Haikyuu: Rise of Sengoku

"Why do I have to do this kind of thing?"

Inside the Karasuno volleyball gym, watching the excited "dynamic duo" in practice gear, along with Ryūnosuke Tanaka, heading onto the court, Miki Oda's face slowly twisted into one of distress.

"Captain, why do I have to play in this match? If it's about coordinating with Tsukishima, wouldn't Yamaguchi be a better fit?"

"Hmm~~ Don't worry about those details. Let's just do our best together, Oda." Daichi Sawamura patted Miki on the shoulder with a bright smile.

Miki Oda: "······"

She couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't the high school life she had imagined.

….

The match was three-on-three.

On the green team: Daichi Sawamura, Tsukishima Kei, Miki Oda

Against the red team: Ryūnosuke Tanaka, Hinata Shoyo, Tobio Kageyama.

Kageyama was the first to serve.

He took a deep breath, steadying himself at the baseline. After calming his nerves, he tossed the ball high, jumped, and unleashed a powerful, fast jump serve.

Bang!

The volleyball traced a curved path through the air, rapidly dropping toward the green team's backcourt.

"Wow, what an amazing jump serve!"

Sugawara, watching from the sidelines, couldn't help but exclaim.

But in the next moment, 

Just before the ball hit the ground, a figure slid across the court and smack!, managed to catch the fast serve solidly.

It was Miki Oda.

"Nice, good receive, Oda!"

Sawamura's eyes lit up. In volleyball, receiving is a truer test of fundamental skill than serving or spiking. From just that one reception, Sawamura could tell Miki had a very solid volleyball foundation.

No wonder she came from a championship team!

Seeing his first serve return so easily, Kageyama clicked his tongue in slight irritation but quickly refocused. "Watch your defense!"

Bang!

Before his words faded, a spike landed on their side of the court.

The Green team scored first.

"She's really a genius! In such a short time, the power, speed, and accuracy of her serves have all improved." Miki glanced at her slightly reddened wrist and said.

"You should be the one surprised. Back in Junior High, you couldn't receive services like this." Kageyama said sharply, his eyes locking on Oda's as he spoke through the net.

Miki shook her head. "It's different now. I can catch these serves only because I've gotten used to them. My actual skill hasn't improved that much. At the national tournament, many teams had powerful servers. If you couldn't receive them, the match ended right away."

What she didn't say was that their team used to have a server like that too, faster and stronger than this one.

"Nationals…"

At the word, Kageyama's breath caught, his hands clenched into fists.

Though Kageyama was well-known in the prefecture during Junior High, he had never made it to nationals for various reasons.

"I'm going to make it to nationals this year…"

"Hmm! You sound motivated, but if you're still like you were in Junior High, you probably won't have a chance to win this year…"

"Hey, Oda!"

Sawamura's face suddenly changed as he cut off the conversation sharply, worried Oda might have hit a nerve with Kageyama.

"Relax, captain. I'm not mocking him. After all, our school beat Kitagawa's top player back in Junior High. I'm not the kind of person to taunt a defeated opponent."

Oda waved his hand. "I'm just stating a fact. Kageyama probably knows it too."

"Ah, I see."

Kageyama's expression calmed. He seemed to accept Oda's point.

But Oda knew that while Kageyama had improved a lot since Junior High, some deeper issues wouldn't be fixed so easily.

Still, Oda didn't expect to truly "educate" him, just a gentle reminder for now.

Then Oda looked at Hinata. "And you, let's just call you Hinata-kun! Your basic skills need work…"

Hinata: "()!!!"

"But your physical talent is pretty good…"

Hinata: "(o▽)o"

"So in this match, if you want to really bring out your full strength, focus on using your body to win, not competing technically with us. Understand?"

"I get it!"

Hinata eagerly accepted Oda's advice. For someone like Hinata, who had played volleyball for three years in Junior High but never had proper training, advice from a "pro" and "champion player" like Oda felt super impressive.

"But I have a question. This is a match, right? So why are you helping us? Aren't we opponents?"

Why?

Of course, to make you stronger, so you can beat us faster and end the match sooner!

Oda thought silently but said with a smile, "Haha… what does it matter? Don't forget, this is just a practice match. We'll be teammates in the future. So improving during the match is more important than winning or losing right now."

"Ohhhhhh~!"

Hinata's eyes lit up, as if he suddenly understood everything.

But the next second, 

He snapped back to reality, "Wait, the outcome matters! If we lose, we won't get to join the volleyball club, and we won't be able to become teammates with you."

Oda: "…Uh! I don't think whether you join the volleyball club depends on winning or losing. The reason you got kicked out by the captain seems more about not listening on the first day, and hitting the guidance counselor's wig with a volleyball."

"······"

There was a brief silence. Then Hinata panicked and asked Kageyama, "Kageyama, do you think that's true?"

Kageyama snapped, "How should I know?"

Others: "······"

Good grief, after all this time, you two still don't know where you messed up!

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