Chapter Text
“Oof, that was high,” Tanaka-san mused. He placed an elbow on Hinata’s head and straightened to get a better look at the screen. Number four rushed along the net, excited teammates slapping him on the back and ruffling his hair.
“Come sit, we just started,” Ennoshita said, nodding at the several chairs dumped in the corner of the third years’ dorm room. First years rolled out of his way as Hinata jumped to get cushions for Nishinoya, Tanaka and himself. He plopped down beside them, getting occasionally kicked in the process. The game continued.
“Inubushi Hizashi,” coach Ukai said. Hinata had the feeling that coach had already told them about the team and was now repeating because he didn’t expect them to remember. Or maybe not. “Inubushi Hizashi is our opponent for the round two. I want you to look attentively at their blocks and quick attacks. Their setter is a third year, number eight; famous for his unpredictable sets.”
Hinata moved closer, searching for the number eight. Tsukishima on his left made a displeased sound and tried to shove him away from the laptop, making him growl and purposely flop all his weight on the fragile construction of Tsukishima, Yamaguchi and a bowl of Kaki-peanuts between them.
“What are you, a dog?” Tsukishima huffed, angrily getting peanuts out of his and Yamaguchi’s and Hinata’s hair. He made sure to pull nastily at his forelock before throwing him off to the side. Yamaguchi laughed, muttering “Tsukki, easy, easy”, though he sounded a bit strained, all covered in peanut crumbs.
“Shut the fuck up.” Kageyama yelled from behind before the coach could intervene. “I can’t hear a thing! Hinata, dumbass, get out of there!”
“And I can’t see the number eight!” Hinata whined, getting back under Tanaka-san’s elbow. He subtly shoved several stolen peanuts into his mouth.
“That’s because he’s switched with a pitch server.” Yamaguchi explained, tone measured and peacemaking as ever. “See? He’ll be serving now. And...”
“Ooo, it was a powerful serve! Seen that, Tokita?” Hinata turned to the first year, who nodded eagerly in response. Recently he would do it quite often; Tanaka-san said it was a natural outcome of being consistently called Senpai. “But the other team’s defense is super good!”
“Right,” Tsukishima frowned. Yamaguchi was still shaking his sweater to get all stray crumbs out. “It’s a match where you’ll want to observe the other team too.”
“Unreasonable,” said Ennoshita, effectively cutting them off. “We’re now studying Inubushi, our tomorrow’s opponent, not the other team.”
Hinata felt cold shiver run down his spine from pure fear. He sat on his knees, hands on his lap, and tried to concentrate.
The quick set indeed was super nasty.
“What’s with the other team?” He whispered to Yamaguchi after ten minutes, no more able to curb his curiosity. Half an hour into the game, they seemed to have found a good rhythm, and the defenders, especially libero and number five and number two were awesomely reliable.
“Come on, Hinata,” Yamaguchi whispered back. “Itachiyama academy, don’t you remember? They placed first in the last Interhigh. And last year they beat Inarizaki in the final.”
Hinata’s attention was immediately back on the screen. So they’re Winter Champions Itachiyama!
“They have Sakusa, right?” Tokita murmured quietly and joined them on the floor when Ennoshita left to talk with the coach. The word ‘Sakusa’ apparently was a magical spell: all faces immediately turned in his direction. “I-I mean, he’s still ranked number 1?”
“Number what?” Hinata questioned in chorus with other first years.
“Nation’s number one ace.” Kinoshita clarified, squinting when Hinata dazedly cried out: “‘Nation’s Number One Ace’?? Soooo Cool!!”
“Don’t say it like it’s a nickname, you dumbass!” Kageyama snapped, turning around and glaring daggers at them. “And stop getting distracted! Like Ennoshita-san said, we must observe Inubushi now!”
“If you say so, your highness, “Tsukishima teased. He really can’t miss a chance to say something salty! “You know better, in the end, you’re the only one among us mortals who has ever seen him in Person.”
This time Hinata wasn’t able to sit still. Inubushi called time out and he turned to Tokita again, lowering his voice as much as he could and feeling other first years crawl closer:
“Do you know, Tokita, if he was in the top last year?”
