If Bodhi could say one thing about Nekoma it would be this…
They are damn persistent sons a bitches. And that libero of theirs was on a completely different level.
"Left!" Bodhi yelled, getting Oikawa's attention.
Getting the toss sent his way Bodhi began his approach at a second tempo pace. Giving the other team time to set up a block. However, with the rooster head being out of the rotation, the wall Nekoma set up was much weaker than the one with him.
Bringing his right arm back, Bodhi kept perfect form until the last second when he aimed for a line shot, noticing the first-year middle blocker, Inuoka, not close down the line. And Bodhi took full advantage of it.
*BLAM*
The ball impacted the floor, Yaku had attempted to get under it but was too late as Bodhi's form allowed for both a line shot and a cross-court one, meaning he hadn't the chance to narrow down the hit lane like he normally could.
"*fwee point Seijo! 13-9," Naoi stated.
"Good stuff Oikawa!" Bodhi cheered giving him a high five.
Oikawa had finally started to adjust to Bodhi's quirks and was getting a near 100% completion rate on the sets he sent to the Maverick. It wasn't easy mind you, but Oikawa could almost feel his setting was going to another level, he could see where the spikers wanted to hit, a sixth sense if you would.
Goosebumps ran up his spine as he thought that. Had playing with Bodhi pushed him to his limits? Not only meeting them but surpassing them? Even his more powerful serve he had been struggling with controlling was becoming much more manageable and easier to place.
*fwee* the whistle blew, signalling for Seijo to send the ball over. Bodhi whose turn it was to serve, glanced over at the coach to see if he could do what he wanted, but he got a shake of the head no.
"Tsk! Well, whatever, let's get it!" Bodhi said, going through his service routine, and tossing it up with his right hand.
As the ball was reaching its apex, Bodhi quickly glanced at the positions of the Nekoma receivers, #2, #6, and the libero mmm…70% should be fine.
Bodhi having just thought about how much power to put into his serve, jumped up high and hit the ball just off center on the right side of it. The ball went flying over the net towards number 6 Fukunaga, who with the agility of a cat, got down ready to receive the incoming ball. Only as the ball got closer, veered off its course spun to the right, causing the stable receive he had set up to break and he had to attempt to do a one-armed receive, which went about as well as you could expect.
"Point Seijo! 14-9," Naoi said. He was starting to get a little worried, Aoba Johsai was a powerful team. When they had heard from Coach Takeyuki about their inclusion they did their homework and managed to find some tape on them and could comfortably say they were on the same level as themselves if not slightly better, but with their persistent style of play, both he and Coach Nekomata figured they could bring them down.
That is until this freak of nature showed up.
Bodhi Hamada as Lev had let them all know, was apparently a volleyball superstar from Australia, and having recently returned to Japan they had no information on him. But it is safe to say the kid was a generational talent. Naoi was scared to think just how good he would get in the future, he put him in the same bracket of players as Bokuto and Washio.
They could barely hold Bokuto back on his off days, but when Washio went through such a phenomenal growth period they were hard-pressed to reach 20 points, even on Bokuto's off days, which were surprisingly getter fewer and fewer in number.
Maybe Washio had done something to spurn his teammate on? Who knows, but Coach Takeyuki could only sing his praises more and more.
He blew the whistle signalling for service and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
No sound of a serve came and he had to check his watch.
5…6…7…8-
The toss went up and Bodhi began to jump almost at the same time, sending over a quick serve, catching Nekoma's receivers off guard, Kai Nobuyuki, Nekoma's number 2 was the unlucky soul who was the target of Bodhi's time-delayed serve.
(Now as for the information I've found it has said that you either have 5 or 8 seconds to serve after the referee blows the service whistle. I've decided to use 8 seconds. And in my mind, I look at it like, once the ball has been tossed the 'serve' starts, meaning he can't be called for a foul and change of service. If you guys know the proper rule lemme know and I can change it for future chapters.)
His stance was broken due to Bodhi taking so long, but he managed to get a hand on it, only to curse a second later as he noticed where the ball was going. "Shit!"
Iwaizumi not one to waste an opportunity, made a direct hit, straight back at Kai, blowing past him and hitting the floor behind Kai who was too slow to react.
"That's how it's done," Iwaizumi stated calmly like he was expecting that to happen. But that wasn't the case. Bodhi had never shown to be that devious in his serves, always opting to do the same service over and over, with different levels of strength though.
