Chapter Summary:

In which you end up with more questions then you signed up for and approximately zero answers.

She should've let them leave when they finally decided to. Those two have been nothing but trouble ever since she met them, so meeting them again was no doubt a bad omen.

She would never admit to having a slight panic attack when she saw who rang the doorbell. Of course, being Daichi's neighbor for three years, she was really pushing her luck hoping they would never realize the house across his was occupied by her. She just...wasn't ready yet. In fact, she was just starting to get ready.

…after three years.

It took her more than five minutes to compose herself enough to open the door and give her usual greeting.

"What."

…Well, greeting was far too strong a word, but it worked as well as the tiring "Hi-how-may-I-help-you". Apparently, though, her little "greeting" startled them enough so that Daichi violently flinched and Koushi's voice box stopped working.

Or maybe she slammed the door open too hard.

Either way, she wasn't about to go waiting for them to restart their scrambled brains to hear them say what they wanted to say. If she did then she would miss her favorite sports program. So she made a big show of trying to close the door again, which prompted Daichi to go all theatrical on her, letting out a desperate "Wait!" and jamming his foot between the door and the doorway.

This somehow led to them inviting themselves into her house, so they were now sitting on her couch in an atmosphere (somehow) even more awkward than the one outside. As they stared uncomfortably but intently at each other, she wondered why they prolonged the unpleasant silence, and why they even bothered following her home if they weren't going to do anything.

"So…" Koushi began. Trailing off, unfortunately, but it was a start.

Daichi cleared his throat. "Um, we're sorry for barging in on you like this, Akabane-san."

"…"

Looking extremely uncomfortable with her silence and a lot less confident, he tried again. "My ah, name is—I don't know if you know me but—my name is Sawamura Daichi."

"Oh," Koushi perked up. "I'm Sugawara Koushi. My friends call me Suga!"

"..."

As they looked expectantly at her, she could help but allow some of her exasperation to show on her face. He had literally just said her name. They had literally just followed her home. She was no Sherlock, but they really didn't expect her to think that they didn't know who she was, did they?

Daichi cleared his throat again, confidence officially gone. "Well, yeah, so…"

"We came to ask you if you're Coach Red." Koushi was apparently as sick of this as she was, as he seemed to finally get that she wouldn't be talking anytime soon.

Daichi, on the other hand, appeared confused. "Coach Red?"

Koushi nodded. "The one who taught me how to play volleyball."

"E-eh?!"

He didn't like her at all.

Oh, he'd heard of her alright. Akabane Nozomi, the mean girl that once made his classmate Hisoka cry. He hated bullies with a passion, and apparently so did the rest of the team, if the glares were anything to go by. He could've sworn Tsukishima the Jerk's face lost its smirk, too.

"That's who's replacing you, Sawamura-senpai?!" the team exclaimed.

(Most of them, anyway. Tsukishima just scratched his nose.)

"Yes," Sawamura said sternly. "She will be your coach, and you will either accept that or leave the team."

There was a beat of silence after that, because as much as they hated the idea of being in close quarters with her, they loved volleyball too much to quit it because of her. Still, he slid next to Sawamura-san and whispered, "Ne, senpai, isn't she a criminal, though?"

Irked, Sawamura smacked the back of his head and yelled, voice oddly shrill. "NO!" As if realizing how high his voice suddenly became, he switched back to Captain Mode. "She's not a criminal. She was your classmate and now she's your coach. And as your coach, you can bet that she'll train you to become the best volleyball players Japan has ever seen, so that one day Karasuno will regain its rightful place as champion!"

None of the members looked particularly inspired after their captain's little speech, but a few felt obligated to clap. They stopped after an insulted Sawamura threatened to turn them inside out.

"Now what are your first orders, coach?"

The team waited expectantly. He managed to tone down his glare enough so that the captain wouldn't notice, but he still didn't like the idea of her being able to boss him around, or even seeing her at volleyball practice every day. Still, captain's (well, now ex-captain's) orders. He could only hope she would decide to leave soon or something, because…

"Take off your shirts," she ordered.

Yep, Hinata Shōyō didn't like her at all.

Don't get him wrong, he didn't hate girls.

In fact, he loved girls. Adored them. Not just because he was desperate for a girlfriend, but because his mother made sure to teach him that girls weren't objects, that they were all to be respected, that they were all gifts to mankind…

So maybe Akabane was supposed to be a guy…?

Honestly, he wouldn't have developed such an allergy to her had he not come in contact with her at one point. He's met mean girls before; sometimes the girls were way meaner bullies than the guys. That didn't mean he hated them.

But she took it way too far!

She called Sakura-chan fat! She called Kako-sama stupid! She stole from Ukai-san's store! She's a mean, mean criminal!

