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.
Kenma looked up at the gym's entrance as Karasuno's members drifted inside behind Kuroo. Looking through the group, he couldn't help but notice that a certain red headed crow was absent.
"Wait, where's Shoyo?"
Yamamoto stood nearby and winced, "Apparently, he had a supplementary exam. He and Karasuno's setter are supposed to arrive later."
"Ah… It's a good thing they're not on our team."
Cringing at the thought, Yamamoto agreed with his fellow second year. No one in Nekoma wanted to even imagine what additional horrors their manager would unleash upon them if they failed an exam—she's scary enough on a regular day.
Kuroo stood with the crows and allowed them a moment to absorb the atmosphere of the gym before he addressed them.
"Once we're done with our warm-ups, we'll go do a short run. Afterwards we'll regroup here and the teams will play each other in rotation. After each set, the losing team has a penalty of one lap around the court, flying." Now he would normally just leave things there, but the temptation to poke at the crows was just too high for him to resist.
"I do hope your conditioning is at a high-level. And word of the wise, beware of the Tiny Tyrant." Walking towards his team with a cackle and a wave, Kuroo left the crows to stew in their confusion and concern while they began their stretches.
Daichi watched his fellow captain walk away and frowned as he and the rest of the crows begin to stretch.
"I wonder what he meant by that?"
Nishinoya waved off the situation, "He's just trying to get into our heads."
Asahi frowned as he nervously looked at the confident libero. "Are you sure about that, Nishinoya?"
"Of course!"
Daichi sighed as he remembered a conversation that he had with Kai after the Golden Week matches. "Kai, their co-captain, mentioned a Tiny Tyrant to me after our practice match. I think he may have meant their manager, Kagome."
"Eh?!"
Tanaka frowned as they moved through their stretches, "Tora told me last time that Kagome was lethal, but he didn't say anything more than that."
"Maybe she has a temper?"
The team cautiously agreed with Yamaguchi's hesitant explanation. They didn't have any other reasoning to go with, nor did they have any other information. Kagome seemed like a sweet girl, gorgeous, and sadly already in a relationship—Kuroo really was a lucky bastard. However, they don't know anything more. All they could do was focus on the matches in front of them and why they were here.
They came to get stronger.
Kagome stood at the base of the shrine steps with the coaches and other managers as they all waited for the boys to arrive. It was amusing to see the look of shock on Coach Ukai and Takeda-sensei's faces as Naoi explained what the drill was.
"Y-you mean your team runs this drill every day?"
Naoi chuckled at his old friend's squawk of disbelief. "We reduce the number of repetitions when we host the training camp."
"Re—reduce…?"
"Yeah, we want the teams to have as much time to play as possible. But I'm not going to lie, I'm glad we didn't have to do this drill when we were playing."
"Ano? Why are all the coaches and managers here to watch this drill?"
Nekomata-sensei smiled, "Trust me Takeda-sensei, you don't want to miss this."
Before either of the adults from Karasuno could inquire further, the teams arrived and Nekomata-sensei addressed the boys. "Welcome everyone. Since we have new participants, I will go over the instructions for this drill. Karasuno, this is the stair master. You are all to run up the stairs to the top in groups of four. Once you reach the top, you are to walk down the stairs. No matter how much you may want to run away… you must walk down the stairs. We don't want anyone falling and becoming injured. You all need to complete four repetitions of the stair master before you can return to the gym."
Most of the teenagers groaned in misery at the increase to the conditioning. Bokuto and Akaashi joined Kuroo with a sigh. "So, how many are you guys at now, Kuroo-kun?"
Kuroo pulled Daichi into their group and raised a brow at his fellow captain. "Meh, we're up to nine rounds a day." Bokuto yelped in disbelief while Akaashi and Daichi's eyes widened. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's going to be increased soon too."
Daichi now understood some of what the scheming captain meant earlier when he said that he hoped Karasuno's conditioning was top notch. They may run up 'Heartbreak Hill' every so often, but they don't do multiple rounds. He was beginning to feel that his team had a lot of work to do. Though there was one thing that confused him about this drill.
"How did you guys get permission to run the shrine steps?"
