Chapter Text
“ You're here?”
“ I’m here.”
“HELL FUCKING NO!”
“ ABSOLUTELY NOT”
“ You have got to be shitting me.”
“Calm down!” Daichi shouted, but in a whisper, “The VP will be here soon. Everyone, come and sit in front of the stage. NO ONE touches a volleyball. Suga, I need you to go distract the VP or hide anyone who’s not here; they're all going to end up running to the Gym. Noya CANNOT be here, remember.”
“Damn, that really traumatized him,” Kageyama muttered to Hinata
“Yep, I mean, we time-traveled and 30 seconds later he’s panicking not about the time travel but the VP getting his you know what knocked off.”
Daichi silenced the terror twins with a glare.
Sugawara ran as fast as he could to the 1st year’s hallway. Where he saw a ghostly pale Tadashi being held up by an equally shaken Tsukkishima. As he reached them, he said, “We are going to walk to the gym where I am going to distract the VP. You guys head inside when I tell you, and we will get this figured out.”
Tsukkishima let out a slightly manic laugh, “Why are we worried about the VP?”
Suga held on to Tadashi’s other arm, “ Because if we are stuck here, he caused a lot of problems for Daichi and Takeda, he cut our funding out of spite. Takeda had to file a formal complaint to get any funding from the school, which only made him more upset. So if we can avoid this, we will.”
They reached the covered walkway that led to the Gym. This was the performance of Sugawara’s life. The vice principal stood halfway down the sidewalk, leaving the sides clear. “Good Afternoon, vice principal,” he said cheerily, “ Have you come to check on the volleyball club?” He said loudly enough that hopefully everyone in the gym would hear them.
“Uh, yes…”
“ I was just showing these two first years to the gym. Why don’t the two of you head inside? Daichi will take care of you.” Tsukishima and Yamaguchi headed inside the gym. Grateful to be outside the VP's line of fire.
Kioyko and Yachi came running up, looking for any kind of recognition in his face. “Kiyoko! And this must be Yachi, the first year that wants to be a manager! Please go inside, Daichi is just about to start our welcome meeting.” Both girls seemed to sigh in relief.
Sugawara turned around to stall the VP once again when he saw a small blur. Headed toward the gym behind the Vice principal’s back.
With his most sincere chaos-inducing smile, he told the VP, “We’ve gotten several new members from this crop of first years; hopefully, we can do pretty well in the Tournaments this year.” Through squinted eyes, He saw both Takeda-sensei and Coach Ukai slip into the gym behind the VP using the sidewalk that led to the front gate.
“Sugawara!” Asahi said in a panic.
“Don’t worry, Asahi! Daichi won’t start the meeting without the two of us. We are the Third Years, after all.” He said, turning his head toward Asahi, trying to communicate with his eyes. As he turned back to the VP, he said, “Please excuse us, Vice President. We really do need to get going. I’m sure there are lots of clubs that you need to visit today!”
“ Uh, yes, thank you.” He turned and walked away.
“It’s my pleasure.” That chaos-inducing smile was still plastered to his face.
He walked quickly into the gym and closed the doors, leaning back against the wall, gasping for breath, trying to breathe deeply. “Dai, is everyone here?” Daich smiled and said, “ Yeah, Kou, everyone's here.” Sugawara let his knees buckle. “You owe me so meet meat buns for that shit, it’s not even funny, I can’t breathe, Dai. And why are we back here? In time, Dai.”
“ We have no clue. Did anyone experience anything weird before waking up here? Strange lights? A pulling sensation?”
The whole team shook their heads.
“ Does anyone know anything about time travel? I don't care even if it's from fiction.”
Daichi asked, looking at the team. The team was looking at Tsukishima. “ Stop looking at me! I'm not the only one who knows how to read!”
