"-But I will literally die!" Satori Reo complained at the staff member sat behind the desk in Karasuno High schools staff room.

"Now, I don't want to hear that negative attitude. Look on the bright side." He looked up at her over his glasses whilst stacking papers.

"Yay, i'm gonna die. Wooo!" The new first year sarcastically retorted, before continuing on in her desperation; "Sir, I don't think you understand! I've worked my butt off for the past three years so I could prove myself in a high school team, and you're telling me the female volleyball team is not taking any more new players?" Heaving out a sigh, she balled up her fists at the staff member behind the desk, who was showing her no interest, nor care. "There has to be something you can do?"

The man looked up again at her softer tone, registering her look of defeat in her flushed cheeks that matched the colour of her firey red hair. "I don't know what else you expect me t-"

"Here, look"- She eagerly placed a sheet of paper on his desk, that looked an awful lot like a resume or profile- "I've played volleyball since childhood, since I was 2 to be precise. I was the captain of the girls volleyball team at Kitagawa. I have been training non stop with the Shiratorizawa Boys High school team for six months! Whatever you offer me, I promise I can do!"

The chattering behind had lowered in volume as the staff member stared at her, contemplating. She stared desperately as he blinked a couple of times. It was as if his blinks washed away all earlier contemplations as he sighed.

'This can't be it, right?' She thought to herself. 'I can't just stop playing volleyball now.'

"Look, i'm sorry -"

"Wait!" He was interrupted by a younger looking staff member, with big glasses and friendly eyes. "You trained with Shiratorizawa?" His eyes were wide as he asked her, and he seemed almost scared by her answer.

Without hesitation, Reo nodded as she stood up straighter. "My name is Satori Reo." She bowed, "My brother is a third year on the team. He let me practice all summer and a few months before that after I..." She quickly cut herself off after deciding not to tell her new school that she got suspended from her last. That probably wouldn't have been such a good play.

He brushed it off as he quickly stood up and made towards the exit doors of the staff room.

"Follow me, Satori."

It was still early in the morning, most students who weren't signing up for clubs had yet to arrive and the fresh smell of dew remained in the chilly air.

Although Takeda Sensei (he introduced himself as he travelled) walked briskly, Reo kept pace with him. After all, years of keeping up with Tendō made it easy whenever it came to keeping up with anyone else. 'Come to think of it', she pondered, 'I think he just walked quickly to cause me inconvenience.'

"Great news!" He beamed as he stormed into the gym, leaving Reo stood at the entrance, unsure of what to do. There were a few boys already there. A small ginger boy, next to an angry looking one, a boy with a buzz cut, another with silver hair and lastly, a kind faced boy. They all looked shocked as they turned towards the Sensei, glancing between him and the girl. She sensed a sort of tension in the air, and wondered if all of the people stood in the gym got along with eachother. The gym was nice, a good size for matches and large scale enough for a certain sense of freedom. "This is Satori Reo. She practiced with Shiratorizawa and will join your volley ball team. She is a first year. There's no places available for her in the girls team."

All eyes were on Reo as she stood in the doorway. 'The boys team?' she was shocked herself. She wondered if this was even allowed, but then quietened her thoughts, reminding herself to be grateful she can still play. Any team is better than no team at all. Anyways, how bad could the boys be?

"Satori Reo you look radiant! Please go out on a date with me!" The boy with the buzzcut sang as he skipped towards the poor girl, eagerly. Before she could dodge his attempt of...well, she wasn't really sure what it was the outlandish boy was trying to do, the tall, dark haired boy blocked his path and held him back by the collar of his shirt, looking both sheepish and fed up all at once. The small team were slightly stunted by her appearance. She was short. Probably around 5 foot, maybe 5'1 at a push. She had a pale complexion and doll eyes that made her look kind and collected. Her hair was what set her apart from the rest; It was the sort of red that glowed in the sun and burnt with it as it bounced in its light, it's firey colour unmissable and its curls like springs.

