Haikyu!
Higher
Chapter 30: Promise

Kageyama knew that making a grand entrance so late in the day was going to garner them some attention.

He knew it would put a target on their backs, since most of the schools would think Karasuno a bit cocky, to field two idiot first-years who couldn't even pass their final exams. But for some reason, that didn't matter to him.

All that mattered to Kageyama was that he would get onto the court and become the pillar that Karasuno, no doubt, needed in order to grow even more.

As the doors opened, all of the eyes in the gym turned to stare at them. They had just barely managed to change into their practice attire, and were now panting as they'd run up the hill to the back of Nekoma High School to join their team. Inside the gym, there were so many new faces that it was like entering a new world, filled with just the best players in Japan.

Kageyama laid his eyes on Aika, and he grinned at her. He subtly lifted his hand in a thumbs up to her, a gesture which she returned.

He felt his heart leap in his chest, and he ran to join the team.

"Sorry we're so late," he and Hinata apologized.

Sugawara was the first to react. "Don't mind, it's fine. Let's just show them our full power, shall we?" He held out two yellow practice jerseys, with the numbers nine and ten on them, which he'd reserved just for the first-year duo.

"Thank you very much!"

Aika couldn't help but grin as the game against Shinzen began.

They'd severely underestimated Karasuno, since they'd only seen Karasuno without their secret weapon, the powerful decoy, and the pillar of the team, the genius setter. Now that the first-year duo was on the court, Karasuno managed to take a game.

"It's the first time you guys won today," she murmured, handing Shoyo and Kageyama towels. "They're going to work you hard here. Your freak quick is going to help, but it's not going to be enough to stop them."

She immediately turned away, wheeling off towards Nekoma's court.

She saw Lev slouching as the ball returned to the server, and she couldn't help it when she screeched, "Lev! Stand up straight, you idiot! No one's going to respect someone who can't even block a ball and slouches whenever he gets the chance!"

The silver-haired cat pouted as he looked back at her, his green eyes piercing. "I just wanted to take a quick break," he whined.

"If you want a break, then I'll have coach put in Inuoka! Is that what you want, stupid?!"

Lev pouted even more, but he proceeded to listen to her, standing up straight and preparing for the next play of the game. She rolled her eyes, continuing to wheel herself towards the Nekoma kids who sat on the sidelines cheering for their team.

"How's it going over here?" she asked, looking to Shibayama.

The small libero grinned. "It looks like we'll be taking this set, thanks to our great team!" he announced happily. "I heard you yelling at Lev a few seconds ago."

She sighed. "He's just an idiot." She paused. "This is the last game, right? Have you boys decided who you're rooming with?" she asked, looking towards her friends.

"I'm going to room with Inuoka and Kenma," Shibayama replied. "You're going to be staying in your own room, right?"

Aika nodded. "My brother and I are taking the nurse's office. I need a bed that's off the floor, 'cause of my leg, so I'll be there. Unfortunately," she grumbled, "us girls are also in charge of feeding you morons. So I've also got to get up early to help cook."

"Well, you help Kenma's mom. Or… so he says. You can't be terrible."

She hummed, not knowing what to say. "Well, I'm not awful. But I'm not the best cook, either. I'll probably just be in charge of serving, considering I don't know my way around the kitchen."

Just as Shibayama was going to say something, a loud voice, almost as loud as Lev, echoed across the gym. "Hey, Yamada, come over here! I need help with something!" shouted the captain of Fukurodani.

He stuck out with his owl-hair, and he was all the way at the other end of the gym. She bit her lip, somewhat irritated by the sheer idiocy he displayed in just those words. She liked Bokuto, considering he was pretty smart when it came to volleyball, but he was kind of an idiot in every other regard.

"Idiot… I can't stand him ordering me around," she grumbled as she tried to turn her wheelchair.

A pair of hands came to rest on handles of the chair behind her, and she looked up to see Kageyama staring down at her with his dark eyes. "Just relax. I'll get you where you need to be."

She couldn't help but smile. "Thanks, Kageyama. Bokuto's probably just going to ask me some stupid questions about some things I saw today. He's always doing that, whenever I see him. I kind of understand why he and Tetsu are friends, considering they're both kind of stupid like that."

Kageyama pushed her wheelchair slowly as he asked, "So, you know him well?"