Kuroo sighed in misery before pointing up at the Torii gate that read Higurashi Shrine. "Welcome to Kago-chan's home, Karasuno. Her grandfather gets his 'payment' from the teams use." He paused a bit for dramatic effect and watched as the first group reached the top of the stairs. Just as the shrieks echoed through the air, he looked into Daichi's stunned face. "And he gets paid in screams."
Akaashi sighed as Bokuto prepped himself for their turn up to run, declaring that he was going to get past the Higurashi elder this time. "Bokuto-san, you haven't come close to avoiding him yet."
"Akaashi! Your supposed to have faith in me!"
Daichi could only watch in trepidation as every group descended the stairs, they were absolutely covered in ofuda. Every single group would reach the top, screams would reverberate through the air, and then they would descend covered—every single one. He could hear how some of the others mentioning how the old priest was still undefeated. He came back to reality after Kuroo dropped a hand on his shoulder and told him it was almost their turn.
How could someone be undefeated against this many players? And he really hoped that his legs wouldn't fall off.
Kenma sighed as he stood behind Kuroo's group and watched as Yamamoto's group—which included Nishinoya, Tanaka, and Fukunaga—take their turn up the stairs. The results would be the same. It was near impossible to dodge the crafty elder's aim, and he always mixed up how he attacks. After the group disappeared at the crest of the stairs, Kenma flinched in shock as a snarling roar ripped through the air, followed by blood curdling screams. Sharing a look of disbelief with Kuroo, the boys whipped their heads to look at Kagome.
Kagome stood still as she looked up towards the shrine and blinked in surprise, 'No way… was that…?'
Kirara quickly shrunk back down to her smaller size and buried her snout in her paws to muffle the amused chuffs that tried to break free. This was paws down, the funniest thing that she participated in in centuries—almost as much fun as helping Shippo torment Inu-baka when he was being an ass. The bribe of fish was just a bonus at this point.
Speaking of Shippo, she was surprised that he hadn't joined in on the chaos yet. This level of planning and mayhem had kitsune written all over it—which made her wonder if there wasn't some kitsune in the Higurashi line somewhere. It couldn't just be Sango and Miroku's exposure to Shippo that caused this—then again, Miroku did have a great deal of mischief in his personality. If anyone was part kitsune, it had to have come from his family.
As her amusement finally died down, she lifted her head to peer through the leaves of the bushes she was hiding within. Her tails swayed back and forth as she watched several more groups of teens get ambushed by her accomplice. Waiting for her signal, she reclaimed her larger size and got ready. She made the bushes move and rustle, causing the boys to freeze up. Then she released a low hissing breath with a hint of a growl. As the teen boys' eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their skulls, she pulled the rope to trigger a large wooden cutout of an Oni to swing out from behind a tree. The boys jumped out of their skin as Hiroshi slapped them full of ofudas.
Yeah, she was definitely going to enjoy every moment of this day, and she planned to participate more in the future.
All the players entered the gym in various stages of shock and slight exhaustion. The stair master was rough on the majority of the teams, but the terror of the elderly priest still reigned supreme. Commiserating over the old man's perfect record, they all compared the tactics that were unleashed upon them.
Naoi chuckled as the teens and called out to announce the matches, and all the coaches corralled their players to get ready.
The matched progressed smoothly, but it was obvious that compared to the Fukurodani Academy Group, Karasuno was struggling. Kagome's eyes narrowed as she watched her team face off with the crows. She could see that having the two first years missing was a blow to their strength, but it was more than that she thought. While she could understand being at a disadvantage without the duo, but Karasuno doesn't have that many players as it is. So, are they not training the others to be able to step in incase something happens?
She understood that the last thing you want to do is think of something happening to your players so that they can't play. But with so few members, it's just foolish to not be prepared. Granted that was one issue that she could see—
"Is everything all right Kagome-chan?"
Snapping back to reality, she looked at the coaches to see them watching her. "I'm not sure, yet."
"Hm?"
She sighed as looked back at the court, she wasn't sure about the second issue yet. Until the wayward duo arrived, she would reserve her judgement. "Just something that I'm trying to figure out."
Naoi blinked and shared a look with Nekomata-sensei. If she wasn't going to volunteer the information, they wouldn't push her.
The match ended with Nekoma crushing the crows once more.
