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

edited on january 27th, 2021 @ 1:24am

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CHAPTER SIX - THE GUARDIAN DEITY

ATSUSHI 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. Atsushi 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.

Atsushi 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 Atsushi grinned.

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

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

Atsushi 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. Atsushi watched as the ball looked as though it was gonna get knocked over.

However, someone who Atsushi didn't recognize runs in, as he did a perfect receive. "What the hell? That was a perfect save!" Atsushi 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.

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

Atsushi 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."

Atsushi 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.

Atsushi 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 Atsushi just gave him a peace sign.

"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.

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

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

"That's a power school." Atsushi 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?" Atsushi muttered to himself, 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 Atsushi just blinked in surprise. "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 Atsushi peeked out to watch Hinata interact with Nishinoya. Atsushi 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, Atsushi, 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.

Atsushi chuckled. "That's because you and him speak the same language." He said.

"Eh?"

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.

Atsushi 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..." Atsushi thought. "I wonder if he's as good as Toshi-nii?"

"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.

"You're shorter than him though..." Atsushi thinks to himself.

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 Atsushi could see Kageyama look annoyed with Nishinoya.

"There, there." Atsushi 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.

"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 or Guardian Deity." Hinata replied.

"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 Atsushi 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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Atsushi 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 Atsushi saw Tsukishima and Yamaguchi holding back their laughter.

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

"What was that?" Tsukishima chuckled.

"Kageyama. Tsukishima. Yamaguchi. Atsushi. 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.

Atsushi 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.

"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 Raven: 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 Atsushi 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.

"I'm sure they're strong. That just means we have to be stronger." Atsushi stated.

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.

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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. Atsushi gulped down his water.

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

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

"Besides, I have a feeling he's gonna come back to the team." Atsushi thought.

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

Word Count: 2261 words.