The Third Miya: Isuma

XXVII

February 26th, 2021

"Tami-chan. You can do it. You aren't the same person you were three years ago." He was gripping Tamiko's shoulders tightly. "Come on. You have it in you. I need you right now."

Tamiko looked up as if just noticing the people around them. "They need you."

"...what if we don't win? It'll be my fault."

"I'm content knowing you fought your hardest, Tami-chan." Hinosa pulled his hands back as Tamiko stood up, his expression changed. He looked at the referee and bowed. "I'm sorry for the delay."

"No problem." The referee blew his whistle and motioned to both the teams. Isuma, who had been watching them from the bench, glanced at the coach. "What's up with their setter?"

"Liberos can't legally be captains, but that one seems to be in charge of his team most of the time." Their coach answered. Isuma looked back at Hinosa and Tamiko. "They've known each other for a long time. He's probably looked up to their libero for years, and this is the first time he's been asked to face a difficult match instead of the libero."

"You can tell that just by looking at him?" Kurosu Sensei raised his eyebrows. "It's just his expression. And the way they interact." Isuma shrugged slightly, looking at the court. Osamu threw up the ball and ran forward and jumped up, spiking it cleanly. Isuma was watching Tamiko silently, so causally that almost no one noticed- almost. Kita picked up on it right away. 'What is she worried about?'

'There's no way it's this easy.' Isuma thought. 'If this is all they have, there's no way his team could've put their trust in him. What else do they have?'

'They have something else.' Kita pressed his fingertips together, his eyes shutting briefly as he tried to think. 'Something.'

'Something.' Isuma's eyes closed. They both thought, 'What is it?!'

At the same time, both of them looked over at each other. Isuma shook her head slightly, and then Kita. 'Think!' Kita looked at Kamino's setter, who was in the back. 'He can't be a normal setter. What does he have?'

As if she'd heard him, Isuma's eyes locked on Tamiko as she took in every little detail. 'He can jump. Why is he a setter? All that talent is...' her eyes widened slightly and she sat up straight so fast the coaches glanced at her in concern. 'He hasn't done anything incredible up 'til now. He's set less than the usual setter because their #5 was setting. But this is a different technique.'

Yoshi scored a point for Kamino; Kita was coming to the same conclusion as her. 'We haven't seen him set a lot because of their #5. We don't know if he's a good setter at all. What if his strategy... what if he doesn't set up attacks? What if he attacks?'

Isuma remembered what she'd told the Coach. 'The setter and libero are close to each other. They trust each other. What if... the libero...'

'...sets for the setter?'

Both of their eyes widened and they looked up at the same time. Just then, Hinosa made a high receive and the ball flew towards the setter. The Inarizaki players immediately began looking at all the possible attackers; their coach stood up a split-second before Tamiko did a perfect sideways setter dump. The entire crowd jumped to their feet, screaming and clapping wildly. Hinosa exclaimed, "Yes, Tami-chan!!! You've got it!!"

Unable to stay still, Isuma got to her feet and ran over to Kita and the others. Kita was talking to Suna, Kosaku, and the first-years. At the same time, they said, "That wasn't a fluke."