Oh my god, chapter fifty! Thank you so much to hannymae, Kimiko, Sayori142, Padgent, Averi-Nova, Shadow Wolf 15846, Anne Nonimus, luvielle, LouTheStarSpeaker, imaginesakura, Yamamoto, Elsa, Swaggishima, TF Volt, bellamario, Tribble. Chan, Soppl, XxTheDarknessOfMySoulxX, autumnseoul, Yuuko Aosagibi, PrettyInPlaid, angeldevil728, hellomikaaa, allyssgolfo, kellycorbeilbedard16, Itachi'sLover420, Kimamber, first9, CelestialAlchemist95, ChiiRulesTheWorld, Sylvr Tyz, Boooop, anndriiea, ochadesu, 1fic4life, kathipitz, AbbyIA, BabbyDoll-of-Fandom, GlaresThatKill, astorgaming, xninjax3, Vinladlee, silent-raven98, Shirakuen, marie420, Corgicorn, baeechan, Tragedy's at Hand, and SparkleHax for all of your kindness and support!
"Hey, Mikaela?"
"Hm?"
"If you stay up past 10 pm, I will personally haunt your nightmares."
Mikaela frowned and glanced up from her laptop, putting a pause on the Nekoma game that had just occurred that day. "That's how low we've stooped now?" she asked, her lips twitching into a smirk. "We're doing threats that mean nothing?"
Daichi sighed, crossing his arms. "Mikaela, it's almost nine. We've got two games tomorrow instead of one, and we need you well rested."
She grinned. "Already planning on that second game, aren't you, Captain?"
"Well, maybe that's a bit presumptuous of me, but-"
"Worry not, I've planned it out too!" Mikaela spun her laptop around and pulled up a different tab she'd been working on. In it was a spreadsheet titled 'Kamomedai' with several players listed in the margins and various columns following. "I have total faith that it'll be Kamomedai we face after Nekoma, and they're going to be like Date Tech on steroids." She pulled up a separate tab, where she'd been halfway through watching the Kamomedai match from that same day. "This one's a good match. Besides, Hoshiumi's going to be-"
"Wait, you have a spreadsheet?"
Mikaela nodded, turning back to the first tab. "Yeah. I was flying through notebooks and it was getting excessive. All this digital stuff is so cool, hm?"
"Who showed you this?"
"Yachi."
Daichi shook his head and muttered something under his breath that Mikaela couldn't catch. He leaned closer to the screen. "Well, that's not that bad. I thought you'd have more."
"Oh, that's because you didn't scroll."
"How much more can you possibly- oh dear lord."
Mikaela swiped through, and swiped through, and swiped through, and kept going for a seemingly impossible amount of time until she hit the most recent column. "Honestly, they're all a bunch of conservative little shits- all have their social media on private- so I'm debating which one has the easiest password to crack. If I can get into one, then I can see all of them on social media. The only problem is various platforms, unless I can find some dumbass who uses the same password for anything-"
"You've hacked into their accounts?" Daichi nearly shouted, eyes wide in disbelief.
She shrugged. "Not yet I haven't."
"Holy... Mikaela, no."
Mikaela rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine. Not worth much anyways."
"You are..."
"A genius?"
"A problem child."
"Close enough."
"Look, seriously though." Daichi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You've got more than enough. That's plenty of information for all the teams out here."
Her eyes widened. "Wait, you thought that was for all the teams? That was just Kamomedai."
His jaw dropped. "All of that was just for Kamomedai?"
"Yep! Minus their social media information. Can't get a hold of that without digging into their accounts, and you've already glared at me enough for that. Here's the other folders." Mikaela went to the home page for the spreadsheet website, and Daichi's eyes bugged out of his head when he saw how many folders she had. They were organized alphabetically by school name, and it had every single school in the tournament. Some had large red crosses in front of their names- the ones who were already eliminated from the tournament. Daichi spotted Tsubakihara Academy and Inarizaki among them. His eyes narrowed in on one folder titled Niiyama.
The Karasuno captain pointed at the Niiyama folder. "Niiyama doesn't have a guys' team in the tournament."
Mikaela stiffened and clicked on the Nekoma folder, located just above the Niiyama one. "It's the girls' team," she said shortly, scrolling through Nekoma's profile. "Nekoma's kinda boring, honestly. Not too much information. But I'm friends with a couple of them on social media, so some of that was easy enough to find out."
Daichi let the topic drop and narrowed his eyes at the row labeled 'Kuroo'. "You seem to know an awful lot about Kuroo's past relationships."
"I'm pretty good friends with his grandpa."
"...I'm not even going to ask."
"Mikaela." The manager and captain looked up from her laptop screen to see Tsukishima hovering beside them, his hair damp and his hands jammed in his pockets. It looked like he'd just finished bathing. God, Mikaela, don't even think about that. Tsukishima nodded to Daichi. "Captain. Can I borrow Mikaela for a second?"
