𝟭. 𝙃𝙀𝙍 𝙎𝙄𝘿𝙀 𝙊𝙁 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙍𝙔 || 𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐤𝐲𝐮𝐮 [✔]

Chapter 28: The Line-up

𝖘𝖚𝖓𝖓𝖞𝖘𝖎𝖉𝖊𝖇𝖆𝖇𝖍𝖊'𝖘 𝖋𝖎𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖆𝖑 𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞
#110223

The echo of voices bouncing off the high walls. But within the volleyball court, the world felt smaller, more contained. Aeris and a few of her teammates were sitting on the bleachers, flipping through a glossy sports magazine they had found lying around.

"Look at this," Aeris said, turning the magazine toward Kiyoko. "They made this guy sound like he's a diety. I swear he's shorter than me."

Kiyoko chuckled quietly, pushing her glasses up. "Maybe they edited the angle. Magazines love doing that."

"Angle? Kiyoko, look at this. They made him look seven feet tall," Aeris said, her voice carrying just enough for the others around them to snicker.

Their laughter filled the otherwise routine afternoon, giving the gym a light, carefree energy. But the moment was broken by the sound of hurried footsteps—too fast, too heavy to be a jog, and definitely too frantic to be anything normal.

The footsteps grew louder until Takeda burst through the double doors, panting like he had sprinted across the entire school. His tie was crooked, his shirt slightly untucked, and his glasses fogged from the rush.

Suga stood up immediately. "Takeda-sensei, calm down! Did something happen?" He asked, her tone shifting from playful to genuinely concerned.

Takeda held up a hand, bending forward with his other hand on his kneecap as he tried to gather enough air to speak. Everyone had already stopped what they were doing—balls were no longer being tossed, conversations cut short, and even Coach Ukai turned from his clipboard.

"The... Interhigh Preliminary... lineup..." Takeda finally managed between breaths. "It's... it's out."

The room fell quiet in an instant.

That was all he needed to say.

Daichi stepped forward first, soft but steady. "Sensei... the list. Can we see it?"

Takeda nodded vigorously and pulled out folded papers from his bag, still slightly wrinkled from how fast he must have been running. He handed them to Ukai, who took them with the same calm expression he always had, though the tension in his jaw told a different story.

As Ukai unfolded the sheets, everyone gathered in closer, forming a tight circle around him. Even the players still tying their shoes or stretching moments ago had joined the group, the anticipation pulling them all like gravity.

Ukai scanned the page quietly at first. Then he turned it so everyone could see.

There it was.

Their opponents. Their schedule. The path they would have to take if they wanted to move forward—and the teams they would have to defeat to get there.

A collective breath escaped the team, one long exhale filled with everything from nerves to excitement. Some names on the list were expected. Others were surprises. But none of them were easy.

"So," Yamaguchi said after a moment, breaking the silence with a gentle smile. "Looks like they're not going easy on us."

"Were you expecting them to?" Kinoshita replied lightly, though Ares could hear the underlying tension.

Hinata pointed to one school name that everyone recognized immediately. "We face them early? Seriously?"

"That's what it says," Ukai confirmed, his voice steady. "But it doesn't change anything. Our goal is the same."

Aeris swallowed, trying to process everything at once. She glanced at the others. She knew how hard they'd been working—late nights, sore arms, bruised hands, exhaustion so deep that sometimes they couldn't tell if they were sweating or crying.