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

Chapter 19: Pressure

Karasuno worked hard.  The boys pushed themselves, but quickly realized they were definitely the weakest team at the camp, losing set after set.  As the penalty laps mounted, it became a struggle to keep their optimism.  But as Takeda-sensei kept reminding them, being at the bottom meant they had only one direction to go.

The three girls worked equally hard, taking good care of the boys and making sure they had what they needed, as well as recording everything the boys could do to improve, and what the other teams were doing that Karasuno might need to try.  Nakano managed to get in occasional practice with some of the Karasuno boys, usually when they needed to work on something individually.  Despite the insistence of her team, and pressure from the other managers, Nakano continued to take the penalty laps with her boys.  Any time someone told her it wasn't necessary, she replied with the same sentence.

"I stand with my team."

This did not fail to register on the boys of the other teams as well.  By the second day of the camp, the story of the Queen of the Court and her struggle to return to volleyball had gotten around, despite Nakano's pleas to her team to not talk about it.  But the team found it hard to do that when boys from other teams started making up their own reasons why one of Karasuno's managers would keep taking the penalty laps.  Tanaka, Nishinoya, and surprisingly Daichi, were the most ardent defenders of the girl, who with the best of intentions, probably shared more than they should have.  Tanaka and Noya naturally felt an obligation to defend their team's 'angel', while Daichi simply did not want rumors flying around that might make Nakano uncomfortable.  If there has to be talk, Daichi thought, at least let it be the truth of the matter.  

And so it happened one evening that as Karasuno was taking their final penalty lap of the day, the ace of Fukurodani wandered over to talk to the captain of Nekoma.

"So you're telling me that little girl is actually a great setter, Kuroo?" The spike-haired ace leaned on his friend's shoulder and jutted his chin at the girl on the end of the Karasuno line.  "I dunno if I can believe that..."

"Trust me, she can set with the best of them." Kuroo laughed.

"But she's just a little girl!"

"Bokuto, she's actually kind of tall for a girl, ya know?"

"She's shorter than me."

"Bro, most girls are shorter than you!  What's that got to do with it?"

"I just don't think she could set for me like Akaashi does, ya know?"

"Well, I'm sure she doesn't set like Akaashi, but she's still a good setter, right Kenma?"  Kuroo threw a glance at his setter, who was on his phone, naturally.

"Yeah," Kenma said, not looking up.  "She's a good setter."

"I just don't think I can believe it unless I see it," Bokuto said, shaking his head.

"Well, that should be easy to arrange," Kuroo said with a smile.  "Hey, Nakano!"  He waved the girl over.

Nakano came up to them, drinking from a water bottle.  "Hey Kuroo.  What can I do for you?"  Tsukishima followed behind her, not entirely trusting the look on the Nekoma captain's face.

"Toss for us, will ya?" Kuroo smiled.

"You and Bokuto-san want to hit my sets?"  She looked at the two boys curiously.

"Yeah," Bokuto said, "Kuroo says your sets are great, but I need to see for myself."  He gestured at himself with his thumb.  

"Alright," the girl replied.  She looked at her boyfriend.  "You want in on this, Tsukki?"