Disclaimer: I do not own Haikyuu! or anything associated with it. I only own the OC's Akumu Yuki and Akumu Shiro. All rights go to Haruichi Furudate.

A/n: Part 2~ Warning: kind of depressing? (not actually that bad though)

Yuki got into position at the back, ball in hand. She bounced it twice and took a deep breath with her eyes closed, erasing the butterflies in her chest as she remembered the last block she had witnessed. The whistle blew. Emerald eyes opened.

Throwing the ball in the air, Yuki jumped and slammed her hand on the ball.

Bang!

"Nice serve!" Her teammates called as the service ace hit the other court.

Yuki just nodded and waited for the ball to be thrown back. Once it was in her hand, she threw up the ball again and jumped.

Bang!

"Nice serve! One more!" Her teammates called again.

Yuki nodded again. Keep the momentum. She thought to herself. At her age, a jump serve was rare even for the boys' volleyball, so her serves were more often service aces than not.

Yuki bounced the ball twice and took another deep breath. Tossing the ball up, she ran forward, but she already knew the toss was off. Regardless, she slammed her hand on the ball and watched in disappointment as it hit the top of the net. Somehow though, it managed to fall into their opponent's court getting them another point.

"Nice serve!" The benched teammates called out except a particular redhead.

Though they had gotten the point, Yuki still beat herself up over the poor serve. She had practiced this serve until her arms ached for days. A simple mistake like this was unacceptable.

Yuki jumped for another serve, but she knew the throw was already off. Hitting the ball as hard as she could, she watched as the ball flew past the lines marking the court.

Ffffft!

The whistle sounded, a red flag signaling the out. Yuki apologized to her teammates who just told her it was alright.

Yuki kept her eyes on the ball as the other team set up for the serve. As soon as the ball was hit, Yuki rushed to the front of the net. Her eyes followed the ball as it was received by their captain. Holding her hands up, she watched the blockers out of the corner of her eyes. Seeing the right side with less defense, she set it backwards after feinting a glance left.

Slam

Yuki glanced over in confusion at the sound of the ball hitting the ground. It was softer than a normal spike should've been. Standing on the right wing, Emiko looked at her with an annoyed expression.

"What was that Akumu?" She demanded, her green hair bouncing as she marched over to the white haired setter. Yuki backed up in confusion.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"I didn't know you were going to set to me. I almost missed." Emiko growled.

"How is that my fault? It was a good set, and you hit it. The blockers were closer to the left and middle, so I obviously was going to set to the right." Yuki explained calmly. She still didn't understand what Emiko was angry about.

"Well you looked left. I thought you were going to set to Hana." She pointed at the brown haired spiker who was just shyly watching the confrontation.

"It was a feint glance." Yuki responded easily. It was a strategy her and Kenma had discussed. He had brought it up to her and asked her what she thought of it. She didn't see any reason it wasn't a good play to fool the other side, but apparently her teammates had other ideas.

Before the argument could continue, the whistle blew again. The referee gave them the signal to continue the match before they got a penalty. Emiko shot Yuki another glare before returning to her position for the serve.

Emiko threw the ball and hit a regular overhand serve. They kept a careful eye on the ball as the other team's libero made a clean receive. Chiyo, Hana, and Sakura were set up in a spread block in order to cover all corners of the court. The setter tossed the ball to their middle spiker thinking Chiyo, as the youngest and shortest, would be the least likely to handle the one-on-one block.

As the ball was spiked, Chiyo jumped for the block but was easily blown away by the strong hit. Flying high in the air, the ball was headed far off the end of the court, but the sound of the ball hitting the ground never came. Out of seemingly nowhere, Hiro had managed to receive the ball. It flew to the net where Yuki was waiting along with the opponent's blockers. Keeping her attention on the ball, she gave a quick scan and noticed the blockers were targeting Hana, their main front blocker with the current rotation. There was also a single blocker on the other side of the court marking Emiko in case of a back attack. As the ball fell into her hands, Yuki knew there was only one possibility that would ensure them the point.

Tip…

The other team dove for the ball, but they were too late. Yuki had managed a setter dump at the last second even as she fell from her original jump. Seeing the despair on the faces of her opponents, Yuki gave a small smile thinking of how her sister would take pleasure in their distress. Her smile quickly fell as she remembered the poor condition she had left Shiro in. Hopefully she's okay… Yuki worried in her mind before returning to her position.

Emiko hit another serve. It was once again cleanly received and they performed a quick attack their blockers had no chance of defending against without their two best blockers, Ao waiting to be changed with their libero and Shiro suffering from lack of sleep. Both teams went back into position after their opponents celebrated breaking their momentum.

After the other team served, Yuki ran to the front from her position to get ready to set. Sakura managed to receive the well placed serve which had been aimed between her and Hiro, but it went long. Tracking it as it headed towards the net, Yuki forgot to check the blockers and jumped. Realizing she didn't know which spiker was free, she instinctively called, "Right!"

She set the ball off of muscle memory from her hours of training and watched in horror as Emiko struggled to hit the ball meant for a left handed spike. She barely managed to graze the ball with the back of her hand as she fell, but the ball spun out of control and flew out of the court. If it had been Shiro, the set would have been a guaranteed point regardless of the blockers; however, Shiro wasn't here. It was just Yuki. And she had messed up.

Her face was void of emotion. She just stared at the empty spot the ball had fallen to before bouncing off. In her daze, she didn't realize her spiky green haired teammate was marching up to her.

Emiko grabbed her by the front of her uniform and lifted the smaller girl in the air. "What the hell kind of set was that?" She shouted into the setter's face. "I already told you. I'm not your precious little sister. Are you really such a poor setter you can't set for anyone else?"

"Emiko!" Sakura came over to pull the bigger girl off the dazed white haired setter. "Stop it. You know Yuki is a great setter. She's probably just having an off day because her sister is sick."

"Tch." Emiko tsked. "I'm sorry Shiro's sick, but we're a team. We all need to pull our weight. YOU especially or you're going to be swapped out. Got it?"

Yuki didn't bother with a response and just returned to her position. She felt shame bubbling in her chest. She didn't understand what was going on. Usually her sets were near perfect. Her teammates had always complimented her for her sets that seemed to be tailored specifically for them.

Hearing the whistle blow, she focused her attention back on the game trying to ignore the seedlings of doubt that seemed to refuse to leave her alone. Hearing Hiro call for the follow up, she watched the ball and the blockers and called for Hana to spike. The ball fell into her hand like normal, but as soon as she let go, she knew it was off.

Everyone watched as the ball sped past Hana before she could complete her jump. The entire gym was silent except the bouncing of the ball. Even as the other team's school started cheering for the point, all Yuki could hear was the loud ringing in her ears. Feeling dizzy all of a sudden, she signaled to the coach for a time out.

Even Emiko left her alone as she sat on the bench, Emerald eyes wide open with a crazy gleam to them. For some reason, the ringing never left her ears and all she could see were images of each of her failed sets playing over and over and over and over…

Chapter 10 End