Haikyuu!
Higher
Chapter 12: Serve

"I'm so sorry!"

Everyone from both Karasuno and Date Tech stared at the small girl who was bowed practically ninety degrees, her hair falling messily around her face. She stared at the floor, ignoring the surprised look from Moniwa, Date Tech's captain, who she was bowing to.

"W-what?" the shocked senior managed to choke out, blinking rapidly. "W-what is there to be sorry for? You guys won, fair and square."

Aika looked up, biting her lip. "Um… I'm the assistant coach, and sometimes I make decisions… and I nearly made a bad one today. It would have hurt you and Date Tech a lot, and I'm really ashamed of it," she babbled. Immediately cutting herself off, she bowed once more. "Please accept my sincerest apologies for my poor showing!"

For a moment, it looked as if no one knew what to do, not even Shoyo, who stared at his long-time friend with an unreadable emotion.

Then, Moniwa laughed. "Is that all?" he asked kindly, aiming his gentlest smile at Aika, who, in shock, stood up straight. "Everyone has those plays. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes, people get hurt. If I'd gotten hurt today, it'd be my job to work through it. If you're the assistant coach, your job is to do what it takes. You were only doing what you had to." He lifted a hand and placed it on the smaller girl's head.

His kind grin almost made her burst into tears again. "Captain Moniwa…" She cut herself off, not wanting to give Karasuno any way to tease her.

He shrugged. "I'm not the captain anymore. My season's over, but I'll for sure be expecting to see you and Karasuno make it to the spring tournament preliminaries." He paused, then leaned down to whisper something in her ear. "I'm hoping you'll be able to help teach my troublesome juniors what it takes to lead a team," he muttered, making her laugh.

"You're always going to be their captain though," she whispered back. She nodded, gesturing to his team, who stood behind him, still looking bewildered at the turn of events. "Look at the way they respect you. That's not going to change just because your season is over."

Moniwa pulled away, eyes once again wide. A smile then settled over his face. "Thank you. It was an honor to be your opponent."

He held out his hand, offering a handshake, and she took it, holding on tightly, hoping that somehow, her gratefulness for his words of comfort could be felt.

Oikawa hated how he'd wished for Karasuno to lose.

He'd hoped that Kageyama's tosses would be too hard for the rest of his team to spike, hoped that their team would fall apart from the inside out, hoped that Date Tech's Iron Wall would simply prove to be too much to overcome. He'd hoped that, in the final moments, Karasuno's ace would break, just like he had the year before, and Date Tech could sweep in and take an easy win over the broken team who would struggle to function without the fearsome power their ace held.

But it was not to be.

The Fallen Champions had defeated the Iron Wall, and would move on to face Oikawa and his team.

Oikawa hated how he didn't want to face Karasuno.

He believed in his team more than anything. He believed in their training, in the hard work that every single person had put in, whether they were starting the court or the bench. He believed in the way that their team just managed to meld, working like a perfectly tuned machine. He believed in the trust he had worked so hard to form with every member of his team.

What he didn't believe in was how much hard work could stand against natural talent.

Because, to Oikawa, those two things could never compete against each other.

To Oikawa, Karasuno's team embodied the natural talent that his team did not. They had people who were talented at different things. They had their libero from Chidoriyama, the one who was well-known for being talented at receiving and saving. They had their powerhouse ace whose spikes held far more strength than they had any right to. They had their small middle blocker whose speed was unrivaled by anyone Oikawa had ever met. They had their setter, Tobio, who Oikawa hated more than anyone because of how intensely talented the younger boy was at being a setter.

It wasn't fair.

Oikawa had worked harder than anyone else. Aoba Josai had worked harder than any other team. They deserved their spot at the top.

Even in all his anger, he somehow managed to keep his face calm, even though his shoulders were tense as he prepared to perform his fearsome jump serve. He aimed his cold gaze at the opposite side of the net, tossed the ball into the air, and jumped. The ball made a resounding smack against his palm, one that he was sure rang loudly through the court.

The crowd cheered as Aoba Josai – as Oikawa – took another easy point.

The first set ended without much chance for Aoba Josai's opponent to make a comeback. There wasn't much they could do against a team like Aoba Josai. They could only watch as the match tilted further and further in favor of Aoba Josai.

Aika continued to scribble in her notebook, her characters sloppy for once as she hurried to write down all the information that she'd gotten just by watching the match. One set had been enough to see just how strong that Karasuno's next opponent really was. Seeing both sets was more than enough to give Aika information about them, but also worry her for Karasuno's survival.

