7 The Spiders 1
The gym looked ready for the arrival of the guests from Kanagawa prefecture. It looked clean, and the smell of air salonpas filled the air. Slowly, the members of Shiroshikata Men's Volleyball Club arrived and started to do their warm up exercises. The new jerseys for this year's team line-up arrived yesterday along with the team's other gear. Kayo was ecstatic to receive their jackets and handed the other one to Megumi.
Coach Soma told her that they have this long-standing rivalry with the Spiders of Kanagawa since the time when he played for the team, until now, that he's a coach. Heck, even the opponent's coach was also his rival back then. But they never got to play against each other officially since his high school days fourteen years ago.
Until during last January's Spring Cup, they finally met in an official match again. The Spiders were thrashed and their hopes of winning the championship disappeared after the second round of the tournament. Soma thinks a practice match with them will do his team good for the coming Inter-High Summer Cup. This explains the serious look on the faces of the club members. Spectators also began to fill the gym, eager to watch the battle between the Stags and the Spiders.
The last member to arrive for Shiroshikata was Hiro. Kayo sort of expected it since he always arrives late even in practice. But he had an unpleasant look on his face when he got in. Well, he always looks grumpy.
"Woke up on the wrong side of the bed?" She asked him as she handed him out his new jersey. He wears number 5. He did not respond but his face became even more unpleasant.
A bus parked just outside the gym and maki snapped his head to the source of the screeching sound. "They're here. Kouha, let's go." And so he went outside with the team's vice-captain, their Coach Soma, and team adviser, Nakamura-sensei, to greet their visitors.
16 players got out of the bus and they looked quite forbidding in their black gear. They are about the same build as Maki's team. "Welcome to Shiroshikata Gakuen!" the welcoming committee bowed as they greeted them.
"Yage." A middle-aged man, who happens to be the coach of the Spiders, greeted Soma.
"Tatsumi." A smirk escaped from Coach his lips as he responded to the man. They shared a rather tight handshake. "How's it going, back there?"
"My boys are stonger than ever. Be prepared to have your butts kicked this time, Yage."
"Let's see you try, Tatsumi." Sparks flew instantly between the two coaches.
"Good to see you again Maki. Heard you were made the new captain?" Another guy with spiky red hair said, this time, to Maki. He was wearing a mischievous grin on his face.
"You look rather confident, Sachiro, uh - Captain, I mean." They also shook hands but veins were popping from their fists when they did so.
"Oh, we are so going to crush you this time, Maki." The captain of the Spiders said rather spitefully.
"Right back at you, Sachiro." Maki replied in the same tone.
"Now, now. Our fight's inside. Stop that." Another brunette from the team said, breaking up the tension between the two captains. "Let's head inside. Yeah, yo, Maki?"
"I see your still loud as ever, Nishiki Sosuke." The latter uttered without any particular fashion.
The players from the visiting team were accompanied by the welcoming committee inside the gymnasium of Shiroshikata. When they all entered the venue, the temperature rose several degrees higher. It became hotter. Everyone was staring at each other and tension filled the air, overlapping the smell of the air salonpas that filled it earlier. And then….. the brunette from earlier suddenly exclaimed:
"GAI! DID YOU GROW TALLER?! YOUR HAIR LOOKS GRAYER! YOU MUST BE GETTING OLD FROM STRESS!" The brunette from the Spiders zoomed towards the libero of Shiroshikata, Hiyorin Gaito.
An irk mark appeared in Gai's forehead upon hearing that. Nishiki is actually quite a the troublemaker in their team – overly enthusiastic and quite oblivious to what he's saying. The libero, Gai, rolled up his sleeves and prepared to tackle the guy but Hiro picked him up by the collar.
"Stop moving around, Gaito-san. You're a cooler libero than that, despite being shorter." The blocker said disinterestedly.
"Hiro, did you really feel the need to insert that insult on that sentence?! So what if this guy's a tall libero, huh?" The libero sounded pissed at that but Hiro only pulled him farther away from Nishiki.
"Show me how much you've improved, Gai!" Nishiki made his voice even louder that Hiro felt the need now to cover his ears. But he wished he covered his eyes instead. For who he saw next triggered his annoyance. He really hates this guy - the captain of the visiting team.
They glared at each other without really saying a word. The same thing is also happening not too far from them, the subjects now, being the sibling-duo of Shiroshikata.
Speaking of which, the two are currently engaged in a staring contest with another pair from the Spiders' team.
