Chapter 43: You Guess I Guess You Don't Guess?
Using the tactic of "big suffering suppresses small suffering," the four players who were prone to opening nervousness and had poor psychological resilience all got some pressure relief.
However, this also consumed quite a bit of warm-up time. Fortunately, they were all young people who didn't need half an hour of warm-up like the veterans in professional leagues.
A little movement to get the body warmed up was sufficient.
After lining up and having the proper host formally introduce both teams' players to the broadcast and live audiences, the match was about to begin.
In the coin toss, Ichise Guren continued his extremely high winning rate myth, once again securing the right of first choice. But this time, Yukigaoka abandoned their previous strategy of using Ichise Guren's powerful serves to disrupt the opponent's rhythm and grab early points.
Instead, they chose to give the serve to their opponents and casually selected one side of the court.
Kosen coaching staff.
"Ichise Guren seems to want to use spikes after receiving serves to make a strong opening statement and seize the initiative and momentum."
"Yeah, looks like he's planning to attack first himself."
"No problem. Although his height is intimidating, our blocking height combined with soft blocking is sufficient to touch his spikes."
"Underestimating our ground defense capabilities will come at a steep price."
Arms crossed over his chest with a cold smile curling at his lips, Kosen Academy's head coach showed a conspiratorial expression. Unfortunately, his assistant coach's uncertain gaze revealed that they actually lacked confidence and weren't sure if this method could effectively limit Ichise Guren.
Though uncertain about the limiting effect, the coaching staff clearly had a plan for Yukigaoka's choice, submitting a positioning chart aimed at countering Yukigaoka's intention to score through post-receive spikes.
Facing the serve rights that Ichise Guren had yielded, Kosen Academy immediately deployed an ultra-strong defensive formation. The setter moved to the back row position 1 to serve. Both tall middle blockers and Nagamachi Yumeto stood in the front row, seemingly wanting to use blocks to completely shut down the opponent's spikes from the opening.
When Yukigaoka's formation appeared before Kosen Academy, both coaches frowned, because events weren't developing as they had imagined.
Yukigaoka's front row consisted of Hyakuzawa Yudai, Mori, and Hinata Shoyo. The main attacker Ichise Guren, whom Kosen's coaching staff had expected to spike, was quietly standing in the back row.
Kosen's assistant coach hurriedly issued instructions to the players, continuing to implement their previous tactical thinking of blocking spikes while being wary of Ichise Guren's back row attacks.
Though Mori looked serious in the front row, his heart was as happy as could be, feeling the intellectual crushing sensation of [I predicted your prediction].
'As expected, when the captain chose to receive the serve, they definitely thought we'd deliver a powerful spike at the opening, so they put up a front row lineup of three tall players.'
'And having the captain occupy the back row at this time will put some pressure on them, making them wonder if their judgment was wrong, while also forcing them to split their attention to watch the captain in the back row to prevent sequential attacks.'
'At this moment, I need to use the flying knife formation that the captain and I worked out last night.'
The imaginative hero Hinata Shoyo looked at the serious-faced Mori, the expressionless Ichise Guren in the back row, and the coaching staff on the opposing bench with vigilant expressions and frantically thinking brains.
The intellectual warfare duos from both sides formed another scene in Hinata Shoyo's mind.
A giant chessboard made from the gymnasium, with himself and others inside as chess pieces. On both sides of the board, the four people responsible for mental warfare—two on each side—their giant figures seemed to manipulate all the threads of fate from the dark abyss.
'Chess masters Mori and Guren versus Kosen's coaching staff!'
After giving this masterpiece in his mind an explosively straightforward name, Hinata Shoyo felt a spine-tingling excitement spread from his tailbone.
This was also Hinata Shoyo's enlightenment to mental duels on the volleyball court.
'So cool! Powerful spikes are cool! Strategic duels are cool too!'
'I want to be an attacker who can both spike and engage in strategic battles!'
'I want to play Go too!'
