Ayaka Oibara

"So think of me as a little bitch. At the end of the day, I'm the winner and you're the loser."

Ayaka Oibara (Japanese: 及原綾香 Oibara Ayaka) is a second-year wing spiker for Jinsoku Hisho's female volleyball team. She, along with Kai Nishimura and the first-years at Jinsoku Hisho, is a player on the team not mentioned or shown in the first chapter, Unmatched Success.

As of Refresher, Ayaka plays for the Kurobe Aquamarines, a professional Division 1 team in Japan's V.League, as an outside hitter. She was asked to play in the 2016 Olympics for the Japanese national team but declined the offer.

Appearance
Ayaka has long blonde hair with light blue tips. When in matches or at practice, she'll have her hair in a loose braid instead of a ponytail. She has dark maroon-brown eyes and a face that always looks annoyed or exasperated.

Her volleyball uniform is the standard Jinsoku Hisho one: A dark purple jersey with thin yellow stripes on the sleeves and hem, and her school's name written in kanji in the top left. On the back is the number 9, and the kanji 突進 (Tosshin, meaning Rush) is written under the number. On the court, she wears black kneepads and has white shoes with gold accents. One thing noticed about her kneepads is that the left one has Ayaka written sloppily on it in a gold permanent marker.

Personality
Ayaka is the coldest out of all of the Jinsoku Hisho girls, ignoring Hinata and even pushing him aside when he tried to ask her for directions. She is very goal-oriented and often rejects people or ideas because they don't fit with what she has in mind. The only exceptions to this standoffish behavior are to her sister, Katsue Oibara, Misaki, and Kei Tsukishima (after the Miyagi Mentors arc).

Many people from other teams have called her selfish and arrogant. In Your Fault, My Fault, Setsuna Nakajima refers to her as "Little Miss Perfect", and comments on how she purposefully riles people up. Ayaka responds by saying "Well, it worked, didn't it?"

Statistics
Ayaka is known for her mind games when on the court. She's able to figure out what each blocker notices the most and manipulate that, feinting them out of points with her tactics. She also riles people up easily, always having a snarky remark up her sleeve when she does something successfully. As seen in Lock and Key, she constantly aggravates Tsukishima and Hinata, saying things such as “So much for a tiny giant, that was more like a tiny disappointment."

Her jumping and technical skills are also to be admired: Kageyama compares her to players such as the Little Giant (Tenma Udai) and Kōrai Hoshiumi, both known for their jumping prowess. In Lyrical and Technical, Morino acknowledges that in comparison to the rest of the second-years, Ayaka has the most technical skill, although she's the shortest and has to work harder to get to the same places as the rest of them.

Quotes

 * "People tend to overlook you when you're short. More so when you're always sidelined by someone younger than you. I make sure that they regret underestimating me at the end of the match, and oh, their faces are priceless when they lose." (To Misaki, Official Debut)
 * "I've always liked crushing people's hopes, and sweetie, it looks like I just crushed yours." (To Ensui Haratsuki, Reach For the Stars (Don't Be Surprised When You Fall))
 * "You're making excuses. Don't lie, you lost because you couldn't pull yourself together, not because of me." (To Setsuna, Your Fault, My Fault)
 * "You know, we're the same. Always standing in someone's shadow. So when you get the chance to do it, make it known that you're the king of that court." (To Tsukishima, Take Your Initiative)
 * "So think of me as a little bitch. At the end of the day, I'm the winner and you're the loser." (To Yori Miyahara, Flight of the Unworthy)
 * "What are you gonna do, sweetie? Can't think your way out of this loss now, can you?" (To Viola Mori, The Thin Red Line)