"Of course," Daichi agreed, straightening up. He shot one last glare at Mikaela. "In bed by ten. I mean it. Also!" He crossed his arms and glared at the two of them, and Mikaela knew this was about her and Tsukishima's new relationship- or whatever this was. "You two lost me a thousand yen," Daichi said with a sigh. "You couldn't have waited another week?"
"Blame her, not me," Tsukishima said immediately.
She scowled and kicked him. "Asshole."
"Just..." he shrugged, obviously tired from the game that day. "Mikaela, go to bed at some point."
"Yes, Captain," she replied. Daichi sighed, probably debating whether or not she was actually going to listen to him, and left for the boys' room, shaking his head. Mikaela smirked to herself and turned to Tsukishima. "What's up? How were the baths?"
"Fine," he said with a sigh, sitting himself down next to her on the couch. Mikaela raised an eyebrow at him, closing her laptop. He looked like he had something he wanted to say, so she waited, pinching her lips together to keep from talking. He frowned at her, then sighed. "It's the shrimp."
"Hinata? What about him?"
"He's wired," Tsukishima muttered, shaking his head. "It's annoying as hell."
She laughed. "Still?"
He glanced at her, and Mikaela saw how serious he was. "Still." He groaned, leaning back into the couch, and Mikaela resisted the urge to lean on his shoulder and cuddle into his side. "It's not normal."
That's what people keep saying, but... he's serious. Mikaela straightened up, leaning towards him. "He normally crashes right about now. You're saying he's still as much in an adrenaline high as he was earlier?" Tsukishima nodded. "Alright, I'll check up on him."
"You do that," he grumbled. "I, for one, am dead exhausted."
"Aw, Tsukishima," Mikaela teased, punching him lightly in the shoulder, "you do care."
He scowled. "I do not."
"You do!"
"I just don't want him keeping me awake all night with his ridiculous energy."
"Just admit it, you care about his well-being, but you personally don't want to do anything about it," Mikaela explained with a grin, "which is why you came to me."
Tsukishima rolled his eyes. "Absolutely not, Mik. I don't care about that tangerine monster."
Mikaela's tongue dried in her throat and she felt her cheeks colour. He'd only used that nickname once before and it had made her heart stampede in her chest. "Mik?" she said carefully, trying to prevent the smile that was splitting across her face. "That's the second time you've called me that."
"Oh? You don't like it?"
"No! No, I like it."
"Okay."
"But- But I don't have a nickname for you," Mikaela forced out, her face flushed. "I don't really want to call you Tsukki, that's Yamaguchi's nickname for you. I don't know how else to shorten your name, so-"
"Just call me Kei," he replied.
Her eyes widened. "I can call you Kei?"
Tsukishima shrugged, his cheeks tinging red. "I don't care. But sure."
Mikaela was about to reply, her heart beating annoyingly fast in her chest, when there was a loud sigh from across the room. They both looked up to see Sugawara smiling happily to himself. "You two are adorable," Suga said, smiling innocently. "And thank you very much for winning me the bet."
"No problem?"
"Also, Mikaela, do you know when your interview's supposed to be on?"
She shrugged. "I half hope it doesn't make it to television. Hey, Tanaka!" Tanaka and Nishinoya, who had been posted in front of the television with the volleyball news channel on since they'd returned from the game, both looked up. "Has my interview come up yet?"
"They're showing player interviews with Machino now," Tanaka replied, "but so far, it's only captains from some of the teams."
Mikaela straightened up. "Have they shown the Inarizaki captain yet?"
Nishinoya nodded. "Yeah, he's on right now. They're doing the before game stuff."
"I should be on soon then," Mikaela replied, hopping up from the couch and over to the television. "But I wouldn't be surprised if she cut out my interview."
Tsukishima wandered on after her, his eyes fixed on the screen. "You're the biggest celebrity at these games, Mikaela. There's no way they're not going to show your interview."
"No, there was a problem with mine. Miya Atsumu crashed it."
"What?!"
It didn't take long after that proclamation for the rest of the team to gather in front of the television, eagerly watching Machino interview Kita. Mikaela sighed and silently prayed that they wouldn't show the interview, but like Tsukishima said, she was gaining more and more popularity across the internet, and Atsumu's interview crash would only make the video more popular.
"She's done with the Inarizaki captain!" Sugawara called out as an update, and everyone turned to the screen.
Machino was seated behind a desk, with a television set up behind her. On the television screen was the final screen cap of her interview with Kita. "Although it was a loss for Inarizaki today, in one of the biggest upsets in recent history," Machino said, her hands folded and resting on the desk in front of her, "it was still a fantastic game, one of the most entertaining games that we've seen so far. Karasuno managed to pull away with the win, and I was lucky enough to have a few words with Karasuno's manager before the game."
"Here we go," Mikaela grumbled under her breath.
