Chapter 7: Surprises

Things changed.
Ever since they had lost to Seijoh in summer, the team had been driven by a strong will to develop. Every single player had thought of ways to get better: Whether it was Yamaguchi and the jump float serve, Nishinoya and the setting of a ball, Tsukishima and his way of blocking, Asahi and powerful serves, the first-year duo and their crazy quick. All of them had eloped in leaps and bounds, and even though they had won against Shiratorizawa, reaching their goal of traveling to Tokyo, their will to develop had not been diminished. But the steps they took in their development had been smaller since winning, less noticeable, and because of that, their will to get out the claws to fight had become calmer. Earlier, they were thought of as a flock of crows going down on an enemy: Crazy, powerful, wild. Now Karasuno's boys were described as steady- a flock of crows in their flight up in the sky. Whenever a fellow teacher had asked Takeda about their way to the top, the teacher had said: "The boys are still firm but also settled in their work."

The joining of Yona had not changed the serene aura, but it had made it even more… intense. On her first real day as advisor of the team, she had appeared in the dark-red tracksuit, which was handed out by the school, her long heir up into a ponytail and swinging gently at her bag. Yachi, who had never seen her new friend with her hair up, was fascinated by the length of it and wondered how Yona had pulled it up, when she always said that her left hand was like a millstone round her neck. Tanaka and Nishinoya had voiced their fascination as well – which got them in trouble. To the great amusement of everyone, Advisor-Yona was not the friendly and quite girl that introduced herself the day before. She was driven by the will to increase the abilities of everyone in sport and didn't accept any slacking in training. When the two second years followed her around while she looked through the equipment of the gym, they got their ears full first and had to run five extra laps second. This was repeated three times – after that, Tanaka and Nishinoya mingled with all the other boys during warm up and approached Yona not as a fellow student, but as a trainer – with all due respect. Soon, this extended to different team members.
First, she didn't talk much to the older students, her focus was on the first years. But she observed and whenever Coach tried new exercises, she voiced own thoughts, in pointed out weaknesses, but also strengths of every single player. She always carried a notebook and could be seen writing down notes often.

After one week of training, during which she mostly watched, things changed. When Daichi entered the gym early on Saturday, exactly one week after she had joined the team, she was already there, sitting together with the Coach and talking up a storm. Again, Daichi noticed her way of talking with her hand. She'd managed to clench the notebook between those parts of the fingers of her right hand that weren't encased in plaster and pointed it towards the trainer. The index finger of her left hand pointed on her notes.
Ukai stared at the page before him, then he shrugged and said: "Let's try it. I can see where you're going with that, let's see what the boys think of it."
Yona snorted very un-lady-like. "They'll want to throw me out in about half an hour and kill me after training and tomorrow."
The Coach grinned. "Ya…You're probably right with that. But you're also right with your observations. During training camp in late summer, they had to do rounds of diving receives whenever they lost a set. We only won a few out of 60…"
Yona grimaced at that. "Ouch…"

Ukai grinned again. "Yeah, ouch. But it worked as great muscle toning – and afterwards, no one ever said that he couldn't do a diving receive. Right, Sawamura? Hello." The Coach turned towards him and Daichi saw this as invitation to join them.

"Hello Coach, Sadai-San", he greeted them.

"Hello", the female advisor said and bowed in return.

"Yeah"; Daichi got back to the question which the Coach had asked. "Those two weeks of training camp helped a lot with our receives and stamina. Running up a hill was also a penalty."

Catching the end of her ponytail between the fingers of her left hand, Yona started to play with her hair. Thinking. Thinking hard. "Hmmm..", she hummed.

"Yes, Sadai?" Ukai asked.

"Is there a possibility to attend another training camp? Or organize one? I'm kind of giddy to watch the boys work with different players. Hm. I have to ask Takeda-sensei for this, right?" After hearing the confirmation from the Coach, she nodded her head yes. Still in thought, she looked down at the watch around her left wrist and said: "I think I need to call someone. Is it alright if I use my phone during training? I'll text him during warm up and the workout, he'll probably answer right away."

