In the end, it wasn't enough. The All-Stars fought fiercely, and even managed to close the gap a bit, but the final score was Karasuno- 25, All-Stars- 23. In a way, Daichi found that it was not as painful as he was expecting. He knew that it had been a battle well-fought, and even if his team had not captured a single set, they had still been a challenge to Karasuno.

'Huh, when did I start thinking of these guys as my team?' Daichi belatedly wondered.

Bokuto threw an arm around him, thumping him almost painfully on the back.

"Good job captain!" he yelled cheerfully.

He then turned to Suga, slapping the silver haired athlete roughly on the back right as he raised a bottle of water to his lips. The result was a laughing Bokuto and choking, gasping-for-air Suga.

"You did great too, captain!" Bokuto smirked, not paying much heed to his spluttering teammate.

"I'm-gasp- not a captain!" Suga managed choke out between coughing up water.

"Hey hey, you might as well be! How about we consider splitting the captainship six-ways? I bet it would improve our teamwork tons!"

Akashi cut in, saving a flabbergasted, blushing (probably from the choking) Suga.

"We'll get them next time." He remarked in that quiet, sure way of his, handing Suga a towel.

And since when did we start acting like it? Daichi wondered belatedly as he looked about the court at his dorm-mates.
Since the final match was over, the event began to wind down.

After the All-Stars congratulated Karasuno and thanked the surprisingly large audience, they were mobbed by a young man in athletic clothes.

"That was amazing! We're going to be so good this year! I saw you go all woooooosh! Yep, I bet we're gonna make the other league teams cry like little sissies after every game! I can't wait to see their faces when our team walks in-"

"Um, excuse me. Who are you?" Suga interrupted, wondering if the boy was one of the visiting high schoolers.

He was not necessarily short or thin, but he had a childish air about him that suggested a far younger age than one would expect of a college student.

"Oh, yeah, I'm the captain of the Tokai University Volleyball team!" The man-child (captain Tokai, apparently) claimed happily.

Daichi was a bit taken back by this revelation; the Tokai captain was a deceptively childish person; while his personality was friendly and outgoing, his manner seemed to be that of a gushing middle school fanboy.

All in all, it was a far cry from the intimidating co-captain Noboru he had met during the first volleyball practice.

Belatedly- after staring at him dumbstruck for a few seconds- Daichi grasped the fact that this was the person that they were trying to impress.

"What did you think of the matches?" Daichi asked quickly. "We've been training to join the Tokai University team, if you'd have us."

"Are you kidding?!" the captain asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise, "That was pretty amazing! I'll bet you didn't even need to train. Why didn't you guys talk to me earlier? It's so so soooooo cool that you guys organized this all just to join our team."

The All-Star team shuffled nervously at the unexpected praise, except for Bokuto who boldly stepped forward, basking in it.

"Well, if it wasn't for my amazing strength and endurance-" He was cut off by Akaashi's hand over his mouth.

"What he meant to say is we ALL played a part." Akaashi corrected. "Daichi's leadership, Suga's encouragement, Kuroo's endurance, Bokuto's energy, and Oikawa's- um... er… I'm sure he contributed something- were all essential to our victories."

When Akaashi finished his mini-speech, his teammates stared at him in awe.

"I think that's the most he's ever said in one breath!" Kuroo muttered in surprise.

In response, Akaashi blushed slightly and mumbled something about not having a single line in the past three chapters.

Bokuto, who was still being gagged at this point, mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "AKAAaaaaAAAFFFI! Mawwy me!" as streams of tears started pouring down his face.

"Well, I think you guys would be great additions to the Tokai volleyball team!" The captain continued, ignoring Bokuto who had got down on one knee and was trying to propose to Akaashi. Akashi just grumbled something about how the author is trying to shove all the romance into the final chapter.

Kuroo smirked, as if he knew this was going to happen all along, Daichi and Suga broke out into a shared grin, and even Oikawa seemed relieved (about joining the Tokai team, not Bokuto and Akashi's marriage).

"You know…" the unimpressive man-child captain added, "Noboru-san may seem scary, but he's not too bad. He tends to be all bark and no bite, though he will make you run a lot if you skip practice. Ugh. Just thinking about it makes my legs ache."

Daichi refrained from shuddering as he recalled the first practice with the upperclassmen. All the first years had done was fetch balls the entire practice. Nonplussed by Daichi's apparent trauma, the captain continued.

"Noboru also likes to haze the first years. It gets worse and worse each year. Eventually he's going to scare everyone away on the first day!" He added with a laugh.

