The next morning, the boys woke up to a surprise in the corner of the room. Sprawled out in the middle of the pile of personal bags, with a game console on the floor beside their outstretched hand and a notebook on their chest, was Kitsuna. Her glasses were twisted and crooked on her face, and some of the bags had toppled over onto her as well. Her head fell to the side a little bit, and there was a steady trail of drool from the corner of her mouth.

"Dude."

"Who's waking her up?"

"Not me, that's for sure."

"But we need our stuff."

Several of the second years were gridlocked in a quiet battle to decide who was getting sacrificed to the sleeping beast. They considered leaving it to the captain, but Daichi was giving her an even more incredulously blank stare than the rest of them and seemed stunned in place. Their next targets were the first years, but even the roughest among them steered well clear. Asahi was absolutely not going to be of any help, and they somehow felt uneasy asking Sugawara to do it.

"Hey, Kitsuna. We need our stuff," Suga had managed to slip by them all and was tugging at his bag strap. He was usually pretty cool and refreshing, but they all forgot he could actually be a bit cranky in the mornings.

"Mngh, le'me alone fivehead," Kitsuna grumbled and her face twisted into a scowl, but it was hard to tell if she was actually awake or sleep talking.

"Fivehead?," Noya acknowledged the oddly specific insult first, but someone else heard it too and snapped.

"Tch! Get. Up," Suga clicked his tongue and pulled his bag out from under her with some force.

Her back hit the floor hard, and she squinted up at him. Then she looked slowly around the room, putting together her surroundings and situation. She groaned again and ever so graciously removed herself from her bumpy makeshift mattress. There was a knock at the door, which Suga answered in a somewhat less rough manner. Kitsuna nearly dozed off again while standing there by the bags, bobbing from side to side. Suga pulled her by the shirt to the door and handed her off to the managers who had come to retrieve their missing roommate.

Kitsuna was still out of it through breakfast and the rushed morning practice. She appeared unfazed by the same pressure and nervousness that was spreading through the others when they prepared to get onto the bus. Kiyoko and Yachi made last checks, and some of the boys headed to the restroom one last time. Then they took a public bus to the stadium, and only once they were halfway there did Kitsuna realize the cold and that she had forgotten her jacket.

"Shit," she cursed a little too loudly at herself, earning some glances from other passengers. She had also forgotten to swap her glasses out for contacts and was getting annoyed at how the lenses kept fogging up.

"That's what you get for staying up all night," Daichi went full dad mode again, and she flinched. Because of him, no one was going to relinquish their jacket either. Not that anyone really wanted to, it was bitterly cold even with the sun shining bright. She just pressed herself between the shoulders of the two boys beside her and curled into herself as much as she could. The bus rolled to a stop finally, but she was reluctant to step out into the even colder air.

"Here," Takeda caved first and held his own jacket out to her when she stepped onto the sidewalk.

"Hm? Thanks," she took the jacket and put it on, grateful but somehow more humiliated by borrowing the teacher's jacket than one of the boys'. At least it was warmer than before and she wasn't shivering in the stadium corridor. They headed to the gym to warm up a little bit more, with spiking drills. Kitsuna warmed up quickly with that and laid Takeda's jacket on the bench while he was busy talking with staff.

"She's in pretty good form today," Daichi commented off to the side with the coach. It was true, too. Her spikes were powerful and almost painfully accurate. Keishin nodded, thinking of something.

"We'll have her start today. Give some of the others more time to warm up on the side," Keishin shared his thoughts with the team captain. Daichi was a little surprised, but agreed that it was probably a good move. He shared that news with the other starters as they got changed into their jerseys, earning some surprised looks but no arguments against it. Kitsuna was the most shocked by it though, and the opening ceremony was when she really started to show some anxiety.

"They changed the lineup," one of the members of the opposing team commented as they got into position. It was a boy with bleached hair, one of a pair of pretty formidable twins on an overall tough team.

"Yeah," the other twin replied curtly.

"So it really is a girl," the third guy starting up front accidentally said his thoughts out loud and got a nasty glare.

"I can still hear you," Kitsuna hissed across the net. In front of her was a different guy, one with sharp eyes and dark hair. He was deadly quiet, and it bothered her more than the obnoxious band playing from the stands. The first serve went up, and it was game on.

"That's actually kind of annoying," Tsukishima grumbled from the sidelines after a few rallies. His face was pressed into a tight frown, nose wrinkled under the bridge of his glasses.

"Tsukki," Yamaguchi started to say something but clammed up when that glare was turned toward his freckled face.

"I kinda get what you mean, though," Suga popped in with an unexpected position. He sensed the shock from behind and beside him, so let out a nervous chuckle before explaining.

"She's only been to about half the practices the rest of us have, and even missed some practice matches. But she's able to stand out there and fight just as well as any of us could. It's frustrating."

Kitsuna jumped up and matched Kageyama for a nasty block just then. The boy she kept lining up with, Suna, slammed the ball hard toward her instead of her blocking partner. Kitsuna twisted her torso, managing to get it with mainly her left arm and sending it back over. Inarizaki dug it out though, and they were set for an intense rally. Or so they thought, when the other team's ace slammed the ball down. Kitsuna moved for a dig, but the ball caught her face and was just too low to be saved by Noya. She reeled back all of a sudden, nearly stumbling backward but catching herself just in time to keep from tripping over the libero. There was a clatter of something on the floor as well.

"What happened?," Yamaguchi asked in a panic. Kitsuna was clutching her face and hadn't moved back into position yet. Tsukishima caught on just a few seconds before the others and felt a pang of something close to sympathy.

"Her glasses," he pointed to the floor where Nishinoya was now bent down to pick something up. Kitsuna's hand pulled back from her face and she shook her head, a few droplets of blood flying onto the court. Keishin and Yachi rushed out then, sure that something had happened.

"Woah shit, your face!," Noya exclaimed. Yachi started to panic hard, but snapped out of it when the other girl took a tissue from her hand. Takeda collected the glasses, broken in two pieces, and guided Kitsuna off the court. Tsukishima was sent out finally, and the faces on both sides of the net were a shade or two paler as Kitsuna left the gym with Yachi.