Chapter 45: Watch the Ball, Not Me
In an instant, all of Kosen Academy's players couldn't help but pull back, either shrinking or leaning their bodies backward—this was their subconscious trying to avoid the aggressive aura that Ichise Guren had just directed at them.
Kosen's number 7 wing spiker's Adam's apple bobbed as he tugged at his collar, saying: "What the hell was that? So eerie and mysterious. It's broad daylight, but it felt like being stabbed by an ice cube."
He tugged at his collar and fanned himself a couple times, feeling the cold sweat on his stomach dry somewhat before wiping the sweat off his body through his shirt.
"I just suddenly broke out in cold sweat for no reason."
Kosen's number 1 laughed and waved his hand, creating a breeze to fan toward his head.
"Hahaha, yeah yeah, I got some cold sweat on my forehead too."
"Really? What a coincidence, hahaha."
The two made eye contact and awkwardly laughed for a bit.
Then with perfect synchronization, they both instantly turned around—the kind where they didn't even look back once—clean and decisive cool turns.
Immediately they started whispering.
Kosen's number 7 pulled number 1 over, naturally covering his mouth with his hand.
"That number 1 across the net has some issues."
Kosen's number 1's eyes narrowed.
"Don't talk nonsense, what issues could there be?"
"I don't know, but he's strong. Strong enough to scare me into a cold sweat."
The number 7 wing spiker looked at the layer of sweat beads and raised hair on his hand.
"Huh? You too?"
The number 1 captain was startled by his teammate's words. He originally thought only he had felt that guy's aura and assumed it was his imagination.
"Keep your voice down. The others might not have felt it. From now on, we two need to keep our eyes glued to that guy."
Realizing belatedly that his reflexive question might have drawn other teammates' attention, number 1 then gave his teammate a few silly laughs, trying to use his usual tactics to brush it off.
His teammate really did fall for it—the head that had just turned over quickly turned back and started discussing how to play the next ball.
The two who bore the brunt of Ichise Guren's intimidating attack were now obviously much more cautious.
Watching the two whispering coldly, Ichise Guren also chuckled, knowing his little scheme had succeeded again.
Just like the previous quick break, this was also an extremely fast break. Kosen Academy successfully regained the serve from Yukigaoka with their number 1 middle blocker's backup cross-court spike.
The serve came into Kosen Academy's hands. At this moment, Kosen's morale surged as Nagamatsu Yumeto, who had been selected as a starter despite being only a second-year, stepped into the service area.
"Direct ace! Yumeto!"
Kosen's number 1, standing in the front row with both hands protecting the back of his head, shouted with a slightly rolled tongue.
The other two front row players also covered the backs of their heads in unison, because they knew that Nagamatsu Yumeto's powerful jump serves were fierce, but this 185cm tall guy's ball control still had a considerable chance of hitting them.
Without yelling to encourage their underclassman like number 1 did, they were clear that having the captain's encouragement was enough, and at this moment they were more concerned about protecting the backs of their heads.
Taking a breath, Nagamatsu tossed the volleyball gently into the air, slightly lowering his center of gravity. Taking long strides, he charged forward four steps, suddenly raising his center of gravity. With the power from his thighs, his entire body began to soar.
His back and waist core muscle groups contracted instantly as his right hand cut through the air, slamming hard into the front of the volleyball.
Carrying Kosen's high hopes, this ball shot straight toward Yukigaoka's back court.
And at this moment, Yukigaoka's back court had what could be called a defensive wall formation.
On the left was Hoshino Masaru, specifically responsible for receiving serves. On the right was Hinata Shoyo, who possessed strong receiving instincts. In the middle was someone who, unlike Mori, hadn't divided time for setting practice, and unlike Kawashima, didn't need special practice for blocking and spiking.
During his time since joining the club, except for synchronized training time, Suzuki had spent all his other time desperately training his receiving.
With guidance from his peer Hoshino Masaru's experience, the extremely reliable basic techniques taught by Ichise Guren, and that expensive serving machine that played 95% of the role in receiving practice.
'First, judge—left or right.'
Following the server's body orientation and arm swing trajectory, Suzuki accurately predicted that this powerful jump serve was headed to the position closest to him, and he should be the one to receive it.
"I got it!"
After loudly calling out that he would receive the ball, he took a step to quickly break his body's balanced center of gravity, then shifted his weight and rapidly dove toward his right front.
Prediction and footwork were all to buy time for the receiving technique. The completeness of the receiving motion also represented the quality of the first touch.
Bang!
The volleyball flew up as called, and Suzuki also fell as expected, then executed a backward roll to steadily dissipate the force. The volleyball obediently flew into the air—this was an excellent first touch.
"Nice receive!"
Everyone watching this volleyball in the air had different expressions.
Nagamatsu Yumeto clicked his tongue, expressing dissatisfaction with his serve—it neither scored directly nor disrupted the first touch rhythm.
Meanwhile, Mori stared at the volleyball in the air and loudly praised it.
It really was a good ball—stable and solid. Flying neither left nor right to exactly where it should go, above Mori, requiring no extra footwork adjustment. Mori could directly observe both teams' formations.
'No openings!'
As expected from a team that made it to the finals—also the super strong team from the original that suppressed Kitagawa Daiichi by nearly half the points and naturally made it to nationals.
'Their positioning hasn't wavered at all. The 180cm middle blocker is standing at the net with me, and the other two perfectly demonstrate dispersed positioning.'
'Damn! My current position is completely suppressed.'
With his back to the net, Mori could already feel the burning gaze of that Kosen middle blocker behind him, not moving away for even a second.
Two of the four options in his mind were easily crossed out—Hinata Shoyo's back row attack and his own dump attack.
'I can only give it to Hyakuzawa-senpai or Ichise-senpai for a power attack. I can't initiate a quick attack from this position.'
Just as Mori was observing which side's defense was weaker and better for his team's attacker to perform—
Ichise Guren raised his right hand high and shouted: "Pass it to the left, Mori!!"
Three pairs of eyes sharpened.
Mori, Kosen's number 1, and Kosen's number 7.
Mori didn't hesitate. After receiving Ichise Guren's signal, he directly sent out a slightly high arc ball.
The consequence of not hesitating was that although this ball was quickly passed to Ichise Guren, the middle blocker who had been closely watching Mori also quickly rushed toward the sideline.
Ichise Guren took an approach run and jumped off one foot.
All three jumped up in unison.
"Come on!"
"Come on?"
"Come?"
The three stared dumbfounded at Ichise Guren, whom they had just been extremely wary of, who had suddenly slowed down two beats. Using a suddenly decelerated approach motion, relying on rhythm changes, he easily fooled all three into jumping.
Ichise Guren, standing on the ground watching the three, tilted his head and showed a harmless smile. Then he quickly adjusted with two steps, leaped up, and easily swung at the volleyball in the undefended area to score a point.
When overly vigilantly marking the opposing attacker, one would naturally overlook the trajectory of the volleyball. Besides Hinata Shoyo's direction changes, there was another fake move that only masters dared to use—tempo changes.
Looking at the blocking players who had been fooled once, Ichise Guren began spouting again:
"Pay attention to defense, remember to watch the ball, keep your hands up high, and don't jump randomly, students."
The three were so angry their veins bulged and they snorted through their noses, yet were helpless.