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Chapter Thirty-Nine: Moonrise

Summary: Shōyō Hinata loves volleyball! There is no doubt that all he really thinks about is volleyball. His sister, however, isn’t the same way. Sakura is ready to start her first year of high school at Karasuno with her twin brother and doesn’t really want to do anything, unlike Shōyō. Though she can’t help it when she gets dragged into the antics of the volleyball club.

Word Count: 6471

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A/n: Ah another chapter, how lovely.

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“OH, MAN! OH, MAN! TAKING OFF IN the middle of the night is pretty exciting!” Shōyō was bouncing on the balls of his feet, really one of the only ones really awake at this time of the morning. It was quite early, the sun hadn’t even breached through the horizon yet. Though the team weren’t awake for practice, they were awake to climb onto a bus and make their journey to Tokyo.

Tanaka chuckled at his underclassmen, “Well, you guys were late last time.” He nostalgically remembered how his sister had to be the one to drive the troublesome duo to their camp. Ah, fun times.

“Being an idiot must be nice.” Tsukishima scoffed, “You can even sleep on a bus.”

The two other boys shouted at him, “What’d you say?!”

Sakura cringed, “don’t yell, it’s too early for this.”

The team plus Sakura and the managers all gathered around the bus. Some were tired this early in the morning, but almost all of them were excited. Yet another training camp to go to! The day was finally here that they would get to see some other strong schools from Tokyo! “We’ll be arriving at our destination early in the morning once again.” Takeda said, drawing all of their attention, “Ukai-kun and I will take turns driving.”

Said coach yawned, “Sorry if I nod off.”

Everyone bowed to him with a slight shout, “Thank you!”

Their advisor jumped, “It’s the middle of the night, so not so loud.”

“Oh, sorry… Habit,” Daichi chuckled in apology.

“Do you guys have everything?” Takeda said to them all, “Make sure you double-check.”

Yamaguchi turned to Shōyō by his side, “It’ll go quickly if you fall asleep.”

“I wonder if I can…” the ball of sunshine pursed his lips.

Sakura scoffed lightly under her breath, “you most certainly will.” She knew her brother could sleep anywhere at any time. A bus ride was not going to be an issue for him. Though besides her she didn’t notice the lazy stare that a blond giant was pointing at her.

Ever since they had all gathered together, Tsukishima was surveying the distance that was put between the Hinata siblings. Now that Sakura was actually here, he could see just how she was keeping herself separate from her brother. Along with that Shōyō was also doing what he could to gain her attention every once in a while. Even so, Shōyō was a bit quieter, upset with his sister’s ignorance. It was a strange sight, Tsukishima never thought he’d see the day when the twins weren’t attached at the hip. He saw that ever since they had rode up to the school together on their bikes the twins hadn’t said much to each other. Sakura kept herself besides Yachi or Yamaguchi. Meanwhile, Shōyō sends her puppy-dog eyes every once in a while and distracts himself by talking with Nishinoya and Tanaka.

Then again for a moment Tsukishima could feel himself… empathizing with Sakura. How pathetic, he thought. Him empathizing with Hinata Sakura? That’s baffling! Though he tried to push that thought away, as he should be focusing on how he was going to ignore the others to sleep a bit on the ride to the camp.

Endo yawned loudly, “why do we have to get up at this ungodly hour.”

Asahi laughed at the tired look on his friend's face, “I’m sorry you have to suffer through being awake.”

“Some of us need our beauty sleep, you know.” He not so subtly pointed at Nishinoya and Tanaka, “Some more than others.”

“OI!!” It appeared that the two heard them. Though Endo probably wanted them to. Even if it was early in the morning, he still loved riling up his friends. He just shared a laugh with Asahi before climbing into the bus. Endo was more than ready to sit next to his best friend and use Asahi’s shoulder for a nap.

So the team all piled into the bus. Some were fighting over who would sit next to who and others more than ready to get comfy in their seats for the ride over. Just as Sakura was about to follow behind Yachi when her brother stopped her.

“Imouto, do you want to sit with me?” Shōyō shyly asked as he walked up to his sister.

The girl blinked at him for a moment. She pursed his lips at him and shook her head lightly, “I said I’d sit with Yachi, sorry.”

Shōyō’s expression dropped, “oh.”

So Sakura left behind her dejected brother and climbed onto the bus. She was a bit annoyed with herself for turning him down, even after they had had distance between them for a while now, she still thought it would be a good idea to keep it up.

Yachi noticed the expression on Sakura’s face and asked, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Sakura said, getting comfortable in her seat at the window.

“Shōyō-kun definitely seems down,” Yachi cooed, eyeing the boy as he sulked a little bit in his seat beside Kageyama. She didn’t like to see anyone upset, especially her friends. She turned to look at Sakura who pursed her lips.

“Yeah, he’ll just have to get used to it.” Her friend gave her a look. One that had Sakura sighing heavily. “I know now that I have to move forward with my plan, and Shōyō is just going to have to get used to it, since it’s my choice.” It lifted some sort of weight off of her after coming to that conclusion. She was going to use this camp as a way to make it clear to Shōyō exactly what she wanted and how she felt. Sakura didn’t want him to misunderstand any longer like he did that first time she tried to tell him. She finally came up with a good plan, in her opinion, and knew what to say this time around to make it crystal clear to him how she’s felt and how she wants to make things right.

Yachi nodded her head, “Just make sure you talk with him about it. You wouldn’t want him to think that he did something wrong…” She then paused and anxiously waved her hands, “He didn’t do anything wrong right!?”

“No. Not intentionally, at least.” Sakura nodded her head, “I will talk to him when we’ve settled in.”

---

The bus ride wasn’t as tense as Sakura thought that it would be. After not accepting the offer to sit with her brother, she felt like it would fill her with some sort of guilt. Though after the last few days of not really talking with him she had grown to not feel guilty about not being around him all the time. After getting the support that she needed from her friends and talking through everything with them, she knew now not to base her emotions off of what Shōyō was feeling.

Once the team arrived, there were a few boys from the Nekoma team who had come to greet them and show them where to go. Sakura was happy to say hi to Kenma when he came over to them with Kuroo and Nobuyuki. Though she let out a sigh to see that Yua hadn’t tagged along to greet them. She still wasn’t sure if she wanted to say that she was friends with the eager girl. They had shared a few texts here and there, but Sakura hadn’t taken up on any of Yua’s offers to hang out.

“Hey, hey! Where’s the Skytree?” Shōyō exclaimed as soon as he jumped off the bus.

Kenma tilted his head in confusion, “Huh? The Skytree?”

“Oh! Is that the Tokyo Towers?!” Shōyō jumped as he pointed to a random tower in the distance.

“Huh?” The pudding-headed boy blinked, “That’s… Just a normal transmission tower.”

“What the hell?” Kuroo asked, “Are there no transmission towers in Miyagi? Pretty sure I’ve heard that conversation before.”

Daichi’s eyebrow twitched, “The transmission towers in Tokyo all look like the Tokyo Tower to us country folk!”

“That’s a rash thing to say.” Suga said, “Also, we’re in Saitama.”

Shōyō asked Kenma, “So we’re gonna be at a different school this time?”

“Apparently, the summer training camp is always in Shinzen. It’s nice and cool here…” Kenma then slapped his arm to kill an annoying bug, “But lots of bugs around.”

“Hinata!” Nekoma’s half-Russian giant then appeared, running down the stairs. “Did you grow any taller?!”

Kenma deadpanned, “Lev, shut up.”

“That’s a pretty rude thing to say.” Shōy�� gaped, “Like I could grow in two weeks!”

Lev just smugly smirked down at him, “I grew two millimeters.” Shōyō then went into shock at that information. Yachi laughed from beside Sakura who was just shaking her head at them.

The boys all went into the gym, getting themselves ready for their first day of some grueling training camp. As soon as Sakura had stepped into the gym, Yua had seemingly made a beeline for her. Through her excited babbling, the older girl was expressing how happy she was to see her friend again and where they would be sleeping during the camp. It took Yaku nearly dragging her back to their game that Sakura was allowed a moment to breathe. Which meant that she was able to go off with Yachi and Kiyoko and help with anything that they needed.

“All right!” Ukai said to the team, “We’re gonna switch out members constantly this time around, so be prepared.”

“Right!”

So their first game of the camp was against Fukurōdani. One of the most formidable teams here at the camp, it certainly was going to be a challenge to go up against them. Some of the crows were more than determined to see how they were going to fair against their opponents. After all, it was time to show off just how much they had improved.

“Let’s try for no penalties!” Bokuto exclaimed to his teammates.

The game began with Fukurōdani serving to Karasuno. Though there was something just slightly off… When Kageyama tossed the ball to Shōyō, it missed.

Sakura blinked, “Missed?” Sure, she’s seen them miss some spikes or tosses from time to time, but this one was one of the most horrendous misses that she's seen from them. The ball was just slightly short. Though thanks to Shoyo’s quick reflexes he was able to save the ball before it could hit the ground. They’re both so… different now, Sakura thought to herself.

The game continued on with each of the boys having some sort of slight imbalance. Asahi’s spikes were powerful, but not as accurate as they should be. Their synchronized attack most certainly still needed work. Their blocks could be a bit more secure, and obviously the freak duo was having some issues as well. So the boys were completely out of sync with each other. All that practice that they had put in individually wasn’t meshing well as a team just about yet. There was yet another learning curve that they would have to get through now.

“Endo,” Ukai called, making the boy jump just slightly at the shout, “you’re getting subbed in.”

Endo pointed at his own chest, “me? I’m a sub? Wh-what about Suga or Yamaguchi?” It seemed like he was baffled at the idea that he was going to be put in instead of the other guys.

His coach just gave him a bored expression, “Is your name not Endo? Go!”

The blond scoffed, “okay, okay. Don't have a stroke, old man.”

So he was put on the court, for what felt like the first time in quite a while. Endo certainly has been on the court before, but that was normally just at practice against his own teammates. Not necessarily against another team. Still, it was technically a practice game anyway. Plus, they were willing to try anything out to get their momentum going. Since he was subbed in, that meant that Tanaka was taken off of the court, just to shake things up a bit. That certainly did shake up the play style just a bit, but not enough to earn points against Fukurōdani.

Endo did try his best, honestly. He was just a bit surprised to be actually put into the game. Most of the time people overlooked putting him in since he wasn’t all that good and he was never picked over his passionate teammates. Why put someone on the court you weren’t sure was going to put all of their effort into the game when you could put someone who would? It made sense that he was passed over all the time, and Endo wasn’t going to put that against anyone, since he understood. Though now that he was going to actually start focusing on getting better at volleyball, just to spite his father, perhaps it was time to change his outlook. He was going to really put his all into it. Even if that meant sweating a bit more than usual, though he was certain that it would be worth it. After all, he would love to say ‘I told you so’ to his father sooner rather than later.

Across the gym, the Nekoma team was also keeping an eye on the game between the owls and crows. “Hm… Splendid.” Nekomata said while watching Karasuno, “They’re splendidly… not in sync at all.”

Yua nodded her head before scribbling something down after watching Lev miss a dive. Most certainly keeping track of any missed receives that he has. Just so she could show Yaku her statistics later and see him scowl at the younger boy to practice them more.

They then watched as Nishinoya jumped up to actually set the ball. Their mouths were agape as Naoi exclaimed, “Jumping from the back zone and into a libero’s jump toss?” Though it didn’t really do much, since the libero ended up jumping a little too far. “I wonder what happened to Karasuno. Maybe they’re in some kind of rut?”

Nekomata laughed, “I think it’s the exact opposite. Because they’re crows, they’re omnivorous. It doesn’t matter if they’re deep in the mountains, or in the middle of Kabukicho. They eat everything there is to eat, and take advantage of those stronger than them to survive.” He explained as the other teams also kept an eye on Karasuno’s game from the corner of their eyes. “It looks like they’re in the middle of evolving at an incredible speed.”

Yua then pointed at the blond who wasn’t able to block Bokuto’s spike, “Though that one doesn’t seem to be catching up, huh?” Then again, Bokuto’s spikes could be pretty difficult to go up against. She didn’t really think a first-year would stand much of a chance against his spikes. So she really couldn’t hold it against Tsukishima. Hell, even she has issues with blocking Bokuto’s spikes!

---

After all of their many, many mistakes, Karasuno had ended up with quite a few penalty runs. Of course, the penalty was just as grueling as it was at the last training camp. However, instead of diving around the gym, they had to partake in Shinzen’s special “refreshing sprint up the grassy hill”. It was quite a refreshing sprint after doing it so many times. All of the boys were in quite a lot of pain after each round of penalties. By the end, it was just like last time, Karasuno was having a hard time standing up to

Now that it was dark out, the moon gazed down on them after they’ve finished playing their last game of the day, Endo was laid out in the grass. He still was recovering from their last sprint up the hill, taking a breather with the rest of the team. He really was testing his athleticism today. While he certainly would exercise regularly, it wasn’t really to this extent. It was near torture in his opinion! Curse these coaches who wish to see them suffer like this. Why couldn’t one of the other teams just let them win?? He certainly would have loved winning at least one game to miss out on a penalty.

Laid out in the grass with the other third-years and Tanaka, Endo was more than ready to go to bed. Hell, he could probably start sleeping right now. The grass that was scratching his back was extremely comfortable on his sore muscles. Besides him, Suga let out a sigh, “We amazingly lost all of our games.”

“It’s actually sort of refreshing.” Daichi smiled, perhaps a bit dazed after all of their penalties.

With a disbelieving scoff, Endo barely sat up on his elbows to glare at his captain, “If that was refreshing, then you are the biggest masochist I’ve met.”

“I haven’t done that many sprints since Coach Ukai was coaching,” Tanaka wheezed, face planted in the grass.

Daichi then sat up, “I’m gonna borrow the tablet from Ukai-san so we can review the synchronized attack video.”

“All right.”

“Sure thing.”

Asahi also got a hard look on his face, determination growing in his eyes, “I’m gonna go hit some serves. I need way more practice.”

Endo sighed heavily before groaning as he got to his feet, “Ah, geez, you guys are gonna make me feel left out if I don’t join in.” Yes, he could just go back to their shared room and go to bed for the night. However, the last thing that he wanted was to fall behind now after talking so boldly to his family before this.

Meanwhile, in the gym, Sakura waltzed up to her brother as he was lost in his own thoughts. She knew that he was thinking about how his playstyle had changed and wasn’t exactly matching up with Kageyama’s. A big predicament for them as the freak duo obviously. Though now that they had the time, Sakura figured that it was a good moment to talk a bit.

“Shō-nii,” she said, trying to get his attention. Though that proved to be a bit difficult as he just continued to stare down at the volleyball he was holding in his hand. She wasn’t sure what he was thinking but really wanted to finally put this behind them. “Shōyō!”

He jumped out of his own mind as it had been racing with some many things. The practice matches had been abysmal and he was still not really on speaking terms with Kageyama or Sakura, so he was really not focusing all too much. However, now that his sister was actually here, in front of him, waiting for him to speak to her, he had to jump at the chance. He exclaimed, “Imouto!”

Sakura cringed at his shout, “You don’t have to be so loud.” It was slightly awkward between the two, since this had to be the longest that they had been able to be around each other. Though Shōyō looked more than eager now that they were having a conversation. Sakura cleared her throat, “we really do need to… talk.”

Shōyō had been wanting to talk with her. It was almost unbearable that they hadn’t been like they were before their big blow out a few weeks ago. They said the bare minimum to each other, didn’t interact much at school, and didn’t even ride home together, it was really driving him crazy. So he nodded his head, agreeing with her though not really knowing where to start.

“I want to make sure we understand each other,” Sakura started off slowly. “I’m not abandoning you.”

Shōyō let out a long sigh, “oh.”

“That’s not what I’m trying to do, okay?” Sakura scratched the back of her neck, “I’m sorry I never talked to you about what I’ve been feeling after all this time.” It probably would have been easier to deal with if she had been honest with him all this time. Or at least told him how she had been feeling a bit more than how she was. Was she good at dealing with emotions? Not really. However, she should have been more open with her brother. It would have most likely stopped their disagreement much sooner.

“I just… didn’t think that I wouldn’t notice something upsetting you.” Shōyō had been kicking himself ever since they had their argument. He prides himself on being such a good older brother, being there for both of his sisters and doing his best to help when or when not asked. Though to have it suddenly revealed to him that he had not been able to see some sort of issue that his twin was dealing with upset him.

She just shrugged her shoulders, “It’s my fault for not telling you, Shō. Now I’m telling you that I think it’s better if we have some space.”

“So you can do photography?” There was a slight tinge of realization in his voice. It seemed like he wasn’t taking this as a generally back thing at the moment. Since having space did seem like one of the most horrible things in Shōyō’s mind at times. “I thought that you wanted to leave me because of the fight!!”

Sakura shook her head, “No! The fight, yes, did hurt a bit, but one argument isn’t going to make me just abandon you…” Why did it kind of bother her that Shōyō thought that she would do that? Did her constant support not make it clear that she was going to be there for him no matter what? Though she shouldn’t dwell on that thought, since they are really trying to make amends here.

Sakura could see Shōyō visibly deflate in relief. He then smiled, “that’s good then!” At least he was taking this better than a few days ago. Perhaps that was because they both had clear thoughts and could explain themselves a bit better.

“So you’re not… upset?” She bit the inside of her cheek, nervous for his answer.

Shōyō tilted his head, “I… was. Though I don’t think I knew what you meant.”

“Yeah, that was pretty clear,” Sakura scoffed.

He sheepishly apologized, “I’m sorry, Imouto.”

“I figured we both just needed time to ourselves. I’m sorry too.” She cleared her throat, “I just… This isn’t me not wanting to be around you anymore or be involved in things, I just want a chance to be myself.”

Shoyo gave her a thumbs up, “I’ll definitely support you just like I usually will!” Even if he was still a bit… wary about this, he wasn’t going to stop her from doing anything she wants. Shōyō isn’t a selfish person, especially when it comes to his family. So it wasn’t like he would stop her from doing something she enjoyed. It would be hypocritical of him to do that. Though it definitely was going to take some time to truly understand and get used to it.

The blinding smile that he flashed at her lifted a weight off of her chest. They had cleared up any misconception between them, it was a bit easier than she initially thought. If there was one thing it was Hinata’s were stubborn and it took quite a while to change their minds. So with that in mind, Sakura thought that it would take a bit to get accustomed to their newer dynamic. Though they could save that for when they get back home after this training camp.

So she nearly skipped out of the gym, more than content with just going to bed. Progress had been made between the two! They both had a clearer understanding between them. It was really starting to look up for Sakura.

Though it seems like the universe had to keep a balance to itself. Since as she was walking towards her room for a wonderful night’s rest, she nearly ran into a giant who was too lost in his own thoughts to notice her either. She would have apologized if it hadn’t been Tsukishima.

“Sorry didn’t see you down there,” he sneered

Sakura deadpanned, “You really aren’t original, are you?” Really why is he like this? Sakura wondered to herself.

“Shouldn’t you be following your brother around or something?”

She stared at him with faux-confused eyes, ��I didn’t think you paid attention to what I do. Are you stalking me or something?” She said sarcastically, “Though no. I’m going to sleep. Let that idiot lose sleep if he wants.”

She was going to try and walk away from him though Tsukishima just narrowed his eyes at her, “I thought after your fight you’d be begging for him to forgive you.” Based on what he had seen and heard, the twins weren’t on talking terms. They hadn’t been for quite a while now. It was strange for him to think that the twins weren’t attached at the hip or Sakura following her brother around like a lost puppy. As long as he’s, unfortunately, known them he had rarely seen them apart. Not having her at the practices also caused him to become quite confused. Had he noticed that she was missing the first practice that she had skipped? Perhaps. Though that wasn’t because of anything other than wanting to mess with her. He enjoyed getting to poke fun at her brother and by extension her. So he was just missing out on some fun entertainment with her gone.

Sakura rolled her eyes with gritted teeth, “It’s none of your business.” Though Tsukishima smirked, which set Sakura’s mind aflame with annoyance. She wasn’t going to let him know about anything. What goes on between her and Shōyō didn’t need to involve anyone else, especially not this bitchy blonde giant.

Tsukishima towered over her and seemed to be quite pleased with himself that he was able to get under her skin, even if it was by a little. They continued to stare each other down, eyes narrowed in annoyance and smugness. Even if they weren’t saying anything it was pretty clear what both of them were thinking about the other. Her chocolate eyes were piercing his golden ones and neither seemed to be willing to step down.

“Oh, hey, you two. Karasuno!” A voice called, startling the pair out of their staring contest. Sakura glanced over to see that it was Kuroo who was calling out to them. He was standing at the entrance of a gym alongside Bokuto. “You with the glasses. Kitten-chan!” Sakura scowled at him as Tsukishima raised an eyebrow at him, “Would you jump some blocks for us?”

The two stared at them for a moment before Tsukishima bowed, “Oh, actually, I’m done for the night. If you’ll excuse me.”

Kuroo and Bokuto blinked, “What?!”

“I’m not a player,” Sakura said, though going ignored.

“There’s no point in practicing spikes without a blocker!” Bokuto said, “Come on!”

“Why does it have to be me? Why not someone from Fukurōdani?” Tsukishima asked.

Aakashi then walked up to the door and explained, “There’s no limit to Bokuto-san’s spiking practice, so everyone runs away pretty quickly.”

Kuroo jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at Lev. “I’m too busy whipping this guy into shape.” Said boy was currently pancaked on the floor, completely exhausted from his practice that his captain had subjected him to.

“I said I’d jump some blocks!” Lev whined, still laying in his puddle of sweat.

“Shut up!” Kuroo shouted, “If you want to continue as a regular on Nekoma’s team, you need to actually be able to receive the ball!” He then focused back on Tsukishima and patted Bokuto on the back, “He may not look it, but this guy’s one of the top five spikers in the country, so it’ll be great practice.”

Aakashi blandly said, “So he somehow didn’t make it into the top three, huh?” That instantly deflated Bokuto.

Kuroo patted Bokuto on the back in comfort, “Don’t mind.”

“Don’t raise me up just to let me get knocked down!” Bokuto whined at his friend.

The Nekoma captain then turned to Tsukishima with a smirk, “Besides, if you’re a middle blocker, you should be practicing your blocking a bit more.”

That certainly got a reaction out of Tsukishima who just glared at them before marching into the gym. Sakura was still standing outside, more than ready to head back to the manager room to go to sleep. Though it wasn’t like Kuroo was going to let her go that easily. She felt hands suddenly under her arms, lifting her from the ground.

“Come on now, kitten-chan.”

“Hey!” She shouted while being dragged in. Well, it wasn’t really dragged, Kuroo was easily able to pick her off the ground and carry her like a feral cat. “This is kidnapping!” Though he just ignored her with his usual sharp smirk as he brought her inside, to the amusement of everyone else in the gym. Why can’t I just have a normal night, Sakura mentally huffed while giving up on escaping and stopped flailing her legs.

So she was finally let go and left to sit on the sidelines. She had no doubt that if she tried to leave Kuroo or Bokuto would try to chase her down and keep her there. Sakura found their inability to leave her alone annoying. She knew that Bokuto had some weird interest in knowing her due to Sato. Kuroo was a bit more of a mystery to Sakura since she didn’t think she would have interested him at all. Why so many of these guys wanted to keep annoying her at any chance they could, she’ll never know.

She plopped down on the ground, glaring at the boys as they got themselves ready. Akaashi, seeing her displeased expression, came over to her with an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry about them,” he said with a small bow, “they usually can be a hassle. I figure you’d rather be resting.”

