Chapter Thirty: The Arrival of Haiba Lev

NARROWED GREEN EYES STARED DOWN AT THE console screen displaying a seemingly difficult video game. With a scrunched up nose, Yua watched her younger best friend play his game in fascination. She's never really been one for video games, but it was impressive to watch Kenma play his. After all, she's spent most of her childhood watching him play and beat many games like this. She's not that much of a gamer, though she does find it quite impressive.

Kenma, Yua and Kuroo were headed to their school on this lovely Sunday morning for volleyball practice. The trio were strolling through the surrounding neighborhood after just getting off the train. It wasn't that much of a walk through the nice warm morning sun. If anything, Yua quite enjoys it when she journeys to school with her best friends. The walks can be silent but not uncomfortable, or full of laughter and teasing. She just loves her best friends, what can she say?

Kuroo was also glancing down at Kenma's screen with his own hazel eyes, "Kenma. That looks pretty tough."

"Somewhat." The pudding-head commented, "But I'm getting the hang of it, so if I play for about thirty more hours…"

"And not sleep?" Yua scoffed, "I thought we talked about this, mister." Honestly she has no idea how he can run on such a small amount of sleep. He usually complains about being tired and she'll reprimand him for not sleeping, like a mother hen would. He needs a healthy amount of sleep for volleyball and school, after all!

Kenma grunted, not taking his eyes off his game, "You talked. I wasn't listening." Yua's right eye twitched at that. He can be so rude sometimes.

Kuroo chuckled lightly at his friends, "I'm surprised you don't get bored. If you have that much time on your hands, let's practice volleyball."

"I am, though." Kenma lazily said, "That's why we're here at school on a Sunday morning, right?"

The trio then came up upon the school entrance for Nekoma Municipal High School. Kuroo grew serious, "Well, we did lose the Inter-High prelims. The Spring Tournament prelims are just around the corner."

Kenma didn't even take his eyes off of the game, "You never get sick of volleyball, huh, Kuroo?"

"He'll never get sick of it, like you'll never get sick of your games." Yua commented with a giggle. 

Eventually the trio got to the school and entered the gym to find their team already setting up. Inuoka noticed their arrival, "Ah, Kuroo-san, Kenma-san, Yua-senpai, good morning!"

Yamamoto waved over at them, "Morning!"

"Mornin'!" Kuroo greeted them.

Kenma did the same, but in his normal lackluster way, "Morning."

Yua jumped over to the group enthusiastically, "Good morning, boys!"

"Is everyone already here?" Kuroo asked.

Inuoka sighed, "Well…"

Yua looked around trying to find who was missing. Mentally, she checked her list on who was who, and noticed only one person missing. She clicked her tongue, "Oh, the giant isn't here, what a surprise!"

"I always tell first-years to show up early." Yaku commented as he started to squeeze the volleyball in his hand, it seemed like it was going to pop. "That little bastard."

"He's not a little bastard when compared to you Yaku!" Yua snickered at her jab at the libero. She certainly did get a kick out of annoying the short guy. Though she seems to forget how scary he can be afterwards. She spotted the dark look on his face and knew she was fucked. So Yua started to run for cover, which included using her friends as human shields. "Ah! No! Kenma save me from the gremlin!"

While the team watched as Yaku started to march after Yua and she tried putting Kenma in between them, Yamamoto said, "Well, it's actually pretty quiet and nice when he's not around. I'm sure he's slacking off again somewhere." The others glanced at him for saying that it was quiet and nice, then stared at their libero chasing their manager around. Maybe just a little but quieter, they thought.

After eventually grabbing Yua and now sitting on her back, Yaku commented, "He's like a stray cat." Yua flailed around in an attempt to escape, but the libero is surprisingly strong despite his small stature. Though she should learn by now that she'll end up like this every time she messes with the libero.

So without their underclassmen, everyone started to get ready. Yua changed into her gym clothes and grabbed her supplies. That supplies being her notebook and clipboard, now she meant business.

Eventually after a bit of time, their missing teammate actually showed up. With a soft meow coming from the entrance, the japanese-russian boy had finally arrived. Lev Haiba, the tallest member on the team with silver hair and bright green eyes, was smiling in the entrance. "Mornin'!" Along with him was a orange and white cat in his hand, for some reason.

Kuroo sighed and looked up from tying his shoes, "The bigwig finally shows up."

"Haiba Lev has arrived!" The silver-haired boy shouted, "Yeah!"

"Oh my," Yua gasped as she gushed at her underclassman, hearts in her eyes. She quickly pushed Yaku off of her and scurried over to Lev, "How adorable!"

Growing flustered and blushing, Lev stuttered, "Wah, Yua-senpai!" Obviously, he figured that she had to be talking about him, and of course he was getting flustered. Yua's quite a pretty girl and Lev sure finds her to be a cute manager!

