Chapter Text
Oikawa Tooru - as it turns out - was exactly what the Aoba Johsai team had been waiting for.
He substituted himself into serving position, his teammates' smirks growing as he spun the ball in his hands. He backed away from the serving line, prepping the ball in his hands all the while. His eyes remained on Kageyama, a smirk remaining at his lips.
Oh . He was a jump server. Tsukishima wondered if he was the team’s pinch server or something. It would make sense as to why the team was so excited at his substitution into the court.
Halting his backwards walk, his head turned in Tsukishima’s direction, winking at her, before directing his attention back towards the court. Tsukishima felt her face heat up, ignoring the quiet chuckles from Kiyoko beside her.
It wasn’t her fault she hadn’t experienced many flirty gestures before.
Turning her attention back to the court, she got to witness Oikawa serve, the older teen throwing the ball up, executing a serve Kageyama wished he could pull off. From Oikawa’s positioning, Tsukishima could only assume he had caught on to Hinata’s poor receiving abilities, aiming both a strong and controlled serve directly towards the younger boy.
It certainly was impactful, obvious from the shocked expressions on the Karasuno players faces. It reminded Tsukishima of the few times she had watched nationals in the past, the sheer strength of the jump serves being emphasised by the harsh sound of the ball hitting the court.
As much as Tsukishima wished she could play, she could help but grasp her forearms in second-hand pain. She didn’t see how any of the players would be able to receive the serve, much less direct it towards Kageyama.
It was the kind of serve you prayed to be inaccurate, waiting for that one strike that would send the ball out of bounds. But from the looks of the serve, Tsukishima wasn’t sure if it would be happening anytime soon. She felt a nudge from Sugawara from beside her, turning her attention towards the older setter. The third year’s attention remained on the court, a grimace on his face.
“What do you reckon we should do in this situation?”
Hotaru felt her eyebrows raise, surprised at the upperclassmen’s question. Sure, she had spoken to him about her previous volleyball experience, but from previous encounters, most guys tend to undermine girls sporting efforts, so she wasn’t expecting much. It was a pleasant surprise, and Tsukishima quickly shared her own internal reflections to the ever-attentive Sugawara. The boy merely listened, nodding along in agreement, before gesturing towards Daichi.
“Don’t lose confidence too early, have a look at what Daichi’s doing.”
It was a smart move on Daichi’s part, positioning himself to be covering the majority of the backcourt. For Oikawa to aim towards Hinata, he would have to further increase his accuracy, likely reducing his power in the process. Oikawa looked mildly irritated but nonetheless served at Hinata, the boy receiving the ball. Whilst messy, it did the job, and the ball was sent back to Aoba Johsai’s side.
It was a final spike by Hinata that concluded the game, a strong hit off a quick set, blasting past Oikawa, securing the win for Karasuno. The opposing player looked irritated, yet impressed, a smile on his face as he joins his team on the sidelines.
Focusing her attention back on her own school's team, she wasn’t shocked to see smiles amongst the group, high-fives, and fist bumps between the team. She heard Tanaka ask Kageyama who Oikawa was, and in surprise, heard him reveal Oikawa as a senpai from middle school, as well as Aoba Johsai’s captain.
Ah. Captain. That would make sense.
With the reveal of Oikawa’s identity, Hotaru heard Hinata quickly exclaim, “Great King!”, his nickname for Oikawa, she assumed. Tsukishima began chuckling to herself, hiding her laughter with her sleeve. Of course, Hinata would make such a connection. Her amusement caught the attention of the shorter boy, Hinata’s eyes meeting her own. The boy had been slightly hesitant to interact with her after the whole ‘Kageyama-gym’ incident from the three-on-three match, but Tsukishima had no qualms with him. At least, that the boy had any influence on.
A cough from beside her broke her from her thoughts, Kiyoko gesturing to the bag of volleyballs beside her patiently. Feeling embarrassed to be caught not helping, she quickly hoisted the back on her shoulder, following Kiyoko in the direction of their bus. The team would follow later, they were just going to aid in allowing the trip back to go smoothly. Tsukishima certainly wasn’t in the mood to go back due to lost belongings.
She was glad to be getting along with Kiyoko. The gym seemed like such an intimidating place for her, but it helped to have the older girl at her side. She hadn’t fully appreciated the importance of managers before, but upon seeing all the hard work Kiyoko put into keeping the team functioning, Tsukishima couldn’t help but feel bad for all the managers and assistants of her middle school and elementary teams that had gone without appreciation.
They quickly made their way back to the gym, overhearing Takeda speaking to the team. It seemed poetic and interpersonal, yet Tsukishima could tell that most of the team didn’t quite grasp what he was trying to say. Especially Hinata and Kageyama. Those two looked completely lost, a sentence without onomatopoeia’s being out of their level of understanding.
Thankfully, Daichi seemed to grasp Takeda’s point, thanking the teacher for his words, a hopeful glint in his eye. From what Tsukishima had gathered, for the third year's, even a slight glimmer of hope was a relief. They clearly didn’t want a third and final year of underwhelming volleyball.
Sensing the team was about to depart, both Tsukishima and Kiyoko grabbed the last of the bags, heading back in the direction of the bus. It was likely that a couple of the players would stop for a bathroom break before their bus ride back, so the two managers took their time looking around Aoba Johsai. The campus was nice, as expected for a private school. The occasional student walked past them, the light brown pants contrasting with the maroon tie of the male students.
Tsukishima couldn’t help but imagine herself wearing that uniform. It was no secret that she had been considering Aoba Johsai as her high school, even going as far as to consider the application process to gain a scholarship. However, she would never leave Yamaguchi behind, especially when she was needing his support more than ever.