Machino smiled at the camera. "Now, I normally don't interview the managers of these teams, but this isn't just your ordinary manager. Mikaela Kaisha is not only the manager for the Karasuno boys' team, but she's also an internet sensation. Let's have a look at what she- and Miya Atsumu, the star setter of Inarizaki and the other person rising to fame after a certain video leak- have to say about the match and the video itself."
"Miya crashed your interview?" Tanaka asked loudly. "Wow."
"She invited him over," Mikaela clarified with a sigh, shifting nervously in her spot as the screen changed from Machino's desk to Machino and Mikaela in front of the stadium. "Oh my god."
"It's Mikaela!" Nishinoya shouted out, excited. Suga shushed him quickly.
Mikaela could quickly see that some parts had been edited out. For example, the starting introduction part where she'd introduced them. It cut straight to Machino's first question to her and some of the tension eased out of Mikaela's shoulders. Thankfully, she didn't look overly tense in the interview. Actually, she seemed pretty relaxed.
The interview went relatively smoothly, and Kageyama even shot her a quick smirk when she talked about him, but Mikaela tensed up when Machino started asking her about the video. As soon as Machino said, "Miya Atsumu? Could you spare a minute?" the entire team burst into chatter.
"The look on your face!" Sugawara wheezed, pointing at Mikaela's horrified face on camera. "Priceless!"
"I should've brought popcorn," Tsukishima murmured into her ear, and Mikaela shoved him.
"Quiet, quiet!" Daichi ordered as Atsumu bounded into the frame.
Mikaela wanted to laugh. The rest of the interview put them in a good light, and to her absolute delight, Atsumu visibly winced out of nowhere- that was when she'd stepped on his foot. Or something. She noticed Tsukishima stiffen beside her when Atsumu put an arm around her shoulders, but he visibly relaxed when Mikaela shook his arm off. Mikaela smiled to herself as the interview wrapped up.
The Karasuno team was near hysterics, with Sugawara still cackling about her horrified facial expression and Kageyama muttering bloody murder to Atsumu. Nishinoya and Tanaka were physically yelling at the television (she didn't have the heart to call them off) and Yamaguchi was laughing so hard he looked like he was losing his breath. Daichi was trying to calm everyone down, but to no avail.
God, I love this team.
The next day was the big game against Nekoma. Mikaela had never seen the team have so much fire in their eyes; especially Hinata, who seemed to still be running on the adrenaline from last night's game. Mikaela had meant to check on him last night, but from all the chaos that came with the interview on television, it had slipped her mind.
She'd tried to check on him this morning, but he'd seemed okay. With all the moving and shifting courts from practice to warm up to real game warm up, Mikaela had never got a chance to talk with him. He seemed fine, but if they played two games today, he might burn out faster than expected.
I hope it doesn't come to that.
The boys ran onto the court to start warming up, cheering loudly. Mikaela jogged over to Ukai. "Anything I can help with?"
He shook his head. "This game's a big one, but I think we're good for information this time around."
"Got it," she confirmed, mock-saluting him. "But if you want to dig into any of Kuroo's old girlfriends, I have them on speed dial."
"You're insane."
"Thank you."
"You know what? Go gather the stray volleyballs. And put them back in the cart. Or... Just go away and do something."
Mikaela grinned. "Why? So you don't feel tempted to use my information?"
Ukai rolled his eyes and shooed her away. "No, it's so that I can keep you busy. Shoo."
Mikaela laughed to herself and started making her laps of the court, grabbing the volleyballs that had rolled to the side and catching any stray spikes. She walked around the Nekoma court too- why not? She knew most of them, and they were friendly enough. She waved to Kenma, and he shrugged at her, which she supposed was actually pretty good for Kenma.
"Hey, Temper-san!" Kuroo called, waving. "How ya doing? No more wheelchair?"
She waved back, grinning. "Great! Nope, got rid of that ages ago!"
"Congrats on the successful surgery," Kai added as he walked by her. "Kuroo told us."
Mikaela frowned, shooting a sharp look at Kuroo, and he shrugged. "Hey, you were in a wheelchair, that was news. And news needs to be spread." When she narrowed her eyes at him, he sighed. "Dumbass, they all figured out it was because of your leg. You literally threw your leg at a guy, they can put two and two together."
"Yeah, great hit, by the way!" Lev called, flashing her a thumbs up as he passed.
"Well..." she sighed. "Ah, whatever. Thanks, Kai-san."
Kuroo jumped into a spike, and Mikaela snagged the flying volleyball as it zipped by her ear. She grabbed two more from the ground, trying carefully to maneuver them all to fit into her arms. A fourth rolled to a stop near her feet and she sighed, wondering if she could just kick it to the cart.
"Need a hand?"
Mikaela looked up and immediately smiled. "Tsukishima! Yes, please. Thanks."
He shrugged and took two of the volleyballs from her arms, and she bent down to scoop up the fourth one. "Here," he said, motioning with his arms. "I can just take them all back."
