- Chapter 4 -
"Smallest and most basic unit of matter." "Atom."
"Ratio of a slope in a graph?" "Y. M. X. B. The slope is the M. Y equals M times X plus B."
"Average speed?" "Time divides by distance."
"Incorrect." "Distance divided by time, then."
"Study of motion disregarding its cause?" "Kinematics."
Counting minutes to the science quiz, Class 4 scrambled to revisit their chapters and notes and past exercise. Students were grouping up, asking questions and reviewing answers. Some were taking the loud, auditory method of memorizing the terms, like what Suzuki and other girls were doing. Others decided to go basic with visualization and formula drawing, like what Tsukishima did while listening to some songs on his headphones. And then there were people like Enma who fell asleep instead. But Enma was a different case; as Tsukishima learned from Yamaguchi, who he had learned from Suzuki that Enma actually was considered the top students in his junior year, just a lack of ambition and behavior; too much sour in the lemonade.
"Guys, the teacher's exiting the staff room. Coming upstairs!" Another boy of his class said, scurrying into the class. Instantly, all students returned to their chairs, setting up their slanted tables.
Tsukishima caught Suzuki throwing a ball of paper across the room and it hit Enma's mouth. What an accuracy.
"Who did that!"
"Wake up, Enma. The class is starting soon." Suzuki grunted. "And clean that face of yours. You're drooling."
"Damn it!" he cursed and sat up.
Somehow, Enma reminded him so much of Nishinoya, both in size and attitude.
Eventually the class all quiet down when their science teacher came. And their forty-five-minute quiz began.
It was funny to see different types of people concentrating. Yamaguchi, for instance, was actually very scary. His small eyes hardened when he started focusing on calculations. Tsukishima knew that for a while. Another example was the boy next to him; Dosuke, he had a thing to drum his fingers on the table before crossing the answer - the drumming could be to stimulate his thinking.
Sometimes, Tsukishima's eyes darted slowly to the right side of the rows. Suzuki's side profile…her brows furrowed, scrunching her nose. And actually, her tongue had slid out and pinched between her lips. He gritted his teeth, fighting a smile. That being said, he wondered if his own face was as unique as hers.
(With his glasses glinting, he looked fierce when he worked on the problems. He was quiet and very subtle. When he was thinking of a way out, he had a habit of resting his chin on his hand and staring into the void. Only when he found a solution, he started writing again. Suzuki had secretly glanced back a couple of times.)
About forty minutes later, Tsukishima was finished with all fifteen multiple choices and five essays. He looked around the room to check on others. A couple students seemed to have also finished theirs, that included Enma who was already sleeping again. Either he was finished, or he gave up, he was not sure. Suzuki looked like she was just about done, slouching deeper on her chair, stationary already tidied up.
"Time's up everyone. Kindly please collect your paper at the front desk."
Enma was the first to go forward and then followed by the other students. Tsukishima stood next to Suzuki at the teacher's table, their shoulders brushed due to the sudden crowd. Tsukishima always held his position; maintain his cool. That touch was enough to startle him; a wider stance held him in place. (When his shoulder touched her, her heart sort of skipped a beat. She felt her legs weakening, from the angle and the contact. She actually was, now slightly tip-toeing so she wouldn't need to actually lean on him too much. Should she?)
"Eh gomen ne, Tsukishima."
"Ie. No problem."
"Is that everyone? Alright then. We're pretty much done with today's class. I'll see all of you next time."
When the teacher had left the class, the atmosphere of the class changed into more of an at ease. Students with clean-up duty stayed to take today's responsibilities while those who didn't decided either to help, to do afternoon school activities, or simply go home. Tsukishima decided to go home instead.
"Suzuki-chan! New uniform today! Come on!" Tsukishima heard Mirai's voice booming from the classroom door. He looked to see her and Aoki already peeking in.
"Can you just not scream out all over the place? I guess not." Suzuki laughed, grabbing her bag. "A moment, yeah!"
"Yamaguchi, Tsukishima, ossu!"
