A/N: Hello, readers! Welcome to the last chapter of the training arc! Enjoy!

edited on september 3rd, 2021 @ 4:40am

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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT - ABOVE

THROUGHOUT THE GAME, Bokuto was different. He didn't do any spikes and always had a blank look on his face, it was amusing for Hideaki. He tried to save the incoming volleyball, but was too slow as Fukurōdani gained a point.

It went on like this for a few more times, and Fukurōdani gets another point. Hideaki sighed and looked at the scoreboard.

Karasuno

22

Fukurōdani

22

"A tie, eh?" Hideaki thought, humming in thought. He watched as the ball gets saved and some of the Fukurōdani players get ready to run, making Hideaki think what Akaashi might do. Kageyama who was going to block was most likely wondering the same thing. However, Hideaki widened his eyes when Akaashi didn't toss to anyone and performed a setter dump, gaining a point for his team.

"I probably should've saw that coming..." Hideaki mumbled, as Tsukishima and Kageyama looked annoyed by this. They continued with the game as Hideaki spiked the ball down but the libero receives it, the ball goes up and Hideaki kept his eyes trained on it.

The ball gets spiked as Tanaka tried to save it, but it bounced off his arms, making the second-year hiss a little.

"Damn it. They're at match point now." Hideaki thinks to himself as the game continued. He smirked when Kageyama and Tsukishima blocked the volleyball and they get a point.

"Whoa!" Konoha exclaimed, surprised by the block.

"Totally shut out!" Sugawara, Hinata and Yamaguchi exclaimed from the sidelines. It was now Hideaki's turn to serve as he concentrated, the ball goes over the net but got saved as Akaashi praised the receive and got into position to set.

He noticed that Bokuto was getting restless, as he kept giving begging glances to Akaashi, Hideaki narrowed his eyes, already knowing who Akaashi was going to set too. "Damn... This is going to hurt my arms real bad, I just know it." He thought.

Hideaki watched as Akaashi tossed the ball, Tsukishima and Kageyama watched it and both widened their eyes in realization as they follow the ball, as Hideaki saw Bokuto charging forward, slamming down the volleyball powerfully. Hideaki dived down to save it, however it hits his arms instead and bounces back on his team's side of the court. He winced at the pain.

TWEEEET!

Everyone was panting as the game ended with Fukurōdani winning. Hideaki sighed and rubbed his arms as they were sore and turning red. "Well, I did give myself a heads up." He noted.

He looked back to the opposing team to see Akaashi nod over to his three teammates who nod back and turn to Bokuto with smiles on their faces.

"Whoo! Ace!"

"That was awesome!"

"In the end, it just has to be the ace!"

"Birds of prey!"

"Your hair's like a great horned owl!"

Hideaki sweat dropped at the last comment before he heard Bokuto chuckle as it turned into loud laughter with a large grin on his face. "In the end, I am the strongest!" Bokuto announced as he lifted his arms up, his teammates doing the same, as Akaashi just walked away.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

"Hey, hey, hey..."

Hideaki chuckled at the team before turning to his own as he looked at them with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry! That last serve... I chickened out and hit a serve that was just asking them to attack us." Hideaki apologized as everyone blinked at their ace.

Ukai walked over as he stared at Hideaki. "If you can figure that out on your own, you're well off." Ukai assured as everyone turned to their coach. "In moments like that, how well you can stay offensive will determine whether or not you come out on top. Nobody wants to end the game on their own mistake." He added as everyone listened. Hideaki was standing next to Kageyama who turned to Hinata.

"He must be talking about you."

"Shut up."

Hideaki snickered at his two juniors. "But nobody will blame you for hitting a serve that was meant to steal the win." Ukai smirked as Hideaki saw Yamaguchi look up in interest. "But well, in the end, it was a spectacular losing streak. But one thing is for certain... your offense will work against the top teams in the country!" Ukai informed as everyone stayed silent.