"Really, Tanaka? Control yourself, you buffoon." He scolded him before turning to the newest member of the volleyball club and bowing, "I apologise for his outburst."

"No worries, i've handled worse." She laughed softly.

The boy bowed again, not forgetting to push Tanaka's back down so he could apologise too.

"Right! Right. I'm sorry." Buzzcut said, looking sort of embarrassed.

"I'm Daichi." The more composed boy introduced himself, still holding onto the others collar. "This here is Tanaka," Tanaka saluted at her, with a grin. In all fairness, he seemed more friendly than harmful to her. Just a little enthusiastic. "This is Sugawara," He gestured to the light haired boy who bowed slightly, she bowed back. "And these two are also new today. First years. Tobio Kageyama and Shōyō Hina-"

"Hi! I'm Shōyō Hinata! But you can just call me Hinata! What position do you play? Are you any good? You're short like me, are you a Libero?" The small ginger boy looked to Reo as if he was about to combust with more questions but Kageyama hit the back of his head to stop him.

"Shut the hell up." He scolded, making Hinata scrunch up slightly in anger and glare profusely at the taller boy whilst Reo smiled slightly in amusement.

"I'm Satori Reo, but everyone just calls me Reo." She bowed politely as she introduced herself. "I have trained in all positions, but serves are my strong point."

"Wait, did you really train with Shiratorizawa? The team that has won nationals for the past few years, undefeated?" Sugawara asked curiously, tilting his head at her. She noticed that the other boys were looking with the same curiosity too- apart from Kageyama who looked kind of offended, or horrified at her training with them. She couldn't quite tell what he thought.

"Un- undefeated?" Hinata gasped as he looked at Reo with wide eyes. She noted that they were about the same height, she was perhaps around an inch shorter if anything.

"Yes. My brother let me join the team temporarily during their summer training. He's a third year. I learnt a lot there and played many practice matches with them." Reo smiled with fondness upon remembering how fun it was.

"Is your brother Wakatoshi Ushijima?" Kageyama asked. Reo couldn't tell whether Kageyama was glaring at her or if he was just asking intently. He definitely had a fierce face, that's for sure.

"No, Ushijima is a good friend of mine, though." She rubbed the back of her neck. "He helped me with my spikes."

Looking around, it seemed this made the boys pale a little. It made her chuckle internally, seeing this team fear Ushiwaka- whom she knew as the biggest softie in the world.

"Maybe you should work on your spikes more too, Hinata." Kageyama nudged the energetic boy who fired back angrily.

"Well maybe if you set to me for once, I could!"

This seamlessly triggered an argument between the two assumed 'enemies'. Reo moved closer to Sugawara, Tanaka and Daichi. "I assume they don't get along very well?"

"Get along? The only time the two little shits stopped fighting was when you walked in." Tanaka snorted.

"Apparently Hinata played Kageyama at the junior high tournaments and lost...by a lot." Daichi informed me, grimacing.

"Did you watch it?" Reo turned to them. She couldn't bring herself to watch the tournaments that she couldn't attend.

"Mhm, Hinata didn't stand a chance with his team. I'm sure his other teammates didn't even know how to play. Poor guy." Sugawara answered softly.

"What's the commotion, Volleyball Club?" A pudgy man in a brown suit greeted.

"Yikes, the Vice Principle!" Tanaka whispered as he nudged the squabbling boys. "He likes to make trouble, so keep it down."

"You'd better not be fighting." The grown man stated, an insinuating tone in his nasally voice.

"Of course not! Just a friendly rivalry, right?" Suga laughed, sheepishly.

He turned his attention to Reo, who was stood in between the three older students, Hinata and Kageyama. "And who may you be?"

She bowed, introducing herself as she had multiple times this morning.

"You're on the boys volleyball team? How peculiar."

"She's qualified Sir, that's for sure. She's had more training than most her age, it seems." Daichi answered for her. She smiled lightly, feeling more welcome by this. She saw Tanaka nodding furiously at Daichis statement behind him.

"I hope, for your teams sake, that is true."

