"Nice Makki" Oikawa easily received the ball from Hanamaki, it was a nice clean arc which made it perfect to set up to Kindaichi.
Iseri smirked and ran over to block Kindaichi, it was obvious that Oikawa chose him this time round.
Oikawa started a jump set but just before he released, Oikawa tipped his hand and executed a setter dump. Throughout the game Oikawa had noticed that Shōsha's team was seriously lacking in defensive skills. Of course, that wasn't the case with all the members, but once you pass the Middle Blockers the chance of the other players keeping the ball in play is almost nonexistent. "Ya~hoo! Mr. Middle Blocker! The ball is over here" Oikawa gave his signature playful smile and a wave. It was match point for Aoba Johsai.
Coach Omori put his hands together in a 'T'. He needed to stop Aoba Johsai's momentum. They had scored five consecutive points and that was unacceptable.
"Shōsha Academy, timeout"
Iseri practically growled as he stared Oikawa down with the promise of violence. How dare this little shit mock me. Iseri stomped back to the team bench for the timeout.
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Yana looked at the teams then at the whiteboard she was holding. Yana moved around the teal magnets to change the order of the numbers. "Hnm." She looked up at their team. "Oikawa."
"Yes Yana-chan?" He chirped cheerfully.
"On a scale of one to ten, how willing are you to stay at the net with Iseri?"
"What kind of question is that? Of course it'll be one hundred."
Yana nodded as she once more shuffled the magnets. "I'm thinking we do this from now on."
The team and Head Coach examined the board as she explained her idea. I want Iseri to be on the receiving end of Oikawa's serves. From what I've noticed, his receiving skills haven't improved since we were first years. And knowing Coach Omori, he probably ignored that fact and instead had Iseri practice blocks."
There was a brief silence. "You can be really mean at times you know that?"
"What, why?! Not at all." She gaped. "I'm just saying that since Oikawa is by far our strongest server and Iseri is arguably one of their weaker receivers, it works out. I just needed to make sure Oikawa was ok with being next to Iseri while at the net. He can be quite mentally taxing at times."
"Aw, you do care." Oikawa smirked yet his eyes held only the flicker of humor.
"Why, yes I do." She deadpanned without the slightest hint of hesitation or a faint trace of a lie. Throughout the match the suffocating pressure didn't let up. At this point Yana was sure that even the Shōsha team felt it.
That single sentence threw Oikawa through a loop. He expected her to roll her eyes or maybe even deny it, but definitely not reply to it so earnestly. There were few people in the world who could have him temporarily speechless and Yana just so happened to be one of them. Oikawa clicked his tongue internally as he glanced at Iseri from afar. How could he do something so cruel? And to Yana of all people. If it were me. I'd never do that or even let anyone have the chance to do something as disgusting as that. Oikawa looked back towards his team, the determination to win now higher than ever.
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Coach Omori pinched the bridge of his nose. "We are two points behind, and they have scored five consecutive hits." He glared at his team. They may not be as good as the girls' team but that didn't mean they could just play like trash whenever they felt like it. They were representing Shōsha Academy. No way in hell were they losing to some unknown country school. "You are all slacking. I allowed you to have this match because you said you would be able to beat them no problem. Now look, you are embarrassing the school, you are embarrassing yourselves and you are embarrassing me."
"Yes coach." Iseri bit back his snarky remarks. Although he hated what Coach Omori was saying, he wasn't wrong. Shōsha needed to get a grip. If their school won, then maybe he could convince Yana to come back to Shōsha, there was no way he was going to let her be taken away by some country boy trash.
"If you lose here, your actions will have consequences."
"Yes Coach"
"We aren't going to change our set up or strategy, got it?" It's worked every other time so of course it will work this time too. I have polished their talents, they cannot lose.
"Yes Coach!"
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The sound of the whistle interrupted both teams. Timeout seemed to end much sooner than usual. Both teams stood at the net ready for the game, "Ya~hoo! Unpleasant to see you again."
Iseri just growled in response.
"Wow, no need to act like a rabid dog, I was just saying hi." Oikawa looked to the ball, "Games about to start, you should probably stop growling."
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Kindaichi was the first to touch the ball after the serve. This time the serve was a rather underwhelming jump serve. Kindaichi was used to serves like Oikawa's so when #12 attempted to do it, he had assumed it would be something similar to those serves. He was wrong. If anything, it felt like a pale imitation. "Oikawa!"
The ball's arc was a little rough, but it was still decent enough that he didn't have to run around for the ball. Iwaizumi was vanguard and prepared himself to attack. He crouched, waited a second and jumped.
Oikawa was about to toss it before his petty little heart stopped him. Oikawa jumped and mid throw, changed his position to a dump and dropped the ball on the other side of the net again. No one really expected the setter to dump twice in a row, doing so would be overly bold and doesn't make for a very intimidating attack.
True to Yana's observations, Shōsha's team didn't have any good receivers. The ball fell in seemingly slow motion and landed dead center on Iseri's head. The Shōsha players tried to dive for the ball as it bounced off him, but they were too slow. It landed with a smack that resounded through the gym seemingly louder than a spike. It was a small tap, but the intention spoke volumes.
That was better than I thought. Oikawa put on his signature playful smile and knocked the top of his head lightly with his knuckles. "Oopsie."
Iseri was seething. This frivolous joke of a captain was mocking him. "I'm better than you. Don't look at me like that. I could beat you in my sleep, in fact, I think I did last night... twice." He growled; his voice was low enough that only the two of them could hear. "How do I know I'm superior? I go to a better school. I have better hair. I have more charm and I play volleyball far better than you ever could. You are trash."
"I've been called worse by better." Oikawa deadpanned; he couldn't care less for whatever Iseri had to say. Oikawa wasn't going to stoop down to his level.
Before Iseri could say anything more, the referee announced the results "First set end. Winner, Aoba Johsai."
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The second set passed by in a similar fashion to the first. Shōsha refused to change their team composition and from the looks of things they didn't even change their strategy. It had become an almost ridiculously one-sided match.
The referee blew his whistle and gestured to Shōsha's side of the net. "Shōsha Academy, member change."
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Yana sat up straight as she watched #14 start his pre-serve routine. He had tied his overly long fringe up on his head with a small pink marble hair bubble to reveal a rather strong sunglasses tan. If his tan was any indication, he seemed like the kind of person who spent his life soaking in as much sun as he could.
#14 tapped the ball a few times then positioned himself parallel to the backline. Yana stood up abruptly, looked at the ceiling then back down at the Shōsha student. She knew exactly what serve he was planning to do. It was her favorite serve to do -when she was given the chance that is.
"Skyball." She mumbled. It was a serve used almost exclusively in beach volleyball. There wasn't any rule against using it for indoor volleyball, but it was highly dependent on the ceiling height of the gym. The ceiling of the national's stadium was ridiculously high and had glaring stage lights which greatly assisted the effectiveness of the serve.
The aim of the serve was to go up and over the net as high as possible. It sounds like it would be a free ball to receive but trying to pinpoint exactly where the ball was with the sun -or in this case, light- behind it, was not exactly easy to do when it was coming down hard, not too different from a meteor, if it was going vertically down, and it wasn't on fire and it was a volleyball.
Unfortunately for #14 the roof didn't seem quite ideal, but if he aimed it carefully, he could probably have a decent attempt at the skyball.
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The Shōsha player took a breath and held the ball out in front of him and tossed it up just the slightest amount to allow his arm to make a full swing upwards. There was a solid thump on the ball as it sailed towards the ceiling.