It was the last day of practice and she can finally rotate back as Karasuno's official manager with Kiyoko. Even though Yachi couldn't sleep properly the night before due to her sore muscles, she was able to get up early and help up with the preparation for that day.
In the morning she ate a light breakfast before she joins the rest of her members in the gym. Upon entering the gym and walking towards Karasuno team, Nishinoya sees her face and brightly greeted her.
"Oh – Yacchan is back!" He greeted her loudly.
Yachi was caught off guard by the enthusiastic greeting. Even though she knew the members of her team are always energetic, she was still surprised how much energy Nishinoya had at this time of hour.
"Good morning, Nishinoya-san."
"Oh Yachi-san, you're back!" This time Tanaka came and greeted the blonde haired manager with a touched expression. "It felt like 100 years passed by when you're not with us."
"I get what you mean, Ryuu! I feel incomplete when Shimizu-san and Yacchan weren't with us these past few days."
"Like a year without rain!" Tanaka piped loudly in return.
"Alright you two – stop being so loud in the morning." Sugawara came to the rescue and stopped the two dramatic second years before it gets any worse. He then turned to Yachi and greeted her with a fresh smile, "Morning, Yachi-chan! Good to see you with us again."
"Sugawara-senpai, good morning!" She greeted him back cheerfully as she watched the vice-captain smiled back.
"Since its our last day here, let's do our best!"
"Yes, sir!" Yachi saluted to Sugawara's words. The boys laughed at her enthusiasm and then they began to talk about their recent progress with the other managers from the previous days.
Yachi was happy to learn that the other managers were very capable and that they helped the team tremendously despite being new to the rotation system.
"Kaori-san and Yukie-san from Fukurodani were very helpful when they were with us. Maybe because their team went to nationals often, it was very eye-opening." Sugawara spoke.
"To think there were many ways to get stronger, how manly!" Nishinoya pumped up his chest as if he had manifested this recent idea he received.
"That sounds just like what you'd say, Noya-san!" Tanaka cackled in agreement.
"Amazing. I'm glad that we were able to learn so many great things from the other teams." Yachi added.
"Yachi-san, could you come over here for a minute?" Yachi turns around to see Coach Ukai calling for her when Kiyoko waves at her. Yachi nodded and head straight to the man and greeted him.
"Good morning, Coach!"
Coach Ukai chuckles lightly at her bright greeting. Seems like she was getting used to the energetic aura of Karasuno team already.
"Good morning. I'd like to go over some things before we start our practice today. I want to know whether there are some things that you'd like to point out after you spend your time with the other teams. Anything we can learn from, that'd be extremely great if you girls share it with me and the team."
Kiyoko and Yachi took out their notes and go over what they wrote down from the previous days. Yachi didn't write much on her findings besides some details she noticed from several members – fortunately, Kiyoko made extremely detailed notes from her part which was very helpful for their data gathering.
By the end, with Yachi's and Kiyoko's data, Ukai was very grateful for both of the managers' analysis from the other teams and offered strategies to how Karasuno can improve their skills from now on.
"We still have a lot of holes to fill but this is more than enough. You both did an amazing job." Ukai complimented.
Yachi was very happy when she heard that from the coach. Even though she wasn't able to gather much, her notes were still helpful. She looked to Kiyoko in giddiness as the older girl lightly chuckled at the younger girl's reaction.
From then on, the practice will be starting soon, so Yachi helps Kiyoko around with some additional preparations. As Yachi was bringing in the filled water bottles to the team, she spotted some second years looking a little lost on their side.
Yachi hurried towards them and asked, "Hello everyone. Is everything alright?"
Ennoshita was the one who turned to see her first and greeted back, "Yachi-san. Ah – we are looking for our knee-pads, it seems like we've misplaced it somehow."
"I remembered putting them here a few minutes ago." Kinoshita replied, rubbing his light brown hair and looked a little bit disgruntled.
