Chapter 10:
Since the bus will reach to Tokyo the next morning, Yachi tried to sleep comfortably at the bus but finds herself unable to sleep. Perhaps it was nerves that she finds it difficult to sleep right away. She even brought a neck pillow to make herself comfortable.
She looked to the side where she saw Kiyoko already fast asleep while wearing her sleeping mask as she sleeps with her arms crossed as her head leaned against the window. Yachi tries to copy Kiyoko's sleeping position hoping to fall asleep as well but finds herself getting irritated that she's not falling asleep.
Then Takeda-sensei announced that they will be stopping for a bit a resting area so that the members can stretch their legs and go to the bathroom if needed. Yachi shakes Kiyoko gently. "Senpai, we're stopping at a resting area. Do you want to go to the bathroom?"
Kiyoko shifted from Yachi's voice and lifted the sleeping mask while giving Yachi a tired smile, "Sorry, Yachi-chan. I don't feel like going to the bathroom yet but do you need to go?"
Yachi shook her head, "No. But I'm going to stretch my legs out. Sorry for disturbing you, senpai."
"Don't worry. Take your time." Kiyoko said.
Yachi walked out of the bus and finds herself breathing the cool night air as she stretches her arms up. Sitting for a few hours was already making her feel stiff and what was worse is that she can't fall asleep properly.
'Maybe it's the environment? It's hard to fall asleep in the bus.'
"Yachi-chan! How is it going?"
Yachi turned and saw Sugawara walked towards her. "Sugawara-senpai. Um…I'm just stretching a little bit before I go back in."
"That's good. Is everything alright? Do you need to go to the bathroom?"
Yachi shook her head, "Everything is alright. I already went to the bathroom before we left so I want to stay here for a bit longer."
Sugawara hummed as he watches Yachi putting her hands in the pocket of her cardigan. "You were fidgeting in your seat throughout the entire ride so I thought you wanted to go to the bathroom."
Yachi's cheeks flushed and Sugawara chuckled at her reaction.
"R-really? Do I seem like I was moving around too much?" Yachi felt embarrassed as she explained, "I was trying to sleep but it's not working so well."
The night wind was blowing a little colder than usual. Yachi rubs her hands inside her pockets in hopes to make it warmer.
Sugawara unzips his jacket and then takes it off, surprising Yachi when he puts it around her. "If you can't sleep then maybe you need to drink some warm tea?"
"I-it's fine, Sugawara-senpai. You're going to be cold!" Yachi tries to reject gently to Sugawara's jacket but he only smiled at her softly and put the jacket on her properly.
"I don't want our cute manager to get sick when we reach Tokyo." He commented with a light tone as he walked in closer and zipped up the jacket. Finding Yachi slightly buried in his jacket which was a little big on her, making her small head popped out of the jacket cutely with the sleeves going over her hands.
"Th-thank you, Sugawara-senpai." Yachi thanked him as he brushes her golden locks away from the collar of his jacket and pinched her soft cheeks with his hands. "But you'll be cold…"
"I'm wearing a sweater so I don't feel too cold." Sugawara replied as he lets go of Yachi's cheeks and poked it repeatedly instead. Feeling content on playing with her soft chubby cheeks that made him want to keep touch her for a little longer.
Then Daichi came over, with Asahi and Ennoshita, and bumped Sugawara's head with his fist. "Stop that, Suga."
"Eh – but her cheeks are incredibly soft, Dachi. Look – mochi~ mochi~" Sugawara pinched Yachi's cheeks with both of his hands and stretched it, making Yachi's face looked a little strange but really adorable.
Her clear brown eyes widened in confusion and the light pink tinted her skin. Sugawara felt like he was playing with a face of a baby hamster and he couldn't help but feel the mushy feelings inside his chest when he plays around with Yachi like this.
"Stop it, you're going to make her cry." Asahi's voice wavered in worried tone and pulled Sugawara's hands away from Yachi's cheeks.
"Why do you sound like you're the one who is going to cry?" Daichi commented.
Sugawara pouted in return but stopped touching Yachi's cheeks. "Tch, you guys are no fun. You'll also get addicted to Yachi's cheeks when you touch it once."
Ennoshita chuckles, then taking out a can of warm tea from his bag and hand it to Yachi. "Warm up with this, Yachi-san."
"Thank you, Ennoshita-senpai." Yachi thanked him as Ennoshita smiles and lightly patted Yachi's head for a moment.
Then two newcomers came in a blur as they rushed towards Yachi's side. "What is it? Is Yachi-chan sick? That won't do, right Ryuu?" Nishinoya came and looked over to Yachi's left side to inspect her.
"Kiyoko-san is going to kill us if we let our precious Yachi get sick." Tanaka replied dramatically before he asked directly to the shorter girl.
"Yachi-chan, are you feeling sick? Do you need medicine? Do you need me to carry you back to the bus?" Tanaka rambled on but cut short when Daichi hit his head lightly.
"Stop crowding her like that, you idiots." Daichi scolded.
"I'm okay. Don't worry about me." Yachi replied quickly to avoid some misunderstanding. She feels incredibly touched that the members of the team worry her like that. She slowly felt like she was a part of the team.
"Kids! We're leaving soon, please get inside!" Takeda-sensei called from a far and soon the rest of the members walked back to the bus.
Nishinoya kept asking Yachi whether she need any help from him but Yachi thanked him that she was alright. It took a few tries to make him sure that she was okay before he patted her head warmly and went to his own seat.