She waved her hand dismissively, “don’t worry about it. I’ll stay for a bit,” she smirked up at him, “there’s nothing wrong with me observing Karasuno’s opponents, right?” Akaashi chuckled lightly at her smug expression before jogging back over to the court. If she was going to be forced to be here by those idiots then she was going to use this time to gather some information. Perhaps they could use it to their advantage if she told Ukai some of her thoughts about these specific players

Bokuto was spiking again and again against Tsukishima. It wasn’t like it was anyway of stopping him. Sakura couldn’t deny that Bokuto was an extremely strong player. His spikes were strong and looked difficult to block. She wouldn’t really know where to start with trying to block his spikes. Sakura watched as Tsukishima was having trouble with blocking it. So from time to time, she would snicker at his failure. Which certainly irked Tsukishima quite a bit.

If all she was going to do here was find his attempts amusing, then why be here at all. While he also found it amusing that she had been forced here, she was getting on his nerves with the subtle comments that she was making about his form.

After missing yet another spike from Bokuto, who cheered at his spike, Tsukishima turned to the smirking girl, “Didn’t you want to go to sleep?”

Sakura rolled her eyes, “I did. Though I didn’t have much of a choice but to come in.” She threw a glare at Kuroo, who just shrugged his shoulders at her.

Tsukishima pursed his lips, “And here I thought you’d have been crying since you can’t follow your brother around like a sad puppy.” That certainly got a reaction out of her, which surprised Tsukishima just a bit. Considering he thought that she had grown some pretty thick skin after all this time. Though there was a spark of insecurity in her eyes that gave him pause only for a moment, just a miniscule moment. However, it was enough of a moment for him to feel just a little bit guilty.

Sakura gnawed at her bottom lip and just stared at him. He really wasn’t letting up, was he? Why couldn’t he just leave her alone? Her eyes grew narrowed while her mind started to fill with impulsive thoughts. Though could anyone really blame her if she went over to him and kicked him in the shin? She didn’t think so. However, she was going to be a better person here. So she took a moment to breathe through her nose and out her mouth before giving the boy the harshest glare she could.

“I know what you’re doing,” she stated, “I would appreciate it if you would stop, but knowing your inability to be civil, that isn’t going to happen.” She glared at him, which was returned back at her through his golden eyes, “Just know that you’re not getting anything out of me.”

With that she spun on her heels and marched out of the gym, certainly not going to stick around. She would need to calm down after having been around him for all this time. Why she even stuck around after being dragged in she’ll never know. Sakura could tell herself that it was to watch the other boys and report back to Ukai about what she saw all she wanted. Her insight isn’t really needed to help better the team, so who was she fooling? Either way, going to sleep and forgetting about that jerk was a need for her at the moment.

Though after all this time, she knew that Tsyukishima was trying to get a rise out of her. That was horribly obvious. As she’s figured out in the past, he had been trying to get under her skin in a multitude of ways. Unlike the last time she was bullied, she had stuck up for herself. Though perhaps the fact that she and Shōyō had just made up only a short time before this, it was still a bit raw for her to think about. So she wasn’t going to take this.

Back in the gym, it was still pretty quiet since Sakura had stormed out. Though Tsukishima tried to make it seem like it didn’t bother him at all. Which it didn't, obviously. Though it was still a bit tense around the gym. It was obvious that the other guys were quite disapproving of how disrespectful Tsukishima is to Sakura.

Bokuto shook his head at him, “That was pretty mean, Tsuki-dude.”

Tsukishima tutted, “Don’t call me that.”

“You shouldn’t be rude to people!” The owl captain exclaimed.

However, a cheshire-like smirk crawled onto Kuroo’s lips, “Oh, I see how it is. ” He slid over to the younger boy and gave him a mischievous stare. “This certainly isn’t the right way to get a girl’s attention, you know.”

Tsukishima stared at him blankly, “Huh?”

Kuroo dragged him under his arm as if he were about to tell Tsukishima a secret, “I can give you some advice if you want. It’ll be a lot better than just annoying her you know.”

It took a moment for his mind to process it, but Tsukishima finally understood what Kuroo was implying. His ears grew hot as he scowled, “that’s not what it’s like!”

Kuroo’s smirk didn’t leave his face, “sure, sure.” To Kuroo’s eyes, it was obvious why Tsukishima was being so mean to her. Tsukishima brushed off Kuroo’s arm and scowled before going back to the net. Ah, young love, Kuroo mused to himself.

---

So the next morning came, which meant more practice games, and plenty of more penalties for Karasuno. By mid-day, the team was quite exhausted since they were pushing themselves harder than they had yesterday. Just about every boy in the camp was trying to do the best that they could and improve. So Karasuno was losing just as much as they had been yesterday. The only difference being that the scores were a bit closer than before. While they weren’t perfectly in sync yet, they were on their way there.

Sakura talked with Shōyō more than she had in the entire week that they weren’t on talking terms. It seemed like as soon as they made up, Shōyō wanted to make up for lost time and made sure to talk with her when he could. Though there was one difference than usual. He gave her space. Shōyō didn’t interject himself into her conversation with others or ask her to be with him any chance he could. He had understood what she wanted, and wished to show her that. Certainly the progress that both of them wanted.

Eventually, the managers came into the gym with plates of watermelon in their hands, ready to share it with everyone. A well earned break was in order for all the teams. They all sat outside enjoying the sun and delicious watermelon. Sakura helped Yachi out with handing out watermelon before sitting down on the grass alongside the other managers to enjoy a slice herself. It was refreshing, even if she hadn’t been playing at all. She got to know a few of the other managers a bit more from the other schools. Yua had been more than happy with introducing her to them. Thankfully, most of the other girls were completely normal when compared to the likes of Yua or any of the other volleyball idiots. So that was certainly an upside in Sakura’s opinion. She got to know some of the other girls before their break was over.

So Sakura had to go back into the gym and watch the boys continue playing. Which was quite painful since it was just Karasuno getting their ass beat just like the day before. She chatted idly with Yachi and Kiyoko as she observed the boys. They all were improving in their own ways, slowly but surely. Asahi seemed to grow some sort of determination within him, Nishinoya was working on his speed, and even Endo was working on improving. While all of the boys on the team were making some sort of improvement, there was one other thing that she noticed. Tsukishima was too stuck in his own thoughts to really make anything notable of his blocks.

Sakura could see that he was… thinking about something. Debating in his mind, maybe? Having difficulty with something. Though it wasn’t like she cared, right? As long as he was good enough for the team to win games, then why would she care about his inner turmoil? She still certainly hadn’t gotten over what he had said the other night, though she would push that sour feeling away for the time being. She just hoped that he figured out whatever it was that he was having issues with. As much as she’d love to see him have some sort of failure, if that failure affected her brother, she didn’t want to encourage it.

---

A/n: So there's that. I'm thinking that in the next few chapters, we're gonna start hitting some developments in Sakura's relationship with Tsukishima. After all, she's getting her relationship with her brother intact and to a point that they are at an understanding, so it's time to focus on some other relationships of hers. I've always wanted to make this a slow, slow burn since I always saw that as a challenge for myself. Back when I first started writing fanfic I got characters into relationships pretty quickly and perhaps a bit unrealistically. So the relationship that Sakura and Tsukishima were going to have was going to be maybe a bit more... realistic? But definitely slow.

Thoughts on the atla live action series? I'm only half way through so I'm saving my full review of it until I get through all the episodes. Though I suppose it could be... worse. I have been sitting on an idea for an atla fanfic and though why not upload it now since there's a live action series now. I uploaded it last week and I'm happy with how it came out. The only thing is that the idea is a bit old so I'm going through my outline for it and refining some of the plot points that I created since I think I'm a bit of a better writer now lol

I've also been writing up quite a few other fanfics. New ones, when I know that I should be writing the ones that I already have in progress. However, these ideas just pop in my head and I can't help myself. However, I'm thinking of changing up how I upload and write fanfics going forward. I already tried it once and it didn't go the way that I wanted, but this time imma stick to it. I want to write out a bunch of chapters so they can go out on an actual schedule. Like one chapter a week, or maybe even one a day. Depends on how many chapters are completely written out. It's a bit of a different process since I'm use to getting feedback from you guys about the chapters as I write them. Though I think this is for the best. Let's just say that I have grow to love quite a few new shows and series and have some fics I want to write. Main one I'm focusing on is a Lost fanfic. Yes, Lost! So hopefully that'll be out.... at some point lol.

Anyway, let me know what you thought of this chapter! Until the next one, my friends!

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moonchild-things · 2 months

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Chapter One: The Bounty Hunter

Summary: Picking sides is not something that Yumo likes to do. All she cares about is getting paid and offering her services to the highest bidder. Being a bounty hunter for quite a while has dampened her outlook on the war. Who won or lost doesn’t matter to her in the long run. However, running into the Avatar and his friends might just change her attitude a little bit.

Word Count: 3053

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A/n: When the avatar netflix series was announced, this idea popped into my head. So here we are!

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“PLEASE! YOU CAN’T TAKE ME TO THEM!” A man shouted as he struggled in the chains that kept him from escaping. The rattling of his futile attempt to escape echoed across the port. His shouts drowned out any and all other sounds as vendors and travelers turned to glance at the raucous and watched the commotion. It’s not like they could save the poor man, after all, he was currently being dragged across the ground by one of the most fierce bounty hunters in the whole world.

The one who dragged this man across the ground with little to no effort wears all black clothing, hiding every and any distinctive feature that they have. The slightly baggy tunic and pants hid anything to identify them. All that people could see was that this person was decently tall and appeared to be extremely agile from the small number of muscles that were actually visible as they pulled on the chains. No one could see their hair color due to the hood they wore that reached over the top of their head and nearly covered the top part of their face. A black cloth covered their mouth and nose, and every once in a while those who paid close attention may be able to catch a glimpse of their dull gray eyes. They were chilling, cold, and terrifying. The eyes of a killer.

Even though this person was dragging along a fully grown man who had to be twice their size, it seemed as though she were doing it with little to no effort. The soldier, for he was a soldier based on his fire nation uniform, struggled in his binds like a fish wishing to escape its net. Though he couldn’t do it despite his captor being so small.

“I beg of you, they’ll have me killed please!”

The stoic bounty hunter did not say anything to him. Silent and strong, the person continued to drag the struggling man through the crowds that parted in their wake. Even though he cried and begged for his life, the bounty hunter made no indication that she was listening. Not that she cared all too much about what happened to the man. She had a job to do, and she just wanted to get paid. It just so happened that when she tracked down fire nation soldier deserters she got paid more.

While working with the Fire nation tended to get her dirty looks and horrible names thrown in her direction, she couldn’t care about that. What mattered was getting money to feed and have shelter for another few nights. It didn’t matter who paid, just as long as it was enough. In that pursuit to find a means of surviving she made a name for herself: Mogwai.

Ignoring the stares, the cries of her prisoner, the whispers, Mogwai approached the docks where tall fire nation ships were bobbing slightly in the water.

“Commander Zhao, I've been hunting the Avatar for two years, and I -” A voice said.

Then another shouted out, “And you failed!” Mogwai recognised the infuriated voice of Commander Zhao. “Capturing the Avatar is too important to leave in a teenager's hands. He's mine now.”

The Avatar? Mogwai thought to themselves. That couldn’t be true, considering the wielder of all elements had been gone for one hundred years. There was no way, in their mind, that the Avatar could be around now. Mogwai knew that all of the air benders had been wiped out in the attack against them one hundred years ago. If there was any chance that the avatar was still around, she would know.

Once she entered the tent, still dragging the captive, the bounty hunter found that Zhao was having a meeting. Not that she really cared. She would gladly interrupt the meeting, get paid, and leave as quickly as she could. Soldiers were posted all around the room, which was to be expected, as an old man and scared boy sat at the table in the middle. Of course, Mogwai knew who that scared boy was. It was difficult not to know the stories of the banished prince and the dishonor he brought against his father.

Now noticing their new guests, the commander composed himself. Though he continued to glare at the prince as he turned to face the entrance. “Keep them here,” Zhao ordered the other soldiers.

General Iroh looked around at the soldiers as Zhao led the bounty hunter out of the room, “More tea, please.”

Mogwai was more than happy to pawn off their crying captive to the fire nation soldiers who dragged him away. Less deadweight for them to deal with, since it was more than annoying to hear his begging as she had come all the way back here. So Mogwai turned their lethargic stare to the man that had contracted them a day prior.

The commander smiled at the bounty hunter, “Mogwai.”

The bounty hunter nodded their head, not saying a word.

“Your reputation precedes you,” Commander Zhao complimented, pleased with the success that Mogwai had achieved. After all, it wasn’t like he could send his own men after a deserter, one skilled at hiding. He needed an outsider’s help, and who better than one of the highest regarded bounty hunters. “A job done efficiently, your payment.”

He handed them a pouch, full of the coins that they had agreed upon before she had set out on her. She opened it up slowly, keeping an eye on the commander who did the same to her. Mogwai slowly counted the coins to make sure that it was what they agreed to. Most of the time people were quite forthcoming with the payment, perhaps scared what the Mogwai would do to them if they skimpped on payment. Though from experience, she knows to always check anyway.

With the money all counted, at the correct amount that Mogwai was looking for, she raised an eyebrow at him. Silently asking him the question, ‘anything else?’

Zhao tutted, “I’m afraid I have no more work for you, however, I’ll know how to find you if… anything else comes up.”

She just nodded her head, with nothing else to say and walked out of the tent. She was greeted by the hesitant gazes of those around the ships and once again paid them no mind. The fire nation was hated by mostly everyone else in the world. Including her. However, she wouldn’t turn down a job that paid well.

She’s not one for politics. She gave up trying to understand it a long time ago and would much rather stay uninvolved. Most people aligned themselves with their nation's decisions, backing whatever it was their leaders convinced them was right. Yumo has no alliances with any nations. She owed them nothing. She paid attention at times, but didn’t let politics rule her mind by any means. Mogwai had other things to worry about like finding food, shelter and work. No need to worry about which nation had power over the world. All that mattered was who had jobs for her and willing to pay handsomely.

So Mogwai started stocking up on some food from the market nearby. Paying for the necessities that she would need before heading off on another trek to the next village. She’d already been staying at an inn in this village for about three days, too long in her opinion. So it was time to move on and look for work elsewhere. The usual routine for a bounty hunter like her.

After collecting her new purchases she headed back to the inn and collected her bag. It was old and ragged but sturdy enough to withstand the abuse she put it through on a daily basis. The bag was large enough to hold a good amount of food and a few of her knives and extra clothes.

“Did you hear?” A hush voice said, “There’s an Agni Kai!”

Another gasped, “An Agni Kai?! Between who?”

“The banished prince and commander Zhao!”

Mogwai tutted while walking past the gossiping people. An Agni Kai, a silly duel between two prideful firebenders. Though considering it would be between the banished fire prince, there was surely going to be the talk of the village. Fire benders, or benders in general always seem far too arrogant for her liking. Besides, she found it more impressive when someone demonstrates skill with a weapon such as a sword or knife than something like bending. If they were to have an agni kai with just swords, then she’d be impressed.

What needed to be decided now was which way Mogwai headed next. She had been heading South and had finally hit the ocean again. So the only logical thing to do was get on a boat to head to the next piece of land. Besides, she knows just the place to head next. She’s lucky that it was close by. The perfect place for her to rest and lay low for a while. Since that fire nation soldier had been a bit more difficult to find than other bounties she had dealt with. A nice reset after a taxing job was just what she needed.

She walked over to a boat, one manned by an older man and bartered her way on. Even if the man was wary of her to begin with. After all, who would want to be stuck on a small boat with someone with such a cold stare. Only one could imagine what someone with a stare like hers would do to them. So whether it was out of fright or kindness, the man allowed her to buy passage on his boat to Kyoshi Island. It was lucky that he was headed there anyway, since he had some trading to do there.

So as they set off, the waves almost comforted Mogwai as she settled down in the furthest seat away from the man, she took off her mask to munch on some bread she just bought. Her features were completely contrary to what type of person she was. A ruthless killer didn’t have a button-like nose, or small lips. If it wasn’t for the harsh look in her stormy eyes, she would look like any other innocent fifteen year old.

Staring out to sea as they started their journey across the ocean to the earth kingdom island, Mogwai knew that she had some time before they made it to the Island. She sighed heavily through her nose, now finished with her bread and resting against the side of the boat. Kyoshi Island had to be one of the only constant things in her life at this point. That was right next to bounty hunting. While most would describe her as a nomad, not sticking to one village for very long before moving on to the next, Kyoshi Island was one place that she had a tendency to return to every once in a while. Perhaps that was because it was quite secluded from the rest of the world and she made decent relationships with the village people.

On that island she wasn’t Mogwai, since she never had jobs on the island or the clientele out there. Kyoshi was the place where she could just be herself. Just be Yumo. There weren’t many places or times where she could just be the normal fifteen-year-old she was. An island full of female warriors and quiet evenings was just the place to let her do that.

---

“Come here,” a soothing voice said, “look at this.” A warm hand patted down the unruly brunette hair on her head, “you see that.”

Her gray eyes looked to see that it was two fish, swimming in a circle with each other. Trapped in the small pond that they were sitting beside and having nothing else to do but swim together. She watched as they danced with each other and giggled, “they look happy.”

“As happy as a fish can be I would assume,” the man beside her pondered. The two of them shared the same bright gray eyes, shining in the light like a brand new silver chain. As well as that spark of mischievousness and curiosity as they watched the fish dance around in the water.

Yumo tilted her head, her long brown hair falling out of the bun her mother had put it in earlier that morning. She looked up at him, “So you think they get bored? Swimming nowhere?”

“Well, maybe. Though it’s not like they know anything else.”

Yumo hummed, “I’d get bored. And dizzy.”

“Dizzy?” He questioned as a mischievous smile crawled onto his lips, “Like this?!”

Suddenly, Yumo was lifted off of the ground as the man started to spin around in a circle with her in his arms. She broke out into a fit of giggles as he spun her around. “Dad!” The nine-year-old giggled, “Stop! I’m dizzy!”

Her father chuckled, “Well, I guess that makes you a fish then, huh?” He paused the spinning and allowed her to crawl up onto his shoulders. He made sure that she was secure while sitting on his shoulders and started to head back to their camp. “Now let’s go, your mother needs help packing up the clothes.”

“Awww, but I thought we were done already!” She whined while pulling at her father’s brown hair.

He cringed lightly, “if we were done, we would be on the road already.”

Yumo pouted, “why are we leaving? I like this place,” she glanced around the small cave that they had found in the forest. She enthusiastically started ranting, “The trees are really tall, and the berries taste nice and I found this lizard thing in the cave a few days ago.”

There was a chuckle, “yes, your mom was very happy with the new friend you found.” He did sigh though, “I know it’s a hassle to keep moving like this, but think of all the adventures we can have in the next village we find!” He said happily, “There can be tons of new food to try and people to meet!”

Yumo hummed, considering the offer he pointed out to her, “I guess you’re right!”

“I’m always right!” He smiled brightly up at her.

She just pouted, “Nuh uh!”

“Yea huh!”

“No way!”

“Yes way!”

---

Yumo knew that the fire licking at her arms was going to leave a scar. As she cried out in pain and panic, she still ran as fast as she could. Her mother and father’s desperate demands called for her to run, and run far. So she wasn’t going to disregard their commands, not now.

The newest home that they had found, a small earth nation village deep in the mountains, had turned out to be the worst place to settle. They had been tired, wanting to just settle down in the nearest village when a group of people on rhinos attacked them. It was a blur to Yumo, since she had no idea what the people that had wanted from them. What she did know was that they were fire benders. They lit her family’s camp ablaze for no reason, in her mind, and terrorized her parents. Whether it was luck or some miracle, Yuma was able to slip away from the fire bending soldiers. Though that wasn’t without some reminders of her escape. She needed to get somewhere safe, though being in the middle of the woods, she didn’t know where to go.

Her parents had made sure to teach her how to survive, live off of the nature around them. However, her mind was panicked and running in circles from the pain radiating upon her arm. She didn’t know what to do, where to go. Yumo was lost and fearful.

---

Yumo jumped out of her thoughts, her mind having drifted while watching the waves as they headed further out to sea. It was like this most times. She itched at the bandages around her arms. They were nearly completely covering her arms up towards her biceps and were causing quite a bit of a phantom pain at the moment. Whenever she had a moment to herself her mind wandered to the good things and the bad things of her life. It was almost like her mind was taunting her every chance it could to remind her of what she lost and how. There was no denying that it was painful, but she has to move on. She has to be indifferent to the past and keep moving forward.

Speaking of moving forward, the boat ride took about a day to get to Kyoshi island. She had zoned out for most of the ride, letting her mind drift to subjects less than pleasant.

“Hey, we’re here.”

Yumo grunted in acknowledgement, nodded to the man one final time before hoping off of his boat and into the village. It was familiar yet different. It had been a while since she had been on the island and it was quite refreshing.

Yumo took off the hood on her head, letting the short, unruly brunette hair breath. It had been quite a while since she had taken it off. It felt freeing for a moment to finally allow herself to

“Yumo!” A voice called out. “It’s so good to see you!”

She turned to see two girls in Kyoshi warrior garb running over to her. Yumo didn’t have much of a choice but to allow the two to attack her in a bone crushing hug. Even if she prepared as quickly as possible for it, it still knocked the wind out of her, and the three landed on the ground in a heap.

The two girls giggled as they bombarded Yumo with questions about her whereabouts and any new stories she had to share with them. Yumo, while not a very physical person, was more than okay with letting them crush her ribs. It brought her quite a bit of joy in her life. Perhaps that was a huge reason why she kept coming back to this island. Though she wouldn’t admit it.

“It’s been so long since you’ve been here!” One of the girls on top of Yumo, the shorter of the two, exclaimed.

She gave the girls a small, relieved smile, “it’s good to be back.”

---

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moonchild-things · 2 months

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Picking sides is not something that Yumo likes to do. All she cares about is getting paid and offering her services to the highest bidder. Being a bounty hunter for quite a while has dampened her outlook on the war. Who won or lost doesn’t matter to her in the long run. However, running into the Avatar and his friends might just change her attitude a little bit.

[Avatar: The Last Airbender] [Season 1-3]

This story is also on Wattpad, Fanficion.net, Quotev, and Ao3

Chapter One: The Bounty Hunter

Chapter Two: The Kyoshi Warriors

#ocs #fanfiction #multiple ocs #fanfic #oc #female oc #female!oc #male oc #male!oc #fic masterlist #fanfic masterlist #masterlist #avatar #avatar the last airbender #atla #avatar the last airbender fanfic #avatar the last airbender fanfiction #fanfiction writer

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moonchild-things · 3 months

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i never should have bought this game now youre all going to suffer for it

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moonchild-things · 4 months

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Chapter Thirty-Eight: Stepping Stone

Word Count: 3738

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A/n: HAPPY NEW YEAR WELCOME TO 2024! I got back from a family vacation to Aruba so my mind is still on vacation mode lol I finished a chapter tho!

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THE SAME OLD, SAME OLD WAS HAPPENING in the Karasuno photography club. Wada Katski and Ito Miki were arguing, not surprising. It had started with Shimada telling the club about the finishing touches for the set up and layout for the gallery that was about an hour away from starting. Then Wada had made a suggestion, one that Ito disagreed with, and then the bickering ensued.

