It was the morning and the sun shined brightly through the exposed windows of the empty hallways and quiet classrooms. Sluggish movements throughout the classrooms started to appear as people started to wake up for the day.
*Rustle
"So my shoulder shifts that far when I swing."
Haruto was in the bathroom brushing his teeth while holding his phone to watch a video. Last night before bed he started to collect videos of him hitting a ball in game to look at his arm swing mechanics.
He began to notice many different things in his technique that he could definitely improve on and ideas started to slowly form.
"If I could take out some of these unnecessary movements, I could speed up my swing adding more power and better accuracy…"
Haruto whispered and smiled as he was happy that just from one day of playing against strong teams he was able to find a way to improve himself.
Haruto started to lightly chuckle while finishing up his morning routine and failed to notice someone peeking from the entrance.
"Kenma, what are you doing just standing around there?"
"Ah Shoyo. Haruto is laughing all by himself in the bathroom so I don't know if I should enter or not…"
"It's fine and just enter. Haruto sometimes does this whenever he thinks about volleyball so it's nothing to worry about."
Hinata quickly told Kenma and walked inside, greeting Haruto who was at the sink. Kenma finding out this strange thing about Haruto, he started to wonder if Karasuno was really a team filled with weirdos.
***
The once empty gymnasium suddenly became lively since the last day of practice matches started its first games. Karasuno were gathered up and on their opposite side was Nekoma who were also getting ready.
"Just follow through with what we did yesterday and be sure to watch out for their tall middle blocker."
""Yes!""
Ukai quickly advised the team and they got into positions waiting for their first game of the day to start. They got into position to receive the ball since Nekoma had first serve after winning the coin toss.
*Tweet
The sound of the whistle prompted the start of the match and a player from Nekoma served the ball deep within a corner on Karasuno's side.
"I have it here!"
Daichi called out and passed the ball as he quickly moved back to get behind the ball. With the ball in the air Kageyama got under it and gave a fast set towards the middle.
Tsukishima saw the ball and cursed that he was given the first set when he had a tall person blocking in front of him. He waited for the ball to travel a bit towards his left side and swung to hit down a cross.
Kuroo saw the opening and dove with his arms in front of him and dug Tsukishima's spike.
"Kenma use it."
Kuroo said out loud and Kenma looked at the players by his side. He saw one particular player eagerly wanting to hit the ball so he gave a quick set to him. Using his long arms he swung at the ball which hit the arms of both Tsukishima and Haruto.
"Touch!"
Haruto yelled out and ran backwards to get ready to hit. Getting the pass that bounced off the block, Kageyama this time set the ball towards the antenna in Haruto's direction.
'Let's try this out..'
Haruto jumped off the ground and pulled his elbow back but this time didn't extend it like he used to before.
*Pomf
"Geh."
Haruto's arm swing was fast but he wasn't able to contact the ball correctly and it hit his fingertips making the ball go out.
"Ahhh I forgot thinking it in my head is different from actually doing it."
Haruto ruffled his hair and spoke out loud as he realized his mistake when he wanted to test out some new stuff when swinging his arm.
The team looked at this oddly since Haruto had always hit these types of sets and always gotten the ball at least in.
They quickly said not to mind and got ready to get the next point. The same serve came over and they got another pass that they could use.
Kageyama gave another set to Haruto and this time he swung once again with the same quick speed as last time. The ball contacted but he was unable to control the direction it went.
It bounced off the block and Nekoma quickly picked it up to use in an attack to get another point off them.
Ukai called for a timeout seeing how Karasuno was out of sync from those last two points.
"Haruto, are you feeling off today?"
Kageyama asked Haruto who was drinking his bottle since he noticed that his hitting was off compared to usual.
"Sorry I wanted to try something new with my arm swing so I changed a few things and haven't gotten used to it so far."
"You changed your arm swing? Why?"
Ukai, who listened to their conversation asked since he felt that there wasn't anything wrong with his current one.
"After playing against the other teams yesterday I realized that staying as I currently am, beating stronger teams will be harder or if not impossible if I don't find ways to improve."
