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It wasn’t that Ittetsu was hiding it per se, it just never came up in conversation and at this point, it’d be weird for him to reveal it himself. There had been many times over the last months where Ittetsu thought his kind-of-secret would be revealed, but apparently his on-court persona was so different from who he was today that no one seemed to catch on. Perhaps it was the power of his glasses which he had never had a use for back in high school, but he couldn’t know for certain.
However, his coach wasn’t likely to forget him.
“If it isn’t Take-chan?” The old man exclaimed as they met. It was a chance encounter if anything, Ittetsu having been on his way home from work and coach Ukai… well, Ittetsu didn’t know what he was doing here to be honest.
“Good evening,” he replied, well-mannered, smiling. What would come of this?
“I saw you at the game,” he smiled. Ittetsu didn’t like the way he smiled. “You’re the advisor to the volleyball club now, eh?”
“Yes,” Ittetsu confirmed, “It’s very fulfilling.”
“I’d think you would miss playing, spending so much time in that gym,” Ukai’s smile changed a little. It was like he was challenging him.
“It’s not like I could play anyway,” Ittetsu smiled a little wider, “Besides, seeing those boys grow is all I need.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t given chibi-chan some more advice,” Ukai mused, “My useless grandson had to give him to me, when he was stuck with him.” He laughed.
“Ah, Hinata-kun? I’m not sure I could teach him anything to be honest.”
Ukai laughed again and slapped Ittetsu on the back hard enough for him to buckle over, though he didn’t quite fall.
“I’d imagine anything you have to teach him would be greatly received. He can’t stop talking about you and that crazy setter of his.”
“You mean he can’t stop talking about the little giant,” Ittetsu corrected, “That’s hardly me anymore.”
“Take-chan… Don’t tell me...” Ah, he caught on.
When the next week rolled around, Ittetsu had forgotten about his conversation with his former coach and he was happily watching over the volleyball club’s practice. Despite what his coach thought, Ittetsu was perfectly happy not playing. He found great joy in his job as a teacher, and watching the journey of Karasuno’s current volleyball club was all he could wish for. And if people thought he wasn’t very familiar with the sport, well, it was quite amusing.
“What shitty serves!” A voice roared from the entrance of the gym, and everyone turned to see coach Ukai who had appeared out of nowhere.
“Grandpa!” Ukai-kun exclaimed, and the older coach smirked, as if silently telling his grandson that he’d been doing a poor job.
Coach Ukai then proceeded to take over the practice session, his eyes meeting Ittetsu’s a few times. He was up to something.
As the coach moved on to spike training, Hinata’s eyes lit up, as he asked: “Can you teach me to spike like the little giant!” His eyes were sparkling, and Ukai laughed heartily.
“The little giant can’t spike anymore,” he said, a big smile on his face, while Hinata’s dropped.
“What do you mean?”
“Oho~” Coach Ukai mused, “I’ll tell you, kid, since you like him so much. Do you know what happened to the little giant after high school?”
“Not at all,” Hinata shook his head, a few others were moving closer to listen to the story.
“He was scouted by the national team,” Coach Ukai smirked, and there were sounds of awe in the gym, “His goal was to become a regular before he graduated college, but an accident in practice took him out for a few months. Unfortunately, his injury was irreversible. He couldn’t keep up with the vigorous training for a long period of time, and eventually had to drop out of the team.”
“It was so bad that he can’t play at all?” Kageyama questioned, likely fearing something like that would happen to him in the future.
“No,” Coach Ukai said firmly, and Hinata looked confused.
“But you said he can’t spike anymore.”
“That had nothing to do with the injury,” Coach Ukai said, a sense of finality in his voice as he ended the story. As the students began to talk among each other, the coach looked at Ittetsu again, and he could feel his blood boil at the challenge: prove me wrong.
The second round of spike practice featured block practice as well, as the students rotated between blocking and spiking, Ukai-kun setting the tosses to allow Sugawara and Kageyama to train spiking and blocking as well. Every time the block was successful, the coach would look at him, the question on his lips: could you have made that? Ittetsu felt the palm of his right hand vibrate.
He put down his board, ignoring the confused looks of the managers as he slowly made his way to line of spikers. The blocking rotation was a rough one. Tsukishima, Asahi and Kageyama made a tall wall, but height had never been an issue for Ittetsu. The toss went up and Hinata was about to begin his run-up.
Ittetsu beat him to it.
There were some things the body never forgot. For most people, it was simple things like riding a bike, but for Ittetsu it was spiking. He remembered the speed of his run-up, the form of his jump, the swing of his arm and the impact between his palm and the ball as he aimed for Kageyama’s fingertips, making a successful wipe-out which was always his signature move.
There was a silence as his feet landed on the ground again, but Ittetsu didn’t care. His gaze was focused on the surprised face of his former coach.
“I may not play anymore, coach,” Ittetsu said intensely, sliding his glasses back into place, “But you don’t get to decide what I can and can’t do.”
The gym exploded in a variety of roars and Tanaka tackled him, “What the hell, Take-chan! Since when can you play?” Looking around at the team, only the young Ukai-kun seemed to have caught on, his jaw hanging open in disbelief. Ittetsu felt he owed everyone an explanation, but was a little lost for words.
The team quieted down when Ukai laughed again, “Yeah, Take-chan! Since when can you play?” he roared and laughed, “People would think you were on the national team!”
“Coach!” Ittetsu exclaimed, slightly embarrassed by the roundabout way he was choosing to drop the bomb.
“Since you can’t do it properly yourself, allow me,” he slapped him on the back again, making him face the team as if he was introducing a new student to a class, “Takeda Ittetsu, former volleyball player known to you as the little giant,” his coach said proudly as if he were his talented son, “Take good care of him.”
Ittetsu felt that his life was about to change as the team - his team - all looked at him with a renewed spark in their eyes.