Once again, she wasn't looking where she was going, too absorbed in the sport called volleyball, and she ended up running right into someone. She stepped back, quietly cursing the inkblot that had fallen from her fountain pen. "Sorry," she mumbled, stumbling to the left to move around whoever it was that she'd bumped into.

"Yamada, right?" Aika looked up to see Iwaizumi and his spiky hair. "You should watch where you're going. Wouldn't want you to get hurt." He paused, seeing her sloppy writing in her notebook, the top of the page labeled with his school's name. "Ah…"

Quickly, Aika shut her book and shoved it back into her bag, capping her pen and tossing it in as well. "Sorry, that's nothing. I saw your match. You guys were really good." She paused. "That creampuff server of yours from last time… I could see how he didn't really stand a chance starting while Oikawa's here." She hesitated. "Your spikes were strong, too."

He chuckled a little. "They're not as strong as the ones your ace manages, but thanks for saying that." A buzz caused him to pull out, which was the source of the buzzing, and glance at the notification that had lit up the screen. He made a noise of discontent as he glared at the object. "Shittykawa, you suck. I hope your hair gets stuck in a blender," he growled.

Aika laughed, hiding it behind her hand. "You two seem like you get along really well."

For a second, Iwaizumi seemed offended. His face soon turned into one of resignation as he sighed. "Yeah. We've been teammates for so long that it'd feel weird playing a game without him. He's always been the one to set spikes for me. I guess that's part of the reason I feel so confident in being the ace," he admitted, although he looked pained as he did so.

"I think it's nice that you have someone you can rely on so much." Iwaizumi stared at the girl, whose gaze was sincere as she smiled up at him. "It means that your teamwork is unbeatable."

"Should you really be saying that? We are going up against you tomorrow."

She just grinned. "We may not beat you and Oikawa, but the rest of your team is fair game," she shot back. He couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Aika!" The two were interrupted by a blur of orange that was running up to them, so quickly that they barely saw it until it barreled into Aika. "S-sorry! I just came to tell you that we're headed out, and you were taking so long that Sugawara senpai was worried that you were lost or something, so they sent me to come get you and tell you that the bus is leaving soon, so we gotta go!"

Shoyo's words spilled out faster than she could absorb them, but Aika just nodded. "Got it. Sorry, I got distracted and got separated. I was planning to catch up soon." She grabbed Shoyo's hand, and he held onto her own tightly, like she'd disappear if he let go. "Thanks for talking to me, Iwaizumi. Let's work hard tomorrow." She bowed slightly, and allowed Shoyo to pull her away, leaving a bewildered Iwaizumi behind her.

Shoyo held onto Aika's hand, feeling her skin beneath his. He slowed down, his thoughts weighing his body until it stopped moving.

She stopped, too, feeling his hand pulling at her. She gazed at him in worry, but offered him a reassuring smile. "Shoyo? Is something wrong?"

"Aika." The smile fell off her face at how serious Shoyo was. "You know you're my best friend, right? And that you can tell me anything, right?"

For a second, she hesitated. "W-where is this coming from, Shoyo?" she asked, her voice shaking slightly as she spoke. He frowned at her, hearing the desperation to avoid his question in her voice. "You know everything you need to know."

Shoyo shook his head. "No, I don't. I need to know what's bothering you," he replied lowly, his voice void of any playfulness he usually held. Even his eyes were serious, dark even, as he looked at her, his gaze piercing her heart as she stared back at him.

For a second, Aika paused, thinking back to the way that she'd fled the gymnasium, the way that Sugawara had gone after her, the way that Kageyama had ensured she was okay, and the way that Moniwa had forgiven her without even thinking about it. Even with so many people supporting her, she still felt as if she'd been only a step or two away from making a decision she would regret.

"I… I just wanted to win today. And I almost had you and the others try to break a person who'd never hurt me." She bit her lip, her hands shaking. Shoyo could feel her hand trembling in his own, and he squeezed just a little bit tighter, hoping to offer some sort of comfort to her. "I don't want to lose, but I don't know if I hurting people… if it'd be worth it."

Shoyo was quiet for what felt like forever, his voice lost. He didn't know why Aika had decided that hurting someone was the only option, and why it hurt her so much to even think about entertaining that idea, but it wasn't one that he liked.

"I don't think it would be," he confessed finally. "If I had to hurt someone to stand on the court just a little longer, I wouldn't do it. I'd feel icky inside, you know? It wouldn't feel right, to stay standing at the cost of someone else."

