A/N: Hello, readers! So, I know Kageyama goes to Oikawa for advice in this episode, but I thought it would be more fitting for him to go to Takashi instead. Since I want to improve their sibling relationship.

edited on july 11th, 2021 @ 1:23pm

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN - TEMPO

THE VOLLEYBALL TEAM HAD THE Monday afternoon off from practice since the gym was being inspected, but it should be finished in time for tomorrow.

Takashi was currently resting his head on Tenma's lap as his fiancé was drawing when a knock was on their door, making Takashi jolt up in surprise.

"Kashi!"

"Sorry, love."

Takashi got up from the couch and headed towards the door and opened it, shocked to see his younger brother.

"Tobio?" Takashi blinked in confusion, wondering why his brother came all the way to Tokyo. "Come in."

Tobio walked in with Takashi closing the door behind him. He followed Takashi into the living room where Tenma was.

"Tobio, it's been a while." Tenma greeted.

"It has, Tenma-nii." Tobio stated.

"You've grown since I last saw you."

"Ten, the last time you saw him he was still a first-year in junior high." Takashi reminded him.

"I'm sorry for intruding." Tobio apologized.

"It's fine, Tobio. What do you need?" Takashi asked. "Is this about what happened with Hinata?"

"Um... sort of. I thought of going to Oikawa-san for help. But I thought going to the two who have a close partnership with one another would help more than he would." Tobio admitted.

"Hold on, can someone catch me up? What exactly is going on?" Tenma questioned.

"Hinata said he wants to hit our quick with his own will, even though he had been closing his eyes this whole time." Tobio explained.

"Hmm... Hinata? Wasn't he that kid you were telling me about? The one that idolized me?" Tenma asked.

"That's the one." Takashi answered.

"Well, that'd be pretty impressive if he could do it. Why not let him?" Tenma asked.

"P-Please don't make it sound so easy, Tenma-nii! Hinata doesn't have any technique!" Tobio hissed.

"So you told him, "Just do as I say"? You sound like a dictator." Tenma stated. "If Kashi acted like that back in high school, I would've kicked his ass."

"Ten, you bastard!" Takashi yelled before turning to his younger brother. "Have you put any thought into it? Are you giving Hinata the exact tosses he wants? Have you even tried to?"

Tobio stared at the floor, taking in the information Takashi was telling him. "If you're thinking the situation as good as it can be and you're being defensive about it, you're basically a coward." Takashi continued.

"Don't get the wrong idea. The one who had leadership in an attack isn't you... It's Hinata. If you can't understand that, you're just regressing back to playing the tyrant king." Takashi finished.

It was silent for a moment before Takashi sighed. "I saw the preliminary match back in junior high. Both Ten and I attended." He began as Kageyama flinched at the memory when he was benched. "While I understand your actions, I don't want to see you become that person again. I don't want your high school teammates to turn their backs on you. Even though I know none of your teammates or seniors would ever think twice of doing that."

"You and Hinata won't be partners in volleyball forever. Don't let these three years go to waste. I don't want you to look back on your high school memories and wish you did more." Takashi finished.

"Every partnership has its problems, Tobio. Kashi and I sure weren't perfect. Before we got together, we drove our upperclassman crazy with how much we argued." Tenma added.

Tobio fought back a long sigh. He's heard the story of his older brother and Tenma plenty of times.

"Well, thanks for the help, Nii-san, Tenma-nii." Tobio said, getting up.

"I hope it helped. Be safe getting back to Miyagi, all right?" Takashi said as Tobio nodded and left their apartment.

"You think he'll take our advice into consideration?" Tenma asked, picking up his drawing once more.

Takashi scoffed. "Knowing him, it'll go right over his head." He replied. "But I sure hope so."

"By the way, what are you working on?"

"It's a romance manga."

"I keep telling you that you should get an editor. I can't be your editor forever, Ten."

"Maybe in the near future I will get one."