"Hai, Mirai!" Yamaguchi waved. "Didn't I hear of a new uniform?"
"That's right. We're getting a new pair of Karasuno jerseys. It's going to be a different design, color scheme and all. Oh, I am so excited!"
"I have seen the design actually, but I still can't wait to try it on." Aoki nodded just as enthusiastic. "They're going to use Latin for our names, instead of Hiragana."
"Really? That sounds amazing. Like a pro-player." Suzuki commented, laughing. "I'm all set. Can I count on you Yamaguchi?"
"Sure. We're almost done here anyway." Yamaguchi shrugged. "You all can go now."
"Yosha!" Mirai exclaimed once more, strutting outside. Followed by Aoki who took the exit in a much calmer tone.
Suzuki smiled and turned to the boys. "Ja, see you guys around Yamaguchi, Tsukishima!"
Tsukishima nodded to her. Eyes subtly kept on her pace until she was out of the door. Actually, until she was out of the view from the window.
"Oy Tsukki. Tsukki?"
His eyes widened to the sudden sight of Yamaguchi who was staring at him. The blonde pursed. "What?"
"Tsukki…" Yamaguchi blinked. "Ah, I see."
"I see what?" Tsukishima asked and suddenly he frowned when Yamaguchi pulled off the most lopsided smile Tsukishima had ever seen.
"I have been meaning to ask you for a while, but I wasn't so sure. But now I am going to ask you because I am really sure." Such an unusually lengthy sentence, Tsukishima frowned. Yamaguchi leaned in. "You like Suzuki?"
If Tsukishima was drinking some water, he would have choked on it and died. Cut out the drinking part, he didn't die; but still he choked on himself. "E-excuse me?!"
"I caught you staring at her a couple of times. In the class, during the Golden Week Camp. I think I saw you smirking to yourself while staring at her on multiple occasions. And just then you practically gawked at her." Yamaguchi said, grinning. "You do, don't you? Etto, Tsukki, your ears are blushing red."
"S-shut up Yamaguchi." Tsukishima rolled his eyes. "I'm leaving you."
"Ehe, wait up. Don't you run away, Tsukki." The dark-haired boy laughed as he caught up. "I was only asking. No need to be so annoyed."
Tsukishima was actually very very annoyed.
Thankfully Yamaguchi did not ponder around the topic when Tsukishima, ad a desperate attempt to change the topic, decided to ask about his practice with the float serve with one of the neighborhood volleyball team players, Shimada Makoto. As they walked, Yamaguchi told him how the float serve was very hard to grasp since the serve relies on ball control. Not only that, but the contact also needed to be precise, so the ball actually floated in instead of spinning off. Tsukishima tried a couple of times and failed miserably.
With no practice for the evening, Tsukishima mostly spent his time inside his bedroom; doing homework or a small reading, or sometimes watching movies and scrolling through social media; headphones already covering his ears. His eyes caught on. There was a recent post that Hinata liked; an announcement of the Inter-High Volleyball Tournament from an official account. Not only him, he read Nishinoya and Tanaka also liked the post. And Yamaguchi as well. Automatically, Tsukishima glanced at the clothing hung on the wall. Two sets of dark blue and orange uniforms, with the same number eleven laid across the back.
With June closing in, he had mixed feelings of going into the tournament, though he was not sure why. A part of him just wanted to get the job done and go home. But a part of him wondered how the Inter-High was going to be. Could they win? Could he win? Should he care?
The small screen on his phone dimmed so he touched it to light. His eyes narrowed. After a reload, Yamaguchi had liked another recent post.
There was a picture of a team, with a variety of members from first years to third years, from red hair to brown hair, from short to tall. Their new jersey was very catchy. Unlike his own uniform, the girls' basketball team fashioned a red and gold theme. He clicked on the picture and zoomed in. The number 8, Suzuki, sat down at the end of the first row, smiling at the camera. The second picture, she stood the tallest at the standing formation between Mirai and Aoki, on her hands holding a basketball.
