As the game progressed, a conversation happened between the Captain and Vice-Captain of Aoba Johsai.
"Damn what a monster," Oikawa muttered under his breath, watching the ball crash into the back wall.
"Yeah…Think with him we might stand a chance against you know who?" Iwaizumi said to him.
Oikawa thought for a second. He had been the one to practice the most with Bodhi since he joined the team. And he could honestly say…
"It'll be the best chance we have at toppling Ushiwaka. I believe in him," Oikawa replied.
He didn't know quite what was moving him so much but. Bodhi just had this affect on people, the ability to rally those around you and the absolute strength to back it up. Despite being a little unhinged and wild on the court, truly living up to the eponymous name, the Maverick, Bodhi had a reliability that was different compared to Iwaizumi. Aoba Johsai's current ace.
There was no question Iwaizumi was the team's current ace. Possessing both a strong attack power and great receiving strength. He truly was an all-rounder that could be relied on in all types of situations. That strength came from countless hours of practicing an relying on teammates. His unwavering faith in his abilities also helped a great deal.
Bodhi however was different.
While his strength no doubt came from countless hours of practice and training, the sheer drive behind his eyes and unrelenting wild spirit to become the best was second to none. A strength born out of pure raw talent that wasn't held back by arrogance was to be envied. Bodhi truly was a Maverick.
Oikawa was kind of jealous in that regard.
He had spent years in the shadow of the insurmountable wall that was Ushiwaka. And to be honest, his confidence in ever conquering him was starting to wane. Despite coming up with countless counter strategy's, improving upon his own skill as a setter and server, getting to the point where he was deemed the best in the prefecture, was all to be proven for naught. As the damned eagle bastard broke through all of it with sheer power alone.
Bodhi alone has reignited that spark and hope to bring Ushiwaka to his knees. Bodhi stood on the same plane of existence Ushiwaka did and with somebody like him on his side, Oikawa stood a chance. But somewhere deep down, he knew it wasn't going to be enough, Ushiwaka was just that good. Bodhi would be able to do it alone, his weakness in blocking stood out and although they now might be able to score more points, it won't mean much if Ushiwaka can still plow through there everything.
It won't be enough
He won't be enough.
"Hey…Cut the self-loathing. I know you well enough by now that you must be thinking Bodhi won't be enough. Well newsflash for ya Shittykawa, the strongest team of 6 will prevail! If Bodhi isn't enough, then I'll just have to rise to him! And I sure as hell won't leave you behind," Iwaizumi said, bringing Oikawa out of his funk.
"…Yeah, your right Iwa-chan. I'll just have to become even better than him!" Oikawa said matter of factly.
The conversation had been heard by all those in the waiting area and similar thoughts had been running through their minds, but with how their captains just spoke, how could they not be inspired to be their best!
"LEFT!"
They were brought out of their musings towards the game as Shinzen's middle blocker called for the last hit.
Chigaya made his approach. While he wasn't the strongest spiker on his team or the fastest. He more than made up for it with his tireless stamina and technique. So, when it came to his approach, it was a time lag one, where he lowered his knees to create a degree of separation between him and the Seijo blocker, who happened to be Kindaichi.
"SHIT!" Kindaichi swore as he jumped too early. Allowing for Chigaya to time it right and smack one over Kindaichi's block, aiming for a line shot as Kindaichi also didn't close down the straight properly.
"Awe yeah! Wha-" Chigaya celebrated, only for it to be short lived, as Bodhi who had noticed Kindaichi failing to close the line, instantly moved to the spot where the spike was going to land and performed a perfect A-Pass to Yahaba who was waiting in the middle of the court.
Hanamaki not being one to waste an opportunity, made his approach for a 1st tempo quick from behind Yahaba.
Yahaba noticed his approach and speed and proceeded to set a quick ball to Makki, who like the ever reliable third year delivered and smashed one past Shinzen's receivers. The blockers having not gotten there quick enough to even pose a threat.
