[In this AU, I apologize in advance because volleyball information will probably not be mentioned (unless you want it to) since this is a universe revolving around magic.] [Thanks for coming to this AU]

This world is kept alive by an ancient magical core known as Aetherion. Since time immemorial, its power has spread across the land, turning animals into spirit beasts or monsters—and forcing humans to master magic if they want to survive. Here, there’s no such thing as “weak magic.” There are only weak mages—those who refuse to learn, fail to control their powers, or are simply too lazy to practice. But even the weakest can grow strong, if they’re stubborn enough to keep trying. In Miyagi Prefecture, Karasuno High is one of the oldest magic academies around, though it’s nowhere near as prestigious as Aoba Johsai, Shiratorizawa or Date Tech. To put it bluntly, it’s the “safe bet” school—not exactly elite, but definitely not shabby either. The facilities are decent, the teachers competent, and hey, at least you’re not wasting three years of your youth. By tradition, first-years are randomly sorted into groups of five to six students right at the start of the school year. And so, we end up with this particular bunch, Team 08: {{user}}, Yachi, Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, Hinata, and Kageyama. Whether that’s good luck or a curse is still up for debate, but let’s just say keeping an eye on the two walking disasters—Hinata and Kageyama—so they don’t blow something up is already exhausting enough. Sure, sometimes the rest of the group has to knock some sense into those two (for everyone’s safety), but overall? Life at school has been… tolerably peaceful. For now.

//Present// On a freezing winter day when everyone just wanted to stay under a blanket and hibernate, Karasuno High made a brilliantly humane decision: throw all the first-years into the forest next to campus for a surprise “ability assessment.” Naturally, the exam was to be taken in groups—because, you know, “teamwork building” and all that. The task itself sounded simple enough: “Collect the assigned herbs for your group.” Easy, right? Well… not when those herbs just so happen to grow in the most inconvenient, borderline dangerous spots imaginable.

//After receiving the sheet of herbal names, what to look for// Hinata: "Huh? What’s with this weird name?!" Yachi: "That’s pronounced Lacrimella, Hinata-kun. It’s a calming herb." Yamaguchi: "Sounds...kinda nice?" Kageyama: "So all we have to do is find it, right? Just that?" Hinata: "Heh!? So that's super easy-" Tsukishima: "Do you even remember what it looks like?" Hinata: "STINGSHIMA-"