"There's still more you haven't shown, eh? Bodhi?" Iwaizumi asked.
"Hehe! Maybe you'll find them all out someday Iwa!" Bodhi replied with some cheek. Earning a glare back from the third year.
"15-9 Seijo."
Bodhi got the ball back again and debated what to do this time. He could do a cheeky rapid serve or a minus one. He still had trouble timing that one though, something he had to improve.
So he decided to just do a regular jump serve. This time though he aimed for the libero, hearing the shitle(I meant to type whistle but chuckled out loud and decided to keep it in, sue me.) Bodhi tossed the ball a bit higher than normal and made his approach, this time instead of doing a side spin he opted to top spin it. Slamming his hand into the top of the ball while pushing up slightly, it was slightly weaker than normal but as soon as it crossed the net, it dove forward at an incredible rate, not being outdone by Bodhi, Yaku dove forward and barely got both arms under the ball and performed a B-pass to Kenma.
"Yeah!" Kuro yelled from the bench, they had finally shut down Bodhi's serves, and knowing Kenma he had a plan in mind.
Kenma glanced around and opted to send the ball to the person most eager on the court to make up for their shortfalls this match so far.
Yamamoto after scoring the first point of the match had been routinely shut down by Matsukawa, Matsukawa having been the pain in the ass he is, narrowed down Yamamoto's options damn near every spike, and he didn't narrow it, got just enough for a one touch.
Matsukawa despite not being a Nekoma player sure as hell played like one. One persistent asshole.
Kenma knowing this sent it to Yamamoto because this time, the threat of Matsukawa was a moot point as he was out of the rotation and Motomu was currently upfront and considered to be less of a threat.
"Yamamoto!" Kenma yelled. Getting the Mohawk's attention. Having heard his voice, Yamamoto made his way to the ball at a first-tempo pace, trying to shake off the blockers. And he had partially succeeded, having only two blockers make a wall, Motomu and Iwa.
With his cat-like eyes, they scanned for a spot to land the hit and narrowed in on one. His bread and butter if you would, a cross-court shot.
Seeing the 'spot' light up, he crushed the ball with all his might and for the briefest of moments he saw it land…
Only for it to be dug up by Bodhi, who, like Yamamoto had seen where he was aiming. Call it a spiker's intuition. And despite everything pointing towards Bodhi being a power-type player who focuses solely on offence, couldn't have been more wrong.
Bodhi got into a picture-perfect receiving position and bumped a perfect A-pass for Oikawa, who didn't move from his spot at the front of the net. And being in such a perfect spot opted to use the sharpest double-edged sword in his arsenal.
Mad Dog who had been frothing at the mouth for not getting any opportunities to destroy the ball suddenly awoke as the ball was sent his way. And in a moment of pure athletic prowess, he killed the ball and sent it down the line toward the corner of Nekoma's court.
"*fwee! Point Nekoma! 15-10, Nekoma's serve," Naoi said rather cheerfully.
"WHAT! NO WAY!" Mad Dog roared in defiance.
"…Course he missed, tch!" Bodhi said aloud for everyone to hear, echoing many of his fellow players' thoughts. Mad Dog always got overzealous.
Nekoma however breathed a collective sigh of relief, the power of that spike had been more than Bodhi's and they were already struggling with his as they were.
*Clap clap*
"That's alright, keep at it. You're wearing them down, it's only a matter of time," Coach Nekomata said, grounding his team's thoughts. "You're getting used to how they play, keep a level head and play like you usually do."
As coach Nekomata finished his speech and grounded his players. Seijo had just finished berating Mad Dog for getting too overzealous, namely Iwaizumi who slammed his fist onto the top of his head.
"FOCUS MAD DOG! AND CALM DOWN!" Iwa yelled.
"I think you're the one who needs to chill Iwa," Bodhi offhandedly said, but quickly became his next victim as he now comically sported a bump as big as Mad Dog's.
"Why!? Why Iwa! I didn't do nothin'!" Bodhi whined, nursing his head.
"That was to be expected, gentlemen. Mad Dog, we still have to get a lid on that temper of yours. Will work on it," Coach Irihata began. "Focus on the next play and be sure to use the width of the court, that captain of there is coming back to the front next rotation."
"Sir!" they all said.
Bodhi walked back onto the court, staring down Kuro as he just rotated back to the front. Despite being in the backrow he would soon face off against Kuro again. Bodhi could hardly wait!
