AN: For those who already follow my work see my author page for a life/status update. For new readers; hi! This takes place at the beginning of Season 4 or chapter 207 of the manga. *Disclaimer: I do not own Haikyuu or any of the characters.

"Eat or sleep, choose one!"

Takeda laughed, putting a calming hand on Coach Ukai's shoulder. They were at their usual haunt (or restaur-haunt as the high school teacher had once joked) celebrating Karasuno's victory at the Miyagi Prefecture's Playoffs. Beating Shiratorizawa hadn't been an easy feat. Their hard work, consisting of long hours of physical practice among other factors, willpower, and sheer luck had paved their way to nationals.

"Give them a break! They had quite the stressful match."

"They had a stressful match? I had to watch the whole damn thing!" He yelled before shaking his head and breaking into a grin. "These kids will be the death of me, I swear."

"Now now no need to be so dramatic. They earned this." Takeda's eyes were shining with pride even as his hand slipped off his friend's shoulder. "We're going to the spring tourney for the first time in years. They couldn't have done it without you, you know. I couldn't have done with without you."

Ukai waved a hand at him dismissively. "Don't get all mushy on me now, teach! All of us still have a lot to learn; they're helping me just as much as I'm helping them."

"Perhaps they are."

The two men were silent as they looked over the team. Tanaka and Hinata were stone cold asleep at their table, Noya and Kageyama not far behind. The third-years, minus Kiyoko, watched with amusement as Yachi tried to wake them up even as Tsukishima and Yamaguchi told her in between bites of food to let ignore them (although Yamaguchi put it much kinder, simply saying to let them sleep if they were that tired). Ennoshita, Kinoshita, and Narita were being responsible second-years by running around trying to make sure they weren't being a bother to the restaurant staff.

"We've got a great group going to nationals this year. Maybe even the best group," Takeda said.

Ukai chuckled. "Don't let them hear you say that just yet. They'll need your positivity for when it gets tough. Nationals are in early January so we've got a little over two months to keep their spirits up."

"Sure thing! I'll definitely keep them motivated all throughout November and December."

"I have no doubt you will." Suddenly the ex-delinquent frowned, some blood draining from his face. "Wait— November. Isn't Karasuno's Cultural Festival coming up in a few weeks?"

Takeda paled significantly at the mention of the school-wide event. "Y-you're right. You're absolutely right. I've been so focused on teaching and volleyball club that any mention of it completely skipped my mind." He pulled out his phone and searched his faculty email for more information. What he found made him gulp. "Oh no; it's in two weeks!"

"And since this is a club…"

Both the coach and assistant coach became white as sheets before screaming together:

"We have to participate!"

The next day in the gymnasium.

"I wonder why Takeda-sensei called us all here for a meeting," Asahi whispered to Daichi and Sugawara. The trio of third-years sat together in front, the second-years a foot or so behind them and the first-years a ways behind them. Kiyoko and Yachi sat on the side chatting about the notes they'd compiled during their latest game. "Usually Coach Ukai calls us about getting together to go over our performance from the most recent game. He even told us not to bother bringing our uniforms."

Sugawara nodded. "It wouldn't be strange if we hadn't been told yesterday on the way to dinner that we would have a few days without practice to rest. The TV he usually wheels in to watch the footage on isn't out either." He turned to Daichi. "What do you think, captain?"

"Not sure. It must be important though," he replied quietly as the rest of the club members went silent. Takeda had entered the gymnasium with his head down and a scary aura coming off of him. Even Daichi was taken aback by the odd mood coming from their normally sweet yet terrifying teacher.

There wasn't a snicker as Takeda stood before the group, eyes shadowed before his head suddenly whipped up.

"I'm so sorry!" He bowed so fast some of the members swore they heard his spine crack. "I'm your coach and I failed all of you! Please forgive me!"

Everyone on the team turned to their captain and vice captain. It was only after Daichi pleadingly looked to Sugawara that the more motherly one of the two spoke up.

"Um, coach? Mind explaining what you think we did? I'm sure whatever happened wasn't bad enough to warrant apologizing to us like that. You're a great coach."

"The best!" Tanaka added boisterously, Noya and Hinata chiming in with him.

Their teacher quickly wiped the dramatic tears falling from his eyes away.

"I messed up! I was so caught up in making sure you guys went to nationals that I completely forgot about the upcoming Cultural Festival. You only have two weeks left to prepare now!"

Ennoshita smiled sheepishly. "Uh, coach, our teachers have been talking about it for weeks. I think we were all aware of it. We just weren't worried about it."

