It was a Wednesday afternoon when the state tournament brackets dropped.
The team gathered in the video room after school. Laptops open. Phones buzzing. A palpable sense of anticipation buzzed through the room like static.
Coach Anzai stood near the screen, arms folded.
"Alright," he said. "Here we go."
The official state tournament bracket appeared on the projector.
Renji leaned forward.
Yuuto stood up.
Asuka's fingers tightened around her pen.
---
A Stacked Path
Seiwa High had drawn a tough bracket.
Round 1 – Oshima High
Solid opponents. Well-rounded. No flashy names, but a stubborn defense.
Quarterfinals – Seiyo High
Yuuto's brows furrowed. "Again?"
Renji exhaled slowly. "Of course."
Seiyo High—the team they'd barely beaten in the regionals last season. Kenjiro Morita would be waiting for them, now as Seiyo's captain. And he wasn't the type to forget a loss.
Semifinals – Arakawa Prep
Silence.
Everyone turned toward the name.
Arakawa.
A name most of them had never seen at this level.
But Coach Anzai had.
"Arakawa Prep is the wildcard," he said. "Nobody expected them to qualify. But they swept every qualifier match without dropping a set."
He tapped a name on the screen: Kenta Mizushima.
"Ace. 6'3". Hits like a truck."
Then another: Nao Yamasaki.
"Libero. Ranked #2 in the region. Reads like a machine."
Renji's eyes narrowed.
That name.
That face.
Nao Yamasaki wasn't just any libero.
He was Renji's former teammate.
---
Flashbacks and Fractures
It had been two years ago.
Before Misaki High.
Before Asuka.
Renji had played alongside Nao on a city training team. They were two defensive minds—Renji playing with instinct and emotion, Nao with cold precision and flawless technique.
They clashed constantly.
Nao accused Renji of playing with too much "feeling," calling it "soft" and "unprofessional."
Renji, meanwhile, saw Nao as mechanical—brilliant, but heartless.
Their partnership ended with a cold handshake and no words.
And now… they were on a collision course.
---
Internal Reactions
"Seiyo and Arakawa…" Yuuto muttered. "Back-to-back matches like that will break some teams."
"But not us," Arai said. "Right?"
Silence.
Even Arai looked unsure.
But Renji stepped forward.
"Not us."
His voice didn't shake.
And when he looked at Coach Anzai, there was fire in his eyes.
---
Later That Night
After practice, Renji sat alone in the gym.
The bracket printout sat beside him, folded and creased.
He stared at Nao's name.
Asuka approached quietly. "You okay?"
He didn't look at her. "I never beat him. Not once. Not even in practice matches."
"Then now's your chance."
He turned to her.
She smiled. "You don't have to become him. You just have to be you. And that's more than enough."
Renji nodded slowly.
He didn't feel like the old boy who froze under pressure.
Not anymore.
---
Team Resolve
At the next team meeting, Yuuto stood up.
"Alright," he said. "We've got Seiyo ahead, and two monsters in the semifinals. Everyone's talking about how it's the 'bracket of death.'"
He looked around the room.
"Well, then we'd better be the team that lives."
Laughter. Nods. The tension lightened.
Coach Anzai smiled. "Good. We play Oshima in five days. It's not about beating the entire bracket yet."
He looked to Renji.
"It's about one match at a time."
Renji nodded. "One point at a time."
The team clapped together in unison.
Seiwa High was ready.
---
Closing Montage
— Kenjiro training late into the night, slamming spike after spike into the gym wall.
— Nao Yamasaki, watching footage of Seiwa, unblinking, expressionless.
— Asuka jotting down serve-receive patterns on her clipboard.
— Renji tossing ball after ball to an invisible attacker in the darkened gym, whispering calls to no one but himself.
The road was brutal.
But so was their resolve.
---
End of Chapter 16
---
To Be Continued