Skills

Sora POV

Once Takeda finished explaining things to Ukai, Ukai came over to me and scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry about that earlier that was rude of me." he says and my eyes widen a bit and shake my hands. "No it's ok! I would be confused and say something like that too!" I say.

He nods his head. "So I heard your situation and program from Takeda. I was quite surprised to hear that you came from America and yeah...." I nod my head at him. "Would it be alright to see what you got to see how we'll practice." Ukai asks and I nod my head. "Sure that's fine." I say and glance at Takeda.

'Did he not tell Ukai of my school and did he not mention everything?' I wondered raising my eyebrows. 'Maybe he's just curious of my skills.' I think. "Um Ukai-san, may I ask what did Takeda-san tell you about me in particular?" I ask curious.

He nodded his head and placed a hand under his chin. "Well he mostly explained to me your situation and the program that your under and that you came from America. He also mentioned that your a good volleyball player and that you have a coach of your own as well." I nodded my head and smiled. 'So he knows nothing of my skills.'

"Sure thing. Do you want to test me now?" I ask while opening my bag. His eyes widened. "It doesn't have to be today but I was just wondering if we could see your skills sometime later." he said. I looked up at him. "Well if there's some time today and if you want to, we can do it today if you wish. Since your the coach after all." I say.

He nods his head and looks at the clock. "Well, if it's fine with you than we can. I'll give the boys some other practice to work on and then at the end we'll fit in a practice game." he said and looked at my outfit and pointed to it. "But do you have other clothes than that?" he asks.

I look down to see my uniform. I nod my head. "Yeah I have my gym clothes with me and my shoes in my bag." I say and he nods his head. "Cool, then you can get dresses and hang out with our manager." he said and walked away to the team.

I looked over at Kiyoko, "Do you mind showing me the way to the changing room?" I ask with a smile and she gives a small smile and nods. She starts walking out of the gym and leads me the girls changing room. I go inside and put my bag on the stool and take out my workout clothes.

I changed into a tighter fitting shirt and spandex volleyball shorts. I then put my hair up in a pony tail and put my uniform in my bag. I grab my bag and walk out of the changing room. "Okay Shimizu-san, I'm done" I say and close the door. She looks up at me and nods.

We spend the walk back to the gym in a comfortable silence, I open the gym door to see the boys still practicing. I walk over towards Ukai, "Mkay Coach Ukai." I say and he looks over at me and nods his head in approval.

I stand by him and watch them practice. "By the way Coach Ukai, have you been coaching long?" I say and look at him. He flinched and looks at me. "I have not been coaching long. Why?" he asks and looks over at me. I glance at him. "You still seem pretty young, so I was just curious." I said.

I looked back at the team and observed them. Seeing that they have been slowly progressing and trying to fix their mistakes and improve themselves since the prelims of interhigh. I narrow my eyes at certain members, watching their moves. 'I see some improvement that's slowly happening but that tall blonde there does not seem to be advancing as much.' I think to myself.

'He lacks in what the rest of the team does.' I think and move on to the next players and note down what they can fix and how. I glance back at Ukai 'But I bet he probably knows their flaws and stuff that each person needs to work on.'

"Ukai-san, what kind of match do you have in mind?" I ask and he looks at the players and back at me. He hums and thinks. Before he can speak, I input my idea. "If you so wish, we can do a full team 6 vs. 6. You can place your regular line up against me and the rest of the players." I say and he chokes a bit and looks at me. Kiyoko and Takeda look at me as well. "What?!" Ukai looks at me with full confusion and says ''Are you crazy?'

He calms himself and opens his mouth "Are you under estimating my team? My regular line up is pretty strong. We were able to hold ourselves against some really strong opponents." he says. I shake my head. "No, I'm not under estimating your team. But rather I want to get a feel for your team both the regulars and the non regulars. I thought this way it will save time instead of me doing three Vs three multiple times in the future." I say and look at him with a stern expression.

