Haikyū!!

Starting the day off with team practice / warmups gives Karasuno a sense of familiarity and the time to get used to the new school gym. The group challenges are when they will try out various drills of offensive versus defensive plays and skillsets. There is also the option to do various three-on-three teams of different Karasuno trios or take some crows and some wolves in unique combos. Other fun things in here throughout the week can involve competitions for the longest serving streak, longest bumping passes, most spikes, etc. 

The shorter set match will be just as it sounds with two sets played back to back before they break for lunch. Karasuno can choose to play against just themselves with some additional Ōkamiyama students to fill in the gaps, or to play against their host school in both 25-point sets. These are treated as practice matches with unlimited substitutions. 

The daily afternoon events were slightly altered to be more reasonable. It would be pretty crazy to do all of downtown Seattle in under three hours so it’s been split where Monday is the northern half (Space Needle area) and Thursday is the southern half (waterfront aquarium area). When they go to Lake Union there are multiple water activities to partake including an annual canoe race. 

CHAPTER 01 | WAY OUT WEST

A soft breeze drifted over the school grounds; summer break had finally arrived. Members of the Karasuno volleyball team gathered around the gym as one last packing checklist was underway before loading the van departing for the nearby Sendai Airport. The crows were heading for Seattle over in America for a training camp and tournament!

The sun was rising as the team confirmed all of their luggage and belongings. For most of them, it was to be their first time on a plane. They would arrive in America at about 9:30 am PST tomorrow and it was still confusing to some of the boys how the sixteen-hour time zone difference worked despite Takeda-sensei's best efforts. Generously their hosts in Washington had paid for all of their travel expenses to and from the United States on top of providing accommodations, meals, and funds for extra activities. All of their rides were on Japan Airlines and all their seats on the last flight from Tokyo to Seattle had been booked in the Business Class Sky Suites so that everyone could sleep overnight. It was a long period of traveling and the boys were ramped up and rearing to go. The full personnel consisted of the two coaches, the two managers, and the nine players on the team.

They were on their way to becoming a formidable force. Karasuno was led by their dependable captain Daichi Sawamura, followed by vice-captain and setter Kōshi Sugawara, wing spiker and ace Asahi Azumane, libero Yū Nishinoya, wing spiker Ryūnosuke Tanaka, genius setter Tobio Kageyama, middle blocker and decoy Shōyō Hinata, middle blocker Kei Tsukishima, and middle blocker and pinch server Tadashi Yamaguchi. They improved every week and following a heartbreaking defeat against Aoba Johsai in the Interhigh Tournament the crows swung back with a fiery determination.

"Can you believe it? We really get to go to America!" Hinata exclaimed as he bounced around.

"Just think of all the pretty girls we will see!" Nishinoya added, matching Hinata's movements.

"Your senpais will show you how it's done!" Tanaka cried out while they loaded up the bus.

The team was able to check a couple of large suitcases to go in the airplane cargo which consisted of their Fly (飛べ) banner and gifts. They had spent the last several weeks coming up with ideas for gifts to bring to their hosts as a 'thank you' for the invitation and financial coverage. They may have gone overboard with the presents but they hoped that the Cascade High School volleyball team would appreciate their unique Japanese-themed gifts. Most of it was various types of clothing like shirts and whatnot that could only be purchased in their country. They also brought many of their favorite snacks that were safe for passing through customs and the Travel Security Administration. On top of all of that, they brought with them their passion for volleyball.

Two months ago it had come as a big surprise when Takeda received an email from one of the coaches at Ōkamiyama (狼山). The crows had come to refer to Cascade High School as "Ōkamiyama" due to their wolf mascot and location in the Cascade mountain range ('Ōkami' 狼 means wolf and 'yama' 山 means mountain). Karasuno had accepted the invitation to come to Seattle, Washington for a little under three weeks to participate in a week-long training camp with their hosts followed by a five-day tournament located at the University of Washington.