Hinata piped up then, “ Well, I read this Manga once about time travel. And the Harry Potter books. Both had vastly different messages. In Harry Potter time is a loop. So whatever we think we are changing doesn't actually change anything. But in those, the time traveler exists at 2 locations at the same point in time. So I don't think that really applies here, ya know, cause we are in our bodies from 2012. In the manga, the guy could change things BECAUSE he was in his own body? Does that make any sense?” Everyone nodded
“Let’s be honest, this isn’t the best situation we are grown-ups in kid bodies, 6 of us are married, but we have an opportunity, you know. To do better, to be better. We have more time with the people we love.” Daichi finally said grabbing Sugawara’s hand
Hinata, with a grin so brigh,t said, “ We can play more volleyball too!”
That made everyone chuckle. No matter how much Hinata grew up or matured, some things just stayed the same.
“It’s going to be a lot of work. Some of us haven’t played in a while.” Kinoshita added.
“We also need to figure out how we incorporate 3 professional players with us normies.” Ennoshita points out.
“Tanaka, Yama-Yama, and I need to get in better shape. Seeing as we have a personal trainer on the team," Hinata let the sentence trail off.
“Only if you call me senpai again.”
“OSU, SENPAI,” the terror twins said together.
Yammaguchi spoke up then, “Take-Chan, we need you to start calling Nekoma. And any other teams that will play with us.”
Coach Ukai laughed then. “You guys are insane. But I can't wait to see Nao’s face when we crush them. ”
Kageyama looked at Hinata, a flurry of wild hand movements later. Kageyama nodded. Then said, “Hinata and I have played on a lot of teams over the years, but this team is the one we both wish we could have played on longer. Even if it’s just a single rally longer, it would have been worth it.” Tsukkishima added to everyone’s shock,” The games we play this season are my favorites. They are also the ones I have the most regrets about.”
Everyone agreed with that.
Daichi looked around, “So we are doing this?”
Everyone looked at Daichi, and a resounding “Yes” echoed through the gym.
“Alright!” Daichi clapped his hands. “ Ennoshita, Yamaguchi, we'll talk with Coach Ukai about lineups and long-term plans. Tanaka, terror twins, Tsukkishima and Noya you guys talk about workouts and conditioning to get you up to standard. Asahi, Kinnoshit,a and Narita, you guys start writing a timeline and things you remember from matches. Yachi, Shimizu, Sugawara, Takeda-sensei, you guys start thinking about what we need, donations, funding, uniforms equipment.”
The past captains and Coach Ukai sat on the stage, looking at the team. “You never stopped being the Captain, did you?” Ukai said as he leaned back on his hands.
“With these guys? No matter how old they get, someone has to be in charge; the threat of getting arrested if they annoyed me was a useful one as well.”
Keishin laughed. But it quickly turned serious. “ I see one problem with our old lineup, and that’s Hinata, having him as a middle would be a waste of his talent and hard work.”
“Agreed, but where to put him?”
Yamaguchi looked thoughtful but nodded, “ I have a crazy idea.”
“I’m all ears, Demon Captain.” Ukai chuckled.
Demon Captain? Daichi thought
“We have Asahi playing in the middle, Hinata as the opposite, and Tanaka as an outside. Our strongest defense would be Noya, middle back, Hinata, right back, and Daichi, left back. It would also be our strongest block with Tsukki, Kageyama, and Tanaka up front. We’d always have two hitters up front and a hitter for back-line attacks as well. If we did that as our first receiving rotation, then Kageyma would be up to serve. We also don’t have to worry about Kageyama receiving because Noya or Hinata can set. So we have a secondary setter always on the court.”
The rest of Yamaguchi's group looked stunned and then realized why he was named captain and not any of the other first years.
“It’s just an idea. When we were 3rd years, our first years asked us what we would have done if Hinata wasn’t a middle blocker.” Yamaguchi waved his hands as he responded. “ We took it a little too seriously.”
“Are you after my Job, kid?”
“NO!" Yamaguchi said in a panic. " It’s just, I’ve watched my friends play a lot of volleyball, all over the world with all different kinds of players, and while they were happy, it never felt like watching them play with this team.”
