The beauty of a National tournament was that the ladies had some time to rest before the quarter-finals. The last matches of the third round would be starting soon. Coach insisted that the ladies take care of themselves before their practice later in the afternoon. The men were already in their assigned gym getting ready for their match.

Mitsumi had promised to go out for breakfast with Matsuki. Everyone went out for the usual morning workout and returned to the hotel to catch some extra sleep. At least some of them tried too. Shimura insisted they watched the games that were currently going on in her room. So some of the team congregated there. The two liberos had found a cafe not too far away from the hotel.

Matsuki had been wanting to do this for a while. She was graduating soon, and that meant her volleyball career was coming to a close. And this was the first time she had a junior libero. "So, what was up with you and that chick last night?" She spun her spoon around in her cup of coffee.

The burnette blinked a couple times. "Oh!" She said remembering her conversation with Tsukibahara. "You're talking about Tsukibahara. Apparently, she found out she didn't make the National team." Mitsumi tore a piece of her flaky croissant off. "She apologized to me too."

"EH?! That's crazy!" Matsuki dropped her spoon on her saucer. "Have you heard anything?" The girl across from her shook her head. "Don't sweat it. You have time."

"Don't tell anyone I said this, but-" Mitsumi swallowed the food she had in her mouth. "I don't really care if I don't make it. I'm working on my degree and being on the volleyball team is just an added bonus." She felt her heart squeeze. There was something off about her statement. And the lie in it surged through her body.

Matsuki hummed a bit. "How's the whole piano thing going for you?"

"It's a fun mess. I'm honestly nowhere near the skills of my classmates, but I'm doing something I love." Mitsumi smiled at the mere thought of her chaotic piano friends and stared at her plate. "It's been worth it."

"Wait... Are you saying that you would toss your chance at playing on a world class team because of school?!"

There was a tense pause. Mitsumi wiped her mouth with her napkin and crumpled it into a ball. "Maybe... I don't know." She hadn't quite figured it out for herself yet.

Matsuki nodded and finished her meal. "Well, you can figure that out later.  It's a great opportunity for an opportunist like you. But for now, we have to kick Hiroshima University where the sun doesn't shine!" She paid for their meal with a smile. "I'd keep a close tab on your email though."

...

"Everything is an uphill battle from here!" Coach Yamata was glad to see that Shimura's ankle was back to normal. Honestly, everyone was relieved that she was going to be playing again. They were worried that they would have to figure out what to do without their beloved captain. "We need to make sure every attack we make is a warning for everyone else that we are going to be dominating the court and won't we back down after a tough day!"

Everyone nodded with enthusiasm before breaking off to change into their jerseys. Apparently, the other team would be wearing white, so everyone would be changing into their alternate uniform. Mitsumi hadn't gotten the chance to wear her white and gold jersey. She had grown attached to the familiar baby blue one, so it felt a bit odd to be wearing what she saw her teammates wear so frequently. She re-tied her shoes and remade her ponytail.

"Has anyone seen my elbow pad?" She had some painful bruises from the previous day. So, the libero decided it would be best to play with one today. But, after tearing her bag apart, she couldn't find it. And she had just been wearing it.

Makoto was standing right next to her. "Sorry! I had to move it so I could tie my shoe without stepping on it." She picked the item up from beside her and returned it.

"I thought you didn't like playing with it." Yuki was a bit surprised.

Mitsumi pulled it on her left arm. "I have some battle wounds from yesterday. I don't want them to hurt more." She then pulled her track jacket back on. The room they were currently in was quite cold. But part of it was probably her nerves setting in again.

Sugawara Koushi: Onto semifinals! Where are you right now?

Mitsumi Chie: We just changed and we were going to go see the end of your match. But it seems that you beat us.

Sugawara Koushi: Haha!!! It's all good. I figured this would happen. There is always tomorrow.

Mitsumi Chie: I'll meet you over at the lobby! Our storage room is right next to it.

Mitsumi had a relieved looking smile. "The boys won!" She tucked her phone in her pocket. "I'm off to find a snack." She booked it out of the room before she got wrapped up in another conversation.

