97 To The Finals

"Did they give Watanabe some sort of medicine while he was getting his nose checked…"

"I don't.. think they did…"

"Is that so…"

Ukai replied absently to Takeda's questions as he watched Haruto standing on the court and thought back to actions during this set. 

Once he came back, Haruto was playing with much more aggression than he usually did, which he thought was understandable as he had been absent for quite a while from the first few points of the game.

But the thing that surprised him was the new serve he suddenly showed. It contained a fast speed but the spin it had was something that was troublesome to deal with. 

Instead of how normal jump serves usually dip downwards this one had a side spin that curved and needed more adjustments to pass as passing it head on will cause the ball to scrape by the forearms of the player.

This serve has caused Aoba Johsai to lose their formation a few times in which they used to chip some points off them, creating a lead for them to use. 

'Well I shouldn't be too surprised since these guys always find ways to do something new.'

Ukai sat back in his chair and decided to not think much since he was used to this type of thing by now. He chose to just sit back and let the game continue and focus since the game was reaching its end.

Karasuno continued to play the set and did their best to not allow Aoba Johsai any room for them to use to their advantage.

"Get ready to pass this ball."

Kageyama said as he saw Oikawa bouncing the ball by the service line. So far his serves have managed to give Aoba Johsai multiple points by hitting deep corners and having power akin to a spike.

'Come on…' Haruto loosened up his arms and relaxed his feet, ready to go after the serve that might come his way.

Oikawa took in a deep breath as he wanted his serve to lessen the gap in points being [23-21].

Hearing the whistle he threw the ball in the air and held the air that was stuck in his body. Once he had finished his approach, Oikawa placed his body weight behind his swing and aimed for a deep corner once again.

"Phew!"

Holding his breath, Haruto quickly reacted to the ball that was aimed at the corner near him. Feeling the pressure of the serve on his forearms, he let out a gust of air and rolled to his side to transfer the power someplace else.

"Nice pass!!"

Kageyama yelled out and continued to watch his team, thinking of the next action they could take.

'They shifted off Haruto due to his pass and started to bunch near the middle.' He thought out and jumped up to give a set behind him while people on the court started to move in sync.

The ball floated slightly in front of the attack line and Asahi who already started his approach swung at the ball with all his might.

Feeling the contact, he swung down the line since it was the only choice due to the cross being heavily guarded by the people in the middle.

"Watacchi nice up! Iwa-chan use the ball!!"

Oikawa called out as he ran after the ball that was brought into the air by their libero, after placing his hands up to get Asahi's spike. 

Since the ball was near the back, Oikawa gave Iwaizumi a set that was slightly away from the net so he could use it to get around the blockers.

Iwaizumi carefully watched the set and adjusted his timing to hit the ball that was being given from behind him. He swung high to make use of the block that had already set up in front of him since that was the best he could do with the set given to him.

"Touch!!"

Haruto yelled out and after landing he quickly got in place and shuffled back to try and hit the ball.

'Who is he going to give it to…' 

The people by the net quietly watched as they looked at each of the players running and wanted to see who Kageyama would set.

*Fwomp

"!!!!"

"Shit! Watch the dump!"

The blockers at the front yelled out as they saw Kageyama dump the ball instead of setting and watched how the ball slowly dropped to the floor getting a point.

"This annoying brat." Oikawa frowned intensely after seeing Kageyama's play and felt a vein pop up.

"You really know how to piss people off."

"I learned from the best."

"Really? I wonder which annoying person taught you that…"

Kageyama blankly stared at Haruto who had a thoughtful expression on his face and felt the urge to smack him on the back for being so shameless.

Celebrating for a bit, they got into their new positions and waited for Kageyama to serve the ball for the potential game ender.

'Just one more point… and a rematch will finally happen.' Haruto's eyes gleamed and placed all his concentration to score the next point.

A silent atmosphere surrounded the court and the sounds of people breathing were the only thing audible with the exception of the spectators. However once the whistle was heard, the sounds of shoes clicking off the floor became more prominent.

Kageyama served and brought a fast ball over the net but it was picked up since Aoba Johsai did everything they could to keep it alive.

"I'll leave the middle to you." Haruto whispered to Tsukishima who nodded while he carefully watched how each player moved.

Oikawa who had the ball, gave a quick set to the middle and had two players coming from both sides run at a 1st tempo.

Tsukishima's eyes began to wander and suddenly noticed something to which he jumped upwards to his right side and blocked the person in front of him.

Unfortunately he was a bit late coming up so he wasn't able to fully kill the ball but instead sent it back onto their side.

Recycling the ball off the block, Oikawa gave a set behind him and gave one to Kyotani. Haruto who was already watching him, jumped up and placed a block in front and pushed the ball downwards.

"Gugh."

The libero felt his chest ache when felt the ball slam down on his body and watched how the ball flew outwards.

Oikawa quickly reacted and ran after the ball but suddenly pointed to Iwaizumi who was watching him.

"Block the left side!!"

Haruto yelled out as he noticed Iwaizumi suddenly running and ran after him watching how Oikawa managed to set the ball from one side to the other, managing a perfect height on it.

Iwaizumi slammed the ball down and whifted by the blockers as they were in a rush to set up the block.

Standing in place, Nishinoya saw the ball coming his way and his body reacted on its own. He let his body move backwards and moved his forearms to catch the ball speeding his way and popped it up.

Kageyama felt his breath rush as he was running and getting ready for any situation to arrive and got in place to set the ball. He was currently near the attack line and was deciding who to give it to.

'..You better get this last point.'

Kageyama thought this but without hesitation he had already thought of giving this person a high ball for him to finish.

'It seems like I've been trusted to get this point.' Haruto slightly smiled as he felt the bouncy feeling in his step and jumped up to hit. Watching how blocks were set up, he decided to see what paths he could take.

