Haikyuu: The Monarch - Chapter 30

“Alright alright!! Keep it going! Great trapping!!” Shou shouted as he watch Karasuno forcing Ushijima to hit a straight

“Grr” Nishinoya gritted his teeth as he dived forward to receive the ball

“Nishinoya! I told you! move forward! I know you’re avoiding to do an overhand receive!” Kazuto shouted on the sideline

“Yes, sensei!” Nishinoya shouted as he quickly got back into his position

“Ushijima! Twist your core more! You’re not using your entire potential strength!” Shou shouted

“…” Ushijima silently nodded as he pedaled back

“Oh! Shou-chan look!” Hisoka called as he pointed at the other court

“Hm?” Shou turned and followed Hisoka’s finger

Oikawa perfectly stepped under the ball in a swift and quick motion

“…” his unwavering focus and concentration sent shivers down the players’ spines including Atsumu

He twisted his fingers in a unique manner before raising his hands up and absorbed the ball and pushed it towards the middle before softly calling out, “Kindaichi…”

Atsumu, Suna and Osamu immediately reacted and jumped to block the middle

“Eh…?” Atsumu muttered as his eyes unconciously moved around to find the sight of the ball

“ORAHH!” Iwaizumi shouted as from the left side he slammed the ball down into the court of Inarizaki with no blocker stopping him

“What an annoying trick…” Osamu muttered

“Man, Oika-san! What was that?!?” Atsumu asked excitedly

“Hmph… that’s a secret” Oikawa smirked as he flashed Atsumu a thumbs up

“The coolness from the move just now just flew out the window…” Kazuto sighed

“He’s right, you look and sound stupid” Shou commented

“Tch! Shut up!” Oikawa shouted as he grabbed the ball and walked to his serving position

‘Oikawa truly is talentless but…’ Shou fell into a deep thought

‘Although it is faint… I fe-… no… we felt it…’ Kazuto thought as he looked at Shou who was zoning out, ‘Maybe, just maybe, it was because of his hard work or his dėsɨrė full of desperation to reach the top…’

‘But… behind those chains, there was something or some being within him… waiting for the fateful day to unleash its seething rage and hunger upon the battlefield…’ a vicious smile manifested on Shou’s face as he moved his gaze and met with Oikawa’s and stared into the very depth of his soul

—-

“Hai hai!” As lunch break approaches, Kuroo clapped his hand to get the players attention, “Alright everyone, as you know tomorrow is the last day of our Golden Week Training… and as you all may have realized, in just a few weeks, every single team standing on this gymnasium will become enemies…”

The atmosphere turned freezing cold the moment those words echoed

“But… we want to make things a bit interesting…” Kuroo revealed a sly smile, “The best way to defeat your enemies is to know everything about them, how they wield their weapons, their capabilities, how they think, many more aspect are needed… and what’s a better way to do that other than working together with your enemies…”

“That’s right as you all have guessed it… we will be shuffling the teams, by positions of course…” Shou continued as he brought out a 4 small boxes with different labels on it (setter, outside hitter, middle blocker, and Libero) each one of them contain little pieces of papers

“We’ll be deciding the teams now, after the lunch break we will continue our team rotation matches… and tomorrow is the shuffling chaos…” Kuroo spoke as he began to randomly pick out the players and deciding the teams

“Tch ċȯċky brats…” Ukai muttered with a smile

‘They’re so confident that they could snatch the throne they’re even putting themselves through this…’ Ushijima thought with clenched fist, ‘But this is a good opportunity…’

“Don’t regret it when we find the weaknesses of the two World Class bastards~” Oikawa jokingly said

“Oh I know, stamina…” Tanaka graciously spoke as he clicked his finger, “no matter which player it is, they’ll run out of stamina eventually”

Immediately, everyone turned their gaze and stared at him with a disappointed and pitiful eyes

“If you put it in that context, then sure, but, here’s some highlights of their longest rallies to knock yourself out…” Nishinoya spoke as tossed Tanaka a phone

“Well… we got nothing left to lose anyways guys let’s take this chance” Daichi spoke to his team

“””Yeah!”””

