Silver Hearts | Sakusa Kiyoomi

28 | give me a purpose

The band section of Inarizaki slowly extinguished as Atsumu walked back to the serving line. Itachiyama took their position, waiting and anticipating for whatever he was about to throw at them.

Was it going to be a jump floater? A powerful jump serve? They wouldn't know until the last minute.

The band from Inarizaki went absolutely silent as Atsumu raised his fist. (Y/N) was fascinated by what was about to happen. Usually, the team would be cheering the server on, but not in this case. Inarizaki remained silent when Atsumu began to serve.

One second the ball was in the air; the next second, the ball was on the ground and a point to Inarizaki. It happened all so fast that (Y/N) barely saw it.

"Inarizaki starts off the first set with a service ace from their setter, Miya Atsumu! What a spectacle!"

Yoneda took a deep breath. The ball flew past him so fast and onto the backline that he didn't even notice it. He had to keep an eye out, or the ball would never be in the air.

"What a crazy serve..." Komori openly admired. He too didn't react fast enough to receive the serve.

• • •

On the day Yoneda opened his eyes for the first time, his parents were hazy blurs, but he had taken in their aromas, bathed in their soft words and felt the warm touch of gentle hands. Each time he had cried, they came at once, and so an idea of safety in his world developed, a foundation on which his future personality would rest.

But nothing lasts forever.

In the years that followed, life wasn't so simple. When his Dad skipped out of their lives, his sister became his mom. Not because they didn't have Mom anymore, but because she spent every waking hour earning enough money to pay the mortgage and buy groceries.

Yoneda had always wondered if his life had always just been a dream. If he would wake up, the warmth he once knew would be there to replace the coldness he felt. But it was a never-ending dream that he couldn't wake up from. It was a reality.

Sometimes he thought back to how he used to whine for the cool stuff other kids had. He would try to scrub those memories from his brain, but he was a kid, and that's what kids do.

• • •

As Inarizaki lead the game with 1 to 0, Itachiyama shifted their positions as Atsumu walked back to the serving line.

"He's taking six, no four steps." Yoneda silently analyzed his strides. He was sure that the rest of the team also knew that he was going to do a jump floater. It was what they studied the night before; four steps for jump floater, six steps for a spike serve.

Good thing, (Y/N) pointed it out, or they would've had major trouble with him.

Atsumu's jump floater was fast and swerved around the air a lot. It muddled (Y/N)'s thoughts, where was it going to land?

At the last minute, just as the ball was about to land right on the line, Komori dived for the ball and perfectly got it to Iizuna.

Iizuna took a glance at the opponent's side of the court to see that they were prepared to block anyone he sets the ball to. He decided to do a quick set to Matsushima and was impressed when Inarizaki's blockers were able to deduce where he was going to set before even setting.

Two blockers were on Matsushima when he leaped into the air for the ball. His jumping added onto his height as he spiked the ball over the block. His jumping height was 346 cm which was unusually higher for someone standing at 192 cm. It was almost half his height.