Yako Momoka

* Pre-timeskip
* Post-timeskip

## Image gallery

**Yako Momoka** (Japanese: 桃花野狐, *Momoka Yako*) is a second-year student at Inarizaki High and is the volleyball club's manager for majority of the Haikyuu!! series by Furudate Haruichi, briefly seen in Haikyuu!! Off-Court!! during the match with Karasuno and Inarizaki during the Nationals. She becomes a major character in the sequel Haikyuu!! Karasuno Girls!!, joining the volleyball club in her third year and is a substitute middle blocker.

As of 2018, she becomes the manager of the MSBY Black Jackals in the V.League, while on her off days she works as a singer at a nearby bar.

## Appearance

Yako has shoulder-blade length auburn-brown hair which is often let down without wearing a ponytail during matches, Atsumu Miya notes her hair to be almost like a fox's tail, which is very thick and fluffy. She has deep green eyes and visible long eyelashes with rosy cheeks.

She wears the standard Inarizaki uniform when in school, which consists of a white shirt, a maroon tie she tied into a ribbon herself, a brown blazer, and black skirt. She wears a pair of black leggings and the same color of shoes. While being the volleyball club manager, Yako wears a maroon jacket with white pants.

In her third year at Karasuno, Yako wears the Karasuno High girl's uniform, which consists of a white blouse, red ribbon, cream sweater, black blazer, and a grey skirt. In the girl's volleyball club, Yako ties her hair into a short ponytail and wears a black jersey and shorts, with white details.

It is often noted that Yako is quite fashionable when it comes to clothes, and wears slight make-up to school. However, she stopped when she saw Kiyoko Shimizu when the two talked about natural beauty. During the MSBY Arc, she grows her hair out and wears it in a low ponytail over her shoulder.

## Personality

Yako, at first glance, displays a quiet and aloof personality. She is often considered to be "cool" by outsiders and very down-to-earth. However, behind the scenes and towards the Inarizaki volleyball club, she is brash, blunt and sometimes quite rude when talking. She has a notable temper, to which she often takes it out by causing physical violence to the person causing her anger. Atsumu Miya describes her as "rough" because she frequently reprimands the volleyball club about not keeping the balls properly or not mopping the floors before they leave. Yako is strict and

However, Yako has incredibly high standards for herself when it comes to anything, and refuses to let someone overtake her in fear of being ostracized. Due to her sheltered and pressurized lifestyle at home, Yako is incapable of normally reacting to situations, often running away from her problems rather than facing them. A major example of this is when she willingly chooses to leave Inarizaki and all her friends to Karasuno in order to just avoid Atsumu.

In her third year at Karasuno, thanks to the volleyball team, Yako eventually learns to let go and come to terms with her fears, letting herself love, even if it's not romantic and purely friendship-based. Often, to express her feelings, Yako found her passion and hobby of singing to relieve stress. She is also shown to care greatly about her friends and team mates, shown through small gestures like gift-giving or making sure they were okay, both mentally and physically.

During the MSBY Arc, Yako is shown to have a more "tone-downed" personality, but she still retains much of her brash and strict demeanor. As the manager, she cares about her players as it is her job to record the well-being of her team. Her feelings for Atsumu seemed to have vanished during this time, too.

## Background

Yako lives in Hyogo Prefecture, and thus speaks in a Kansai dialect, although she is capable of using a normal Japanese dialect too.

Yako's family was overprotective towards her, causing a sheltered lifestyle in most of her childhood. Since she was an only child, her parents decided most of her life for her, not allowing Yako to properly "grow" and make her own decisions, forming some sort of disconnection towards her family. She attended the same junior high school as Atsumu and Osamu Miya, the three first met when Atsumu accidentally bumped into Yako carrying books to the teacher's room. After going home, all three of them found out they lived directly next to each other, making them neighbors. After a few years of growing up together, Yako, Atsumu, and Osamu attended Inarizaki High together.

While Atsumu and Osamu focused on volleyball, Yako focused on her studies. She was then approached by Aran Ojiro in her first year to join the volleyball club as a manager. Intrigued, she put the offer on hold and immediately began studying volleyball and watching numerous volleyball-related videos in order to get a better look at the sport.

Later, Yako agreed to join the club as the manager, but was overwhelmed by the other members, being greatly irritated by the team's mixed attitude. Although she had a few rough patches with the members not living up to her expectations, Kita Shinsuke told her to calm down and ease up a little, making her earn respect for the captain and follow his advice.