—-

“Oi Kuro, hows the progress with that first year in Karasuno?” Shou asked as took a sip of water

“Hmm… honestly, it’s going alright, I understand why you see something in him… he just need a little push, just something to ignite that fire within him…” Kuroo answered as he stretched his arms

“Alright, keep an eye on him…” Shou spoke as he turned and walk into the third gymnasium

“Tch you got someone to replace your position to block for Bokuto, be thankful you rooster haired fuċk” Shou jokingly spoke with a smile before going to the nearest vending machine to grab a bottle of apple juice and tossing it to Kuroo

“Could’ve at least buy it for me after practice damn it, now it’s gonna turn lukewarm” Kuroo complained

“Hey, shut up, you ungrateful shit” Shou chuckled before entering the gym

Kuroo stared at Shou’s back while opening the apple juice bottle and taking a sip, ‘He truly is unique, ever since we were young, I always felt something weird about him, his personality, the way he speaks, his action, his wisdom, his experiences, it was all extremely abnormal and sometime it felt inconsistent…’

‘I brushed it off with the half-hearted blame that his abnormality was probably because of his irregular and extraordinary talent… but the more I thought about it, the less sense it began to make…although I know deep down, no matter what the answer is, it would never be able to create even the slightest ripple in our bond, nor would it change the fact that I will always consider him as my best friend and brother… but somewhere, in the very depth of my mind, began wonder who Asata Shou truly is…”

—-

“Now, now… why did you two call me out here…” Shou asked with arms cross as he looked at the duo

Hinata and Kageyama glanced at each other and did a countdown that was bȧrėly audible before bowing and shouted, “We want to become stronger! Please, train us!”

“Don’t need to shout, I can hear you… idiots” Shou sighed as he face palmed himself

“hmm….alright, look, I can train you both right now, but, on one condition…”

“What’s the condition…?” Kageyama asked warily

“Both of you have to master that monster quick…” Shou demanded, which he got a confused gaze in return, “As of right now, I would say your quick’s sucess rate is around 83% – 91%, but… that is only when the shrimpy’s eyes are close… ”

“Does that mean…”

“that’s right… before I decide to train you guys, shrimpy have to learn to fight for himself, the Shrimpy should be the the one that control the quick, not you..”

“Fight for myself…?” Hinata muttered

“Hinata should control the quick…?” Kageyama asked

“I’ll tell the truth right now, so… don’t interupt me if I say something… harsh…” Shou spoke as he stared at the duo which carefully nodded at his words

“…” The two nodded in silence

“…” Hinata silently listened

“B-But… inter-high is close… I’m just not sure if it’s the right time to make a drastic change in the team…” Kageyama argued

“That’s it? That’s your excuse…?” Shou asked with a raised eye brow before sighing, “Let me give you a piece of advice… discard that way of thinking if you truly want to reach the top…”

“What do you mean…?” Kageyama questioned

“If you are afraid of changes, then why bother to trying to climb to the top? You’ll just stay in the same spot for the rest of your life…” Shou answered, “Never advert your eyes from the truth, embrace changes that you know deep down would take you to greater height, only then will find yourself viciously ascending while breaking limits after limits…”

“…”

“…”

“I’ll make a prediction that I could bet my life on, Kageyama, if you continue to let your fear prevent you from embracing changes, you’ll never be able to surpass Oikawa in the future, and would ultimately be defeated by him over, and over again”

“How could you know that though?!?” Hinata shouted before he quickly apologize for his sudden outburst, “Sorry…”

“I sense a storm approaching” Shou calmly stated, “He is changing… the True Oikawa Tooru will awaken very soon… and when that happens… you will only find yourself desperately chasing after him from behind as he slowly disappear into the distance…”

“The true… Oikawa-san?…” Kageyama uttered

“Anyways… that’s all the advice I have, what you decide to do with it is all up to you, good luck… I have great hope for you two…” Shou waved the duo goodbye, and before they could say anything, he exited the gymnasium

‘Embrace changes…’ Kageyama repeated the advice he received in his mind

“Learn to fight for myself…”Hinata muttered softly

“…” the two stood in silent for what seem like hours taking in Shou’s words until…

“Yosh!” Hinata shouted as he stood up straight, ” Kageyama let’s do it!”

