A/N: Hello, readers! Another chapter is here! Enjoy!

unedited

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CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE - THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGERS

Inarizaki was currently in the lead with 14 points while Karasuno had 7. Atsumu was up to serve as he brought his hand down, causing Inarizaki's band to stop playing. The whistle blew and Atsumu did a jump floater.

"Nishinoya!" Daichi called out as Nishinoya tried to save it, but failed as the ball touched the court behind him.

"All right!" Atsumu cheered.

"I knew it..." Shimada muttered.

"Yeah... Miya Atsumu has been targeting Nishinoya ever since the second set. It looks like all the servers are deliberately trying to avoid Nishinoya. This is probably Nishinoya's first time... He's going through the humiliation of being targeted." Takinoue said.

TWEEEEET!

"Chikara. Could you tape me up? I suck at it." Nishinoya asked Ennoshita.

"Sure." Ennoshita replied.

"Did you sprain your finger? Are you okay?" Tanaka questioned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Nishinoya answered.

"Inarizaki #7's serve is intense." Mika commented.

"Yeah. And he's going after the libero, who can only defend." Daisho agreed.

"Oh?" Mika turned to him.

"That libero's really good and full of energy. If they crush him, the team's in trouble." Daisho elaborated.

"Really?"

"'There's no way we can pick up balls that even our libero can't get...' That's probably what Miya Atsumu is thinking, so he's putting pressure on them that way."

TWEEEEET!

Nishinoya pounded his now taped fists together. "All right!" He cheered.

Nishinoya stops as he looks towards Atsumu, who stops as well and smirks at him. Atsumu was up to serve again.

"Four steps... So it's going to be a jump floater." Daichi thought as Nishinoya prepared himself. The whistle then blew.

Atsumu did his jump floater, aiming it straight at Nishinoya who tries to receive it but it ends up falling to the ground. Atsumu raised his fist in the air.

"Miya Atsumu... manages to get two service aces against their libero!"

"Nice serve, Atsumu! Nice serve, Atsumu! Push it, push it, Atsumu! One more time!"

Nishinoya closes his eyes as he exhales. "It totally looked like he got that." Lev commented, eating a banana.

"Its path seemed the change right by his hands." Shibayama said. "When you're digging the ball, the surface that the ball can hit is narrow. If the point where it hits is just a bit off, the ball goes a weird way."

"Yeah, totally!" Lev agreed.

"Nishinoya missing two serve receives in a row is just... I've never seen him do that." Shimada stated.

"Volleyball isn't a sport where you can finish things off on your own. If you can't get the first receive up, nothing's gonna start." Daisho said as him and Mika walked down the steps and they sat down. "That's why the emotional damage from missing a serve receive is huge. Not to mention, if the libero, who's in charge of defense, can't defend, there's no point in him being on the court."

"I can't count how many times Nishinoya's cheered me up." Hideaki thinks to himself.

"Because you have me guarding your backs."

"What am I supposed to say to him?" Hideaki wondered.

"Noya-san— Whoa!" Tanaka was caught off guard when Nishinoya started doing push-ups.

"What's he doing?"

"The hell?"

Nishnoya soon stood back up as he inhaled. Atsumu chuckled. "That guy's the best." He commented.

TWEEEET!

Atsumu did his jump float serve, aiming it right for Nishinoya again who quickly dives down and receives it.

"Yes!" Shimada cheered.

"Follow up!" Takinoue shouted.

"Cover!" Daichi said.

"That was a weak receive!" Nishinoya exclaimed.

"Hideaki-san!" Tanaka called out, receiving the ball over towards the ace.

Hideaki charged forward and jumped up as Osamu and Suna jumped up to block him.

"I'm not gonna be able to hit it that hard." Hideaki thought as Atsumu saved the ball.

"He went for the setter!"

"The first to touch the ball is Miya Atsumu!"

"At the same time, Miya Osamu is right under the ball!"

Osamu sets the ball towards Suna, who jumps up to spike. "He's not even a setter and he pulled off a C-pass?! On a counter, too!" Daisho thought in shock.

"He's covering for his twin." Sugawara noted as Tsukishima jumped up to block.

"That's within expectations." Tsukishima thought.

Both Atsumu and Osamu widened their eyes. "Got him." Lev thinks to himself.

The ball went straight past Tsukishima and landed in front of Tanaka as Tsukishima looked back.

"The one who just got the ball up wasn't the setter. It was Miya Osamu!"

"Nice kill." Osamu praised, giving Suna a high five.

"Nice toss."

"What was that just now?" Lev questioned. "He totally had that block."

