Chapter Text
Hinata made it safely back to Japan the night of the 14th. He was 1 for 2 on safe flights in this life and was pretty happy about that.
Natsu was sitting on his mother’s shoulders holding up a big poster board with “Hinata Shouyou!” in pink glitter. It was odd seeing his mother this young, lacking the gray hair he had become accustomed to. It was much less weird to see Natsu this young though. She would always look like a little kid in his eyes.
Hinata picked Natsu off his mother’s shoulders and transferred her to his.
“Wow! You’ve gotten so big!!” Hinata’s mom said as she hugged him.
“I’ve literally grown a single centimeter taller.” Hinata said with a laugh.
“Wow! A whole centimeter!” Cried Natsu genuinely.
“Let’s head home and you can tell me all about your trip.” His mom said, putting an arm around him.
Hinata sighed. “I told you everything in our calls.”
“Yes! But now you can tell me again!” His mom chuckled. It was nice to see her little baby boy again.
After eating and unpacking, Hinata left his room to join his family in the living room sitting on the worn couch all together. The Adlers game was on in the background and he told his family about all the improvements he’s made to his lifestyle and volleyball.
Hinata had seemed different after the crash to his mother, something about the phone calls home had screamed maturing to her. Now seeing him in person, she wondered who this young adult was in front of her.
Hinata had gone back to his room to get the meal plan he had devised for his mother.
“I found it! I hope it looks okay. Courtney had helped me with it. Did you know that she couches beach volleyball? She was a huge help. She seemed pretty young though.” Hinata finished with a shrug.
The meal plan that he had made with her ex-husband’s current wife, was well thought out, color coded and practical to follow. At least they seemed to have gotten along. She was just happy for her son.
His mother clapped her hands and said, “Well, this is great. We can go over everything in more detail tomorrow afternoon!”
“Guh? I have school and volleyball though?” Hinata tilted his head at his mother, confused.
“I was going to keep you home for a few days to adjust to the new time schedule and to being back in Japan. Would you rather go to school?” No kid wanted to go to school. Having a few days to relax would be for the best.
“Of course I want to go to school! I need to catch up on my assignments as soon as possible so there will be no academic penalty to volleyball in my future!” Hinata screamed aghast.
Okay, well maybe not her son. He was maturing so fast. Wanting good grades in order to play more games with his friends? What a good son.
“Well then it’s pretty late. Go to sleep. Wake up a little later to do your morning routine and I shall drive you to school.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too.”
“Hey, Hinata?” Natsu asked.
“What is it?” Hinata replied.
“Will you play volleyball with me again sometime?” She asked shyly looking down at the ground.
“Of course!”
Hinata was sad that he could not attend morning practice. It made sense that he had to re enroll in his classes and square away his academics first, but still; Annoying. He just wanted to play volleyball.
Going over his transcripts from the old school had been time consuming and he had needed to complete a few assessments before being let back into the class. He averaged around 80% (a shocking improvement for his homeroom teacher) on the tests, scoring the lowest in his Japanese tests. The teachers were quite impressed how much his English improved. With the scores he was allowed back on the Volleyball team pending advisor approval.
After the tests were completed, he had about an hour left of school so the principal just told him to wait in the teachers offices till the end of the day.
“Hinata!!” He heard a voice scream. He looked up from the volleyball video he was in the middle of watching.
“Sensi Takeda!” Hinata called out and jumped up excitedly.
“How are you? How are you feeling after the plane crash? Your mother told us you were fine, but we were so scared when you didn’t contact anyone from the team. Can you still play volleyball? Have you been playing?” Takeda rapid fire asked while checking him over.
“I’m fine, excited to be back. There was no lasting damage. I just wasn’t ready to. Of course I can play volleyball. I even played beach volleyball!” Hinata did his best to give a reassuring smile.
“Wonderful! Well, how about you tell me all about your time over there and then we can head over to practice together?”
“Sounds great!”
They talked for over an hour when they noticed the time.
“You ready?” Takeda asked.
“I don’t think I ever will be.” Hinata said standing up.
Karasuno Gym.
Now was Hinata EXPECTING to be tackled to the floor and shaken as soon as he entered the gym? No, no he was not. Was he SURPRISED by Kageyama's actions? Not at all.
“You DUMBASS HOW DARE YOU GET INTO A PLANE CRASH!!” Kageyama screamed at him.
“It’s not like I planned for it to happen, bakayama!” Hinata called back. Trying to roll out from under him.
“You absolute idiot. How come you didn’t call us?! Any of us! You abandoned the team!”
“I just wasn’t ready!” Hinata threw Kageyama off him.
Tanaka grabbed Kageyama holding him back from charging Hinata again. Sugawara walked up to the pair and started doing breathing techniques with Kageyama that seemed to be working? Wild.
“Well, we are happy to have you back Hinata, right team?” Daichi asked the team.
“Meh.” Tsukishima replied while everyone else cheered.
Coach Ukai clapped his hands and said, “Well, Hinata I hope you had a good trip. We’ve done pretty well with our current configuration, so how about we run you through your paces and then we can see where you fit again. Were you able to play any volleyball over break?”