She wore the color red proudly. She looked tall and fierce.
The corner of his mouth twitched in a smile.
- Chapter 4 -
Hakusuikan has different players now, Suzuki thought seeing the Hakusuikan High School line-up, noticing unfamiliar faces from their last encounter in a friendly match. Is that their new Forwards?
"Listen up girls, this is not your first time facing them. We were almost winning back then." Hiruzen-sensei's voice blared on. "Yes, a couple of new faces but you already know how most of them operate. So now, let's win this shit!" Suzuki always admired how this Social Studies Teacher always cursed outside the classroom, and it always boosted the morale of the team. What a pep-talk.
"Suzuki-chan, jump ball."
"Hai." Suzuki nodded and went to the middle of the court.
"Heh, it's you again." She remembered one of the opponent's players, the same Center just like her. "Are you ready to get your ass beat again?"
"Ceh, you wish."
The official threw the ball up and both of them jumped to tip-off the ball. The Blue team made possession of the ball and they quickly moved forward to charge into their opponent's hoop. However, Karasuno's Red team was ready for defense. When the Blue player jumped for a fadeaway shot, Suzuki nailed the jump and pushed the ball out of the shooting area.
It was deja vu all over again, with the first quarter ended with Hakusuikan leading the match with thirteen and eight; just like the one at the practice match back in April. By then the Karasuno team was well aware of Hakusuisan's strong offence, with the new players in the field. However, the coach and their team was made to notice a hole in their defense since they somewhat lack reaction. At this Karasuno made a quick comeback to even up the odds.
In the middle of the second quarter, the Hakusuikan team called for a time-out.
"For some reason, I think their inner-line players are subs." Their captain, Hiamura, called out as they huddled. "That number nine moves much more like a passer than a Forward."
"I was thinking the same thing," Hiruzen-sensei nodded. "If that's the case, let's have each one of you lock on each of them. But be careful, if they were indeed an experienced Guard, they'd excel in snatching the ball. Ease up and drink, girls."
Suzuki sighed and took a big gulp from the bottle, eyes glancing at the current scoreboard. Twenty-two and nineteen, for Karasuno. That's actually not bad, she nodded to herself, reassuring. This pace is good. Keep this lead. Her eyes slowly drifted to where she spotted her brother Tomoru and his teammates watching from the lower bleacher. He gave her a thumb-up, which she responded with an eye roll.
Their strategy seemed to work, for a moment. After Karasuno took a bigger gap of points in the second quarter, Hakusuikan noticed the lock-on, and their coach made a split-second decision to change the players. This unfortunately broke the momentum and caused Karasuno some points by the end of the second round.
"Mirai, free throw." Suzuki called. "Let's do this now."
Mirai nodded and warmed up her stance. The first throw went in smoothly, earning them one point. But she knew what Suzuki was after. Mirai made the throw and it hit the rim. Sometimes, players often waited for the ball to fall. But that just wasted too much time. While the Blue team was waiting, Suzuki charged forward between the opponent and went in for a putback, giving them a nice two-point dunk.
"Nice! Nice one, Suzuki!"
"Very good. Let's go girls! We can win this!"
Coming into the third round, things started to get very intense. It seemed that each team already knew each other's strengths and weaknesses and how the players compensated around that. Karasuno's rebound shot, although still very strong and fast, started to become less of a surprise to the point that Hakusuikan's player managed to block the Centre for charging in time. On the other hand, Hakusuikan's passing and trajectory became very readable by their players' positioning; the ball was easily snatched from them. By the end of the third round, their score was forty-one and thirty-seven, for Karasuno.
"Phew, I'm tired. My legs are turning jelly!" Mirai said, panting. "At least we're in the lead."
"Yes, but not much. We still need to gap it far in order to actually lead." Aoki sighed. "It wasn't this intense before."
"Mind you that we're in a tournament, yeah? No more practice games." Hiamura chuckled. "Come girls, one more round and we can win this. Huddle up."
