"WE WON AGAIN!" Tanaka exclaimed, celebrating with a happy expression on his face.
"It wasn't a perfect game... but it's acceptable..." Hinata said in a relaxed tone while grabbing a water bottle to drink.
"Come on, seriously! They didn't even reach 20 points!" Tanaka questioned.
"I have to agree with Hinata. We had the game under control, but after some receives errors on their serves, they managed to recover some points..." Kageyama said, thinking about the game they had just played.
"It wasn't a clean game, and we did make some defensive mistakes, but we still managed to get a solid result. We can relax for now..." Sugawara observed, joining the conversation.
"Right! Now it's time for us to rest because we'll face Nekoma after the match between Shinzen and Fukurodani," Daichi declared.
"Nekoma, huh... It's been a while since the practice match. I'm curious to see if they've improved..." Hinata said, holding the water bottle he had just drunk from.
"Well, at least we already know they recruited that silver-haired guy with a powerful spike," Kageyama replied, looking at Lev, who was also staring at the Karasuno team.
"What a drag... Playing against that idiot middle blocker from their team who keeps using that out-of-rhythm attack is so annoying..." Tsukishima complained, stretching out his words as he called Kuroo annoying.
After a few minutes, the match between Fukurodani and Shinzen took place, with Fukurodani winning comfortably 25-18. It was now time for the match between Karasuno and Nekoma to begin.
"Keishin, I hope your team hasn't been slacking off all this time. We'll face each other several times, and I don't want our 1-1 record to become too lopsided in our favor!" Nekomata teased.
"No chance. You won't have an easy time facing us. We have a new weapon that might be troublesome for your players..." Ukai said in a provocative tone, shrugging.
"Are you talking about that weird super-quick guy? It's an interesting attack, but I'm confident we'll handle it..." Nekomata concluded, heading back to his bench.
"It seems like Nekomata-sensei enjoys teasing you!" Takeda said, scratching the back of his neck with a smile.
"Yeah... but we won't let things go the way he wants!" Ukai declared.
"Alright, our first match against Nekoma, our rivals. Against them, we always have to take things more seriously. Last time, we ended up tied... I believe everyone is determined to turn that in our favor!" Daichi said.
"YES!" Everyone shouted in unison as they headed to their positions.
The match started with Kageyama serving for Karasuno, hitting the ball hard toward Nekoma's court.
"I got it!" said Kai, Nekoma's vice-captain, as he received Kageyama's serve, directing the pass to Kenma, who started the game with a feint, looking at Kuroo in the middle but then passing to Yamamoto. Yamamoto observed the triple block from Karasuno's Hinata, Tsukishima, and Tanaka, who were a bit late due to Kenma's feint. Yamamoto managed to hit the ball over Karasuno's block, spiking it toward the court where Nishinoya dove to try and stop it but couldn't.
1-0 Nekoma.
"I'm not going to lose to you, you playboy!" Yamamoto shouted, pointing at Hinata.
"Playboy?" Hinata said, looking confused as he pointed at himself.
"Shut up, Yamamoto, you idiot!" Yaku said, hitting Yamamoto in the ribs.
After that point, it was Fukunaga's turn to serve toward Karasuno's court.
"This one's mine!" Daichi said, receiving the ball without any issues and directing the pass to Kageyama.
"Nice receive!" Kageyama said as he moved across the court to get under the ball and set it. After analyzing Nekoma's defense for a moment, he set the ball to Tanaka, who was in position two. After jumping, Tanaka saw a double block from Kuroo and Kenma but managed to hit the ball off the side of Kenma's hands, scoring the point for Karasuno.
1-1 Tie.
"Hey, Tora! Don't even think about intimidating my juniors!" Tanaka said, pointing at Yamamoto.
"It's fine, Tanaka-san, let's just play!" Hinata said, calming Tanaka down.
"Alright! I'll show those guys who's in charge!" Tanaka said, grabbing the ball and heading to the serving position. He served toward Nekoma's court.
"I got this!" Kai said, receiving the ball served by Tanaka and directing the pass to Kenma.
"Nice receive, Kai-san," Kenma said in his usual monotone voice, once again using the same play, feinting with a look toward Kuroo but then setting the ball to Yamamoto. Yamamoto faced a triple block from Hinata, Daichi, and Tsukishima and tried to spike the ball, which ended up hitting Daichi's fingers.
"TOUCHED!" Daichi shouted.
"Alright, let's do this!" Tanaka said, receiving the ball and passing it to Kageyama, who quickly glanced at Tsukishima. The two then executed a quick attack together. As Tsukishima received the ball, he faced a triple block from Kuroo, Kenma, and Yamamoto. He tried to slam the ball down, but Kuroo blocked it, sending the ball back to Karasuno's court.
2-1 Nekoma.
"What's wrong, four-eyes? If you want to score like that, you'll have to try harder than that!" Kuroo teased with a smile on his face.
"Tsk!" Tsukishima grunted.
"This time they got us. We couldn't block their attack, and they countered with a strong block... As expected from Nekoma," Ukai said.
"Yeah... but he's coming in again..." Takeda said, his eyes falling on Lev, who had just entered the game in place of Yaku.
"IT'S SHOWTIME!" Lev said, looking excited.
"Don't do anything stupid!" Yaku ordered as he passed by him and sat on the bench.
"That guy is really tall..." Kageyama observed.
"Yeah! I didn't think we'd find someone taller than Hinata, but I was wrong!" Tanaka exclaimed, looking at Lev.
"Indeed, he's 2cm taller than me," Hinata replied, watching as Kuroo went to the serving position.