Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to these characters. Any use of the anime or manga in this story is not mine either. They belong to their original creators.
It took some time for the team to fully regain their spirits after their loss in the Inter-High Prelims. Granted they were back in the gym practicing almost the very next day, but Kagome could see that their hearts were broken. To come so far and get so close—just to have the rug ripped out from underneath them? It definitely created some feelings of desolation, and then bred into a new found sense of determination. Yes, they lost the tournament. However, they were in the top eight in their district, and they didn't make the win easy for the champions. Those were things to be proud of, because despite their dismay over who their opponent was, they didn't give up.
Kagome walked down road to where she would usually meet up with Kenma and Kuroo before they walked to school and waited for the boys to arrive. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, but they didn't get to really enjoy it since the team was to report to the gym for practice. As she absorbed the early sunlight, she could hear the teens approaching and it sounded like Kenma was playing a game as per usual. Looking over she greeted them both and gave her boyfriend a hug, before glancing at the current game that Kenma was focused on.
"Is that the new game that you and Souta were talking about?"
"Ah. How's Souta's progress? I haven't heard anything from him yet."
"Hm? Judging by the cries of 'No!' and 'I totally dodged that!' that I can hear at times, I'm guessing his progress isn't good."
As the trio began their journey towards their school, Kuroo tucked Kagome into her usual spot against his side. "It does look like a difficult game."
Kenma started a new round as he sighed, "Somewhat. But I'm getting the hang of it, so if I play for about 30 more hours…"
"Meh, I'm surprised that you don't get bored. Let's go practice volleyball."
"We are going to practice. Isn't that why we are all headed to school on a Sunday?"
"Well, we did lose the Inter-High Prelims."
Kagome smiled softly as she hugged Kuroo a little tighter. "With the Spring Tournament Prelims just around the corner, we need to do everything we can to prepare."
Kenma briefly glanced up from his game as he died once again, "You never get sick of volleyball, huh, Kuroo? And Kagome, you seem to enjoy tormenting us as much as possible."
"Never."
"I have no idea what you are talking about."
Kuroo and Kenma blinked as they looked down at her while she feigned innocence. "You are a terrible liar, Kago-chan."
Raising a brow, she snorted at the duo. "I haven't asked any of you to do anything that's considered to be impossible. And need I remind you that I have yet to torture you like Sesshoumaru-sensei did?"
The boys shuddered in fear at the memory of what the infamous inuyoukai put them through just last year. "He's not coming back to watch us anytime soon, right?"
Kagome waived away their concerns, "Not that I know of. But if you are missing him that badly, we could always make arrangements."
"No!"
Laughing, Kagome pulled the two horrified boys up the steps of their high school and shooed them off to get changed for practice. Maybe she should reach out to her old sensei? Something to think on for sure.
The entire team was busy getting the gym ready for practice when Kenma and Kuroo walked in—well almost the entire team.
Kuroo greeted the team and looked around. "Is everyone already here?"
Inuoka was a bit sheepish and hesitated as he addressed his captain, "Well…um…"
"Huh?" Kuroo looked again and realized that a certain titan was nowhere to be seen. He heaved a sigh as he could feel the annoyance begin to radiate from Yaku, and just knew that the 'demon senpai' was emerging once more.
"I always tell first years to show up early. That little bastard."
Yamamoto shrugged at the tardy first year in question as he helped tie the net to the post, "It's actually pretty quiet and nice when he's not around. I'm sure he's slacking off again somewhere."
Yaku slowly rolled his eyes in agreement, "He's like a stray cat."
While Kenma couldn't disagree with the Ace and libero, he also couldn't help but alert the team to the potential danger. "You do realize that if Kagome sees that he's late, that she may have us all do extra conditioning, right?" Seeing the looks of concern and panic, he shook his head as he finished tying his shoes. "If we're not careful, she'll invite her sensei back to practice."
The first-year members began to break out in a cold sweat as they watched their upperclassmen's souls run from their bodies in pure terror. Any questions that they may have had were lost when the meow of a cat broke the silence. Everyone looked to the doorway to see the wayward rookie standing with a very miffed looking cat in his hands.
"Morning!"
Kuroo groaned quietly as he addressed him, "The bigwig finally shows up."
"Haiba Lev, has arrived!"
Yamamoto could feel his eye begin to twitch as he watched the titan announce his presence. "You dumbass! You're late! How many times do you need to be warned to be on time—"
Kagome wandered into see the chaos beginning to unfold. At first, she was a little confused, but seeing a slightly agitated cat being improperly held in the tall first year's hands caused her to move. Placing the water bottles on the ground, she swooped in and took the poor creature from the teen.
"Lev, you're late. Go get changed so practice can begin." Cradling the feline in her arms, soothed and scratched its ears as she walked out of the gym to let it go back to whatever it was doing before the clueless teen snatched it. "I'm sorry about him. He means well, but he just gets overly excited." Giving the cat one more stroke, she watched as it mewed in thanks before scampering off towards the neighborhood.
Returning to the gym once more, Kagome folded her arms and grinned. "Well, thanks to all that excitement, I think we should get started on our conditioning for the day. How about some extra laps since Lev was late?"
The boys groaned in misery. It was going to be a long day.
"They all seem ready to go."
Coach Nekomata hummed at Naoi as he watched his team practice with a frown as he contemplated how they could make it to the Spring Nationals that year.
