#hq post time skip

[haikyuumood]

this has been living rent-free in my head today

i always kinda hced Mattsun as working in an industry where he wears suits so I'm happy to have got that one right

and Makki I never knew where to place him maybe that's why he's "between jobs" and playing games all day back in Miyagi?😂 boy is so versatile

my hc for these two relationship-wise is that they sort of get together in high school without really realising that they are in a relationship but knowing that they are in a relationship. they hardly get into fights until they start long distance ...

... but having Makki back in Miyagi must be a gamechanger

so happy for them

[katsu2ji]

imagine telling sugawara all about your special interest and him just sitting there and genuinely listening to you. he loves the way your face lights up as you talk about the thing you love so much to the point that it’s sometimes all you can think about. he’d ask questions to keep you going and make the conversation feel less one sided, to show you that he truly cares. he doesn’t mind that you’re rambling, barely aware of how long you’ve been talking or whether or not he even knows what you’re talking about—the fact that you trust him enough to talk about your special interest with him, to share this part of you, is more than enough. he doesn’t care how “weird” or niche it is, he’s just happy to be there learning from you. if you feel guilty afterwards for info dumping and being “too much,” he wouldn’t hesitate to remind you that you are anything but. all he wants is for you to be happy, and seeing you this excited makes him the happiest man alive.

katsu2ji © 2024. please don't copy, modify, or do anything of the sort with my work! i work very hard and you simply do not have my permission.

[eurydicees]

like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun

karasuno boys volleyball club, 2012-13

[touchlikethesun]

you could convince me that furudate didn’t mean to make hinata and kageyama so obviously in love with each other and that he was just trying to write a very intense and obsessive rivalry that just so happens to look a helluva lot like romantic tension.

but how do you explain bokuto and akaashi then? what dynamic could he possibly have been trying to write if not a deeply in love and happily married couple??

[atc-iwaizumi]

Athletic training student Iwaizumi studying in his dorm while on a facetime call with Oikawa, who is lazily lying on his bed setting a ball above his head. Iwaizumi gets to the section titled "Overuse Injuries" and takes a glance over at his phone to look at Oikawa. Oikawa notices this, catches the ball, and sits up. He looks over at Iwaizumi with a question in his eyes. Iwaizumi keeps their eyes connected for just a moment and mutters "resting is just as important as training, please remember that" before looking back down to his textbook. Oikawa continues to look at him while starting to think about all the times that Iwaizumi had to physically drag him away from training when they were growing up. He smiles and lays back down. "Of course Iwa-chan," he says as he hugs the ball to his chest, lost in thought.

[reineydraws]

your irregular reminder that i peddle the kryk agenda and that yaku is my favourite 🥰

[nartml]

live footage of me, remembering that iwaizumi and oikawa are on opposite sides of the world and oikawa has gotten his argentinian citizenship, so he plans to stay there for a good, long time:

[bluestarjay]

A personal Hinata headcanon of mine is that after learning Portuguese, he got kinda hooked on languages. He started learning a whole bunch of different languages either after coming to Brazil or leaving. (English, Spanish, French, in addition to Japanese and Portuguese is what I had in mind). Like idk, he failed English in high school, but once he was able to learn it for himself, not for a grade, and certainly not in a boring way his adhd couldn't understand, he got good at it. I don't think he's stupid. He may be dumb, but he's not stupid. I actually quite like the idea of him being a total nerd in lesser academic-y categories, like linguistics and etymology, the arts and history, and he'd like them especially for the cultural significance. He likes going to new places, even if they're not really that far from home, he just likes the new experiences and knowing how things are different between the two. Like how socially and economically different Miyagi and Tokyo are, how the behavior changes between the players at all the different schools, etc. He'd totally read up on the history of Brazil, wanting to learn everything about the culture there, just because it interested him. He'd probably like the history and cultural and social significance of different music genres and different art styles. He's content living in either Brazil or Japan; he's got no time for traveling the world like Nishinoya, but he learns a bunch of languages anyhow, simply because it's fun. Another headcanon is that he can cook really well (which I can explain another time), but he'd def cook all kinds of foreign dishes, once again, mostly for the culture. It's different. It's a new experience, one of his favorite things in the world, and now that he has the money and freedom and knowledge to make said dishes, the world is literally his oyster! He'd do anything to learn more about why certain cultures eat certain foods, why a certain genre of music is popular there, why they speak the way they do, all because it's fun and interesting to know!

