𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖

xlv - was the first

"HOLY CRAP!" Kageyama yelled as he turned to Crow, who blinked at his energy.

"Dude calm down, it's not something you need to be so loud about," He frowned at the setter, who moved his mouth several times as he tried to formulate a response. He ended up not being able to as all of the other Karasuno players started hounding the ravenette in his place.

"DUDE THAT WAS AWESOME!"

"HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN PRACTICING THAT?!"

"Y-YOU'VE GOTTA STOP SCARING US LIKE THAT!"

"FUCK YEAH THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT!"

"Guys my ears are going to bleed, chill out."

"I think they're gonna bleed either way," Tanaka gestured to the stands, which were going absolutely berserk.

"YASSSS CROW-SAMA!"

"THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT!"

"WAY TO GO KARASUNO!"

"LET'S GO-GU-GO-GO CROW!"

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THE BACKROW SETTER WAS THE ONE TO HIT THAT!"

"CROW-SAMA REALLY IS ON ANOTHER LEVEL!"

"Geez," the ravenette facepalmed as Noya hand standed on his shoulders while laughing. With that point, the two teams were tied at set point, making it a deuce. "Nevermind that," He straightened, causing the libero to land on the ground as Crow's gaze turned towards their opponents. "Now, it's a game to two."

"Roger that!" His team resounded, their spirit reawakening. However, because of that last point, Seijoh's coach called for a time out to stop the momentum. Karasuno mostly took the time out as a break rather than to talk strategy. It soon ended, so play started up right away.

The next rally was chance ball after chance ball for Karasuno as Hinata hit, but was dug out every time. Each one came over as a chance ball, but they weren't scoring. "ONE MORE TIME!" Hinata screamed his head off as he went for another slide.

"I know you're getting the set, so I ain't gonna leave you unmarked!" Iwaizumi finally got in front of Hinata. Because of this unexpected turn of events, Hinata's jump was slower than usual as he tried to assess the situation. However, that didn't matter, because it wasn't the ginger that got the set.

"Now this is what I'm talking about," Crow said as he jumped, slamming the ball down the middle. One more point to go, he thought as he landed. Hinata, on the other hand, had fumbled his landing and ended up on his back with his ass up in the air. Crow sweatdropped as the dude popped right back up.

So did Seijoh with their own point. Thus, it was back to receiving for Karasuno, and of course, the dude serving just had to be Oikawa. Only, surprisingly, the serve went right past Nishinoya and whizzed out of bounds. Crow blinked. "Way to not touch it."

"...Yeah," The libero nodded. Next up to serve would be Hinata, but Iwaizumi cut it short with a line shot.

"That evens the score," He returned to his teammates. "A point is a point either way."

"IWAIZUMI-SAN, YOU'RE SO COOL!"

"Now I feel inferior."

"Since when have you been superior to me?"

"Technically, I've always been superior!" Oikawa boasted, then regretted it immediately. "OW!"

"Nice kill dude," Crow gave the Seijoh ace a thumbs up, which Iwaizumi returned with his own. Neither cared which kill he was talking about.

"Thanks man."

The final stretch was long and hard won. Neither team gave any ground until it was suddenly Oikawa's serve once again. This time, it was in, and he hit it so hard that, even though Crow was the one to pass it, it still went back over the net. "Well shoot."

"Chance ball!"

It went to Kunimi, who slammed it down line. Kageyama barely got it up, but it went back over the net again. "Shit!"

"Chance ball!"

"I got it!"

"Ack!" Kageyama growled as he landed beside the ball that Kunimi had just tipped over the block. As he stood up, his face was vacant, only a distant expression of hopelessness and absolute defeat remained. Crow glanced around at his teammates, finding similar faces on each one. However, most of the others were more along the lines of being afraid of defeat than admitting it outright like the setter's face was.

That didn't make their expressions any less desperate. The ravenette sighed as he headed back to his position to get ready for the next serve Oikawa would send over. With them at 32 to 31, Seijoh was at game point with the advantage.

Just realizing that fact wouldn't get them off the edge, though.

Oikawa didn't hit his usual arm-busting serve, instead, he hit it up front. Crow had to dive to get it up, so Kageyama sent it to the left. Asahi hit it, but Seijoh's libero managed to get it up. Oikawa sent it to Iwaizumi, but Tanaka dug him out. It was tight to the net, so Kindaichi went for a kill, only for Nishinoya to get the hit up.

"I got it!" Kageyama ran for the ball. As Crow and Hinata jumped to hit a freak quick, a thought crossed the ravenette's mind:

Hinata was the first to break Kageyama's barriers. Hinata was the first to succeed with the quick attack. Hinata was the one that always challenged Kageyama to do his absolute best.

Hinata was the one he would default to in a pinch such as this one, and Seijoh knew it too. Ah, and I can't do a damn thing, he breathed out as the ball hit the three man block and then fell to the ground.

The sharp sound of the whistle pierced the air: the game was over. Aoba Johsai had won.

Crow didn't say anything as the rest of his teammates sort of just laid on the ground, crumpled up and defeated, as he himself headed back to the endline for the final announcement and bows. Those on the bench soon joined him, and after a bit more wallowing, those on the court soon followed. "Thank you for the match!" The two sides bowed before heading up and shaking hands.

Crow did so without complaint, and jogged to go greet the audience with everyone else. "Form a line!" Daichi called, and once they had, he bowed. "Thank you for coming!"

"Thank you for coming!" The rest of Karasuno echoed, bowing as well. The claps resounded around the gym as the spectators honored them for their efforts. Well, most of them.

"Wow, Crow-sama actually lost."

"Maybe he's not such a big deal, then."

"He'd be so much better on a different team."

"Yeah, it sucks for him."

"He's only famous because of his connections to a lot of power players and teams, guess the only thing going for him is his charisma or whatever it's called."

"Crow-sama is wasted on Karasuno."

"He should have come to Shiratorizawa," A certain someone remarked as he and his teammate watched from the stands.

"Nah, he definitely deserves to be on Karasuno," The redhead huffed, his eyes blazing as he glared down at the court, at a single player. "So he can stay in the dust where he belongs."