Jayﾚ(◣益◢#)ﾍ

im mainly writing this because he has neurodivergent coding all over the place so it surprises me that he's never mentioned in forums theorizing about neurodivergency in haikyuu (because there's LOTS of exemples im starting to think that it's almost maybe on purpose?? which would make sense considering how neurodivergent kids can seek out sports as a safe place at times) but, i think it's really due to him not being a popular character. maybe

first of all: there's what we can guess is selective mutism? he speaks very rarely to the point his teammates are very surprised when he does, he normally mainly uses gestures to communicate or goes "mhm" very quietly. that looks like selective mutism to me

to elaborate on some of his gestures. there's obviously the one of "locking on" that we cant miss. it seems intimidating at first. hell, asahi is intimidated by it. but i don't think it's the purpose of it, as part of the "wall of steel" aone has to block whatever ball gets on his side of the court, and in doubt, a setter is most likely to pass the ball to the team's ace, making the ace the person most likely to be blocked. by "locking on", aone tries to psychologically determine who he has to follow and block thorough the game, literally "locking on", not to scare the ace but to help himself get in order on what he'll have to do on the court. locking on even in the name sounds like a gesture intended to find a focus before the game as apposed to an intimidation tactic.

what aone does he does it for what he considers logic, even if that's the result he gets without realizing. im convinced aone doesn't realize how intimidating he is, he doesn't understand why people don't sit next to him, which adds as to him not being able to read social cues and having poor social awareness.

you especially see this with his team that are aware of all that — they know aone is not intimidating like he seems to, and being conscious of his hard time with socializing, they make sure to include him even if they know that aone underestimate his strenght and can accidentally hurt someone — they do that regardless because he deserves to be part of the group to them and because they're close to him, they know how he's worth accidentally getting a bit injured can be due to him being extremely nice in reality