Chapter 19, My Ace

THIRD POV

"Akaashi!" Koutarou growled before jumping.

"Bokuto-san!" Akaashi slightly grunted as he tossed the ball to him.

Koutarou jumped and spiked the ball, Ameri's receive was off because his spike was too strong. It was a 17-14 with Fukurodani leading, if they scored a point, Shirome might carry them with her serves alone.

Koutarou served hard but Ameri somewhat received it, Shirome was at the side of the net as she slightly jumped at the ball.

Thump

Akaashi's eyes widened as she saw her dump, he slid for the ball, unable to receive it in time.

He looked up to see Shirome looking at him, he got up and remained blank.

"What's your name?" She asked with big curious eyes.

Akaashi didn't expect this, "Keiji Akaashi," He mumbled to her.

She smiled, slightly making Akaashi's ears pink. She turned back and headed to the serving zone.

Bouncing the ball with her hand, she glanced at the opponent infront of her blankly. The referee blew his whistle and it was time for her to serve.

Slightly sighing, she tossed the ball high. Two small steps, a big one, a slight jump, and she spiked it over to the opposing team's captain with her right hand.

Koutarou blinked as he realized the ball already landed in at his side, he quickly glanced at Shirome and pouted at her.

She snickered slightly as she served again.

It looks like Oikawa's serve. Karasuno thought.

Kageyama tightened his fists as his knuckles turned white, he suddenly thinks Oikawa taught Shirome his serve. He decided he will talk to her about it later.

After a couple no touch serves, she finally weakened her jump serve when they hit 18, a point higher than Fukurodani. Their libero caught the ball and sent it to Akaashi.

Bokuto-san's straights are good today, so are his line shots. If I can just toss this to him a little faster, the blockers won't be able to reach him. But even if I did toss it like usual, the blockers didn't seem to want to block Bokuto-san. They looked like they were blocking ways for him to spike at except the way for his line shots, and cross shots. Are they baiting Bokuto-san to spike to their libero? Why aren't they blocking him? Akaashi ranted in his thoughts in mere 0.05 seconds.

"All yours!" Akaashi called to the human owl.

He spiked the ball and they earned the point. Shirome was unfazed but Ameri's eyes were twitching. She was itching to receive Koutaro's line shots, but Shirome wasn't letting her. The blockers were also a little pissed off, not at the small captain but at her decision to not counter any attacks from the owl captain.

This goes on until they were both tied. 24-24. They made a deuce with Fukurodani scoring recently.

"Shiro, I feel like you're holding back on me. You're purposely not letting the blockers block me, aren't you? And you're purposely letting me hit line shots?" Koutaro whined as everyone stared in shock. They didn't notice it at all.

Fukurodani was shocked at what Koutaro said. Most are shocked that he was able to tell that, but some were shocked to know that Fushichou was holding back on Fukurodani, the best team here so far.

Akaashi glanced at the blank faced gradient head and sighed, "Shiro-san, if his emo mode is what you're worried about, it's okay. We can handle him. I think," He slightly bit his lip as he glanced at the whining owl.

Shirome sighed, "Are you sure?" Akaashi nodded, "Koutarou?" She asked the tall owl.

He grinned widely, "I can take you on!" He gave her a thumbs up.

She slightly gave a scheming smile as she turned to the team, they nodded. They were excited to finally counter his attacks, finally the plan dropped.

Akaashi served and Aoi received it with ease, passing it to Shirome. She tossed the ball to Leki, using Hito as a decoy. Score.

Kira, who was now subbed in for Aizen, served. Konoha received it with ease and gave it to Akaashi.

He dumped the ball but Shirome caught it with her foot. She touched it first. Akaashi's brows furrowed.

Ameri ran to the ball and made a libero toss, shocking everyone. She set it to Leki but it was blocked. The gradient head grinds as she laid her hand flat on the floor where the ball was about to drop. The ball bounced on her knuckles and Ameri went for another libero toss.