Reo realised that this is the start of a world full of underestimation and doubt for her. Being the only girl playing in a team of boys was sure to set her apart from them and cause a lot of judgement. As long as she could play, it's okay. She nodded to herself. She will be as good as everyone on this team. Better, even. She will not let people's judgements shake her. She will prove them all wrong. Her time will come.

"Serve! I'll return them all!" She heard Hinata shout at Kageyama, seeming to ignore everyone else. Reo glanced at the others and the Vice Principle to see them watching the pair with both worry and curiosity. "...I'm not the same as last year!" He continued.

"Not the same as last year, huh?" Tobio Kageyama scoffed, looking down at the smaller boy. It was obvious these two didn't get along one bit. He picked up the ball and held it out in challenge, claiming that he had gotten better, too.

'Testosterone really does nothing for improving a guys character.' Reo tutted to herself.

Everyone watched begrudgingly as Kageyama did a jump serve. 'Not half bad.' The girl complimented- in her head, of course. She wasn't about to go around feeding everyone's ego. Hinata huffed and complained as he got up from the ground, having failed to receive the ball.

Reo watched on from the sidelines as the boys tried again after ignoring the older boys instructions to stop. Her eyes widened a little as Hinata moved at lightning speed. 'He might actually receive this one!' She stepped forward slightly in anticipation. Her face slowly turned into one of horror as she saw the ball ricochet off of Hinatas arms and right towards the Vice Principle. The room was dead silent as the volleyball hit him in the head, causing his toupee to fall off and land on Daichi. Reo smacked her hand over her mouth, eyes wide and slightly amused. She was so close to laughing out loud as she saw Tanaka also struggling with his amusement. Tanaka shuffled over to Reo and slapped her shoulder, lightly. The pair practically doubled over in a fit of silent giggles. They didn't even notice that the Vice Principle had taken Daichi out for a word until Daichi came back in, looking relieved and slightly entertained himself.

"You all saw nothing, okay? Hes fine along as we keep this quiet." Reo and Tanaka calmed themselves as everyone nodded. The two then looked on at Hinata and Kageyama in bewilderment as they continued to squabble.

"Hey. I want you to listen to me. I don't know what your motive was for attending Karasuno. But I'm sure you came here with victory on your mind." Daichi said, firmly. "Karasuno was one of the top teams in the prefecture until a few years ago. It happened only once, but we even went to nationals. Now we rank, at best, in the prefecture's top 8. We're neither weak nor strong. Other schools call us things like "Fallen Rivals" and "The Crows that Can't Fly." I remember well when Karasuno competed in spring nationals. Students from my neighbourhood, I'd pass by high school students, competed against the country's best teams, in a huge gymnasium in Tokyo. It gave me goosebumps."

'It's true.' Reo thought. She knew for a fact that no one in Shiratorizawa considered Karasuno a threat.

"For us to go again, our team has to be unified. And we can't have the Vice Principal keeping an eye on us. I'm not telling you guys to become buddies. Even if you were enemies on opposite sides of the net in junior high, I need you to understand that now, you're on the same side. Do you get it?"

Daichi grabbed the boys by their shoulders and lead them out of the gymnasium, telling them that they can't come back until they're teammates.

"Oh snap." Reo said as the doors slammed shut infront of them. She kind of felt sorry for the two. She could tell they were both just passionate about the sport, like her.

"Alright Reo. Show us what you got!" Daichi brushed himself off as he threw her a ball. "You said you like to serve?"

Reos face settled itself into a comfortable, competitive grin. This is what she was here for, to prove herself. She walked up to the back of the court and got ready to serve. Her heart was racing in anticipation and she could feel her hands tingling with power.

With a deep breath, she threw the ball high up in the air. 'Good' she thought, as she ran up to jump serve.

Boom.

The ball landed in the court with a bellow, an echo and silence. That's the sound she loved. She straightened herself up and faced the three.

"Oh.. my God." They all simultaneously breathed out.

"What do you think?" She tilted her head at them in concern.

Silence.

"Uhh, could you think a little louder?" She asked.