"Who are you and what have you done with Tsukishima?" Mikaela joked, piling the volleyballs into his arms.
"You want me to drop these?"
"No! You're just never this helpful."
"I'll drop them."
"Then we'll just be back to square one."
Tsukishima raised his eyebrows at her, then sighed and turned around, heading towards the volleyball cart. Mikaela sighed happily, her eyes lingering on his back as he walked away.
"Wait a second."
Mikaela turned and nearly jumped when she saw Kuroo perched a few feet away from her, right next to the net. "Kuroo! What the hell?"
Kuroo's eyes turned to Tsukishima, who was walking to the volleyball cart, then to Mikaela. Then back to Tsukishima, and then to Mikaela. His mouth opened and closed, and then his eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Wait a damn minute," he said, crossing his arms. "Are you two?..."
"Yeah," Mikaela confirmed, biting her lip. She couldn't stop the grin that was spreading across her face. "Yeah, we are."
"Hell yeah!" Kuroo yelled, and she nearly flinched from the sudden increase in volume. He turned back to the team, who had paused temporarily to see what he was yelling about. "You all owe me five hundred yen each!"
"Wait, actually?" Yamamoto said in disbelief, pointing to Mikaela. "They're together?"
"You bet on me and Tsukishima?" Mikaela said in disbelief.
Kuroo cackled. "Yep!"
The red-clad team collectively groaned, mumbling curses to Kuroo, and Mikaela was ready to smack the Nekoma captain when Yaku stepped forwards. "Wait!" the libero shouted, bounding over to Kuroo. "Was this before or during the tournament?"
Mikaela paused. "Like, when we got together?" Yaku nodded. "Does it matter?"
"Yes!"
"During, actually. On the first night."
"No!" Kuroo howled, grabbing his hair as Yaku held up his hands victoriously. "God damn it, Yaku! How the hell did you know?"
"Dear lord," Mikaela grumbled, smacking herself in the forehead.
The whistle blew, drawing both teams to their benches. Mikaela gathered up the remainder of the volleyballs and pushed the cart away, waving quickly to the team and nodding to Ukai before she headed to the stands. Yesterday, she'd watched the game with Motoya and Sakusa- would there be anyone watching now that she knew?
Mikaela smirked to herself when she saw two familiar faces hovering by the scoreboard, eyes trained on the game. "Akaashi-san! Bokuto-san!" she called, waving.
Both Fukurodani players turned towards her voice. Bokuto's eyes immediately widened in recognition and he waved enthusiastically. "Ah! Karasuno's manager! Hi!"
"Hello," Akaashi greeted as she got closer.
She beamed. "Hey. You two watching the game?"
"Yeah, our game isn't until later," the setter said, turning to the court as the players set themselves up. "We thought this would be an interesting game, considering their... rivalry at training camp."
"If you could call it that," Mikaela said with a laugh.
Bokuto laughed along with her, narrowing his bright eyes at the court. "You crows are different now, though. Right?"
"Right," she agreed. "It'll be a good game."
The first rally of the game was longer than most of their rallies against Inarizaki. Kageyama served, it was received, then Nekoma spiked and Nishinoya made a ridiculously nice save. Kageyama set it up to Tanaka, and even though he nailed the cross shot, Yamamoto still put it straight back up in the air. Daichi managed to keep it in the air when the cats spiked it back over, and Hinata's spike sealed the deal and earned Karasuno their first point.
"Woo!" Bokuto cheered, pumping his fists in the air.
"If all their rallies are that long, they're in for a rough game," Mikaela murmured to herself, crossing her arms.
Akaashi heard her and hummed in agreement. Nekoma scored the next point, and Mikaela could tell from the look at Kageyama's face that he was pissed off because his serve had been so easily received twice in a row. Lev's serve in the next point hit the top of the net and tumbled over, but Hinata managed to squeeze in and save it. After a series of plays, Nishinoya ended up setting to Asahi for the point.
"Your libero set that?" Bokuto asked in disbelief, squinting. "No way!"
"Wasn't a half bad set," Akaashi agreed.
Mikaela grinned. "Yeah, he's been working on that for a while."
The Fukurodani ace laughed. "I remember when he tried that at training camp and he couldn't even get the jump right!"
The next point rolled along, and Mikaela sighed to herself as Hinata, who was in a position to block, hesitated before jumping the right way. He'd been trying to analyze Kenma, and it had worked, but he'd been a bit too slow. Huh. Never thought I'd use Hinata and slow in the same sentence.
"Kozume typically moves so little during a game," Akaashi said quietly. "It's easy to find yourself paying too much attention to his every move."
"I totally get that!" Bokuto exclaimed.
Mikaela rolled her eyes.
