Karasuno's Boys' Volleyball Team had caught her eye.

Though she couldn't do sports due to her previous injuries, she always thought that they were interesting. The amount of teamwork one needed to build up with their members was incredibly high, especially with volleyball. You had to trust your team, your setter, your libero, everyone, to make sure that they kept the ball in the air.

And that was why Yui Naruse was watching them up on the bleachers, taking notes about each member and their weaknesses and specialties. She was never seen by the team whatsoever, probably because she was so silent and practically invisible with the way she sat.

Well, that was until a volleyball came flying at her face.

A stray ball bounced off the court and up into the bleachers, right where Yui was sitting. Noticing the shadow above her face, she let out a small yelp as she suddenly caught the ball, making everyone freeze as they heard her voice.

"Hey, I think there's someone up there!"

Cursing in her mind, she hastily put her laptop to sleep and shoved it away into her messenger bag, slinging it onto her shoulder as she grabbed the volleyball and approached the ladder. With it held tightly in her arm, she made her way down with one hand, jumping the last four bars.

"Here." she said, handing it to the stunned first year with orange hair, the one she recalled was Hinata Shouyou. Making her way to the door while she had the chance, she had opened it up when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Freezing, she looked behind her shoulder to see the captain, Daichi Sawamura.

"Yes?" she asked, turning around to face him.

"Who are you? Why were you up there?" he asked, and she sighed.

"Naruse Yui, second year in class 2-4. I was up there taking information on your team. No, I'm not a spy from any other school such as Aoba Jousai, just interested in your team. That good enough for you?" she explained, crossing her arms as she impatiently tapped her foot.

"How did we not spot you?" Daichi asked, the rest of the team now behind him as they nodded, agreeing with his question.

"I have a tendency to be quite invisible to others, which allows me to easily get information without being caught. If you're wondering, I was a scouting agent back in middle school for the volleyball club."

Nodding, the grey-haired third year named Sugawara Koushi went next to Daichi. "How long have you been up there for?" he asked.

"Ever since the new first years came."

"I see. Then that means that you know of our practice match with Seijou, correct?"

"Yes."

The captains dismissed the team, telling them to get back to practice before going into deep thought. Waiting for them to answer, Yui stared to watch them from behind their shoulders, taking small notes on each player in her head.

"...Join the team and become our spy."

"Eh?!" Caught off guard by their sudden reply, she took a step back, almost falling off the steps. "C-Could you please repeat that?" she stuttered.

"Join the volleyball team and become our scouting agent, or spy if you want."

Biting her thumb, she quickly looked her options over before giving them an answer. "...Alright. I'm not in a club, so this is good for me. Just tell me the details of when our practice match is and I'll get ready for that."

Checking the items in her bag, Yui made sure that her laptop was secure before boarding the bus to Aoba Jousai. Along with a video recorder and her notebook, she was all set for her scouting agent duties.

Of course, her sudden addition to the team was allowed by the advisor, Takeda-sensei, so she was set to look over practices and matches. The plan was for her to find a spot to set the camera up and start taking notes on her computer.

Arriving at the school with a nervous Hinata, they made their way to the gym, but not before running into some trouble. It had seemed like Tanaka, Tsukishima, and Kageyama had made a bit of a scene with two of the members, so Yui quickly stepped in.

"I'm very sorry for my teammates' behaviour. Please forgive us." she quickly said, bowing to the two boys.

"Ah, no, it's alright." they said, and Yui smirked, knowing that they were putting their guard down in front of a girl. "If you'll excuse us." one said, and they went to make a move to get around them, and she purposely bumped into one.

"You're going down without your Oikawa Tooru." she whispered into his ear, watching her team walk ahead before running off to catch up with them, leaving the boy in shock.

Arriving at the gym, the team started to warm up as Yui found her way to the bleachers, finding a spot where no one would notice her. Setting the recorder up with the tripod, she let it roll, quickly taking out her laptop to get ready.

She set up a few tabs on her screen, one for Seijou, one for her team, and an extra one of an essay that she was working on for extra marks for school, in case someone asked what she was doing.

Looking over at Seijou, didn't see an Oikawa Tooru, so she wasn't worried for her team. 'Let's see... Seijou's spikes are quite strong, and they have nice blocking power. If we can just have Tsukishima and Tanaka practice a bit more, we can be on par with them in no time.'

The practice match quickly started, with both teams bowing to each other. Seeing as to how Hinata was quite jittery, she yelled to him.