"I know that your team is strong and is very much capable of defeating strong opponents. But I would like to face them myself and see their strengths and weakness up close. I also want to see how much Shoyo has improved when he's my opponent." I say and he cocks a brow.

"Shoyo? Hinata right? You know him?" he asks and I nod my head. "Yes, he is my childhood friend." I say and he nods his head. "I see, but I'll think a little more about it. I do think that's a pretty decent idea but I'm still iffy on it." he says.

I look at him and nod. "No, it was just my opinion. Sorry for being rude and selfish for what I said." I say and bow at him. He waved his hand. "Nah it's fine to get your ideas and share them. It just took me by surprise. But I'll think about your idea." he says and I nod. "Thank you."

The boys practice goes on for a while and Kiyoko and I just chat and talk about some things while we watch the boys practice. Ukai claps his hands "Okay guys you can take a break! Come here!" he says.

The boys stop and grab their bottles and towels as they walk over to Ukai. "Guys before we wrap it up today, we'll have a match. I was thinking about this request for a while but we'll do a full match. We'll have our regular line up go against the rest except this time we'll put Akiyama on the side with the non-regulars." Ukai announced and the team looked at Ukai with wide eyes.

"But coach-" the captain tried to question him but Ukai stopped him. "It's fine. It's a request from Akiyama, she wanted to see and get a feel for you guys since she'll be joining in on our practice." he said and the team looked over at me. I gave them a smile and put on my volleyball shoes.

Some of their faces showed confusion, unsure, and a bunch of other emotions. Except Shoyo he held a face of excitement. "Wow! That's cool! I'll get to face you So-chan!" Shoyo yelled and rushed over to me. I chuckled at him and pat his head. "Hmm! So show me what you got Sho-kun!" I said.

I stretched my arms and secured my hair tighter in the pony tail. Shoyo returned over to his team and two of them pulled his away as the rest of the ream conversed. "Oi Hinata! You know her!? You seemed so close and stuff?!" they yelled and the members of the team looked over at him.

Shoyo nodded his head excited and jumped up and down. "Yeah, that's Sora! My childhood friend! She's been away for a couple of years!" he said and the members nodded "Childhood friend....." the team repeated and glanced back at me as I stretched and warmed up.

The two boys, Tanaka and Noya put him in a choke hold. "Oi you lucky duck, having a pretty and cute childhood friend." Tanaka said and Noya agreed.

I chuckled and got up finishing my stretching. "Okay I'm good to go Ukai-san." I say and he nods at me. "Break is over! Get into your teams. You'll get some time to discuss your plans or what you want to do. In Akiyama's case get to know them!" he tells me and I nod.

The team split up into two and I walked over to the non-regular team. "Sorry about this sudden match, but I thought this would be an easy way of getting to know you all." I say giving them a smile. They seem to nod and have a tinge of red on their faces.

"Um nice to meet you Akiyama-san! I'm Sugawara Koushi. A setter." a boy with silver hair with a mole under his eye. I smile at him. "Nice to meet you Sugawara-san." The greetings go on the next person and I think back to their games at interhigh. 'Sugawara, is the setter who got subbed in through the middle of the game.' I thought and looked at the next person.

"I'm Ennoshita Chikara , 2nd year wing spiker. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Kinoshita Hisashi, 2nd year wing spiker and pinch server. Nice to meet you Akiyama-san."

"Narita Kazuhito, 2nd year middle blocker. Nice to meet you."

"I-I'm Yamagushi Tadashi, 1st year middle blocker. N-nice to meet you."

I smile at all of them. "Nice to meet you too! I'm Akiyama Sora, 2nd year wing spiker." I say. I look at all of them. "Would you mind telling me who is the best receiver here?" I ask and they nod and look at each other.

Sugawara nods his head and speaks up. "I would say the best receiver is Ennoshita." I nod my head. "Okay thank you!" "Why?" they ask.

I look at them and look at Ukai. "Can I borrow a white board and a marker?" he nods his head and passes me the items. "Since most of us are wing spikers I was thinking that we will need a person focused more on defense when we do our rotation." I said and glanced at them.