The next couple points ticked on by, and it felt like every point was longer than the last. Mikaela watched with interest as Tsukishima went up against Kuroo. She'd always held Tsukishima in her mind as one of the smartest blockers out there, but Kuroo definitely needled for that spot. Besides, Tsukishima learned what he did from Kuroo.
Kuroo roofed Daichi and the crowd went nuts. Mikaela sighed. "Asshole."
"That was a fluke!" Bokuto called out.
Akaashi sighed. "Just call it a good play, Bokuto-san." They all glanced at the court, where Kuroo and Tsukishima seemed to be talking with only the net separating them. "I bet Kuroo-san is saying something to get under Tsukishima's skin again."
No sooner had they said this did the two middle blockers glance up at the stands, where Mikaela was standing with Bokuto and Akaashi. Mikaela turned behind her, wondering if they were focused on someone else, then turned back around. By the time she'd turned back around, they were back into conversation, then setting up for the next point.
"Oi! What was that?" Bokuto asked loudly, leaning towards her. "They both just looked at you!"
She shrugged, her cheeks tinging red. "Beats me."
"Congrats, by the way," Kuroo taunted as the ball was passed to Nekoma's side of the court so that they could set up for the serve. "Glad she finally worked up the nerve."
Tsukishima's eyes widened. "You knew?"
"You shoulda seen the way she talked about you, moron." They both glanced up at the stands, where Mikaela was standing with Bokuto and Akaashi. Tsukishima pursed his lips, his eyes flitting from Mikaela back to Kuroo. She talked about him? To Kuroo, of all people?
He huffed. "Thanks, Kuroo-san."
His senpai shrugged, and then his gaze hardened. "And if you hurt her," Kuroo threatened, glaring at Tsukishima, "we will have problems."
Tsukishima sighed. "Why does everyone keep threatening me? It's not like I'm in this to hurt her."
"No," Kuroo agreed as the whistle blew, signalling for Nekoma to serve, "but there's a lot of people who care about her. That's all."
And for that, Tsukishima was grateful.
The points went by, and Karasuno had just hit double digits when Ukai put in Yamaguchi as a pinch server. Yamaguchi got a service ace, and Mikaela screamed so loudly that Akaashi flinched in surprise. By the time she was done apologizing, Yamaguchi had served again, and Tsukishima got a kill block to put Karasuno four points ahead.
"Bah ha ha!" Bokuto cackled, pointing at the court. "Didja see that, Akaashi?! Didja see what our Tsukki did?!"
"Tsukishima is not 'ours', Bokuto-san," Akaashi said with a tired sigh. "But yes. I did see."
"That was so good," Mikaela said dreamily, grinning. "He's gotten so much better lately." She turned to Bokuto and lightly punched his arm. "A huge part of that is thanks to you and Kuroo, actually. Thank you."
"Aha! You hear that, Akaashi?" he said proudly, puffing out his chest. "He is ours!"
"That's not what she said, Bokuto-san."
The points went back and forth, but Nekoma was creeping up on the lead that Karasuno had. It was when Nekoma scored, making it 15 - 14 for Karasuno, did Akaashi casually mention, "I think Nekoma's defense is almost completely set up."
From what Mikaela had extensively gathered about Nekoma, they were slow starters. They normally dropped the first set or won it in overtime points just so they could analyze their opponents and adapt their defense accordingly. Sure, they'd played Karasuno dozens of times before, but they were a new team now. It was odd for Nekoma to be set up so early.
That, and Hinata wasn't doing as well this game. And she wanted to figure out why, because she was positive that Nekoma- specifically, Kenma- had something to do with it.
No sooner had the thought crossed her mind did Kageyama make a ridiculous set to Hinata, who punched the ball through and shattered Nekoma's defense. "There we go," Mikaela said with a sigh. "About time."
"Yep! Kageyama is still a twisted jerk!" Bokuto said, putting his hands on his hips.
"Don't forget Hinata," the Fukurodani setter added, his mouth pinched in a line. "Being that far in on his approach already isn't the work of a sane man. He's warped too."
Mikaela nodded along. The score was 16 - 14 for Karasuno, but she still had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Kageyama's serve curved wickedly in midair (it was because he twisted his foot before he jumped off. Just like she'd thought) and landed out, and Mikaela could see the relief on the Nekoma receiver's face. Next, Lev was up to serve, but his serve hit the top of the net and didn't quite make it over.
"He's gotten a let serve or two so far," Akaashi mused, shifting in his spot. "It's no surprise he hit the net."
Mikaela hummed in agreement, then straightened up.
It clicked.
"He's targeting Shoyo," she said aloud, glancing up at Akaashi. "That's what they're doing. They're trapping Hinata."
"Come again?" he asked, cocking his head.
Mikaela pointed at the court, where the next point was underway. "Lev's never been great at serves. In fact, at the last training camp, he was working on serves, and he was going for power. Hell, I even watched him try a few wonky jump serves that never worked. So if he was no longer practicing for power, what else would he be practicing for?"