Hito hit the ball but their libero received it, the ball was long and returning to Fushichou's court.

I'm still not satisfied. Shirome grinned as she looked up to the ball, setting it to Fukurodani's side.

Koutarou saw her smile and immediately knew she's letting them score to keep the game going. He spiked the ball after Akaashi's set.

"Did she just seriously let them score so the game lasts longer?" Tsukishima grimaced a little.

"Shirome might not look like it, but sometimes her hunger in making the game last longer is strong," Ukai said, Takeda nodding in agreement. Tanaka shivered.

The team rallied for a while, the teams are 28-27 with Fukurodani on the lead.

The ball almost hit the back of the court as Leki barely received it. Ameri made another libero toss as the ball went to her.

The wing spikers were a little far to hit Ameri's toss.

Fukurodani almost cheered when they noticed she has no one to set to, but they immediately regretted their thoughts.

Shinzen, Ubugawa, Nekoma, Karasuno, and Fukurodani almost popped their eyeballs off as the small setter went for the toss.

She jumped slightly higher than her normal jump, right hand infront and left hand pulled back ready to spike. Her knees are slightly bent under her as she was in the air.

The blockers jumped as she spiked, but the ball forced and pushed the blocker's arm, landing on Fukurodani's side. The ball bounced high as it slammed on the ground. She looked like she spiked it normally, but the force is stronger than what it was supposed to be.

Landing with ease, Ameri gave Shirome a thumbs up.

So high! Almost all of them shouted in their thoughts.

Hinata's eyes widened as he stared seriously at the girl, almost drilling a hole at the back of her head from the hard stare he's giving her.

"Well Hinata, looks like you met a rival," Number 2 from Karasuno jokingly said.

"That's really cool, she hit with her left hand too," Hinata seriously said, his crow like eyes never leaving the girl.

"As expected from Shirome," Kenma sighed, Tetsuro just hummed amused at the girl.

The team rallied for a while, as Shirome was occasionally blocking some of Koutaro's spikes, and receiving his line shots.

He began to feel pressured and gloomy.

Oh no. Akaashi flinched, his teammates noticed and they started to panic.

Koutaro looked down, feeling depressed, "Akaashi," He paused.

"Oh no–" Fukurodani mentally face palmed.

"Akaashi," He continued, slightly sniffling, "Don't toss to me anymo–"

"Kou."

He stopped and glanced at the girl infront of him. She was smiling sweetly at him, as figurative flowers and sparkles radiated off of her.

She stared at him softly, "You're the best ace in the world."

As she retreated to her position, Koutaro straightened up with a big smile.

"I knew it! I'm the best ace in the world!" He threw his arms in the air, laughing happily as if he didn't felt depressed just earlier.

Fukurodani was surprised that she was able to pull their captain off of his emo mode with ease.

"Just a sentence, and she pulled him back up? Interesting," Konoha said, number 3 nodding along with him.

Shirome was slightly taken aback when Fukurodani bowed to her quickly and got into their positions.

31-30, Fushichou was leading.

They rallied, Koutaro felt on top of his game and forgot that he was about to breakdown earlier. He was playing happily, almost forgetting that he was in a match.

As he spiked the ball, Shirome's hand met the ball. With their equal forces, the ball bounced up and high. They dropped to the floor and stared at the falling ball, not knowing where it would land.

Shirome blinked at Koutaro and he did the same.

They both took a step back and watched the ball land on the net, rolling far from Shirome.

Tha ball fell on their side, Ameri slid trying to receive it, "Bastard–", but she put too much force so the ball flew out.

Shirome whistled lowly, "You win this time."

The human owl laughed, "Of course!"

31-31. The longest game this day had so far.

The coaches were too absorbed in their match, they didn't want to continue the other schools to play just yet. But then again, everyone was also interested in this match.

They rallied once again, but this time Fukurodani's libero accidentally bumped the ball too long. Ameri was forced to receive the ball, and she accidentally gave it to Leki. She excelled in any position so she can probably set to Hito.

