*Not much info about this one on where it's located and when it is so let's just, so....let's make it like the Spring High Nationals..mk*
*Instead of just June 30th, the new schedule for this Interhigh Nationals is approved by me: Author.*
Interhigh Schedule (Men's/Women's)
June 30th: Round 1&2
July 1st: Round 3&Quarter Finals
July 2nd: Semi Finals
July 3rd: Finals
Sakusa's POV
That damn piss-blonde. I wanted to spray his hair to go back to his original hair color or even into more suitable blonde color.
He almost touched Beautiful Snow. I would've hit his face, wash my hand, and go back to the team to disinfect Beautiful Snow. Since we had to go, I only kissed her forehead. I hope I get to see her play. As we got to the locker room, I sprayed the inside and wiped it down before using it and the benches. Komori and Iizuna was with me. I put my bag inside as well as my mask. I then taped my fingers.
"Sakusa, Komori." Iizuna called to us. "We'll be warming up on Court 3."
"Okay." Komori responds, putting on his shoes.
I was done as I see Wakatoshi-kun passing by, heading to the doors. Other boys were chatting so I decided to go meet him before the tournament. I have to play against him in our Block. I'm getting excited. I smiled to myself as I stand up.
"I'm going to talk to Wakatoshi-kun." I told Komori who simply nods before returning to pull up his kneepads.
I went outside and into the gym, only to see him standing in front of Court 2. I stand next to him as he notice my presence. He had his arms crossed.
"Wakatoshi-kun."
"Sakusa." He nods at me as we both stared in front of us.
"Wakatoshi-kun, how did you get so good?" I asked, breaking the silence, recalling what happen in the Spring Tournament and even hearing that he got selected to be part of Japan's 19U team.
"By practicing a lot." I've been practicing and preparing. What else is there Wakatoshi-kun?
"Besides that."
It took him time to think but he finally said words I didn't expect to here. "Because I got lucky." Lucky huh? I began to think about that. I was lucky to have met Beautiful Snow. I couldn't be more alive. I couldn't be more into volleyball after seeing her and Wakatoshi-kun play. In volleyball, I'm glad I got to play with Komori and Iizuna.
"Wakatoshi-kun, we're gonna warm up." A red haired guy with long fingers called out.
"In this tournament." He began, I turned my head slightly as my curls danced on my forehead, blinking at him. "Sakusa Kiyoomi, I will defeat you." He turns to me with determination in his eyes. I hum softly in response before facing him. We're around the same height as I grin.
"Good luck then, Wakatoshi-kun." I bow slightly. "See you in Round 3." Komori was calling me as I walked away.
I wonder if Beautiful Snow's doing alright. It would be better if I spike these receivers off the court and be done with Round 1 so I can see her. I other boys are watching her. I won't let that happen. Not even with piss-blonde around and meeting her a few minutes ago. He better not do something stupid.
Miyuki's POV
Please watch over me when I play Father.
I taped my fingers as Kiyoomi's touch still lingers in my palm. He seemed pretty protective when I met the twins. I took off my mask and placed it on my bag. Kairi claps her hands as everyone looks at her.
"Y'all ready?"
"Yeah!!" Aratani pumps her fists in the air. Since Coach Ichika doesn't want Shizuka to play because of her spraining her ankle in the Finals, and felt pain in our morning practice after the day off, she was allowed to come and watch but will have to act as our manager. Shizuka high fives her for her enthusiasm.
"Let's warm up." Namika stretchrs her shoulders while Mai stretches her wrists, palms, and fingers and Fumiko jumping a little.
"We can win." Mai said, confidently. "If we do what we did in the prelims."
"I'm ready." I stand up and faced them.
"Ooh," Seika sarcastically murmurs to Hina and Hekima. "is there a glow on Miyuki-san?"
"It must be Sakusa-senpai." Hina smiles as I squinted at them and pursed my lips.
"Huh? I can't be fired up?"
"Miyuki, she's just teasing you." Aratani pats my shoulder as I played with my taped fingers, averting my gaze at them. "Besides, all of us can see a bit of Sakusa's aura in you."
