A/N: Hello, readers! Welcome to another chapter! Enjoy!

edited on october 30th, 2020 @ 11:41pm

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CHAPTER SIX - THE GUARDIAN DEITY

REI WAS AT THE GYM with Kageyama as he bounces the ball, as he was trying to succeed in knocking over the water bottle ahead of him. Rei watched him from the sidelines, Kageyama performed a jump serve and he looks as though he's about to hit it until Hinata came out of nowhere and tried to receive it back, but he fell over and the ball goes flying off somewhere.

Rei snickered in amusement. "Hey, get out of there, dumbass Hinata! That could've hit!" Kageyama yelled.

"I got it. I got it." Hinata dismisses as Rei grinned.

"You didn't get it, dumbass. You hit a home run." Kageyama yelled making Hinata grumble.

"I'll go get it." He sighed.

Rei looked back at Kageyama as he grabbed another volleyball from the pile. "Idiot." He hissed at Hinata as he then throws the ball up and did a jump serve to hit the water bottle. Rei watched as the ball looked as though it was gonna get knocked over.

However, someone who Rei didn't recognize runs in, as he did a perfect receive. "What the hell? That was a perfect save!" Rei thinks to himself as he stared at the newcomer.

The newcomer had wild dark brown hair by ruffing most of it upwards, adding 10cm to his height. There was a tiny tuff of hair that fell over his head and appeared to be bleached a dirty blonde. His eyes were brown and slanted.

Rei watched as Hinata came over and seemed in shock. "Y-You're... shorter than me!" He exclaimed.

Rei held back his laughter as he watched Hinata stare at the stranger. "He's shorter than me." He voiced out, causing the guy to get annoyed.

"Huh? Hey, what did you just say?" The guy yells, getting ready to fight.

"I-I'm sorry! Um... How tall are you?" Hinata apologized before asking.

"I'm 159 centimeters."

Rei could tell Hinata looked pleased and shocked by this. "Wow..." Hinata said.

"W-What?" The stranger asked, confused.

"It's the first time I've looked down at someone since I started high school club activities." Hinata stated, wiping away his tears.

"Don't weep with joy about it! You're not looking that far down!" The stranger said, irritated with Hinata.

Rei walked over to Kageyama. "Do you know who he is?" He whispered.

"Dunno." Kageyama replied.

Daichi, Sugawara and Tanaka entered the gym. "Hey! Noya!" Tanaka's voice echoed.

"Hey, Ryu." The stranger, known as Noya, greeted him back.

"Nishinoya." Daichi and Sugawara greet in unison.

"Hi."

"Let me introduce you. This is Nishinoya, second-year."

"Hi." Hinata and Kageyama greeted as Rei just gave him a nod.

"Hi. You guys are first-years, huh? You, the guy doing the serves. The tall guy with the nasty glare. What junior high are you from?" Nishinoya asked.

"Kitagawa Daiichi." Kageyama replied.

"Seriously? That's a power school. No wonder you serve like that. We played against you guys and lost 2 to 1. Your serve was amazing then, too." Nishinoya ranted. He turned to Rei as he flinched, realizing he was there the whole time.

"Does he have a low presence?" Nishinoya wondered. "Now that I think about it... He looks familiar as well."

"You. What junior high did you attend?" Nishinoya asked Rei.

"Um... Jindai." Rei responded as Nishinoya widened his eyes.

"That's one of the most known power schools! Even higher than Shiratorizawa! They were famous for their players known as the Inhumane Players!" Nishinoya exclaimed. "What's someone like him doing at Karasuno?"

"What junior high were you at, Nishinoya?" Kageyama questioned.

"Chidoriyama." Nishinoya stated, both Kageyama and Rei widened their eyes.

"That's a power school." Rei commented.

"Why did you come to Karasuno?" Kageyama asked. "Because you heard Coach Ukai was coming back?"

"No... I came to Karasuno because... I like the girls uniform. Intensely." Nishinoya replied.

"...huh?"

"And the girls have lived up to my expectations. And above all..." Nishinoya added, looking happy as he placed his uniform on. "Because of the boys uniform. In black! I wore a blazer in junior high, as I admired this uniform. It's not brown or gray, but black!" He exclaimed as Tanaka laughed.