···
After the referee confirmed that the volleyball was in the hands of Kosen Academy's setter, he blew the eight-second serve whistle. Only after the whistle started did Kosen's setter close his eyes and take deep breaths, adjusting his breathing rhythm.
After three seconds, Kosen's setter opened his eyes, focusing all his attention on the volleyball before him.
'No matter what you're planning, if you can't receive my serve, all your schemes are castles in the air!'
'You want to play chess! Then I'll flip the table!'
Kosen's setter roared internally, then used three years of rigorous training to deliver this powerful jump serve.
'Huh?'
With a trace of embarrassment, Kosen's setter watched as his jump serve was handled by Hoshino Masaru with an extremely standard receiving motion, producing a 90-point first touch.
So without real strength, what table are you flipping?
Hoshino Masaru didn't care what the opposing server was thinking—he only knew this ball was easy to receive, and threw in some team morale-boosting commentary.
"Such a great first touch! If we don't score, I'm buying ice cream!"
"Yeah!" x5
"I want egg rice flavor!"
"Hyakuzawa-senpai!"
Aside from the silly Hinata Shoyo who actually responded, only Mori called out to Hyakuzawa Yudai.
Kosen's numbers 1 and 7 had flashes of insight in their eyes—just focus on that tall guy and the opposing captain, I won't be misled by your calls.
"I've got this!"
A vigorous shout still attracted the attention of both middle blockers. Except for Nagamachi Yumeto needing to guard against secondary attacks, both players' feet unconsciously shifted toward Hyakuzawa Yudai.
The subtle movement of Ichise Guren quietly stepping back three or four steps in the back row was also caught by both players.
'The footwork is genuinely attracted, but that's also the opening we deliberately sold to you!'
Hyakuzawa Yudai, who had already jumped, didn't attract anyone's defense because the volleyball hadn't even reached Mori's hands.
Kosen's front row, using adaptive blocking, wasn't pulled by Hyakuzawa Yudai's feint at all and maintained their positions firmly.
'Save those fake moves for fooling Kitagawa Daiichi and Shiratorizawa.'
'That fake move gets 0 points!'
Kosen's two middle blockers silently criticized Hyakuzawa Yudai's feint in their minds, but their footwork didn't waver at all.
Until Ichise Guren's approach timing perfectly synchronized with the volleyball falling into Mori's hands.
'Too smooth!'
'We were waiting for you!'
"Yukigaoka's captain!"
Both middle blockers, carrying tremendous pressure, ran side by side to Ichise Guren's front, laying a net of heaven and earth for the jumping Ichise Guren.
Even Nagamachi Yumeto urgently ran over the moment the volleyball left Mori's hands, following their blocking motion to provide backup defense.
'What!?' x3
The volleyball whistled past above Ichise Guren's swinging arm, leaving the three blockers bewildered by Ichise Guren's whiffed attack.
'Was it a mistake?'
'No!'
The three heads looked exactly like three little kittens stunned by a cat toy, their eyes closely following the volleyball arcing through the air.
Nagamachi Yumeto, who had landed early due to insufficient approach distance, ignored his stumbling from forcibly shifting his center of gravity upon landing.
He lunged toward the volleyball's flight direction with one hand, trying to stop it.
Unfortunately, in this battle between blocking and spiking, being half a second slow meant falling behind in offensive and defensive rhythm.
Behind the volleyball, an orange-haired small figure suddenly appeared. Hinata Shoyo, with the momentum of his approach and jump, made an elegant spiking motion in the air.
His small palm cut through the air, carrying the muscle memory of ten thousand wall spikes, tearing through Kosen Academy's iron wall that had blocked countless Miyagi Prefecture attackers.
'lBang bang!
The crisp yet thunderous sound represented Yukigaoka's first point—a successful spike. It also represented Hinata Shoyo blasting his speed killing move past the 'giants' who towered 20cm above him.
Yukigaoka 1, Kosen Academy 0.