"I didn't mean you," Yua said, which caused the poor boy to deflate. The girl then grabbed the cat out of the beanstalk's hands and started to fawn over it. "I meant this little guy, hi there." The team watched as she started giving the cat scratches and cuddling it in her arms, to the poor cat's dismay. 

---

Practice was in full swing by now as the boys were in a mock game with each other. On the side lines, Yua was scribbling things down every once in a while in her notebook. Though she took her time from writing to pet the orange and white cat that was resting in her lap. The cat was now enjoying some of the attention the girl was giving him.

"They all seem ready to go," Naoi commented as they watched the boys in their scrimmage game. 

They watched as Yamamoto jumped up to spike the ball over the net and got his side a point thanks to Lev's inability to receive it. "You dumbass!" The ace roared at Lev, "I told you not to try and get that with your arms, you beanpole!"

"I'll get the next one!" Lev exclaimed, more than pumped up to try again, "One more time!" 

Naoi nodded his head, "Haiba Lev's got good instincts. He's half-Russian and so has been blessed with height, long limbs, and excellent athletic ability. Any of those things would set him apart from the Japanese players…"

"Bring it!" Lev dove with cat-like reflexes to receive Inouka's serve, it was quite impressive. He was more than overjoyed with his accomplishment as he stayed laying on the floor with a large smile. "I did it! I did it! See? I did it! Did you see that?"

Kuroo grunted while running up to block, "You dumbass! Keep your eyes forward!" Though his warning didn't do much as the ball was spiked back towards him and he certainly wasn't ready to save it at all.

Yaku slid over more than annoyed with the first-year, "Lev!" Yeah, he was about to chew out the boy for that.

"But he's got that personality," Naoi sighed heavily, "and he's still learning the basics. There's plenty we have yet to teach him. But we're dealing with the Spring Tournament prelims. Things will probably get very interesting." 

Who knows what will happen when they add Lev onto the team roster for games? Yua would like to think that the team would be elevated with such a player like him on the team. Perhaps not a starter, since he is still really new to the sport, but he could make a spot for himself. He still has a lot to learn as a player, but she wants to have faith in him as a player. Hopefully he gets there eventually.

Nekomata grunted after staying silent for so long, "This ain't good."

They continued on with practicing and it was blatantly clear that Lev and Kenma were not lining up properly. It's happened time and time again. Kenma would set the ball for Lev but it would be off by a few inches. It's not that Kenma wasn't a good setter or anything like that, it was most likely just because the two weren't lined up yet. After all, Lev's arm length was a bit longer than Kenma is used to. Add in Lev's inexperience and the two were not working that well together. They tried once more and Lev missed the spike again with the ball completely missing his hand.

"That was close, right?" Lev asked while looking at the setter like an excited kitten.

Kenma deadpanned, "No."

He gasped, "Whoa, really?!"

"That wasn't close at all."

"Really?! Can we try again?"

"No." Kenma droned out.

"Why not?!"

Kenma grumbled, "Because you're just going to miss again."

Yua laughed at the pair's banter. She could tell that Kenma was more than annoyed with Lev. The younger boy does have a personality that does not mesh well with Kenma's, basically at all. Beside her, Nekomata grunted as he appeared to be contemplating something. Yua glanced over at the older coach with furrowed eyebrows, "What're you thinking, old man?"

Nekomata just glanced at her with his aged eyes before calling out, "All right, that's all for today."

So everyone worked together to clean up the gym after a somewhat productive practice. Yua helped Kuroo with the net and took it down as they chatted lightly. Yua hummed, "I feel like Kenma is going to have a lot of fun with Lev."

Kuroo glanced over his shoulders as Lev challenged Yamamoto. He chuckled, "Obviously."

"Let's just hope they can work together eventually." She shrugged her shoulders, "it would be a bit upsetting if they couldn't work it out, you know." Having a team that worked well together on the court is obviously important. If the setter couldn't even work with one person, well, things might fall apart. She wasn't sure, but Yua also didn't wanna find out.

Her friend hummed next to her, "give it some time." He ruffled her hair, to her chagrin, "they'll figure it out at some point."

Once everyone finished their jobs of cleaning up, their coach called out, "Gather round!" So everyone did just that and surrounded their coaches to hear what they had to say.

Nekomata started by saying, "Two Saturdays from now, we're going to welcome our neighbors, Kunihira High School and do a practice match."

"At this time of year?" Yaku asked in confusion, "But our training camp with Fukurodani is coming up, too. That's rare."

Nekomata nodded his head and continued, "And… Lev, you're going to play in that match."

Everyone was in shock at that bit of news, "What!?"

"That's what you were thinking!?" Yua exclaimed at the coach with her mouth agape. How the old man thought this was a good idea, Yua wasn't sure. Yea Lev was a decent player, but he has a long way to go before he could be considered a starter. He's a first-year, and while first-years can be starters, Lev was still new to the sport and needed to learn a lot more.

"Really?!" Though Lev was over the moon about this turn of events. He smiled widely, "Just leave it to me!"

