𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖

xix - nekoma's introduction

It was finally the day they had all been waiting for: the practice match with Nekoma High. The first thing Hinata did upon seeing the team they would be playing against was gasp. "Kenma!" He called, running over to one of the players, who turned to him upon hearing his name. "Y-y-you go to Nekoma?!"

"Uh, yeah..." He replied hesitantly, not making eye contact.

"How come you didn't tell me?" The ginger sulked.

"You never asked," Kenma murmured in response, still not looking him in the eye.

"But you said see you later," Hinata reminded him. "You must've known something!" He insisted.

"The words Karasuno High School were on your t-shirt," The Nekoma player pointed out quietly, making the ginger deadpan.

"Hey, hey, hey!" The three words suddenly pierced the air, interupting them as another Nekoma player stalked over to them with an unpleasant expression on his face. "What business do you have with our setter?" He demanded. Crow deadpanned, what, do they have a carbon copy of Tanaka that chose a mohawk instead of being bald?

"Shoto," Kenma frowned at the dude, obviously displeased with his interference.

"I-I'm sorry!" Hinata quickly backed off as he turned blue from fear, only to suddenly bump into Tanaka, who had a similar expression on his face to the new Nekoma player.

"What about you?" He demanded. "What business do you have with our first year? Eh?"

"What's it to you?" The mohawk sneered, but Tanaka matched him.

"You wanna rumble, city boy? Eh?"

"You're about to rumble in the match we're about to play," Suga was not amused by this show of hubris. "And stop saying city boy. It's embarrassing."

That shut Tanaka right down.

"Yamamoto, stop picking fights all the time," One of the Nekoma players looked at the dude with as much annoyance as anyone had seen besides when Crow was awakened from his naps. "It makes you look stupid."

That shut Yamamoto right down.

"I apologize on behalf of my embarrassing teammate," The person smiled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"I apologize for mine as well. I'm very embarrassed," Sugawara returned the sentiment when suddenly, the Yamamoto fellow gasped dramatically. His eyes were on Kiyoko as she walked past, giving him a nod.

"Female manager.. Good!"

"Right on!" Two Nekoma players stood together, fist pumping in victory.

"They have a female manager! Yakisoba bun score!" The two high fives as Yamamoto cried.

"You'll pay for this!"

"Taketora, stand your ground!"

"Why do you know one of them personally?" Kageyama asked Hinata now that he had finally been freed from the spectacle.

"I happened to run into him while we were out jogging," The ginger told him as he glanced his way. "He's Nekoma's setter."

"Setter?" The Karasuno setter was instantly on fire at the mention of the term, causing the ginger to flinch. For once, as the team entered the gym, Crow felt like he could breathe comfortably because no one on Nekoma seemed to know him. Plus, he was very good at remembering faces, and none of the faces of the team they were playing rang a bell.

"I'm looking forward to our match today," The captain of Nekoma shook hands with Daichi with a smile, the Karasuno captain returning the look and gesture.

"I'm also looking forward to our match today." Daichi gave him a closed-eye smile. Crow could feel the tension between them as he walked past to put his things down.

"Woohoo! The ceiling is so high!" Hinata barged in along with Kageyama.

"It's just a ceiling."

"It's been eight years," The Nekoma coach greeted. "What's the deal with your hair, Ukai?"

"Shaddup Naoi," Keishin retorted. "You should try something new for a change!" They took a second to stare at each other before grinning cheekily.

"Yo, Keishin!" The older coach called as he made his way over to them.

"It's been a long time, Nekomata-sensei!" Keishin greeted as the old man grinned.

"I see you still have the face the old man gave you," He teased.

"I'm Takeda," The faculty advisor introduced himself. "We spoke on the phone. Thank you for going out of your way today."

"It's hard to ignore all those phone calls," Nekomata snickered. "I had to respond."

"Ah, forgive me!" Takeda bowed.

"I'm only kidding!" The old coach assured him with a laugh. "We had ourselves some good practice matches in the last three days," He said. "Thank you for the match."

"Hai! Thank you!" Takeda returned the sentiment as he straightened.

"And I don't care if you're not the old man," Nekomata suddenly got slightly serious. "I'll show you no mercy."

"That's what you always say," Crow yawned as he walked past them.

"Is that you, Crow? You've grown a lot since I saw you last!" Nekomata laughed heartily. "So you're on Karasuno's squad, huh? Now that's even more reason to give it our best, now that we have a chance to crush Udai and Ukai's prodigy in one fell swoop."

"Crow's swoop," The ravenette threw a look over his shoulder. "Cats pounce. Anyway, I look forward to this game, Nekomata-sensei."

Thus, once the net was set up and everyone had changed into their jerseys, Karasuno circled around their coach and advisor. "To be honest," Daichi started out. "We've only just met, and we're still awkward and uncoordinated. Plus, this is our first match using these members. I don't know what kind of wall we'll be up against with Nekoma, but once we are up against that wall," He smiled at everyone. "That will be our chance to rise above it!"

And then, the whistle was blown. "Line up!" The referee called. Once the two teams were lined up, it was time to start. "We will now commence the practice match between Nekoma High and Karasuno High."

"Let's have a good match!" Both sides bowed before getting into formation.

"Glad to see you're not having another meltdown," Crow mused slightly to the ginger.

"I-it wasn't a meltdown!" Hinata defended himself. Suddenly, a voice sounded from the other side.

"You're tiny!"