While she didn’t regret her decision, she couldn’t help but imagine. Would she have been offered the manager position for the boys’ volleyball team? The Seijoh team was significantly more established than Karasuno’s, and their coach didn’t seem nearly as accepting as Takeda had been. Judgements without evidence, but judgements, nonetheless.
Curiosity diminished, the two girls began walking towards the gates, intending on dropping the bags off, as well as sitting inside the vehicle and its decent enough air-conditioning. She had begun to feel sweat sticking to her earlier, but the itchy feeling it brought beneath her skin was growing unable to be ignored. Eyes focused on her phone, eyeing the weather app in disgust, she didn’t see the figure leaning on the gate, watching them both.
“Tsukishima!”
Head snapping towards the call, her eyes met Oikawa’s own, the opposing player giving a light wave. Confused, Tsukishima’s automatic response was to ignore the guy, but Kiyoko seemed opposed. As if it was nothing, she pulled the bags out of Tsukishima’s grasp, hoisting them over her shoulder, before walking in the direction of the bus, gesturing her head in Oikawa’s direction.
Sighing to herself, Tsukishima made her way over to Oikawa, frown remaining on her face. Why did she think it was a good idea to give the guy her name?
Stopping in front of him, she stood patiently, waiting for what the older male had called her over to say. She was half-expecting him to say something about Kageyama, ask her to recite him a message or some other kind of communication method that would result in her acting as a carrier pigeon.
Instead, all the boy did was fix his posture, pushing himself up from leaning against the gate, standing straighter, head held high. Tsukishima held back her smirk at the guys' obvious attempt at looking taller. He wasn’t short by any means, but they were practically the same height, and guys didn’t seem to like that.
She didn’t care though, posture remaining straight as she quirks her eyebrow at him.
“You are a first-year, right?” he asked, his own smirk growing, looking Tsukishima up and down.
Tsukishima felt her nose scrunch in disgust at his eyes. “I’d rather you not look me over like that, there were multiple girls in the gym who seem to want that kind of attention from you. Also, yes, I am.” Oikawa’s halted his staring, eyes meeting Tsukishima’s own, sheepish grin on his face. At least he has the decency to look embarrassed.
“Sorry. I was just thinking you would be good at volleyball, nice and tall. Did you used to play when you were younger?”
Whether it was Oikawa’s calm tone or Tsukishima’s more stable mental state, she didn’t find herself growing irritated by his words as she had with Kageyama’s. Oikawa seemed to be asking out of sheer interest, whilst Kageyama’s had seemed judgemental, associating playing volleyball with being at the forefront of someone's decisions.
Tsukishima felt her face relax slightly. Now she was less overwhelmed, she remembered the countless times she had read or heard Oikawa’s name prior. With Akiteru refusing for Yamaguchi and her to come to his high school games, the two friends would frequent the middle school matches, making assessments and judgements about which team they wanted to join once entering middle school.
At that point, Oikawa’s name was circulating around, a first-year middle schooler with great setting abilities. Alongside Ushijima Wakatoshi, the two boys definitely kept the competition exciting, with Yamaguchi and herself wanting to go to a strong middle school in hopes of playing one of those great players in their prime 3rd year.
They never got that opportunity. And names such as Oikawa’s that had seemed so important to Tsukishima back then had disappeared from her thoughts, as well as volleyball itself upon learning of Akiteru’s failure.
Regardless, Oikawa was no prodigy, and Tsukishima knew the boy wouldn’t judge someone for quitting the sport, regardless of his own passion.
“Yeah, I did. I had to quit for personal reasons, but I am still grateful to be able to contribute to the team.”
The .
Shit. Hopefully, Oikawa wouldn’t catch on to that small mistake in her phrasing. For all he knows, she would’ve been playing on the Karasuno girls’ team and would be grateful to contribute to a team, not the team.
Oikawa didn’t seem phased in the slightest, only nodding along at her admission to previously playing the sport. “I had a feeling. You were following the play’s quite attentively, and you and one of the benchwarmers seemed to be having quite an in-depth discussion once I was on the court.”
She could hear the hint of boasting in his tone, rolling her eyes at his clear acknowledgment of his own talent. “You were serving at our worst receiver; it was understandable we would be a bit concerned. All seemed to go well in the end though, didn’t it?” Tsukishima responded, smugly. Oikawa may have shocked them, but Karasuno did end up winning in the end, albeit not as easy as one would hope.
Oikawa was watching her, eyes squinting slightly, seeming to be considering something. “You seem aware that it was a close game though. That's good. Means the team can improve.”
Tsukishima nodded quickly. “It's a bit of a mess since we don’t have an official coach, but hopefully things should start to get a bit smoother.”
Oikawa didn’t look convinced, his attention had gone back to the school, where Tsukishima could see the Karasuno team approaching. The opposing captain looked conflicted, eyes swiftly surveying the starting line-up, before returning to Tsukishima’s own. “Do you have the ability to recruit players as one of the team's managers?”
Weird . Oikawa must’ve found a significant fault in the team to be asking about player recruitment after the team had already played a practice match. Tsukishima decided to answer honestly, interested in what the opposing upperclassman was going to say. “I’m not sure - why?”
The shouts of her team were growing closer, remarks at Oikawa for corrupting their new manager becoming audible from Tanaka, as Tsukishima turned her attention fully towards Oikawa, wanting to hear his thoughts before their conversation would be fully interrupted. The guy looked similarly uncomfortable, locking eyes with her as he shares the words Tsukishima had hoped not to hear.
“You guys must find a libero and ace. Or you have no chance.”