There are usually some special requirements to awaken a character in a game.

When those requirements are met, you can choose to either proceed with it, or you can choose to reject it until later.

~~~

"You didn't give me a warning..." Kenma grumbled as he gave Chiyuri a slight feigned glare while the two of them walked out of the gym toward the fountain to empty the bottles. After the brief (re)introduction from the coaches, it was clear that Coach Nekomata and Coach Naoi both had taken a liking to Chiyuri shortly following the matches in Miyagi . According to Kuroo, he had practically shoved Chiyuri's notes in their faces and they saw how priceless she was as a manager. It was to Coach Nekomata's great pleasure that she volunteered for the position herself before he had to ask her himself.

"Sorry," Chiyuri replied sheepishly to the pudding-haired boy. "I really only made my final decision after I was standing outside the staff room after school..."

Kenma kept his expression for a second, before he couldn't fake it anymore and it dropped. Chiyuri was shuffling her feet awkwardly while holding the tray of water bottles at her side, waiting for Kenma to say something else. Even though she could tell he was joking and he had been one of the many people to urge her to join, there was that slight fear that he would take everything back and he would scold her. It was unreasonable - Chiyuri knew this - yet she couldn't let go of that underlying fear. The observant setter seemed to notice it, even though she tried to hide it as best she could. He was getting better and better at seeing through her mask.

With a small sigh, Kenma wrapped his arms around the girl's shoulder, pulling her into a reassuring hug.

"I'm happy you joined, Chiyuri," he said softly, letting his blonde-tipped hair cover his face slightly. He could smell a very faint rose scent from the girl as he hugged her; he assumed it was her shampoo or maybe it was her lotion. "Really happy. I'm sure everyone on the team is ecstatic too."

Chiyuri smiled slightly as she took his words to heart. He somehow knew what she needed to hear, even if she was trying to hide it. Before she could return the hug, he pulled away.

"I just still can't believe you didn't tell me... I thought we were better friends than that." Kenma jokingly huffed in disappointment, hiding the weird feeling in him when he said the word 'friend.' He ignored it for the time being as he decided this wasn't the moment to ponder. Instead, he should be focused on how she had finally joined the boys' team. He knew they would definitely treat her better.

The black-haired girl giggled, shaking her head as she turned toward the fountain and placed the water bottles on the ledge above it. Now that she knew he wasn't at all upset she joined, she felt a bit better about playful banter. So, with wet hands, she flicked water toward the slightly taller setter.

"Oh shush. I didn't tell anyone, so in a way you were second to know, the first being Coach. You're just tied in second place with the rest of your team."

Kenma wiped off the water, flicking some back at her in revenge, half for the water attack and half for being second in knowing she was going to join the team. Chiyuri let out a small yelp when she felt the cold droplets of water on her face. The setter couldn't help a small smile at the former wing spiker, now manager.

"Oya?" A voice sounded from behind. Subconsciously, Chiyuri's free and cheerful expression dropped and she turned around to look at who had come along with her usual emotionless mask. Her grey eyes weren't cloudy as they had been when her walls were kilometers high with barbed wire on top, but it was clear that she was still easing into opening herself up. Kenma let out a small sigh before he turned away from observing Chiyuri.

"Kuroo-Senpai?" Chiyuri asked, her mask relaxing slightly at the familiar third year. He grinned his usual devilish grin and he put his hands on his hips.

"I seem to have disturbed something." Kuroo's grin unnerved Kenma as it seemed directed to him for some reason. Chiyuri shook her head, unaware of Kuroo's slightly teasing look at the setter next to her.

"Oh, sorry! We were emptying the water bottles," Chiyuri motioned to the bottles which were unscrewed and half of them were drained of water; she had been subconsciously doing her task as she talked. Chiyuri turned to Kenma, patting his shoulder slightly. "You should go back first. I'll finish this and then go in to help."

"No need!" Kuroo interrupted. "Take your time, you two. No worries at all!"

Kenma couldn't stand the smirk that widened on the rooster-haired captain's face. Ignoring him, he agreed with Chiyuri and said a quick 'okay' before heading toward Kuroo. When he made it next to Kuroo, Kenma practically glared at the boy not to say anything, but clearly, as his best friend, Kuroo wouldn't let a single chance to annoy Kenma slip by.

"I didn't mean to interrupt your flirting," Kuroo said in feigned apology after they were out of earshot of their new manager. His cackling laughter that followed was a clear indication that he didn't feel any tiny bit apologetic.

"Urusai. We weren't flirting or whatever." Kenma didn't want to look at Kuroo in an effort to hide his slightly red face. They weren't flirting like Kuroo had worded it. Absolutely not. Flirting meant that one or the other felt some form of romantic attraction toward the other, right? They were just friends, nothing more.

"C'mon, don't deny it," Kuroo prodded further, his grin widening as he noticed Kenma's flushed ears.

"Stop it. You're going to make her uncomfortable, and she just joined. And, as I said, we're just friends, Kuroo."

Kuroo raised his hands in surrender, but it was clear he had won. Kenma's tone had become more and more conflicted with each word. They were just friends. Only friends and nothing more. Just friends.

Why did it sound like he was trying to convince himself?

