Chapter 21: Battle Against Kitagawa Daiichi (Part 3)
The thunderous cheer from the Yukigaoka side caught the attention of the Kitagawa Daiichi players. As for the already-subbed-out Kageyama Tobio, he had no mood to pay attention to what was happening on the opposing side.
This was the first time he had been taken out of a match without losing. It wasn't due to injury, emergency, or a timeout - the coach had simply subbed him out.
Since becoming the starting setter, this was the worst mood Kageyama had ever been in.
He still had plays to make, but he couldn't return to the court. Forget about making it to the end, he couldn't even last through the first set before being subbed out by the coach.
As for Kindaichi, who remained on the court, his expression was conflicted. During the argument, the intense emotion had given him a sense of "I knew I was right", which was clearly visible on his face.
But as the negative emotions subsided due to serotonin, he also had a sense of "How did it escalate to this?"
"Tch, I didn't do anything wrong, balls I can't hit are just meaningless, no matter how fast."
With Kageyama Tobio gone, Kitagawa Daiichi's subsequent play, while relying on the first-years' blocking height to exert pressure, could occasionally produce effective attacks.
But as the first-years gradually adapted to the rhythm of the match, and executed Ichise Guren's pre-arranged ball control defensive tactics more resolutely, Yukigaoka's defense also became increasingly organized.
When Hyakuzawa Yudai or Ichise Guren were in the front row, with them as the defensive cornerstones, their suppressive blocking was often able to stop Kitagawa's powerful attacks, especially when the substitute setter couldn't deliver quick attacks like Kageyama Tobio.
And when the first-years and Hinata Shoyo were in the front row, the step-back receive-style blocking plus the back-row floor defense could also somewhat slow down Kitagawa Daiichi's offensive.
After Yukigaoka took the first set, the Kitagawa Daiichi coach still didn't immediately put Kageyama Tobio back on the court. While he didn't want his team to lose in the overall first-round match, he felt Kageyama's setter play, which could severely disrupt the players' match experience, still needed more tempering.
The current on-court leaders for Kitagawa Daiichi had shifted from Kageyama to Kuguri and the captain. During every stoppage, the two were constantly discussing how to attack and defend the next play.
For middle school coaches, tactics and match victory are not actually the most important things. They are more focused on nurturing the overall sports atmosphere of the region, unearthing potential, and building a growth ladder to assist development.
However, as the renowned genius setter of Miyagi, the Kitagawa coach was reluctant to let Kageyama Tobio, this volleyball talent, wither away here.
The Kitagawa coach, with arms crossed, looked at the towel-covered, unresponsive Kageyama on the bench, shaking his head. He then glanced at the scoreboard.
Yukigaoka 5, Kitagawa Daiichi 2.
He then called the first timeout of the second set.
Looking a bit puzzled but still obediently coming over to wipe sweat and drink water, the young players gathered around. The Kitagawa coach cleared his throat and called out Kageyama's name.
"What?"
Kindaichi, with a look of surprise, stopped wiping his sweat, somewhat perplexed. But after glancing at the scoreboard, he seemed to understand why the coach wanted Kageyama back on the court.
The Kitagawa coach, seeing Kindaichi first confused, then fall silent, knew Kindaichi had accepted the decision.
After all, the facts had already shown that without Kageyama Tobio, Kitagawa Daiichi was simply outmatched. In terms of raw strength and player configuration, Kitagawa could not be compared to the Yukigaoka team, which had star players as well as relatively unreliable but individually capable role players.
From the final plays of the first set, it was clear that while Kitagawa Daiichi had an initial advantage, by the middle stage every point required a back-and-forth tug-of-war, and towards the end Yukigaoka's team defense, not inferior to Kitagawa's, combined with Ichise Guren's dominant offense, allowed them to take the first set 27-25.
Kindaichi also knew very well that as the match progressed, a team's ceiling potential was the key to determining victory. And Kageyama Tobio was the player who could single-handedly raise their team's ceiling.
With the towel covering his face, the struggling Kageyama Tobio didn't even react when the coach first called his name.
It wasn't until the coach called his name a second time that he reacted, yanking the towel off his face with a gloomy expression as he walked over to the coach.
"Kageyama! I don't care what you're thinking right now, but I absolutely won't allow the situation from the last set to happen again."
"If it does, you'll be sitting on the bench until the end of the match!"
"Understand?"
The Kitagawa coach, unusually stern, scolded Kageyama Tobio.
After hearing this, Kageyama just paused briefly, not arguing back, only responding flatly, "I understand."
In the subsequent match, Kageyama Tobio began to cherish the second chance the coach had given him. But unfortunately, while he could see Yukigaoka's weakest defensive spots, the balls he set to accommodate his teammates were either perfectly blocked by Hyakuzawa and Ichise, or received by the three shorter first-year members, with Yukigaoka's back-row players providing additional support.
On those receives, even if the quality was poor, as long as Mori could contact the ball, Ichise would use his maximum effort to adjust the trajectory and control the height to be within a range where the two towering spikers could comfortably attack.
With the advantage in both defense and offense, Yukigaoka almost steamrolled their way to 20 points, during which Kitagawa Daiichi's organized defense and attacks failed to make much of an impact.
After Yukigaoka reached 20 points, the fiercely self-restraining Kageyama Tobio could no longer suppress his competitive spirit. He couldn't accept using the same approach when he knew it would lead to defeat.
This slow death was, in his eyes, no better than being subbed out.
He gradually began to increase the ball speed according to his own ideas, trying not to let the coach and his teammates notice, aiming to score as many points as possible.
But the Kitagawa attackers, highly sensitive to ball speed, detected Kageyama's changes in the second rotation.
However, while they had their own pride and didn't want to be constantly dominated by Kageyama, they also didn't want to passively accept the comfortable but doomed previous approach.
They began to put in their full effort to cooperate with Kageyama's setting. But the "king" was completely unaware of the concept of cooperation.
He only knew that if he executed his desired attacks according to his own ideas, he could win.
Realizing no one was objecting to him, the "king's" shackles gradually loosened, and he started disregarding his teammates' capabilities, only wanting them to accommodate his setting.
As a result, Kindaichi once again completely failed to keep up with the ball speed in a quick attack.
After enduring for a while, he could no longer tolerate Kageyama's dictatorial setting. Before, he had restrained himself because if Kageyama had only raised the speed to their limit, he wouldn't have complained much for the sake of victory.
But now the setting was clearly beyond their abilities, and Kageyama's self-centered, even self-referential setting.
When faced with teammates unable to match his own skills, the gaps became enormous.
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