"Accuracy," Bokuto answered, his eyes trained on the court. "Though power's way cooler."
"Right," the manager replied, ignoring Bokuto's remark. "Okay, whatever. He's going for let serves. But all four of his last serves have been aimed at that same spot, and Hinata's been forced to receive three of them."
"He's not bad at receiving, though," Akaashi pointed out.
"True, and that's probably why he doesn't even realize it's happening. But if he has to jump forward and receive a ball close to the net, then he can't get his run up in. And that's the only way he's able to spike, right? He needs to get the space to jump or else he can barely make the net."
Bokuto's loud shout of exclamation nearly made her jump. "They're stopping his run up so he can't do his quick set!"
"Yeah," Mikaela said, eyes fluttering to the scoreboard as the numbers kept climbing. "I noticed he's been receiving a lot in this game- more than normal. Then you mentioned Lev's serve and it clicked."
"Interesting," Akaashi said quietly, frowning. "That's clever. As to be expected of Nekoma."
"Hinata, just..." Mikaela sighed, slapping her hands against her face and dragging them down her cheeks. "Ugh! Hinata, just... run sideways or something!"
The score climbed higher and higher, with Nekoma gradually closing in on Karasuno's lead. The serves to Hinata were becoming more and more obvious, and Mikaela wanted to throw something at the court- Nekoma was so fricking annoying and Mikaela could've strangled Kenma if she got the chance. The strategy was good, and a part of Mikaela was impressed, but right now she was trying to focus on how Karasuno could counter it.
Kuroo stuffed Tanaka to tie the score at 23 all. After two consecutive serves that landed out, the set was going into overtime. After an insanely long rally in which Asahi spiked the ball three times (once as a block crusher, once as a tip, and finally punched it through and got a waterfall block), Karasuno finally managed to take the point, 25 - 24. But to Mikaela's chagrin, Nekoma pulled off three points in a row to take the set.
And, to make matters worse, the last point was scored because everyone on the court was too busy moving into position to jump. The ball thudded to the court between Tanaka and Daichi, and the crowd went wild.
"You're kidding," Mikaela said in disbelief, tugging at the end of her ponytail. "What the hell was that?"
Akaashi was lost for words. Bokuto burst into laughter. "Karasuno, that was great!"
"That was terrifying," his partner muttered, shaking his head.
"I hate Nekoma," she grumbled.
The players on the court started setting up for the second set. Mikaela pursed her lips together, wondering what Karasuno was going to do about Nekoma's obvious strategy to shut down Hinata. They could take Hinata out of the serving rotation, sure, but... still, how could they counter it? Could Hinata just do slide attacks? Or...
The rallies dragged on longer on longer, and Mikaela could see the exhaustion settling in. With heavy feet, Karasuno kept dragging themselves into synchronized attacks, and after repeated diving saves, Nekoma would finally crack and the ball would get through. Kageyama finally managed to nail a service ace, and the team's momentum began to build. Tanaka managed to hit a service ace too, putting the team up by four points.
The momentum seemed to come to a grinding halt when Hinata did a slide attack and spiked the ball out of bounds. Karasuno took a timeout, but the damage was already done. "That's rough," Mikaela said, frowning.
Akaashi hummed in agreement. "Hinata may start getting frustrated."
"I know I would," Bokuto agreed.
The game continued. Points trickled by, and Mikaela could see the excitement on Hinata's face start to give way for frustration. It was understandable, sure, but if Karasuno didn't find a way to deal with it soon, they'd be screwed.
Sure enough, just like in set one, Nekoma closed the gap and tied the game up at 19 all. "Come on, Kags," Mikaela grumbled under her breath. Unfortunately, the next point went to Nekoma when Asahi hit his spike out of bounds. Nekoma pulled ahead for the first time all set. "Holy crap."
"Morisuke's the type of receiver that can kill a spiker without touching the ball," Bokuto said, his face scrunching up in disgust.
"You mean Yaku?"
"Yeah. That shot was open, but your ace didn't take it 'cause Morisuke was there."
Karasuno managed to tie it up at 21, but after a long rally in which Hinata accidentally slipped when trying to run up, Nekoma got a block point off Tanaka to take the lead.
"If they don't figure out a way to open up Hinata, they're going to lose," Mikaela said quietly, biting her lip.
Bokuto nudged her. "Game's not over yet!"
The next point was the strangest that she'd seen all day. Tanaka lunged to receive the serve, cutting off Hinata, and Kageyama moved to set. Mikaela could hear him shout "Open!" from the side, and she watched in awe as Kageyama just put the ball up. Not anywhere specific, just put it straight up in the center of the court. No target in mind. Hinata seemed to just stare at the ball for a second before he clued in that he had time to move, and he jumped higher than Mikaela had ever seen him go before. Although the timing was a bit off, Hinata still tipped the ball over and got the point.
"He's so grown up," she said abruptly.
