High.)

Sensing that we had nothing else to talk about I asked him if he wanted to pepper since the other members of the club still haven't arrived. He agreed and we began to pepper with each other. While peppering I began to admire his setting skills as they were very fluent. As we were playing I heard the door open again and Kageyama turned around to see who came in.

"WHY ARE YOU HERE??"

A short guy with messy orange hair yelled out questioning Kageyama. Holy crap shrimpy also came to this school too. This is like a whole reunion by the players who attended the Junior High Meet. Seeing that shrimpy hasn't noticed me yet I stepped closer and his eyes finally met mine.

"Watanabe-san you're also here!? Why are the people I want to win against here?? Shouldn't you guys be at other championship schools?" Shrimpy yelled and he seems to be having a meltdown due to this revelation. I also didn't expect him to be this energetic…

"I came here since I felt like I wouldn't be able to fit properly in the other teams." I replied saying the same answer I told Kageyama. Shrimpy turns and asks Kageyama the same thing.

"I didn't get in"

"You didn't get in?! Even though you're the King of the court?"

After shrimpy said this Kageyama gave a strong reaction and frowned really hard "Don't call me that." Hmm.. seems like that incident from back then greatly affected him. This is going to be a big problem..

"There's no way that Kitagawa Diichi's setter came here right alongside that rising Ace guy." "Well I find that surprising too haha"

Hearing voices on the other side of the door it opens.

"Hey you two thanks for coming" The guy with a gentle smile greeted us. I smiled and greeted them back. I can see two guys behind him, one with gray hair and the other who has a skin cut who seems to be glaring at us for whatever reason. As we started talking they didn't seem to see shrimpy. He spoke up and they were surprised to see him.

"This must be some crazy coincidence that all three of you came to Karasuno."

I gave a confused look and it wasn't only me since the other two had question marks above their heads.

"We watched your matches last year and you guys were amazing." he pointed at Hinata "you had those amazing jumps but it seems like you didn't get any taller.."

"T-Thank you! Even though I'm small I can jump. I will show you that I can become Karasuno's ace!"

"You seem to have a lot of guts to be saying that when Watanabe-san is here you know haha." Shrimpy tensed up and I just chuckled telling him not to mind since I welcomed him to fight with me to get that title.

***

BANG "Nice hit!"

I don't know how it got to this but shrimpy and Kageyama got kicked out and weren't allowed to participate until they acknowledged each other as teammates. Kageyama tried to say that will be able to work with him but didn't seem confident in his answer as he would rather do everything else by himself rather than use his weak skills.

I practiced with the team and they seem to have decent skills. Daichi has very solid defensive skill which seems to be built upon experience, Tanaka has strong hits and Sugawara although not as skilled as Kageyama he is able to adjust to the hitters preferences on how they want to hit the ball.

"Good work everybody!"

It was getting dark out and I helped put everything away as we were doing practicing for the day. I'm craving a meat bun right now… oops I need to stop I almost started to drool there.

""CAPTAIN""

…It looks like there is going to be more commotion. I went to the front door and saw Daichi talking with the two guys who got kicked out.

"Are you sure you will be able to accept the punishments when you guys lose?" I heard Daichi say this as I came closer. He paused and looked at me and turned towards the two guys. "Alright then I accept your challenge. On Saturday we will have the match and Watanabe will be the third player that will play with you."

? what happened when I was away just for a moment.

"Alright that is all" After he finished talking he shut the door. I was told that they will have a match to prove that they can play as teammates and as a punishment for losing Kageyama will be unable to play as a setter as long as the 3rd years are around. Whoa that's rough for Kageyama as he seems to take lots of pride being a setter. But If we're gonna play as a team I need to practice with them..

I looked around and tried to see who could help us sneak into the gym so we could practice. Sugawara was standing close to Daichi and as for Daichi himself… I saw Tanaka near the window so I quickly came up to him and whispered my intentions. He gave a confused stare but I silently begged him to help. He thought for a moment and nodded. He slowly went up to the window and whispered to come at 5 in the morning to the two guys.

