37 Competition Within a Competition

"YOSHAAAAA!!!"

"Woooah, Genji, nice kill!" Gai ran to the rookie to give him a high-five.

'Seriously? What the actual fuuuuck?' From the bench, Hiro had to blink for several times to make sure that what he saw wasn't just a glitch in his vision. 'No, no, no it can't be…. that's MY signature move…'

He was already beginning to give credit to the shrimp whose impressive jumps can surprise anyone else. He was also beginning to give him credit for his skills in wiping the blocks of their opponents. But this….. he never imagined he was capable of this. The copy was almost perfect. 'Tell me that's just a fluke….'

So far, he's only aware of one particular player who had the same torso flexibility as him – and that would be Suna Rintaro of Inarizaki High from Hyogo. Although he can't tell if their spiking techniques are indeed the same since he's left-handed, but from the videos he saw when the guy was in his A-game, they share more or less the same play style. However, what makes him more unique compared to Suna is his speed in meeting the ball for a faster middle quick attack, which can surprise the blockers before him, who thought that they'll be able to shut him out. Suna, on the other hand, waits for the blockers to get into form, before he adjusts his body to manipulate the block. If Suna's style is more into riling the blockers, Hiro's style is more into fooling them with his illusion of speed.

And that's what Asuma Genji manifested just now. He met the ball before it reached it's apex by bending his upper body to the right side, and got in through sheer speed before the blockers can realize that he was left open for an attack. Somehow, that ticks him off. Thanks to Kakuzo attracting them beforehand, the redhead rookie scored them another point. 14 – 9, Shiroshikata.

Two rotations later and Terano-Higashi called in for a substitution to bring in their pinch server, who aimed his strong serve at Asuma, who wasn't able to raise it up properly. In the next rally, Kouha scored a point for the Stags, which prompted for the side out in their favor, making Kakuzo march into the service line to send the ball over, and Hiro move in to the front court in lieu of Gai. Asuma was in front with him, and he looked focused at the players right in front of him.

The setter from Terano-Higashi got the first touch off Kakuzo's serve, and the ball made an awkward arc towards the left, where one of their players spiked it towards Shiroshikata's side.

"HIRO, NICE KILL!" Shiroshikata's bench cheered after seeing the total shutdown scored by Hiro from that attempt of their opponent.

Kakuzo served another time and the ball was cleanly bumped towards the opposing setter, who tossed to their ace, who was once again deflected by Hiro on that account.

"One touch!" He said, and looked to the side, where Maki dug the ball to get it up.

"Kouen!" Kouen positioned himself under the approxiamate location to where the ball will likely drop, and caught it with two hands, to set the ball for Genji.

"Asuma!" The little redhead jumped from the left, and his spike was touched by one of Terano-Higashi's blockers.

"One touch!" Their libero hustles after the ball, and bumped it again to their setter, who tossed in the middle for a quick. The straight looked like it will score them a point, but Maki made a nice save on that one, and the ball bounced near Kouen, who was having a little bit of an internal conflict on where to send the toss.

'My idiot brother looks excited to hit one now, and if I don't send him this one, he'll be sulking about it later. Talk about troublesome.'

'Shrimpy's having a hard time with the blockers, can't blame him though, two meters isn't a joke.'

'Ahhh, and that unreadable Hiro seems like he wants to reclaim his signature move that was copied earlier by shrimpy...hmmm how convenient.'

"Maki-san!" He betrayed all the front hitters and send the ball in his back, for Maki to deliver an attack from the back row center. After they scored that point, the three hitters at the front gave him questioning looks, as if saying, 'You really are the worst, emoboy.'

That only makes him all the more amused. Because that's the thing that makes him love playing as a setter. He's the team's control tower, and he can decide on which offensive choice to make, like a king over his followers.

Kakuzo's third serve hit the net, and so Terano-Higashi served next, only to just replicate the previous play.

Now, for the Stags, Gai went in for Kakuzo and Kouha was at the service line to send the ball over. His jump serve was received with difficulty by the opponent's libero, and the setter had to scamper around to get the next touch on that one. Terano-Higashi had no choice but to just toss the ball over to Shiroshikata's side, and Asuma got a hand under it, bumping the ball close to Kouen for the next play.

"Asuma, nice receive!" Gai complimented the rookie, these two seem to be really friendly with each other, but Kouen thought that the bump was rather messy, because he had to take another extra step before he can catch it properly for the next set.

'Next set? Nah, hehe.' He smiled to himself, thinking about what he's about to do to further torment his spikers. 'Let's see your reactions if I try to score this.' He made a form which looked like he was about to set the ball to Hiro, but in the next second when actually made contact with it, he just dumped it over.

'Perfectly legal since I'm in front.' Kouen thought to himself after getting another glare from Hiro, their silent argument reaching Maki's attention that the captain had to step in before some words between the two will be exchanged.

"NICE, NICE, KOUEN-SENPAI!" Genji cheered for the setter, who just acknowledged his compliment and proceeded to his position just like before.

From Shiroshikata's bench, Coach Soma's forehead was filled with lines of his stress despite the fact that it was their team who scored just now. Kayo took notice of this and asked the coach about it.

"Something the matter, coach?"

"Haaaaahhhh, nothing, just competition within a competition. I don't know if this'll be for the better or for worse if this keeps up in the next games." He massaged his temple after that, apparently more stressed than she thought he might be.

For the next three rallies, it seems that Kouen got sick of the glares now and decided to toss the ball next to the grumpy-looking Hiro, who rampaged in the middle with his back-to-back blocks and this recent quick attack that made a 'waterfall' movement in front of the tall towers of Terano-Higashi.

When the triple block came, Hiro aimed his spike down, so as to control the motion of the ball's falling trajectory if ever it will hit a wall. The hit became a success when the ball went down after hitting the block of one of the opponent's blockers. Hiro pumped his fist as he celebrated that point. 'YUS!'

[Waterfall – a description used to illustrate the movement made by the ball as it falls down after hitting a block]

"HIRO, THAT'S SO COOL! KOUEN, SEND THE NEXT BALL TO ME, IMMA DO THAT!" Kouha said after witnessing such play.

"Send me more tosses too, senpai!" Genji also asked for some.

"Shut up, ye beggars, I'll toss to ya if I find ya ideal during a rally, jeez."

Right after hearing this conversation, Coach Soma let out an audible sigh of relief. 'Apparently, I don't have to worry too much about them. They know what they're doing.'

The first set rolled on and they won it. The same thing happened during the second set. Once again, they swept this game, and exited the stadium looking even more intimidating than they were before.