Akaashi's lips twitched. "Come again, Mikaela-chan?"
"Tobio- I mean, Kageyama- has always been about speed. His crazy precision at high speeds has been his strength as a setter." Mikaela paused, watching her cousin move to serve. "And he just tossed the slowest set in history. He put his full faith in Hinata to score. He didn't pick anything else, he didn't even consider the fact that Asahi was halfway into his jump."
"Never seen him do that before?"
Mikaela shook her head. "He's not a prisoner to speed anymore. I can't believe how much he's grown."
Akaashi nodded. "That's mildly terrifying."
She laughed. "He's only going up from here."
The next point, Kageyama did an open toss again, and this time Hinata nailed it home. Mikaela was impressed; Kageyama had mentioned that he'd been working on his high jumps, and it seemed like they were paying off. Nekoma made a substitution, which ended up making their blocking line up taller, but Hinata just tooled the block and got a perfect block out.
The score was 24 - 24 when Nekoma subbed in a pinch server, and Mikaela groaned. "Just win the set already, please."
And they did.
The pinch server did a ceiling serve, but Tanaka still received it fine (mostly) and after a decent rally, Asahi punched the ball through and got the point. In the next point, when Yamamoto pulled off a perfect line shot, Hinata zipped into position to receive and got pounded in the chest, sending the ball flying back over the net. No one on Nekoma was in position to receive, and Karasuno got the point. The second set was theirs.
"Yes!" Mikaela screamed as the crowd erupted into chaos. "They got it!"
"I can't believe how that ended," Akaashi said with a shake of his head.
Bokuto laughed. "Hinata, scoring with a receive, off Nekoma, of all teams? That's great!"
His laughter was contagious, and Mikaela found herself laughing along with him. The irony was fantastic. As Bokuto had pointed out, the fact that Hinata had been the one to score, when they'd been trying to shut him down all game, and he'd scored with a receive, made the point that much better.
The third set kicked off with a bang. Between service aces, powerful spikes, and ridiculous receives, Mikaela was on edge the entire time. Tsukishima and Kuroo were going head to head with blocks, and when Tsukishima did a high quick over the center to score the point, Mikaela beamed to herself. Tsukishima was down there, and he was smiling. Smiling. She never thought she'd see a day where Tsukishima was enjoying volleyball, especially in the third set of a game.
In the next point, Kenma tried to go for a setter dump, and both Hinata and Nishinoya lunged. However, Hinata moved to block it, and Nishinoya was diving to receive it. Hinata got a piece of it, sending it much further than Nishinoya could reach.
"Oh my god!" she cried out as Nishinoya managed to kick the ball with the back of his heel and send it straight up in a perfect set. Kageyama put it up for Asahi, who got the point. "Oh my god, it worked!"
From the ground, Nishinoya glanced up at her and grinned. She grinned back at him, flashing him a thumbs up. "That was the most ridiculous receive I've ever seen," Akaashi said, bewildered.
Bokuto nodded, grinning. "That's crazy!"
"We've been working on foot saves," Mikaela said excitedly, bouncing from foot to foot. "We worked with the soccer team on it. God! I can't believe it worked!"
"Hey, Bokuto-san, we've got to get going," Akaashi said, holding up his phone and displaying the time. "We've got to go warm up."
"Alrighty. See you later, Mikaela!" Bokuto said, clapping her on the shoulder. "Come watch our game later!"
"Absolutely," she agreed, waving to both of them. "Good luck!"
The Fukurodani players waved to her and left for their own warm up, and the rest of the set seemed to fly by. Yamaguchi came in as a pinch server, then Sugawara was subbed in later. The game was close most of the way through, but Karasuno started to pull ahead near the tail end. Hinata was whipping out every trick he had, and Mikaela was surprised at how Kenma was doing. Despite looking like he wanted to collapse, he was going after Hinata like a cat to a mouse.
Karasuno hit the twenty point mark first, at 20 - 17. If they could keep this up, the win was theirs. How they were going to play another game today, Mikaela had no idea. The points went back and forth, but Karasuno was keeping their lead.
They were up 24 - 22 when Kenma went to set and the ball slipped.
It must've been sweat, but Mikaela's jaw still dropped in surprise as the ball fell to court, winning Karasuno the set. Both sides of the court seemed to collapse, falling to the ground in exhaustion. Mikaela's heart ached for Kuroo, but she was unbelievably proud of her team. They'd never gotten a set off of Nekoma, let alone two.
She made sure to congratulate everyone on the good match, including the Nekoma team, when she met up with them on the court floor. "Good game, good game," Mikaela repeated, hugging various members of the Karasuno team. She noticed Nekoma walking by, and after excusing herself, bounded over to talk to them. "Great game," she said honestly, smiling at Kuroo.
He smirked. "Yeah, it was. Thanks, kiddo."
"Enough with the kiddo business. I'm two years younger than you."
"Still younger, though. Therefore, a child."
