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

edited on september 16th, 2021 @ 8:22am

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CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - 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 Rei. 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. Rei sighed and looked at the scoreboard.

Karasuno

22

Fukurōdani

22

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

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

The ball gets spiked as Rei tried to save it, but it bounced off his arms, making the red head hiss a little, and then groaned when Fukurōdani got another point.

"Damn it. They're at match point now." Rei 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 Asahi's turn to serve as Rei watched him concentrate, 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, Rei 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.

Rei watched as Akaashi tossed the ball, Tsukishima and Kageyama watched it and both widened their eyes in realization as they follow the ball, as Rei saw Bokuto charging forward, slamming down the volleyball powerfully. Rei 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. Rei 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!"

Rei 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..."

Rei chuckled at the team before turning to his own as Asahi 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!" Asahi panicked as everyone blinked at their ace.

Ukai walked over as he stared at Asahi. "If you DHS 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. Rei was standing next to Kageyama who turned to Hinata.

"He must be talking about you."

"Shut up."

Rei snickered at his friends. "But nobody will blame you for hitting a serve that was meant to steal the win." Ukai smirked as Rei 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 Rei 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!"

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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!"

Rei sees Mizuki, Fujita, and Nishimoto together, so he walks over to them. "Mind if I join you guys?" He asked as Fujita scooted over and the black haired male sat down next to him.

"So, even Bokuto-san has times where he's in a slump." Rei commented, talking about the match.

"Yeah, well, he self-destructs in places we don't quite understand. But it doesn't hug him if our enemy is strong, so we're usually okay. When everyone else on the team loses hope, he's usually still pretty energetic. Despite everything, he's pretty reliable." Fujita informed.

Rei chuckled a bit. "It's nice, you know? Us having a civil conversation with one another." He said. "It's like how it was back in Jindai..." Rei added in his head.

"Your team is aiming for nationals, right?" Mizuki asked as Rei hummed in reply. "You do know you would have to face that bastard Kawamura, don't you?"

"I know, Kai-kun." Rei sighed. "I can't really avoid it. Haya-kun mentioned that he's stronger than before."

"Ahem."

Rei 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."

Rei 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 Rei stood next to Sugawara and Daichi.

"Thanks for the food!"

Rei 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.

Rei spotted Kenma as he began walking towards him. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were behind them, but Seiya paid no mind as he made small talk with Kenma.

"Tsukishima! Shiro!" Rei heard Daichi announce, making him look over to see his senior smiling.

"You two need to eat more!"

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

"I'm fine."

Rei 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 Rei 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 Rei, making him sweat drop. "Stop hiding behind darlin'!" Kuroo exclaimed.

"Eat some rice!" Daichi announced to Tsukishima and Rei as the black haired male saw Bokuto slide in with some tongs.

"You mean meat! Eat some meat, Tsukki, Shiro! Or you won't be able to grow big!" Bokuto announced while Rei rolled his eyes.

Bokuto, Kuroo and Daichi start to bicker at Kenma and Rei. Yamaguchi was watching from the sides in amusement.

"Shiro, 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 Rei as he used him as a shield. They both moved as they dodged both Bokuto and Kuroo.

"Bokuto-san, stop it!" Rei screeched as Hinata soon joined them. Rei 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?"

Rei 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. 

"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 Rei grinned in mischief.

"Oh? You don't seem to have a problem with it when Yamaguchi-kun calls you that." He teased as Tsukishima gave the libero 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 Rei 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 Rei blink at them before snickering

"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 Rei was talking to Mizuki and Fujita.

Once they all helped pack up, it was time for Karasuno to leave Tokyo. Rei 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 Rei 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!"

"He's with us, Kuroo!"

"Oh, but he'll do so much better at Nekoma. Isn't that right, darlin?"

"I'll pass."

"Hey, hey, hey! Rei, come join my team instead!"

"Not another one! Suga, keep an eye out on our prodigy player so he doesn't get snatched!"

Rei sighed at the comments being thrown at each other as he gave everyone a wave of goodbye. His eyes met his former teammates, giving them a nod as they did the same. Rei soon followed his team to the bus.

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When Rei went home last night, Ryuu had called him. They chatted for about an hour until he decided to let him sleep. Ryuu also wished him good luck for the preliminaries and promised that he will come watch. After that, he slept until morning.

They were all back in school, Rei 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, Ennoshita, and Rei receiving them. Rei 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..."

Rei sweat dropped at Nishinoya. "But you totally got it, though, Noya-senpai." He thought, shaking his head and continued to receive his teammates serves.

After practice Rei headed over to Ukai Sr's place.
As he used his spare time to help some of the kids with some moves as they also improved while he was away for the week. He noticed that Hinata had arrived as he also bought Kageyama who was surprised to see him, but greeted him.

The two started practicing their own stuff, but they were going at it for a while as Rei was already done with his teaching. Ukai Sr had to stop them before they got overworked.

"You have a match tomorrow, don't you?" Ukai Sr asked the two as Rei went to join his fellow first-years as he was done teaching for the day.

"You guys should wrap it up soon!" Ukai Sr said as Hinata and Kageyama bow.

"One more! Just one more!" Hinata pleaded as Rei sweat dropped at them.

"We'll finish after this one!" Kageyama added.

"Please!"

Eventually Ukai Sr gave in as Rei watched from the sides. "Here we go!" Yuu exclaimed as he throws the ball up towards Kageyama and Hinata. Rei smirked when the duo showed off their quick attack as everyone, excluding Rei, stared in surprise.

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A/N: Whoo! Now we're onto the preliminaries! Who's excited? Let me know if there's any mistakes! Thanks for reading!

Word Count: 2550 words.