"Don't worry. You're a great blocker." Suna told Tsukishima before walking away.

"Jackass." Tsukishima mumbled.

Inarizaki now had 17 points while Karasuno still had 7.

"They got another one."

"What's up with Suna-kun? He wasn't standing out much on offense at first, but is he getting into his groove?"

"Rintaro starts off slow. And I'll have you know... He knows how to control the opposing team's blockers. Rintaro's weapon is his wide contact point from side to side. If a normal guy's range is about this much, Rintaro's range is about this much. When he spikes, he doesn't just use his arm or his shoulder. He uses his whole upper body. His core. Since he uses his whole upper body, his spikes stay powerful. It's completely different from just lightly tapping on the ball."

"I don't really get it... But basically, when he's about to get blocked, he somehow gets through the block. It's happened a few times."

"Oh, and what about him controlling the blockers?"

"Just watch."

Atsumu was up to serve again as Nishinoya released another breath. The whistle blew as Atsumu did a jump serve and the ball headed straight for Nishinoya, causing him to move aside.

"Out!" Nishinoya shouted as Atsumu groaned. "Damn it!"

"All right! Hideaki, get a nice serve in!"

"Why are you all sad that I messed up?"

"Fire it up, fire it up, Karasuno! Get it, get it, Karasuno!"

The whistle blew as Hideaki did his jump serve in which Aran crouched down to receive it but it landed on the court.

"Yes!" Hideaki cheered.

"That was a powerful service ace!"

"Sorry."

"Worry about next time."

"Karasuno hasn't been doing their best with serves in the second set, so hopefully they can turn things around here."

The whistle blew as Hideaki did his jump serve once again as Aran crouched down to save it. The ball soon went flying towards Atsumu.

Tsukishima moved away from his place beside Kageyama to block Suna. "Go! Block that ball, Tsukki!" Lev cheered. Kageyama soon joined Tsukishima in blocking.

"Two blockers!"

"Well done." Suna thinks to himself as he twisted his body and Daichi tried to receive the ball, only for it to land on the court.

"Nice kill, Rintaro! Yes, yes, Rintaro! One more time!"

"The better the blockers are, the easier it is for Suna to control them." Atsumu thinks to himself.

"Well, did you see that?"

"Huh? Wha?"

Hideaki glanced over at the scoreboard and released a breath.

Inarizaki

18

Karasuno

09

"Did you figure it out?" Kenma asked as Kuroo glanced over, who only nodded.

"Their #10 looked totally ready to hit a cross shot. Tsukki immediately reacted to that and tried to block him off, and Kageyama also immediately jumped in to support him. But... His approach and the way his body's facing are both feints. He lures the blockers into thinking he's going to do a cross shot, then does the opposite midair. And he does this without losing any power to his spikes." Kuroo replied.

"Middle blockers' quicks usually end up more compact than other attacks. They're usually quick enough to get through the blockers. But... Rintaro can use his quick to go head to head against the blockers once the toss goes up."

"Man, nationals are scary." Kuroo commented.

"We just need to get them off their game so they can't use their quicks! We need to go all out with our serves and spikes!" Daichi informed.

"Yeah!"

TWEEEEET!

Ginjima was up to serve. He threw the ball into the air and did his jump serve. "Nishinoya!" Daichi called out.

Nishinoya dived down and saved the ball, making it go back into the air. "Nice receive!" Daichi complimented.

"Another powerful serve!"

"The fact that he managed to get it up is amazing, too."

Kageyama sets the ball towards Tsukishima, who is blocked by Aran and Suna.

"One touch! Cover!"

Osamu rushes over and quickly receives the ball. "Left!" Atsumu shouted, tossing the ball in the air.

Tsukishima, Tanaka, and Kageyama all got ready to block.

"Three blockers!"

Tsukishima, Tanaka, and Kageyama all jumped up to block Aran as the ball went flying into the air.

"That was an intense spike from Ojiro Aran! The ball is right above the net!"

Kageyama tosses the ball over towards Inarizaki's side of the net.

"Kageyama pushes it in!"

"Akagi!"

Osamu manages to cover for Akagi. "Left!" He called out as Aran rushed forward.

"Here comes Ojiro Aran from the left again!"

"Stop him!" Yamaguchi, Hinata, and Sugawara shouted in unison.

"No slacking!" Tanaka thought as him, Tsukishima, and Kageyama jumped up once more to block Aran.

"Three blockers!"

Aran slams the ball as it hits Hideaki, who barely received it.

"That spike got past the three blockers and packed a punch!"

