"Are you sure you're feeling better, Shoyo-kun?"Ayame asked, holding a bottle of water for Hinata. They just arrived in front of Aoba Johsai Private High School, one of the top school district in Miyagi, and Hinata puked on Tanaka's lap while they're travelling, much to his horror.

"I-I'm okay...I'm sorry, Tanaka-san" Hinata said, bowing at Tanaka.

"Like I said, don't worry about it. Never mind me. Are you all right?" Tanaka asked.

"Yes. I rested a little on the way here" he replied "I feel better now that I am off the bus"

"Thank goodness..." Ayame sighed.

"All right, then! We're on you on today's match" he told Hinata, who seemed to return to his earlier state after being pressured by Tanaka "Do it just like on the 3-on-3. Let me spike freely like that" he said as he pats Hinata's back.

"Uhm...Sugawara-san..." Ayame said to the older student. The grey haired setter nodded, knowing what she meant.

"Tanaka" Sugawara whispered to Tanaka "Don't pressure him"

"What? What's that?" Tanaka asked.

Too late, she thought.

"I'll...I'll...I'll do my b-" Hinata stuttered, struggling to keep himself from throwing up "I'm going to the bathroom!" and he rushed off.

Sugawara tried to stop Kageyama from hitting Hinata, who said he's gonna try to knock some courage into him. Seriously, Kageyama-kun? she thought.

"Shimizu-san, let me help you" Ayame said to the beautiful third year manager.

"Oh? Ah, thank you, Ayame-chan. Can you please carry those bags? They are filled with towels for the players. They're not that heavy so I think you can manage. I'll carry the ice chest" she replied, gesturing two bags beside her.

"Sure!" she said enthusiastically.

"It's really nice to have another female companion in this club. She's easily excited when volleyball is mentioned like Hinata" Shimizu thought, smiling "Then, I'll be going first, I guess"

"Ah, okay. I'll be going with Tadashi-kun and Tsukishima-kun, then" she replied, walking towards her classmates. They continued walking when they overheard a conversation coming from two Aoba Johsai players.

"Oh yeah, and there's a riffraff kind of guy there, too. He's got a shaved head and an unpleasant look in his eyes. He looks real stupid" he chuckled. A vein popped in the baldy's head and made an intimidating face as he peered on the corner.

"Yikes..." Ayame thought, face palming.

"Don't underestimate us too much" Tanaka said, stopping in front of them with flying crows as a background "Or we'll eat you alive" he added, scaring the two. Ayame tried to pull him back and whispered harshly "Tanaka-san! Stop that look!"

Tsukishima smirked "You shouldn't say things like that, Tanaka-san. Look what you did. You scared these poor elites. Now I feel sorry for them" he said, making a mocked sympathetic look.

"Our reputation is ruined..." she said, sighing at their riling and bullying personality, but she smiled a little "But...underestimating us will be your downfall, though. Remember that~" she said, looking at Seijoh's players with a creepy but blank expression, which scared them twice than Tanaka's. She might be the shortest in the group but her level of scariness bordered on demonic level.

"Oh, you guys are right. We should save our bullying for the match" Tanaka added, smiling evilly.

"That's true, I guess" Ayame replied, dropping the creepy expression and snickered. The two players just realized that the girl has violet eyes she was really cute with it.

"Yahaba-san, I didn't know that Karasuno has also another cutie. I thought their manager was their only beauty" he whispered. However, Tanaka, Tsukishima, and Yamaguchi heard him and glared at them with a burning background.

"What the hell was that?! Trying to hit on our coach and manager, aren't ya?!" Tanaka snarled. Tsukishima's glasses have an evil glint on it as he pushed it back. Yamaguchi glared hard at them as he put a protective arm in front of her.

"Mizuki-san is our precious coach and we won't let her get acquainted with the likes of you!"