"Hinata! You'll do fine, don't worry! Your teammates will be right behind you, so don't fret if you make any mistakes! Take deep breaths!" she yelled, and he nodded, seemingly better with her words. Doing as told, he calmed down, and the game started.

In the end, the first set ended with Seijou winning 25 - 13.

'Note: Hinata needs to work on his serves.' Yui added in her mind, sweatdropping at Kageyama's behaviour after being hit in the head. Luckily for them, Hinata was back to normal, so the second set went on with ease.

Taking more notes, a timeout was given by Seijou when they were behind by 2 points, allowing Yui to quickly catch up on her notes and type them out from her memory.

'Hmm, now that I look at them, there doesn't seem to be a libero on our side. I'll ask Daichi-san about this matter.' Making a note on her laptop, she continued to watch the game, checking the battery of the recorder. 'Shit! Did I not charge the battery? Normally it would still have a three thirds left!'

Quickly changing the battery with the spare that she had, the match continued, with Karasuno winning 22 - 25.

As the teams got ready for the third and final set, Yui looked over at Seijou and saw a person come from the doors. 'Great. The one person we didn't need is here.' Clicking through some older files, she found a document that the team definitely needed. Looking around her, she cursed in her mind. She wouldn't be able to show the team her information, as the match would start by the time she got downstairs via the ladder. Her recorder was also in a risk if she left it behind.

'...Fuck it, I'll just move down.'

Stopping the recording, she put her laptop to sleep and packed everything into her bag. Securing it, she looked around her before hoisting one leg on the railing, thankful that her skirt was long enough.

"Hey! What are you doing? That's dangerous!"

Looking behind, she saw a few students rushing towards her. Gritting her teeth, Yui placed her other foot on the railing before pushing off with her hands, falling towards the ground.

Safely landing on the ground, her hand supporting her crouch, everyone turned to look at her, alerted by her loud landing.

"Yui? Where did you come from? You couldn't have gotten down here that fast with the ladder, did you?" Sugawara asked, and she scoffed, standing up as she started to set her camera up.

"Where do you think I came from?"

Pausing, he quickly realized what had happened. "You jumped off the railing?! You know how dangerous that is? You could have injured yourself!" Sugawara said, scolding the girl as she fixed her camera angle.

"Sugawara-senpai, you're in my way." she said, ignoring his question. Reluctantly moving, Yui started the recording, making sure to focus on Seijou's side of the net. Walking over Takeda, she quickly whispered something into his ear, and he nodded, making his way to Seijou's coach.

She was hoping to get some extra time, and luckily for her, Takeda's pleads had worked. "You only have 5 minutes." he said to her, and she nodded. Grabbing her laptop from her bag, she gestured to the team to follow her to the bench, where she sat down and opened the document up.

"Listen well. This has some very important information that I need to tell you. Yes Tsukishima, that includes you. I can see that you're trying to block out what I'm saying, but if you don't listen, you might cause our loss, and I'm sure that you don't want your ever so wonderful pride to be crushed."

Hinata and Tanaka sniggered, and Yui sent them a glare that made them shut up.

"As you know, Oikawa Tooru is back, but luckily for you, he's injured, so that means that I doubt he'll be actually playing. Because of his injuries, he'll be warming up a bit more. I'd say that he'd be done by the time you guys are at match point, if you can make it there.

"He'll be pinch serving due to his injuries, and this is where we'll lose if you don't pay attention. Oikawa loves to target people, so he'll go for the people who are bad at receiving. Tsukishima, Hinata, that's you two. I'm guessing that by the time this happens, Kageyama, Tanaka-senpai, and Tsukishima'll be in rear guard, which means that Daichi-senpai, Ennoshita-senpai, and Hinata'll be vanguard. Daichi-senpai, it'll be best to move Tsukishima to the sideline after once or twice, just so that he get's used to the strength of his serve.

"Power will be substituted out for accuracy if Tsukishima's at the sideline, so if you can, at least make the ball in court. If it's a chance ball to Seijou, Oikawa'll probably be the first touch, so he can't set it over. I bet that number 8'll probably get. Hinata, if you can, get a one touch. This'll be a free ball for us, and this is when we'll get match point. Use your spike and aim it at Oikawa. Because he hasn't seen it before, he won't know how to react, giving us that final point. Alright?"

"Osu!"

"Well then, let's go!"

With the extra 5 minutes over, the final set started well, and soon enough, they were at match point. Like Yui had said, Oikawa had finished warming up, and was in the game as a pinch server. He aimed at Tsukishima twice, Daichi moved him to the sideline, Seijou got a free ball, Hinata got a one touch, and they won the match with Hinata's spike.