"I think someone took it by mistake? Our knee-pads are pretty common to other knee-pads." Narita spoke.
"I'll help look for them." Yachi announced and started to look around the area as well.
"O-oh, thank you Yachi-san." The second years replied as they continued to look for the kneepads as well.
As Yachi moves a little further away from the spot where Kinoshita pointed earlier, she spotted a pile of stacked towels and spotted a black pad underneath it. Yachi reached to move the stacked towels and found several knee-pads scattered on the spot.
"Found it!" Yachi took the knee-pads from the ground and hurried back to the second years to give it back to them.
"Oh so that's where it was! Why didn't I remember it?" Kinoshita received the knee-pads and give the rest to his friends.
"Next time you should remember where you keep it, Kinoshita." Narita reminded which made the other boy smiles sheepishly in defeat.
"Thank you, Yachi-san." Ennoshita thanked her.
Yachi nodded, "Un! Please make sure to keep your knee-pads with you, a lot of people from the other team loses theirs because they misplaced theirs constantly too. So it's better to just keep it in your pocket if you don't use it."
"I'll be sure to remember that. Thank you very much, Yachi-san." Kinoshita replied.
Afterwards, their coach called them all to come over and told them to start stretching. Yachi walks towards Kiyoko where she'll be getting ready for their practice when she spotted the first years as she passes by.
"Good morning, Yachi-san! It's good to see you here with us!" Hinata greeted her happily.
"Good morning, Hinata! I'm happy to be back again. Please do your best today."
"That goes without saying haha!" He replied before joining the others for the stretch.
Yachi also caught Yamaguchi, Tsukishima and Kageyama walking pass by her.
"Morning, Yachi-san.", "Good morning, Yachi-san." Both Yamaguchi and Kageyama greeted her with their own tone.
Tsukishima merely nodded at her and continued to walk by. Yachi greeted them back with her own smile and watched as the boys joined the rest for the stretch.
After the team was done with stretching, Daichi gathered the boys around and coach started with their practice officially.
"Our first game is with Nekoma. How did we do yesterday?" Coach begins.
Kiyoko flips her notebook open, "This will be our third set overall with Nekoma. Yesterday we played two sets with them. The scores were 17-25 and 19-25, both our losses."
"Simply put, we haven't won a single set." Coach concluded with a defeated smile to this statement and looked over to Nekoma, "But if we calm down and go out there in full force, they should be opponents we can fight on equal footing."
He looked back to Hinata and Kageyama, "Hinata and Kageyama, this is your first Nekoma set in a while, isn't it? Even though we had less chance to practice with them during this training camp, go show 'em what you've got."
"Yes!" Both boys replied loudly.
The referee rings for the match to start and all of the boys took their place in position. Yachi and Kiyoko joins Ukai and Takeda-sensei on the chairs as they watch the match starts. Kiyoko took the chance to write down the scores this time as Yachi keeps watch.
As soon as the game started, Yachi knows that Nekoma still easily took the lead for the game. It is not surprising anymore that the members of Nekoma can easily catch up to Karasuno quick sets especially the fast quick that was done by Hinata and Kageyama.
From Nekoma's side, she sees Lev quickly reads the ball to where it's going once it was set by Kageyama. He moved quickly to block the spike that was hit by Hinata, watching it drop back to Karasuno's court.
"Read block was it? Lev-kun is sure improving very quick." Yachi noted and Kiyoko turned to her from this comment.
"I heard that Haiba-san is a newcomer to volleyball but he's pretty quick in catching up." Kiyoko spoke.
Yachi hummed, "I think he's best at blocking since he's tall and quick but his receives might need to improve more."
At Yachi's words, the girls watched as Lev flailed when he wasn't able to receive the ball properly and flinched when Yaku nagged at him for the bad move.
Kiyoko chuckles lightly at the scene as Karasuno made another point. "You're right."
However, despite Lev's lack of experience in volleyball – he's quick to prove that he's able to catch up quick to offensive attacks like fast quicks by Hinata and Kageyama as Lev blocked another spike from the freak duo.