While Ukai gave his consent, Daichi got hung up on the "he" she wanted to call. Was he a trainer? A friend? A boyfriend? But he had no time to well on those thoughts, cause in this moment, several other members of the team entered the gym, closely followed by the two managers and the teacher. The Coach waited until they had put on their volleyball shoes, then he directed them towards their new advisor.

Yona bowed deeply in greeting. "I need your help today – here are some plans with equipment we need for today's training, would you please help me getting all of this out of storage? I'm afraid I won't be of any help." She raised her right hand shily.

"No problem at all, Sadai-San!", Suga started. "Leave the rest to us!" He raised his eyebrows, looked Daichi in the eyes and inclined his head towards the girl.

With that clue, the captain cleared his throat and took a few steps to the girl. "Would you hand over those plans to me? I'll assign tasks."

Answering with a smile, she handed the pages over. "Thank you very much. Please ask every question you have about them. I'll explain the exercises when everything is ready."

He nodded and looked down. Geez, those plans were detailed – and drawn beautifully. Yachi's work, for sure. But the writing at the side looked quite scrawly, as if the writer wasn't used to writing the signs. But he could read everything, so he turned towards his teams – which was almost complete– and started to divide it into groups and tell the members which pieces of sports equipment they needed. Soon, everyone was put to work, and the new advisor was walking around, pointing the groups - and with them the equipment - to spots in the gym. When everything was ready, Coach told them to warm up, and after that, when they assembled again, Yona took the lead.

Breathing deeply, she started. "First, I wanted to thank you for welcoming me. I know that it's not easy to work with new people… and if those people can't really show you stuff, it isn't easier. Today, Coach Ukai is letting me set you up with a special training to increase your muscle tone. I'll stop time: At every spot with equipment, I want two of you, and each of you has to work out for three minutes. During those three minutes, the other will watch and correct, if you start to slack. After that, you'll change positions. And after those six minutes, you'll run to the next base and so on…"

Hinata, ever the stamina monster, started jumping up and down. "Are those cool bases with new exercises?"

She smiled at her tiny friend. "The new part depends on the sports classes in Japan – but they can be cool…" She exchanged a gaze with Coach, who coughed and turned away. Daichi raised his eyebrows, but the girl continued to talk. "I'll explain everything to you. Please, do your best, even if it isn't pleasant during those three minutes."

Tsukishima pushed his glasses up to his nose and murmured: "Three minutes? When we can manage whole games?"

Yona heard his remark and raised one eyebrow at him. "You'll thank me later that you'll only need to survive those three minutes. But to make you happy: We'll do everything twice." With that, she walked to the first base. "But then Again Tsukishima, if you are that eager to show what you can do, come here." Several other players snickered softly. Served him right… "You'll show the others what to do, cause I can't. My hip is still not cleared for sportive activities after surgery. Oh, and before you even think of it: I used to do exercises like this one here once a week. I know what I'm talking about." Yona followed up and instructed Tsukishima how to use the first base.

Nine minutes in, every single one of them understood her choice of words and appreciated the time-limitation. Daichi, who had teamed up with Suga, was watching his friend and tried to recover. Suga was working on his abdominal muscles.

With a groan, the Setter asked: "D'you know... what happened to her... hand? Can't be a small injury… if she had to have… surgery on it."

Daichi shrugged. "No. Coach and Takeda haven't asked her while I was with them. Not sure if they know… Well, does Yachi even know it? I don't think so."

"Maybe…", Suga continued breathlessly, "you should ask her…out…"

Daichi just wanted to respond to that when loud voices could be heard. Now it was his turn to groan: Kageyama and Hinata had apparently made a competition out of their training and were now arguing about the correct positioning of the feet at one base. But before Daichi could get in between the first years, a loud whistle was blown. When the first years looked up, she answered them with a imperial glance and an unmistakeable movement of her hand in front of her throat. Kageyama and Hinata shivered, gulped loudly, and got back to working out. All the while, the advisor hadn't even moved from her place in the middle of the gym.

