XXXV

April 24th, 2021

Everything people say about your junior year (11th) being the hardest year of high school is a big lie because 9th grade is way harder. I have been lied to. No one warned me about this.

Also, Riseki Heisuke is a first-year on Inarizaki. He played during the Karasuno/Inarizaki match as a pinch server. He's the #14 ^^ who messed up real bad and then their cheer squad started booing smh he's such a sweetheart how dare they🙄

Isuma was really tired of Atsumu's sudden decisions.

For their match against Kaiso, Kita, Isuma, and their coach had told him to use jump-floaters the whole time. He'd been listening perfectly... until the middle of the second set. Up 'til then, everything had been going smoothly. They'd taken the first set without allowing Kaiso to reach the double digits.

The score was 19:06 when he messed up. The referee blew the whistle just as Kita murmured, "Atsumu, no..."

"What?" Kosaku asked. "He's not doing a jump-float."

Kosaku almost asked how he knew- Atsumu hadn't even taken a step yet- but he stopped himself. "Why shouldn't he?"

"He's done this before. Kaiso's servers are amazing... right now, he's frustrated knowing he can look better, yet he's stuck with doing the same thing over and over again."

Kosaku stared at Kita, but he didn't elaborate. "...so, aren't you going to stop him?"

"It's too late now. And even if I could, I wouldn't. He'll hear it from all three of us later." Kita's eyes flicked towards the bench; the coaches and Isuma had all just sighed, evidently having realized he was switching up his serve.

Atsumu threw the volleyball up in a high arc and ran up then jumped- the sound of his hand hitting the volleyball echoed throughout the gym as a tremendous roar.

The volleyball blew past Kaiso's players- and then kept going. It slammed into the wall, and then, swerving, flew towards the bleachers. A startled middle schooler caught it; after a brief second of silence, he awkwardly held it up. "Um...?"

Isuma sighed and shook her head; Atsumu was being scolded by Akagi, Aran, and Omini at the same time, while Osamu was laughing off to the side. Kurosu Sensei murmured something under his breath. "He's doing extra practice for that tonight."

The other coach said, "Jump serves."

"A hundred of them," Isuma added.

Kita heard them and called, "Two hundred."

"Deal." Kurosu Sensei agreed; all four of them turned towards Atsumu at the same time. As if sensing his future punishment, Atsumu flinched. "Ugh, no..."

Osamu laughed even harder at his brother's fate. "Shut up, 'Samu!"

"How many serves has he missed today?" Their coach asked. Isuma glanced at her notebook. "...two. One of his jump-floats in the first set was out, and, well... this one was really out."

"What about Kaiso?"

"Like you said, they focus on their serves more than anything else. Their #7- he's a second-year- tried to do a few jump serves earlier."

He nodded. "I remember. Take a few notes on their first-years too. They're the ones we'll need to watch out for next year."

"I will." Against her will, her hand went to her forehead- it had been hurting ever since they'd arrived, and she'd been trying to ignore it- mostly so no one else would notice- but it was growing worse. She shook her head and turned back to the coach, who was still talking. "Sorry, what were you saying?"

Kurosu Sensei repeated, "I'm putting Riseki in as a pinch server."

"Now?"

"To be honest, we can do without him, but Atsumu needs to calm down. Riseki needs some time in a real match too. He's only a first-year. He might be a starter soon enough." Isuma got to her feet. "I'll call him over, Coach."

She walked over to the others; everyone looked at her except Kita, who kept his eyes on the court and asked, "Yeah?"Isuma looked away from Kita and glanced at Riseki. "...Heisuke, Coach is putting you in."

"-what? Me? Now?" Riseki pointed at himself. Isuma nodded. "Now."

He hesitantly walked over to the bench; Isuma glanced at Kosaku and gestured towards Kita, silently asking what was wrong. Kosaku motioned for her to come closer and dropped his voice to just above a whisper. "He's been a little distracted the whole match. Do you know if something happened?"

"No..." Isuma shook her head; Kosaku replied, "Don't worry about it. Kita Senpai's fine."

He glanced at Riseki. "Go. He's probably nervous."

