Chapter 4 – Part of the Team
The volleyball game between Karasuno and the Neighborhood Volleyball Association was unlike anything I had ever seen before. The two first years pulled off an exceptional quick that I would not have thought was possible until today. The setter – I observed – was the main key for the quick, and I couldn't help but feel as though some of his techniques seemed familiar. Asahi had regained his confidence in spiking after the game, and had rekindled his relationship with Noya.
Speaking of Noya, once the game had ended, he had returned back to his normal, lively self and began to skip over to where I was sitting.
"Yuna-chan~!" He sang in a loud voice. "How was the game?"
I grinned and gave him a thumbs up, "You looked cool, Noya-kun."
"Heh, of course I was. Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone." He grabbed my hand and brought me over to where most of the team was resting and stretching after the game.
Everyone looked up when we approached and I slightly hid behind Noya, feeling timid under their strong gazes.
"Guys, this is my best friend Yuna-chan! She's going to be our manager!" He stopped and looked around, smiling when he found the person he was looking for, a beautiful girl with glasses who stood a bit away from the group. "Of course, she's not replacing our amazing Kiyoko-san, but I though it would be nice to have TWO managers!" He held out two fingers in a V-shape.
"Noya-san, you're a genius! Now our team is going to be TOP CLASS!" A member of the team with a shaved head shouted enthusiastically with tears streaming down his cheeks. I hid more behind Noya, intimidated by his intensity.
"Tanaka! Stop scaring her and settle down!" Another member of the club stood up and walked over to Noya and I, holding out his hand for a handshake. He gave me a friendly smile, "Nice to meet you, my name is Sawamura Daichi. I'm the Captain of the club."
I stepped forward, shaking his hand firmly. "Nice to meet you too. You can call me Yuna."
"Hey Yuna-san! So did you play volleyball at Chidoriyama with Noya-san?" I located the source of the voice to be from the orange-haired first year who had done those incredible quicks earlier.
"Ah, I did play volleyball, but not at Chidoriyama…" I said, my words trailing off at the end.
"What school did you use to go to then?"
"I, uh – " Everyone leaned forward to hear my answer. "I went to Kitagawa Daiichi." I said quickly.
The orange-haired first year gasped loudly. "You went to school with Kageyama?! Hey Kageyama, do you know each other?" He asked loudly, elbowing his fellow first year.
"Hah? Do you know how many people there are in a school? How am I supposed to know everyone in it, you idiot?" The setter retorted. I noticed him giving me a funny look after though.
So the talented setter went to Kitagawa Daiichi too, I thought. My eyes widened, Could he have been –
"So you must be really good at volleyball, right? I mean, I don't know much about the girls' volleyball team but they were probably still amazing." The first-year – or Hinata – as I had learned, bombarded me with more questions.
"Okay, Shoyo, I think that's enough questions for today," Noya cut him off. "You guys can all get to know Yuna-chan more later."
I gave everyone a wave and the rest of the team dispersed to continue packing up their stuff to go home. The Captain, the girl whom Noya called Kiyoko-san, and another member who introduced himself as Sugawara (the Vice Captain) stayed behind to talk to me.
"It'll be nice to have another manager…we're about to have our volleyball training camp in a few days and I think Kiyoko-san might need some help." The grey-haired setter gave me a friendly grin.
Kiyoko looked pleased at having some of her burdens lifted and brought me to the side so we could talk about some stuff regarding the team. Noya couldn't look happier at the idea of me and the girl he admired so much getting along together.
"So the training camp lasts 5 days, and on the last day, we're going to have a match against our longtime rival, Nekoma," she said calmly, reading off a sheet of paper.
My head snapped up at the mention of the school we would be facing. "Nekoma?"
"Yes, is something wrong?" Kiyoko-san looked at me curiously.
"No, no, it's fine." I shook my head and gestured for her to continue.
She continued on with the list of things that we would have to do, such as making charts and lists for the each of the member's stats in order to monitor their progress. We exchanged numbers and I began to look for Noya so that we could go home.
"Yuna-san?" Came her quiet voice.
"Hm?" I looked back at her.
She was looking down at the ground, but lifted her eyes up so that they met mine. "I'm glad that you're here now. It's better when there's another girl here to talk to."
Beaming at her and taking a hold of her hand, I said, "I'm glad I came too."
First Day of Training Camp
The first day of the Volleyball Team's training camp began after school a few days later. The new coach – Ukai – was just as intimidating as his appearance when he went into his "coaching mode". The team participated in a round of receiving drills, followed by spiking drills and so on. Kiyoko-san helped by handing Coach Ukai volleyballs while I observed and recorded the progress of each of the members.
Kiyoko-san and I headed to the Lodge Building at around 4:30 so that we could start preparing dinner for the guys since they would be living here for the next few days. The guys finished practice at 6 and came in to eat dinner, causing a ruckus as they arrived.