Ok, so maybe half of those things he heard from his classmates' friends' cousins' friends' roommates, but didn't she know how extremely rude it is to omit the honorific of a person when speaking to them? She may be taller than him, but he was still her senpai!

And now she had the nerve to order him to—

"Take off your shirts."

Beside him, Tanaka started to complain, his words trailing off pretty quickly when Captain's Death Glare was trained on him. He grungily removed his shirt along with the rest of the team.

Everyone became uncomfortably stiff as Bakabane (he would never say it out loud, Captain would kill him) scrutinized each of their shirtless members individually before writing something down on her clipboard. Her unimpressed stare never changed, nor did she reveal what she was doing, which slightly unnerved him. She was getting closer and still hadn't said a word.

A single sweat drop rolled down the side of his neck. What a creep. She walked up to the next person. I'm next. Although it was Kageyama's turn, he could barely see with his head spinning so fast. What is she doing? The mounting nervousness (which he would later label as hate because he wasn't nervous) threatened to blow as she dipped down her pencil to write whatever she was writing.

And unfortunately, it did.

"What are you even doing, you creep?!"

Shocked silence. It was on everyone's minds for sure, but no one had dared voice it out for fear of being turned inside-out by Captain. The said third-year had opened his mouth—presumably to yell at him—but Bakabane held up her hand, silencing him.

(How could she do that?! First she replaces Captain then she acts like she has the power to—)

Clatter!

He flinched at the sound of her clipboard hitting the floor. He looked up to see empty air and the doors swinging shut, signaling her abrupt exit. Ah, that was his fault, wasn't it? Judging from that growling sound, maybe he should run before Captain…

"NISHINOYA!"

At least it was worth it, he reflected as he ran for his life. I doubt she'll be coming back now.

"Why is Sawamura-senpai mad?" he asked, watching said volleyball captain strangle Nishinoya-senpai.

Suga-senpai laughed lightly, scratching the back of his head. "Daichi-kun's just a bit…offended, for Akabane-san. He's especially sensitive towards the rumors."

He really hadn't formed an opinion on that "Akabane-san", although his teammates apparently did, if their glares were anything to go by. He was new to Karasuno; the most he knew about this school is that it apparently had a very dysfunctional volleyball team. He did wonder what she did, though. The rumors were quite worrying.

"So she didn't steal anything?" he inquired.

"Oh, no."

"And she didn't start a fist fight?"

"Nope."

"She's not a mafia boss?"

"No…?"

He bowed abruptly, nearly headbutting Suga-senpai before sprinting blindly off towards the exit. "Thank you Suga-senpai—!"

He only took two (admittedly large) steps before tripping over something and falling face-first onto the gym floor. Grunting in response to his senpai's calls of concern, he picked up the object he tripped on while rubbing the red mark on his forehead.

Akabane-san's clipboard? He remembered her dropping it before her hasty retreat. But why did no one pick it up…? He glanced towards Nishinoya-senpai, whose face was turning an even deeper shade of purple and threatening to explode. Ah, now I remember.

He scanned her notes, blinking several times in shock. The names of his teammates were written in the top, followed by extremely detailed reports of their strength and weaknesses. He rubbed his eyes before looking again, unwilling to believe that she could've gotten these observations through one look-over alone. The accuracy of the notes was amazing, despite being hard to decipher due to the messiness of her handwriting.

(Suga-senpai has become extremely worried at the sight of his kouhai sitting on the floor in shock after doing a faceplant on the hard floor and continues his worried calls with patient persistence in the background. Said kouhai doesn't notice.)

The first-year realizes that he had been given the chance of a lifetime to be shown his weaknesses and how to improve them. Quickly, he navigated to the bottom of the page and found his name.

Ah! My stats! I wonder what my…Nani?!

Kageyama Tobio rubbed his eyes again, turned the same page several times, then openly despaired at the single incomplete sentence written under his name. She must've been interrupted when Nishinoya-senpai—!

Groaning, he fought the overwhelming urge to curl up into a ball. Why me…?

(In the distance, Suga-senpai's worry tripled at the sight of his kouhai's distressed state, prompting him to ask if he had a headache and to offer the painkillers that he always carried around in his backpack. Said kouhai does have a headache, but his senpai's words go unheard.)

Tobio jumped to his feet with a new reason to live and dashed off even faster than Akabane had. The gust of wind he created saved his senpai's life as Sawamura let go of his neck for a split second before trying to pop it off but he would never know that, as would Sugawara never know what caused his kouhai to go through five intense emotions in the span of three seconds. All he knew was—

I'm gonna find her!

A/N: Here's the update that no one wanted but I posted anyway. If you like it so far, please leave a kudo or something. I'd also love to know your opinions on my story, be it positive or negative.

(Lord knows I need it.)