“Of course I played volleyball!” Hinata said.
“Of course he played volleyball, not like he was in a plane accident and in a country he couldn’t speak the language in.” Tsukishima scoffed.
“Tsukishima, enough. Daichi, take the team through stretches, then we will play some 3 on 3s.” Ukai said.
The stretches were going well. Ukai could hear the background noise of Hinata asking the team about Tokyo training camp and about the Nekoma games.
Ukai was deciding what 3 on 3 to pair up when Kiyoko hummed.
“What are you thinking about?” Ukai asked.
“Hinata seems to be a little more flexible now.”
Coach Ukai looked at the small boy doing a full split and grabbing his foot. He was fairly certain that he couldn’t do that before. Huh. He smiled.
The team finished and surrounded the coach.
“Sugawara, Asahi, Noya, all of you on one team. Hinata, Kageyama, Tanaka, the other team.” Ukai was pretty proud of this setup.
They flipped a coin and Kageyama was up first to serve.
Hinata watched an absolute monster of a serve go off from Kageyama. It was much better than he remembered.
Noya was still able to receive it, but it was rocky. It made the set Sugawara made to Asahi a little high making it an easy receive for Tanaka.
Right before the ball made it to Kageyama, a devastating BOOM! went off.
Kageyama watched Hinata soar. He quickly reevaluated the distance and set to his partner.
BAM!
The ball smashed down into the perfect spot between Sugawara and Asahi.
“Could you set that a little higher next time? I think my vertical has increased a little.” Hinata mused to Kageyama.
Kageyama didn’t say anything back so Hinata looked over. Absolute shock was on Kageyama's face.
Tanaka looked shocked.
Asahi looked terrified.
Sugawara and Noya were blinking and unbelieving.
The rest of the team were all going through various stages of grief.
Coach Ukai was smiling. A truly terrifying smile.
Takeda let out an, “Yay!”
Tsukishima put his head in his hands and let out a laugh. Of course the tangerine would improve like the demon he is. Why did he think any differently?
“Um, so, uh, higher next time?” Hinata asked again.
“Uh, yeah.” Kageyama nodded.
“Um, it’s your serve again! Make it Gawh! again. It's such a cool new serve!”
“Uh, yeah.” Kageyama went to the serving line shaking his head. They could address that later. If he got a service ace, he could have more time to mentally address this.
Aim. Serve. Picked up by Noya, but sent right back over.
“Sorry!” Noya called.
“No worries.” Asahi called back.
“CHANCE BALL!” Called Tanaka excitedly. Kageyama was just going to set it from there.
Kageyama set the ball to Hinata again for a normal paced spike. A third tempo spike. Hinata jumped and was met by Sugawara and Asahi. Were they this good at blocking before and he never noticed?
“Tanaka!” Hinata yelled and switched to a set mid air.
Tanaka jumped and spiked it, staring at his hand in fear. Scoring another point.
“That… That was… Perfect.” Tanaka said.
Hinata hoped it was a good set. He was the backup setter for the MSBY Black Jackals after all.
“Uh thanks! I was actually the setter back on the team I played for in america. And I had to set a lot in the beach volleyball I played.”
“Whatever dumbass, I’ll still set better than you.” Kageyama said.
2-0
A few more points went by and eventually the other team got possession of the ball.
4-1
Asahi was up to serve.
“Hey dumbass, watchout. His serve is on par with mine now.” Kageyama said with a pointed look to Hinata.
Hinata scoffed (mentally, he valued his health). He still has nothing on future Kageyama.
Aim. There’s an opening in the back left. Serve. Out of nowhere, Hinata is there and the blow back makes him go flying. Okay wow. Much more powerful than his Asahi.
The receive is high and gives Kageyama plenty of time to get under the ball, he goes to set it to Tanaka, but Hinata is already jumping for the ball.
Out of instinct he sets to Hinata.
Bam!
With his new height the spike is devastating.
Noya gets under it, but it's no use. It's too strong and goes out of bounds.
Ukai was cackling at this point.
The team was surprised and afraid of course, but they felt one emotion a bit more. They felt hunger. Hunger to match Hinata’s improvement. Hunger for them to use their new powers to win nationals.
“Oh wow. Did you see it?” Takeda asked.
“Yes, with that new height, the receive, that SET. We will be unstoppable. I’m starting to get excited.” Ukai Responded.
“No, not that.”
“Then what?” Asked Daichi from beside them.
“He didn’t close his eyes.”
Ukai looked absolutely manic.
10 - 4
Hinata’s up to serve. Hinata takes the ball and shakes it?
Noya thinks that’s weird, but he's excited to see what’s going to happen.
Hinata throws the ball as soon as the whistle blows! Hinata learned a jump serve!!
His entire body goes back and BANG! The momentum sends the ball flying to the other side.
Out of bounds. Just barely.
“Sorry!” Hinata says bowing to his teammates.
“Maybe I should go to America?” Asked Kageyama.
Most of the people there thought, they too, should go learn in America if this was the result.
25 - 11 was the final score.
Oh coach Ukai had PLANS. And only a week to execute them.