Chapter 4:

She was glad that she made it back home in time for dinner. Yachi was so tired after joining the practice earlier that she didn't have much energy left in conversing with her mom so she ate quietly. After she was done with dinner, she helps to clean up the rest of the dirty plates as her mom prepares for her work.

"Hitoka, I've got one more meeting so I'll be home late."

"Okay. See you later, mom." Yachi replied as she dries the plates from the racks.

"Make sure you clean up over here."

"Yes."

As her mom moves to pick up her folder from the table, she sees Yachi's open bag and funny-drawn-looking poster came out of it. Intrigued by the funny drawing, the woman picked it up and inspected it.

"Hm? What is this?" Yachi's mom laughs lightly at the drawing as Yachi perked up at what her mother was looking at.

Yachi came over to her mom's side. "Actually, I was invited to be a manager for the boys' volleyball team."

"Volley?"

"Yes."

At that moment, the ball rang and her mother places down the poster and walked towards the door. Yachi follows along as her mother continues to talk, "Didn't Karasuno's volleyball team make it to the nationals before? They are a powerhouse, right?"

"Yes. Lately they've been strong as well." Yachi hops down to the door and unlocks it, opening the door to reveal Yachi's mother's assistant.

"The taxi's here." Fugaku-san says as he opens the door wider.

"Do you know anything about volleyball?" Yachi's mother asks.

Even though she asked it in a gentle tone, it seems it was sharp enough to shake Yachi's mind.

"I plan on learning more about it." Yachi responded.

"That's fine but joining passionate people when you aren't going to give your all is the rudest thing anyone can do."

The words hit on Yachi like a hard rain but Yachi understands that her mother was being right. Still, it didn't sit right with her afterwards. Was she not passionate enough to join the club? Was she not good enough to participate as the manager to support the team? Maybe there are someone who is better at becoming a manager than she was?

Yachi's anxiousness grew slowly from that moment regarding to volleyball. She didn't want to disappoint anyone after all much less the volleyball team who worked so hard to make it to the nationals. She didn't want to ruin their momentum.

"I'm counting on you to make breakfast tomorrow." Her mom says before she leaves the apartment and closed the door behind her.

Yachi ponders in silence over her mother's words and her thoughts about joining volleyball.


For the next volleyball practice after school, Kiyoko and Yachi had a conversation about becoming a manager at the girl's changing room when Kiyoko saw Yachi pondering over the blank page of the club application form.

Kiyoko explains that even though she was in a sports team previously, she didn't know anything about becoming a manager or volleyball.

"I don't think you have to like something in order to try. You don't need an unwavering will or a lofty motive to start. Sometimes things that you start on a whim end up becoming very important to you too. I think you just need a little curiosity to start."

Yachi considers her senpai's words on this. Despite her mother saying that not giving her all might be considered rude to joining the team but she also weighs out the option of trying out something out of curiosity. Yachi was in fact curios about volleyball and the team that plays it.


Upon reaching the gymnasium, Kiyoko ordered Yachi to prepare for Ouginishi school that will come by to play a practice match. She starts by heading towards the stage to grab some chairs out of the compartment when Hinata came to her and asked whether she needs any extra hands.

"No, it's fine. Just do your own thing."

Hinata then proceed to pump himself up by slapping his hands against his cheeks hard which shocks Yachi in return.

Watching Hinata hyping himself up, Yachi grew curios. "Um, today is a practice match, right? I was wondering why you can study so hard to play in away games and gets fired up after playing a game."

"Huh, it's because I want to get stronger and win." Hinata seems genuinely confused about her question.

"I see…I'm sure you have your own reasons to win."

"Reason?" Hinata walks closer and towers Yachi's height before his expression shifts into something raw. "Do you need a reason to not want to lose?"

Yachi trembles at his expression. 'Was it offensive to ask him that?' She gulps.

Hinata then looked aside and spotted Kageyama who has shaking his water bottle while he leaned on to the stage. "Hey, Kageyama. Do you need any reason to not want to lose?"

"Ha? How should I know?" He turned around to reply, furrowing his eyebrows. "Is there a reason to eat when you're hungry?"

"Right? Hmm…" Hinata hums in agreement as he went into a deep thought over this.

Yachi felt a little silly with their answers. 'So this is the same level as hunger for them.'

"Sorry, that was an inane question." Yachi spoke out.

"Inane question?" Both Hinata and Kageyama tilst their head in confusion.

Then they both flinched at Tsukishima's voice from the distance. "A foolish question or a comment said to abase oneself after asking such a question. We just went over it the other day!"

The two boys then faltered at the reminder.

Yachi chuckles at their reaction before she continues to lift a chair out of the compartment when Kageyama comes and helps her slid two chairs at one time with his hands. Yachi was about to tell him that she was fine doing it on her own but Kageyama cuts to it first.

"Hey, I really don't understand how you say you've never do anything for your own sake. Is becoming a manager such a big thing for you?" Kageyama asks as he carries the chairs in his hand.

Yachi shifted the chair she carries currently as she answers Kageyama's question. "It does seem a little silly but I rarely do things for my own sake. Maybe it's because I'm afraid of the outcome."

"The outcome?" They both carried the chairs to the other side of the room to line them up.

Yachi nodded. "I'm scared of failure. Truthfully, I'm scared of not being successful. It feels like I have to do everything by myself and if I don't I'll have to face the consequences and face the disappointment."

