Unlike the rest of the team, Haiba and Hinata hadn't received their jerseys yet and were excited to see what numbers they would have, "It's like there are two puppies in front of me," Kuroo smirked as he with held the jerseys from the two, leaving them only in their shorts and practise tops, "We're cats not dogs,"
"Kuroo!" the two moaned.
"I'm liking this," Kuroo laughed.
"Give them their jerseys, Kuroo," Yaku said.
"Please, Kuroo-senpai!" Hinata gave Kuroo kitten eyes. It was the same as puppy eyes, but they were at Nekoma, and Kuroo loved to embrace the cat part.
"Fine!" Kuroo gave in, giving the two their jerseys.
"No.10!" Hinata cheered, "I really am Nekoma's little giant now!"
"No.11, dammit Hinata got a higher number," Haiba complained.
"It's partly down to what we could get in your sizes," Kuroo pointed out, "But there's no more hiding in the gym, you'll both be joining us for inter high,"
"As starters?" the two asked.
"No," Kuroo replied bluntly, "But we may sub you on,"
"I can't wait!" Hinata squealed.
Another week passed, and the inter high tournament had begun, "Kenma, how many rounds are there?" Hinata asked.
"There are six in total for the prefecture rounds and another six for nationals," Kozume answered, "If we get to the semi-finals and win then we've got a spot in nationals, and if we lose the semi-finals then there's still a third and fourth place play off, third place also gets to go,"
"So we need to get to at least the semi-finals," Hinata said, "Let's do this! But first I need to go to the bathroom,"
Hinata made his way to the bathroom only to spot someone else there, so tall, "Are you done yet, Bokuto?" someone else asked. Hinata hid behind the door and crept into the nearest cubicle, glad that neither had seen him.
"Mm-hmm," the presumed other person replied, "Let's go and win!" Hinata knew that there were tall players in volleyball, such as Haiba, but this person was tall and broad. They looked like they could throw Hinata onto the ground. Once the person left, Hinata could feel the confidence in the air vanish. So powerful, Hinata looked at the door as it closed, definitely an ace.
"There you are, Hinata," Kuroo entered the bathroom, "What's the matter?"
"Is everyone tall and strong?" Hinata asked nervously.
"Not everyone, you've seen our team, and there are lots of teams with shorter players too,"
"Yeah? But there was this guy, and he was super tall and super muscular and scary, I think his name was Bokuto," Kuroo laughed.
"Boktuo is the least scary person I know. Annoying at times, but not scary,"
"Really? But his presence was so powerful,"
"Well, he's Fukurodani's ace,"
"Fukurodani? But aren't they a powerhouse school?"
"Exactly,"
"Wow,"
"Come on, let's go,"
Soon, the team were ready and began to warm up for their first match of the day. Hinata was slightly disheartened when he learnt that he wasn't on the starting order, but it did help calm his nerves. About halfway through the game, he was subbed on.
"Let's go, Bokuto," someone said to the powerful ace.
"But I want to watch Nekoma play Akaashi!" The ace protested childishly.
"We need to get back to the team, Bokuto,"
"No, we don't,"
"Boktuo, I'm not having this argument,"
"Who's that?" Bokuto asked as the two watched the small player enter the court. They had orange hair and wore the number ten jersey.
"Probably a first year since we haven't seen them before,"
"Yeah, that makes sense,"
The moment Hinata stepped onto the court, he could feel everyone's eyes shift to him, trembling slightly he picked up the ball for his serve. Hinata served the ball as usual. His serve had become fairly reliable, so Hinata was confident that it would go over the net, "Ow!" Kuroo exclaimed. Hinata watched in horror as he saw the ball crash into the back of Kuroo's head.
"I'm so sorry!" Hinata squeaked, "I didn't mean to serve into your head!"
"It's fine, Hinata," Kuroo brushed it off, I'm going to get subbed off now, aren't I? Hinata thought to himself.
Bokuto watched the nervous player serve the ball into the back of Kuroo's head, and he burst out laughing, "I love this player,"
"Because they accidentally served the ball into Kuroo's head?" Akaashi asked.
"Exactly,"
Hinata was surprised when he was allowed to stay on the court, I needed to focus super hard on not messing up my receiving, Hinata thought as he prepared to face the other team's serve. Yaku kept the ball up and passed it to Kozume, who tossed for Yamamoto. Yamamoto hit the ball and won the point, Hinata gulped. This meant that he had now rotated into the most defensive spot of the court, "Relax Shouyou," Kozume said, "Just keep the ball up,"
"Y-yeah," Hinata replied. The next rally began, and Yaku had successfully received the spike.
"Shouyou! Run!" Kozume called out as he began to toss the ball. Hinata ran for the freak quick, slamming the ball down with no blockers on him at all.
Bokuto has picked up his drink between the rallies and began to drink it. It was Nekoma's turn to serve, and the rally had begun again. Once again, Nekoma's libero was good and received the ball, then their setter, Kenma, right? I should know this! shouted at number ten, Shouyou, his name is Shouyou, remember that Bokuto! to run. Bokuto dropped his drink when he saw the quick. He hadn't seen anything like it before, it was super fast, "Did you see that Akaashi! Did you see that!" Bokuto shouted, "Can we do that?"
"Bokuto, you can't run that fast," Akaashi pointed out.
"Aw!" Bokuto sulked.
"We really need to join our teammates," Akaashi began to leave.
"Wait for me, Akaashi!" Bokuto ran to catch up with him.
For the rest of the time Hinata was on the court, which was up until it was his turn to serve again, Kozume made sure to use him as a decoy, tricking the other team into thinking that Hinata was the spiker. Soon, the match ended with Nekoma winning, "Kenma! You were really cool out there! And the way we did that first freak quick! It was like gwaah! Wapoosh! Bam!"
"Thanks?" Kozume replied, unsure of what Hinata meant with his noises.
"And Kuroo-senpai! I'm sorry for serving the ball into your head," Hinata apologised again.
"It's fine, Hinata. we all make mistakes. Besides, this was your first match," Kuroo replied, "Onto the next!"
"Onto the next!" Hinata replied.