Chapter Text
“Oh, yes, today is going to be a good day!” Shouyou excitedly thought to himself as he got out of bed. Today was going to be a good day, because he was going to play volleyball. And every day that he got to play volleyball was a good day.
Shouyou got dressed and stuffed a quick breakfast down his throat, before hopping on his bike and riding his usual path over the mountain to school.
After having warmed up and done a few digging drills, their morning practice was suddenly interrupted by Takeda bursting into the gym.
“I arranged for a practice match with Aoba Johsai later this afternoon, so be ready, because we'll be leaving immediately after class,” he announced gladly, and Shouyou cheered excitedly along with the rest of his team, because this would be the first practice match of the year.
“Oh, it's been so long since we got to play against Seijoh!” Shouyou exclaimed.
“I wonder what their team will be like without Oikawa-san and Iwaizumi-san,” Kageyama wondered out loud.
“Yah, forget Oikawa, we've already defeated The Great King!”
Kageyama punched him square in the chest – a little too hard, if you asked Shouyou – knocking the air right out of him. “That's not what I meant, you idiot!”
He opened his mouth to say something else, but Shouyou wasn't going to just let Kageyama get away with punching him like that. Not without at least getting a hit in himself. So he lunged forward, planning on hitting Kageyama's shoulder, but Ennoshita stepped between them.
“Enough, you two.” He then clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention before continuing. “Thank you, Sensei. Alright, everyone, let's get back to practice! Time for some spiking drills.”
Shouyou supposed he could live with that. No punching Kageyama, but at least he could spike some volleyballs. It was a decent deal.
He got in some really good spikes – no, scratch that, he hit some damn near perfect spikes – smiling widely and even complimenting Kageyama for his great tosses, because nothing could spoil his mood for the rest of the day. Not even going to class and listening to boring lecture after boring lecture. How could it, when the thought of playing an amazing match against Seijoh was the only thing on his mind for the entire day? So, as soon as class was over, Shouyou practically jumped out of his seat and bolted towards the door.
“Wooaahh! I'm so excited!”
“Yes, we know, you've said that about three times already,” Tsukishima noted with a slight roll of his eyes, while they waited for the rest of the team to show up. It didn’t take too long, and before they knew it, they were already off.
The ride to Seijoh went by so quickly, it was almost as if Shouyou had simply blinked, and then all of a sudden they had teleported to the gyms, and were getting ready for the game. He didn’t really care that much though, because bus rides were kind of boring anyway, and the quicker he could start playing volleyball, the better.
“Alright, team!” coach Ukai called once everyone had warmed up. “Seijoh is a great opponent, as we all know. They don’t have their supreme setter Oikawa Tooru with them anymore, but don’t let that give you a big head, they’re still called a powerhouse school for a reason, but so are we. Now, go out there, have some fun, and kick some ass!”
“Yeah! Karasuno, fight!”
Shouyou ran onto the court feeling excited and full of energy. His body was already craving to spike any and every set Kageyama would send his way, and he couldn’t wait to feel the rush of hitting some of their amazing quicks again.
The game started off pretty evenly, but near the end of the first set, Karasuno started pulling ahead, and they ended up winning the set with a score of 25 – 19.
The second set, on the other hand, was a lot more nerve-racking, with rallies going on for ages, and neither team being able to get in more than a two point lead. However, when Shouyou accidentally hit his serve out of bounds, making Seijoh reach the 20 point mark first, Takeda called for a timeout.
“Urrggh, that libero of theirs is so annoying!” Tanaka exclaimed, sending a few threatening glares over to their opponents. “He’s so on point today, it’s starting to get kinda creepy.”
Shouyou nodded in agreeance, as Nishinoya laughed and slapped Tanaka on the back. “You think on point liberos are creepy, huh, Ryuu?”