"Oh?" I looked up as the 3rd years nods in agreement.
"Ace couple." Namika comments.
"We might just win this along with the Boys." Mai declares as Kairi claps her hands.
"Then let's get to work!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There's a lot of girls here. Not to mention people in the stands. We didn't have a banner of our own since the Boys took it for their games. It's no problem at all. Banner's a banner. We carry that banner in our minds when we play.
"We're serving first." Kairi announces as Coach Ichika nods while Shizuka sat on the bench with her tracksuit on and a notebook in hand with a pencil.
I warmed up with Aratani as we now gathered to warm up our spiking while the other team's watching.
Normal POV ~ Commentator's talking during game time
"Good morning!" A guy said cheerily as he watched the teams warming up in front of him.
"Today's the first day of the Interhigh Nationals." A lady said, pulling out a her papers. "We're seeing the same teams since last year but in front of us for Round 1 is Itachiyama Academy of Tokyo and Koshi High School of Fukui, Fujii-kun."
"That's right, Azuma-chan." Fujii-kun lifts the schedule of the brackets of Block D. "First game of the day on Court 4. I read an article about Itachiyama's new ace. Now that Sakiko Shimamura is the #3 Ace of Geba High School. However, the school itself is still ranked in the Top 3 schools of the country."
"I read that too." Azuma-chan nods. "They entitled her the Foreign Ace because of her play style and some journalists that I've ask about, said she can speak English really well."
"Her name's Shimotsuki Miyuki." Fujii-kun announces, watching their mini cameras of on Court 4. The Interhigh Nationals are always televised. "Wearing jersey #10 and is a 2nd year."
"Just like the Boys team, Sakusa Kiyoomi." Azuma-chan points out. "They seem pretty close to me after looking over some photos of another article of the Champion School: Itachiyama Academy. Supposedly, both received the Best Spiker Award."
"We can expect great things from both teams in both leagues." Fujii-kun nods to that as the game was about to start. "Let's watch how the Foreign Ace is in action. She reached the double digits in kills in every single match in Tokyo's Preliminaries."
Miyuki takes a deep breath as the whistle was blown. She felt a little nervous and excited at the same time. But the memory of her Father gave her confidence to play the same as before. This sentimental feeling made her feel weird with these feelings. She shakes her head then bows with her teammates.
"Let's do this guys!!" Kairi encourages as Mai went to serve while Miyuki and Aratani are in the back row with their normal rotation. Miyuki takes a deep breath and puts on her game face, her icy eyes ready to analyze and observe the opponents' movements.
Mai serves to their Libero who gets it up perfectly to the Setter who tosses to the Middle Blocker went in for a quick attack. Kairi touches it as Miyuki jumps to cover.
"Fumiko-senpai!!" Miyuki tosses it up high towards the left side as Fumiko tracks it and approaches the ball which perfectly travels on top of the net as Fumiko spikes the ball which lands behind middle blocker and in front of their Libero, completely stunned and confused.
Miyuki smirks as she high-fives Fumiko while the others pats their back. Mai went into serve as Miyuki relaxes her shoulders and bend down a little, looking at the receivers from the back row, their eyes on her. As she nonchalantly stares back into each and every one of theirs, acting like that was nothing. Was not a fluke.
"Wow!" Fujii-kun exclaims. "Azuma-chan, did you see that? That was so quick?"
"I know, Fujii-kun." She nods as she checks Itachiyama's roster. "#10, Shimotsuki-chan is listed as a Wing Spiker. Could she have been a Setter?"
"I don't know, but let's find out."
"What was that?" Koshi High School's Setter questions before the whistle was blown for Mai to serve. "Hey, we're gonna try the attack we were practicing yesterday." She whispers to her Middle Blocker as she nods, determined to shut them down with only 2 serves.
The Libero passes it by moving in front of their Ace. The Middle Blocker went for a slide as the Ace went up in the Middle. Miyuki did not move until the ball left the Setter's hands, she watched how the Setter positions herself and her posture and her foot work. 1 step in front.