The letter explained that the students at Ōkamiyama had seen some videos of Karasuno from five years ago and were inspired. While Japanese was not a standard subject in America several members of the wolves' volleyball team had started learning on their own or otherwise taking lessons, there would also be two translators present as well. Most of the Karasuno members ranged from a passable to a good understanding of English. There was a whole bunch of excitement coursing through the crows at the prospects of international travel, the fun activities in Seattle, and the chance to play against several strong teams.

"Suga-san," Hinata began, sitting in the seat behind the vice-captain. "can I look at the information packet again?"

"Certainly!" Sugawara replied. He fished out the papers from his bag and chuckled. "Here you are." He said handing the first-year the travel papers.

Hinata had been nonstop asking for the details over and over to the point that Takeda had printed extra copies for the team. He skimmed over the top page which was just the initial email printed out. He wanted to read about the itinerary, events, and team roster again. Their journey from Sendai to Osaka to Tokyo to Seattle was thrilling but at the same time made Hinata extremely nervous. He had never been so far away from his home and hoped he did not vomit again on anyone. Once they arrived in America they would meet one of the host coaches and translators who would take them from the airport to Everett where the high school was located. Once he had reread the travel schedule Hinata turned to the layout of the training with Ōkamiyama.

EVERETT TRAINING CAMP

DAILY SCHEDULE 8:00am - Breakfast 9:00am - Warmups 9:30am - Single Set Match 10:00am - Team Practice 12:00pm - Lunch 1:00pm - Afternoon Event* 4:00pm - Free Time 6:00pm - Dinner 7:00pm - Full Set Match 9:00pm - Individual Practice 11:00pm - Lights Out

*Monday- Downtown Seattle, Tuesday- Woodland Park Zoo, Wednesday- Lake Union, Thursday- Waterfront Aquarium, Friday- College Volleyball

EVENING TEAM LINEUPS Monday - Karasuno vs. Ōkamiyama Tuesday - Karasuno vs. Rōzutoge Wednesday - Karasuno vs. Hisuimori Thursday - Karasuno vs. Shachiwan Friday - Karasuno vs. Kaitomoya Saturday - Everyone at Alpine Lodge

Hinata had been nearly unable to sleep the night before, he was overcome with anticipation and joy. Whenever his thoughts raced to think about getting to play against five teams in the upcoming week his head spun. The only snag was his and Kageyama's recent fight, to which they were still not yet back to being friendly with one another, much to the rest of the team's dismay. If they expected to play at their best in the upcoming weeks then they needed to have their demon first-year duo back in shape. Hinata was still new to learning how to fight on his own and he was desperate to try out his unmastered skills against other teams.

Beyond the trip to Seattle lay a week spent in Saitama for a training camp with Nekoma, Shinzen, Ubugawa, and Fukurōdani. Later on, in the summer, they had scheduled regular practice matches with the neighborhood association and Nekoma. In addition to all of that Karasuno had extended invitations to other schools in surrounding prefectures to come to Miyagi for short training camps and practice matches into the next school term. So far, Takodai (octopus) from Yamagata, Koumorizen (bats) from Aomori, and Risunami (squirrels) from Akita had accepted the offer to come to Karasuno. Outside of those three, they were waiting to hear back from Kamenike (turtles), Ashikama (sea lions), and a couple of others. In the years since Karasuno was a national powerhouse, they had fallen out of communication with other teams. Their hardworking faculty coach, Takeda, was always on the lookout to organize more experience for Karasuno. His devotion to the team contributed to their success, something that the crows were eternally grateful for. In the months to follow their weekends were filling up with travels to Tokyo and hosting other schools at their home in Miyagi.

With wide eyes Hinata looked over the list of players, maybe I can get a turn with the tablet to watch their videos again... he wondered. Aside from their full roster list with player details the Americans had provided various videos of their matches and a summary of last year's standings. They were one of the best in Washington with no glaring holes in their playing. Their strength lay in their upperclassmen and wing spikers. In the previous summer, they managed to win the Seattle Tournament and a few of their players received awards for their outstanding capabilities.

