Chapter Text
Tobio was surprised when Takeda-sensei burst into the gym one day and announced that Aoba Johsai had requested a practice match. He was even more surprised when there were no special conditions attached like the last time. The idea of Karasuno having a normal practice match against Seijoh didn’t seem possible; at least not when Oikawa was the captain. Tobio has learned from experience that Oikawa always has something up his sleeve.
Yet, as the match drew closer (and as no special conditions randomly appeared out of thin air), Tobio was starting to actually believe that it would be a normal practice match. He was still on edge, Oikawa-san would always terrify him, but he was less worried than he would normally be. It helped that everyone else on the team seemed fired up for the match.
“Oh yeah, baby! It’s REMATCH TIME!” Tanaka shouted as he entered the clubroom. Noya was right behind him, bouncing up and down with energy.
“We’re going to crush those stupid elites!” Tanaka continued on with his revenge spiel with Noya and Hinata joining in. Tobio stayed off to the side. He was trying his hardest to suppress his nerves and calm down so he wouldn’t do something stupid during the match.
“There’s no place on my team for losers.”
Tobio actually jumped a little when he heard Hirayama-san’s voice in his head. He hadn’t thought of his middle school coach in a while, but it made sense he would pop into his head right now. Everyt ime Tobio interacted with Seijoh, a part of him seemed to be transported back into middle school and the suffocating pressure that came with it. He had discussed some of what happened at Kita-Ichi with Coach Ukai already (and that was certainly a fun conversation) but his current coach didn’t know all of it.
“Oikawa was the best we’ve ever had. If you can’t beat him, then I’ll replace you with someone who can.”
Hirayama-san had made it very clear in his first year that Oikawa was his gold-star standard. Tobio knew that the only way he could stay on the team ( the only way he wouldn’t be left again, the only way he wasn’t abandoned, the only way--,) was to be at least as good as Oikawa, if not better. Every practice, he watched Oikawa’s beautiful jump serve. Every practice, he tried to replicate it. Every practice, Tobio failed.
(He asked once if Oikawa would teach it to him. He asked while riding high on victory, not even realizing that he had stepped on his senpai to achieve it. By the time Tobio stopped to think if now was really the best time to do this, it was too late. Oikawa’s hand was a hair's breadth away from Tobio’s cheek, stopped only by Iwaizumi’s grip.
Tobio never asked for help again. He knew a refusal when he saw one.)
“Kageyama-kun, are you okay?” Tobio blinked and shot his head up at the sound of Sugawara-san’s voice. He hadn’t even realized that he’d spaced out, or that he was holding his t-shirt in a white-knuckled grip while standing half-naked in the clubroom. It looked like everyone else had already left too. “ How long was I spaced out for?” Tobio thought to himself.
He shook his head a little to clear his thoughts. “I’m fine,” Tobio said to Sugawara-san. He looked skeptical at the reply but seemed to realize that trying to get emotions out of Tobio was like asking a lamp for milk.
“Alright, if you say so. We’re going to start warm-ups soon, come out when you’re ready,” Tobio nodded in understanding. Sugawara-san left him in the clubroom to finish changing. Tobio tried to ignore the voice of Hirayama-san that kept reappearing in his head.
He had realized after a lengthy conversation with Coach Ukai that Hirayama-san was not quite the man he thought he was. He was a little too intense and a little too mean to be a good coach for junior high schoolers. However, a part of Tobio would always respect him. Afterall, Hirayama Yoshito was a former volleyball god . He was someone who Tobio dreamed of one day being.
Tobio slapped his hands against his cheeks. “Goddamn it Tobio, pull yourself together,” He mumbled to himself before exiting the clubroom. He didn’t have time to listen to Hirayama, they had a game to win.
Aoba Johsai had thankfully agreed to come to Karasuno for the game, saving Tobio the bus ride that would let him build up his anxiety levels even more. A home game made it easier for him to not overthink every interaction he could possibly have with his former teammates.