Sakura had already tuned the pair out as she’s gotten used to it by now. Besides she had her own internal debate to deal with right now. When she had first been given the topic for this gallery, there was an instant idea that popped into her head. Who did she really find inspiration? Who did she see as her hero? That was obviously her brother. People might think that it was cute for her to think of her twin brother as her hero and looked up(more like down) to him and his passions. Though after their fight, after her own realization, she found herself seeing that her constant need to have him a part of every aspect of her life and vice versa was not too healthy.

It left quite a bit of a bitter taste in her mouth, if she were to be honest. She was obviously going to keep this topic for her entry into the gallery. It was too late for her to change it. Though it wasn’t like she really wanted to. Even if they had this fight, it didn't mean she didn't value him any less.

If anything, she was using this moment as a stepping stone, at least in her eyes. One of the last odes to her brother before she finally goes all in on finding who she is as a person. A dedication to him, going to the Tokyo practice camp as her one last volleyball adventure for them both also being a part of that. Perhaps she should have said that she wasn’t going to go. Just like the last training camp, she didn’t really think that there was a need for her to be there. Getting a few photos would be nice, but she didn’t have to be there the entire time.

That was something she usually wondered about. Why Ukai and Takeda let her tag along for so long. It wasn’t like she was a manager or anything. She didn’t provide all too much, in her eyes, to the team besides helping Yachi and Kiyoko with some managerial stuff. Perhaps she made some comments about the guys and how they played, but nothing more. Maybe they had her there because she was a good way to reign in her brother and Kageyama sometimes. Whatever the reason is, she didn’t really care. She got the opportunity to be with her brother, and she was grateful for that. Though she certainly wouldn’t be asking to go along after this one. Doubt she’d really be missed, she might miss getting to see Kiyoko and the others she tolerated most days, but it would have to happen. The real question was whether she would miss it herself.

Just as Sakura was going to continue over-thinking things about her and her brother, it seemed like the bickering that had been happening in the background had suddenly become nonexistent. Looming over the once arguing pair, the angelic Mori was giving them a closed-eyed smile. Quite a menacing aura surrounding her and stealing the breath from the others in the room.

“I think that the layout would look better with Yokoyama placed here, Ito, Shimada, Wada, Hinata and myself.” She gave them all an angelic smile that had an edge to it. Despite giving them a pleasant expression, they all knew that she was daring any of them to speak up again. A silent threat that no one wanted to see her make a promise. It caused them all to shiver, even Sakura who never really gets scared by anything.

Shimada clapped her hands loudly, causing the others to jump, “well, with that settled, we should get these to the art club too. Wada take these to them, please.”

The boy pouted, “Oh, why me?” Though he did just take the papers from her without saying anything else.

“Because you annoyed me the most, now let’s go!” Wada, sulking just a little bit, but doing as he was told. As he left, Ito stuck her tongue out at him, just being as childish as possible. Shimada then spun to scold her, “Ito! Stop antagonizing him! Now you and Yokoyama make sure that the displays are all set.”

Yokoyama stood up and saluted, “yes, ma’am.” So they grabbed Ito and started to drag her away to do as they were told. All the while, the mousy second-year was complaining about Wada as they went. Though after the two start going, it’s normal for Ito to start whining about him.

So that left Shimada, Mori and Sakura in the club room. With most of the preparations more or less done, besides some odds and ends that have to be taken care of, things were going smoothly as usual. That meant that the president and vice-president could relax. So while the others were tying up those loose ends, Shimada took this as an opportunity to slide over to Sakura.

“So are you excited?” She asked the younger girl, “Last time you were obviously quite anxious about it, so you must have gotten over your nerves this time!”

Sakura pursed her lips, “That’s not entirely how it works. But I am less nervous this time.” The initial fear of showing others her work was more or less overcome last time. She had grown confident enough in herself and her photography to be in the gallery. So it certainly wasn’t like she was going to be nervous about it this time.

“Great!” Shimada smiled, nearly jumping for joy. Obviously, she was happy for her underclassmen and her getting over her nerves. The last thing that she would want is for Sakura to end up as nervous as she was last time. “You’ll definitely enjoy this one more, I think.”

She shrugged her shoulders, “maybe.” Though she knew that Shimada was right. However, she wouldn’t want to admit that Shimada was right to her face, that would just cause the older girl’s ego to grow bigger. Sakura definitely doesn't need that, in her opinion.

Shimada nodded her head, content with her underclassmen’s lack of nerves over this. “I’m gonna finish up anything and make sure the set up is the right way.” With a short pat on Sakura’s head, Shimada skipped out of the room to supervise anything that she could find to keep herself occupied.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Mori’s angelic voice asked, now that it was just her and Sakura in the room. She sat down on the chair in front of Sakura with a slightly apprehensive, yet encouraging, expression on her porcelain face. “I know that your subject is probably going to be a bit… awkward to talk about.”

Sakura thought for a moment, really trying to think about this. Yes, the subject of her photos, her hero, really was going to be awkward to talk about. Even more so if he did actually show up to the gallery. It certainly was a thought that had crossed her mind. More like it hadn’t really left her mind all too much. She cleared her throat, “I’m more than happy with who I chose as my hero. It's not like I could lie to myself about who I have viewed as my hero for basically my entire life, you know.” She drummed her fingers on the table in front of her. “My hero has always been my brother. He’s resilient and stubborn, determined and certainly never one to back down from a challenge. He’s also quite an idiot, but he has his moments.”

Mori gave her a sweet smile, “having a brother you admire is adorable, you know.” There are times that Mori wished that she had siblings. Younger or older, brother or sister, it didn’t matter to her. Though she then hears some stories about her friends and their siblings that makes her glad to not have one. Still doesn’t stop her from thinking about what it would be like.

She supposed that she could see her closest friends as siblings. Shimada was very much a sister to her, since they had joined the photography club in their first-year. The others who have come and gone in their little club held a place in her heart. She values her friends as much as she would family. Sakura certainly was a part of that sentiment too, even if they weren’t that close with each other. Mori was more than aware that Sakura liked to keep to herself, only opening up every once in a while. Shimada had really taken the younger girl under her wing, and Sakura really confided in her the most. So attempting to have a bit of a heart-to-heart with her, Mori figured that it was going to be a bit more difficult than with others. Though it was going pretty well for the time being.

Sakura blushed at her words, “Well, it’s not like he’s actually going to come to see it.”

There was a bitter undertone to her words. One that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to admit to. Either way she could still taste how sour her mood and words were. It definitely wasn’t pleasant. She did want her brother to be there for her, to support her in the same way that she has supported him. He has encouraged her and been to the first gallery, but who knew if he was going to be at this one. They hadn’t been talking to each other, at least the way that they usually have. So there was no telling if he would come to this. Sakura really hoped he did, even if she was still a bit annoyed with him.

Mori nodded her head, “Still, whether he’s there or not, you’re going to do amazing. He should be proud of you regardless.”

It wasn’t necessarily about if Sakura thought her brother was going to be proud of her or not. She is more than assured in the idea that no matter what argument or disagreement that the two could be in they would never stop supporting each other. No matter what he might say to her, or vice-versa, they would help each other achieve their goal. This misunderstanding wasn’t going to stop them from being family. They really just needed a moment. Though that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less.

So this was that moment, a stepping-stone for both of the teens to skip their way onto a new chapter of their lives. A time where they could develop themselves in the right way as individuals. It could be hard right now, however, it certainly would have some happy outcomes at some point.

Sakura let out a heavy sigh, “I just figured… This is a point that we can move onto a new point in our life. After this and the Tokyo camp, I think it’s best that Shōyō and I… do our own things. Actually, do our own things.”

“A good step forward.” Mori cheered her on. While she didn’t completely know how Sakura was feeling about this or her brother, she really hoped that this was a good thing for the both of them. The last thing that they would need is for something like this to just hurt them further. Mori didn’t want to see her good friend hurt or worse because of the relationship with her brother deteriorating further.

---

Tsukishima shouldn’t be here. Really he shouldn’t. Whatever had possessed him to walk towards the commotion by the art club, was completely unknown to him. He already knew what was going on there, since he had been here for the last gallery that they had. Though that time he didn’t really have a choice. The entire team had wanted to go, and Yamaguchi had asked him to come with. Of course, he went.

Perhaps that was due to his own curiosity. He had wanted to see what Sakura had done, and how he could bully her for it. Then again, his mind flashed to the last gallery when he tried to do the same thing.

He wasn’t exactly expecting her to stand up for herself. It kind of annoyed him. He couldn’t really get too much of a good gauge on what she was about. Yes, he knew that she was protective of her brother, that she would stand up for him no matter what. However, after having her stare him down and tell him that she was confident in herself and her work definitely threw a wrench in his mind. He thought that she would be an easy target, much like her brother, and he hates that she’s quite the enigma.

So maybe it was his curiosity gnawing at him again, or some sadistic part of his mind that wanted to try and bully her again. Still there was a smarter part of his mind yelling that it really wasn’t going to work. So why the hell was he peaking at the exhibits that people were gushing about?

As usual, there weren’t all too many people at the gallery, but that didn’t mean any of the students were less than excited. Art students were explaining their work to others, enthusiastic to show off their work. Just about everyone was more than happy to explain their work and process to anyone who was willing to listen. The only one who seemed to be not as enthusiastic was Sakura.

He watched as she talked a bit to an eccentric third-year next to her. If he remembered correctly, that was Shimada-senpai, the president of the photography club. He doesn’t know much about the older girl, never really caring to know about anyone in this club. Then again, he could care less to know about anyone else that he didn’t deem necessary. Hell, if he didn’t have to know most of his team, he knows his life would be easier.

He did his best to spy into the room and see her work. Not wanting to be seen by her and questioned why he was there, he needed to make sure that she wouldn't see him. The last thing he needs is her smug face looking up at him because he was caught.

He rolled his eyes when he saw the few shots that she was displaying. Her brother. Of course they were of him. Who else would they be about? Apparently there was something about Heroes for this gallery's theme. Not that he was really paying too much attention. Though it didn't surprise him that it was her brother that she used for her hero. Everything in her life was about him, so why would this be any different?

“Why don’t you go in?”

Tsukishima jumped a bit at the sudden voice next to him. He certainly wouldn’t admit it but it nearly gave him a heart attack. Perhaps he was too stuck in his own head to realize anyone could walk up on him. He turned to see that it was Yamaguchi.

The green-haired boy smiled at him and asked again, “Do you want to go in?”

Tsukishima grunted and turned away from his friend, “No.” He could see Yamaguchi’s expression and didn't like it all too much. It seemed like he was going to tease him about something, and it bothered him.

“I'm sure Sakura would be glad to see people she knows coming to see her work!”

Tsukishima scoffed, “I'm not here to see whatever she's done.”

Yamaguchi blinked, a tad bit confused, “so why are you standing out here like a creep?”

“I'm not being a creep!”

“So you’re just watching Sakura from afar for…?” He raised an eyebrow, proving his point that Tsukishima was being a bit creepy.

“She’s annoying,” Tsukishima clicked his tongue.

His friend gave him a look, one that frustrated Tsukishima. Yamaguchi pursed his lips, “That isn’t an answer.”

He huffed harshly trying to say the right thing. “I don’t get how she’s able to annoy me so much. Her idiotic brother is easy to read… But I can’t understand her.” Even after being around her for a few months, he still hasn't come up with exactly how she worked. She got into

Yamaguchi tilted his head, “So you came here to understand her?”

Had he come here because of that? Then again what was he going to understand from her by watching her from outside? “It just felt strange that she wasn’t at the practices.”

His friend’s eyes widened, “Have you been missing her?”

Tsukishima glared at him though he didn’t say anything. No. He wasn’t missing her. What was there to miss?! Though if he did go in, she would undoubtedly pester him about him showing up. Tsukishima didn’t want to have to explain himself since he wasn’t even sure why he was there. Sakura got under his skin in a way that no one else has. Tsukishima sees most people as idiots, especially the likes on his team. However, Sakura wasn’t really an idiot. He could admit that she was smart, perhaps as smart as him, though he couldn’t pinpoint why she was just… different.

“Well,” Yamaguchi said, breaking Tsukishima from his thoughts, “I’m going to go and say hi to her. If you want to keep admiring her from afar, you can.”

Tsukishima jumped at the implication, “Yamaguchi.”

“Sorry, Tsukki.” Though with the tone of voice and teasing smile on his lips, Yamaguchi didn’t seem to actually be apologizing. He seemed to be happy in this moment to tease his friend, which he rarely ever gets to do. Though he knows just how funny Tsukishima can get sometimes about Sakura. There was an inkling that Yamaguchi had a feeling as to why. Though he was going to leave it alone for the time being, since he isn’t even sure.

Tsukishima was then left to stew with his own thoughts. He watched as Yamaguchi walked up to Sakura, and the two shared some smiles as they talked about the gallery. The way that Sakura’s face brightened at the sight of her friend didn’t sit right in Tsukishima’s head, and he wasn’t sure why.

Perhaps he was envious. Sakura had a great relationship with her brother, if not a bit too good. Was that something he wanted? Was that why his chest was tight when he thought about her smirk and narrowed eyes? Not that he should care. He gritted his teeth before marching off. Tsuikishima didn't need to worry about this. It would just annoy him further. Though it wasn't like she left his mind right away. She lingered behind in his mind and he hated that. She really was annoying him.

While on the court, Tsukishima knew that he couldn’t compare himself to Shōyō. That little ball of sunshine was the star of the court, while Tsukishima was just a stand in until Shōyō was needed again. However, when he found out about Sakura, he had thought that he could say that he was better than her. She wasn’t athletic, so he could say that he had that over her. Academic-wise, they were more or less on the same level. However, after at least figuring out that she was insecure about her photography, he felt gratification to know he could bully her for it. Maybe it was wrong of him, he only ever really did it to take his frustrations about her brother out on her. Though he didn’t care. Why would he? Though after time has passed and he’s had a moment of time without her snarky remarks in the gym… he missed it. And he couldn’t put his finger on why…

Elsewhere, also doing his best to go unnoticed, a certain decoy was hiding amongst the small crowd in the gallery. He thanked his height at this moment as he was able to keep himself from being spotted by his sister. He had wanted to come here to see what she did since she had been excited the last time they properly talked.

Shōyō knew the theme of the gallery. How serious Sakura took these topics to heart and how important they were. He wasn't going to miss out on it, even if they weren't exactly on talking terms. He is always excited to see her happy about her work, so why would he miss out on this? Though it certainly warmed his heart, yet struck his chest with a wave of guilt, as he saw the photos that she had taken of him.

He knew that Sakura looked up to him. As she should, in his mind. He’s the big brother, so he wants to be a hero for both of his sisters. To make sure that they are safe and happy was one of his greatest goals in life. Of course, he had his personal journey to become the next Little Giant, however, his family also came first.

Their argument was taking a toll on him. Shōyō had been reflecting on their childhood most of the time. Wrapping his head around what Sakura had said about wanting to be her own person seemed to be a bit more difficult than he thought. Their whole life, he thought that Sakura was happy. He thought that she was content with how they were never really apart. How bad of a brother is he to not have seen that?

Though after this, he was going to try. He wanted to try to completely understand what Sakura was feeling, how he could help her, and what they would do going forward. Sure, he doesn’t really see her issue all too much, but he wants to. Shōyō wants to listen to her and see where things went wrong. Maybe then she wouldn’t want to abandon him. So with the last fleeting look at his sister as she talked happily with Yamaguchi, Shōyō headed to find his bike. He had to head home to get ready for their trip for the camp. After tomorrow, he definitely was going to do what he could to make sure that Sakura really was okay.

---

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A/n: Ngl the chapter feels disjointed. I had something, then rewrote it entirely because it just felt wrong, and then I tried again but I wrote some of it a different times. So this chapter isn't that good. Has to be one of my worst lmao Either way next chapter is finally the Tokyo camp arc!! WOOO! Really my favorite arcs from the anime! I'm so excited! Let me know what you thought. Until the next chapter, my friends!

#ocs #fanfiction #multiple ocs #fanfic #oc #female oc #female!oc #male oc #male!oc #anime fanfiction #haikyū!!#haikyuu!!#haikyu #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyu oc #haikyuu #anime

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moonchild-things · 5 months

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Chapter Twenty-Six: Noisy New Year’s

Summary: Being a psychic is not an ideal life, at least for Saiki Kusuo. Didn’t you read/watch The Disastrous Life of Saiki K to know that? Still, this isn’t about him, not really. Instead, let’s focus on his one and only friend, Akari Watanabe, who is also quite abnormal. You might not believe that Saiki would actually have a friend, but that’s what fanfictions are about, right?

Word Count: 3661

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A/n: Ah, well, it's December now! WOO! It's christmas time babyyyy I so hope that it snows out where I am. I feel like it hasn't snowed all too much, and I love snow.

---

THIS WAS BY FAR THE LAST PLACE that Akari would want to be. Celebrating the season is fine, New Years is a pretty nice holiday. However, to come to the shrine and be surrounded by so many people was not something that she enjoyed at all. Completely relatable, I'm sure quite a few of us can agree on that. Though it’s not like she had much of a say in it. Every holiday, without fail, the Watanabe family and Saiki family spent time together. With that being said, the majority of both families wanted to go partake in the celebration.

It’s so crowded. Too noisy. Akari would love nothing more than to be embraced by shadows to relax in their cool loneliness. She could feel that Saiki felt quite the same as her, for the scowl on his face. Then again, he usually has a permanent scowl on his face. Even with the usual expression, Akari knew exactly what he was thinking. They were on the same wavelength most of the time after all.

Neither of them wanted to be at the shrine. Though due to social conventions and family priorities, they were forced to come. To partake in society, much to their dismay. Though we all love getting to read about all the wacky adventures that ensue, right? Because I sure do! Shame that we have to suffer through this terrible writing, but I’ll take what I can get.

Despite being at a shrine, Akari didn’t necessarily have a belief in any sort of deity. When one is born with some supernatural abilities they tend to really consider the existence of a higher power. Add in the fact that she then has a best friend who has abilities that could literally be considered that of a god and she really couldn’t pinpoint if there was a celestial power out there. She came to her own conclusions eventually, which were that if there was a god, they certainly had a horrible sense of humor.

She had been labeled a demon by her paternal grandparents at birth. Thanks to the abilities that she was born with, they came to their own conclusions about her. Akari didn’t think that her striking yellow, cat-like eyes really helped her case back then either. Though from what her father tells her just about all the time, she was quite the cute baby back then. She believed it since there were a plethora of photos of her growing up. Really, mountains upon mountains of scrapbooks from her life.

Then again, she never knew her paternal grandparents, and really didn’t care too after the stories her mother told her about them. She could understand being unnerved by her abilities at first glance. However, her parents didn’t leave her like they did, her brother wasn’t scared of his big sister having shadow-manipulation, so Akari didn’t think her grandparents had much of an excuse. Perhaps if they stuck around longer they would have realized just how harmless Akari was to everyone.

Though she wondered, if she was a demon, who would be an angel? Maybe Teruhashi, with her desirable amount of beauty, constantly being favored by the universe or god to get what she wants, and never having real misfortunes could be considered an angel. That seemed like it would make the most sense. Still, not that Akari thought that she really deserved the title. After learning about how selfish and rotten Tsukishima could be in her own thoughts, Akari had to think that she wasn’t 100% an angel as she tried to be.

“It’s so crowded.” Kuniharu complained. There really were a lot of people out today. Just looking at it seemed tiring.

“Of course it is.” Kurumi said, “It’s New Year’s Day.”

“Good grief,” Saiki mentally grunted, “I would rather spend my New Year’s quietly at home.”

Akari shuffled herself in her slightly larger black sweater, “You and me both.” Not only was it crowded, but things were quite loud with so many people talking around them. She hated that her family wanted to go out and participate in society like this. At least there was one upside to this which was that she could spend time with her mother, since Miku took this holiday off to spend with family. Getting to spend time with her mother was always a lovely time for Akari since she rarely gets to see her most days.

Kuniharu turned to his wife, praying, “I hope I can have another happy year with my beloved wife.”

“What?” She blinked in confusion, “Why are you making that wish to me?”

“What are you talking about? It’s because you’re my goddess.” Damn, you smooth man. Really hitting his wife with the rizz right there.

“This is not how I want to start my new year,” Kusuo groaned in annoyance.

Yamato was also quite affectionate with his wife, at least a perfect amount that he knew she loved. He had his arm wrapped around her waist while placing a kiss on the side of her head every so often. While out in public, he knew to tone down his affections for her since she didn’t completely like pda. Especially within a crowd as large as this. So he wouldn’t be as outwardly loud about his love, at least right now. Though it was taking everything within him to really hold back. Especially considering this was one of the only times of the year that she swept her work away to spend time with her family whole-heartedly.

The overly romantic man leaned into his wife’s ear, “I wish for many more magical years with you beside me, my love.”

Miku hummed, “your wish won’t come true if you tell me.”

“My first wish has already come true though!”

“Oh, and what’s that?”

Yamato became starry-eyed, “That you said yes to me all those years ago.” Which Miku just huffed to, more than amused by her husband. Though she certainly shared his sentiment, even if she wasn’t going to show it at the moment.

So the families walked up to pray and make their wishes. Saiki and Akari went up together just after both their mothers did theirs. Saiki’s dad also came up with them, though it wasn’t like they were paying attention to him.

“A wish?” Saiki asked, “I can always grant my own wish, not that I have any. Besides, I don’t believe in any god.”

‘What’s the point when you could be considered one.’ Akari said, also praying, ‘I wish to take a nap after this.’ A very reasonable wish to have. One that I’m sure most of us have even now.

Saiki rang the bell and thought about his own wish. “Whatever. I suppose I should make a wish, too. I hope I can have a quiet New Year’s.” He really needs to learn not to say this stuff, Saiki is just jinxing himself.

Rikuto, walked up to his parents, “Mom, can we go to the store now?”

She nodded her head, “Finish praying and then we will.”

“Okay!” He fist bumped the air, triumphantly.

So Rikuto made quick work of finishing up with his prayer and making his wish(Which no doubt had to do with manga in some way), more than excited to get to the bookshop. After all, if he was going with his parents, he had the opportunity to talk his father into getting him whatever manga he wanted. Yamato would gladly buy Rikuto whatever he wanted since he adores his children. His family have him wrapped around their fingers and there’s little that Yamoto would say no to for them. Which is why Miku was there with them. Least Rikuto convinces his father into buying him one of everything.

“Are you going to stay with Kusuo for the day?” Miku asked her daughter.

Akari nodded her head, “Is it ok that I sleep over too?”

“Of course, just come home for breakfast, you know your father will have a fit if you aren’t there for his breakfast.”

With that, Yamoto hugged and kissed his daughter goodbye, the families all said their farewells, and Akari was left with the Saiki family. Though she probably should have taken the opportunity to go home with them, with what’s to come.

It seemed like Saiki thought that the Wanatabe’s had the right idea, “Okay, now we can go home…”

“What? Saiki!” Oof, you spoke too soon Saiki. Now it’s time for plot!

Saiki nearly rolled his eyes, “See? There is no god.”

It was Kaido who had shouted out to him. The blue-haired boy came waltzing over to his friends with a smile, “This must be fate.”

“This isn’t how I wanted to start my year. Your scarf is dragging.” It indeed is dragging, reminds me of the Doctor.

Akari gave her friend a small wave, “Hi Kaido.”

