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Gym number three. That was the name of the Aoba Johsai gym they had been directed to. Three.
Shouyou was no expert, but there was no way that didn’t imply the existence of not one, but two other gyms. Gyms like this one. Gyms with their own bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms with their own showers. It was kind of ridiculous, but mostly it was just intimidating. Not even Karasuno, the biggest school he’d ever been to, had gyms with bathrooms.
These guys were starting out on a completely different level from him – which he was mostly used to, at least when it came to volleyball. But with a school campus like this, the Aoba Johsai team somehow seemed like they were head and shoulders above everyone else at Karasuno too.
Of course, it didn’t help that they were all also physically head and shoulders above him.
“Greeting!”
He startled and dipped hurriedly into a bow. “Nice to meet you!”
Watching Aoba Johsai’s practice was, in a word – horrible.
They were all better than him. There was no two ways about it; they hit powerful spikes and they received powerful spikes and they somehow did it all flawlessly. If only he’d had skills like that for the three-on-three match, it would’ve been a cinch…
His captain’s commentary certainly didn’t help. It wasn’t long before Shouyou found his stomach escalating from butterflies to some very angry hornets.
He groaned as he exited the toilet. It reeked of human piss in there and he really did not need the headache. This is bad.
There was a chance that he’d emptied himself all out now though. Right? Was that how it worked? It could be how that worked.
His stomach did another flip. Maybe not.
“What’s the matter with those guys from Karasuno?”
Ah crap.
He peeked around the bathroom door. There were two guys coming in the door, dressed in Aoba Johsai tracksuits. One of them… he thought he recognised. Was he on the same team as Kageyama back in junior high? He had the same turnip-shaped silhouette.
But the other guy –
Shouyou froze as he caught his eye. There was something different about him, or maybe something familiar. Something that Shouyou couldn’t quite put his finger on, but he could just tell that it was significant.
The guy narrowed his eyes at him. Was he thinking the same thing as Shouyou?
“Hey.” Shouyou startled again. With a mental dig at himself, he managed to tear his eyes away from that weird guy to look at Turnip-head instead. “You’re a first year at Karasuno?”
He stepped further out of the bathroom so that they could properly see his Karasuno High School Volleyball Club jacket. Not that there was any writing on the front, but it clearly marked him as separate from the other volleyball players in the building. It definitely marked him separate from these guys. They were almost opposites: white and black.
“Y-yeah, I am.”
He was asking about Kageyama. It made sense, if they’d been on the same team. Maybe he was worried about that uppity ass for some reason. Well, he did seem a bit hopeless in social situations – that probably had something to do with it. It did feel a little good to commiserate with a fellow victim of Kageyama’s targeted harassment campaign against less skilled players.
“Just because he’s a little skilled! Who does he think he is?”
Turnip-head gave a bemused smile. “See?” he said. “What did I tell you?”
Shouyou watched carefully as Turnip-head’s weird friend sighed good-naturedly. “He’s utterly despised.”
He seemed so normal, but Shouyou still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something.
The feeling still gripped him as they lined up to start the match. He tried to shake it off, but his eyes just wouldn’t stop drifting back to that one guy. The setter, apparently.
It probably didn’t help that his stomach felt like it was eating itself alive.
Did Kageyama really have the power to bench him if he wanted? If he decided that Shouyou really was useless, could he do that? He knew that the captain and vice-captain had consulted him about Shouyou’s position as middle blocker. Would they take him at his word if he told them to take him off the team?
Could he make Shouyou quit volleyball?
That weird guy’s stare constantly being on him certainly didn’t help.
It all came to a head with Shouyou’s ultimate mistake. Nailing Kageyama in the back of the head with the set-deciding serve.
He didn’t think he’d survive the encounter when Kageyama stormed up to him. But all Kageyama really did was look evil, threaten him a bit, and then… move on.
Had that goof really been safe? If Kageyama hadn’t ordered him off the court for that, then… could it mean that Turnip-head had just been razzing him? Kageyama was an ass, but it seemed like he didn’t particularly care that Shouyou had totally messed up. No one else had messed up as badly as he had.
The second set went much differently. With Tanaka’s words in mind, he suddenly felt a lot cooler. Like the air conditioning in his body had been abruptly switched on.
They knew he was going to be lousy, but they let him play anyway. They were going to pick up his slack. It wasn’t all on him to win alone.
He had a team.
Without Kageyama’s fiery stare breathing down his neck, Shouyou had the time to really sit back and sense the court. He could tell much more easily where he was meant to be, and where he could or should go when the ball closed in on his area. The boundaries of the court seemed physical; he could sense where everything was in relation to him.
It also meant that when Aoba Johsai’s number one rotated around to be on the front row, he managed to catch a brief whiff of something as he shot past the net and spiked the ball. The feeling he got from that scent was like the feeling he got from their setter; he still couldn’t really explain it to himself, but it was like something within him sat up and started paying attention.
He was curious, but between spiking Kageyama’s sets, fumbling receives, and stumbling into his blocks, he didn’t really have the time to focus on it. It didn’t take long until he noticed he wasn’t alone in his staring, though. Mysterious setter guy and Seijoh number one had started watching him back.
