Chapter 8: The King's Set (1)

"My bad, really. I put a little too much power on it." Hayato sighed in disappointment. He really hit a far one on that ball. A Home Run. Maybe he should have just gone with baseball.

But then again, anyone could hit a home run. If you swing your hand down at a ball hard and fast enough, sometimes the results of the strength produced could…. Exceed expectations.

Jump serving or spike serving was a matter of precision, the flick of the wrist, tossing, power, anticipation, targeting, and quite a few other things. So, it was an overly complicated process.

He stepped back next to Hinata as they stared down the other side of the net. To the side, his orange-headed friend stared at the server intently. He truly couldn't help but highlight his friend's athleticism once more.

Shoyo Hinata's endurance and pacing on the court were mostly mind-boggling. The guy instinctively matched up to every set like he was some robot of some sort. Too bad the passing sucked.

If not for the sake of practicality, Hayato would have gotten the orange-haired boy to be a middle blocker. Putting aside the Libero, outside hitters were supposed to be the best passers, and the shrimp wasn't that. But… His passing was better than the others, for sure. That was saying a lot.

"Floater!"

"Coming over!"

The ball trailed over towards Hayato. A little irked, he casually set it back up. If one thought of it for a while, receiving floaters was a somewhat simple task. Make sure it arrives just about your forehead, and with strong outstretched hands about the circumference, push out.

*Wp.*

Curling a little, it went in a high toss, towards Izumi. Taking a step, the basketball player whipped his hands up. With a strange flourish, he flicked the ball out into an uneasy arc. Rising into the sky it went, the Yukigaoka players taking it in with uncertainty.

Who was going to get that?

Hinata was for some odd reason, far in the front row, and it would end up pretty awkward if he tried to rush back and hit it. Koji was frozen in place, waiting for someone to hit it, and the rest of the middle-schoolers were the same.

"I got it!" Hayato quickly dodged around Izumi, jumping before the line as he softly rolled the ball over into a narrow seam.

*Tp!*

Kageyama growled once more in frustration as he dug the ball up. "Help! Help! Help!"

*Wam!*

With that, their libero sprung into action, bump-setting it up as the right side swung his hand, a line shot cutting down straight past Koji.

Hayato sighed. Sliding down the wooden floor, he got to his feet. Couldn't block as he was back-row, and he couldn't make it back there in time. Tough luck.

"Score Kitagawa!" The parent cheer squad of their opposition rattled and clapped.

Ruffling his hair, Hayato stepped back. He was still somewhat confused as to why they were serving him. Sure, he was a setter and that usually made sense, but the rest of the team all had crappy passing skills. It was no lie, simply the truth. Inexperienced players were tough to work with.

Was it a mistake? Perhaps. He'd shaken them up somewhat, and there was no way they were underestimating his skills.

*Rwmp!*

This floater was harder and more straight as it zipped past Kawashima's outstretched fingers. With a flourish downwards, the 1st-year groaned in frustration.

"Score! Score! Score! Let's bring it back!" The upstairs cheering squad was upping their game as they stomped in a rhythm. The second-floor balcony was only about a few heads above the main Gym ground, which was somewhat less intimidating.

The server stepped up with more confidence this time as he sent another straight-flying floater out.

"Floater! Koji!" Hayato leaped into action as his spiky-haired friend received the ball. Practically flying over, the temp-setter quickly jumped up, bumping it back into their zone. Seeing this, their excitable Outside took off from one side of the court, his hand outstretched as he hit the ball.

*Wam!*

It zipped out towards the opposing side, but once again, that wall rose. Consisting of only two blockers, their wide flexed hands blocked the ball down.

Landing on the floor, it rolled across the court as Hayato off-handedly rolled it back over. Above, Tanaka cried out in frustration. "Damn it! Stuffed again! Their team really is full of newbies!"

"It's fine! Brush it off!" Hayato slapped Hinata on the back.

[15-12]

Yukigaoka still had a four-point lead, but it would be meaningless if they didn't side out now. Just ten more points and they could take the first set.

"We got this!"

"Bump the ball!"

"Get it in the air!"

The 1st-Years yelled in determination as a ball shot over once again. Pretty good consistency. Going to Kawashima again, this time, the young boy managed to dig it up. Going high, it was obvious that the boy had swung his arms. An overpass.

