Strategize: Haikyuu Fanfic

Chapter 24: Soar

"...Onii-chan."

The boy slowly turned around to see a girl who seems to be studying him. At first, he thought that the girl had mistaken him for someone else, because she possessed jet black hair and blue eyes. But the way she said that, it rings a bell in his mind.

"Aya-tan...?" She wanted to say 'yes' or 'I miss you' or anything, but not a sound escaped from her lips, instead, she nodded.

Suddenly, her brother glomped her tightly, squeezing the air out of the poor girl.

"Nii... I can't...breathe..." She groaned, but she didn't try to struggle away.

"AYA-TAN~! Why did you dye your hair!? I missed you!" He blubbered out as he sobbed comical tears. Oh how she missed her stupid brother.

Tsundere mode: activated. "I miss you too..." She muttered under her breath, refusing to meet his bright emerald eyes.

"Kyaaaa~ three years of waiting is worth it!" He squealed in excitement as he rubbed his cheek against hers, while she stood there with a weird combination of happiness and embarassment.

"This is your sister, Ryuuji?" His teammate asked, to get a nod from him, "the way you talk about her sounded more like... an older sister."

"She is more mature than me, but she barely grew since I last saw her~!" He joked, ruffling his little sister's hair. In terms of height, Ayame stands at 157.5 cm, while her brother, who got his genes from his dad, stood at a whopping 192 cm.

"Shut up..." She whispered grumpily, which made her brother squeal with joy even more.As they exchanged numbers, she heard someone faintly call her name.

"-yame!"

"Ayame!"

She turned around to see the gray haired setter jogging in her direction.

"You shouldn't stray away from so group so suddenly like that." Suga scolded the girl. Her brother cocked his eyebrow suspiciously at him.

"boyfriend~?" he said while eyeing the setter. His tease was not very effective to her, but to Suga -oh no he's as red as one can be- She stared at him blankly for a while and spoke, "I don't have a boyfriend."

It seems what she said was really funny, because her brother laughed so hard, that tears started forming on the corners of his eyes. His laughing came to a stop when she looked at him in the eye and spoke in the most blunt fashion.

"I bet you don't have a girlfriend."

"Bingo." His teammate chuckled mischievously while his brother sulked.

"In a way I miss your snarky comebacks, sis..." He murmured gloomily.

"I gotta go. I need to help my friends get warmed up." She hated to be the one to say goodbye, but she's still a part of Karasuno's Male Volleyball Club. Her brother immediately snapped out of his sulking state and waved goodbye to his sister.

"You owe me an explanation! Bye-bye~!"

As she headed back to the respective gym, you can tell that she was in a joyous mood. Her face doesn't show it, since it still remained stoic as ever, but there was this flowery aura that surrounded her.

"Your brother is surprisingly carefree." He chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck.

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Ayame's POV:

We both spotted Hinata speaking to a stranger wearing a light blue blue shirt with the words "the top" written on the back.

"I...I'm aiming for the top too! I'll do it!" Hinata interrupted the boy's conversation. Suga, being the responsible one out of the group, covered the gingers mouth and apologized for his behavior.

"Idiot. What are you doing?" He scolded the ginger.

"Suga, in a way you're our team's babysitter." I stifled out a laugh.

We both forcefully dragged him to the rest of the group, which were all in the gym's entrance. There were players already getting warmed up, recieving, spiking, and tossing all over the place. The sound of squeaking shoes filled Ayame's ears once more, which were music to her ears.

"This gym is huge! It smells like Air Salonpas..." Hinata said as he took in a deep breath.

"What are you talking about?" Kageyama looked at the boy weirdly.

"That's the smell of tournaments!"

"I know, right?!" The libero agreed with the first year, both getting pumped up. We felt footsteps approaching our way, so we turned around to see a group of guys in matching white uniforms, "Dateko" printed on it. Ah. The people I did a research on. The guy with no eyebrows, Aone, looks even larger than I expected in the pictures. His broad shoulders and height makes him a perfect build for a blocker.

Without uttering a word, he pointed his finger threateningly at Asahi senpai, who doesn't seem to be in a nervous breakdown, luckily. Tensions rose quickly, I could almost feel it with my own hands.

"You got a problem?" Nishinoya glared at the towering man. But before he could say any more, our ace gestured him dismissively. The two men had an intense staring contest, which I would've probably gotten myself fainting in the process.

Finally one of Aone's teammates took action and scolded him, "hey, hey, hey! Stop that!" He attempted to pull down the man's arm, which didn't seem to budge. He apologized to us, which reminded me a lot of our team's babysitter.

"Futakucchi! Help me out!" He turned to the brunette boy who stood beside him, which I noticed that was staring at me the whole time.

"Sure. Sorry about that. This guy targets our opponent's ace whenever he sees them, " he said, forcefully pushing down his arm, which he succeeded in doing so. His tone sounded as if he were mocking us, which angered the libero even more.

"so...you better be ready." He winked at me before they turned around and left. What was that about?

"That was a little jarring." Suga lets his tense shoulders relax and sighed in relief, "I'm amazing that you stared back at him!" He turned to see Asahi, who looked like he saw a ghost.

"Th-that was nerve-racking..."

"Why are you such a wimp off the court?" Nishinoya said, who's not scared by a bit. Now that's what you call wild.

Our captain stumbled upon an old friend of his, so he said we can start warming up. I noticed that Hinata is trembling nervously.

"Hinata, you're all tensed up, are you alright? " I asked concerningly.

The boy flinched at my question, his voice shook as he stuttered, "Y-Yes! I am perfectly fine!" Hinata, even if you say that, your actions prove otherwise.

"Asahi's cowardly too, but he doesn't seem nervous." Suga observed.

"I have a trick to calm down my nerves: I try to remember the scariest experiences I ever had. The scarier, the better. Then I think to myself 'whatever happens, it can never be as scary as that'."

I don't know what scary experiences Hinata thought of, but it really did the trick. To the point that it worried me.

"I'm fine now." He said as if he'd gone to heaven.

"Rest in peace, Hinata Shoyo." I mumbled as Suga tried to snap him out of it.

The captain joined us soon after, and we all entered the gym.

We'll show them how the flightless crows will soar up in the skies once again.