As the day wore on, Karasuno lost every single match that they played. Kagome smiled to herself as she observed Hitoka get defensive of her team when she overheard some of the players talk about how Karasuno were a mediocre team. Just as Kiyoko calmed the protective first year down, the doors of the gym slammed open. All eyes turned to see the first-year duo of the crows standing in the entrance next to an unknown blonde woman.
Kuroo mockingly scowled at the late arrivals, "So the stars are showing up fashionably late? Pisses me off!"
Kagome snorted at her boyfriend, "You're just miffed that they made a better entrance than you did."
"Oi!"
Karasuno faced off against Shinzen for their last match of the day—which was also the first match for the tardy duo.
Kagome watched the crows carefully now that the team was complete. And she was not overly pleased with what she saw. The team was more settled—which was great—but that was it. There was nothing else that had changed. Their strength had not improved much since Golden Week. They haven't developed any new attacks, and they were overusing the crazy fast attack of theirs. All the teams that were finished with their sets observed the new duo and were impressed by the new additions. As the set came to an end, Karasuno claimed their first win of the day.
"This does not bode well."
Nekomata looked over at his niece and saw her observing the crows. "Finally figured out what was bothering you?"
"Karasuno… they haven't improved or changed much since we faced them last."
The head coach sighed in agreement. He could only hope that this weekend would show his old friend's team what they need to do to succeed.
Kenma sat in on his futon next to Inuoka and Hinata playing his video game as he listed to the younger players talk. Hinata had brought the latest volleyball magazine from Miyagi with him and Inuoka was thumbing through the pages while they gushed over players and practice.
"Shoyo, your fast attacks were amazing as always!"
Hinata frowned down at his feet as he thought about how one of the players from Shinzen caught up to the fast attack and touched the ball. He couldn't help but think of all the players that he's faced that have been able to stop or touch the ball. "But nothing has changed from before. It's no different from back then."
Kenma glanced at the redhead from the corner of his eye, it seemed that Hinata was seeing what his team was not—and what Kagome was frowning over.
"I came here to get stronger."
Inuoka set the magazine down and looked at his friend in concern before turning to the setter. "What do you think, Kenma-san?"
The second year frowned as he considered what to say. "If you want some tips on how to improve, there is one option…"
Hinata looked at him in interest as his fellow first year flinched, "Ke-kenma-san? You don't mean…?"
The young crow looked curiously between the two cats, "Nani?"
Kenma sighed and set down his game, "You could ask Kagome for training tips."
"Eh? Your manager?"
Inuoka rubbed the back of his neck, "She's a bit more than just our manager, Shoyo."
"Kagome is one of the reasons why Nekoma went from a barely ranked team, to become one of the top 8 schools in the prefecture within a year."
"Eh?!"
Bobbing his head in agreement, the spiky haired middle blocker confirmed Kenma's statement. "She's also our conditioning coach."
Kenma could see the wheels in Hinata's head turning and felt compelled in impart a warning, "Her training isn't easy, Shoyo. If you approach her for help, you have to be fully committed to what she assigns you. She doesn't accept half-assed effort."
Hinata absorbed the advice from his friends and said that he would think everything over. Soon the conversation moved to the cats' newest member, Lev. As they talked about the titan, Inuoka picked the magazine back up and flipped through the pages until he froze on a picture.
"Eh!?"
"Nani?"
Inouka showed Hinata the picture that got his attention. "Oh! That's the Great King, Oikawa. He's the number one setter in our prefecture."
Behind the boys the door opened and Tanaka walked in with Nishinoya, Kai, and Yamamoto. The two crows scowled at the mention of the pretty boy setter that all the girls fawned over.
"H-h-he… He's the one that tried to flirt with Kagome in the store!"
"NANI?!"
"Wait, what do you mean 'tried'?"
Kai looked at the picture in question, "Oh yeah. That's him. Kagome didn't process that he was trying to get her attention at all."
An evil grin slowly stretched across the faces of the older crows and they began to cackle maniacally.
Oh, just wait until they ran into that pretty boy again!
Back in Miyagi, a certain setter sneezed violently.
"Oi, Trashykawa! You better not be getting sick!"
"You're so mean to me, Iwa-chan!"
"Don't make me kick you."
Author's Note: A big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave a review for this story. I really do appreciate it! I hope you all enjoy this chapter, I couldn't shake the idea of Kirara participating in Grandpa Higurashi's fun, so it had to find its way into this chapter.
Until next time!