The final fourth quarter was when the winner took all. And suddenly the court became a battlefield. Shots were fired from different directions; lots of lay-ups, rebounds, three-pointers, follow through; and along with those high jumps and sturdy blocks followed. Two minutes left, Suzuki glanced at the board. We're losing the score. "Kagami-senpai, Mirai, we need some three-pointers."
Taking nice breaths, Suzuki watched as Kagami, their second-year player, passed the ball between the outer-line player, while it gave a quick break for Suzuki and the other two offenders. It ended in Mirai shooting a three-pointer in their pocket. Perhaps Hakusuikan had underestimated the shortest player on the court. They underestimated Mirai's exceptionally quick thinking and accuracy, as Karasuno quickly caught on with six points thanks to her. And once Mirai missed her shot, Suzuki was already waiting under the ring.
One moment Suzuki was standing in the middle of the court, legs burning, sweating, panting. About twenty minutes later, she found herself being knocked-out cold at the back seat of the bus. The match had ended, they had gone home.
"Ah, Mirai, Aoki, Suzuki!" The girls turned to the direction of their school gym, where the Volleyball club laid rest.
"Oh, Hinata! Kageyama!" Aoki waved at them. "Are you guys having a training session?"
"Yeah, just about to wrap it up." Kageyama told them once the trio approached them. "What were you doing? Where you guys from?"
Aoki blurted. "Well, first round of Inter-High preliminary!"
"Whoa, that was today? How was it?" Hinata exclaimed.
"If you lose again to Hakusuikan, I'm going to laugh." Suzuki heard Tsukishima's snarky comment as usual. He and Yamaguchi walked out of the gym. "So?"
"You're so grim, Towerboy." Mirai shook her head. "Unfortunately for you, you can just shut your damn smirk off your face because we won! We proceed to the next round!"
The match had ended, they had gone home with a ticket to the next week's match. Series of congratulations shared between them. Mirai and Aoki then told them about the back-and-forth match; the first quarter, second quarter, and all the way to the final moment where Aoki managed to control a missed shot as the clock buzzed to null, winning the match. A buzzer beater.
Listening to Mirai's storytelling was fun, and looking back, their team fought really hard.
"You're not saying much." Tsukishima had slowed his pace and brought him to the back of the group where Suzuki was pacing slowly, mouth chewing gum.
"I'm not Mirai. I don't have the energy to do that." Suzuki pointed out Mirai's exaggerated hand gestures of throwing and blocking. "I am so beat."
"How far was the point?"
"Fifty-four to forty-six. It's very close."
"Fifty? Hm, I guess I forgot how basketball scoring is different from volleyball." Tsukishima shrugged.
Suzuki nodded. "Want some?" She offered him a pack of gum.
"Sure, thanks." He took one.
As the group walked into the club rooms area, with Mirai's apparently unfinished tell-a-tale, Suzuki followed them quietly; she was very tired and unfocused; so much so that she almost tripped down the stairs. She held a squeal so the crowd wouldn't see her. But Tsukishima already grabbed her arm to anchor.l from behind.
"You're a wreck, Suzuki." He said smirking and let go when she found her footing back.
"Ne Tsukishima, whatever you say." Suzuki shook her head, chuckling to herself. "But thank you." At that time she looked ahead to see if the teams had noticed the incident. Apparently not because it turns out Mirai also fell off a stair due to her ongoing story. The team laughed along, ignoring the pair behind.
...
The story of their match against Hakusuikan was over. But with Mirai, there was always something to add. Especially when Hinata began asking a lot of questions. A lot of questions. Unfortunately for all of them, their Q session continued all the way to the walk down the hill.
"The tallest girl I've seen there, I think was from Niiyama High. Niiyama always has tall players. Their Center is even taller than Suzuki! Heck, she might be taller than Tsukishima. She made all of us look like a dwarf."
"Whoa! Yabai!"
"Oh, oh, she is a foreigner too, from Canada I think. I can't remember her name. Jackie, Jessy? I can't remember, it was difficult."
"foreigner? Is that allowed?