"Sort of," she replied softly. "Tetsu is good friends with Bokuto, so they drag me, Kenma, and Akaashi to get dinner with them. Although, we'd agree anyways, considering they're liable to destroy something if left to their own devices."

"They sound like a handful." Kageyama grimaced, knowing just what kind of people they were.

She laughed, and he couldn't help but smile down at her as best he could. "Yeah, they are. But they're good people, and really good volleyball players. You guys are going to learn a lot here." She paused, looking down at her lap, causing Kageyama to gaze at her curiously.

"Something the matter?" he asked gently.

She shook her head, her short hair whipping around her face. She was turning red, and Kageyama had to stop himself from blushing at the sight of her blush. "Nothing's wrong, I promise. I just… I'm… I'm really glad you guys made it." She offered him a happy look as she reached back to touch his arm. "I missed all of you a lot."

Kageyama felt his heart lurch in his chest. "I missed you, too."

Sugawara paused, seeing that Kageyama and Aika were chatting again, both of them looking more content than he'd ever seen them. In fact, if he had to be completely honest, Kageyama, in that moment, looked like he would love it if he could stay right there forever.

It was clear to Sugawara that Kageyama was slowly accepting how he felt about the girl in the wheelchair below him, and he was beginning to see that the two were both letting each other into their worlds, the ones that were closed off to most other people.

He sighed, knowing that it wouldn't do him any good to dwell on his feelings, but also knowing that he didn't want to give up just yet.

Maybe Daichi's right. Maybe she's meant for me, and not for Kageyama.

Again, he paused, looking somewhat sadly at the two as they crossed the court.

Then again, maybe not. They're alone right now, even though we're all here with them.

Yaku was also watching, a small smile on his face as he watched Aika become as comfortable with the boy who was pushing her wheelchair as she was with Kenma and Kuroo. She was rarely that relaxed around anyone else, but to see her like that now, it was like she was actually beginning to act like a girl her age should act.

She was blushing and stuttering, something Yaku had never seen her do.

Is this the guy she likes? It has to be. She doesn't act differently around anyone else.

Shin, meanwhile, was watching from his place above the courts with Saeko.

"I knew that kid was going to be good for my sister." He could feel Saeko looking at him with a confused expression, the one she always had whenever he said something she didn't quite understand. "Kageyama, I mean. Hinata… he was a great start for her. He pulled her out of her depression and gave her a way to fall in love with volleyball again. I'll always be grateful to him for what he's done for her."

Saeko hummed, looking down to where the girl with Shin's hair color was being pushed around by Kageyama, who she'd come to see as another little brother during the long car ride together. To her, they looked like a cute couple who were just coming to terms with the fact that they were a couple.

"Are Kageyama and Aika together?" she asked.

Although Shin chuckled, he shook his head. "No, but I know when a guy likes my little sister. See, it's difficult to let her go, but she's growing up. She might be my one and only, but she needs more than I can give her in order to truly learn to fly." He put his hands in his pockets, a grin taking over his face.

Saeko grinned up at him, seeing the pure happiness on his face. "So poetic," she droned, unable to resist teasing him.

"S-shut up!"

The training camp had really kicked off by the next day, with Karasuno finally on the board.

Now, there was thick tension between all of the teams who were scrambling for victories, pushing themselves to the limits of their bodies as they played their hardest. She watched all of them, making notes on every last new thing she saw.

Top tier teams were incredibly interesting, now that she got to see them up close.

Seeing Karasuno next to them made her realize just how much they still had to learn.

There were many types of opponents on the courts, some of which Karasuno hadn't had to face yet. They hadn't faced anyone like Lev just yet, who was so naturally gifted thanks to his height and high amount of game sense. They hadn't faced someone like Bokuto, whose spikes were so tightly linked to his emotions that they were like a part of him. They hadn't faced Nekoma or Fukurodani at their fullest, and hadn't even begun to experience the amount of power each team had.

"There's a lot of work still left to do," she murmured to herself, tapping her pen against her chin with a knowing look on her face. Her other hand was curled around the pages of her notebook, the entire thing nearly filled from just the first two days of the training camp.

Each team here is a great team, but even though they're all top tier, each of them failed to make the Interhigh Preliminaries. Even in Nekoma, even with Kenma and Tetsu and Lev and Yaku, we failed.

We're all trying to improve.

