𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖

xxii - indirect delivery

"Crow, how do you keep your eyes open and still choose where you wanna hit cause I know you do," Keishin demanded as they were gathered around him. The ravenette just shrugged.

"Well, since I didn't do a quick till the end of the first set, I had gotten a good idea of their defense set up so I just went for the hole," He explained simply, drawing a groan from the coach as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Sometimes I hate your photographic memory."

"You have a photographic memory?" The first years cocked their heads, finding that fact fascinating. Crow once again shrugged, and Suga was suddenly worried for the dude's shoulders with how much he was flexing them.

"Not really, we just like to call it that since I remember faces pretty well," He yawned before going on. "Its more like spacial awareness in these types of situations."

"And yet you can't get higher than a C in your classes," Keishin commented slyly. All he got in return was deadpan looks from several people, mostly those that indeed had low grades like that.

"C's get degrees, dude, get off my back," Crow rolled his eyes at him as he waved him off.

"That's right!" Noya agreed passionately. "As long as our grades are good enough to play, it doesn't matter!"

"Ah, simpletons," Tsukishima snickered.

"What'd you say?!"

"Guys, guys, we're getting off focus," Keishin interuppted before things could escalate further. "Anyway, Kageyama," He addressed, his attention on the setter as the setter gave him his attention in turn. "I want you to give slightly weaker sets to Hinata. Rather than the usual direct delivery..."

"Indirect delivery," Kageyama finished. "Like what Crow was saying earlier."

"Bingo," The ravenette gave him a thumbs up. "Glad we established that I came up with it first."

"Shut up Crow," The coach gave him the stink eye for a moment before refocusing. "Rather than the usual powerful, straight trajectory set, it needs to float a little. It might be tricky to change it up this sudden.."

Suddenly, in the middle of Keishin explaining how it would work, Kageyama's eyes drifted to Crow. He was moving some of the loose hair out of his face, only to frown slightly and reach back to redo his entire ponytail. As he released the hair tie, the setter watched as his obsidian locks fell over his shoulders, causing Kageyama to shudder at the thought of being able to touch that hair. "...Kageyama?"

"I'll do it!" He exclaimed, figuring they were still talking about the indirect delivery sets. With that being said, the time out ended, and the two teams returned to the court. Crow finished tying his hair back up just in time for the serve to go over.

Attempt after attempt, the new quick attack failed with a fluke here and there. Crow would attempt to cover each of them, but only got a few mistakes back up in the air. All the others were points for Nekoma. "One more time out!" Keishin called at 6 Karasuno to 9 Nekoma, so it was granted and another break took place. "Hinata, you need to calm down."

"Hai!" He hung his head. "I'm sorry. I keep making mistakes..."

"Go on!" Tanaka pointed his thumb back at himself. "I always get to hit the ball unmarked thanks to you!" He moved his hands to his hips. "I think I'm allowed to totally own a match once in a while!"

"Asahi-san and Crow are scoring more points than you!" Nishinoya put his own hands on his hips, immediately getting a reaction from the cueball.

"You shaddup! Anyway, it's all good!" He glanced at the aces. "Right, Asahi-san, Crow?"

"Uh, yeah, he's right," The gentle giant nodded. "We'll make back the points."

"Whatever floats your boat dude," Crow mumbled as he took a swing of his water bottle.

"If you keep screwing up you could be swapped out," Tsukishima just had to be the voice of anxiety, looking very smug while doing so.

"Tsukishima!"

"If you're on the verge of learning something," Daichi pitched in as he silenced the beanpole with a hand on his shoulder. "Keep at it. You jump alone, but we're all here, right behind you. After all," He walked over to Asahi with a smirk. "The ace claims he's going to win back all those points!" He slapped him on the back.

"Daichiii don't put pressure on Asahi," Suga warned him. "You wouldn't wanna damage him."

"That's right!" Tanaka agreed. "His heart is very fragile!"

"Even I have to baby him," Crow let a sly smirk onto his face as everyone teased the gentle giant, who was flushing with embarrassment.

"Guysss please stop! This is too embarrassing!" He pleaded as the team laughed at his expense. Then, the time out ended, and the players returned to the court to resume the game.

"Asahi-san!" Nishinoya called as he passed a ball and then went up to cover whoever got the ball.

"Left!"

"Go!"

"Nice hit!"

"Nice recieve!"

"Send it my way!"

And then, finally, Hinata got a good kill by cutting the ball. Only, it was just barely out.

"Sugei..." Inuoka breathed once he'd landed, his gaze on the spot that the ball landed before turning back to the ginger excitedly. "T'hat was amazing, Shoyo!"

"One more time," Hinata was ready to go. Crow deadpanned. The least you could do was say thank you, geez. The next one, though, Hinata missed by a few centimeters, so the ravenette had to rescue it.

"Nice cover Crow!"

"It's over the net!"

"Forward!"

"Nice Inuoka!" The libero grinned as Yamamoto called for a set.

"Come at me!"

"Tora!" Kenma underhandedly set the self-proclaimed ace.

"We're going in, Hinata! One two..." The three blockers went up, shutting down Yamamoto's spiking attempt. However, it still wasn't dead, as Nekoma still managed to get it up.

"Kai-san, nice cover!"

"Kenma, gimme another!" Yamamoto yelled, so the setter gave it to him. "They can say our offensive power is average all they want!" He roared as he ran into his approach and jumped. "I'm still the ace of Nekoma!"

With that, he slammed the ball on the ten foot line through the blockers, and the rally ended.