And hello once more! Sorry for the long wait, a lot of stuff happened at the same time and I also found a place to read (and finish) the Haikyuu manga, so I've been pretty occupied for the last few weeks (month? I honestly don't know anymore). Again, thanks to everyone who's read this far into the story, I really appreciate it and I hope you've enjoyed the story so far. Moving on, the Tokyo away games continue in this chapter, and I might also continue into the next episode of the anime. Hope you enjoy!

~CavaKel

(P.S.: All bolded text in quotation marks is non-Japanese speech, usually English. Other languages will be specified immediately after the bold stuff.)

TW: mentions of scars and self-harm, also sort of repeat of death/car crash from a few chapters ago

I don't own Haikyuu, just my OC.

-Kaida POV-

In her dream Kaida found herself in the past, about four years ago. The white-walled hallway smelled like disinfectant, and the equally white lights shining down from the ceiling were uncomfortably bright. A white-clad nurse led a small figure away from a closed door, the young girl's orange hair the only color present in the corridor. The ten-year-old shouted in protest as she was pulled further from the hospital room. "That's my mom!" the girl screamed, kicking at the nurse and trying to get back to the door. "I'm old enough to see, let me see my mom! She can't be dead, she's not dead! Let me GO!"

She can't be dead.

'But she is, isn't she?' A female voice said in English, almost triumphantly. 'And you couldn't do anything. You couldn't even see her one last time before she died.'

'Shut up,' Kaida said to the voice, 'You can't do anything to me anymore, Gina, you're on the other side of the world.'

'Oh, what a coward!' The voice, Gina, sounded as if she were smiling. 'Who would've thought we could add more to the list? Freak, Pushover, Weak, Nobody, and now Coward! Tell me, then, Coward, how did you feel when you couldn't save either of them?'

The scene changed, and Kaida was watching her past self listen to music in the car with her father. The stoplight turned from red to green and the car drove forward, the two Minasakis oblivious to the other car speeding past the red light on their left until it slammed into them full force. Multiple sounds erupted all at once, a cacophony of screeching tires, creaking metal, and screams and shouts of people in other vehicles, all of which was eventually joined by the screams of a 14-year-old girl who was now an orphan, watching her father bleed out in the driver's seat as someone called 911.

'No,' Kaida's voice shook as she stumbled back, shaking her head frantically. 'Don't show me this. Stop it.'

'You couldn't save him, Kaida. Your watchful eyes, what happened to them? Where did your reflexes go? Y'know, it's all your fault he died. All. Your. Fault.' Gina's all-too-familiar face materialized in place of the vision, a brunette girl staring down at Kaida with cold blue eyes. A lazy smile stretched across the girl's face as she strode forward towards her victim. Kaida backed away from her middle school bully, but the older girl caught up to her easily. Gina grabbed Kaida's arm and yanked her left sleeve up, sneering at the red marks on her inner forearm. Kaida struggled against the girl's vice grip, trying to get as far away from her as possible. 'You're so weak. You couldn't save either of them. You couldn't even save yourself. You act strong in front of your friends, but they don't even know about your pathetic sob story or your sorry little secret, do they? 'Cause if they did, you'd be rejected immediately.' Gina traced the marks with her finger, and Kaida finally managed to pull her arm away. 'Cat scratches, huh? That's what you've told everybody thus far. But you shouldn't have cut just one arm. It's too obvious. Y'know, if you'd made some on the other arm it might be more convincing. It's too late now, though, they'll find out eventually anyway. Might as well start making more.'

'H-How did you even know they were there?' Kaida's voice shook as she took a few more steps away from the other girl. 'I never told anyone, nobody ever saw-'

'Oh, silly, I'm in your head! I know everything. And when your friends, your brother, and your precious volleyball club know what I know, you'll be nothing to them. And the best part? You can't do anything about it. You'll be alone again, and it'll be all… your… fault.' Gina took a step forward with each of her last three words, and Kaida took three steps back. Kaida's former bully smiled and suddenly shoved her backwards, sending Kaida falling over the edge of a cliff that hadn't been there before.