Yachi went back to her seat and waits as the bus leaves. She took a moment to drink the warm tea she received from Ennoshita.
She settled down comfortably with Sugawara's jacket, surprisingly finding herself getting sleepier as time passes by. It didn't take too much time but Yachi drifts off to the scent of Sugawara's smell from his jacket as she fell asleep right away. His jacket smells of fresh grass and fabric softener. A boyish smell.
Sugawara momentarily looked back from his seat to look at Yachi, who was sleeping in his jacket, snoozing cutely like a baby chick puffed with a comfortable-looking jacket. He smiles at the scene and let his expression becomes softer as he watches Yachi sleeping.
He didn't regret giving the smaller girl his jacket because now he felt a sense of pride blooming in his chest when he saw her like that.
"Yacchan is so cute." He muttered softly.
The next morning, she woke up, Coach Ukai announced that they'll be arriving at Nekoma in a few minutes. Yachi stretched from her sleep and cleans her face with a face-wipe from her bag to wake her sleepy eyes.
"Did you sleep well?" Kiyoko asked from the side.
"Hn. What about you, senpai?"
"It was okay."
"We're here!" Takeda-sensei cheerfully announced.
Yachi watches as the bus entered a school and sees several buildings from afar. The bus parked in the parking lot and stopped. Everyone took their belongings and head out of the bus. Yachi followed the rest of the team and hops out of the bus with her bag.
The school was bigger than Karasuno, it was the first thing that Yachi noticed. They seem to be at the back of the school area at the parking lot. The scenery also didn't look too different from Miyagi too.
There were several boys and adults who seems to be from Nekoma and Yachi watches as both Karasuno and the host, Nekoma, came to greet each other. Yachi tries not to cringe when Tanaka and Nishinoya screamed excitedly at a transmission tower thinking that it was a skytree.
She already took off her jacket and walked to Sugawara to give it back.
"Senpai, thank you for lending me your jacket. I'm sorry if it's dirty."
Sugawara laugh lightly when he takes the jacket from Yachi's hand. "What are you saying? It's not dirty at all. Don't worry too much about it." He finishes it off by giving Yachi a soft squish to her cheek again making Yachi only smile in defeat.
Daichi then called the managers to which Yachi came to his call and saw another guy standing next to him. The first thing she noticed about him was his hair. Jet black, spiked upwards messily – it gave her the impression of a styled-bed-hair-look.
"These are our managers. Shimizu, I'm sure you know her from our previous practice. This is Yachi, our new manager. Girls, this is Kuroo Tetsurou, captain of the Nekoma volleyball team."
Said Kuroo gave a light bow and an easy smile. "Hello, I'm Kuroo."
"Hello." Kiyoko greeted politely.
"My name is Yachi Hitoka. Nice to meet you." Yachi followed her senpai's greeting.
When Yachi straightened up from her bow, she was caught off guard by the eyes of Kuroo staring on to her with a look she can't describe on his face before he eased it out with a friendly smile.
"Shimizu-san and Yachi-chan, right? It's great that you girls are here. Our training is currently short on supporting staff so having new managers is going to be very helpful." Kuroo began, "Our training camp usually have the managers rotating to a schedule so that every team gets full support throughout the training camp. It might sound troublesome but I hope you can cooperate with us."
"We'll have to brief our advisor and coach first." Kiyoko replied.
"That's fine with me. The rest can be explained by the managers from Fukurodani and Ubugawa." Kuroo nodded.
Kiyoko hummed, "I see. Thank you for the information, Kuroo-san."
Kuroo gave another smile and turned, "Well, come on in. We'll show you the areas first before you guys can join the practice."
Kuroo began explaining to the three of them as they walked about the basics of the training camp, how they usually practice, and where the places are located. Just as Yachi was listening attentively to his explanation, a sudden yell startled her when she sees a Nekoma uniformed member drops to his knees dramatically when he sees Yachi and Kiyoko.
"Th…they've got two managers now! They got a pretty one and a cute one!" He cried out as if he had been stabbed with a knife to his statement.
Kiyoko moves in front of Yachi to protect her in case anything happened. Yachi on the other hand watched the spectacle in front of her with a shocked expression.
'That guy has a Mohawk…as expected, Tokyo is intense.'
Somehow Tanaka came in with an air of superiority as he stood before the other guy. "Do you see Tora? This is what Karasuno's true ability is like."
"So bright!" Tora yelled out.
Tanaka laughs out in giddiness, somehow happy by the new difference that Karasuno has two managers now. Yachi was confused by this whole thing so Kiyoko spent no time to waste and dragged Yachi out of the situation.
"Let's go." The older manager said and led Yachi elsewhere.
Kuroo and Daichi watched with amused expression before the Nekoma captain turned to him, "It's really fortunate that you got two managers, Daichi-san."
Daichi replied diplomatically. "We're lucky to have them."
Kuroo chuckled, "Best to get used to that sort of reactions around here. We're a little bit dramatic, you see."
Daichi's smile twitched in annoyance. His big brother instincts are starting to power on, hoping he's fast enough to guard off any weirdoes bothering over Yachi and Kiyoko.
From behind, Sugawara and Asahi watched the whole spectacle as well.
Asahi spoke, "Somehow we become high specs because of our managers."
Sugawara snickered in reply. "Our managers are pretty dazzling after all."