At one point or another, there will be another player that becomes your rival and your goal to surpass.
Whether or not this rivalry is one-sided and only in your own mind, that's up to you to find out.
~~~
"Kenma, focus!" Kuroo sighed as he caught the ball Kenma had set to him. It was way too low to even think about spiking over the net.
"Sorry," Kenma lowered his arms as he apologized, but his tone didn't match his words. The boy was distracted again, lost in his mind as he had been this entire weekend.
"Oi, Lover Boy, even if I was the one to bug you about it, get your mind out of the clouds for now. We have Spring Highs coming up." Kuroo grinned as he spoke quietly so Chiyuri wouldn't hear. Their manager was off on the side, trying her best to encourage Lev to use more thinking than pure instinct when he hit the ball. The tall half-Russian boy had been whining when Kuroo had ordered Kenma not to set to him until he got his basics down. Of course, it was more of a relief for the setter if anything. "Besides, don't you want to show off on the court for her?"
"Shut up."
Kenma glared at the third year, but was unable to hide the slight blush that came upon his face. Kuroo was being more annoying than before, directly teasing Kenma about his feelings. It made the setter almost restless and the fact that he kept getting reminded of his feelings made him self-conscious and shy around the girl all day. She had clearly noticed that something was off, but he wasn't willing to explain it to her at all.
As Kenma slowly began to pull himself out of his thoughts, he noticed that the black-haired girl he had just been thinking about was making her way over after Lev had been dragged away reluctantly by Yaku to practice receives. Immediately, he felt self-conscious and awkward, so he simply ran away, hugging the volleyball to his chest and allowing his hair to act as a curtain around his face.
"Is Kenma okay?" Chiyuri asked as she slowed her steps and stared after the setter in concern. Kuroo sighed from beside her, shaking his head.
"Yeah, he just needs to get his thoughts together." Kuroo grinned, ruffling Chiyuri's hair as she yelped and quickly backed off from the third-year. "Since Kenma ran away, do you mind tossing some balls for me?"
Chiyuri nodded, albeit slowly. With a pat on the shoulder by the older boy, she dragged over a platform and a spare cart of balls, but her gaze still wandered to where Kenma had run off to. Despite looking somewhat annoyed at Yamamoto as the loud second-year was rambling about Karasuno's manager, he didn't return to Kuroo and Chiyuri, leaving an odd feeling in the latter's chest.
~~~
After the morning practice, the school day passed slowly, with Kenma still unintentionally avoiding Chiyuri. He didn't want to, but he also couldn't control how red his face turned. Kuroo's provocations about his feelings kept echoing in his mind, and the only thing he could do to stop thinking about it was hide away in a small corner and play his games.
When Chiyuri attempted to approach the boy after school, he dodged her and slipped to the club room to change before she could follow. Throughout practice, he hardly could glance at her and would only reply with a small acknowledgement when she handed him his water bottle. After practice ended, Kenma simply vanished before she could finish washing out the bottles.
Glumly, the girl dragged her feet home, confusion taking over her mind as she spiraled into misunderstandings. Had she said something that upset Kenma? Did she do something? Did she forget to do something? Did they have a scheduled gaming session over the weekend she missed?
The girl wracked her brain, but still came up empty when she passed through her door. Hiro padded up to her, the calico kitten's golden eyes briefly darting behind her as if looking for someone else. Chiyuri sighed, squatting down as she rubbed the small kitten's head.
"Sorry, Hiro," she said as the kitten rubbed his head against her hand with a purr. "I don't know why, but Kenma has been avoiding me all day..." Chiyuri let out yet another sigh, taking off her shoes quickly before heading to the kitchen and dropping her bag down on the table.
"I hope I didn't do anything..." Chiyuri mumbled to herself as she scooped a can of wet cat food out for Hiro, placing it in a stainless steel bowl before placing it in front of the kitten. Hiro dug in immediately.
Chiyuri wandered aimlessly through the kitchen, half trying to find something to eat for dinner and the other half trying to figure out still if she had done something wrong. When nothing came to mind for either, she shut her fridge and threw herself onto the couch.