Naoi leaned down to the older man, "Er, but coach, Lev's still having problems getting tosses, so I'm not sure if he's…"

"Kenma." Nekomata didn't even seem to be listening as he just turned to the teen, "Make some time and give Lev some tosses."

Kenma pursed his lips, "I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?!" Lev gasped.

"That's all." Nekomata smiled, "Do your best."

All the boys plus Yua bowed, "Thank you!"

Everyone was still in a bit of shock over the news. The only one who really got over it quickly was Kuroo who shrugged his shoulders, "You heard him."

Lev stood tall over all of his teammates and had a bit of a smug expression on his face. "Should've seen this coming."

Yamamoto just stared at him with his hands on his hips, "You're so cocky." Right, if anyone was going to be cocky, it was going to be him! After all, he is the ace of the team!

Yua shook her head at her underclassman, "You can be arrogant when you're actually a starter, stringbean."

Lev just continued to smile, "You'll see, Yua-senpai, I'll be a starter soon enough!"

"Sure, sure." She won't hold her breath over that just yet.

---

The next day, practice was going pretty normal. This time though, everyone was keeping an eye on how Kenma and Lev were working together. It was like everyone paused in their own training to watch whatever was happening. After all, it was more than interesting to see if the beanstalk was going to actually succeed this time.

Lev was pumped up as usual, "Let's do this!" There was next to nothing that could get his spirits down.

They lined up for Lev to spike the ball. Kenma set a perfect toss for him, hoping that he would hit it. As there was no way that he could mess this up. Though that wasn't the case as Lev still missed it and it just ended up hitting the top of his head instead. While Lev appeared to have confidence and power behind his moves, it was nothing but a farce. He still has so much to learn about volleyball.

"Hey, it went in," Inuoka blinked and was somewhat impressed.

Yamamoto just laughed at the failure, "Nice headbutt!"

Lev wasn't affected by the teasing though as he just turned to them, "That was my personal time difference attack!" Everyone just stared at him in disbelief. There was no way that he just used that kind of excuse…

On the sidelines, Yua just shook her head and wrote down some bullet points in her notebook. After being the team manager for a while, she's grown to be really good at making her own notes and such about the boys. They're definitely not the neatest or most comprehensible, but she can translate them easily, so who cares. Lev was obviously the one she was writing most about now. 

She keeps track of their strengths and weaknesses, their relationships with the other boys, and any other tidbits she thinks the coaches could use. It's all important things to take note of. Though she's known all these boys for quite a while and knows a lot about them, Lev is the newest one. So she has quite the learning curve when it comes to figuring out how the newbie will mesh with everyone else. She sighed heavily while finishing up her scribbles in her notebook, hopefully she can get it down eventually.

"Yeah, he's definitely some kind of special…" Yaku commented in uncertainty. 

Naoi shook his head, "All of you, stop gawking at him and get to practicing!"

"Right!"

---

The whole team had gone about their normal routine after practice which meant heading to the local 8-Eleven for snacks. Yua's chip bag crinkled as she munched on her snack which was provided by Kuroo. She leaned over Kenma's shoulder to watch his screen as he played the same game from that morning. Even still, she couldn't understand what he was doing, but that didn't mean she couldn't watch him. Which was just watching him fail and fail again.

Kuroo also was glancing over every once in a while to watch, "That's gotta be hard, you've been stuck on the same level."

"I know.," Kenma grunted while mashing the buttons.

Besides him, Yua pursed her lips, "Even the great gamer Kenma can't get past it, it must be impossible." Kenma's eye twitched at Yua's comment as he focused on the game. He'd prove that he can get past this level, just so he can avoid his friends teasing.

"It's gotta be rough dealing with Lev," Kuroo commented to Kenma while eating the popsicle Yua insisted on buying him. There obviously was a parallel that could be made between Kenma's difficulty with this game and also his ability to work with Lev. After the past few days, both of these scenarios have caused him a great deal of issues.

Kenma didn't look up from his console as he replied, "Yeah. I haven't dealt with him much ever since he joined."

Kuroo nodded, "I can imagine. You two are like oil and water. It's hard to see you two meshing together."

"We don't even have to imagine," Yua chuckled. It's evident to everyone, except maybe Lev, to see how difficult this was for the setter. Sure, Yua knows how it can be a bit difficult for Kenma to get along with certain people but this just seemed extra difficult.

Just as they were saying that, the other boys, including Lev, all came out of the shop with their own goodies and made to sit down with them. They all started to dig into their after practice meals and snacks and talk idly about things.

Lev seemed to be energized just as he was at the beginning of practice. Which is a feat since most of the boys are usually tired beyond belief after a long practice. "Just watch." Lev said excitedly as he cracked his chopsticks apart, "I'll be ready by our next match."

Yaku sweatdropped, "Seriously, where the hell does your confidence come from?"

"That's one of life's many mysteries," Yua hummed which got a chuckle out of some of the guys.

