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AtsuHina during Spring Nationals in the missing year - Outsider POV: Ennoshita Chikara.
Look, Ennoshita has had a bit of a year. Took up a captaincy he didn't think he'd ever be ready for - had to help on board a new batch of first year hooligans under the false impression that
Look, Ennoshita has had a bit of a year. Took up a captaincy he didn't think he'd ever be ready for - had to help on board a new batch of first year hooligans under the false impression that
Hinata, Kags, Tsukki, Tanaka, and Noya were admirable and cool, and not different flavours of lunacy. He also had university entrance exams to consider. And the maintenance of Karasuno's spangly new identity as a Miyagi powerhouse school. Ennoshita has been dealing with A LOT.
Like, Kageyama is a KNOWN ENTITY nationally now. So people pay special attention to him and Karasuno by proxy. Meaning Ennoshita has been interviewed a few times and he's really not a limelight person so 
Expectations are high and he worries about coming up short!
Expectations are high and he worries about coming up short!
Especially after Karasuno lost during the Inter-High to Dateko, despite being heralded as the favorite
BUT REDEMPTION! They make it to Spring Nationals again and there's a whole new set of problems for Ennoshita to deal with. Like more interviews AND SKY-er HIGHER EXPECTATIONS
BUT REDEMPTION! They make it to Spring Nationals again and there's a whole new set of problems for Ennoshita to deal with. Like more interviews AND SKY-er HIGHER EXPECTATIONS
But also, uh- For some reason Miya Atsumu seems to keep running into a few of Ennoshita's players for some reason? And like, trash talking them? And thank god Hinata has chilled out a bit since last year, 'cause it seems to just motivate him to play better. Cool.
Atsumu also seems to be particularly fired up about Karasuno winning their games so they can face Inarizaki in round 3. Even Ennoshita gets some ominous revenge based threats tosses his way - Tanaka is predictably apoplectic when it happens.
But it's weird. Because Atsumu is at their games, when Ennoshita had been pretty sure for the second one Inarizaki had only started like, 40 minutes before them. So they had to win fast for Atsumu to even be there, and yet there he was - loudly trash talking the other team.
Narita is the one to point out that it's kinda weird that Atsumu's cheering for Karasuno, right? And that he seems to be extra extra excited every time Hinata does anything on the court? It reminds Ennoshita of a vague memory from last year after beating Inarizaki:
Of a sweaty half delirious Hinata bragging to Kageyama about someone wanting to toss for HIM specifically. Because some people can just recognize greatness, y'know? Daichi had to break up the resulting tousle from that. Could the person who wanted to toss for Hinata be- Really?
And then it's game time and Inarizaki is somehow even more intimidating than last year, and Ennoshita's pretty sure he doesn't just think that because during the interview with a major national sports outlet, the interviewer kept quoting Atsumu about all the ways he'd crush 'em
Right from the get-go there's something eerily familiar about the way this game is being played that has nothing to do with Inarizaki being kinda scary. Atsumu is smack talking right out the gate, Hinata giving as good as he's getting which is kinda weird because normally-
It finally hits Ennoshita near the end of the first set. Atsumu is doing that thing a bunch of players in Miyagi do with Hinata. Where they trash talk to poorly disguise their flirting. Goshiki, Terushima, even Kunimi. And Miya Atsumu, arguably the best setter in high school is-
Okay, but the weirdest part is normally this junk flies right over Hinata's head. It's WEIRD that he's snapping back. And that he's smiling so much doing it. Is he- Is Hinata is competitive flirting with Miya Atsumu through the net? Maybe? Is he having the time of his life? Yeah?
And then they lose and it's crushing and Ennoshita is about to be consumed by the weight of the failure he's putting on his own shoulders, when Hinata makes a bold declaration: He's going to make Atsumu toss for him before nationals is over.
Everyone kind of laughs awkwardly, or sighs like Hinata is being exhausting again but only Ennoshita seems to see the expression on his face. It's the same one he wore before he snuck into the first year training camp last year. Atsumu better watch out. Eesh.
By the time they leave nationals, Hinata who'd disappeared for a few hours every day seems to be over the moon about something, despite their loss. Based on the shit eating grin on Atsumu's face during the finals, not the mean one, Ennoshita has his suspicions.
It's why five years later when Hinata returns from Brazil, joins the Black Jackals, and promptly announces he's dating Miya Atsumu, Ennoshita is the only one not blind sided by this information. He saw this coming waaaaaaay back.
The END
The END
