A/N: Hello, readers! Welcome to another chapter! The beginning is a short flashback of Rei's past with his former teammates. Enjoy!

edited on october 23rd, 2020 @ 12:48am

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CHAPTER TWO - 5:00 AM PRACTICE

(Flashback)

08-25.

That's what Rei saw when he looked at the scoreboard.

He breathed heavily as he grabbed onto his number 6 black jersey with green outlining, wiping his sweat. His team, Jindai Junior High, were playing against Hokkaido Junior High. They had won and advanced to the junior high Nationals.

He looked at the opposing team that looked crushed. He saw his teammates high fiving each other. Most importantly, he saw him in his number 9 black with blue outlining jersey on.

After telling his team that he needed to step outside, he saw his brunette friend looking at him. "Ryu-kun..." Rei muttered, stuffing his hands into his green and black volleyball jacket with 'Jindai' located on the front and back of it.

"I quit, Rei-chan..." Ryuu sobbed. "I'm quitting volleyball."

Rei looked shocked as he looked at his childhood friend. "What do you mean? I thought you wanted to play in high school."

"The lost was just too much for me to handle. My teammates knew that they would lose, and they accepted it! But I can't... I can't play volleyball anymore. I give up." Ryuu replied.

"You love volleyball, Ryu-kun! You told me you wanted to play for Johzenji next year!" Rei exclaimed.

"I just can't play anymore!" Ryuu shouted. "I lost my passion for volleyball. You can thank your teammates for that. Goodbye, Rei-chan..."

Rei could only watch as Ryuu walked away. He walked back to the locker room where his teammates were still talking. Rei clenched his fists together.

"Alright! Our next opponent is Shiratorizawa Junior High. So let's do our best at Nationals and win!" The red head captain said.

"Yes, Captain!"

They didn't even notice that their libero clenched his fists together as his bangs covered his eyes, tears streaming down his face.

(End Flashback)

REI JOLTED AWAKE AT THE sound of his alarm. He turned to turn it off and looked at the time. 4:15am. He sighed as he got up out of bed. Rei got dressed in a white t-shirt with a gray hoodie over it, black shorts, and his white tennis shoes. He placed his uniform in his volleyball bag and headed out of his house, making sure to lock his door.

He arrived at Karasuno's gym, sipping his coffee and found Kageyama and Hinata already there. "You look worn out." Kageyama pointed out.

Rei looked at him. "Didn't sleep well. Had a bad dream. Don't worry about me, Kags." He told him. Kageyama looked like he didn't believe him but nodded anyway.

"5:00 AM sure is rough." The three first years looked over to see Tanaka walking towards them as he yawned. He then held up the gym keys.

"Tanaka-san?" Hinata questioned.

"Thanks!" Kageyama said.

"What a good senpai I am. Call me Tanaka-senpai." Tanaka ordered.

"Tanaka-senpai!" Hinata and Kageyama shouted.

"Once again." Tanaka said.

Tanaka finally opened the gym door. Rei followed Tanaka inside the gym. They both looked over at Hinata and Kageyama who were fighting over who got to set foot inside first. Tanaka looked over at Rei who just shrugged.

Tanaka was silent for awhile before looking over at the two. "Hey. There's no time." He said before he got cut off by them knocking each other down in the doorway. Rei sweat dropped as Tanaka looked slightly irritated. Soon, they turned the lights on.

"Ah, the gymnasium." Hinata awes at the sight.

"You were here yesterday." Kageyama reminded him as Hinata ignored him, still deep in thought.

"Let's do this!" Hinata exclaimed.

Rei sighed to himself. "It's too early for this..." He thought.

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All of them were practicing for the match on Saturday. Kageyama and Hinata were both practicing receives while Tanaka and Rei were practicing their own thing. Rei looked over to see Hinata try to receive a ball but he landed face first.

"Hey, your feet stopped short." Kageyama commented. "What happened to your serving and receiving reflexes from yesterday? You need to focus!"

Hinata got up from the ground, wincing from the slight pain. "All I'm doing is receiving..." Hinata replied "There's not much time left! I want to spike, too! I wanna jump, too!"

"Go jump around then!" Kageyama shouted back clearly annoyed with Hinata.

Rei rubbed his head, getting a headache from all their shouting. "Hey, you guys." Tanaka called out to them as the two of them turned to the second year.

