secret gem • haikyuu !!

25 ; Rhythm

*****

"That was good Teshiro-kun!" Mai complimented as she watched him set to Yamamoto. She clapped lightly and her eyes continued to follow the ball.

Stood at the sidelines, Mai was carefully analysing the first years with a notebook in hand. Due to only having ten members, they were doing five on five matches instead. They mixed the whole teams so Kai and Tetsurō were captains of team A and B.

Team A had Tetsurō, Kenma, Inuoka, Lev and Shibayama. Whilst Team B had Kai, Yaku, Yamamoto, Fukunaga and Teshiro.

In the first part of her notebook, she kept what she would call their 'statistics' and 'abilities', similar to video game characters. If she were to put it like Kenma, you have your six players with different abilities that need to work together to defeat the enemy. It was the easiest way to map out their strengths and weakness, but to also visualise how they could improve. After those set pages, she had scribbled a bunch of question that she needed answering: the first way all of their maximum jump heights along with their optimum spiking height.

"Mai's at it again..." Kenma mumbled to the older Kuroo sibling. He nodded in response and they watched as her puzzled self paced up and down the court.

"You know what she's like." Tetsurō mumbled lowly, keeping his gaze deeply on the opponents.

Every so often, she would intensely glare at one of them. Not for intimidation, but for pure analysis of movement and technique. Whenever she saw something new, she would furiously write it down, due to her undeniable curiosity of others. When the two boys saw Kai was about to spike to their left, they had quickly ran to block him. It was unsuccessful, but Shibayama was able to keep the rally going.

Even when he was focused on practice, he still tried his best to uncover how Mai does this all. For someone who doesn't seem like she would be into coaching or teaching, she was surprisingly great at it.

Which he now believes it's a genetic abnormality that runs in the family.

She had that same damn look as her brother. Not because they were siblings, but because of how they tilt their head downwards and stare intensely by looking upwards. It was that intimidating stare, but for Tetsurō it was focus, whilst for Mai it was formulating.

After they finally had finished practice, Mai had wondered her way back to a folding chair she had next to the two coaches. Placing her notebook onto the plastic seat, she unravelled the information and opened the page. She took pictures of each spread, and carefully checked that nothing was missing. With a final look, she closed the notebook and gathered any loose sheets, sliding them back into the book.

"Here you go coach." Handing the book over to coach Naoi, which he smiled and read through.

"Ah, thank you Kuroo-san." He quickly responded. Just about when Mai turned to walk away, Naoi called her back. After reading about a specific rotation she had in mind, "Actually, Kuroo-san, about this play that you wrote down. It's pretty complex, do you think they could do it?"

"Seeing their level of skill, definitely. That's if they put all the work in." She grinned, looking at the team who were now packing up and cleaning. "I mean, it would be tough on Kenma stamina wise and the strange co-ordination with Lev, but it ultimately be a success."

"I see, thank you," He nodded and closed the notebook. Mai quickly nodded her head to the coach as her way of saying thanks. As she walked away, he called out, "Great work today."

"Thank you, Naoi-sensei!" She smiled, turning her head to him and back round to the direction she was heading.

"Her mind really comes up with the most interesting tactics.." Naoi told Nekomata, who had risen from his chair. Nekomata had held a warm smile and folded his arms.