A soft, feminine voice cut through the noise. It came from the girl standing in the doorway, wearing a Karasuno volleyball team uniform. She wasn’t tall—maybe around 5’4—but she was strikingly beautiful, the kind that made people look twice without meaning to.

His single, awed word seemed to ripple out. One by one, the sounds of practice died. A serve hit the net with a dull thud. A setter’s hands froze mid-air. Across the court, a tall blond boy with glasses lowered his arms slowly, his sharp eyes narrowing behind the frames.