2 Chapter 2: Kitagawa Daiichi

*Wam!*

Streaking in a white blur, it smashed onto the other side, narrowly hitting the line as it flew back up, bouncing a few times before rolling across the ground.

Silence.

The players all gaped in shock. Was this guy actually a middle-schooler?

"Hayato!!!! How did you do that! Can you teach me!!!!???" Hinata bounced about in front of him, sparkles in his eyes as he spun around Hayato.

"Don't worry, I will. But not right now. We have a game to win, man! Just have faith in each other and keep the energy up. " Smiling happily, Hayato patted his friend on the shoulder, turning towards the court. As he stared forwards, a darker smile appeared on his face.

"But then again… Winning is never enough. Let's give these kids an impression that they'll never forget….. Let's clap them so badly they'll never want to play against us again!"

Laughing evilly, the rest of Yukigaoka stared at him awkwardly, and Hayato stepped back to the service line. He was indeed a bit childish it seemed.

The rest of the children looked at each other for a moment. First of all, the speech was actually somewhat excellent…. But it was impossible to take him seriously with that dumb expression of his.

Hayato walked back a few paces before he tossed the ball into the air once more. Feet blasting across the ground, he took off, his hip bent and arm flexed as another blitzing rocket ripped through the backline.

*Thoom!*

Looking down at his stinging red hand, Hayato smiled. He was getting there. Sure he wasn't as strong as he was in his prime, but that was a given. He hadn't even had his growth spurt yet…. Shaking his head, he slapped his cheeks.

Don't think about the growth spurt…. The horrible thing about reincarnating, was that if he were to be shorter than in his previous life…. It would be quite a blow to his self-esteem. It was a horrible twisted thought just thinking about it.

Touching the side of the net, he smiled. Since they were middle-schoolers and middle-schoolers were naturally shorter, the net was also shorter. If he really tried, Hayato could probably make the ball bounce.

Signaling for a change, the group of boys lined up as Hayato tossed balls in the air, watching as most of them struggled to hit it over.

Kawashima jumped up, hitting a floater to the side, causing a few snickers, but it was obvious that they were still somewhat shaken up.

The others went through the cycle, with only a few managing to hit anything decent, and finally, Hinata Shoyo. Smirking, Hayato lowered his arms and fluidly tossed it straight up. He barely had time to blink as a blistering orange smear blasted into the sky.

His left arm raised straight before him, the young orange-head slammed the ball down the line. A beautiful line shot indeed.

*Wam!*

Another round of perpetual shock could be heard and Hayato slapped his friend on the back. "Good spike! Keep it up, man!"

"Of course! Hayato-san! Set me a lot today!" The two of them high-fived enthusiastically, enthusiasm rubbing off on each other as the rest of Yukigaoka looked at each other excitedly. Maybe, just maybe. With those two monsters on their team…. They could win.

Hayato felt his blood boil. As they were shooed off by the referee, he walked over to the side, looking down at a clipboard. And now, there were the rotations. Having a moderately intelligent team was nice, as they had mastered it pretty easily. Due to the lack of height on their team, and sloppy receiving, he was playing a pretty heavy defense game.

For example, when they were serving, instead of Mori and Kawashima up to block, he had them back for the most part. For example, in Rotation 1, instead of the middle blocker being at the front during serve receive, they would be back, helping cover. Only him and possibly Hinata would be up blocking, but honestly, Hayato wasn't that confident that the excitable orange-head wouldn't net.

The players sat on a cold metal bench, shifting nervously as they watched Kitagawa Daiichi warm up. It was obvious that all of the players were decent or pretty good. Hayato watched as Kageyama's hands flicked the ball in a beautiful arc, a hitter jumping into the air and smashing it down.

Kageyama looked exactly the same from the manga. Of slightly taller than average height, he was lean and slightly muscular, with long nimble fingers and a sharp half-oval chin. His face was in a scowling pose, with cropped black hair fringed just atop his large blue eyes. He wore the uniform of Kitagawa Daiichi, consisting of blue and white.

He was an excellent setter for his age, Hayato thought as he watched the whole process. As the warm-up progressed, he pointed out a few details to Hinata, who probably didn't get any of it due to his extreme nervousness.

Soon, the game was about to start, and Hayato grabbed the orange head by the scruff, pulling him up. The taller boy plainly said: "Dude. Speech! You're Team Captain! All of our poor Kohai are so scared, right? Give them the power to carry on!"

Hinata trembled, his mouth opening and closing awkwardly, before he looked back to the team, and took a deep breath. "L-lets try our best and communicate! Don't think about the mistakes! Let's try our best! We got this!"

Pumping his fist in the air, he jumped up spectacularly as he motivated the team. Hayato watched this with a smile on his face. The guy truly had some charisma too him. Just a little bit. But that was enough.

"Yup. You heard Captain. Let's crush these losers and feast on their sweat and tears! " Flames seemingly spouting from his mouth, Hayato roared like an angry dinosaur as he stared at the other team. Acting like an edgy teenager, it seemed. Despite his seniority, a burning competitive spirit within him could make him say some stupid crap.

"Yeah! Let's do this! I'm part of the Football (Soccer) Team but I'll try!" Sort of hyped up by the admittedly lame speech, Koji kicked out his feet.

Izumi simply smiled calmly: "Don't worry about mistakes! Just try your best!"

It was simply good vibes from there as they all laughed and joked, loosening a few jitters. Having good teammates meant having a good game, and while they were mostly not very skilled, their attitude truly made up for it.

*Fweee!!!!*

"Let's have a good game!"

The gymnasium, still smelling of fresh artificial lemon and sweat, was pierced by a whistle as both sides lined up. They bowed deeply, and Hayato sighed. This was going to be fun. Very fun.