"Of course! As long as she is a student there. Transfer student, exchange student, anything goes… oh oh, there's also a really interesting team. I think they have cheerleaders, like an actual cheerleader. Eh, Aoki, who was that with the cheerleader?"
"You mean Shiratorizawa?"
"Yes, yes, Shiratorizawa! The Sporty School. Their pretty songs and purple pompoms are annoying. But they dominated the bleachers."
"Shiratorizawa? The one Kageyama failed to go to?"
"Shut up, Hinata!"
Hinata ignored him. "But Shiratorizawa… Their volleyball team is one of the top ten in Japan. They always win and represent Miyagi in the Inter-High and Nationals." Hinata said. "They have a top team player, Ushijima Wakatoshi, the Super Ace. He is on the cover of this month's edition of Volleyball magazine."
"Oooh, is he a model too? Is he handsome?" Mirai asked out of the blue. "Anyway, yeah… but if you think of the best team of basketball, girls' basketball, we'll talk about someone else."
"Who is it then?" Kageyama asked. "Aoba Johsai?"
"Seijoh is okay I guess. But they lost to Hitsujihara in this week's first round."
"Oh." Kageyama narrowed his eyes. "So who is it?"
"Date Kōgyo-des!"
Hinata exclaimed. "Datekō?! The Iron Wall?"
"Iron Wall? No, no, more like Thunderspeed! Their players are very talented. Their ball control is excellent." Aoki told them. "They have been the Miyagi champion for two consecutive years now. No one has ever come close to beating them, not even Niiyama and their tall players. Niiyama easily lost to them last year "
"In fact, if we win next week, we could face Datekō. For the seeded match." Mirai said. "Since Datekō won the last tournament and earned the highest point, they are the only seeded school in the tournament."
"Whoa, that sounds intense!" Hinata concluded. "I wish I could watch a basketball game. A real basketball game."
The topic of preliminary rounds slowly changed into Hinata's first ever watching basketball tournament in junior high school to support his friends. And then later changed again into the preparation of School's rally day, where Mirai would play a couple of songs with her band in front of the whole school for the first time.
It was not long before Hinata bid goodbye first, and then followed by the other first-years with different directions.
"Honestly I still don't understand the strats for the basketball game. The offenders and defenders." Yamaguchi suddenly said. "The positions are unclear."
Suzuki explained. "Yeah, well unlike you guys with your specific players post like liberos and setters. In Basketball, as long as you can keep the ballplay, you can do offense and defense altogether. In the end positions don't really matter… At least that's what I thought."
"I see. Hey, maybe we could watch your match next week. It'll be fun!"
"Of course! Then you can see what Mirai was talking about. If you want."
"When was it? Where?"
"Around the same time as today. Saturday at ten a.m., at Niiyama Girls' High gym."
"You face Niiyama next?"
"No. Hitsujihara. The one that beats Seijoh. But the venue is at Niiyama."
"Oh that's not too far. We can make it, can we Tsukki?"
Tsukki replied. "That depends on Saturday's practice schedule. Usually the morning session finishes around nine so, yeah, maybe."
"Hey don't bother really. It's just a game." Suzuki waved off their ideas.
"No. We're going to always support you, My Class Leader."
"Oh my god that's so cheesy, don't ever say that again, Yamaguchi."
"Ehe gomen. I got excited!"
Suzuki laughed. "I appreciate the support though."
The trio walked closely on the sidewalk, only making a visit to a nearby convenience store where they decided to buy some drinks and snacks.
Tsukishima then caught her yawning. "Close your mouth while doing that."
Suzuki snorted. "Were you watching me, Tsukishima?"
"Too ugly to be ignored."
"Meh, whatever." Suzuki rolled her eyes. "I am so beat."
"I know. You've said that." Tsukishima muttered. "Anyway, is this you?"
"Huh?" Suzuki looked at Tsukishima's phone, as he showed her a couple of pictures from today's match. Scrolling through, she saw a picture of the court when Suzuki performed a block. "Oh! That is me! How did you get that? Can I see?"
