A/N: Hello, readers! Another chapter is here! Enjoy!

edited on june 9th, 2021 @ 8:21pm

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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - DIRECT SUNLIGHT

AFTER TAKEDA STATED THAT ATSUSHI'S four teammates were going to need to study for the upcoming exams, the four started panicking, which caught the brunette off guard when they started yelling. Tanaka and Nishinoya started to run off.

"Hey, there's nowhere to run! Ennoshita, grab them!" Daichi called out as Ennoshita nodded and got in front of the other two second-years.

"Got it!" He assured, grabbing the two.

Atsushi glanced over and flinched when he saw a pale and panicking look on Hinata's face. "Fail... Fail... What counts as a failing grade?" He questioned, making Atsushi and Sugawara stare at him.

"That's your first question?" Sugawara replied back, as Atsushi just watched everything unfold.

"Kageyama isn't breathing!"

Atsushi looked over to see that Kageyama being all pale as paper and unmoving as a statue with Yamaguchi freaking out over him. "Since we said we were going to continue club activities, we have to at least make decent grades." Sugawara stated with a sigh of exhaustion as Atsushi watched Ennoshita drag Tanaka and Nishinoya over to them.

"You shouldn't fail." Tsukishima grins down at the two second-years.

"Nope." Ennoshita agreed, smirking as well.

Hinata was the first to speak. "M-Maybe if we beg the vice principal..." He asked but Atsushi cut him off.

"Why don't you try really hard and not fail the exam?" Atsushi stated as Tsukishima nodded in agreement.

"Even if we get the vice principal's permission, if you have to take supplementary classes, those will take priority." Takeda informed, making Hinata gasp dramatically as if his whole world came crashing down.

Hinata suddenly grabbed Ukai. "Coach!" He exclaimed, desparate for help.

"W-Well, this isn't something you're gonna be able to avoid as a student." Ukai stated with a sheepish look, as he didn't meet Hinata's eyes.

"But..." Hinata started to whine, but was interrupted by Ukai.

"You need willpower! You need to believe you can do it!" Ukai encouraged as Hinata still looked panicked.

"Philosophical stuff? No, that's fine. Please teach me!" Hinata exclaimed as he begged the coach to help him out.

"Hinata, I didn't really want to bring this up..."

Hinata looked up at the coach who was staring down at him with a serious expression.

"...but do I look like someone who got good grades?"

Hinata gasped like everyone was against him as he falls to his knees. Everyone watched as Atsushi frowned a little, he sighed and walked up to him.

"Hinata, I'm sure you don't have to worry this much about it." Atsushi tried to reassure him. He wasn't good at comforting others, but he figured he should give his teammate some hope.

Hinata turned and stared at him. "I've never got a double-digit score on any of my quizzes. Will I still be okay?" Hinata asked innocently. Atsushi froze at his words.

"Is he actually serious?"

Atsushi twitched his eye, and just backed away as Hinata continued to have a vacant expression. Atsushi couldn't help but glance over to Nishinoya and Tanaka, to see how they were doing, only to jump back when they were on their knees praying.

"Hey! Stop it with the bodhisattva faces, you two!" Sugawara yelled at the duo, coming up beside them.

Takeda suddenly had a panicked look as he must have concluded that the four were helpless, unless a miracle happened, it made everyone panic.

"Sensei, pull yourself together!"

"Ah, the sound of anguish."

Atsushi sighed and dead panned at his four teammates. "I'm surrounded by idiots..." He thought as he was getting annoyed with all the commotion.

"Get ahold of yourselves!" Daichi yelled, making Atsushi look at him. "We still have time until exams start. There's no way Karasuno could bring our best without these four idiots! Not a chance!"

The four stared at him, or more like Tanaka and Nishinoya had questioning looks at Daichi's words, with Hinata having a blank face trying to wake up a passed out Kageyama.

"I don't know whether to be happy or sad..." Tanaka mumbled as Atsushi noticed Daichi had an intense aura around him.

"We're gonna do this. We're all going to Tokyo!" He declared as Atsushi rubbed his temples from all the yelling.

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"Listen up, you guys. The first new rule from now on..." Daichi spoke as everyone moved to club room, Atsushi was buttoning up his shirt that he quickly changed from.

Atsushi saw the four tense at those words. "That's the first priority?" Asahi mumbled, glancing over.

"Pulling an all-nighter with nothing but guts keeping you going... screwing up in your classes and in club... It's all absolutely unreasonable!" Daichi said making the four flinch at his words.