Kaida bolted upright with a strangled gasp, her chest heaving and eyes frantically darting around the room as she regained her bearings. She wiped the wetness off her cheeks with the corner of her shirt and pushed her blanket aside as she propped herself up on her good arm. Thankfully, all of the other managers were sleeping peacefully, meaning either they were all heavy sleepers or it had been a silent dream. This wasn't the first time she'd seen Gina in her sleep, and she knew it would probably not be the last, but this was one of the worst dreams she'd had in a while. She reached for her bag and pulled out the phone to check the time. 4:50 am. Pretty much right on time, so I don't have any nighttime left to look at the stars, she thought to herself. It was normal for her to wake up early in the mornings, and although she hated mornings as much as the average night owl, her internal clock typically wouldn't let her sleep past 6 on any given day, and her alarm got her up at 5. She shut off her upcoming phone alarm quickly so as not to disturb the other girls in the room, then got up, changed, and went outside to try and take her mind off of her nightmare.

Like Shoyo, Kaida had to take a bike 30 minutes up the mountain to get to school. This being her normal routine, she decided to keep it up and do 30 minutes of some other similar exercise. She ended up running around the outside of the school a few times, then doing what parkour she could with only one hand in commission. She looked down and picked up a few rocks, moving them around in her palm as she thought for a moment. What if I could simulate throwing knives with rocks? But they have a different feel, and no grip. I could just practice my aim, that would still work. She made up her mind and picked up a few more rocks, then went to stand in front of the school's main door. Okay, target. What should I aim for? Let's try the sign. She took one of her rocks and aimed at the school's sign, then envisioned Gina's head there for good measure and threw with everything she had. The rock landed right between where she'd imagined Gina's eyes to be, hitting the stone sign with a distant but solid thunk. Kaida pumped her fist, then aimed for a different spot in the school courtyard, hitting a knob on the branch of a nearby tree with deadly accuracy. This went on for a few more minutes before the door opened behind Kaida, the squeak of the door hinges startling Kaida out of her focused state and making her drop the remaining rocks in her hand. She turned to find Kageyama dressed in jogging gear, and he gave her a short greeting before trotting at a steady pace off of school grounds.

Kaida resumed her rock throwing for another few minutes before Shoyo exited the school building. He greeted her, too, before pausing and studying her face for a second. "Are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost," he asked, concerned.

"I'm alright, just had a nightmare," Kaida replied truthfully.

"But you look different from when you have the flashback kinda nightmares."

"Yeah, it was… I had a different kind of nightmare."

"Oh. Want to talk about it?"

"No, not really."

"Alright, then. See you later, Kai!" Shoyo jogged off of school grounds in the direction Kageyama had gone, then broke into a run as he turned the corner.

Kaida decided to call it a morning and went back inside, dropping off her stuff and making her way to the bathrooms to shower. Luckily she remembered the way this time, so she didn't have to worry about having to bother any more people if she got lost. By the time she exited the bathroom a few people were up, including one or two of the other schools' managers, and Kaida made polite conversation with them as she put away her stuff and freshened up. Her dream had made her a bit paranoid, and she absentmindedly tugged her usual cooling sleeves further down her wrists. She and a few of the other managers were tasked with making breakfast that morning, so she decided to head towards the kitchens and begin prepping ingredients until the others showed up to help.

Making and eating breakfast were both a bit more chaotic than it probably should have been, as some of the older boys would occasionally pop into the kitchen and cause a ruckus before the girls kicked them back out so they could continue with their task. Breakfast was served about an hour later, and Kaida was tasked with cleaning the areas they had used while a few of the other girls packed up leftover ingredients and others gave each person their breakfast tray through the window between the kitchen and the cafeteria. During the short lull in activity when nobody was approaching the window, the managers on duty chatted amiably amongst each other. Kaida found herself talking to the Shinzen manager and one of the Fukurodani girls.

"Did you guys notice?" the Shinzen manager asked. She made eye contact with the Fukurodani manager and grinned, the other girl nodded with a matching expression.

"Notice what? I never really looked at the window, I was on cleaning duty," Kaida said curiously.

"Minasaki, I think you're more popular than you realize," The Fukurodani manager, Suzumeda, said mysteriously.

"And what does that mean?" Kaida replied, even more confused now.

"Well," said the Shinzen manager, "In the past hour since we finished making breakfast I've seen at least five boys from different schools peek past the window while getting their food."

"Okay…? And what does this have to do with my popularity?"

