Descending |Haikyuu!! Reader x Various|

.19.

If you knew Karasuno, our entrance onto Nekoma's campus would have seemed downright hilarious.

The thirteen of us were all in our warm-up suits, all black and silent. Takeda and Ukai looked like weary supervisors of a murder of unruly crows. Tanaka was giving his best scowl to all of the stray students we passed, and Kageyama and Tsukishima's neutral faces were enough to scare away the bravest of souls. Even Yachi looked sullen and unapproachable.

I looked over at Hinata, who was staring straight ahead in concentration, a sure one-eighty from the nervous-to-the-point of nausea boy on the bus. His eyes were glazed over, looking detached but somehow still scary. It almost made me want to laugh.

"(Boy Name), your pregame-face isn't near intimidating enough." Nishinoya muttered, just as we entered the open space where Nekoma was waiting for us.

"Right, whoops." I pushed the smile off of my face, observing the large team in front of us with what I hoped was an indifferent expression. They were as quiet as we were, and one of them was even scowling just as hideously as Tanaka was.

We were about five meters away from them when we stopped. We mostly had them outdone in height, besides one string bean of a boy towards the middle of the group. I picked out the captain's number easily, as he was the only one who looked uneasy, like he was afraid to make eye contact with us. At least I wasn't the only one.

"Hello, Karasuno, Ukai." The coach, who was standing off to the left of his team, greeted.

"Hey, Nekomata. You guys definitely grew." Ukai was uncharacteristically solemn, another oddity.

"I don't think I can say the same for you guys. No one wanted to come to the powerhouse of Miyagi?" The coach smiled mockingly, seeming pleased.

"Eh, quality over quantity." Ukai shrugged, and silence ensued.

For roughly four seconds.

Then, the two gruff coaches guffawed, and shook hands heavily. The teams seemed to find unspoken permission in the action.

"Kenma! Your hair is longer!" Hinata was the first out of line, leaping up at the captain. Soon enough, Tanaka was bridging the gap, meeting the scowling guy in the middle with a too-violent hug. I was surprised to see the both of them sobbing.

"Hinata! You grew!" The lanky boy intervened before Hinata could assault the captain with a likely excessive amount of questions.

"Two centimeters!" Hinata announced proudly, holding up his index and middle finger as an example.

"Me too!" The boy gasped, and another tall player stepped in before Hinata's expression soured too heavily.

I looked away from the eccentric reunion, already being tugged in the general direction of of a short, dark-haired boy by Nishinoya.

"Shibayama! You're the libero, aren't you? So are we!" I didn't have the energy in me to correct him that, no, I wasn't really.

"Yeah, I'm starting this year." He smiled amiably, which eased my nerves slightly. Their act of intimidation was apparently just as false as ours.

"Well, the gym calls for us!" Nekoma's coach called loudly over the sound of both reunions and introductions. The captain appeared to have escaped Hinata's interview, and walked over to where Ennoshita stood next to me.

His hair was all black, besides the blonde bun tied tightly to the nape of his neck. He didn't seem quite as overbearingly athletic as the rest of the people around him, which gave me a bit of comfort.

"Kenma, are we in over our heads?" Enno chuckled, and the other captain seemed nervous.

"Probably. We got fourteen new members in the club." He shook his head a little, and I immediately felt sorry for this stranger.

"Eh, we got three first years, and (Boy Name). Karasuno isn't as accommodating as other schools." Ennoshita shrugged, but he seemed a little bitter about the fact.

"They're... intimidating." Kenma took in our well-over 180cm first years, nodding slightly. I scoffed under my breath, remembering a moment when a beetle flew into the gym and landed near Kokowa. I hadn't heard anyone scream like he did in quite a while.

"They're big babies." Ennoshita murmured so only Kenma heard him. Everyone started towards the gym, still absorbed in multiple conversations.

Kenma led us, us being Ennoshita, Narita, Kinoshita, and I, in after the rest of the teams, and I was pretty impressed by the facilities. It was clear why they had so many new members, besides their reputation as a powerhouse.

We wasted no time in getting warmed up. The way Hinata acted, he'd been ready for this match since he was born. I was on the opposite side of the net as those practicing on spiking, Nishinoya to my left. I would usually be in the line to spike, but Ukai seemed to want to keep me on the downlow for now.

I joined the line for two rotations, just enough to become accustomed to the feeling. I was pulling on my elbow support when Kageyama approached me at the bench.

"What's the problem?" He asked bluntly.

"Is there a problem?" I looked around to see if there was any obvious point of irritation.

"You're very... tense today. Does your shoulder hurt?" He reached out to press his forefinger curiously against my sleeve.

"No, I'm fine. What did I do wrong?" I rolled my shoulder slightly, just in case I hadn't realized a limitation before.

"You're not swinging as accurately. I'm used to your hits by now, they're always the same. Are you still worried about your hits getting received?" He lowered his voice slightly at the last question, but my eyes still darted to see if anyone else was near.

"I'm... not entirely confident, but that's to be expected to a team like Nekoma. They have an impressive defense." I shrugged, trying not to look insecure about the problem I'd been freaking out about ever since I learned about Nekoma's defensive capabilities.

"Oh." He tilted his head a little, thoughtful. "(Boy Name)? How do you get past blocks so easily?"

"What?" My head spun at the change in subjects. "I just hit it around the blockers."

"So you can see them fast enough to figure it out?" I nodded. "Then just watch the receivers a little more. They only really have two good blockers. Well, if you count Lev." He shrugged, looking over to where Nekoma was warming up.

The absolute simplicity of the idea seemed ridiculous. Maybe even just simple enough to work?

Of course it took a volleyball savant to figure it out.