“Sure,” Tokita said. He spared a cautious glance at the scary Kageyama-senpai. “If I’m not mistaken, Sakusa has been ranked number one during all of his years in high school.”
“Sooo,” Hinata uttered, a hand on his chin, expression so pensive he might as well be solving a cosmological paradox, “that means he’s been the Nation’s Number One Ace for years now?? What year is he again?”
“He’s a third year.” Yamaguchi supplied. Tsukishima reached for his sleeve and tugged lightly, making him yelp and sit back, then got up and physically pulled them apart, lifting first years like kittens and placing them farther from Hinata. Kageyama in the back row made a little noise of approval. Inubushi’s time out ended.
“Oi, Kageyama,” he whispered after another ten minutes, having crawled to the back row and tucking closer to the setter. Kageyama hissed and hit the hand on his shoulder. Usually the team would be very patient with Hinata’s tactility and sometimes they wouldn’t. Kageyama often chose the second option. “Kageyama, ‘that true that you’ve seen the Nation’s Number One Ace in Person?”
“So what?”
Hinata couldn’t help a shiver from excitement that run through his body. He was practically feeling stars in his own eyes as he demanded:
“Is he even cooler than Hoshiumi-san? Than Ushiwaka?”
“Yeh, I guess.” Kageyama answered after a short pause, making Hinata fall flat on his back, awestruck. How can a guy like this even exist?
“Is he really that cool??”
“At least billion times cooler than you,” Kageyama pulled on a nasty grimace. “Or more. Million times!”
“Billion is actually more than million,” Yamaguchi said but Kageyama was too far into the fight mode already.
“What’s the next big number?”
“Billion and one?”
“Trillion, I believe.”
“Trillion times cooler!!”
“No way!” Hinata growled from frustration. “I’ll work extra hard and...”
“You won’t catch up with him even in thousand years. And when you both are feeble old men, say seventy years old, he’ll still be better.”
“But he’ll be older!! I’ll have more energy!”
“And he’ll have skill and experience!”
“H-hey, this whole conversation is ridiculous,” Yamaguchi mumbled, setting the Inubushi vs Itachiyama match on pause. “Hinata will be very experienced by the age of seventy as well.”
“Yamaguchi, don’t try to reason with them.”
“But,” Kageyama raised an index finger like he was saying something clever, “he’ll be always younger by one year, and since he started later and hasn’t been working as hard as Sakusa-san, he’ll never reach the same level.”
“Someone please get them out of here. My head hurts just from listening to this,” Tsukishima said. “We have to watch the match, or did you forget already? Not able to get at least one thing done?”
“Tsukki’s right! And Hinata, it’s not like people in their seventies have the same energy you have now.”
“Right!” Kageyama exclaimed. “Bet you won’t be able to get your shitty serve over the net! ‘S not like you can do that no-“
“Whaaaat??”
“Yamaguchi, don’t encourage them!”
“Wait, Tsukishima-kuun,” Hinata declared, getting up. Everyone looked at him, falling silent for a moment. “Then I’ll play a match with him when I’m seventy! We’ll see who’s a feeble old man!”
“Sure.”
It was Ennoshita’s icy voice that made them all jump and swirl around.
“Now sit down and behave, or I’ll make sure that the next match you play as starters will be when you’re seventy.” They dropped to their seats, letting the captain get to the laptop. “Coach Ukai will be finished in several minutes. He wants to discuss our possible strategies against Inubushi Hizashi.”
“Yessir!”
“Captain?” Yaotome asked cautiously before Ennoshita turned on the video. “Why are Yachi-senpai and others absent?”
Ennoshita waved his hand soothingly.
“Nothing serious, some papers and rooming-in things that usually keep managers busy in the evenings. They said it’ll be a bit more crowded here since several more teams are moving in. Tamamime I believe, Shougyou and someone else.”
“Eeeh, and I thought we’re so lucky to live here practically all alone.” Nishinoya-senpai pouted, stealing some peanuts from Tsukishima. “Anyway, Shouyou, good spirit! Make sure you’ll win when you’re seventy!”
“Make sure to win tomorrow, dumbass.”
“I soooo will-“
“Didn’t I tell you to sit down?”
“Watch out! Peanuts!..”