[softeninglooks]

kagehina | silver medals

tokyo olympics, 2021.

tobio can see the end come with unmistakable clarity. it takes a second to score the final point; a raucous breath rattles the lungs to the core, weight rises up from the soles of the feet to the dazzling ceiling lights, the piercing screech of shoes sends the body flying, a sharp glance asses the position and height of the block. then all the strength of argentina's number 2 knocks the ball down, between the rigid fingers of a wall that is no longer insurmountable. a booming sound rumbles through the stadium as the ball crashes down, explosive and unstoppable, even for yaku, shoyo, and kiyoomi.

on the other side of the net, the argentinian team collapses on itself as soon as the whistle blows its verdict. 3-2. tears of joy, tight embraces, and a group hug submerges the players in a tide of light blue. only a few tear-streaked faces and smiling eyes emerge from the huddle, only to be reabsorbed again, pulled into a collective eruption of joy.

kageyama himself is dragged away from the net by foreceful hands and falls into his teammates' arms. the game is over.

tobio takes a breath in, and begins to recover. yaku pats him on the back, his smile trembling with tears, but he grins at kageyama and praises him heartily for his outstanding performance. a wet-eyed atsumu quickly hugs tobio and congratulates his fellow setter. ushijima shakes his hand hard and thanks him for the precision of his plays. sakusa gives a grateful nod. bokuto almost jumps onto him, grateful for his tosses. hajime walks over to his team, and even if their fingers grazed olympic gold only to settle for silver, his eyes shine with tears of pride.

hajime distributes hugs and words of support, congratulations, and comfort left and right. he pats the back of tobio's neck through his timid hug, and assures his former kouhai that he couldn't be prouder of him.

then, tobio watches hajime take a step back, make sure that his players are holding each other up, and walk over to the other side of the court, ducking under the net. he opens his arms wide and, on the argentinian side of the court, tooru comes running to him.

tobio's gaze wanders back to his side, where he meets shoyo's. the assistant coach pats his shoulder and congratulates him on a great game, to which shoyo replies with a thankful word, even though the corners of his eyes are red from rubbing out tears. still he grins at tobio, invites him forward.

tobio joins him, touching the hands open for him to take.

“your sets were the best today, kageyama!”

“your spikes were... weren't... that bad either,” tobio brings himself to say - a little raspingly, timidly. but shoyo reads him with such patience and persistent care, that tobio hopes he sees through him this time too. “but you still have to work on your receive. don't think we can stop at this, dumbass.”

“i was never going to,” shoyo frowns, but his face lights up with combativeness. the disappointment from second place morphs into a new goal, a new height that tobio wants to take him to. “next time, we'll get gold.”

*

after the medal ceremony, journalists and cameras flock to the victorious teams for post-game impressions and comments. these interviews are the ones tobio finds easier - no anecdotes to share, no personal questions to answer, no games to play. just volleyball.

as the japanese national team meets the interviewers who warmly congratulate them on their silver medal, tobio sees hajime pass by tooru out of the corner of his eye. the argentinian setter is already expressively chatting with a journalist, the hard-won gold medal sitting next to the sun of the argentinian flag on his chest. tooru catches hajime's shoulder in passing and he drags him into the interview, smiling brightly as he tells the world that he could count on the support of his /husband/ throughout. hajime's hand brushes the hollow of tooru's back and a playful smile sets on his lips as he says that marrying his rival was a real handful. but he couldn't be prouder of both his own team, and tooru.

tobio looks away, down at his feet. a sudden flush shoots up his cheeks, but the realization is a simple one: he has everything he's ever wished for. the silver medal gently weighing on his neck, the burnt taste in his throat, and the dried sweat on his forehead are his olympic dream. the someone better who kazuyo promised him came to found him, in the form of his high school teammate and rival, his opposite hitter on the jnt, his partner in volleyball and life. shoyo.

seeing hajime and tooru stand side by side, tobio thinks that maybe there is just one thing missing. he walks over to shoyo before a journalist can assail the japanese greatest decoy with post-game questions.

“hey, hinata.” heat rises to his neck, but tobio fights back - he knows all he has to do. “you're going back to brazil, and i'm going back to italy soon,” he begins.

shoyo nods with this look tobio knows by heart: he is determined to aim for the next challenge. “yes, but i'll keep track of my wins and defeats so i can win against you too!” he adds playfully, to reassure tobio before their ways part once again. “when you visit me in brazil again, or i come to italy, i'll be even stronger.”

