Sometimes, a game's characters have a specific backstory that is unique to them.

If you figure out the backstory and use it to understand the character's strengths and weaknesses, you'll find yourself leveling up quicker than before.

~~~

The entire bus ride back to Nekoma High was dead silent. Coaches Nekomata and Naoi were up front, quietly discussing the various rounds of practice that had been played. The rowdy volleyball players were all out cold, completely undisturbed by the bumps in the road that made them knock their heads against the windows and slide off the back rest. Some of the quieter players, Chiyuri and Kenma included, were awake, but they stayed silent as they let the drone of the bus rumble through the air.

"Oh, there." Chiyuri pointed to the corner of Kenma's phone screen, pointing out the small monster that they were hunting in the game. Kenma quickly guided his character over, drawing the blade on the little avatar and quickly dispatching the rare spawn.

"Did we need anything else for the quest?" Kenma asked, his eyes locked to moving the little character away.

"No. That was the last one."

Chiyuri yawned, using her hand to cover her mouth as tears dotted the corner of her eyes. Kenma followed shortly after with a wide yawn of his own. Despite his eyes feeling as if he had ten ton blocks on them, he wanted to finish this last quest. It would get him to the next level.

"Kenma," Chiyuri called, making him glance up at her. She let out a tired giggle and used her head to gesture to his phone. "You're running against a wall."

Indeed, Kenma must've been more tired than he had thought since his character was running in place next to the wall. He sighed, spinning the little virtual joystick and bringing his character to the doorway. He quickly handed in the quest, let out a relieved breath as the familiar sound of the character leveling up beeped quietly from the phone. If he hadn't leveled up, he would've forced himself to stay awake for just a bit longer until he got that level up.

It took barely a minute before Kenma's head fell onto Chiyuri's shoulder. The tired girl barely reacted to the weight and just shuffled so that he wasn't straining his neck. Gently, she pulled the phone out of Kenma's hands, stuffing it into his backpack for safekeeping before leaning against the window. It wasn't long before the soft, steady breathing of Kenma and the hum of the bus lulled her to sleep.

~~~

When they arrived at Nekoma High School, it was dark and the volleyball members were still dead tired as they dragged themselves sluggishly off the bus. Kenma almost tripped down the steps of the vehicle, practically dragging Chiyuri with him as she attempted to keep him from falling. Luckily for the both of them, Kuroo was right there and managed to snatch Kenma by the back of his shirt before they both went down. Kuroo set the younger setter down, but Kenma barely made it three steps before he just decided to sit on the concrete and nod off. Chiyuri, who was somehow more awake than any of the members, stood by Kuroo as they stared at the pudding-haired boy.

"C'mon Kenma. Wake up. We still have to get home." Kuroo stared expectantly down at the boy who only waved a tired hand.

"I'll just sleep out here tonight."

"You're not camping here." The rooster-haired boy rolled his eyes and grabbed Kenma by his arm. Kenma protested briefly, but he had no energy to fight against Kuroo.

"Wait..." Kenma yawned as he was forced to stand on his own two feet. "We should walk Yuri home."

"My home isn't that close to you two's," Chiyuri noted with a frown. The last time the three of them walked home together, Kuroo split off about half way, leaving Kenma and Chiyuri to walk to her house. Plus, Kenma had briefly mentioned that his house was about a 15 minute walk from hers.

"No, no. Kenma's right." Kuroo grinned at her. "We can't let our precious substitute manager walk home after her hard work today."

"Why're you saying it like that?" Chiyuri let out a small huff of amusement as she looked at Kuroo. Whenever he addressed her as their substitute manager, he always emphasized the word substitute as if he was trying to say something about it. Of course, Chiyuri had an inkling what he wanted, but she wasn't one hundred percent sure on her decision yet, so she simply shook it off. "Anyways, I'll let you two walk me half way, but then you two are heading home."

Contrary to Chiyuri's protests, it was a two versus one when they arrived at the crossroad that separated her path from theirs. She couldn't even be the one to walk them home since she had no idea how to get to their house. It had always been Kenma going over to hers. So when pushing them toward their path didn't work, she eventually gave up and allowed them to accompany her home.

