Chapter Text
A tight bunch of tall, athletic children in black jackets and clenched fists are staring him up and down and Ittetsu Takeda, who has served time in the army and had just spent the entire day trying to teach English of all things to heathens on a sugar rush, has never felt more intimidated in his life. The most relaxed of them, a responsible-looking boy with short brown hair, is standing before all of them, arms spread out slightly as they have been since he had stepped into the gym -an automatic gesture, meant to either protect or hold back. His eyes, dark and serious and as unwavering as they were running, travel from his hands to his eyes, stopping at his glasses and diving straight back to his arms in an agonizing silence. Holding onto his arm, a silver-haired boy with a mole trembles lightly, jaw clenched like he is stopping himself from doing something and on his other side, a teenager with a shaved face doesn’t even make the effort to reign in his scornful grimace. Behind them stand three of the tallest and scariest children he has ever met, staring down at him in pure contempt and blocking from his view what seemed to be the remaining members of the fallen Karasuno Volleyball Club.
Leaning against the wall, a teenager who looks, in some indescribable way, more like a woman than a girl nods slightly in his direction, cold and unsettlingly quiet, before going back to silently studying the club.
“Um, my name is Ittetsu Takeda”, he repeats nervously, “and I will be the teacher and assistant coach attached to the Kurotori volleyball club. I hope that your transfer went well, and that you all are settling into the school without difficulties. I must confess, Kurotori High never had a volleyball club before today, and I don’t know anything about the sport, but I am eager to learn with you to help you grow as far as you can go, and hope that we can all get along together.”
“Yes”, says the tallest boy, a skinny blond with eyes shining in disdain behind his glasses, his voice slow and icily cold. “We heard you the first time, Sensei.”
He winces, confused when the second tallest boy, a long-haired muscular giant, flinches at the blond’s comment. Should he worry about a case of bullying here? The atmosphere in the group certainly seems tense, but there is something strange about the way the stand close, like they need to clutch onto each other and cannot afford to let go.
“Kei!” hisses the silver-haired one, “behave! Do you want Sawamura to bench you for the next three practices?”
“That’s very kind of you, Sensei”, says the responsible-looking brown-haired kid, twitching in a valiant attempt to ignore the blond’s sneer, “but I can assure you, you do not have to busy yourself with coaching or organizing our practices. We are perfectly capable of handling our affairs on our own, and you do not need to add to your workload and be burdened with coaching and the club.”
Oh no, this is definitely unacceptable, no way is he leaving these children by themselves. What if they got hurt? What if one of them landed wrong after jumping for a ball, and twisted his ankle? Who is even going to take care of the administrative side?
“No, no, that’s not right. This is literally my job, I can’t allow children to do and adult’s work. You guys should just worry about hitting those balls and keeping up with your studies, let me handle the rest. Okay?”.
The third tallest child, a dark-haired, blue eyed boy who looks seconds away from murder, takes one step further, immediately held back by the responsible kid’s vigilant arm.
“We just told you, we don’t need your god-damn he-”
“Tobio, control yourself!”, snaps Responsible Kid, glaring at Kei and Tobio. “Are you trying to get punished?”
They both flinch, and Silver Hair sighs tiredly, patting them both softly on the back until they step back.
“Come on, guys!” a cheerful voice exclaims from behind, followed by clapping. “Would you guys chill out? The club is finally back in motion, officially! Come on, captain, isn’t it time to celebrate?”
Responsible Kid twitches, and for a second Ittetsu thought he was going to lose his moniker and punch somebody in the face, but instead his shoulders relax a little, and he smiles tenderly at Cheerful Voice.
“You’re right, this is a good thing. My apologies, Sensei, we should introduce ourselves. I am Sawamura Daichi, the captain, nice to meet you.”
One by one, all the children introduce themselves -which Ittetsu quickly had to jot down in a notebook, since apparently everybody switches from first names to nicknames without a warning, while he has to address them all by their last names, which they never use, as well as their jersey numbers, which they don’t have yet, and positions, which he understands nothing of. From the gleam in Kei’s -apparently Kei “Tsukki” Tsukishima’- eyes when he introduces a setter (whatever that is) as “King”, they are doing it at least a little on purpose, but they seem more relaxed now, so he can’t find it in himself to feel frustrated about it. Then, a little head pops from behind Kageyama’s back, and all of the sudden the tension is back, less aggressive and more careful -as if everyone was holding their breath while handling porcelain.
“Hi, nice to meet you. My name is Hinata Shouyou, and I play middle-blocker.”
Among the high-schoolers, he’s the one who looked most like a child, even smaller than Nishinoya, who exudes charisma with every word he speaks. With his high voice, lithe frame, short body and big round eyes, little Hinata could probably pass for a middle-schooler, wide-eyed and tiny. Maybe the volleyball club thinks so as well, because they all close ranks around him as soon as he speaks.
“Hinata might be small, but he’s an essential part of the team.”
“Yeah, he’s probably one of the best middle-blockers in the prefecture!”
“He’s not bad, I guess .Uh, I mean, he’s a very annoying opponent.”
“He might be small, but he can jump! It’s like he’s flying all across the court!”
“Yeah, and he’s so fast, you send the ball somewhere and all of the sudden he’s on the other side of the court, he’s like a flash!”
“He and Tobio have that freak quick, you won’t believe it til you see it!”
Well now, this is a test if Ittetsu has ever seen one. Fortunately, as a teacher, he has quite the expertise when it comes to those.
“Well”, he smiles, “I’m quite eager to see it, then. I can’t wait to see you boys play! Although I must confess I have no idea what a quick is… But it sounds very impressive, Hinata-kun.
Hinata beams, and the team’s mood immediately brightens, but then Daichi frowns and they all follow up as if by instinct.
“That… I’m afraid the freak quick is gonna have to wait for a bit, Sensei. You see, Shouyou, he, uh, he landed badly the other day and twisted his ankle, so he can’t exactly play right now… But, he’ll be fine as fiddle in a week top! He has that monstrous stamina, it’s incredible.”
Ittetsu glances as the kid’s legs, which stand perfectly fine on the ground, bouncing on the ball of his feet, and decides not to point out the obvious lie. Earning this team’s trust just might be the greatest challenge of his teaching career as of yet.
He cannot wait to watch them play.