All as if Yui had planned it.

After bowing to Seijou, they cleaned up and got changed, ready to head back to Karasuno. As they were walking to the gates, Yui approached Daichi. "Eto, Daichi-senpai? I have a question for you." He nodded, letting her continue.

"Why don't we have a libero?"

Daichi twitched, and she quickly added on to her question. "You don't have to answer it if you're uncomfortable about it. I'm just a bit curious."

"No, it's fine. We do have a libero, it's just that he got into a bit of trouble, so he got one week of house arrest and a month's ban on club activities. He should be back soon." Nodding her head, she made a mental note to add another player into her folder and get ready for more work.

"No matter how good Kageyama and Hinata's combos are, we're still weak when it comes to strengthening our perimeter. It's quite frustrating to admit." Daichi said, and Yui nodded along, completely agreeing to his statement.

"Ooh~ As expected as the captain! You really do understand the situation, huh?"

Looking up, they saw the Oikawa Tooru leaning against a wall, a smug face on. "What the hell? You want a piece of this? Huh-"

"Tanaka-senpai."

Tanaka stopped his taunts as he heard Yui's voice, and turned around to see that she was a lot more serious than normal. "I've got this."

Walking in front of them, she approached Oikawa with a straight face. "Oikawa-senpai. It's a surprise to see you here. Here to say hello?" she said, crossing her arms.

"Come on Yui-chan! Don't be so serious. Unless you're still keeping up that facade of yours?" he said with a taunting smile, and she scowled.

"I took it down a long time ago."

"Oh really? Then how come I saw you using it today at our match? Don't tell me that you're back in full swing after what happened?" he said, and Yui flinched, biting her lip.

"...You have nothing to say in the matter of that incident. Please be going on your way."

"Alright, alright." Walking past the team, Oikawa made his way back to the school, but paused a good 8 feet from them, turning around with a smirk.

"It's a shame we couldn't have the Empress in Seijou instead of Karasuno. You'd be better off here."

Walking away, they stood there in silence until Takeda-sensei waved them over to the bus, telling them to hurry up. Rushing over, they boarded, Yui sitting at the very back, just a seat behind Tsukishima and Yamaguchi.

She felt cramped and uncomfortable in the bus. Yui could constantly feel eyes on her at times, probably the team wondering on what made her go serious all of a sudden when they saw Oikawa at the gates.

And then Sugawara asked the dreaded question.

"Yui-san?"

Just the sound of him saying her name made everyone shut up, even Hinata and Kageyama. "...Yes?"

"If you don't mind me, and probably the whole team asking, but... why did Oikawa call you the 'Empress'?" he asked, and Yui froze.

"...Have you ever heard of 'The Empress' in any sort of volleyball related section in a magazine or book?" she asked, and most of the team shook their heads, except for the third years.

"She's the woman who taught one of Japan's strongest volleyball team when she was only 25, and retired at the age of 34, right?" Sugawara said, and she nodded.

"Did you realize how after 5 years after her retirement, she never appeared in any more articles?"

"...Yes, though I always just thought that they had stopped taken interest in her."

"Do you remember what her name is?"

"...Kamiko Naruse...!" Sugawara and Daichi quickly realized what she was talking about.

"You mean that she's your mother?!" Daichi exclaimed, and she nodded.

"That's correct. Which is the reason why we come to here. Why would I have her nickname? How would have Oikawa known about what was a sensitive topic for me?"

Yui looked up from the bus floor and looked in everyone's curious eyes. "I'll tell you everything, all starting from the beginning."

"It started with my mother bringing me to one of her practices."

"I was only about 7 years old, and she had me sit on a bench, letting me watch the team play as she coached them. She was trying to get their defense tightened, but just didn't know what she could do. Jokingly, she walked over to me, picked me up, and carried me over to the team, asking me what they should do.

"I answered, saying that they needed more friendship and trust, and everyone laughed. My mother then placed me back on the bench before continuing.

"What they didn't know was that I was right. My words had imprinted themselves into their heads, and they started to cheer each other on. They started to trust each other if they missed, and that had greatly increased their play.

"My mother realized my talent, and as soon as I entered elementary and was at the age where I was allowed to join clubs, she entered me into the volleyball club, making me a scouting agent.

"I was basically an assistance coach, and even though the older players didn't really like having someone younger tell them what to do, I had helped them improve.

"And that was when everything went downhill."