Haikyuu!
Higher
Chapter 06: Set

"There's something missing." Shimizu looked towards Aika, who hesitated. "As much as I want to help, there's certain things that come with experience, and that's one thing I don't have."

Shimizu hummed a little, looking towards the door. "I think that'll be fixed soon. Takeda sensei is working really hard to get someone to help us," she replied, her words slow and soft. "He said that your strengths will work well with each other."

Humming, Aika focused her sights on the boys as they practiced. "I hope so. They need someone who knows the game better than I do." Shimizu looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "I can only identify people and their strengths. But there are people out there who know how to coach those strengths out of them."

"I see…"

"For example, I see that Nishinoya is a great libero. He tends to move purely on instinct, without thinking about what he does. It's all reactionary." Aika leaned forwards, her eyes narrowing. "But there are some whose movements, although practiced, are not refined. They're powerful and textbook, but they have no passion. There are also those who are the opposite. Each person should have their own style of play, but be able to perform textbook moves. What we need is someone who can teach those things."

Shimizu glanced at the girl, seeing her determined gaze. "What about you?" she asked quietly.

Shaking her head, Aika sat up straight. She crossed her arms and glanced at the door, where Takeda had disappeared, yelling that he'd be back soon only twenty minutes ago. "I'm no coach. I lack the experience needed to be a coach. I suppose… I'm more of a trainer. I can help cover weaknesses, but I can't fix them. If I'm a Band-Aid, then a coach is surgery. We need both," she explained.

The elder of the two girls nodded, following Aika's gaze towards the door. Footsteps and voices that sounded much older than those of any student echoed outside the door. They were loud enough so both of them could hear it.

"I think we'll have our answer soon."

A smile came over Aika's face.

"I agree."

Coach Keishin Ukai, grandson of former coach Ikkei Ukai, had brought the Karasuno Neighborhood Association with him. They were former Karasuno team players, who had been regulars on the team while they were high school students.

Aika could tell that they would be tough opponents by the way they carried themselves. The one with glasses, Shimada, didn't appear to be very strong, but based on how he stretched his hands, he was clearly the one with the most control and knowledge. The most powerful was Uchizawa, so he was most likely the spiker. The other two were definitely middle blockers, as they didn't appear to be very strong, but were clearly good at reacting and controlling the ball.

With only four players, the Neighborhood Association also was able to take Sugawara, Nishinoya, and Azumane, who had shown up outside the gym, and had then been dragged onto the court by an irate Ukai. Although, he didn't do much to protest. He simply avoided Nishinoya's eyes, an entire war going on in his mind that was obvious through the way he carried himself. Sugawara had volunteered to join the opposing team, much to Kageyama's chagrin. When the freshman had questioned him, the senior had simply replied that he was doing what was best for the team, not for him.

Aika watched in silence as the game began and the tension between the three players on the Neighborhood Association began to increase. Sugawara was trying his best, showing off the amount of experience he had and the technique that came with it. However, Kageyama was able to match him blow-for-blow, tossing expertly to his spikers.

"This might be a tougher game than the boys think it'll be," Aika murmured as she narrowed her eyes. Shimizu and Takeda, who had taken a seat next to the girls, both turned to her. "They have a lot of experience. These idiots don't. Plus, the Neighborhood Association has Azumane senpai."

Takeda followed her gaze to the Ace, who hadn't moved all game. "But he's not doing anything," he replied.

She frowned. "I know. But he's the Ace. And he loves volleyball, no matter what he says. He's feeling like he's been backed into a corner, and he's lost faith in his own abilities." Her frown suddenly curled upwards, and she rested her head on her palm. "He's being offered a hand out of that corner right now. If he takes it, then there's no way that our team can win."

Both Takeda and Shimizu stared at her, perhaps wondering just why she seemed to be so pleased that their team, with her friend on it, would lose. If she saw, she didn't acknowledge them. She simply watched as Azumane fought against his inner demons, struggling to find his resolve.

"He's lucky. He can come out of his corner, and rejoin his teammates on the court," Aika murmured, her voice turning wistful as she watched Kageyama and Hinata make one of their crazy quick attacks. "He should realize that."

Takeda's gaze softened as he continued to keep his eyes on her.

For a while, he couldn't figure out the young girl, who had so suddenly joined the team without much of a reason at all. She'd seemed to come out of nowhere with a lot of secrets, but a lot of passion for a sport that she could no longer play. At first, she'd seemed like she was only soft on Hinata, and no one else. She'd been brutally honest to every other player.

But seeing her now, knowing how much love she held for the team, Takeda understood her a little bit better. She cared much more than most people would think that she did.

She cared enough to let her team lose, just so they could learn, just so they could grow. She cared enough to know that the only way to become stronger was to fight against opponents that they couldn't beat. She cared enough to tell them exactly what they needed to fix in order to improve.

She cared enough to return to a place she'd lost her ability to stand on, so others could.

Nishinoya lunged forwards, hand outstretched as he dove to retrieve the ball that fell after being spiked against a three-person block.

Nothing else in his mind mattered. All that mattered was that he'd saved the ball from hitting the court.

Sugawara remembered the perfect toss, the one that Azumane had called for so many times before. The one that they all knew by heart, the one that had won them so many points. He reached up, his hands positioned to toss, his brow knitted in anticipation.

A high toss, slightly away from the net. That's his favorite.

Sugawara tossed the ball, watching it arch in that perfect, familiar way.

Azumane leapt into the air, no hesitation in his eyes as he lifted his hand. He could see the view again, the view that he'd so desperately wanted to remember. He'd forgotten how exhilarating that it was to feel the ball against his palm as he put all of his heart into the spike.

His palm hit the ball perfectly, just like it always had, and its power assisted it in forcing its way through the block. The ball hit the court on the other side of the net.