She dropped her arm over her eyes, blocking out the bright lights of her living room as she tried now instead to think of how to apologize for whatever she did to upset Kenma. He was too precious of a friend to her, so she had to apologize for whatever she did wrong. He was the first person to reassure her that she wasn't just the Phantom and had even taken the time to try to protect her from the name.
A few moments of silence passed before Chiyuri sprang up from her bed.
"Apple pie," she said, scrambling up off the couch. She quickly grabbed her bag, fishing her keys and wallet out before heading to the door. She'd never made apple pie before, so she would probably need a lot more apples than she had in her fridge before she had an acceptable one to give to Kenma.
Meanwhile, at Kenma's house, Kuroo had invited himself into the dark house. Kenma's room light was the only one on, as always considering that his parents weren't home most of the time. The third-year knew why Kenma was doing what he was doing, but he also knew that the setter had no idea how this would wreak havoc on Chiyuri's mind. Even if Chiyuri was as perfect a manager as usual, Kuroo could see the gears trying to turn in her head. However, he knew nothing would make sense to her because, at the bottom of it, Kenma had no reason to avoid her except his own awkwardness and shyness.
"Kenma!" Kuroo called, opening the door to the pudding-haired boy's room without so much as a knock. Kenma let out a small groan of irritation, but did nothing to try to kick Kuroo out.
"What, Kuroo?" Kenma asked, turning his head from where he laid on his bed to look at the older boy. On his nightstand was the otome game that Kuroo had given him before, but it laid unopened and untouched. Clearly, Kenma didn't feel it worthwhile to even bother trying it out. Kuroo sighed when he noticed it. What was all his effort for? On the other hand, Kenma'ss phone laid beside him, the screen showing no new notifications, not that he was waiting for anything.
"Oya?" Kuroo smirked as he saw the phone. Kenma quickly turned it off, glaring at his captain before sighing and covering his eyes with his arm. "You know, I don't think she'll text you tonight."
"And why not?" Kenma retorted.
"Because she probably thinks you need space?" Kuroo plopped himself onto Kenma's desk chair, raising an eyebrow at the setter on the bed.
"Why would she think that?" Kenma questioned, his tone showing pure confusion. Kuroo sighed.
"Why wouldn't she think that? You've been avoiding her all day."
"Y-Yeah, but that's because I have a reason..." Kenma flushed.
"Which is?" Kuroo prodded. Kenma let out a small hiss, grabbing a pillow and throwing it at Kuroo. The third year caught it with a laugh, chucking the soft object back toward Kenma.
"You already know, Kuroo." Kenma turned onto his side, avoiding eye contact with his childhood friend.
"No, I don't," Kuroo insisted.
"Yes, you do."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"Okay fine," Kuroo relented, holding his hands up in a surrender even though Kenma couldn't see. "Let's just say I do know."
"You do," Kenma interrupted with a grumble.
"Let's say I know," Kuroo repeated. "Chiyuri won't have the slightest clue. So she doesn't know."
"But what if she does?" Kenma asked, spinning back around. Kuroo gave him a deadpan look, which made Kenma guiltily look away. Okay, so maybe she didn't know. He knew her too well, so there was almost a 100% chance that she didn't know.
"She probably thinks you hate her or something," Kuroo turned away, hiding a small smirk. He had a plan.
"What, no!" Kenma sat up, his eyes wide as he looked to Kuroo. "I don't hate her at all."
"Yeah, of course. You don't hate her. You like her." Kuroo let out a cackling laughter as yet another pillow flew toward him. Behind it was a flaming red Kenma at yet another reminder of his feelings.
"Shut up," he grumbled.
"Okay, okay," Kuroo appeased finally. "I'll shut up, but only if you do something for me."
"What..." Kenma asked hesitantly. His golden eyes showed his clear hesitation in accepting.
"We're going to be picking up Chiyuri to walk to school tomorrow."
~~~
Chiyuri sighed, dropping the many ingredients onto the kitchen counter as gently as she could to avoid bruising the apples. Hiro followed the girl, hopping up onto the counter to check out what she had brought back.
