Chapter 9 Ending

Second round of the IH qualifiers, Karasuno defeated Date Tech 2-0.

Although it was also a 2-0 victory, this round was significantly tougher than the previous one. Date Tech lived up to their reputation as the "Iron Wall" of blockers, their impregnable defense initially leaving Karasuno unable to break through. However, Hinata, serving as the decoy, played a crucial role in this match. His freak quick attacks coordinated with Kageyama effectively split the opponent's block, opened up the court for their ace Azumane. Coupled with libero Nishinoya's solid backcourt defense, Karasuno ultimately secured the win.

So the next opponent is—

"Aoba Johsai, huh..."

As she made her way out of the venue from the stands, Hoshino Haruna muttered to herself as she sorted through the sketches from today's interview.

"Huh, Hoshino-san, what do you think of Aoba Johsai?" Yamaguchi Tadashi, passing by, asked.

"Hmm..."

Hoshino thought back to the practice match they had.

"Their captain is quite handsome. I could use him as a reference for a villain in my next manga," Hoshino replied honestly.

Yamaguchi: ...

So that's the kind of perspective she has!

And what is it with Hoshino-san and her obsession with villains?

"Even though we already saw them in the practice match, I still think I should say this," Tsukishima Kei said as he walked past them with his bag on his back, "Aoba Johsai is a strong team that consistently reaches the finals against Shiratorizawa. I suggest you mentally prepare for tomorrow's result as well."

Hoshino: ...

"You said the exact same thing last time! And we still won," Hoshino immediately pointed out.

"True," Tsukishima didn't deny it. "But I'm not going to take back what I said. There's no denying it: Date Tech is strong, and Seijoh is strong. I can't just assume we'll win the next match because we won the last one."

"But at least last match's victory can give us confidence, right?" Hoshino blinked, looking at him. "No matter what anyone else thinks, I believe we can win!"

"Is that so?"

"So, see you tomorrow! I'll be the first one in the stands, cheering you all on!"

With that, Hoshino waved and dashed out of the gym.

...

The hallway went quiet.

"Tsukki, what's up? You seem more talkative than usual."

Seeing Tsukishima staring at Hoshino's retreating back, deep in thought, Yamaguchi asked out of curiosity.

"...Nothing."

Tsukishima adjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder and continued walking toward the entrance.

He hoped that believing in something wasn't a bad thing.

The next day, as promised, Hoshino arrived early and took a spot in the second-floor stands.

***

"Tsukishima-san—"

Hoshino leaned over the railing and shouted down to Tsukishima.

Nearby spectators turned their heads.

Oh well, in the midst of cheers for "Oikawa-san," her shout really stood out.

"...What is it?" Tsukishima answered, bracing himself.

"Oh, nothing!" Hoshino waved at him. "I just wanted to try it since the heroines in manga always do stuff like that!"

Tsukishima: ...

So he was just a tool after all.

But thanks to Hoshino's explanation, it spared him from Tanaka and Nishinoya's anger at Oikawa.

But Tsukishima's relief was short-lived.

Because soon Hoshino's voice rang out from the stands again.

"Tsukishima-san—I'm really looking forward to seeing you play today too—" Hoshino called out again, making a megaphone with her hands.

...

"...This time it's not for a manga scene—I really mean it," she added, just as loudly as before.

...

Crap,

Tsukishima thought nervously.

Is this girl an idiot? Why would she shout something like that so loudly? Wait, that's not something you should say or shout! Does she have any idea what she's saying?

His mind was a whirlwind, making it hard to tell if he felt anything besides surprise and confusion.

But one thing was for sure—

"Tanaka-senpai, Nishinoya-senpai," he said flatly, taking the chops from his two seniors, "please don't waste energy before the match on Hoshino's obvious nonsense. Thank you."

"...Don't give us that, you brat!" they shouted, hitting him again.

When they parted ways at Sendai Gymnasium yesterday, Hoshino had already sensed something was off.

***

Even though they won, why did Tsukishima-san look so conflicted?

Of course, she could tell he was happy about beating Date Tech, of course. Tsukishima wasn't the type to show his joy as openly as Hinata; his calm reaction was par for the course.

But still...

Hoshino felt something was off.

She sensed Tsukishima was holding back some emotion—the victory seemed to bring him not just joy, but also... unease?

...

Why? Would anyone not want to win a match? That's impossible, right?

Although Hoshino prided herself on her "superpower" of picking up on others' subtle emotions, her thought process sometimes couldn't fully grasp the information she extracted, often leading her to jump to wrong conclusions.

Maybe I was wrong about this after all? Tsukishima-san just doesn't show his happiness as obviously as others, right?

...

Yeah, that must be it!

Pushing aside those stray thoughts, Hoshino arrived early at the Sendai City Gymnasium the next day and fully immersed herself in watching the match between Karasuno and Aoba Johsai.

Maybe she didn't fully understand what Tsukishima was thinking, but every word she had said came from the bottom of her heart.

That line "I believe everyone can win," and "I'm looking forward to your performance today too"—they were all sincere.

But...

"Bam—"

At match point for Aoba Johsai, Hinata, with his eyes closed, slammed the ball that Kageyama had precisely passed to him, but it hit straight into Aoba Johsai's three-man wall.

The deflected ball arced briefly through the air, and then—

"Thud."

Before any of Karasuno's diving players could reach it, it had already landed on Karasuno's side of the court.

...

So that's it. "Believing" and "hoping"—it only takes a moment for that kind of faith to shatter.

