A second sunshine

The Starting Jump

"Girls, we have a couple minutes to practice before the game starts. So make sure to use it wisely." Coach Kojimama said as they walked to the court. Shirato Girl's academy had finished warming up themselves. Looking over to the other side of the court the team wore pink uniforms with white on the side. The liberos and Mori stood opposite to the setters. Who would toss the ball up and have a spiker hit it, where they would pass it back to the setter. Letting the process repeat itself. After ten minutes the officials finally came out.

Amanai and Shirato's Captain walked to the net. The official on the left flipped the coin. Niiyama won.

"We'd like to be receiving first." Both captains walked back to their side. Shirato's manager tossed a volleyball over in her direction. Right now on the current rotation is Natsu in front right corner, Amanai as her opposite, Ogawa between the two girls. The back row consisted of Rin behind Nastu, Mina in the middle and Asano behind Amanai. From the video they watched before leaving practice, Shirato didn't seem to have a fierce server. 

Three breaths in, three out. As soon as that whistle blew, the game started. As soon as the whistle blew Natsu needed to forget everything in her brain except for volleyball. The whistle blew, Shirato number two was serving. Her light brown ponytail swung after six seconds and she went with a simple overhand serve. Mina shuffled up, the ball remained in the air. Rolling to the right she made space for Ogawa. The ball touched her hands. Sending it into the air Natsu went for the approach.

Let them think it's for me. Be a decoy. She thought to herself as the blockers jumped up.

The blockers weren't able to jump back up for the back attack from Asano. The ball slammed into the right hand corner of the court. The official standing in the corner of the court signaled that it was a point for Niiyama.

"Nice kill!" Niiyama yelled out to their ace. She gave a thumbs up. Rotating to the front. Amanai's turn to serve was now. The ball was in the captain's hand. It bounced methodically as she walked to the serving line. Nastu turned facing the net, placing her hands on the back of her head. The whistle blew, the officials hand moved. The ball was in the air, Amanai had released the ball into the air. The slap against it was loud, it had sent the ball flying over to their opponents side. Number eleven moved to get the ball. Taking the challenge head on. The ball broke the form of the libero sending it to the wall. Second point down. Shirato was able to score a point after seven more of Amanai's serves. The teams switched sides. Natsu's eyes glazed over all of her opponents once again. She stopped making eye contact with number three who has long black hair.

Dropping her hands over her thighs, Nastu bent down. The serve touched the net. Natsu reached out with only her right arm. It bounced off her arm. Mina called out, and in a moment she was on the ground sending it up into the air. Amanai bumped it over.

On the other side of the court the yells of chance ball were heard. Natsu took a breath, the ball was still in play. She wouldn't let the nerves of the ball almost hitting the ground get to her. The volleyball was with Shirato's number seven, she set it toward the left. Natsu jumped up for the block with Asano and Amanai. It was back to Shiratos' side of the court. The ball bounced three times before going out.

"Nice kill." The court chanted. In the crowd, the Niiyama banner was hanging. With the cheer squad performing. The red and white Pom Pom hitting against each other as the crowd did another chant. Niiyama was now serving. Mina had rotated off while Ono came onto the court. Ogawa had mastered almost every style of serving. Only the third year players could usually guess what serve was happening when. The whistle was blown signaling for an exchange. Looking behind her, Matsumomo stood with the number two card. Tilting her head towards her fellow first year curious to why Ogawa wasn't serving. Natsu didn't receive an answer. Taking the card from her hand, the two setters switched out.