effervescent (nishinoya yū)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN / the recruit

"Alright!"

Tanaka jumped up in the air and spiked Kageyama's toss as hard as he could. The confident grin on his face immediately vanished as you rolled and received his ball with ease, coming back up onto one knee with a triumphant smirk.

"Wow!" Nishinoya yelled, bouncing up and down. "Ryū, me next, me next!"

Sugawara looked over from where he was stretching. "You guys should really save that energy for after warmups," he scolded, although there wasn't any true chastisement in his voice. Tsukishima mumbled something under his breath that made Nishinoya and Tanaka both turn on him, but Kiyoko's voice from the entrance to the gym interrupted them.

"Hey, do you have a moment?"

You all turned to face her. You gasped as a familiar first-year peeked out from behind Kiyoko, raising her fists up in the air like a Maneki-neko and visibly trembling. "Hitoka!"

"So you found a new person!" Hinata yelled, making Yachi draw back and shake even harder from fear and anxiety.

"What's up?"

"What's going on?"

Yachi stopped shaking almost immediately after Nishinoya and Tanaka spoke, but she looked like she had stopped breathing as well. You walked over to Kiyoko and Yachi and put a hand on Yachi's shoulder while giving her a comforting grin, which made her relax just a tiny bit.

"Um, she's joining the club on a trial basis as the new manager," Kiyoko explained while looking back at Yachi. 

Yachi straightened and clasped her hands into fists at her sides. "I-I'm Hitoka Yachi!"

Sugawara smiled. "Seriously? That's awesome!"

"Nice job, Upperclassman Shimizu!" Hinata exclaimed.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Yamaguchi take a few steps toward Yachi, dumbfounded with a pale blush coming across his face. He didn't say anything, but his expression revealed what he was probably thinking.

Asahi leaned down to make eye contact with Yachi. "You're a first-year?"

Yachi shrieked and drew her shoulders up to her ears defensively. "I-I'm in Class 1-5, sir!"

Sawamura grabbed Asahi. "Asahi, back up a bit!"

Yachi looked over and flinched as Nishinoya and Tanaka both peered from behind Sugawara, not saying anything but staring intently at the poor girl. Sugawara looked behind him and smacked Nishinoya and Tanaka's faces, stopping them from staring.

Asahi put a hand on his hip and smiled. "Thank goodness. Now there will be a manager next year, too."

"Yes!"

Kiyoko came to Yachi's rescue as she began to panic again, putting her hands up placatingly. "She hasn't actually joined yet. I asked her to do this today at the last minute, so she just came by before heading to her committee work. She's just dropping by to introduce herself."

Yachi gulped, squeezed her eyes shut, and bowed. "I-It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Everyone bowed back in tandem and chorused a loud "Same!" that made Yachi freeze up again. 

Kiyoko stepped a little in front of Yachi with her hands up again. "Could you not surround her until she's more comfortable?"

Yachi backed up to the door and tried for a smile, although you could tell she was still scared out of her mind. "S-Sorry for the intrusion," she stammered as she closed the door gently behind her.

"Shimizu..." Sawamura looked down at Kiyoko. "So you were looking for a new manager?"

She nodded. "Yeah...I didn't think we got enough of a response when we tried to find people in April. I thought it was important to find someone to carry on as manager, especially with Karasuno getting so much stronger."