Ayame looked at them with a surprise look as they defended her. She sighed and tugged their jackets "It's all right, Tadashi-kun, Tsukishima-kun, Tanaka-san. Remember, save the bullying for the match"

Yamaguchi sheepishly apologized to her "Sorry, Mizuki-san"

She turned to face Aoba Johsai's players and bowed "Please forgive our...ah...attitudes..."

"Oh please, don't apologize, Mizuki, they don't deserve it" Tsukishima said, smirking condescendingly.

The captain quickly arrived and scolded them "You guys! I can't let you out of my sight!" they flinched as the captain stepped forward and he pushed Tanaka's head downward "We apologize!"

"Oh, it's all right" the brunette said. Tanaka made another intimidating look, which the captain scolded him again. The taller one noticed Kageyama and smirked.

"It's been a while, King. I wonder what sort of dictatorship do you belong to these days. I'll be looking forward in the match" the taller one said. Tanaka was about to punch him but Daichi held him back. Ayame tried to cuss him but Yamaguchi held her back.

"This guy is really going to get it..." she fumed. Yamaguchi grabbed her hand "M-Mizuki-san, calm down"

The King of the Court was silent and nodded "Yeah" and he left, leaving them speechless. Tanaka and Sugawara slapped his back at his calm answer and walked ahead.

They entered the gym and they find it really...spacious. Hinata looked amazed and nervous at the same time. He rushed back to the bathroom, much to the team's surprise.

"He must be really nervous..."she worriedly thought "Did I make the right decision?"

(Flashback)

"Okay, this our line-up for the practice match" Daichi said, showing a piece of paper with Ayame's handwriting "Me, Sugawara, Kageyama and of course, our coach, Ayame-chan agreed on this"

"Though, it was mostly Ayame-chan's idea" Sugawara added "She's really clever"

"Since there is no libero, so far, the only person with good floor defense is Daichi-nii and we've decided that Tsukishima-kun and Shoyo-kun will be our middle blockers and of course, our setter is Kageyama-kun" Ayame explained "Also, Shoyo-kun will be our decoy"

"Eh? Decoy? Not much of a fancy title...I prefer ace!" the orange haired teen said, earning a whack from Kageyama.

"By surprising them with your quick, the blockers attention will be on you and the other spikers will be able to spike freely" Ayame said "We can use the quick to catch them off guard and score points. It depends on our setter to do that, right, Kageyama-kun?" Kageyama nodded.

"Our starting players for Aoba Johsai's practice match are Daichi, Tanaka, Ennoshita, Tsukishima, Hinata, and Kageyama. And after this, we will try some of the strategies Ayame-chan made for our offense and defence" Sugawara said. Yamaguchi looked depressed that he was the only first year who isn't a regular. Ayame noticed this and felt guilty for not including him.

"Sorry, Tadashi-kun, the original plan was that all first years will play and Daichi-nii and Tanaka-san are the other members to make it six players. However, Daichi-nii pointed out that it will be hard if most of the members are first years. Sorry" she apologized.

"I-It's okay, Mizuki-san" he said, forcing a smile.

"You're using Hinata in a position where height matters?" Tanaka asked them, after noticing that the shorter teen is a middle blocker.

"His jump makes up for his short stature, Tanaka-san, and also during the last point where you spiked in, blockers like Tsukishima-kun were fixated on him, allowing you to spike freely" she explained.

"But, what about blocking, then?"

"Our purpose of putting Hinata as middle blocker is not to shut down the ball, but to touch them. With his crazy reflexes and speed, he can touch the opponent's spike and slow down their momentum. In that way, we'll set the pace to our advantage and make our counterattack" Kageyama explained.

"I'm not sure if it will go smoothly..." Tanaka said.

"Yeah, it won't go smoothly right off the bat but..." Daichi told him "We should try it. It's a practice match, after all. Anyway, for in-air battles, we've only got Tsukishima and Kageyama who can match Hinata's jumps. So, Hinata, have confidence, and..."

"Yes! I'll do my best! I'll score a lot of points! I'll be a decoy! I'll serve! Block! Quick! Everything!" Hinata rambled.