“But… you realize inter-high is in a few week” Kageyama reasoned as he continued to ponder over his decision

“Asata-san is right, I’m sure he’s saying this for our sake” Hinata declare with a serious tone, ” and plus… I don’t want to keep relying on you, I want to learn to fight for myself, I want to become stronger as Hinata Shoyo and not as the ‘Weirdo Duo of Karasuno’, and if it means that we will be able to take our team to greater height… than I’ll gladly take any challenges and changes head-on”

‘The True Oikawa Tooru will awaken very soon..’ Shou’s words replayed in Kageyama’s mind

“Changes… huh?” Kageyama clenched his fist before giving a determined look, “Alright… let’s do this… I don’t feel like losing to Oikawa-san…”

“…” Shou revealed a smile as he stood outside the entrance before slowly walking away

—-

“Uwah! Shuu is here!!” Bokuto shouted when he noticed the figure entering the gymnasium

“Finally, took you long enough, shithead, I was waiting” Oikawa spoke as he set for Bokuto

“Where were you?” Kazuto asked as he casually received Bokuto’s straight

“Tch! Couldn’t you at least tried to act like it was a little difficult to receive!” Bokuto complained

“Oh I was giving advice to Hinata and Kageyama” Shou answered as grabbed a ball to do his warm up

“Hah? Advice to Tobio?” Oikawa asked in an annoyed tone with a twitched eyebrow

“Yeah yeah, sorry to make you all jealous” Shou casually remarked , “Speaking of some Karasuno first years, oi! Kuro where’s the blondie?”

“Tch! He managed to slip away when I wasn’t looking, he was about to go up against Bokuto for a block for the 100th time as well” Kuroo clicked his tongue in annoyance

“I told you to train him, not turning him into a blocking slave for this shitty owl, dumbass”

“Eh? Isn’t that the same thing?” Kuroo asked in pure confusion

“…” Shou stared at the rooster for a moment before going back to his warm up, “Yeah it is…”

“Ahh, to be honest, having this much teams in training camp is tiring as fuċk” Kazuto sighed

“You gonna kick us out?” Oikawa asked jokingly

“I’m seriously considering it” Kazuto spoke as he cupped his chin with his hand

“Hey!”

“Hmm, you’re right, let’s complain to the coaches, it’s a good chance to kick these fuċkers out” Shou agreed

“Assholes!”

“But damn, Inter-high is approaching already…” Kuroo suddenly said, “And it’s our last one as well…”

“We still have the Spring Tournament left” Bokuto reminded

“Yeah, then it’s time for us to graduate…” Kuroo mentioned, “You guys decided what you’re going to do after graduation yet?”

“Volleyball”

“Volleyball”

“Volleyball”

“Porn direct- *slap* Volleyball…”

“So… this is why…” Kuroo cupped his mouth as tears flowed down his cheeks

[let me wipe it]

No not those cheeks you Pedo Old Man

[Damn…]

“This is why I wasn’t able to enjoy my youth… it went too fast… and all I can look back to is volleyball…” Kuroo spoke while sobbing, “Its cause I’m hanging out with you volleyball horn-dogs…”

“You realized time flying fast meant that you’re having fun right…?” Oikawa asked with raised eyebrows

“Shut up! It’s all volleyball!”

