Set before the Spring High tournaments and the training camp, a short (I hope) story about a beach volleyball competition they participated in for a while.
A/N: I finished reading Haikyuu! in a hurry, so I'm not too sure about how each character call one another + my timeline might be flawed because I didn't do much research to fit my story into the real story so please forgive me for any mistakes
Haven't been writing fics in a long time, just getting this off my head because I'm obsessed with Haikyuu! Hopefully I finish this.
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Daichi tried to regain his captain composure as he spoke. Even though he was not as smitten with Kiyoko as Nishinoya and Tanaka, Kiyoko's beauty was still profoundly captivating. He was glad to have Sugawara next to him as support.
"Beach volleyball?" He repeated hesitantly.
The volleyball club manager nodded. "It's Yachi's classmate. Apparently she used to be a member of the girls' volleyball club in Kitagawa Daiichi junior."
"Eh, isn't that Kageyama's school?" Sugawara said.
"But why is she finding a partner in the boys' club?" Daichi asked.
"The competition rules only allow teams of a male and female to participate." Kiyoko said, holding up a poster. On the poster, a picture of a couple wearing rather explicit swimwear on a beach was shown, the guy holding a volleyball and the girl doing a spike position. The poster splashed the words: SPLASH! the long awaited open beach volleyball competition! LOCATION: Watari, Miyagi. GRAND PRIZE: HALF A MILLION YEN! bus is chartered
"Wow, half a million yen." Daichi exclaimed.
"So, who is this girl?" Sugawara said.
Kiyoko turned around. The two first years were hiding (albeit not very successfully) behind the door, trying their best to peek in. They were at Daichi's class, and somehow first years were always very intimidated with third years' classrooms. "You can come out now."
Two girls poked their heads out. One of them was Yachi, their first year club manager, who had just started work only about a week. She was trembling when she greeted the three of them. "H…hello, senpai-tachi…"
The other girl was taller than Yachi, but only by a little, as she seemed to be of Hinata's height. She had a cheerful face like Yachi but she looked less timid and a lot bolder. Her build was also slightly bigger, her hair was tied back with a fringe and a light blue dip dye at the ends of her ponytail, and her voice was crisp and clear and filled with conviction. "H…hello!" She smiled.
"Hello, so you are the girl that Kiyoko-san mentioned?" Sugawara smiled in response.
"Yes! My name is Kanda Kazumi!" The girl said, bowing frantically at the seniors. "I'm really sorry about this rude request, but I really want to enter this competition and win it! I entered it three years ago, and I managed to win second place in the junior category! Now that it's finally back, I really hope to enter it again, with victory in my mind!"
"I…I see…" Daichi said, taken aback by the girl's enthusiasm.
"So, please let me have this chance, senpai!" Kazumi pleaded. "Please allow me to train with one of the members of the boys' volleyball club for this competition!"
"Ah…we'll think about it…" Daichi said uneasily.
"Kanda Kazumi…" Sugawara suddenly realized. "Daichi, she was the captain of Kitagawa Daiichi girls' volleyball club! She led her team to the nationals last year!"
"Eh, really?" Daichi exclaimed, staring at the girl incredulously. The girl was a head shorter than him and looked so skinny he could have easily crushed her! (Okay, maybe that was just the man pride in him stirring; she probably wasn't that skinny.) "You're the ace of the power house school?"
Kazumi laughed, embarrassed. "Hahaha…yeah…that was all in the past, you know…"
"Eh, Kazumi-chan, you were the ace?" Yachi exclaimed, surprised as well. She had been greatly affected by Hinata about the coolness of being the ace of the team.
"Like I said, it was all in the past." Kazumi said. "What's important now is for senpai to relief one of your members to train with me! Just for two weeks!"
"Two weeks is a little too long…" Daichi said reluctantly.
"I think it might be a good experience for some of our first years." Sugawara helped. "Beach volleyball is a two-player game, so the players would have to be good at everything, receives, tosses, spikes, blocks, and they have to learn to be more versatile." He smiled at his captain. "It would be a good practice for the first-years who seem to only specialize in one area of volleyball."
Immediately, Hinata came to Daichi's mind. The volleyball noob couldn't handle anything other than a spike…
"But Hinata needs to practice for the upcoming spring tournament since he's a regular." Daichi pointed out.
"How about Yamaguchi-kun?" Sugawara suggested. "He's not a regular, so you have to admit that his basics training sometimes get neglected."
Daichi thought about it for a while. Meanwhile, Kazumi stared up at him expectantly, Yachi fidgeted with her clothes and hiding behind Kazumi and Kiyoko stood nonchalantly by, awaiting their response.
"Kanda-san, I'll ask my member about this, so is it okay for you to come down after practice?" Daichi said, finally.
Kazumi looked like she was about to explode with joy. "YES! THANK YOU SO MUCH, SENPAI!" She bowed hastily, and then hugged Kiyoko, and then ran away hurriedly with Yachi.
Daichi and Sugawara laughed at how Kiyoko was flustered at the surprise hug.
"Ace, huh?" Sugawara said. "Although she's a girl, she might be yet another motivating factor for Hinata."
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Practice was tough as usual, but Yamaguchi managed to survive today pretty well. He still had energy left, so he was thinking of training his jump float serve later that night. Compared to the regulars, his training was not as demanding, but he tried very hard to push himself to the limits. When will he be able to play confidently in a match?
