First Preliminaries

A swarm of people and students started to go in and out of the Kaji High School Gymnasium as they were the chosen school to host Miyagi's First Preliminaries for the Spring Tournament.

In the middle of the gym, two separate courts were occupied while what surrounded them were teams patiently waiting for their time to play.

One team in particular however, caught the attention of the people going by as their distinctive black sweaters were very noticeable.

"It's Karasuno…"

"Damn, I hope we don't play them in our matches."

Players that were watching the games currently going on, couldn't resist themselves from glancing at the once so called 'Fallen Champions' who made a big impression with their performance at the Inter Highs.

"They have a really good team ranging from their setter and their defense was also incredible since they were able to receive Ushijma's spikes and serves."

"And don't forget their offense. Their middle blocker that was able to hit that crazy quick spike and their ace player who seemed to have led their team to bring the second set to the 30s against Ushijima."

They continued to look at each of the mentioned players and when their eyes finally landed on Haruto, they noticed a beautiful blonde girl who was with him and felt their cheeks twitch.

"Do you think she's his girlfriend…"

"Surely not, right?"

They whispered to each other but their thoughts were quickly broken when they saw Mahiru smiling cutely at Haruto who noticed that the zipper on his sweater failed to go up.

"I wish I had a beautiful girl cheering for me when I play…"

"Same…"

Feeling the radiant light that shone off the two, the people who were looking at them felt depressed and tried to distract themselves by watching the matches going on.

"It looks like the people around us are pretty nervous."

"Well it is the last tournament before some of them graduate so it's understandable."

Haruto replied to Mahiru who noticed the gloomy atmosphere surrounding them and thought to herself that what Haruto said was reasonable.

"Haruto, do you have something I can snack on before we play…"

Hinata, who looked like he was already drained, was rubbing his stomach as he approached Haruto who was holding a piece of paper in his hands.

"Why do you always get motion sickness every time we travel to our games?"

"I don't know it just happens…"

Rummaging through his bag, Haruto pulled out a bag of cashews that he packed before leaving his home and gave it to Hinata.

"It's probably because he ate a large bowl of katsudon before leaving his house today."

"Why would you eat something so heavy in the morning…"

"It's normal to eat it on the day of a match okay."

He tried to defend his choice of food he ate this morning but eventually turned his eyes away after feeling the eyes of Kageyama and Haruto boring onto his face.

"S-So who do you think we'll play against for our first match?"

Trying to change the subject since he felt uncomfortable with their stares, Hinata tried to eye Haruto who had the paper in his hands. He felt his stare and sighed out before pointing to the teams that were in their bracket.

"They're still playing their matches right now but there are two teams that we could potentially play against."

Haruto spoke out loud and pointed to the names of the teams that they could meet depending on who won.

"One of them is the host of the gym Kaji High, they don't really have anything special about them except that they're pretty good with serving the ball."

"The other one is probably our most likely bet, which is Kakugawa Academy. They're pretty standard for a team but I noticed that they have a very tall first year as their wing spiker."

Haruto continued to speak on what he found out so far while Kageyama and Hinata were giving him looks of amazement during his small talk.

"How did you find these things out?"

"While you were hurling in the bathroom I tried to find the teams on the paper and quickly watched a bit of their games."

"How tall is that person from Kakugawa?"

"From the spectators, I heard he's around 201cm (6'6'')."

"That tall?!"

Hinata yelled out loud hearing what he said and tried to imagine himself standing near a person that tall.

Leaving him with his thoughts, Kageyama asked some things on what Haruto saw and they started to discuss what they could do when it came to playing against them.

"Everyone start getting ready since it's almost our time to play." Ukai spoke out as he approached the team alongside Takeda.

"So far it looks like Kakugawa Academy will be our opponents since they're close to winning the second set with it being [22-16]"

Karasuno patiently listened to Ukai and after they saw that he was done talking, they quickly started to put on their jerseys.

Wearing his long sleeve compression shirt, Haruto took his uniform and was one of the first people to meet Ukai at the court they would play on.

"Hyakuzawa here!"

Standing by the wall, Haruto saw Kawugawa's setter give a high ball to their outside and noticed their tall outside start his approach.

He didn't have a lot of speed but when he got up, he was able to hit the ball high above the blockers and score a point as if there were no blockers in the first place.