It goes quick to their Middle Blocker who spikes a straight but Aratani gets it up for Mai to set Miyuki. The ball goes high enough for her to time it and give a quick glance to the other side.
"Back Attack!!" Koshi High's Middle Blocker calls out as Miyuki went in the air.
"One Blocker!!" Aratani calls out as Miyuki jumps and spikes the ball to the Opposite who shanks it and it goes out.
"Woah, that looked almost like a bullet, right?" Fujii-kun asked, amazed with Miyuki's spike.
"Her draw isn't like a bow n arrow like the rest of Wing Spikers." Azuma-chan asserts. "Maybe that's why she's called the Foreign Ace."
"With that circular motion, Shimotsuki-chan can spike the ball in any direction, making it hard for the defense to read where she's hitting."
"Miyuki!!" Mai tosses up to their 2nd year ace after moving up to the front. Since she's been angle this whole, cutting through the Libero and Outside Hitter, the blockers decided to block her angle shot since she was facing towards the Libero again.
Miyuki sensed this as she does her arm swing and as the ball goes straight down the line, earning another point. Aratani and the others cheers as Miyuki fist bumps the air a little.
"Wow, I was sure that Shimotsuki-chan will get blocked." Azuma-chan observes as her partner took down stats.
"I used to watch a few volleyball matches in America. They call it a 'no look' shot." Fujii-kun explains as the game continued on. "When the spiker faces the defense in a cross court shot attack. Since it happened so fast, the defense were only looking at her body and not her hand. No wonder she's the Ace of Itachiyama."
"If you go back a few years, where Sakiko Shimamura was a 1st year," Amuza-chan recalled. "Mako Abe was among the Top 3 Aces in the Nation, behind Natsuki Kimura who is currently playing in Korea. Now Shimamura is gone to play her last year in Geba High School, Shimotsuki replaced her to carry the team which I think she's doing a good job so far, Fujii-kun."
"I agree." Fujii-kun nods as Miyuki does another line shot with her body facing across the court. "We might see Itachiyama coming out in 1st place of Block D."
Miyuki's jersey started to stick on her as they reached 20 already. 5 more points. I can go with it until the next set arrives.
She's currently in the front row, the next rotation she'll be in the back row. Namika was serving as Miyuki showed 2 fingers behind the back. Namika sees that as she serves where the Setter goes up to set. This made the Setter touch the ball first as the Middle Blocker would cover it before it hit the court, up to her Ace. "Right!!" Aratani calls out as Miyuki lined up and ready to block. Seika followed as they both went up to block.
Aratani digs it smoothly as Mai went and set back to Fumiko as the ball was dig up by their Libero, the Setter sets it to her Ace as Aratani dives on her right side to dig up the ball. The girls cheering as this is her debut game of being a regular Libero. She felt nervous but Miyuki encouraged her to play like she does in practice. "You're our only option of being a Libero, Aratani. Remember what you told me about Komori? Play for him. Play for me. And play for this team."
Miyuki grins as the ball goes straight to Mai. "Connect!!" Aratani yells.
"Miyuki!!" Mai calls out as she was ready for this one.
Miyuki quickly went up and spikes the ball with all her might, making a grunting sound as the ball goes through Koshi High's blockers.
"What an amazing receive by Aratani-chan." Azuma-chan commented. "She's the back up Libero for Shizuka who sprained her ankle during the Final match in the Prelims."
"She got some perfect passes on serve receive and defense." Fujii-kun went on. "Almost all of her digs go to Shimotsuki-chan."
"That's the Ace."
Kiyoomi's POV
This game is getting longer than it should be. I wiped my face as I wondered how Beautiful Snow's doing. Must've gotten around 10 kills by now.
I wonder if she could reward me after. We should've been counting our kills. Oh well, maybe tomorrow. Oh! What if I win the championship, she'll give me more attention and affection again. I grinned to myself as Komori was watching me.
"You okay, Sakusa?"
"I'm fine." I answered, still thinking about Beautiful Snow. "Let's finish this." I place down my towel and started walking to the court. Waiting for 2nd set to start and finish.