"Right now, your serves and combinations can't match the other teams. That is to be expected because you started way after they did. But you shouldn't stop there. You mustn't think that this is the limit of your power. When you mix colors, they become muddled and dirty, right? But once you finish mixing, you get the color black, which won't be overtaken by any other. Please make our team's color black, which fits us crows." Takeda ranted as Hideaki saw Kageyama and Hinata tilt their heads to the side in confusion.

"W-Was my metaphor too difficult to understand?"

"No! Thank you very much!"

"All right, our last penalty of the training camp! One lap, flying!"

"Right!"

Sugawara walked up to Daichi, Asahi and Hideaki. "As soon as we get back, we have the first spring tournament prelims." Sugawara stated.

"Yeah. If we're going to come here again, it'll be after that." Daichi agreed. "I wonder if it'll be cooler by then."

Hideaki noticed that Asahi began shaking as he sighed to himself.

"There'll still be some lingering summer heat."

"What's wrong, Suga?"

"If we don't make it through, the four of us won't be able to come back." Asahi mumbled.

"There it is! Negative goatee!" Sugawara shrieked.

"What the..."

"Of course we're all coming back, dumbass." Daichi assured.

"You're right. Sorry."

"Negativity, begone!" Sugawara shouted as he karate chopped Asahi's side as Asahi grabbed his side.

"Actually, you sounded like Kageyama just now." Asahi pointed out.

"Dumbass! Hinata, you dumbass!" Daichi acted like how Kageyama was when he gets mad at Hinata.

"Do it again!"

"You sound just like him!"

Hideaki sweat dropped at the three. "Even my own teammates are a bunch of idiots. I thought I only had to deal with Tōru." He thought.

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Once every team was done with their matches, it was finally time for the barbecue.

"All right, meat!"

"I'm starving!"

Hidekai hummed in thought, wondering if he should tell Daichi and the other third-years about him dating Oikawa.

"Hey, Daichi."

"Hmm?"

"Remember when I mentioned I had a boyfriend that doesn't attend Karasuno?"

"Yeah. Speaking of which, you never said which school he went to." Daichi replied. "I would like to meet him."

"You already did."

"Huh?"

"I'm dating Oikawa Tōru." Hideaki admitted, leaving both Daichi and Asahi in shock. "I didn't want to tell the team because everyone hates his guts."

"He wants to make it to nationals so bad, and I want us to be able to go as well. I'm just afraid of how the tournament is gonna be once we pass through the preliminaries." Hideaki continued. "I really love him, Daichi. I'm afraid he wouldn't want to be with me anymore if we defeat him."

"If he really loves you, he wouldn't do that to you." Daichi tried to reassure his friend as Asahi nodded in agreement.

"Thanks, Daichi."

"Ahem."

Hideaki and Daichi turned and walked over to see the coaches lined up and looking at them. "Thank you for all the hard work in this one-week training camp, folks! The empty stomach is what tasty food smiles at." Nekomata spoke as everyone's stomach was growling, as most were also drooling.

"Let your muscles repair to your heart's content."

Hideaki jumped when Hinata and Kageyama were shaking in excitement as they eyed down the meat in front of us, everyone had their plates and forks out as Hideaki stood next to Sugawara and Daichi.

"Thanks for the food!"

Hideaki managed to grab some meat before anyone else could. It was delicious. As he was eating, he saw that Kageyama was wolfing down the food before he started to cough and slightly choke on his food, Akaashi who was behind him saw this and tensed up a little before as he quickly handed Kageyama some water.

Hideaki brought out his phone and scrolled through his unread messages which were mostly from Oikawa and Iwaizumi asking how the training camp was going. He replied to both of them before continuing on eating.

Hideaki looked around and smirked when he saw Bokuto eyeing down the meat near Kai and Kuroo, who were talking. Hideaki laughed as Bokuto literally swiped the meat off the grill and ate it, as Kuroo growled and pulled Bokuto back over to scold him.

"Hey! Bokuto, damn you! Don't you be stealing it from the side, you bastard!"