"Minasaki, they were checking you out and you didn't notice?"

"I- they- what? Why?"

"Isn't it obvious? They like you!"

Kaida felt her face heat up, much to the older girls' amusement, but brushed off the boys' attention as simply curiosity. After all, she was a new manager and a "foreigner" of sorts, so she'd expected the guys to just do as her classmates had done, flooding her with questions and introductions before leaving her alone starting the day after. She guessed that the attention would probably disappear by the next training camp, and things would go back to how they were before. The two other girls disagreed heartily with Kaida's views on the matter, but Kaida stuck with her prediction. The boys filed out of the cafeteria soon enough, heading towards the gym to change and warm up for the practice matches.

Kaida and Shimizu watched the matches as they had done the day before, marking the stats of each player. Between points, Kaida took spontaneous notes of ideas, strategies, tells, and other things she noticed during each rally. During the rallies, Kaida still paid attention to both sides of the net and tried to predict the actions of the players, quietly pumping her fist when she was correct. She watched as the Nekoma coaches looked over at Karasuno, probably talking about them, but turned away before they could see her staring at them.

"The boys are doing pretty well today," Shimizu remarked during one of their matches. "Hinata and Kageyama are important parts of the team, as well as their quick attack. I'm glad they are able to participate in the training camp."

"Hm," Kaida agreed absentmindedly, watching the court intently as the Shinzen captain just barely missed Shoyo's close-eyed spike a second time. "It won't last," she muttered suddenly.

"Pardon?"

"It won't last. The quick, the element of surprise, it won't last. It needs to evolve somehow. I don't really know how, but it needs to change or else we'll fall behind, so those two are gonna have to do something."

"I agree with Minasaki," Sugawara said, walking over to join the two girls in their conversation. He, too, had his eyes on the court as he spoke. "They need to find a way to improve the quick, because if they're complacent for even a moment, they'll be left behind."

Kaida nodded. "I give it another one or two games before someone blocks the quick, probably someone on Nekoma because they've dealt with it before and therefore are more used to it. When that happens, Shoyo will get frustrated and eventually will do something about it, for better or for worse," Kaida turned towards Sugawara as she continued to analyze the situation. "This could rip apart those two's dynamic because Kageyama is stubborn and will probably get in some sort of spat with Shoyo, but once they get over it they'll be better than ever. If anything, it's similar to Tetsu's saying, but instead of the blood it's like they're muscles working in one body, and tearing apart and then repairing the muscle fibers will make it stronger." Both third years stared at the first-year girl for a moment, then shook their heads in amazement and turned back towards the game.

They played against Nekoma later that day, an interesting battle between well-matched players. Kaida had never seen Nekoma play before the training camp, and wasn't there when Karasuno had played practice matches with them in the spring. Due to this, she was quite surprised at how well each player on the Nekoma team matched with Karasuno, with each member of the clowder of cats seeming to match the energy of one or more of the guys in her murder of crows. For example, it seemed that Yaku, Nekoma's libero, had the same ranking on the team as Sugawara, both being the "mom" of their respective groups; similarly, Hinata could be compared to Inuoka and Lev in personality and reflexes, although both of the Nekoma first years were considerably taller than her older cousin.

The game dragged on and Kaida's first prediction came true when Shoyo was blocked by Lev during the match. Her second prediction came true earlier than expected, Shoyo declaring he'd keep his eyes open during quicks almost immediately after being blocked. He'd looked frustrated at getting his blind quick blocked just once, and Kaida guessed that it had happened a few times before, probably sometime during the preliminaries when she hadn't been at Karasuno yet. Shoyo left the gym a few moments later, and Kaida followed him out after Sugawara and Kageyama. She had a feeling things were going to get messy from here on out.

Well, there you have it, Chapter 5 is done! Thanks to everyone who followed and favorited and the few who left a review, and of course feel free to let me know about any inaccuracies, requests, ideas, anything about this story or related to it. See you next chapter!

~CavaKel

WhiteArcobaleno: Thank you so much for reviewing! Also thanks for reminding me about the trigger warnings, I almost forgot and I just added them in a few minutes ago. I definitely plan to have Kaida interact more with Kenma and Kuroo, and I realized I have sort of overlooked the second and third years a bit? I'll definitely work on adding more interactions between them and Kaida soon. Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!