"I should give you a fair warning." Tanaka says. "Daichi-san is usually gentle, but he's extremely scary when he's angry."

"We know." The two of them said in unison.

"It won't be good if he finds out about this morning practice." Tanaka stated mostly to himself. "It won't be good for me." He muttered.

He turned around to face the three first years. "It's not that I'm scared or anything." Tanaka informed.

"Absolutely not. Absolutely not at all." Tanaka denied shaking his head. "But anyways, the four of us here are the only ones who know about this morning practice. So make sure that you—"

Tanaka was cut off by the gym doors opening. "Morning practice, huh? I knew it." Sugawara greeted, smiling at us.

"You were saying, Tanaka-san?" Rei questioned, looking at the bald headed male.

"Suga-san." Tanaka said, confused by his presence.

"Hey."

"But why..."

"Because you were obviously weird yesterday." Sugawara replied to Tanaka's question. "You're always barely on time, but voluntarily asked to be in charge of opening the lock."

"Oh - ah -" Tanaka manages to say, nervous that they've been caught.

"Don't worry, don't worry. I won't tell Daichi." Sugawara reassured. "This is like secret training or something. It's kinda thrilling." Hinata, Kageyama, Tanaka, and Rei sigh out of relief that they weren't gonna get in trouble.

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Tanaka spiked the ball that Kageyama tossed to him while Hinata, Sugawara, and Rei practiced some receives. Hinata was watching him. "Good, that was excellent." Tanaka praised Kageyama.

Since Hinata was busy watching the two, the volleyball Sugawara received to Hinata, bounced on top of Hinata's head. "Hinata, don't get distracted." Sugawara scolded.

"I want to hit the ball, too. Send me a toss, too." Hinata whined to Kageyama.

Kageyama looked at Hinata, annoyance written all over his face. Hinata held his arms up in the air, like a setter would. "Tossing's your favorite, right? Send me a toss, too." Hinata states, looking at Kageyama.

"Just one." Hinata said.

"Hey, Hinata..." Sugawara muttered.

"Just try me out once, okay?" Hinata begged.

"I refuse." Kageyama replied, turning away from Hinata, Sugawara, and Tanaka looked at Kageyama with shocked faces.

"I'm— I'm not really surprised." Rei thought, keeping his emotionless expression.

"What is this? Stinginess?" Hinata questioned.

"That's right, that's right." Tanaka said, agreeing with Hinata. All of them saw Kageyama turning around and tossing the ball to Hinata who did receive it but instead of the ball going back to Kageyama it went towards Rei.

Acting on instinct, Rei received the ball back to Kageyama who didn't bother catching it. Instead, it just rolled away.

"That came straight at you from the front." Kageyama stated. "Tossing and attacking only happens if there's a reception. Which you're too slow to even do, so don't talk cocky."

Kageyama walked towards the ball and picked it up. "Nice receiving, Oshiro." He told Rei. "Whoever taught you, has done it well."

Rei's thoughts went back to him, remembering how his childhood friend was teaching him how to receive when they were kids.

"Nice receive, Rei-chan!"

"Yeah... They did." Rei muttered, leaving it at that.

"For the four-on-four match this Saturday, I'll make every effort to give Tanaka all the tosses." Kageyama informed. "Let Tanaka-san do the attacking."

"When I can receive satisfactorily, you'll send me tosses, too?" Hinata asked, clenching his fists. 

"I'll toss to anyone who's essential to winning." Kageyama replied. "Right now, I don't think you're essential to winning."

Tanaka looked bewildered while Sugawara looked worried a little. Rei still kept his stotic expression. "Nasty." Tanaka commented.

"What's it take to toss him a few here and there?" Sugawara questioned.

Rei sighed before looking at the wall on the clock. "It's getting to be that time. We'd better clean up." He informed.

"Crap, hurry! Erase all the evidence!" Tanaka panics as everyone started cleaning up. Except for Hinata who was staring at the ground with his orange bangs covering his eyes.

"Tanaka, get a mop!" Sugawara ordered.

"Damn it..." Rei heard Hinata curse under his breath. He walked over and placed a comforting hand on the orange haired male's shoulder.

"Come on, let's clean up." He says as Hinata slowly nods and soon starts to help clean up.

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A/N: Sorry for not updating in awhile! Hope you enjoyed!

Word Count: 1508 words.