Chapter 5

The first to server from Kitagawa Daiichi was Akira Kunimi. He served the ball towards Kōji who wasn't able to receive it and the first point went to Kata-ichi. He served again and sent the ball towards the back between Kōji and Mori. Both went to receive it but left it for the other and it landed between both of them. It was two service points for Kita-ichi and anyone watching the match could tell that the Yukigaoka team was uncoordinated and hadn't trained much.

The third serve was sent towards Kōji again and this time.. he somehow managed to get it up but the pass was off. There was no way Izumi would be able to set that, so Hinata called for the ball and lightly sent above the net towards Kagemaya's position. Tobio was forced to receive the ball and could no longer set it. The ball was sent towards Kindaichi to spike but Hinata had already expected that as he was their best spiker and the difficult sets were usually sent towards him. Hinata got into position and jumped just as Kindaichi was about to hit the ball.

*Baam*

Kindaichi spiked it hard but it hit Hinata's hands and dropped on their side of the court. Kindaichi was completely shut down. There was silence throughout the court. The Kitagawa Daiichi players were frozen in shock for a couple of seconds but none more so than Kindaichi. He couldn't believe he was blocked by a player who was almost a head shorter than him. The Kita-ichi players had initially completely dismissed their opponents.. looking at how short they were. They couldn't believe there was someone among them who could jump that high and block their best spiker.

The spectators had much of a similar reaction too. It was extremely hard to find a short player who played a spiker position and jumped that high, so when they witnessed it.. they almost couldn't believe it.

"Wow.. Daichi-san.. did you see that small kid jump?"

"I did Tanaka.. He must have springs in his legs to jump that high"

"Look.. the Kata-ichi players seem to have recovered. I mean.. I don't blame them. I'd go in shock for a while too if I'd been in their place. Man.. I wish Nishinoya was here. I'd love to see his reaction" Sugawara started laughing imagining Nishinoya's reaction.

"Yes.. Let's watch. Things might get even more interesting" Daichi replied and they continued to watch.

Shoyo managed to calm down his excited teammates and got them to focus again. He noticed that the Kita-ichi players were concentrating more than before. 'Good' he thought. They were no longer underestimating him.

It was Kōji's serve and he sent in over to their opponents side. It was a pretty basic serve and they had no problem receiving it. The ball was sent up for Kageyama to set. Kageyama didn't want to get blocked again so he tossed the ball fast towards Kindaichi. Kindaichi barely managed to get a hand on the ball due to the speed of the toss, but was able to send it over the net.

Hinata received the ball and passed it to Izumi to set. Izumi wanted to set the ball high for Shoyo, but the toss ended up being way off. It was wide and very close to the net.

Kata-ichi players, including Kageyama saw the toss and were convinced that they had secured the point. There was no way someone would be able to hit that.. or so they thought.

Kageyama noticed an orange flash out the corner of his eyes and when he looked towards it.. Hinata had already made a wide jump and was in position to spike the ball. He tried to make a move but it was already too late. 'How did he get there!' was his only though before Hinata's hand made contact.

*Baam*

Hinata spiked the ball and landed outside the court. The ball hit the floor and continued on it's course to hit the wall behind the court. The score was now 2 - 2.

For the second time that morning, there was complete silence on the court for a few moments before gasps, exclamations and excited murmurs broke out everywhere.

"Woah.. Suga-san.. did you see that Chibi #1 spike!? How did he manage to hit that! I don't I would have been able to."

"Aah.. Tanaka. I thought it was Kata-ichi's point for sure. I have no idea how he got there." Sugawara replied, just as amazed.

"He has amazing speed and flexibility... coupled with that jump of his, he's basically a little monster. But I don't know if it will be enough." Daichi said.

"What do you mean Daichi-san?"

"So far.. it looks like he's the only one with any scoring ability on his team. He can't score alone. Kitagawa Daiichi is a strong team. They look cautious now.. It won't be easy to score against them from now."

It was as Daichi said. Kitagawa Daiichi quickly pulled themselves together and went at them harder. Hinata tried his best but he couldn't do much alone. Kita-ichi started to pull ahead and put a considerable gap in the points. But it wasn't all bad. Few things were starting to look up for Shoyo. The first few receives were pretty easy so he didn't have much problems with them. The later ones weren't as easy. He missed quite a few before before he was able to get a few up. His rate of success was increasing slowly.

His spikes got blocked continuously a few times before he was able to score points by hitting a few successful blockouts, along with a feint. He was also able to get few blocks and shut down the opponents spiker.

The first set ended with a score of 14 - 25. As much as he'd like to take credit for all 14 of those points.. they got four of them because Kita-ichi's spikers were not able to hit Kageyama's fast tosses, which caused more than one argument among their team with Kageyama yelling at them to be faster.

Hinata slowly got better as the game went on and he wasn't the only one had who noticed that. While a few things were slowly looking up for Shoyo.. them same couldn't be said for everybody.