Keisuke did not hesitate for long. He set this ball to Wakatsu Kiryū, who was running into position two.
Kiryū glanced at Tendo and Ryosuke blocking on the other side and felt helpless. He knew exactly how strong those two were. They were probably going to lose this first set.
"Bang!"
Attacking from position two, Wakatsu Kiryū hit a cross-court shot toward midcourt.
The instant they saw his arm swing, Tendo and Ryosuke moved in perfect sync, sweeping their arms over like windshield wipers.
There was almost no hesitation.
But the spiker was none other than Wakatsu Kiryū. His spikes could rival Ushijima's, and with Tendo as the one blocking, that kind of force could smash through Tendo's arms in an instant.
That was not to say Tendo was actually weak. Tendo could block balls like this. During team practice, he had blocked plenty of them. It was just that Tendo loved slacking off too much. Under normal circumstances, as long as Yamagata was behind him, Tendo would not bother shutting the ball down completely.
The volleyball spun and slammed into Tendo's arm. The muffled grunt made Ryosuke's heart jump. He was genuinely afraid Tendo would not be able to hold up and would end up hurt somewhere.
Unexpectedly, Tendo blocked the ball cleanly, giving Yamagata no chance to pick it up from behind.
"Beep-----------"
A long whistle sounded, and the referee made several hand signals, announcing the end of the set.
The players from both teams took a brief break.
Ryosuke hurried over in a panic and grabbed Tendo's arm. The block just now had certainly looked impressive, but Tendo had paid a real price for stopping that ball.
The red mark on his arm had visibly swollen, then slowly turned purplish-blue.
Seeing Ryosuke like this, Tendo smiled subtly, then wrapped an arm around him and followed Ushijima off the court.
Ryosuke was still chattering nonstop.
"Senpai Tendo, you should've let that ball through just now. Look at the mark on your arm. It's not just bruised, it's already swollen. I'll go ask Coach Washijō for some medicine..."
Ryosuke kept rambling, completely unaware of the smile in Tendo's eyes.
Tendo suddenly felt that getting hit by a volleyball was not such a big deal. At the very least, after getting hit, a green-eyed cat would come over and stick close to him on its own.
Walking ahead of them, Kawanishi rolled his eyes. He did not even want to expose Tendo's little scheme. This tiny injury? Back when this guy used to get hit by Ushijima's balls and howl in pain, why had he never seen him act pitiful then? What a double standard.
The atmosphere on Mujinazaka's side was not exactly heavy, but it was not that lively either. Everyone seemed to have expected this outcome already.
Michiko watched everyone busy with their own things and sighed quietly to herself.
Back when she was still a student playing volleyball, she had never thought there was any difference between geniuses and ordinary people.
She had always stubbornly believed that everyone was the same.
It was only after she became a coach and led her students through so many matches that she realized she truly had to admit the gap between geniuses and ordinary people.
Just like Mujinazaka and Shiratorizawa today.
In other people's eyes, the members of Mujinazaka already counted as geniuses. But deep down, they knew they were only ordinary people who had been a little luckier. Compared to the true geniuses at Shiratorizawa, they simply were not enough.
It had not even been a few months since the last training camp, yet Shiratorizawa was already playing against Mujinazaka with ease. They had even started to slowly surpass them.
Wakatsu Kiryū glanced at Shiratorizawa on the opposite side of the court and let out a deep sigh. The gap between people was gradually becoming clear.
In the stands, Fukurōdani and Inarizaki took advantage of the brief break to chatter among themselves while watching the match.
Keiji Akaashi looked at the current situation, then asked Bokuto in confusion.
"Bokuto-senpai, before the match started, why did you say that over by Shiratorizawa's waiting area? Do you really think Mujinazaka can't beat Shiratorizawa?"
Keiji Akaashi was not looking for an answer. He was just genuinely curious why Senpai Bokuto, who was usually so carefree, would say something like that.
Hearing Keiji Akaashi's words, everyone looked over curiously.
Facing everyone's stares, Bokuto showed no embarrassment at all over being caught speaking badly about someone behind their back. Instead, he looked at Keiji Akaashi very calmly and carefully organized his words.
"Ah, I don't really know how to say it... Anyway, every time we play Mujinazaka, it feels like they have a really hard time. By the end of a match, they're always exhausted. It feels like they've already given everything they have, but they still want to improve just a little more."
After hearing Bokuto's words, Konoha's eyes turned into little dots. Was this really something Bokuto could say? No, the shocking part now was not whether Bokuto could say something like this. It was that Bokuto had actually noticed such a small detail.