"I'll work even harder so I can become a starter!" Inuoka declared strongly. Yua cooed from her seat at how adorable the middle blocker is. He has to be one of her favorite first years, he's just so full of fire and cuteness, in her opinion.

Lev leaned into his personal space with a smirk, "Well, I'm gonna be the ace, not a starter!"

Yamamoto, the actual ace of the team, called out, "You don't call someone who can't play any defense an 'ace'!"

"But if I work hard these next two weeks with Kenma-san…" Lev looked over to their setter for approval, "right?"

Kenma boredly replied, "It's hard to set the ball for you because you're so sloppy. It's not like I'm Karasuno's setter."

Yua shook her head, "I don't think anyone could be like that monster." Kageyama still haunted her thoughts with how pin-pointed his sets were. Yua has a running theory that he must have given up his soul to have such skill. It's really the only explanation in her mind.

Lev tilted his head in confusion, "Huh? Who's that?"

"They're our eternal rivals I talked about yesterday." Inoka explained, "You know, the Battle of the Garbage Dump."

He brightened in remembrance, "Ah, Karasuno or whatever from Miyagi."

The team all started to reminisce in the game they played against the crows. The lasting friendships that they also made were in their minds. Those crows sure were something. Yua likes to believe that she made some friends, especially with Hinata Sakura. Oh, that first-year sure is interesting to her, as well as her brother. The little demon who could keep up with Kageyama's tosses. Both of them were quite scary.

"They have some insane first-years there." Yaku broke Yua at her thoughts, "A middle-blocker shrimp that hits with his eyes closed and a setter that can perfectly match him."

"Huh…" Lev blinked.

"That shrimp doesn't have any of the basics down."

"Is he shrimpier than you, Yaku-san?" Lev asked innocently. Though all that did was end up with Yaku getting annoyed and hitting Lev over the head… again. 

Yua laughed at the display in joy. She leaned over Kuroo and flashed Lev a smile with a thumbs up, "Good job, Lev!" This first-year really is learning quickly about making fun of their libero. One of her favorite pastimes, honestly.

Lev rubbed at his bruised head, "But if that guys a starter, then I can…"

"I think you suck more than he does, Lev." Kenma cut him off and commented.

"Huh!?"

Kuroo smirked, "I wonder how they're doing."

---

Meanwhile, in Miyagi, the Karasuno team was hanging out at Sakanoshita Market like they usually do after a long day of school and practice. Endo was munching on a meat bun that he had bought in his coaches shop. Currently, he was watching as Tanaka failed and failed again at a video game that he had brought. Endo doesn't play video games, but it didn't mean he couldn't find entertainment from watching his friends rage at the game.

"Damn it!" Tanaka shouted in despair, "I lost again!"

Asahi, Kageyama and Shōyō came walking up to the second-year after getting some food from Sakanoshita Market. Shōyō tilted his head and asked, "Whatcha doin', Tanaka-san?"

He explained in frustration, "Playing the game I borrowed from my sister."

"Oh, that super popular one," Asahi said. Endo leaned onto his shoulder and offered to share his meat bun, which Asahi accepted.

The rest of the boys came over to see what was going on. "Come on, Tanaka." Daichi shook his head at his underclassmen, "Someone who works at the school is right in front of you. Put the game away."

"Huh?" Ukai grunted from behind them, "As soon as practice is over, this doesn't concern me." So he just continued on with his work and let the boys continue with their shenanigans. Not like he really cared about the teens playing some video game, so long as they stayed quiet.

Shōyō blinked in recognition as he leaned down to see the game, "Hey, this is the game Kenma was talking about."

"I keep losing to this thing no matter how many times I play." Tanaka groaned.

Endo chuckled, "just get better then." That earned him a heated glare from the slightly younger boy.

"I'd like to see you try rich boy!" Tanaka raged at him. Though the blond just laughed at his misery. Not like he'd actually play the game or anything, since he doesn't like games all that much.

"Ryu!" Nishinoya exclaimed while standing over his best friend with determination emanating from him. He smirked proudly, "I'll get revenge for you!"

So Nishinoya took a turn to play the game, though with the same outcome as Tanaka. Despite his best effort, Nishinoya was still met with the defeated screen. His ego was just slightly hurt after that defeat. So that was 0-2 for the boys, and it didn't seem like there was any end in sight. 

"He got hit with every single attack," Tanaka blinked.

Shōyō nodded his head, "That's actually sort of amazing." 

"Way to go, genius libero, I guess," Asahi chuckled.

Kageyama placed his hand on his hip and stared boredly, "So you just have to cut down the enemy without getting hit, right?" To the other's it almost sounded like he thought he could do it easily. Though Kageyama can have a tendency to be cocky sometimes.

"Heh." Tanaka scoffed, "Easier said than done, my friend."

Though Kageyama took that as a challenge with a large smirk. He was then next up to take a crack at the game. It became apparent that he was having issues with it just like the other two. He was becoming far more irritated every time he messed up until he finally ended up just losing to the game. Which certainly hurt his ego a bit as he started to yell, "You jackass! Who the hell do you think you are?!"