"Right..." They all whimpered.

Atsushi sighed as he watched Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were about to leave. "We're heading out." Tsukishima informed.

"R-Right, good job." The others said as they leave.

"It will be all right. I mean, you guys passed your high school entrance exams." Sugawara stated with a calm and assuring voice.

"Suga!" Tanaka had cried out, happy to hear that Sugawara had faith in them.

"If you fall asleep in class, you'd better be prepared for the consequences."

Sugawara's words made Tanaka gulp as the calm aura around Sugawara turned dark in a matter of seconds.

"Kageyama..." Atsushi heard Hinata whisper, which caught the brunette's interest as he looked over with raised eyebrows to see him whispering something to Kageyama. Hinata whispered until Kageyama scowled and snapped.

"What? No!" He announced at whatever Hinata had suggested.

"You have no right to be picky. If we fail the exam, we can't go on the trip! It's Nekoma! And all the powerhouses in Tokyo are gonna be there, right? You're okay with not being able to go? You told Ushiwaka that you'd become the best setter!" Hinata went off, as Atsushi watched the duo in slight amusement.

Kageyama stiffened then scoffed as he turned away. Atsushi was curious as to what made Kageyama so annoyed but decided it was best not to question it.

Atsushi sighed and grabbed his bag. "Well, I'll be on my way. See ya." He said, waving to his team.

"Bye!" They all called back to him as he headed back to his house.

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The next school day was exhausting for Atsushi, he had gotten homework as usual, but he just did it all in class. He was in the club room with everyone else, packing his volleyball bag.

It was the end of the day, and Atsushi was surprised to see that Tsukishima had agreed to help out Kageyama and Hinata out with their exams. Though, he somehow guessed that Yamaguchi was the one who convinced him.

"All right, let's get the next one over with." Tsukishima sighed, Atsushi glanced over at Sugawara to see him helping out Nishinoya with his own exam work.

"Hinata, what's the first answer to question six?"

Hinata grabs the paper to see what the options are. Atsushi continued putting away his stuff in his bag, Hinata was silent as he stared at the paper, and he finally looked up.

"Iron clubs?" Hinata responded, Atsushi raised an eyebrow as he got curious and walked over.

"Ow, his eyes!" Yamaguchi winced at the response.

"Hey, how could you do that to the demon?"

"Were you thinking of "a demon with an iron club?"

Once Atsushi was close, he gestured for Tsukishima to give him the paper, which he does so as Atsushi took a scan through it.

"Enter the appropriate phrase within the parentheses to complete the proverb. This proverb expresses that even ruthless people can show compassion or even cry at times. Even a demon's eyes can fill with... iron clubs?" Atsushi thought, reading it. He twitched his eye a little at Hinata's answer.

"Did you not read the question?" Atsushi spoke.

"Oh, shut up." Hinata hissed a little at him, not liking the attention.

"You probably saw the word "demon", didn't read the rest of the question, and just wrote the firs thing that came to mind. You really are a simpleton." Tsukishima teased as Hinata scowled and shakes a little, Atsushi gave the paper back to Tsukishima.

"Yeah, you need to calm down. You're too careless." Kageyama added as Hinata snapped.

"Why do you guys always give me unneccesary comments?" He hissed as Atsushi grinned in amusement.

Tsukishima then looked over at Kageyama and slammed his hand down on the setters work. "You're one to talk, Kageyama. Aren't you even worse off than Hinata overall? You should at least memorize English vocabulary by yourself!" He scolded as Kageyama scowls a bit.

"Why should Japanese people be able to understand English?" Kageyama replied, unaware of the importance of English.

"Learning English is pretty important and useful skill to have, Tobio. I mean, you never know when you'll need it." Atsushi replied as he scoffs and blushes in embarrassment.

Tsukishima clicked his tongue and turns away. "Then you should give up on going to Tokyo." He spoke as Kageyama growls a bit.

"Kageyama!" Daichi announced as everyone stared at their captain, he then started doing hand signals to Kageyama.

"Quick Set B."

Daichi does more.

"A, C, time-lag in front of the setter, left side back row attack, D, parallel, semi, time-lag behind the setter." Kageyama continued to list off the signals that he knew by heart. Everyone sweat dropped at him.

"Man, that's fast!" Yamaguchi mumbled.

Daichi stops the signals and smiles. "How long did it take you to memorize those?" He asked as everyone turned to Kageyama for his answer.

