"Ren deserves what's coming for her,"
"Ren?" I feel a hand touch my shoulder and turn around to see Hina looking at me worriedly.
"You alright? You look like you've seen a ghost,"
I could only stare at the hallway ceiling as my mind was getting lost with so many thoughts.
She deserves everything that's coming for her?
And she's talking to Ito?
"Hmm yeah yeah I'm alright," I look at Hina giving her a reassuring smile.
"Naka-Chan! Sato-Chan! Coach is calling all of us!" A voice suddenly shouts and I glance from behind Hina to see Sakura waving at us to come to her.
โ
"Go go let's go let's go Dateko!"
"Can that cheer get any more annoying," I groan looking at Date Tech's crowd as we begin our warmup.
"I find it kind of catchy," Akari shrugs as she stretches on the gym floor.
"Where's Ito?"Coach asks looking around the gym.
As if on cue the third year runs into the gym gasping slighty for air, "Gomen, I was uh talking to a friend and lost track of time."
"It's alright just get warmed up," Hina instructs Ito to which she nods in response walking towards her gym bag.
As doing so she passes by me our arms brushing against each other causing a shiver to run down my body.
The blue eyed girl locks her eyes with mine for a second, feeling like eternity before she looks straight back in the direction of the bench.
Trying to push away the thoughts of Ito and Kimura togehter I attempt to focus on the game as I practice my serves.
After our warmup Date Tech does there's as well specifally showing how strong their blocks are with their middle blocker who was known as the tallest female player in the highschool league standing at 185cm.
We all watched her in amazement as she blocked every spike that came her way.
"Eekk she's so scary. Only a second year too," Sakura shivers timedly as the girl was almost a solid foot taller than her.
Akari lightly slaps the libero's shoulders as she glacnes between Ito and her.
Looking to the blue eyed girl herself I could feel Ito slighlty tremebling at Sakura's words before Hina puts a shoulder on hers reassuringly.
Did Ito have some sort of past with Date Tech's middle blocker?
"Yes she's tall but lacks techinque. So we shouldn't be afraid of her just because of how tall she is," Coach speaks up from behind as she studies the girl herself.
"Alright so this is our last match before the finals. Right now Niiyama and Kakugawa are about to play against each other to see who will move onto the finals so whoever wins there is who we will face next round if we win. Just keep doing what youv've been doing all these matches before and we can come out with a win. Watch out for their middle blocker of course as she will be mostly targeting our hitters of course."
"Hina,"
The captain herself nods at coach as if they spoke with their minds.
"Alright girls we got this!" Hina puts her hand in the middle of our huddle. "Just one more game then we'll be in the finals," She smiles at us as we all put our hands in.
Walking onto court I can feel a pair of eyes watching me and look to see non other than their star middle blocker almost studying me.
A whsitle sounds on the other court and I glance to see Niiyama's game starting as well. As if she knew Kimura looks up from the ground and stares directly at me a small smirk on her lips.
"Nice serve Ito!" Hina says as she prepares to serve.
As the ref blows the whistle Ito completes a normal overhand serve starting the match.
--
"It's alright Ren brush it off," Sakura smiles warmly at me as I got blocked by the 185cm girl for the second time in a row gaining another point for Date Tech.
Glancing at the scoreboard I let out a small sigh rubbing my hands with my eyes frustratedly.
Set 1: 25-20 Aobajohsai (W)
Set 2: 16-12 Date Tech
Walking in on Kimura and Ito was taking part of my focus away from the game messing up my spikes slightly.
"Coach!" Hina looks to coach to which she nods her head calling for a timeout.
We all jog up to the bench lisetning to what Coach has to say.
"Alright so I've noticed that the middle blocker has been mostly targeting Ren as she is our ace and receives most of the sets," Coach looks my way before turning to Hina, "So don't set to her."
My eyes widen at coaches words feeling my breath hitch, "But coacโ"
"No arguing with me Ren. I know what you can do but they have you fully lock-downed. If you can act as a decoy then we may be able to allow their blockers to focus on you which is where we can use Ito and Akari to get some points. Got it?" Coach eyes me to which I gulp nodding at her words.
