[July 4th—the day of the National IH Tour Finals]
Kaedehara Taichi's eyelids trembled slightly before he slowly opened his eyes. He y in bed, staring bnkly at the ceiling for a few seds, but he made no move to get up. Instead, he closed his eyes again.
After a while, he repeated the process: opening his eyes, dazing out, and then closing them again.
Open, close, open, close, open…close.
It's reality, after all…
It had been a full day and night sihe match against Inarizaki. Coach Irihata had giveeam a day off, and the pyers, worn out from pying three secutive days of matches, had accepted it without a sed thought.
After returning home, all Taichi wao do was sleep, and he ended up sleeping the entire day. Not that it mattered; after all, he had no idea what else to do when awake…
Gurgle, gurgle…
The sound of his stomach reminded him that he should eat. Slowly, he crawled out from uhe covers, his movements stiff. As he sat up, his joints made soft crag noises from the ck of activity.
"Right, food," he muttered.
Taichi grabbed a random piece of clothing to throw on.
The room remained dim, with dumbbells, hand-grip trainers, and volleyballs scattered haphazardly across the floor.
A sliver of sunlight seeped through the gap in the curtains and nded on his face, its brightness deepening the furrow between his brows.
The fridge held some bread and rice balls. He vaguely remembered Kindaichi stuffing them into his hands after the match, g as he did so.
"Holy, it's not like you're the team's manager or anything," Taichi muttered under his breath as he ate the cold breakfast.
His expression remained unged, her liking nor disliking the food. He ate meically, as though it were a chore.
"ht. I have school today," he remembered abruptly.
He went to brush his teeth and wash his face. The cold water spshing on his skin seemed to jolt his groggy mind awake. And with that crity came the realization of what had felt off since earlier—Aoba Johsai's journey iionals was over.
As his mind cleared, ses from the match began repying in vivid detail. The final moments of the st set fshed before his eyes, the offend defence exged like a reel o…
Oernoon of the third day of the National Tour, Aoba Johsai battled Inarizaki through three gruellis.
In the end, they lost, 1-2.
They had secured the first set. In the sed, they cwed back from a six-point deficit, but in the decisive third set, Inarizaki held them firmly uheir trol.
No matter how he thought about it, the turning point had been his ouch viotion at the end of the sed set.
If he hadn't made that mistake, if they had mao take the sed set…
Taichi submerged his head in the sink full of cold water.
"Time to head to school."
-----
Miyagi Prefecture's skies stretched wide and cloudless today. The weather erfectly clear. There was no sign of rain, no gusts of wind, low humidity, and no oppressive atmospheric pressure.
The four third-years of Aoba Johsai's volleyball team met again on their way to school. But uheir usual banter-filled ms, there was none of the usual joking and roughhousing.
"Oi, Oikawa, quit with the long face already…" Iwaizumi Hajime finally snapped, smag Oikawa Tōru on the head with his schoolbag.
"Ow! What the hell, Iwa-! I'm not making a long face!" Oikawa retorted.
From the beginning, every pyer entering the Nationals khat, except for oeam, everyone else would eventually be sent pag. It was only a matter of time.
For many teams, making it to Nationals was already the best result in their school's history.
Except for a select few powerhouses, not many truly believed they could cim the championship.
But Kaedehara Taichi and Oikawa Tōru were exceptions. Despite being the most rational pyers oeam, they were almost obsessively determined in this regard.
"Reag the national quarterfinals is already a miracle for us, sidering it's our first time iour. But I believe you achieve eveer things," Coach Irihata had said.
He was satisfied with the result. As a seasoned coach who had led teams to Nationals multiple times, he uood the importance of evaluating a team's capabilities objectively.
The pyers had given their all; he had no reason to criticize them. More importantly, Coach Irihata saw hope in this group of kids. Aoba Johsai's future held endless possibilities.
"The finals today are Inarizaki versus Itachiyama, right? Ugh, it's so frustrating. No matter who wins, it'll piss me off," Oikawa grumbled, kig a pebble down the road.
"You don't even know anyone from Itachiyama," Matsukawa Issei pointed out.
"Yeah, but if they beat us and then lose to someone else, doesn't it make us look weaker?" Oikawa argued.
"You're such a pain," Hanamaki Takahiro said, exasperated.
"Did you guys watch yesterday's semifinals?" Matsukawa asked.
"Yeah. As expected, there are eams left," Oikawa said firmly. "I 't wait to start training again. At Spring High, no matter who we face, I'm not losing again."
"Spring High, huh…"
Though no one explicitly mentio, it was clear that all four third-years were pnning to stay on.
"By the way, shouldn't someone che Taichi?" Iwaizumi asked Oikawa.
Yesterday, while club activities were celled, school was still in session.
Taichi had skipped entirely, prompting Kindaichi to immediately seek out Iwaizumi to expiuation.
"Why is Kindaichi ing to you? I'm the captain, you know!" Oikawa had been too absorbed in his post-match gloom at the time to care. Now, remembering it again, he felt irritated. After all, his and Iwaizumi's s were right o each other.
Seeing Iwaizumi's expression darken, Oikawa quickly got to the point.
"Let him be for a day. The kid's never faced a setback like this before—not like us," Oikawa said nontly. "If he hasn't snapped out of it by today, I'll ghten him out myself."
"A first-year making it to the national quarterfinals, and he's ag like he's hit ro. That kid's thought process is so bizarre," Matsukawa ented, shaking his head. "We're third-years about to retire, and we're not even that dramatic."
"Maybe it's because he's been shouting about quering the Nationals sihe prefectural finals. I think he's even more serious than Oikawa," Hanamaki added with a ugh.
"Hanamaki!"
"Hahaha…"
"Let's gather the team this afternoon to watch footage of the finals. One of those teams might be our oppo ime, so we should start preparing early," Matsukawa suggested.
"Yeah, after a day off, it's time to get back to training. And we've got the training camp from hell ing up," Oikawa said, grinning ominously.
"Iwa-, you're smiling like a vilin…"
Having experienced enough defeats, the third-years uood the value of their current opportunities. Rather than dwelling ret, loss, or self-reproach, they khis was their st ce to give it their all. There was still so much left to do.
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[T/N] - No, you guys are not missing a chapter...They got OFF-SED! The DISRESPECT! lol
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