I rolled my eyes at Noya and Tanaka as they pretended to be dying when they heard that Kiyoko-san wouldn't be staying here with them since her house was nearby. She had invited to me to stay at her house for the duration of the training camp while we were making dinner and I had gladly accepted, seeing as I would definitely not enjoy being here alone with a bunch of high-school boys.
After the filling meal, Kiyoko-san and I helped Takeda Sensei clean up while the boys went to settled into their rooms and shower.
"Be safe getting home," Noya reminded me as I gave him a good-bye hug.
"Don't cause too much trouble," I said back to him and Tanaka, who was standing beside him. "See you guys tomorrow!"
They both waved back at me before proceeding to squeal at Kiyoko-san's soft "See you."
Third Person POV
As Kageyama laid on top of his sleeping bag, absent mindedly tossing a volleyball up in the air over and over again, he thought about the girl who had been introduced as Karasuno's new manager.
She looked so familiar, he thought. He caught the volleyball back in his hands, setting it down and sitting up. I must have just seen her at school or something…she did say she went to my old school.
His thoughts were interrupted as Hinata burst into the room, cackling over something about Noya's hair and his height.
Shaking his head, Kageyama decided to stop thinking so hard about who the girl was since it would probably come back to him later. After yelling at Hinata to be quiet, he put the covers over himself and went to sleep.
Yuna's POV
Over the next few days, Coach Ukai ran through the same drills and began sending the boys out to run in order to train their stamina. Kiyoko-san and I continued our jobs with marking down the progress of each of the members, preparing meals, and helping set up the court whenever we could.
There was one day, however, when Hinata came skipping in after a run, yelling excitedly about how he met another volleyball player when he had strayed from the group. After being scolded by Daichi for running head and leaving the rest of his team, Hinata pouted and simmered down.
Coach Ukai had moved on to the next training exercise of the day: blocking. He had grouped the guys into team of 3 and had them all stand on one side of the net. Pausing, he contemplated on what to do next. "I can set the ball, but I need someone to spike it so they can practice blocking," he said out loud.
Noya, who wasn't participating in this drill since he was a Libero, shouted from where he was practicing some dives. "Yuna-chan can help you spike!"
That caught me off guard, and suddenly I had about 15 sets looking at me where I was sitting on the bench looking over some papers. "No, no, I haven't played in a very long time, I – " I waved my hands and shook my head.
"I know you can do it, Yuna-chan, you're not fooling me," came the Libero's reply.
I shot him a death glare and let out a sigh, "Well, yeah I guess I can try," I quickly set everything down and walked over to the net.
Coach Ukai gestured for me to stand beside him, "Well if Noya seems to acknowledge your abilities, I'm sure it's fine. All you need to do is spike, the main purpose of this exercise is to practice their blocks so it doesn't matter if it's good or bad."
"You can do it Yuna-san!" Hinata cheered. His blocking team, made up of Tsukishima and Kageyama, were up first.
I gave him a smile as I took my place. Kiyoko-san held a ball in her hands, ready to throw it to Coach Ukai, who would then set it for me to spike. Don't be scared, you've done this a lot of times before, I reminded myself. I really didn't want to mess up their practice.
As I saw the toss go up in that perfect arch that I had seen so many times before, my body seemed to move automatically to the spot on the court where I needed to jump up. Pulling my elbow back, I picked a spot to aim my spike and whipped my arm forward and hit the ball. The satisfying feeling of the ball hitting the palm of my hand followed by the booming sound of the it smacking into the ground gave me a sense of relief that I had successfully spiked the ball.
Landing back on the ground, I looked up at the three first years who were staring at me in shock. Hinata had his mouth wide open, "WHOA! That was AWESOME!"
"As expected of someone who went to Kitagawa Daichii!" Tanaka whispered, in awe.
Kageyama and Tsukishima looked appalled at how they didn't even get a one-touch in. The rest of the team were just gawking at me. I let out a meek smile, "Sorry, should I have aimed more for the block?"
"No, that was very unexpected, but this is why we're doing this, to improve our team's blocking skills and to train them to adjust to new environments." Coach Ukai said. "But try to go a bit easier next time, since they still suck," he added, lowering his voice.
I grinned at his comment and turned to look at Noya, who gave me a thumbs-up.
"Okay, next team! We're doing this until each team can block at least one spike!" Coach Ukai called out.
I went back to my starting position, feeling less nervous this time.
At the end of the training camp, the day finally came when we had to have our match against Nekoma. After gathering our stuff, the team took the bus to a local gym where we would be meeting them for the game.
When we arrived, the guys got off the bus first to meet the other team, while Kiyoko-san and I helped Takeda Sensei unload the bus. As I walked towards the entrance of the building to where our team was gathering, I saw a very familiar bedhead that I knew couldn't belong to anyone else but him. Grinning, I started sprinting towards the figure and jumped up at the last second, landing on his back and latching on like a koala.
"Tetsuro Onii-chan!"
Author's Note:
Finally, her brother is revealed! Although, I think it was pretty obvious already haha. I'm excited to write more chapter in the future!
Love all of you who followed/favourited/reviewed!