"I know what you mean." Tanaka agreed.

"Karasuno has black uniforms, and the girls uniform is cute. The schools close to home. It was a no brainer." Nishinoya said.

The gym doors opened as Kiyoko walked in. "Kiyoko-san! I've come to see you!" Nishinoya announced, running to her at such speed. He pounced in the air to hug her, but she slaps him.

"He's like a hurricane, as usual." Sugawara stated.

"A guerrilla downpour." Hinata comments.

"Quite the noisemaker, isn't he?" Daichi chuckled in amusement. "Yet when he plays, he's surprisingly... quiet."

"When he plays?" Rei muttered, looking back at him. "So he must be the Guardian Deity."

Nishinoya made their way back to them after getting slapped by Kiyoko. "And? Where's Asahi? Did he come back?" He questioned.

"No." Daichi informed as he and Sugawara look away with a frown.

"That wimp!"

Hinata and Kageyama jumped at Nishinoya's words while Rei had a blank gaze. "Hey, Noya! Don't talk like that about your senpai!" Tanaka scolded.

"Shut up! A wimp is a wimp. If Asahi's not coming back, neither am I." Nishinoya declared as he walked out of the gym.

"Hey, Noya!" Tanaka called out to him.

Sugawara, Daichi, Tanaka, and Rei peeked out to watch Hinata interact with Nishinoya. Rei chuckled when he saw Nishinoya's eyes sparkle when Hinata called him senpai.

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Nishinoya was teaching Hinata how to receive. "So essentially... You go zip, then go whoop, and pow." He instructed as the ball hit his arm. "Like that."

Hinata tilted his head in confusion. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi do the same thing. Tanaka, Rei, and Kageyama were watching from afar.

"It's no good. He can't explain it because he moves purely on instinct." Tanaka stated.

"Really? I sort of understood what he was saying." Kageyama replied.

"Same here." Rei added.

Tanaka chuckled. "That's because you and him speak the same language." He said. "And Oshiro, you're a libero as well. Of course you'd understand."

"Eh?"

"Have you tried asking Oshiro for receiving tips, Hinata?" Yamaguchi questioned. This made Nishinoya whip his head towards the black haired male.

"You're a libero as well?" Nishinoya asked.

"Yeah... It's the only position I'm good at." Rei answered.

"Oshiro gave me some tips before, but..." Hinata struggled to answer Yamaguchi's question. Tsukishima scowled at this.

"But he gave you the same words that Nishinoya is doing, did he?" He asked.

"S-Shut up!" Hinata exclaimed.

Nishinoya walked over to Tsukishima. "You, I've been noticing your height. How tall are you?" He asked.

"Tsukki is—" Yamaguchi started to say.

"Shut up, Yamaguchi." Tsukishima interrupted before he can continue.

"Sorry, Tsukki." Yamaguchi apologized.

Rei scoffed at Tsukishima. "Must you always be an asshole?" He asked him as the blonde gave him an irritated look.

"Um, Nishinoya-senpai."

"Hm?"

"You were talking about Asahi. Who is he?"

At this, everyone tenses. "Moron, don't say that name so carelessly." Tanaka hissed.

"He's Karasuno's ace, for what it's worth." Nishinoya informed, his voice low.

"Ace?" Hinata asked, looking interested.

"So Karasuno does have an ace..." Rei thought.

"What's with the empty-headed look?" Nishinoya asked.

"I... want to be the ace." Hinata declared.

"Huh? Ace? With your height?" Nishinoya stated, making Hinata frown at this. Suddenly, Nishinoya smiled widely and patted Hinata's arm, more like slapped. "I like you. Right? You want it because it's awesome, right? Good, good. Do it, do it. Become the ace. You'd be far more impressive than our current ace."

"But then again, it's the ace that inspires you." Nishinoya added as Hinata beams.

"Yes. Aces are awesome." Hinata agreed.

"The word "ace" has an awesome ring to it. "Setter" and "libero" sound boring." Nishinoya informed as Rei could see Kageyama look annoyed with Nishinoya.