“i'm counting on it. don't fall behind,” tobio counters instinctively, and the task at hand doesn't seem so overwhelming anymore, not so big. it is just the next logical step. shoyo's competitive smile, reserved for tobio only, and the optimistic, loving look in his eyes, are tobio's answer. “do you want to get married?”

“what— you mean...”

“to me,” tobio clarifies at shoyo's thunderstruck stutter. “before we leave japan.”

“tobio.” shoyo's parted lips break into a choked-up laugh. “of course i want to get married to you!”

“great.” a relieved smile softens tobio's serious expression. “i don't have a ring though,” he remembers, as if he only just became aware of the full implications of his proposal. “but... here.” tobio takes his silver medal off, putting it around shoyo's neck instead. “you can have this.”

“tobio...” shoyo pulls him into his arms, holding tobio tightly against his chest, where both medals dig into their jerseys, a silver thread that runs between them, keeps them close together.

“i win this time too,” tobio murmurs into shoyo's shoulder, with a victorious gentleness to his low voice.

“are you saying you just /beat/ me to proposing?”

“i did.”

“no way, kageyama! this doesn't count as winning and losing!” shoyo takes a step back to argue - lightly, with fresh redness around his eyes, like so many tearful furrows of happiness.

“it does.”

“absolutely not! this is not volleyball. or, only just a little bit!”

“alright. fine,” tobio grumbles at shoyo's insistence. “just promise me that you won't ever stop trying to get better than me.”

*

later on, the moving picture of the japanese setter and opposite hitter hugging each other by the court is all over the media. when shoyo and tobio take their leave off the olympic court, journalists don’t let the occasion pass.

“hinata-senshu, congratulations on a well-deserved silver medal! how did you feel during the game? did you imagine that you would go home with a medal at the start of the olympics?”

“the team and i always fought with the goal of winning an olympic medal in mind. we can’t predict the future, but the challenges of each game took us one step further. it was a difficult path, and this last game was no exception. the argentinian team played with amazing strength, they beat us fair and square, though we put up a fight too. i’m really happy for oikawa-senpai!”

“thank you for your comments, hinata-senshu. you made all of us dream here, in this olympic stadium. even though you live in brazil now, winning this silver medal in your home country must be something special, isn’t it?”

“it is. i love brazil, which i also consider my home. but being a representative in the japanese men’s national volleyball team is a great honor. thank you so much to everyone who believed in me!”

“thank you, hinata-senshu. and lastly, everyone has been wondering about that hug you and kageyama-senshu shared after the medal ceremony. what did kageyama-senshu say to you then? you’ve known each other since high school, haven’t you?”

“it’s true, kageyama is my oldest rival. i met him in middle-school, actually.” shoyo throws a quick glance over his shoulder, catching sight of the empty court, the tranquil net, the carts filled with volley balls. a brief smile hovers over his features - a feeling of gratitude for the past, and hopefulness for the future. “kageyama proposed to me,” the smile deepens into a warm grin as he turns back to the interviewer and camera. “and i promised him that next time, i’ll fight even harder to get us a gold medal.”

[haikyuumood]

random thoughts on the final arcs...

Maybe an unpopular opinion? but i like to think that Karasuno wouldn't have won against Kamemodai even if Hinata didn't leave etc. just because how of Kamemodai appeared to me (said this elsewhere but they felt the most consistent & unshakable of the high school teams Karasuno had encountered in the manga) and also because it leaves room for future growth ?? lol it sounds cohesive in my head.

I'm mostly thinking about what we learn from Yachi's reminiscences, that Karasuno never won the nationals with Hinata and Kageyama on the team--our protagonists--and my absolute favourite is that Date was the Miyagi representative one time (led by Futakuchi no less)🥹 You are a loser today, but what are you going to be tomorrow? Same goes if you're the winner. Knowing these boys they would have been so mad and motivated after each big match they lost and they would have consistently practiced & evolved, but so would have their opponents. Don't be afraid to change & adapt if you think that's going to help you... that is some powerful mindset to have. And the greatest thing about the post time skip arc for me was seeing where all these kids were at! Amazing that so many of them went on to play volleyball professionally or found different paths, some still play as a hobby and others don't, and that's totally fine BUT the huge thing being that the wins and loses in high school matches did not deter them from wanting to keep on playing and do their best when they were playing. And that they are always willing to learn and try out different things -- another absolute favourite scene is Iwaizumi and Ushijima running into each other in the US and Iwaizumi shows him some video clip, goes hell what the heck am I doing, trying to give advice to a national player??! and Ushijima goes well no, I'm figuring things out with my coach so it will help me, besides I like these things, which of course leads to one of the absolute best scenes in the series imo:

i'd stopped reading haikyuu just before the youth camp ended, so wasn't sure when I first heard about the post time skip but having finished the series i'm fully convinced and happy 🥲everything can seem very focused on the present but there is a future coming and life goes on after big life events like nationals or high school graduations, and time spent in school with your peers can be a helpful period preparing you for what to come. Furudate has shown us that playing within the safety of the court, where no one dies and it really doesn't matter to the world who wins and loses, and people are just running after some ball to keep it afloat, does that job of 'preparation' well -- you learn that it's okay to lose and there is a way to bounce back and you won't be alone in the process, you'll have friends and teammates and mentors. Obviously real life isn't all cotton candies and cherry blossoms but that's why we have fictional stories like these to show an ideal that, while we may not be able to recreate fully for ourselves, still tells us to have courage.

that turned out longer than i thought

hmm

I'm just thinking a lot about these final arcs, thinking about the kind of mindset I had when I was Hinata's age ☺️☺️ oh which reminds me, it's so swell that these kids keep in touch with each other or remember each other (yes Terushima you did indeed have a match against Hinata and Kageyama senshu in high shcool!!!) I HOPE that they all keep in touch and is one big family but equally I wouldn't be so mad if they didn't, you continue to hear about your high school mates one way or the other anyway 😂 and thinking about my mindset in high school -- I remember being sad and scared about going to new places esp. because I went to a boarding school & had a lovely time there, but at the same time I couldn't wait to go see the bigger world! So I like to imagine that this was what hq kids were doing after their graduation, maybe they lose touch with one another for a while or maybe they're remain in the loop (thank you Iwaizumi for sending that weird ass selfie to Oikawa), who knows, but life is long and you never know when you're gonna run into an old familiar face.

[bowlingwithplanets]

I have this friend from Brazil and we were listening to some of her music in the car the other day. And I recognized an old song that was apparently really only popular around São Paulo where she grew up. She was shocked when I started singing along and asked where I had heard it. I had to say some random bullshit about a travel video or something because I didn’t have the heart to tell her I heard it in a Haikyuu Brazil arc edit.

[stars-and-cows]

[balebobale]

AKAASHI TIME SKIP BC HE HAS NO RIGHT BEING THIS FINEEEE 😫😫😫😫😫😫😫😫😫

[karlyboyyy]

So many things about these five images (actually ten pages) give me warm and fuzzies, so I’m gonna list them all starting from the top!

1. Kageyama smiling!!! Like genuinely so happy to be there, playing against Hinata

2. Daichi, Asahi, and Tanaka all like “holy shit, his serve has gotten so much scarier”, they’re all so cute

3. Hinata digging the ball so flawlessly! He’s grown so much and I want to give him a hug

4. Asahi literally being blown away by Hinata’s dig, I mean look at his flowing hair!

5. Kageyama’s little smirk, he’s so fucking proud of Hinata

6. Atsumu looking like the smug little bitch (affectionate) that he is

7. Hinata soaring!!!

8. Takeda-sensei is so excited! While Ukai looks… scared lmao, but they’re basically just proud parents

9. Coach Washijo 😭😭 very grandpa

10. Hinata being so happy to be home and all his friends welcoming him back makes me wanna cry

11. “Took you long enough” Kageyama, you fruity son of a bitch. Like, he very well could have been referring to Hinata finally becoming someone he could maybe possibly lose to (and being excited about that possibility!). But for him to say that right as Hinata said “I’m here!”… Kageyama just missed his boyfriend, okay?!? He’s just so happy to have him back home and to see that’s he’s grown and learned so much. That’s a man in love, folks

[atc-iwaizumi]

Sometimes I think about how Iwaizumi got to be an athletic trainer for team Japan, specifically with the men's volleyball team. Yes, he's a good athletic trainer, has worked with volleyball before, and worked his way through the system. But I think it's more that he knows a lot of this team and they trust him. They trust him so much. They know that when they put their bodies on the line that he will be there, no matter what, to help them get back on the court. They can count on him that when he sees them at their worst, he'll know what to do to help get them back to being their best.

[laikahh]