"H-he stopped it. He stopped that quick attack so easily." Takeda-sensei spoke in amazement when he saw Lev's blocking again.
"Well, Nekoma has been pretty good in reacting to quick attacks. On top of that, the newbie middle blocker's height and quick reaction are amazing."
After several points for Nekoma, Ukai called for a time out and briefed on the team again for how they can counter Nekoma's quick blocking and strong defense. Yachi took this time to go around the team and give out the drinks.
Upon giving a bottled drink to Kageyama, she noticed he seemed a bit tight with the expression on his face.
"Kageyama-kun, here's your water."
Kageyama snapped out of his thoughts when Yachi showed the bottle towards his way. He blinked for several times before taking it from her hand and drank it.
"Thank you." He replied absent-mindedly, as if his mind was on somewhere else.
"Un." Yachi noted, a little worried that Kageyama was such in a deep expression that doesn't seem to look fine to her. Even though she wanted to help, she couldn't really give helpful advices like coach Ukai so she merely moved on to the third years and gave their drinks.
The match continued again and this time it seems like there was slight a cold and stinging tension in the air now.
'Everyone seems…pressured than usual somehow.' She observed.
It all shifts into something more jarring when the ball that was set for Asahi was stolen away when Hinata suddenly jumps to his direction to spike his ball, with an expression of rawness of thirst after the ball on his face.
Yachi eyes widened because it was so quick and before she could realize what was happening, Hinata had crashed into Asahi as he fell roughly to the floor.
There was a stiff silence for a few seconds before everyone started responding to what happened.
"Wh-hwa-hh-haa – " Asahi was making incomprehensive words as he loomed over Hinata in worry when Hinata broke out of his trance and sat up and apologized repeatedly.
"I'm sorry!" He then began to bow on the ground, "I was just staring at the ball – I'm sorry! Are you okay? I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Asahi reaches out gently, "I'm perfectly fine…"
"Hey, what the hell was that, you guys better be careful." Tanaka added with a surprised expression.
Nishinoya added with a smirk, "With that kind of clash, Shoyo's going to be the one flying."
"Pay attention to your surroundings, idiot! Why do you think everyone's calling the ball, you dumbass!" Ukai yelled in frustration and nagged on Hinata.
Meanwhile Kageyama added the fire by loudly yelling at him too. "Moron! Hinata, you Moron!"
"Now, now – calm down, Kageyama." Daichi entered to calm the frustrated setter and try to cool the situation down a little bit.
Yachi watched the whole thing with concerned eyes. She didn't realize she just stood up from her seat and slowly sits down again after seeing the captain putting everyone back in position.
"They're not injured." Kiyoko reassured her.
"R-right." Yachi replied.
She was unsure but she knew she didn't imagine it. When Hinata jumped towards Asahi's direction, she saw that raw expression when Hinata gets really deeply into volleyball.
"Do you need a reason to not want to lose?"
'Was this perhaps…like that moment as well?' Yachi's mind ponders back to the past where Hinata expressed his raw thought and emotion on winning in volleyball.
'He really wants to be stronger and win, no matter what it takes. It's not an ill thought but…it's kind of scary.'
Then Hinata surprised Yachi more when she overhears their conversation. Hinata boldly declared that he's going to do the quick attacks with his eyes open.
'I couldn't understand the whole thing from their conversation but…' Yachi then turns to Kiyoko for confirmation.
"I wasn't imagining the tension between Hinata and Kageyama, right?"
The older girl responded, "Yes. But it's not just Hinata and Kageyama. Ever since Hinata bumped into Azumane, they're all on edge."
Yachi noticed it too. The way their air from Karasuno shifted into something sharp. There was an unspoken revelation to the team from what happened to Hinata from earlier.
He was hungry and tired of being in the same state as he was. He's hungry for improvement.
But that kind of thought can be good and bad for the team. It'll certainly change the flow of the game drastically. With everyone not equipped with their skills and experience, all of the new tries can be considered risky.