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Takashi stepped into Lil' Tykes Volleyball Classroom. He blinked in shock when he spotted Hinata.

"Oh, Kageyama. Didn't know you were stopping by."

This made Hinata's head turn. "Gah! Coach!" He shrieked.

"What do you mean, gah?" Takashi sighed. "Hey, Coach. Just wanted to stop by and see if you needed any help."

"I hope you're not thinking of setting with your injury."

"Huh?!"

"I saw your match."

Takashi looked away in shame, not wanting to face his high school coach.

"Everyone gets injured at some point." Ikkei informed. "You're not as great as you used to be, Kageyama. It's time for a new generation to take over."

"I'm not going into retirement yet, Coach. But now, I'm just focusing on helping Karasuno get to nationals again." Takashi said. "So, let me do some setting, please?"

Ikkei sighed. "I know how stubborn you can get. But just this once." He replied as Takashi smiled in victory. "We're working on tempos."

"Tempos, huh? Those are fun."

Takashi got ready in setting position. He watched the kids run forwards as Ogasawara Hiroki jumped up and spiked the ball. He wasn't expecting Hinata to jump so high as he accidently spiked the ball in his face.

Takashi sweat dropped. "That's an amazing jump! Your face was totally above the net." Hiroki exclaimed.

"Well, yeah." Hinata replied, trying to play it off, even those his face was still red from the contact of the ball.

Takashi glanced over Ukai Sr to see he was also surprised by Hinata's jumping power. "I wonder if he sees Ten in Hinata..." He thought.

"You've definitely got some spring in your step... All right, next!" He mumbled before announcing as once again Yuu throws the ball up.

"Second tempo."

Takashi noticed that the children picked up speed. Hinata follows the ball as he jumped up and blocked Hiroki. Ukai Sr seemed to be impressed. "All right, next!" He called out as Yuu threw the ball up. "First tempo." Ikkei exclaimed as the kids run forward.

They were fast as Hinata tried to keep up but missed when the ball was spiked down. Hinata, however, seemed amazed by this. "Well?" Ikkei spoke.

"It's fast!" Hinata exclaimed in amazement.

"Can you block that?" Ikkei asked as Hinata continued to look impressed.

"At the least, I can't block it alone! I think..."

"The three tempos you just saw, was there a big difference in how the spiker hit?"

"No! I don't think..."

Takashi sighed. "Then, what was the difference?" Ikkei asked as Hinata thought about it. "The timing of their running approach?" Hinata asked.

"Correct! That's what the tempo is. Listen... the agility in any attack is determined by it's tempo. It's not how fast or slow the toss may be; it's the timing of the spiker's running approach. The fastest is the first tempo. It's the best way to get around the opponent's block and is probably the attack you're doing without realizing it. But you need to actually understand it. You need to start your running approach before the setter's toss goes up. The setter tosses to the spiker. In other words, the deviant fast attack is still an attack with initiative on the spiker." Ikkei explained as Hinata widened his eyes.

"First tempo..." Hinata mumbled as Ikkei goes back under the net to Hinata's side. "And so, I don't know what kind of special attack the deviant fast attack is, but this is much certain: There is no better toss than the one that is. "easy for the spiker to hit." Ikkei stated.

Takashi glanced at Ukai who had his eyes widen in realization. "Just one of them is no good." Atsushi heard him say.

"Eh?" Hinata commented as he jumped when their coach yelled.

"Hinata, practice here for a bit!" He exclaimed as he started running to his car.

"S-Sure..."

"What a weirdo."

Takashi could only watch as Ukai leaves in his car. "So he's figured it out too, huh?" He wondered.

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The next day, the gymnasium was open as Takashi stepped inside with everyone greeting him as they did their stretches.

After they finished, Takashi noticed a familiar orange haired male walk in. He looked around as Ukai called him over.

"Sugawara, I'm counting on you." Ukai announced as Sugawara perked up at his name.