Tears started to fall. Hoshino accepted the tissue offered by the Aoba Johsai girl beside her and silently asked in her heart—

Tsukishima-san, how are you feeling right now?

***

When that final ball hit the ground, Tsukishima wasn't on the court.

It's hard to say whether standing off the court or being on it felt worse, but he didn't like either feeling.

No one likes losing, and he was no exception. But the opponent's strength was undeniably formidable, making the result slightly easier to accept.

As the team lined up to bow and thank the audience, Tsukishima looked toward where Hoshino was sitting, but he couldn't see her face clearly—just that the Aoba Johsai girls kept handing her tissue after tissue, until finally they gave her the whole pack of tissues.

...

Yeah, that girl's definitely crying.

Tsukishima wasn't surprised; after all, Hoshino was the type who wears her heart on her sleeve.

What was she feeling now? The team she had always believed in didn't win, and the person she had hopes for couldn't change the outcome. In that moment her faith shattered, would she feel disappointed?

...

No, that's wrong.

Maybe that "hope" wasn't even for him, but for the manga protagonist, right?

If Karasuno kept winning, Hoshino would definitely keep coming to watch for material—a winning streak all the way to nationals was exactly the kind of story she wanted, right? And the kind of character who leads the team through one challenge after another to victory—that was the kind of protagonist Hoshino wanted, right?

But now Karasuno was already out in the third round of the prefectural prelims. No one knew where this team was headed, let alone Hoshino's manga.

As for him...

Before leaving the gym, Tsukishima took one last look at Hoshino's seat in the stands.

"Tsukki, what's up?" Yamaguchi, walking beside him, asked.

"...Nothing," Tsukishima said flatly. "We're just gonna have to get used to practicing without an audience from now on."

***

Day three of the Inter-High Miyagi Prefectural Prelims, inside Karasuno High School.

Tch, somehow I ended up back here again.

Staring at the familiar gym doors, Tsukishima felt conflicted.

Since they'd lost yesterday, Coach Ukai had canceled practice today. But when Tsukishima arrived at the gym, he saw that the entire volleyball club was there, every single one of them.

"...You guys are way too free," Tsukishima couldn't help but say.

"Hey, Tsukishima, pot calling the kettle black!" Hinata jumped up to retort. "Calling us lazy, but you're here too!"

"...Just a habit," Tsukishima said.

He looked around, unsurprised by the familiar faces—until his gaze landed on the spectator area and he was startled to see Hoshino there too.

"What're you doing here?"

Tsukishima walked up to her, asking in surprise.

"Ah?" Hoshino, sitting on a stool and sorting her drawing paper, was caught off guard.

She looked at Tsukishima, then at the court, and finally the penny dropped—

"Oh—right! I don't usually sit over here!"

Then she stood up, scooted her stool a few steps to the right, and sat back down.

"There, all set!" Hoshino said.

Tsukishima: ...

What was he trying to say again?

...Forget it. Tsukishima gave up trying to figure it out.

"They said there's still practice later—Tsukishima-san's joining too, right?" Hoshino asked.

"Oh... yeah," Tsukishima nodded quickly.

"Awesome!"

Hoshino cheerfully swapped out some drawing paper, picked a sharpened pencil from her pencil case, and looked as serious about gathering material as always.

"Let me think, which play should I sketch first..." she murmured, tapping the paper lightly with her pencil, over and over.

...

Tsukishima watched her and realized, belatedly, that he actually didn't hate this feeling.

He didn't mind the feeling of Hoshino sitting in the stands watching him practice or play.

He didn't exactly mind the feeling of Hoshino talking to herself beside him.

It was only then that he realized something—

Hoshino hadn't given up on the volleyball club because of the Inter-High loss, which didn't seem like a bad thing to him.

...

As expected, habits are scary, he thought.

***

That evening, Tsukishima returned home and checked his phone, finding an unread email.

"Tsukishima-san, are you free this weekend? Let's go to an amusement park together! I won two tickets at a community event a while back! (*｀▽´*)"

—It was a message from Hoshino.

Tsukishima looked at his phone for a moment, then quickly replied to her.

"Thanks, but if you're trying to cheer me up about the loss, there's no need. After all, Aoba Johsai was already strong, so it's not surprising."

...

Another email from Hoshino came quickly.

"What are you talking about! What's that got to do with the match? A publisher I've been following for a while is looking for shoujo manga submissions, and I want to draw a short story for submission. So I need to go to the amusement park to gather reference material! But I can't handle carrying a backpack, a camera, and sketching in my notebook all at once by myself, so I need someone to come with me~ How about it? Wanna be my assistant for the day? ੭ᐕ)੭*⁾⁾"

Tsukishima: ...

Oh, so he was just a pack mule.

But instead of complaining about that, he wanted to ask one question—

"Why me? Since it's not related to the volleyball club's promotional manga, you could just pick anyone, right?"

This time Hoshino's reply was even faster.

"Of course it's because we've worked together for a while and get along well! Well? How about it? Think about it? As a reward, I can recommend a hidden gem of a dessert shop I know—it just opened a couple of days ago so you definitely haven't been there. Their strawberry cake is super super delicious! Way better than the one I got you before! ( ￣▽￣)σ"

...

Tsukishima thought about it longer than he ever had before.

After what felt like forever, he finally seemed to make up his mind, quickly typed out his reply and hit send—

"I don't think we've ever had that kind of chemistry. But for the strawberry cake, fine."

-TBC-

*

Author's note:

Strawberry cake: Me?