The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

Once again, Miura cursed his luck to meet such a troublesome opponent in the first round.

\'Why in the hell do they have to be in the first round too? With this kind of stubbornness, they should be able to reach a good position last year and at least be placed automatically in the second round right now.\'

However, he wasn\'t worried at all, especially considering what he heard from the opponent\'s bench side.

"Come on, everyone! Keep attacking! Riku, spread their blockers thin! Ogawa! Koji! Run more!

Come on! We can do this!"

\'They are anxious.\' Miura realized as he heard what Akira instructed his players. \'They know if the game is prolonged to the third set, they are at a disadvantage. We still have four fresh players on the bench, yet no one could replace Tsunemori\'s players right now. We need to take the initiative to win this set and kill their spirit.\'

After thinking for a moment, Miura decided to make a change too. He replaced Wakamatsu, probably the best defender on his side besides the libero for a player who was better offensively. Just like Akira, he also knew that gaining initiative right now would be crucial.

"Oi, Kobayashi, anything wrong with this guy?" Riku asked, whispering at his friend while glancing at the new player who just come to the court.

Yuki stared at him confusedly before asking, "Why do you ask me that question? How could I know?"

"Because it is you who noticed something wrong with that number 11 first," Riku answered matter of fact.

Yuki twitched his mouth a bit, speechless at the answer he got. Still, he shook his head to answer the first question. "I don\'t think there is something wrong with him. If anything, they want to intimidate us by showing they could replace anyone who is exhausted already with another fresh player."

"You are right." Riku nodded solemnly. "Still, we are just one point away from them. We can do this."

"Yeah." Riku nodded, also with a solemn expression. "It is time to win the game."

-0-

When everyone was finally ready again on the court, the referee blew his whistle to resume the game. Just like before, Riku threw the ball high into the air before starting his run-up, jumping and doing a sequence of movements perfectly before hitting the ball straight to the other side of the net.

His serve became more powerful as time went by, making everyone wonder whether the blonde boy consumed some sort of drugs before the game or not. However, this time, Oda managed to receive the ball even if the libero had to dice acrobatically toward the sideline.

*BAM!*

"Nice receive, Oda!"

"Someone, cover it up!"

It wasn\'t a perfect receive. The ball flew a bit too high and almost crossed the net. Noticing that, Ueno, Hideo, and Ezaki on the front line rushed immediately to save the overpass ball. Hirano and Koji also jumped from the other side, trying to wipe it off for another point.

Unfortunately, Ueno\'s hand reached the ball first as the setter flicked it back, giving a chance for Hideo who ran behind him to spike the ball.

*BAM!*

"Deflection! Chance ball!" Hirano shouted.

At first, Yuki wanted to rush forward to save the ball. However, when his peripheral vision caught Kaede did the same, he stepped back, choosing to preserve his stamina while thinking what he should do next. He glanced sideways toward Shimoyawata\'s side before noticing one particular player who had been passive since a few minutes ago, not contributing anything to the team.

\'Is he exhausted? I have to check it first.\'

"Agostini!"

Riku who was still observing everyone\'s movement while waiting for the ball to go down his direction was taken aback by Yuki\'s shout. It was the first time his friend took the initiative to ask for the ball during this game, and it would be a lie if he said he didn\'t want to pass the ball to the glasses boy.

Their eyes met each other for a second before Riku knew exactly what his friend wanted to do.

Meanwhile, the players on the front of Shimoyawata\'s side also tensed a bit, observing where he would go. Even though it had been a while, they still remembered how the combination play between Riku and Yuki toyed their defense at the beginning of the game, and they didn\'t want something like that to happen again, especially in such a crucial time like this.

They kept their eyes on Yuki for a while as the glasses boy kept running to the front line before he pulled a break and changed direction immediately to the left side.

"WHAT?!"

"SOMEONE! FOLLOW HIM! DON\'T LET HIM DO ANYTHING HE WANTS!"

"I GOT THIS!"

Yuki clicked his tongue in annoyance when he saw Ezaki was following his movement. However, he ignored the boy\'s existence and focused on the ball. Besides the fact that Ezaki\'s presence as a blocker was not as imposing as Hirano\'s, Yuki also didn\'t want to go on a one-on-one contest against him. No, his target was the one on the back line.

*BAM!*

He spiked the ball through Ezaki\'s left side, aiming it close to the backline. It was a short jump, followed by such a weak spike that anyone could receive that easily, showing how exhausted Yuki was at that time. However, Senki who was guarding the back at that time reacted late, couldn\'t even stop the ball as it bruised his forearm before bouncing far to the outside of the court.

Everyone was stunned, not expecting such a weak attack like that to score a point for Tsunemori. Hell, even Yuki didn\'t expect that too. He aimed in Senki\'s direction to test his reaction speed and see how exhausted he was. Who knew it would expose the opponent\'s outside hitter directly like that?