Next Gen. (The rivalry continues)

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Y e a r   2 0 3 1  -  J u n i o r   H i g h   V o l l e y b a l l   C o m p e t i t i o n 

The buzzing cheers from the wild crowd loosened my senses. I panted and panted, inhaling every air that I could get. My weak knees supported my shaking arms. I feel as if I was being pulled down by an extreme force and my legs were close to giving up. Luckily, we were on a five-minute break.

" Yo, you look like you're on the verge of dying. You all right?" Leon questioned, though his face only showed a hint of concern. 

" I just can't get past that number fifteen's blocks." I stood straight and grunted. Leon's eyes followed number fifteen. 

" Kuroo Akatsuki." I looked at him in agreement. 

" Heard his father was once the best middle blocker or something." Leon bent down to grab a towel from the bench. I sighed and sat down, resulting in the bench moving due to the sudden motion.

" Dude, we have to stop his blocks. One more point and we're dead." I deadpanned. Leon looked around as if trying to come up with a solution. A smirk appeared on his face.

" Remember that one attack we kept messing up?" He looked at me seriously in the eyes. But I wearily nodded, not sure of what he was trying to say. 

" Zero tempo." 

" What?!" the team flinched at my sudden reaction, embarrassingly, I awkwardly grinned at them and looked away. 

" No way. I can't do that." There was something in me that hurt when I admitted it. I couldn't help but get angry at myself for not knowing one of the coolest attacks in volleyball. So much for being Ushijima Wakatoshi's son. 

" Even my dad can't do that," I added, stacking more to the pain. Leon sighed and stood up. 

" Look, all you have to do is jump high up before I set it up to you." He crossed his arms. I raised a brow, does he not know how hard it is to do that? You have to be in sync with each other! There are only two people that I know who can do it, my uncle and Hinata Shoyou. 

My eyes landed at the shot-clock, I had to make a quick decision. A decision that will determine if we win this game or not. I sighed and glared at Leon.

" You better do it right," I said but he responded with a sigh. 

" Yes, captain. God, I hate when you're bossy." He chuckled and walked back to the court. 

" Captain, I heard you're doing a zero tempo attack." One of my teammates, Soekawa, approached me but my eyes were set straight ahead at number fifteen. 

" Yeah," I replied quickly. 

" But we've... never done an attack like that before." He admitted with an insecure tone. 

" You don't have to worry about that. I'm doing the attack. Just get behind me and receive the ball if it bounces back." I set him straight and walked off. 

A couple of steps forward and low and behold, I ended up standing toe to toe with number fifteen. 

" Don't get mad Ushijima-Kun, it's only a game." Kuroo grinned. We'll see if you'll still have that grin on your face after, fucker. 

" You know, I expected you to get past my blocks easily," He continued. At this point, I only wanted to pull my ears out so I wouldn't have to listen to him trash-talking.

"I don't believe I asked," I looked at him with a smirk on my face though he seemed unaffected by my remark. 

" Oh I know, just saying it. I mean, everyone's having high expectations since you are Ushijima Wakatoshi's son." His reply caused me to furrow my brows, why does he need to mention my father?