A family thing

Chapter 55 Half time

'I'll go on and dash in as if I fell for it.', Niko ran through his improvised plans. Strangely, today his movements did not need a small lack time to follow his fast thoughts. 
'... and half a step when you are touching the fucking ball...', Niko stopped as the ball was landed on Sendou's foot. '...I'll put on the emergency brake and...' 
Sendou was a little bit surprised by the movements of the defender in front of him. 
'... as the ball bounces a little bit from your trap, the extermination...', Niko jumped up a little bit,  '...will be...'
stretched every single muscle inside his stronger leg, 
'... complete.' 
and kicked the ball right out of the grasp of the Japan U20 striker. 
"Second ball!!!!", he then shouted. 
"Fuck!!!", Sendou cursed as he lost the ball. 
"Alright, let's...", Karasu shouted as he was about to regain the possession of the ball. 
"Not this time.", Wakatsuki muttered and stole the ball away with a header. The ball then went up front. Chou, the U20 striker was only waiting to grasp the ball. He cut inside, past Chigiri, who has just arrived on spot, back at his position, heading right for the goal. Aryu immediately reacted to that and went to patch the hole inside the defense formation whilst Niko rushed back. Chou swung his leg but instead of finishing it right on spot, he decided to feint it. Aryu fell for it and went to cover up the route, his opponent would have chosen to shoot the ball. One more minute was left on the clock. The board of extra time was raised. One minute extra time in addition to those 45 minutes. 
'Two more minutes to go...', Niko thought. 'Fuck it.' 
He then went to close down the other path towards the goal, Chou was going for after faking out Aryu. The striker however then chose to pass it back to Sendou who wasted no time and immediately shot it at the goal with only one goalkeeper in his way. The ball was aimed at the top right corner. An impossible attack to defend. 
"Shit...", Niko swore as he watched everything unfold in front of him. Gagamaru however quickly jumped up and with his last effort he managed to touch the ball with the tip of his fingers and move it out of the dangerzone. 

"Blue Lock is hanging on everything they've got here to try to hold their lead until half time.", Natsuki said through his microphone. Natsu watched it in great awe. Two more minutes to go. 
"What the fuck was that?!", Atsumu shouted and pointed at the goal box. 
"Bro just achieved jump boost.", Hoshiumi joked.
"He should have chosen to play volleyball.", was all Ushijima had to say. 
"What an amazing save by Gin Gagamaru.", Tereasa, the commentator colleague of Natsuki spoke. "That was fished out of the verge of the net. 
"But this won't be the end of the U20 attack to try to get the score to a leveled out one.", Natsuki then shouted. "Bachira Meguru can't get a hold of the free ball, as Teru Kitsunesato comes in and fetches the second ball."
Tobio looked at the scene ignoring all the people beside him. Volleyball didn't have a timelimit for its scoring time to end. That's why he has never experienced stress from the game clock. All he had to do was to win 3 sets. There was no time limit set to that, which meant, there were no ways to waste time just to protect the current score unlike Basketball or Football. You always have the chance to turn the tables under fair conditions and in addition to that, you have to do that fair and square.
'But whatsoever, what both sports had in common, no, what all sports is the forced recover inside your mind and on the pitch with points to tie or to win the game.', he talked to himself and observed his brother. 'The turnover that may cause you to recover doesn't necessairly have to be a scored point from your respective opponent. It can also be the loss of control for the rhythm in which the match has been played.' 

Yoichi sprinted back to the goal box. Karasu was running right beside him. 
"Oi, Mr. Ordinary, you mark him!!!", Karasu shouted and pointed at Sae while running back to support Niko who has recovered from the fake of Chou and was now going for Kitsunezato who passed it a bit back. Sendou was just waiting for that moment. Seconds ago he has purposely stood some meters behind and as the time has come, he ran through the middle to score the goal he was meant to score ages ago. Sendou swung his leg. The ball rolled up to him, just the way he wanted. The timing was perfect. He then kicked the ball with all the power he has built up from his swing and shot it to the goal with all his might. Niko immediately jumped up and put his own body between the ball and the goal. Something collided with his head like a cannon ball. Then as the pain gradually disappeared he saw the ball out of the shadow of his hair fly away. 
"SECOND BALL!!!!", he grunted and landed on the wet ground, drenched by the sweat of him. Aryu ran up and headed the ball forwards out of the box. Karasu got there to take the ball out of it and crossed it forwards to Rin. However, his pass was intercepted by the moving forward defenders of Japan's U20. Aiku took the ball out of its curve with his left shoulder. Rin reacted quickly and bodied the opposing captain even though he was clearly at disadvantage bodywise. Aiku fend off Rin with his right arm, preventing him from trying to steal the ball with his mere body. Last minute was on the clock. If they wanted to do something, it had to be fast. Aiku kicked the ball forwards to Hayate who transferred it without any further ado to Sae. Sae went towards the ball with Yoichi right on his tail. The midfielder trapped the ball under his foot and swiftly span around his defender.