Hideaki chuckled and walked around, since the meat from his grill was already gone and he wanted to have some more. "Oi, Izuki!" Kuroo called out as the black haired male sighed as he continued to hold Bokuto in place. "Want some meat? Hurry before this airhead steals it all."

He walked on over and saw Bokuto pouting at him, as he eyed the food on the black haired male's plate as Hideaki took what he needed.

Hideaki walked away and headed for Kenma. He was on his phone, not eating anything. "Want some?" He asked. Kenma eyed the food before taking a piece of meat.

"Thanks." He said as Hideaki nodded and leaned up against the wall.

Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were behind them, but Hideaki paid no mind as he made small talk with Kenma.

"Tsukishima!" Hideaki heard Daichi announce, making him look over to see his friend smiling.

"You need to eat more!"

"No, I can't eat that much."

Hideaki watched as Kuroo walked over as well, with his usual smirk. Kenma slightly tensed beside him.

"Come on, eat some veggies, too." Kuroo smirked as he sees Hideaki and Kenma, but his eyes were fixed on Kenma as he pointed his finger at the setter.

"You too, Kenma, damn you!"

Kenma jumped and shook his head, as he hid behind Hideaki, making him sweat drop. "Stop hiding behind darlin'!" Kuroo exclaimed.

"Eat some rice!" Daichi announced to Tsukishima as Hideaki saw Bokuto slide in with some tongs.

"You mean meat! Eat some meat, Tsukki! Or you won't be able to grow big!" Bokuto announced.

Bokuto, Kuroo and Daichi start to bicker at Kenma and Tsukishima. Yamaguchi and Hideaki were watching from the sides in amusement. He had already eaten everything off his plate and he was already full.

"Izuki, eat some more!" Bokuto exclaimed as he tried to feed him, but he dodged as Kuroo then tried to feed Kenma who continued to hide behind the gray haired male as he used him as a shield. They both moved as they dodged both Bokuto and Kuroo.

"Stop it, Bokuto! I can't eat anymore!" Hideaki screeched as Hinata joined them. Hideaki blocked out what they were saying.

"You're in the nation's top five? That's awesome!"

"Right? Right?"

Bokuto laughed in pride as Hinata stared at the ace in amazement. Kuroo just grinned. "But Ushiwaka from your region is in the top three." Kuroo stated making Hinata turn his attention to Kuroo as Bokuto looked irked.

"Top three?" Hinata gasped out.

"Hey! You totally upstage me when you say things like that!"

"Three means there's two more?"

Hideaki turned to Lev who overheard them as he sighed. "Ushiwaka from the Tohoku region, Kiryu from the Kyushu region, and Sakusa from the Kanto region. Those are the three strongest aces at the national high school level this year." He said, as he only knew this due to Oikawa constantly talking about it.

"One of those three is in Miyagi, of all places." Tsukishima commented as Bokuto snapped as he made a claw hand gesture.

"Hey, Tsukki! You practiced a ton against my spikes! I won't allow you to be intimidated by Ushiwaka!" Bokuto announced.

Tsukishima huffed. "Could you please not call me Tsukki?" He begged as Hideaki grinned in mischief.

"Oh? You don't seem to have a problem with it when Yamaguchi calls you that." He teased as Tsukishima gave his senior an annoyed look.

"Besides, "top three aces" doesn't necessarily mean they're on the top three teams, you know?" Kuroo assured.

"Yeah! Yeah!"

"Though Itachiyama where Sakusa plays is the top pick to win nationals."

"Then..."

Kuroo and Hideaki looked down to see Hinata and Lev looking at them. "...if we beat them, we'll be number one!" The two spoke in unison, making Hideaki blink at them before snickering.

"Those two literally share the same brain cell." He thought.

"You talk big, for being the top two at sucking." Kuroo insulted the duo playfully as the duo in front of them seemed defeated and pouted at Kuroo.

"Hinata must be number one."

"Kenma said that my serves and receives were better!"

"D' oh!"