Yamamoto spiked the ball over the net and they all watched as Lev swung his arms to the side in an attempt to receive it.
Waving his fist in the air, he shouted at the younger player. "You dumbass! I told you not to try to get that with your arms, you beanpole!"
After staring at the ball that he had failed to receive for a moment, the taller teen turned back to his senpai with enthusiasm. "I'll get the next one! One more time!"
Naoi smiled as he observed the team, "Haiba Lev's got good instincts. He's half Russian and so he's been blessed with height, long limbs, and excellent athletic ability. Any of those things would set him apart from the Japanese players."
Kagome shook her head and smiled, "He may have all of that, but that alone isn't enough to make him a great player…" She paused as she watched Lev dive for a receive and manage to get the ball back in the air.
Remaining on the ground, Lev was excited that he finally succeeded, "I did it! I did it! See? I did it! Did you see that?"
Unfortunately, Lev seemed to forget that they were in the middle of a match. Kuroo attempted to remind him, "You dumbass! Keep your eyes forward!"
Jumping for the block as the ball was returned to their side, the ball careened past Kuroo and barely missed Lev's head while he was busy looking over his shoulder. Cluelessly, Lev turned his head back to see the ball bounce off towards the back of the gym.
At this point Yaku had had enough of the oblivious first year and snarled at him, "Lev! I keep telling you not to let your guard down after you hit the ball!"
Sighing in exasperation, Kagome shared a look with Naoi, "As I said, that doesn't make him a great player. Just means he has potential."
Nodding in agreement, Naoi then shook his head, "And he's got that personality. Your right that he has potential, but he's still has a lot to learn. But with the Spring Tournament Prelims coming up, things will probably get very interesting."
"This isn't good."
Kagome and Naoi looked at Nekomata in confusion, and the older coach remained lost in his thoughts.
Kenma set the ball for Lev to spike and watched as the first year swung and missed.
"That was close, right?"
Exasperated with how not close that spike attempt was, Kenma turned away from the overly enthusiastic rookie. "No."
"Whoa, really?!"
"That wasn't close at all."
"Really? Can we try again?"
"No."
Lev was shocked as he watched his upperclassmen walk away from him after his refusal. "Why not?!"
"Because you're just going to miss again."
Squawking in denial, Lev scrambled to think of a way to get Kenma to give him another toss.
As the day got later, the coaches called for practice to come to an end. The boys began to clean up the gym and Lev tried to hit a few of the gathered volleyballs into the cart—and missed every time.
"It's not going where I want."
Inouka came up with some of the balls he had collected and tossed them in the cart with an encouraging grin. "But you've gotten way better, considering you only started in high school. If you were this good in April, you could have gone to the Battle of the Garbage Dump, too."
Lev held his head high and grinned, "Well I don't need to hurry. I'll become the Ace in no time."
"What was that?!" The rest of the boys sighed as Yamamoto caught wind of Lev once again claiming that he would become the ace. "You gonna fight me for it?"
Lev looked at the current ace cracking his knuckles and smirked, "Let's settle this with volleyball, senpai."
Yamamoto, Yaku, and Fukunaga stared in disbelief at the cocky rookie. The trio then sighed and started chuckling at the absurdity. As Lev tried to ask them if he had said something strange, Kuroo called all the members to gather round.
The boys made their way to Nekomata and Naoi to hear any last pieces for advice for them to work on or instructions. Nekomata sat in his seat as he looked at his players, "Two Saturday's from now, we're going to welcome our neighbors, Kunihara High School, and do a practice match."
Everyone was stunned to hear this news, and Yaku voiced what they were all thinking. "At this time of year? But our training camp with the Fukurodani Group is coming up, too. That's rare."
Kuroo furrowed his brow as he considered this information, and looked over at Kagome to see that she was just as surprised as the rest of them.
"And…" the coach continued, "Lev, you're going to play in that match."
Now Naoi joined the rest of the team in their shock as they felt as if they had just been struck by lightning. "WHAT?!"
Kagome blinked rapidly as Lev cheered and Naoi tried to reason with the head coach. The taller first year had come a long way, but there was a great deal more that he still needed to learn—focus being one of them. She wasn't sure where her uncle was going with this, but maybe he saw something that they didn't?
"Kenma. Make some time and give Lev some tosses."
She watched as the setter cringed, "I can't."
Lev popped up in outrage, "What do you mean you can't?!"
As Nekomata told them that they were done for the day, Kagome gave the excitable titan a deadpanned look. Kenma would probably murder him at this rate—or at least hide from him.
Kuroo looked at the sullen boy and shrugged, "Well, you heard him."
Kagome rolled her eyes at Kuroo's laid-back response to the situation, and approached the pouting second year. "Come on, Kenma. I'll bake you another mini apple pie." Kenma managed to muster up a small smile at the bribe.
"Oi! Kago-chan, what about me?"
"What about you?"
"Don't I get anything?"
"Nope."
"Why not?!"
"You weren't given extra work, Rooster Head."
As Kuroo proceeded to squawk in fake outrage, Kenma watched in bemusement. He could feel some of the despair leave his body as he briefly forgot that he was tasked to try to get one of the most absentminded players game ready in two weeks' time. While he dreaded his assignment, he knew that his two best friends would be there to lend a hand if he needed it.
And he felt like he was definitely going to need it.