~~~

It didn't take long for Chiyuri to finish up emptying the water bottles and giving them a quick wash. She had found herself slightly missing the comforting presence of Kenma, but she didn't think much of it. Perhaps it was just because he had been someone who had made such a big impact on her life thus far so she felt an attachment to him.

Regardless, it wasn't something that she needed to really think about for too long. When she made her way back to the gym with the dried bottles, it retreated completely to the back of her mind as she was locked onto by none other than their manager-crazed ace.

"Chiyuri-Chan~!"

Yamamoto practically sprinted toward her as she re-entered the gym, exaggerated tears of joy on his face as he tried to wrap her in a hug. Just before he managed to grab her, she side-stepped in a panic and avoided him. The manager-crazed second year flopped to the ground unceremoniously, but recovered quickly as he hopped up with a wide grin.

"Yamamoto! Stop it!" Kuroo scolded. He rubbed his temples slightly, realizing how much more annoying Yamamoto was going to get now that they actually had a manager. He probably won't shut up about how Nekoma could now rival Karasuno's manager, even if he was joining that second-year wing spiker on Karasuno's team when it came to pining after their manager - Shimizu or whatever her name was. "Do you want Chi-Chan to resign the day she joined?"

"It's just..." Yamamoto wiped his tears away. "We finally have a manager! A female manager at that!" His expression did a 180 as he smirked triumphantly and pointed in a random direction toward Fukurodani Academy. "You hear that, Bokuto?! We have a female manager now too!"

"Bokuto's doesn't care that much about having female managers." Kai said as passed by with Shibayama carrying a pole.

"How could he not care?! They have two female managers! Two!"

"Pipe down, Yamamoto!" Kuroo yelled again, a vein popping as he smacked the boy upside the head. "If you have so much energy, go run it off!"

Chiyuri watched the chaos of the group for a little, hiding a small smile behind her hand. Unfortunately, the entire team basically had their attention on her regardless and ended up swarming her. Kuroo and Yaku specifically began teasing and cooing her about how she tried (but failed) to hide it. It earned the two of them a karate chop on the head from Kai who had to apologize for the two of them.

With Chiyuri now joining the workforce to clean up the gym, it was done fairly quickly. Kuroo had taken the initiative to pair her up with Kenma to clean with the intent to gain some teasing material to pester the setter about. However, he failed to realize how accustomed to cleaning together the two were due to all their late night practices together, so it was to his dismay that they simply did their task efficiently and silently.

"Kuroo-Senpai?" Chiyuri called slightly as he finished putting the mop away. He hummed, turning to face his manager with a curious look. "You're good at Chemistry, so it means that you have the basics down solid right?"

Kuroo smirked, his eyes drifting to Kenma who stood behind Chiyuri. The setter had his eyes averted, but the rooster-haired boy could tell he didn't agree to the direction of the conversation.

"Of course! I think I can proudly say that I'm one of the top students in the chemistry class. I doubt even Amisaki can do better than me."

"Rika hates Chemistry..." Chiyuri muttered it under her breath, but Kuroo heard it anyways. He let out an astonished and slightly offended gasp as a joke, recoiling with a hand over his heart.