Tobio was initially glad for the lack of time to overthink but was now starting to regret it. His former teammates were all acting very… weird. They were all fairly polite to him; Oikawa had yet to try to antagonize him, Kunimi wasn’t just ignoring him (he actually said hello??), and Kindaichi was being… civil. Iwaizumi was being how he always was, which was a bit of relief.
No one on the Seijoh team seemed to bat an eye at the odd behavior, leaving Tobio to believe he was imagining things. Until the end of the first set (25-23, for Seijoh), when his teammates said something.
“Is it just me, or are they all acting kind of weird?” It was Hinata who brought it up, and Tobio felt the strange urge to kiss him right then and there.
“Not the time for gay thoughts, Tobio,” he thought to himself.
“Now that you mention it, I don’t think Oikawa’s tried to antagonize Kageyama-kun all game,” Sugawara said. Everyone turned to Tobio to confirm the statement.
“He hasn’t. Kunimi and Kindaichi have been acting weird too,” Tobio said before going back to draining his water bottle. God, games against Seijoh made him so fucking tired .
“Do you think they’re planning something?!” Hinata said, getting worked up over the idea of some convoluted scheme.
“It doesn’t matter what tricks they have up their sleeve, we’ll put a stop to it during this set. Got it?” Daichi-san said, interrupting their fretting.
“Daichi’s right. Everybody just relax, we can handle anything that Seijoh throws at us,” Coach Ukai added. It looked like he was going to say more, but the referee blew the whistle and the second set began.
The final game ended up going to Seijoh, the second was Karasuno’s (26-24) and the third set was Seijoh’s (29-27). It was clear that Karasuno still had a ways to go before they could beat Seijoh in an official match, but they were making progress. Slowly, but surely, they would get there.
“We have some extra time left. Want to have another match?” Coach Ukai asked the Seijoh coaches, whose names Tobio could not remember for the life of him. The coaches paused, and then glanced over at him for some reason.
“Actually, we had an ulterior motive behind this practice match,” The blond coach said. Tobio knew it. Oikawa would never stand for just a normal practice match against him. “We would like to speak privately with your starting setter, Kageyama Tobio.”
Well. That was weird. “Uh… what?” Tobio said. His teammates looked just as confused as he felt. Hell, even Coach Ukai looked weirded out by the request.
“We have some questions we need to ask,” Oikawa jumped in. Tobio was not at all surprised that he was involved in this… weird scheme thing currently happening.
“What kind of questions?” Daichi-san asked, his voice taking on a darker tone. Tobio blinked in surprise, he didn’t think his captain was capable of sounding like that.
“And why does it need to be done privately, huh? Kageyama’s our teammate, whatever you want to ask him you can ask in front of us,” Tanaka added while getting in position for a fight.
Oikawa looked at his coaches before answering. “We just weren’t sure if Tobio-chan would be… comfortable answering them in front of other people.”
“Why wouldn’t I be comfortable?” Tobio interjected, still very confused with what was happening.
“It’s about Hirayama,” Iwaizumi said as he came to stand next to Oikawa. Kindaichi and Kunimi were standing nearby as if they were ready to jump in at any second. All of the other Aoba Johsai players had disappeared at some point, leaving only the six of them and all of Karasuno in the gym.
“Hirayama-san? Why do you have questions about him?” Tobio asked, genuinely more confused now than before they answered his question.
Oikawa and Iwaizumi looked at each other, seeming to have a silent conversation. The two coaches had taken a step back as if to allow them to lead this very odd conversation. “Uh, hi there? Care to explain who this Hirayama-san is?” Sugawara-san interjected.
Right, the only thing Karasuno knew about his middle school experience was a vague explanation of the whole “king of the court” bullshit. “Hirayama-san was my head coach in junior high,” Tobio said to Sugawara-san.
“He was also a piece of fucking shit,” Kunimi added. Tobio whipped his head towards him in surprise.