“Well, that was easy, and here I thought we were gonna agonize over who should go where for hours,” Daich said as he clapped Yamaguchi on the back.
“ Ahh, just wait, this is the crazy part. Since Noya is technically suspended and can’t play against Sejiho. We can have Hinata play libero, and Narita would play as a middle. We could keep the old rotation otherwise. We’d get to keep our tricks for the interhigh tournament. So when we play the,m we can totally crush them. And by the spring qualifiers come around we will be a totally different team. Hopefully, Oikawa gets so overwhelmed during the match that he totally breaks down. Can you imagine it? During the game against his “most beloved Kohai,” he has to get subbed out.” As Tadashi speaks, his eyes grow more and more manic, and his smile gets creepier and creepier.
Demon Captain indeed. Daichi thinks.
“Ahh, you guys weren’t there for the explanation of Oikawa, he has this crazy, unhealthy obsession with Kageyama. Something about hard work versus natural talent. When they were in middle school, Kageyama asked him to help him with his serve, and Oikawa snapped and tried to beat the shit out of Tobio. Iwazumi just happened to walk in at the right moment. There’s also the Brazil thing, basically Hinata and Oikawa ran into each other in Brazil, Oikawa gave him such a hard time about being able to see Hinata, not realizing they were married. So Tobio called Iwaizumi and said ” Tadashi tried to do an impression of Kageyama, “ Tell your setter that I'll give Ushijima his phone number if he doesn't shut the fuck up.”
Daichi muttered “What the fuck?”
“Yeah and don’t get me started on the onion head and the other one. Hinata will probably try and take a swing if given the opportunity. He really hates them. Even though they made amends later on, Hinata refuses to talk to them. I think the thought of not hitting one of Tobio's sets is a personal insult not just to him but o volleyball it's self. ”
“Any more Information we need to learn?” Daichi hesitantly asked.
“Hinata and Kageyama both left Japan within 6 months of me starting a rumor that Tsukki was going to join the V league the following season. Don’t give Kageyama cold medicine, it makes him” Tadashi paused and shuddered “ strange.” he took a breath and continued, “I’ve personally caught Kageyama and Hinata going at it a total of 237 times in our 3rd year. I will never recover from some of those.” Tadashi was staring blankly ahead, lost in a flash back. “In my 3rd year I started carrying a spray bottle so I could spray them if they got too close to each other.” He shook himself out of whatever stupor he was in. “Kei will probably try to get “Mad Dog” from Seijoh ejected from the game. They play? Played? Are going to play? together at the Frogs. He looked at Daichi and Ennoshita “Tanaka might actually murder that guy from Johsenji if he harasses Shimizu again.”
He thought for a minute.
“Kozume-kun and Kuroo, have an arrangement, they are together but allow each other to have sweet little crushes on their best friends. Bokouto has no idea he’s in love with Akashi right now. We could use that. Oh yeah Kageyama basically lives by himself. His parents travel 300 days out of the year and are in their Tokyo office the other 60. They spend 5 days with Kageyama a year usually sleeping off jet lag. His sister comes from Sendai to check on him once a week and brings him Groceries and money. Hinata's mom does not give a shit about Hinata, when we met her in 2nd year she was super sweet, but basically since Hinata’s dad passed away she just can’t be around him. She will clothe and feed him and give him anything he needs but she ignores him. In our third year Hinata straight up moved in with Kageyama, she called sensei 3 months later to ask about were he was, and that was only because he hadn’t come to check on his sister that week. They will probably start doing it this year. So Hinata doesn’t have to bike over the mountains. Tsukki and Akiteru will make up sooner so he will probably come to more games, which means he and Saeko will meet sooner and then give us precious little baby’s sooner. Well that’s all I can think of.” Tadash sheepishly scratches the back of his head and says.
“Tadashi, you do realize there’s a thing as too much information Right.” Ennoshita says.