## Statistics

 Stamina
 Game Sense
 Technique
 Speed

Yako is exceptional at reading people's emotions, body language, and tone, which enables her as a manager to pay proper attention to the player's condition. Her skill at reading people excells when it comes to Atsumu and Osamu since they had spent so much time together, properly enbaling Yako to tell if either of them had a headache or was feeling stresses in any case. This skill of reading people also extended to her parents by reading their moods during the day.

In volleyball, this allowed Yako to be exceptionally good at read-blocking, paying attention to the opponent's spikes and where they would hit. This made her a so-called "monster" on court, if only Yako improved her stamina and jumping height.

## Relationships

### Inarizaki High

* **Atsumu Miya:** Both Yako and Atsumu were childhood friends and neighbors, Yako's parents trusted him and his twin brother Osamu greatly when it came to Yako's safety. Atsumu was also Yako's first crush, however it was shortlived as they slowly drifted apart due to Yako moving from Hyogo to Miyagi Prefecture. Yako and Atsumu are often described having similar pesonalities, yet they differ from each other. Despite having frequent bickering and teasing, the two share a bond with each other and care for each other regardless. Yako knows when Atsumu is stressed, and other than Osamu, knows how to calm him down when it is neccessary. Atsumu, in turn, takes care of Yako and makes sure she is alright. However, their relationship fell apart the moment Atsumu opened up to Yako about his feelings for Sakusa after the Nationals. Devastated and heavily disappointed, Yako began to push Atsumu away in an effort to hide her true feelings, only wishing for Atsumu to be happy and "saving" herself from heartbreak. Yako eventually cut ties with all her friends from Inarizaki High, including Atsumu, when she moved to Miyagi and enrolled in Karasuno. The two met again in Yako's third year when Karasuno went up against Inarizaki in the volleyball girl's Nationals, accidentally meeting with each other when they were crossing blocks after their matches. While Atsumu was focused on getting their friendship back, Yako seemed to despise Atsumu and ignored him, walking away. The two of them ignored each other after that, but it was not their final interaction. During college, she signed up to be the MSBY Black Jackal's manager and met Atsumu again. Initially, she had tried her best to ignore him and push away from feelings again while Atsumu openly dated Sakusa. However, Atsumu confronted her about this and the two ended up having an argument, which caused Yako to finally understand her true feelings and let go of the past. Yako and Atsumu reconciled their friendship, becoming close friends afterwards. But, shortly after, Yako began noticing signs of something underlying Atsumu's usual demeanor. She never confronted him about it at first until Atsumu attempted to jump off a bridge with Yako running after him and attempting to save him, only to fall off herself. In the hospital, both Atsumu and Yako apologized for how they acted, further strengthening their friendship. Later, in the final arc, she becomes the bridesmaid for Atsumu and Sakusa's wedding.

### Karasuno High

* **Kocho Tsukihiko:**

* **Haruki Aikyo:**

* **Shineko Tadashi:**

* **Reina Naoki:**

## Quotes

* *"Hey, ya better play properly this around, alright? There's no room for slacking off or making excuses, yer finally in the Nationals! Now go out there and play like ya always do."* To the Inarizaki volleyball team.

* *"I... detest love. It hurts and makes you cry, it leaves you lonely and unwanted when your feelings aren't reciprocated. You always need that one person in your life to forever love you. But... I realized that was wrong. You don't just need romatic love, you need friendship as well. And being friends with you guys is already enough to make me happy for a lifetime."* Yako, to the Karasuno Girl's Volleyball Club.

## Trivia

* Pre-timeskip concern: The volleyball team is slacking off, what am I going to do when Shinsuke-san leaves?!
* Post-timeskip concern: The MSBY team isn't in their spirits lately.
* Favorite food: Matcha ice cream.
* Yako, around Inarizaki High, has a prominent Kansai dialect when she speaks, especially when she is scolding the members. However, when speaking to someone else who is not from Hyogo Prefecture, most notably Kiyoko Shimizu, she doesn't speak with a Kansai dialect.
* Her one-word description for her character arc is "Love".
* She had a (minor) crush on Kiyoko Shimizu.
* Yako also has a crush on Atsumu Miya, prior to her transferring to Karasuno.
* Her sexuality is currently unknown, as she tends to be attracted towards females and males, hinting she might be bisexual.
* Yako speaks with a Kansai dialect around the volleyball team, but speaks normal Japanese around everyone else.
	+ During her third year at Karasuno, she starts speaking with a Kansai dialect around her team members freely.
* Her favorite animal is foxes.
* Yako used to be neighbors with the Miya Twins. She is also their childhood friend.
* A running gag in the series is that Yako bumps into future opponents that will play a huge role in the story.
* **Nomenclature:**
	+ Yako (野狐) - *Field fox.*
	+ Momoka (桃花) - *Fragrant peach.*