Kuroo saw the ball ever so slightly miss him, turning his head to see where it went. Fortunately it was going near Yaku, "OUT!" Yaku shouted as the ball fell closer and closer to the ball. Yaku's judgement was right as the ball landed just outside the court, giving Nekoma the point and entering a deuce.
The next rally began and seemed to go on forever, those not on the court watched in anticipation. Eventually Bokuto scored a point putting Fukurodani in the lead. One point left until Fukurodani won; and three points left until Nekoma won; only one team could win. Both teams pushed on, the deuce still extending. Soon Hinata came back on the court. Akaashi hid his nerves well, the last thing Fukurodani needed was Hinata's freak quick, "We'll be fine," Bokuto reassured his team, "We've got this! We've received the freak quick before, so we'll be fine," the rest of Fukurodani deadpanned, Hinata wasn't just the freak quick. He was a read blocker and decoy. Just like most of Fukurodani thought, Hinata reappearing on the court was the end for them. With one final hit from Yamamoto Nekoma won the match 27:29.
Everyone was shocked when Yamamoto scored the winning point. No-one had expected Nekoma to beat Fukurodani, even those playing on Nekoma had their doubts, "We're going to nationals!" Kuroo shouted as those on the court joined them on the sidelines.
"And we'll win nationals," Yaku added.
"Yeah!" the team all cheered, soon after the final thanks were given the two teams left the court and went back into their designated areas.
The adrenaline was still running in most of Nekoma when they got on their coach to return to their school. When the team returned to the school they were greeted with cheering staff and students, it was the first time that Nekoma had made it to nationals in five years. Soon the team retreated into their club room, "Remember we still have one more match tomorrow. We may have our spot in nationals, but we still have to play in the finals. It'll be the winner of Itachiyama versus Nohebi," coach Nekomata said.
"So Itachiyama," Yamamoto pointed out.
"Most likely, coach Naoi is trying to get the match footage and find out who won right now, but we'll dismiss you early. Rest well and we'll tell you about tomorrow's match in the morning," coach Nekomata told them, everyone went their separate ways, the buzz still in most of them.
Fukurodani retreated to their area, still bitter from loosing, "There's still one more chance," Shirofuku said in an attempt to cheer the team up, "Unless Itachiyama lost their match today we'll be up against Nohebi in the third place play offs, I think that we've got a good chance of winning that,"
"But we thought that we'd have a good chance of today and somehow Nekoma beat us," Akaashi pointed out.
"If only Hinata would transfer!" Bokuto moaned.
"Hinata definitely was the reason we lost, we were caught off guard by him at the training camp and he's improved since then. Which meant that we were caught off guard again. The next time we play Nekoma, we won't be caught off guard like that," Komi said.
"All we can do is play our best," Akaashi said, "Play our best and get that third spot,"
The next day arrived and the four semi finalists returned to the gym, two with safe spots to nationals and two without. Nekoma were lucky to be in the former. On the coach to the gym the coaches revealed the unsurprising truth that they would be up against Itachiyama. There was some tension at first, but then most remembered that this match wouldn't stop them from going to nationals and so a loss wouldn't be the end of the world.
Itachiyama arrived at the gym, "Nekoma? Who's that?" one of them asked upon hearing the other finalists' name.
"Dunno, didn't get this far last time," another shrugged, "I'm surprised they beat Fukurodani,"
"From what I've seen so far of their match, they aren't a stand out team. Good players, focus on the defensive, have a decent offence. But what am I to say, I'm only a quarter through the first set," Iizuna said as he continued to watch the match.
Daishou walked smugly into the other room for the third place play offs, confident that he'd find Nekoma and that he'd get to insult them on not making the finals, not that his team did either. Then he could say that he knew that this would happen. It was going to be great, "Wrong room," Sarukui said to Daishou.
"Sorry," Daishou faked a smile, bowed and left, "Stupid Nekoma beating Fukurodani,"
"Surprised not to see us in there?" Kuroo smirked.
"It's not like you'll beat Itachiyama either," Daishou replied.
"At least we know that we're going to nationals,"
"At least I have good hair,"
"The hair again, you really are running out of good material,"
After the warm ups Fukurodani and Nohebi lined up to bow before the match started soon after. Whilst Nohebi were good, Fukurodani were playing at their best, and arguably better than the previous day. Quickly they took the lead. Soon Nohebi's snake tactics started taking place. Naturally Fukurodani were annoyed, by this going all out and quickly winning the first set. Nohebi almost had the second set, but Fukurodani ended up taking it and winning the match instead, granting them the third, and final, Tokyo representative spot in nationals.
"Nekoma may be a nuisance," Iizuna announced to Itachiyama, "For the first half of their first set against Fukurodani you wouldn't have been able to tell, because he wasn't on. They have a fast middle blocker - their no.10,"
"Fast? How fast?" Komori asked.
"The Miya twins' freak quick fast," Iizuna answered.
"Whoa," many members of Itachiyama gasped in disbelief.
"The twist, he's short," Iizuna added, "Short, but boy he can jump. And he's either using guess blocking or read blocking,"
"Can't you tell which one it is?" Sakusa asked.
"I think it's read blocking, but he's short. Not many short players consider it, although he could be an exception. On the other hand, it could just be slow guess blocking. Either way he's good at blocking. However, you can tell that he's inexperienced," Iizuna explained.