"She hates Chemistry? I guess I have to tell her all about how the beneficial properties of various chemical compounds."

Kuroo's teasing grin widened. He knew 100% that the reason Rika hated Chemistry was because of how much he liked to nag her about learning it properly and then proceeded to give her a lecture on the topics. It was just particularly fun for him to aggravate the girl.

"Anyways," Chiyuri quickly said, moving on from the topic while praying that Rika didn't find out she had instigated this topic. "Can you help Kenma and I. We were going to study tonight, but I didn't really understand today's guest lecturer on partial charges."

"You're on partial charges?" Kuroo raised an eyebrow at her words. "I thought that wasn't until later in the year?"

Kenma shrugged.

"It was the topic. Are you coming or not?"

Kuroo pondered it for a moment. He had an inkling - no, more than an inkling - that Kenma was falling fast for Chiyuri. He could either let them have their peace and grow closer on their own accord or... The third year grinned, quickly turning Kenma by his shoulder and pushing him out of the storage room toward the club room.

"Of course I'll help! Kenma and I should get changed though, so we'll be right back."

Missing out on a chance to get material to tease the pudding-haired setter on? No way.

~~~

"You have to use the electronegativity to calculate the partial charge, Kenma," Kuroo said seriously as he pointed to an equation in the textbook. Various textbooks and notes were spread across Chiyuri's small table in her room. Kenma let out an annoyed sigh, scribbling down the information needed. He didn't understand why he needed to know all this chemistry stuff. He wasn't even going to be a chemist when he graduated, so was this really necessary for a core class?

"How are you getting this stuff, Yuri?" The setter complained slightly as he gave up trying to solve the equation after his fourth attempt. Kuroo kept trying to explain, but he just wasn't getting it. Chiyuri, who was sitting to the left side of him, shrugged.

"Kuroo-Senpai is actually a pretty decent teacher," Chiyuri sent Kenma a smile as she tapped her pencil on the paper slightly. Kenma gave her a deadpan look, laying his head on the table in defeat while Kuroo, who sat directly across from Chiyuri and to Kenma's right, grinned triumphantly. "I still don't know what I'm doing half the time though, but I think it's just lack of practice..."

"How are you even the smartest in our grade if you don't even understand what you're doing?" Kenma's tone was teasing, causing Chiyuri to giggle and shrug again.

"You're the top of your grade?" Kuroo cut in, raising an eyebrow at the girl. "Even above the people class 2-4 and 2-5?"

Chiyuri nodded, tilting her head slightly as if to ask why he wanted to know.

"My score on tests are near perfect, somehow, so I'm always the top student in terms of scores. Why?"

"Why aren't you in class 2-4 or 2-5 then?" Kuroo frowned slightly in confusion. Class 2-3 and below were not college preparatory courses. 2-4 and 2-5 were, so it didn't make sense why a smart student like her wouldn't be pushed into college preparatory classes.

"I just asked the teachers to take me out of the higher courses," Chiyuri said like it was something obvious. "I wanted to play more volleyball, so I just put in a request and they accepted it."

"Just like that?!" Kuroo voiced his astonishment. It wasn't rare for teachers to move students around, but he knew that they would've loved to have Chiyuri in college preparatory classes. Chiyuri nodded in reply.

"Stop over thinking it, Kuroo," Kenma finally interjected. His words were slightly muffled as he still had his head down on the table. His hair served as a curtain between him and his chemistry assignment that clearly hadn't been worked on since Kuroo stopped forcing the younger boy to. "Your brain will implode if you force it."

"Excuse you, Kyanma. I'm a top student in my own class; I think I can do a bit more thinking before I get a headache." Kuroo flicked the setter with his finger, clicking his tongue in disapproval at Kenma's jab. "Anyways, since Kenma's burnt out already, why don't we take a short break. I also need to borrow your restroom, Chi-Chan."

"Oh, sure." Chiyuri nodded. "Just use the same bathroom of the room that you stayed in last time."

"Right. I'll be back soon." Kuroo stood up, stretching his legs slightly and cracking his neck. Kenma shooed him away, a slight comment about how he wanted Kuroo to fall in the toilet so that he didn't have to continue studying after.

When Kuroo left the room, Kenma felt Chiyuri slide next to him and he slightly turned his head on the table to see her out of the corner of his eyes. With a slightly tired sigh, he lifted himself off the table and sat up.

"Let's not invite Kuroo next time," Kenma complained lightly. "We see enough of him and hear enough about Chemistry during practice that I think I'm good without more."

"You have to admit that he's actually pretty decent tutor though. Didn't you say before that he studied with you for all your previous tests?"

"Yeah, but we studied everything but Chemistry. I always made sure he didn't teach that because he'd go way beyond what was taught in class. I have a headache already; imagine if I had to deal with it every study session..."

Chiyuri tilted her head, her grey eyes flickering to his golden orbs slightly before she shifted her sitting position. With a grin, she patted her lap.

"Lay down."

Kenma blinked, staring at Chiyuri in confusion.

"What?"

"Lay your head here. You said you have a headache right?" She patted her lap again and gave Kenma and innocent smile. "Just trust me and do it."

Kenma hesitated for a second, then gave in and did as she asked. He felt heat rising to his cheeks, but tried his best to push it down. Friends did this, didn't they? She was just trying to help him with his headache. Friends helped each other all the time.

He laid down sideways, the left side of his face on Chiyuri's thighs as he pulled out his phone to try to distract himself from his flushed face. Right as he opened his game, he felt Chiyuri gently run her fingers through his hair.

"Rika did this for me whenever we studied together. I got headaches sometimes and she would massage my head to get rid of it when we took breaks." Chiyuri's voice was soft and Kenma felt himself slightly relaxing under the rhythmic movements of her hands. With a nod, he drew his attention to his game, running his character around on small, errand-type quests.

When Kuroo came back, he stopped short of the table and tried to hide a smirk. Kenma had apparently fallen asleep on Chiyuri, his phone half in his hand and half on the floor, and Chiyuri was gently petting his head.

"Oya?" Kuroo voiced.

"Shh." Chiyuri glanced up. "Kenma fell asleep."

"I can see that." The third year sat down next to the girl, sneakily taking a picture for future teasing purposes. "How did he end up laying on you?"

"He said he had a headache, and Rika often did this for me," the black-haired girl replied. Her grey eyes were focused on Kenma, and so Kuroo to a second to examine her. He mentally reasoned that he was doing a bit of scouting for Kenma, even if neither of them realized anything.

"So, how're you and Kenma?" Kuroo asked, testing the waters a little bit.

"What do you mean?" Chiyuri was confused.

"Do you like Kenma?" Kuroo went straight to the point.

"Mhm."

Kuroo took a second to process and examine her response, but then let out a small, defeated sigh. She was obviously completely oblivious to her feelings.

"Do I want to push them along...?" Kuroo muttered.

"Did you say something?" Chiyuri looked up, glancing a Kuroo who quickly shook his head no. Maybe he'd push Kenma a bit. At least the setter was more aware than their manager was.

