16 Chapter 16

"That was a really interesting introduction! Don't you think so?" Tendō asked, while running next to Semi.

"Yaa.. It was." Semi replied.

"I mean.. a spike from Ushiwaka!? And on the first try too. Was that just luck, or is that shrimp a monster?" By the time he finished, Tendō's face was just inches away from Semi.

"Who knows.. But first, get your face away from me!" Semi pushed his face back.

"Semi-Semi.. Just think.. isn't it interesting. Even Ushiwaka looked like he wanted to talk to him for a few seconds after he stopped that spike. How often do you see Ushiwaka take even a little bit of interest in someone?" Tendō was once again near Semi's face when he finished.

Semi just tried to ignore him. He knew Tendō understood hints well enough, but he also knew Tendō didn't give a flying fuck about it. He did what he wanted. It was best to just ignore him, and pray he found something else that interested him.

His prayers went unanswered. Semi sighed and decided to just answer him. At least, that'd make Tendō move his face away form him.

"I don't know. You'll have to ask Ushiwaka yourself. Besides.. you're pretty good at reading his expressions. I don't know how you can read them though. His expressions look the same to me."

Tendō took his face back and nodded with a proud smile. "You just have to look for even the slightest twitch in his expressions. After carefully observing it for a while, you kind of become good at it. But even then, it's not always accurate. Hmmm.. maybe I should observe more closely?"

"That sounds creepy.. Can't you just stop doing whatever it is you do?"

Tendō looked like he was seriously considering it, but then.. he turned towards Semi and grinned infuriatingly. "No"

Semi just sighed. He didn't know how to deal with Tendō. Nobody knew.. except for the coach. Maybe he should follow Tendō and try to observe the coach inste-.. He shivered and furiously shook his head. Nope. He'd stick to prayers.

He would have tried to speed up and shake Tendō off, if he didn't know the result already. He'd tried that before.. a lot of times.. but Tendō always managed to keep up, and Semi just ended up getting exhausted faster. He had no choice but to accept his fate.

"Look.. That shrimp is even keeping up with Ushiwaka. Maybe Wakatoshi-kun has finally found some to befriend?"

"I highly doubt that."

Tendō ignored it practiced ease. "Ah.. they grow up so fast! I'll miss the time when Ushiwaka's only friends were me and his first-year stalker!" He wiped a fake tear from his eyes.

From behind them, Shirabu sent Tendō a glare, but the redhead ignored him too.

"I wonder who'll get to play with shrimpy. I'd love to play with him, but I also want to play against him. Ahh.. fresh meats are always interesting!"

Thankfully, Semi didn't have to endure it for much longer. The coach called them over, and they walked towards the board to see their teams.

Reon - Kawanishi

Satori - Jin

Ushijima - Shirabu

Semi's eyes widened when he saw the two of them paired together. The canon and his dedicated setter? He felt pity for their opponents.

He checked who their opponents were and almost screamed at the injustice.

Hinata - Semi

Semi realised that the days torture was far from over. He now had the privilege to enjoy a sound thrashing from Ushiwaka.

He sighed and spotted his partner walking towards him with a smile. While he was certainly curious about the short boy and wanted to see his skills, he wasn't optimistic enough to believe they'd beat Ushijima.

Since it couldn't be helped, Semi could only try his best and hope for it to be painless. The coach would have his head if he slacked off anyways.

"Hi.. I'm Hinata Shoyo. It's nice to meet you." he replied with a slight bow. Up close, he felt even smaller, but Semi noticed he had a pretty fit body.

"Eita Semi, I'm a second year setter."

Hinata smiled. "That's perfect. I'm in my last year of junior high and I'm currently training for all positions."

Semi raised his eyebrows. "All positions? Well.. if can play play all positions about as well as that receive you did, we might just survive total annihilation."

"I'm confident about my receives. I'm just a bit worried about that recoil. It'll definitely upset my balance and it might take me time to get back to my feet. I believe I can spike pretty well and I'm decent with my sets. As for my blocks, I'm not sure I can shut Ushijima down completely. His spikes are just too strong. I'll try to get 'one touches' and we'll figure out the rest during the match."

Semi just stared open mouthed. Was he really talking about blocking 'the' Ushiwaka. He talked like they had a fair chance at winning, but Semi couldn't help himself from feeling a bit sceptical.

While he doubted almost half of what Hinata said, he nodded anyways. He didn't see any point in arguing. Besides.. in 2v2.. they didn't have the luxury of choices. They had to do pretty much everything.

Akira Saitō, the assistant coach then signaled for them to start and Semi found himself looking at Ushiwaka and Shirabu across the net. He noticed both of their attention was on his partner. Hinata did a few last minute stretches and entered the court.

Hinata's entire demeanor changed as soon as he stepped into the court. He looked at Shirabu, who had been sending him a few glares, and the setter unconsciously took a step back.

Everybody focused their attention on the two teams standing on the court. They could feel something special was about to go down. If not for any other reason, then simply because Ushiwaka was playing. Watching him play was always exciting. Adding Hinata to the mix just elevated it even more.

Semi turned to his partner. "What is your ball preferences?"

"I want high sets. And I'll be able to set even if the receive is off."

Semi nodded. "I'm pretty flexible. As long as you get the ball to me, I'll set it for you."

Hinata nodded. "Just one more thing.. make sure to know my position before you set for me. I'll should be able to manage it, even if it's a bit off. Just make sure to keep track of me."

Semi's left eye twitched. Why would he lose track of someone in a 2v2? He didn't have time to say anything though, as the referee whistled.. signalling the start of the match.

Ushijima tossed the ball high into the air and delivered a powerful jump serve. It crossed the net before Semi could even properly prepare himself. He looked right, just in time to see Hinata duck, and the ball made contact with the floor.

The referee whistled and 1 point was added to their team. It was then that he realised the ball landed outside. Semi breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good judgement"

Hinata just nodded with a stiff smile. He didn't expect Ushijima to start with such a strong serve. Maybe he was checking if that receive was a fluke or the real deal?

"Wakatoshi-kun, no killing kids okay?" Tendō called with a carefree expression, his hands behind his head.

Ushijima didn't say anything, he just continued to look at Hinata.

It was Semi's turn to serve. He took a deep breath and tossed the ball into the air. He did a jump serve and aimed it at Shirabu. The setter was forced to pick receive it, but the receive was off. It just showed that while his receives weren't necessarily bad, it wasn't as good as it would be in his 2nd year. Ushijima tossed the ball for Shirabu to spike. Hinata quickly approached the net and jumped, just as Shirabu made contact. The ball hit Hinata's hand and immediately shot down, landing on their opponents side of the court. Shirabu was completely shut down.

Hinata could hear a few gasps but he was used to them at this point. If they were surprised by this much, they had another thing coming. He looked at Shirabu, and saw him looking like he had just swallowed something sour. He moved his gaze towards Ushijima, but couldn't quite tell what he was thinking.

Hinata turned to give Semi a high-five but saw the setter looking at him in surprise. He understood that Semi hadn't quite believed he could jump that high. Hinata just smirked, the setter hadn't seen anything yet.

"That was a really good block.. You must have been serious when you were talking about blocking Ushiwaka."

"Of course I was.. Now let's get another point!" Hinata cheered.

Semi found himself smiling. This match might not be as terrible as he'd initially thought.