Chapter 5

"Look, they've opened a new shop here while I was away." Issei exclaimed as he pointed out of his passenger seat window. "I can't wait to see the first years, you think they're taller than us now. Oh, now that I think of it Daichi, Asahi and Sugawara aren't first years anymore."

"Shut up, I'm driving," said his twin Jiro, who was sat in the driver's seat. The car slowed down as it approached a traffic light.

Yuna complained, "Why are you guys dropping me off, I could've just cycled it."

Jiro looked at her through the rearview mirror. His voice was no-nonsense when he said, "How many trips were you planning on making with your bike for those groceries you're taking?"

"Like six." Hearing her response, there was silence in the car. "I was an athlete too, I could easily make six trips."

"Yeah, and then you'd pass out when it's time for training," Kaen, one of the younger twins, chimed in sarcastically.

"Okay, I get why Issei and Jiro are here. But why is the peanut gallery coming with us?" Yuna continued to list her complaints, being squashed in the middle seat between the younger pair of twins, Kaen and Kaito.

"Issei is buying Chipotle," Kaito replied in his usual calm voice.

"Wait, you lot are getting Chipotle? Without me?"

After a rowdy ride to the training facility, the full car empties one by one with only Kaen staying inside saying the facility looked too dusty and he didn't want to trigger his allergies. Issei, the eldest of the sibling looked at the small building as it looked the exact same as it did when he was in high school and came for training camps. This left Yuna, Jiro and Kaito to actually unload the groceries from the car.

Hearing the sound of a car engine, Daichi and Sugawara curiously came out of the building wanting to see who it was. Although it was mostly just familiar faces, their shoulders stiffened when they made eye contact with Issei, the older of the twin senpais.

"Daichi, Sugawara, look at the two of you. You actually look like third years!"

"That's because they are third years," Jiro pointed out in an impatient tone. "Stop standing around and help out. Daichi, Suga, take the groceries inside. They should last you throughout the training camp."

"Is Asahi not here?" Issei asked as he handed a large bag to Daichi.

"He should be inside, let me get some of the guys to come and help out."

Daichi didn't just call out Asahi, the whole team assembled out of curiosity of who these strangers were. The second years who were already acquainted with Yuna's siblings had no trouble starting conversation. Tanaka and Nishinoya rushed over to Kaito as they were video game buddies, and Kaito who was normally quite shy engaged in an animate conversation with the pair. The two second years then moved on to annoy Kaen who was still sat inside the locked car wanting to have nothing to do with whatever was going on outside.

The first years, particularly Hinata and Kageyama stepped forward to talk to the alumni. Asahi was doing his very best to stand right at the back, remembering how scary the twins could get when they were on the court.

"Did you play with the Little Giant?" Hinata questioned, and Issei took a moment to look at the smaller boy.

"The Little Giant? He was our senpai, a year older than us."

"He was your senpai?"

"Yeah, you should've seen him on the court. He would put the rest of us to shame despite being shorter than us. So cool!"

"Coooool!"

"Asahi, I heard you're the ace. Come join us!" Asahi's shoulders jumped slightly as he heard his name being called by the older twins. "Look at you, you used to be so cute and small."

Issei's boisterous personality was a good match with Hinata's, and the two engaged in what seemed like a never ending conversation about their volleyball idol with Asahi quietly being stuck in the middle.

"Your year went to the nationals," Kageyama said, starting a conversation with Jiro who was much calmer than the other alumni.

"Coach Ukai trained us, so there was no way we weren't going to the nationals with his coaching."

"How was the stadium?"

"The Tokyo stadium made my heart skip. Go all out in the volleyball club in high school, a lot of people won't get an opportunity like that after graduation unless they pursue volleyball professionally."

Yuna walked past all the excitement carrying a large camera tripod, and was approached by Yamaguchi and Tsukishima. Yamaguchi reached out his hands to take the tripod out of her arms.

"Let us carry that for you, senpai."

"It's fine, these aren't that heavy anyway."

Yamaguchi took the tripod out of her hands regardless of her protest and said, "you should let us help you!"

Tsukishima reached out for the black bag hanging on one of her shoulders and swung it around his own. "I'll take this," he uttered.

"It's amazing how your family have two sets of twins," Yamaguchi brought up. "They're all identical twins too. Do you have a twin you're not telling us about, senpai?"

"Don't even joke about me having another sibling. Although an ally would be greatly appreciated."

"Do your younger siblings play volleyball as well?"