“Yes sir, I just thought I’d get it out there. Also, do not under any circumstances bring up the night before Hinata left for Brazil.” In what seemed like a flash the other first years seem to surround Tadashi. Kageyama squatted down, grabbed his face, “what did I hear come out of your mouth, punk. Are you trying to break the oath, huh? You know the price for that.”
“Woah woah, Kageyama, calm down.” Daichi tried to intervene
All 5 of them turned and said, “Stay out of this, Captain.” Shocked and a little afraid, Daichi decided to shut the fuck up.
Tadashi then turned to Yachi, bowing on the floor. “O,h great and wise one, I was only telling the captains and coach to never bring up the night before Hinata left for Brazil. They know that was the night Kageyama and Hinata agreed to get married, but I did not want them to go into any further details. They know nothing more than that. Please judge me accordingly.”
In a dramatic voice, she said, “Yamaguchi Tadashi, your punishment shall be that of the old ways, 4 Gomen Tsukki’s, you must hit 14 jump float serves for Hinata to receive, 5 meat buns for Kageyama, and you must help me with my science homework this weekend.”
Tanaka, oblivious to the strange aura coming off the first years, shouted, “Oh, are you guys talking about the night where you called me piss drunk about how you had killed Hinata with a volleyball and needed to borrow Saeko's truck to get rid of the body? So then, when I got there, you loaded his body into the truck before I could check on him, forced me to drive out to the middle of some field while Kei used a shovel from the bed of the truck to dig a grave, and Kageyama wept and screamed over the body. When I tried to get close enough to check on Hinata because I could see he was STILL BREATHING, and let me quote you here, Kageayma would scream, ‘Get away from him before you taint him with your woman-loving hands, he's gay, let the gays take care of his body.’ When Tadashi and Tsukki dragged Hinata's body into the grave, Tsukki decided he needed to use ammonia to get rid of any evidence, but you guys had no ammonia so you all decided to pee on him? And when you did, he woke up. Because he wasn’t dead he WAS SLEEPING. HE OPENED HIS MOUTH TO SCREAM AND WAS HIT IN THE FACE BY THREE DIFFERENT STREAMS. Tanaka kept getting louder and louder as he told the story. Panting by the end of it. He took a giant breath and barreled on, “Then after everyone had calmed down. Yachi had the brilliant idea to kiss and make up, SO YOU IDIOTS STARTED KISSING EACH OTHER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD. That is where I got back into the truck and LEFT YOU THERE. AND THAT'S JUST WHAT I SAW. I DON'T EVEN WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE OR AFTER I WAS THERE.” All five first years walked back to the groups Daichi assigned to them with an unnerving calmness that deeply frightend Daichi and acted like nothing happened.
“I’m sorry for the interruption captain. Let’s continue strategizing for the season.”
“I feel like we need to have a conversation about that.”
“We do not.”
“You do know that farmer called the police about the grave, we couldn’t figure out what happened, it was one of the precinct's weirdest unsolved mysteries.”
“What grave captain? As much as I would like to bury Seihjo next week, I think it might be a little harder than that.” Tadashi said with full sincerity but the look in his eyes was frightening.
“You are absolutely right Tadashi,” brushing past the absolute cluster fuck of whatever that was, first years are terrifying.
Ennosita barreled on “I have an idea though. You remember how Oikawa came late to the practice match? When they call to coordinate. We ask Takeda-sensei to request, Oikawa play as the starting setter as well. If he shows up late or isn’t there when we are about to start. You, Coach will say we aren’t playing until he gets here. We’ve done what they asked. If they don’t know when he gets there, just offer to reschedule, at Oikawa's convenience. You could even bring up that with only one of their weapons available anyways you don’t want to ‘crush anyone’s spirits before the season starts’ . We know Seihjo likes to scout ahead so he’ll probably be lurking in the gym somewhere. It’ll piss him, Iwazumi and their coach off. It’s letting them know we know wont let them target our players like that If we follow Tadashi's plan they won’t know anything about us until the day before we play in the tournament. And by then it’s too little too late for them to prepare, they might know a few of our tricks but they won’t be able to do anything about them, the are like Nekoma they adapt quickly too.”
