Yoshiaki hung his head low in defeat, he had tried to block every single freak quick and only came close once.
He felt like throwing the water bottle in his hand at the nearest wall, he refrained purely because he desperately needed to rehydrate after the close match, he knew he wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight.
Hinata casually approached the 'setter' and sat next to him with a friendly smile, Yoshiaki gave him a sideways glance before his eyes returned to his feet.
"you were so cool!" the first words that had come from Hinata's mouth were the first words the boy had said in the entire match after Yoshiaki's serve, coming from most other people Yoshiaki would have found it condescending and be mad, but he had never heard a more sincere compliment in his entire life.
"thanks." Yoshiaki swallowed his disappointment and gave a hoarse laugh "you're a pain to run after." He lifted his head and sighed still not facing the animated boy beside him.
"but you were so close to catching up!" who was this kid? Why did he encourage his rival so much? These questions circled around in Yoshiaki's mind before he shook them free remembering his sister's words of wisdom.
"just take the compliment idiot!" little Yoshiaki desperately shook his hands around as he tried to refute his sister's praise.
"i-it was just a fluke I swear!" his sister giggled lightly.
"then prove it." Her smug grin was infuriating to the boy in front of her as he tried to hold the medal behind his back; he was the one who scored the winning point after all.
He grumbled something inaudibly before Yuko snuck behind him and stole his medal.
"take the honest praise of those around us or I'll keep this." It took some time but eventually Yoshiaki gave in to get his medal back.
"one day I'll block you fair and square," Hinata's grin grew and grew "that'll be the same day I get that receive right too," both boys stood up with the same expression they shared throughout the entire match, "the same day we beat you." Yoshiaki declared calmly with a smile filled with confidence.
"you'll have to wait quite a while before that happens." Hinata said cheekily taunting the boy.
"don't think I won't be working as hard as possible to beat you." Unlike with Goshiki, Yoshiaki hadn't been the better player between the two this time, Hinata was by far better in that game, and had Seijoh started with Oikawa they surely would have won.
"but while you're working to reach where I am now, I'll be working to improve from here," Hinata gave a challenging smile "you'll have to work twice as hard as me!" Yoshiaki gave a smug smirk.
"if you focus to much on that your receives, sets, serves and blocks won't ever get past a rookie level." Hinata's face flushed in embarrassment.
"h-hey!" Yoshiaki merely laughed seeing the reaction.
"we'll win next time, Hinata." Hinata stopped his quite ramblings of embarrassment and stilled completely.
"no. we will," the awkward pause was caused by Hinata not actually knowing the boy's name, Hinata gave an awkward chuckle snapping Yoshiaki from his confusion.
"oh right, im Araki Yoshiaki one half of the Araki twins." He declared proudly pointing at his chest which he had puffed out slightly.
"right, we'll beat you again next time Yoshiaki-San!" they shared a smile before Hinata was practically dragged away by Kageyama.
The next day was a rest day for the entire team excluding a slightly more dull but intelligent version of Hinata: Yoshiaki, who was working hard to improve his jumping distance and reach alone as he waited for his friends that he had Yuko text after telling her that he didn't like texting first in fear of annoying them, she rolled her eyes but complied nonetheless.
He had thought about who he'd get to help him in his efforts to improve for some time before deciding on his small group of volleyball fanatics.
The squad consisted of: Yoshiaki, Kindaichi, Nishimoto, Watari, Oikawa, Iwaizumi, Yahaba and Goshiki.
Yoshiaki and Kindaichi had tried their best to convince Kunimi but the boy wouldn't join no matter what, foolishly the lazy first year had thought they gave up asking, he soon found out they hadn't given up.
Yoshiaki would have invited Hinata if not for the fact that he was the main reason for the idea in the first place.
Oikawa and Iwaizumi were predictably the first to arrive, scaring Yoshiaki in the process as the boy was too distracted doing various different exercises, eventually the entire group had come to meet in front of Aoba Jousai high school.