"I figured we'd just default to what we did last year and hold an exhibition match," Noya agreed. "I'm just glad our lively first-years had enough faith in their senpai not to worry about what our club is doing! After all, all clubs have to participate." Kageyama, Hinata, and Yachi sweat from where they sat next to the other first-years. Noya squinted at them in confusion. "Wait, you guys knew we had to do something as a group, right?"

"Speak for yourself," Hinata exclaimed in a panic. "I didn't realize we had to participate outside of whatever our homeroom classes decided! I was prepared to assist with a café."

"Me too." Kageyama mumbled.

Yachi was also visibly freaking out. "Me three!"

Tsukishima gave them a baleful look. "Seriously? You should all know every club is expected to participate in the Cultural Festival. Rather than helping out your classmates in homeroom members of clubs get special permission to participate with their fellow club members instead."

Yamaguchi smiled nervously. "It's not a big deal though, is it? We can just set up a food stand and call it good."

"No way, Yama-yama!" Tanaka stood up and pointed at him dramatically. "That's what every group does! We should do," he grinned deviously while kicking Noya's knee, "a maid café!"

Noya jumped high into the air before high-fiving his partner in crime. "Yeah! We can dress up in suits and the managers can wear maid outfits!"

Now Daichi stood up, grabbing both of their collars. "No. We are the boy's volleyball team. Boys. You can't expect Kiyoko and Yachi to be the only ones dressed up if that's what you guys want us to do. Do you know what that would mean for us then? We'd all need to wear maid outfits."

Asahi looked sick. "Please don't make me do that! I don't have the figure for it!"

"I dunno. You could let your hair down," Suga suggested. "If I had to wear a dress I would probably be more worried about having to shave my legs. Girls do that, right? Armpits too."

Tanaka blanched. "I ain't shaving nothing!"

Tsukishima raised an eyebrow. "You just used a double negative, dumbass. Also you have no problem shaving your head."

"Hey, dumbass is Hinata's nickname!" Noya yelled only for Hinata to complain that was most certainly not his nickname (it was).

Minutes passed with nearly everyone yelling and arguing about what they should do as a club. A café was too common, as was a food stand, and it was decided they didn't want to do the same thing as the year before. Kiyoko wrote down any ideas she heard in addition to the comments she could make out amidst the chaos. It was only after some of the players started getting grabby that Daichi finally let out his inner disappointed dad.

"Would all of you shut up?" Immediately the players were seated and at attention. The only others left standing were Takeda at his left and Kiyoko at his right. She handed the team captain her notes and he thanked her with a nod. "Thank you, Kiyoko-chan. Now," he looked over the players, "we're going to put this to a vote. I want you all to close your eyes. Raise your hand if you like the idea I read, and leave it down if you don't. When we're done we can discuss the top three options and then put those to a vote. Does that sound fair?"

Everyone responded with a variation of: "Yes, captain!"

"Good. Here we go."

And so it began.

"Food stand." Five hands. "Haunted house." Six hands. "Volleyball trivia show." One hand. "Carnival game stand." Eight hands. "Comedy routine." Five hands. "A short play about volleyball." Seven hands. "Café— a regular one." Six hands. "Arm wrestling competition." Seven hands. "Player Auction." Three hands. "And I'm vetoing kissing booth. Okay, everyone open your eyes. It looks like we're choosing between a carnival game stand, a short play, and an arm wrestling competition."

Takeda cleared his throat. "Actually, as fun as a carnival stand would be I know most of the easier stands to set up have already been taken. Same with a food stand. This late in the game we need to go with something more unique, something related to our interests."

"Arm wrestling competition!" Tanaka shouted, reaching over to grab Asahi's arm. "I bet no one else is doing that."

Suga smiled at his enthusiasm. "That's probably true, but wouldn't we get tired of doing that for several hours a day? We'd also need prizes of some sort for the winners."

Ennoshita cleared his throat. "It's your guys' last festival," he directed at the third-years. "You four should be the ones to decide."

Daichi shook his head. "As considerate as that is I want us to do something that we can all enjoy. I personally like the idea of a short play about volleyball. It was your suggestion wasn't it, Kiyoko?"

The raven-haired beauty nodded. "It was, but Yachi was the one who gave me the idea. She's been working so hard making posters and getting our classmates invested in the team. I was thinking along the lines of putting on a play to show our classmates how important volleyball is to the team. About how it's not just a club, but a family of individuals striving to achieve their dreams."

She stopped talking when she noticed nearly everyone excluding Kageyama, Tsukishima, and Ennoshita tearing up at her words.

"That's a brilliant idea!" Noya, Asahi, Suga, and Tanaka shouted as one. Hinata and Yachi were too busy hugging one another and crying to do anything but nod along. Kinoshita and Narita were already resigning themselves to do anything they needed to make Kiyoko's idea come true.