~~~

"Kuroo, for the last time, no." Kenma huffed in annoyance as he tried to focus on his game.

Kuroo had come in during the early afternoon on Sunday to pester Kenma about whether or not he and Chiyuri were just friends or if there was something else going on. Kenma, on the other hand, had been adamantly denying anything Kuroo said on the topic.

"Really think about it, Kenma. Really. Are you absolutely sure there's nothing? She's just your friend?"

Kenma harshly hit the pause button on his game, turning to glare at Kuroo who was lounged on his bed. He was frustrated, but not only because of Kuroo's insistence. He couldn't really understand why his own denial was making him annoyed.

"Yes, Kuroo. Yuri is my friend."

"Really? So you'd be okay if I confessed or something? Or what if Yamamoto likes her? You know how he's always raving about Chiyuri as our manager, even before it was official."

Kenma glared at Kuroo's aggravation.

"Are you bored or something?"

"Well, not really." The rooster-haired mail gave the setter a wide smirk. "I'm enjoying seeing you squirm."

"Well, let's hope you'll enjoy not spiking a single ball this next week because I won't set to you."

"Don't be petty, Kenma. I'm just trying to push you down the next road. I can practically see the dopamine and norepinephrine being released in that brain of yours."

"All I can feel is annoyance and a need to throw you out my window."