But would that be a bad thing? Yachi sees that Kageyama resented the suggestion the most when Hinata wishes to open his eyes for their fast quicks in order to see his view clearly when he spikes in the air.
It is extremely risky but Yachi knew that Hinata was also right. Though they don't seem to know how to do it right since they've always been doing fast quicks with his eyes closed.
Yachi took this time to reflect on the loss of the set from the match and wrote all of it down in her notes. She can't help but feel conflicted along with this new revelation of Hinata wanting to become stronger yet –
'Would becoming stronger means sacrificing what you've been good at?'
According to their schedule, the last day of the training week ended earlier than the previous days. Karasuno could only have their practice match against Nekoma team for the day and then followed by cooling down stretches.
Yachi couldn't help but feel uncomfortable ever since the practice match against Nekoma ended. It seems like the tension between Hinata and Kageyama didn't cool down so she tries her best not to touch upon the topic between the two and help out with Kiyoko in wrapping up for the day.
She collected all the bottles, the towels and return the vests. When Yachi was collecting the balls to the cart, she sees a newcomer placing the balls inside the cart she was pushing.
"You seem a little off today, Yachi-san."
Yachi looked up, "O-oh, I'm fine, Akaashi-san. It's been a long week." She tries to put up a smile, hoping that she didn't look too tired.
"I can imagine. This is your first training camp with a team. How was it?"
"Ah – um…everything is….very new." Yachi replied, the only thing that could come up to her mind right now.
Akaashi lightly laughs, picking up another ball to put in the cart again. "I guess you can say it like that. The first week is always rough, it was the same for me too last year."
"You seem like you're able to keep things under control though, Akaashi-san."
"Do I?" Akaashi raised his eyebrow before he smiles when he replied, "I'll be honest with you, I'm actually not that organized as a person. Even though I look like I may be able to control things within my boundaries, it's not often I get to do that successfully especially in the team."
"I think you're doing great so far. I mean, you are the vice-captain so it's pretty reassuring to have you in the team."
Akaashi's smiles widened as he picked up another ball, "Thank you. That's comforting to hear."
Yachi replied in her own smile, "Well, you obviously deserve it, Akaashi-san. You're one of the most dependable person I've met in this training camp so far."
As Yachi fills the cart with the balls she picked up from the ground, Akaashi couldn't help but smile wider at her words. Though she might say it easily, her words voiced out purely honest from her heart that it was extremely comforting to hear.
"Sorry – coming through!" Someone announced and made their way to put the large amount of balls that was carried in their arms, dropped it to the cart.
"Thank you, Bokuto-san. You've managed to pick so many at once." Yachi said.
"That's because I've got big strong arms right here. See." Cue Bokuto flexing his arm muscle towards Yachi, making the girl laugh at Fukurodani's ace antics.
Akaashi shakes his head with his own chuckle, "That is so like you, Bokuto-san."
Author's Note:
Hello everyone!
Thank you for reading this chapter! I'm not really happy with this chapter but it's out here so might as well post it. Since Yachi is back to Karasuno, everything can go either good or bad from now on - hahahaha. I think some of you might know what happens next is the very thing that I don't really want to write about because...yeah but I gotta do it lol.
I'm honestly unsure of how I can make the story line more...I don't - like - make more sense or something like that. I'm not really happy that my chapters and writing came out choppy and unpolished because I'm pushing myself to put out a chapter instead of trying to make the best of the chapters I'm writing. So I'm going to take my time for the next chapters and post it once I'm okay with it because I don't want my chapters to came out choppy and unpleasant to read.
Not so much fluff or sugary sweet scenes for this chapter since I'm trying to mellow out and fold the plot for the climaxes hahaha so hopefully it can come out natural and smooth - pfft i don't know what i'm doing hahahaha
Once again, thank you all for reading! It'll take a while for me to post the next one but I'll see you all in the next chapter!