"There, there." Rei said, patting Kageyama's shoulder.

"But... In a match, where the crowd is going crazy... even more than an amazing spike, is where there's a super receive. In that battle of height that is all volleyball, libero is one of the few positions where a short person can survive. But I'm not a libero because of my height. I'd be a libero even if I was two meters tall." Nishinoya explained.

"Even if your side misses the spike, even if your side can't block... as long as the ball doesn't hit the court, that means you haven't lost. And the best one suited to do that... is the libero." Nishinoya smirked, pointing at himself and then at Rei.

Rei smiled. Being a libero himself, he knew what Nishinoya was talking about. But it also had it's downside. He frowned as he remembered a memory.

Rei slid down to save the ball. "Shit! It's short! It won't make it back to Fuji-kun!" He scolded himself.

Luckily, Hayashi covered for him as he sent it over to their setter.

"Mizuki!" The green haired setter shouted, tossing the ball towards their blue haired ace.

The blue haired male jumped up and spiked the ball as it landed on the other side of the court like a gunshot ringing throughout the building.

Rei clenched his fist. "I'm sorry, Kai-kun..."

Rei snapped back to reality as he heard his teammates voices.

"A-Awesome."

"J-Jackass. Don't say it so sincerely! Damn it!"

"So, ace-wannabe. What's your specialty?" Nishinoya asked with interest.

"Huh?" Hinata asked with confusion.

"You're a lousy receiver, but there must be something you're good at." Nishinoya said as Hinata frowned.

"Well, um..." He muttered. "Decoy..."

"Huh? De-what?" Nishinoya asked, not hearing him correctly.

"Decoy." Hinata said without the slightest enthusiasm.

"Why do you say it with such a lack of confidence?" Nishinoya questioned.

"Because it doesn't sound flashy like ace, Guardian Deity or even Oshiro's nickname like Phantom." Hinata replied. Rei scoffed at his nickname.

"Who cares how it sounds?"

"But..."

"If a spiker is able to score it's because of you, the decoy, then your position is just as important."

Nishinoya smiled assumingly and brightly at Hinata. As he gently collided his fist with Hinata's chest. Kageyama and Rei nod in agreement at Nishinoya's words.

"Yes." Hinata replied. They finished cleaning up the gym, as everyone headed home for the day.

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Rei was at the gym with everyone. Hinata and Kageyama had asked him to come with them to meet Asahi but he declined. Besides, he had a feeling that the ace would make a return. Not long later though, the two came back as did Sugawara. Nishinoya offered to show the first years a move of his.

"Rolling... Thunder!" He exclaimed as all he did was a rolling receive as the ball landed in the basket. Tanaka broke out into a laughing fit.

"Nice receive." Sugawara said, not wanting to seem rude.

"That's just an ordinary rolling receive." Tanaka laughed, as Rei saw Tsukishima and Yamaguchi holding back their laughter.

"Why did he yell that out?" Kageyama commented, confused.

"What was that?" Tsukishima chuckled.

"I can do that too. It's not that impressive." Rei stated bluntly, still having an emotionless expression.

"Kageyama. Tsukishima. Yamaguchi. Oshiro. I'm going to lecture you all. Crouch down. I mean, sit down. Get lower than my line of vision." Nishinoya hissed as Hinata bounced over.

"Teach me! Teach me the Rolling Thunder!" Hinata begged.

Rei snickered at this. "Good job everyone, I want you all to listen up." He heard a voice announce. They looked over to see Takeda who runs over happily. They gathered around him, waiting to see what he had to say.

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"We're doing it again this year, aren't we? Golden Week training camp!" Takeda announced. "Yes. We still need a lot of practice." Daichi informed.

"One more thing. For the last day of Golden Week... I've arranged a practice match!" Takeda announced.

"Awesome! Very impressive!"

"Who's our opponent?"

"A venerated school in Tokyo, Nekoma High School. They call themselves... Neko." Takeda stated as Hinata looked confused while Rei flinched at the name.

"Fate really hates me, huh? If we're going against Nekoma. That means they will be there." Rei thought. 

"Neko?" Hinata questioned.