"...yeah." Isuma briefly glanced at Kita as she brushed past him. Riseki was talking with their coach, his expression anxious. He fell silent as Isuma approached.

Kaiso High finally managed to snag a point, and the referee blew his whistle to signal Suna's substitution; Riseki stood up. "Good luck."

"Thanks, Isuma Senpai."

Isuma handed a water bottle to Suna when he came. He took a long sip and set it down. "Thanks, Isuma-chan."

Kurosu Sensei tapped the bench. "Sit. Preserve your strength."

Suna sat down next to Isuma, his face glowing with sweat. "You didn't try as hard during the second set, Rin."

Her tone wasn't harsh at all- she might as well have been telling him that his shoelace was untied- but he winced. "Honestly, just because we've taken the lead doesn't mean you get to stop trying."

"What's the point? I might as well save my energy for our next match."

Isuma didn't have the strength to protest. She barely nodded and turned back towards the court; Suna raised his eyebrows. "Are you feeling fine? Normally you would argue."

She hesitated, unsure of how to respond. Suna leaned towards her. "Isuma."

"I'm okay," she answered, turning away from him. Suna didn't say anything else, but his eyes kept on flicking over to her every few seconds. He didn't know what had happened to her at their first match, but there was something else right now. He didn't know what... until Isuma glanced over at the other players, her eyes landing on Kita.

Suna suddenly understood, but he said nothing and turned his attention back to the court. Riseki's first serve had been a sharp line shot, just barely in. Kaiso's setter received his second serve, but it was shaky. "Nako, get it!"

One of their middle blockers managed to set the volleyball to an outside hitter, who slammed it down. It was six inches above the floor- three inches- one inch- half an inch- Akagi's hand slid right in between the floor and volleyball. "Atsumu!!"

Isuma could see Kaiso's setter's eyes widen all the way from the bench. The score was 24:07. One more point- just one more- and Inarizaki would win. Again.

She bit her lip, silently scolding herself. 'Don't feel bad for them. Like Kita Senpai said... they came into this tournament knowing they could lose somewhere.

'But that's not the worse part,' the other part of her brain argued. 'Inarizaki is one of the greatest schools in all of Japan- there's no denying it. These other schools aren't even being given a chance.'

Isuma forced the thought away just as Atsumu did a flawless setter dump, ending the game. The referee blew his whistle; the coaches, Suna, and Isuma all stood up, clapping for a few seconds. Kurosu Sensei waited until everyone had stopped talking and laughing before speaking. "Well done. Atsumu..."

He winced when the coaches glared at him, but when Kita looked at him, he flinched so hard it was as if Kita had thrown a dagger at him. "I haven't even said anything yet, Atsumu."

"You're going to. That's terrifying enough." Atsumu mumbled. Kita shook his head. "We'll wait until later."

Kurosu Sensei said, "We've got some time until our next match. Mailo is still playing Yamino. We should go watch."

"As long as I get food," Osamu said, stretching. "'Samu!"

"What? I'm hungry!"

Kita motioned to the others. "Come on, let's go line up."

They all ran to the end of the court and bowed to the other team and shook their hands, and then bowed to the audience.

Isuma hastily bowed to the Kaiso players as they reached the coaches and her. Kurosu Sensei shook their hands and told them words of encouragement. One of the middle blockers, Nakamo, paused when he reached Isuma. "You were at one of our matches, weren't you?"

Isuma was surprised by the question. "Um... probably."

"Don't get me wrong, I don't notice everyone who watches our matches. You just stood out." Nakamo said. "...you're a really good manager. You help your team a lot."

She didn't know how to respond. "...thanks."

A few minutes later, as they walked out of the gym, Kurosu Sensei said, "They're coming for our next match since it's the Semi-finals."

Everyone instantly understood. Atsumu grumbled, "They better listen to me when I tell them to stop this time."

"We all know how much you love silencing them."

"Shut up, Hitoshi!"

"It's been a while since they've shown up, huh?"

"Who's they?" Isuma asked. Kita turned to look at her, speaking to her for the first time in hours. "Them. Our orchestra and cheer squad are showing up for our next match."

I almost forgot I had to update today and was like WTH IT'S ALREADY 2?????

Ty for 69K :>