Facing Aoba Johsai 3

"GO GO SEIJOU! FIGHT BACK SEIJOU!"

"KARASUNO FIGHT FIGHT!"

The cheers from the spectators began to increase as the third set between Karasuno and Aoba Johsai went on. Points have begun to steadily increase with no teams getting a big lead to help them win the game.

"Hurgh. Watacchi! Get the second ball!" Asahi blasted the ball past Aoba Johsai's blockers making Oikawa get the first ball. Now that he was unable to set, Oikawa called for the libero to help out.

"Got it!"

The libero ran to the attack line and jumped past it, in the air he volleyed the ball behind him giving Oikawa a back set that he could hit.

"Thank you for the set."

Oikawa said while doing his approach to hit the ball and slammed it down the line winning the rally.

"Who knew that their libero could set like that." Haruto said while narrowing his eyes at their libero. During the match he noticed that their libero didn't have any outstanding defensive abilities that people in their role usually have, but it seemed like he excelled in setting.

"Haruto, Oikawa is serving now." Daichi called out to Haruto who was still standing up thinking about the previous play that happened. He heard Daichi call and got into his position in the back to receive the serve.

*Bounce Bounce

Oikawa bounced the ball at the service line and gazed at the other side of the net seeing Nishinoya, Daichi and Haruto getting low to pass the serve. Oikawa threw the ball and ran quickly to put that force into his serve.

The ball passed by the net with intense speed. It began to dip and the topspin on the ball made it hard to know where it would curve.

'Curving right… no it's going left' Haruto watched the ball and lowered his center of gravity and relaxed his shoulders to absorb the force from the serve. He got his forearms under the ball, giving a pass for Kageyama to use.

"Haruto, Yes!" Mahiru in the stands cheered loudly seeing him be able to pass that intense serve. Her energy also spread to the people around her as they were also excited by the show of skill Haruto did.

Hinata ran across the front court and jumped, doing a wide broad attack from the right side catching the blockers off guard.

"Nice Hinata!" Everyone surrounded him and celebrated that they were able to cut off Oikawa's serve early. Oikawa frowned and looked at the score [18-15] with Karasuno in the lead now.

'I need to cut off this momentum they have or else we're finished..' Oikawa thought in his head but his frown grew as he saw who rotated in the front.

'Haru-chan. Tch, annoying just like that left handed bastard.' Oikawa clicked his tongue in his mind and prepared to try and push Haruto back into the back row.

"Make sure to close the line since their number 13 has been abusing that path to score lots of points."

Oikawa said to his team and they nodded their heads to attempt and stop him from using that path. Asahi who was now in the back served the ball and got a rally to begin.

"Kageyama here!" Haruto called for the set and was given one that was close to the antenna of the net. The ball quickly went to the left side of the court and three blockers ran to block that ball.

'Hmm blocking line and cross.. How about here then' Haruto saw the view of the court and saw that they committed to blocking the line and had players ready to try and receive the cross.

Haruto swung his arm but a spike didn't come. Haruto swung his arm but it slowed down in the middle of the swing and he snapped his wrist to place it in a position near the front court where there were no players.

"This?!?" Haruto smiled as he saw the other team send glares his way for doing a roll shot. He usually never does this as he likes the feeling of hitting the ball with his palm, but the reactions of his opponents always makes it worth it.

"You really are a bad guy."

"Ehh but don't you see their faces?"

Nishinoya said to him as he also hated receiving those kinds of shots from hitters. Haruto just shrugged his shoulders and chuckled a little before getting ready for the next point.

With that small point a gap started to appear but Aoba Johsai didn't let it stop them from trying to overtake Karasuno.

"Yosh!" Aoba Johsai's middle Kindaichi was able to slam the quick set given to him by hitting a cross and got it to hit Haruto's palm from an angle making it go out. The set has now reached into the 20's for both teams and now tied as it is now [22-22].

'Our momentum from the second set is slowing down now. We need something to add..' Ukai thought in his head as he looked at the tied score. As he was thinking an idea went to his head and he looked towards the bench.

Aoba Johsai served the ball and Hinata ran up the middle and jumped wanting to hit a minus tempo. As he closed his eyes he felt the ball shoot to his palm but heard a loud sound in front of him.

He opened his eyes and saw that he was blocked.

*Tweet

The ref blew his whistle and raised his arm to give Karasuno a point. This confused them but they found out that someone from Aoba Johsai touched the net when they went up to block Hinata.