Kenma went back to his game after the empty threat. They both knew he didn't have the energy, nor the physique, to actually throw the third year out. Kuroo sighed, getting the hint from the empty threat that Kenma wanted him to leave on his own two feet.

"Alright, alright. I get it. Can you at least think about it?"

Kuroo put his hands up in surrender, his golden feline eyes focusing on the back of Kenma's head. Kenma didn't bother turning around, but he nodded his head slightly, albeit hesitantly.

"Fine. I'll think about it."

~~~

Think about it he did. In fact, it took up so much of his thoughts that he had accidentally forgotten about the regular extra practice that Chiyuri usually did, even after becoming their manager. She wasn't practicing to prove herself anymore, but rather just to enjoy it.

Monday, he had been halfway home before Kuroo texted to ask where he went after the team practice. Kenma apologized, but was far too occupied to head back. Chiyuri assured him that it would be okay. Tuesday, Kenma hadn't forgotten, but he had been more lethargic than usual and Chiyuri insisted they skip practice out of worry for him.

On Wednesday, her late night practices were discovered by the team and they had dragged her into their regular practice, so she was far too tired afterwards since they had her running around. Lev in particular kept wanting her to teach him how to perform straight spikes and Kuroo found it the perfect chance to have Chiyuri handle him for a day since he seemed to listen decently well to her. Thursday and Friday were basically spent like Wednesday where even Yaku had joined in and insisted on receiving as many spikes as possible while Lev pulled Chiyuri around to spike and block with him. It got to the point where Chiyuri ended up returning the gym key she held to the staff room and gave up on practicing alone. There was a slight pang of sadness at the loss of their shared time after practice, but Kenma was conflicted by the fact that she clearly was much happier being accepted as part of the team. Sometimes, he'd even receive texts from her where she simply just was overjoyed about having such a closely knit group of friends and how she felt blessed that they had let her feel included and welcomed in ways that many of the others, their classmates included, didn't.

Alas, it took him a whole week, more mangas than he could count, at least five romance-focused games, and another two hour talk with Kuroo to figure it all out.

He liked Chiyuri.

Not just as a friend though. Goodness, of course he liked Chiyuri as a friend. She was one of the only people who wouldn't mind just playing some games quietly together or doing their own separate things while just being near each other. She made sure that he was comfortable with everything without being overbearing. She knew for the most part what bothered him. They simply just clicked from the get-go. But this was different. The feeling he had toward her was different than just that. He knew what it was, but at the same time had no idea what to do about it.

He liked Chiyuri. As in, romantic like.

Kenma sighed, staring at his PSP which had been flashing 'game over' for a good five minutes now before he threw it onto his bed and leaned against the side. Kenma wasn't slow in figuring things out; he wasn't dumb. Sure, maybe a bit socially awkward and he hated bringing attention to himself, but that was also what made it so much easier to figure it out. He found comfort with her attention and somehow found himself wanting to talk to her.

Yeah, it took a little longer than usual for him to finally put the pieces together. Kuroo had insisted that he knew the first time Chiyuri sought out Kenma after her training camp, so it wasn't like he had come even close to being the first to figure it out. But could anyone really blame him? He had been analyzing people for forever and even more so on the court, so he learned to figure out how to read people's emotions and their reactions to understand what they were thinking. However, affection? This wasn't something that he came across a lot in a game of volleyball or from the students around him. Sure, he heard about how this girl had a crush on that boy from another class or the gossip about how that first year was smitten with the third year. But it never occurred to him that it would be an emotion that he would have to deal with.

However, it did become something the setter had to deal with, and he wasn't quite sure what to do.

He knew Chiyuri better than she probably thought he did, but that was what was making the situation more difficult. He knew Chiyuri was probably so inexperienced with any sort of friendship that she probably couldn't begin to understand a romantic relationship. She understood the concepts in romance mangas and otome games, but she couldn't seem to apply it to herself. Regardless of how many times the team had shown that they wouldn't neglect her, she had this concept in her mind about how she had to keep reminding herself that she had friends, that they were all friends, as if she was scared that she would go back to being the Phantom. It was evident in the way she kept repeating to Kenma that she had found friends on the team, friends outside of Rika and Ano who had stuck by her after the whole ordeal on the girls' team. Chiyuri was so hung up on that fact that Kenma knew for sure anything he said about liking her would go right over her head and she'd take it platonically.

