Chapter Text
A tall wall loomed over Hinata Shouyou. He had always wanted to be an ace just like his idol the Little Giant. Sure he was small in size but he had a much larger determination than other players, and that was what had lead him here, standing in front of the volleyball clubroom of Aoba Johsai. There were two other first years besides him, who both went to the same junior high. “No hard feelings about last year, okay,” one of them said, “Name’s Kindaichi Yuutaro,”.
”Same here,” the other said, “Nice to meet you, I’m Kunimi Akira,”.
”It’s fine. I just want to beat Kageyama, the setter,” Hinata said, eyes filled with determination, “I’m Hinata Shouyou,”
”Don’t worry, the feelings mutual about the King,” Kindaichi replied. Their first practise went decently but Hinata’s rookie nature was showing. The other first years already had the skills and height, where he only had his speed and stamina; but the others had been nice and taught him how to receive. At the end of the session when they were starting to pack away the team captain, Oikawa Tooru, stopped them and told everyone to go home except for Hinata.
Oh God, what have I done. Am I being kicked off the team? Hinata questioned in his head.
”Hey shortie-pie. What position do you want to play?” Oikawa asked Hinata.
”Spiker!” Hinata replied confidently, “I want to be just like the Little Giant, that’s why I came here,”
”Interesting. Shortie-pie, run as fast as you can and jump as high as you can and I’ll get the ball to you,”
“Huh? Right now?”
“Yes silly, now,”
Hinata ran at his top speed and jumped up he closed his eyes and hit the ball. When he hit it he opened his eyes again. “I hit it! I hit it and it went over the net,”
”Once more?”
”One more,” One more tuned into ten more.
”Again?”
”Yes please, Oikawa-senpai!”
”Enough,” someone said as they slapped Oikawa.
”Ow. Iwa-chan,” Oikawa sobbed, “But you saw it! Didn’t you?”
”Yes, I saw that last fifty you did,”
”It was more like twenty,” Iwaizumi stared at Oikawa, “Fine, fine, we’ll pack up!”
After packing up and what was a lot of thank yous from Hinata, he left for the cycle back home.
On Oikawa’s way home he couldn’t help but think about how Hinata was his favourite rookie this year. Hinata had determination, more trust in him than most members of the team, his speed and reflexes were god like and his scruffy, fluffy hair and short height made him look like a mini Oikawa. With a bit of styling and help, Oikawa was sure that he could turn Hinata into a mini version of himself.
About half of the lunchtimes Hinata would practise with Oikawa and Iwaizumi, who had surprisingly taken to him as well, and the other half Hinata would practise with Kindaichi and Kunimi. Over time Hinata got more confident in his abilities, but he still felt like there was a gap between himself and the other players.
”Next week we have a practise game against Karasuno. Make sure to be there,” their coach said in practise the next day. Hinata became more determined to make the starting order and not be placed on the bench. After a week of practising and tedious waiting, the day of the practise game arrived. “Karasuno aren’t much of a good team so we probably won’t need Hinata,”
”Huh?” Hinata said in shock, he was needed? But now he wasn’t?
”Oh I never told you, did I?Oikawa mentioned to me that he thought that you would make a good decoy. An easy way to rack up points. But with a team as weak as Karasuno we don’t need as easy out,” their coach explained.
”Wow, decoy sound kinda cool, I guess,” Kunimi said patting Hinata on the back.
”Using Oikawa’s exact words, he said you would be like a mini ace,” Iwaizumi explained.
”A mini ace!” Hinata exclaimed in excitement.
”Like an ace for the ace. If everyone has their eyes on you, then it makes my job as an ace much easier as we split the blockers,” Iwaizumi continued.
Sure Hinata wasn’t going to get to play this game, but he knew that he was important to the team, and that meant more to him than being a rookie on the starting lineup.