Hayato turned to his friends for a second before watching closely. A free ball, Kitagawa Daiichi bumped the ball over to Kageyama, who angled it up in a high arc.

Their middle-blocker made his move, lurching forwards as he jumped up. Due to Yukigaoka's current lack of front-row blockers, they didn't have to do anything really fancy. Just hit it not towards number seven, and it would be a guaranteed point.

His hand reaching up, the middle-blocker smashed it down towards Kawashima, who panicked a little, the ball rebounding against his thigh.

It spun back towards Hayato, who looked around. It was quite the lucky dig on their part. But then again, Volleyball was all about luck at times. All the attention was on him as he reached out. Arms flexing powerfully, he set it out in a high arc towards the net. It was obvious who it was going to.

Hinata watched the ascent of the ball, stepping back, eyes glued to the ball. He took a short screeching approach, bursting up. Hips rotating hard, his hand scuffed the ball, sending it spiraling over the blockers down towards the floor.

*Tmp.*

It landed, bouncing once, before rolling across the floor in silence. To the side, two front-row players stood there awkwardly, as if they had wholly expected Hinata to hit some sort of block-breaking high bounding spike.

"Let's go! Nice tip!" Koji and Izumi high-fived him, while Hayato slapped him on the back.

"My bad, my bad." He said the tallest member of Yukigaoka Volleyball Club stepped back as the next server went up.

It was Hinata's turn to serve, which was somewhat concerning. Then again, besides perhaps Kawashima, he was worried about everyone else's serving. Including himself of course. Shaking the feeling off, he sighed. Hayato knew that he had to have some faith in his teammates.

*Wack!*

After a few changes, the game commenced once more and Hinata's hand slapped into the ball, sending it careening over right to the middle-back, who dug it with ease. Hayato watched in interest as to what would happen next.

He blinked once as he watched Kageyama rise up into the air, his calves tensing up as he rose to set. At that moment, Hayato knew this was going to be good. All his vision could focus on was the ball and that setter.

A golden crown gleaming with light seemed to appear upon his head, and a flowing red cape seemed to flow about him, made from lustrous silk. His sneakers became elegant boots and the floor below him became platinum marble. There was something about it that was quite solemn.

In his head, Hayato could imagine a trumpet sounding as behind, the attackers charged forth like knights in shining armor, sharp swords jutting out as they prepared for attack. It wasn't even something like a final point or the score was tied or anything novel like that, but he knew that if a hit worthy of such a set were to go over and the point was to be scored, the momentum would shift like the Wave of Kanagawa.

A King and his army charging into battle.

Hayato unconsciously shrugged his shoulders. It seemed that something sudden with their dear "King Of The Court" had snapped.

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Kageyama rose into the air, his eyes glancing across the court as his nimble pale fingers gently made contact with the ball. Something about the previous few points had angered him. He was a simple-minded person, as much as he tried to reject that fact… But he had been so unsatisfied with everything that had happened so far.

His incompetent teammates were not able to get his sets, the fact that they were losing to such a team… But most importantly…. Him. That Number Seven had appeared out of nowhere in his third year and proceeded to thrash him into the ground, showing about as much and even more prowess as him. Monstrous and every way, he was someone who could at times…. Seem perfect. Each and every one of those serves had hammered down upon him, taking hard blows to his ego.

And for once, Kageyama did not think of what was the best and most efficient. Sure, he was still as arrogant and short-tempered as ever, believing his teammates were worse than him. But this time was something different. Even for just a single rally, he had temporarily broken from his shell.

Thanks to jealousy and anger, he had genuinely stepped up as a setter… Of course, that was for just a few seconds, but for once, as the hitters approached, they genuinely wanted the ball.

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It was all in his imagination. The crown, robe, and everything. Sometimes Hayato could get a little overly imaginative when he saw beautiful plays. It was sorta cheesy, actually.

Still, even if this did turn out good, if it came to him, he'd attempt to dig it. Simple enough. He would just have to trust his instincts. It was just one more rally after all.

(A/N: Accidentally created an overly-dramatic lame slow-motion sports anime moment. My bad. Wanted a little variety I guess. Even though it was dumb.)