Foreign Interference

Chapter 4

"What do you mean?" The girl questioned, tilting her head slightly to the right.

"Exactly what I said... what do you see when you're watching them play?" He answers throwing a thumb lazily towards the boys on the court.

The girl thinks for a second, composing her ideas into coherent sentences. She turns fully towards Ukai.

"I see confidence in what they are good at. I also see how much they love the sport." She replies with a soft smile pulling at her lips as she finishes.

"Is...Is that all?" He asks slowly. She pauses, looking down and fidgeting at her skirt.

"No...not all..." She turns back to the court. "It's hard to explain in words..."

"Then how about writing it?" Ukai asks, handing her a notebook. She stares at him for a second, then grasping what he was saying, snaps out of her stare and takes the notebook. Opening it to the first page, she starts to write:

Kageyama- Setter(?); Calm (except when dealing with Hinata or Blondie); Super Quick attack only applies to
Hinata (they have a certain code? Words of some sort?); Controlled sets, but can lose focus if competition is too intense; Jumps 8-9, power 6, speed 6

Hinata- Blocker(?), Spiker(?); seems envious when looking at the other, taller members, but it doesn't seem to affect his spikes; easy target for spikes when in the back row; Hyperactive (mostly), but can focus when the need arises; jumps are a solid 8, power 6 or 7, speed 9

Blondie- Blocker; tall, but seems to lack motivation; salty/sour personality causes friction within team, but also riles up opponents; adequate solo blocking, but usually leans towards his fellow blockers when double or triple blocking; jumps 7 (but makes up for it in height), power 5, speed 5

She makes a list for each member, giggling lightly each time she had to make up a nickname. Ukai glances at her paper several times as she writes, each time more and more impressed by what he sees. He's about to ask her a question, when her pencil stops, but decides against it when he notices the look of pure concentration on her features. Her eyes squinted slightly, and her tongue poked out between her lips.

As the girl finishes up on her evaluation of the team, she lowers her pencil and looks back at Ukai.

"I-I've finished." She spoke up, causing the man to turn towards her. He takes the pad from her hands and examines her work. She clasped her hands in front of her skirt and stares expectantly. Ukai's eyes widen as he reads.

"You...," He starts, turning his focus back to her, "You haven't met any of the guys yet...have you?" He asked, to which she just shook her head 'no'. He nodded, and turned his focus back to the practice, but found he could no longer concentrate on it.

'This girl has not met any of these boys, but had been able to grasp things that I haven't even noticed.' He thought. Taking a quick glance at her. 'She is a foreigner, maybe she has some experience in volleyball....no that's not it, she doesn't know the names of the positions...' He added crossing his arms over his chest. He continues his examination of the players. 'Indeed, Tsukishima does tend to lean his weight towards his partner when blocking, and Tanaka twitches in the direction that Suga signals. Daichi also crouches a bit too far down when receiving, which could cause unneeded stress in longer games.' Ukai continued analyzing what the girl shared and saw that each observation was nearly perfect. At the end of practice, Ukai called everyone over, including the two managers and their new friend.

"First, I would like this young lady to introduce herself, since I'm sure no one will pay attention until she does." He states, noticing the not-so-subtle glances the boys were giving her.

She gave a small laugh, a light pink adorning her cheeks, and addressed the boys, "Hello, everyone! My name is (L/N)(F/N) from (Y/C). It's a pleasure to meet you! You can all talk to me after practice has officially ended, so please listen to your Coach!" She finishes with a smile, turning it back over to Ukai who nods.

"During practice, I asked this young lady what she saw as she watched from the sidelines." He said while gesturing towards the foreigner. She blushed lightly, looking down.

"She then proceeded to give me a list of your strengths and weaknesses. And although she doesn't know any of you, she gave me a pretty spot on list. I want you all to read over her notes, and try to learn from an outsider's point of view." He closed his eyes and nodded, holding out the pad for someone to take.

All of the boys were silent, while Daichi reached for the pad. Reading it carefully, he nodded in agreement.

'I guess I'm the one labeled 'Reliable One', I never noticed that my form is off.' He wonders while thinking back on his experiences.

Suga takes a look and he, too, agrees. Asahi and Nishinoya both looked at it, together. Nishinoya suddenly laughs out loud, the girl flinched a little, knowing what he found so funny.

"HAHAHA the names!" He was now laughing so hard he had to wipe tears from his eyes. "Shaved Head? Man bun? Blondie? Most of the names are hair-related!" He gawks at the paper some more, trying to find the other members'. "I guess that means I'm spikey, huh? My position is Libero, by the way." He adds looking at the girl, who just nods slightly in response, taking a mental note. Asahi takes the notes from Nishinoya and hands them off to Tsukishima who just reads silently.

'Tch. Blondie?' Tsukishima glances at the girl, who is now fidgeting slightly as the boys read over her notes. 'I see she even ranked us by strength and jumps. Observant...wait...why is my power worse than those two weirdos? And what the hell? What does 'salty' mean?' He thinks while glaring at the girl. His sneering does not go unnoticed by the girl. She just gives him a small smile as a form of apology. He then passes the notes to 'Freckles' Yamaguchi and sighs.

As the rest of the boys looked over her notes, none of them found anything to be particularly wrong in her assumptions. She sighs with relief. Ukai is the first to speak up, addressing the whole crowd.

"As you can see, I think her insights are pretty accurate. If everyone agrees, I would like her to continue coming to practices in the future to assess our team. As she gets use to us, she might be able to find other faults that we may not be able to find." He concludes looking at her expectantly. The look on her face is a mixture of shock and excitement. She glances at Kiyoko, almost as if to ask for permission. Kiyoko smiles and nods in satisfaction. The girl beamed at the team, who were all looking at her now for an answer.

"I would love to!" She replied excitedly. Though she didn't have an interest in the sport before today, after seeing these guys hard at work, she felt that right here, in this gym, with this team was where she was meant to be.

"It's a pleasure to have you!" Daichi spoke, to which the team all responded, "It's a pleasure to have you!" The warmth on the girl's cheeks shown as a flare of red. Her face hurt from how far the smile had spread itself from ear to ear.