CASCADE HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL TEAM 1. Reed Collins - Captain / Middle Blocker - 4th Year 2. David Garcia - Ace / Wing Spiker (Out) - 4th Year 3. Sam Campbell - Setter - 4th Year 4. Lan Nguyen - Vice Captain / Wing Spiker (Opp) - 3rd Year 5. Diego Perez - Libero - 3rd Year 6. Dylan Anderson - Middle Blocker - 3rd Year 7. Charlie Vo - Wing Spiker (Out) - 3rd Year 8. Taylor Martin - Libero - 1st Year 9. Kodah Stone - Wing Spiker (Out) - 2nd Year 10. Alex Williams - Middle Blocker / Pinch Server - 2nd Year 11. Ryan Zhang - Wing Spiker (Out) - 2nd Year 12. Parker Harris - Wing Spiker (Out) - 1st Year 13. Josh Miller - Middle Blocker - 1st Year 14. Erik Thorvald - Setter / Wing Spiker (Opp) - 2nd Year

KARASUNO HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL TEAM 1. Daichi Sawamura - Captain / Wing Spiker (Opp) - 3rd Year 2. Kōshi Sugawara - Vice-Captain / Setter - 3rd Year 3. Asahi Azumane - Ace / Wing Spiker (Out) - 3rd Year 4. Yū Nishinoya - Libero - 2nd Year 5. Ryūnosuke Tanaka - Wing Spiker (Out) - 2nd Year 9. Tobio Kageyama - Setter - 1st Year 10. Shōyō Hinata - Middle Blocker / Decoy - 1st Year 11. Kei Tsukishima - Middle Blocker - 1st Year 12. Tadashi Yamaguchi - Middle Blocker / Pinch Server - 1st Year

The roster of Ōkamiyama was long. They had fourteen players, whereas Karasuno was only nine. Wow, they have two liberos and six wing spikers! Hinata thought. It was so odd for him to see "fourth year" on the American roster when Japanese high schools were only three years. He reminded himself that the fourth years in Washington were the same age as Karasuno's third years, they just started high school a year earlier. Which meant that the American first years were younger than Hinata, I wonder if I am taller than any of the wolves. Aside from an additional year of more challenging schoolwork, Hinata liked the idea of having more chances to play in the center court at Nationals, or so he liked to dream. He thought of how Karasuno stood against Ōkamiyama and imagined playing against them.

At one point the total amount of second years on the team was five players. Now it was only two. Karasuno faced difficulties in having a shallow roster, but there were some benefits in the sense of the nine current members received more playing time. However, by the same stroke, they were prone to tiring faster too. The other second years, Chikara Ennoshita, Hisashi Kinoshita, and Kazuhito Narita had not yet decided on if they would return to the club. It was late July and while they had missed out on the spring term volleyball the rest of the team was always hoping for more players to return or otherwise join.

Their journey to the state of Washington would begin with a short drive to their local airport before embarking on an eighty minute flight to Osaka with a two-hour layover there in the Itami Airport. Following that stint, they would board again for a seventy-five minute ride to the Haneda Airport. Their first two flights were in the Economy Class and the crows would be sitting all together in clusters. From there they would be leaving their home country on a nine and a half hour overnight flight directly to Seattle.

"Hinata-kun!" Yachi Hikota exclaimed as she sat in the seat in front of Hinata.

"Yac-san!" He cried in equal joy, throwing his hands in the air.

"Did you remember to bring your summer homework?"

The joy evaporated and Hinata's arms fell to his sides.

"Yes," he grumbled softly. "do we want to start studying right now? It's not a long ride to the airport and I'm too excited to focus..." Hinata finished sheepishly with a hand behind his head. Yachi shook her head.

"That's alright Hinata, we can begin later on the ocean flight and there's downtime planned into the schedule."