"Hiro, get off the counter," Chiyuri shooed. "I need to make an apple pie for Kenma." The kitten meowed, swatting at the plastic bag before jumping back with his tail puffed from the rustling sound it made. Chiyuri giggled, gently picking up the kitten and walking her calico baby over to his cat tower in the living room.
"Just stay here for a bit, Hiro," she cooed while petting his small head. "I don't want you getting hurt by the knives and stuff."
With Hiro now safely away from the kitchen, Chiyuri set her mind to starting her apology gift to Kenma. Except there was a problem; she didn't know how to create it from scratch. Chiyuri quickly considered her options before opting for a phone call to her mother. Her mother loved baking when she used to be home more, so perhaps she could offer some guidance.
The grey-eyed girl quickly found her mom's contact which sported a woman that looked almost identical to Chiyuri, except older and with brown hair. The image was a couple years old, but it was the most recent image Chiyuri had of her mother. To be honest, Chiyuri hadn't even seen what her mother looked like now, as sad as that was to admit.
It took a couple rings, but the line connected and a voice that Chiyuri hadn't heard in a long time came through.
"Hello?"
"Okaa-San?" Chiyuri replied "It's Chiyuri. Are you busy right now?"
"Chiyuri?" Her mother's tone held a bit of surprise. "Why're you calling right now? Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, everything's fine! I was wondering if you had time to talk me through how to make an apple pie. Maybe we could catch up a bit while we're at it." Chiyuri smiled hopefully over the phone. Now that she was talking to her mom, it was hard to think about having to hang up later. She missed the warmth that her mother brought into the home.
"Oh, baby, I'm sorry." Chiyuri's smile dropped. "Now's not really a good time. We've been so busy these past weeks that it's just been work, sleep and repeat."
"It's okay," Chiyuri sighed. "I'll let you go soon, but do you know when you'll be back. It's just Hiro and me here..."
"Baby," her mother breathed out, "You know your father and I are very busy trying to keep our overseas clients right now."
"Yeah, but you've been overseas for over a year now..." Chiyuri mumbled in disappointment. Luckily, her mother didn't hear it as the older woman was shouting something in English.
"What was that, dear?"
"Nothing." Chiyuri forced out a bright tone, the same one she had always used with her parents despite how alone she had felt throughout the entirety of the last year. They had a lot on their plate, so she felt like she couldn't burden them with things like her loneliness. "You're busy, so I won't keep you any longer. Love you, Okaa-San."
"Thank you, honey. I'll call you in a few weeks after everything settles down. We can talk then."
With that said, the call ended. Chiyuri lowered her phone slowly, a cloudy grey haze taking over her eyes as she told herself that she wasn't lonely. Her mood clearly had been dampened, but what could she do? Her parents were off working to give Chiyuri a good life, so it wasn't like she could complain, now could she?
Her fingers hovered over the next most recent contact subconsciously. With a small tap, it led her to the text messages she had shared with Kenma the past weekend. She felt the urge to text him, but she wasn't sure if he'd even respond. With a sigh, she exited the messages app and instead pressed on another contact. It took a couple rings, but it connected still, making Chiyuri let out a small smile.
"Hey Rika, do you know how to make an apple pie?"
~~~
"Kenma?" Chiyuri said in shock as soon as she opened the door. He had shown up at her door the next morning with a smirking Kuroo behind him. "Kuroo-Senpai? What are you two doing here?"
"We're here to walk with you to school!" Kuroo put a hand on her head and ruffled her hair, causing Chiyuri to giggle, though she didn't stop him. Despite being on the phone with Rika late into the night while she tried to make an apple pie, the deafening silence of the house still bothered her right up until she fell asleep. Even Hiro's soft purrs couldn't comfort her. So though Kenma and Kuroo would never know, their presence that morning was most welcomed.
"Oh, I'm not ready yet," Chiyuri said apologetically. "You can come in for now. I'm sure Hiro would love some attention before we head out."
