The gym was filled with the sounds of squeaking shoes and the impact of volleyballs on skin. Then the black-haired coach blew his whistle.
"All right everybody! Gather round." Coach Sawamura yelled. "Practice went good today. Everybody remember to get a good nights sleep tonight. You need to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for the practice match tomorrow. Nekoma isn't going to win again!" he said with a grin on his face. "ok, time to clean up."
The team had cleaned up the gym and it was spotless except for a single volleyball left sitting in the middle of the gym floor. "coach, why do we always leave a volleyball out?"
Coach Sawamura got a sad look on his face. "when I was a third year in Karasuno, the team gained two very talented first years. Hinata and Kageyama. They would do these 'freak quicks' that would surprise our opponents every time. Hinata was a ball full of energy and Kageyama was almost exactly his opposite but they were best friends. They were always on time to practice, if not early, and usually stayed late too. Then one day, they didn't show up to practice. It got to the point where we were about to go out looking for them when Coach Ukai got a call. He answered and a minute later started crying. After he hung up, he told us that Hinata and Kageyama had been hit by a drunk driver. Kageyama was dead on impact and Hinata died before the ambulance got there." Coach stopped to wipe the tears from his face. "no one spoke for a while. We just cried. Then we called our friends on other teams to let them know. They all showed up to their funerals. Even Shiratorizowa."
"a week or so after the funerals, people started saying that they would hear noises in the gym when no one was supposed to be in there. When they opened the doors, there would be volleyballs everywhere. Sometimes they were still flying like someone had just set them or spiked them. They stayed on the court where the both of them wanted to be the longest. We realized that they were still here with us. That inspired us to try for nationals again. We didn't win but we almost did. And since we realized that they were still here, we leave a volleyball out so that they know that we haven't forgotten them. Our dearest friends." The coach wiped his tears again. The team members all had tears in their eyes. Then the coach clapped his hands. "okay, that's enough sadness for tonight. Its time to go home. Get a good nights rest and be ready to defeat Nekoma tomorrow."
After all the team members had left and Coach started walking away. He heard the sound of a volleyball hitting the ground and almost heard Hinata calling for another toss.