"Ugh nobody else has homework! I just want to have fun way out west!" He grumbled.

"That's because everyone else planned in advanced to have two weeks off." Tsukishima sneered. Then he noticed the other volleyball idiot. "Well, everyone except for the King." He finished snickering. Kageyama glared at the middle blocker.

Hinata had packed his school workbooks into his carry on backpack, though he had hoped Yachi would forget about it. She was incredibly smart and tutored Hinata and Kageyama in their studies. Her help was so amazing that Hinata was able to get nearly all of his English exam questions right... but he realized too late that he had been off by one in filling in the answer sheet. Thankfully this trip to Seattle did not conflict with any academics so this time there was no threat of a supplementary exam.

"Wait..." Sugawara questioned, confused. "Hinata, did you say 'out west'?"

"Yeah, America is west of Japan."

"That is correct, but we are flying eastwards over the Pacific Ocean to get to Seattle. Remember? It's near Canada and on the western side of the United States."

"Huh? But the maps?!"

"America is both west and east of Japan, Hinata. We are taking the most direct route over the ocean instead of flying over Asia, Europe or Africa, and then across the Atlantic Ocean to be on the far side of North America." Yachi added, hoping to quell his misunderstandings. There was no such luck.

Hinata's face was completely devoid of understanding. His sunken expression was beyond recognition of their words as he started to question all of his thoughts on geography. Laughter broke out, rolling around the van and continued for many streets as they approached their destination. Their conversations turned into breakoff groups of the forthcoming adventure. Highlights involved all the new food they would get to try, the sights of Seattle, strategies for how to combat Ōkamiyama's strengths, and reviewing common English phrases.

Soon enough they spilled out into the long-term parking lot. They unloaded the school van quickly as the sense of reality dawned on them. The upcoming teams were waiting far off in distant shores, challenges on the horizon, but first and foremost they would have to navigate the airports.

"All right, let's go!" Daichi asserted, leading the first steps.

White Team 1. Daichi Sawamura (WS-Opp) 2. Ryūnosuke Tanaka (WS-Out) 3. Tobio Kageyama (S) 4. Kodah Stone (WS-Out) 5. Kei Tsukishima (MB) 6. Tadashi Yamaguchi (MB)

Black Team 1. Kōshi Sugawara (S) 2. Asahi Azumane (WS-Out) 3. Erik Thorvald (WS-Opp) 4. Yū Nishinoya (L) 5. Alex Williams (MB) 6. Hinata Shoyo (MB)

IMGUR - BW IMGUR - ON

Orange Team 1. Asahi Azumane (WS-Out) 2. Erik Thorvald (WS-Opp) 3. Tobio Kageyama (S) 4. Kodah Stone (WS-Out) 5. Hinata Shoyo (MB) 6. Tadashi Yamaguchi (MB)

While on the Seattle Voyage their host school Ōkamiyama gifts Karasuno’s team two full sets of new jerseys in their school colors and designed around the crow mascot. See this Tournament post for more info on Seattle, spoiler match results are included below the game schedules. 

These two new jerseys are in “light/home” and “dark/away” styles common in American sports. All of the crows are given new pairs of shoes and pads- their choices of color. These jerseys are most resembling physically of Sarukawa Tech, Shiratorizawa, Inarizaki, Fukurōdani, Kamomedai, etc with slightly shorter sleeves and no collars. 

1. Navy Jerseys - Japan Main (seen vs. Shiratorizawa)

2. Orange Jerseys - Japan Alternate (seen vs. Inarizaki)

3. White Jerseys - America Main

4. Black Jerseys - America Alternate

New Shoes: White | Black | Orange ⏣ New Pads: White | Black | Orange ⏣

3. White shirt with orange numbers and back “KARASUNO” lettering, thin orange v-neck collar and sleeve cuff trim, front tip v-neck part black. Numbers / letters outlined in black. Small black “烏 野” on front left chest. Small black crow on front right chest. Orange shorts with mirrored / matching small black crow on front left leg. 