Without waiting for them to respond, she ushered them in, allowing them a brief time to take off their shoes before guiding them to the living room. The smell of something sweet wafted through the house, though neither Kenma nor Kuroo could put a finger on it.
"Wait here. I'll be right back."
Chiyuri scurried away, her black hair fluttering slightly as she disappeared around the corner and up the stairs. The calico kitten they had been left with stared at them with innocent golden eyes, waiting to be pet. Who were they to deny the kitten of attention?
With one hand on Hiro's head, Kenma allowed his mind to wander slightly. He was glad she hadn't invited them to her room to wait. Granted, it made sense for them to wait in the living room while she was getting ready, but Kenma didn't think he was ready to enter her room again after he figured out his feelings. Another thing that was on his mind was the sweet smell in her house. It was something familiar, yet it was on the tip of his tongue.
"Hey, what's this?" Kuroo's voice sounded, but it wasn't next to Kenma on the couch. Kuroo had somewhy made his way into the kitchen and was holding a small box with Kenma's name on it. "It look's like it's for you."
"What?" Kenma perked up, curiosity getting the best of him as he glanced at the stairs where Chiyuri hadn't come down from. A little peek couldn't hurt right?
Kenma slid over next to Kuroo who had sneakily managed to open the lid and take a peek. Before Kenma could look into the box, Kuroo slammed it closed with a smirk.
"What?" Kenma asked, giving Kuroo a confused look. "What's in there?"
"I don't think I should tell you," Kuroo said in a teasing tone. He put the box back onto the counter, a hand over the lid to keep Kenma from looking inside it.
"What, why?" Kenma frowned. Curiosity was eating at him. Plus, it had his name on it.
"Nothing. It just isn't my place to tell you."
Kuroo grinned as he heard Chiyuri's footsteps descending from the stairs. It didn't take long before she rounded the corner, only to see the two of them standing over the little box she had prepared.
"Uhm..." Chiyuri looked at the box that Kuroo had his hand on, then at the two boys in her kitchen.
"Sorry, Chi-Chan!" Kuroo said, taking his hand off the box. Chiyuri gave him a confused look. "I saw what's inside, but don't worry, Kenma hasn't seen it yet." Kuroo walked out of the kitchen, leaving Kenma by the counter. He gave the girl a small pat on the shoulder as he passed by her. "I'll leave you two be for now. We still have plenty of time before we have to leave. I'll be in the guest bedroom, so call me when you two are ready."
Chiyuri nodded, looking down to the floor in embarrassment. Her apology gift had been found before she could even say her sorry. As Kuroo disappeared upstairs, Chiyuri made her way to the kitchen where Kenma was still staring at the box in confusion.
"Yuri, what's this?" He asked, awkwardness fading as curiosity took it's place. He couldn't help it. It seemed like that familiar sweet smell was strongest from the box, though it floated around the kitchen in general.
"Ah..." Chiyuri shuffled her feet. "It's my... apology?"
"Apology?" Kenma echoed. "Apology for what?"
"I-I don't really know..." Chiyuri said sheepishly. "I thought I might've done something wrong, so I prepared an apology."
"Why would you think you've done something wrong?"
"You've been avoiding me?" Chiyuri tilted her head in confusion. "You kept running away, so I thought I did something. and I didn't want to lose you as a friend -"
"You didn't do anything wrong," Kenma said, interrupting her as soon as he heard the word friend. It gave him that hard feeling in the pit of his stomach like before, but now he knew it was because he liked Chiyuri. "I just needed to sort some things out for myself."
"Really?" Chiyuri asked skeptically.
"Yeah." Kenma offered her a smile which she returned with relief flooding her expression. "Do I still get whatever you got for me, though? It smells sweet."
"Oh, yeah. Sure."
Chiyuri gestured to the box, letting Kenma unravel the small ribbon that Kuroo had completely ignored. The lid of the container came off to reveal a small, homemade apple pie. Kenma blinked in surprise.
"You like apple pie, right?" Chiyuri grinned. "I made it last night since I thought you were mad at me. I called Rika for help, but Google was more helpful than she was."
