Inter High 2

"Cover Cover!"

Kageyama yelled out as the outside hitter he was blocking hit off his hands making its way into their court. Asahi dove down to pass the ball and got it up but was out of system.

"Haruto get the last ball!" Daichi passed the ball towards Haruto, giving him a high toss. The ball was way off the net so Haruto had to adjust his approach. He jumped up so the ball was slightly in front of him and tried to hit it towards the corner of the court.

The ball went past the middle blocker and the person that was in the direction of the ball stared at it.

'It looks out..' He let it go past him but as he turned around to look at the linesmen, he saw that he pointed his flag to the line signaling that it was in.

"Shit!" He cursed and looked at the score which was now [23-12] with Karasuno leading the score. They had lost the first set completely losing [25-10] and now the end of the second set is approaching.

"Haruto get us the last few points," Kageyama yelled out and he nodded his head making his way to the service line.

Haruto bounced the ball and spun it against his palm before placing the ball close to his forehead and taking a deep breath in. This has been his new serving routine as he felt more focused when he took a breath before doing his toss.

Haruto threw the ball and jumped up smashing the ball towards the area between positions 5 and 6 on the court. The two players were about to pass the ball before stopping, allowing the ball to bounce right between them.

They looked at each other and grimaced at their actions.

"OHHH ACEUU '' Nishinoya yelled out and the others gathered around Haruto to celebrate.

"Haru-chan seems to be one of their better servers huh." A frivolous setter in the stands said to himself as he was watching the first game of Karasuno.

"Feeling intimidated?"

"Iwa-chan you definitely know how to joke. When it comes to serving, they can't compare to me." Oikawa said confidently as he gazed at Haruto going back to the line. He did his usual routine and served the ball again.

'I must reach this last ball..' the receivers tried their best to pass the ball but were only able to barely touch it making it a high overpass towards the net.

"Asahi smash it down!" Daichi yelled out and Asahi jumped up and directly spiked the ball down making it bounce right in front of the other team.

*Tweet

The whistle was blown ending the second set and the whole match. The two teams made their ways to the bench and shook hands with the other team before making their ways into their respective spots.

"Haah finally finished our first game... Kageyama! Time to uphold our bet from this morning~" Haruto leaned against the wall and grinned towards Kageyama who was grumbling to himself making his way to a vending machine.

As he came back while passing strawberry milk to Haruto and opening the one he got for himself, Ukai approached the team and said some words.

"Take some time to rest for a bit since we have a big match coming up against Date Tech." Ukai said while holding a clipboard with our match bracket on it.

When Ukai said the team we would be facing, the third years wore a solemn face but calmed down as the look on Asahi's face was one that was not ready to back down.

"As we have discussed before, they are a team with very strong blockers and it comes from their ability to read block." He said and saw Haruto raise his hand.

"Yes Haruto."

"Kageyama, Hinata and I actually played against Date Tech's blocker before but it was only during a 4vs4 scenario."

"Wait, you guys actually did. When was this?" Ukai asked and everyone on the team looked at the three surprised.

"We were invited by his friend to play at a grass volleyball tournament and we coincidently played against them in the finals." Kageyama spoke out and continued to drink the milk in his hands.

"So did you notice anything that we need to look out for?" Ukai questioned and Haruto held his chin and thought.

"Hmm, I would just say to try and disrupt their rhythm."

"Their rhythm?"

"Yes I noticed once they get a rhythm in their blocking movement, they will have more consistent blocks as they are able to move together in sync, creating the 'Iron Wall' as they match the timing and jump at the same time."

"If we can stop them from doing that we can open up more options for the hitters to hit from and also better angles."

Haruto explained and everyone thought about what he said.

"We can add faster tempo sets and also mix in our middles to catch them off guard…" Ukai whispered to himself and everyone began to prepare for their next match.

***

"GO GO DATE TECH" "LET'S LET'S GO DATE TECH"

"Whew, the whole place just screams of Date Tech." Haruto whistled as he looked around the stands.

"Do you have any plans to deal with that guy with no eyebrows?" Hinata asked and stood beside Haruto.

"Well maybe I just need to play with them a bit more to make sure though." Haruto said calmly while warming up to not be stiff from the slight break he took.

"Ukai we have first serve." Daichi came back from the coin toss and Ukai smiled at our luck.

*Tweet

The whistle blew and everyone began to walk to their positions when Nishinoya stopped them for a bit.