Kageyama blinks at her words, familiar with her words and feelings of it as well. While he places the chairs down, he spoke out. "But you won't be by yourself."

"Huh?" Yachi placed down the chair that she carries before staring at Kageyama.

Kageyama stood up and looked down to her, facing her directly with his honestly. "You won't be alone in the process. I…I used to think like that too but recently reality showed me that it doesn't have to be lonely doing things that you want to do."

"Kageyama-kun…" Yachi wondered what he meant by telling her that he used to have the familiar phase like hers. You won't be alone in the process – rings quite a bell for her in this situation.

Kageyama suddenly cleared his throat and shifts his eyes to the side. "Besides…it would be awful if you won't tutor us anymore. Your presence helped me – I mean us – your presence helped us a lot, Yachi-san."

Yachi felt astonished when she sees Kageyama's cheeks slightly tinted with a shade of pink as he kept shifting his eyes away from hers momentarily. He cleared his throat again and covered his mouth with the back of his hand, suddenly feeling awfully –

'Shy? Why is Kageyama suddenly…'

"Kageyama. If you're done helping, then set some balls for me." Tanaka's voice suddenly cuts in and Kageyama turned around rapidly.

Yachi sees it for a few seconds when she spotted the tips of Kageyama's ears turned pink when she faced away from her.

When Ouginishi came Yachi helped setting up the uniforms and colored vests as well as collecting the stray balls on the ground. Incidentally since this was a boys' team, it didn't really matter much where they change their uniform so when Hinata instantly pulls up his shirt right in front of Yachi, her face went flushed red when she sees him topless before her as she turns to look aside and a few steps away from the members who were starting to change their tops to the volleyball uniform.

"Sorry, you'll have to get used to this." Kiyoko senpai tells her gently, feeling sorry for the girl who experienced a culture shock.

Yachi watches the team on as they bicker noisily around with each other, reminding her of something very familiar. "A flock of birds." She commented by the spectacle.

Kiyoko chuckles and agreed. "Well they are crows after all but once they play a game they get along with each other well."

Which reflects the truth when Yachi sees the entire team's aura shifted into something ravenous when they entered the court. When the referee blew the whistle, words seem to freeze in Yachi's brain when she sees Kageyama jumped and did a service ace that landed a point for the team. The game followed up by a rally where the team keeps on hitting the ball with powerful spikes, blocking the ball over the net with height and saving the ball from touching the ground with amazing reflexes.

"What an intense game…" Yachi couldn't help but feel impressed more and more.

Then she sees the quick movement from Hinata as he ran across the court and jumps taller than the net, spiking the ball that was tossed by Kageyama. It went by so quick and fast like a lightning that it caught her off guard, spiking the ball with an incredible power.

"When they keep focusing on the powerhouses they lose sight of the small crow." Kiyoko commented.

I can fly! Hinata's words seems to ring in her mind when they met each other for the first in her class. 'Hinata did really fly. Amazing.'

Yachi felt even more curious to see the amazing quicks by Hinata and Kageyama throughout the game. She was so into it that she sometimes forgets to roll the point board for the score.

When the practice match was over, Yachi did her usual rounds by collecting the balls and fold the chairs to put it back to the compartment. This is when Hinata bounced up back to her again and asked whether she had fun watching the game earlier.

"Then join the team as a manager, please!" Hinata voiced.

"Um…"

"Do it, Yachi-san!"

"For an amazing team like this, a Townsperson B like me, is going to get in the way." Yachi voices her concern.

"Oh I played a Townsperson B too before but I got in trouble because I was too hyped up for it." Hinata added.

On the other hand, Kageyama who passes by snorted at Hinata's comment. "Townsperson B. Ha."

Hinata hissed back towards Kageyama. "Don't make fun of me! Townsperson B has its own coolness!"

Yachi inflated at his words. He voiced such confidence and trust for the role of Townsperson B.

"I see." Kageyama didn't seem impressed.

"Then Kageyama, what role did you play as?" Hinata grumbled.

Kageyama turned to face them and lifted his chin up. "The moon."

"Was that even needed?" Tsukishima commented briefly.

"Damn it, that's cool." Hinata gritted his teeth in envy.

"I played as a horse before." Asahi chirped brightly.

"Townsperson B has its own coolness." Yachi muttered under her breath.

Joining passionate people when you aren't going to give your all is the rudest thing anyone can do.

I think you just need a little curiosity to start

You won't be alone in the process

Yachi's determination swirls inside her as she looked back to the team full of ideas running inside her mind. If there is one thing she can support is through her own way.

When she reaches back home, Yachi cleaned up, ate her dinner and went to her desk immediately as she starts to sketch out the outline for the volleyball donation poster. This is the way that she can help through her way.

Her phone buzzed a few times signaling messages coming in. Yachi flips it open to find some messages from Hinata.

Yachi-san, I have some literature work that I need to work over with you. Is it okay if we do a study session at your place on Saturday tomorrow if it's not a bother? Kageyama also needed some help in this as well.

Yachi hums as she thinks over the weekend schedule before she texted back.

Sure. I'm free on Saturday and you're both welcome to come over to study. Here's my address.

A few minutes after her reply, Hinata messaged back.

Thank you, Yachi-san! You're the best!

Yachi smiles at his reply before she slaps her own cheeks and pumped up herself. "Yosh – do your best, Hitoka!"