That night, Nishinoya was lying on his bed, playing with his phone, wondering if he should message Akiyama about what had happened with Tsukishima at practice. Just as he was about to put the phone down, it suddenly went off with a sharp beeping noise that made him drop it on his face.

Nishinoya hissed. "Ouch."

He picked up his phone from his face and raised it so he could see that the message was from no other than Akiyama Naru.

From: Akiyama Naru-san

Subject Line: Practice

Hi Nishinoya-senpai, I'm sorry about what happened at practice today!（/｡＼)
Tsukishima doesn't like me very much, so it's my fault for forcing him to play with me…
But I had fun! Volleyball is different from middle school but that's OK. (／o^)/ °＼(^o＼)

~ Akiyama Naru＼(^＠)ノ

Nishinoya smiles at her message. Of course she was the type of girl to use a bunch of silly emoticons. He especially liked the one of the characters playing volleyball. Still smiling to himself he taps out a message to her.

To: Akiyama Naru-san

Subject Line: Re; Practice

Don't blame yourself, Naru-san! Tsukishima's just a jerk 1000% of the time.
BTW I like your volleyball emoticon! (／o^)/ ＼(^o＼)

~ Nishinoya Yuu

Within a few moments he had a reply.

From: Akiyama Naru-san

Subject Line: Re; Re: Practice

I don't like his attitude much but I don't think he's a super bad guy… (#／。＼#)
I do like that he's honest, even if he's really mean. Don't worry, senpai, we don't talk too much anyways! (ω)
Tadashi is really our only connection. I have to go to the gym now, bye-bye, Nishinoya-senpai!

~ Akiyama Naru＼(^＠)ノ

Nishinoya smiles at her message and puts his phone down next to him on the bed. He wondered what type of relationship she, Yamaguchi, and Tsukishima had together. He also wondered why he'd never seen her in middle school before. Surely he would have noticed someone so tall and clumsy before graduating, unless he had and she just looked totally different now.

With that line of thought, Nishinoya hopped off his bed and began to rummage through his closet for his middle school yearbooks from second and third year. He opened second year first, flipping through the first year students, unable to find her. He put the book down, picking up the next one and looking through the second years, and that's when he found her.

She didn't look like how she did now at all. She had a sour look, many piercings, half a shaved head, bright red hair, and a face like a delinquent. The only thing that was the same were the baby blue glasses she wore. After lingering over the photo for another moment, Nishinoya flipped to the page with club photos. Low and behold, she was there.

The first club photo was the girls' volleyball team, which were only her and three other people who all looked a little frightened of being next to Akiyama. Unlike the rest of the clubs, this one had no action shots. The second photo she was in was the acrobatics club. The other girls, six of them besides Akiyama, all had smiling faces in contrast to the scowl on his kouhai's. Akiyama only had one action shot: she was on the bars. The way the photo was taken, it looked like she was doing a one-handed hand-stand on the bar in a sparkly black and red bodysuit.

As far as Nishinoya knew, Karasuno didn't have an acrobatics club, but they did have a girls' volleyball team. He wondered why she didn't join it. Looking back down at her photo again, he realized he did remember her. She was the girl that his classmates talked about, the one who was intimidating as hell and had rumors swarming around her like moths to a flame. She wasn't as tall as she was now, but she could still tower over Nishinoya.

He'd never met her formally, or even knew her name for that matter, the only thing he knew her by was her nickname: Icy Devil.

The next morning at practice, Nishinoya decided, to get to know Akiyama better, he would ask Yamaguchi about her.

"Yamaguchi!" He calls out.

"Oh, Nishinoya, what is it? Am I serving badly?" The boy frets.

Nishinoya shakes his head. "I want to know why Naru-san doesn't play volleyball anymore." He declares.

"Oh." Yamaguchi says, surprized. "I don't know the details about it because she never told me… but I do know that something happened in her third year." He pauses. "Tsukki might know more about it than me though."

Nishinoya makes a disgruntled face, slouching forwards like an ape. "Like he's gonna tell me."

Yamaguchi laughs awkwardly before running off to continue practicing. Sighing deeply, Nishinoya makes his way over to Tsukishima, who's taking a break by sitting against the wall.

"What is it?" He asks, looking up at Nishinoya.

"Hey, why doesn't Akiyama play volleyball anymore if she's good and she likes it so much?"

Tsukishima makes a pained expression and pushes up his glasses. "Probably because of what happened in the only official game she's ever played. Not that I think it matters as much as it did then, she probably thinks she shouldn't be playing." He shrugs.

"Why, what happened?"

The middle blocker sighs deeply. "She was too aggressive with her serves."

"AH! You mean like that one yesterday?! That was so cool!" Nishinoya enthuses.

"No, she's better at serving than that." He pauses. "Can you go away now?"

Nishinoya steps back and fakes being hurt. "So cold, Tsukishima."

Behind him, Tanaka snickers. "You got scolded."

Nishinoya whips around to face him. "Did not!"

"Oi! Get back to practice, you lot!" Daichi shouts, startling the two boys into scurrying back onto the court.

At lunch that day, Hinata goes (with Kageyama in tow) to visit Akiyama. When she appears at the door in front of him she laughs nervously.

"Ah Kageyama-san and… I'm sorry I don't know your name." She says, sounding ashamed of herself.

"I'm Hinata, Hinata Shouyou!" He declares proudly, puffing out his chest.

When Kageyama hits Hinata over the head for being too boisterous, Akiyama laughs and invites them in to eat lunch with her.

"Hey," Hinata says suddenly. "How come you knew stupid Kageyama's name and not mine?"

"Shut up, dumbass Hinata." Kageyama growls.

Akiyama blushes deeply. "Well, in middle school I always watched Kageyama-san's gane— games. I had a bit of a crush on him for his setting." She admits.

Kageyama's face steams as he stutters to come up with a reply, but Hinata cuts him off. "Ah, Kageyama? Seriously, but he's so lame!"

"Hey! Don't go saying unnecessary things, you bastard."

"Well, I don't think he's lame. What happened in that last game was too bad, those other guys were really mean!" She pouts. "You just wanted to win but they were just jerks, it made me so, so, so mad." Akiyama sighs, as if remembering the day fondly. "They… had to get people to calm me down afterwards… Oh! But I'm glad it made you so much stronger, Kageyama-san, and I'm glad you met such a great spiker like Hinata."

"UWA! She called me great Kageyama!" Hinata enthuses, gripping the setters sleeve and tugging on it. "Naru-san, it sounds like you really enjoy volleyball, why don't you join the girls' team?!"

Akiyama's face falls. "I… don't have a right to play anymore." She says quietly.

Just on cue, the bell rings, forcing the odd-ball duo back to their respective classes. Akiyama watches after them, smiling slightly when Kageyama whacks Hinata over the head, yelling at him about watching his words.