Shivering, Daichi turned back to his friend. "Damn, she can be…"

Suga stopped working out and laughed. "Scary? I know a certain captain who can also be a scary, scary dude sometimes!"

Three seconds after his slacking off, the whistle blew again – this time, she fastened her sight on the two third years to get them back to work. Grimacing, Suga got back in position. "Yeah, she's scary."

During the next days, Daichi thought of Yona's "kill me after training and tomorrow", which he had overheard on Saturday, quite often, because he hurt. Every single muscle of his body – hurt. He was surprised that he was able to move after all on Sunday, and Monday was even worse. But he wasn't the only one. Seeing Suga and Asahi in class was like a stop-motion movie. They tried to avoid any irrelevant movement, and every member of the team appreciated that the coach took one look at them and ordered only light running as well as training in receives and blocking. On Tuesday, they had several three on three-practice matches, which were observed by Yona and her notebook again- and not one of them wanted to appear weak in the eyes of their new advisory – so they gave their best… and failed quite a bit: When training was over, they couldn't move a single muscle again.

But on Wednesday, when they were sure she would adjust their training because of her notes of the three-on-three-matches, she was absent from training. Daichi noticed right away that only Yachi and Shimizu were present, however, he didn't voice out his concerns. Instead, he started warming up with the team.

But as always, the missing of one of the female parts of the team was noticed first by Tanaka or Nishinoya. The latter slowed down and wondered loudly: „Where's our third lady?"

This got all of their attention and the slowed down, to watch the bench.
When all the boys stopped warming up to look at the bench, Ukai noticed. Looking up from a paper Takeday had handed him, he watched the boys curiously. Understanding their curious gazes to the two female managers, he said: "Huh? Sadai has an appointment and will join us later today. Stop standing, go running! You don't want her to notice you've been slacking in her absence."

That got them moving. When they finished warming up, she still wasn't there, so Ukai instructed their training. Afterwards, Coach let them play a short match. During this match, Hinata managed to hit a ball in a way that even Nishinoya couldn't receive it, which let the tiny middle blocker jump into the air one time after the other.

Still feeling the workout from Saturday, the other players stared at him fascinated.

"It's like he is indestructible.", Yamaguchi murmured and several other boys, having heard this remark, agreed with that. Daichi, too, couldn't help but wonder about the tiny first year.

"Or maybe…", Tanaka started, "something went wrong during his birth, so now he can't feel… tired."

Tsukishima shook his head. "Have you seen what he… eats… for breakfast every morning? Too many carbs, it's like a carb-overload for his body, so he just has to be like that, otherwise he'd be fat because his body won't grow further."

"Tsukki!", Hinata shouted furiously. "Stop picking at me! Yona-chan said that as long as I can jump that high, I can eat what I want in the morning! And Yona-chan…"

"… is right here." With that, she entered the gym through the open door and slipped into her sport shoes.

"Yona!" „Sadai-San!" „Yona-chan!", several voices shouted at once.

"How did your doctor's appointment go?", the trainer asked, when the girl joined him at the bench. The answer was a blinding smile and a raised right hand.

"No plaster-cast! Only the light Velcro-one again. And I'm allowed to run again, my hip is healed." She jumped up and down happily, giving her hip a try.

"Nice!", answered Hinata, his argument with Tsukishima seemed forgotten. Instead, he ran right up to his friend, jumped up and gave her a high five. „Now you can show me how to improve my stamina!"

Laughing, she shook her head no. "Hinata, you've got the stamina of a monster. There is no need for me to improve that. I'm here to improve your spikes, right?!" Yona answered. But she wasn't angry, today, she was happy, and her smile was dazzling. And soon, she decided, she'd be even happier, because she would run before school or training started.

"Sadai-San?", coach Ukai started, "I know you're happy to have green light for running again. But please don't overexercise. Start slowly, right?"

She nodded, still smiling happily. „Yes. No overexerting myself. I'll start with a short run of two, maybe three miles on Saturday morning. Till then, only light stretching."

