pens, paper, and a volleyball player | k. tobio

12

Nekoma vs Karasuno. Cats vs Crows. The Battle of the Garbage Dump. 

Yorashi is going to get a kick out of this story I’m sure of it.

The team had taken the bus to the sports complex but Nekoma was already there. The teams lined themselves up to greet each other. Apparently Hinata had met the shortest one with bleached hair and overgrown roots whose name was Kenma. I say shortest but he was still taller than Hinata. 

“What business do you have with our setter?” One with a black Mohawk loomed from behind Kenma. Hinata’s expression was nothing short of terrified.

Tanaka, of course, came up to the trio and stared down the one with the mohawk. Now that they were standing next to each other with the same “Intimidating” glare I realized how similar they seemed. “What business do you have with our rookie? You wanna fight city boy?”

Suga went over to take Tanaka while a light brown haired went to take “Yamamoto” back to their team as well. I just chucked at the scene in front of me. When they talked about the great “Battle of the Garbage Dump” I wasn’t exactly expecting a stare down.

I grabbed a couple bags from the bus then went over to fetch hinata from his buddy. While I was waking Yamamoto had noticed me walking by and looked back over in Kiyoko’s direction. 

“T-two girl managers…k-kawaii-” two of his other teammates behind him seemed to be celebrating themselves.

“Weirdos.” I scoff.

“Ah, yeah sorry about them, they can be a bit…much.” A bed-headed hair boy came up to me to apologize on behalf of his team. 

“It’s whatever.” I wave him off.

“Kuroo Tetsuro. Captain.” He introduced himself.

“Nakamura Suzuki.” I replied.

“I know. Contest winner.” He smiled.

“Heh. I refuse to believe people still remember that.” I mumble under my breath.

—

BEEP

The first match had started. Kenma was serving first. 

His serve wasn’t exactly strong or flashy but it was clearly aimed well. Asahi managed to just barely save it. “Gomen!”

“That’s what you get for slacking off for a month!” Nishinoya retorted, causing Asahi to fluster. 

Kenma seems to have very good aim and a good eye for things. 

Just then Kageyama had spiked the ball down to the sidelines, getting a point.

And then Kageyama with scary accuracy. What kind of water are these setters drinking?

The faces from the Nekoma team when we pulled the freak quick was priceless, then again when was it not. However, you can only pull it so many times per game. The middle blocker on Nekoma, was slowly but surely keeping up with their stunts. Their offense was pretty good as well. With all that combined they were able to catch up.

I couldn’t help but notice Kenma had been staring down everyone on the court. He has hazel, almost yellow, eyes that look like ones of an actual cat. It looked like he was hunting down his next prey. 

Is this where all the cat and crow metaphors come to play?

All of a sudden I noticed Hinata and Kageyama were going to go for another quick. As I got snapped out of my thoughts, Nekoma’s middle blocker, #7, blocked it with one hand. It bounced on the gym floor with a thundering crash and a whistle blew shortly after. It was the end of the third set and Nekoma had taken the win.

What game are you playing Nekoma high…

—

Nekoma was in the lead with Kurasuno struggling behind trying to keep up. We needed something new, something to get the team back in the game. Hell we could have even done for some different positions.

But, even still, our freak duo was going for another set; except this time, Hinata kept his eyes open.

Sadly this didn't go to plan with him missing the ball and falling down, the ball coming down to the side of him.

Ukai called a timeout clearly pissed with the performance of this set. The team quickly gathered around him. I wasn't able to catch most of the instructions because I was focused on the opposite team. Something about their pudding haired setter threw me off. 

The game resumed.

The ball had flown into Kageyama’s hands once again and he set it to Hinata except this time with more of an arc. However the shorter one had his eyes open once again and still missed it. They were for a regular quick, I could tell. They continued to attempt this failing over and over.

“They’re so used to doing what others would consider impossible, they can’t do the normal attempt.” I started thinking out loud, gaining the attention from everyone on the bench. “Kageyama is so used to his scary accuracy that is normally in a straight incline up into Hinata’s hand, while Hinata is so used to relying on pure luck of his swing and his freakishly impressive jump; therefore not needing to open his eyes since they cause him to overthink anyways. They’re both using their pure talent and skill to do an offensive move that they've practically already ‘mastered’ except they're using it as a crutch rather than a secret weapon that it should be used for. This is all stating the obvious since anyone could point that out, especially the other team, except what everyone’s failed to realize is that it’s not their capability, it's the fact that our normal is their abnormal.”

“Jesus Christ kid.” Ukai just deadpanned, keeping his eyes peeled onto the court.

“Sorry…I was thinking out loud…” I put my head back into my notebook and focus on writing my thoughts instead of thinking them out loud.

Nishinoya was subbed in for Hinata which clearly annoyed the ginger, but after the rotation he was subbed back in. #7 was at the back whilst their captain was in the front

Another quick was made by our duo. This time it was their normal one. Kurro however was unable to block it. I could only assume that means #7 is the only one who was able to block them. Then again it would be a while till Kurasuno caught up.