“Ah, Watanabe! Didn’t see you there.” No one ever does. “Are you here visiting a shrine for New Year’s? Me? I was just passing by. God doesn’t exist in this world anyway.” Technically, one could argue that Shūichi Asō is your god, or even that MJ is your god. Couldn’t everyone who writes a story and controls their characters be considered a god by said characters? Wait, does that mean that MJ is my god then?!? Oh, I’m not ready for this existential crisis right now! I need some coffee.

Looming over the teens now were Saiki’s parents. Their eyes sparkling in amazement at the new boy talking to their son. Akari also would say that she would be surprised considering she knows how Saiki could be about friendships and stuff. Though still, she knew he didn’t like that they would make a big deal about it, or that they even thought that Kaido was his friend.

“Hello! I’m Kusuo’s dad!”

“And I’m his mom! You’re so cute! Thank you so much for being friends with Ku!”

Really they were crowding the teens with how overbearing they were being right now. “What?” Kaido jumped at their sudden eagerness to thank him, “Oh! Nice to meet… I’m the Jet-Black… Kaido!”

Akari blinked owlishly, ‘did he really try to introduce himself as the Jet-Black Wings?’

“Oh, your name is Kaido?” Kurumi said happily.

The boy just continued to stutter at the attention, “I am also thankful to be his friend. Right. I am.”

Akari eyed the way that he was talking so strangely, “He really can’t talk to adults, can he?”

“Can’t you be more consistent?” Saiki said, “Make up your mind!”

Kuniharu smiled blissfully at his son, “So, you have friends other than Akari and Nendo, Kusuo.”

He scowled, “Nendo isn’t a friend.” Akari hummed, not completely believing that statement, mainly due to the fact that Kusuo had to accept Nendo as something at this point. ‘Friend’ was better than nothing.

His mother agreed, “I was so surprised.”

“Yes. Me, too. I never expected Kusuo to have three friends.” That was a bit of a backhanded compliment from Saiki’s dad. Saying he’s surprised his son can have friends while also having the ability to make friends. If it were me, I wouldn’t let that slide. …Actually I would, because I hate confrontation.

“No, not that.” Kurumi blushed, happiness radiating off of her, “I actually just wished for Ku to have plenty of friends. And it’s already come true!”

Saiki scowled, “Then why can’t they grant me my wish, too?”

Though Akari stared at the dazzled expression of the older woman, ‘You’re mom is actually so wholesome.’ She found it quite adorable how Saiki’s mother always did wholesome things like this. Wishing her son had friends, doing her best for him, trying to understand him(to the best of her ability), honestly Akari thought she was one of the best. Of course, her own mother was on the top of that list for her, though Kurumi is a really close second.

“Oh, I actually wished for the same thing!” Kuniharu boasted to his wife, “You and I think so alike!”

“I don’t believe that for one second,” Akari snickered under her breath. Though Kuniharu heard that and deflated just a little bit. How could she think so little of him? Sure, she was right, but still!

After that, it was like God had a personal vendetta against Saiki. Punishing him for seemingly no reason. Or maybe there was a reason, that reason being for our entertainment. Not only had Kaido shown up, but after him it was Hairo, then Nendo, and then Teruhashi of all people. It certainly didn’t help Saiki's mood that they were all here. Something that Akari could easily feel. The pleasantries that were exchanged between them all didn’t necessarily interest Akari, not in the slightest. Not like they even saw that she was there. She didn’t really care that they were there.

Hell, Hairo didn’t even know she was standing right next to Saiki until Nendo mentioned it and said hello to her. Teruhashi also didn’t notice her until then either, but she still ignored her existence even after Akari was pointed out. Not that Akari cares, she just wants to nap. She also knew that Saiki would want to escape all of this at the moment. He wanted to be alone, something she could relate to, and figured that this was going to ruin that. Then when Kuniharu came up with a great idea, Akari knew that she had to say something.

“I know! Why don’t you all come over? We have New Year’s food.”

Kurumi was just bursting with excitement at her husband’s idea, “Yes! Please come!”

“Oh! Let’s go!” Nendo shouted.

Ever the polite young woman, Teruhashi said, “If we won’t be too much trouble.”

Saiki froze, “How come you’re not granting my wish, God?”

Akari looked from the excited group talking about going to the Saiki house and her best friend. Obviously there was only one choice that she could make here. So she cut through their conversation with her haunting voice, which gave them all chills.

“Actually,” her whispery voice called out, surprisingly easy to hear over the excitement from the others. “Ku and I have plans after this.”

“Oh?” Kurumi blinked, a bit deflated at the fact that they might not be able to meet all of these lovely friends of her sons. “You do?”

Ever the idiot, Nendo blurted out, “Must be another date for you guys!”

“Date?!” All of them exclaimed in varying degrees of shock and surprise.

“Good job, pal.” Nendo gave him a thumbs up, seemingly congratulating on yet another date between them. He certainly supported anything his pal and gal pal did, especially dating each other.

Saiki scowled at Nendo for even suggesting that. That would definitely make everything more difficult. Especially with Teruhashi here actually able to hear that. Speaking of the perfect pretty girl, she tried to keep the facade of just simple surprise on her face, but there was an underlying annoyance in her expression. We don’t really need to have telepathy to know what she was thinking as her eye twitched while staring at Akari.

Akari just shook her head, “No. We were going to our favorite cafe for New Years.”

Saiki knew for a fact that they didn’t have any plans. At most, they probably were just going to go to one of their houses and just laze around. Maybe Saiki would play a video game while Akari napped on his bed, they weren’t really too pressed on what to do.

Akari took Saiki’s elbow, leaving no room of argument for anyone to make. As far as they needed to know, they did have plans. They ignored the talk of their friends and Saiki’s parents behind them, all of them disheartened about them leaving but wanting to try it another time. So they navigated through the crowd until they left the shrine, safe from being bothered by their annoying friends.

As he was being led away by Akari, Saiki looked down at the back of her head with an awed expression, “Are you god?” Akari glanced up at him in confusion for a moment before giggling.

---

Yes, Akari had told them that they were going to their favorite cafe, but perhaps that was just to throw off the others. Precautions had to be taken, just in case they were going to end up being stalked by Saiki’s parents or their friends. Even though they said that this was by no means a date or anything, what they said would just end up going in one ear and out the other with them. Though it’s not like there were many places that they could go without it being busy. Most areas had people out eating, hanging out, just spending the holiday outside. Not only that but the teens couldn’t go to either of their homes at this time. If they did go to their homes then their parents would know, and they had done this to avoid Saiki’s parents as well as their friends. Plus there’s no doubt that they would hassle them due to Nendo’s ‘date’ comment. So it was best to avoid that.

Instead, Akari had suggested just getting a blanket and sitting at a park. There was no doubt in her mind that he would agree to it. Any chance that he could take to get away from people to be alone, he would certainly take. Well, almost alone. Though he certainly doesn’t mind just being with her. (Not in that way, obviously. Don’t read too far into that statement.) Saiki teleported to Akari’s house, grabbed a blanket and teleported back to her. So they made sure to set up in an area that they deemed nice enough.

“The fact that we ran into all of them at the shrine was unfortunate.”

“It really does seem like God hates me.”

“You and me both,” Akari groaned, “I just wanted to nap. Though it is quite funny how God seems to have it out for you.” Saiki just scowled as she laughed at his misery.

While Akari didn’t notice it, Saiki certainly could see their friends stalking behind them. He could hear everyone’s thoughts, of course he could hear their curious thoughts as they watched Saiki and Akari walk along the paths. Though he certainly was not going to let them bother either him or Akari after they had first escaped. He didn’t care that the group wanted to know if they were dating. They really were just a bother. Even Teruhashi’s clear jealousy towards Akari was not going to ruin his peace. After all, Akari had already done enough to get them away from them. So with the use of his powers, he made sure to evade and confuse their group of stalkers. Akari was none the wiser. Perhaps because she was more focused on finding a good spot to nap. Which they did end up finding, now without their ragtag group of tagalongs behind them.

Akari floated across the grass of the nearby park that they escaped to. While there were a few people milling around, they didn’t seem like they were going to bother the teens. So they tried to keep themselves in the most secluded part of the park. There was a small area, one with quite a few trees and bushes that separated a small clearing from the rest of the park. Just perfect.

“This actually is not how I saw today going.” Saiki said as they laid on the blanket. Well, Akari was laying down, Saiki was just sitting next to her.

“Though better than how it could have been.” Akari tiredly commented. Saiki hummed in agreement. She let out a yawn and stretched, seemingly resembling a cat, “I’m just glad I can nap now.”

Saiki peered down at her from behind his glasses and gave her an amused look, “It always baffles me how you can fall asleep anywhere. You really are quite lazy.”

Aikari chuckled under her breath, “Lazy is my middle name.” She shuffled around a bit, making sure that she was comfortable enough on the ground.

It didn’t take long after that for Akari to doze off with some soft snoring. Not that Saiki really minded. He expected that she would since he could see how tired she was since they were at the shrine. She cuddled up next to Saiki, but made sure to not cling to him at all. Since she knows that he doesn't like physical contact. She had gotten him out of one uncomfortable situation, she certainly didn’t want to put him into another.

So Saiki just sat in silence, thinking to himself and admiring the solidarity that he had been allotted. Thank god for his friend. She really does pull him out of situations that he didn’t like just at the right times. Sure, he could probably do it himself, though he didn’t think he could say no to his parents and their pressures. Especially his mother, he could usually say no to her, but she has her moments over him.

He glanced down at the shadow-manipulator as she snored lightly beside him. If there was one thing that he was actually happy about today, it was getting to grant Akari’s wish. While he thought that she was quite the god by saving him from having to suffer through the group of idiots coming to his house, he would try to be her god by granting her wish. He brushed lock of inky hair from Akari’s forehead. It almost looked like he was… admiring her… Though that would be silly, right?

Whatever you’re thinking about the two of them, dont! Saiki might be able to hear you and call you stupid for thinking it. Trust me, I’d know. Still, even with the soft sunlight coming down from between the leaves, the occasional chirping of birds, and murmur of people passing by, Saiki really did notice how adorable Akari looked while napping.

---

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A/n: When it came to writing this chapter, I did initially plan on writing it all out. However, as I was finishing it up and getting the dialogue, I realized that it was quite tedious. Not only that but I figured I could write a new little story line for this. Basically changed the ending of this one and added my own little ending with it. I like it, I hope you did too :)

#ocs #fanfiction #multiple ocs #fanfic #oc #female oc #female!oc #male oc #male!oc #anime fanfiction #saiki kusuo no ψ nan #saiki k #saiki kusuo #saiki #kusuo saiki

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moonchild-things · 5 months

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*ok, but what is Jake's stragle?*

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moonchild-things · 5 months

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Chapter Thirty-Seven: Tempo

Word Count: 6303

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A/n: Oh I feel so productive! I finished writing this today, finished editing three videos that imma post on my youtube channel in the coming weeks and working on some more, and I worked on my manuscript for NaNoWriMo! Not only that but I got a requested story that I'm working on, it'll take me a bit but I'm finishing up the outline, get it checked and then get to posting some nice long chapters of it lmao Anyway, on with the chapter!

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EVERYONE COULD TELL THAT SKAURA WAS TENSE about something. It’s usual for her to sit on her own, rarely talk or engage in conversations while at her club. However, from the way that she was even more withdrawn than normal, everyone figured that there was something wrong. They hadn’t seen her like this before, so none of them were really sure how to bring it up to her. After all, what if they said something insensitive to her since they didn’t know what was going on with her. Well, that would matter if the people in this club actually knew how to be considerate of that.

Which is why Wada had walked over to Sakrau’s table and leaned over towards her. His piercing eyes stared down at her as she looked over some of her notes that she took in class. Feeling the gaze on her, Sakura glanced up to come face to face with Wada and his slightly concerned expression.

“Is everything okay with you, Hinata-chan?”

Sakura stared at him with a normal bored look, “I’m fine,” she leaned away from him, “now leave me alone, please. I’m trying to study.”

“You always study,” He whined, “but you’ve been glaring at that same paper for over thirty minutes and I’m beginning to think you’re trying to start a fire with your mind.”

She sighed heavily through her nose, knowing that he wasn’t just going to leave her alone like she wanted. For most of the day today, she had been fussed over by Yachi. Sakura really does appreciate the fact that she has a best friend who cares about her and her wellbeing, but it got annoying eventually. Of course, Sakura didn’t say that to Yachi at all since she didn’t want to hurt her feelings or anything. So she was hoping that when she came to her own club that no one would mention anything to her.

Though she realized that she only has herself to blame for this. She was acting more withdrawn than usual, zoning out from time to time and getting lost in her thoughts. She figured that out after noticing the strange looks Shimada was giving her. Maybe she should have done a bit better to make it seem like nothing was bothering her. The last thing she needs is for them to bother her as well.

She looked back down at her papers, not really paying attention to what was on it, “And what if I am?”

Wada gave her a look and sighed, “Listen, I know that we all are a bit worried about you…”

“Why would you be?” Sakura snapped.

“Well, I overheard a little rumor about you getting into a fight with your brother.”

Sakura gritted her teeth, “Damn Endo.” She knew that it had to be him who spread it a bit. Let it be known that Sakura hates how drama hungry Endo Joji can be at times.

Noticing how Sakura was growing uncomfortable and annoyed, Mori decided to speak up. Her heavenly voice said, “Wada, please. If Hinata-chan doesn’t want to talk about anything, then we don’t have to push her.”

“I mean…” Emi trailed off as she, Wada, Yokoyama, and Ito all shared a look with each other. “We all are curious.”

Sakura just grunted, “It’s just personal issues with my brother, that’s all.”

“Oh! Though I heard that you were actually fighting your brother and Kageyama-kun!” Yokoyama exclaimed, a bit excited at the prospect of a fight. She smiled widely, “You must have gotten quite a few punches in, right?”

“No,” Ito shook her head, “she’s too short to throw a proper punch, she definitely went for the legs.”

Wada pursed his lips, “Though her brother is the same height, no?”

“But are you hurt!?” Emi then shouted, becoming extremely worried, “Oh, they would definitely be able to hurt you badly! We-”

Sakura cut off any other stupid rumors or speculations that they could make with a harsh glare, “Can you guys shut up.”

All of them shuttered at the menacing look on Sakura’s face. They could all feel the impending aura surrounding them as Sakura glared at them. They collectively shouted out in fear, “Y-Yes Ma’am!”

With it being obvious that Sakura didn’t want to talk about any of this with them, they decided to leave it alone. They didn’t want to push Sakura too far to the point that she left or anything. So they needed to move on and focus on something else, whether that be showing off some of their photos or complaining about their recent grades. However, there was only one person who seemed to be a bit more

“You know, it’s okay to say that you’re hurt.” Mori Aiko said softly as she leaned against Sakura’s table.

“I’m not,” Sakura rubbed her head, “Shōyō couldn’t hit hard enough to leave a bruise or anything.”

Mori gave her a knowing look, one that made Sakura shift uncomfortably in her seat. The crystal blue eyes of the vice president were seemingly looking right through Sakura, and she didn’t really like that. Mori continued to say, “Not physically, emotionally. It’s okay to say that he hurt your feelings, because I can see that it did.”

Sakura looked away from her, not exactly the best at talking about things like her feelings. She played with her fingers for a moment, trying to decide on what to say. “I know he didn’t mean to hurt me or anything, but it did hurt to realize that I couldn’t help him, I guess.” She gnawed on her bottom lip, “Shōyō is the more emotional out of us, and I always know how to help him or see a logical side to things. This time I don’t know. I’ve just… I’ve realized that we need space. My brother and I have been attached at the hip for too long.”

“Did you not think it was healthy?”

“Maybe.” She shrugged her shoulders, “Before I went to bed last night, I had a thought; I had been using Shōyō as a shield to hide from everything, I guess. I used him as an excuse for a lot of things, to explain how I acted or why I did things. Now, after…” There was a little bit of a grimace on her face, “Last night I figured that it’s time to distance myself from that. I’m a high schooler now, I need to learn about myself and not just be a shadow to my twin.”

There had always been a part of her that knew this fact. Knew that she was not really her own person and was hanging onto her brother for far too long. She’s known that ever since she started high school, that’s why she tried to branch out by means of the photography club! She wanted to be her own person, but never really had the push to really make it a reality for it. Though perhaps after last night, this could be the right push that she needed. She didn’t really picture it being because her brother would hurt her, but whatever it was was still good enough to get her on that track.

“That’s very mature of you, Hinata-chan.” Mori smiled, breaking Sakura out of her thoughts, “Realizing that must not have been easy.”

Sakura just shrugged her shoulders, “it was a bit uncomfortable to come to terms with, I guess. Though it’s the truth, so I can’t really deny it or run from it.”

“Still, it's very impressive of you."

"Impressive?” The younger girl pursed her lips. Her cheeks were a bit pink now that she was complemented by such a pretty girl, “Maybe."

“Just make sure you talk with your brother about it. So you both are on the same page.”

Sakura nodded her head, knowing that it was definitely a good idea. So the two were then absorbed back into whatever conversation the rest of their club members were having. Mori felt happy to give Sakura an outlet to talk a bit more about her issues, and Sakura felt lighter to have actually articulated what was running through her head.

---

When it got considerably later in the day, it was time for students to be heading home. Sakura had only stuck around in her club a bit longer because she somewhat dreaded having to see her brother. After all, she knew that they had to have quite the important conversation when they actually got home. She was anxious about it, there was no denying it. Sakura could stand up to other people for her brother, but talking to him about something like this left her nervous. They’ve never really had a moment in their lives where they would have to question their relationship or have serious conversations.

Surprisingly, Shōyō hadn’t been around to nag Sakura about her riding home by herself. Sakura wasn’t sure what to think about it, nor did she even know where he was! She noticed that his bike was still at the bike rack but with practice over she would have figured that he would already be gone or him waiting for her. It certainly was concerning. Though she brushed it off, it had to just be that he was avoiding her somehow. It certainly had become uncomfortable between them since last night so she could understand that.

So perhaps she would get to ride home on her own for once. Even as she grabbed her bike and mounted it, the nagging feeling of the unknown location of her brother was bothering her just a bit. It wasn’t like him to just not be around and not leave some sort of note for her about where he was. Though it’s not like she was really expecting him to since he knew she was somewhat avoiding him.

Most of the time when the twins got into an argument there were a few things that would happen really. If it was some small disagreement, Shōyō would bother Sakura to the point of annoying her and eventually the two would forget anything happened. If it was something a bit more severe, like this time, they would keep their space from each other. Shōyō kept away to keep any further arguments from happening, until the two cooled off to apologize and then made up. That rarely ever happened since the two never got into large arguments, but it wasn’t impossible.

As she rode home on her own, Sakura was preoccupied with trying to map out what she was going to say to her brother. After all, she had to make her intentions clear. It was the right opportunity, the time to explain her growing feelings about wanting to have distance. Though her mind was thinking about how he was going to react to what she wanted. Would he be angry? Upset? Would he yell at her? Argue with her? Sakura couldn’t be certain about what he would do. This was uncharted territory, if she was being honest with herself.

She arrived home sooner than she thought, too caught up in her mind to really notice. So she put her bike away, greeted her mom and sister, and waited in her shared bedroom for her brother to come home. At one point, she was even thinking of writing her thoughts down to give to Shōyō. That way they would be as clear as possible as she was starting to feel like she would be tongue-tied when she actually got to talk to him.

“Hi mom!” An excited voice that sent ice into Sakura’s chest shouted from the door. There was a conversation from the kitchen as Shōyō bounced around the home, returning from his trip with Coach Ukai and old Coach Ukai. It was quite the eye-opening practice that he had with the old crow coach and the kids out there. He couldn’t wait to tell Sakura about it! He certainly was conflicted when he found that her bike wasn’t still next to his when he got back, but he understood. It was getting late and as much as he wanted to ride with her to make sure that she was fine, like a big brother should, he didn’t expect her to wait forever. Especially since he’s certain she’s upset with him.

There was quite a bit of apprehension swirling in his gut as he made his way to their shared bedroom. As he walked into his room he found Sakura sitting on her bed, propped up against the wall as she read over some notes like usual. The twins stared at each other for a moment. Both were quite anxious about what the other had to say. Shōyō was quite certain that she was angry with him right now, while Sakura was trying to figure out if he would be angry with her after what she has to say.

As Shōyō put his backpack down next to his bed and plopped down onto it. Might as well as get this over with, she thought to herself. Sakura cleared her throat, “Okay, Shōyō, I wanted to say that I’m not angry with you.”

“You’re not?” Shōyō asked, more than surprised by that.

She shook her head, “No. I put myself between you and the King, so I can’t really blame you or anything, it was an accident.”

He let out a puff of air, relieved that she wasn’t upset with him. Though he hastily said, “I am sorry though! I never want to hurt you, accident or not.”

“Which is why I’m not angry with you.” Sakura chucked slightly before sobering, “But I do want to talk with you about… how clingy I am. ”

Shōyō blinked, “Clingy?” That wasn’t a word that he would use to describe his sister. Especially considering she liked to keep herself away from most people and normally just be around him, their family, or by herself. So why would she think that she’s clingy?

“Yea. I mean I have been since we were infants, mom says so.” Sakura tried to make a bit of a joke, though it didn’t land as Shōyō was just staring at her in confusion. “But even all through school and such. I don’t normally stray far from you.”

He tilted his head in confusion, “that’s an issue?”

Sakura pursed her lips, “well, yes.” It took a moment for her to find the right way to say this. She really should have written it down. At least she’d have a plan on what she was going to say. “I just figured that it would be a good idea to have… distance. You know, so we can do our own things.”

She really did lose him after that as Shōyō attempted to try and find where she was going with this. Honestly, he really was trying to understand since he knew this was a serious conversation but he wasn’t seeing where she was going with this. “Though we already do our own things… I’m on the volleyball team, and you’re in the photography club.”

“That is true, but…” Sakura sighed, “Okay, let me rephrase that. It would be a good idea for me to find my own identity.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” Sakura has an identity. She’s Hinata Sakura! What else could she mean? Oh no! Had he hit her head so hard that she forgot who she was?! This is worse than he thought!!

Before he could freak out about hitting her too hard, Sakura said, “Shōyō, you do know that everyone refers to me as your shadow, your clone. I’m not ‘Sakura’, I’m ‘Shōyō’s twin’.”

He blinked, “Is that wrong?” He wasn’t oblivious enough to not notice that. It had been happening ever since they were little. Sure, when they were a lot younger Sakura was more distinguishable from him since she had longer hair. Though after she got her hair cut sometime in junior high she ended up getting confused with him more often. Considering she kept her hair short, Shōyō didn’t think that she had an issue with that.

“It’s not wrong,” Sakura quickly amended, “but I just… I want to be seen as my own person, you know. When people talk about me or think about me I don’t want their first thought to be Shōyō’s doppelganger’. ”

Shōyō stared at her for a hot moment, trying to understand what she was saying. Was this his fault? Was she actually upset with him and just lying to not hurt his feelings? Had the fight that he had with Kageyama finally driven Sakura to the point where she wanted to distance herself from him? That she felt so annoyed with him that she didn’t even want people to think of her as his twin?

This had to be because being on the volleyball team had made him more emotional. Not to say that he wasn’t emotional about volleyball before they started at Karasuno, but it certainly had escalated. The fight the other day was a good example of that. So was she saying this because she wanted him to not do it anymore? He certainly wouldn’t, but he would consider it for her.

Sakura could see the confusion on his face, figuring that he wasn’t really getting at what she was saying. She tried to make things clear by saying, “There’s nothing wrong with me being called that, but I want to be my own person.”

A sour look consumed his face, “If you don’t like me being on the team you can just say it.”