"Would it be alright if I made the rotation and set up?" I ask and they nod their head looking at me. "We'll all be playing in this rotation so as I was watching you guys play, I want to set it up this way." I say and finish placing marks on the board showing where each member will be going.

I placed it so it would be me in the middle back with Yamaguchi to my left. With Kinoshita next to my right. Leaving Narita in front of Yamaguchi and Sugawara to the left if him and infront of me. And Ennoshita to the right of Sugawara.

A/N: Sorry I don't really know how they set up the courts so this is where they'll be when situated on the court.

They nod their head, while looking at the board. "Since we are going against your Ace and one of your stronger wing spikers over there, #5 and #3, we will need a defense in the back as well as the front. So when we rotate I'll leave the defense to you Ennoshita-san. While when the team does their attacks our blockers will be able to get to the net a bit quicker. I can assume that they'll throw a strong attack at us to get the flow of their game." I say and they nod their head taking in the information.

"Oh Akiyama-san! What kind of sets do you like?" he asks me as I pass the board and marker to Kiyoko. I turn to look at Sugawara. I think for a bit. "Since, we're just starting and getting to know each other. Any set will be fine for me, any set that you are comfortable with, I'll make do." I say and give him a smile. He blinks his eyes at me and nods slowly. "But, you can tell me what set you want." he insists.

I smile at him. "Thanks, but right now, I want your sets. Your kind of set. It doesn't matter which one or type. You can make the call of the type. By you doing that I can also get a feel for the type of player you are so I'm sorry that I'm not giving you an exact answer." I say.

He waves his hands "No it's fine." and smiles at me. "Thank you!" I look over at Ukai and show him that I'm ready. "Okay! We'll start now! We'll have Akiyama's team Vs. Daichi's team, do you want to start Akiyama?" he asks.

I nod my head. "Sure." I say and he passes the ball to me which I hand over to Kinnoshita. Our teams get into position on the court and Ukai goes up to be referee. "Tweet!" he blows the whistle. I take a deep breath in and out, calming all of my nerves and concentrate on the court, the players, the ball. My aura changes slightly as you can see that I'm serious and concentrated.

I look back seeing Kinnoshita step back and throw the ball up and send it over. 'It's a clean serve, but he's also trying to do a float serve I saw earlier.' I think to myself as I watch the ball land over the net and Daichi receives it. He passes it over to Kageyama, I watch as they send Shoyo and Tanaka running to the net.

I watch the ball as it heads over to Tanaka, as Yamaguchi and Narita jump up to block Hinata. I move forward as I see the ball get spiked and land towards my area. "Got it!" I yell and send it up to Sugawara.

Ennoshita jumps up and spikes it down for it to be received and for them to get ready for another attack. I watch the ball and focus on the setter, my eyes narrowing down at the setter watching his moves. I see Shoyo move faster than the rest and the Ace following behind with Tanaka at the side.

I tap Yamaguchi at my left, "Wait before jumping, let Narita jump first." I say as he runs up to the net. Narita jumps up to block Tanaka on the left side along with Ennoshita.

As Yamaguchi waits and the ball goes to the Ace and Yamaguchi jumps up. He touches the ball "One touch!" he says and Kinoshita yells "Got it!" and sends it to Sugawara.

"Sugawara!" I yell grabbing his attention and running up to the net. I tense my muscles and push myself up jumping and spike the ball as hard as I can. I hit it and it went right passed Daichi and shot off the ground. "BAM!" A loud echo of the ball was heard.

I landed on the ground and saw that we made the first point. I turn to Sugawara and a smile makes its way to my face. "Nice toss!" I say, while the boys look at me and blink and look back at the spot that I landed the hit. Sugawara nodded his head and looked at the spot where I had hit the ball. The boys looked back at me with sort of shocked faces.

"What... just happened?" Daichi said as he saw the ball go right passed him. I tilt my head at my team. "What's wrong?" I ask and they shake their heads. "Nothing." they replied back still in awe at my power that I had used. I walk back and turn to Yamaguchi. "Good job getting that one touch!" I say and he gets flustered.