Tsukishima, ever the blunt voice of reason, raised a hand. "Excuse me, but isn't two weeks not a lot of time to put a play together? Even a short one will require a script, people to learn their lines, and the availability for us to reserve a time to use the auditorium stage. Not to mention costumes, stage equipment, and props."

Kiyoko smiled. "True, but I wouldn't suggest a play if I wasn't prepared for one. I drafted a script based off of watching all of you work so hard. Props and costumes won't be necessary seeing as it would just consist of your uniforms and a few volleyballs."

"Wait, you wrote a play?" Half of the team was on their feet within seconds. "Show us, show us!"

"Guys." Immediately everyone settled down at the warning tone in their team captain's voice. He turned to their manager apologetically. "Continue, please."

She nodded, pulling her laptop out of her bag. She sat on the bench where Takeda joined her after a couple minutes. The teacher was reading over what everyone could only assume was the script while she went on to explain.

"I got the idea when Kageyama and Hinata first joined the team. Their quick attack sparked something in everyone. They drove us all to work harder, to reach further, and to strive higher than ever before. After the first loss against Aobajohsai I got the idea to write your progress down, and after our recent win against them I realized the Cultural Festival would be just after the Miyagi prelims. I thought 'why not turn our team's story into a real story for others to get just as passionate about?' and it was born."

"Holy cow! You wrote about them too?" Yachi shouted before she realized what she'd said. "I mean, not that I wrote about you all like some silly volleyball fanfiction or something."

Yamaguchi leaned closer to her, suspicious. "What did you write then?"

The manager in training turned pink. "J-just some parody songs! I listened to The Greatest Showman around the same time as joining you guys and became a bit obsessed with the soundtrack. At one point it reminded me so much of all of you that I rewrote the lyrics to most of the songs and made them about volleyball. Pretty lame, huh?"

"What?" Hinata's sharp voice cut through her embarrassment like one of his spikes cutting through a block. "It's not lame at all! In fact it takes a lot of brains to rewrite an entire song so that it still rhymes or has the same amount of syllables. Do you have the songs with you right now?"

She turned even redder under his attention. "No. I saved them to a document on my computer at home. It's not like they would come in handy ever anyway," she waved her arms frantically.

Takeda stood up suddenly. He had glossed over the script Kiyoko had written and was radiating energy equivalent to that of the sun.

"Kiyoko, Yachi, you two are amazing. Between the two of you we can turn this short play into a short musical! That will be sure to get everyone's attention; we'll have the biggest audience cheering for us at nationals!"

Several faces twisted in fear at the word "musical".

"Um, I can't sing." Kinoshita stated.

Narita agreed. "Neither can I."

"I can, but not by myself. I'd get stage fright." Asahi explained. Yamaguchi seconded his opinion. Tsukishima flat out said he wasn't singing. He'd say some lines if he had to, but he wouldn't sing.

"I don't think we should use my lyrics," Yachi attempted to protest. "Who knows how well they'll fit with her script! I also wrote them from Kageyama and Hinata's perspectives, so if they don't want to sing a lot of them wouldn't make much sense."

Suga caught the slight downturn of Kiyoko's hopeful smile and sprang into action. Literally. In one large leap he was seated in between the lightning fast duo and slinging his arms around them.

"Don't worry about it, Yachi! I know these two are capable of learning a few songs in the matter of a couple weeks. Isn't that right, guys? Although," he feigned innocence, "I wonder which one of you could learn them faster."

Hinata's eyes lit up as if on fire while Kageyama's eyes sharpened like daggers.

"I would," they spoke at the same time. "Huh? No way!" Twin growling ensured. "No, it'd be me!"

The third-year setter smiled sweetly. In the background Asahi and Daichi shivered a bit at how easily their caring mother hen could turn into a silver-tongued snake. "Great, that settles it! We're going to put on a musical about volleyball as our club's Cultural Festival entry. Our lovely managers can collaborate about role preferences and send us the final script tonight via the team email so we can start practicing our lines tonight to run through them as a group tomorrow."

"And I'll send an email reserving ourselves a two hour slot in the auditorium!" Takeda added.

"We won't be performing for two hours, will we?" Yamaguchi questioned worriedly. "You said this would be a short musical."

"Oh it won't take that long. We'll probably break the musical into two half hour segments to give us a fifteen minute intermission with plenty of time before and after the performance to set up and tear down. Since Karasuno's Cultural Festival is one day we'll be able to get away with making this a one time performance. I'll try to get us a slot in the morning or at least before noon so you all can enjoy the rest of the festivities without having to worry about the performance.

"Now," he stated with glee, "enjoy your day off! Tomorrow we work on practicing for nationals and the greatest performance this club has ever put on."