Kenma walked between Kuroo and Chiyuri, but was too tired to do much aside from focusing on not tripping over the cracks in the sidewalk. Despite both second years being on the quiet side, Kuroo somehow had enough energy to fill the air with chatter, whether it be about his favorite docosahexaenoic acid or about the practice they had in Miyagi. Chiyuri could only humor the third year, sometimes replying to his questions as she wondered how he wasn't tired after playing so many. Every so often, she'd glance at Kenma to make sure he was still awake enough to keep moving.

A small frown of worry crossed her face when she saw Kenma almost trip over a small rock on the path. Even if Kuroo was going to be walking with Kenma, the third year must be tired too. If she could conclude anything from the things he was rambling out, he was probably talking just to keep himself up. She glanced to the third year, confirming her thoughts as a long yawn washed over Kuroo.

She felt bad that they were walking her home despite their exhaustion. Sure, she got a lot closer with the team, Kenma and Kuroo especially, while acting as their manager, but it didn't mean she wanted them to feel obligated to walk her home. Chiyuri pondered over this until they managed to walk all the way to her gate.

"Where's Hiro?" Kenma asked sleepily as he leaned against the fence. She fished out her keys from her bag, the little cat keychain dangling as she freed it from her bag.

"I left him with Rika," Chiyuri replied. She had made arrangements to pick up Hiro after school tomorrow. She figured they'd be back late and she didn't want to bother Rika too late at night.

"Hiro?" Kuroo asked, confused.

"Oh, I have a calico kitten." Chiyuri pulled out her phone and put a photo of Hiro on the screen. The kitten was laying on his back, his paws drawn in with a toy mouse in his grasp as he stared at the camera in confusion. The cat's bright golden eyes were aimed directly at the camera, so it felt like he was looking directly at Kuroo.

As the three of them stayed standing in front of her house, talking a little about her kitten, Kuroo felt a small wave of sleepiness hit him. Perhaps he was standing still for too long, he wasn't sure. Kenma was already a walking zombie as he practically was sleeping against the fence. Chiyuri, being as observant as she was, quickly noticed.

"Uhm," Chiyuri shyly looked down at the ground. "If you two don't mind, you can spend the night here. I have a couple guest rooms that I keep clean. I feel bad making you two walk home when you're so tired..."

"It's fine," Kuroo tried to say, but Kenma had already agreed. He felt quite comfortable in Chiyuri's house since he had been over quite a bit already. Despite the coldness of the house, especially without the calico kitten wandering around, it still was much better than having to walk fifteen minutes home in his state of exhaustion.

"Don't worry about it too much, Senpai," Chiyuri said with a smile as she gestured for him to go inside the house. Kenma was already dragging himself through the door. Kuroo sighed, thanking the second year as he entered and left his shoes at the doorway. When he took a good look at the interior, he got the same feeling he did from Kenma's house. It was like the two second years were both living alone. Perhaps that was one of the reasons they got along so well.

"The two guest rooms are upstairs on the left side." Chiyuri led the two of them upstairs, showing them to the guest rooms that they could stay in. "They both have their own bathrooms attached, so you can shower and stuff. I keep clean towels in the shelves by the bathtub, so just grab one of those. If you need anything , the second door on the right is my bedroom."

Kuroo nodded, thanking her and slipping into the first room with his bags after saying a small good night to the two of them. Kenma tiredly rubbed his eyes, getting a bearing on his surroundings in his tired state while Chiyuri stood by and waited for him to wake up a little bit.

"You okay?" Chiyuri asked gently with a small giggle. Kenma nodded, yawning as he turned toward her. "You both seem really tired. I'm sorry that part of it is probably because I wanted to play the last set...

"It's not your fault," Kenma replied. "I forgot to ask you how it was playing against Karasuno."

"It was really fun." Chiyuri's grey eyes sparkled a little at the memory as she did a little hop of excitement. "The orange-haired player, their number 10, was especially fun to play against."

Kenma hummed. This excited and expressive Chiyuri was her real self, not the closed off and dull-eyed girl that he had first met. He didn't want to get ahead of himself, but there was this small feeling of warmth in him when he humored the idea that Chiyuri had trusted him enough to come out of her shell.

