𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖

xcii - waku south start

"Go, go Takeru! Go, go Takeru! Go, go Waku South!"

"That's even more than yesterday," Suga commented at the family shouting their support for the team that Karasuno would be facing. "A younger brother?"

"Why do you look so jealous?" Tsukishima deadpanned at Hinata, who was gawking up at the family like he wanted his family there doing the same thing. Suddenly, Daichi clapped. 

"Come on, concentrate," He refocused the group, receiving a few nods. 

"Is something wrong, Ukai-kun?" Takeda questioned at the scowl present on the coach's face. 

"We've gotta fire ourselves up, sensei," He answered with a grave tilt of his head. "It might just be my gut instinct, but this Waku South team might be hard for us to handle, and not for the usual reasons."

Captains were called, and as they were discussing things, a certain someone showed up. "RYUU! RYUU-CHAN!"

"Nee-san!" Nishinoya jumped as the actual brother of the deranged Saeko flinched and turned blue with dread. 

"I came to cheer you on!" Saeko called down to her brother. After that, Daichi came back with the news that Waku South would be serving first, so Keishin made the changes accordingly. Then the referees got into place, had the team line up and then blew the whistle. 

"Bow!"

"Let's have a good match!" The two sides bowed to each other before finally getting into their positions. Keishin had decided that they would be doing a 5-1 with Kageyama setting the entire time. He wanted to let Crow focus on hitting and blocking, but mostly the blocking. From the scouting info and the coach's gut feeling, he knew he would rather be safe than sorry. The 5-1 had been their foolproof strategy this long, anyway. 

Because they were receiving first, Keishin had Crow in left back so that he would rotate up to the front as soon as they got a point. That also meant that Kageyama, their strongest server, would be their first server. Keishin saw no downsides to this lineup. 

Kageyama in right front and Crow in left back, that put Hinata in left front, Tanaka in middle front, Noya in right back and Asahi in middle back. It was a strong recieving set up, so the unnatural blonde figured it wouldn't take long to get a point as long as the front line could put the ball away quickly.

And then the game began with the referee's next whistle. "Bring it!" Hinata yelled as the Waku player raised the ball to serve it. It went over, and Crow got it up with ease, then Hinata put it away with a slide hit. 

"Alright!" The bench cheered. 

"Nice kill Hinata!"

"All right, we'll stop the next one nice and quick!" Takeru, Waku South's team captain, held his finger up with a calm and direct voice. His team responded in kind. 

"Right!"

Crow's eyes narrowed, but he shrugged it off as he headed up to the net. Heard these guys like to go off the block, he thought to himself as he flexed his fingers. That only works against weak blockers who haven't trained for that very thing. 

"Um," Takeda suddenly opened his mouth, causing the coach who had been lost in thought to look at him. "I'm not sure if they're hard for us to handle, I guess you're more the type of team we struggle against?"

"Yeah," Keishin agreed, folding his arms. "Based on how things have been so far, we deal better with teams that aggressively attack. We struggle with teams that stay calm and wait for the perfect opening to attack us, exactly like Seijoh and Nekoma."

"I see," the advisor murmured thoughtfully, moving his eyes back to the court to observe the next series of events. 

"Looks like you're gaining notoriety," Crow commented to Hinata, who was beside him. Immediately the ginger whipped to look at him.

"Huh? What's notoriety?"

"...Think of it like you're getting famous for your quick attack," Crow reiterated with a slight grimace, and this time, Hinata perked up.

"Really?! You think so?!"

"Yeah," The ravenette nodded, then sideyed him. "You gonna meet their expectations, or surpass them?"

"Surpass them!" Hinata responded, clenching his fists like he was doing a chin-up. Then he snapped to face the opposition and smirked. "Just watch me, Crow-san!"

"Sure."

"Kageyama nice serve!" The bench called right before the setter did his serve. That felt perfect, he thought to himself. And yet, Takeru managed to pick up up with a grin. 

"Nice recieve!"

"Pineapple Head is coming in from behind!" The stands cried. "He's so fast!"

"Not fast enough," Crow muttered under his breath as he easily shut the guy down, which caused the pineapple head's mouth to fall open. "I suggest not coming straight to me if you want even the slightest chance of winning," The ravenette warned boredly, but the words did their damage. 

"Teme!" The guy puffed up, but Crow was already walking away. "Hey! I'm talkin' to you!"

"Why do I get the feeling like Tanaka's yelling at me right now?" Crow wondered aloud, causing said person to look at him. 

"Huh? Why would I be yelling at you?"

"Must be my imagination. Maybe there's a loud service dog in here or something."

"What was that?!"

"H-H-H-hey l-let's just t-take it easy now," Asahi tried to take things down a notch, but it was time for the next serve, so Kageyama headed back to the endline and bounced the ball a few times as the referee blew the whistle to signal the serve. Taking a breath, Kageyama made eye contact with Waku's captain. You won't pick this one up as easily as the last one, he thought with a clench of his jaw. 

With that, he tossed the ball up and did his approach before slamming the ball over the net. While the serve definitely wasn't as easy to dig as the last one, Takeru still managed to get it up, and this time, Waku South got the point. 

As the team rotated for their turn to serve, the scorers pulled back the score so that it showed that Karasuno was at two points and Waku South was at one point. They had a long way to go.