Tanaka was just about ready to take the game from him in case he broke it in anger. Which wouldn't be all that surprising. The older boy stared in worry, reaching for his game, "Hey! I just said I was borrowing that!"

Suga said, "I guess the same thing that happens in volleyball happened…"

"So this is Kageyama's true nature," Shōyō smirked at the other boy's demise.

That definitely didn't help the situation as Kageyama raged, "I'll kill you, Hinata!" The poor orange-haired boy jumped in fright.

"Come on, now, Kageyama. You know you end up the loser if you get mad." Daichi said wisely, "Give it here." So now it was Daichi's turn to try out the game. However, his defensive take on the game was not giving him any sort of advantage, it was basically a stalemate. "You see that? It's my impregnable defense!"

The other boys all just blinked at him. Well, besides Nishinoya who was still frozen over his loss and Kageyama was sulking off to the side. The two of them were not going to get over this loss so easily.

"Well, yeah, you're not going to lose, but…" Suga trailed off as they watched him still playing. The game was now deadlocked with Daichi's tactic, and there didn't seem like there was going to be an end. 

Tanaka blinked at the strange play-style, "Is that even fun?" While Daichi wasn't dying… it just seemed boring to just stand there.

So now all the boys were giving the game a try since Daichi wasn't getting anywhere with his "impregnable defense". Next up was Asahi who was definitely not enjoying the game. Instead of going with a tactic like Nishinoya's attacking or Daichi's defensive take, he decided to just run away. "Stay back! Please!" Asahi screamed in fear, "Get away! Stay away!"

"It wouldn't be much of a game if it didn't," Suga shook his head.

Daichi sighed, "Yeah, I knew this would happen."

Endo chuckled at the frightened boy, "You really are just a scaredy cat." Asahi just continued to scream until he eventually was caught by the boss and killed. Endo ended up patting Asahi as the ace caught his breath after all that screaming. 

"Hey!" Shōyō shouted eagerly, "Can I play next?"

Now it was Shōyō's turn to try out the game. He was jumping around while playing it which was a bit of a strange sight. Tanaka blinked at the boy, "What are you? A five-year-old that just got his first game?"

Eventually, Shōyō lost, which certainly ruined his mood, "This is so hard…"

Nishinoya then placed a hand on Shōyō's shoulder, "It gets your blood boiling… because it's difficult, right?"

"Yeah!" He exclaimed, now pumped up again, "One more time!"

Tanaka slid over quite annoyed, "Hey! It's my turn next!"

"You get to play at home, Ryu! Let me get my revenge!" Nishinoya shouted.

Diachi crowded around them as well, "No, leave it to me!"

Asahi joined in, "M-M-Me, too! Me, too!"

"Wait! I should get a turn!" Kageyama jumped over, ready to try again like the other boys. All the boys were now huddling around each other, all of them desperate to try to play the game again.

"You've got no chance, Kageyama-kun." Shōyō snickered.

"Hinata, you little jerk!" Kageyama shouted as he started to attack Shōyō. Though the little shorty was ready for it and ran away, "Stop dodging me!"

Due to all the commotion, Ukai came out of his shop more than annoyed with the group of rambunctious boys. "Shut up!" He shouted at them, "Hurry up and go home for dinner!"

"You heard the old man," Endo commented as he easily took the gaming console from the others, to their annoyance, "time to go home!"

---

Yua brushed aside some of the strands of hair that escaped her ponytail. It was a bit of a strange day, after all, the boys told her that Lev had arrived to practice first. Lev of all people! The one who was usually the last one to show up to practices was actually there before anyone else. How strange.

She just supposed that he must have been excited to practice. He really is much like an excited puppy. After he had been told by their coach to work closer with Kenma, Lev seemed to be more than eager to take advantage of the demand. Kenma seemed to be the one in the pair that wasn't so happy with it. He didn't say it in so many words, but Yua could tell just by his expressions. She's a Kenma whisperer in that aspect.

Though now in the middle of their current practice, Yua was watching as the boys were working on their spikes. "Hell yeah!" Yamamoto shouted after his own strong spike.

"Nice kill!"

Lev was up next and he was just as energized as usual. His eyes were alight with a childish glee as he stepped forward and shouted, "Get me the perfect toss!" Kenma was visibly a bit more annoyed now that he had stepped up. Yua could see that from a mile away. So the silver-haired boy ran up for the toss, but it completely missed his hand, once again. Lev just stared at the ball that was now rolling away. "Huh? That's weird."

"Lev, you're putting too much force into it." Kuroo advised him, "Keep your eye on the ball."

"Okay!" So they tried again, but with the same result. Though Lev didn't seem all that deterred, if anything he looked more than excited to keep trying his best. "Kenma-san! Could you do the tosses a bit faster?" From her seat on the sidelines, Yua could see that Kenma was far more annoyed with this situation.

She sighed under her breath, "This isn't going anywhere."

