Chapter 24: Chapter Twenty-Two: Kings Vs. Crows, Match 3!
"AWW YEAH BABY!" Tanaka yelled out as his spike landed along the line.
"Point Karasuno, 7-5 Seijo! Karasuno service," Mizoguchi said from the referee spot.
The third game of the day had just started, pitting prefectural rivals, Aoba Johsai and Karasuno against one another. Having just lost to Seijo at the Interhigh, the pain of the loss was still in their minds, but knowing they didn't have two of their best players, this game was going to be an uphill battle to say the least.
Not even mentioning the rising tension between some Karasuno players and Bodhi, who was still thinking about a certain ravenette and in Lala land. Bodhi before he was late, was slated to play in this game but due to him not coming back on time, Coach Irihata opted to use another formation he had in the works. However, this one was namely for if the worst of the worst were to happen.
A line-up that involved only the third-years…plus Naoki.
Setter: Oikawa.
Wing Spikers: Iwaizumi, Hanamaki, Heisuke/Kaneo.
Middle Blockers: Matsukawa, Motomu.
Libero: Naoki.
Meanwhile, Karasuno was using their normal line-up with Sugawara subbing in for Kageyama and Kazuhito for Hinata. With rotating players out when needed.
"Atta way Tanaka, way better than you know who!" Nishinoya yelled out. Trying and failing to get the Maverick's attention.
Bodhi who had come back to reality and was currently in the waiting area noticed Karasuno's libero's attention on him, and not knowing what else to do as the stare was pretty aggressive, simply waved at him kindly.
"The hell is up with their libero?" Bodhi whispered to Kindaichi.
"How the hell should I know!? You probably did something to piss him off!" Kindaichi whisper-shouted back.
"…You're fucking useless," Bodhi said back flat-faced.
"TAKE THAT BACK!" Kindaichi yelled at Bodhi, grabbing the neckline of his jersey.
"Unhand me Onion!" Bodhi demanded, grabbing at Kindaichi's wrists.
From there it devolved into a little scrap that nobody was trying to separate. Yahaba was too busy looking at all of the cute managers, Mad Dog was too busy laughing his ass off, Kunimi was halfway to Neverland, and Shinji, bless his tiny heart, tried with all his might to separate the two but got blown away in the process of trying to separate two of the tallest players on the team.
Coach Irihata who had been trying to ignore the commotion happening just paces away, sighed into his hands and was about to get up and go sort the situation out, but before he could a gentle hand was placed on his shoulder.
With a grin as sweet as honey, Hana made herself known. "Don't worry coach, I'll handle it!" She said cheerfully.
As she walked slowly toward her victims, a bead of sweat ran down Coach Irihata's brow as he noticed the aura surrounding the beautiful smiling girl.
It was one from hell, a demonic aura grew around her as she made her way over. Once she was upon her targets, she made herself known. Barely above a whisper, she got their attention.
"If you know what's good for you, you'll knock this off, Bodhi dear, drop Kindaichi-kun," she said daintily. But Bodhi, who had heard this tone of voice before from two different women in his life did the most sensible things possible and dropped his friend and quickly went to his knees, sitting before his sensei.
"Yes Ma'am, I apologize for my rudeness. It won't happen again!" Bodhi pleaded, head bowing as he finished. The boys around him were shocked at what had just happened, nobody had been able to tame the Maverick in such a way before.
Kindaichi who had just got back up, was glaring at Bodhi for being tossed to the ground like a sack of potatoes and decided he would retaliate on the unsuspecting kneeling Bodhi. As he made his move though, the aura that had been solely focused on Bodhi shifted to him and he shivered at the power behind it.
"Kindaichi-kun, please tell me you aren't going to do what I think you're about to do? It would be in your best interest if didn't," Hana said sweetly. And before he knew it, Kindaichi was kneeling beside Bodhi, fearing for his life if he didn't do the same.
"Yes Ma'am! I'll strive to be better!" Kindaichi promised.
"Kunimi-kun, wake up now. Or I'll divulge your secret to the team," Hana stated, getting the sleepy boy to suddenly be in a position beside Kindaichi.
"Yes Ma'am!" Kunimi easily replied, awake as if he hadn't been sleeping for the past 15 minutes.
"Good! Now if you boys do something like this again, do know there will be punishments! To every one as well! Win as a team and lose as a team, right?" Hana once again said sweetly, but this time her eyes opened from her closed-eyed smile, and it promised unimaginable pain.
"Bodhi! I'm sending you in for Hanamaki. He landed awkwardly after a collision with Matsukawa," Coach Irihata said.
Bodhi hearing his name, stood up like he hadn't just prostrated himself to a girl barely above 5'0". "Yessir!"
Bodhi did a quick warm-up, but all things considered, he had been raring to go since this morning and his engine to be frank with you, was always running. He high-fived Maki as he made his way over and Bodhi joined the others on the court, he now took in Karasuno fully for the first time and quickly he felt his blood start to heat up.
Bodhi was eager to play against them.
Karasuno who noticed Bodhi enter the court all felt his gaze sweep over them, one of a predator observing his prey. The only one unaffected by the gaze was the bouncing boy in orange. Stating his challenge for all who can hear!