It wasn't that he was irritated that Hinata wanted so badly to do his own thing, to work hard on something that he was good at, rather than relying on Kageyama's skill all the time. It wasn't that he didn't believe Hinata was talented, considering he'd improved so much in just the past two months.

It was that he didn't like not being needed.

He wasn't used to having someone so fully able to receive his tosses, to spike them and earn points off of a ball he tossed. It'd been called the "King's Toss" for so long that he thought he'd never have to use it again.

But he'd been wrong, and Hinata had proved him differently.

"With me around, you're the greatest!"

It felt like so long ago that he'd yelled that at Hinata in front of everyone.

"Thanks to this guy, I can see the other side of the court!"

It felt like it'd been a thousand years since Hinata had said that.

"The freak-quick is going to be hard for them to counter."

Even though he heard that all the time, it still felt so right. It made Kageyama feel like he was invincible for once.

But he wasn't.

He was far from invincible, far from unbeatable. He was simply the support of the team, the pillar of Karasuno. All he could do was set things up and hope that the pieces fell into their places, hope that things would work out for him and for the team.

Right now, they weren't working whatsoever.

Against Nekoma, against that newbie, Lev, the quick worked for a while. It earned Karasuno a decent amount of points, until Lev's miraculous height put an end to both Hinata's plays as a spiker and as a decoy. That was when the dam broke.

The ball had gone up off of a chance ball from Sawamura, right towards where Azumane was already standing. But as Azumane – as the ace – leapt for the ball, so did Hinata.

He had tried to fly for a ball that wasn't his.

And immediately afterwards, he'd declared, "I'm going to stop closing my eyes."

It was a real shock to everyone, as they all became quick to sit on the edges of their seats, waiting for the time that Hinata's brightness would swallow them up.

Nekoma took the game, 25-18.

As they stood from their flying receives, Kageyama looked towards Aika, who was sitting on Nekoma's side for that particular game, watching with an unreadable expression on her face. She leaned back in her wheelchair and beckoned someone from Nekoma over.

The rooster-haired captain was the one to respond, rushing over to her as she called for him.

"The fact that Azumane senpai and Shoyo bumped into each other caused the tension. There was no way Nekoma could have lost," she droned blankly. "I don't suppose that you heard what their conversation was about."

Although her voice was quiet, he still managed to hear her as she spoke. In response, the captain nodded. "I think they might need you more than we do, Ai. They're falling apart at the seams over there."

"I know," she sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I can see it."

She looked towards Kageyama, meeting his gaze. With her hand, she gestured him to come to her. Slowly, he moved towards Nekoma's side of the net, facing the wheelchair-bound Aika. She smiled up at him, and he immediately knew what she was asking of him. He moved around her, grabbing onto the handles of her wheelchair, and gently pushed her towards Karasuno's side.

Although she was silent as he pushed her, she had him stop in front of the players. "Shoyo," she called, her voice soft.

Hinata flinched, hearing her tone. He looked up at her, and the tension in his shoulders increased at seeing her face. "Y-yeah?" he asked, tripping over a single word.

"Remember what I told you about Icarus?"

He paused for a moment, then nodded. "The guy with the wax wings, right? He flew too close to the sun, and he fell into the ocean and died. He was too confident in his own abilities." The rest of Karasuno stared at him, somewhat shocked at his knowledge of the story.

Aika frowned. "You're becoming Karasuno's Icarus. Do what you can, but don't try to push yourself."

He nodded, hanging his head at the few words she'd left him with.

Kageyama watched as she moved on, speaking quietly to Azumane, who was nodding along with her, agreeing with whatever it was that she was saying. He looked back to Hinata, whose hands were curled into fists.

We all have to do more, isn't that right?

Notes:

I'm sorry, I totally got busy and forgot about everything else. I don't like getting too personal
(you're here for a story, not for the author), but some personal things happened, and my health took a sharp decline.
I promise that I'm back for good now. Thank you to all the new people who came to read this story.

We're currently the most popular Kageyama/OC story, or so my friend tells me, despite there being so few.
Thank you for this. It really makes me happy to hear my writing being well received.

I posted a new story for a new series, called Bloody Sunday, focusing on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
I highly recommend the show itself - it's more than the memes may lead you to believe.
If you're interested, please take a look. I'd really appreciate it. Thank you!

Love,

Chiyuki.