Chapter 11 -Vs Fujizawa ( Part 1)

A day had passed and the members of Yukigaoka Junior High could be seen boarding the same bus that had taken them to the main preliminary.

"We're going to win this first match, and then we can have our revenge against those jerks from Kitagawa Daiichi," said Sekimukai, clenching his fists.

"Hey, Daisuke, do you know anything about our next opponent? I think the school we're facing is called Fujizawa Junior High," asked Izumi.

"They're definitely a strong team. They have a player who's been standing out recently called Tsutomu Goshiki. He's going to be the most difficult player for us to defend against," commented Daisuke.

"If I'm not mistaken, he's that bowl-cut guy who's expected to be Shiratorizawa's future ace," thought Hinata as he remembered the name.

An hour later, they arrive at the gymnasium and head to the court to start warming up.

"Looking at their team, they really seem to be full of Shiratorizawa background characters from the main anime timeline, but if they managed to get into that school in the future, they certainly aren't low-level players - they just can't compete with the veteran starters," thought Hinata while watching the opposing team warm up.

"You!... I watched your game yesterday!" said Goshiki, walking towards him pointing his finger.

"Hope you liked what you saw?" Hinata teased.

"You play well, but in Japan, there's no one better than me at my age. You'll see... I'll score more points than you and win the match!" he said confidently.

"We'll find out about that soon enough," said Hinata while walking away to continue his warm-up.

Shortly after, the game begins with Fujizawa serving, and the ball was in Goshiki's hands. He manages to hit a powerful serve that flies towards the middle of the court. Suzuki dives to try to receive it, but the serve was faster than he thought and hits the floor.

1-0 Fujizawa

"That's how it's done, see?" said Goshiki.

"Nice serve!" said one of the boys.

"Thanks for recognizing my talent, Sagae," Goshiki thanked him.

"It was just the first ball, don't worry," said Hinata to Suzuki, who seemed a bit shaken.

"Right!" said Suzuki.

Again, Goshiki served the same way he had done before, but this time, Suzuki manages to reach the ball which went towards Izumi, who set the ball for Hinata who was in the attack zone in position four and managed to make a cross-court attack that went over the opponent's triple block.

1-1 Tied

"Nice toss," commented Hinata to Izumi, who gave him a thumbs up.

The Yukigaoka team rotates and it was Kawashima's turn to serve. The opposite hitter manages to get the ball over the net but it was easily defended by the opposing libero who passed to the setter.

"To me!" shouted Goshiki while already preparing to jump, and when he received the ball, he noticed a triple block from Hinata, Izumi, and Daisuke. He tried to make a cross-court shot but was blocked by Hinata who just moved one of his hands to stop him.

2-1 Yukigaoka

"You know everything becomes easier when you shout your team's play for everyone who wants to hear, right? This way you'll only score points serving, HAHA!" Hinata teased while laughing.

"Just wait for the next one, I'll wipe that smile off your face!" said the boy.

Again Kawashima serves and it's well received by the opposing team. "TO ME AGAIN!" shouted Goshiki, who this time didn't have his request granted as the setter passed the ball to the wing spiker Sagae who managed to hit Daisuke's fingertips making the ball fall at the back of the court.

2-2 Tied.

"Ah, why didn't you set the ball to me, Sakamoto," said the boy.

"Hey, you idiot, even the opposing team already warned you about the danger of announcing which play it's going to be, they were already prepared to give you another block... I know you're excited to prove your worth to the audience and beat that orange-haired guy, but if you keep doing this, we're going to lose!" said Sakamoto, the setter who seemed to be the team captain.

"Right..." he said in a low tone after being scolded.

"That's strange, in the anime I remembered he liked to show off a bit but wasn't this reckless, maybe after going to Shiratorizawa the veterans put him in line," thought Hinata.

After this play, the game continued extremely intense with both teams managing to score, having a great exchange of points until the moment it was 5-4 for Fujizawa and it was Hinata's turn to serve.

"I have to score many points, at this point we're relatively far in the tournament and there's only one match happening at the moment so many eyes from the audience are on this match," thought Hinata while throwing the ball up and hitting it with all his strength, making it fly towards the back of the court and ending up going towards Goshiki who couldn't receive it.

The orange-haired boy started to draw a lot of attention from the audience when he was already on his fourth consecutive ball making aces with his serves.

"Look at that boy, the opposing team seems to be struggling to receive his serve," said someone from the audience.

"Damn it! He's getting all the attention," complained Goshiki. Hinata on the sixth serve sees the ball hitting the net and starting to fall on the opponent's court but managing to be defended by the libero who made an effort and threw himself on the ground to keep the ball in play and the setter managed to make a quick set to the middle blocker who managed to put the ball on the ground.

9-6 Yukigaoka

Now it was Goshiki's turn to serve who was extremely irritated because Hinata had managed to score so many points in sequence and some in his direction where he couldn't receive, so he jumped and deliberately aimed at Hinata who just made a calm reception towards Izumi who set for Sekimukai who hadn't attacked in a long time and executed his Dink that managed to surprise the opposing team.

"I can always count on this attack to secure a little point," sighed Sekimukai who hadn't scored any points until now.

The game continued with both teams managing to get past each other's blocks, not having a great dominance like in the last game where Koganegawa's block was a problem.

But throughout the first set, Goshiki seemed quite irritated and making silly mistakes that might have cost the first game of the match where Yukigaoka won 25-20

Hinata- 13 points Daisuke- 7 points Sekimukai- 4 points Kawashima- 1 point