"Yamaguchi."
He jerked in shock. The captain had just called for him. His first instincts was to look at Tsukki for help. Tsukishima was frowning. So even Tsukki did not know what was happening and was unable to help him. The other two first years were staring with concern as well.
"Yes, Sawamura-senpai!" He said, running half-heartedly toward his captain.
Judging by the looks of the other members, nobody else knew what was happening. Except, maybe, Sugawara.
"Yamaguchi, what do you think about joining another practice for two weeks?"
"Eh?" Yamaguchi blinked. "Another…practice?" A million things flashed across his mind at once, but they all had similar ideas: was the captain kicking him out of the team?
Daichi saw the fear in the poor boy's eyes and immediately backtracked. "I mean, it's still volleyball practice, but it's just not with the team, you know? With another person, a…a girl, you know, practicing different stuff, good exposure…" The fear in the poor boy's eyes intensified and that was making Daichi frantic.
Thank god for Sugawara. "What Daichi-san meant to say, is that would you like to participate in an exclusive 2-player competition? You'd get to team up with an ace from the power house school Kitagawa Daiichi junior. If you don't mind, we seniors hope that you'd give it a shot." The vice-captain, equivalent mother of the team, smiled his warmest smile.
"Competition? Like…an open competition for the public?" Yamaguchi said tentatively. "I don't think I'm good enough for that."
"Which is why these two weeks will be exceptionally intensive for you!" Sugawara replied. "Since it's a two player game, we highly recommend that you take this opportunity to train your versatility!"
The way Suga-san said it, there was no way Yamaguchi would ever want to reject. "You're sugarcoating your words so much." Daichi muttered, slightly grumpily, but he couldn't do much about it.
"Eh! Unfair! You get to train with an ace exclusively!" Hinata exclaimed when Yamaguchi explained what had happened.
"Two player competition? That's some reckless and unnecessary waste of energy." Tsukishima noted.
"I…I don't know why the captain picked me…" Yamaguchi scratched his head awkwardly.
"Maybe because the rest of us cannot afford to skip training." Kageyama said bluntly, earning a smack from Hinata ("OI HOW CAN YOU BE SO MEAN don't listen to him Yamaguchi") and a glare from Tsukishima.
"Ah, Kanda-san!"
The entire volleyball club zipped their heads towards the direction of the newcomer. Girls are always welcomed at the gymnasium, always.
"A girl? With shoe bag? Did she come to play volleyball?" Hinata shot out a dozen questions. "And whoa, mermaid hair!"
"A GIRL!" Nishinoya and Tanaka shouted inwardly, and then moved behind Ennoshita. "WITH A DIP DYE. SUPER COOL."
"Kanda?" Kageyama said, recognizing the newcomer.
"You know her, Kageyama?" Hinata, Yamaguchi and Ennoshita asked. "YOU KNOW HER, KAGEYAMA?" Nishinoya and Tanaka shouted.
Kageyama nodded. "She was from the girls' team in my school. She was the captain and the ace of the team. We started off as setters together, and she sets really well."
Hinata's mouth dropped to the ground. To be praised by Kageyama, this girl had to be a genius like him. And… "THE ACE OF THE TEAM? COOL!" He exclaimed, also noting that the girl had the same height as him.
The girl seemed to notice the huddle of boys at the corner. "Oh, Kageyama! Long time no see! How's life?"
"Oh, fine, I guess." Kageyama replied coolly, which was met with a livid glare filled with envious tears by two of his seniors.
"Saw your match with Aoba Josai! Your tosses are so good I almost cried." Kazumi said with such sincerity.
Kageyama was taken aback. "Please don't cry." (Meanwhile the second years were holding back Nishinoya and Tanaka who were trying to strangle Kageyama for making the poor girl cry.)
"Ah, Yamaguchi, this is the partner we were talking about." Daichi said. "This is Kanda Kazumi from class 5, first year."
"Eh?"
The noisy commotion in the gymnasium quietened, and everyone's attention was focused on Yamaguchi, who had, unknowingly, earned every single guy in the gymnasium's envy.
"A guy and a girl competing together? Wouldn't that be unfair?" Tsukishima asked.
"It's a special rule!" Kazumi said excitedly, handling out the posters for the SPLASH competition. (Tanaka and Nishinoya cried in agony as they clawed at the bikini girl in the poster) ("ACK you have to wear that to play?" Hinata exclaimed.) "It's beach volleyball, and a team must have a girl and a boy, and the net will be set at the height for a women's volleyball match, so don't worry if you're short!"
"S…short…?" Yamaguchi repeated dejectedly. He had never been tall, but ever since he was in the same club as Hinata and Nishinoya, it had been a while since anybody had called him short. And the girl was shorter than he was.
"Ah, there's a lot more rules to beach volleyball, so I'll be going through with it later during dinner. Oh right, can we have dinner together? There're so many things I need to tell you. There's no homework due tomorrow, is there, Yachi?"
"Eh, oh, no." The new manager who had been hiding in a corner shook her head frantically.
"Okay! Come let's go for dinner!" Kazumi announced happily. She seemed to be in cloud nine ever since Daichi had agreed her request. "Do the rest of you want to join as well?"
It was obvious that the answer was a loud "YES, PLEASE!"
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End of chapter! How do you like my OC?