Chiyuri rambled off, explaining the things that she put in and how she messed up on the crust. She trailed off into a tangent about how Kenma didn't have to accept it since she didn't know if it'd taste good. However, Kenma barely listened to her ramblings as she talked about how embarrassed she was that she had been found out.
Instead, he found himself liking Chiyuri more and more.
Oh goodness.
~~~
Chiyuri gave a blank gaze to the boys standing in the staff room of Nekoma High School, her posture reserved and protective of herself as her cheerful mood from this morning faded behind her cold facade. Coach Nekomata had called for her to head to the staff room before practice, but she hadn't expected to come face to face with a group of students from another school. They were clearly the opposing school's volleyball team as all of them had a standard white shoulder bag and maroon jacket and white pants.
"Tsukishima-San," the coach said, waving her closer. She obeyed, taking small steps to stand beside Coach Nekomata and directly in front of the boys. "This is Inarizaki High's volleyball team. They're a powerhouse in Hyogo and have attended Nationals for three years already. They've luckily granted us the chance to play against them before the Spring High tournament officially begins. Get acquainted with them then bring them to the gym."
Chiyuri nodded as Coach Nekomata headed out, keeping her facade well as she quietly drew her gaze over the team. Their captain, a boy with light grey hair and black tips, stepped forward, holding out a hand.
"I'm the captain, Shinsuke Kita."
"Chiyuri Tsukishima, Nekoma's manager. Nice to meet you," she replied, shaking his hand in return. Her grey eyes bore into his coldly, causing Kita to be the first to withdraw his hand with a small chill running down his back. It wasn't a feeling of malice, but it still unnerved even the blunt and stoic boy.
"Since when did Nekoma have such a pretty manager?" A dyed-blonde boy came up, casually leaning against the desk beside them. "I'm Atsumu Miya, setter."
"'Tsumu, don't creep on someone ya just met." A grey-haired duplicate of Atsumu came up, nodding his head to Chiyuri. "Osamu Miya. I'm this idiot's twin."
"Who ya calling an idiot?!" Atsumu turned toward Osamu with a glare.
Before their bickering could continue, a darker-skinned male came up, pushing his way between the twins and offering a smile to the girl.
"Aran Ojiro, Vice Captain, nice to meet ya, Tsukishima-San. Please just ignore these twins." The sound of a camera shutter clicked behind Aran and Chiyuri tilted her head to look around him. The twins had resumed bickering and a tall, black haired boy was busy taking photos of their fight.
"Rintaro Suna," the boy briefly introduced when he felt the gaze of the Nekoma manager on him. Immediately after, he went back to taking photos of the twins who were now verging on a full out fight in the staff room.
"Hello! I'm Michinari Akagi." Chiyuri turned toward the spiky-haired boy that somehow managed to speak over the growing volume of the room, courtesy of the twins. He gave her a smile, seemingly used to the chaos of his team before gesturing to the remaining boys who had yet to give their names. "That's Ren Omimi, Hitoshi Ginjima, Yuto Kosaku and Heisuke Riseki. I hate to cut our introductions short, but perhaps we should leave before the twins actually fight."
"Ah, yes..." Chiyuri nodded in agreement, her gaze warily dragging to the Inarizaki team who had apparently grown so used to their bickering that they simply turned a blind eye to it subconsciously, minus Suna who had now started recording the twins and their endless insults to each other. "Please follow me to the gym."
Chiyuri guided them out of the room, thankfully ending the brewing fight between the twins, and quietly slipped to the front of the group to lead them away. She was thankful that classes had ended almost a whole twenty minutes ago, meaning that the halls were empty and she didn't have to deal with the attention that came with walking alongside the tall volleyball players.
"Chi-Chan!" Ano suddenly came barreling down the hall from around the corner, ignoring the fact that she startled the entire group and rushing to hide behind the black-haired girl. She tried to spin around to look at the female libero, but was stopped and held in place by the other girl. "Sorry for interrupting, but you have to stop Captain!"
