Chapter Text
Afternoon practices at Karasuno were always chaotic. No matter how hard Daichi tried, it felt like there was always something going on that he’d really love to prevent. Tsukishima was antagonising someone, or Tanaka was whipping his shirt off, or Hinata and Kageyama were fighting. This one had been going well though. Much too well for comfort. Daichi knew it was only a matter of time until something went wrong, he just knew it, but for a moment he let himself enjoy the (relative) calm.
The moment was abruptly interrupted when Takeda rushed in looking particularly disheveled. Never a good sign, and Daichi took one last look around the room in all of its blissful peace and sighed as he prepared for it to fall to pieces.
“Excuse me, can I get you all to gather around for a moment?” Takeda was grinning ear to ear, another sign of imminent disaster or at the very least chaos. “We’ve just received a very exciting invitation from Date Tech.” Hinata shot up, eyes wide.
“Do we get to play against the Iron Wall again? We’ll win again for sure, we’re even stronger now!”
“Hinata, let’s sit back down and let Takeda finish,” Daichi reprimanded. Hinata glanced at him, face turning red, and sat back down with a quick apology. “As I was saying, we’ve received a very exciting invitation from Date Tech. Before the Spring Tournament Preliminaries, they’re hosting a week-long training camp with some of the other schools in the prefecture, and we’ve been invited!” Ukai shot him a suspicious look.
“You weren’t begging them, were you?” “No! They extended the invitation, they want to give the Miyagi prefecture an edge at nationals, for whoever makes it.” Tsukishima raised an eyebrow.
“Won’t be much use for us, then,” he mumbled. Daichi was fairly confident most of the team didn’t hear him, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Yamaguchi frown and elbow him. He smiled. Yamaguchi was good for him.
“Well, I think I speak for everyone when I say we’d like to go.” Daichi smiled at Asahi and Suga. Asahi nodded as Suga gazed off. Strange.
“Which of the other schools will be there?” Suga turned back to face Takeda now. Something was definitely up with him. “Let me see… Date Tech obviously, along with Johzenji, Wakutani Minami, and Aoba Johsai.” At the mention of the last school, Suga’s expression shifted slightly. Daichi raised an eyebrow. Whatever that was, it was new. He hadn’t noticed Suga taking any particular interest in Seijoh before. Hopefully this wasn’t a problem, Daichi thought mildly. Karasuno certainly had strong enough feelings about Seijoh and their so-called Great King already. He could hardly justify turning down such a beneficial opportunity though. At the very least, it should be entertaining.
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Iwaizumi was about ten minutes into afternoon practice and he was already pissed off. Their team captain, the one who was supposed to be responsible and manage everything, was late. This was a pretty rare occurrence— usually Oikawa was the first one to the gym and the last one to leave, but if he’d been up until sunrise trying to prepare for the Spring Tournament, Iwaizumi would make sure he regretted it. Lucky for him, Oikawa strutted in with Coach Irihata a few minutes later.
“You’re late, asshole,” Iwaizumi called.
“Iwa-chan, there’s no need to be rude! In fact, you should be thanking me,” announced Oikawa, looking far too smug for someone who had shown up fifteen minutes late to practice. He was practically asking for a black eye. “And why the hell should I do that?” “Because we have just received an invitation to a week-long training camp, hosted by Date Tech, for all the best in the prefecture!” His dramatic reveal had certainly captured the team’s attention, and the first years burst into excited chatter, even Kunimi looking interested. Iwaizumi just stared at Oikawa. “Why would we be thanking you for that?” “It was obviously my charm that convinced them to invite us!” Rolling his eyes, Iwaizumi elected not to say anything for fear of somehow inflating Oikawa’s ego even further.
“We’re totally going, right?” Asked Kindaichi. Oikawa nodded. “It’s right before the Spring Tournament, it’s a valuable opportunity.” “And do you think Karasuno will be there?” Kindaichi still hadn’t quite moved past his rivalry with Kageyama, noted Iwaizumi. He wondered if Karasuno’s setter was of the same mind or if he was too focused on beating Oikawa. Maybe if he just let the first years wear each other out Oikawa would be able to focus on something else for once.
“The other schools in attendance will be Johzenji, Wakutani Minami, and yes, Karasuno,” supplied Coach Irihata. Johzenji should be interesting. Iwaizumi remembered hearing rumours that they only practiced by playing two on two matches, so they could pose a challenge. Wakutani was another powerful school, with a shorter player like Karasuno’s number 10. And of course, the flightless crows themselves.
He was admittedly looking forward to playing them again; it had been a close game, and he was sure they’d improved since then, but so had Seijoh. The only downside was that Oikawa would be absolutely insufferable. Iwaizumi would have to keep an even closer eye on him than usual leading up to the camp, their captain couldn’t afford to be sleep deprived going into a tournament and Iwaizumi had already caught him staying up to rewatch tapes of Karasuno’s games more than a few times. He’d even gone digging for their matches from last year, god knows why, but gave up on them pretty quickly. Hopefully he’d come to his senses since then, but at the very least, it should be entertaining.