As Chiyuri smiled one of her genuine smiles, Kenma blamed his tiredness for his actions. If anyone asked him, he would've said that he was just exhausted. With a gentle pull, the pudding haired boy wrapped his arms around her shoulders, bringing her into a hug. Chiyuri's eyes widened in surprise as she felt Kenma's head on her shoulder.

"Kenma?" she voiced, hesitatingly returning the hug with her arms wrapped around his waist.

"It's your choice, but I really want you to be our official manager," Kenma replied tiredly. "I think the whole team does. We'd let you play with us as much as the coaches allow..."

Chiyuri giggled, tightening her hug as a form of gratitude toward the pudding haired boy.

"I'll really think hard about it." She pried herself free of his arms and turned him toward the room. "Now go to bed. You're literally about to fall asleep on me." Kenma yawned yet again, as if confirming her statement, but he gave her a lazy smile as he agreed.

"Oyasumi, Yuri."

~~~

The next morning, Chiyuri got up a little earlier than usual so she could prepare breakfast for the three of them. It felt a little weird for her to be preparing so much food, but she found herself enjoying it slightly as she hummed quietly around the kitchen. Admittedly, she felt like she shouldn't have had as much energy as she did considering she didn't even go to bed until almost two hours after she had sent Kenma to the guest room. Her heart was restless for some reason and she kept thinking about the hug. It was confusing, but her main thoughts revolved around her regret for pulling away so quickly.

Chiyuri shook off her thoughts, focusing on not burning the miso soup. The rice had already been steamed and was sitting in her rice cooker. Various small side dishes for the rice were put under a small mesh food cover. Unfortunately, she didn't have any fish in her fridge, so she hoped Kuroo wouldn't mind since he seemed to be quite fond of it.

To no one's surprise, Kuroo was the first of the two boys to get up. He made his way downstairs after hearing some pans clatter on the floor as Chiyuri accidentally knocked some washed ones onto the floor.

"Good morning, Senpai," Chiyuri greeted. "I made us some breakfast. Do you know if Kenma's up yet?"

"Morning Chi-Chan." Kuroo greeted back with an energetic smile. "I doubt he's up. I'll go get him." With that, Kuroo turned around, heading back up the stairs toward the guest room that Kenma took.

"Kyanma!" Chiyuri laughed as she heard Kuroo yell out Kenma's nickname that he hated. "Wake up, Kyanma! It's bright and - Ow!"

The house went silent again and Chiyuri raised an eyebrow as she glanced in the direction of the staircase. Were the two of them okay? Should she go up to check on them?

A few minutes passed and there was still no sound, so she started making her way to the stairs. As she got to the bottom, she heard Kenma and Kuroo making their way downstairs again. Kenma seemed fairly normal for having been just woken up, but Kuroo's bright early morning attitude was gone as he glared at his setter.

"What happened?" Chiyuri asked as she walked with them toward the dining table where everything was set out. For once in quite a while now, the dining area would actually be used. It actually felt somewhat nice in her opinion.

"I forgot that you can't recklessly awaken Kenma," Kuroo grumbled. "Itadakimasu."

"What?" Chiyuri laughed. Kenma ignored Kuroo as he said his thanks for the meal and started eating.

"Did you know," Kuroo leaned to Chiyuri, holding his hand to his mouth as if telling her a secret, "Kenma's type AB." Chiyuri leaned back, looking at Kuroo in confusion.

"I'm type AB too?" Kuroo gasped and looked at her in joking fear.

"A Type O Sheep in a field of AB Wolves." Kuroo smirked as Kenma rolled his eyes.

"We're not wolves, Kuroo."

"Ah, right. You two are tiny harmless kittens." Kuroo relaxed into his seat slightly with a teasing expression on his face still as he picked up his chopsticks and began eating.

"We're not kittens."

"Yes you are."

"No."

"Yes."

"No"

"Meow."

Chiyuri couldn't help but enjoy the morning banter. It felt a lot warmer with the two of them there. Normally, even with the light streaming into the room in the mornings, it felt cold and lifeless, but this morning definitely was not. A small feeling of loneliness washed over her as she reminded herself they would only be here for this morning. However, she knew that she had gotten a taste of warmth, and it wouldn't leave her mind that easily.