"Rika?" The Inarizaki team glanced at the girl who's eyes visibly softened upon seeing her friend. Her expression was still stone cold, but her grey-eyes were less piercing than when they had been introduced. Curiosity spiked in them. The grey-eyed manager sighed, brushing a hand through her hair. "Was it Kuroo-Senpai again?"
"Mhm," Ano hummed. "Kuroo apparently was bragging about you as a manager, so Captain started saying you were ours first. Then she got provoked as usual and now she's been making us train like we're in the Olympics..."
Ano trailed off as a brown-haired third year rounded the corner. A small yelp sounded from the libero and Ano quickly ducked behind Chiyuri. The grey-eyed manager said a quiet apology to the Inarizaki team for the holdup, but none of them seemed to mind as they watched on in varying degrees of amusement and confusion. The boys' team stole the manager from the girls'? That was an interesting story that they wanted to hear.
"Ano! Stop bothering Chi! You need to finish your laps!"
"I don't want to!" Ano whined, but the girl was no match for the captain who pried the girl off of Chiyuri. With yet another apology to the visiting volleyball team, she quickly wrapped Chiyuri in a hug before dragging off Ano.
"Yer the girls' manager too?" Atsumu asked, his curiosity getting the best of him. The blonde setter fell into step next to her as she resumed their route toward the gym.
"I used to be a wing spiker on the girls' team," Chiyuri informed politely yet bluntly.
"A wing spiker?!" Osamu butted in suddenly. "Why'd ya suddenly become a manager?"
"Personal reasons," the girl replied.
Chiyuri withdrew into herself a little more, her grey eyes clouding over as she inched away from the twins slightly. The twins made a face of disappointment, but said nothing more as they backed off. However, Atsumu perked up again shortly, his interest in the girl's reasons spiking. He'd rumors from Sakusa that the Nekoma girls' team had a big issue not too long ago and ended up canceling a practice match at Itachiyama.
Despite Chiyuri's cold response, Atsumu clearly didn't know how to give up. While the rest of the Inarizaki team simply allowed her to guide them in silence, the setter continued to ramble on to get details from her on what happened to her former team. The girl remained quiet, but confusion and even slight irritation welled up in her. Thankfully, it didn't take them too much longer to get to the gym where she quickly slipped away from Atsumu, leaving the teams to get acquainted with one another while she started preparing for the practice match.
However, Atsumu clearly wasn't ready to drop the subject and continued to pester her whenever he could. During their short breaks between sets, he'd follow the girl around. She remained cold to him, her stony gaze unrelenting, but it didn't seem to deter him from casually trailing behind the girl. He'd continually ask her for anything from her phone number to how good she was in volleyball.
"Why is he following you around?" Kenma asked in slight irritation as soon as they had a small break. Chiyuri had escaped to his side in hopes of avoiding Atsumu for at least one break. Nekoma had just lost four sets in a row to Inarizaki, but Kenma wasn't focused on that; sure, it was frustrating to lose so consistently, but the more pressing question was why was the Inarizaki setter following Chiyuri so much?
Chiyuri shrugged, sighing slight and dropping her head tiredly onto Kenma's shoulder. Kenma's face turned red, but he quickly used his hair to shield it from her. He wasn't ready for her to start questioning. After a moment's hesitation, Kenma shyly reached a hand up and patted her head in some form of comfort. The girl hummed slightly.
"Chi-Chan, come here for a second," Kuroo called, completely disrupting their moment. His eyes were locked onto the Inarizaki team, a frown and glare trained specifically on their setter who was doing a better job at provoking him than he was to them. Atsumu had a smirk on his face that was irritating Kuroo to no end. Chiyuri sighed, lifting her head off Kenma's shoulder and quickly made her way next to Kuroo who placed a hand on her shoulder. Kenma trailed not too far behind her since he already knew where Kuroo was going.
"We're subbing you in," he declared with finality. Chiyuri took a second, blinking slowly as if she was trying to process it.
"Right now?" She finally asked after a while. Surprise was clear in her tone, but she remained fairly calm.