“No, that’s not what I-”
“Enough with the jokes, listen up,” coach Ukai said sternly, making everyone turn their attention to him. “We may be behind right now, but we’re keeping up. Not only that, but Seijoh has had a hard time getting through our blocks. They’re probably still getting used to working with their new setter, and Iwaizumi isn’t there to slam the ball through everything coming their way anymore, so make sure to take advantage of that. Try focussing some more on your blocks, and I’m sure we’ll still be able to win this set.”
“Yessir!” Shouyou yelled, along with the rest, even though there wasn’t much he could do, since their current rotation had him in the back row, so he was switched out with Nishinoya. But that could only mean that Tsukishima was now up front, and Shouyou could count on him to do the blocking.
“Three more rotations,” Shouyou thought eagerly. “Three more, and I get to be back on the court.” He glanced at the score. 20 – 18 for Seijoh, but Karasuno was about to attack.
“Tanaka-san!”
Shouyou watched Kageyama send a perfect toss Tanaka’s way, giving their ace the best opportunity to attack. Tanaka spiked the ball right across the court in an insane cut shot, scoring a point for Karasuno.
20 – 19, and two more rotations before Shouyou was allowed back in the game.
Kageyama was up to serve now, and Shouyou felt kind of sorry for Seijoh when Kageyama hit an amazingly fast, no-touch service ace, right in the back left corner. But at the same time he felt absolutely no remorse, because these were his opponents, they deserved to feel that punch to the gut, for the score was now even again.
“Hit ‘em with another killer serve!” he yelled, as Kageyama went up to serve again, getting a smirk in return from the setter.
Another service ace from Kageyama and Shouyou felt like it was starting to get a little unfair now. He desperately wanted to get back on the court, but there were still two whole rotations to go, and four points left to the set. If Kageyama ended the set with four more service aces, that would just be mean.
But Seijoh was finally able to receive his killer serve, attacking right back and setting the score even at 21 – 21 again. And just like that, Shouyou finally found himself back in action, with the score at 23 – 22 for Karasuno, one more point till they were at match-point and two more points left to victory. Sadly, he got scored on immediately and the two teams were even once more.
“Come on, guys, don’t let it get to a deuce!” Ennoshita called.
Seijoh was up to serve, and Nishinoya got the ball up with a perfect receive.
“Send it to me, I’m ready, I’m here, I want to spike,” Shouyou thought, a little anxiously, since there were only two more points left to go, and he still wanted to get a damn spike in. He ran up to the net as fast as he could, jumping with all his might, and smirked as he heard the familiar “watch their seven!” Well, it felt kind of strange to hear him be referred to as ‘seven’ now, instead of ‘ten’, but the ecstatic feeling of luring in all their opponent’s attention was exactly the same.
But of course, Kageyama used him as a decoy, giving the ball to Ennoshita, who slammed it freely over the net and onto the ground.
“Nice kill, Ennoshita-san!” Shouyou yelled nonetheless, because it had been a great spike. Just too bad that it hadn’t been him spiking the ball.
“One more point, guys, let’s not give it to them!”
“Yeah!”
One more point… This was his last chance to score.
“Tanaka-san, nice serve!”
Seijoh received Tanaka’s serve, sending back an attack from their left. Shouyou managed to deflect it, giving his teammates a free ball, which Tanaka dug effortlessly. He ran up for a quick, yelling "centre!" and practically begging for the ball to come his way at this point, but it was set to one of their first years on the right, Urayama, who slammed it right down the sideline. Seijoh was able to receive it though, and even if it hadn’t been the cleanest pass, they made it work, getting ready for another attack. It came right down the middle, and Shouyou was ready to stop it. This rally was carrying the whole game’s momentum, and if they didn’t get this point, Seijoh would probably be able to take the second set. But not on Shouyou’s watch.
It’s going to be a tip, he realised, but it was a second too late. And just that one second was enough to be fatal. He turned, fearing that they’d lost the point, but all of a sudden, Nishinoya was there, his hand separating the ball from the floor, sending it back up to be set.
