*Flashback during Ayame's time in Tokyo, a year ago*

"This is Mizuki Kazumi, a close friend of mine and a former volleyball player" Nekomata-sensei told Nekoma's players, pointing at the woman beside him "and this is her daughter, Mizuki Ayame, from Hanabi Aiko Jr. High. They are here to watch our practice so be nice to them"

"PLEASED TO MEET YOU!!" they said, bowing. Ayame flinched and shyly hid behind her mother. Her mother gently smiled at her and made her stand in front of her "Aya-chan, be nice to them and greet them. Don't be like that" she whispered.

Ayame nervously nodded and slightly bowed at them "I'm pleased to be acquainted with you all!"

"Eh?" they tilted their heads in confusion. Ayame blushed and hid behind her mother again.

"Nice to meet you all. Sorry if Aya-chan's a bit verbose. She's a bit shy but she actually likes watching volleyball" her mother told them "Well, we'll be right here so please continue doing your usual routine"

"It's great to have you here, Kazumi-san" Naoi bowed to the woman. She grinned and karate chopped his head as a greeting, much to his pain and surprise.

"Naoi, no need to be so formal to me" she told him "Of course, I'm glad to see you guys here!"

"Hahahaha!" the old director of Nekoma laughed "Same attitude as always, Kazumi! I'm amazed that your daughter doesn't resemble you a bit at all! Quite a contrary, if I say so myself"

Naoi winced as he rubbed his head "But, really, Kazumi-san, you should stop hitting people every time you greet them. People may think you're a sadist. It may ruin your reputation"

"Meh, don't care" she replied, waving it off "Anyway, I brought Aya-chan with me to watch your game to...distract her for a bit..." she softly added.

"Oh?" he looked at the young girl behind her. She's shying from them yet she looked so interested when watching the team practice. He turned his attention to the woman and she gestured him to follow her.

"Naoi, follow me. I'll tell you about it"

While the two adults left for a grown up conversation, Ayame was left with Nekomata-sensei on the bench. Her violet eyes were sparkling with amazement and she was grinning slightly but she's also observing closely, running mental calculations and theories inside her head.

A ball rolled to her direction and she gingerly picked it up, her eyes sparkling in eagerness. A player approached her and she shyly gave it to him.

"Thanks! Uh...erm, can I call you Ayame?" he asked and she nodded "Well, thanks, Ayame! My name is Yaku Morisuke, Nekoma's libero! You know what a libero is, right?"

"Of course! A libero is in charge of keeping the team's floor defence, right? They are the ones who are chasing ball to save it from falling! But when I think about it, a libero's position is a bit torturous since he's doing all the things to save the ball from falling. But aside from saving the ball, the libero can also set the ball to the spiker as long as he doesn't set it from the front because liberos can't spike, set and block on the front line" she excitingly said, making Nekoma's libero stare at her in amazement. Ayame covered her mouth and felt embarrassed because she got a little carried away.

"A-amazing..." he said.

"What her mother told you was no joke. She likes volleyball to the point she memorized everything about it" Nekomata-sensei laughed "Not to mention, she's got a sharp eye on things"

***

"Kuroo, who is she?" Kenma asked his friend. Kuroo was surprised at Kenma's sudden interest to the violet eyed girl.

"Ohohoho~...why so curious, Kenma? Do you like her?" Kuroo smirked but the setter only looked at him with his usual blank expression.

"Not really...I'm just asking. Yaku seemed to be close to her..." he explained, gesturing at Nekoma's libero who is happily chatting with her. Actually, he's doing all the talking since Ayame's only nodding shyly every time he asked her about something.

"Why don't you ask her instead?" Kuroo grinned, grabbing his collar.

"M-me? Wa-wait, Kuroo, I was just..." but it was too late. Kuroo dragged him by his collar towards the girl while he struggled fruitlessly.