"Yes. We need at least one set against those foxes to end the day. Just for personal satisfaction."
Chiyuri hesitated, looking to Coach Nekomata who nodded with a burning fire in his eyes. He too felt the need to beat Inarizaki at least once to end the day. With a small nod, Chiyuri agreed.
"Heh~ Yer manager is playing next set?" Atsumu asked with a confident smirk. Kuroo returned the same smile.
"Don't underestimate our manager."
"I'm not underestimating her," Atsumu shrugged. "She's quite the manager, being a former wing spiker."
Atsumu winked at her, his smirk growing as soon as Kenma's glare locked onto him. The Nekoma setter's annoyance flared and he quickly put his hands on Chiyuri's shoulder to spin her around. Chiyuri glanced to Kenma in confusion, but he offered no explanation.
With a quick change in the starting positions, Chiyuri took Inuoka's place in the back row. Her steely-grey eyes locked onto the Inarizaki team, causing shivers to run down their spines.
"Atsumu, are you sure you should've provoked her?" Suna asked. He eyed the girl warily, noting how her stance almost resembled Sakusa Kiyoomi's. There was no sense of worry in her posture; she knew she would win.
"It's fine," Atsumu waved off despite the slight unease he felt. Osamu rolled his eyes at his twin, opting to just ignore the blonde-haired setter.
With a whistle from the referee, the game started with Inarizaki serving. Yaku received it, passing it to Kenma who gave Kuroo the first chance to spike. To his dismay, it ended with a point for Inarizaki after Suna blocked it. The foxy-eyed boy apathetically looked to Kuroo before returning back to his spot.
Inarizaki took the serve again, this time aiming for a service ace. With a strong start, Atsumu hit the ball over the net, aiming for the back corner where he didn't expect anyone to be. However, his eyes widened in surprise when the ball didn't hit the ground and instead, the sound of the volleyball on flesh rang out.
"Mine" Chiyuri called quietly, allowing the ball to come toward her as she received it cleanly. The blockers on the Inarizaki team rushed forward toward Fukunaga as he was the only one in a position to spike. As soon as the ball rebounded off her forearms, she was moving again, dashing forward as Kenma silently agreed to set the ball to her via a small instance of eye contact. With his body angled toward Fukunaga at the other end, he set the ball toward Chiyuri from behind. Suna's eyes widened as he quickly tried to dash from the three-person block on Fukunaga to at least try to block Chiyuri. He would've made it had he not made eye-contact with the Nekoma manager. Her grey-eyes pierced him, the confidence she had that she would make the point caused him to hesitate in jumping for just less than half a second, but it was enough for her as she shot the ball past him. The volleyball brushed past Atsumu who was frozen in shock and Akagi barely managed to touch the ball. It rebounded off to the side, scoring a point for Nekoma
"Nice, Chi-Chan!" Kuroo called as she landed. She nodded, quickly returning to her spot on the court, but not without a small smile and a high-five from Kenma who gave her a small compliment on the well-executed spike.
Inarizaki's interest in the girl spiked. She was like a phantom on the court.
Suddenly, Atsumu's surprised expression turned into a knowing smirk. It finally came to his mind. The falling out on the girls' team had to do with a wing spiker who seemed to disappear on the court. It had to be Chiyuri.
With newfound energy, Atsumu ran around the court, haphazardly stealing Suna and Aran's receives to set while trying his best to aim against Chiyuri. She was as solid a receiver as she was a spiker, which irked the blonde boy. There wasn't a hole he could find, and half the time he didn't even have a clue where on court she was. The low yet powerful presence of the girl not only riled up Atsumu, but clearly also Suna who was starting to get more and more irritated at the point gap between them in favor of Nekoma.
At last, after a long last rally, the game ended at 25:20 in favor of Nekoma, their first win against Inarizaki after 5 sets. Atsumu wasted no time in trying to corner the manager to pry more information out of her regarding the Phantom.