"You guys don't need to worry about getting blocked since." He went ahead of them and only his back was visable to them.

"I will be here to protect your backs." He gave a smile and walked to the court.

"What the hell. That was so fucking cool." Haruto said in a daze and the others didn't deny it.

When Haruto reached the net he saw Aone looking at him and Haruto gave a small smile while nodding at him. He nodded back and turned to focus on the game.

'Let's see what habits you have that I can use.' Haruto smiled and began to analyze Aone and the two other blockers with him.

*Tweet

Asahi did his serve and the other team passed it perfectly to their setter.

"I'll watch the middle. Shift closer to Kageyama." Haruto said to Tsukishima as he slightly shifted to the right of the court.

The setter jumped up to set and gave it to their outside hitter. Futakuchi was the same person that they played against during the grass tournament and Kageyama went up to block.

Katakuchi tried to smash through his block and the ball went through Kageyama's hands.

Daichi quickly reacted to the tool off the block and got it up. Kageyama looked at the attackers and gave a quick set to Tsukishima allowing him to tip it over to a spot where there was no one, earning a point.

Asahi served again and they did the same set but this time their middle jumped up to hit the ball. Haruto went for the block but the middle hit a cross avoiding his block and aimed it right at Nishinoya.

"Kageyama tempo!" Haruto yelled out and ran backwards to make space for his approach. The blockers shifted seeing this and moved towards him. Haruto was given a faster set than usual and as he jumped up he thought back to what he told Kageyama.

"Can you give my sets closer to the antenna cause I want to use the line more during this match." Kageyama heard his request and nodded.

The ball arrived near the antenna of the net and Haruto twisted his body to do a line shot. Hands quickly blocked his vision as the blockers read his hit but Haruto just grinned at this.

Twisting his shoulder he did the same thing during the Nekoma match and converted his line shot to a cross, hitting the shoulder of their receiver and going out.

As Haruto was celebrating with his team he thought back to the small movements that the blocker did when they went to block him.

'Just a little bit more and I can confirm..'

***

The set continued and Haruto and his team gained some points through their quicker tempo sets but also lost some as Date Techs blockers began to get used to their movements.

"You can also start giving Haruto the freak set since as much as Haruto has been doing his best to score points, they are going to start getting used to his movements." Ukai said as the score was now [17-13] with them leading and Date Tech calling a timeout.

"Oh is it finally my turn to hit the zoom set." Haruto smiled since so far they have been using Hinata for that set making the blockers mark him.

The timeout was over and they returned back to the court. Haruto was just one rotation away from going back to the front and they were now getting ready to receive the ball.

The ball crossed the net and went towards Nishinoya, making the server click his tongue.

Kageyama glanced at the blockers and noticed that they were focused on where the set would go and he saw an opportunity and jumped to dump the ball.

"Watch the dump!!" Date Tech's coach yelled out, causing Aone to reach the ball that Kageyama was dumping. Aone punted the ball with his fist making it go in an awkward position on Karasuno's court.

"Shit! Annoying ass spot." Haruto dove for the ball, getting it straight up and quickly transitioned to possibly hit from back court.

Daichi reached the ball Haruto got but was unable to control it and just got it straight up again. Haruto was the person closer to the ball so he just jumped up and rolled shot it to the usual deep corner but this time..

The ball was blocked by hands and fell back onto their court.

"OHHHH" Date tech celebrated and Karasuno gathered around.

"My bad I thought it was a good chance to dump it."

"Don't mind, we just need to get the ball back and attack."

Kageyama apologized and Haruto just said not to mind since he also got caught due to thinking that he could use his usual deep corner shots without getting blocked.

The game continued and finally it was about to reach its end with the score being [24-18].

Haruto was at the front and took in a big breath and focused. During his time on the court he was steadily watching movements and small actions of the blockers in front of him.

"Daichi good pass." Daichi passed the ball and Haruto ran backwards to create space. Kageyama gave a tempo set to Haruto while he was still watching Aone jump up.

'So you do have a slight delay when going up for a block.' Haruto smiled as he confirmed Aone's small blocking habit and he swung his arm faster than usual.

Although it didn't have the power of his usual hits as he took advantage of the delay Aone makes when he goes down to jump for a block. The ball brushed past Aone's fingers and smashed straight down winning them the set.

Haruto's smile began to grow and Aone and the other blockers felt a slight shiver as he felt that they were being watched by a monster reading all their movements.

***

Hope you enjoyed it. Peacu.