after much begging, takeda-sensei had managed to set up yet another practice match with nekoma. these opportunities were becoming less and less of a rarity as the relationship between the teams improved, yet yachi found herself at the edge of the seat at just about every ‘battle at the trash dump’. even now, she watches with wide eyes and her notebook clutched to her chest as the match unfolds in front of them.
this time, nekoma had chosen to make more use of lev, who, despite having turned out to be not that intimidating personality-wise, still scared yachi with his endlessly long limbs. additionally, he was improving. from what she could tell, his relationship with nekoma’s setter had improved, which could mean trouble for karasuno.
as one of the teachers call for a break, her gaze remain on him as the teams walk off to drink from the bottles kiyoko and her had readied earlier. ‘ yeah, with a boy like that it’s serious, ’ she mumbles idly, barely even registering the fact that she was voicing her thoughts.
kiyoko glances up at the sound of hitoka’s voice, water bottles cradled to her chest: it doesn’t surprise her to find the other girl preoccupied by nekoma’s newest player.
‘ ... he’s certainly a handful, ‘ she agrees, and her expression softens with thought. lev’s height was almost an unfair advantage on the court, especially when up against hinata. ‘ but if there wasn’t anyone like that on the team, then our players wouldn’t improve, either. ‘
height was something they’d need to learn to over-come -- in particular their less-than-experienced first years. it was important to challenge everyone well before any official matches, a necessary wake-up call... and while difficult, lev isn’t anything more than an obstacle karasuno will eventually learn to handle.
‘ are you worried though, hitoka-chan? ‘ it was probably hard for yachi to watch everyone flounder about, and there’s a hint of a smile on kiyoko’s lips as she offers a water bottle to sawamura. when she was just beginning as manager, even she would get anxious from things like this. being side-by-side with the team all the time, watching everyone work so hard, it became easily disheartening at first to see them run into a roadblock.
but it was only through kiyoko’s own experience that she learned to see the brighter side of situations like these; and she’s sure yachi will, too.