"Right." He replied. They were going to play a practice match as Sugawara was being the setter for one side with Tobio being the setter for the other.

"All right! Let's get this started! Make sure to stay hydrated!"

"Right!"

Takashi noticed Hinata and Tobio walk by each other, Takashi frowned a little, noticing how they didn't say a word to each other.

"Stupid idiot didn't listen to a word I said the other day. I knew he wouldn't." Takashi thinks to himself, rubbing his forehead in frustration.

"Um, Hinata..." Takashi heard Yachi call out as he listened in.

"U-Um, I was wondering if you were okay. You and Kageyama, um, uh..." Yachi asked as she started to get anxious on asking.

Takashi looked at Hinata who smiled. "We're fine." He said, making Yachi smile. However, Takashi narrowed his eyes.

"Are you though?" Takashi wondered, turning his attention back to the practice match.

TWEEEET!

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The next day, they were using the second gym since a lot of the guys were doing their own practices and they didn't have the space. Hinata and Tobio weren't on speaking terms still, but Takashi thought it was understandable since they needed time on their own.

Takashi was standing next to Ukai, who was showing Ennoshita, Sugawara, Tanaka, and Daichi some clips on a volleyball match so they could see what kind of tricks they can do.

"This is a video of the Brazil national team's attack?" Sugawara commented as Takashi watched the clip which showed a tempo that he learned from his grandfather when Ukai Sr was teaching Hinata. "They are started moving at once." Sugawara gasped.

Takashi nodded. "Shinzen's attack was like this, too." He added.

"A synchronized attack." Daichi stated as Takashi glanced over at his brother who was busy practicing his setting. Yachi threw up the ball towards him as Takashi watched Tobio set the ball as he turned to the water bottle he was trying to hit. He missed, making him annoyed as Yachi jumped.

Tobio just breathed out to calm down before turning to Yachi. "Next, please." He spoke, making Yachi nod her head.

"Got it!" She said. Takashi chuckled a little at this before turning his attention back on the video Ukai was showing them.

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Thoughout the days, everyone had been focusing on improving themselves. Takashi was finally able to get Matsuda to Miyagi to teach Nishinoya how to set in mid-air, just like Aoba Johsai's libero did.

"Ren, I'm sorry you have to come all the way to Miyagi." Takashi apologized.

Matsuda laughed. "It's fine, Takashi. I don't mind. I needed to get away from Nekoma for a while." He said before turning to Nishinoya.

"You must be Nishinoya Yuu. I'm Matsuda Ren, Japan's vice captain and libero." Matsuda introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you, Matsuda-san."

"You have amazing receives. It's a little scary, if I'm being honest."

"That means a lot coming from you."

"All right. Let's get started." Matsuda said. "Now, Everyone thinks that liberos are only there to receive, and yes, that is our job. To keep the ball in the game. But with proper training, we can do so much more."

Takashi watched as Matsuda coached Nishinoya, smiling a little to himself.

Asahi was practicing his jump serves, Tobio was doing some setting as he tried to set the ball in accurate position to knock down some water bottles.

Ukai was getting the team educated on tempo attacks. Summer vacation was coming closer, and they were going back to Tokyo for their away games.

It was finally summer vacation, Takashi was at the gym with the others as they were crowding around Takeda.

"Now that it's summer vacation, we can practice from morning to night. And starting tomorrow, we'll resume the Tokyo away games. This time, we'll be there for a solid week! This will be the first and last long-term training camp before the Spring Nationals preliminaries. With the Spring National preliminaries in sight, to make sure we have no regrets, take this opportunity to devour everything!" Takeda informed.

Takashi looked at the determination on everyone's face. "With this team, Karasuno will definitely go to nationals again." He thinks to himself.

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A/N: Thoughts on Matsuda teaching Nishinoya the libero toss? I thought it was perfect when I came up with the idea. You'll definitely be seeing these two a lot more.

Thanks for reading!

Word Count: 2213 words.