⏣ Karasuno Formation Arc ⏣

Manga Chapters: 1-35  (Volume 1-5) Anime Episodes: 1-14  (Season 1)

⏣ Miyagi Interhigh Arc ⏣

Manga Chapters: 36-71  (Volume 5-8) Anime Episodes: 15-25  (Season 1)

⏣ Tokyo Expedition Arc ⏣

Manga Chapters: 72-84  (Volume 8-10) Anime Episodes: 1-6  (Season 2)

⏣ Seattle Voyage Arc ⏣

Fanfic Begins!!

⏣ Saitama Training Arc ⏣

Manga Chapters: 73-96  (Volume 10-11) Anime Episodes: 7-11  (Season 2)

⏣ Prefecture Qualifier Arc ⏣

Manga Chapters: 97-206 (Volume 11-23) Anime Episodes: 12-25 & 1-10  (Season 2-3)

⏣ December Camps Arc ⏣

Manga Chapters: 207-219  (Volume 23-25) Anime Episodes: 1-5  (Season 4)

⏣ Spring Nationals Arc ⏣

Manga Chapters: 220-xxx  (Volume 25-??) Anime Episodes: 6-25  (Season 4)

Wildflowers

Some of these team names will be reused in Japan, most of these are just meant to be realistic fillers without arbitrary names like Blue Team 16, Green Team 31, etc. Each one is an animal and more info on each is here.

In this tournament, Karasuno wears jerseys gifted to them by Ōkamiyama. These two new jerseys are in “light/home” and “dark/away” styles common in American sports. All of the crows are given a new pairs of shoes and pads- their choice of color. These jerseys are most resembling physically of Shiratorizawa, Inarizaki, Fukurōdani, Kamomedai, etc with slightly shorter sleeves and no collars. Literally this jersey but not these colors.

Shoes: White or Black or Orange

Pads: White or Black or Orange

Light Shirts: White with orange numbers and back “KARASUNO” lettering, thin orange v-neck collar and sleeve cuff trim, front v-neck part black. Numbers / letters outlined in black. Small black 烏 野 on front left chest. Small black crow on front right chest. Light Shorts: Orange with mirrored / matching small black crow on front left leg.

Dark Shirts: Black with orange numbers and back “KARASUNO” lettering, thin orange v-neck collar and sleeve cuff trim. Numbers / letters outlined in white. The sleeves have winged ‘texture’ to resemble crow feathers that stretch across the chest and upper back. Small white 烏 野 across front center chest. Dark Shorts: Black with feather ‘texture’ design that matches sleeves. 

Feathers: x x x Wings: x x x Crows: x x x x x x

I always have thought it was a little odd that the main Karasuno jerseys are NAVY BLUE and not BLACK when their official colors are orange, black, and white. It may be due to highlighting Hinata and Kageyama’s eye colors. 

KARASUNO JERSEYS 

LIGHT “HOME” TEAM

1. D. Sawamura - white shirt, orange shorts, black pads, white shoes 2. K. Sugawara - white shirt, orange shorts, white pads, white shoes 3. A. Azumane - white shirt, orange shorts, black pad, white shoes 4. Y. Nishinoya - orange shirt, orange shorts, black pads, orange shoes 5. R. Tanaka - white shirt, orange shorts, orange pads, black shoes 6. A. Williams - white shirt, orange shorts, orange pads, white shoes 7. E. Thorvald - white shirt, orange shorts, white pads, orange shoes 8. K. Stone - white shirt, orange shorts, black pads, black shoes 9. T. Kageyama - white shirt, orange shorts, black pads, black shoes 10. S. Hinata - white shirt, orange shorts, orange pads, orange shoes 11. K. Tsukishima - white shirt, orange shorts, white pads, black shoes 12. T. Yamaguchi - white shirt, orange shorts, orange pads, white shoes

DARK “AWAY” TEAM