A/N: Hello, readers! Welcome to another chapter! Enjoy!

edited on december 11th, 2020 @ 12:38am

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN - WINNERS AND LOSERS

THEY CONTINUED TO PLAY AS Rei watched Hinata spike down the ball over the net. Tokonami missed, as the bell went out of bounds, and Karasuno gained a point. "Nice, Hinata, Kageyama." Tanaka shouts at the two. Right now on the court was Daichi, Hinata, Kageyama, Tanaka, Nishinoya, and Rei.

The game continued once more, as Tokonami serves it, Hinata however was lousy at receiving, making Rei quickly use his misdirection and received it perfectly on the other side, gaining Karasuno a point. Rei glanced at the scoreboard.

Karasuno

13

Tokonami

21

Rei growled at this. "It's only the first set..." He thought. Rei glanced back at the stands where Oikawa was sitting on a chair, with a look of boredom, as he was waiting for something interesting to happen. "You want entertainment? Fine..." Rei mentally noted.

"Nice serve, Chaya." Rei heard someone call out, making him look over to the Tokonami player who served, the ball comes straight at Nishinoya who saves it easily. Hinata quickly runs over to spike as the two blockers from Tokonami jump up.

However, Tokonami guess wrong as Kageyama tossed the ball over to Asahi. Asahi jumped high in the air as he could, his eyes focusing on the ball. Asahi spiked it down as he earned Karasuno a point.

"All right!" Karasuno announced as Nishinoya and Tanaka went to congratulate the ace.

Soon it was Hinata's turn to serve. "One more, Hinata. Give us a nice serve." Daichi called out as Hinata nodded.

"Yes." Hinata replied back determinedly.

"Let's score with this one."

"Yeah."

Karasuno kept spiking and getting points, Tokonami were trying to save the balls but they weren't fast enough. "All right!" Karasuno shouted as they all gained another point.

Rei felt a little bit bad since one of the players, his name was Ikejiri he believed, was trying his best.

Soon Hinata serves again. "Hinata, nice serve." Daichi called out to encourage him. Rei watched with concentrated eyes as the ball goes over the net and Tokonami saves it. Rei watched the ball as Ikejiri called out for a toss, as he jumps up and spikes the ball but got blocked by Tsukishima and Daichi.

"All right!" Karasuno annnounced, they won the first set with ease. Rei head on over to the sides with his team as they got their water bottles and towels to wipe away any sweat they had. Rei gulped his drink down, making sure to save some for the next set. Some of Rei's teammates conversed with one another. He sighed in exhaustion.

"You did well out there." Kiyoko praises him.

"Thank you." Rei smiled at her.

"Ack! Kiyoko is praising Shiro!" Nishinoya exclaimed.

"I know! It's not fair!" Tanaka added as the two weep over the fact that Kiyoko gave Rei a small compliment. Rei sweat dropped at the two.

TWEEET!

Rei looked over to see the next set was starting. Rei got into position as it was Kageyama, Tsukishima, and Asahi in the back row, and Hinata, Daichi and Rei in the front row. It was Kageyama's turn to serve as he threw the ball up.

"Nice serve, Kageyama." Daichi calls out to the setter.

Rei couldn't help but be surprised as to see him do a service ace. But Karasuno got a point, so he was fine. Karasuno celebrated the first point as Rei smirked to himself in delight. Kageyama serves again as he spins the ball and did a jump serve, a player from Tokonami tried to save it but failed as it went out of bounds.

Once again, Kageyama did another jump serve, he keeps doing this as Karasuno gets points. Rei looked at the score to see that they had 5 points already with Tokonami being at 0. Once more, Kageyama serves the ball however the ball was saved as the player from Tokonami receives it to Ikejiri.

Ikejiri jumps up as did Daichi who was going to block him. The ball was a little high for Ikejiri, making Daichi dump it back down onto the other side of the court and get Karasuno a point, well they would've gotten a point if it weren't for the fact that that Daichi had accidently made contact with the net.

"All right!" Tokonami cheered as they gained a point. "Is it wrong to feel happy for Tokonami? They're really given it their all." Rei thinks to himself as he smiled.

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They were at set point already for the second set. "All right!" Karasuno announced. Soon it was Tanaka's turn to serve as he threw the ball up and hit it, the ball was saved as it went over to its setter, as he tosses it up.

Ikejiri jumps up to spike as Daichi and Hinata jump up to block the spike, the ball continues to be in play as Rei saved it and Hinata had spiked it, but the ball got saved. Karasuno was, however, determined to get a match point.

Soon enough, Tokonami scored a point, as Nishinoya was a bit slow on saving it on time. "All right!" Tokonami cheered.