"Well, if it isn't web masters of Kanagawa. We're gonna beat you guys again. Right, Kouen?" Kouha cracked his knuckles as he said this to his brother who just nodded but maintained a gaze of intensity towards the pair before them.
One of the two looks sleepy and the other delinquent-looking one grunted and said, "Huh? You sure 'bout that? Gi-no-za Kou-ha?" The whistle was blown before a brawl broke out.
"Tch. The outcome will be the same, Shishio. Stick it up, losers." Kouen muttered under his breath.
"We have amazing first years in the team like this guy here. Better watch out, Deers." The delinquent-looking one called Shishio replied flatly as he pointed at the sleepy one beside him. The siblings were unsure whether or not the guy can keep himself steady now, for he looked like he would fall any minute to the floor. He seriously looks like he needs a good rest. They travelled all the way from Kanagawa, after all.
"Yeah, we've got promising new blood too. Get ready to be stuffed a lot by that rookie over there." Kouha pointed towards the freshman, Kakuzo, who was stretching his arm on the floor. The one called Shishio furrowed his brows, not really seeing the threat of the big rookie.
"And it's Stags, you dumbasses." Kouen silently muttered too but he was ignored.
Speaking of the rookies, they bore their eyes upon the visiting team, like they're judging them based on their appearances. Asuma fixed his gaze upon the shortest member of the Spiders, wondering if he will play in the game later or not. Honestly, he's still a bit sad about not being part of the starting seven.
The boys got ready for the match and started to do their drills. Meanwhile, on the bench, the new manager of Shiroshikata wondered why their opponents are called Spiders, so she asked her senior manager about it.
Megumi: "Say, Kayo-san, why are they called the Spiders of Kanagawa?"
Kayo: "Ah, because it's based on their school name, just like ours. The 'kurokumo' in Kurokumogi High School literally translates to 'black spider', see."
The whistle sounded again, signalling for the beginning of the match. The starting players gathered inside the court and their formations were submitted to the ones who officiated the match.
--
Shiroshikata Gakuen Silver Stags
S – Ginoza Kouen (2nd Year) 183cm
OPP – Ginoza Kouha (3rd Year) 186cm
OH – Sukiyata Maki (3rd Year, Captain) 178cm
OH – Fukuzawa Toshiro (2nd Year) 179cm
MB – Arakata Hiroaki (2nd Year) 188cm
MB – Kakuzo Ryohei (1st Year) 191cm
L – Hiyorin Gaito (3rd Year) 167cm
vs
Kurokumogi High School Black Spiders
S – Hiragi Suzaku (1st Year) 177cm
OPP – Yama Chogi (2nd Year) 180cm
OH – Shishio Ikoma (3rd Year) 183cm
OH – Sumeragi Kirito (1st Year) 167cm
MB – Katsuki Sachiro (3rd Year, Captain) 188cm
MB – Brown, Spencer (2nd Year) 192cm
L – Nishiki Sosuke (3rd Year) 179cm
--
Coach Soma wondered about the outcome of this match, as he looked into the starting lineup of Kurokumogi, which is very interesting. They have a foreign-looking guy in the middle, and their team has such a tall libero. It's quite common that shorter guys play this position. Moreover, they have a sleepyhead for a setter and also a tiny guy for OH.
The coin was tossed and it was determined that Shiroshikata will receive first.
Kurokumogi's setter, Hiragi, served and it was received by Gaito, who passed the ball towards Kouen. The setter tossed it towards Hiro, who hit it from the middle.
"One touch!" Kurokumogi's captain, Katsuki managed to get a hand on it. Hiro appeared to be irritated.
"Alright, get the last one!" the foreign-looking dude, Brown called. It was bumped back into the Stags' side of the court by the Shishio. The captain got the first touch and he passed to Kouen, who tossed to Kouha.
"Take this!" He said as he slammed it but the receive of Shishio echoed in the gym.
"Hiragi!" he yelled towards the setter.
"Sumeragi." He softly said as the tiny guy from their team made a surprisingly high jump, and spiked the ball towards Hiro and Toshiro, who jumped for the block. It hit Hiro's palm before it flew out of bounds. A blockout.
"Yosh! Nice kill, Sumeragi!" Shishio loudly said as he smirked towards the other team's direction. Shiroshikata were all caught by surprise from that sudden quick attack and high jump. Apparently, the tiny spiker has some good spring. So this is their first year setter-spiker combo.
"Don't mind. Let's get the next one." Maki said. Kurokumogi drew the first blood of the set, 1 – 0. This is just the beginning of an exciting match between these rivals of old.