---

Swaying from side to side, the Nekoma trio were riding the train back to their homes after an extremely long day at school. Yua was just about falling asleep on Kenma's shoulder while watching him play his game. The intense battle that he had been engaged in over and over again was keeping her awake though. Every once in a while he would exhale hardly through his nose when he failed his objective, which kept Yua from falling asleep completely. Meanwhile, Kuroo was watching them with a small smile as he took in Yua's exhaustion and Kenma's determination and frustration over his game.

"Well?" He asked, breaking Kenma shortly from his concentration.

Kenma just continued his attempt at defeating the boss, "What?"

"Lev's pretty interesting, huh?"

"Well, you don't have to actually deal with him." Kenma grunted as he explained, "His timing when he jumps is different every time, so is his point of impact. I have no idea what kind of tosses to give him."

Yua hummed tiredly, "Now that's surprising. You adapt pretty quickly to just about everyone." Which is true, it only takes Kenma a single practice or two to usually get used to someone and their abilities. Seems like Lev is just a special case.

Kuroo leaned down to watch Kenma continue to struggle with his game, "You still can't beat that enemy?"

"Its attack is super strong and he takes me out instantly," Kenma grunted.

"But once you beat it, it's all over, so don't you get more fired up when it's an enemy you can't beat?"

"But it's no fun if you can't beat it, either."

"Can't you just attack it before it attacks you?" Kuroo asked, "They say offense is the best defense. That thing's tail was glowing right before it attacked."

Kenma blinked in surprise, "What? No way."

"What? You didn't notice?" Kuroo smirked, "I figured you'd notice something like that. I guess even you can't see when you get worked up."

He huffed and turned back to his game, "I'm not getting worked up."

"You are, though." Kuroo smirked.

Kenma grunted in denial, "Am not."

"You are."

"Nope."

"Both of you shut up," Yua groaned loudly and flopped herself onto Kuroo's shoulder this time, "I want to nap." So the two boys just quieted down, for their own sakes after all. A grumpy Yua is not a Yua that they would wish to deal with. So they just continued to travel home in content silence.

---

The same thing seemed to happen the next day. While the boys were going about their normal practices, there didn't seem to be any progress with Kenma and Lev's ability to sync up. Yua was making notes in her notebook on all of the boys, but certainly kept a close eye on 

"Those two are having a hard time getting in sync." Naoi commented to himself, Yua and Coach Nekomata.

Yua grunted in agreement, "Kenma is usually able to get used to anyone's rhythm, Lev is a special case it seems.

After yet another failed toss, Lev just stared at Kenma. He stared at the setter from different angles, getting strange looks from everyone else. His eyes brightened, "Kenma-san's noticing me! That must mean he's finally acknowledging my talent!"

Yamamoto deadpanned, "He's just mad that you're not progressing at all."

"Huh!?" Lev exclaimed in shock, "Are you mad, Kenma-san?"

"Yeah, half of it's anger," Kenma softly said.

Yua and the two older men stared at the interaction. Nekomata seemed more than pleased with the developments, while Naoi was still slightly concerned. "Is he really going to be okay?" The concerned man asked.

"No need to rush." The coach said wisely, "He's progressing like he should. Now, we just have to make sure it sticks."

Yua nodded her head, finishing her scribbling with a slight smirk, "which means practice, practice, practice." She then shouted out across the court, "oi Kenma, toss 20 more to Lev!" Kenma groaned at the order, though he knew better than to argue against her on something like practice. Lev was over the moon with it though. He seemed ready to do 100 more if it meant he could get to practice with Kenma more. Though they'd stick to just 15 for the time being. Yua stood up and made sure her ponytail was tight, "I'll toss to the others, you two work together for a short while."

"Whatever," Kenma grumbled.

Yua's brow twitched at his disrespectful tone, "What was that?"

He just grumbled something else under his breath, making sure that she couldn't hear him this time and responded back to her with a "Yes, Yua."

---

The boys had gone off of their usual running route. This usually gave Yua time to organize her notes, talk with the coaches and help them with any sort of practice routines she thinks would work best. Just like any other of the boys, she's a valuable member of the Nekoma team. She isn't a player, but she has the athletic mindset and comes up with good routines and workouts that she suggests them to do.

Or during this time she would take her own little break. Sitting outside the gym doors while waiting for them to come back let her think to herself. Volleyball certainly wasn't the only thing that she thought about. She has other interests… It just so happens that volleyball is a big part of her interest at the moment. 

Her mind wandered like a lost child to topics such as her homework assignments to the new clothes she wanted to buy. Or even what she was going to make for dinner to whether she thought Kuroo or Kenma would wanna hang out at her house. They're basically an inseparable trio after all. If you find Yua, Kuroo and Kenma will no doubt be right behind, and vice versa. They're her best friends after all. Though there was the sad realization that Kuroo would graduate soon and the trio would become a duo. She knew she was going to be sad about it, but it wasn't like they weren't going to talk anymore. Yua would make sure of it. Besides, her cousin would definitely make sure that it wouldn't happen. He's used to corralling a certain rambunctious boy to do what he needs, so he'd keep an eye out for Kuroo too, even if he was younger than Kuroo. That reminds her, she should really call him soon, they are having the camp soon! Oh, she can't wait to see everyone there.