One point.

Aika grinned, picking up her notebook from next to her. She turned to the page with the name "Asahi Azumane" on the very top and stared down at it, lifting her pen and pressing it against the paper.

She was finally able to count their Ace as a part of the team.

Kageyama felt as if he should have been much more disappointed than he was in the fact that they had lost the game against the Neighborhood Association. However, for some reason, he hadn't considered it a loss at all. He'd been able to play against three of the top players on their own little Karasuno squad and, even if he lost, he'd been able to learn from that game.

As he walked out of the club room, his bag over his shoulder, he paused, turning to look at the walkway leading to the gym. Sitting against the wall was Aika, her hair pulled up into a high ponytail and glasses on her face as she used her phone's flashlight in order to read and write something in a book on her lap.

He knew that he should have just walked away, but instead, he walked over to her. As he stopped, he hesitated. He had walked up to her without thinking. He didn't exactly know what to say.

"Do you need something, Kageyama?"

He froze for a moment, but huffed. "No. I was just wondering why you're still here," he replied, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

She looked up at him. "I was waiting for Shoyo and Nishinoya. I was going to go to the store with them before I walked home with Shoyo. After all, there's some things I wanted to work on with him before the Nekoma game," she told him easily, returning her gaze to her notebook. He followed her eyes and looked down at the neat writing on the lines.

Shoyo Hinata, middle blocker/decoy.
-Born June 21
-162.8 cm
-51.9 kg
-Jumps high, runs fast
-Inexperienced, but passionate
-"Freak quick" with Kageyama

Most of it was just personal information and basic statistics about the short, loud, orange-haired middle blocker, but underneath it, there were little notes.

XX/XX/XX
Work on spiking with eyes open and timing for blocking. Work on conserving energy throughout the entirety of the game. Work on diet and hydration to get the body into even better shape for more training.
Care for Shoyo's hands. There are blisters on his palm. Check his fingers for dislocation post blocking Azumane's spike.
Also ensure that his legs aren't stressed from repeated jumping and landing.

Kageyama's eyes widened as he saw what Aika had written. She'd written little reminders for herself to care for Hinata's body as well as his ability. She was putting his health at the forefront, where the players would rather hone their skills and win. He knew, for a fact, that he would ignore his own body until it screamed at him to rest.

"You're thinking about how you treat your own body, aren't you?"

Once again, she showed that she knew what he was thinking. Her sharp eyes peered up at him as she closed her notebook. He scoffed a little, looking away from her. She stood suddenly and reached forward, grabbing at his right hand. He flinched, but didn't pull away. She examined his hand, turning it over in her own. He simply stared at her.

"Your hands are callused and your skin isn't good. Your serves and sets scraped some of your skin off today. You should use a pumice stone to clear off some of that dead skin. It may seem like something you'd do for beauty, but it'll keep your hands healthy. Please take care of that soon."

She looked up at him for a moment, then dropped his hand. He nodded absently, her eyes following her as she picked up her bag and began to walk away.

"Aika." Looking back at him, she raised a questioning eyebrow. "Do you think that we'll be able to defeat Nekoma after the training camp?" he blurted.

For a moment, the girl paused. She turned around fully, and then smiled softly. Kageyama's eyes widened slightly as he saw her smile so brightly, the way she had only ever smiled at Hinata. He gulped, his hands curled into fists.

"It depends, really," she admitted. "Nekoma's team is something else. I doubt we could beat them as we are, even after the training camp." Kageyama's heart fell into his stomach. "But…" she continued, her smile still on her face, "I think that, if we train hard enough, we could face them in the Nationals, and then send them all the way back to Tokyo. We can win against them. Not now, but later. Our team is strong. If we can't win this match, we'll keep trying until we do."

She declared their victory with so much confidence that he found himself believing her. He found himself believing that she was right, that they would win. Even if they didn't win this match, they would take the later ones. They would grow stronger and stronger, and they would become the best.

They would be the ones to make it to Nationals, even with Date Tech, Shiratorizawa, and Aoba-Josai in their group. They would be the ones to make it.

"I agree," he declared.

She smiled at him once more before turning away, her hair swinging behind her as she walked away. He watched her for a moment, tucking his hands in his pockets as he followed her. They didn't speak, but he stayed a few feet behind her, his eyes always on her back.

We'll win.

Ukai looked down at the notes that Aika, the girl who had been helping out, being as close to a coach as the boys could get, had given him as the boys were getting changed out of their practice gear.

They were only copies of the real thing, but they were detailed and gorgeous, written in neat writing with extreme amounts of care. At the top of the pages were the names Tobio Kageyama and Koshi Sugawara, both with setter written right next to them. There were detailed statistics and notes about strengths and weaknesses on each of the two setters.

The new coach sighed. There was a decision that he had to make, one that was a personal struggle for him. He knew that his own bias and his own experiences shouldn't get in the way of making a decision for a team, but he couldn't help it.

How could anyone choose between the two?

Sugawara was a kind-hearted person, strong in a way that most of the team wasn't. He was the senior that the rest of the team could rely on, could lean on in times that they needed him. He was the senior that knew his team better than anyone else, who watched and learned about each of them. He was the senior that could read the situation and make calm, informed decisions that would be best for each individual.

But then, there was Kageyama.

Kageyama was the opposite of Sugawara. He wasn't a senior, first off. He was a freshman who still had a long way to go. He had a lot to learn in terms of working with a team, but his technical skill far exceeded that of nearly any other setter that Ukai had ever seen before. He wasn't a kind person, or a calm person, or even an observational person.

He worked on instinct, and instinct alone. That was something that couldn't be taught.

Hanging his head, the blond coach sighed, a dry smile on his face. "This isn't fair at all…" he murmured to himself, laughing self-deprecatingly at the end.