Title: A new path Ship/Character: Ukai Keishin Additional Characters: mention of Takeda Ittetsu Fandom: Haikyuu Major Tags: None Other Tags: Inner reflection, growth Word Count: 424 Remix Permission:See Permissions Sheet
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Keishin takes a long drag of his cigarette, blowing the smoke up into the air and watching it disappear on the wind. He remembers when his aspirations felt as fleeting as that. Blown into the atmosphere and whisked away, never to be seen again. A blip on the radar, inconsequential, so small and brief as to feel nonexistent, to begin with. He doesn’t remember feeling like that at the time, when the weight of his wants and desires were so heavy they crushed him. When his heart burned so hot and fierce he was afraid he’d be consumed.
Then the fire snuffed out and while the weight never lifted, the nature of his burden did. A desire for victory and ‘just one more’ anything on the court turned into working the fields and minding the store. It morphed into putting his mother off him, because yes, he does want to get married, but not right now, and really, mom there’s more to life than marital bliss, right?
He wasn’t the brightest, still isn’t. College was out of the question, at least at the time he thought so. Maybe he should have tried harder.
But then he wouldn’t be here, would he?
Maybe he’d be stuck in some stuffy office with a boss he hates and piles of paperwork instead of stacks of boxes that, really, can wait when his boys… his boys… need him.
“Just remember,” Takeda told him one day after he’d bemoaned his ability to guide this flock of crazy kids, “it’s ok if they fall. They will learn and they will become stronger.” He’d clapped him on the back. “Mistakes precede growth. As long as we take the experience, theirs and ours, and apply the lessons learned, we’ll continue to rise, even if we stumble a little along the way.”
So maybe, Keishin thinks as he stands to stretch sore, tired muscles, maybe the mistakes he made, were just stepping stones to here. He tripped, he fell, he fought. He resisted and complained and futilely told off a teacher too stubborn for his own good. No wonder that guy was made adviser for this team, he’s just as tenacious as they are.
He smiles, knowing he wouldn’t change it, not for anything, not now.
Even his granddad, the old curmudgeon, has changed, has learned. And maybe, Keishin thinks, even if he was harsh, even if he was too hard, those mistakes formed him to the coach he is now. It all goes back to Takeda’s words.
FILL: Team 29 Balls to the Face, RATING: G
Ship/Character: Ukai Keishin
Additional Characters: mention of Takeda Ittetsu
Fandom: Haikyuu
Major Tags: None
Other Tags: Inner reflection, growth
Word Count: 424
Remix Permission: See Permissions Sheet
***
Keishin takes a long drag of his cigarette, blowing the smoke up into the air and watching it disappear on the wind. He remembers when his aspirations felt as fleeting as that. Blown into the atmosphere and whisked away, never to be seen again. A blip on the radar, inconsequential, so small and brief as to feel nonexistent, to begin with. He doesn’t remember feeling like that at the time, when the weight of his wants and desires were so heavy they crushed him. When his heart burned so hot and fierce he was afraid he’d be consumed.
Then the fire snuffed out and while the weight never lifted, the nature of his burden did. A desire for victory and ‘just one more’ anything on the court turned into working the fields and minding the store. It morphed into putting his mother off him, because yes, he does want to get married, but not right now, and really, mom there’s more to life than marital bliss, right?
He wasn’t the brightest, still isn’t. College was out of the question, at least at the time he thought so. Maybe he should have tried harder.
But then he wouldn’t be here, would he?
Maybe he’d be stuck in some stuffy office with a boss he hates and piles of paperwork instead of stacks of boxes that, really, can wait when his boys… his boys… need him.
“Just remember,” Takeda told him one day after he’d bemoaned his ability to guide this flock of crazy kids, “it’s ok if they fall. They will learn and they will become stronger.” He’d clapped him on the back. “Mistakes precede growth. As long as we take the experience, theirs and ours, and apply the lessons learned, we’ll continue to rise, even if we stumble a little along the way.”
So maybe, Keishin thinks as he stands to stretch sore, tired muscles, maybe the mistakes he made, were just stepping stones to here. He tripped, he fell, he fought. He resisted and complained and futilely told off a teacher too stubborn for his own good. No wonder that guy was made adviser for this team, he’s just as tenacious as they are.
He smiles, knowing he wouldn’t change it, not for anything, not now.
Even his granddad, the old curmudgeon, has changed, has learned. And maybe, Keishin thinks, even if he was harsh, even if he was too hard, those mistakes formed him to the coach he is now. It all goes back to Takeda’s words.
Mistakes precede growth.
And Karasuno certainly has grown.