Were they weirded out, or did they sense the same thing that he did?
He was beginning to get an idea of what the feeling he had was.
They won the second set. It was a good feeling; their team was succeeding against one of the top four teams in the prefecture – but now that he wasn’t on the court, that creeping, niggling sensation was back with a vengeance. Tanaka was trying to draw him into a celebration, but with the game was on pause, he really couldn’t take his eyes off them. Number one and the mysterious setter.
Number one nudged someone in the side – number two. They seemed to exchange a few words quietly amongst themselves, before their mysterious setter joined them. Shouyou felt his head tilt as they all turned toward him at once.
There was no mistaking it. They had to be feeling the same thing he was. He wasn’t sure how number two fit into this whole thing though. Maybe… maybe he was the same way? He hadn’t had a good look at him during the match. Was it possible that there were three of them on one team?
“Staring ‘em down, Hinata? Good work.” Tanaka appeared beside him.
“Huh? Oh, yeah – ”
They were interrupted by squealing. Someone had entered the gym.
He watched with interest as the three returned to the main group of their teammates to greet this new person – someone called Oikawa-san, Kageyama told them. Kageyama’s old senpai, who was extremely skilled, apparently more skilled than Kageyama, and a personality worse than Tsukishima’s. He didn’t know such a thing was possible.
The Grand King.
Shouyou was suddenly feeling a lot worse about their chances of winning this match.
They got back into position for the third set as the newcomer went to warm up. Mysterious setter, and number one and number two were all on the back line. They were looking at him.
Captain Daichi picked up the first serve easily. The ball went to Kageyama, who set it to Tanaka, and suddenly they were a point up on the scoreboard. Easy as that. Maybe, if they were lucky, they wouldn’t have to fight the Grand King after all.
That hope was quickly crushed when Seijoh scored the next point. Number three rotated around to serve – and Seijoh’s number one landed right up in front of Shouyou. They’d been this close before, in the first set, and for a little while in the second, but suddenly Shouyou felt all too aware of the height difference between them.
This guy was strong. Tall, and strong. So close, Shouyou could clearly see the well-defined musculature that roped around this guy’s arms – and the rest of his body. Shouyou’s muscles were nothing to sniff at, but he couldn’t help but feel a little intimidated.
This guy could totally beat him up.
Shouyou jumped as their eyes met through the gaps of the net.
“Hey,” said the guy. Seijoh Number One.
“Uh – ” he gulped. “uh, hey.”
Surprise flitted through him as he saw a smile start to cross Seijoh Number One’s face.
They were so close. Just a net and less than a metre of distance between them. He could practically smell – well, he could smell sweat, a lot of it, and the sort of rubbery smell that all volleyball shoes gave off, and dust, and the lingering scent of Molten volleyballs from his own palms. But underneath all of that, underneath the stench of teenage boys and the volleyball court – there was something.
Something else.
But then the ball was up in the air, and yet again Shouyou didn’t have the time to think about it. He had to focus on the next point. Eventually, he rotated onto the back row, away from those three on the other side of the net, and there were other things on his mind.
Like the Grand King’s sudden, electric, explosive serve. He’d been rotated to the front for only a short while before Kageyama’s old senpai took up the position for a pinch serve.
Seijoh Number One grinned at him when he saw him startle at the sheer volume of the ball as it struck the court behind him. It was shameful, but he was sort of glad he wasn’t one of the people meant to receive that thing.
Of course, that was before he realised that Tsukishima was being targeted.
That was his teammate. Something warm bloomed in his chest. Even though Tsukishima sucked, not even he should be picked on by much stronger guys. They’re teammates, damn it! He couldn’t just stand here and let that happen.
“Oi! You, Great King!”
Oikawa’s eyes shifted across the court towards him. As much as he had smiled at those girls before, his gaze could really be cutting. Looks like Kageyama was right about his personality.
“Aim at me!” he called. “I’ll receive it! Aim here!”
It didn’t make his words feel empty when Captain Daichi told them to scoot to the sides. It made them feel more whole.
The Grand King aimed for Tsukishima again. The ball snapped across the net with a great crack – it went by so quickly that Shouyou almost didn’t see Tsukishima receive the ball and launch it into the air. It went back across the net, but when Turnip-head went to spike the ball, Shouyou was there. He couldn’t block it, but he could touch it – and that was all he needed to do.
He heard Turnip-head taunting him, but it didn’t process; the ball had already been received and Kageyama was getting in position to set it. His feet hit the ground and he spun on his heel and started sprinting to the opposite side of the net. If he wanted to spike it – if he wanted to even get close – he had to run, run, run –
– Jump –
– The ball, snug in his palm, and the look in the Great King’s eye –
Smack!
The ball; the sound of it hitting the wooden floor of the court.
For the first two, maybe five seconds, he wasn’t sure he’d really done it. No one reacted at first. Then, it slowly dawned on him.
They won.
