The very next day we met with the Nekoma team and I exchanged a smirk with Kuroo, looks like the guy did remember me. He better, he was on the list of my possible boyfriends, or at the very least brofriend.

You will be mine cat man, just wait.

Daichi-san and Kuroo did their typical handshake, keeping a nice, friendly smile whilst simultaneously letting out massive waves of killing intent. Ukai-san and the assistant coach from the opposing school did the same except they did nothing to hide the fact that they didn't like each other.

I snickered behind my hand, so amusing~

How I would love to simply play with them.

I remembered Nekoma very well from the show, but most of all I remembered Kenma and his genius.

I wanted to go against that and see how I would fare, our strategies were vastly different after all. Or were they?

Kenma and I both first watched from a distance before taking action and making conclusions.

But that was were we ended our similarities. Kenma didn't have the natural gift I had, I was able to observe and read others. It was an easy feat for me. I suspected that Kenma needed more time to think of actions than I did. I simply did them and instructed the team accordingly. If I could just get a read on the team relatively quickly then we would be set for the game.

The only set I was really worried about was the first one. I needed the proper time in order to figure everyone out.

It was a manner of hoping that Karasuno would be able to hold them back for long enough.

With several strategies already forming in my head we all walked into the gymnasium.

"Let's play." The two captains, all too cheerily, said. Eyes closed in fake-friendliness.

I got the shivers from that expression every time Daichi-san made that face.

We won the coin toss and Tsukishima was to serve first, best to have our weakest defense rotation on first when dealing with an unknown team like this one.

They weren't unknown to me but that wasn't the point.

The ball cleanly went over the net and was received in the same way, sent up to the setter and smashed down by Taketora who probably expected them to have an easy point.

Taketora, meet Nishinoya.

Noya-san easily picked it up, sending a smirk to the seething tiger, and Kageyama set it-

I had forgotten about the super quick.

Shame on me.

But alas, we got the point. And also a very pleasantly surprised reaction from the cats.

How I loved the wide-eyed, open-mouthed look. It really suited them.

I was briefly confused as to why they suddenly glared at me but from my snickering teammates I realised I said that out loud.

Whoops.

I gave them an apologetic smile which definitely didn't convince the captain cat. Although for some reason, he seemed to be even more interested in me.

Was that a good thing? Probably not but meh.

Anyway!

Tsukishima served again, this time aiming for a more empty part of the court. Nekoma wasn't to be underestimated as Yaku picked it up with ease.

The ball was set up nice and high for their ace- can't remember his name- to spike down and score.

This event of give and take continued for the rest of the set, yet every time the idiot combo scored they got less and less surprised. From the look on Kenma's face I knew he had figured it out, he'd inform them when the set was over.

That meant I had to get in action as well or we'd lose the match. Which I did kind of expect to happen anyway but it would be nice to at least win one set.

Kuroo scored the last point for Nekoma to win the set and he sent me a mocking smile. I turned away from him. He'd learn soon enough not to underestimate us.

"Matsuo, I'm sending you in, in place of Tanaka." Ukai-san told me, I vaguely registered Tanaka-senpai complaining about that but ignored it. "So don't hold anything back."

"Yes sir." I nodded and turned to the others.

I took a deep breath. "To put it bluntly, Nekoma has figured out how our super quick works."

Gasps of surprise came from the others. "How?" Suga-san questioned.

"They've got a very observant setter, but that's not the point. Most likely they will try to put one of their middle blockers to guard Shoyo all the time. Kageyama, you'll have to send the ball to the rest of us in order to avoid getting blocked. Asahi-san, the other blockers tend to keep their arms slightly to the right, hit right into it and we'll have a block out. Hitting it past them will be difficult but try your best."

I took another breath, I should really start breathing when I speak.

"Noya-san, the spikers like to hit away from us more than others I have seen so far, or they hit it straight at your face. Both are annoying but I'm sure you can manage it."

"Yeah! Leave it to me!"

"Speaking of the spikers, they like to hit high so in that aspect it would be easiest to have Tsukishima handle it. However that mohawk guy hits hard, probably because he's annoyed that Noya-san keeps picking up his spikes, Just get in front of him and you've got yourself a successful block." I finished explaining.

It was silent.

"Matsuo you're scary." They all chorused.

"Huh, what why?"

"Just how the hell do you see those things? It's not human." Tanaka-san spluttered.

"What about the setter?" Kageyama asked.

"I'll keep a look on him, he's intelligent and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one here that can really match up to him, aside from maybe Suga-san."

Plus this made me able to really understand the way Kenma thought.

I looked at him, he looked right back.

This was going to be so much fun.

This time Nekoma got the first serve, it was cleanly received by Daichi-san. Passing it to Kageyama wasn't a problem.

He probably didn't expect me to actually be right, although it would be understandable to first try a technique out before stopping it.

Just as I had suspected, Inuoka was right there to block Shoyo, successfully too. Fortunately this time I saw it coming and received it.

Hello surprised dog-cat, I'm here to ruin your spikes.

Kageyama set it up again, this time to Asahi-san who spiked it into the ground.

I got to serve.

I remembered exactly how merciless Oikawa-san was when teaching me how to do the jump-serve.

"If you can't get this one over you owe me ice-cream!"

"And if I do get it over?

"...Then I'll treat you to ice-cream?"

He really knew how to motivate me.

The ball spun with just the right frequency for me to smash it right on the ground. Service ace motherfuckers.

The stunned expressions seemed to be common amongst the Nekoma team today. Didn't expect someone of my size to serve like that now did you?

"Nice serve!" Shoyo yelled in support.

So I served again, this time they expected it though and it was received.

It was set up to the ace who spiked it, luckily Shoyo was there to block.

"One touch!"

"Got it!" I received the ball sending it up to Kageyama who let Daichi-san do the job.

The match itself definitely became more even, in my eyes at least.

As it was, Kuroo was still the most annoying middle blocker I had ever had the pleasure of going against. Good for me that I knew exactly how he worked.

I was just about to spike the ball, the score being 24-22 in Karasuno's favor. If I hit this we would take the set.

Only one person was in front of me to block, Kuroo himself, the rest had fallen for our favorite decoy Shoyo.

I looked at the right side of the field, seeing that there was a wide open spot there.

Kuroo saw it too and moved his arms to block the right, a victorious smirk on his face.

I smirked and hit the ball, straight to the left.

Middle blockers, especially ones as experienced as Kuroo, followed the eyes of spikers, knowing that they would be aiming in that general direction. I knew that too and used it to my advantage, granted, spiking without seeing where you're hitting the ball was still a very dangerous thing to do but I had faith in my technique.

The ball hit the ground, earning the second set as a victory for Karasuno.