Mikaela scowled, punching him in the shoulder. "You'll stay and watch, right? I get lonely."
"Of course," Kuroo replied immediately. "As long as I get to annoy you."
"Fine, fine."
"Hey, Kaisha!" Mikaela turned to see Hinata, bouncing from foot to foot. "Wanna go get food?"
"Sure," she agreed. She turned back to Kuroo and waved. "Catch you later?"
"Sure," he replied, shrugging.
The manager turned and jogged after Hinata, who was weaving through the crowd like nobody's business. "Shoyo!" Mikaela called, laughing. "Wait up!" She understood his enthusiasm, though: they were playing another game today. That was a dream for Hinata- and Kageyama too. They had another game to play.
Actually, not quite: they had another game to win.
WOOT WOOT WE MADE IT TO 50 Y'ALL THIS IS SUCH A MILESTONE
Originally, Machino was going to air the interview live that morning right after she took it, but the whole thing with Miya Atsumu was too priceless to share on early morning television with limited viewers, which is why she waited until the evening. Fun! ;)
hannymae: PLEASE SLEEP it feels like every time you review you're in some insane hour of the morning XD That's cool how you found Haikyuu after volleyball! I'm thinking about getting into volleyball but I barely have enough time to write, let alone go play XD Thank you so much for your review! :D
Sayori1412: Aww thank you so much! You're too sweet T^T Aha I'm glad you're enjoying the sassy comments and that it keeps getting better! Thank you so so much for your review! :)
Padgent: Aw thank you! I thought the Miya Atsumu bit would be a cute touch and I'm glad people seemed to like it! Thank you so much for your review! :D
Averi-nova: It was such a good suggestion that I had to ;) Thanks for your review! :)
Shadow Wolf 15846: Aw thank you! I'm so glad you liked it, thank you for your review! :D
luvielle: Oh my goodness thank you! Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed, I hope you're enjoying the manga too! Thank you for your review! :)
Anne Nonimus: You're so sweet, thank you so much! I'm so glad you liked it! Yeah, my update-once-a-week isn't going too well- I'm aiming for once every two weeks. I've been pretty good with it so far! Thank you so much for your review! :D
Swaggishima: Yeah, the manga matches go on for a while, which I'm grateful for (the attention to detail is unparalleled) but for the sake of my fanfic, I'm trying to sweep through the matches. If y'all have read the manga, you already know what's happening XD Thank you for your review! :)
bellamario: Aha thank you! Thank you for your review! :D
Yamamoto: I'm glad you liked that part! I was hesitant about adding it but people seemed to like it, which I'm grateful for! Thank you for your review! :)
imaginesakura: Oh my... you're too sweet T^T Thank you so much! I'm so so glad that you're so hooked into this, I never thought I'd find so many people following Mikaela's journey! No, actually, I never had a pairing planned from the start! I always thought about it but I wanted to prioritize Mikaela's development, and as I got further into writing her story, I started considering it. I actually considered Yamaguchi temporarily, but I liked their dynamic better as friends, and I wanted to challenge myself with Tsukishima! Thank you so much for your review! :D
Elsa: I'm glad I've persuaded you to start appreciating Atsumu ;) He's a bit of an asshole, sure, but that's part of his 'lovable' charm, right? I'll see if I can incorporate him into further chapters. I'm glad you enjoying the story, thank you so much for your review! :)
Tribble. Chan: Awwwww I'm so glad you liked it T^T I'm trying hard to incorporate that relationship into the story but I keep having to smack myself and say "no, romance isn't the genre" but I can't help but leave some of the cute bits in! Here's the Kuroo reaction, with a second betting pool, as requested ;) Thank you so so much for your review! :D
LouTheStarSpeaker: I have such a hard time finding good OC stories, so I understand where you're coming from, and I'm so glad you consider mine to be one of the good ones! That means so much! Yes, Mikaela's personal growth was my first priority, but I'm really happy with how the romance part developed! Most of the OC stories I see are focused on romance so I wanted to try something different (although I do have moments where I have to drag myself back to my main priorities... XD). Thank you so much for your review! :)
Kimiko: You're too kind, you're going to make me cry T^T Thank you so much! Your compliments are so kind and mean so much! Yeah, I've got a bad habit of dragging the mean/shitty/rude characters through the mud and trying to make something good out of them... it's been so so hard to do with Tsukishima but it feels like it's paying off! THANK YOU. Thank you so much for your kind words and the fact that you can empathize with Mikaela's backstory at certain parts makes me want to hug you ;-; Best of luck in school! Thank you so much for your review! :D
TF Volt: Aw, thank you! Thank you so much! :)
Also I was rereading this story and I noticed like seven chapters ago I was like "wow! Thanks for 300 followers!" and now I'm sitting here at 475. What the heck. Like... what. The heck. THANK YOU. Thank you all so so much. Your kindness and support is overwhelming.
