LET ME DOWN SLOWLY ⸻ sakusa kiyoomi.

𝐭𝐞𝐧 | play-offs

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PLAY OFFS  !!

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8pm, itachiyama institute, gymnasium 2 !

THE BALL MADE A SATISFYING SLAMMING sound as Sakusa wiped the ball from two blockers, it bouncing on the other side of the court. It rose into the air, falling a meter or two away from its first bounce. Iizuna and Fukushima landed on the floor at around the same time (as did Sakusa), the rather loud and hotheaded setter groaning as he clutched at the strands of his hair.

Sakusa's captain was a fairly attractive young man who was considered the second most popular person in the volleyball club, fanbase large thanks to his extroverted personality and appearance. While he had charisma and charm around his fans, in the volleyball court (away from his fans, of course), Iizuna would mentally deplete by ten years.

He reminded Sakusa of Miya Atsumu from last year's Youth Camp.

(Other than the fact that Sakusa preferred Iizuna over Miya — unlike Miya, Iizuna was hygienic and carried around a fair dose of sanitizer, lint rollers and towels along with him to every single practice. Miya, in retrospect, was downright filthy.)

"You guys did really well today, congrats! And just as well because the Interhighs are around the corner now, and we wouldn't want to slack off just because we won the last Spring High Nationals!" Iizuna said, as the team gathered around their captain.

Their manager, a small first year with short, pinkish-brown hair and red-rimmed plastic glasses went around the group of much taller and broader boys, passing them bottles and towels from a basket. Despite the meek and soft appearance their manager possessed, Ryoka Sana, younger sister of Ryoka Hiroomi, a second year wing spiker, had a spitfire mouth and a smart-alecky attitude, most well-known for the cause of "making my shins permanently turn purple" according to Hiroomi.

A bit funny, because Hiroomi was a broad-shouldered individual who was 192cm tall, more than a head taller than his younger sister, and yet he was still scared of her (no matter how much he denied. His attitude said everything.)

"Thank you." Sakusa nodded at Sana as she handed him his bottle and towel. After learning of the fact that both the captain and the ace of the team were both clean freaks (Sakusa being the worst case), Sana had surprisingly opted to wear surgical gloves whenever she handed the team their things or when handling their towels and bottles. Sakusa was not a rude and unmannered person. He appreciated Sana'a efforts and exercised respect to the girl.

His shins had zero bruises on them.

"Sakusa, keep on doing your freaky spikes and feints on our opponents next week, maybe practice spiking another person's set while you're at it too! There may be a chance that a reserve setter would have to come in and take my place, or the others may have to spike to you," Iizuna told him. "Uh, I think I can get a setter to help you in a day or two after school, I dunno if I have her number or if I accidentally deleted it from my contacts though..."

'Her'?

Motoya seemed to know who the setter was talking about. He glanced at Sakusa, an unreadable expression on his face as the libero turned back to his captain, raising his hand. "If you're talking about Tsukki-chan, I have her number, actually! I can give it to him."

Iizuna lit up. "Oh yeah, that's her!" He said, nodding. "So, Sakusa-kun, are you free to do so or...?" His eyebrows lifted, as if he were anticipating a rejection — something along the lines of "No she's not going to be clean enough" probably the reason why.