The day had finally arrived: it was time for the interhigh preliminaries to officially begin. We arrived bright and early, all wearing our Shiratorizawa Sports uniforms.

When we walked into the building, I noticed everyone pause to watch us. "Whoa, who is that?"

"No idea, but she's intimidating!"

"Probably a new first year, wonder why she's so confident. Look at the way she's walking!"

"She's tall too, not the tallest but pretty tall for a girl her age. She must be good if she's with Shiratorizawa."

"Hold on, have we seen her somewhere?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah! She's from Kitagawa Daiichi! What was her name again?"

"Kazane Kageyama." I grinned, my hand on my hip as my team stood behind her. "Setter Ace of Shiratorizawa."

The declaration caused everyone's eyes to widen, and their mouths shut as we continued onwards to claim a spot to put out stuff. "You're pretty ballsy, you know that?" Yumiko laughed.

"Nah, I'm just confident." I replied, smiling at her. The spot we found was on the second floor near the stairs, it was a nook right next to the stairs.

"Get changed, we're the first match today." Azusa reminded us, so we all grabbed our volleyball uniforms and headed to the girl's changing room.

Shrugging on my jersey, looked around to see if everyone else was ready to go. Once they all were, we walked out as a team and headed to the gym. It wasn't hard to tell most of the other teams here were intimidated by us, but I didn't really care.

They can be intimidated on the court, that's the only time I'll care, because then we'll win and they'll go home.

"That Kageyama is really cocky, did you hear her when they came in?" I heard a few voices from the stands.

"Yeah, I guess we'll have to see if she puts her actions behind her words."

"True that. The girls team for Shiratorizawa hasn't ever really been strong, I doubt that will change because of one first year."

"Remember her from Kitagawa Daiichi? She was a beast on the court! Though, she was just the setter back then."

"Yeah, I don't think I've seen her hit before. How can she be the ace of she isn't a spiker?"

"I don't know, I guess we'll see."

"There are so many people talking about you Kaz! You made a real impression!" Yumiko pointed out, and I just shrugged.

"Eh, not my problem. They can think what they want, I know what I am and their words can't change that." I said plainly.

Yumiko's eyes widened, "wow, that was cool..."

"Haha thanks. Anyway, let's do our best yeah? Counting on you for the receives." I patted her shoulder, and she immediately nodded.

"Yes! I'll get everything I can right to you!"

"Sounds good." I smiled. We started warming up; I was paired with Hado to warm up setting while everyone else was peppering.

Soon it was our seven minutes on, so we did hitting lines. I spiked five times, then switched out with Fujimura and set some.

After our opponent's seven minutes on, we lined up on the end line and the ref blew the whistle. "Thank you for the game!" Both sides bowed, and then we shook hands.

The starters went out to the court, standing in the line up we had been given a week ago.

After the down ref checked the lineups, he gave the signal to the up ref to begin the match. Apparently we had receive, so we had rotated one back so that I would be the first server.

Standing at the net, I clapped my hands. "Alright let's get a solid receive to get this game started! Counting on you guys!"

"We got this!" Azusa agreed. The whistle was then blown, and the first official match of the interhigh preliminaries had begun.

The ball was served straight at Azusa, who effortlessly received it. "I got it!" Kazane established her claim, her hands up as she prepared to set the ball.

Seeing Ejiri heading around for a broad jump, Kazane immediately sent it her way. Ejiri seemed surprised, but hit the ball cross court. It landed near the side line, their setter landing right beside it.

"ALRIIIIIIIGHT!" The team cheered, coming together to celebrate. "Serve it up Kaz!" Yumiko cheered as said girl went back to serve.

"You got this!" Hado yelled from the player waiting square.

Bouncing the ball three times, Kazane then spun it in her hands and glanced at the ref. He blew the whistle, bringing his hand across his body to signal the serve.

Letting out a long breath, Kazane tosses the ball up in the air. That felt good, she thought, then did her approach and hit the ball.

Flying across the net, the opposing team's libero went after it, only to have it shank off of her arms. "WOOOOHOOOO!"

"YES!" Kazane pumped the air with her fist proudly as her team cheered. Kiyose Higashi was not very happy, though.

"Come on, let's take that point back!" Their captain shouted, the players nodding in agreement.

"Hey guys, the next time we get a good receive, we are going to do a quick from Azusa, okay?" Kazane informed them.

"Huh? But why me, I'm not a middle." She asked in confusion. "I don't know how to do quicks."

"You don't need to know. All you have to do is jump at max height and max speed wherever there's an opening and swing at full power. I will deliver the ball to you, so trust me." She told her sincerely. She seemed hesitant, but in the end nodded.

"Alright, let's do it."

Several serves later, the other team hasn't managed to return the ball at all so their coach called a time out. It was 9-0, 8 of those points scored by Kazane alone.

"Nice serving out there!" Hado complimented the female.

"Thank you! I'll keep throwing them off. Maybe we'll be lucky enough that we'll win this game on serves alone!" Kazane laughed. "If only."

"Yeah, but that wouldn't really be fun, would it?" Azusa butted in.

"I suppose not," Kazane agreed in the end. After the time out, Shiratorizawa scored 4 more points by serve until Kazane accidentally served it out. "AAAKKKKK SORRY!"

"it's cool, get the next one." Azusa shrugged. "Nice run."

"Thanks!" The score was then 13-1. Going into serve receive, Kazane pushed up Aguni. "Let's get a nice receive and get a side out!"

"Yeah!" The team echoed. A few seconds later, the red blew the whistle and the ball was served.

"Mine!" Yumiko yelled, diving as the serve came down short.

"Nice receive!" Chiyako said as Kazane got under the ball. Azusa took a breath, then did her approach as Ejiri did as well.

The other team assumed it was going to be a fast attack, going up for the block on Ejiri. However, Kazane sent the ball to Azusa right as the spiker hit the peak of her jump.

She slammed the ball right in front of the libero, who looked wide eyed at the girls in front of her as Azusa landed.

Coach Gushiken smirked. The Shiratorizawa boy's volleyball team wasn't the only threat out there any more.

No, now everyone has better look out for the ace setter of the Shiratorizawa girl's volleyball team; Kazane Kageyama.