“Language Kunimi-kun! What, were you raised in a barn?” Oikawa said to Kunimi. Tobio was more surprised at the fact that Oikawa didn’t stand up for Hirayama, but instead seemed to be… almost agreeing with Kunimi. Iwaizumi and Kindaichi were doing the same.
“He… he wasn’t that bad, ” Tobio said.
“You’re joking right?” Oikawa said, his eyebrows raised and his mouth agape. “Please, tell me you’re joking, Tobio-chan.” He looked genuinely worried that Tobio was in fact, not joking.
He kind of was. He knew that Hirayama-san wasn’t the best coach; after all, Tobio a million times better under Ukai and Karasuno than he ever did in Kitagawa Daiichi underneath Hirayama-san. But Hirayama was like the coaches his grandfather would tell him about, the ones who coached pro teams forty years ago. He was strict, mean, and big on physical-based punishments. Maybe he could be too intense sometimes, but overall he wasn’t horrible.
(Right?)
“Tobio-chan,” Oikawa was right in front of him now, his hands resting firmly on Tobio’s shoulders, forcing them to look each other in the eye. “Hirayama used to hit me. He would give unnecessarily harsh lectures in which he would verbally abuse me and compare me to you. He forced Iwa-chan to go through a training program that had the potential to literally kill him if he wasn’t careful. He publically humiliated Kunimi. He straight up ignored and neglected Kindaichi--,”
“He didn’t neglect Kindaichi,” Tobio interrupted. Oikawa stared at him in bewilderment. “He gave Kindaichi to me.”
“WHAT!?” Kindaichi shouted from behind Oikawa. Tobio glanced at him and noticed how confused everyone looked, so he decided to explain.
“Towards the end of our second year, Hirayama-san told me that if Kindaichi didn’t improve his spikes in the following year, then he would be moved down to the second string. So I asked some of the upperclassmen to help him, and then adjusted my sets to make his spikes better.” Tobio swallowed, mildly dreading the next part.
“At the start of our third year, just after they announced the starting lineup, Hirayama pulled me aside and told me that if I didn’t make Kindaichi better by the end of inter-high, then we would both be kicked off the team. So, I started giving him more intense tosses, and yelling at him to go faster, jump higher, etc., and well… you know the rest.”
Everyone was gaping at him. Tobio knew if he turned around, Karasuno would be just as weirded out about everything as his former teammates looked.
“There were some other factors that went into the ‘king of the court’ thing, but--,”
“What the fuck, kid?” Coach Ukai interrupted. Tobio turned around and saw how horrified his expression was and quickly tried to backtrack.
“It was fine really!”
“In what way is that ‘ fine’, Tobio-chan!?” Oikawa shouted. “Hirayama-san forced you to do his job! That is not ‘fine’ in any way, shape, or form!”
“For once, I’m agreeing with Oikawa,” Tobio heard Tanaka say behind him. His teammates mumbled their agreement.
“I mean, it was better than getting slapped or called a failure again, so--,”
“ He did what,” Hinata said, his voice sounding ice as it ran down Tobio’s spine. He broke out of Oikawa’s grip and fully turned around to face his teammates. All of them looked murderous; Tanaka and Noya looked like they were going to find Hirayama and beat him up themselves. Asahi and Ennoshita were holding them back but looked upset about it.
“From what I’ve heard, Hirayama would verbally and physically abuse players he deemed ‘worthy’ and neglect the ones he didn’t,” The dark-haired coach from Seijoh said. “Kageyama-kun, from what you’ve said so far, I’m assuming you’re the former rather than the latter?” Tobio nodded. The blond Seijoh coach sighed, before continuing where his partner left off.
“For the past few years, we’ve been gathering evidence against Hirayama. We are hoping to get enough to at least remove him from office, and hopefully add some charges against him as well. We were planning on interviewing you today, but it looks like that won’t be happening. Is there a chance we could meet up soon to do this?”