"No, it's because you told me to wait!" he said and I shook my head. "No but still good job!" I say. "You guys did great, let's rack up some points!" I say to the team and they smile at me while nodding their heads.

The ball goes back to us and Kinoshita serves it again. Though this time when Daichi's team received it I saw Shoyo run quickly up to the net and did a broad shot as Narita tried blocking him in the middle. Ennoshita tried to follow up with a block but Hinata already spiked the ball and is went right in the middle of me and Kinoshita. I turned to look at the ball but it already landed on the floor.

I blinked a couple of times and the whole team looked back at me to see my face expression. A smile etched it's way onto my face with excitement and amusement. I walk over to pick up the ball and tossed it to the other team.

"So that's how your super quick goes. The next time you do it, I'll get it." I say sternly while giving a small smile on my lips. "That was quite something Shoyo." I say and get back in my spot.

We went back and forth earning points and doing a full rotation where I was now back in our original spot. Shoyo and Kageyama was able to score points with Ennoshita in the back and as they got passed Yamaguchi's block. However after I had said that to them they didn't to it again till I was in the front.

I was able to block their spikes from getting through shutting them down and was able to score points that way and when I was in the front I was able to score points through my spikes. Some of them were received by the libero, some by Daichi. But often times it would fly off their arms at the beginning but it seemed to get use to it, well the libero. So when I spiked they left it to him. With me in the back Daichi's team was winning by three points and I think they started feeling like I couldn't keep my threat.

'Kageyama pushed my threat' I thought as I saw Shoyo run up to the net and Tanaka as well run up to the net. Narita watched as the ball went to Tanaka and he jumped but the ball kept moving and send it to Shoyo. Doing a fast quick. Ennoshita jumped a grazed the ball slightly making the ball curve in another direction. The ball came falling down. As I saw Kageyama send it to Shoyo a wide grin grew on my face and it seems that he caught on because he flinched.

"Got you." I say under my breath and yell "Got it!" as I ran to the ball quickly and bent down low. "BAM!" the ball went as it touched my arms, I sent it back perfectly to Sugawara and Narita jumped up and scored a point.

"Nice job Narita!" I say and pat him on the back. The opposite team that watched that happen along with the coach and Shoyo looked at me with wide eyes again. "Wow that was cool So-chan!!" Shoyo shouted and I smiled at him.

Kageyama went up to net and held it. He looked sternly at me. "You, how did you know!? The ball also curved after the touch from the block." I looked at him and raised my brow.

"I warned you didn't I? Plus to it's not a matter if I knew its a matter of following the ball. I can guarantee that your libero would be able to do the same. But, if your surprised than you must haven't have thought much of me being your opponent." I said and he flinched looking at me with wide eyes. I glanced at the team of Daichi and saw them tense up.

'I hit the nail on the head. He or rather they didn't see me as much. The ones that do that will end up being hurt and suffer.' I thought and gave him a stern look.. "You underestimated me and my skills." I said with a stern voice and looked at him, analyzing him. "You should never do that with an opponent." I say and turn back around as the rest of the team watched us.

As I walked back I gave him a glance along with the regulars. "Then shall we continue? Oh and #9, give me your all, you and the regulars. This team here, these players on my team are fully capable and they are showing me their strength. I know you probably know but they are able to face strong opponents as well with you guys. The entire team of Karasuno has potential to go higher. So show me your all." I say.

The whole entire team, the coach and Takeda look at me with wide and shocked expressions at my words. I had the players on my team look at me with gratitude and surprise that I had said that. They looked down and clenched their hands. "Yeah!" they said and got in their spots looking determined to win this practice match. I smiled from where I stood.

I watched as the others on the other side smiled as well got in their positions with determination. Kageyama nodded at me and walked back to his spot.

I smirked seeing the change of attitude and aura of the whole entire team. 'This is what I want. Continue going forward. Come at me!'

"Come!"