"Hey, Ayame, I would like you to meet our setter" Kuroo told her, pushing Kenma to her. The setter flinched and looked down "Hello...I'm Kozume Kenma, a setter. Nice to meet you, Ayame" he awkwardly said.

"Nice to meet you, Kenma-san!" she brightly said, which made Kenma and Kuroo flinch at her outburst "I've watched you having a practice earlier. You're such an amazing setter! I was surprised when you suddenly made a dump attack when the receive was really good!! I thought you're gonna set it to Kuroo-san or to Yamamoto-san but still, it was an amazing play!!" she rambled and Kenma felt awkward but he was secretly happy that she's praising him.

"What happened?" Kuroo asked Yaku, pointing at the now excited Ayame "She's really excited now. What happened to her shy self earlier?" Kuroo gave the libero a suspicious look "Yaku, how many sugars you gave her earlier?"

"Nah, Kenma mentioned "setter" earlier. Ayame would get excited when volleyball or any other words related to volleyball is mentioned. See?" Yaku grinned, looking at the rambling Ayame. Kuroo remained silent while watching the two having a conversation with each other about volleyball. Ayame's hands were making animated gestures as she's talking to Kenma and the setter was smiling slightly while talking to her.

"Heh, I never thought that Kenma would happily talk to Ayame about volleyball..." Kuroo noted.

"Actually, when I don't mention volleyball, she's shy and a little distant and sad...I try telling her stories and she's smiling a little..." the libero told him.

"Is that so?" he looked at her "She's really cute when smiling. She should do that more often"

"It's probably hard for her since she's suffering a lot for a long time..." he whispered.

*End of flashback*

"It's been eight years. What's with the hair, Ukai?" Nekoma's coach jokingly asked. Coach Ukai scoffed "Shut up, Naoi. You haven't changed a bit"

"Yeah, you still look the same" Ayame nodded. Naoi turned his attention to her and smiled.

"Speaking of which, your hair is longer now, Ayame. I still remember that your hair was really short. I guess that you changed now, huh?" he said

"And you're more open and cheerful than before" he thought, satisfied "However, your height's still the same as ever" he added, measuring her height.

An arrow hit the girl's back after he pointed out her short stature. She sulked on the corner with a gloomy aura hovering above her.

"Now, now, Naoi, you know that she can be a little sensitive about her height" the old director of Nekoma said "Hey, Keishin"

"It's been a long time, Nekomata-sensei" Coach Ukai said, greeting the old man.

"You look just like your geezer of a granddad, Keishin" he chuckled "It's great to see you again, Ayame"

She stopped sulking and she finally grinned and bowed in front of Nekomata-sensei "You, too, sensei!"

"I'm Takeda. We spoke on the phone days ago. Thank you very much for engaging us today" Mr. Takeda said.

"Oh, it was nothing. You kept calling me endlessly so I had no choice but to agree" the old man said. Ayame sighed at the teacher's persistence "Sensei, did you actually do that?"

Mr. Takeda sheepishly rubbed his neck in embarrassment but the old man just laughed it off "It's fine. It's fine. We've had good practice matches these last three days. We're looking forward to today's match"

"Yes. We are also looking forward to it" Ayame said.

"Even though my opponent isn't that geezer Ukai, I will show no mercy" he replied seriously, which unnerved Coach Ukai, Ayame, and Mr. Takeda.

"Yes" she nodded. The old coach laughed and patted her head.

Everyone was having their warm ups and Ayame did a little review while watching Nekoma's players. "Wow, their #7's really tall! Almost as tall as Kuroo-san! Pretty sure that he's one of their starting players. Hmm...Kenma-san seems to be improving his communication abilities to others and his setter skills are improving. Yaku-san's gotten faster and much more capable of receiving heavy hits from the spiker. Kuroo-san's also improving but he's provocative as ever. Sigh, it's been a long time...they've changed remarkably...did I also change from back then?"

