Queen Of The Crows // Haikyuu

#10: Interhigh Preliminaries (Part 4)

When Aobajohsai calls for the time out, Haneul rushed to get them their towels and water bottles with Kiyoko. She looks at the opposing team, saying, "They probably figured out the signal," but no one seems to have heard her, since they were talking loudly among themselves.

Aobajohsai starts focusing its blockers up front and Haneul notices the pressure building up in Kageyama. Hinata was now in the back, and as Kageyama'ssetter dumped got blocked, she came to the conclusion that the dark setter was loosing his cool.

Hinata soon moves up front again with the rotation and calls for the ball. Haneul looks at Iwaizumi and Kindaichi, who weren't moving to block him immediately, but manage to touch Hinata's spike. Haneul but her lip, swearing in Korean under her breath. "They figured it out," she said loudly this time, causing Sugawara to look at her. "And Tobio-kun is loosing it." Sugawara raises a brow at her statement, but looks back at Kageyama, who was about to serve.

The setter messes up and only barely manages to turn it into a soft serve at the last second. The ball is received and sent back to their side, but Kageyama ends up receiving it. Daichi sets instead and Tanaka goes to spike, getting blocked completely.

Keishin quickly calls a time out as it is Oikawa's turn to serve again. He warns Kageyama not to lose his cool and lectures him on his setter dump. The match resumes soon after and this time, Tanaka receives the ball. Haneul looks at Keishin, giving him the time out sign as Oikawa seems to be targeting Tanaka. He calls the time out, using both of their time outside for the set.

As Tanaka apologizes for not calling for the last set, Haneul dumps a bit of cold water on him. "Cool down, Tanaka-senpai. Just do better next time," she smiled at him, who got pumped up. Daichi and Asahi silently thank her.

After the timeout ends, the players go back into position. Oikawa aims his serve at Tanaka again, receiving it barely with his stomach. Hinata saves it and Kageyama sends it back over towards Oikawa. However, Watari’s able to set the ball, surprising Haneul. Despite this, Nishinoya receives the ball perfectly and Kageyama gets ready to toss it. Tanaka loudly calls for it and jumps, slamming the ball past Kunimi and scoring, effectively stopping Oikawa’s momentum. 

With a seven point gap, Haneul sees that Kageyama is sending sharper tosses, meaning that he is agitated. The ball soon goes right over the net and the two setters jump simultaneously to push it over. In his panic, Kageyama loses control to Oikawa, worsening his agitation. Haneul looks at Keishin and Takeda once that happened, and he nods. Kageyama ends up making a mistake with his toss at Kei, but Asahi saved it. Keishin then made a player change: Sugawara was stepping up.

Kageyama is switched out by Sugawara, and Haneul welcomes him with his towel and water bottle. "Tobio-kun, are you okay?" Haneul asked as the setter stood beside her in the bench area. He stayed silent, but Haneul said, "Y-You need to cool down a bit, okay?" This time, the setter nodded at her, taking a sip of water.

The match resumed and Iwaizumi went to spike right in front of Sugawara, but at the last second, Sugawara and Kei switched places, enabling Kei to block Iwaizumi. Hinata soon gets switched back in, and Nishinoya greets Haneul with a high five. The Libero already looked a little fatigued, since with the weird momentum they had, he was in the court for a while. Haneul gave him his water, and he thanked her. "I think... You're going to be called in for me, Ha-chan," Nishinoya said between pants.

"M-me?! B-but I'm not ready yet-" "We need to have their backs," Nishinoya interrupted her, and she nodded with a blush, fidgeting with her fingers. "O-okay."