Author's note:
The long awaited Karasuno chapter at last. This will probably take about two chapters. YOU WANTED KARASUNO SO YOU GET KARASUNO!
Karasuno
Tanaka was excited. Why wouldn't he be? It wasn't every day that he got to flirt with lots of attractive college girls. The university that Suga and Daichi had chosen was ginormous, sprawling across acres of land... and according to the flyers, it had a 60 to 40 ratio of women to men- very exciting stuff for the bald, (*ahem* closely shaven) wannabe playboy.
Standing outside the main gym, where the match against Nekoma was progressing, Ennoshita and Tanaka lead the team in warm-up stretches. Or at least, Tanaka was supposed to be leading warm-ups
A couple of female first year students walked past, giggling and pointing.
"Is that a visiting team?" One of the girls- a petite brunette- said.
"I think so. What college are they from?" The other- a tall blonde- replied.
Tanaka had to restrain himself from strutting over and introducing himself. Ennoshita had been lecturing him quite a bit about having "self-control," and being "more respectful" towards women.
So Tanaka limited himself to flexing and winking at the girls whilst oozing confidence and attractiveness.
At least, he hoped he looked he looked confident and attractive. He could have looked perverted and kind of creepy (probably the latter).
Whatever impression he made, it was a lasting one, because the two girls blushed bright red and took off in the opposite direction. Tanaka sighed as the beauties disappeared from sight… only to perk up again as another group of females rounded the corner and walked by the Karasuno team. This time, it was a trio of girls. They were all redheads. Maybe there was some sort of red-headed-girls club at this university.
Tanaka would have to look into that later.
Ennoshita shot him a withering look.
"Did I say that last part out loud?" Tanaka mumbed.
"You didn't have to. Aren't you supposed to be focusing on volleyball?" Ennoshita chastised.
'Oh, right, there's the volleyball tournament going on. I guess that's also exciting.' Tanaka reminded himself as he winked at the three red-headed girls.
...
Ennoshita was anxious. As the new captain of Karasuno volleyball club, he had a lot to live up to. He had not asked to be co-captain, the position had simply found him.
In fact, at the beginning of volleyball season, Ennoshita had practically rejected the offer of captainship. He just wanted to enjoy his final year of playing volleyball. The other members of Karasuno, specifically Nishinoya, Tanaka, and Yachi, wouldn't allow it. They hog-tied him and marched him into coach Ukai's office where they forced him to accept the captainship at knifepoint. Literally. He still had the emotional/physical scarring and bills from the therapist to prove it. Ennoshita was seriously worried about Yachi's skill at threatening people with knives; a girl that small and harmless looking shouldn't know how to wield a pocket knife so dangerously. Beside his worrying over Yachi's possible gang affiliation, the Karasuno captain had quite a bit on his mind. There was no way he could ever replace Daichi as captain, much less surpass him. Daichi, former leader of Karasuno, had been a force of nature, even scarier than Yachi with a knife. Ennoshita did his best, but he wasn't as talented, inspirational, or reassuring as Daichi. He was just plain old Ennoshita.
Then there was the matter of the new Karasuno first years. Several new athletes had joined the Karasuno boys volleyball club, and a couple of the younger athletes showed promise, according to coach Ukai. Except these same first years were looking to Ennoshita for guidance and leadership. It wasn't a surprise, really. Karasuno's "miraculous" comeback the year prior had attracted quite a few new recruits who were in awe of the original Karasuno team members. Unfortunately, most of these new recruits were also impressionable first-years that were currently being corrupted by Tanaka.
Which lead to problem number three: Tanaka. Ennoshita wasn't sure how or why, but somehow, he was sharing the captainship with that psychopathic bald boy. So far, the work was a little unevenly split… The ratio of captain-related work performed was about 20% Tanaka to 80% Ennoshita. Even someone with Kageyama's math skills could figure out it wasn't even.
The aforementioned bald bad-boy was attempting to wolf-whistle at a couple of red-headed female college students.
Ennoshita told him to stop.
Tanaka promptly ignored his co-captain He then tried to approach the girls with a wolfish grin on his face (although knowing Tanaka, he probably thought it was an attractive grin).
With impressive volleyball reflexes, Ennoshita lunged across the room to restrain the bald athlete.
Sadly, this was rapidly becoming a common situation for Ennoshita.
"Aww come on, Ennoshita, just let me have a little fun!" He shouted, trying to dodge.
However, Tanaka could not avoid Chikara Ennoshita, co-captain of Karasuno, and protector of women's black haired co-captain quickly dragged Tanaka away from the girls, pinning his arms to his sides.