Konoha was completely stunned.
After listening, Shinsuke Kita thought for a moment, then nodded.
"I understand what Bokuto means. Basically, the Mujinazaka players are slowly starting to fall behind everyone else's progress, but they're still forcing themselves to hold on because they don't want to be left behind."
Bokuto nodded hard, bobbing his head up and down.
"Right, right, that's exactly it."
Shinsuke Kita smiled as if he had thought of something, then stopped talking and turned his gaze back to the court.
Atsumu Miya keenly sensed that, in that moment, there had been a faint trace of sadness in Shinsuke Kita's mood. But it was only for an instant. By the time Atsumu Miya tried to look more closely, Shinsuke Kita had already hidden it away.
On the court, both teams were still resting. The commentator had also stopped speaking, and commercials began playing over the broadcast.
Tsutomu Goshiki kept circling around Ryosuke. What had caught his attention most in the previous set was not Ushijima's spikes or Kawanishi's little tricks. Instead, Ryosuke's precise block had looked even more interesting to him.
"Whoa, Ryosuke, you're seriously amazing! You jumped up with a swish, then blocked it with a bang, and then the whistle went beep and you scored! That was so cool!"
Ryosuke was already used to the way Tsutomu Goshiki talked now. After all, he often heard descriptions like this from Shoyo Hinata. Yunohama, on the other hand, looked at Tsutomu Goshiki as if he were an idiot, clearly disgusted by his chaotic language system.
The two points Ryosuke had scored with blocks successfully reignited Tsutomu Goshiki's passion for Blocking.
Reon also walked over and rubbed Tsutomu Goshiki's head with a kind expression, but the words that came out of his mouth chilled Goshiki to the bone.
"In that case, once the match is over, you'll do three hundred extra blocking drills by yourself every day."
The excitement on Goshiki's face instantly froze. One step into heaven, one step into hell.
Yunohama could not hold back his laughter from the side, his gloating painfully obvious.
Reon shot him a look, and Yunohama instantly shut up.
"Enough chatting. The second set is about to start."
Hearing Reon's words, everyone stopped messing around and obediently gathered together, sitting quietly without speaking.
The atmosphere was quiet and harmonious.
After sitting down, Ryosuke kept looking at his phone. He hoped this match could end a little faster, so he could go cheer on Sakusa.
Then he looked up again toward Mujinazaka's side, and the fighting spirit in his eyes looked ready to burst into flames.
"Beep-------------"
The whistle blew. The break was over, and the second set was about to begin.
"Welcome back to the National High School Boys' Volleyball Championship. It is now 3:45 p.m. The two teams currently on the court are Shiratorizawa High School from Miyagi Prefecture and Mujinazaka Boys' High School from Oita Prefecture..."
After the long introduction finished, everyone had taken their positions.
Shiratorizawa had won the previous set, and Shiratorizawa would be serving first in this one as well.
Ushijima was standing in position one, and everyone's eyes turned to him.
Ushijima nodded to his teammates, then walked to the service line and took the ball from the ball boy.
Most of the ball boys at the IH venue were kids from elementary school volleyball clubs. When Ushijima took the ball, he found himself looking into a pair of bright, admiring eyes.
The eyes belonged to a young boy. He blinked up at Ushijima, then said quietly,
"Ushijima-senpai, I started playing volleyball because of you. Could I get your autograph after the match?"
Ushijima froze for a second, then quickly recovered. Holding the volleyball, he nodded to him.
"Come find me at Shiratorizawa's side after the match."
After getting a definite answer, the ball boy ran off happily.
Only when Ushijima was about to serve did he belatedly realize how novel this was. No child had ever asked him for an autograph before. Whenever he stood there, children usually got scared and started crying, which had once made Ushijima dislike children somewhat.
His gaze passed through the net and landed on Haruma Bishin on the opposite side. Only then did Ushijima focus properly.
Everything else could wait until after the match. Right now, the only thing that mattered was the game.
The moment Haruma Bishin was locked onto by Ushijima's gaze, he felt as if some bird of prey had fixed its eyes on him. If he looked away for even a second, it would pounce and tear him apart.
Ushijima's powerful left-handed serve was famous in both Miyagi and the entire IH, but to Haruma Bishin, only the spin from his left hand was troublesome. Everything else was manageable.
Ushijima tossed the volleyball up, bent his knees, and began his approach. When the ball reached its height, he spread his arms and jumped.
Even from that distance, Haruma Bishin could feel the pressure, like an eagle cutting into the wind over the sea, sharp enough to pierce straight through him.
