"Nice serve!" Komi exclaimed as Konica received. Akaashi tossed it. Bokuto went up to spike however instead it was spiked by Konoha.

"A point to Bokuto's team!" Watari yelled, Bokuto jumped up high.

"Yayyy!" He exclaimed as he pumped his fists. Akaashi looked at him boredly.

"We haven't won the game yet," he said.

"I know! I know!" Bokuto exclaimed as he got ready for the next serve.

Seconds turned to minutes and minutes turned to hours as the Fukorodanj volleyball team continued to play.

Akaashi could see Bokuto was into the game. Usually childish, he looked focus.

"Like an owl catching it's prey," Akaashi remarked. Even after the others had gone, he and Bokuto continued to practise a little more. Akaashi had been fortunate enough to see Bokuto's straight spike improve. Though he never admitted it, he looked up to the third year. The sheer amount of perseverance and drive Bokuto had was impressive. He always liked to push himself to the limits Yet, he was anxious. What is Bokuto was to push himself too hard one day?

Akaashi could see his senior get more and more tired. He had been even more on form than usual because Saori and some of the loner members of the cheerleading team has come to watch, Just as he was about to say something, Bokuto spoke up.

"Let's cowl it a day," Bokuto said. He watched Akaashi stare at him clearly unimpressed with his owl puns.

"I'm tired okay, Owlkaashi!" Bokuto continued. He heard Akaashi groan as the second year started to tidy up.

Soon, Bokuto and Akaashi we're walking in the streets. They had been so into practising, they had not even realised how dark it had gotten. Bokuto had a few miscalls from his mother and he called her back reassuring her he had jot been kidnapped or held hostage. Why had he let his mother watched 'Taken'?.

Today, Akaashi's bus came a long quickly so there was no time for Akaashi to scold Bokuto as they waited at the bus stop.

Bokuto waved goodbye a stone doors shut and bus sped off. Again, he was alone, He was right next to a tennis centre and even form outside he could hear the thud sky the ball on the ground. He felt that he was not practising enough? What if he was the most ill prepare player at the volleyball tournament? Bokuto shook his head. He was part of such a fabulous - or should he saw fabowlous team. Bokuto laughed to himself and shook his head but the self doubt was unavoidable. He had heard stories of Ushijima who rose up early to practise and went to be d,ate after practising.e the only time Bokuto did this was just before nationals. Maybe, if he had the same attitude as Ushijima, he might be in the to-

"What are you thinking?"

Bokuto lightened up at the sound of the familiar voice. It was Kuroo. Kuroo turned his head and the resemblance to a cat was even more uncanny. They were both ta the entrance of the apartment complex.

"Volleyball!" Bokuto exclaimed. Kuroo smiled at his friend and hit him on his friend.

"Ow," Bokuto exclaimed holding his heart in a tech Tati last manner.

"I hit your head," Kuroo pointed out. Bokuto huffed.

Bokuto pushed himself into his house. His mum had made him a delicious dinner.

"Koutarou, I was worried sick!" His mother exclaimed.

"Sorry," Bokuto said sheepishly as he gulped done his dinner and the seconds his mother insisted on.

In his room, Bokuto sat on his desk waiting for his computer to turn on. Contrary to popular belief, his screensaver was not a photo of owls but a photo of him and his mother where he looked a lot like one.

Bokuto typed volleyball into the computer screen but after second thoughts replaced 'volley' with 'foot'. He was immediately met with the date of certain fixtures and the latest football news. Still, volleyball news would excite him more. He typed 'Japan' next to 'football' and pressed the Wikipedia article.

He was impressed especially by the women's team. They had won the FIFA (Bokuto had to se4ch it up and realised it was the football equivalent of the FIVB) World Cup in 2011 and wee the runners up in 2015. Maybe, football was much bigger than he had initially thought. He wondered how big it was in Tokyo. They had a 'All Japan High School Football Tournament' and Tokyo was the 6th most successful, prefecture with 6 wins for the male team. He scrolled down and saw newspaper articles about the previous year's championship. He was curious as to how Itachiyama Academy fared but is no mention of either team - at least the boy's team which was unsurprising considering the money the school put into volleyball compared the other sports. He finally found an article with the outcomes. Itachiyama had qualified as one of the forty eight schools however had not gone pats the first stage. Bokuto looked blankly at the screen. Football tournaments worked a lot more differently to volleyball tournaments. In a way, Bokuto preferred the fact that even if you lost a magic, there was still an opportunity to go to the next stage in football. Bokuto leant back in his so hair and stretched his limbs yawning as the fatigue overcame him. He scrolled down further in the article and realised that this year's matches would be played about now. Bokuto yawned.

"Maybe, football is not that bad after all," he thought to himself