"You two, get in here and get warmed up!"

"Yes, sir!"

Yamaguchi and Kitsuna were late by just a hair to the pregame for their next match. Against Seijoh, who was warming up on the other side of the court. They seemed uneasy earlier but were sure fired up now, something the rest of the team noticed almost immediately. They huddled up, discussing the starting lineup. It all made sense so far, with one exception. Kitsuna was starting, taking the place of Kageyama where normally Suga was a substitute.

"You sure about that, Coach? O-oh, not that you're a bad player or anything," Tanaka asked somewhat too openly. Kitsuna waved off his poor cover, sharing the quiet sentiment of the rest of the team. Keishin studied their faces, finding a hint of confusion but no sign of the usual nervousness.

"Yeah. I'm sure most of you have rested up, but I want to conserve energy as much as possible. 'Sides, it'll be interesting to see how they handle our own killer serve," Keishin grinned at that. Kitsuna glanced at Yamaguchi, and caught Suga's gaze. They seemed to be of the same understanding, that she was a safety net for Yamaguchi's pinch serves in a way. They lined up, greeting the opposing team, then took their positions on the court.

"Alright, I'll try to stay outta the way but I'm not backing down either," Kitsuna called to the team as the whistle blew. It sounded almost like a warning or threat, but she meant it as a promise. Oikawa was up to serve first, and he slammed the ball into their court with such force and speed that they couldn't even react. That happened a few more times before Nishinoya was able to grab it, and Karasuno was off to a rough start.

"Eh? Another one fighting for the setter position?," Kindaichi smirked on the other side of the net. Asahi was up to serve, and he sent one over with equally impressive strength. Seijoh dug it up though, and managed to score another point with a setter dump.

"Hey, are you actually freakin' out on us?," Tanaka asked after that. Kitsuna just looked at him, dead quiet, and he knew from that alone that she wasn't scared or chickening out. She was focusing, thinking. Warming up. Another rally. The ball flew over the net, Daichi dug it up. Noya covered, and Kitsuna had three weapons to choose from. She stomped her heel down twice in quick succession, then leapt up for the ball. It was rough, but she was able to at least get it over to Tanaka for their first point.

"Sorry, that was a bit off," she apologized to the ace before returning to her focused state.

She managed to hold her own, and work well enough with the team for a few rotations. Then it was time to switch, and she'd be up to serve.

"Hey, is she actually really good? Why haven't they used her much before now?," Kunimi asked during the break.

"A surprise to throw us off maybe?," Kindaichi offered. They looked over at the other team, studying what they could and searching for some kind of logic. Kitsuna was asking the manager or ace for an extra hair tie of some sort, holding her hair back ready for a ponytail.

"Now there's two gingers," Oikawa spoke up finally. His face was stern, but he didn't seem super stressed. The whistle went, and everyone returned to the court. Kitsuna stood in the server's spot, and a ball was tossed over with some encouragement from the others. The whistle blew again, and she sucked in a deep breath before tossing the ball for a jump serve. Seijoh braced for it, expecting some sort of trickery.

WHAM!

They were instead shown overwhelming force, close to that of Oikawa's monster serves, as the ball flew past them and struck their weakest point of the court. She shared a couple fist bumps with her team and readied up to do it again. This time her jump was a little off, favoring her left leg on takeoff. She swung with her left hand to make up for it, sending a ferocious curved strike at the back corner. Another point. That was the last one, though, and Oikawa rotated up to serve with her at the back corner.

He made an exaggerated gesture to point at Kitsuna, as if making sure they knew his target. Some of his teammates exchanged glances, sure he would have marked the libero instead. He reared up, sending out one of his killer serves. Kitsuna was fast though, and dug in hard on the receive. It went back up, and the team recovered it for her to do a first tempo quick with Hinata. That got sent back up, into a rally that dragged on before Kitsuna finally got them with a dink.

"You're pissin' me off," Oikawa admitted. She just grinned back at him, a twisted smile that didn't reach her cold eyes. She shook her wrist, and a timeout was called.

"Sorry, knee gave a little," she admitted to everyone in the huddle.

"Don't worry, you did your job for now. We'll get back to the regular line up, and you make sure to get taped up while you're on the side. The players headed back out, while Kiyoko gave Kitsuna some tape before she joined the others on the side.

"You're rough, but still pretty intimidating," Ennoshita gave his honest thoughts while she was sitting down to tape up her ankle. She then stood up to do the knee, careful not to wrap it too tightly.

"You're sort of an all-rounder, that helps cover where we need it."

"Yeah. That feels kinda lame though," Kitsuna removed the stiffer brace on her wrist and started to tape it, but the roll slipped out of her hand and fell to the floor.

"Here, let me help," Suga picked up the roll of gauze tape and carefully wrapped up her wrist. He noticed a slight tremor, and that her hands were ice cold despite being out for a good while running around. Her wrist was really tiny in his hands, and didn't have a lot of muscle.

"Wow. It's really amazing you can produce so much power like that," he ended up saying his thoughts out loud, quietly.

"It's not too tight is it?," he asked. She rolled it around a few times and flexed her fingers once he was done.

"Nope. Perfect, thanks," Kitsuna took the roll of tape back and handed it over to Yamaguchi when he was called over to the bench. She knelt down to pull her shoe back on and tested her ankle wrapping as well.

"Man. It's hard, and pretty intense," she said finally, in a low tone that was easy to miss if you weren't paying attention.

"Hm?," Suga and Ennoshita caught it.

"Setter. It's a lot of pressure. And with this," she held up her wrapped wrist, "tougher teams will absolutely make sure to target the weaker points."

"That would be pretty messed up," Ennoshita tried to offer some logical reassurance.

"Suga mentioned being a target for blocks because he's-he doesn't quite have the reach of some others," she narrowly dodged pressing one of Suga's few buttons. "Hinata gets targeted and marked too. They tend to either go super hard at me or let up a little without realizing it, in matches. If you want to win, and things are too evenly balanced, you'll obviously take a power up even if it feels a little scummy."