"Bang!"
Haruma Bishin heard the sound of the palm striking the ball, and his eyes moved as he tracked Ushijima's serve. The volleyball flew through the air, and beneath it, he could see the faint traces of spin.
It was spinning to the right. That meant this ball would definitely fly to the right.
Once he confirmed its position, Haruma Bishin did not hesitate. He chased the ball toward the right side of the backcourt.
Hearing the footsteps, Naoharu Ezota shifted slightly to the side, clearing a path for Haruma Bishin.
Haruma Bishin dove to the floor, raised his arm, stretched it out as far as he could, then swung his arm back with all his strength.
"Bang!"
The volleyball bounced high off Haruma Bishin's clenched fist. It did not have much extra spin, but Ushijima's serve had been so powerful that the ball was now flying higher and higher.
"Cover it!"
"Wakatoshi Ushijima is at the service line with a powerful left-handed jump serve! The ball flies into Mujinazaka's backcourt, and Mujinazaka's Libero, Haruma Bishin, dives in to receive it. Unfortunately, the first pass is messy, and Mujinazaka's setter has to cover!"
As Keisuke Unnan ran, he cursed Haruma Bishin in his heart. This guy really was unreliable. Could he not be a little more like Shiratorizawa's Libero and give a beautiful first pass? Every single time, Keisuke had to run himself half to death to cover. He was so jealous of the setter on the other side.
Even as he thought that, his body was perfectly honest and jumped up to reach the ball.
Then he sent a long, flat, quick set toward the back of the court near the net.
Originally, he had planned to set it a little closer and let Nozomu Mami, who was at the net, spike this ball. But Nozomu Mami was standing too close to the net, and Keisuke Unnan was worried that if he sent the ball over, it might go into the net.
In this situation, he could have gambled a little, but Keisuke Unnan was a cautious person. He was afraid that if the set went wrong, it would turn into an error.
So he sent the ball to Wakatsu Kiryū in the back row.
Wakatsu Kiryū saw the ball coming, jumped, and launched a back-row attack directly from the back row.
Ryosuke felt his scalp go numb. Back when he was with the national youth team, he had blocked Ran Takahashi's back-row attacks every day, and he could count on one hand the number of times he had managed to stop them. Now, just seeing a back-row attack made him uncomfortable all over.
"Bang!"
Wakatsu Kiryū jumped and spiked directly. He had not learned the true essence of Ran Takahashi's back-row attack, but compared with most people, his back-row attack was definitely far better.
The volleyball flew all the way from the back row to above the net on the opposite side. Ryosuke and Tendo stood side by side for a double block.
The volleyball faintly looked like it was going cross-court. Ryosuke, on the left, could not reach it. Tendo was on the right, and he stretched out his left hand, trying to cover the ball. His bandaged fingers suddenly exerted force, attempting to press the ball down.
If he could block one of Kiryū's balls, then he could block many of Kiryū's balls. But this time, Tendo really could not shut it down.
So he flipped his palm back and let the ball cross the net.
"One touch!"
The two who landed quickly fell back to defend.
Yamagata had already been waiting behind them to pick up the loose ball. Seeing it, he dove toward the front court and received it.
"Bang!" The volleyball struck the back of Yamagata's hand. Yamagata adjusted the angle of his hand slightly, making the ball fly neatly toward Shirabu.
Keisuke Unnan saw it from the opposite side and grew even more envious of Shirabu.
This could not really be called consideration for Shirabu, letting him set with less running around. That was Nekoma's style, not Shiratorizawa's.
It was simply because Yamagata firmly believed in the principle that "a perfect first pass smashes the floor." As long as his first pass was in place, the team's offense would have more options.
Shirabu looked up at the ball, then glanced back at everyone's current positions.
Ushijima was right beside him. Kawanishi was a few steps behind him. Ryosuke and Tendo were split between the net and position six, while Yamagata was currently near the three-meter line.
Seeing Ryosuke at the net, Shirabu sent over a short, flat set, wanting to combine for a quick attack. He had set the ball a little high.
But Shirabu knew that with Ryosuke's contact point, this kind of ball would be no problem at all.
"The ball's tight to the net! Watch the overpass!"
Nozomu Mami shouted when he saw the ball, then joined Usuri to block. Naoharu Ezota was very close as well, so he also jumped up to block.
Although he did not know how good Ryosuke's spiking was, judging from that block just now, if his blocking was that strong, his spiking could not be bad either. It was better to be cautious.
...
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