Haruka Hayase

* Pre-timeskip
* Post-timeskip

## Image gallery

**Haruka Hayase** (Japanese: 逸勢遥, *Hayase Haruka*) is a first-year student at Karasuno High for majority of the series, and will be a main character in an upcoming fanfiction. Her position in volleyball was formerly wing spiker, but after she joined the Karasuno High volleyball club, her position changed into a setter. In her second-year, Haruka became the vice-captain for Karasuno High Girl's Volleyball club. Her jersey number is 2. In her third year, Haruka becomes the captain for the club, making her jersey number 1.

In the final arc, she is the captain for Japan Women's National Volleyball team after graduating from college, alongside Shineko Tadashi, who is the vice-captain.

## Appearance

Haruka is rather tall for someone her age, she has broad shoulders and is well-liked at first glance among others because of her 'resting' face, which is relatively tame and looks laid-back. She has natural white hair with dyed orange streaks, it is cut very short with one side of her bangs thicker and longer than the rest of her hair with an undercut. Her eyes are amber and has a pale complexion.

Lately, a lot of people started to comment that Haruka's overall appearance is becoming more masculine than feminine. She wears the standard Karasuno High girl's uniform, which consists of a white blouse, red ribbon, cream sweater, black blazer, and a grey skirt. When helping out the male's Volleyball Club, she is most commonly seen to wear the Karasuno's volleyball club uniform.

## Personality

At their core, Haruka does what she wants and does things her way. She is unafraid of conflict, highly competitive, honest and direct. She throws herself at the world eagerly and without fear, driven to prove herself and her strengths, he naturally takes charge and is competitive and ambitious. Haruka acts similarly to Shineko Tadashi on some cases, but much more tamer than the latter, and can initiate quick actions. She can also be impatient and doesn’t like to waste time. While Haruka like the competition, she doesn't like to play games. She is highly self-aware, has strong opinions and is always ready to defend them.

Haruka tends to be impulsive, impatient, and hotheaded. She rarely apologizes for her anger, saying “I don’t care” but doesn't mean it at all. She doesn't have the best self-control when it comes to anger, prone to lashing out but feeling bad about it afterwards. Haruka is known to have trust issues, and it takes a long while for her to open up to others. Reina notes that it took a long time for Haruka to open up to everyone, and still is. Haruka appears to have a complex with what others think of her.

Despite her temperamental and hot-headed nature, Haruka is shown to be protective and caring towards those she is close to and considers her friends. This is often shown towards Tomoe Oikawa and Makoto Koharu, commonly seen when they get hit on by other guys, Haruka always appears with a glare on her face.

## Background

Coming from Kitagawa Daiichi Junior High, Haruka has always been on the volleyball team. Because of how she looked back then, she was often ostracized by her friends and classmates in school. She was often made fun off because of her natural hair color and how short she cut it. Haruka was often used for her good grades in class for her classmates to copy off her answers, which stemmed her trust issues of others.

One day, during a volleyball match with an opposing school, no one wanted to toss to Haruka because her spikes were 'too slow'. Mid-match, Haruka was sent off-court because she started yelling at her team mates to toss her the ball for a better chance of winning. When she was benched, she met Reina Naoki, who told her that Haruka did have a higher chance of spiking the ball. From there, Haruka met Shineko Tadashi and Tomoe Oikawa through Reina, and they became good friends. Later, during their final year in Kitagawa Daiichi, they had a new manager. When Haruka was practicing her tosses, Makoto Koharu, their new manager, mistook the toss as Haruka was tossing at her. After the accident toss, the two became friends.

After they graduated from middle school, Shineko eventually pulled Haruka to enroll into Karasuno High.

## Plot

### Karasuno High Team Formation Arc

Shineko is first seen along with her friends during the episode and chapter "Five Odd Ones Out", where they appear on the doorstep of the male's volleyball club in Karasuno High asking to join.

## Statistics

 Stamina
 Game Sense
 Technique
 Speed

Haruka is actually a skilled volleyball player, she is capable of filling in any spot on the team, but noted by many volleyball players, Haruka is better suited to be a setter. She is naturally very talented in sports, volleyball being her bets since she has joined teams since young. However, on-court, Haruka is known to be uncooperative with most of her team mates, who are much more inexperienced with her.

### Skills

 Setting
 Spike
 Technique
 Block

* **Accuracy:** Through training in volleyball for most of her life, Haruka is able to directly pinpoint and determine the ball's trajectory and tossing it at the exact point. Combined with the fact that she can set from some angles and speeds, this makes her sets almost impossible for most of her opponents to predict and counter. Although it isn't as accurate as Kageyama Tobio's, she's observing and learning how Kageyama tosses the ball.

* **Setter Dump:** One of her most popular moves. As a setter, Haruka is able to perform a setter dump during the match, which catches opponents off-guard. She's adept at finding the perfect moments to perform a dump set, often surprising both her opponents and her teammates.

* **Quick Strike Karasuno Girls Version:** An edited version of Kageyama Tobio and Shoyo Hinata's Minus-Tempo Quick Attack (or the "God-Fast Spike", "Freak-Quick" or the "Oddball Combo") suited to fit Haruka and Shineko Tadashi. This is an offensive maneuver initially developed by Kageyama and Hinata, but Haruka adjusts the timing and angle so that it fits the speed and the spike power of Shineko's abilities. However, Haruka tosses are the exact same as Kageyama's King Toss, but slower. This isn't a problem to Shineko, though.

## Quotes

* *"Life doesn't give you lemons. Life doesn't give you shit. You harvest your own lemons, that's the fruit of your labor."*

## Trivia

* Favorite food: Spicy ramen.
* Pre-timeskip concern: She doesn't like her body how it is currently.
* Post-timeskip concern: She is afraid she can't be a good captain for her team.
* Haruka is confirmed to be bisexual.
	+ She has a crush on Makoto Koharu.
* The one-word description for her character arc is: "Trust".
* Her star sign is Aries.
* Haruka is actually quite intelligent, but fails at Mathematics and English.
* She idolizes Daichi Sawamura as a senpai because of his leadership skills in the volleyball club. He was also a major character in Haruka's character arc, teaching her how to put trust in her friends.
	+ She rated all the captains she met, her top four was Daichi, Kaede Aoi, Toru Oikawa, and Tetsorou Kuroo.
* Unlike Tomoe Oikawa, Reina Naoki, and Makoto Koharu, she is an only child along with Shineko Tadashi.
* In contrast to Shineko, Haruka hates cats.
	+ She likes dogs instead.
* Her worst language is English.
	+ Makoto tutors her in English.
* Haruka wears white gym shoes with fiery red accents.
* By the end of her second year, Haruka finally comes to terms that her gender is a demigirl.
* In the final arc, Haruka is noted to be one of the top 10 setters in Japan.
* **Nomenclature**
	+ Haruka (遥) - *Distant, remote.*
	+ Hayase (逸勢)
		- Haya (逸) - *Break free.*
		- Se (勢) - *Military strength.*