"It's over, Akashi's gone mad!"
It was the second set of the qualifying finals: Sengoku Junior High vs. Kousen Academy.
In the first set, Akashi Asuka scored five points right from the start, completely crushing Kousen Academy's morale. Despite their efforts near the end, Kōsen failed to make a comeback, and Sengoku took the first set.
Now, in the second set, Akashi no longer had the same devastating serve from earlier.
But...
His performance in this set was even more terrifying to the players of Kōsen.
In fact, it wasn't just the opposing players, even Akashi's own teammates were feeling a little spooked. They couldn't help but wonder if the pressure had pushed him over the edge.
Because the way he was playing… was downright inhumane.
…
Boom!
Thirteen minutes into the second set.
Ryuhei Sanashita set a high ball to Akashi. Kōsen immediately formed a triple block up front, composed of two 188cm middle blockers and a wing spiker over 185cm. It didn't look like a wall anymore, it was more like a mountain looming ahead.
Even with Akashi's 340cm max spike height, clearing this mountain seemed nearly impossible.
And then, in the next instant,
Kōsen's blockers saw a flash of motion at the edge of their vision. A diagonal shot whizzed just past the wrist of the rightmost blocker. Before they could react, the ball was already thudding onto the court behind them.
Their libero had dived for it with all his might, but just like the block, he missed it by that much.
Undeniably, it was another near-perfect diagonal spike, even from a defender's perspective.
And it was Akashi's fifth flawless diagonal hit in this set alone. Not to mention the three straight-line spikes that landed right on the boundary.
In other words, Akashi, their one ace, had already scored eight points in this set.
And that's not even counting his service points.
At this point, "in the zone" didn't even begin to cover it.
"This guy's a monster."
The Kōsen players were panting, cursing silently in their heads.
The scoreboard flipped again: 16–12.
…
On the sidelines, Kōsen's coach was frowning so hard that his brows had formed a literal "川" character.
Before the match, he never could've predicted they'd be so unlucky, running into a freak having the game of his life.
The coach had played in Japan's V3 League in his youth, so he knew better than anyone: when a star spiker hits this kind of form, no tactics or strategy can contain them.
The only thing to do was stall. Drag out the match. Wait for his rhythm to fade.
Thank god the finals were best-of-five. If this were a single-set showdown, Kōsen would already be done for.
His strategy wasn't wrong.
But there was just one problem.
Akashi's performance in the second set wasn't some once-in-a-lifetime fluke.
The reason he was playing this well was simple, after a little extra training the night before, his stats had taken a leap.
—
Player: Akashi Asuka
Strength: 80.2 (Core: 80, Arm: 80.4)
Speed: 75.9 (Burst: 76, Reflex: 75.9)
Stamina: 76.7 (Endurance: 76.4, Cardiopulmonary: 77)
Jump: 77.8 (Vertical: 79.5, Hang Time: 76.1)
Basic Technique: 73.3
(Serve: 74.3, Dig: 72.1, Set: 65.8, Spike: 80, Block: 76, Defense: 72.1)
Advanced Skills:
Diagonal Spike: 75
Straight Spike: 75
Power Jump Serve: 75.5
—
During non-competition periods, Akashi's training followed a "strengthen strengths, round out weaknesses" approach. But during major tournaments, he focused exclusively on sharpening a single skill or attribute.
Over the course of this month-long qualifier series, Akashi had been honing one thing: his spiking.
And after an inspiring heart-to-heart with his teammates yesterday, he'd gone home and snuck in one last late-night training session.
It paid off.
Both his diagonal and straight-line spike stats had finally broken past the 75 barrier.
And his core spike stat had hit a whopping 80.
The result? His offensive ability had jumped to an entirely new tier.
That was how he was now able to alternate between two powerful spiking styles, repeatedly smashing through Kōsen's elite block.
…
"Oda! Give us a good serve!"
Oda Miki sent the ball clean over the net. Kōsen's captain, wearing the number one jersey, received it and immediately set up an attack.
Kōsen was known for its defense, but their offense wasn't weak either. Sure, the original story emphasized how even short players could thrive in volleyball, but the truth was, height matters. A lot.
Kōsen's attackers couldn't compare to Akashi in technique, but as long as their setter could feed them a ball near their max reach, Sengoku had nobody who could block them.
Masato Oomae and Jujirou Kazama? They were basically free points for Kōsen's tall spikers.
Akashi could block, but he was only one man. And in blocking, height matters more than even vertical leap, because it takes time to reach peak elevation.
So Sengoku had mostly abandoned blocking in favor of focusing all their effort on receiving.
Smack!
Akashi shut down a diagonal spike attempt, forcing the opposing ace to go for a straight shot down the middle.
The spike wasn't as precise as Akashi's, but it was still strong, strong enough that few Sengoku players could handle it.
But this time,
Neko Kurata read the angle and just barely managed to dig it back up.
"Nice receive, Kurata!"
Sanashita shouted and immediately started organizing the counter.
The ball was set toward the net.
Kōsen's triple block instantly closed in on Akashi again. He rose high to meet them, arm swinging powerfully,
Whoosh.
The air trembled.
But the ball was gone.
"Crap!"
Kōsen's blockers realized a split-second too late, it was a fake.
They were still in midair when,
Thud!
On the opposite side of the net, Masato Oomae spiked clean through the open court for a point.