"Mavy! I'm Karasuno's Guardian deity and I swear I'll stop your advancements!" Nishinoya yelled proudly. And Karasuno was with him up until the last part of his declaration.
"Advancements? The hell you talkin' 'bout?" Bodhi asked confusedly.
"Lady Kiyoko is ours you hear that!" Nishinoya declared. "You will not take away our Goddess!"
"…"
"That's right Nishinoya! The blonde-haired pretty boy ain't gonna take away our Kiyoko!" Tanaka joined in, joining his fellow defender in guarding Kiyoko's heart from the beast that is the Maverick.
Bodhi could only stare in disbelief at what he was hearing. Were they seriously declaring themselves as Kiyoko's stalwart defenders? What the hell is with them?
Bodhi who was about to call them out for doing something so ridiculous, couldn't as Mizoguchi blew his whistle signalling the continuation of the game.
With a sigh, Bodhi spoke. "Fine, live with this delusion you've convinced yourselves of. We will still win."
It turned out it was Bodhi's turn to serve as he was tossed the ball by Naoki. Going through his regular service routine, he chose to do a simple serve to gauge the quality of Karasuno's receives since he hadn't really been paying attention to the match all that much.
The ball was sent over the net at a decent speed and Daich easily picked it up, sending an A-pass to Suga who was at the front middle. Taking in his options, he made a choice and went with his bread and butter.
Asahi made his approach and leapt up high, only as he was about to make contact, a sudden wall of shadow made itself known. Led by Matsukawa who was trying to make up for his miscommunication, causing Maki to land awkwardly and be taken out of the game, did something he normally wouldn't do as he was never really good at it.
The two-man block of Matsukawa and Iwaizumi met Asahi head on and Asahi who saw a glowing pathway lighten up swung his arm with all his might and thinking the ball was going to go through silently cheered in his head.
Only for the ball to meet the palm of Matsukawa and be sent straight back to Karasuno's side. Nishinoya made a valiant attempt to make a pancake save but was too slow.
Matsukawa who made a name for himself as being a blocker of annoyance and one to get in the head of his opponents, did a kill block. Luring the Asahi into a false sense of victory and quickly shutting the pathway down killed his spike.
Matsukawa who had been working on this since Bodhi joined the team felt great as the fruits of his labour were starting to pay off.
~Flashback~
"Hey Matsu, why do you always go for soft blocks or ones that narrow down the spiker's options?" Bodhi asked his senior.
"Mmm? Oh, that's because it's what I do best, I take great pleasure in getting into the minds of the spikers and limiting their options, making it easier for our receivers to dig it up," Matsukawa explained.
"Yeah, I get that mate, but why? You definitely have the skill to do more kill blocks, and if anything the high IQ you have for the game would make it much easier for you to kill them, no?" Bodhi genuinely stated.
Amongst the middle blockers on Aoba Johsai, Bodhi could confidently say Matsukawa was the best but for whatever reason he felt he was limiting himself. Mentally he was limiting himself to what he could do.
"You'd be an even bigger pain in the ass if you got it going…tsk! We definitely have to do it now!" Bodhi declared. Dragging Matsukawa back to the court to practice his kill blocks. Bodhi just wanted to play against a stronger blocker but for Matsukawa, it was like a glass shattering in his mind.
Thinking on it some more, having played against Ushiwaka for so many years he guess he truly did limit himself. For what use was a block that just got blown through every time making the ball go of course and making it harder for the receivers to pick up. Matsukawa had decided back then to try and limit the areas where Ushiwaka could spike, potentially giving his receivers a greater chance to receive them, but the power was always too much. But it was better having a straight line of sight no.
No?
That was when Matsukawa's blocking started to make massive improvements. The way he cerebrally played the game only enhanced his kill blocks and playing against a switch hitter at Bodhi's level of skill only helped him more. His reaction time improved, his extra training in being explosive in his jumps improved his block height and he could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The light of him stopping a Ushiwaka spike…
He never thought he could.
Bodhi truly was an unpredictable guy.
~End of Flashback~
"Nice~ let's do it again yeah?" Bodhi said, asking for a high five from Matsukawa.
"Yeah, you got it!" Slamming his hand into Bodhi's both made their way back to their positions and Bodhi got ready to serve again.
Matsukawa would be ready when they faced him again. He would no doubt stop the Super Ace: Ushijima Wakatoshi.
"*Fwee* Service!"
Author Note:
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I have survived! Goddamn does having strep throat suck. I can safely say I have recovered and haven't coughed up blood in 3 days now. What a great time to be ALIVE!
So with my health improvement we will be back to you regularly scheduled programming of Tuesday and Friday for uploads hope that's chill for you all. I believe I've done well on keeping it consistent so far. Barring any health shenanigans.
Also if you guys are interested in Pokémon at all I'm having a go at that. Go check it out if you want. I won't be heartbroken if you don't…
I really won't be…
Nah I'll live. It is a bit dark though ain't gonna lie and it'll probably be a weekly/biweekly update kinda thing. This one takes priority.
Anyhow, checkin out homies!
-Daedalus19
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