"Damn it!" Nishinoya yelled, gaining his team's attention as well as Tokonami's. "I'll save the next one for sure!" Nishinoya promises, looking at Tokonami, who blinked.

"One more! Let's turn it around." Daichi announced at his team.

"Yeah!"

Karasuno all stared with serious expressions, as they were determined to get that point. Tokonami looked at them with surprise, as they weren't expecting Karasuno to be serious with them.

The ball was served once more as it made it's way to Kageyama who tosses it high, Hinata jumped up to spike, but he was a decoy as Daichi was the one in the air and the one that the ball was going too.

And just like that, Karasuno got a point.

TWEEET!

Once it was over, Rei and his team, mainly his team as Rei was too busy looking up at the stands to see Oikawa and his team leave. Rei chuckled as he smirked in excitement.

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As Karasuno was heading off, a voice from behind them called out to Daichi. "Sawamura." The voice yells as they stopped and looked over to see Ikejiri.

"Ikejiri." Daichi commented as his team waited to hear what Ikejiri had to say.

Rei was a bit surprised to see him go over and hold Daichi by the arms. "Win! Then win some more! Win for us, too." Ikejiri exclaimed to their captain. Karasuno was silent, wondering who was gonna say something first.

Daichi held Ikejiri's hand. "Yeah, you got it." He promises, as his team nodded in agreement. Ikejiri looked as though he might cry but he held it in and smiled at Karasuno. Rei wanted to say something to Ikejiri as he looked at Daichi who just nodded and gestured the rest of the team, signaling them to leave.

"Ikejiri Hayato, right?" Rei asked, looking at the male who was in shock.

"Y-Yeah. You must be Oshiro Rei. Sawamura mentioned you." Ikejiri replied.

"Same with Daichi." Rei stated. "Listen, I know how horrible you must feel. I could tell you were about to cry. But you decided to be happy for Daichi and us instead."

"I'm just a first-year, but gonna give you some piece of advice." Rei continued. "Winning is fun. It feels great. The look on your teammates faces when you win a match. But you can't win them all. You have too lose every once in a while because if you didn't, then there will be no room for improvement and getting stronger."

Ikejiri looked like he was about to cry once more. Rei looked back at his teammates who were waiting for him. "Karasuno is like one big family. We laugh together, we cry together, we win together, and we lose together, and it's all thanks to Daichi. He's an amazing captain." He continued.

Rei turned back to Ikejiri, who had tears falling out of his eyes. "I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't give up on volleyball because of this one lost. You're a great player from what I could tell today. Keep working hard." He finished.

"I will. Thank you, Oshiro." Ikejiri promised as Rei smiled and quickly caught up with his team so they could get ready for their next match.

Rei felt bad that Tokonami lost to Karasuno especially since they were out the first round. Which is why he felt like he had to give Ikejiri that speech.

"That's just how volleyball goes. You win some and you lose some." Rei thinks to himself.

That was the harsh truth of volleyball. One that Rei knew all too well.

"I heard what you said..." Daichi said, coming up to Rei who gave him a confused glance. "To Ikejiri. That was nice of you. You're probably not the type to comfort people. Especially if you don't know them all that well."

"I've seen a lot of people like him throughout my volleyball career. Most of them quit after one lost. I didn't want Ikejiri to be that person. He needed a word of encouragement to keep on going." Rei said.

"I had a childhood friend who had quit volleyball after his junior high team went against Jindai. I guess Ikejiri reminded me of him. I didn't want him to quit after one lost." Rei stated.

Daichi smiled at him. "So, you think I'm an amazing captain, huh?" He questioned.

"Don't push it, senpai." Rei responded, shoving him playfully as Daichi snickered.

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Karasuno was stretching as it was soon their turn to be on the court again versing their next opponent which was Dateko. Rei took a deep breath, knowing that Karasuno had a history with them. He looked over at Asahi but he didn't seem nervous this time. He was just quiet.

"More importantly, I'll be going against Kano-kun." Rei thinks to himself, thinking back to his former teammate.

"Karasuno was amazing."

"Especially that little #10! He was unreal."

"I know, right?"

"His quicks were right on the money."

Rei heard people talk, as he noticed Hinata looked pleased with the gossip but flinched when Kageyama looks at him.

"Wh-What? I'm happy. What's wrong with that? No one's ever said stuff like that about me before." Hinata explained why he looked pleased to the first year setter.

Kageyama then smiled at Hinata. "I didn't say anything. I'm glad you're getting all the attention. The more our opponents are wary of you, the more they'll bring out the best in you."

"Yeah, I don't really understand what you mean, but you're scary when you're smiling." Hinata bluntly told him as Kageyama had a pale look and stared blankly at Hinata. Rei forced himself to hold back his laugh.