“Again why am I here?” Coach Ukai asked rather annoyedly.
“ because you love us coach” the whole team said.
“You little brats. Well, let's see what we are working with.”
“ Huddle up guys,” Coach yelled and the team sat down. Coach and Daichi let Tadashi explain the plan including line ups. While Ashai said he was nervous about learning a new position, he also felt like a burden had been lifted on his shoulders.
Takeda’s Group, what do you guys have? “ Well, Coach, since we don't know exact numbers or anything yet, we might have found a guaranteed way to keep funding ourselves.” he looked a little nervous. “ We'd have a ‘Club fee’ that would include travel expenses, new uniforms, warm up gear and other equipment. Kiyoko says we can use her dad’s store to purchase from and he will give us a discount. We can also order new uniforms through them as well.
He nodded, toward Kiyoko. “ Basically my dad or one of my brothers would come to practice and get a list of everyone's sizes and what you all need. So for example if you wanted to wear compression sleeves, or knee pads like Bokuto has Nishinoya or Hinata, you’d tell my dad and we’d get some.
Yachi stood up then and confidently spoke “ and while I know we are all sentimentality attached to these uniforms, they are old as shit, they smell even after they've been washed. I’m pretty sure they were new the first year Coach Ukai played. Do you know how much sweat is embedded into those, it's disgusting, I'm surprised no ones gotten a rash because of them. If you truly want it we will give it to you. You will not wear it on your body, it would be for decoration only. But for the love of God get it professionally cleaned.”
She took a breath and then said, “ We’ll need to do the math but the Fee should not be too outrageous. Also if you or your parents can't afford it or you can only afford part of it, let us know, we’ll work out a way. You guys need to look as good as you play. I'm going to be working with my mom to come up with a logo for us, as well as with Asahi to have updated options for warm up gear as well as manager and coaches gear as well. And let me clarify something as well, because of the fee, you would own your Karasuno branded items, you wouldn't have to give them back at the end of the season. "She looked sharply at Hinata and Kaegyama, “ I will no longer have to hunt you down to return the stolen items.” another giant breath, ”We also had a couple of donation ideas as well. First and foremost a calendar. It seemed appropriate. Each month would focus on a different position. Including a spotlight on the Coaches and managers. It would also have your stats as of now. ” She looked at the team. “You will do it and you will be happy about it. Next, we are going to be making t-shirts, we'll make them for Miyagi prefecture highschools, you might be asking who's going to buy them?” she pointed at Ukai “ Guys like him. Who played in high school and still want to support their highschool teams. Also current players, we can make ones that are player specific, ‘ I survived ushiwaka’, ‘ even Iron walls crumble’, we’d also make ones for each club using a website called Redbubble. I would upload the design and they print and ship the shirt. They also do stickers and other merchandise. The profit would be donated to the club. I'd make a disclaimer on our webpage saying that we ‘ donate the profit to an underfunded volleyball team’. We can also make neighborhood association shirts, those idiots will eat this shit up, and any profit will go straight to the club. Don't look at me like that Tsukki you will get your brother to pedal these shirts and both of you will be happy about it. Now if you will excuse me I have a few calls to make.” She marched out of the Gym already dialing a number.
Daichi leaned over to Ukai, “ I don't know if I should be afraid or proud of how far she's come. Kinoshita, Asahi, Narita, how about you guys?”
“ We have a solid timeline of the next two years.” Narita said.
“Terror Twins, Tanaka, Tsukki and Noya. What have you guys got?”
Tanka said “ A workout and diet plan, we will most likely use morning practices for our conditioning, anyone is welcome to join us.”
Good plan guys. Lets huddle up
“ Karasuno Fight!”