~~~

The walk to school as well as the beginning of the school day was fairly normal. For Chiyuri and Kenma, that generally meant that they were off in their own worlds, both playing games when they could and occasionally texting each other from four seats away. But her luck was bound to run out, and it did so at the beginning of lunch.

"Did you hear? The Phantom got into a fight with a Senpai."

"Didn't she get kicked off the team?"

"They're better off without her."

Chiyuri frowned slightly as she leaned against the wall by the bathroom door where the girls' voices were coming from. No one but the two teams and the coaches should've known about the fight, but she supposed it was hard to keep gossip from spreading in a high school. With a small sigh, she pushed herself off the wall, turning back the way she came and making her way back to the classroom. She was wrong in thinking that people would stop talking about her behind her back just because she quit the club.

Her bright mood from the wonderful morning she had was immediately dampened as she trudged slowly down the hall. No matter how much the team and Kenma reassured her and told her not to listen to the words of those who didn't know what they were talking about, she found it hard to follow their advice. Sure, it didn't make sense for her to care that much about how these people she didn't even know viewed her, but it was hard for her to just let it be.

"Chi!" Chiyuri slowly lifted her head, her shielded grey eyes falling upon Ano, the girls' Libero. Ano was just barely shorter than Chiyuri, but the way she held herself definitely gave her a bigger presence. The girl was aggressively waving her hand in the air, dragging all the attention to her. Not that Ano seemed to care at all as she grinned and beckoned Chiyuri over. The latter tilted her head slightly in confusion, but made her way to her friend and former teammate anyways.

"Ano?"

"How was the practice match in Miyagi?" Ano fell into step next to Chiyuri as the two of them walked back to her class in 2-3.

"Hm? How did you know about the practice?" Chiyuri looked confused, but Ano only laughed.

"You said it in front of us all in the staff room. Rika, Ume and I were pretty jealous you got to go to Miyagi. I heard from one of my friends that moved there they have some crazy first years."

"Oh! Hinata-Kun and Kageyama-Kun." Chiyuri nodded as she recalled their names. "Yeah, those two first years were insane."

"Not better than you, I'm guessing?" Ano gave her an expectant look and Chiyuri innocently tilted her head.

"Their receives could do some work..."

"Heh~ I want to go next time, too! I'll show them a few moves as the best Libero in high school."

"Better than Komori from Itachiyama?" Chiyuri raised an eyebrow, her gentle voice slightly teasing.

"Well, no, but I'll get there!" Ano declared strongly. Chiyuri nodded, humoring the girl even though they both knew that she didn't have ambition to become the top Libero in high school. Maybe top five would be enough for her before she decided she was done climbing the ladder.

As Ano continued on chattering all the way to the classroom, Chiyuri drowned her out in favor of thinking about her friendship with the girl beside her. After the girls' team basically fell apart and Chiyuri quit, Ano didn't just stop talking to her like some of the other members on the team. She was quite thankful to the female libero, especially that Ano even stood up for her during their spat with Sumi and Yuka. A small smile subconsciously came to her, making Ano stop mid sentence.

"C-Chiyuri..." Chiyuri's looked up, not realizing she was smiling just before and hummed. Ano looked especially moved, launching herself toward Chiyuri and wrapping the girl in a hug. Chiyuri quickly returned the hug, confused at Ano's sudden change in behavior. "Chi, your smile is really pretty, you know that?" Ano pulled away, wiping imaginary tears from the corners of her eyes. Then, much to Chiyuri's surprise and confusion, Ano's eyes hardened and she rolled her her sleeves before stomping down back the way they came.

"Ano?" Chiyuri called after her.

"I heard what they said earlier, you know. I'm about to go teach some Chatty Kathys in the bathroom a lesson about talking behind someone's back. No one is going to take that smile away from you again."