"High School Basketball Official account."
"Oh wow, I didn't know they had posted it already." Suzuki wondered out loud as she scrolled through. "Ew, my face looks so weird."
"I thought you've seen yourself in the mirror."
"Hey!" Suzuki glared at him for a second before eyes fixed again to the small screen of his phone. "Ah, this is the Niiyama player from Canada. She is damn tall. And this is Hitsujihara, our next opponent. Whoa, they are pretty scary."
Tsukishima nodded. "They look strong." He took back his phone once she was done. "Do you… have an account?"
"Oh, yeah I do. I don't think I have followed you yet. Here. That one, that's mine."
Tsukishima nodded, clicking the follow button. "You're going to follow me back, right?"
Smiling, Suzuki popped a bubble at him. "Nope."
Suzuki waved once Yamaguchi made his turn back home. Sometimes she wondered how far Yamaguchi's house was. She had never been around that side of the road; just a random thought.
"So how's the match?"
Suzuki abruptly turned to the blonde boy next to her. "Did you not listen to Mirai talking for over an hour just now?"
"I did but she bored me so I cancelled her out most of the time." He told her honestly, his lazy eyes lingered on the road. "I wanna hear your story."
"What makes you think it'll be different?"
"All she talked about was complaints of being shut off by other players. I think most of what she saw were bodies. Now you're taller, surely what you see is different."
"He he, if she heard you say that, you're dead."
"I know that's why I didn't say anything. So? How was your match?"
Suzuki thought for a while. "It was… interesting, far more challenging than the practice match. Their players were mostly seniors so Hiruzen-sensei often swapped us first-years with the seconds. Depending on their play." She told him. "Although, I've only been substituted three times throughout the whole one hour game. Maybe that's why I am so tired."
"Is it because of the height?"
"Maybe. The taller the defense, the better. I mean, sure Hakusuikan has taller players to match. They were quick and agile, and their ball handlers were great. And they jumped pretty high too." She went on. "Hm, one of their forwards managed to jump past my body, catching me off guard. That was funny. I think she was surprised as well."
"You got jumped?"
"You could say that. Oh, there should be a picture somewhere." She let out a light giggle, recalling the scene where Suzuki and the Small Forward shared an astonished look.
That's the first time someone jumped over my body, Suzuki made a comment.
To which the other girl replied, That's the first time for me to jump over someone. Cool, right?
I'll admit that's pretty cool.
When Tsukishima didn't say anything, Suzuki continued. "But yeah, the match went well. And now we get to next week's prelims."
"Good for you."
She let out a sigh. "Hopefully the next match is as successful as this one."
"Sure." She caught him nodding his approval.
"Anyways, how's your practice?" It was her turn to ask. "How're your preparations for the preliminaries?"
"Huh, yeah." Tsukishima replied curtly.
"Eh?"
He paused, his eyes glanced at the girl. "We're trying out new formations from the Coach. Some we learned from our match against Nekoma." He continued. "A couple of receives and blocks too."
"That's good, right?" She nodded. "Do you know who you'll be facing first?"
"Tokonami High."
"Ah okay."
"And then if we win against them, and if Datekō wins their match, we will come face to face the next day."
"The Iron Wall…" she repeated what Hinata said before. "Are they very good?"
"The Iron Wall; Karasuno lost to Datekō last March. Sugawara-san says that their blocks were incredibly high and strong. I… I had looked them up, their lead blocker is over 190 centimeters tall." He told her. "So I guess they are very good."
"Tough team." She concluded with him. "Tell you what, let's win our match so we can face Datekō together."
"Hm?"
"Can you do that? Or are you too scared to face them, Tsukishima?" Suzuki smirked at him. "It's alright to chicken out. You've got the yellow hair already."
"Shuddup."
"It suits you—hey!" She yelped when she felt his shoulder had pushed her off.
"Oops, sorry—ite." He yelped when she punched his arm. "Damn it, that really hurts, you know."
Instead of an apology, she just offered a lazy grin at him.