The boys from Aoba Jousai starred down at Goshiki but being the boy he is he wouldn't let his fear show, he confidently smiled at his friends' friends.
"hope you silver medals can keep up." He taunted with a cocky smirk, one that Yoshiaki rolled his eyes at, wanting to break the silence his idiotic friend had caused Yoshiaki smirked back and stepped in front of his team to face his rival directly.
"says the one who let my sly tricks get to him." Goshiki reeled back in surprise and tried to come up with a reply only to have anything he thought of die in his throat, the boy's pride was further destroyed hearing Nishimoto and Kindaichi burst into a fit of laughter.
Goshiki cleared his throat to hopefully silence the two "that's why im here!" he declared proudly pointing to himself "to make sure I am the best player here by the end of however long we'll be doing this!" his pride filled speech fell flat as the only movement from the Seijoh boys was Yoshiaki's slow blinking
After a few dull seconds Nishimoto muffled a laugh with his fist "this kid thinks he's gonna be better than me?" Goshiki didn't take kindly to the remark and glared at the second year, Yoshiaki sighed having already figured something like this would happen.
Goshiki and Nishimoto both had big egos, so it was only natural they'd fight, thankfully Goshiki was smart enough to realise that he was fighting a losing battle and ended his argument with a disgruntled huff.
Iwaizumi rubbed the bridge of his nose in displeasure "I knew this was a bad idea." He mumbled tiredly.
"aww Iwa-Chan don't bring the mood down." Oikawa teased as he twirled the gyms key around his finger with a smirk.
Iwaizumi's response was never verbalised as Yoshiaki expertly stole the key from Oikawa and began marching to the gym, the others followed him quietly leaving Iwaizumi and Oikawa to stare blankly at their disappearing figures.
Oikawa's face was blank as a nervous sweat began trailing down his forehead, he turned slowly to see Iwaizumi smirking cruelly at him "even the first years are already sick of your shit jerkawa." He quipped.
Oikawa turned away with a pout and stomped his way to the gym with a satisfied Iwaizumi following close behind him.
Upon entering the gym they were met with the sight of Nishimoto and Kindaichi towering over the cowering Yoshiaki while making comments about the training they'd force him through to ensure he was at least at a passable blocking level at some point this school year.
Goshiki was also arguing with Yahaba and Watari about god knows what, Iwaizumi could already feel a headache forming as his friend clapped his hands together with a smile.
"alright, Timid-Chan, Kindaichi, Watari, Yahaba and Shiratorizawa's second choice ace can work on Timid-Chans abysmal blocking while I practise with these two." he left no room for argument as he pulled Iwaizumi and Nishimoto to a corner of the gym for a team talk.
"is it really a good idea to practise with a member of the biggest obstacle in the prefecture?" Oikawa's voice was carefully calm but held an undertone of anger, Iwaizumi nodded with his friends' question as they both turned to Nishimoto for answers, he gulped and scratched the back of his head with a small guilty smile.
"I didn't know he'd be here so when Yoshiaki asked if he could have extra practise with friends, the first thing I did was call him an idiot for not inviting me." Iwaizumi and Oikawa slammed their open palms to their foreheads "it's not like we can kick him out though." Nishimoto added earning a nod from Iwaizumi as his hand slid down his face.
"yes we can!" Oikawa whisper shouted in rage aimed mostly at Shiratorizawa than anything else "I am not letting that little shit improve and be the reason we lose our chance of going to nationals."
"calm down idiot." Oikawa redirected his glare to Iwaizumi who rolled his eyes and sighed "maybe we can look at him as a tool to make our players develop quicker." He motioned his head to the small group practising; indeed it did seem like the boys from Aoba Jousai were trying harder as if trying to prove to the odd ball that they could overcome the obstacle his team provided.
Oikawa gave a reluctant nod and the three left the corner before helping Nishimoto practise his serves as well as improving the receiving of the third-year duo.