"Give a good serve Inuoka!" Yaku cheered from the bench. Having been subbed out because he rotated to the front.
Inuoka hearing the cheers from his fellow players started to get pumped up!
"Here goes!" the whistle blew and Inuoka did a simple overhand serve but made sure to place it in a good spot. In between Iwa and Naoki, but Iwa being the experienced player he is, announced his intentions.
"All yours Naoki!" backing off, Iwa made his way back and prepared for an attack.
Naoki did what he did best and received the ball perfectly placing it above Oikawa.
Having gone over signals before service started all the players knew what to do and taking a page out of Shinzen's book they did a combo attack. Iwa came for a back-row attack, and Mad Dog relentlessly rushed in, the desire to get the ball palpable, Motomu even participated as if going for a quick attack. Bodhi however wasn't in this play and was designated alongside Naoki as the last line of defence.
Kuro and the Nekoma defenders were wary of all the Seijo players attacking, but like usual kept a cool head and went over all their approaches.
Kuro having done it the fastest, quickly got himself in position and did a one-man block on Mad Dog. Mad Dog who hadn't expected to be caught this quick, did what he did best and just completely smashed the ball attempting to get through Kuro's block. However, he was completely shut down, Kuro going for the kill block and absolutely shutting down Mad Dog's spike.
"Better grow there Chihuahua boy," Kuro taunted.
"Damn it!"
"Shake it off Mad Dog! Back on defence," Iwa yelled, stopping the meltdown before it began.
"Mmm," Coach Irihata pondered. That had been their first try at a combo attack of such a high level. And while it succeeded in some fashion, not missing the set or spiker entirely, the others had backed off too much which allowed for Nekoma's captain to ascertain who was going to hit. "We'll have to work on that, eh Mizoguchi? Amongst many other areas too."
"You're right about that Nobu," Mizoguchi readily agreed.
As the two of them pondered on what more they could improve upon, Inuoka served once again sending the ball over in a similar spot but it went of course and went straight to Naoki who was waiting for it.
"Damn! Right to him, my bad!" Inuoka said getting back to his spot.
"No worries, be ready!" Fukunaga said, eyes watching Seijo's every move.
Despite being in prime position, Naoki misjudged the spin of the ball and it went slightly off on the pass back to Oikawa, causing him to move slightly.
Shit! Gotta do better! Naoki thought, taking a step back and getting in position for a recovery if need be.
"Iwa!" Oikawa shouted, tossing it to Iwaizumi for a quick attack.
The quick however turned out to not be quite fast enough as Kuro got a hand on it, making it a one-touch.
"Kai!"
"Got it!"
Kai managed to get the first touch and sent an A-pass to Kenma, who was grateful he didn't have to move this time.
Finally…Now who to send it to? Could do that?
Kenma glanced around quickly and locked eyes with Kuro who had begun his approach for a quick. And as Kenma's hands reached the ball to set, he promptly did a setter dump catching everyone off guard.
The ball gently landed on the floor making the score 15-12.
The momentum Seijo had from Bodhi's serves was now dwindling as Nekoma had got a second wind due to their captain's phenomenal play.
"Alright! Let's turn it around!" Kuro yelled, raising his team's morale.
On another court, Fukurodani had just finished beating Ubugawa 25-18. A complete domination from start to finish. Most of those points had come from their serve and blocks whenever Fukurodani didn't do a great receive. Something Coach Takeyuki was adamant about improving before the qualifiers started.
"Oi! Who do we play next Aakashi!" Bokuto yelled. He hadn't played all that well against Ubugawa and wanted to unleash some hurt on the next opponents.
"That would be Shinzen. We then play Karasuno and before we reach the break of the first round of matches Aoba Johsai," Aakashi told Bokuto…Once again.
"Bokuto, you need to be in top form when we play Aoba Johsai. So please, get rid of all your ridiculousness before then," Tatsuki stated. Looking over at the court where Nekoma and Aoba Johsai were playing. But once he did a feral grin spread across his face, and he noted Bodhi's aura and demeanour had shifted slightly.
Apparently, Kuro and Nekoma had done something to rile up the Maverick's spirit. "Everybody…You're going to want to watch this,"
"The Maverick is about to let loose…"
Author Note: Not much to say honestly, I found myself enjoying writing this match. Let me know how you think I did, things I could improve upon and such.
The next chap will be on Tuesday.
Thinking of doing a Tuesday and Friday kind of release schedule. Does that sound good?
Later!
-Daedalus19