"Please excuse Tanaka-kun!" Ennoshita shouted at the now disturbed looking college students. He forced Tanaka, who was still protesting, into a bow.
Yes, there were many, many reasons for Ennoshita to be nervous about today's match, and most of them did not have much to do with volleyball.
...
Nishinoya was pumped. This was a bit of a broad statement. Many, many things got Nishinoya worked up very, very easily. Playing volleyball. Hanging out with Tanaka. Being called "Karasuno's Guardian Deity." Eating Gari-Gari Kun. Playing Volleyball.
Did he say playing volleyball?
However, there was one thing that got Nishinoya even more excited than playing volleyball, and that as coming up with names for his volleyball moves!
To the spiky haired Libero, there was nothing so truly liberating as exercising his creative freedom in the naming of his "signature moves!"
'Honestly, with my creative imagination, it's a wonder that I have to retake my literature and writing class this year.' He thought to himself. The teachers simply refused to accept his literary genius.
As Nishinoya prepared himself for the rapidly approaching volleyball match, he decided to list all of his signature moves in his head one more time.
There was the infamous "ROLLING THUNDER ™ " of course, but he had expanded his arsenal quite a bit since last year.
Now he had a whole plethora of special moves, including: STRIKING LIGHTING! ROARING TSUNAMI! RAIN OF ACID! FIRE-DRAGON ROAR! AVATAR STATE! GEAR SECOND! SPIRIT BOMB! UNITED STATES OF SMASH! And of course, he couldn't forget his... FALCON PUNCH!
Granted, Nishinoya didn't come up with all of those by himself, but no matter his source of inspiration, his naming genius was legendary!
Yet for some reason, his literature and writing teachers kept failing him over some minor grammatical mistake called "plagiarism." Apparently he was supposed to "cite" his "sources" and not "steal" people's "copyrighted" material or something like that.
That didn't stop Nishinoya.
He might have take an extra year of highschool.
That also didn't stop Nishinoya.
After all, It's hard to give proper credit to the original author when you're running across the court to save a stray ball with a flying bicycle kick, all the whilst screaming "SUPER SAIYAN FORM!"
And an extra year of highschool meant an extra year of playing volleyball, right?
...
Tsukishima was excited- probably as excited as Tanaka- but in a different way (and for different reasons). For one thing, Tsukki refused to show any physical signs of his excitement, remaining as cool as a cucumber. While he was thrilled that he was going to get to play volleyball with Suga and Daichi again, he would never admit it in a million years.
Tsukishima had a serious reputation to keep up.
His height, general aloofness, and habit of answering every question with "tch" had garnered him a rep as the "super-edgy-really-cool-totally-hardcore-second-year," especially among the new first-years. It was a reputation he was quite fond of (but he wouldn't admit that either).
So instead of gawking at girls or running around in elation and naming "signature moves", Tsukki was playing it cool.
Meanwhile, Yamaguchi was talking about how exhilarated he was to see his former teammates.
"Do you think they are really good now that they are in college?!" Yamaguchi wondered out loud.
Tsukishima didn't deign to answer, choosing instead to bask in his own coolness as he continued to stretch his calf muscles.
"You know, it wouldn't hurt to go say hi to them! We haven't seen them in a while." Yamaguchi suggested.
Face set in his typical deadpan expression, Tsukki fought back any emotion at the thought of seeing Daichi and Suga again.
'It's not like I miss them or anything.' He thought to himself, grunting a "Tch," for good measure.
"Wow Tsukki! You Tch'ed! You must be really excited to see Suga and Dachi!"
Yamaguchi gushed, like the fountain of happiness and sweetness and cinnamon rolls that he was.*
"Yams" (as he had been dubbed by the new first-years) had opened up quite a bit since starting his second year of high school volleyball. One of the reasons for his openness was that the underclassmen looked up to the freckle-faced athlete. Something about his gentle personality seemed to attract younger kids like bread crumbs attracts baby-crow children. Like baby-crows, the new first years flocked to Yamaguchi, constantly.
Tsukishima felt his cool facade give way to a grimace as he thought about the annoying first-years who were constantly following Yams about. It was acceptable for them to bask in Tsukishima's coolness, but following Tsukki's best friend around was a different matter completely.
"You alright, Tsukki?" Yams asked suddenly, as if sensing his friend's anger.
Quickly schooling his features, Tsukishima nodded almost imperceptibly, reminding himself that Yamaguchi could hang out with whoever he wanted. Tsukki was 100% fine with this. It was good for Yamaguchi to make friends-
"Hey Yams-Senpai! Do you want to stretch with us?!" One of the Karasuno first-years called, jogging up to the pair of second-years.