We get to play another round together if we win. She smiled a bit at the thought. Mitsumi found Suga talking with Kuroo in the lobby. They were discussing something in hushed tones when she came over. Which made her raise an eyebrow.

"I literally haven't seen either of you since last night. What did I do?" Mitsumi crossed her arms with a sigh. She had no idea what they were talking about.

He smiled as if it was nothing. "Don't worry about it."

"We just bought some shirts and stuff." Kuroo was holding a plastic bag in his hand.

"CHIE~" A familiar voice came from behind her. "How's my favorite older sister?" Megumi hugged her sister from behind. Her large sports camera was slung over her shoulder.

Mitsumi glared at the two males in front of her. They were sneaky. "I'm fine! Now let go of me, Megumi!" She shook her sister off. "Gosh, what the heck are you doing here?"

"Yearbook! I've actually been here all week." Megumi had a photographer's pass hanging around her neck. "The girls are going to the semifinals tomorrow. Hopefully we bring home gold again!"

Kuroo placed his large hand on Megumi's head. "Hey, Squirt, what took you so long? Did Coach Ueno hold you up?"

"Sheesh, he's a talker." Megumi slapped Kuroo's hand away. "Anyways, I thought I'd get pictures of your game, sis. I'll be here for as long as you guys are."

Suga pulled Mitsumi close next to him. "Want to get some snacks with us?" He offered it to Megumi.

"I'm good! The girl politely declined. "I was asked by your coach to go get some candid shots of some of the guys and Kuroo was going to take me over." Megumi was happy to be taking photos to her heart's content. The lanky middle blocker had told the coach about her exceptional abilities and he agreed to let her use the team as some action shot practice. Some of the guys were just passing a ball around outside for fun since they were bored.

"Call me if anything gets crazy." Mitsumi told her sister, "Don't you dare let anything happen to her, Kuroo." She said in a firm voice that lowered the temperature of the room. The last time she had left Megumi alone with Kuroo, he let her stand on the pegs on the back of his bike and he flipped into a ditch. Megumi had a massive gash on her leg.

He waved his hand, "Nothing will happen this time."

Suga walked off with his girlfriend in tow. He had seen a stand selling onigiri and some fresh fruit bowls. The perfect midday snack. And it beat the odd meals the university nutritionist had concocted. They hopped in the decently long line and waited to order.

"How was your game?" Mitsumi pulled her coin purse out of her pocket. "I saw the last few plays on my phone." She happily exchanged her yen for a berry yogurt parfait.

"It was crazy!" He was relieved he was done for the day. "Bokuto went into Emo Mode during the second set. He was almost subbed out, but he managed to snap out of it."

She stifled back a laugh, "What happened?" It was quite unfortunate that had happened, but she found it funny. For as annoying as Bokuto's mood swings were, hearing about them was strangely entertaining.

"He got way too cocky and ended up getting shut down by a single blocker." He explained everything that had happened during his match. They found a table in a cafe area and sat down to eat and talk. Koushi was trying to describe things as best as he could. It was an eventful match by how she was envisioning everything.

Mitsumi brushed her bangs out of the way as she listened to his stories. "It sounds like you had a fun game." She placed her plastic spoon in her now empty plastic cup. "It's wild to think that it's the end of the season already. Open tryouts are at the end of this semester." She rested her hands on the tabletop. Looking back, it had been a crazy season.

"I doubt too much will change. You're only losing Shimura and Nomiya." Suga placed his hand on top of hers. "Takuma has one more season. But Matsuda is leaving us." He rubbed his thumb over the top of her hand gently. "How many credits are you taking this semester?"

"Eh... According to my schedule I'm taking 18. But I still have all my classes I don't get credit for." Mitsumi sweatdropped. It was the unfortunate life of a music major. "Don't worry though! I promise it isn't anything crazy." Suga's face twisted knowing that she just lied to him. She checked the time and stood up. It was time for her to go back to her team.

He flicked her forehead, "Don't you dare lie to me!"

"Ouchie! Don't flick me!"

...

Coach Ueno decided to observe the women's semifinal game. The boys were still exploding with energy. They crowded in their designated viewing area. Megumi was glad that Kuroo had managed to convince his coach to let her in. She was on a photo frenzy for the Nekoma alumni yearbook pages.

