Burned ⇀ Koshi Sugawara

Chapter 21: The Grand King

Tony smiled widely as he felt his hand finally feel fresh air hit it for the first time since he was attacked. The boy sighed with his smile slightly falling into a complacent smile at the feeling.

"Feel good, kid?" Ukai asked Tony who nodded, looking up at the man who chuckled and nodded his head, looking to the man. The blonde-haired man had dark circles under his eyes, ever since the inter-high prelims and the loss the team sustained, the coach hadn't slept much.

All of his time was invested in making sure his team was okay and focused on getting back to the actual inter-high tournament. Tony sighed at the sight, remembering the devastation that hit him when the ball hit the ground, the loss wasn't even that bad. It was the reactions of his best friends, the pain and seemingly emptiness smashing across their faces was horrifying to the boy.

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Tony shot from his seat on the bench, in between the coach and Takeda. The ball bounced from the Sejoh block and onto the floor behind Hinata. Noya, Asahi, and Kageyama all dove for the ball but it was useless, they were too late. Tony felt the silence and heavy air fall over him, holding him in place alongside the two men who worked as hard as the players did to get them to this point.

The players on the court all bent down in agony as the weight of their loss covered them, Tony quickly made his way onto the court, pulling his best friend into a hug, showing him it was okay, that he wasn't alone.

Tanaka didn't wrap his arms around his best friend immediately, he just let his head fall into the boy's shoulder and hide his face from the crowd of people that were now applauding Sejoh. He slowly wrapped his arms around him and hugged him.

"You gotta go line up, T." Tony mumbled causing Tanaka to nod and pat the boy on his back and leaving his embrace. Tony stood in the middle of the court, his arm still in a cast. He sighed as he bent down and picked the volleyball up, staring at it with sad eyes. The boy couldn't help but blame himself, if he hadn't been injured maybe he would've been able to make a difference in this game, after all, it was only a three-point difference.

"And who are you?" A voice asked from ahead of him causing the boy to look up, not knowing what to expect. Much to his surprise, he found a brown-haired, slim boy wearing a blue and white looking down at him, almost confused about why he was on the court.

Tony of course knew who he was, the boy was Kageyama's teacher and as Hinata called him, the grand king, well, Tony just saw him as the asshole who ripped his all of his best friend's dreams away.

"I'm apart of the team..." Tony said causing the boy's eyes to slightly widen as looked behind the two toned boy at the team he had just defeated.

"Oh, well. Sorry for your loss, but to be honest... Everyone knew we would be the ones going to finals." Oikawa said causing Tony to nearly pop a blood vessel. His eyes widened at the remark, starring daggers at the setter before a voice broke him from his anger.

"Tony! Come on, the guys are pretty upset..." Ukai said, grasping the boys shoulder and beginning to pull him away.

"We'll see you at the Inter-High! I'll be the one to kill the king." Tony mumbled out at Sejoh's captain, his eyes widening at the remark. He hadn't expected such anger, such violence to come from the quiet boy.

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The boys sat in the sit tavern, food covering the table. Tony sat in between Ukai and Kiyoko. He looked sadly down at his food, not wanting to eat it. His gaze shifted from his food on the table to the casted arm that was sitting right next to it.