The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

"Man, this is awesome!" Koji grinned widely, his spirit was at its peak. "This is the first time we could win the game so easily like this, right?"

"Did you forget about our second round?" Ogawa snorted.

"Well, that is different! Our opponent at that time was just a weak team and I even forgot their school name! But this time, it is Teiryo, you know? Teiryo High!"

Everyone could understand his excitement. Even though Teiryo was pretty weak, it should be among the best teams in Tokyo. On paper, they shouldn\'t have a problem winning against a no-name team like Tsunemori.

However, this year\'s Tsunemori was bound to make a splash in the national tournament. The fact that they had already won against a top team like Shimoyawata or Kyoei Gakuen was like a Cinderella story among volleyball lovers in Japan. Unfortunately, this sport wasn\'t as popular as baseball or football, so there were still not a lot of people who knew about their existence.

\'Well, it doesn\'t matter. As long as we could beat Konan High, we would be the most legendary underdog team in history.\'

Or so that was what they thought.

Riku\'s desire to win in the same fashion as Konan, dominating Teiryo without giving them more than 10 points worked pretty well. All the players regained their confidence, feeling somehow excited and couldn\'t wait for the fateful confrontation against the best team in Japan. Unfortunately, this strategy worked too well, as everyone started to get overconfident.

"Hey, if we can hold Teiryo to less than 4 points this set, we should be at the same level as Konan, right?" Ogawa asked.

"Idiot!" Hirano suddenly scolded his friend, surprising everyone else who heard that. "Even though we can achieve the same feat as them, that doesn\'t mean we are on a similar level. It told us that our opponent here is too weak, that even a weak team like us can beat them like Konan!"

This was a reasonable answer. However, everyone was still unhappy with Hirano\'s sudden outburst. "Oi, Rano, even though Konan is good, is it a bit too much to say we are a weak team?" Koji asked, expressing his dissatisfaction.

"Yeah! And it is not like Konan is invincible, right? Every team should have a weakness or two that we can expose and take advantage of!"

"You are right!"

Hirano sighed helplessly as everyone was chatting excitedly about how the team should beat Konan in the next round. While it was right that every team should have a weakness, they seemed to forget that Konan wasn\'t just an ordinary strong team. They were the undisputed winner of the national tournament for more than five years in a row.

If at that period, no team was able to win by taking advantage of their weakness, who gave them the confidence to be so arrogant like this?

"Don\'t worry, Senpai." Riku patted his shoulder reassuringly. "They would get over this state pretty quickly, or Akira-sensei would take action to deal with them. For now, just let them do what they want. It is better than feeling depressed for too long."

Yuki twitched his lips unconsciously when he heard Riku\'s words. While what the blonde boy said was right, he couldn\'t help but think this was just an excuse since it was he who started the wave of excitement and overconfident state in the team.

Still, Yuki couldn\'t help but notice that every time the team discussed Konan High, whether it was the optimistic side or the pessimistic side, Hirano would always be tense. At first, he thought it must be because of nervousness or something like that. But when he heard that his senpai was the only one who had experience in high-level competition, he knew it wasn\'t the case.

There must be something in Konan High that bothered his cold-blooded senpai here.

Another mystery for Yuki to solve in the future.

"Okay, everyone! We are still not winning yet! Let\'s focus!" Riku suddenly stepped up as the unofficial leader to calm down the team\'s excitement. "It is still 20 – 2, which means we still have to get 5 more points to win the game. I don\'t want to prolong this game anymore, so let\'s make a bet. Whoever causes the team to lose a point, he has to do a full set of interval running with Akira-sensei.

How about it?" He grinned widely as the bet was thrown.

Everyone was stunned for a second, then their competitiveness ignited in the next second.

"Hey, that is an interesting bet!" Kaede grinned. As the defensive specialist of the team, it would be easy for him to win this challenge. "Okay, let\'s do this!"

"How about the one who wins a point for us?" Koji suddenly asked. "Should they receive some sort of reward?"

All of the players around them snorted. "Bah! You are so shameless, Koji! You know that Riku would give you a lot of passes and you have a better chance to win that competition, so you offer this shady competition to beat us here!"

"Yeah!"

"Hey, no need to get personal! This is just an advice, you know?"

"Bah! Shameless bastard!"

Even though it was in the middle of the game, the atmosphere on Tsunemori\'s side was lively. The fact that they had an 18-point lead against Teiryo and only allowed the opponent to score two points up to now was enough to keep their spirit at its peak. However, Riku was right. They all didn\'t want to prolong this game for too long.

It would be better to win this as soon as possible and go home and rest.

"Okay, everyone! Let\'s focus!"

"Yeah!"

Tsunemori kept adding more points as time went by, not willing to cool their engine. With Teiryo players were ready to give up, it was easier for them to do what they wanted. Hell, even Kaede also joined the attack, wanting to do what he did when playing against Kyoei Gakuen.

However, not everything went as they expected to be.

"Riku, left!"

*BAM!*

"OUT!"

"Argh!" Koji groaned with both hands on his head, regretting that his spike had gone too far. "It is so close!"

"That means Koji is going to do one set of interval running, right?" Kaede asked teasingly.

"Oh, goddamnit, Kai! Don\'t remind me of that!"

Even though they suffered from another mistake, the atmosphere was still warm. It wasn\'t until Yuki blocked another spike from the opponent which resulted in a game point for Tsunemori that everyone went serious once again.

"Okay, everyone! One more point!"

"Let\'s seal the win!"

"Come on, Tsunemori!"

The player who got the honor to do the last serve was Kaede. Unfortunately, he didn\'t have a powerful serve or a wicked aim like Riku or Yuki to score directly from the service line. However, his teammates didn\'t mind it, as they were confident to get the point here.

*Thud!*

"Rano! Riku! Left!" Yuki instructed from behind. The two players moved and jumped in sync, scaring the shit of the opponent\'s player. As a result, even though the opponent was trying his best to aim the ball, he was too intimidated by the wall in front of him and unconsciously spiked the ball straight to the wall.

*BAM!*

It wasn\'t clear who touched the ball the last. However, Riku and Hirano grinned at each other, didn\'t care who had the honor of taking the final bite. All they knew was the ball went in, and the game was over with their block.

"YOSSHA!"

"Good block, Rano-senpai!"

"Nice job, everyone!"

"With this, we are going to the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium!"

"Konan High, wait for us there!"