"It's nice that they were able to close off the set without letting them flip the score around."
"Well the gap in points was a hard one to beat but they still need to lock off that guy who keeps on hitting off their blocks."
Yachi let out a deep breath when she saw Karasuno take their small break before they go towards the second set of the game. Mahiru stared at the court that Haruto was just playing at and tried to remember what they did so far to keep Wakutani at bay.
'They had the people at the back more spread out and assigned specific areas so they could have an easier time catching the ball that comes off the blocks…'
*Bzzt Bzzt
"Hmm?"
Mahiru who was distracted, felt a vibration in her pocket and took out her phone to see the message.
"Ah! She's here." Mahiru's voice raised up when she saw who sent the message and began to quietly type a reply back.
Within a few minutes a beautiful lady with deep blue eyes and short black hair was seen walking towards Mahiru who waved her hands around with a bright smile.
"You finally made it!"
"Hmm, there was traffic."
Yui who had a stoic look nodded her head and sat beside Mahiru who offered the seat next to her.
'She's beautiful but a bit intimidating… Mahiru said she was a family member….'
Yachi was sending subtle glances beside her since this person was the one Mahiru had been waiting for when they came to sit down in the spectator seats.
"Ah! The girl beside me is Hitoka, who's my friend and is also a manager in the volleyball club with me. Hitoka, the person beside me is Yui, who is also Haruto's mother."
"N-Nice to meet you ma'am!"
"Same here."
Yachi felt nervous when she locked eyes with Yui but calmed down a bit when she saw how she greeted her politely with a small bow.
"Is the game over?"
"No not yet. They just finished the first set… Oh, it looks like they already started the second set."
Mahiru pointed towards the court where Karasuno was playing and noticed how the scores had already begun to go up from the initial zero being [8-5] with Karasuno leading..
Yui quietly looked at the court and saw how Haruto was leading the blocks at the front row.
"Tip! It's going short!!"
Haruto called out when he saw how the ball was falling towards his right side as he and Tsukishima blocked the opposite hitter on Wakutani's side.
Kageyama who was near the ball, decided to pick it up since he noticed how the others would not be able to reach it in time and passed it high in Haruto's direction.
Haruto landed on the floor after finishing his block and saw how Kageyama decided to pass the ball towards him.
'The ball is too far behind me…'
Haruto wanted to hit the ball on the second touch but it was too far back for him to do a full swing so he decided to use Tsukishima who seemed to be ready to hit.
He volleyed the ball closer to Tsukishima's left side so he could hit the ball easier and not have to push his shoulder further to hit a cross on his right side.
Tsukishima watched how the ball was coming in his direction and swung at it, hitting a nice angle which skimmed past the blockers in front of him.
"Cover! Cover!!"
"Tch."
The libero on Wakutani's side was able to reflect the ball that came towards him upwards, making Tsukishima click his tongue. The ball was picked up and Wakutani had done a decent job with keeping it alive and gave it to Takeru who was ready to hit.
Haruto, Tsukishima and Kageyama got in place for another block and the people in the back row were quietly anticipating for the ball to go off their blocks.
But Haruto who was watching closely at Takeru's eyes, wanted to try something since he knew that Takeru would intentionally hit off his block.
He noticed the slight shift in his eyes and saw how he was looking at hitting an angle off the block but Takeru's face formed a shocked look when he saw where the ball went.
"Out!"
Haruto yelled out as quickly pulled his arms down and got rid of the block he made. The ball that Takeru hit flew far off the court and Haruto had a delighted look on his face.
"Hah it actually happened." Haruto tried to hide his smile from emerging as he looked and saw the linemen raise their flags to indicate the ball going out.
"What was that…? Couldn't you have done a regular block since it looked like you knew how to stop him by now."
"Ehh I still got the point though. Plus I always wanted to try something like this on Hinata whenever we practiced but I never got a proper chance to do it."
Kageyama had a look of disbelief seeing how Haruto was laughing at himself while Tsukishima deeply looked at Haruto before he turned his face away.
'It looks like our middle blocker also wants to do something.'
Daichi noticed the serious look on Tsukishima's face as he turned to face the net and he moved towards their new positions due to the new rotation after getting a point.
Using that small point, Karasuno started to chip at Wakutani's main point getter Takeru, as their other tactics were easy to handle just by following the ball and hitting past their blockers using their height difference.
Points started to add up and slowly but surely Wakutani's ace player had started to lose his ability to score off his opponents blocks.
*Boom!
With his long arms pressing hard against the top of the net, Tskukishima managed to kill Takeru's spike once again and pushed it back onto their side of the court.