As the ref blows the whsitle all starters go back onto court preparing for Date Tech's player to serve.
"Remember what coach said Ren," Hina whispers from beside me as she watches her opponenet prepare her own serve.
With the blow of the whistle she serves directly towards Sakura giving the libero a clear pass to Hina.
With coaches words replaying in my head I lock eye conatct with the middle blocker who was already watching as I prepared to 'spike' the ball.
Hina seems as though she was going to set the ball my way before perfectly tossing it to Ito last second, all eyes directed away from the captain.
With a prefect hit Ito is able to finally gain our team a point as the ball falls to the other side. Akari shreaks in response to the point enfulging the emotionless girl in a quick hug.
Studying Ito I watch as her lips slowly curve into a small smile as she recives high-fives from the rest of the team.
She finally looks my way to which I give her a small smile and thumbs up. As much as I hated the girl and couldn't stop thinking about her weird relation to Kimura and their plan to basically ruin my life I felt happy for her.
What Ito does next surpises as she very slightly smiles back at my giving me a thumbs up as well.
Hehhh?
The set continues with using me as a decoy as all girls other than myself gain points for the team, most of the points coming from the former ace herself, Ito.
With the score at 23-22 Hina finally sends the ball my way, Date Tech's middle blocker a few seconds behind to which I'm able to hit it off the edge of her hand hitting it out of bounds.
Now at game point Sakura switches in preapring to serve.
The serve makes it to the other end giving the opposing libero a pefect hit towards their setter.
Both Akari and I go towards the middle blocker as she prepares for her spike hitting it at full power. The ball hits the edge of Akari and I's fingers, the ball coming to our side.
"Hinaa!" Sakura shouts as she chases for the ball bumping it back towards the center of the court.
Taking it as a cue Hina tosses the ball directly towards the center of the net.
Both Ito and I make eye contact with one another as we both speed towrads the ball.
Their blockers eye the both of us trying to decide on who was going to spike the ball.
The middle blocker suddenly pulls her teammate my way as I prepare to jump in the air in perfect spiking stance.
I watch as Ito does so as well as if we were both battling for who was going to hit the ball.
Looking at the third year and the sudden glint of determination burning in her eyes I last second move to the side as I watch her spike the ball as hard as she could.
I can hear a tsk come out from the first years mouth as she predicted the wrong player but was able to get a her hand slightly on the ball due to her height.
We all watch as the ball spins to the back of the court Date Tech's libero attemtpting to dive for the ball only to miss it by a split second. The ball was quite questionable as no one could tell if it went out of bounds or not.
The entire court waits anxiously as the lineman slowly moves the flag in their hand pointing it downwards, signaling that it was under fact in-bounds.
With a blow of a whistle Ito is tackled into a hug by Hina.
"You finally did it Ito," She whispers into the girls ears tightening her hold on her.
My eyes slightly widen at the sight in front of me as Ito returns the hug a small tear running down her cheek.
Ito was crying?
"This is the first time Ito was able to get through the middle blockers blocks and win the match," A voice says from behind and I turn to see coach watching the two a small smile on her lips. "Last year she was shut down by the exact same middle blocker, blaming herself for the loss during the Spring High."
{A/N: Some Asahi type beat :)}
Cheers are then suddenly heard on the other end breaking the momnet between the two as we all turn to see Niiyama cheer in excietemnt their side of the audience also erupting in cheers.
"Looks like we're facing Niiyama," I mutter as I watch Kimura shake the hands of her opponents her eyes filled with, lust? Revenge?
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Hope you enjoyed the chapter! I didn't just want to skip this match fully as I wanted the story to flow a bit better. Next chpater will be the last of the arc and is quite a hectic and probably my favourite chapter of the book. I'm sooo excited for you all to read it!
It should come out by latest Monday as it'll be a long one soo stay tuned :)
You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net