Miyuki's POV
2nd set is almost over. I cannot wait to see Kiyoomi play. I wonder how all the other schools from every Prefecture look like this year.
Before the 2nd set, Coach Ichika said to run a triangle with me, Fumiko, and Namika when Mai is back row. I started on the Left side. After a few more points I rotate to the Right side. Then go in the back row to play defense. I watched the Japan Women's National Team running this rotation so I'm a bit familiar with this lineup.
"Left!!!" Aratani calls out as I turned to watch their Wing Spiker go up and spike. Followed by Kairi, we shut her down. Well our hands touched it.
"Nice Block!!" The bench cheered.
"Looks like Itachiyama is running a triangle offense." Fujii-kun states.
"Probably trying to move the Ace around so she can hit shots from anywhere on the court." Azuma-chan concludes as the game was almost over. "It seems like Itachiyama is going quick by scoring points, with those sets from Mai-chan. She's good at running the offense by moving the Kairi-chan and Shimotsuki-chan away from blockers."
"Oh, look. Koshi High is marking Shimotsuki-chan with 2 blockers that are huddle near the left side where she is hitting as an Opposite Hitter."
As the ball gets over by a back attack, Fumiko digs it up as Mai didn't move. She was going out to hit. Instead, Miyuki saw it and pushed it to the outside where Namika is waiting. She feints as the Libero and the Setter tried to get it but nothing.
"Incredible." Fujii-kun said in amazement.
"So she can be a Setter too." Azuma-chan nods. "I think that play would get opponents confused because they had her marked but now she was setting, there was only one blocker up with Namika-chan."
"I would like to see more of that to finish up this game." Fujii-kun wondered. "Looking at the roster we have, Shimotsuki is a Wing Spiker/Ace. Coach Ichika must've not add her as a Setter so it can throw players and coaches off."
"Not to mention she's good at receiving and digging on defense." Azuma-chan adds on. "Mai up to serve again, her ball was so close to the line but the linesman called it out."
"Sorry." Mai raised her hand as sweat ran down her arms.
"Don't mind!" Kairi, Fumiko, Namika, Aratani, and I said all together, as Mai went behind me. It would be my turn to go serve afterwards.
"Go middle." Mai whispers as Kairi glance at Mai who showed a sign of a broad jump, being as subtle as she can do the blockers won't see. Kairi nods as she stay on the net, trying not to block Aratani's vision.
Jump Float?!
"I got it!!" Aratani calls out as she takes it squared but the went over, resulted in confusion. I was too but not now.
"Chance Ball!!"
"Sumimasen!" Aratani called out.
"Donmai!! Mai responded as the ball went to their Middle Blocker. She spiked it down to Aratani who redeemed herself as the ball went to the net where I was.
"Namika!!" I call out.
"Left!!" Namika called for a set. The blockers shifted to Namika but I jumps up and fient it with a left hand in the middle of the court.
They cheered as Namika smiled. "Man, I thought." She laughs and pats me on the shoulder. "Point's a point's."
"I got juked too." Kairi laughs as I scratched the back of her head nervously before going to the service line.
"That's an Ace for you." Fumiko shrugs as she moved to the front row.
"Yes, our predictions were correct." Fujii-kun states.
"Now it's match point for Itachiyama." Azuma-chan adds.
"Nice Serve!" Aratani encouraged as I tossed the ball up after the ref blew the whistle. I stand on the court to do a normal serve as the ball drops in the 10ft line. My normal serves are really really short and sometimes short float serves.
"She has a normal serve, Fujii-kun." Azuma-chan's eyes gone wide. "All this time, we saw her jump floats. Was this a tactic?"
"I think so." He nods. "She has 2 types of serve in her arsenal alongside her setting and spiking techniques. Amazing!"
"Well folks, this is you're winner for Round 1 in Block D, stay tuned for the next game of Block E is Morita Girls. Leading them is Misora, #1 Setter in the country after winning Nationals."
"Another contender for the Championship alongside:
Gena High school
Shiratorizawa
Itachiyama