“That’s not it,” Sakura stated in her own confusion. So he really was taking it the wrong way, just as Sakura had dreaded. How he reached that conclusion, she’s unsure, “I have supported you and your passion, Shōyō, and will not stop doing that.”

“So why do you want to get away from me? Why now?” The only thing, in his mind, that had changed for Sakura to leave him is that he joined the Karasuno team. So that just had to be the reason!

She blinked at the seemingly rising harshness in his words, “It’s not like I just randomly thought of this today.”

“If you had, you would have told me! We tell each other everything, right?”

Sakura looked away, ashamed to admit that wasn’t true, “Not this, I didn’t tell you about this.”

It was as if that was the biggest betrayal to him. After all, they grew up with each other keeping no secrets from each other, no matter what. “Why didn’t you tell me you felt like this?” They never kept things from each other, at least Shoyo thought. It was actually heart breaking for him to realize this.

“I- I just- I didn’t know how to.” She stuttered out, “I honestly was still trying to understand how I felt about it.” How was she going to really articulate to him that she had been struggling with it for a while. That she was bullied quite a bit during junior high over it. That, despite what she tried to portray to him, she was more than insecure about herself due to it. She didn’t think that it would help him to really know that. Maybe he would even feel bad about it, which she didn’t want him to.

He shook his head, “You could have at least mentioned it, because I really don’t understand. You want to just abandon me?”

“That’s not at all what I’m saying!”

“It sounds like it!”

The two were starting to get a bit more heated. Both of their emotions were starting to boil over. With Shōyō taking Sakura’s words the wrong way and Sakura getting frustrated she couldn’t get it right, things were not going all too well.

“There’s nothing that would convince me to abandon you!” Sakura shouted now, “I just want to do my own thing right now, can’t you understand that at least?”

Shōyō grunted, turning away, “No. Because my sister wouldn’t just suddenly want to leave me alone.”

“I’m not- I’m not leaving you alone! At no point did I say that!” Though even if she tried to insist on it, he had turned to face away from her. She figured that with his stubbornness, he was going to make his mind up and stick with it for the time being. There wasn’t much she could say or do that would convince him otherwise. She’ll just have to try again at some point perhaps. She let out a large sigh, there might have been a few tears in her eyes as well though she disregarded that, “Look, I plan on going to Tokyo with you and the team but after that… I’m going to focus on my photography and my own friends.”

Shōyō snapped, “You actually have your own friends?”

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, “Yes. I do.”

“Really?” He asked sarcastically, “Okay sure, whatever.” It seemed like the conversation was over after that. Whether Sakura had anything else to say to him or any rebuttal, Shōyō wasn’t going to listen as he made his way to the bathroom to change clothes. Even when he came back both of them were quiet.

Nothing else was said between the twins as they got themselves ready for bed. Maybe Shōyō should have apologized, maybe Sakura should have tried again to make it clear, but it was already too late. There was a bitter taste in both of their mouths. Whatever attempt that either wanted to make amends with each other was just a pipe dream at this point. If anything, this might have just made things a bit more difficult than to begin with.

---

If there was one thing that just about everyone noticed, it was that Sakura wasn’t coming to their practices as much anymore. The boys were used to having Sakura sitting on the sidelines alongside their managers and coach, so not having her there was a bit strange. There was no sarcastic or snide remarks made by her on the sidelines and it was just strange for everyone.

“Where do you think Sakura is?” Yamaguchi asked his best friend, only a little concerned at the girl’s disappearance. She was always at their practices, even skipping her own club if it meant getting to be at theirs. A few times, Yamaguchi will admit, he has tried to convince her to go to her own club. It might have swayed her even a little bit a couple of times, but nothing too significant. As her friend, he does his best to encourage her to do well with her photography. Ever since they had a heart to heart some time ago and grown closer as friends, he likes to believe that he’s getting to her a bit.

Perhaps that’s why she wasn’t here! Focusing on her own interests and finding her love for it. After the last gallery he saw of hers, he knew she was growing stronger in her confidence, so maybe not being at the practice was her just going to her own club to work on her passion. At least, he hoped.

Tsukishima clicked his tongue, going about his stretch like normal, “What does it matter? One less person to annoy us.”

The green-haired boy tilted his head slightly, “Even you have to be wondering though.”

He deadpanned, “No.”

Yamaguchi didn’t seem to be as convinced, he just hummed. He knows his best friend, and knows that there’s at least a little part of him that is wondering about her. Yamaguchi is more than aware that Tsukishima had a bit more of an interest in Sakura. He chalked that up to Tsukishima doing what he could to get a rise out of Sakura from time to time, or when he was annoyed by her brother. Yamaguchi couldn’t really pinpoint if Tsukishima enjoyed her being around, but he knew that Tsukishima at least noticed it. Ever since they first came into practice, Tsukishima’s eyes drifted, ever so slightly, towards the managers. It wouldn’t be all that strange, However, Yamaguchi just knew that Tsukishima was looking for Sakura. As much as he could say that Tsukishima is his best friend, the blond could still be a bit of an enigma to him. There was something that Yamaguchi noticed every once in a while from Tsukishima. He wasn’t going to voice his questions or suspicions just yet, but he knows for a fact that it has to do with Sakura.

He had a feeling that Tsukishima was frustrated by Sakura, more often than he’d like to admit. In the beginning, Yamaguchi saw why Sakura ticked him off. They are very much alike and Sakura never really acted the way that Tsukishima wanted her to when he tried to get a rise out of her. He expected her to be like her brother, much like how she looks like a clone to him. Though since she’s got quite a pessimistic personality, much like himself, Yamaguchi theorizes that Tsukishima wasn’t expecting it. He even theorizes that Tsukishima was surprised to the point that he wanted to push her to the point where she did react. Yamaguchi wasn’t supportive of this, obviously. Though what was he going to do about it?

So he just dropped the subject. Either way, Yamaguchi might be lost in his thoughts about how his two friends were acting, but there was one person lost in his thoughts about his sister. Shōyō was the one who mainly could sense Sakura’s disappearance, since he was blaming himself for her not being there. Like a part of him was missing, and it really didn’t sit right with him.

Even if Ukai was talking to him, Shōyō wasn’t completely registering it in his mind. He was understanding the plan that Ukai wanted to try during this practice, but his mind was still thinking about the absence of his sister. Even when they were heading to school, Sakura kept herself distanced from him. He certainly wasn’t used to

“All right, let’s get this started!” Their coach said as he rallied them all together. “Make sure you stay hydrated!”

All the boys lined up to get ready, “Right.”

As all the boys were getting ready for their practice, Yachi had something on her mind. “Um… Hinata.” She nervously tried to get Shōyō’s attention. “U-Um, I was wondering if you were okay… You and Kageyama-kun, um, uh…”

Shōyō just smiled, a bit wistfully, like he wasn’t completely hearing her, “I’m fine.”

Yachi let out a relieved sigh, glad that there might be some resolution between them. Though she could tell that there was an underlying emotion that surrounded the boy. No doubt in her mind that it was about his sister. As the boys went about their practice, Yachi thought back to the school day. Sakura had been a bit more reserved than normal, which is saying something since Sakura does love to keep to herself in class. Yachi had been a bit fussy over Sakura, she realized how pushy she might have been. But she had wanted to see if Sakura was really ok! She wanted to make sure that she wasn’t hurt, how her and her brother were after it, and if it was as bad as Yachi thought. Sakura didn’t say too much about it. Though she did reassure Yachi that everything was fine, that her brother was fine, and nothing was wrong. Yachi didn’t completely believe her, and really did try to hold herself back, but she was anxious to know. Perhaps she was being too pushy. Though she really was just worried for her friend! She just hoped that Sakura was doing okay now while at her own club.

“Say, Yachi-chan,” a sly voice slid over to her, “where is our little paparazzi-chan?”

She blinked up at Endo, who suddenly appeared beside her. The intense gaze that he was pinpointing her with caused a shiver to crawl down her spine. “Uh, at her club, probably.”

Endo hummed, “A bit weird that she isn’t here.”

Yachi just blinked at him, “Well, m-maybe.” She really didn’t like it whenever Endo got into her personal space and looked at her like this.

He tapped his chin, “Just makes me wonder… Is our little decoy in a fight with his clone?” He really couldn’t wait to find out what was going on with the twins. Oh, how fun it might end up being.

---

When Asahi had asked Endo to stick around and help him practice a bit, Endo was more than happy to oblige. Any time he can get to hang around with his best friend, he certainly was going to take it. An added plus was getting to avoid his father for even longer by staying in the gym. So he just worked on setting the ball to Asahi so he could spike it. Then they would swap so Endo could work on his own spikes. Though they also took some breaks for Asahi to work on his serves. Since that was the biggest thing that Asahi had wanted to work on, Endo was more than happy to help him with that when needed.

Though just as Asahi served another ball over the net with some strong determination behind it, their libero came out of nowhere and saved it from hitting the floor. “Asahi-san! Endo-san! Mind if I join you?”

Asahi just blinked at him, put out that Nishinoya could easily receive his serve. “Oh, yeah. Sure.”

Endo shrugged his shoulders noncommittally, “I guess.” He had been hoping to just have practice between him and Asahi, but he supposed that it was fine. Nishinoya could join if he wanted. Not that he was going to be salty about it or anything, he’s not Tsukishima. Besides out of the others to join, Endo supposed that Nishinoya was alright.

Nishinoya excitedly asked, “Would you mind hitting some of my tosses?”

“Yeah, sure.” It took a moment for the libero’s words to hit him, but Asahi blinked when he finally understood, “Uh, wait, what? You’re going to toss?”

“Did you change positions?” Endo asked, also thoroughly confused.

Nishinoya smiled, “I’ll help you with your serves, too, Asahi-san. Then I can help Endo with your receives since they’re horrible.”

Endo scowled, “they’re not that bad.”

A determined look came over Asahi’s face, “Sure. Let’s do this.”

“All right!”

So the trio practiced for a while. Nishinoya worked on his technique to toss the ball, Asahi worked on his serves, and Endo was just there helping them out where they needed to. Not that Endo thought he didn’t have anything that he could work on, he certainly could improve a lot of his skills. Though what was the point in him working on something when two starters had to work on something. It was more important.

At one point, Asahi had said he needed a break to go to the bathroom, so obviously they paused. Endo sat himself down against the edge of the wall, a bit tired. He wasn’t exactly tired from practicing, since he was really just hitting the ball to Nishinoya for him to set and Asahi to

“Endo,” Nishinoya said, standing over him now “Do you really want to be on this team?”

He chuckled loudly, “Whoa, quite blunt there, Nishi!”

“With you I know I have to be.” The libero then peered down closely at him, “So?”

Endo didn’t really like the way that Nishinoya was staring at him. Like he was trying to look right through him to find out what was going on in his head. He never likes when people try to do that. Endo pursed his lips in thought, before deciding on what to say, “My father… He’s not exactly supportive of me staying on the team.”

“Though you’re still here.”

Endo scoffed, “Obviously! I will take any chance I get to spite him! Though he did say some things that made me question why I’m here to begin with.”

After the loud conversation that he had with his father about volleyball, his future career and their relationships as a whole, Endo was at a bit of a loss. There were revelations between them that it was a good thing that they talked about. Even though Endo said to him that he wanted to keep doing volleyball during his highschool career, he questioned it still. If he really didn’t intend on continuing playing into university what was the point of playing now? Should he be focusing on his studies for his entrance exams? Going with his father to the company and learning more about it?

“Hey!” Nishinoya shouted, abruptly breaking Endo from his own thoughts, “If you’re starting to have doubts about being on the team, figure it out quickly! Either get off the team or stay!” Endo blinked at the loudness of his friend, with his mouth a bit agape at his yells. Nishinoya continued with a hard look on his face, “If you leave I’ll definitely call you a coward, though understand why, especially with your father breathing down your neck.”

Endo scoffed, “My father did make some good points, since I’m destined to work at his company and take over when the time comes, I should be focusing on my studies more.”

At the mention of studying, Nishinoya’s nose wrinkled. “So? Are you going to quit now, even when we’re close to getting a chance at winning!”

Endo had put quite a lot into this team. Effort that his father may not understand, but effort that Endo was proud of. So what was he going to do? He licked his lips, “I wanted to stick around for as long as I can, I want to see you guys win. I want to see Asahi happy because of it.” Yeah, he definitely would be more than content with seeing Asahi happy. He shook his head, “Though it’s not like I’m important to the team or anything.”

“It doesn’t matter if you're a starter or a bench warmer, you’re a part of this team!” Nishinoya said strongly, seemingly trying to get that notion out of Endo’s head.

Endo didn’t think that he was valuable to the team, not in the slightest. He was never a starter, his teammates were always so much better than him, and he never put the same amount of time into the team like they did. He did what was asked of him, but never overachieved. Nishinoya saying that he was important to the team was…

Nishinoya continued, “All I’m saying is either commit or don’t waste more time!”

---

Yeah, Nishinoya is right, Endo thought every time he was at practice after that day. He never knew he would believe that, but Nishinoya does have his moments it seems. So as time past and they had their practices, Endo was making his decision. He wanted to stick around. He wants to be with his friends, he’s only in high school once, and he wasn’t going to let the responsibilities of adulthood haunt him yet.

Karasuno’s practices were going well. The team was coming up with new playstyles, improving on their existing skills and having fun doing it. Yes, Shoyo was a bit of a downer at times, most likely due to his sister’s absence, but he worked through it.

Not seeing Sakura at practice had become the norm. It worried a few, didn’t matter to others, and was interesting to one. After all, everyone had been accustomed to having her at every practice no matter what since the beginning of the school year. Everyone figured that it had to do with the fight that had happened between their sunshine decoy and gloomy setter. However, they had to wonder what Sakura thought about it.

Meanwhile, Sakura was at her own club, listening in on the plans for the “Heroes” gallery. She wouldn’t say that she’s happier not being at the volleyball practices, but she also wasn’t upset about not being there. She did miss getting to talk with Kiyoko and Yachi. However, not having to deal with the volleyball idiots like Tsukishima, Nishinoya, Kageyama, Tanaka, Endo was a near god-send. Now she just had to deal with the idiots within her own club. So she was… content for the time being. Even if she was still upset about the argument she had with her brother. Though she’d push that to the back of her mind. They had the gallery tonight, just before summer vacation started, so they were getting that all settled. She certainly was excited about that since she got the photo that she wanted. Even if it made her feel a bit… sorrowful. Though for now she’d just focus on how Ito and Wada were arguing yet again about something trivial.

In the volleyball club’s gym, Takeda gathered the boys all together. “Now, that it’s summer vacation, we can practice from morning to night.” He said to the group after one of their practices, “And starting tomorrow, we’ll resume the Tokyo away games. This time, we’ll be there for a solid week! This is the first and last long-term training camp before the spring tournament prelims. Let’s make the most of this opportunity, so we have no regrets entering the spring tournament prelims.” All of the boys definitely were eager to get the chance to play against such talented teams at the camp. One of the most eager, was Shōyō. Even with the fact that his sister and him hadn’t been on the best of terms, he put all his effort in getting better. With the team and his time with old Coach Ukai, he certainly thinks that he’s improved. Hopefully, he could use that to convince Sakura that she doesn’t need to leave to “find her identity” when she should be perfectly fine with being his twin.

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A/N: Ah, so a little bit of conflict between the twins now, and it's serious. I figured I wanted their to be some misunderstanding between the twins since they never have had something like that happen to them before. They're not perfect siblings, but they've never argued to the point of staying away from each other, you know what I mean. Just figured it was a good way to have some character development between them. Then we've got the Tokyo training camp coming up next, but before that, we've got another gallery to see from Sakura! Not going to lie, I feel like the actual dialogue that I wrote for the agreement between Shōyō and Sakura was a bit... lacking, but I think it does it's job. Until the next one, my friends~

#ocs #fanfiction #multiple ocs #fanfic #oc #female oc #female!oc #male oc #male!oc #anime fanfiction #anime #haikyu oc #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyū!!#haikyu #haikyuu!!#hinata!oc #hinata twins #hinata

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moonchild-things · 6 months

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Chapter Eight: A Map?

Summary: Iris’ first year at Hogwarts has finally come to an end. After the chaos that ensued during her fifth year, she’s ready to graduate in two years. As her relationship with Sirius picks up traction and she makes new friends, Iris wants to enjoy her time before she’s forced into adulthood.

Word Count: 2051

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A/N: Omg, I posted a chapter for this. Time to celebrate! Taking a short break from writing anime and decided to try getting back into Harry Potter. I finished the outline for this story and the next one so I can say I have a concrete idea on how things are gonna go. I never realized how ambitious I was with this little series that I wanted to make. These original stories plus the HP movies, what was I thinking?! Though I am determined to get them done now! Let's see how consistent I can be lmao

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“AH, FEEL THAT COOL FALL BREEZE. IT feels so nice to be bundled up in our scarves and jackets.” Iris cooed as she walked down the paths of Hogsmeade. The leaves that fell to the ground now sport a nice fall color of red, orange, or yellow. It wasn't too cold, not too hot, it was amazing. It is October now, really only a month into the school year. Everything is perfect and blissful for Iris and her friends.

School work is obviously a pain, in Iris’ opinion. Though that’s a given, it’s school work! She’s having all sorts of fun getting back into the swing of things. Mainly just getting to pull pranks on anyone and everyone that she wants. Also having the Marauders to hang around with and help her with all of her hijinks.

Not only that, but with it being Fall now, Halloween was right around the corner. The spooky season is one of Iris’s favorites. While she enjoys Christmas for the presents and food, Halloween is all about sweet treats and tricks. What better chance did she get to dress up in a costume, get a boatload of tooth rotting sweets, and pull as many pranks as she wanted? Not only that but it’s always better to be in the wizarding world for Halloween! What better way to spend All Hallows Eve in a world completely surrounded by supernatural things?

Currently the group of Gryffindors were all in Hogsmeade on their usual trip on the weekend. The girls wanted to go shopping a bit and then maybe get a butterbeer later. Meanwhile, the boys wanted to head off on their own, though not before stopping at the candy shop with the girls of course.

“Yeah, it’s pretty nice out right now.” Marlene commented as the group entered the bustling shop. The sweet aroma that bombarded the group made quite a few of them lick their lips happily.

Iris quickly picked up a large lollipop from a shelf, “Mhm, not too cold, not too hot, just a perfect day. Don’t you just love fall?”

“I’m surprised you like it so much considering it’s the season right before winter.” Wendy commented while grabbing a bag of sweets.

“Eh,” She just shrugged, taking a lick of her lollipop, “it’s my moment of bliss before the hellscape of snow and such.”

“Fall is really great!” Marlene exclaimed, grabbing quite a few different types of sweets as she started to drool, “Just think of it, pumpkin pie, pudding, pumpkin juice.”

“Is all you think about food? Especially pumpkin?” Lily asked with a giggle in her voice.

Marlene asked, “What’s wrong with pumpkin? It’s quite delicious.”

“Don’t judge her!” Iris exclaimed, also grabbing some of her favorite sweets to restock her private stash in her room. A stash that Lily would most certainly have a fit over since Iris may or may not eat a worryingly large amount of sweets every once in a while.

“Oh, you’re the same way, Iris.” Wendy laughed heartily, knowing that Iris would stick up for her comrade in food.

As the girls continued to grab a couple of treats to bring back with them to school, and also bet on how much food/sweets Marlene and Iris could consume, Iris noticed something a bit peculiar. In a far corner of the shop, the Marauders were muttering to each other about something. Iris was able to notice them quite easily, since she usually kept an eye out for them. She would be able to notice her boyfriend's luscious hair from a mile away, honestly. If they hadn’t been here, she knew that they would have been checking out some quidditch equipment. Though to see them being somewhat secretive got her curious. When they get like that, it just meant that they were planning something, and she definitely wanted to know what.

She slid over to them and caught a few words of their conversation, “you sure it’ll work?” It was James who had asked Remus, desperately curious.

“What’ll work?”

The four boys jumped at Iris’ question, suddenly doing their best to act as though they weren’t just whispering some sort of secret to each other.

“Iris!” They all exclaimed.

Sirius made sure to put his arm around her waist and give her a peck on the cheek, “Hello, love.”

Iris smiled lovingly at her boyfriend, “So? What are you four up to? No good if I had to guess.” She flashed them a devilish smile, “I want in.”

“It’s not anything like that,” James said, “Just going over some potions work, you know.”

She just rolled her eyes at the excuse, “You have attempted to use that excuse on me before, I didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe it now. Now, what is it?”

“James had this idea some time ago, the castle is full of secret passages and hidden rooms. Now have you ever wondered,” Sirius started to explain excitedly and paused for dramatic effect, “what if we mapped it out?”

Iris pursed her lips and thought it over. It certainly was an interesting idea, one that she knew she would love to have a hand in. She smirked at them, “Mapping out a magical school? That’s got to be difficult.”

James just smiled wider and clapped Remus on the shoulders, “Well, our resident genius thinks he’s got a good idea on what to do.”

“Not really,” Remus rolled his eyes, “It’s just a theory at this point.”

Sirius jumped in, “Not only that, but what if we knew everyone’s locations!”

“So that way we know when the coast is clear from Filch or any other professor.”

Iris’ eyes were wide with wonder, the devious thoughts running through her mind at the prospect. She chuckled, “Sounds like a brilliant idea. How are you going about it then?”

“Well…” Peter’s mousey voice spoke up for the first time, sharing a look with his friends, “we aren’t sure.”

Iris tapped her chin as the smile on her face never left her face, “I’d be happy to help you lot!”

James whooped, “Great! The more the merrier!”

“We’ll definitely need all the help we can get.” Remus sighed out, seemingly relieved that there was someone else who would be able to help them.

Iris smirked, “Good thing you’ve got a genius like me to help, eh?”

Remus just scoffed and grumbled under his breath, “Obviously, these numpies will rely on me to do most of the work.”

That seemed to offend all the others, “OI!”

“We’re smart enough to help with this!” James exclaimed, Sirius nodding his head enthusiastically next to him.

Remus smiled sarcastically, “I totally believe you.”

“Now, remember, we have to keep this between us.” James said, his voice taking on an urgent and commanding tone. “If anyone else catches wind of the map, we’re done for!” Though it’s not like he doubted any one in this group would go blabbering about it. They all do well to keep secrets within this group, so he didn’t have all that much to worry about. Still, he figured it had to be said, just in case.

Sirius nodded his head, “The teachers would be on us so fast.”

“They’d be the least of our worries. If Lily found out, she’d scold us just for thinking about it.” Iris said, scaring herself just thinking about it. They all shuttered, knowing that Lily would be quite scary if she did find out. Lily wasn’t necessarily a stickler for the rules, but with something like a magical map of their school, she would have to scold them for that.

They then heard Lily, Wendy and Marlene heading over to them, after having finished picking out what they wanted. The boys plus Iris all scrambled, making sure that they kept themselves quite about the map for now. They tried to act natural… but it wasn’t that convincing. Iris and Sirius hung onto each other pretending to have a conversation, Remus busied himself with staring at a shelf of some random candy, James was already eyeing Lily, and Peter was just standing there.

“You guys okay?” Wendy asked with a manicured eyebrow raised. All the girls were suspicious from the way that they were acting. Then again, when were they not suspicious of the Marauders doing some devious prank?

“Perfectly fine, especially now with Lily here.” James suavely said with his most charming smile.

Lily just rolled her eyes, though there was a small up turn to her lips. “Oh, hush. Come on, we’re heading to the Three Broomsticks.”