Aika shook her head. "Everyone loses, Shoyo."

"Which means we'll lose, too." His eyes shone as he pulled her to face him, looking directly into her eyes. "I don't like the idea of that, but I know that we're not invincible. When we do lose, we'll lose because we weren't good enough to keep up with our opponents. We'll lose because we weren't the stronger ones. But until then, we won't lose."

He grinned widely as he saw her eyes widen. "Okay," she said, managing her own smile.

Shoyo said nothing more, simply turned around, still keeping a tight grip on Aika's hand. The only sound was the sound of their footsteps as they continued down the hall, towards the bus that would take them home for the day.

Looking across the aisle of the bus, Kageyama watched as a sleeping Hinata rested his head on Aika's lap, snoring peacefully as she read through a thick novel, one that he was sure would be beyond his knowledge. Although, as he looked closer, he wasn't sure that she was paying attention to the novel in her hands, opened to one specific page that he was sure she'd read a dozen times already.

She hadn't turned the page since she sat down and opened it. She just stared with cloudy eyes, like the characters printed on the small page were whispering a secret message to her.

He hesitated, not wanting to distract her. Her thoughts were important to her, and he knew that when she was thinking, she came to the best conclusions on how he could improve. She was always thinking about the Karasuno team, even when it seemed like she was paying attention to something else.

Movement caught his eyes, and he returned from his own thoughts to see Aika finally turning the page. Her eyes had cleared, and she seemed focused. Her gaze was sharper, almost predatory. It was the gaze that caused Kageyama to flinch, the one that looked just like the gaze of Nekoma's setter. It was those eyes that reminded him that she was just as strong as the rest of the boys, that she was always calculating a way to get what she needed.

If Kageyama was to be honest, which he never would be, the only time he ever feared Aika was when she looked at him with those eyes.

In her lap, Hinata tossed and turned, groaning as he readjusted for comfort. Aika tore her gaze away from her book, looking down at him in surprise.

Kageyama watched as her eyes softened in the way that they only did for Hinata. He was the only one that could ever get that kind of look from her. He was the only one she ever really showed any true friendship for.

He felt something lurch in his stomach as he watched her run her fingers through Hinata's orange hair. It was an unpleasant feeling, and he pursed his lips. He casually wrapped one arm around his middle, pushing down to see if he could get his stomach to settle.

It didn't work.

Instead, his stomach only lurched again as the bus came to a halt. It wasn't a harsh stop, but it was enough for Kageyama to notice it, to feel it in his gut.

"We're home, boys!" Takeda announced loudly – or as loudly as he could – causing some of the team to jolt awake. There was a loud commotion as Tanaka and Nishinoya collided in waking up, causing laughter from the rest of the sleepy team.

Aika gently pushed Hinata off of her, guiding him off the bus by tugging at his arm.

Watching that made Kageyama's stomach lurch again, but he ignored it as best he could as he followed the rest of the team off the bus.

Aika frowned as the team crowded around the television, watching the local recap of the day's tournament.

To no one's surprise, the team with one of the best players nationally, Wakatoshi Ushijima, had easily blown away their competition. It was the gap between the scores of Shiratorizawa and their opponent that had shocked.

25-6… no wonder they're ranked as one of the best teams in Japan.

Aika furrowed her brow, desperately rooting through her bag for her pen and notebook. She grabbed onto it, flipping open to a blank page. She quickly scribbled notes to check out the powerhouse team, research their players.

After all, if Karasuno won their next match against Aoba Josai, they'd move on to face Shiratorizawa.

I can't be underprepared. Not this time.

Suddenly, the room went cold.

Everyone's expressions had become stone-faced. Aika looked around her at the Karasuno players, all of whom were taller than her. For once, she saw them as intimidating. The way they were glaring at the television, like it'd offended them, which it probably had, was frightening.

"Guys?" she asked softly, looking around at the faces that slowly filled with a fire that hadn't been there before. No one replied to her, just glared even more at the screen.

Sawamura looked down at her, his eyes dark for once. It wasn't that chilling smile that he showed to his opponents, but one that masked the unpleasant feelings he was definitely feeling.

He looked at her, and said, "Please tell us what you noticed today. We need to do more." Aika blinked, and Sawamura nodded at her. "We're counting on you, Yamada."

Aika's heart suddenly leapt at that, her chest feeling full. She smiled fully, not wanting to start crying again. Once was enough for one day.

"Right!"