Carry the Day

Chapter 16: Arrangements

When I came back, the second set had almost finished. I silently sat back down on the bench, lost in thought. 

"You were gone for a long time... You okay?" Coach asked. 

I forced a small smile and said, "Yeah... I'm totally fine. Just... walked around the complex for a while. I'm getting a bit restless." I lied. 

Knowing not to push it, he nodded at me before looking back to the court. Shoyo performed a quick,not the usual , but a normal quick. After a while, Kenma managed to save the ball and it landed on our side, scoring them a point. Nekoma won the second set. 

Takeda-sensei fell back on the bench with a disappointed sigh. "We didn't make many mistakes." Coach started. "Our best weapons were working as they should. Yet, we still couldn't win." He finished with a slight frown. 

"They're a real team, not a group of individuals." I said. My brows furrowed as I looked at Nekoma's side of the court. "They totally defeated us." I said. I scoffed, definitely not pleased with the results.

"Once more!" Hinata yelled suddenly. "Once more. Let's do it!" he yelled. 

"Yeah, I'd like that. That's what a practice match is for, so we can do it 'once more'." Nekomata spoke. 

The boys were sweating and panting, but everyone was still itching to continue playing. The matches went on, me warming up in the meantime. When I was done stretching and warming up, I turned my head to look at coach Ukai. A dark smirk twitched onto my lips. I put all my thoughts out of my head as I looked at coach Ukai. "Let me play." I said.

Coach looked up at me and grinned. "Go get them." he said as he motioned to the court. 

The whistle blew and the players looked up to see who would go out. Yuu saw me holding his number. He grinned widely and made his way off the court, giving me a high-five, which I reluctantly gave him. 

"Do your best!" he yelled. 

"Of course!" I said. I looked down at my sweats and pulled them down. Of course, I heard gasps echoing through the gym as my sweats fell to the floor. I took a deep breath and walked to my position on the court. I  looked up at Nekoma and rose an eyebrow. "Just because I got a prosthetic doesn't mean I can't play." I said.

Slowly, we caught up to Nekoma, who were still trying to overcome the shock of my leg. For once, I managed to use it to our advantage and save their unfocused spikes. My eyes snapped over to the right side of the net, where I saw Yamamoto approaching. "Handicap or not, this is volleyball!" he yelled and slammed the ball down.

My eyes widened as I dived to save the ball. I missed it by just a few inches. Scoffing, I slammed my fist onto the floor as I leant up on my elbows. I glared up at Nekoma's captain, who smirked down at me. I closed my eyes and got up from the floor, ignoring the hands that tried to help me up.

Soon enough, the match was over. Nekoma won both sets, getting better and better as they got over their initial shock. At the end of the match, we all huddled together. Nekomata spoke to us, while coach Ukai spoke to Nekoma. "His granddad and I are old acquaintances. " Nekomata spoke up. "We did a lot of practice matches together." He added. He looked over to coach Ukai as he spoke to Nekoma.

"They were good matches every time. However..." he said. "Old man Ukai made a comeback, but collapsed soon after. I was afraid Karasuno would be done for after that." He said. Then he grinned and said, "But frankly, your abilities exceeded my expectations. Especially #9 and #10's quicks on offense. You guys are pretty much unstoppable." He said. Shoyo and Tobio thanked him quickly.