"I think it was the day we were taught them?" Kageyama answered.

"Then, I won't let you use "I can't memorize the words" as an excuse." Daichi informed, his tone was serious which sent shivers down everyone's spines, and they all gulped.

"I-I can't lose to Kageyama!" Hinata suddenly exclaimed, standing up with a determined aura.

"All right, let's go to my place after club on Saturday." Tanaka spoke as Atsushi saw Nishinoya nod in agreement.

"Got it!" He grinned as Atsushi saw Hinata stare at the duo.

"I'm not gonna lose to them, either!" He announced as Atsushi shook his head at his words.

"And I said you need to calm down..." Tsukishima added.

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It was finally Saturday, much to Atsushi's relief. However, he woke up to the sound of his phone buzzing. He looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Kageyama, making him raise an eyebrow but answered it without question.

"Hey, what's up—" Atsushi greeted but was interrupted by his boyfriend.

"You think you can help Hinata and I with our work?!" Kageyama begged as Atsushi blinked for a second and then sighed.

"Okay, fine. Be here around lunch." Atsushi said.

"Thank you so much!" Kageyama thanked him, making the brunette chuckle as they both hung up.

Atsushi looked at the clock on his nightstand to see that he still had time until noon. "The things I do for my teammates. Then again, Tokyo is really important to them. Those two need to improve if we have any chance of going to nationals." He thought.

He widened his eyes in realization that Hinata or Kageyama didn't have his address. Atsushi picked up his phone and sent his address to them, to which they replied their thanks.

"Thank goodness Toshi-nii is hanging out with his team today. I really didn't want to deal with another repeat of last time." Atsushi thinks to himself.

After getting ready, Atsushi heard the doorbell ring as he looked at the clock on the wall. "Eh? One of them arrived early." He thought as he headed downstairs to answer the door.

He opened the door to see both Kageyama and Hinata panting. "You two do know it's only 11:20am, right? You still had time." Atsushi told the duo, gesturing for them to come inside as he closed the door.

"Feel free to make yourselves at home. We'll do work in the living room." Atsushi informed as they came inside, taking a look at his house.

"Your brother doesn't live with you?" Hinata asked.

"He does. Shiratorizawa has dorms but he's not required to live in them since he has a sibling to take care of." Atsushi replied. "Wakatoshi is out with his team. It's just me, don't worry." He added as Hinata just nodded in understanding.

The three of them entered the living room as Kageyama and Hinata set their bags down. "You two want anything to eat or drink?" Atsushi offered.

"Water?" Hinata replied which Atsushi understood since he ran all the way here. He looked over at Kageyama.

"Milk, right?" Atsushi asked as Kageyama just nodded in reply. Atsushi headed into the kitchen to make their drinks.

Once he was done, he placed their drinks down in front of them and sat across from them. "Okay, let's see what I can help you with. Just a reminder, I'm not great at tutoring people." Atsushi informed.

"That's fine. I'm sure you're a lot nicer than Tsukishima was." Hinata stated. Kageyama nodded in agreement as they handed over their sheets.

"Okay, let's have a look..." Atsushi muttered as he looked at the papers in front of him. The brunette almost sighed in disappointment at their answers.

"I'll leave those questions for Tsukishima to handle. Sorry, Tsukishima." Atsushi thought as his olive colored eyes scanned through the paper again.

"Alright, we can work on these." Atsushi thinks to himself, placing the paper down. "We'll start with these questions." He said, gesturing to the questions as the two nodded at him.

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Atsushi was at the gym with everyone, as they were doing volleyball practice, Atsushi was doing some jump serves with Nishinoya until a familiar voice spoke from the door.

"Hey, do you have a moment?" Kiyoko spoke up, making everyone look over.

Atsushi walked on over, getting closer to see what Kiyoko had to say, but then noticed another girl behind her. The girl steps out from behind Kiyoko, she was shaking and looked nervous.

She was a petite, young girl with blonde hair that goes slightly past her chin and light brown eyes. She also wore a colourful star hairclip on her left side ponytail.

"So, you found a new person!" Hinata had announced, as the new girl jumped and shakes again in nerves, the others came over wondering what was happening.

"Um, she's joining the club on a trial basis as the new manager." Kiyoko explained.

"I-I'm Yachi Hitoka!" She greeted, her voice loud but also laced with nerves.