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It was now sunset as everyone was chatting with the food gone, apart from some watermelons. Kuroo and Bokuto were crowding Tsukishima as Hideaki was talking with Bokuto.

Once they all helped pack up, it was time for Karasuno to leave Tokyo. Hideaki followed his teammates who each had their bags as they walked to the bus.

"I hate being weak, but..."

"Huh?"

"The fact that there are lots of people up above me... makes me feel so excited!"

The rest of Karasuno and Hideaki stare at Hinata with either blank looks or small smiles. When they made it out to the front or Shinzen High School, the other teams bid them goodbye.

"We'll see ya next time." Kuroo said.

"Yeah, see you next time." Daichi smiled back.

"Oh, and darlin! Hurry up and join my team already!"

"Don't be trying to steal our ace, Kuroo!"

"You got plenty of people on your team!"

"So, do you!"

Hideaki sighed at the comments Kuroo and Sugawara threw at each other as he gave everyone a wave of goodbye before following his team to the bus.

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When Hideaki went home last night, his younger brother had called him. They chatted for about an hour until he decided to let him sleep. Shun also wished him good luck for the preliminaries and promised that he will come to Miyagi with Seirin if Karasuno makes it to the finals. After that, he slept until morning.

They were all back in school, Hideaki didn't like how he had to get up early to walk to Karasuno again, since he was so used to sleeping in at the training camp. He eventually got through the day and headed on over to the gymnasium where his teammates were already at. Once they got changed in their gym clothes, Takeda was telling them about the preliminaries that was happening the next day.

"If we win twice in tomorrow's preliminaries, we'll go to the qualifiers in October to decide the representative team. On top of the eight schools that win the first round of preliminaries, eight powerhouse schools will join for October's representative deciding tournament." Takeda explained as he looks back at the team.

"We only play two games in the first round of preliminaries?" Hinata asked in confusion.

"Since we got the top 16 in the Inter-High preliminaries, we got a bye for the first round." Sugawara explained to Hinata who gasped in amazement.

"Wow! We're awesome!"

Soon Daichi told them to stretch before they could practice which they formed a circle and copied his movements.

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Everyone was practicing their serves with Nishinoya, Narita, and Ennoshita receiving them. Hideaki watched as Yamaguchi did his serve as he could tell he was trying to aim it at Nishinoya but sadly had the ball had a mind of its own as Nishinoya easily saved it, making Yamaguchi look at little defeated.

"Yamaguchi, nice serve! It was hard to get!"

"Oh, right..."

Hideaki sweat dropped at Nishinoya. "But you totally got it, though." He thought, shaking his head and continued to do his own serves.

After practice, Hideaki decided to visit Oikawa since it's been a week since he saw him. He entered Oikawa's house using his key.

"Aki-chan!"

Hideaki stumbled backwards as his boyfriend hugged him. "Gosh, Tōru. I've only been gone a week." He chuckled.

"But it was so boring without you! All Iwa-chan did was yell at me."

"Knowing you, you probably deserved it."

"Hey!"

Hideaki smiled before wrapping his arms around Oikawa. "Aki-chan, you okay?" He asked.

"I'm afraid of this coming tournament." Hideaki said truthfully. "When your team defeated Karasuno, I wasn't mad. But I know how you are Tōru. You and Hajime have wanted to go to nationals for so long and I just—"

Oikawa interrupted Hideaki's rant by kissing him. "Didn't I already tell you I won't let volleyball get in the way of our relationship? I'll be upset yes, but not upset to break up with you." He informed.

"You better not, Tōru. If you break up with me because of a lost I'm totally kicking your ass."

"Who says you're going to win? Karasuno isn't the only one who has been training, you know."

"Karasuno has evolved since you last played against us. Do you know how many penalties I had to go through, Tōru?!"

"Ouch, Aki-chan! Not even Iwa-chan hits me that hard!"

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A/N: Whoo! We are finally getting into the preliminaries! Let me know if there's any mistakes! Thanks for reading!