𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖

xv - coach

"Rolling... Thunder!" Nishinoya stuck his arm out and got the ball to the target as he rolled.

"Uh," Suga wasn't sure what to say as Tanaka was belly laughing. "Nice receive."

"That was just a rolling receive dude!" Tanaka snickered loudly as he pointed at the libero.

"Why'd he yell that out?" Tsukishima was also snickering quietly. "The hell was that?"

"Kageyama! Tsukishima! Yamaguchi! You're all getting a talking to! Bend over--I mean, sit down! Let me look down on you!" Nishinoya barred his teeth angrily.

"Teach me!" Hinata looked starstruck. "Teach me how to do the rolling thunder!!!"

"Hard at work, I see," Takeda jogged up to the gym door, smiling brightly. "Listen up guys!" With that said, everyone gathered around the faculty advisor. "We're holding it again this year, right?" He asked excitedly. "The golden week training camp, I mean."

"Right," Daichi confirmed. "We still need a lot more practice."

"Now, for the last day of Golden Week," Takeda looked very happy to be sharing this information, with made Crow smile a bit, being affected by his passion and spirit as he went on, pushing his glasses up with a glint. "I've arranged a practice match!"

"Sugei!" Tanaka exclaimed. "That's awesome, Take-chan!"

"Who are we playing?" Suga asked, matching his energy.

"A Tokyo school with lots of history:" The faculty advisor suddenly looked more serious. "Nekoma High. Also known as Neko."

"Neko?" Hinata repeated.

"We've heard a lot about them, too," Tanaka told the ginger. "Apparently we played each other a lot because our coaches were rivals."

"That's right," The vice captain confirmed. "These famous derbies used to be called the Battle of the Garbage Dumpster: Cat vs Crow."

"Are you sure these matches were famous derbies?" Tsukishima seemed skeptical.

"As someone who witnessed them, yes they were," Crow spoke up, drawing everyone's momentary attention.

"We haven't had a connection with them for a while, though," The captain spoke up, directing the semi-question to the faculty advisor. "Why now?"

"Well, I'll let you in on the details later," Takeda said. "But for now, I'll just say that once I heard about it, I wanted to restart the heated rivalry no matter what." He glanced out the door. "Once he hears we're up against Nekoma High, he's sure to make a move."

"That'll do it," Crow yawned, causing Takeda to raise an eyebrow at him as if asking how he knew what he was talking about, or if he really knew.

"All right," Daichi called. "A practice match doesn't come along all that often. Let's not let it go to waste!"

"Yeah!" The team cheered, probably gratifying Takeda of all his work thus far.

"Tokyo, huh?" Tanaka suddenly had a smug look on his face. "I'm gonna destroy those damn city boys!"

"City boys?" Tsukishima snickered at the term.

"Not another word out of you, Tsukishima!"

"Hey, what do you think this Tokyo school's like?" Hinata questioned to Kageyama. "Think they're strong?"

"Let's hope."

"Noya-san!" Hinata ran up to him. "Do it again! Do the rolling thunder one more time!"

"Ah shucks, sure dude!" With another few demonstrations, Daichi decided that was enough for one night and everyone finished cleaning the gym. The next day, Asahi was running his hands through Crow's hair as the ravenette snoozed, the first year duo running through their quick attack as Daichi showed up.

"Hey."

"Hey captain," The two greeted.

"Are you guys a thing now too?" Daichi deadpanned at the couple-y look of Asahi and Crow, the former just chuckling sheepishly.

"No, I've never even thought about it," The ace denied. "Honestly I'm just his maid or something."

"Kinky!"

"Nishinoya!" the two gaped at his choice of words even as he just grinned at them. A while later, as everyone was taking their time to stretch what they needed, Tanaka noticed something.

"Say, Noya-san," He started.

"Yeah?" The libero in question looked up at him.

"How did you train while you were suspended?"

"Didn't I tell you already?" He questioned before shrugging, not giving him time to answer as he went on. "I focused on blocked ball retrieval. Specialized training to retrieve any blocked ball!" He grinned. "I'm not that great at it, but if I can just retrieve blocked balls, you guys can go for your spikes without worrying as much," He finished as he stood up, doing some arm stretches that showed off his bruises.

At first glance, one would think they were all from his training, but on closer inspection, almost a third of them were definitely hickeys. Crow liked to mark his partners, which they found out very quickly. However, Tanaka was not that astute.

"Noya-san, you are totally, utterly cool!" He cried in adoration, causing the libero to sweatdrop.

"Why are you crying?!"

"Good work guys!" Takeda said as he slid the gym door open.

"Gather round!" Daichi called, so everyone did so. Immediately upon entry, Crow raised an eyebrow before a light smirk appeared on his face.

"So you gave in."

"Shut up Crow," Keishin Ukai snapped with a scowl. "Not a word from you."

"Hai hai," His smirk grew, but he didn't say anything. Takeda was extremely confused.

"I'm sorry, do you two know each other?"

"Well my family sorta adopted him so it would be hard not to," The fake blonde sighed as he rubbed his neck.

"A-anyway," He seemed to get over the shock rather quickly, returning his attention to the group in front of them. "Allow me to introduce you to Ukai, your coach as of today!"

"Coach?" Daichi looked surprised. "Do you mean it?!"

"Only for the duration of your match with Nekoma," Keishin reiterated, sparing a moment to glare at Crow's smug face.

"What?" Tanaka squinted as he pointed. "He's the guy who runs Foot of the Slope, right? Is he really our coach?"

"He graduated from Karasuno and he's the grandson of the famous Coach Ukai," Takeda explained.

"Well that makes sense," Daichi was the only one to really get the connection between Crow and Keishin as everyone else sorta freaked out at the notion.

"But your store isn't named after you, right?" Hinata questioned, then added, "Desu ka?"

"The store comes from mom's side of the family," The new Karasuno Coach put his hands on his hips. "There's no time! Let's get started! I want to see how you guys play, so we have a match at 6:30pm. I called in your opponents."

"Opponents?"

"Damn you're on your game today, Keishin."

"I said not a word, Crow!" He snapped at him before sighing with a shake of his head. "The Karasun Neighborhood Association team." The coach told them. From then on, everyone started warming up for the match.