"Phew, that was way too lucky.." Takeda placed his hand to his chest and gave a sigh of relief by the lucky point. Hinata rotated to the back but was called out to get substituted out.

*Gulp

A guy with grayish green hair and freckles was near the line was slightly shaking as he was very nervous getting put into the game for the first time.

"Yamaguchi you alright?"

"Y-Yessh"

Hinata quickly asked Yamaguchi and he just nodded his head slightly slurring his words.

"Why are they switching that player in when the game is close to finishing?" Yachi who was watching the game was confused, since she thought that they usually do that in the middle or start of the game and not near the end.

"They call him a pinch server. They send them in so they can change the pace of the match or in this case right now is to add more to the point difference." The two guys who were cheering for Karasuno, people from the Karasuno Neighbourhood Association answered Yachi's question.

"So that would mean he specializes in strong serves like number 13?" Mahiru added on as she was curious about the special position of pinch server.

"Number 13? Oh you mean his jump serve, yes usually pinch servers have a strong topspin serve like his but that isn't the only one. There is another one called a float serve."

Yamaguchi was breathing deeply trying to relax at the service line. He bounced the ball a few times and waited for the ref to signal.

*Tweet

Ymaguchi threw the ball with one hand and jumped up slightly. He hit the ball in the middle with his palm in order to not add spin to it.

'Please go in…' He saw the ball slightly float to the tape on the net before.. it got caught by it and fell right back onto their side of the court.

"Lucky!!" Aoba Johsai celebrated and Yamaguchi felt devastated by his missed serve.

"I'm sorry.."

"Don't worry you'll get it next time." "It's fine we'll get the point back now"

Before Yamaguchi went back to the line to get subbed back out, Daichi and the rest of the team said a few words. He felt surprised since they didn't show any signs of blaming him for the lost point.

"Don't mind it. You'll make it next time when we play against Shiratorizawa right?" Haruto smiled and quickly patted Yamaguchi before going back to the front.

"Y-Yes I will!" Yamaguchi replied loudly while looking at Haruto and the rest of the team's backs and the feeling of perfecting his serve began to grow strongly inside of him.

The ball was served over and Karasuno quickly got a point in through the use of Tsukishima at the middle earning the frustration of Aoba Johsai.

'[24-23]. Just one more point and a match between Ushijima can finally happen.' Haruto looked at the score and began to clench his fist tighter. Asahi did his serve and the fight for the final point began.

'We can't lose this!..' Oikawa yelled in mind and gave a tempo set to Iwaizumi. As he was about to smash it, Kageyama and Tsukishima jumped up to block it.

'Oikawa when in a pinch always sets it to Iwaizumi.' Kageyama thought as he started to get familiar with how Oikawa plays.

'Who should I use.. Haruto is marked by two blockers and our middle can be tricky since they are able to shift fast..' Kageyama began to think fast as a pass was given off the block.

'Should I bait the front row and give a back row set..' He wanted his hitters to spike the ball when there are no blockers.

'Should I..'

"Here!"

Kageyama snapped out of his thoughts as he heard Haruto yell. He looked at him and saw what he wanted to say from his gaze.

"Trust…me.." Kageyama whispered and with no thoughts behind it gave Haruto a tempo set that he usually liked that went towards the antenna of the net. Haruto jumped up and pulled his elbow back.

"Watch line!!" Oikawa yelled out

Haruto turned his chest and torqued it to seemingly hit the line but then used shoulder to suddenly switch to a cross redirecting his hit. The ball quickly changed directions and finally landed in the deep right corner of the court.

*Swish

The sound of the flag the linesmen were holding was heard as they pointed towards the court indicating that it was in.

*Tweet

""OHHHHHHH""

"HARUTO!!" "YESSS"

The spectators cheered and Mahiru began to jump up in excitment while holding the flustered Yachi as the final set between them finally ended with Karasuno winning it. The score was [25-23].

Haruto got jumped by his team and he also had a huge smile on his face.

"See you have some pretty good allies right." Haruto grinned at Kageyama and he just nodded his head, feeling happy about the game they had won.

'We still have one more game to play but it will be way easier compared to Aoba Johsai but…' Haruto thought in his head before looking at his still red palm.

'I wonder if we have what it takes to finally beat the so-called 'Unstoppable Spear' of Shiratorizawa.'

***

Wow, finally done the match against Aoba Johsai. I hope you enjoyed it. Peacu