Haikyuu!
Higher
Chapter 03: Game

"Aika?!"

Hinata's face made her inexplicably, unexplainably happy, for some reason that she couldn't quite understand. She didn't really understand how she'd missed him so much in only a few days, but somehow, her heart felt incredibly full upon seeing him.

"Hey, Shoyo. Sorry for missing so much. I'll be better now."

The incredibly tired, incredibly nervous Hinata cheered up quickly upon seeing his best friend. He chattered excitedly to her as she took her seat next to him, listening to him as she handed out sports drinks to the team, all of whom gratefully accepted. She smiled softly at him, her gaze almost motherly, even while he began to get sick again as soon as the bus started to move.

"Did something happen to make Shoyo nervous?" was all she asked when Hinata threw up all over Tanaka. "He only gets like this before big games."

Sugawara sighed. "Everything that we say just heaps more and more pressure on him," he explained.

She giggled a little, watching as Hinata ran into the building, yelling something about how he had to go to the bathroom. "He just wants to make everyone proud. Snapping him out of it is important, though. You guys should take care of that before it gets any worse." She gently clapped Sugawara on the shoulder, a grin on her face.

The vice-captain only sighed, hanging his head as she laughed at Hinata's expense. "Yamada… You're no better than Tanaka…"

Aika grinned. "It's fine, senpai. Shoyo just needs a bit of time to turn on. If only Yamaguchi was a bit more intimidating, you could put him in for a while, just to give Shoyo some time. But that doesn't matter. Tanaka senpai, Kageyama, Tsukishima, Ennoshita senpai, and Sawamura senpai should be able to cover for him, at least until he gets into the game." She paused. "Speaking of which, aren't a few of them missing?" Sugawara glanced around as well, noticing that the freshmen were all missing, plus one of their starting second years.

He groaned, hanging his head. "Not again…"

"I'll go find them." She held out the plastic bag which, to his surprise, was still filled with drinks and snacks, despite all of the team devouring a lot of what she had on the bus. "Thanks." As she turned to walk away, she looked back. "By the way, Sugawara senpai, please call me Aika. 'Yamada' makes us sound like strangers."

Aika stumbled upon the four missing players as they faced off against two Aoba-Josai players. She laughed at the looks on their faces as Tsukishima grinned that annoying, mocking grin of his.

"What are you guys doing? Scaring the opponent?" she joked, walking up to them.

She was by far the shortest person there, standing at a shorter height than Hinata, and even shorter than the shortest person in that group, Tanaka. Yet somehow, even in her school uniform, she gave of an air so intimidating that even the Karasuno team stepped back.

Tsukishima was the only one who didn't flinch. "They were badmouthing Tanaka and the others, but when they got caught, they didn't talk so big," he drawled.

"Oh, is that so?" She turned to face the Aoba-Josai players, a serene smile on her face. "They look weak. Crushing them should be simple for you boys."

The Aoba-Josai players winced, seeing the small girl smiling so sweetly that they knew that there was some hidden agenda. She stood up straight, turning away from the boys, her smile turning into a smirk as she retreated behind the taller volleyball players.

Tanaka grinned a feral grin. "Got that damn right!" he cheered.

Kageyama and Aika walked next to each other as they approached the gym. She glanced up at him, seeing his stony face and blank expression. She grinned a little, which made him glance at her in confusion as he noticed her gaze on him.

"You look nervous. Something's bothering you." He flinched, and she saw the way that he froze for a moment. "I see. Is it because of your old teammates?" Kageyama flinched again. He cursed himself internally for showing it. "… Someone in particular? Someone who wasn't very nice to you, and probably makes you feel inferior to him?"

The black-haired setter completely froze.

Bingo.

Aika sighed, clapping him on the back. "You're going to psych yourself out if you worry too much. Just focus on the game, and adapt as you play. That's how you'll win," she said bluntly.

His dark eyes focused on her. She was a small girl, but she seemed to know a lot more about people than she let on. She was able to pinpoint minor weaknesses and mood changes in Hinata, Kageyama, and Sugawara, and that was only in the past few days.

