𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖

cii - center court

"Wow... So this is the finals," Tanaka breathed as the team went inside. "There're so many people.."

"Ryu, this is no time to be scared!" Noya, who was walking next to him, scolded. 

"I-I'm not scared!" Tanaka stopped to snap at the libero, who just looked at him for a second before putting a hand on his shoulder. Crow deadpanned and moved past them, knowing whatever was going to come out of Nishinoya's mouth was going to be dumb. 

"Listen, Ryu. Picture this: The finals. Our opponents are Shiratorizawa. What do you think is going to happen when we play to a crowd this big?"

"What's going to happen?" Tanaka repeated right as some girls went by behind him. 

"They always look so much cooler when they're good players," They chatted with each other, oblivious to the shock they had just given the cueball as he gasped. After a second, he clapped hands with the libero. 

"Noya-san, I'm gonna do this!" He swore. "I'm gonna become a hero after this match!"

"I'm not gonna lose, Ryu!" Nishinoya promised, and the two started war-crying, which instantly put Crow into another bad mood. 

"They seem more hyped up than usual," Kinoshita commented as he stood with Ennoshita, who was clearly just as unimpressed and disillusioned as Crow was. 

"Oi, you're embarressing us, so stop screaming!" He told them.

"Shut up you two!" Daichi snapped, having zero patience for the nonsense today. 

"As expected..."

"Come on, let's go!" Daichi said once everyone had refocused, Tanaka and Noya having red bumps on top of their heads for not having listened, though they seemed pretty okay with it. 

"Yeah!"

"Hey, Crow-sama, good luck!" Some fanatics called, wearing black feathers and everything. The look made Crow deadpan but incline his head to them. 

"Thanks guys," He said briefly as he continued forward, though some cheers followed after him as he went.

"Let's go-gu-go-go Crow!"

"You've got this!"

"Crow-sama's so cool!"

"Kyaaa!"

"Anyone saying Kya unironically needs to reexamine their life," Kinoshita muttered as he walked with Crow and Ennoshita, who both nodded their agreement. Suddenly, Kageyama was trying to grab Hinata while growling teme at him. 

"Hey! Stop it, you two!" Daichi snapped again. 

"You're wasting energy before the finals, are you guys completely stupid?" Tsukishima voiced with a deadpan, then sighed as he put on his new glasses. "Well, we might immediately lose anyway."

"Good grief," Daichi grumbled as the two troublemakers finally calmed down and stopped being dorks. "Come on, let's go," He said, leading the team. As they walked, he started giving more instructions. "As soon as we put our stuff away, we're going to warm up-" He stopped, making Suga bump into him. 

"Hey, what'd you stop for?!" The vice captain demanded, only to look where Daichi was looking. It was an old man, looking at the pamphlet that was being given out about the finals.

"That old coot again, what the hell's his problem?" Keishin voiced, making the upperclassmen glance at him. 

"Do you know him?" Daichi was the one to ask. 

"Nah," The coach answered. "He would just show up to every single one of our matches. I don't think he's someone's relative, so I think he might just be a high school volleyball fan that likes Karasuno. He'll cheer for plays he thinks were good, and boo the bad ones. He's always been easy to read. Have you guys seen him before?" He asked them, causing them to nod.

"Hai, when we were still first years, he came to our games," Suga explained, then he, Daichi and Asahi made faces. 

"We'll never let him say that we're grounded crows again."

"How about we get moving and stop wasting time here chatting?" Crow suggested with a deadpan, which just made Keishin growl at him, but they did get moving again, heading to the gym. This time, there weren't two nets up, only one: they were in center court now, the center of attention. There were cameras everywhere, the stands were packed, and the atmosphere just felt so different compared to the qualifying matches before this. 

"All right, here we go!" Daichi said. 

"Yeah!" The team charged onto the court, though their confidence soon melted as the gravity of the situation hit them. Several of the guys were holding their stomachs and trembling, others straight up panicking, or being too excited. Noya was literally holding his head as Tanaka tried to shake him. 

"Noya, they're everywhere! There's chicks all over the place!"

"It's too much!" 

"Get up off the floor, are you five?!" Daichi stormed over to them as Tsukishima snickered. 

"Five is optimistic."

"Hey, calm down!" Takeda told them desperately. "Nobody freak out!"

"It would be great if words alone could solve this," Crow sighed as he stood alongside the advisor, finding this entire fiasco to be exasperating. And then Shiratorizawa's student section started cheering. 

"Shirrrrratorizawa!" They clapped, repeating it several times. "Come on, let's go! Come on, let's go! Today we'll be playing Karasuno high! Good luck, good luck! Come on, let's go!"

"That's something else," Suga commented at the intimidating display, making Asahi nod. 

"Yeah, well they are a powerhouse school after all."

"Speaking of," Tanaka said, looking over at the other side of the court. "Shiratorizawa's not here yet."

"Yeah, they're late."

"And we still have to sit through their stupid cheer? Ugh," Tanaka scoffed. 

"Guess champions get to take their time," Asahi said, but Noya was quick to disagree. 

"Yeah, well, champions or not, that's just tacky," He crossed his arms when Hinata suddenly whipped to look at the other side of the court. 

"They're here!" He said right before the doors opened, and the players of Shiratorizawa streamed onto the court like a river, their presence almost filling the entire gym as their student section went up in cheers and claps. 

Just like it happened outside, Ushiwaka's eyes were immediately drawn to Crow's as he strode forward purposefully, his team following behind him. It was finally time for the final match of the prefectural qualifiers, and both teams were ready and raring to go.