Chiyuri took a second to understand what Ano was talking about, but then her eyes widened and she quickly raced after Ano. As much as it brought happiness to her knowing that Ano wanted to stand up for her, she wasn't about to let the Libero get suspended for starting a fight.

~~~

After school, Kenma and Chiyuri were waiting by the gate for their respective third year friends. Chiyuri had already informed Kenma that since she was picking up Hiro today from Rika, she would just go home with the third year girl and spend some time there so he didn't need to walk with her. He had agreed, but told her he'd at least wait with her at the gate since the boys' practice was canceled anyways. The coaches said they had an exhaustive practice that weekend, so they gave the Monday practice off, much to the pudding-haired boy's delight.

"Chi-Chan!" Rika came running over, Kuroo not far behind her. It was clear the two of them had been bickering again by the slightly ticked smile that Kuroo wore as he glared at Rika. The girl quickly wrapped Chiyuri in a hug, which the grey-eyed girl returned. Rika turned to Kenma, though she still didn't let go of Chiyuri. "Sorry for stealing her from you, Kozume-Kun."

"Ah, it's fine?" Kenma worded it like a question since he wasn't sure why she was apologizing? What did she mean stealing Chiyuri from him?

"I'll text you later, Kenma," Chiyuri said with a wave as Rika let her go and started to drag her down the path toward her house. "Bye, Kenma, Kuroo-Senpai."

The two boys waved slightly, saying their goodbyes to the girls before turning down their own path. It was natural, yet unnatural to walk with just the two of them since they had both been spending a fair amount of time with the black-haired spiker.

For the two girls, the way home was filled with questions from Rika about the matches in Miyagi. Ano had been talking about the two insane first years after hearing it from the grapevine, and Rika wished that she could've seen their freak quick. However, she was quite satisfied hearing it from Chiyuri as well. To Rika's surprise, Chiyuri had a lot more to say than the third-year thought she would. In fact, Chiyuri was a lot more open as her eyes sparkled as she described her own three on three match against them. A slight smile made itself known and Rika felt a sad smile come across her own face. Guilt filled the third year as Chiyuri, for once, animatedly talked about her time in Miyagi, free from all the whispers about the Phantom.

"Ne, Chi-Chan..." Rika said as Chiyuri finished her recollections. "Have you ever wondered why you have the nickname phantom? Before it became a negative thing, that is."

Chiyuri frowned slightly, glancing at Rika then back to their path. Her question took the second year a bit off guard. She hadn't ever wondered where the nickname came from. It was just sort of there before she realized it.

"Not really..."

"It's because of your play style, you know. It's not just because you don't like having attention on you. You aren't invisible."

"My play style, huh?" Chiyuri hummed slightly as she continued locked her hands behind her back and stepped lightly. She supposed that Rika had a point.

"You never really make much noise on the court and when you call for a ball, it's mostly in gestures or you speak just loud enough for the team to hear, but no one else, the other team can sometimes go an entire match without hearing a peep from you." Rika sighed, smiling sadly as the second year kept her eyes ahead. "We named you the Phantom because it was so cool how you could seem like you disappeared on the court and then just reappeared before they could process it. It was so cool..."

Rika was silent for a moment. Chiyuri glanced over, sighing slightly as she turned and stopped directly in front of Rika. The third year was looking like she wanted to cry.

"Rika, what's wrong?"

"I'm just... I'm so sorry, Chi-Chan!" Tears blurred the girl's vision as she latched her arms around Chiyuri in a tight hug. Despite being much taller than Chiyuri, Rika leaned over and buried her face into Chiyuri's shoulder. The younger girl reacted quickly, wrapping Rika in a hug of her own as she tried to comfort the third year as best as they could. Thankfully, there weren't that many people on the path that Rika usually took home, so Chiyuri didn't have to worry about judgmental stares from passing pedestrians. "I'm such a bad friend for not realizing what was going on sooner! As captain and as your best friend, I should've done something to stop it before things got so bad!"

"Rika, calm down. Everything's fine now! I don't care about it anymore..."

"But you should!" Rika cried, using her sleeve to wipe away the tears roughly as she pulled away. "The Phantom was supposed to be a good thing! It was never intended to be a bad name for you, and I thought that it was a good thing this whole time! I should've known better! I shouldn't have trusted Sumi!"

Chiyuri frowned. "What does Sumi have to do with this?"