"It might've gone above the block. That was high! But now, Karasuno has a chance to fight back, and—"

The announcers sentence was cut off as Aran spiked the ball down and the whistle blew.

"Yeah!" Aran cheered.

"Ojiro Aran slams it into their court! He managed to get three spikes over in a less-than-ideal situation. He truly tore through for that point!"

"Nice kill, Aran! Jump, jump, Aran! One more time!"

Takeda stood up to call for a timeout. "Not yet, Sensei." Ukai told him. "That was clearly our mistake. Our boys know that. More importantly, we don't want to let Ojiro Aran rest for even 30 seconds right now."

"Sheesh. He reminds me too much of Ushiwaka." Hideaki thinks to himself.

TWEEEEET!

Ginjima served again and Asahi received it. "Sorry, follow!" He shouted.

"Tanaka-san!" Kageyama called out, tossing the ball over towards the second year, who ran forward and spiked the ball down.

"Yeah!" Tanaka cheered.

"Tanaka Ryunosuke from Karasuno High School!"

"Good job, Tanaka!" Sugawara praised.

"He's breaking through Inarizaki's obvious advantage with that one."

"Tanaka-san, nice kill!" Hinata cheered. Sugawara soon swapped with Tsukishima.

"And now, Karasuno High School is going to bring in their third-year Sugawara."

"I'll get revenge for Nishinoya." Sugawara sent a thumbs up.

"I'm not dead!" Nishinoya exclaimed in irritation.

"Sugawara-san's going in to replace Tsukishima. Which probably means that Kinoshita won't be serving." Ennoshita thought as he glanced over at Kinoshita, who had a concentrated look.

"That was my 25th service ace in my visual training." Kinoshita noted.

"Hey! We took the first set, but you guys aren't actually thinking you can let them have the second set, are you?" Sugawara asked. "We're winning this thing at 2-0!"

"Yeah!"

All of Inarizaki had their eyes on Sugawara.

"I want you to put pressure on Ojiro Aran as much as possible. With blocks, and of course, serves. I definitely won't complain if you get service aces off of him, but the ideal is to get him to fall to one knee." Ukai explained.

Sugawara was up to serve. "Even if I'm only on the court for twenty, ten... Even five seconds..." He thought as the whistle blew. "I'm going to annoy the hell out of Inarizaki!"

Sugawara serves the ball and Aran saves it.

"That was a rather risky shot for Karasuno's Sugawara!"

"Osamu!"

Osamu spikes the ball as Sugawara quickly rushed over to save it before it touched the court and Hideaki covered for him.

"Kageyama, get the last!"

Kageyama tosses the ball over in which Aran saves it.

"Left!"

"Yeah, yeah." Atsumu said, tossing the ball in the air. "It's a bit low..."

Aran jumped up as Kageyama and Tanaka jumped up to block him. Aran spikes it, causing it to fall to the court.

"Nice kill, Aran! Nice kill, Aran! Jump, jump, Aran! One more time!"

Sugawara had an irritated look plastered on his face. "Aran, calm down!" Kurosu called out.

"Right!" Aran said.

TWEEEET!

"This time Inarizaki is using their pinch server. The first-year, Riseki Heisuke."

"I spent all three years of middle school on the bench. The one time I came on as a pinch server, I messed up my serve and that was it." Riseki thought.

"Nice serve!"

The whistle soon blew. "There's no point if I miss. I need to get that point." Riseki added in his head, throwing the ball up and spiking it.

"Well, Riseki definitely got the ball into the court."

"Hideaki!" Daichi shouted.

"Got it!" Hideaki reassured, receiving the ball.

Hinata ran forward and spiked as Riseki tried to receive the ball, but failed. "Heck yeah!" Hinata cheered.

That's when Inarizaki's cheer squad started booing, making Hinata stop.

"What the hell was that serve?!"

"Why are you even here?!"

"No one asked you to just give them the ball!"

"Wow, I haven't heard this in a while." Suna commented.

"What is this?"

"Booing? They're booing their own side?"

"But he did miss the serve, did he? What is this?" Mika asked.

"Inarizaki's harsh critiques. I heard that if you make a weak play, their cheer squad gives you an earful. You're probably hearing it now." Daisho replied.

"Aw, that's really mean, considering he's not even a pro." Mika said.

Both Yamaguchi and Kinoshita looked like they were about to vomit.

"This is why I told you to take that chance." Akagi said, heading onto the court.

"You always think too hard about this."

"We don't need a guy who just gets the serve over on our team. Whether we're in the lead or not." Kita spoke.

Riseki looked down. "Right." He said.

