Karasuno's Queen of the School [Kageyama Tobio]

[10] Speeches

The deafening silence was broken by Tanaka-San's victory cries, and eventually the fans that were originally only there to watch Aoba Johsai began to steadily clap in our favor, leaving the team with different final expressions.

Ennoshita-Kun seemed close to passing out.

Tanaka was shouting and trying to rip his shirt off.

Tsukishima appeared to be wearing a deep frown.

Sawamura-Kun was smiling smugly.

Kageyama was glancing from the corner of his eye towards the other side of the court... and Hinata looked incredibly baffled.

Each, however, snapped out of their individual trances when the lineup shout was called.

"Arigatōgozaimashita!!"

Shimizu, Mr. Takeda and I stood up in unison as the club members on the bench all hurried back to us, stampeding their way over in order to give us a traditional thank you.

But since I was a very small person and didn't take well to giant volleyball players sprinting up to me, I hid behind Shimizu almost instantly with my notebook held to my chest.

"Dōmo arigatōgozaimashita!"

Takeda Sensei seemed also a bit taken aback when everyone bowed to him, and Shimizu kindly whispered to him with a soft mumble.

"Sensei, now's the time for some comments or criticism."

Blinking, Mr. Takeda bristled up and nodded, a bit tense. I smiled and stepped slightly out from my spot behind Shimizu, listening carefully.

"Umm... volleyball related, I'm still fairly new," He began, sweating slightly with each word. "but, somehow... somehow even I could understand that something incredible was happening."

Suga and Sawamura exchanged a confused look and I smiled fondly in relation to Takeda Sensei's words.

"At the beginning of the school year, some amazing first years joined... but they were pretty difficult to handle. And yet today..." pausing, he smiled and looked towards Kageyama and Hinata, who were focused intently on what he was saying. "Today I was shown that when one encounters another, it causes a chemical reaction."

Somewhere at this very moment, an encounter is happening that could change the world. Maybe it's somewhere in an incredibly distant country. Maybe it's on the other side of the planet. Perhaps... it might even be in the normal volleyball club of a normal high school in the northern countryside of a small island country in the east."

Takeda Sensei's words struck home when he spoke of the small district that we all lived in and I smiled fondly, tilting my head.

"I think that such an encounter... has happened right here, at Karasuno."

People would probably say that I'm exaggerated or being foolish, but that will always be better than not having faith in you."

He continued on for a few more minutes before finally concluding, and all the players watched him in a daze, seemingly confounded by their Sensei's words. However, Mr. Takeda must have taken their lack of response a bit personally because, in an instant, he was flushing and taking back everything he had said.

"Sorry! That was a little too poetic, wasn't it?! I take it all back!!"

As I giggled, Shimizu and Sawamura-Kun quickly intervened, shaking their heads and raising their hands to calm Takeda Sensei down. The boys, however, still bowed in respect.

"Thank you very much!"

Since I knew that Shimizu did not have anything to say, I flipped through my notebook with a smile and began waiting on the call to start packing up.