The Little Dragon / Haikyuu!!

Fly

"Don't just stand there, follow through!" Coach Ukai shouted at the team during practice. It was clear that Karasuno's practices had gotten stricter and more strenuous, as a result of Ukai. Whilst a lot of people would dread the increase in physical activity, Reo was practically thankful for it. It had only been a few days since the practice match against Nekoma, and already the atmosphere in Karasuno's gym had switched. Everyone was more competitive now after they all got a taste of what the matches at the preliminaries will be like.

"Go after every ball as though it's your last." Ukai yelled, throwing set after set.

They only had a month until the interhighs, so they were cramming all of their improvements into that small amount of time. Fortunately for Reo, she seemed to work best under pressure anyway- an ability that developed after she always left her assignments until last minute.

Despite the extended length of practice, it went by extremely quickly. As it was getting dark, the team began to settle down and pack up their stuff, Reo was returning from the water fountain after kindly filling up the teams water bottles.

"Hydrate or die-drate." She shouted as she threw the bottles at the boys.

"-Dude, that's nuts!" Noya exclaimed in bewilderment, after catching the water, "It's like a whole page!"

"Right?" Suga agreed as Asahi, Hinata and Kageyama approached the small group to ask what they were talking about.

"Look." Tanaka passed the magazine to Hinata, who widened his eyes as he looked at the page. "That's Ushiwaka from Shiratorizawa Academy. They named him one of the three players to watch in this years nationals."

"Ushi? Hold up let me take a picture of this." Reo cackled evilly as she whipped her phone out of her bag. "He hates seeing pictures of himself."

"...Ushiwaka? Is he the one that Reo is friends with?" Hinata asked, looking up from the page.

"You seriously don't know who he is?" Tanaka asked incredulously.

Suga patted the ground next to him inviting Reo to take a seat with them, "The only player Hinata cares about is the Tiny Giant." He said.

"Ushiwaka is his nickname." Reo informed him. "His real name is Wakatoshi Ushijima."

"And he's the number one ace in the prefecture!" Tanaka included.

"So we can't play Nekoma...unless we defeat them first?" Hinatas voice was low, obviously worrying about how he would win against the number one ace.

"Usually I wouldn't be so disclosing, but considering the circumstances I think it would be okay for me to tell you guys what they're like. I learnt a lot about how each of them play when I was with them." Reo sipped her water, almost spilling it when Daichi suddenly starting ruffling her hair from above her position on the floor. "Not if you keep doing that." She added, annoyed. He quickly removed his hand from her head and spoke instead.

"We'll definitely need a heads up about them nearer the time. It would be very helpful to know more about who we're up against. Thanks Reo." He said, Suga nodding in agreement.

Reo lifted up her bottle as if saying 'cheers' and continued relaxing.

"Remember guys," Coach Ukai approached everyone, "Shiratorizawa aren't the only good team. We will likely be going up against Date Tech, known for their 'iron wall'. Their team has higher blocks than anyone else around.

Reo didn't like the sound of that at all. If she ever gets positioned at the front of the court during the rotation, things won't be looking good for her.