"So, yer the Phantom?" Atsumu finally blurted out after she had evaded all his attempts to indirectly draw out information. She froze slightly, her grey eyes coldly meeting his as she stared at him. Her walls were as high as they could be; she hadn't heard that name in a while. In fact, ever since she joined the boys' team as their manager, she barely even remembered it was a thing while she was with them.
Kenma overheard Atsumu, a small curse slipping from his lips as he glared at the opposing setter. His interest in Chiyuri irritated Kenma beyond relief. Kuroo had insisted it was jealousy that there was another talented volleyball player that seemed adamant on gaining Chiyuri's attention, but had also concurrently tried to reassure the boy that Chiyuri clearly wanted nothing to do with Atsumu. Regardless, Kenma felt irritated and moved toward them.
"You are, aren't ya?" Atsumu grinned. "Ne, won't ya tell me how ya do it?"
"What?" Chiyuri frowned, taking a couple steps away from the Inarizaki setter.
"How ya disappear like that!" Atsumu excitedly raised his arms. "If I could get 'Samu to do that, the look on the other team's faces would be priceless! Imagine if I could get Omiomi to be surprised like that!"
Chiyuri's grey eyes showed clear distrust in Atsumu's intentions, yet she slowly relaxed her defensive stance. He didn't seem to be doing any harm yet... She regretted it quickly as Atsumu grasped onto her shoulders.
"Ne, why don't you let me set to you? I think we'd make a great setter-spiker pair!"
She flinched as another person suddenly pulled her away. She barely had to turn to recognize the pudding-haired setter that she had grown so close to. He had his arms wrapped around her shoulders from the back , locking in front of her with his head on her shoulder. His golden eyes were trained on Atsumu in a glare as he practically gave the Inarizaki boy a silent warning.
"Kenma?" Chiyuri said in confusion, patting his arm that was wrapped around her. "What's wrong?"
Atsumu smirked as Kenma didn't bother to give Chiyuri an answer before addressing Atsumu.
"Stop bothering her," Kenma practically hissed.
"I'm just trying to make a connection with a rare, talented spiker," Atsumu waved off. His smirk widened as Kenma tightened his grip around Chiyuri. Ah, he knew it. Nekoma's setter sure was easy to read like this.
"Back off, Miya. Yuri's mine."
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Question of the Chapter: What's something that makes or breaks a story for you?
My answer: Grammar. One of my biggest peeves when reading is when a story has absurd amounts of grammar mistakes. Sometimes it's okay because accidents happen and our brains sometimes refuse to work, but too much makes my head spin. I can rant forever about should've versus should of or you're versus your. If you're an English learner, it's forgivable to an extent but if you are fluent in English, please don't overlook the importance of grammar. That said, if I make mistakes in my own stories, please please please correct me!!!
Now onto the traditional end of the chapter notes:
Hey hey hey!
Sorry for the long wait! I had a lot of things going on this month so I haven't been able to write. To maybe make up for it, I originally drew a Kenma which I was going to share it, but then I changed my mind because it reminded me too much of Eren Yeager and I didn't know how I felt about the drawing. So instead here's a Kageyama for you. I don't know what the concept was? But yeah. I also drew a Hinata but I think the Kageyama one came out a bit better.... I'll continue working on my drawings though... （ーー；）
I'm nowhere near done with this story (I'm thinking of ending it probably with the second season?), but I literally am itching to plan out the next 20 Haikyuu stories to follow this. It's sort of ridiculous how much I love these Haikyuu boys, but what can I do? <3
Anyways, as always, let me know what you thought of this chapter! I might've missed some of your comments recently since I haven't really been checking Wattpad too often while I've been busy, but please know that I really do appreciate everyone who comments! I'll try my best to reply to y'all when I come across your comments again since I can't find them in my notifications.
Stay safe and healthy! (ง'̀-'́)ง
ThePurpleDragon
7/6/2021: I changed the drawing... I didn't like it. 🥲 Here's a Kenma drawing tho to apologize for the long wait on the next chapter. I was supposed to finish writing and get it out last night but I almost threw up and died. Kuroo's art is going be in the next chapter. Lemme know what chess pieces other characters would be. ❤️