"Yeah, Makki!" Bodhi cheered, making his way over to him. With that point, the match was 18-11 in favour of Aoba Johsai.
As they were cheering though, the coaches on the bench were having a chat with each other.
"While this game is going well. Kindaichi has been baited one too many times by their time lag attacks. Bodhi is doing a phenomenal job covering for him, but that shouldn't always happen. He is after all the focal point of this formation," Coach Irihata began. When coming up with new strategies and plays, they opted to try coming up with different formations that will focus on different styles of play. This particular one, used Bodhi as the focal point for offence allowing for him to truly shine in spiking, while having Hanamaki and Matsukawa lead the other players in a more defense-minded play style.
While Kunimi had been doing fine, but only the bare minimum, Kindaichi had been struggling with certain attack patterns Shinzen had been employing. Namely, their time lag attacks from their first-year middle blocker, he only knew that information because of their new manager, Hana.
Yahaba while not nearly as talented as Oikawa in setting or serving, still possessed good skills and qualities as a setter. But where he really stood out was his ability to handle 'unique' (read: troublesome) spikers. And Bodhi being the Maverick he is somehow clicked uncannily well with Yahaba.
"I'd have to agree with you. Matsukawa has been trying to get him to read the play more in practice, but he still hasn't grasped it yet," letting out a sigh at the end, Mizoguchi continued. "I'll ask some of the players from the college teams we have lined up to give him some pointers."
Coach Irihata nodded at that.
"Kindaichi it's your serve, make it a good one, and let's put this game to bed!" Bodhi said, tossing the ball to the middle blocker.
"Y-yeah, thanks," Kindaichi said. A bit out of it, after another blunder on blocking, something he prided himself in. He made his way back to the serving line and began to prepare for serving. What should he do to get better? Matsukawa had been giving him pointers, but nothing had seemed to stick, he always relied on his height and long reach to allow him to snuff the spikers.
"-rve, SERVE KINDAICHI!"
"Wh-what, crap!" Kindaichi who had been stewing in his thoughts, hadn't heard the whistle and panicked sending a weak serve over, easily being dug up by Shinzen's libero.
"Here we go!" Daiki shouted. And as he finished, all of Shinzen went on the attack, a fierce combo attack had sprung forth!
"Eat that!" Noriaki roared, smacking the ball with all the power he could muster. Being one of the faster players on Shinzen he didn't quite pack the power Daiki or Yu had, but his speed was enough to catch the Seijo blockers off guard.
*SHLAM*
The ball crashed onto Aoba Johsai's side, making the score now 18-12.
"Those damn combo attacks have been absolutely superb," Coach Irihata said.
"It's incredible how they don't get mixed up in each other's approach or lane. Think we might be able to do something like that?" Mizoguchi muttered.
Now that was a thought, wasn't it?
"Miss Nakano, you've read over the material I gave you on Friday, yes?" Coach Irihata asked.
Hana who had been sitting beside the two coaches on the bench, nodded. "Yes, I've read through all the material and even looked up extra information that might have been useful." She finished, handing over a document to the coaches.
Irihata and Mizoguchi were perplexed at what they had been handed.
"When did you have time to put these together!? And why didn't we get them sooner?" Coach Irihata stated, both shocked and a little peeved he hadn't done what she did. He of course knew what teams were participating in the camp and had done a brief overview of their strengths. But what was in front of them went further beyond all of that.
"I pride myself on my organization and studying ability sirs. This is just the basic information I was able to glean from a surface-level search," Hana stated aloofly. Like she hadn't just handed them a ten-page document on the teams present. "And I would have given you them this morning but I uhh…fell asleep on the bus, because I stayed up late last night finishing them. I then planned to give them to you before the game started, after we dropped off all of our belongings, but then Bodhi happened."
Yes, Hamada had somehow managed to piss off a team he had never met and somehow made their manager stutter and blush. Hana wasn't shocked by this point.