Tobio searched his eyes, seeing nothing but kindness and concern. He was a stern coach, Tobio had seen him yell at Kunimi during games enough to know this, but he also cared about his players in a way that Hirayama-san never did. Hirayama-san would have never taken the time to do something like this.
It made Tobio trust this unnamed Seijoh coach enough to agree.
“That’s wonderful, thank you Kageyama-kun,” the dark-haired coach said as he clapped his hands together. “Oikawa-kun, give him your contact information to arrange a time and place. After that, we’ll get out of your hair. It looks like you have some matters to discuss with your teammates, after all.” He sent a glance behind Tobio, to his still fuming teammates and visibly upset coaches.
“Take care of yourself Tobio-chan,” Oikawa murmured as Tobio handed him a piece of paper with his phone number and email scribbled on top of it. Tobio was surprised at his kindness and awkwardly nodded in response.
Karasuno saw Aoba Johsai off and cleaned up the gym in tense silence. After everything was finished, Coach Ukai called Tobio over to talk to him.
“Kid, why didn’t you tell me any of this during our conversation?” He asked. Tobio couldn’t meet his eyes.
“I--, I didn’t think it was important,” He finally said after a moment of tense silence.
“Not important--! Kid, Kageyama-kun,” Coach Ukai placed a hand on his shoulder, “This is the kind of stuff that you should definitely tell your coach about. Or, if not your coach, then at least any other adult. Okay?”
Tobio swallowed nervously before meeting Coach Ukai’s eyes. They were concerned and caring. They weren’t forcing him to do anything, they weren't demanding or cold like Hirayama’s were. All he could see in Coach Ukai’s eyes was the desire to help him.
“Okay,” Tobio agreed. His grandfather had taught him to trust kind eyes. Kind eyes were attached to kind people, and kind people were the best kind of people. Hirayama didn’t have kind eyes.
Coach Ukai stared at him for a moment before patting his shoulder and shouting at someone behind Tobio. “He’s all yours Captain!”
Tobio was then promptly body-slammed by a 163cm of ginger-haired middle blocker. He let out a shout of surprise and tried to keep his balance by pinwheeling his arms before ultimately failing and falling onto the floor. He let out a groan as he slammed onto the floor face first, with Hinata laying directly on top of him.
“Bakayama! Why didn’t you tell anyone!?” Hinata shouted at him.
“‘Cause, it wasn’t important, dumbass!” Tobio replied.
“It is important,” Daichi-san interrupted the two of them before they could start arguing. “Kageyama, you’re our teammate. You’re our friend. We want to know this kind of stuff so that you feel safe around us. We want to help you.”
“Of course, if you don’t feel comfortable telling us, that’s completely fine,” Sugawara-san added as he sprawled out on the floor next to Hinata and Tobio. The rest of the team gathered around Tobio (even Tsukishima!) silently providing him comfort.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you guys…” Tobio started, feeling a lump swell in his throat from all of the affection he felt towards this rag-tag team of his. He swallowed it down. “I trust you. It was just.. Hard for me to accept that my idol wasn’t as good as I thought he was. It also didn’t feel necessary to mention.”
“Just use your words from now on, King. It'll stop giving us unnecessary heart attacks,” Tsukishima said.
“Look at that! I knew you cared, Salty-shima!” Tanaka shouted at Tsukishima. Tsukishima tried to deny it, which led to an argument between Hinata and Noya, which devolved into complete chaos and a wrestling match. Daichi managed to wrangle everyone out the door with a promise of meat buns. Hinata stayed glued to Tobio’s side for the entire night; their hands and shoulders brushing with every step.
Hirayama Yoshito was a dark storm cloud that would hang over these boys for the rest of their lives. He would live in their shadows, and appear when they least wanted him to. But slowly and surely, they would heal. They would stop hearing his voice every time they messed up. They stopped feeling his palm against their skin after every lecture. They stopped seeing his vague outline in the depths of their nightmares.
Over time, they would learn that their boats would rock, and their footing would shake, but they would leave from underneath the storm cloud and feel more stable than before.