Kageyama gripped the orange haired male's head in response. "Ouch, ouch..." Hinata hissed as Kageyama tightens his grip, and continued to snicker in amusement.

"Yeah, he's right. 'that little #10' gets a big reaction. The bigger the better. The more Hinata shines, the more he blinds the defence." Ukai stated as everyone turned to him.

"Oh." Hinata commented, listening and taking in coach's words. Soon Ukai cleared his throat. "So, the starting line up for the next match will be the same as the first." Ukai explained as everyone listened to him. Sugawara, Tanaka, Nishinoya, Asahi, and Daichi were all silent.

"Our next match is at 1:30PM. Keep yourselves warm." Daichi spoke up, glancing down at the sheet of paper he held.

"Have a light lunch. Don't fill yourselves up." Ukai told them as well.

"Yeah."

The team kept themselves busy, Hinata and Kageyama were outside, and everyone else conversed with each other. Rei was sitting on a bench, thinking about his junior high days. He wasn't really that close with Nakano. In fact, the purple haired giant always treated him like a joke. He didn't think that Rei deserved to be apart of The Five.

Then again, Rei wasn't the same as he was back in junior high, and he was pretty sure Nakano had changed as well.

Rei snapped himself out of his thoughts as his team walked by him. "Come on, Shiro. It's time." Sugawara calls out as Rei nodded.

"Coming." Rei replied as he jogged over and joined with his team.

Karasuno gets inside the gymnasium as the court was being set up for us as Hinata beams in determination. "All right. We'll win the second match, too!" Hinata announced but paused when a shadow cased over his small form, he looked up and saw a Dateko player, the one with no eyebrows, walk by along with Nakano.

His team comes over as Hinata flinches and hid behind Rei, making the black haired male raise an eyebrow at him in question.

"Go! Go! Let's go! Let's go, Dateko!"

"If I don't throw something at them by the end of this match, I'll be amazed." Rei thought as he scoffed.

"Dateko... fight!" Dateko's captain yelled.

"Yeah!" They all shout as they do some laps to keep energized and such, Karasuno watches them, Hinata shook like a leaf as Kageyama stretches. Rei just popped his neck, looking bored.

"You're getting intimidated again." Rei called out to Hinata, who stops shaking once he was caught.

"Captains." The referee calls out as Daichi and the Dateko captain shook hands.

"All the best." The two said, shaking hands.

Soon Rei and his team were going to practice some receiving before the game starts.

"Get ready to receive!" Daichi yelled as they saw the trolley of volleyballs come over to them.

"Yeah." They all replied in reply as they all lined up.

"Here goes. Keep it in play." Ukai told them as Daichi was first to receive.

"Yeah."

Daichi saved the ball once Ukai saves it he runs to the side as Asahi ran over and saved the ball next, then Sugawara, then the chain keeps going. Rei was the second to last one to save the ball, once it was his turn he bend down and received perfectly, he moved out of the way as it was Nishinoya's turn.

"Rolling..." Rei managed to hear him say as the ball came to him. "...Thunder..." Nishinoya shouts as he saved the ball by rolling to the side and the ball goes back to Ukai. "Again." He announces as everyone stared in shock. Even Dateko was a bit surprised by the outburst.

"That was perfect." Nishinoya proudly smiled.

"Noya, nice receive." Tanaka praised. "Perfection itself! Except for the name." Tanaka laughs as Nishinoya looked irked by this.

"The name is perfect, too!" Nishinoya defended. Hinata bounces over.

"Teach me! Teach me the Again version, too!" Hinata begged.

Rei then spoke up. "How's that any different from the regular one?" He asked as Kageyama nods in agreement with him.

"What was that?"

"He saved it."

"You're showing off again."

"Hey, Nishinoya, you're gonna make Daichi mad."

Soon Nishinoya looked at his team as they surround him. "All right. There's nothing to worry about." He yells as his team stared at him with widen eyes. "All of you, keep your eyes forward. Because you have Shiro and I guarding your backs." Nishinoya proudly assured them.

"Shiro, say something." Nishinoya muttered to the first year libero.

Rei sighed as his team stared at him next. "Um... I'm not really good at this encouragement thing. But it's like Noya-senpai said, you have him and I guarding your backs. Back in Jindai, all they ever cared about was winning. Because winning was everything to us. I've never been on a real team that cared about each other before. So thank you for being the first. To my fellow first-years, let's show them that Karasuno has changed. Let's kick some ass and get revenge for our senpais!" He said.

"A-Awesome!" Tanaka, Kageyama, and Hinata all announce at Nishinoya and Rei's words.

TWEEEET!

"Line up." Daichi ordered them as they did so. They stared at Dateko who did the same to them.

"Let's play!"

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A/N: Another chapter is done! Hope you enjoyed!

Word Count: 2707 words.