"W-wait." Suga interrupted in a shocked manner, "You mean, all that stuff he said about first-years never playing, not getting to train with the rest of the team, having to 'earn' our position…" The silver-haired athlete trailed off, afraid to finish that train of thought.

"Did he make you fetch balls the entire first practice?" the captain asked rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "He does that to everyone on their first day. Like I said, it's just a little hazing. This whole 'proving ourselves' thing was completely unnecessary. We're not actually going to force you to do that every… Are you guys alright?"

Kuroo and Bokuto and Oikawa all simultaneously passed out in shock at this revelation. Daichi tried to dive to catch them only to have all three of them land on top of him. Daichi groaned and glanced upwards, hoping Suga or Akaaaaaashi would come to his rescue. For once in his life, Suga did nothing to help his friend, but just stood there silently, staring at the pile of dorm-mates on the ground, repeating,"Completely unnecessary…" with a vacant look in his eyes.

Akaashi just shrugged and said.

"Oh well."

Daichi, from his rather uncomfortable position on the gym floor, was fuming about how he never would have let such hazing happen during his time at Karasuno. He conveniently ignored the time he threw Hinata and Kageyama out of the Karasuno club. Or made them play Tsukishima and Yamaguchi to prove themselves. That was compleeeetely different.

"Haha! Can't you guys take a little joke? It is kind of funny that you did all this for nothing. Our team really isn't this harsh!" The captain laughed. "I mean, you're Toru Oikawa, right?"

The Tokai captain gestured to the still unconscious Oikawa lying in a pile on top of Kuroo, Bokuto, and Daichi.

"He's literally a volleyball legend! He's a setting genius! Why in the world would we NOT accept him?!"

Daichi was glad that the mentioned setting genius was unconscious. He didn't need his ego stroked any larger than it already was.

Chuckling, the Tokai University captain continued, "Anyhow, you guys are all amazing players, and we take pretty much any first years who apply-"

"No."

"Huh!" The captain of the Tokai University volleyball team was left blinking in confusion at Oikawa's bold proclamation.

"I'm not playing for your team." Oikawa continued sassily with a hair flip thrown in for good measure (despite literally lying in a heap on the ground he still managed to make it look sexy). "No offense, but I don't want to be a part of a team that doesn't take volleyball seriously; much less a team that will accept just anybody."

Oikawa's words, however, struck a chord with Daichi.

The former Karasuno captain couldn't help but agree with the brown-haired setter. When Daichi had been forced to fight for the position on the Tokai team, he had been motivated and determined. After hearing that the team would take anyone- that all of this work was for nothing- he suddenly lost the urge to play on the Tokai University team.

"Wha- You can't just turn me down! I thought you guys wanted to play for us? Quitting now is so so soooo lame and totally not fair!" The Tokai University captain pouted.

"I prefer to be the one in charge of manipulation and hazing." Kuroo grumbled. "So I think I'll have to kindly refuse your offer to join the Tokai University team."

"HEY HEY HEY! It's crazy, but I agree with pretty boy!" Bokuto shouted, crossing his arms stubbornly.

"I'm here to babysit the owl." Akashi said as way of affirmation.

The captain looked anxiously around the group, but he saw defiant expressions reflected on all sides. In a last ditch effort to salvage the situation, he turned to Daichi, asking,

"What about you!? You haven't said anything. I thought you wanted to play volleyball?"

In that moment, Daichi's eyes met Suga's.

'Just say the words.' Suga's gaze promised. 'We will follow our captain anywhere.'

In that split-second of time, Daichi realized that even though it didn't have uniforms, a big fancy gym, or even a coach, he had already found what he had been looking for.

"We will play volleyball." Daichi replied as a grin broke out on his face. Daichi threw his arms around the All-Star team members.

"I'm gonna play volleyball with my team."

Fin.

Thank you so much for reading!

Regardless of whether you've stuck around since the beginning or recently discovered this fic, thanks for your support and love. I never would have finished this if it were not for the support, reviews, comments, and messages of love from the Haikyuu Fandom community!

*Shameless self plug commences*

I am always very inspired by requests, for certain stories, ships, or fandoms. If you have an idea you want me to write about, please reach out to me! (there is no guarantee I will respond immediately or use every suggestion, but who knows, we might come p with something cool!) In addition, if you'd like to look at my other anime-related stories, feel free to check out my BNHA one-shot!

Also, if I get enough requests, I might consider writing some timestamps or one-shots for this AU.

*shameless self-plug finishes*

Anyhow, much thanks!