[Note: I won't be concentrating that much for the Middle School Tournament arc, just skim them through and outline them. But, during High School arc, I will be focusing on them more. Thankyou and cheers!]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The referee whistled, signaling for the start of the match.
Izumitate's lineup:
Front row: Outside Hitter Yuki Takahashi, Middle Blocker Kira Izumi, Outside Hitter Haruto Suzuki
Back row: Outside Hitter Kirito Yagami, Middle Blocker Ren Ito(Libero Kenji Yamada), Setter Sato Kaito
Izumitate served first.
Kirito stepped up to serve.
Kirito threw the ball very high, made a run approach and jumped up very high like a spring. In mid-air, he coiled back into a "C" shape. He contracted his core and used all the force from core to direct it to his hand. His palm was rigid. Then, with all his might smashed the ball.
BOOOM!
The ball landed squarely into Kōyō Middle School's back row. The opponent players couldn't see the ball at all.
Before coming to play this match, Kōyō Middle School's team were very confident that at least they would qualify for the Quarter-Finals, but looking at that serve their confidence began to waver.
"This is not good!" every player of Kōyō Middle School thought.
"Wow! What a serve!" the spectators said in unison.
"Who is that player?!" they added.
[Izumitate 1 - 0 Kōyō]
The first blood was drawn from Kirito.
"Nice point!" everybody gathered around Kirito and cheered.
For the next 5 point, Kirito scored all directly from the serve before committing a service error.
"Sorry!" Kirito shouted.
"It's alright!" Sato replied.
[Izumitate 6 - 1 Kōyō]
Finally getting chance to serve, Kōyō's ace Hiroshi served the ball with full force but was received cleanly by Haruto Suzuki and passed it cleanly to Sato who set the ball for Kirito.
Kirito ran from the left side and made a powerful force swing and smashed ball.
BOOM!!
The ball landed between the front row and back row.
"*sigh* What kind of player are we up against." Kōyō's ace and their middle blocker grumbled.
The match continued.
[Izumitate 25 - 10 Kōyō]
[Izumitate 25 - 15 Kōyō]
Izumitate Junior High won the game by taking two sets victory.
Kirito took 15 point in the first set and took 13 in the final set.
The next opponent forfeited, which means Kirito's team get a by-pass to Quarter-Finals.
Izumitate Junior High were very ecstatic.
"Wow, we really reached into the Quarter-Finals." Sato commented.
"Yeah, kinda surreal knowing that our team is not the best." Ren Ito said.
"Did you guys see Kitagawa Daiichi Junior High team?" Haruto asked.
"They literally destroyed every team they came across!" he added.
"Yeah, they contained the opponent's score to only in a single digit!" Yuki added.
Every one became nervous after that statement before Kirito calmly addressed them.
"Alright everyone, from now on the teams we play against will be very tough." Kirito said to everybody.
"Before, we might have played leisurely due to opponents being weak. Now, we can't afford that." he added.
"So stabilize and condition yourself for the next matches." he said.
"Also, don't forget to enjoy this few matches from now because we can get eliminated anytime." he concluded.
"Yes, boss!" everybody said in unison.
Just like that, Kirito's team went on to the Quarter-Finals and played against Tohoku Gakuin Junior High School where, Kirito's team won by two sets.
[Izumitate 25 - 20 Tohoku Gakuin]
[Izumitate 25 - 22 Tohoku Gakuin]
It wasn't the easiest win but they won.
During Semi-Finals, Kirito's team played against Shuko Junior High School.
[Izumitate 25 - 21 Shuko]
[Izumitate 25 - 22 Shuko]
During this game too, they fought very hard to earn points and finally won the match.
Finally, they were going to play the Finals. Being nervous might be understatement for them at the moment because they were going to play against Kitagawa Daiichi Junior High.
The team that had the least amount of points scored on them. The team which had the "King of the Court" present with them.
Kirito was nervous but excited to face Kageyama. This will be Kirito's first time facing an actual anime deuteragonist and a leading character in the anime. Although, Kirito would love to meet Hinata too, but he had already been eliminated.
But keeping all the distracting thoughts away, he went to his team's training area and went to prepare for this final battle.