Her eyes were somewhat blank, without a fire in them, but without a fire, Kageyama could see how sharp that they really were. She could see everything, whether she was trying to or not. It was probably what made her such a formidable setter back when she played. It took sharp observational skills and heaps of concentration to make plays the way that a setter did. She must've been good at it, too.

While her eyes reminded him of Tsukishima's, they were also markedly different. Her gaze was not filled with fire, but life. There was a small sparkle in her eyes, something that made her seem both wise and playful at the same time. It made him feel like he could trust what she said.

Grinning slightly at her gaze, at what he saw held within it, he nodded. "I know."

She leaned over the railing that stood above the court, her eyes staring down at the two teams as they practiced. Aoba-Josai looked well put-together, with their players looking experienced and knowledgeable. Compared to them, Karasuno, standing on the other side of the court, looked markedly less so, with less experience and knowledge with them.

However, the players of Aoba-Josai looked almost unenthusiastic, like they weren't taking the practice match seriously. After all, to them, it was just a practice match against a formerly-great school. It didn't really matter to them at all.

But to Karasuno, it meant everything.

She narrowed her eyes, watching as both teams bowed, greeting each other as they prepared to play. She could see Hinata shaking as he stood on the court, his figure much smaller than anyone else's on the court as she stood between Sawamura and Tanaka.

They clearly weren't able to help him much… his nerves are getting to him.

Point after point went in Aoba-Josai's favor, each of them more ridiculous than the next. Hinata managed to trip into his teammates, the net, the referee, and even fell flat on his face while nothing was tripping him. Each of the points was clearly salvageable, and they could have been taken back by the Karasuno team. They weren't points that were far out of their reach.

It was just that Hinata was far too nervous.

He was trembling as he stood at the service line, his wide eyes on the ball in his shaking hands. His knees were knocking together, and he looked smaller than ever. It was clear by the looks on the rest of his team's face that they didn't have much faith in his ability to even serve properly. Even he didn't look like he had much faith in himself.

Aika's grip on the railing tightened. Her eyes narrowed in concentration as she studied his serving position, the one he was slowly moving into as he trembled.

Come on, Shoyo. It's just like I taught you. Toss, keep your eye on it, and hit it with enough power to bring it up and over the net. It's simple for us. You can—

Her thoughts stopped wherever they were in that moment, as the ball made contact with the back of Kageyama's head. Aika's eyes went wide at the looks on everyone's faces.

Crap.

She turned quickly and raced down the stairs towards the court. She just hoped that Hinata would still be alive when she got to there, since she managed to catch a glimpse of Kageyama's face. He didn't look happy at all. In fact, she could've sworn that there was fire wherever he stood.

As she managed to reach the court, she saw Kageyama looming over Hinata, speaking in a soft voice to him. Hinata seemed to be growing even smaller as Kageyama spoke to him. She sighed in relief, knowing that the orange-head would be fine. In fact, a talk like that from Kageyama might have been exactly what Hinata needed to get himself back to normal.

"Well, looks like Kageyama scared Shoyo back to normal."

From the sidelines, Sugawara looked at her as she joined the rest of the team. "Eh? What do you mean?" he asked quietly.

She giggled, looking to Hinata being lectured by Tanaka. "They have the right idea. Shoyo will snap out of it under one of three conditions. He has to get scared, get mad, or get excited. Trust me when I say that they all work equally well." She grinned as the whistle sounded for the second set to begin.

"I see. Looks like both getting scared and excited happened."

Aika nodded. "Yes. And now, Shoyo will perform better than you could have imagined," she admitted.

At that moment, Tsukishima barely managed to receive the ball, wincing as it bounced off his arm just a little off. Her eyes narrowed, seeing his poor receiving skills. He seemed to be aware of it as well, but he didn't break concentration.

"Although… the team isn't perfect. They're making a lot of mistakes."

Sugawara glanced at her. He saw that her eyes had somehow sharpened as she followed the ball, followed each player's reaction to the ball and what it did. She didn't even flinch when Kageyama and Hinata pulled off their insane quick attack. All she did was watch, keeping her eyes moving as the ball flew all around the court, bouncing from player to player.

She made comments here and there, each of them about the team or the play. She was nearly always right in what she said, and it was nearly always something that Sugawara himself was thinking. He found himself nodding along to whatever she said, agreeing whole-heartedly.