But she was wrong, Leki set it too fast that Hito wasn't able to hit it.

Swiftly going for the ball, Shirome did a slide hit, appearing behind Hito. She slid to the right and spiked the ball with her right hand in mid air. They secured the point. 32-32.

Too fast. Tsukishima grimaced.

One more point for Fushichou and they'll win.

"Shiro stop being such an ace," The owl captain whined at her.

Shirome chuckled.

"Why are small volleyball players so monstrous and demonic?" Tsukishima rolled his eyes.

"Stingyshima," Hinata muttered, Tsukishima glared at him.

"Say, Kenma. Was Shiro-chan this good when you met her?" Tetsuro asked the silent pudding head.

Kenma shook his head, "She didn't play volleyball back then. I only saw her toss to herself. She just played recently, like 2 months ago or something. She's a prodigy."

The teams can't help but have respect for the smallest captain in the gym.

Both teams were slightly losing their speed as the game continued, they had the longest rally, until Ameri did a bad receive.

"Shit–" She cursed as she saw Kira about to be hit by the ball on the face.

But Kira has fast reflexes and put her arms out, allowing the ball to bounce. This wasn't exactly a set since it's near the net and is low.

But to Shirome, it was the chance to secure the final point and win the match.

Jumping with her back on the net, she made a backward spike with her left hand. The ball landed in and the whistle blew.

Fushichou won.

The girls sighed heavily and high fived each other, but the small captain went to Koutarou.

She didn't expect to see him smiling.

"Hey, hey, hey! You won against me in your first match with me. I gotta say, that's really impressive," He smiled widely and giving Shirome high fives.

She grinned, "I learned from the best."

He blinked, confused, "Huh? Who??"

She laughed, "You, of course. You're my favourite ace after all."

The owl slightly blushed then patted her on the head softly, "I'm really moved," He grinned.

"Well, I'm off to my team. You guys will help us stretch after spiking drills, right?" He asked.

"Yes, yes, yes. Now go on, your team is waiting," They waved fo each other as they parted ways.

Tossing for them was really easy, they were really disciplined with their postures and power. The wing spikers are really good aimers, middle blockers are powerful, and the setters are fast. Koutarou insisted Shirome to toss to her a few times before moving to Akaashi, Fukurodani can't help but just allowed him to.

It was time for their stretching and Ameri rested with the girls for a while as they wait for the boys prepare. Shirome was taking a longer break than them, but after a while she eventually got up.

She grabbed her clipboard as usual and went to Fukurodani, all of them were already stretching their arms.

Taking notes, she was oblivious to the stares. She always was. But then again, she didn't mind. All she need to do is to focus and take notes for Fukurodani. Writing neatly, she saw a stray ball zooming at her.

"EEK! FURUMI-SAN!" A boy tangerine shrieked.

The small captain saw the ball that was going fast at her, both her hands were occupied so she wasn't able to block it.

Suddenly, someone dressed in black tracksuit with red details appeared infront of her just as the ball was about to hit her face. He let it drop to the ground before turning to see if the girl was alright.

"Are you okay?" He raised a brow, concern glazing his grey eyes.

Shirome blinked and focused on her notes, "Yeah, thanks for the save, Kuro."

"Always welcome," He smiled at her before ruffling her hair.

He left as he helped the other managers with stuff for the players, the girl managers were flustered at the boy. His good looks and tall height charming them, although Shimizu was the only one unfazed.

"Furumi-san! I'm sorry!" Hinata approached her and bowed.

"Shoyo stop being formal, you're older than me you know?" She slightly laughed and ruffled Hinata's orange hair.

"Y-Y-Yes!" He blushed like a madman.

"Hinata you dumbass! Stop flirting and get back here!" Kageyama yelled.

"O-On my way!" Hinata yelled back.

Shirome smiled at him before waving goodbye, he saluted and ran to his team, looking like a tomato.

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