“I mean how about some of the school events? You should find something ‘youthful’ there” Bokuto asked

“Nothing good comes to mind” Kuroo sighed as he laid down on the floor

“Damn it, then… how about the school trips? You guys went to Hokkaido and Kyoto right?” Kazuto asked

“Hokkaido trip was alright but- oh.. I remember, when it was free time, Atso-chan and I were walking around and some thugs came up and tried to bother with her” Kuroo answered, “I tried to tell him to stop bothering us and all that, and didn’t wanted to get violent cause we would’ve got in trouble, but he didn’t budge, and Shou, I kid you not, this fuċker sprinted in, wearing a mask, a hat and sunglasses while holding a meat bun in one hand, literally launched himself up, twisted his body and slammed his feet into the guy’s jaw, knocking him out, and gave that motherfucker a free trial for death”

“Damn, did you get in trouble?”

“Hell nah, we got the fuċk out of there real quick leaving the guy, but somehow the class prez saw us…” Shou answered

“We didn’t get in trouble though, the class prez has quite the soft spot for Shou, you see…” Kuroo smirked

“Well I mean I was forced by the teacher to help her a shit loads of time , even during events, the old bastard kept on saying, ‘Do you know what strong boys like you should do? You should use that strength and stamina of yours to help other’ and then I’m like ‘sir do you know what you sound like? You sound like a scammer who forces innocent youths into being a corporate slave…’ like c’mon what’s that supposed to mean?” Shou complained

Kuroo’s face then distorted to that of annoyance again, “Anyways, not shits began to hit the fan in the afternoon of the first day”

“Yaku, confessed to Akane, the most popular girl in our class, and let me tell you this chick could not shut the fuċk up about Yaku’s height and his cringy confession to her friend, it didn’t help the fact that she was so damn loud as well, like bro leave the dude alone he’s already suffering enough” Kuroo sighed as he continued, “Sure enough, he overheard the gossips and Akane’s conversation and we had to spend the whole day cheering him up, so we didn’t really do anything on the last day”

“Hmmm… what about the trip to Kyoto?” Kazuto asked

“Ah, that trip was a hell of a ride” Kuroo answered

“I didn’t know that 99% of our class’s male were a bunch of horny hyenas” Shou commented, “When we were in the hot spring, the guys, this fuċkɨnġ rooster included, went to the mixed bath and tried to peek on the girls”

“Hey! Not ‘the girls’ I was trying to peek on Atso-chan!” Kuroo shouted

“Guys I know that I am not really the brightest here but did this dumbass just admitted to a crime?” Bokuto asked with a confused tone

“Its not a crime unless you are caught” Kuroo spoke with confident

“Anou~…. Police officer- san… you see ….there is a perv-”

“Hold the fuċk up!” Kuroo shouted as he snatched Oikawa’s phone before he could continue

“Well in this case you did get caught, and Atsoko were avoiding you for the rest of the trip out of embarrassment” Shou remarked

“What? That happened?” Kuroo asked in confusion

“Ah right, she did also came to me for advice, and jeez did she went off”

“Eh? For real? That did she say?” Kuroo started sweating bullets

“She called you all type of synonyms and slangs related to pervert and womanizing scumbag” Shou answered, “she was mad cause she thought you were peeking at other girls”

“Huh…?”

“Exactly, but I reassured her that you were only peaking at her, but she didn’t believe me so…”

“W-wait n-no don’t tell me…” Kuroo nervously spoke

“Yeah, I gave her your description of her body that you blurted out to me in excitement, word by word” Shou answered indifferently, “She seem quite- no… she seem too ȧssured after that, and she was clearly embarrassed, but at least you got the label womanizing scumbag and any synonyms and slangs related to that out of her head”

“Alright first of all womanizing scumbag doesn’t match what I was doing, second of all, you’re saying even though we’re dating, I’m still labeled as a pervert in her mind, and third of all that’s not the point here ȧsshole, why’d you do that”

“Well I knew she would be fine with it so why not?” Shou shrugged, “what are you even complaining about? You got a peek at your crush and even got away with it even though you got caught”

“W-well… uh…”

“Pervert” Kazuto remarked casually

“Alright never mind, how about Cultural festival?”

