Chapter 4

Kageyama was annoyed. After they had arrived, the coach had asked three of his teammates to fill the team's water bottles, and they still hadn't returned. The coach then asked him to look for them, which kinda pissed him off. Now he had to waste the time he could be practicing his sets, to search for three idiots who couldn't even follow simple instructions. Not to mention that he had been in a sour mood lately.

There was some kind of unspoken tension in the team which he couldn't understand. He had asked some players.. well.. he tried to, but nobody said anything. He had brushed it off as nervousness before the junior-high prelims, but now he started to feel like it was about something else entirely.

As he went towards the washroom, he heard some familiar laughter and his steps quickened. Upon his arrival, he witnessed his teammates laughing and a short kid standing across from them. He recognised the kids uniform. They were their opponents in the 1st round.

He was about 160 cm tall and had striking orange hair with sharp hazel eyes. He had a good looking face and his hair was wild. He could tell that the kid would look handsome if gained a little height and took more care of his appearance. But what caught his attention was the look in his eyes. There was an something about it which unnerved him and judging by the suddenly dying laughter, his teammates thought so too.

He was just about to interfere and yell at his teammates, when the kid spoke.

"You find it incredibly funny right? What's so funny about it? I don't even need to wait for the match, to know that you're not playing. You guys don't even make the bench right? What makes you think you're in any position to make fun of anybody?"

His teammates went silent immediately. As the words sunk in, their face began to get more and more flushed. He could see them getting angry and preparing to say something back. But whatever they'd planned to say had to wait, because the kid moved and went ahead to stand in front of them, with an intense look in his eyes.

"Don't ride the cottails of your schools reputation. Because once you take that away, you'll find yourself with nothing left to stand for."

Kageyama could literally see the chills run down their spine. He wasn't the only one who witnessed their confrontation. Other people had stopped to watch it too. He could see them starting to talk with one another about the whole scene. Some were discussing among themselves, while others were explaining what happened to the people who arrived recently, after seeing everybody looking at something. He decided to intervene before things got out of hand any further.

"Hey.. second years"

As soon as the three Kita-ichi players heard the voice, they stiffened even further. They turned around to see Kageyama giving them a dark look.

'Crap!' they all thought together.

"Are you finished filling the team's bottles?" he asked. They all nodded shakily.

"Then stop standing here and wasting time. It's almost time for the official warm-up. Move." he fixed them with a glare and the three scrambled to follow. He then looked at the ki- no.. his opponent one last time, before he turned around to move.

"Kageyama Tobio from Kitagawa Daiichi right?"

The people who had witnessed the confrontation had started to move too, when they stopped again after they heard him speak. They wondered if they'd get to witness something interesting again.

Kegeyama stopped and turned around to look at the orange haired boy and after a while, he nodded.

"I'm Hinata Shoyo from Yukigaoka. I've seen you play and I have to say.. your tosses are really good. But that isn't why I stopped you. I stopped you because I wanted to tell you something"

Kageyama frowned a little but waited for him to finish. He decided to hear what he had to say.

"I just wanted to say that someday in the future.. you'll toss For me. It's doesn't matter if your spikers can't hit your toss because they're too fast.. I'll hit them all" Hinata said with conviction, and then turned around and left.

Kageyama was really surprised. Of all the things he expected to hear.. this wasn't one of them. The way that guy, Hinata, said it with such belief.. Kageyama found himself almost wanting to believe it too. But he didn't count his chicks before they hatched. He'd find out everything he wants to during the match soon enough.

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Kitagawa Daiichi won the toss and they choose to serve first. Hinata was really excited. Memories or not.. this would still be his first official volleyball match. He let his gaze wander to the side and sure enough.. at the viewing stands on the second floor, he saw three very familiar faces. He couldn't believe he finally got to see them. But those could wait.. right now, he had a match to play. He called for a last team huddle before the match began. Kitagawa Daiichi were doing the same.

"Kōji.. the first toss might come your way. Don't panic. Just somehow try to lift the ball up. Izumi.. you're the setter. Don't worry too much about the set. Just toss the ball up. I'll do my best to hit it. This is just a learning experience.. so everyone.. just play freely and try to enjoy the match. Forget about winning or losing. Even if we lose.. atleast we'll make some good memories here. So just relax and have fun" he told them with a smile.

His teammates didn't know what to say. They just turned silent. The constant pressure they were feeling suddenly became a lot less like some weight had been lifted. They knew how much this match meant to him.. how hard he had worked these 3 years, so they wanted to to do their best. But they were under a lot of pressure because they didn't know how to play and were afraid to let their friend down.. so to hear him say that almost made them tear up. Kōji actually teared up too.

"Besides.. when I become a famous player one day, you'd have quite the story to tell people too. You can all brag to everyone that you were my teammates in my first official match" he said with a smirk.

They all burst into laughter at that and any lingering pressure vanished along with it. They decided that the least they could do for him was to just give their best and have fun.

They returned to the court a lot lighter than before and got into positions. The referee blew the whistle, and the match truly began.