As a team, they’d gone up against one of the top four teams in the prefecture, and they’d won. he felt flushed with the realisation – he felt hot. Like the world had opened up to him, like it had unfurled before his very eyes.
So this is what a team is like…
So this was what it was like to win.
His emotions were so clear and bright, he was sure that he could taste them on his tongue. They won.
They won.
They went to get coaching from Takeda-sensei, and Shouyou almost forgot about those three guys from Aoba Johsai. He didn’t really understand what was being said, but he sort of got the picture. He got the part at the end, at least.
“All of you will most likely get stronger. Much stronger!”
Yes. Yes! That’s exactly what he wanted!
That’s why he came to Karasuno.
They were clearing up, when it happened. Kageyama had gone to find the bathroom, his upperclassmen were occupied with one another or with other tasks, and Tsukishima and Yamaguchi had wandered off somewhere. He had been about to go approach Tanaka to help lift a bench, when a voice spoke up behind him.
Seijoh Number One.
“Hey,” he said. Outside of the court, he was actually a lot less intimidating. He had a stern brow, and his hair was ferociously short, but the small smile on his face seemed genuine enough.
Beside him was Seijoh Number Two, but their mysterious setter was nowhere to be found. The gym was certainly large enough that he could be glossed over if he wanted to be.
“Hey,” Shouyou returned. He tried to stealthily sniff the air, although he wasn’t sure how subtle he was actually being, given the amused glance the two shared. “You, uh…”
What could he say – “you smell weird”? That wouldn’t get his message across even if they knew what the hell he was talking about. But – there was no mistaking it. Now that they were close, right next to each other and standing still, Shouyou was sure that he could parse through the overpowering scent of sweat.
These guys – they were like him.
What did his mamãe always tell him to do?
Well, he’d technically already done it, but another round couldn’t hurt. Just as Seijoh Number Two looked like he might be about to say something, Shouyou dipped down into a short bow. “Please excuse the intrusion,” he told them. It was technically their home turf, after all.
Seijoh Number Two stifled a laugh as Seijoh Number One smiled and shook his head. “No, don’t worry about it.” he lifted a hand to scratch the side of his neck. “Uh, I’m Iwaizumi Hajime. This is Matsukawa. The guy you met before is Yahaba.”
“I’m Hinata Shouyou. It’s nice to meet you!”
“It’s nice to meet you,” they both said. “Your quick set with Kageyama is incredible. You really outran me with that last broad attack.” Iwaizumi added.
Shouyou felt a blush rise up his throat. “Thanks!”
Iwaizumi glanced over Shouyou’s shoulder. “Listen, guys like us should probably keep in touch. It’s always nice to meet new… people.” He cleared his throat as Matsukawa slapped him on the back with a wolfish grin. “We should exchange numbers.”
“Numbers? Oh, sure!”
He supposed it made sense. The only other people like them he’d met, he’d known since long before he’d ever got his hands on a phone. They’d lived close by enough that all they had to do was make the short trip to one another’s houses whenever they wanted to hang out.
Then he’d gone to Karasuno, which was, to his knowledge, utterly deprived of anyone who wasn’t one hundred percent, completely human.
All, except for him.
He didn’t know why, but he’d never really thought that other schools might have someone else like him – let alone three someone elses.
It… was kind of cool, actually. Having someone his age, but still slightly older. Someone who wasn’t his Mamãe or Natsu, or Izumin or Koji.
“Oh?” Matsukawa leered, as Shouyou dug around in his bag for his phone. It was in here somewhere. “Is this responsible senpai behaviour happening? With an underclassman from another school?” Shouyou looked up just in time to see Iwaizumi roll his eyes. “Well, I suppose I can’t get left behind if we’re doing some rule breaking. Take my number too.”
Shouyou hesitated. “Rule…?”
Iwaizumi snorted as he took his phone from him. “Don’t worry about it, he’s exaggerating.”
Matsukawa laughed. “Our courageous captain can be – ”
“Hinata!” He jumped to attention as Sugawara’s voice travelled across the gym to them. “We’re leaving!”
“Good timing,” Iwaizumi muttered. “Text me later, okay? There are a few other guys in the volleyball scene who are like us, but – ” He crossed his arms. Shouyou couldn’t help but notice how excessively they flexed as he completed the motion. “Well, just text me, okay?”
Shouyou nodded. He should probably get going before Tanaka decided to come over here and razz them. “Okay!”
“They weren’t picking on you, were they?” Tanaka said, as soon as he rejoined earshot. He clapped a hand firmly over Shouyou’s shoulder. “Those bastards!”
Daichi interrupted Tanaka’s imminent rant. As they walked, he went over their performance during the match. Normally, Shouyou would be listening with rapt attention, but he was way too preoccupied with the warm feeling in his chest. The feeling of his teammates, of team spirit – of victory.
But other than that – maybe even more than that – there was this other feeling that he couldn’t quite put a name to. The feeling that he’d noticed earlier, with Yahaba and Matsukawa and Iwaizumi.
A feeling that had somehow been stored within the phone he clutched in his hand.
They’re like me.