Though thinking about the camp, she wondered if Kenma and Lev would start being able to sync up by then. Sure it would be a while before the training camp, but still. She couldn't help herself but wonder. Still the struggles that they were having at the moment were slightly amusing to her. Kenma hasn't really faced a challenge like this in quite a while. Seeing him try to get through it is interesting to her. His frustration over it was quite a bit of entertainment for her.

Breaking out of her thoughts, Yua watched as the group of boys finally came running back towards the gym. As soon as they got in range of the door, a couple collapsed to the ground to catch their breath. She got up and started to hand out some stuff to them. Kuroo just walked up to a smiling Yua smirked at her as she got some things together.

"You guys took longer than usual," Yua commented as she handed out some towels and water to the boys.

Kuroo took the offered towel and whipped off the sweat from his face, "It's because of those two."

Finally seeing the stragglers coming up after them, she got a good look at their appearance. "What the fuck!?" Yua screeched as she saw the blood residue on Kenma and Lev's faces. "Why do you two have bloody noses!?" She rushed over to them to check them over for injuries. How they ended up like this, she didn't know. Though her aggressive mother-hen attitude took over now as she started to look over their injuries.

Kenma grunted as she fussed over his face like a worried mother, "It's Lev's fault."

"Hah?!" She blanched as her expression became gloomy. Her darkened features were now pointed at the tall first-year, who bristled at the menacing look now focused on him. 

Lev jumped and waved his hands around in panic, "Yua-senpai! It's not what you think!"

"What the fuck did you do, you bitch!?" She screeched as she cradled Kenma close to her, "How'd you hurt him!?"

Kenma rolled his eyes and sighed. He whacked Yua in the stomach, stopping the girl from continuing her rampage, "Yua, calm down. It was an accident."

Yua groaned slightly and held her stomach in pain. Though she quickly straightened herself as her expression did a 180. She smiled like normal, "Oh. Well, let's get you two cleaned up and checked out!"

Lev was trembling as he stared at his senpai in fear, "You're quite scary, Yua." Her quick change in emotion was just slightly unsettling.

She just continued to smile blissfully, "I know."

Back in the gym, they were lining up to do their spike practice once again. The boys needed to warm up a bit since they were having their practice game today. They went down the line through everyone and eventually they got to Lev. After a little bit, it was decided that Kenma and Lev would work together for the time being. Yua once again took up the roll of setter for the others, just so they weren't sitting around doing nothing.

After yet another pathetic miss, Kenma grabbed another ball from the cart next to him, "Here's the next one."

"Hey, our match is about to start!" Naoi tried to intervene, but was stopped by Nekomata. Just from his expression, those around him could tell that he knew something was going to come of these practice spikes.

Handing a ball to Yua, Yaku shook his head, "He's selfish and impossible to understand. But…"

"Let's do this!" He jumped up and it was like everything was in slow motion. Unlike the awkward movements of Kenma trying to set the ball to Lev and the tall boy reaching for it, the ball was near perfect. It left everyone in shock! They finally did it! Kenma and Lev finally synced up! After the thunderous sound of the ball hitting the court floor, Lev turned to look up, "The ace…" His green eyes shined just the light as he turned to his teammates, "has opened his eyes!"

"Holy shit," Yua breathed out as she shared a look with a smirking Kuroo. "Looks like they figured something out."

"Okay." Kenma said, in his monotone voice, "One more."

Lev was over-excited about the prospect of another awesome spike, "I'll hit as many as you like!"

They tired once again, but it didn't seem like they lined up like before. As all the ball did this time was bonk Lev on the head and was nowhere near his palm. So was it a fluke?

"So it was totally luck!" Yamamoto laughed loudly.

Though all that did seemed to light a fire in Inuoka, "I can't lose! Kenma-san, can I go next?"

"Hey, no fair!" Yamamoto seemed to whine, "The senpai gets to go first! Kenma, toss to me since I'm the ace!"

"Hey!" Lev exclaimed, "This is my practice!"

"No, me!" Inuoka joined in on the bickering.

Naoi seemed to be a tad bit annoyed with the arguing, "Guys! We're about to do a match!"

Yua watched them all fight over getting a toss from Kenma with a chuckle. "Looks like they finally got somewhere."

Kuroo nodded his head, "seems so."

The two looked like a pair of proud parents as they watched Lev gush over his amazing spike and the others fighting over getting a toss from Kenma. "Greetings!" The collective voices of a bunch of boys called out, "Thanks for having us!" It was the team that they were meant to have a practice match with. So they all got set up for the game. Yua made sure that everything was set up with the water bottles, her notebook, and towels. This will definitely be an interesting practice game after that revelation from Kenma and Lev. Hopefully they could

"All right, let's do this!" Kuroo exclaimed, after giving the team his usual peptalk.