Daichi looked at her gently with a smile as did the others, well everyone except for Tsukishima and Kageyama.

"Seriously? That's awesome!" Sugawara added, grinning happily.

"Nice job, Shimizu-senpai!" Hinata praised, excited about the new girl. Atsushi gave her a warm smile, hoping to ease her nerves a bit.

"You're a first-year?" Asahi asked but his appearance made the girl anxious.

"I-I'm in Class 1-5, sir!" She informed. Atsushi held back a snicker as Asahi looked at her in panic, knowing he might have frightened her.

"Asahi, back up a bit." Daichi instructed pushing him lightly away.

Atsushi then saw Yachi look at Sugawara, Tanaka, and Nishinoya, but she was more focused on Nishinoya and Tanaka to which she flinches at their stare. Sugawara who at first was confused but then noticed the second-year duo and placed his hands on their faces.

"Hey! Don't stare like that! It's rude!" Sugawara scolded, as if he wanted to ease Yachi. Asahi smiled lightly.

"Thank goodness. Now there'll be a manager next year, too." He stated as Hinata nodded in agreement, happily.

"Yes!" He exclaimed.

Atsushi saw Yachi look at them in panic, he could tell she wanted to say something as Kiyoko soon came to her rescue.

"She hasn't actually joined yet. I asked her to do this today at the last minute, so she just came by before heading to her committee work. She just dropping by to introduce herself." Kiyoko explained.

"I-It's a pleasure to meet you!" Yachi greeted, bowing at them, everyone did the same to her.

"Same!" They all announced, their voices loud which made her jump at their actions.

"Could you not surround her until she's more comfortable?" Kiyoko asked, as everyone blinked at her in confusion.

Yachi had soon stepped outside the gym. "S-Sorry for the intrusion." She said, then gently closes the gym doors and headed off.

Atsushi sighed, wondering how a nervous girl like her would fit in with a bunch of volleyball players who were loud and chaotic.

"She'll get used to us eventually... I hope." Atsushi noted in his head.

"Shimizu... so you were looking for a new manager?" Daichi spoke, looking over at Kiyoko, who nodded in response.

"Yeah... I didn't think we got enough of a response when we tried to find people in April. I thought it was important to find someone to carry on as a manager especially with Karasuno getting so much stronger." Kiyoko stated.

Atsushi jumped back when Tanaka, Sugawara, Nishinoya, and Daichi started to tear up, Hinata was blushing red as Yamaguchi, Tsukishima, Kageyama, and Atsushi all stared at the others.

"Shimizu!"

"Kiyoko!"

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It was the next day as it was raining at school. The bell rung for lunch, in which Atsushi went over to Tsukishima and Yamaguchi. "Yo." Atsushi greeted, as the blonde nodded at him in greeting.

"Tsukishima!" A voice shouted, making them jump and look over to see Hinata and Kageyama, the walked in and greeted Atsushi before looking over to Tsukishima.

They asked for help on their English but Tsukishima blew them off. "We said tutoring sessions were going to be before and after team practice, right?" He questioned.

"Right?" He asked again as the two looked at him. Atsushi just watched with a curious look.

"But Yoshida-sensei who teaches English wasn't around—" Hinata tried to explain but Tsukishima cut him off.

"Please come back during business hours." He interrupted as he placed his headphones on, making Atsushi snicker a little, they both growl and turned to the brunette.

"Can you help us?" Hinata asked as Atsushi sighed at them.

"Look, I want to help you guys, I really do. But like I said before, I'm not the best teacher. Sorry." Atsushi replied as Hinata pouted and Kageyama looked deflated by this but the two nodded and walked out.

Atsushi felt a bit bad as he ate his bento. Tsukishima took off his headphones once they were gone. "Has anyone ever told you that you're an asshole?" He questioned.

"You're one to talk. I thought you would jump to help them. Especially since you're dating the King." Tsukishima replied.

Atsushi bit into the chicken teriyaki that he was eating. "They came to my house one time so I could help them, and the whole time I wanted to bang my head against the wall." He answered as Tsukishima snorted at his reply.

"Now you know how I felt." He stated.

"Yeah. I do feel a bit guilty though. I know going to Tokyo means a lot to them. Hopefully they'll find someone to help them."

"Knowing those two idiots, they definitely will."

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It was finally the end of the day, Atsushi had arrived at the gymnasium and greeted his teammates as he went to do some practicing. As they were all practicing, Atsushi heard Hinata yell, "Yachi!" He announced, making everyone turn to see the girl that Kiyoko brought over at the door, shaking in anxiety.

