Haikyuu - I Am A Different Hinata!

"Sorry the meeting took longer, but I got the tournament bracket for the interschool competition," Takeda said while showing the paper he had in his hands.

"Oh, looks like we'll face this Tokonami in the first round. I don't know any of their players," Hinata observed.

"HEY! You need to pay attention to the fact that we might play against Date Tech right in the second round!" Nishinoya said.

"Not only that, but Aoba Johsai is the top seed on our side of the bracket," Tsukishima observed.

"Well, that's not so bad. If we were on Shiratorizawa's side of the bracket, we might not face such strong opponents in sequence, but we'd have to play against the strongest one before the finals, and that would really suck!" Hinata said.

"Remember not to underestimate the other teams who work just as hard as you do!" Ukai warned.

"We'll make sure to win the first round, for sure!" Daichi said confidently.

The next day, when Hinata was heading to the gym, he ran into Sugawara.

"Hey, Hinata! I need to give you this!" Sugawara said, handing a paper to Hinata.

"Oh! These are signals..." Hinata observed.

"Yes! I need you to memorize them so we can use them in practice before the tournament. Also, it would be nice if you could train with me!" Sugawara said.

"We can do that!" Hinata said while entering the gym together with Sugawara.

"Alright! It's time for spike practice! Hinata will start this time," Ukai said.

"A good time to practice our coordination... just to let you know, I'm training my left hand, so just send high sets away from the net," Hinata requested.

"Got it!" Sugawara said, who waited for the remaining members who would block to get ready – Asahi, Tanaka, and Tsukishima – and then set the ball for Hinata, who waited for the ball to travel a bit until it was at a good angle to hit with his left hand, which surprised the three blockers, as they had positioned themselves to stop a right-handed spike, leaving a large space on the left-hand side, where Hinata just had to calmly direct the ball toward the floor.

"Tsk! Why did you do that?" Tsukishima asked irritably.

"What? Hit with my left hand? You know I'm training that now," Hinata said.

"Hinata is right... I don't know how many left-handed players we have in our prefecture or even in the country, but they certainly won't warn us beforehand. If we don't figure it out earlier, we'll probably be surprised the same way, so you need to be able to adapt to block a player with these characteristics," Ukai analyzed.

"So we have to change our whole blocking approach because of one player?" Tanaka asked.

"Yes, and that's why they're problematic players," Ukai said.

"Anyway, that was a good set!" Hinata said, giving a thumbs up to Sugawara.

"Alright... on his next spike, we'll jump towards his left hand," Tsukishima said.

Then, Sugawara made another long set away from the net for Hinata, who jumped and hit the ball again with his left hand, but this time the triple block was in front of him. Hinata tried to hit the ball off Tsukishima's fingertips, who was able to direct the ball back to Hinata's side of the court.

"What was wrong? Was the set bad?" Sugawara said, a bit worried.

"No, no! It's just complicated for me to get through a triple block using my left hand. It still doesn't have what I'd consider decent power, so it's normal to get blocked... the set was good!" Hinata said.

"Hey! Asahi!" Kageyama called, slightly startling Asahi.

"Yes?" Asahi said.

"Since you're playing middle blocker now, I think we should practice some quick attacks to use when you're at the net," Kageyama said.

"Alright," Asahi agreed, trying a quick attack with Kageyama that managed to get past the block and go straight to the floor.

"What did you think?" Kageyama asked.

"It's a bit different. When attacking as a wing spiker, I usually aimed cross-court, but the feeling playing as a middle blocker is like aiming downward... it's not bad..." Asahi said.

"NO! I WANT TO KNOW IF IT WAS TOO LOW? TOO SLOW? TOO CLOSE TO THE NET?" Kageyama asked frantically.

"It's fine... it's fine..." Asahi responded.

"Hey! Hinata, from the little I've watched, you like attacking from the back row, right?"

"For sure, it's one of my favorite attacks!" Hinata confirmed.

"Alright! I need you all here!" Ukai shouted to gather the remaining members.

"A back row attack? That's not a big problem, I've been doing that with Hinata for some time now, I don't think we'll have any issues doing it," Kageyama said.

"That's great!" Ukai said.

"Let's practice," Kageyama said.

"But I'm resting..." Hinata said.

"Come on!" Kageyama said impatiently.

"AH, fine! A guy can't even rest from jumping around like a kangaroo!" Hinata complained.

"Here it comes!" Kageyama said while setting to Hinata from the back of the court, who then jumped before the center line and hit the ball with his left hand, which fell in the middle of the court without much power.

"You've got to be kidding me? That would be easily blocked by most teams!" Kageyama complained.

"Of course it would, can't you see I'm in a process with my left hand!" Hinata responded.

"You don't need to use that damn left hand for everything!" Kageyama contested.

"Of course I do, that's why it's called a process! Just trust the process, you idiot!" Hinata responded.

"I'm sure that's not how an ace should act!" Kageyama said.

"Honestly... do you think they'll be okay?" Takeda asked.

"Of course they will!" Ukai responded.

"Take that!" Hinata shouted while hitting another left-handed spike that this time had impressive power.

"That wasn't bad..." Kageyama said.

"Of course it wasn't!" Hinata said.

"I told you!" Ukai commented with a smile on his face.

"Yes, you're right," Takeda agreed, also smiling.