"Yes, most of my family does. My grandfather was a coach, so most of my paternal uncles and cousins play volleyball. They sometimes have mini tournaments during family meets."

As Yuna and Yamaguchi were talking, Tsukishima thought of something. He pointed it out, "why don't you play volleyball? Karasuno has a girls volleyball club, I'm sure most elementary schools have one too to start kids off, although they may not be as popular as basketball or football."

"Yes, I was thinking that too." Yamaguchi agreed with him. "You would've been more likely to join if you played with your family. You are really athletic too, I'm surprised you chose to be a manager instead of joining a sports club."

"I used to play when we were all little. But things get really competitive now so I just watch out of fear for my life." Yuna explained to the pair. With her family members, especially the boys being well seasoned volleyball player, it got harder for her to join for a quick and fun game as they were all playing to win, even if it was at a small family gathering. "Besides, my elementary school had the cutest cheerleading uniforms. I saw some seniors in elementary school wear them and wanted to join as soon as I saw them."

This conversation was a little too reminiscent of when they heard Nishinoya explain why he chose Karasuno over other, more suitable high schools.

'Because of her face I forget the fact that she is probably as dumb as Noya and Tanaka senpai.' The first year pair thought after hearing Yuna beam with pride over why she first joined the cheerleading club.

Feeling guilty of thinking that, Yamaguchi changed the topic relatively fast. "Why did you bring a tripod, senpai?"

"Oh, I brought a camcorder we use to record tournaments games my brothers play in." She replied, gesturing to the black bag Tsukishima was carrying. "I was planning on recording some progress over the next few days during training. You see, you two are pretty good at understanding verbal feedback, but some of the guys like Tanaka and Noya would benefit from seeing their progress with their own eyes."

"Isn't that a lot of effort?" Tsukishima questioned, but to Yamaguchi he seemed uncharacteristically invested into this conversation. Instead of asking his tall friend directly, he instead opted out on giving him a questioning glance, knowing he'll understand what he means. Yuna didn't seem to notice as she was thinking of a fitting answer.

"I don't mean to be rude, but it's just a high school club. It's not going to help you in the long run, wouldn't it be better to just study and graduate with good grades and keep the club as a hobby?"

"I mean I used to skip practice sometimes last year. I was just a manager, besides the third years then never complained because my older brothers were their seniors. Coach would pretty much be the only one to get angry from time to time, but he had his hands full with the third years and first years at the time. I treated it as nothing more than something to pass time with and wait for my friends to finish their club activities."

"The old coach Ukai was really strict, so we had a lot of members quit out of frustration. But it's disrespectful to keep acting half-heartedly like I did last year if everyone else is working hard."

Yamaguchi found reason in her explanation, but Tsukishima didn't look very convinced. He asked out of curiosity, because he could relate to her indifferent attitude towards the club in her first year. But he attended practices, and the training camp so he felt like he was doing as much as he was obligated to do.

"Don't worry too much about me, I'm just doing what I can to help out and it's actually quite fun. If you two want I can burn training footage onto a disk for you to take home."

"Yuna!" As she was accompanying the two boys back out to help carry some grocery bags in she heard her older brother's voice call out for her. Issei stood there, waving his arms around. "Take care of yourself, don't trust any of the boys coming from Tokyo."

"Ugh." Yuna grimaced almost embarrassed at how overbearing Issei was being. From the corner of her eyes she also noticed how Yamaguchi and Tsukishima let out a chuckle, embarrassing her further. Issei then gathered the team up into a small circle formation.

"Now listen boys, if any of those scummy city boys acts chummy with my sister you better beat them up."

"Protecting Yuna isn't really our forte," Tanaka pointed out.

"Yeah, we have our hands full protecting Kiyoko-san." Nishinoya added, "We'd rather not waste time when we have to protect Kiyoko-san."

Ennoshita interrupted, "I don't think we should go around beating other guys up. We could get expelled from school."

"Violence won't solve anything," Asahi stated.

"My poor sister was harassed by boys who would pull on her pigtails since elementary school, but now that I live all the way out in Tokyo I can't protect her all the time."

"Poor Yuna!" Asahi sympathised with his underclassman.

Hinata shared the same enraged tone as Issei, "Why would they pull on senpai's hair for?" Issei, who bonded with Hinata over their volleyball idol patted him on the back for his response. But before he could answer, his twin Jiro dragged him away by his collar back to the car.

"You've embarrassed your younger siblings enough."