"Ayame? Are...are you okay?" Yamaguchi said, tapping her shoulder after he saw her spacing out. Ayame was startled and looked at him "Oh, sorry, Tadashi-kun. I was observing the other team...I just noticed that everyone on Nekoma High changed a lot...I think this match will be harder than we expected"

"It will be all right! We have Hinata and Kageyama as our oddball combo. And we have Asahi-san as our ace and Nishinoya-san and Daichi-san for the floor defence!" he assured her.

"Don't forget our tallest player, Tsukishima-kun, as our middle blocker" she added, smiling at him "Thanks, Tadashi-kun, for the assurance"

"Somehow, his Tadashi-kun's voice help me calm down and feel reassured...like that time..." she thought.

"Don't mention it, Ayame" he replied, standing up "I better go. The match's about to start"

"Good luck!"

Karasuno's players huddled together and put their fists on the center. Daichi looked at her and motioned her to join them "Ayame-chan! Join us in our cheer!"

She happily nodded and ran to them. She squeezed between Yamaguchi and Hinata and placed her fist on the center with them. She could feel her heart pounding loudly inside her ribcage and she thought she's going to burst from excitement.

"Karasuno~...FIGHT!!"

"FIGHT!!"

They raised their fists as they yelled. Ayame touched her hand and grinned "Amazing! A team spirit!!"

"It's a team spirit, Ayame-chan" Daichi told her, smiling at her excitement.

"Isn't it awesome, Ayame?!" Hinata jumped excitingly, showing his hand.

"Yeah! It's so cool!" she replied with the same energy as Hinata.

"We are like the blood in our veins. We must flow without stopping. Keep the oxygen moving and your mind working. Let's do this!!" Kuroo said.

"OSU!!" Nekoma's players yelled.

"Kuro, can you stop giving those speeches? They're embarrassing" Kenma told him.

"Come on, Kenma. You know you like it every time Ayame says she likes it" Kuroo said, looking at Ayame "You like our speech, right, Ayame?"

Ayame heard the speech and looked at Nekoma's captain "Hm? Ah...yes, it's really cool and unique, Kuroo-san. However, I think it's too long for a regular team cheer, honestly...and also, it sounded so deep..."

"In short, she thinks it's embarrassing" Yaku said, slapping Kuroo's back.

"Shut up, Yaku!"

The players on both teams lined up and bowed "LET'S PLAY A GOOD GAME!!"

"Finally...the practice match against Nekoma begins!!" Ayame thought.

The first set started and it was Nekoma's first serve. Ayame looked at Coach Ukai for his comment about Nekoma but she was surprised to find him glaring daggers to the smirking old director of Nekoma.

"Damn that shitty old man..." he grumbled. Ayame placed a hand on his shoulder "Ukai-san, please watch. They're about to do that" Asahi received Nekoma's serve but it was short.

"Sorry, it was a little short!" the ace said.

"That's what you get for ditching a month, Asahi-san!" Nishinoya scolded him.

"Yuu-senpai...you're too harsh on Asahi-san..." Ayame sighed.

"I'm sorry!"

"Kageyama, cover!" the captain told him.

"Yes!"

Hinata ran on the side where there is no blocker and Kageyama prepared to set the ball and...

BLAM!!

All of a sudden, the ball is on the other side. And no one was able to follow it.

"Amazing speed. What the..." Nekoma's #7 stared at the duo in surprise.

"A fast attack from a place like that?!" Nekoma's libero said in shock.

"What the heck was that?! He wasn't watching the toss?!" Nekomata-sensei said, his face surprised and shocked upon seeing the super quick. Ayame, Mr. Takeda, and Coach Ukai were sinisterly smiling while giving off a dark aura.

"Surprised? You should be surprised..." Coach Ukai sinisterly said. Nekoma's players were also traumatized by the speed of the super quick, even the calm-minded Kenma was shocked, but for a moment.

"Ukai-san, let's not get distracted. This is Nekoma and we have to stay focused" she told him. However, she could not deny that she's enjoying Nekoma's coach and players' shocked expressions.