Haruto stared at him intently but eventually stopped when he noticed that they had finished their game and it was now their turn to warm up.

***

"Don't be scared to block their number 9 alright."

"Why would I be scared?"

"I thought you had the shivers like Hinata who saw the height difference."

"Don't talk nonsense."

Haruto chuckled when he saw Tsukishima scoff at his words and glanced at his side, noticing that his casual conversation was able to ease the nerves of everyone.

Since this was their first match compared to their opponents they still needed more of a warm up other than the hitting lines they did before the match.

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Hearing the whistle they made their way onto the court and they were able to see just how tall a person who was 201cm really was.

'He sure looks tall up close.'

Haruto glanced upwards to his right side looking at Kakugawa's number 9. Despite his height of 183cm (6'0'') it was still a sight to see.

Asahi who was near the service line took in a deep breath as he took the ball from the linesman, waiting for the ref to signal the start of their first game.

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Hearing the whistle Asahi took in some air into his lungs and his eyes focused on the ball in front of him. Using two hands he threw the ball in tha air and pulled his elbow back to power up his jump serve.

"Watch the topspin!"

Their opponents called out after seeing how Asahi threw the ball in the air and watched as the ball quickly arc towards their side.

The ball fell quickly and they tried to reach it in time but were unable to plant their foot, allowing for the ball to bounce off their arms that wasn't platformed properly.

"That's a good way to open up the game."

Ukai whispered seeing Karasuno surround Asahi telling him to get another one and went back to their positions to continue the game.

"Don't worry Hyakuzawa, I'll get the next ball up for you."

"Ossu."

Kakugawa's team got together and said a few words before they waited for Asahi's next serve.

With the same throw, Asahi did another jump serve but this time they were able to react in time getting the ball up for their setter.

"Hyakuzawa!"

The setter gave their left side a high ball letting Hyakuzawa an opportunity to score a point.

Kageyama, Tsukishima and Haruto who were at the front were already ready to set the block and moved together so they could seal off the top of the net.

Jumping up in the air they saw Hyakuzawa jump up to hit and noticed that his arm was high above theirs, managing to hit a cross that Tsukishima and Haruto just barely touched with their fingertips.

"Nice one Hyakuzawa!"

Kakugawa's team celebrated as they surrounded their ace hitter while Karasuno grouped up to quickly talk about the point.

"So is it blockable?" Daichi looked towards Tsukishima and Haruto who were deep in thought.

"It's doable."

"I still need some time to see how we could time the block though."

Daichi felt a small smile grow on his face as they didn't deny that they could block the giant on the other team and they went back to their positions.

Waiting for the ball to get served, Karasuno got low as they watched the server on the other side bounce the ball. He threw it up and did a standard overhand getting it over the net.

"Got it."

Nishinoya passed the ball for Kageyama and he gave an outside set to Haruto rather than Tsukishima since he wanted to reduce the chance of facing Hyakuzawa.

'He's pretty fast.'

Haruto thought in his head as saw Hyakuzawa run to his side and jump up trying to reach over to block Haruto, since he looked like he was going to hit the line.

The simple actions he did however, didn't escape Haruto's eyes and he took note of it as it looked like he noticed something interesting.

Rotating his shoulder he used his deceptive arm swing to change the ball to a cross at the last second, making it land on the inner section of the front court.

"Did your creepy eyes notice something again?"

"Who the hell are you calling creepy?"

Haruto frowned when he heard Kageyama's calm voice but still nodded his head regardless.

"When he went up for the block, their number 9 didn't use any footwork to jump and just used his height to compensate for his lack of technique."

Saying his words, the people with the most game sense tried to understand what he was getting at. Kageyama who thought for a quick second felt his eyes shine when he figured out what he meant.

"He's a beginner."

"He probably joined after the Inter Highs."

Haruto nodded his head hearing Kageyama's response and started to quickly make up some plans to counter their tall opponent.

After talking for a while they rotated their positions and with new vigor, they were focused ready for the next point.

'We made plenty of weapons during our time in Tokyo so why not use them.'

***

I just realized that I never said anything about Haruto's height except that one time during Junior High. Well he grew just a bit. I hope you enjoyed it. Peacu.