Watanabe was tapping through the photo gallery on Megumi's iPad. All the photos she was taking were popping up on the screen. "Gotta a sharp eye still, Megumi-chan." She scrolled through all of the raw tournament photos.

"Check this!" Megumi put her camera down for a split second and tapped on the screen of the tablet. She pulled up a picture of Coach Ueno standing up from the bench and screaming with his eyes wide open.

"BFFFFT!" Watanabe covered her mouth with one hand. A few laughs could be heard from the boys standing behind them. The Coach seemed irked by everyone's reaction. He was more expressive than he let off.

"A sharp eye indeed." He sighed.

Suga turned his attention to the court. By the looks of things, the ladies were holding up really well now that Shimura was back. The first set was tallied at 12-10 with Tokyo U in the lead. Compared to the Kyoto match, this was completely underwhelming. Although the players didn't seem to mind it.

BAM! Hiroshima's number 13 slammed a serve right before the back line. It was a hybrid serve. This took everyone off guard. It seemed things were heating up.

"I'll get the next one!" Mitsumi brushed herself off as she stood up.

Makoto patted the libero's back, "Don't mind it!"

The next serve sped right over the net and looked like it would go out. Just like the last one. Mitsumi decided to go for it. If she knew anything about hybrid serves, it was that the floating trail of it always went the opposite direction. The ball was too low to bump or overhand pass, and diving would take too long. So, she took a lesson out of her cousin's book and squatted to the ground. Her left leg extended out to the side in a swift swoop. The ball bounced off the top of her foot and soared to the left side of the court.

"Captain!" She called out to Shimura in the front row.

Shimura held up an okay sign behind her back. Everyone's eyes widened. A spike from a ball like that? The ball was falling in front of her at the right height. She smacked the ball over the net with ease, as nobody was blocking. They got the miracle two-touch point. And it felt amazing.

The captain stared at her red hand with a grin. Her teammates were practically leaping in the air. "Nice kill!" Could be heard ringing from the cheering fans in the stand.

...

"You guys are MONSTERS!" Coach Yamata was clutching his head during the post-game meeting. His clipboard full of papers was smashed against his right temple. "What the heck are you kids doing during personal practice?!"

"Normal practice." Uehara shrugged her shoulders.

Yuki smiled at the compliment, "Coach, we just had a lot of emergency saves today."

"It was really nothing." Shimura and Mitsumi sighed at the same time.

Their coach was still in disbelief that the ladies had turned what seemed like was going to be a standard match into a show. His pride was already swollen after they took down Kyoto. But now, he felt like he was going to burst. For the first time in five years, they had the chance to possibly make it to the finals. Last year, they were eliminated by Miyagi in the quarterfinals. This year, they were able to move on to the next round.

Coach Yamata took a deep breath to compose himself. "Tomorrow, we are going up against the runners-up from last year, University of Tsukuba. They beat Miyagi in the semifinals last year." He was dreading having to announce that they weren't taking Miyagi down yet. "I expect that everyone is playing the best they've played all week."

"Yeah! We still have the pink devils to deal with! No point in slacking off now!" Shimura practically had fire-spewing off of her. "And I want to let them ROT IN-" Yuki slapped her hand over the captain's mouth.

"We get it!" The team groaned in unison.

The door to the gym creaked open. There was a camera crew and a couple journalists waltzing in. Riza dashed over, "Sorry, this is a closed meeting." She was the real pro at dealing with the prying media. It was nowhere on the schedule that they were expecting some media coverage.

"They're fine, Riza! I forgot to give you the updated schedule." Coach Yamata called out to the unsuspecting manager.

A woman with long, wavy chestnut hair directed her colleagues to set up. "I'm Honda Haruhi. We're here to get some practice footage of each of the semifinalists for a special that is being made."

"Please feel free to set up as you please. The men's team should be here shortly." The coach smirked and placed a hand on his hip. If his team was tired and unmotivated, this announcement was sure to pump them back up.