“Nice, Nishinoya!” Shouyou heard Yamaguchi yell, as he heaved a sigh of relief and he got back into position.
“Kageyama! Give it to me!” he shouted, sprinting up to the net again, and then he finally, finally, felt that snug feeling of the ball hitting his palm. However, he was too focussed on the blissfulness of being able to spike again, that he barely noticed the two blockers in front of him, completely shutting his spike out.
Before Shouyou could wallow in despair over his screwup though, Nishinoya was there again, keeping the ball in play. It went up, right over the net and towards Seijoh's side of the court, giving them a free ball. But that didn’t matter.
It wasn’t over yet…
As soon as the set went up, Shouyou knew exactly where it was going to be spiked, and his body moved entirely on instinct, trying to get there as fast as he could. He was going to stop Seijoh no matter what, and get back them for blocking his attack. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he processed his foot making a misstep, so he twisted his body to compensate, resulting in his jump being slightly off balanced and uncontrolled. He felt his side collide with Kageyama and he knew it was because of that misstep, but in the moment, he was too focussed on blocking that ball to care.
Then suddenly, he felt his knees buckle beneath him as his feet made contact with the ground again and everything went by in a flash. Shouyou couldn't comprehend what was going on until it all came to a stop. He didn't know what exactly had just happened. All he knew was that he was somehow lying on the ground, there was a stabbing pain in his left knee, and he couldn't get up.
“Oh...” he thought, as reality was finally starting to sink in. “Oh, this is bad.”
“Hinata! Kageyama!”
Shouyou looked over to where the sound of someone calling his name seemed to be coming from, but his vision was blurry, and all he could see were some randomly coloured splotches.
Wait, hold up… was he crying?
“Are you guys alright?”
By now, Shouyou had identified the voice as Ennoshita's, but he still couldn't really see through the overwhelming amount of tears – okay, yeah, so he was crying – that were slowly making their way down his face. Somewhere to his left, he heard the shuffling sounds of Kageyama getting up and muttering “I’m fine.”
“Did… did we stop it? Did we win?”
“Hinata, oh my god, you absolute moron! I can't believe you’re thinking about that at the moment,” Kageyama exclaimed, not even bothering to answer Shouyou’s question. That asshole.
“B-but did we though?”
“Yes, you did, but that doesn’t matter right now. Are you okay? You know what, never mind, screw that, you don't look okay,” Ennoshita said, and the cold, hard truth of his words finally dawned on Shouyou. “Can you at least get up?”
He knew the answer. Deep down, Shouyou knew that he couldn't get up because something was definitely wrong. But accepting that would also mean that he'd have to accept the fact that he wouldn't be able to play volleyball for who knows how long. A week? Two weeks? No way in hell would he ever be able to do that. So, Shouyou bit his lip and braced himself for the pain he knew was coming.
“Come on, get up... Get up, get up, get up!” he begged, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't do it. Even the slightest pressure on his knee made everything hurt, and the pure despair that it brought with it was almost unbearable. It was then that he completely burst into tears, bawling his eyes out as he tried to gasp for air between his sobs.
“Oh, god...” he could hear Ennoshita mutter as he struggled to get to his feet. “Oh, shit, Hinata.”
His tears eventually dried up, leaving Shouyou puffy-eyed and covered in snot, as he noticed that his whole team was standing around him, all of them with worried looks on their faces. He wanted to get up, get back on the court and demand to play another set, just to show everyone that he was fine. But his throat felt too tight to even speak, and even though he still didn't want to believe it, he knew that he wasn't fine.
Nothing was fine, and in that moment Shouyou just wished that he could go back to a few minutes ago, when he was still playing volleyball, still hitting Kageyama's tosses and still jumping like there was no tomorrow. Only a few minutes ago, he had still been able to see the view from the top. But now...
Now that tall, tall wall loomed before him yet again. And this time, it was definitely taller than it had ever been before.