"I feel like we need to have some relationship counseling in this team," she said at one point. At another, she remarked, "Tsukishima needs to fix his attitude, or else." Then, "If Shoyo could actually aim his spikes, that'd probably help, although knowing him, it might not."

Everything she said made sense.

The only thing that didn't was when she mumbled, "Something's off." He looked at her, but she never elaborated on what she meant. She simply shook her head, muttering that he didn't need to worry about it. At least, not yet.

Finally, after the second set went in Karasuno's favor, she spoke up while the players were huddled around the bench. "Kageyama." He looked sharply at her, but she was looking elsewhere, at the Aoba-Josai players who were surrounding the bench as they spoke about losing the set. "The setter. Number five. He's not their actual setter, is he?" she guessed softly.

His eyes widened. "W-What… How did…" He was at a loss for words, as was the rest of Karasuno. It seemed like number five fit perfectly into the Aoba-Josai lineup, with few to no huge errors that someone who was normally on the bench would make.

"I'm not sure how I know. It's just something that's been bothering me." She paused, glancing over to the opposing team, her sharp eyes trained on the boy with fluffy, brown hair. "They work like a machine. One with a lot of practice and a lot of experience. All of them make very standard, very textbook plays. They don't seem to have any truly exceptional talent, save for their higher levels of experience. But even the best machines have some crazy engineer who makes sure they keep working well. It's like number five is the one cog that's out of place in this machine. Like he's subbing in for someone much bigger."

Kageyama hesitated for a moment, but nodded. "You're right. Someone isn't here. They're missing their leader. For our sake, I hope that he doesn't show," he admitted to her quietly, although it wasn't as if the others couldn't hear him.

As if on cue, girls started screaming, their shrieks slicing through the air as they reached the Karasuno team. Everyone turned to see a tall boy with chocolate brown hair. It swirled, sticking out in all directions. He wore the Aoba-Josai jacket, his voice light and airy.

"I see…" Kageyama looked to Aika, but didn't turn. "Toru Oikawa, isn't it? He's pretty famous in the high school division of this prefecture, isn't he?"

The black-haired boy nodded. "He's an aggressive setter with a lot of ability. He's no genius, but he's got a lot of talent and power. Even so, his personality is awful. Maybe even worse than Tsukishima's." He gritted his teeth, his entire face darkening.

Aika's gaze continued to stay on Oikawa, studying his face, his body language, his mannerisms. Everything about him made her blood boil. He was a liar, and that much was clear. Behind his perfectly kind façade, there was some darkness within him. She couldn't tell exactly where it stemmed from, but she could see that his smile never reached his eyes. Instead, it only masked the emptiness that showed in his eyes. It was like nothing bothered him, like he thought he was untouchable.

"This guy pisses me off." Everyone looked to Aika once more. "He's a scary one, that's for sure. He can probably see a lot of what goes on, and make plays based on that. He has long, thin fingers and large palms, which gives him an advantage when it comes to technique, and power when it comes to spiking. The only thing that he's really lacking in is his leg strength, but he can make up for that with height and observational power. He's smart. And the look in his eyes tells me that he thinks he's the best on the court… and he can probably back it up."

She was talking a lot more than she had ever talked before. Her voice was soft, but it carried the weight of her words. And Kageyama knew that she wasn't wrong. Everything that she said about Oikawa was correct, so spot on that it was almost scary.

Even about his eyes.

There was always some unpleasantness in his gaze, something that couldn't be hidden.

"Either way, just play as you normally would," she advised. "He won't join the game until he's done warming up, and who knows how long that could take. Until then, take as many points as you can, 'cause once he's in, we'll have to adapt our strategy."

Hinata beamed at her. "You said 'we,'" he mumbled. She flushed, and looked down, her hair falling into her face. He patted the top of her head, his eyes showing a gentleness that the team hadn't seen in the energetic middle blocker before. "I'm glad." He smiled widely, and her face flushed.

"Shut up… go back to the game, stupid!" she shouted, her face red.

Hinata laughed loudly, all his nervousness completely gone. Kageyama watched as they interacted, the brightly colored girl and the boisterous boy, and he almost smiled. It felt like it was natural to have her with the team.

He definitely didn't regret bringing her.