𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖

xvi - neighborhood association

"Crow, you're not allowed to play," Keishin said out of the blue. Immediately, protests from the team went up, but he held his hand up. "Having Crow play will be like a cheat, so I'd rather see how you fare without him so that I can see where exactly he would be best suited to make the team stronger."

"So I take it I'll ref?" Crow yawned.

"If you would be so kind," The new coach made a face at him. Everyone could see that they were definitely raised together with their attitudes doing the talking. Soon, everyone got back to warming up as Crow and Keishin stood together, one on the phone and one just watching his teammates. "Damn, he isn't picking up!" The coach complained. "I guess assembling the gang this late on a weekday was too much to ask.."

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," Crow nudged his semi-adopted brother whom he referred to as a cousin because brother felt too familiar, causing them both to look at the entrance.

"Hey!" Four guys showed up, all in track suits and smiles.

"Damn, this takes me back!"

"Hey guys," Crow peaced at them.

"Oh hey Crow! You're going to Karasuno too?! Haha nice!"

"Excuse me..." The team seemed slightly confused at the sight of a bunch of middle aged guys in their gym. Thus, the group lined up.

"Team Neighborhood Association..." They smirked. "Is on the scene!"

"Your greeting gets tackier each time I see you."

"Words can hurt, Crow, dammit!"

"Thanks for coming out at the drop of a hat like this, guys!" Keishin grinned as he made his way over to them to greet them properly.

"That's for sure!"

"You owe me one."

"Oh fine."

"I envisioned older guys when he said neighborhood association," Tsukishima mumbled to his sidekick, who returned the sentiment.

"Same here." A bit later, everyone was sufficiently warmed up and Crow had retrieved his trusty ref whistle.

"Okay, let's get this thing started!" Keishin called.

"Yeah!"

"Game on!" Hinata grinned as he ran on the court.

"Hey you, what's wrong?" the new coach spotted Nishinoya awkwardly trying to look out a window.

"Asahi isn't back yet," He said as he glanced back at him.

"Huh? Who?"

"He's our ace, he stepped out for a moment to deal with something," Crow told him, so with a thoughtful expression, Keishin was about to open his mouth.

"Hey, it's Asahi!" Hinata was suddenly at another window, looking ridiculous as he was hanging on the bars with his feet on the wall to hold him up. "Asahi-san!"

"Ack! Hinata, what are you doing there?" The ace gaped at him with a weird expression on his face. "You should get down before you hurt yourself."

"Oh sure!" He jumped down, stuck the landing, and grinned.

"A tardy guy?! Are you jerking my chain?! We got stuff to do, deal with your stuff later!" Keishin was immediately at the door, yelling at the poor man.

Asahi turned blue with nerves.

"We need players! Get the hell in here and get warmed up!" The coach shouted at him, jerking his thumb into the gym. "Make it snappy!"

"Y-yes sir.." The ace didn't really know how to react, only managing to do as told.

"Now all we need is a libero and a setter. Fuck," He scowled before glancing at Crow. "I take it back, go play lib with the guys."

"Sure," He hummed.

"As for the setter..." Keishin trailed off. "I wanna do it but I have to watch from the outside.."

"Suga, get your ass over here."

"Huh?" The vice captain glanced at Crow, the one who called out to him. "You're playing?"

"Yeah, help me warm up. Also, since we don't have a setter, you should set for us."

"Oh, sure!" He beamed, jogging over to join the ravenette as the new coach scowled.

"Classic Crow, always one step ahead of me."

"Wait, I'll set for you!" Kageyama volunteered, only for Crow to shake his head.

"You need to show our new coach that quick attack, and you can't do that," He gave him a pointed look. "If you and Hinata aren't on the same side."

"...Right.." He didn't seem to like to arrangement, but went along with it anyway. The way Crow had said it made him think it was also a warning not to ley anyone know yet.

"Ordering everybody around, huh?" The neighborhood association's Takinoue Yuusuke nudged the ravenette with a sly grin. "What, you captain already?"

"Too much work," Crow replied, bumping him back. "Now shush and go away unless you want a sucky libero."

"Haha still as much as a jackass as always Crow!" The neighborhood association laughed. Soon, the game began, and it went as you might expect: the neighborhood association dominated. However, Keishin did get a sense of what Karasuno was capable of and what they lacked, so all was well as the guys were sent home.

"I don't know what just happened, but that made me feel young again," Shimada grinned as they were outside.

"With me around, you're the greatest! I wish I could say that," Mori agreed. "High schoolers are so cool!"

"You made us old timers feel like yesterday's news!" Takinoue smiled jokingly, though no one seemed to get it as most of the team seeing them off sweatdropped.

"S-sorry sir.."

"How can I say it?" He questioned himself before deciding and saying what he had observed. "You guys haven't got it together yet, but once you do pull together, I think you guys are going places," Takinoue told them.

"Thank you so much!" Daichi bowed, so the rest of the team followed and echoed his statement.

"Thank you!"

"Anyway," Keishin started off once everyone was back in the gym. "Receiving! You can't get anywhere without that. We'll be training those fully tomorrow!" He promised.

"Yes sir!" The team said. "Thank you sir!"

"Hey, don't skip the stretches."

"Stretches!"

"Hai!"

"Rotate slowly!" Everyone did their stretches as Keishin stressed about setters. He'd be even more stressed about it in a few moments.

"Keishin, you're not allowed to leave yet," Crow was suddenly dragging the poor man by his neck. "You're gonna set for me since you know what I like best and you have nothing better to do, plus you're antsy too right?"

"Fuck Crow, let me go! You're right but don't choke me!"

"Cool," He allowed him to breathe again, then threw a ball at his face.

"That's not funny Crow! That hurt!"

"That was the point. Just set the ball ya bum."

"Says the actual bum!"

"What a duo," The team sweatdropped. Kageyama narrowed his eyes at them as Keishin hit at Crow and then set the ball that was returned to him. Crow had just said that Keishin knew what he liked best, so this would be a good time to collect information.

The first thing that surprised him was the fact that the first hit they did was from the backrow.