Then again, it wasn't like he was brave enough to go head on about this. But did he have a choice anymore after he admitted everything to Kuroo.

The stupid third year had a stupid grin that bothered the hell out of Kenma the whole time he was over. To make things worse, Chiyuri had agreed to become their manager not even a couple weeks ago, which meant Kenma knew Kuroo would immediately start scheming things during even their practices. The girl he liked becoming their manager and thus giving Kuroo more chances to mess with the two of them with his stupid plans and that stupid grin?

How fun.

As if his thoughts had called upon the devil, Kuroo popped his head into Kenma's room.

"So-"

"Don't say it, Kuroo," Kenma glared.

"- can I say I told you so?" Kuroo grinned, ignoring Kenma who sighed and grabbed a pillow to chuck at Kuroo. He had lost interest in his game for the time being; his mind was too busy trying to sort out his own feelings. As much as he loved his games, he couldn't play when he was so unfocused. Kuroo caught the pillow Kenma threw and flopped onto the bed with it, sitting cross legged while holding the pillow in his lap.

Kenma sat silently, staring at the floor of his room before sighing and turning to Kuroo.

"I don't know what to do..." he admitted.

"Oya? Are you asking me for help, Kyanma?"

"Not anymore since you called me Kyanma."

"Okay, okay. I'll help." Kuroo patted Kenma on the head and the younger male swatted it away. "What do you need me to do for you?"

"I don't know what to even do..." Kenma paused, looked to Kuroo, then deadpanned. "No. I'm not confessing."

"What about this?" Kuroo pulled a game from his bag. It was clearly a dating-sim, something Kenma just subconsciously avoided since it just wasn't his style.

"Did you come here with that prepared?" Kenma gave Kuroo a suspicious look but took the game into his hands anyways. The disc cover explained the basis of the game, where the player simply had to go through a series of choices to increase affection with different characters. A standard dating-sim game if Kenma could tell anything. "How is this going to help?"

"Hey, I did a lot of research to find one that would have a character that was somewhat like Chi-Chan," Kuroo gave Kenma a triumphant look, pointing to one of the various characters on the back of the disk. "Maybe it'll give you some ideas on how to catch her heart."

"Kuroo... I don't think this will help with Yuri..." Kenma gave the disk a skeptical look and tried to hand it back to the older boy, but Kuroo pushed it back to Kenma.

"Just give it a try," he insisted. Kenma felt a bit weird about it, but he relented and held onto the disk. "Oh yeah, I have something for you."

Kuroo fished out his phone, swiping across the screen a few times before turning it so Kenma could see. It was the photo of where Kenma was laying on Chiyuri's lap. Her gaze was on him and she had a soft expression. If both Kuroo and Kenma didn't know that she was completely oblivious, it'd look like the two of them were dating.

Immediately, Kenma flushed red and tried to snatch the phone away. Kuroo was quicker and managed to pull it back before before he could.

"Kuroo!" The older male cackled as he scrambled away from the flustered second year, rushing out the door with a yell of 'good luck' to the pudding-haired boy. Not too long after, Kenma heard a ding on his phone and he hesitantly picked it up, almost knowing for sure it was a text from Kuroo. Indeed, it was the image that Kuroo had taken with a small message of encouragement.

Even setters can score points in a game and win.

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

Question of the Chapter: What's your favorite non-anime show?

Hey hey hey!

First, I just want to say that the question for this chapter is solely because I love Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds. Like, he's just precious. My only problem is Criminal Minds has like, over 10 seasons or something crazy and I barely have enough time for anime as it is...

Anyways, sorry for the delay on this chapter! I meant to post it before the end of April, but I ended up moving home mid-quarter so it's been quite hectic and stressful for me since I last updated. Regardless, I hope that y'all like this chapter. I wanted to get it out for y'all as soon as possible, so it's one of the shorter chapters, but it's still well-over five thousand words. :)

As always, let me know what you think of this chapter! I always love hearing from y'all about it. <3

Stay safe and healthy!
ThePurpleDragon