As Haruto spoke out his thoughts, the rest of the team quietly listened as these thoughts also gnawed at the back of their heads. Hinata stared at Haruto and looked at his palm before closing it with thoughts swirling in his head.
"So I want to find ways to improve what I currently have or go into new directions to grow even further."
"I see…"
Ukai listened to Haruto's explanation and felt the mood of all the players that was near him turn serious.
*Tweet
The ref blew the whistle and signaled for the end of the timeout. The players that were on the court returned back to their positions and got ready to receive. The team continued to play with Haruto's words still echoing inside their heads.
***
With the morning games continuing for hours, lunch came around and they stopped to get a quick meal in. The food helped with rejuvenating everyone of their active morning and after a big lunch they resumed back to their afternoon games.
Karasuno sat out for the first part as the gym had space for 4 teams to play in total so they took the first spot to be out.
"Kageyama, I want to start opening my eyes for the minus tempo."
"Huh?"
Kageyama frowned as he heard the words Hinata said and turned his head to look at him. He was surprised however to see the look on his face that was as serious as can be.
"Why do you want to do that?"
"I also want to improve and change to get the strength to fight on my own."
Hinata recalled Haruto's words from the morning and realized that with his current skills, it will be harder to beat teams stronger than them. With that being just one of the reasons and the other one being just as important as the first one.
"I also want to fight on equal footing with the two of you guys…"
"Equal footing?…"
"You and Haruto are very strong players, and ones that I wish to beat. But when I heard Haruto say that he was trying to improve even more than he already was, I felt like I would be left behind if I don't change something."
Kageyama was silent and Haruto who was near him gazed back at Hinata who held strong conviction in his eyes. It reminded him of the day they first met during Junior High and how he wished to play despite his height.
Haruto's smile grew and he started to laugh remembering those times and this weirded out the two of them.
"Wheew that was great. That's good! I'm looking forward to seeing how you would get stronger but you will need to try harder if you want to beat me, you know."
Haruto smirked as he placed his hand on top of Hinata's head trying to emphasize his height. Hinata felt annoyed and argued with Haruto who still kept putting his palm on the top of his head.
"Right now it would be near impossible for you to do it. So unless you improve your current skills, you won't be able to hit that quick with your eyes closed."
Kageyama said with a serious tone which made Hinata gulp hearing his response to hitting the minus tempo with his eyes open.
'I should also try and change or else both of these guys will be ahead of me..'
Kageyama thought in his head as the image of the two people in front of him improving and leaving him behind irked him to no end.
Ukai who saw this interaction between the three of them felt excited by the thought of two of their main point getters and setter improving will strengthen their team by miles.
'But how should I help them…'
Ukai fell into deep thought trying to come up with options that would be very beneficial to them.
***
The final practice matches that happened in the afternoon ended and it was now time to say goodbye to everyone who attended the camp.
Ukai and the head coach of Nekoma talked and discussed about the week-long training camp that will happen in a few weeks.
Near the entrance Kuroo and Haruto alongside other players from the other teams were also saying their byes.
"Haruto, you should try and come over when you guys go on summer break. The beaches over here are pretty cool and you can't forget about the hot girls walking around over there~."
"Yeah, I'll definitely come over to visit alrig-!!!"
As Haruto was about to respond to Kuroo he suddenly felt a cold shiver down his spine and turned around to find out what caused that chilly sensation.
He scouted the area and just found Mahiru who was smiling gently at him while the other managers near her were staring daggers at Kuroo. They seem to have heard what he said and Kuroo just whistled ignoring the cold stares directed at him.
"Maybe this is why your team still doesn't have any managers."
"...."
Haruto patted Kuroo on the back and left to say goodbye to the other guys. Bokuto excitedly said that Haruto must come back to visit and Akaashi had to drag him away before he accidentally hopped onto the bus with them.
Haruto sat down on the bus and looked out the window watching the sky turn an orange hue. He melted into his seat and felt his eyes turn heavy, his thoughts about the day slowly replaying in his head.
The bus gradually turned quiet and carefully drove back to Karasuno carrying a group of tired players.
***
Sorry for the late upload. I was playing the new Genshin update lol. I hope you enjoyed it. Peacu