All the boys agreed, "Yeah!" Yua smiled widely, she was definitely ready to see just what her boys would do with this game.

---

With the murder of crows, They were still bickering over the video game. No progress was made in the game even though they have tried multiple times to get somewhere with it. It was just impossible!!! Currently, it was Kageyama's turn again, and he was just getting the same result as he was beforehand.

"You dumbass!" Kageyama grunted as he aggressively played and still lost, "Damn it!"

Tanaka sighed in disappointment, "I guess it's no use. I don't think we're gonna beat it."

Passing by the group of his teammates, Tsukishima snidely laughed at his failure, "I guess you really do suck at everything other than volleyball, Your Highness."

Yamaguchi praised his friend like he normally does, "Tsukki's great at video games, too!"

"Shut up, Yamaguchi."

"My bad, Tsukki!"

"Oh, really?" Kageyama's eyebrow twitched, "Then let's see just how good you are."

Shoyo jumped up, "Hey, hang on. It's my turn next. I get to go first."

"You just played!" Kageyama sassed.

"We already went through everyone again! And your turn is done!"

"I'm not done yet!" The two then proceeded to fight for the game.

Tanaka watched from the sidelines, more than concerned for the safety of his sister's console. "Hey, stop that, you two!"

Though they just ignored him as they continued to fight each other for the game. "Huh!?"

Shoyo exclaimed, "You just died!" 

"This turn doesn't count! Tsukishima got in my way!"

"Damn it! I told you I'm borrowing that!"

"Nuh uh! You just died! Let go, jackass!"

Behind them, Daichi was slowly growing annoyed with all the shouting and fighting. It was really starting to get on his nerves, which was shown by the gloomy expression that came over his face.

Endo cringed in amusement at the familiar look, "someone's pissed off daddy Daichi."

"Hey, stop!" Asahi advised the others, noticing the scary expression on their captain's face, "Daichi's gonna lose it!" Though Endo just laughed at the warning, knowing that they were too far into their argument to notice. That's usually how Kageyama and Shoyo got.

"You let go!"

Then it was like slow motion, the video counsel having slipped from Shoyo's hands and flying from their grasp. Everyone stared in shock and horror as Tanaka's life flashed before his eyes. No doubt his sister was going to kill him for this! As it flew through the air, it surprisingly was heading straight for an unsuspecting Sakura, who was heading over to meet up with her brother. Her club had just ended and she really wasn't too surprised to hear that the boys were arguing with each other over something. Though she wasn't expecting to find a console flying right towards her. She had quick enough reflexes to at least try and catch it, which was successful. She then caught the console, albeit somewhat clumsily, before it could crash to the ground and most certainly break.

All the boys stared at her in amazement, as if she was an angel from heaven after saving the game. She blinked at them and then at the gaming console in her hand before raising an eyebrow. "Do I even want to ask?"

"Imouto!" Shoyo just about cried as he ran up to cling to her, "you're a hero!"

Nishinoya and Tanaka joined in on the crying and tried to cling to her as well. Though she sidestepped the duo and let them fall to the ground. The only ones she'd let cling to her like this is her brother and sister, no one else.

She just blinked at his over dramatic behavior and looked to the other boys, "Why?"

"These bozos were fighting over this game since none of them could beat it." Endo explained to her as he leaned down to her height. He clicked his tongue, "And you just saved them, most likely being yelled at by multiple people."

"What game is it?" She asked as she looked at the console. She tilted her head as she stared at the game over screen and recognized it. "Oh, Kenma was talking about this."

"I'm sure just like your brother you wouldn't be able to beat it," Tsukishima said, completely unprompted but that's usually how he is.

Sakura's eyes narrowed as she glanced at him from the corner of her eye. The wide brown irises shined in the light as she saw the smirk on his face. So she took up the challenge. Sakura parked herself on the ground and started to play the game. All the boys huddled around her, even Tsukishima, but he tried to seem like he didn't care. She made it look like child's play. They exclaimed shouts as they watched her have a few close calls. They were basically biting their nails, more like just the troublesome duos were, and cheered whenever she got the upperhand.

After a short while, and encouragement from the boys around her, Sakura smirked in satisfaction. Tanaka gaped at her, "Y… You beat it!" Everyone was silent for a moment as they processed it, the screen clearly displaying her win. Then they all simultaneously bursted out into cheers over her success.

Shoyo's eyes sparkled for what seemed like the millionth time, "WAH! AWESOME!"

Kageyama was both slightly impressed and annoyed over her win. After all, he was certain he was the one who was going to win it. "You were just lucky," he ground out.

She just shrugged her shoulders and smirked smugly at Tsukishima who seemed surprised that she had won the game. "I don't get why it was so hard," Sakura scoffed as she gave the console back to Tanaka. She then waltzed away, leaving the impressed and bewildered boys behind her.