"We've heard a lot about them. Our former coach and theirs were rivals. We played each other a lot." Tanaka told the orange haired male.

"Woah."

"That's right. Those famous matches were called 'Cat vs Crow: Battle at the Garbage Dump.'" Sugawara stated.

"You sure those matches were famous?" Tsukishima asked bluntly.

"They've refused us for a while. Why now?" Daichi questioned.

"Yeah. I'll tell you the details later. But after I heard about that rival school, I had to arrange a rematch of destiny." Takeda informed. "I think when he hears who our opponent is... He'll want to take action." Takeda added, making Rei raise an eyebrow.

"Yes."

Tanaka had his scary face on. "Tokyo, huh? I'll smash those city boys to smithereens." He declared.

Tsukishima snorted. "He said 'shitty boys.'" He grinned.

"Shut the hell up, Tsukishima!" Tanaka yelled as Tsukishima continued to laugh.

"I wonder what the Tokyo's school is like. Are they strong?" Hinata questioned.

"How would I know? Just shut up." Kageyama replied, looking over at Rei. "You okay, Oshiro? You've been kinda quiet since Takeda-sensei announced that we were going against Nekoma."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Rei responded. "I'm sure they're strong. That just means we have to be stronger."

Hinata beams at him before running over to Nishinoya. "Noya! Do it again. Show me the Rolling Thunder again!" Hinata begged.

"Okay?" Daichi spoke to Nishinoya, as if he was continuing whatever conversation they had beforehand.

"If he's on their team, I'm sure Nekoma is strong. Add her as their manager and they'll be unstoppable." Rei thinks to himself. "I have to prepare myself."

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"Good job!" Daichi spoke out.

"Good job!" Everyone replied. It was dark out and everyone had just finished cleaning up the gym. Rei drank his water.

"I wonder if things would go smoother for Sugawara and Nishinoya if Asahi came back." Hinata spoke, making Kageyama and Rei look at him.

"Who knows?" Kageyama shrugged.

"I heard Asahi takes all the blame upon himself, but don't you think Sugawara is like that, too?" Hinata asked.

"I guess they both blame themselves. If you ask me, I can kinda relate to them." Rei commented as Hinata raised an eyebrow with them while Kageyama added on.

"Even though you don't win a game by yourself."

"Y-You should talk!"

Kageyama jumps at Hinata's shouting. "I clearly remember your words..." Hinata hissed as Rei saw him flatten down his orange hair as he scowls, intimidating Kageyama.

"I wish I would receive, toss, and spike all by myself." Hinata lowered his voice as well, repeating the words Kageyama spoke. Rei snickered and held back a massive laugh.

Kageyama blushes in embarrassment as he picked up Hinata by his shirt.

"Shut up!"

"I wish I could..."

Kageyama yells in annoyance as Rei saw him throw Hinata to the side, only for Hinata to land on his feet. "Everyone on our side of the net should be an ally." Hinata spoke up.

"Huh?" Kageyama replied.

"I don't like it when we don't get along." Hinata stated as Rei and Kageyama stared at him.

They soon left to go home. Kageyama and Hinata stated to Rei that they were going to see Asahi again tomorrow at school, and offered him to come along. But Rei declined.

"I have more important things to worry about... Such as what I'm gonna do when I face him again..." Rei thought.

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Meanwhile, a blue haired male with glasses wearing a red volleyball jacket was following his team through the train station. A short pink haired female wearing the same red jacket was beside him, humming to a song as she clenched her notebook.

"I'm so excited for the practice match!" The pink haired female exclaimed. "Hey, doesn't Rei-kun go to Karasuno?"

"He does." The blue haired male replied, pushing up his glasses with his fingers. "Why he would choose to go to a school that lost their status is beyond me."

The pink haired female pouted. "Don't be like that, Kai-chan! They might surprise you!" She stated.

"Nothing surprises me anymore, Saika."

"Are you actually going to attend the practice matches that we have this time?"

The blue haired male sighed. "I don't see a point. But Kuroo-san will yell at me again if I miss any of our matches." He responded.

The two childhood friends continued on with their team.

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A/N: Another chapter done! Hope you enjoyed!

Word Count: 2802 words.