The well-meaning first year probably would have said more, but he was immediately stopped by a death glare from Tsukishima.
'Touch my Yamaguchi,' it said, 'And you will feel my rage.'
The first year gulped.
"Oh, Tsukishima-Senpai, I didn't see you there."
"Tch." Tsukki responded, intensifying the death glare. 'My rage will be mighty. Mightier than the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs'
The first year backed up nervously,
"Welp, I uh, gotta-go-bye!"
The first year disappeared from sight faster than you could say "extinction level event."
"Aww!" Yamaguchi teased. "You do care!"
"Tch."
...
Kageyama was happy. That was pretty much it. He was happy to see his ex-captains again, maybe show them a new move he had worked on. He spent the entire warm-up very seriously, focusing intently on... well, warming-up. #ballislife.
...
Hinata was feeling all of the aforementioned emotions.; nervousness, excitement, happiness, anticipation and more were all overpowering his emotions, making him feel like a balloon about to burst. This was in a very real literal and figurative sense. The smol sunshine child was standing inside a bathroom, feeling as if his lunch was about to burst out of his stomach.
After watching Oikawa being threatened by his ex-teammates (turnip-kun and maddog), Hinata's nerves had started to act up. Even after a year of playing volleyball for Karasuno, Hinata still had stomach troubles before a majority of the matches. This time, when seeking out a restroom, he had wisely avoided any bathrooms that were occupied by Oikawa, Maddog or Turnip-kun, and was slumped against the wall of an empty bathroom.
"Still having stomach troubles, Hinata-kun?" A familiar deep voice called.
At first Hinata was afraid Turnip head (or someone of equal scariness) had confronted him again. It always seemed to be near public bathrooms that he ran into his worst enemies. However, when he turned to see who it was, he was met with a much less terrifying sight than an angry turnip.
"Oh, Dachi-Senpai!" Hinata stuttered nervously at the sight of his former captain. "Aren't you supposed to be playing?"
"The match just ended." Dachi admitted, walking to the drinking fountain to fill up his water bottle.
"Oh." Hinata blanched at the thought of taking the court in his current condition.
He remembered all too well what a disaster his very first high school volleyball game had been thanks to his terrible nerves.
"You still get this nervous before all games? What's the matter?" Daichi asked, not unkindly.
Hinata, although he was rather pale from queasiness at this point, still managed to blush bright red.
"Uh, nothing! I mean, I shouldn't bother you with it. You have to get ready and-"
"Hinata." Daichi cut him off with a playful slap on the back. "It's alright if you're nervous. Just tell me."
"Uh, Ok." Hinata gazed into Dad-chi's- er, Daichi's comforting (if not slightly intimidating) gaze and gave in. "Well, I'm nervous 'cause we're playing a real college team." He started slowly.
Dad-chi just nodded in acceptance (Hinata was not even going to pretend otherwise… Daichi was forever Dad-chi at this point).
Hinata continued, picking up steam. "But I'm happy that I get to see you and Suga again! Although I'm kinda nervous to see you guys again too 'cause I don't want a mess up! It's like all my emotions are going vrooooom and then pow! And sometimes they even whooshh!"
Now Dad-chi looked confused.
Hinata stopped mid "whoosh" when he realized he had lost Dad-chi. However, the ex-captain in question simply smiled reassuringly, like only a father could, and advised the queasy crow child.
"Just focus on the game. Don't worry about disappointing us, messing up, or playing an older team. Just play volleyball like you always do. Think of this as just another practice match."
Hinata brightened considerably.
"I can do that! I feel way better now- thanks, Dad!"
With those parting words, the red-headed athlete rushed from the bathroom with a smile on his face, feeling much more confident about the upcoming match.
He left in his wake a very confused Dad-chi, who was torn between feeling proud and feeling disturbed.
…
"Dad?"
Author's note: Hello!
I AM ON TIME! HA!
Thank you so much for all your lovely reviews, they make my day. I also noticed that a few people were anxious to see Karasuno, so I am doing two chapters for Karasuno.
As you can see, I included lots of POV's from the present Karasuno team!
So far, Nishinoya is the most fun to write. He's just weird and random, kind of like I am.
Although I took a personality quiz and got Tsukishima as my character… hm…
*adjusts glasses* Tch. *smirks*
Maybe I'm a mix of Nishinoya and Tsukishima. Never mind, that's a scary thought. I'm gonna go bleach my brain now.
Drop a review if you got any of Nishinoya's references to other animes.
NOBODY CAN STOP ME FROM MAKING ANIME REFERENCES!
BWAHAHAHAHA!
Next chapter, we will get back to the All-Stars!