As if on cue, the men walked into the gym with their captain at the head. They had tried to walk in looking like the "cool and smooth males they were". (Coach Ueno had shaken his head at the idea. But, boys will be boys). The ladies rolled their eyes at the sight. They looked absolutely stupid.

"Let's get this joint practice on the road!" Matsuda's voice boomed through the gym. His announcement created a ruckus of enthusiastic shouts that made the film crew scramble to start getting shots.

...

Suga's setter dump was swiftly handled by his girlfriend. Which was a major upset to his pride. She was way too good for him. His emotions were interrupted by the coaches' whistles blowing. It was the perfect time for a break.

Watanabe and Riza were busy talking about their teams to Honda. This left the team to grab their own water bottles and towels for their break. The men's setter was caught up talking to Ichiyama about the last play and what he would have done.

"Koushi, can you pass me my towel?" Mitsumi couldn't get through the hoard of people in front of her easily. Her eyes were burning from the amount of sweat that was falling in. The setter retrieved the item and watched her wipe her face.

The dull burn subsided, but left her eyes dry. Suga subconsciously ruffled her hair. "You are a pain on the court today." His gentle pats turned into a rough noogie.

She flinched at the sudden touch and tried to swat his hand away. "Just doing my job, Koushi." Mitsumi managed to move his hand off her head. His fingers were quick to lace in between her fingers and gave her a gentle squeeze. The gesture made her cheeks dust with pink. "There's cameras here." She whispered.

Suga only moved closer to her side. They had been instructed to act normal. "I'm just following directions."

"Mitsumi, it's your turn!" Shimura marched over after her interview. "I guess they want to interview you too." The crew had finished interviewing the third years and Yuki.

Mitsumi mentally snarled. So much for blending in. She rubbed Suga's back really quick before letting go of his hand and trudging over to the reporter. Honda turned the page of her notebook. The entire team was screen worthy. To her distaste, she couldn't interview every member.

"So! Mitsumi, this is your first season with Tokyo University. How does it feel to be the only freshman on the team?" Honda jumped straight into her questions.

Mitsumi fidgeted with her fingers behind her back. "It's been an eventful season. At first it was a bit rough, but I've become really close with everyone."

"What helps you out on the court when things get rough?"

The girl stopped her fidgeting. Her eyes softened as she began to think. "Knowing that I have my team to cover me and our fans to always cheer us on." She felt her ears heat up as she thought about her family and Suga. The amount of support she had from them is what always got her through.

...

Everyone had finished stuffing their faces with their dinners. The ladies had decided to hit up an onsen all together after dinner to relax and unwind. Well, it was more like Shimura wanted to have some more team bonding time.

Mitsumi wasn't going to complain. Her body ached from the game and intense practice. She sank into the hot spring with a relaxing sigh. The hot water soothed her aches and pains.

"I think this is the most media coverage we have ever gotten." Makoto was reflecting on the events of the day. The ace had multiple interviews throughout different parts of the day.

Nomiya nodded in agreement, "I think we are pretty famous this year!"

"I mean, we are on the favorites list." Ishida chimed in.

Shimura crossed her arms across her chest. "Nah, we just have a National candidate this year. Of course they are going to watch us more because of it." She glanced at the libero next to her. "Have you heard anything yet?"

The brunette shook her head. "No, I haven't. I turned my email notifications off so I don't get distracted." It wouldn't make sense for them to send the offer letters in the middle of a National tournament that almost all of the candidates were playing in. Although, she found it strange that the rejection letters had already gone out. "Besides, we are all playing in a tournament. It would be bad timing."

Everyone sighed knowing she had a point. Shimura cracked her neck. "Yeah, rejection letters have probably started going out." She rolled her shoulders. "The one time I was invited to camp, I got that letter. Threw me off my game. My sophomore season SUCKED!"

"You're onto better things though, Cap." Yuki was a freshman when that had happened. "Didn't you get a job offer from the V. League special events department?"

"Heck yeah I did! I actually accepted it too." Shimura was quite excited about the job. She managed to get a job within her degree and got to keep the sport in her life. It was a win-win situation. "The pay is actually really good too."

The team howled in excitement for their beloved captain. They all took turns smacking her on the back. Mitsumi included. This was the year they were all getting the recognition they deserved.