By using his explosive power to jump upwards he was given more options of hitting different angles due to the airtime he had.

Rotating his shoulder he swung his arm away from his body and hit a sharp cross that went to a space that he saw was free. The person who was watching the cross saw the ball and dove down to get it but he felt the ball bounce off his forearms.

Aoba Johsai watched how their players tried their best to get the ball but grimace when they heard it touch the ground.

*Tweet! Tweet~

"Haruto!!!"

"Yesss!!!"

Feeling sudden exhaustion filling up their bodies after hearing the whistle, Karasuno began to run towards the court and surround the people who were standing still.

"Good set." Haruto went up to Kageyama and held out his fist.

"It's good that you finished off that last point."

"Of course, I was given the last ball so I had to get that point."

Haruto chuckled as he bumped fists with Kageyama and walked away to celebrate with the others. Kageyama watched his back and thought back to how he didn't hesitate to give a set to Haruto when he needed someone to get a point.

"Our ace is pretty reliable."

Kageyama mumbled and decided to walk to his team and started to think about what he should have for dinner.

***

"Congratulations!"

Mahiru launched herself at Haruto who was currently seated in the corner of the gym as he was doing some post game stretches so that he wasn't sore for the finals game tomorrow.

"Thanks, did mom not come with you?"

Haruto ruffled Mahiru's hair as she held onto him for a few seconds before breaking off and handing him a jelly snack to have while he stretched.

"She met with Akane and went to get something from her car but…"

"What's wrong?"

"There you are, you bastard!"

Haruto was suddenly cut off when he heard a familiar voice and saw Akane approach him but he noticed that her hair was a bit messy.

"What happened to you?"

"Faught off some thirsty animals."

Akane saw the confused look Haruto had on his face and decided to respond to him in a vague way as she would feel embarrassed if she told him that her team turned into his fans..

"Mahiru, those hussies were too persistent…"

Akane ran towards Mahiru and was held in her arms, feeling tired that she had to use all sorts of tricks to convince them not to hound Haruto while Mahiru was there.

"It's alright. It's nice to see more people supporting Haruto when he plays his matches."

"But–"

Akane wanted to say something about Mahiru feeling uncomfortable about the issue but stopped seeing her expression. Mahiru smiled gently when she saw Akane tried to say something in retaliation.

"You don't need to worry since I know that I hold a very special place in Haruto's heart that's very hard to replace, so it doesn't matter who approaches him since I've already won this shameless guy's heart."

Mahiru giggled and her eyes softened when she whispered the last part of her sentence. Akane who was in close proximity felt her face freeze seeing the look Mahiru was showing.

'This sure is a high level waifu my brother managed to conquer…' Akane thought in her head as she once again looked at Mahiru's angelic appearance. 

She tried to look at Haruto to see if he heard any of what they said despite them whispering but she saw that he was on his back stretching, while drinking his jelly snack with a tired expression.

"Hello Akane! Congrats, I heard you also won your semifinals game."

"Congratulations."

"Ah! I should say the same to you guys."

Akane smiled as she separated herself from Mahiru and waved at Hinata and Kageyama who came their way.

Haruto noticed them and after one final twist, he got up and gave them each a jelly drink which they accepted gratefully.

They continued to talk for a bit when the topic of the final match finally appeared.

"So you guys are facing our boy's team again huh…"

"Yeah.."

Hinata turned quiet after hearing Akane's words and the atmosphere turned somewhat somber.

"Why are you worried? Just play how we usually do and we'll win." Haruto said steadily as he finished up the drink in his hand.

The guys who heard him let the words they heard sink in and decided to not think any further.

"You know you could say some cooler words like 'Don't worry! As long as I'm here, losing is not something that can happen!' or 'Let the ace handle this!'"

"Please don't ever say any cringy lines like that ever again."

"HMPH–!?"

Haruto felt his skin rise when he listened to Akane's words and used his hand to cover her mouth which caused her to flare around and do the same to him by pulling his face.

The people looked at the two and decided to ignore them as they had seen them fight like this before and it was normal.

"Tobio-kun!"

"Huh? K-Kanoka?!"

As they were ignoring Haruto and Akane, Kageyama heard his name get called and saw Kanoka running towards him with a slight hitch in her breath.

"Congrats on winning!"

"T-Thanks, you too…"

"Hehe."

Kageyama felt a bit embarrassed seeing her smile and even more so when she felt the gazes of everyone on them. He coughed a bit and decided to act as normal as he could but it was difficult for him since he could see Haruto's teasing smirk from a mile away.

As they had finished stretching they decided that they should leave the gym after hearing some words from Ukai and walked towards the main lobby to leave.

Walking through the hallway, Haruto saw a familiar looking person from the corner of his eye and saw that they had also noticed him too.

Haruto's blue eyes met with the person's stoic face and imposing figure but he didn't move his eyes away. The two of them stared for a while before the two of them turned around to leave. 

"Did something happen?"

"Nope, just saw someone that made me want to play the finals match even sooner."

Haruto replied to Mahiru and decided to keep walking to meet his mother as she had sent him a message.

"Yo!"

"What are you doing here?"

"This is the first time we met in a while and that's all you have to say…"

"Just joking."

Haruto chuckled seeing Tsutomu have an irritated look on his face and gave him a fist bump. 

Haruto was a bit surprised to see that Yui had managed to see Tsutomu and talked with him for a while as it had been a while since she had last seen him.

Walking out of the gymnasium with his group, Haruto felt his heart anticipate the rematch that he had been waiting for all this time.

***

Decided to pull on the Fu Xuan banner to get a Lynx but somehow I got Fu Xuan early. My RNG was on my side.  Anyways I hope you enjoyed it. Peacu.