"Shoyo-kun, calm down!" Ayame panicked, placing her hands on his shoulder but he overloaded and exploded.

"He blew a fuse! Hinata blew a fuse!"

(End)

"He's been like that after we made him as a middle blocker and decoy...He's too nervous..." she sighed "Even if we only told him to relax or say anything encouraging, it only made things worse for him"

"Oh, the shrimpy guy is their middle blocker? That's gotta be some mistake" the turnip haired guy said and the violet eyed girl heard it clearly. She glared at him dangerously with an extremely dark aura behind her and he sweat dropped and shut his mouth.

At the start of the first set, Hinata kept making mistakes. "Is it me or does Kageyama-kun looked like he wanted to strangle Shoyo-kun?" she thought, biting her lower lip "He's too nervous to play. Shimizu-san's encouragement didn't work" Aoba Johsai are in their set point and Karasuno still haven't shown their super quick. And the person who will serve is none other than the orange haired teen.

"Crap" Ayame muttered. Thankfully, no one heard her "The timing couldn't be worse..."

"Let's have a little faith in him" Sugawara said, though his expression was the exact opposite of his words.

The referee whistled and Hinata served the ball in surprise. To his horror, the ball hit Kageyama's head, earning a win in the first set by Seijoh.

"He's toast" she said, face palming.

"Pfft...Hey, is your head okay?" Tanaka laughed, calling out to Kageyama.

"Nice headshot, man!" Tsukishima said, laughing at Hinata and Kageyama. Tanaka and Tsukishima laughed harder and Sugawara scolded them "Don't razz him!"

"I have to step between these two or else World War III will start" she stood up and approached them. Hinata was pleading at Kageyama to forgive him and kept explaining that it was all an accident but Kageyama was only telling him that there's nothing for him to be nervous about playing against Seijoh, though his expression was scary and it still scared Hinata. Ayame sighed and approached the orange haired teen.

"Shoyo-kun" she started "Why do you want to play in this match?"

"T-to prove them that even if I'm this tall, I can still fight!" he answered. She placed her hand on his shoulder and the shorter teen blushed madly. She silently prayed that he won't blow a fuse like what happened with Shimizu.

"Then, prove it! Prove it to us and to Seijoh that you can fight with that height...like the Little Giant!" she told him, knowing that the orange haired teen idolized him "If you managed to do it, I'll treat you some meat buns" she added.

...

...

Hinata broke a huge grin and nodded "I'll do it!! Kageyama, give me a toss!"

"You did better than me, Mizuki" Kageyama said, nodding at her.

"Thanks. Next time, try to encourage him without giving him the scary look, okay?" Ayame told him, patting his shoulder.

Kageyama's face turned red and nodded "O-osu!"

"Heh, the King's a tsundere" Tsukishima snickered.

"SHUT UP!"

"Tsukishima-kun, please focus on the match and stop teasing him" Ayame told him "or else..."

"Or else what?" Tsukishima smirked.

"Or else I won't give you a strawberry shortcake. I have one in my bag. Tadashi-kun and I will eat it if you kept teasing him" she deviously smiled. The blonde's smirk faltered and closed his mouth and returned back, muttering that she's pretty clever and devious.

"Nice job, Coach Ayame" Sugawara grinned at her, giving her a high five. The second set started and they managed to do the super quick. Those who didn't saw the quick before were shocked and surprised.

"All right! Nice kill!!" she yelled. She's happy that they're rotation is working and it's balanced. The crowd were surprised by the attack and she grinned wider after she saw Seijoh's shocked expression.

Karasuno won the second set, thanks to the first years' abilities. During the break, Kageyama was being unusually quiet.

"What's wrong, Kageyama?" Daichi asked him.

"Their setter...I think he's not their official setter" he replied. Suddenly, a handsome looking teen arrived and waved to the girls on the rails, making them squeal.

"Good thing you're back" Seijoh's coach said, talking to him "Oikawa"