The Volleyball Goddess || Female Hinata Shouyou

Chapter 24

Hina-chan, Yachi thought, was the strongest girl she had ever met. Even stronger than Kiyoko-san.

She lost her father, her hero and idol at a young age, she only had her mother and little sister with her when they first moved to a foreign country.

Because her mother was a single mum, she had to fill in her father's shoe to provide for her and her sister. As a result, Hina-chan took care of her sister when her mother couldn't be there for them. This was proven when sometimes, the flame-haired girl came to practice late and the first to leave as soon as practice was over to pick up her sister from school, when she was found shopping for ingredients at a store to make dinner, and more.

Growing up in a foreign country would sound cool to anybody but Yachi knew the downsides of it. Having no one but your family to rely on to, facing prejudice from the more conservative people and many more.

Hina-chan and her family moved to Brazil while they were still grieving for the patriarch of the family's death. It all happened so fast but they still managed to go through it despite the pain and heartache.

Natsu-chan was only a few months old when Haru died, so she didn't have any clue what kind of person her father was, only learned about him through stories from her older sister and mother.

From what Yachi heard, Hina-chan was very close to her father and the most affected after his death. She locked herself in her room and refused to eat for a week. But after her sister was born, she finally went outside and became a better person, promising to herself that she would not let the newborn experience the pain like she did.

And she was only 6 at that time.

Yachi sometimes wondered if all those bright smiles, bubbly laughters, radiant sparkles emitted from Hina-chan were just a façade, but she was proven wrong when the redhead remained calm and collected when Karasuno lost in the quarter-finals. Hina-chan herself reassured her, with a soft smile, that she was still the same cheery and bubbly Hinata everyone knew, and she wasn't just covering up her pain to avoid pity looks from other people.

The first time Yachi saw Hina-chan became all gloomy and sullen was when it was announced that Karasuno's volleyball team was no longer a co-ed team, and that she would be transferring to Niiyama Joshi to join their team.

It seemed that only Takeda-sensei and Coach Ukai knew about it, judging from the grim looks on their faces. Not even the freshly-graduated third-years knew about it.

When it was revealed that some people accused Hina-chan about many things, the team was enraged, especially Nishinoya and Tanaka.

"What the fuck?! Shouyou isn't like that!! She's not what those people said about her!" Nishinoya roared.

"Yeah! Hinata is like our sister, bro! We're like a family!!" Tanaka added, which the others agreed.

"Do those people know that some of us are gay?" Tsukishima murmured under his breath with a dark look on his face.

Yamaguchi nodded in agreement. "Yeah! Guys and girls can be friends without being romantically attached!" He cried out before his eyes met Yachi's and they both blushed.

"What the hell?! Hinata is an important player in the team!" Kageyama shouted.

Coach Ukai raised his hands to placate them. "Guys! Calm down! We can't do anything about it! Hinata's mother has already made her decision! Hinata herself also agreed to join Niiyama Joshi team on her own!" He explained.

"I think it's a good opportunity for me to explore the women's league. I know I won't actually play in the men's league in the future...I just didn't expect it to happen a little earlier," Hina-chan finally spoke after she had been quiet from the beginning. "I think joining Niiyama Joshi team would be a good start."