Kageyama was up to serve as he spun the ball in his hands. The whistle blew as Kageyama jumped up and did his jump serve, the ball slamming onto the court in which Karasuno cheered.

"A no-touch ace! That speed! That direction!"

"Sorry!" Ginjima apologized.

"Get over it! Don't worry about it!" Akagi reassured.

"No one was gonna be able to touch that one."

"That's... Kalm Kageyama." Hinata said.

"The hell are you talking about?" Tanaka questioned.

"I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but it's a calm Kageyama. Like when I'm able to do quicks without closing my eyes, or when he got Tsukishima's point of impact higher. Times like that. It's basically when he's in the most tip-top shape. But it's only his face that's calm. He's still as harsh as ever, so you need to proceed with caution." Hinata explained. "This tends to happen a lot when facing a powerful foe."

"At some point, you turned into an instruction manual." Tanaka commented.

"The air is really prickly." Kageyama thinks to himself. He glances over to see Kurosu had called for a timeout.

"Inarizaki High is calling their first timeout."

"Let's go, Ina High!"

"But wow, both sides have some really powerful serves."

"Just keep pressing the attack like you have been. Don't falter on receiving, either." Kurosu said.

"Both schools have a variety of attacks that are very powerful. If they don't get aggressive with their serves and stop the other teams quicks, the other side will definitely get a point."

"I'm sure you're all tired about now, but so are they. We've got the game in our court right now." Ukai said.

"Will Kageyama's serves turn the tables around for Karasuno?"

"Make sure you concentrate."

"Right!"

TWEEEEEET!

Kageyama spun the ball in his hands as the whistle blew. He did his jump serve again as Osamu failed to catch it on time.

"Yes!" Kageyama cheered.

"All right!"

"He got another one in! The timeout sure didn't kill his concentration!"

"Seriously?"

Hinata made an irritated face as Kageyama did his jump serve once more. "One more time!" Yamaguchi and Sugawara shouted. The ball went flying over the net.

"Gin!"

Ginjima crouched down and barely received it. "Aran!" He shouted.

Aran soon charged forward. "Even if we can't totally break them down mentally, just the slightest annoyance... If they hit aggressive spikes toward us even a little..." Ukai thought.

"Left, left!"

Tanaka rushed over to join Hinata and Daichi in blocking, jumping up with them.

"Three blockers!"

Aran spikes down the ball which was an out as Ukai clenched his fist. "That'll give us a huge chance for a turnaround." Ukai finished.

"Oh, hey. Is that..." Mika began.

"Yeah... That was an annoying out." Daisho said as Aran had sweat dripping down his forehead.

"Fire it up, fire it up, Karasuno!"

Kageyama sent another jump serve as both Ginjima and Akagi crouched down to receive it.

"Damn it!"

"And the ball is sailing right back over to Karasuno's side."

Kageyama gets into setting position as Hinata gets ready to spike.

"Too damn fast!"

Atsumu soon received it. "Don't go getting a big head, now." He thought.

"Samu!"

Aran spikes the ball, landing on Karasuno's side. "Yes!" He cheered.

"Ojiro Aran definitely got that one over. He's making his presence known as the ace!"

"Atsumu-kun's dig was amazing."

"But Kageyama Tobio and Miya Atsumu are candidates for the national youth team and excellent setters. You can see the sparks fly even when they're not setting."

"Osamu! Put a finisher on this second set already!" Atsumu exclaimed to his twin. "Also, I definitely got way more service aces than you today!"

"Would you shut up?" Osamu said.

Osamu did his jump serve as the ball crashed into the scoreboard, making Yachi freak out.

"That was a little too powerful and definitely went out."

"It took flight!"

"You don't need to hit a home run here!" Atsumu shouted.

"You do that too, sometimes!" Osamu thinks to himself.

"It's because you provoked him." Aran informed, sending a slap towards Atsumu's back.

"Ow!" Atsumu exclaimed.

The game continued on as Atsushi dived down to receive the ball.

"It's in!"

"Gin!"

Osamu received the ball over as Ginjima jumped up and spiked but got blocked by Hideaki, Hinata, and Daichi.

"Sorry!" Hideaki apologized.

"Don't worry about it." Daichi reassured.

"It's all good, Hideaki-san." Hinata said.

"Sorry!" Ginjima apologized.

"Let's get our rhythm back. Let's calm down." Akagi said.

TWEEEEET!

Inarizaki looked over in shock to see Kita was being swapped in for Aran.

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A/N: Another chapter is finished! Sorry it took so long! Thanks for reading!