So the group all headed for some drinks and idle conversation as they enjoyed the rest of their time at Hogsmeade. It was always moments like this that Iris loved. Simple moments that didn’t really seem like much but was just a brief time of bliss with her favorite people. Slurping on a butterbeer and sharing laughter with her friends really brought her joy.

After some hearty drinks and laughter, the group headed back to the carriages to go back to Hogwarts. Once they got back to the Gryffindor common room, The Marauders made a beeline for the boys dorm so that they could get right to work. They had to show Iris what they had already done so far, after all.

They got into the room and closed the door to keep any prying eyes away from seeing their work. The last thing they need is someone to over hear their top secret map! Remus rummaged through his trunk, digging to the very bottom to pull out a worn looking parchment from it. Iris tilted her head, seeing that it was completely blank. Remus placed it on his bed as they all surrounded it to get a look at it.

Well, she thought, they have to start somewhere.

“Now this, is what we have so far.” Remus said, presenting it to the newest addition to their secret.

Iris nodded her head, “a blank paper… I can see it working.”

Sirius shook his own head, “this is just what we’re using, look,” he pulled out his wand and placed it on the blank parchment. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

Just as he said those words, maroon lines started to move across the pages. It amazed Iris as she watched those lines start to turn into the words ‘Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present THE MARAUDER'S MAP’. Iris marveled at it as an impressed smile crawled onto her lips.

James opened up the parchment to show a crude map, only about one-third of the school finished. “This is really all we have at the moment,” he explained, “we have to finish mapping out the school, secret passageways and all.”

“Then we have to find the right charms and spells to show who is where,” Sirius sighed. He may not exactly know the correct spells and such for it, but he knows that they can get it to work. Especially now with his lovely girlfriend helping out with their little project. He knew that she was smart and thought that this was such an amazing idea. She was definitely going to put her all into getting this to work, just like them.

Iris’ eyes raked over the crude work that was already finished as he mind ran with how they were going to get this done. She certainly didn’t know how they were doing to get the charms done, but she’ll do her best to help them find the right ones. She’s pretty decent at drawing, so she’ll ask if she could redo some of the drawing since they seemed a bit jagged.

She picked up the map to get a closer look at it, “this is a bit small, definitely going to need a bigger paper.”

“We just figured we can add onto the parchment,” James explained.

She hummed, “that could work, I suppose.” There was a lot of work that would have to be done to get to where they wanted with this map. A lot of work that she was more than enthusiastic to put into this. She then put it down and flashed them all a devious smirk, “so where do we go from here?”

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A/N: A bit shorter than what I'd normally do, but I wrote half of this like a year ago and had to rewrite some of this. I don't think my style of writing has changed too much. However, I like to believe that my grammar and spelling has improved, even slightly. So I went back and fixed anything I thought was a mistake. Are there still mistakes in this? Most definitely, but I did what I could lmao

Sorry I took a long while for this story to be updated. I sort of fell in love with a few other writing projects and going through my school work and now a full-time job. So I really just worked on writing stuff like Red Herring and Living Shadow. Though thankfully, I have more time to write and figured I'd touch on most of the fics that I haven't written in a while. Then again, I have so many fics and such that I have planned and never touched, some uploaded, others sitting in my google drive for forever lmao Let's see where I'll take all this now! Anyway, until the next chapter, my friends~!

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moonchild-things · 7 months

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Chapter Thirty-Six: Greed

Word Count: 7057

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A/n: Woo! Another chapter :)

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ENDO’S ARMS WERE CROSSED OVER HIS CHEST as he stood with the rest of his team. After waking up and eating a hearty breakfast, they had made quick work of getting into the gym to start their warm ups. They wanted to get started with their practice games as soon as they could. He was still quite tired even after having Nishinoya yelling in his ears to get up. He had stayed up a bit later than the other boys, for no reason in particular. Endo just couldn’t sleep. Though he had to do his best to wake up with how hyped his teammates were to redeem themselves after the abysmal games that they had the day before. God, what he wouldn’t do for a coffee right now.

“Gather round!” Ukai called out to the team, “Our first game today is with Nekoma. How did we do yesterday?”

Kiyoko looked down at her notebook, “This will be our third set overall with Nekoma. Yesterday, we played two sets with them. The scores were 17-25 and 19-25, both our losses.” Some of the boys cringed at the reminder of the losses and the soreness after having to do the penalty. Most of them still had sore arms from it, which Endo was certainly the loudest complainer about it.

Ukai nodded, “Simply put, we haven’t won a single set. But if we calm down and go out there in full force, Hinata and Kageyama, this is your first Nekoma set in a while, isn’t it? Go show ‘em what you’ve got.”

The two nodded their heads, “Right!”

So the boys got onto the court and were ready to play the first game of the day. They could only hope that they could have a few breakthroughs today against the cats. It would certainly help their morale while also giving them the motivation that they would need to push forward. Only time would tell, at the moment.

Meanwhile, Sakura shuffled through the hallway towards the room that the coaches and teachers had been using to sleep. Ukai had told her that Tanaka’s older sister had maybe drank a bit too much last night and would need someone to wake her up. Least she ends up sleeping most of the day away. Sakura knew that she didn’t have anything else to do, so she agreed to do it.

Perhaps there was a part of her that agreed so she would have a reason to avoid being on the court for some time. It just meant that she prolonged running into the captain of the owls. After last night, Sakura wasn’t sure if she wanted to have another run in with Bokuto. Or even any of the other boys from Fukurōdani. She had the feeling that he went blabbering to his teammates about her and her history with Sato. What she wants to avoid as much as possible is them questioning her about anything surrounding that guy. Though she brushed it off, there wasn’t any need to think about it right now.

Sakura came into the room to see that the older woman was barely awake. She was holding her head, certainly working through the beginnings of a hangover. Sakura blinked at her, “Good morning, Tanaka-san.”

“Eh?” Saeko blinked lazily as she tried to come into complete consciousness. After having drank too much with the teachers last night, it was obvious that she would have a bit of trouble getting herself ready. She turned to see that little giant wanna-be that she drove up yesterday. Though as her eyes finally adjusted, she saw the bored expression on the girl’s face and realized… this wasn’t that little shrimp.

“Ukai wanted me to make sure you were awake.” Sakura explained, her arms now crossed over her chest.

Saeko still stared at her a bit confused, “you’re that kid's sister, right?”

“Yes.”

She tilted her head, “I was expecting you to look a bit… different.”

Sakura’s eyebrows furrowed, “We are twins, identical twins.”

“Still would have thought you would look a bit more different,” Saeko just shrugged her shoulders like it was the most obvious statement ever. Sure, Saeko knows that they are twins and would look similar, but she wasn’t expecting a near carbon copy of that little shrimp. She thought that they would have some differences in appearance, maybe Sakura would have longer hair, maybe a different style of clothes, just something to differentiate themselves. The only thing that she could see that really seemed to convince her that this wasn’t just Shoyo was the fact that Sakura appeared to have a resting bored expression.

Sakura just stared at her for a long moment, “Okay?” She wasn’t sure what to think of the older woman. Sakura kind of figured that she would be similar to Tanaka, so perhaps a bit difficult to handle. Though she’s just waking up, there probably was still time for Saeko to prove Sakura’s theories right.

Saeko stretched with a loud groan, “what time is it?”

“Around 9am.”

“Ah! Why didn’t you say so!?” Saeko shouted, causing Sakura to cringe, “I’m gonna miss Ryu’s game!”

Sakura watched as the older woman hurried, getting herself as presentable as she could as quickly as possible. It was almost impressive to Sakura to see her getting ready in such a speedy manner. Soon enough Saeko had taken care of her things, and the pair headed out of the room together. They made a little bit of small talk, but there wasn’t all too much to be said. As sisters of players on the team, there wasn’t really too much that they could talk about. At least in Sakura’s mind. Saeko was at least six years older than her, so Sakura didn’t think that there was a topic of conversation that they could really delve into, which she was fine with. She wasn’t necessarily looking to be friends with someone as old as her. So menial small talk will have to do.

By the time that Sakura and Saeko were coming back into the gym to watch the practice matches, they came in to see quite the sight. Asahi had been jumping for a toss only for Shōyō to come soaring through the air, also aiming for the ball. Everyone watched as the two collide, the pair shouting out at the sudden contact in surprise. Though thanks to the size differences between them, Asahi was barely affected by Shōyō smacking into him. Shōyō was the one who was pushed down to the ground harshly. Everyone blinked in a mix of confusion and slight concern at the collision.

Finally recovering over his shock, Asahi stared at the fallen boy in horror, “U-U-U-Uh… Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-”

Before he could even get any words out properly, Shōyō was quick to get on his knees and bow to the ace. “I’m sorry! I was just staring at the ball…” He was babbling so much that it was a bit hard to understand him, “I’m sorry! Are you okay? I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“I-I’m perfectly fine…” Asahi said shakily.

The rest of the boys were watching the interaction with amusement. Tanaka chuckled, “Hey, be careful.”

“No matter what,” Nishinoya commented, “Shōyō’s gonna be the one that goes flying.”

“Pay attention to your surroundings, you idiot!” Ukai shouted at the orange-haired boy, “Why do you think everyone’s calling the ball, you dumbass?!”

Endo pursed his lips like he just ate a lemon, “at least neither of them are hurt.” The thought of Asahi getting hurt certainly didn’t sit well with him. He really couldn’t care less if Shōyō got hurt, especially if it meant that Asahi was the one hurt instead.

Kageyama slid over to scold him as well, “Moron! Hinata, you moron!”

Shōyō grew shy, “Right… I’m sorry.”

Sakura just blinked slowly at the events that unfolded. She hasn’t seen her brother do something like that before, so it was a bit surprising. She wasn’t sure what he would have been thinking. Was he distracted? Did he get greedy? Sakura couldn’t pin-point it at the moment. She’ll have to ask him later.

She was punched lightly on the shoulder as a laugh came from the woman next to her, “your brother sure is eager, huh?!”

Sakura just nodded lightly, “you have no idea.”

So the rest of the game was played out. Sakura had left Saeko to do whatever it was that she wanted to do up in the stands to watch the game. She certainly wanted to watch the rest of the practice match with Kiyoko and Yachi on the bench. Sakura wouldn’t get too many opportunities to sit courtside to watch her brother’s games, so she’ll take what she can get.

One thing that she noticed, which was hard not to, was that Nekoma’s newer member of the team was quite a difficult opponent. Which makes complete sense to her since he’s not only one of the tallest guys she’s ever seen in person, but he was agile. He also worked well enough with Kenma, a trait that I’m sure the pudding-haired setter appreciated. After hearing more about Lev last night, Sakura figured that he was going to be quite the difficult opponent. However, seeing it now, she realized just how bad it was. Considering Lev could counter Shōyō’s quick freak pretty easily. She wasn’t sure how that was affecting Shoyo all that well. Sakura could imagine that it was… far more than disheartening for him.

Though at one point, everyone could hear the proclamation that Shōyō made mid game, “I’ll stop closing my eyes.” It shocked just about everyone. Up until this point, he never kept his eyes open for the freak quick with Kageyama. So why all of a sudden now? “I can’t stay like this.” He explained, “I can’t keep hitting quicks that are set just for me.”

Kageyama stared at him for a moment, considering his words. “You can’t, and that’s why we learned normal quicks.” He finally said, “I don’t know what’s going on with you right now, but if you have something to say, I’ll listen to it later. But if you’re gonna do that right now, I’m not going to set to a guy who I know will miss.”

They continued on with the game, a new atmosphere taking over Karasuno. One that not everyone picked up on, but noticeable enough for those with a keen eye. Sakura didn’t know what this could mean for them as a team. Evolution was good, but getting to the point where it works would be challenging. Having tension on the team could mean little to no good. Especially considering that Shōyō and Kageyama already have their pre-existing feud with each other. Though this just felt more than that.

Yachi noticed something she found a bit concerning after that exchange. “I wasn’t imagining the tension between Hinata and Kageyama-kun, right?” She looked at Sakura and Kiyoko in concern. She certainly didn’t think that it was good to have two players be so tense with each other.

“Yeah…” Kiyoko trailed off as they watched the intensity in the boy’s plays, “But it’s not just Hinata and Kageyama. Ever since Hinata and Azumane bumped into each other, they’re all on edge.”

Sakura pursed her lips, “I think they’ve realized that Shōyō is… greedy.” Her brother is always ambitious about his skills and needs to be taken seriously on court. He might not outwardly show it, or people might not expect it, but Shōyō had the potential of being greedy. It wasn’t greed for attention in the normal sense, but just a greed to grow stronger, to become this unstoppable force in a sense. The next little giant. Perhaps the rest of the team realized this, and are stepping up to the challenge. Partaking in a bout of friendly competition while on the court. Constantly pushing each other to show off who’s better. In the end it could only mean something good for the team as a whole. If they all push to be better than each other with their individual skills, but keep track of working on their teamwork, the team can only benefit as a whole.

The last point that Nekoma needed to win was earned, which meant that Karasuno had to do yet another penalty lap. Sakura thought that she would accuse them of being masochists since they kept doing these penalties. Though she knows that they’re trying their best, or at least most of the team is.

To say that Sakura was surprised by the outcome of the game against Nekoma would be a complete lie. She figured that they weren’t going to win, even if it got close at certain points. Still they lost 18-25, it wasn’t a complete sweep but it wasn’t that much of a nail biter.

Now that the game was over, Daichi called everyone over, “Gather around!”

They all stood around their club advisor and coach as Takeda stood to give them a speech as usual. “You guys are the weakest team out of all the teams here.” All of them thought about how they really couldn’t say that he was wrong. Takeda continued, “If we were to have an official match with any of these teams, they would be a troublesome opponent. Are we going to view them as mere opponents, or teachers that we can absorb techniques from? The fact that you are weak just means that you have room to grow. There’s nothing more exciting than that.”

All the boys bowed, “Thank you!”

So with the game over now, and their penalty lap taken, the boys were allowed a moment of reprieve before they continued with their next game. Though at this point, after the game they just played, they really were the weakest team here, and that weighed heavily on just about all of them.

Walking over to Asahi as the boy was taking a swig from his water bottle, Endo planted himself to sit on the floor beside him. He could spot the weary expression on his best friend's face. He was more than aware that Asahi was probably contemplating how the team was going to get to nationals now, and how things were definitely heating up within the team itself.

“You know, you’ll get wrinkles if you keep your face like that,” Endo commented as he poked Asahi’s cheek.

Asahi sighed heavily, “We really can’t win against these teams.”

“Well, they’re all at a different caliber than what we’re used to.” Endo raised an eyebrow, “Makes sense that we can’t stand up against them just yet.”

“Still,” Asahi took a glance in the direction of where they saw Shoyo, Kageyama, and Suga had gone. “We’re all having issues with something.”

Endo appraised his friend with pursed lips. “The team will work things out,” he shrugged his shoulders, “You think that this bunch of guys are just gonna roll over and give up? No, no. They’re going to try their damndest to make things work.” He supposed that was one thing that he could definitely admire about his teammates. Most of them had this level of determination that seemed impossible for most people.

The corners of Asahi’s lips turned up lightly, thankful for Endo’s attempt to reassure him. “Yeah,” he breathed out, “I guess you’re right.”

“Plus, I know what you’re thinking.” Endo leaned over closer to Asahi, getting into his personal space. “Our little decoy is very ambitious, but I know he won’t out shine our amazing ace.”

There may or may not have been a little shiver that went down Asahi’s spine due to Endo’s close proximity, but he did his best to brush it off. “I won’t let that happen, I will do my best to get better, just like he is.”

“That’s the spirit!”

Eventually, the boys all came back from their short little break. A few of them made revelations with new ideas in their minds and were more than ready to see what they could do now. With the next game being against Fukurōdani, Sakura couldn’t really avoid Bokuto at this point. Right before the game started, and the boys lined up, the eccentric captain came bouncing over to her with a wide smile.

“Hinata-chan!” His smile was nearly blinding to her as he pumped his fist, “I’m excited to play against your brother today, I know it’ll be a great game!”

Sakura blinked at him, already knowing that she would have to warn off a headache if he kept this up. “Yeah, it’ll be cool to watch you guys play.”

She was still a bit apprehensive about him. Well, she’s most likely going to be apprehensive of the Fukurōdani team since she now knows that Sato goes to that school and apparently the team knows him. Who knows what he could have said to them about her, since by Bokuto’s account, Sato likes to talk about her a bit to others. While she wanted to keep her distance from them, Bokuto wanted to be friendly to her, she supposed. In a sense she could understand, if she had been hearing about someone and finally got to meet them she would be curious.

Another boy from the Fukurōdani team then came walking over. He had black, slightly curly hair, green eyes, and a kind expression on his face. “I’m sorry that he is bothering you.” Just from that statement, Sakura could tell that this boy had to deal with Bokuto a lot.

Sakura blinked at him, “Yeah, you’re fine.” She bowed slightly to him, “I’m Hinata Sakura, nice to meet you.”

“I’m Akaashi Keiji.” He returned the bow, before starting to usher Bokuto to the court. “Now, come on, we have to line up.” So the two headed off, with Bokuto loudly telling Sakura to watch him play.

At least Bokuto has someone to reel him in a bit, Sakura thought to herself as she watched both teams get ready to play. Though going up against a top five ace, Sakura didn’t have all that much optimism about Karasuno winning the game.

---

By the end of their matches, Karasuno really had solidified their stance as the worst team there. They really only won a few of their games, but nothing really notable and they were always won with a hair length of a lead. Really, that still weighed on them all. Then again the only thing they could do was work to get better as individual players and as a team. Eventually they could show all these teams, everyone, that the fallen crows were no longer.

So now it was time to head home. The boys were loading up their things into the bus and were saying their goodbyes to their friends from the other teams. Sakura was just finishing helping Kiyoko carry a few things to the bus when she could feel an overwhelming presence heading in her direction.

Yua came bouncing over to Sakura. Just from looking at her, Sakura could tell that the girl was itching to give her a hug or something. It was surprising that Yua was holding herself back. Maybe she realized that Sakura wasn’t exactly comfortable with it, which Sakura actually appreciated. “I’ll miss you, Hina! Make sure to text every once in a while or I’ll come visit.” The sickly sweet smile on her lips showed that she would completely follow through with visiting Sakura at any point.

Sakura just stared at her, unsure of what to say, “...okay?”

Akaashi then came walking up to them, the same kind expression on his face as when he had pulled Bokuto away from Sakura. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want. My cousin can be a bit aggressive about things like this.”

Sakura blinked, slightly surprised, “She’s your cousin?”

“Yes!” Yua(full name Akaashi Yua) jumped over to hug him into her side, “Keiji is my little cousin.”

Akaashi just nodded slowly, “Not very little, only younger by a few months.” He didn’t seem bothered at all by Yua’s clingy disposition

Yua just sang, “Still younger.”

Sakura took a closer look at them and tried to see if she spotted any similarities between them. While Yua had straight brown hair, Akaashi had slightly curly black hair, they had similar green eyes, the same button-like nose, but that’s where the similarities ended. Then again, Sakura thought, they’re cousins not siblings so they probably wouldn’t look all that similar. Still she never would have thought that the eccentric Yua was related to the mellow Akaashi. Though anything was possible around here, Sakura supposed.

Nothing much else had to be said. Yua just reiterated that she wanted to talk more to Sakura as said girl climbed onto the bus. She crawled into her seat besides Yachi and was more than ready to either read or nap on the way back to their school.

“So how was your first training camp with the team?” Sakura asked as she got herself comfortable in her seat by the window.

Yachi couldn’t help herself but smile brightly at the question. “It was actually really fun! I thought that it would be super scary with all these tall guys around, but it wasn’t that bad.”

Sakura smiled, “Glad you had fun.”

---

Sakura yawned loudly, now standing next to Yachi and Kiyoko as the team gathered around. The sky was nearly pitched black, the only lights around were the dim lamps around the school campus and the twinkling stars. She wasn’t sure how she was going to cope if all of the training camps were like this. Leaving super early and coming back super late. At this point, she would have to force Shōyō to let her leave when she would like.

“All right, everyone.” Takeda said to the group, “Good work.”

“Thank you!”

“So, as I mentioned, tomorrow there will be inspections in the gym, so there’ll be no club activities. You’ve all gone a long time without a break, so please enjoy it.”

The group all dispersed and headed to the club room to finish their last chores before leaving. Endo was babbling about finally getting a break and wanting to go out on a lunch date with Asahi. Which caused the ace to start getting flustered and stuttering himself. Though no one really took notice of them since everyone just wanted to get home.

When Kageyama and Shōyō finally came back down after settling things in the club room, Sakura saw the look in their eyes. Great, she sighed heavily, looks like we’re not leaving anytime soon. Which she was correct about. The two had wanted to keep practicing a bit longer. So she couldn’t leave either.

Walking past the gym, Yachi noticed that the gym lights were still on and there were people inside. Peering inside she saw that it was Shōyō, Kageyama and Sakura still there. “Huh?” She blinked at seeing them setting up the net again, “You guys aren’t going home yet?”

Sakura huffed, “they’re obsessed with their sets. So we’re not leaving any time soon.” It was late. Sakura wanted to get home to get a quick dinner and sleep. Studying wasn’t even on her mind, which was a first, as she was too tired after today. However, now her brother and Kageyama had agreed to practice a little further which meant that Sakura had to stay as well. Curse her brother not wanting her to head home by herself.

Shōyō noticed her in the doorway and smiled, “Yachi-san, if you don’t mind, could you throw us some balls?”

“Huh?” She blinked, “Can I do that?”

Sakura just shook her head, “Don’t ask her to do that, I can do it.” She looked to her friend, “You can go home, Yachi, if you don’t want to stay late like these idiots.”

Yachi just smiled, “Oh, I don’t mind!” She could stay to help those two and also save Sakura’s sanity from deteriorating any further tonight.

“If you’re sure.” Her friend just gave her a thumbs up. The last thing Sakura would want is to have Yachi dragged into staying later just because she felt pressured to by these bozos. She’s used to dealing with them like this, so she wanted to make sure that Yachi knew she could leave.

So they set up pretty quickly for the first set, “Let’s do this!” Shōyō shouted. Yachi was the first one to toss the ball up, and it was more than baffling to see that after Kageyama’s set, Shōyō missed. All of the teens were surprised by it. Though Shōyō was more than ready to keep trying, “One more time!”

So Sakura and Yachi took turns tossing the ball to Kageyama so he could set it for Shōyō. They were trying as hard as they could to get any sort of improvement with this one specific spike. With Shōyō’s eyes being open, Sakura would think that he would be able to hit it a tad bit easier, though after seeing so many missed hits she had to admit that her thought was wrong. Shōyō was distracted by actually seeing the ball. Perhaps he was overthinking where he would actually hit the ball, Sakura thought. The sound of the volleyball hitting the ground in defeat after not even being touched by her brother was going to replay in her head over and over. It was giving her a headache already.

Sakura could tell that they were becoming frustrated. The air was palpable with the tensions between the two boys. At some point, she felt like it was difficult to breathe. She knew that they were having issues with the spike, since they hadn’t been able to make any progress with it the entire twenty minutes that they had been there. There were a few times that she wanted to tell them to just give up right now, since nothing was working, but she held back.

Though constantly pushing themselves to improve and only getting the same results over and over and over again, something was going to give. Which it certainly did.

Kageyama had finally hit his breaking point when he glared at Shōyō with an intensity that Sakura wasn’t sure she had seen from him in a while. He ground his teeth together, “Instead of practicing an attack we’re not sure you’ll ever be able to do, you should be working on the attacks we’ve been using, as well as serving and blocking!”

