🔹🏐The Courts Calling🏐🔹- A Haikyuu Fanfiction

Dragon's Reign (Part 4)- The Final Battle

My body began aching again as I headed to the doors leading back into the gym. It wasn't pain from running though, that feeling had been silenced long ago. This was different, like my entire chest was about to collapse in on itself. It made breathing a much more difficult task, I had to take huge gulps of breath just to keep myself calm under the pressure.

I felt my vision swirl when my hand had touched the door's handle, and for a second I thought I was going to pass out. No, I wouldn't let that happen. I promised myself I wasn't going to run anymore. This is my last chance to finally do what's right, and I wasn't about to waste it.

I didn't even bother looking back at the ones still standing outside. I knew they were going to be watching, and that's all the strength my heart needed. The feeling of aloneness did hit me pretty hard, though, when I finally stepped foot on the gym floor, all the girls suddenly turning to me with these dead looks over their eyes. There was no more spirit left in their bodies, they had become nothing more than lifeless puppets dangling at the ends of the dragon's string. Hell, none of them even bothered to question where I had went or what had happened. It just goes to show how little hope they still had left.

I tried my best to pick up the pace, even running a bit faster to wear myself out to the level of everyone else, but only a few seconds after I had gotten back in place, the doors on the opposite end of the building burst open to reveal a freshly hydrated Jiro. A satisfied smirk covered his face when he sees us still making our laps, and he just continues to watch as he makes his way back to the center of the floor.

I watched anxiously as his gaze began studying each girl that passed his vision from head to toe, searching for any sign that someone chose to disobey his orders. Knowing him, he was probably praying for it.

A nauseated feeling overtook my stomach as I trained my eyes on the floor. It was now when I realized how clueless I was of what to do next. The only thing that kept me from backing down like I always do was Kiyomi's strong words from days ago, ones that I have yet to forget.

"You'll figure it out when the time comes."

I felt a chill run up my spine when Jiro's eyes suddenly fell on me, as if he could sense something wasn't right in my mind. "Akiraa!" He calls abruptly, his voice echoing in my head like a nightmarish scream. As my head swivels in his direction, I hoped with all my might that he hadn't developed any suspicion towards me. "Come over here!"

Gulping so loudly, I swore he heard, I redirect my path and break out of the circle. Once I had made it I thought his presence, I kept my body moving by tottering back and forth on my heels while replying, trying to make it sound like I was tired. "Yes... coach?" My shaky voice asked as I knocked my sidebangs as far as they would go over my eyes.

He didn't respond at first, he just continued to stare me down with those beady black eyes. "Don't take me for some idiot, girl." His voice lowered to a dull growl. "Everyone else in this gym looks as if their on the brink of death, while you seem to have gotten brighter in the short time I was away. You'd be the first I'd expect to fall to temptation."

My chest heaved in a sharp breath, trying onto hide the startling fact that he knew me all too well. "What do you mean?" I tried to play it off cluelessly, even picking up my breath to where I was about to faint from hyperventilating. "I haven't stopped running since-"

"Do you think I'm as big a fool as you are?" He roars all of a sudden, cutting off any further words from my mouth.

I felt my whole body prepare to square up for an attack. I believed this was the moment, the time for action. I was ready... but that was before a loud smack was able to be heard from behind, and I don't think my back had ever stiffened so fast.