“Ah right , cultural festival, Shou and I was stuck as a maid , with actual wigs and shits for our first year cause we were forced, not only that we got groped by a few perverts, which we beat up and got in trouble with our homeroom teacher”

“Ah right that did happen… how about second year?” Kazuto asked

“I swear to god this motherfucker can not calm the fuċk down, we watched Yaku get rejected again but by same the class prez this time, oh bless his poor soul and height” Kuroo answered as he held back his tears, before his expression turned to that of annoyance, “But the thing was he confessed in the fuċkɨnġ morning, and in quite a public place no less”

“That was stupid, we had to follow after him all day and prevent any gossips from reaching his ears while he was in a state of depression” Shou continued

“I mean that sounds kind of fun to be honest” Oikawa commented, “Its like a secret mission (?)”

“Nah, by preventing we meant adverting their attention, so we caused a scene every time we here some gossips about it”

“Oh?”

“We would do something stupid, even recreating a small scene from Romeo and Juliet, which we also used to promote our class play, but that’s not the problem…” Kuroo spoke as he adverted his gaze

“We actually attracted a lot of customer, especially the girl who was into… uh… BL, this led to two problem, the girls were complaining for a refund after they saw the main actors, who was actually a guy and girl, and also rumors were circulating that we were dating for the next week” Shou sighed

“Pft-…” Kazuto’s body shook as he tried to hold in his laugh

“It’s not funny, ȧsshole!” Kuroo shouted, “You know how embarrassing it was to walk through the hallway and suddenly a bunch of cute first-year girls walk up to you, you think that you’re about to start a harem or something

but then a girl stepped up with her sparkling eyes and started asking you: ‘Anou~…K-Kuroo-senpai…?’

I’m like ‘Yes, my cute kouhai’

She’s like ‘W-would y-you… w-would you…’

‘Do not fret, please speak your mind, this dashing senpai of yours shall answer all of your worries’

‘W-would you… w-would you tell me who is the bottom between you and Asata-senpai, please!’

Gah! Fuck!! We had to deal with that shit for a whole week! And Atso-chan’s head was filled with those misunderstanding by those devil incarnates!” Kuroo shouted as he covered his face in embarrassment from recalling the past

“Man, you guys really had it rough huh…? Pffttt hahahahahhh” Oikawa laughed as he tried to comfort Kuroo

“Let’s just hope the cultural festival this year goes well..?”

“Anyways in conclusion all these event happens because of girls, they are core roots of misfortune and devil incarnates, thus proving that they only bring calamity to the world and the world would be a better place without them” Kuroo stated

Emily~she/they~BLM ✊????~ACAB~✨Eat the rich✨~???? panromantic demisexual nonbinary~Virgo ????~Kill all m*n ~ is typing….

“Shit, Kuroo! Don’t fuċk around like that!” Kazuto shouted nervously

[A/n: that was a joke…]

“Hah… anyways, back to volleyball, we have the shuffle showdown tomorrow” Shou sighed before he smiled, “It’s the last day of the camp, let’s have fun before, we start slashing at each other’s throats”

“Damn right, but I gotta sharpen my knife first though” Kazuto stretched as he walked onto the court

“Hehe!” Kuroo chuckled, “Alright I’m in the mood now, Oi! Let’s go at it you Horned Owl Fuck!”

“Alright, Oika! Set for me!” Bokuto shouted

“Guys I seriously wanted to be a pȯrn dir- *slap* *moan*”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“*cough* …. I meant after graduation, I swear, I’ll be the greatest setter and I’lll crush you guys” Oikawa spoke with a confident smile

“Shut the fuċk up…”

“Yes sir…”

—-

[A/n: Yo, it’s been a long time huh? I’ve been drowning in ȧssignments, test, and some personal business lately, but I managed to grind out this chapter, hope you all enjoyed it. It’s NOT dropped until I say so, so rest ȧssure dear readers. Inter-high is close and let me tell you, it’s gonna be a hell of a ride… hopefully…

As always, thanks for your patience and support, I’ll try to not disappoint you all (which I probably already have) and grind out a chapter when I have time, but for now,

Goodnight ❤️]