Shōyō was a bit out of breath as he responded, “But if this quick doesn’t work, there’s no point in me being on the court.”

“And I told you, your will isn’t needed for that quick! I’ll give you tosses that won’t be stopped by blocks!”

“But then I’ll never get better!”

Sakura and Yachi shared a glance with each other, realizing that things were heating up possibly a bit too much. They’ve seen the boys fight before, argue plenty of times, but this just seemed far more emotionally charged than usual.

“The prelims for the spring tournament start next month! They’re right around the corner. What do you think will be an effective weapon for us?” Kageyama grabbed the front of Shōyō’s shirt, pulling him closer as he shouted, “A complete quick or an absolutely useless quick?! Huh?!”

Yachi was watching the exchange, realizing that a palpable anger was taking over the gym, “N-No fighting, guys. Calm down, Kageyama-kun. You, too Hinata…”

“It’s late, let’s just all go home,” Sakura amended, trying to cut through the tension.

Though the boys just ignored them as Shōyō just shouted, “I want to be strong enough to compete by myself!”

Nothing was going to stop the boys from continuing their argument as Kageyama became even angrier. He started throwing Shōyō around, “Your selfishness is going to destroy the team’s balance!” Kageyama shouted before throwing Shōyō onto his back.

Sakura scowled, “Hey!” As much as she agreed with Kageyama about focusing on other skills that Shōyō should improve, there didn’t need to be any fighting like this.

From the sidelines, Sakura and Yachi watched with growing concern. Yachi did her best to try and defuse the situation again with shaky words, “L-Let’s all… Let’s all be friends, o-okay?!”

Nothing was getting through to the pair. It was as if they were in their own little world and neither Sakura or Yachi mattered. Kageyama just gruffly said, “I’ll toss to anyone who’s essential to winning.” There was a brief flashback in Sakura’s mind to the last time that Kageyama said nearly the same thing. It even made her a bit annoyed, but the statement was still understandable in her eyes. They should focus on who and what would help with improvement and success. Though she silenced that part of her mind. She has to be a bit more optimistic about this, she was working to be more hopeful so she couldn’t think like this anymore. Kageyama broke her out of her thoughts, “And I don’t feel any different now.”

That didn’t help the situation at all. Shōyō’s face just became a bit red, anger taking over as he rushed to his feet, “Kageyama!” Despite being small, he obviously was fast and had a surprisingly good grip. He tackled Kageyama around the waist and definitely wasn’t going to let him go.

“Damn it!” Kageyama yelled as he tried to pry Shōyō off of him, “Let go!”

Shōyō was going feral at this point, “I won’t let go until you give me a toss! Give me one!”

Sakura turned to Yachi, “Go find Daichi or someone!”

“R-Right!” So Yachi took off, sprinting out of the gym to find an upperclassman to deal with the troublesome duo. This had gone too far.

Kageyama tried pushing him away, “Don’t be ridiculous!”

“That quick was stopped!” Shōyō growled, “Today, and during the Seijoh match!”

Kageyama became enraged, “Are you trying to say that my toss was at fault?”

“No! That’s not it! It was perfect! It was spot-on! And yet, it was stopped! If I don’t get better, it’s not going to work on stronger opponents, either!”

“You idiots, let go!” Sakura shouted, “You’ll hurt each other!”

She tried her best to put herself in between the boys, not wanting them to continue this. While they weren’t exactly fighting, as in throwing punches or something a bit more violent, they still could hurt each other. The last thing that either of them need is to get hurt. They run the risk of not being allowed to play due to injury.

Just as Sakura was able to pull the two apart just a little bit, she was hit upside the head. She certainly isn’t someone who cowards away at just a little bit of pain, but the hit to the side of her head gave her pause. She squealed a bit before tripping over her own feet and holding her head in pain. At her exclamation, the two boys stopped to see what they had done. Well, more like what Shōyō had done. After all, he was the one to have struck her accidentally.

Her chocolate eyes watered slightly as she tried to regain her composure. A mortified expression washed over Shōyō’s face as he realized who he just hit. He had flailed his arms around to make sure that he kept a good hold on Kageyama and didn’t even think that he might hurt someone else. Seeing the tears in the corners of her eyes, Shōyō’s heart suddenly seized as his world stopped. He hit his sister. He hurt his sister.

“Hey!” Tanaka then shouted while sprinting into the gym, “Stop it, you two!” Though the scene of Sakura holding her head on the ground with a harsh grimace on her face caused Tanaka to pause. With seeing their photographer on the ground he certainly became far more upset. So it didn’t take him much thought to throw a punch at both the boys.

It was a bit of a blur to Shōyō. After getting a good hit from Tanaka, and told to clean up the gym, he noticed that Sakura was gone. As much as it made him panic a bit, he wasn’t sure if he should face her. Though he was more than prepared to rush right to her to make sure that she was okay and apologize.

The twins had roughhoused with each other before, it comes with the territory of being siblings. Especially with twins. However, they never had fights that were physical or actively tried to hurt each other. Accidents happen, sure. Though this was just a bit different. Sakura was just trying to stop them from hurting each other, and in return she got hurt herself. While it wasn’t his intention, Shōyō still harmed her.

Tanaka told them off, which caused both boys to feel quite embarrassed with themselves. After all, Tanaka isn’t usually one to tell someone off for any kind of delinquency. They did start to feel a bit embarrassed about what they had done, though they kept that to themselves. Kageyama made sure to clean up as quickly as he could once he got a bandaid on his face after Tanaka’s punch. He left silently, not willing to look anyone in the eyes. Shōyō did the same, however, he offered to walk Yachi to where she needed to go. If he was going to do one thing right tonight, it was going to make sure that his friend, and Sakura’s best friend, was getting home safely.

They didn’t say all too much during their entire walk. There was a silence that neither were certain if they should break it. There were plenty of things that could have been said, but was it really the time to bring it up?

“I-I’m just going to the bus stop over there, so I’m fine here.” Yachi finally broke the silence between them, “Thanks.”

Shōyō turned back to her and said, “I’m sorry, Yachi-san.”

“N-No worries!” She waved her hands, “It’s fine… I’m totally fine.” Though she had to wonder how Shōyō was or even Sakura. After tonight, she didn’t know what how the twins were going to

“In my first and final tournament in junior high, we were destroyed by Kageyama.” Shōyō started to explain, “I vowed revenge when I got into high school and of course I ran right into him. He was even worse than I could have imagined and we went through a lot, but once we started playing our matches, I felt like we understood each other.” He reminisced about his dear rival, “It wasn’t that he was the first friend I’d made. He was a partner.” His statement brought tears to her eyes, realizing just how Shōyō saw his relationship with Kageyama. Shōyō continued, his voice even becoming a little wobbly, “Sakura has been my biggest supporter, ever since we were little. I want to make her proud, and I push myself for her most times. I want to be the big brother she can never doubt or be ashamed of. I think I might have done that tonight.” He looked to Yachi, noticing that she was swept up in his emotions as well. He did his best to smile, “Every moment she cheered for me, despite her doubt in my situations, I have cherished so much. I hate that I hurt her now.” He let that hang in the air for a moment before climbing onto his bike completely. “Well, see you later.”

“Yeah…”

So he rode away, leaving Yachi in tears over how he viewed his relationships with Kageyama and Sakura. Even he was tearing up quite a bit at this point. All the way home, his mind was going in circles with how he was going to apologize to her and his fight with Kageyama. Now there were two messes that he made he would have to amend. By the time Shōyō got home, he felt extremely anxious about seeing Sakura. He loves his sister, and he hates himself for what he did, accident or not.

When he came inside, everything was generally quiet. His mother greeted him when he came in and he could hear his baby sister, Natsu, laughing about something in her own room. Shōyō walked into his shared bedroom to find that Sakura wasn’t even there. Her school book was sitting on her desk, but Sakura was nowhere to be found. His heart clenched slightly as he threw his things on his bed before tumbling out of his room. He came back out into the family room where his mother was sitting on the couch, watching his frantic moments.

She raised an eyebrow at him, “Everything alright, Shōyō?”

“Where’s Sakura?”

“She’s in Natsu’s room,” his mother explained, earning a sigh of relief for Shōyō. He thought that maybe she didn’t come home after not wanting to see him for what he did. If that were the case, he was certain he didn’t know what he would do. His mother appraised him for a moment before saying, “She said that she wanted to sleep in there for the night. Natsu was more than happy with that but it made me wonder why.”

From the inquisitive gaze of his mother, there wasn’t much that he could hide from her. So it was either tell her what happened or not. Though his mother will find out things eventually so why not just tell her now. He stuttered out, “I-I hurt her by accident.”

“Sakura did seem a bit upset when she came home, you better apologize then.”

“Yeah,” he gazed down the hall to where he could hear his sisters happily playing some sort of game together. “I will.”

---

“What?” Disbelief colored Asahi’s voice as he stared at Tanaka, “They got into a fight?”

Tanaka had just finished explaining the fight he had to break up last night between Shōyō and Kageyama. He retold his heroic actions of stopping the boys from fighting in front of the girls and then doing his best to tell them off for it. The group of boys were standing on a landing of a staircase during their break time. Tanaka had made sure to go find the third-years to explain everything to them as soon as he could. Since they didn’t have practice in the morning, as today is their day off, he had to wait until he could find them during school hours.

Suga shook his head, “There’s been tension between them ever since the training camp.”

“I wonder if they’re gonna be okay, considering the spring tournament’s coming up.” Tanaka wondered out loud. Which was something important to consider. If their freak duo didn’t work well together on the team, what would happen to their chances to get into nationals?

Endo tapped his chin while humming, “And you said that Sakura was hurt? Man this is not the kind of drama I was hoping for with those two.” The last thing that he would want to hear about is someone getting hurt. Especially if they were someone that might be considered a friend to him. A fight is one thing, a fight between two people that he knows well enough is another thing. Especially when they get hurt. Violence is not usually the answer, in Endo’s opinion. Sometimes, it could be justified, but a silly dispute over a volleyball play not working wasn’t the time for it.

Asahi knocked him in the shoulder, “Don’t just focus on the drama, Joji.” The blond just raised his hands in surrender, backing down for the time being.

Leaning out the window, Diachi asked, “But this isn’t the first time they’ve ever fought, is it?”

The group considered it, knowing that the boys did have their little fights and arguments every once in a while. The two would make everything a competition and had little spats with each other. Though that’s just how their friendship was, everyone thought. This time it just seemed like it went a little overboard. Suga pursed his lips, “Come to think of it, they were fighting even before they turned in their membership applications.”

“What? Seriously?” Asahi asked.

Endo chuckled at the reminder, “Oh you should have been there, that day was a bit hectic.”

“The first day, they blew off the Vice Principal’s toupee,” Suga said, stopping himself from laughing at the reminder, “and they even got shut out of the gym by Daichi. It was ridiculous.”

Tanaka shrugged his shoulders, “Well, that also means they’ve gotten over those things, too…”

“Right?” Daichi straightened up, “So I think we should just believe in them and wait.” He had faith in his teammates, even Shōyō and Kageyama, so he hoped that they could work this out.

Endo raised his hand, “is anyone else just wondering where Sakura is, or is it just me?”

They all shared a look, already knowing that they all were in fact thinking about that. Sakura could be quite a scary girl, but they still had a concern about how she was hurt in some way during the boy’s fight. Not only that, but it was a fight with her brother. That certainly would cause plenty of issues between the twins.

“I am a bit worried about her,” Suga said, his voice starting to bleed with concern, “how bad did you say she was hurt?”

“She left pretty quickly,” Tanaka sighed, “I didn’t get to ask her, but she was crying a bit.”

The picture of the usually bored, annoyed, judgemental Sakura crying popped into all of their heads. It seemed nearly impossible, but everyone is capable of crying, right? Still it didn’t sit right with any of them to hear that.

“Should we try to find her and see if she’s okay?” Asahi asked urgently. Thinking that it was a good idea. All he wanted to do was check in on her, after all.

“We’ll ask when we see her.” Daichi said, already seeing the look in their eyes. “Something tells me that she wouldn’t appreciate us all trying to look for her.” Sakura was not the type to talk about her emotions, especially with anyone on the team. So he didn’t think that she would appreciate having a group of boys sending out a search party to see how she feels.

Endo pursed his lips with a sigh, “Maybe.”

---

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Soooooo...

Looks like there's a bit of an issue between the twins now. I definitly know the direction I'm going to take this. Thankfully, these next few chapters I have had them outlined for months now, so I already have some of it written and planned out to a T! This'll be fun to do.

Well, it now has been revealed that Akaashi Yua is Akaashi Keiji's slightly older cousin! There wasn't necessarily a real reason as to why I never mentioned who her cousin is. I think when I first wrote her in I just forgot to write in her full name. Then I was debating just who I wanted her cousin to be. The first incarnation I had of her was Oikawa Yua, but I figured I had enough characters having some sort of connection to him. So I didn't see it as a good idea to give Oikawa a cousin. Akaashi seemed like a good idea, we'll have to wait and see how this pans out lol

I'm currently doing a Black Clover marathon since I have to catch up to like episode 102. It's definietly an interesting show, I quite like it. I haven't really started watching a new anime for me in a while, so this one is quite refreshing. Since I usually just rewatch Haikyuu or Saiki K over and over again lmao

Well, let me know what you thought of that chapter! Until the next one, my friends~

#haikyu oc #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyu #haikyuu!!#haikyū!!#ocs #fanfiction #multiple ocs #fanfic #oc #female oc #female!oc #male oc #male!oc #anime fanfiction #fanfiction writer #fanfics

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moonchild-things · 7 months

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Chapter Thirty-Five: Center Ace

Word Count: 6540

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A/n: A new chapter done ^-^ Apologies for it taking so long, my job has finally gotten busy with work for me to do LET'S GOOO! Now I'm not just bored at a desk like I used to be lol It finally feels like my full time job is actually a full time job, if that makes sense. I want to feel like I'm working for my pay and not just sitting around so this is perfect. I've also just been playing a lot with some friends of mine on stream and stuff and it's so fun! I've become obsessed with Baldur's Gate, I think I've said that before but you don't understand, I need Karlach O.O Anyway, hope you like the chapter!

---

SO MAYBE THEY SHOULD HAVE PRAYED A little harder. While Nishinoya and Tanaka were barely able to scrape by with their grades, Shōyō and Kageyama weren’t as lucky. So it seemed like they would have to stay behind and take their supplementary classes. Sakura was baffled at the fact that her brother actually would have passed his exam if it wasn’t for the fact that he filled his answers in off by one. That was certainly disheartening. Her brother and Kageyama had actually put in a lot of work to do well. Sakura could do nothing but applaud them for their effort and encourage them to do better next time. Plus she knew that they were going to rush to get here. Apparently, Tanaka had offered his older sister as a ride up to the camp. Sakura was surprised to learn he had an older sister and that she would agree to that, which she somewhat doubted.

Though right now she just had to focus on waking herself up after the decently long car ride. She had taken a short nap on the way over to make up for waking up early, which Yachi had questioned her about. “Why are you coming with us to the practice camp?” Yachi had asked her before Sakura fell asleep. She just blinked slowly, about to answer with something along the lines of “I can for the photography club” but Tsukishima beat her to answering with a snide remark. “She’s her brother’s shadow, wherever he has to be, she’s there.”

It’s safe to say that just hearing his voice put her in a bit of a mood. Though she made sure to keep him from knowing that. However, now they had finally gotten to the Tokyo school, energized enough to start their first long day of practicing. Some of Nekoma’s players were waiting outside as Karasuno arrived, really the last team to show up today. Jumping out of the bus, Nishinoya and Tanaka stared up at the tower in front of them with large eyes. “Could that be…” The two screamed, “The Skytree?!”

Kai Nobuyuki, wing-spiker and vice-captain of Nekoma, just shook his head, “No, that’s just a transmission tower.” The hyena laugh that came from Kuroo seemed to be warranted with how the two Karasuno dummies kept thinking that it was the skytree.

The two dummies just screamed, “Here we are, Tokyo!”

With tired eyes, after quite the ride here, Asahi blinked, “The scenery’s not that different from Miyagi.”

“Well,” Suga shrugged, “we’re in the suburbs.”

Endo climbed off the bus, “It would be nice to go into the city. I know the best cafe for something to eat.” He was slightly dejected, hoping to have been able to go out on the city if they were close enough. Endo loves going on little trips to the city, especially with friends. He’s definitely always in for a fun time of hanging out, shopping, and eating when they go. Still, the camp will be fine.

Behind them, Tanaka and Nishinoya were pushing poor Tsukishima towards the school shouting, “Walk faster!” A sight that Sakura was more than happy with seeing, since it annoyed him and she wanted to see him suffering somewhat.

“Actually, hey…” Kuroo glanced around, noticing something, and leaned over to the Karasuno captain, “Aren’t we missing some people?”

Daichi scratched the back of his head, “Actually…”

Sakura passed them with her own yawn, “The idiots didn’t pass their exams.” She just hoped that they didn’t rush through the exams this time to fail again. They would be going as fast as they could so they could leave as soon as possible to get here. The last thing that they need is to fail the supplementary exams as well, and add onto their problems. Though she has a feeling that they were just nervous the first time they took their exams, so this time they should be fine. After all, she’s been working on being a bit more of an optimist than a realist, so she’ll have some optimism about their exams.

Kuroo nodded his head, the group now walking into the school, “So the power duo’s taking some supplementary exams right now?”

“Yeah… But, well…”

“Th… Th…” They looked to see that it was Yamamoto who was gaping at the newest addition to the Karasuno team. He fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face, “There’re three girls now! Now they’ve got a pretty one, a gorgeous one, and a cute one!”

Sakura blinked, disturbed by the Tanaka-clone’s behavior. She certainly hadn’t missed seeing Yamamoto especially now that he was going to bother them for Yachi being around now.

Tanaka made it a point to slide on over. With his arms stretched out, an air of superiority surrounding him, “Do you see, Tora? This is what Karasuno’s true ability looks like.”

Yamamoto cringed under the blinding radiance coming off of them.“So bright!”

“OI! Don’t pester them!” Yua called out to Yamamoto, watching the strange interactions, “You’re being creepy!” She walked up to Yamamoto and tried to get him to stand back up, since it was strange that he was on the ground crying. Though she did find it slightly amusing that Tanaka was standing over Yamamoto triumphantly as he cried in defeat.

Though Yamamoto continued to cry, “Two… managers.”

Yua huffed, “Hey, we’ve got a manager too, me!”

“But you’re not cute or gorgeous,” Yamamoto continued to sob in despair.

Yua took a moment to process what he said before her eyes twitched, “What did you just say?” It was safe to say that Yua had quite an intense scolding for Yamamoto. He really needs to learn to either keep his mouth shut or not say things about her like that. Though after two years of knowing each other, Yua was unsure if he would ever learn.

“Let’s go,” Kiyoko was barely affected at seeing the display of patheticness before just ushering Yachi away.

Yachi nodded her head nervously, “R-Right…” It was all a bit overwhelming, being around all these new guys, and she’s only seen a few of them. Sakura had made sure to warn her that quite a few of them are quite over dramatic and energetic, so Yachi had an idea of what to expect. She already knew this week was going to be quite loud.

“How long do you think it’ll take for the troublesome duo to get here?” Endo asked as he and Asahi walked side-by-side towards the school.

Asahi shrugged his shoulders, “Soon, probably. They were determined to get here as fast as possible.”

“Hm,” Endo eyed him with pursed lips. A smirk slowly grew on his face, “Let’s make a bet. I say that they won’t make it in time for a game. Safe to say you think they will.” Asahi nodded his head, “So If I win, we’ll go out to eat this saturday. What do you want if you win?”

“Out to e-eat?” It wasn’t something completely foreign for the two to go out to eat. They used to do it a lot when they weren't so busy with school or club stuff. Either they would go out with others or just the two of them, nothing too out of the ordinary. However, maybe it was an accumulation of some mounting feelings and revelations that made it feel a bit more… intense to Asahi. At least, he wasn’t sure how to explain it at the moment. He didn’t necessarily know why, but it was certainly making him nervous.

Oblivious to the fact that his best friend was now over thinking things, Endo asked, “You want the same? Hm?” He finally saw how dumbfounded Asahi looked with added pink cheeks. Endo tilted his head in confusion, “Are you okay, Asahi?”

Asahi jumped out of his thoughts, “Y-Y-Yes.”

He just blinked at the way that Asahi became a bit jumpy, “All right. So whoever wins gets to pick the place to eat, sounds good.”

Kuroo and Kai continued to lead Karasuno into the gym. There were already quite a few teams who were there going about their practices. The scuffing of sneakers and the bouncing of balls echoed in the gym as they all took in their opponents. “All right. When you’re all ready, come to the gym.” Kuroo said, “The other guys are already there.”

There was a hardened expression on the majority of the Karasuno crow’s faces. They were ready to take on the challenge of taking on these teams. Daichi nodded his head, “Yeah.”

They all then had to get ready. The boys changed into their practice clothes and squared away their belongings in the classroom they were sleeping in. Sakura stuck to staying around Yachi for the most part, helping her out with anything that she might need to do. After all, she didn’t really have anything else to do at the moment and she wasn’t sure what to do. They were introduced to the other managers of the teams, which meant that Sakura had to deal with talking to Yua again.

“Hina! So good to see you again!” Had Sakura not jumped out of the way, she would have been swept off her feet by the Nekoma manager. The managers had come together to help each other set up their places to sleep. All of them had been nice and greeted the Karasuno girls happily, though most of them were quick since they all had to be on the court with their own teams. The only one who seemed to make it a priority to have a conversation with the newcomers was Yua. Her sparkly green eyes were bright with happiness that Sakura was there as well as all her other friends. After all, it’s not all the time that she gets to hang out with other managers. She then spotted the blonde girl next to Sakura and bowed to her, “I apologize for Yamamoto’s behavior earlier, he really doesn’t know how to act around girls.”

Yachi nodded, “I-It’s okay.”

“Honestly, he says he’s jealous of any team that has a female manager when I’m his manager!” Yua huffed and looked at the younger girls, “I’m cute too, right? Gorgeous? Adorable?” She shook her head before anyone could give her an answer, “Don’t answer I already know I am. Anyway, it’s lovely to meet you, I’m Yua.”

Yachi’s eyes were wide at the energetic nature of this older girl. Though after being around the Karasuno volleyball team, she’s used to some eccentric personalities. Yachi just smiled, “Nice to meet you too, I’m Yachi Hitoka.”

Yua cooed, “Oh, Yamamoto was right, you are cute!”

“Don’t bother my friend,” Sakura grumbled, pulling Yachi away from Yua’s clutches.

The brown-haired girl gasped, “You admit you have friends!” Since she last saw Sakura, she hadn’t talked much to her. Yua knew that Kenma and her had become friendly and would text every once in a while. She may have tired to get Sakura’s number from him, since she certainly wanted to try being friendly with her as well, but Kenma kept that information to himself. After all, he found it kind of creepy if he just gave her Sakura’s number. Though as far as Yua could tell, Sakura wasn’t one for having actual friends. Oh, she found it so heartwarming to see that Sakura does have friends.

Sakura just deadpanned, “Don’t you have managerial things to do?”

“Oh, you're right! See you girls on the court!” With that, Yua skipped away to go do her managerial duties. Yachi blinked at Sakura, definitely not as prepared as she thought to meet some of these people.