***

Early in the morning the next day I started to walk towards the gym. I had some warm tea in a container as it was cold in the morning. I yawned and as I approached the gym I saw two figures standing by the door and they were bickering. How can they have so much energy in the morning confuses me.

"Morning you guys mind giving me some of your energy since you look like you have tons to spare." The both of them heard me and greeted me back. I took some of my cups from the container and asked them if they wanted some tea.

After waiting 5 mins Tanaka arrived while yawning.

"Waking up early is rough. Well guys are you able to finish by 7am?" He smiled and tossed the keys around his fingers. For the first time he looked really reliable as an upperclassman."

We entered the gym and started to practice. During our warm ups Sugawara scared us by appearing through the door. He said that he wanted to help us out. Throughout the whole morning Kageyama refused to set shrimpy as he didn't deem him a "necessary" for us to win.

(I can tell that there is more than just not wanting to set him up because of his abilities.. That moment from junior high must have hit him deeply.)

Over the course of a few days we continued to practice but Kageyama still didn't toss to Hinata. Seeing him walk out the gym to get a drink I followed him.

"You went to get the normal milk huh? I recommend trying the strawberry one, the strawberry milk from this vending machine tastes much better than the ones from the convenience store." I spoke to him while also getting a drink. He was slightly shaken by suddening hearing a voice behind him. He got his drink and stayed quiet.

"Was it scary suddenly not having someone be there when you set the ball behind you?"

!!!

He was shaken and frowned when he heard what I said. I calmed him down stating that I didn't want to start a fight.

"I can feel it from you that you have a strong passion for volleyball and you want to do anything you can to win even if you had to take things into your own hands."

He stayed silent

"You know if I was your teammate I would also find it difficult to trust you as it seems like you didn't value my input and my abilities and just forced us to hit the set you want."

He shook as he felt attacked by my sentence.

…

"Do you regret doing what you did?" I asked softly

After a brief silence and not moving he slightly nodded his head.

"Then why not reflect on what you did wrong and grow from it. Being stuck in the past can be damaging so move forward, becoming a better player than you were yesterday. It doesn't have to be an immediate change but you can take gradual steps to fix what you have done wrong."

He seemed to take my words to mind and began to think deeply.

"Plus you're not alone right now you have the two of us always ready to hit your sets."

Kageyama quickly raised his head and frowned

"The two of us? Who is the other person you're talking about?"

I rolled my eyes at his question. "I'm talking about shrimpy, I know you might disagree as he has no skills but you must be able to also tell why I'm saying this right. He has incredible speed and reaction time; alongside his jumping power he will have the abilities to match you even if his volleyball skills are average."

"Plus he might have been your opponent in the past but he is your ally right now."

Kageyama took in what I said and slowly nodded his head. I can see the obstacle that was blocking his path gradually becoming clearer. I was happy that my words were able to help him. Haa if Akane were to see this she would have called me off as a busybody trying to help everyone around him.

I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and dragged him back to practice. I continued to watch him hit the ball towards Hinata without stopping not giving him a set and I started to wonder if my words actually reached him. I continued to doubt myself until I saw Hinata almost run out of energy, that's when Kageyama gave him a set. Hinata was confused for a second but broke out a big smile as he went to hit the ball.

He walked up to shrimpy who was catching his breath while sitting down.

"Hey on saturday let's win it." He also turned towards me as if he wanted to tell me this too. Shrimpy was confused for a second before energetically replying, almost vomiting in the process. I smiled, excited to see what this change in Kageyama will do for the team.

And the day of the 3 vs 3 match arrived.

***

Wow, that was a difficult chapter for me to write as I had trouble finding the words to help encourage Kageyama with his problem that came from junior high. I felt like he just needed someone to talk to and give words of encouragement telling him to move forward. Which didn't happen in the original until Tsukki directly confronted him during the 3 vs 3 match. I don't know if these words were good enough but I tried my best (~_~). Anyways until next time Peace!