Short run? Three miles? Daichi exchanged bewildered glances with his close friends. She just got green light to run again from her doctor and planned a run of three miles already? And she called Hinata a stamina-monster?

Their Coach seemed to have the same thoughts, cause he shot her a stunned look. Then he shrugged – after all, she was old enough to know her limits – and got them back into the game.

But the game had already ended for the Captain, cause his thoughts were somewhere else. He could imagine that she wanted nothing else but run, but so soon after her surgery…? When even the Coach showed second guesses towards her running, Daichi started to think… and made a decision. After training ended, he waited until Yona wasn't surrounded by the grownups as well as the managers, then he approached her.

Daichi cleared his throat. He was nervous. He never got nervous while talking to other students. But now, he was indeed nervous.

Yona turned around. Her long ponytail swayed gently at her back. When she recognized the captain, she smiled. "Yes, Sawamura-San?"

"Ehm... I told... I told you to call me... Da-Daichi, please."

She blushed and shook her head yes. "Sorry, I forgot. Do you need anything, Daichi-san?"

He grinned. He had hoped for -kun, but he would take the -san together with his name as well. "Well"... He took a deep breath, then he bowed. "I wondered if you'd like some company during your run? I'd like to accompany you on saturday, Yona-san."

Stunned, she watched him for a few seconds. When she didn't react, he started to explain. "I thought I could use the exercise to increase my stamina, but if you don't like to run with company, then…"

Interrupting, she nodded fervently. "Y-yes, please! Ah, well, no. Or yes. Ahem… I'd like that. It's nice to run with company." On a second thought, she added: "But I'd run before coming here for training, so it would be really early."

He shook his head and smiled. "That… doesn't matter. I'm an early bird, you know."

She smiled, and he smiled back.

As soon as he started to talk again, Takeda interrupted him by calling the team together. Together, they turned and walked to the teacher, who had assembled the rest of the team in front of him. He started to talk as soon as the other members joined up with them: "As you surely can remember, the training camp did you all some good. Unfortunately, we can't travel to Shinzen again, because they only train together in summer and autumn, before the new tournament starts. But thanks to our new advisor, who put in a few nice words with the vice-principal," he gave a little bow towards Yona, which made all the others watch her blushing, "we could offer an invitation to the other schools for an extended training weekend, starting on a Thursday and finishing on Sunday." That news changed the mood. The players exchanged excited gazes, several of them started to mutter words of surprise. Takeda waited for the commotion to die down, then he continued to talk. "We have to thank all the other sports clubs, because during those four days, they will let us use the other gymnasiums."
This time, only Hinata's excited: "Ooooooh!" interrupted the teacher's speech. "The Karasuno-training camp will take place in four weeks' time, at the beginning of December. And so far, we have a positive answer from Fukurodani and Nekoma, Shinzen High School is trying to clear their schedule to attend, too."

With that, several excited cries were expressed. Giggling, Yona watched the happy faces of the boys. It hadn't been easy to convince the vice-principal, especially as a foreign student, but with all that glee around her, she was happy that she took the special trouble last week. Looking down at her hand, now in a black Velcro cast, she smiled as well. Camp in four weeks… That gave her wrist enough time to heal further – maybe she could give the boys another surprise present then…

Greetings again, dear readers!
As promised, I'm back earlier than last time with this update, and this time, it's the longest chapter so far. Now we're getting down to business... well, Daichi is. I knew from the beginning, that this story could be names a "slow-burn story", but that's the way I work.
I know that the timeline doesn't add up with another training camp between seasons 3 and 4, but hey, that's fanfiction. Karasuno will have the longest autumn/winter in history :'D And we'll meet the beloved teams again.
I'll include season 4 as well, but first, I need to establish "more" between Daichi and Yona. Wait and see.
Next chapter will include a meeting with a certain ace, who will assume a quite important role in the story - and that's all I'll say about this topic.

So, thanks for the review, I hope you like this chapter as well. 3
Please, let me know what you think.

I'll try to update soon!
Until next time!
Kate