After a while, Karsuno finished putting their belongings away and became acquainted with a few others. Now it was time for the boys to get ready to join in on the practicing. “Once we’re done with our warm ups,” Kuroo explained to Daichi, “we’ll regroup and the teams will play each other in rotation.” There were four other teams that were practicing around the gym. Most of them Karasuno had never come close to competing against in the past. Though Karasuno was definitely not going to waste this perfect opportunity to learn how to play against a variety of different play styles or meet these other players.

“Right.”

Kuroo continued, “The team who loses their set will do a penalty lap of diving drills around the court.”

“Diving?” Yachi asked with a tilt of her head.

Kiyoko answered her, “They’re going to act like they’re diving to receive a ball. They’ll slide across the floor on their chests, with their arms stretched out in front of them.”

Surveying the other teams, Sugawara noticed someone unfamiliar from the cat’s team. He asked Asahi and Endo next to him, “Hey, was that guy with Nekoma the last time we had a practice match with them?” The trio looked over to see that there was a gray-haired, green eyed boy staring directly at them. He definitely wasn’t with Nekoma when they had their practice match together.

Asahi jumped slightly at the piercing gaze, “The one who’s staring hard at us?”

Suga nodded, “Yeah.”

“No… I don’t think so.”

“Hey! Green eyes!” Endo called over, causing the gray-haired boy to focus on him now. He stuck his tongue out at the boy, “take a picture, it'll last longer!”

Lev Haiba, the half-russian middle blocker for Nekoma, just tilted his head slightly at Endo’s shout. He wasn’t flustered over the fact of getting caught staring at them, he just turned back to continue practicing. The trio gaped at just how tall he actually was, even if he slouched just slightly. He definitely was going to be a bit of a difficult opponent. Though that just meant they were going to hopefully learn and evolve as a team at this camp, right?

---

The shiny idea that Karasuno was a powerhouse school was dampened slightly. While they weren’t some mediocre team or the fallen crows they used to be, they were still suffering through the penalty over and over again. They just couldn’t get a hand up against their opponents, which made sense. Karasuno sure has made a name for themselves in Miyagi, but some of these teams from Tokyo were on a bit of a different level. A level that they would have to rise to soon.

Another loss was racked against Karasuno, this time at the hands of Fukurōdani. When the whistle blew signifying the end of the game, the score was 16-25. On the sidelines, Ukai, Takeda, Kiyoko, Yachi, and Sakura stood up from their seats with solemn expressions. “As we suspected,” Takeda grumbled, “they’re very strong.”

Ukai nodded, “Yeah.”

The boys started their lap of diving, which made Sakura cringe. She never would think of having to dive onto the floor like that. Personally, she thinks that it would be painful. Another reason why she would never be on any sports team. She just shook her head, why some people put themselves through this baffles me, she thought to herself. As much as she thought that being athletic was impressive, some of the training that they put themselves through just seemed masochistic to her. In her opinion, she’s more of a sadist than anything.

During most of the games, Sakura had been helping Yachi with understanding some nuances of volleyball, to make her job as manager easier. Yachi, the scholar that she is, had already done quite a bit of studying on her own. However, she could never go wrong with asking questions or getting insight from someone who watches volleyball almost daily. Sakura explained as much as she could, the rules, positions, terminology, whatever Yachi wanted to know, Sakura would explain it. It felt nice to at least do something productive while sitting there. She didn’t see a point in doing her job as a photographer at the moment, so being somewhat useful to Yachi was fulfilling enough.

“It’s not that we’re not on top of it.” Ukai grunted, “This is just what it means to be a team that competes in the nationals.”

They then heard the shouts from the game besides them and watched as quite the intense serve. A serve that was not able to be returned at all. Yachi jumped in worry, “Their arms are gonna snap off!” The power behind those serves would certainly tear the limbs off of anyone, in her opinion.

“Everyone on that team is a very strong server,” Kiyoko said.

Yachi perked up, “The manager from Ubugawa mentioned that. They put their all into their serves.”

Kiyoko nodded, “Yeah. I think it’s a bit harsh how they have to do a hundred serves at the end of their practices. Ubugawa High School’s serves are its ultimate attack.”

Ukai smirked, “But once we’re able to return that serve…”

They watched as all of the boys on the court continued to play. The team playing against Ubugawa all started to run up to the net, confusing anyone on just who was going to end up spiking the ball. “Whoa! They’re all moving at once?!” Yachi marveled.

“That was an amazing combo,” Kiyoko marveled.

“Th-There are people jumping up everywhere.” Yachi said, taking a moment to try and comprehend it, “I can’t tell who’s going to hit it.”

Sakura tapped her chin in thought, “it creates the perfect amount of confusion for their opponents.” Maybe something that Karasuno should attempt to do, she could only hope that they could actually do it.

Kiyoko nodded her head, “They are indeed the masters of using combos. Shinzen High School.”

The group turned around to stare at the game behind them. Takeda pursed his lips, “And then we have our destined rivals…” They turned to watch the cats as they were playing against Fukurodani.

Ukai’s lips turned up just a little bit, “Those are some excellent receives, as usual.” Even if they were their eternal rivals, doesn’t mean he can’t be impressed with how disciplined they were with their receives.

“The school that’s known to pick up the ball, connect, and wait for the perfect chance to counter attack: Nekoma High School.”

They all were enraptured by the game between Nekoma and their opponent. Ukai blinked, “And…”

The white and black haired ace of Fukurōdani shouted out loudly, “Akaashi!”

“Bokuto-san!” His setter responded in kind as he set the ball for him. Just from watching from the sidelines, everyone could feel just how powerful the teen was as he run and jumped up towards the ball.

“Just like Ushiwaka, he’s one of the top five aces heading to the nationals,” Takeda explained. They watched as his spike broke through the Nekoma’s blockers, Kenma and Lev, super easily. It even caused Sakura to cringe a bit at the sight of it. It definitely was an extremely powerful hit.

“Damn it, Kenma!” Coach Nekomata bristled on the sidelines, “Don’t run away!”

Kenma just shrugged his shoulders, “But my arms are gonna break off…”

“They won’t!”

“All right!” The ace shouted, “I’m so awesome! Hey, hey hey!”

“Why are volleyball idiots so loud,” Sakura wondered, her ears certainly wishing for a break after so much yelling.

Meanwhile, the Nekoma manager was bouncing on the balls of her feet, “Good job, Bo-kun!” Her eyes were wide in admiration and wonder, as any hit by Bokuto always impressed her. No matter how many times she’s seen it.

Kuroo rounded on her with a ticked off expression, “Don’t cheer for the enemy, Yua!”

Yua whined, “But that was so cool!”

“Thank you, nee-san!” The owl on the other team shouted in thanks with an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Back over with Karasuno, those on the sidelines were taking in the power of Fukurōdani. It was one thing to hear about such a good player like a top five ace, it was another to see it in person. “We’re very thankful…” Takeda started, “a school whose powerful team is led by a powerful ace to compete in the nationals: Fukurōdani Academy. To be able to take on such amazing teams…”

“Yeah. However, this is no time to be scared of how strong our opponents are.” Ukai grunted, “We have to be on the same level as these guys.”

Sakura clicked her tongue, “Let’s just hope that they can rise to the challenge.”

---

Karasuno had to do yet another penalty lap. At this point, they should just expect having to do it once they start a game. They really were trying their best, but they just couldn’t get the edge over the other teams. Maybe that was because these teams have been playing at a higher skill set than Karasuno for longer, or that Karasuno still had plenty of kinks to work out. Either way, Karasuno was missing something to give themselves that push to triumph over the other teams.

While it wasn’t necessarily her job, and she should probably let Kiyoko and Yachi do it, Sakura took some notes. Since she didn’t really see a point to taking photos at the moment, especially with Karasuno’s performance. Though she was just making small notes that she deemed important. Mainly just weaknesses that she noticed were quite blatantly obvious. Such as one specific player having a bit of difficulty blocking on one side of the net, a player having shotty footwork, or a player’s receives being less than stellar. She did it for every team.

Sakura has always been analytical, to a fault. Constantly taking mental notes about herself and others caused her to be critical about some little things as time. Though she does try her best not to be judgemental. Either way, she knew that she was going to at least share these notes when needed. They could do what they want with that information once she told them. Though she wasn’t going to tell them what to do with it. She knew that they would use whatever they could to their advantage. She just hoped that it worked.

“How many times have they lost already?” A boy from another team asked.

Another shrugged his shoulders, “They’re not exactly weak, just sorta… mediocre.”

“Who are the first-years that Nekoma had such a hard time with?” A third asked, “Maybe Nekoma was exaggerating.”

From a little further away, Yachi bristled at their comments. She didn’t really like the fact that they were undermining Karasuno as a team. She’s only just officially joined the team, but she’s certainly grown attached. Yachi definitely didn’t like any bad mouthing of her friends.

Kiyoko just giggled lightly, “Calm down, Hitoka-cahn. There, there. It’s okay.” She found it cute that Yachi was defensive of the team already.

Sakura patted Yachi on the shoulder, “Just

The door to the gym then opened up. A woman with short blonde hair, and quite the badass appearance was standing in the doorway. She was panting, as if she just ran quite the marathon to get there. “Hey, they’re still at it. We totally made it. Not bad at all.”

Everyone in the gym looked to see who had come in and it was Karasuno who was more than happy with their arrival. Nishinoya’s eyes sparkled, “Ne-san!”

“Wait, that’s your sister?” Asahi asked, not really seeing the resemblance. He knew he had three older sisters, but she didn’t look like a Nishinoya, to be honest.

Nishinoya shook his head, “No, she’s Ryu’s sister.”

Suga, quite tired after all the games, puffed out, “Now that you mention it, they do look alike.”

Endo was suddenly quite enraptured with her appearance, “now she looks cool.” He just felt like he had to do his best to befriend her, she just seemed like such fun.

Tanaka looked up at the group as they walked into the gym, “Glad they made it in one piece.” He could imagine what the drive over was like, since he’s been subjected to his sister’s driving before. So the fact that they made it relatively safely was more than impressive.

Everyone else was looking at the new arrivals, some questioningly others enthusiastic. After all, the mysterious Karasuno duo were finally here to play with their team.

“So the stars are showing up fashionably late?” Kuroo smirked, “How annoying.”

Sakura just rolled her eyes and grumbled to the two managers, “they really just like being dramatic.” That caused them all to giggle just a bit.

So the troublesome duo were subbed into the game as quickly as possible. They were up against Shinzen and were giving the team a run for their money. While the majority of the team was tired after playing so many games and going through so many penalty laps, they were at least a bit rejuvenated by having the freak duo back to play. By the end, Karasuno actually won! The score was close, with Karasuno barely getting the edge with a score of 25-21. Though the boys were grateful that for once they didn’t have to do a penalty lap.

Shōyō and Kageyama seemed to be thinking quite high and mighty of themselves. After all, they came back from their tests and gave their team the edge that they needed to win a game. So maybe their egos were a bit inflated. So they stood on the court, catching their breath and thinking that they looked quite badass after the game.

Tanaka slid in as he said menacingly, “Don’t act all cool, you tardy test flunkers.” That caused the pair to deflate just a bit. They might have been a big help for the team, but they

Karasuno marched their way off the court. Daichi took a deep breath, “So in our ninth set, we finally got a win. We finally don’t have to do the diving drills.” It was such a relief.

Nishinoya shouted, “I’m starving!”

“You usually are,” Endo commented, handing him a water bottle as they all came over. Nishinoya didn’t even refute it, since it was true.

Now that they could rest, the boys were watching the other teams play. “Looks like it’s Ubugawa High versus Nekoma over there.” Tanaka commented, “Given the time, that might be the last game today.”

“Yeah.” Nishinoya nodded.

Sakura walked over to her brother, silently handing him a bottle as he was deep in his thoughts. He barely even registered that she was there, which she knew was because he was thinking about the game. Not that she minded, she knew she got the same way when she was thinking about school or photography. Though the shouts of the Nekoma game drew the twins' attention back to the court to witness what was happening. The main thing that grabbed their attention was the long limbed, gray-haired, green eyed, player for Nekoma. The new addition that was somewhat of a mystery to them all. They watched as he swung his hand back like a whip to spike the ball over the net. Quite intimidating, if they were all to be honest.

Asahi breathed out, “Wow…”

“That #11…” Suga started, “At first glance, it’s hard to tell because he’s slouching, but he’s pretty big. He might be over 190 cm.”

Asahi marveled, “His arms and legs are so long.”

“Who the heck is he?”

“Yua was telling me a bit about him.” Sakura commented, noticing that her brother was watching the newest addition to the Nekoma roster. “That’s Lev Haiba.”

Sakura didn’t get all too much information about the boy from her. Just that he was annoyingly tall and relatively new to volleyball. Not really much to work off of if Sakura was honest. Yua just wanted to get to know her more than talk about her team. She wasn’t necessarily in the mood with dealing with Yua and her aggressive manner of making friends, so Sakura had retreated back to her bench after getting a bit of information about Lev.

Shoyo spun around to her, “did she say anything else about him!?”

Sakura shook her head, “no. I couldn’t tell if Yua just wanted to talk with me about being friends again, or was hiding things about Lev to keep his play style a mystery to me. It was infuriating.”

---

“Your quick was as amazing as ever, Shōyō.” Ikuoka exclaimed as he, Shōyō, Kenma, and Sakura was sitting around in the room that Nekoma was spending the night in. Technically, Sakura wasn’t allowed there, but she was mistaken for her brother and got to hang out with them. After all, it meant that she could avoid the ever persistent Yua. That girl seemed adamant about becoming great friends with Sakura and learning everything she could. Sakura wasn’t sure why, but Yua was doing the same thing to Kiyoko and Yachi. Sakura just figured Yua was a strange girl. She would much rather hear Inuoka and Shōyō’s excited babbling while watching Kenma play his game from over his shoulder.

“But at this rate, nothing’s going to change,” Shōyō whined. He came here to get stronger, and he wasn’t doing all that much improvement just yet. A thought then struck him, “Hey! Who the heck is that middle blocker?”

Sakura perked up a bit at her brother’s question, also interested in knowing more about Lev. While she had questioned Yua a bit about the new addition to her team, the older girl wasn’t all too descriptive about how Lev played or anything like that. Perhaps she wanted to keep that a secret from Sakura so Karasuno wouldn’t have an upper hand over Lev when they played against each other.

Barely looking up from his game, Kenma answered, “Oh… That’s the first-year, Haiba Lev. He’s half Russian and half Japanese.”

Shōyō’s eyes sparkled, “H-Half?! So cool! Just like Endo-senpai! L-Le…”

“Lev,” Kenma said, he still had yet to look up from his game, “What does it mean in Russian again? Tiger?”

Inuoka brightened, “It means lion! Yup, lion!”

Sakura tilted her head, “He wasn’t with the team the last time you played Karasuno.”

“Yeah. Lev started volleyball in high school.” Kenma said, finally pulling his attention away from his game to explain properly. “When we went to Karasuno around Golden Week, he still hadn’t played very much, and only the regular members went.”

It seemed to amaze Shōyō that such a new player was able to hae the skill that Lev has, “He just started and he can play like that?!”

“Yeah. And when we were paired together, it was really difficult.” Kenma explained, “No matter how hard I tried, our timing was off. I’m used to it now, though.”

Shōyō blinked in thought, “Huh…”

“Kenma-san couldn’t stop sighing,” Inuoka laughed. Sakura could certainly picture that, since she’s seen Kenma do it so often.

Shōyō blinked, “I guess there are times when even you can’t read people, Kenma.”

Now looking back at his game, Kenma continued, “Lev is just too special. Right now, he’s mostly working with his innate physical abilities and instincts, and his height.”

It irked Shōyō at the reminder, “Yeah, his height totally isn’t fair! I want some!”

“He’s been blessed with too much!” Inuoka exclaimed, “But I’m not gonna lose!”

Sakura cringed slightly at their loud shouts. She was starting to get tired and their yelling was not helping her. Truthfully, she was only hanging around with this trio so she could see Kenma. There was just a click between the two quiet teens when they met that first time. Sakura liked the fact that Kenma was mellow and not that loud to be around, and Kenma liked how she was

“Well, he’s a powerful asset, honest, and not a bad guy.” Kenma shrugged his shoulders, “Though he’s too honest at times. Oh, but his passing basics are still completely bad. He’s worse than you, Shōyō.” Said boy blanched at his comment, “His serves are worse than yours, too, Shōyō.”

“Am I the guideline of what’s bad or not, Kenma?” Shōyō raged.

Sakura just raised an eyebrow at him, “But you are bad at those things.” Shōyō just deflated even further at her words. Though it’s not like he could really argue against them. He really does need to work on most of his skills other than spiking. Looking at the time, Sakura figured with the boys coming back to their rooms to sleep, she should do the same. “I’m heading to bed,” Sakura said, standing up, she then grumbled under her breath, “Yua might start searching for me.” The last thing that she needed was the Nekoma manager starting a search party to get Sakura to bed. It would just be more of an issue than it needed to be.

So the boys all said their goodbyes to her, even Yaku, Kai, and Fukunaga who had just come back from the bathroom. So Sakura started moseying her way down the darkened corridors of the school. Some might think that it was creepy to

Just as she was turning the corner, she nearly got run over by a gray-haired ace. They caught themselves before either could fall, more like Sakura since she was nearly pushed over, and collected themself. Once Sakura collected her barings she had to look up to see who she had run into.

The boy finally registered who he had run into and exclaimed, “You looked so cool while doing those jumps!” He shouted, his golden eyes sparkling, “I can’t wait to play against you at some point, your jumps are crazy cool!”

It took Sakura a moment to collect herself at his sudden appearance. He was almost like an excited puppy as he stared down at the younger girl. It was Fukurōdani’s top five ace, from what she remembers. Getting a closer look at him, she could see why he was considered a top ace. He was tall, looked strong, and had the gleam in his eyes that screamed he lived for volleyball.

Sakura shook her head, “I don’t play volleyball.”

The boy blinked at her in confusion, he tilted his head like a confused owl, “But you were on the court today…?”

“No, that was my brother. We’re twins.”

He nodded his head slowly, “Oh. That makes sense. Though you guys looked exactly the same.”

“I’m more than aware.” She scoffed, “I’m Hinata Sakura.”

“Bokuto Kōtarō.” He said boisterously, causing Sakura to cringe at his loud personality. "You said your name is Hinata Sakura?" The owl-haired boy asked as he got uncomfortably close to Sakura.

She just stared at him with her pursed lips, "...yes… why?"

"Oh, I know an old classmate of yours!"

"Really?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, confused as to who he might know and why they would mention her. Sakura hasn’t had any real friends until recently. She may consider Koji and Izumi to be friends of hers from junior high school, but she knows neither of them was at Fukurōdani. Perhaps he knew an acquaintance of hers from junior high, but it was still a toss up to who would talk about her to him. So who could Bokuto know?

"Yeah, Sato Hitoshi!” She froze at Bokuto’s exclamation, “It'll be really cool to tell him that we saw you here!"

Sakura’s jaw clenched, "Why would he care?" The discomfort at the mention of the bully started to wash over her. Her stomach churned and turned at the bitter reminder of him. She had pushed the thought of him out of her mind for some time now, honestly, she never thought she’d ever have to hear about him again. Though here she is…

Not even noticing her change in mood, Bokuto continued on, "Well, he talks about you a lot, always wondering what you're doing in high school!"

She stared at him in confusion, "He cares about what I'm doing? That's… strange."

"Oh?"

Sakura’s eyes narrowed at nothing in particular, "Let's just say, Sato and I didn't get along, especially after we graduated from junior high." The distasteful stare of his sharp blue gaze flashed through her mind. Maybe back then she didn’t always see how jealous and petty he was, but she recognized it now after reflecting on it. Though why he would mention her to someone at his high school is beyond her. Unless Sato was making some unsavory comments of some kind, but Bokuto didn’t seem to be disturbed by her if he did hear those types of comments.

Bokuto just blinked. Whether he could see the bitterness in Sakura’s expression and ignored it or didn’t sense the mood she was in now was uncertain. "Ah, well he's mentioned you a few times while in school. He's a part of our school yearbook as a photographer and mostly focuses on sports."

Sakura clicked her tongue, "Hmm, looks like we've taken a similar high school career."

"Wow! That's really cool!"

Pursing her lips, Sakura sighed heavily through her nose. She bowed respectively to the older boy, “It was nice to meet you, Bokuto-senpai.” She didn’t even wait for him to reply as she started to briskly walk past him.

“Oh yea!” Bokuto called after, “See you later, Hinata-chan!”

She marched back to the room she was staying in with the other managers. The need to just go to bed and attempt to forget the mention of Sato was strong in her mind. She didn’t need any sort of reminder of that bully since she had finally gotten somewhere with her self-confidence. Thinking about him would do nothing but bring back those memories and possible doubts.

It wouldn’t have been completely surprising to hear about Sato again. There was always a possibility of running into him or a connection to him at some point considering where they live. It's a small world, and Sakura doesn’t usually have the best of luck. Though to hear from someone that Sato speaks about her to others caused her stomach to tighten. He must be saying some bad things about her to his new classmates. Talking about the useless little shadow who, while smart, didn’t have her own voice. Probably saying that he was so much better than her, at everything. Knowing that he could still go around saying her name and talking bad of it.

Perhaps a part of her knew that he would still think of her that way, she wasn’t going to change the opinion of someone who shouldn’t matter to her. She wouldn’t think he’d change his opinion considering they weren’t at the same school anymore. So he could say what he wanted to his new peers. Though to have one of those peers now in the same place as him saying that Sato talks about her is a bit jarring, in her opinion.

Though it really shouldn’t shake her as much as it should, she thought. She’s stronger now, more confident, so whatever he might think shouldn’t bother her. Still there was just that small inkling in her chest that won't go away. So as she changed into her pajamas, made some small talk with the managers who were still awake, and climbed into her bed. All that she could do was go to bed and forget about it as best she could. She just hoped she didn’t have to talk to Bokuto again, lest he make fun of her for what Sato might have told him.

---

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So... and old ghost is coming back, huh? Sato Hitoshi that meanie >:( I already have... something interesting planned with him, so you'll have to wait and see when that'll happen. I'm restraining myself to not say anything too revealing, and it's so difficult. But I will hold back, I swear! Also I feel like I've been holding back on saying just who Yua's cousin is at this point. Everyone probably forgot that she mentioned him lmao but don't worry, you'll find out who he is, though I'm sure you can make a pretty good educated guess.

I wasn't completely certain how I was going to write some of these chapters since... Sakura doesn't really have too much of a reason to be there besides being the photographer and her brother being on the team. Though I felt like they were strong enough excuses to soundly say that she could be there. I just don't want her presence to seem stupid or have no reasonable excuse, you know what I mean. I feel like soon I'll start writing certain chapters to exclude Sakura in certain situations. It's really just apart of her character development a bit further down the line. I'm already writing the next chapter as you read this, so it'll only take me.... two months this time to finish it LMAO but for real, I'll try to get the chapter out asap.

On another note, it's finally SPOOKY SEASON!! I'm so ready to play scary games, watch horror movies and eat all the candy I can until I explode! I mean it may not be good for me but.... I can do what I want as an adult, right? I've just been living my best life the last few weeks and it's been actually amazing. Feels weird to be content right now. The only complaint I have is I wish I could write more, but nothing is perfect, I suppose. I appreciate all the kind comments ya'll have been leaving and dming me as of late ^-^ It warms my heart to know that people actually enjoy my writing! I hope that I can keep giving you guys good chapters that ya'll like lol Until the next chapter, my friends~!

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