"Heed my words!" Issei uttered dramatically, before changing his tone back to normal and waving at the girl's standing in the back. "Bye Shimizu, take care of Yuna. Oh, you stay away from those Tokyo boys too! Miyagi guys are the best." He gave them a final thumbs-up to emphasise his point.

"Bye senpai," Shimizu waved back, before turning to Yuna in amusement. "Looks like senpai's haven't changed since they graduated."

Around the same time in Tokyo, Nekoma High's volleyball club was having a practice match amongst themselves to prepare themselves for their match against Karasuno. They sat on the gym floor, huddled up together and sipping on their water bottles during their small game break. Yamamoto was in deep thoughts as he stared at the towels laying in disarray on a bench near the side of the gym.

"Y'all think Karasuno has girl managers?"

His voice sounded almost too envious imagining the fact that they would. Female managers weren't that rare amongst male sports team. Even Fukurodani who they played against quite often in practice matches had two managers.

"I bet they only have a male manager." Yamamoto continued, as though it was wishful thinking.

"What does it matter, we'll be playing against the team not the managers." Yaku heaved a sigh, sensing that Takatora had something stupid thought up.

"I bet 1,000 Yen they have a female manager." Kuroo decided to play along with Takatora, earning a glare from Yaku. "Kenma will you wager anything in this bet."

"No, it's stupid," Kenma muttered with his full attention on his phone.

"Fine, I bet 1,000 Yen on them having a male manager." Takatora got fired up.

Kuroo scanned the circle to find any other potential betters. "Kai?"

"I'll pass."

Back in Miyagi, the practice gym was slowly being prepped for the first day of training camp once everyone was somewhat settled down. It started off with Coach Ukai making the hard choice between having Kageyama and Sugawara as the team's official setter.

Yuna stood out in the gym as everyone was pacing around preparing for practice trying to adjust the tripod and camcorder at a good height for it to get practice footage.

"Yuna, need any help with that?" Sugawara approached her with a smile, though the news Ukai broke to the team at the start of the day was obviously bothering him despite him not showing it.

"I'm not sure if the camera's too high up, I do want to capture some footing as well when you guys practice receives."

"You'll probably have to adjust it throughout practice then if they switch to practice spikes."

"It's fine senpai, Kiyoko senpai agreed to help me once she's done filling the water bottles."

Despite this, Sugawara stood unmoving at his spot as if he wanted to help and just let his mind get rid of thoughts of Kageyama for a short moment. He turned the camera on, and the pair looked at the display screen to see that the angle was still off.

"Should we move the camera further back?"

"If it's too close to the net some idiot will knock the tripod over with the ball."

"Suga-senpai, can you do a trial shot just for me to do a test recording?" Yuna then looked around the gym further to find some more test subjects. "Tanaka, Noya, can you both do a spike and receive? Suga-senpai agreed to set for you, I just need to see if the camera can capture everything."

"We should get Kageyama to set," Sugawara whispered quietly, only enough for her to hear. "Tanaka and the others will have to get used to his playing style and vice versa."

Yuna responded by gesturing towards Kageyama, who was in his own world warming up for practice, trying to ignore Hinata who was sat centimetres away trying to copy his every moves.

"Let them warm up for now. He's pretty thorough so it'll take a while."

By the newly set up volleyball net were the loud second year duo already waiting for their setter to join with a ball in their hands. "Sugawara, hurry up!"

With a light jog, the third year setter made it towards one side of the net along with Tanaka, while Nishinoya was on the other side, his eyes focused on the ball. Yuna looked at the camcorder screen, before pulling the tripod further back as she couldn't see Nishinoya in the screen. Sugawara ended up setting more than just a couple of times for Yuna's test recordings as they worked together to adjust the camera angle.

The day passed uneventfully. With the team training under the guidance of the new coach, Kiyoko and Yuna tried their best to support their efforts. Between handing out towels and energy drinks, to making lunches and small snacks in between to keep the boys fuelled, the girls found themselves equally as busy as the boys. Eventually, the sun started to set and Ukai decided for the first day of training camp to come to an end.

The boys were huddled in a corner of the gym doing some post workout stretches to avoid waking up with cramps the next morning. The managers took the opportunity to start tidying the gym up and making small preparations for the next training day with the help of Takeda. In the end, all that was left was folding up the tripod and putting the camcorder away for the day.

With the training days being both tough and rewarding at the same time, the days passed and it was finally time for the practice match with Nekoma.