𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠

07: 太陽

"mayhaps, i am,"

"you don't have to adjust and lowering your level to balance with your teammates you know,"

"seijuuro, this is not basketball, it is not that simple. i can't score by myself,"

"you can if you did an service ace,"

"that's not what i mean, boke!"

"you can take your team into a whole another level, you can even make them like you, sora,"

"tch, what are you? a captain?"

"you wanted to do my weekly drills again?"

the call ended after seijuuro scolded sorashi with his infamous scoldings in many various ways. the red haired man really called out all of sorashi's stupid decisions over the past months.

the emperor is right, i shouldn't have run away like a coward. sora thought. but what the hell should i do now?

morning came by fast, the chirping sound of birds and the soft glow of the half-risen sun peeks from the curtain, waking the young man up from his deep slumber. sorashi's eyes flutter open slowly, trying to adjust to the sudden bright ray of sunshine in his room.

"sora, there's someone wanted to meet you!" he heard a faint voice of his mom's yell.

"coming!" he yelled back.

sorashi groggily put on his hoodie. he yawned and sighed, when opened the door and backed up away quickly to hide from the bright outerworld.

"keishin?! what the hell are you doing in front of my room?"

and here they are. in the middle of the gym with a cart of volleyball. sorashi stood there with a scowl on his face meanwhile ukai only smiling widely. he successfully dragged sorashi to show him what is his main weapons.

"they are not the same karasuno as before you know," ukai broke the silence.

ukai sighed when he received no responds, "nishinoya and asahi are back in the team."

"they are okay without me then, why bother dragging me all the way here?"

"listen to me you teme*, they are hopeless against the stronger team, really hopeless." ukai put both of his hand on his waist. "you are basically this team's lifeline."

ukai stopped his words to take a deep breathe. he exhaled and glared sharply at the younger man. "and you are searching ways so you can blend in to the team right? you will find nothing if you kept running like this, and also this is your last year! you need to drop your perfectionist side if you wanted to help your friends!"

sorashi is left stunned. he stared at the blonde guy blankly. ukai was right, this is his last year. he doesn't have any time left in highschool to plan everything perfectly. he needs to take more actions because he has wasted times for something useless like this.

"wow, i never knew you can speak that much keishin,"

"you, teme!"

after some laughing and joking. ukai and sorashi are back to practice. ukai told sora about the past practice matches the team has done. especially against nekoma. he said that without an experienced blocker, karasuno is kind of wobbly, which sorashi replied with, "but my role is heavily on offense recently."

"okay, let's see your offense first," ukai told sora.

sorashi did the three variations of services. the first one was oikawa's-like jump serve, the second one was the jump floaters, and the last one was his infamous modified oni** serve.

the booming sounds everytime the ball landed on the opposite side of the court, never failed to make ukai kind of caught off guard. he is slightly terrified when he imagined if he was the receiver.

the next one is spiking balls to every angles. but sorashi is already knocked out on the floor. he panted and coughing harshly.

"i only can endure two matches max, or i'll be like this," sorashi explained to the confused ukai.

"you need to step up your stamina game, kid."

"i'm not like shoyo,"

"but daichi said otherwise."

daichi put his hand under his chin as he contemplated about sorashi's limited stamina. "his stamina is endless on a certain time,"

"what do you mean?" ukai asked.

"well, like when he tried to practice his jump serves after our loss and--" daichi was cut by sugawara. "--and when he was back from brazil! but again, he will fainted straight-after."

"for how long he can hold up?"

"12 matches." daichi smirked.

"they are exaggerating." sorashi growled. "i collapsed straight after."

sorashi started to stare blankly at the high ceiling again. the soft wind brushed past the two men, filling the silence that is started to deafening. they both stood their olace in complete silence as they lost in their own thoughts. sora sighed and stared right to ukai's eyes with his distinctive gaze, making ukai panicking inside. he was already braved himself before being rejected again but,

"maybe i'll join on spring high."

that was all sorashi said before he stood up and collected the scattered balls.

"eh? wha-- uh, ehh?!" ukai was so surprised that his vocabulary was gone from his head. "told you, you still wanted to play." he smirked.

"i'll be back if the coach is hibarida fuki," sorashi said in mock disgust.

"you teme!"

sorashi and ukai ended up playing as spiker and setter. ukai is relieved when he remembered that he was a setter back then. he helped sorashi to show his spike strength by tossing some balls to sorashi from different positions.

lineshot, cross-court shot, cut shot, slide hit, etc etc. the balls were gracefully hit by the none other than the younger brother of the little giant.

it's been one hour since they started and sorashi felt his legs are going to split after the constant jumping. "i think, i'm going to--" sorashi coughed harshly, "--die."

"sora-san!" a loud voice echoed through the gym. "you are back!"

sorashi turned his head and saw hinata standing in the doorway with a big smile. his eyes widen in horror when he saw that ball of sunshine. sora flicked his gaze to ukai, "you didn't say that they will be here today!"

ukai only shrugged. sorashi exhaled heavily, he ruffled his long hair in frustration. today is going to be a long day.

.
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*teme=bastard
**oni=demon

*hibarida fuki is japan olympic men's volleyball coach. he was introduced in chapter 210.