"You're finally getting into it." Haruto started to repeatedly slap Tsukishima on the back trying to tell him that he got another great block in.
"It would be sad for a middle blocker if I didn't get as many blocks as you."
Tsukishima said calmly as he noted how Haruto had been able to shut down almost all of Takeru's spikes that came his way putting a lot of pressure on him.
"My bad the set was a bit low..."
"Don't worry I shouldn't have attacked so aggressively."
Takeru said as he felt sweat dripping down his face since he was having a hard time getting any points in due to Karasuno's persistent blockers. He had started to attack more frequently and exhaustion had started to appear.
"Try to get the serve in alright."
"I'm not Hinata."
"Oh yeah, that's true."
"You guys know I'm right here right…"
Hinata glared at Haruto and Tsukishima as he rotated to the front row and was able to listen in to their conversation. Haruto turned his head and whistled while Tsukishima said nothing and moved to the service line.
Haruto moved his eyes towards the score board and saw that it was reaching the end with it being [23-18].
'They must be feeling the pressure right now.'
Haruto placed his arms behind his head as he looked at Wakutani and noted that they were placing extra focus on the serve that was about to come their way.
*Tweet
The ref's whistle was blown and there was a shift in movement on Wakutani's side when they saw Tsukishima's serve come over.
They passed the ball towards their setter quite easily due to the serve being a regular overhand and a few players started to move together to do their combination play.
'Damn! They come by quickly.'
The middle on their side cursed in his head when he saw a block already set up by Haruto and even Hinata that he just decided to swing his hardest to make use of the set given to him.
"Touch!"
Haruto yelled out as he allowed the back row to pass the ball as he side stepped to his position slightly off the court, to prepare for his approach.
'Hmm… they're on guard against Haruto since it's nearing the end of the set and Hinata is still being marked hard…'
Kageyama began to think as he ran towards the position to set since Asahi was able to pass the ball that came off Haruto's block.
'Here should be good…'
Kageyama jumped up and Wakutani's blockers began to cheat towards the middle and left but suddenly changed their minds when they saw Kageyama look backwards.
The ball was set behind him and Daichi who was left alone, was given a set and he hit it against the blocker who was able to reach in time.
But the ball was still managed to pass through due to it being a 1vs1 scenario. It rolled off the block and bounced outwards after touching the arms of one of the people on the other side.
"Kageyama really likes to play at his own tune…"
"Well isn't that all of our players?"
Ukai had a wry grin as he thought that Kageyama would have liked to finish the set quickly by giving it to either Haruto or Hinata but he decided to give a set to someone who didn't hit much such as Daichi.
"Hooh… Alright everyone! Don't let this ball drop!"
"Got it captain!"
Takeru took a deep breath as Karasuno was now at match point and losing this point would mean them being eliminated from the tournament. They tensed up when they heard the whistle blow and saw the ball coming over.
His teammates managed to pick it up and they decided to give it to Takeru since he was their ace. Takeru saw the triple block coming up and decided to tip it over to the empty space he saw on the right side.
"Damn he really tipped it."
Haruto spoke to himself as he reached his arm over and tried to bump the ball upwards as he was falling down after doing the triple block.
The small touch managed to go upwards and Kageyama quickly gave a back row set to Asahi since he was a player who was available to attack.
The ball was spiked hard but it managed to reach directly to a person in the back row who popped the ball upwards.
"Takeru hit again!"
The setter ran after the ball and underhand passed the ball towards Takeru back on the left side.
'Another triple block..'
Takeru thought as another wall appeared and he felt nervous hitting it.
'I should hit it off their middle right here instead of their outside hitter.' Watching Hinata go up for a block, Takeru hit the ball at an angle and got it against Hinata's forearms and the ball flew outwards to the left side.
"Someone cover it!"
Ukai called out as he saw the ball going out and gave out a sigh when he saw Asahi get the ball up but still needed someone to get the second touch.
Haruto and Hinata who landed, ran after the ball and at a moment's time managed to reach it with Hinata diving for the ball and getting the second touch.
"That was… a nice… dive!"
Haruto yelled out after seeing Hinata smoothly glide onto the floor and locked eyes with the ball that was in the air.
Using his dominant foot, Haruto jumped up in place and twisted his body to hit the ball that was in an awkward spot and managed to hit with force that it flew towards the deep right corner on the opposite side.
"Dammit…"
Takeru cursed as he tried to reach for the ball but he gradually saw it fall to the ground inside their side of the court.
***
I hope you enjoyed it. Peacu.