"how did you never learn to block among everything else you learnt?" Goshiki seemed annoyed, offended even, that his rival had neglected the one area where the two could face off truly on the court.
"I never really was given the opportunity, for most of my life I had been training my libero skills while sometimes doing some spiking practises because it was fun." Yoshiaki explained honestly before turning to face Goshiki only to see that he wasn't pleased with the response.
"then how come you can set?" Yoshiaki gave a small chuckle and stretched his arms out above him before opening his fists up to block the light that was directly above him from annoying his eye, he found it amusing how similar the pose looked to a setter.
"I always liked the idea of dictating how everyone else on the court plays, and as a stand alone position the setter is the best at doing that." he pursed his lips together as the amusement in his eyes gave way for a small grimace "that sounds really bad, but you get the point: its cool to be in the most powerful position, even if no one realises you are." At this point in his life Yoshiaki wasn't too sure what to do when it came to volleyball, he quickly closed that can of worms in thought form for another day and relaxed into a normal standing position giving a slight glance to see if Goshiki was satisfied or not.
He was surprised to find the boy mimic the pose of a setter with a frown, "I've never once seen a setter like that in action." He admitted before moving his arms back down to his sides, "but I think I get what you mean, if you were able to pull that off that'd be pretty cool." Yoshiaki chuckled slightly hearing the boy's words.
"you'll certainly meet some this year that much is for sure, high school is a whole other beast." The Shiratorizawa wing spiker gave a nod to the explanation the Aoba Jousai wing spiker provided.
"I certainly hope so!" he exclaimed happily, it wasn't said but both boys understood that Goshiki was referring to nationals, Yoshiaki smirked at the naive view but refused to warn the boy of the talent within Miyagi.
The day had ended and yet that interaction stuck in Goshiki's mind all night, why did Yoshiaki smirk? and just what was the boys true position? once again Yoshiaki had left another player mystified by his mysterious nature.
The scolding Yoshiaki received when he had gotten home was certainly not what he had hoped for but he needed to do this extra training, thankfully he got off lightly this time.
Paying attention in class the next day wasn't easy for the black-haired enigma as his brain was clouded with thoughts of volleyball the entire time, he'd researched the teams in the prefecture that night in preparation for the interhigh qualifiers that were fast approaching, from what he had seen no team would provide much challenge to Seijoh other than the obvious two, he sighed knowing the game time he'd get would likely be limited to substitutions.
He shook his head free of the negative outlook and instead declared that he would make the most out of every opportunity he'd get.
As much as he wanted to beat Shiratorizawa the team he really wanted to beat was Karasuno, and he can't do that without first beating Hinata.
The day felt like it flew away far to quick for Iwaizumi as he opened the doors to the gym with Oikawa just behind him, the two entered wordlessly and set up peacefully until Yoshiaki entered with far more energy than usual.
"Oikawa-Senpai today is the day we begin our journey to nationals fully!" Iwaizumi opened his mouth to verbalise his confusion only to be unable to find the words to properly articulate why he was confused.
Oikawa smirked and turned to the first year with a determined fire being visible in his eyes as he raised his fist "I couldn't agree more Timid-Chan!" Iwaizumi sighed.
"haven't we been working toward that goal for years now?" he asked rhetorically as he pushed the cart full of volleyballs along.
"but today is the day we get a new weapon, one that we shouldn't have." Yoshiaki said with a small smirk threatening to grow fully as Oikawa and Iwaizumi gave him confused looks.
"I hope you aren't thinking of committing a crime against our rivals." Iwaizumi joked leaving Yoshiaki to laugh awkwardly.
"maybe that wasn't the best way to word it." He admitted sheepishly as he scratched his cheek, Oikawa pouted for reasons unknown.
"anyway, what do you mean by that?" the vice-captain asked in place of the captain.
"Oikawa-Senpai, I wanna try to do a freak quick."