"Sumi was the one that started all the rumors and turned our name for you into something bad! She was jealous that you've been a starter since you came onto the team. I found out this weekend while you were in Miyagi that she had started rumors about you, making lies about how you were emotionless and how your grey eyes were like the devil's and that everyone's secrets would be exposed if they talked to you. She told her friends on other teams that you did nothing but steal with winning shot and didn't deserve to even be on the team." Rika held onto Chiyuri's hand tightly, still sobbing. Chiyuri gently reached over and rubbed her arm. "I'm so sorry, Chiyuri."

"It's not your fault, Rika. If anything, I didn't help the rumors."

"But I was the one that gave you that nickname in our first year!"

"Ne, Rika." Chiyuri sighed softly. "You know, at first, I was thankful I wasn't getting their attention. You know how awkward I am and how I'm not good with dealing with people. Even before this whole situation, I was scared of how people judged me and how they perceived me, so I put on this mask that allowed me to stay as neutral and small as possible until I could understand the other person." Chiyuri's voice was soft, her hand squeezing the older girl's lightly as Rika sniffled. "But then, as I played in my style and tried to stay out of the spotlight despite being one of the six people on the court, I started to realize how sad it was for me to keep getting easy shots like that. I suddenly wanted to do something about it, but I was scared."

Chiyuri used her free hand and dug into her book-bag, pulling out a small packet of tissues. She drew out one of the tissues, handing it to the third-year who let go of her hand to accept it and blow her nose.

"I was so scared that I backed out. I thought, if I just continue scoring for the team, if I just keep improving quietly, maybe someday the team and everyone else will notice my presence without me having to draw attention. I'll be there, but I won't be the main focus and I won't have to worry about all the judgement on me at once." Chiyuri looked to her hands, fiddling with her fingers slightly as she continued speaking. "But things only got worse as the other teams started to hate me and my classmates seemed to blame me for things I didn't do. I got even more scared to bring attention to myself. I didn't want to because they were already viewing me so negatively, I didn't want it to get worse if I came into their attention more."

"But I don't get how this isn't my fault," Rika sniffled.

"It isn't because you didn't intend for this to happen and you never knew anything was going on. I didn't let you in and I just kept locking myself away out of fear." Chiyuri's grey eyes met Rika's and she gave the third year a small smile. "I'm sorry too, Rika. For making you feel like a bad friend. I just never knew how to open up."

"Chi-Chan..." Rika launched herself at the second year who almost fell back. Chiyuri quickly took a step back to stead herself and support both her and Rika. "You're going to make me cry again, Chiyuri."

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry, okay? Don't cry again. This is my last packet of tissues so you'll be wiping your snot with your sleeves if you use it all." Chiyuri giggled a bit as she patted her back. "But you should really stop feeling bad, I'm okay now. I never blamed you and I won't. You're my best friend, Rika."

Chiyuri smiled again, showing Rika as best she could that she was okay. The grey-eyed girl linked her arm with the third-year, forcing them to walk down the path toward her house again.

"C'mon. We should get back before Hiro decides to tear apart your comforter or something."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Question of the Chapter: If I were to write another Haikyuu Fanfic, either alongside or after this one, which character do y'all want to see?

Hey Hey Hey!

I managed to finally finish this chapter! I know I even told all of y'all I'd be busy with work and eventually back to school, but holy goodness, I wasn't expecting to be this busy... Also, not me forgetting I had an AO3 account to check once in a while...

Anyways, I somewhat edited Chapters 1-9. :) There isn't much of a change, but I'm sorry to everyone who commented before, because I just copy pasted the edited version from my writing program, your comments may have been displaced, so they won't show up in line. >~< Also, really sorry for the spam of notifications you probably got. I was writing in today's date and because I started writing this story in 2020, I accidentally put the edit date as 03/31/2020 and then I had to go back and correct it before I embarrassed myself even more by leaving it there... T^T

But moving on, I actually don't know how long this story is going to continue for. Haikyuu is literally like, four seasons long and I don't think with the way I write I can write this for all four seasons... So that's still undecided for now. I guess I'll keep writing until I either run out of ideas or I find a good place to end it. Don't worry though! I'm not saying this because I want to end the story already. I was just wondering.

That's it for now! I hope you enjoy this chapter! I'll continue trying to squeeze in time to write whenever I can!

Stay safe and healthy!
ThePurpleDragon