Hinata however just runs and holds out his English sheet that he got tested on that same day. "On the English quiz we had this afternoon, there was questions you taught me earlier! I got a whole third of them right!" Hinata exclaimed.

Atsushi was expecting the girl to shake and stammer at Hinata's bubbly personality, but to his shock, he sees Yachi smile happily instead, as she and Hinata jump in unison.

"Wahoo!"

"That's amazing, Hinata!"

Atsushi was standing beside Asahi, Sugawara, and Tsukishima as they watched the two interact. "Hinata's so good at communicating... They're already buddies." Sugawara noted with chuckles, Atsushi couldn't help but nod in agreement.

Daichi had soon called them to gather around as they were doing some warmup practices. As the team was stretching. Atsushi was in the middle of stretching his arms when he jumped in surprise when Yachi was yelling.

"I'm so sorry!" She announced, making Atsushi look over to see her on her hands and knees and bowing to Ukai who looked around in a panic.

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Atsushi watched as the ball went into the air. "Left!" Tanaka exclaimed. Atsushi was playing as setter. It wasn't his main position but he could still set. He watched as the ball went towards him and he got into setting position.

"Tanaka-san is 177.2 cm so I shouldn't set the ball not too high and not too low. Whenever I see Tobio set to him, the toss is powerful but not quick like Hinata's..." Atsushi thought, calculating what was the best toss to set to Tanaka as Sugawara and Yamaguchi get ready to block him.

Tanaka jumped up as Atsushi made eye contact with him. "Now!" He told himself as the ball reach his palms and tossed to Tanaka who smacks it down past Sugawara and Yamaguchi.

"All right!"

"Nice, Tanaka!"

Tanaka turned to him with a bright look. "That was perfect!" He exclaimed as Atsushi chuckled.

"Thanks." He said.

"Don't open up the block space!" Ukai shouted at Sugawara and Yamaguchi.

"Right!"

"Next!"

Ukai throws the ball as Daichi slid down and saved it. "I need to hear you guys!" Ukai exclaimed. "Left!" Atsushi heard people call out as he set the ball to Asahi. However, Asahi got blocked as the ball bounces out of the lines.

It was about to hit Yachi, but thankfully, Hinata went over and luckily received the ball on time.

"Nice, Hinata!" Sugawara praised, as Yachi stood in shock.

"Sorry! That was bad on my part!" Atsushi said as Yachi gave him a nervous thumbs up. Atsushi turned to Asahi. "Sorry as well, Asahi-san." He added, bowing as Asahi chuckled.

"It's fine." Asahi reassured him.

The game continued on as Atsushi set the ball once more, but it got blocked, going out of bounds again. "Sorry!" Atsushi called out. Kiyoko however just smiled and lightly slapped the ball back into play.

"Damn. I'm terrible at setting. Then again, it's not my main position, and Toshi-nii was always more advanced." Atsushi thought.

Atsushi noticed Tanaka and Nishinoya look at Kiyoko with love clearly shown around them. Atsushi didn't bother to listen to them, but he did smirk in amusement when Ukai smacked them to get serious and have their head in the game.

As the game goes on, Atsushi watched Tsukishima jump up, and he sets to him, however, he got blocked, but it was fine since Nishinoya dived down in time to save the ball, as Atsushi sets again to Asahi. In which the ball goes past the blockers.

But then, of course the ball got saved as it went up in the air.

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Once practice was over, Daichi called out to the team. "Gather up!" He yelled as everyone surrounded Takeda. "So, this is rather sudden, but Ouginishi High School requested a practice match tomorrow, and I accepted. They were very interested after seeing us at the Inter-High preliminaries. Especially since we have an Ushijima on our team." Takeda announced as everyone looked interested in this and turned to Atsushi, who was standing next to Kageyama.

"Huh? Me?" Atsushi questioned as he blinked.

"Don't forget the regret and bitterness of losing to Seijoh." Ukai spoke, making Atsushi narrow his eyes. "However, you don't need to hold on to the feeling of losing. Hurry up and wipe that away!" Ukai exclaimed, Nishinoya and Hinata jump high into the air.

"Yeah!" They all announced in determination.

"Is Ouginishi really strong?"

"It doesn't matter who we're facing."

"All right, let's do this!"

Atsushi smirked at his team in amusement.

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

Word Count: 4088 words.