"Well keep up the good work…And if you have any ideas on what we could be doing better let me know and we can maybe work something out," Coach Irihata said, having skimmed through the document and liking what he saw. The information was well-written and easy to read and comprehend. No doubt a skill she must have picked up in her previous club.
"Yessir!" Hana replied proudly. It was nice be appreciated for the effort she had put in. She totally planned on making a Nakano's Notes Novel V2.
"Bodhi get the last!" Matsukawa yelled, bringing the coaches and Hana out of their conversation. It had seemed a receive went awry and Bodhi now had to get it over.
The only problem was the ball was way too far away for Bodhi to get a hand on it.
Keyword…
'Hand'
Bodhi proceeded to do the least suspecting move and kick the ball from a sliding position over onto Shinzen side.
It being nowhere near powerful enough to give them trouble on the receive, allowed them to do another combo attack. This time catching everyone off guard, even the Shinzen players as the setter did a dump and landed it.
"Point Shinzen, scores 22-18 in favour of Shinzen," the referee announced.
"Damn! Nearly had the bugger!" Bodhi stated. Like he hadn't done the impossible. "I'll get it next time! Let's regroup gents!"
"You heard him! Shake it off!" Hanamaki echoed similar sentiments.
"Shinji, focus on the next play," Matsukawa said. Getting the libero's head back in the game.
"Good, it's important to have reliable older players. Their experience in tough times can show the light at the end of the tunnel for those lost," Coach Irihata said fondly. While neither third years were captains, they sure could have been had Iwaizumi or Oikawa been any less the superb leaders they were in their respective ways.
He truly was proud of the young men he had coached. They were with out a doubt the best batch of students he had ever coached.
After they regrouped and refocused. Aoba Johsai routed their first opponents at this training camp 25-19.
"Man, that was fun! Who's next?" Bodhi asked, clearly exuding golden retriever energy.
"That would be us," a voice said from behind Bodhi. "Kuro Tetsuro, captain of Nekoma and you, my friend, were an absolute riot this morning!"
Kuro started to laugh after he said that, remembering the chaos of that morning.
"Rooster head?" Bodhi said aloud. Not meaning to, but everybody present heard it. And the two-tone-haired player from behind Kuro as well as the libero started to laugh.
"What'd you say punk?!" Kuro said, getting all up in Bodhi's face.
"Rooster head, ya wanker!"
"Oh, it's on first year!" Kuro challenged.
But before the two could continue to argue, the tall lanky player made himself known, inserting himself into the verbal spat.
"Hey! Your Bodhi Hamada, right? My sister said if I ever saw you again to give you this." He said.
"Your wot mate?" Bodhi replied, his Australian side sneaking out.
"Here, she said you would know what to do with it," he handed Bodhi a letter. "Oh, I'm Lev Haiba by the way, my sister is Alisa Haiba."
Alisa… Bodhi thought to himself. Who the fuck is that!? But once he opened the envelope a picture fell out. Gently floating down to the gymnasium floor. Printed side up. And to the entire world, it showed Bodhi being absolutely mauled by a beautiful older girl with sandy blonde hair and vivid green eyes adorned by long thick eyelashes, with the words "Let's do it again sometime Bodhi-милый!" 571-***-**** written across the front.
"…fuck…" Bodhi stated. "That Alisa…"
Authors note:
So, another day another chapter. And this one is longer for all you babies out there. Like, give a guy a break. I've got to set stuff up and plan and obviously more anime chaos to weave and cook up. Literally had no plans to involve Alisa Haiba but I thought it might be nice comedic relief. Don't worry it ain't gonna get too crazy.
I think…
Anyhow, expect the next chapter to be out on Monday or Tuesday.
And I know short chapters ain't the best, but hey…
I know you guys will read it anyway! Hehe lol.
Seriously though, thank you everybody for sticking with me so far. I plan to go the mile with this story so stick around because next time It's the Kings vs Cats!
-Daedalus19