His Warrior Queen: A Haikyuu!! Novel (Tsukishima x OC)

Chapter 112: Let's Get Down to It

"Oh we've got a coach," Sudo had interjected, her smile becoming sly, "We've got the perfect coach for this job.  Ogawa-kun is my vice, but she was also student coach for the boys team last year.  She knows exactly what to do to bring this team up to that standard, sir."

The Vice Principal had looked over at Nakano, suddenly recognizing her.  "Ogawa Nakano...you did coach the boys last year, didn't you?  I remember Takeda-san asking about you taking on that role.  Well now, this makes a big difference.  And you say Takeda-san will be remaining on site with all of you?"  Tanaka nodded, sliding a letter from Takeda-sensei in front of the man.  "Well then, I expect great things from both of our volleyball teams this year.  I'm sure your Golden Week training camp will be a great success, and put both your teams on the road to the National Tournament.  That would be quite an honor for our school, to have both of our volleyball teams make it to Nationals.  Ogawa-san, please lead our girls and boys teams to victory this season!  We're counting on you!"

Ennoshita, Tanaka and Sudo had been overjoyed.  Nakano had gone home with Kei that evening looking terribly upset, and had not at all wanted to talk about it.  Kei had tried to gently coax her into opening up about what was bothering her, but the girl had steadfastly refused, becoming downright grouchy before long.  "I don't like this, Kei," she'd groused, "I should not be the only reason why people take Karasuno's girls' volleyball team seriously.  And I'm not the coach for the boys team anymore.  Ennoshita doesn't need me butting in on his authority."  After saying that, the girl seemed to collapse in on herself, becoming broody, and nothing Kei had done had convinced her to talk about it any further.  In the end, he had let it go, but he worried.  Kei knew his girlfriend well enough to know that something was happening inside of her head, something that was going to have to be dealt with eventually.  He had decided then and there to keep a close watch on Nakano, and observe how she reacted to things...see if he might be able to figure out what was going on in her head.  Becoming a volleyball player again was clearly reopening some wounds the girl had kept long buried.  Which, when he thought about it, stood to reason.  

The Golden Week training camp itself had been pretty good, actually.  Despite Nakano's apparent misgivings about how they'd gotten permission to do it, once they were into it, the girl had seemed to get really excited about working with her new team.  Nakano had planned a full regimen for the week to help the girls drill their fundamentals, and Ennoshita had insisted that the boys would follow the same plan.  Nakano had balked at first, but Tanaka had just laughed.

"Are you kidding me right now, Naka-chan?  Do you have any idea how much we've been looking forward to introducing the first years to Coach Legs' drills?  Let's get down to it!!"  The boisterous vice captain of Karasuno had yanked off his shirt and twirled it over his head, making half the people in the room cheer and the other half roll their eyes.

Yamaguchi had chuckled.  "Tanaka never changes, does he?"

"Not unless Kiyoko's around," Kinoshita had said behind a hand.

"Seriously, Naka-chan, this had been my intention all along.  We need to get back to our basics, drill our fundamentals and get ourselves back into prime condition, making sure we can do what we need to get done for Interhigh.  I promise you, you're not taking over, or horning in where you're not wanted, or whatever it is that you think you might be doing.  If I feel the guys need to work on something else, I'll say so.  So do what you do best, Nakano.  We're excited to get going."

Nakano had started at Ennoshita's words, which had made Kei rather surprised.  He'd never considered the idea that maybe Nakano would feel differently about working with the boys now that she was officially part of the girls team.  In the boys' eyes, she would always be their Coach Legs - surely she had to realize that.  After that little pep talk from Ennoshita, Nakano had buckled down and gotten everyone to work, and had seemed more like her old self.  But Kei would catch a curious look on the girl's face from time to time...an unhappy, rather far away look, as if Nakano were remembering something rather unpleasant.  Whenever she noticed him noticing, she'd look away, glancing at him again moments later with her fake smile plastered on her face.