The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

This was the first time for Tsunemori to play without Yuki's presence as their guardian, and honestly, it was a pretty unnerving feeling. Somehow, they felt naked, exposed to any threat available from the opponent.

Still, they hardened their spirit, knowing that Yuki was out for only about ten minutes, and before he could go back to the court, they all needed to defend the game with all their might to keep their winning chance open.

"Koji, go forward." Okamura as the libero took the command on the back line. "Let me and Kaede receive the service."

"Okay." Koji nodded.

Since Yuki wasn't there, the defense was handed immediately to Kaede, as Okamura could only be on the court occasionally as he was the libero. Still, Okamura's presence right after Yuki was out at least gave the others reassurance that the defense's quality wouldn't drop too much.

Kaede himself took a deep breath, starting to feel the pressure without Yuki's presence. He tried his best to relax while keeping his eyes on Ito who was about to serve next. And the moment the referee blew his whistle and Kyoei's captain did a jump serve, he reacted immediately, trying to reach the ball.

'I got thi– !'

*BAM!*

Unexpectedly, the ball curved slightly as if it avoided his hand before it fell to the ground. Kaede himself froze on the spot, couldn't see the ball's movement at all.

"YOSSHAAA!"

"Nice serve, Captain!"

"Damn! That is a good one! Keep it up!"

"Sorry about that one." Kaede apologized to his teammates. "I don't expect the spin would be so strong." Yeah, he was a decent defender in the first place, so of course he would figure out what just happened. He was just caught off guard this time, and he was sure that he would be able to handle the next serve well.

"Are you sure?" Okamura asked, concerned.

"Don't worry, I am okay," Kaede said. "The same trick wouldn't be able to trick me twice."

And right to his words, Kaede managed to receive the next serve perfectly. While a spin serve was always troublesome, fortunately, it seemed Ito didn't have a knack for it or he just learned about the serve and hadn't gotten used to it yet. Still, whatever the reason was, Kaede was glad he could receive the second serve perfectly.

"Nice receive, Kaede!"

"Riku! Left!"

Riku gritted his teeth when he saw the ball was coming, couldn't help but feel uneasy about being stared at by Haruo from the other side of the net. The blocker's gaze was like a physical force, pressing in on him from all sides, making every fiber of his being tense up in anticipation of the attack.

Riku racked his brain quickly, then pretended to fake the pass to Koji on the left wing while trying to subtly angle his body and gaze towards the left side, hoping to misdirect Haruo's attention. His heart skipped a beat for a moment as he saw Haruo move in Koji's direction, thinking he had successfully executed the fake. He gave a slight nod to himself, ready to set the ball to Ogawa on his back.
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Unfortunately, all the movements from Haruo before were just an illusion. Instead of going to the right side, Haruo moved like lightning to the opposite side, knowing that Riku was about to pass to the opposite hitter. And when the ball was released and Ogawa was about to spike it, Haruo's massive hand suddenly came, blocking the ball with ease.

*BAM!*

"OH! A clean block!"

"What the hell?! How can a tall person like him move so fast?!"

"This is absurd!"

Riku himself could only stare jaw-slacked at the ball bounced on the floor, and suddenly, depression crept inside his heart. This wasn't the first time he faced and lost against a powerful blocker, but this was definitely the first time he felt he had no chance to win at all. He couldn't help but turn his head to Haruo, just for Kyoei's blocker to wiggle his finger once again at him.

"You heard me, right? We only need one handsome blonde man today, and it would be me."

-0-

The next few minutes suddenly became the worst nightmare for Riku. Not only because of Haruo's presence that always haunts him, but also the fact that his team had a hard time scoring a point also started to frustrate the blonde boy.

Since Yuki was out – no, since the beginning of the game, the most common end for their offensive play was always either getting blocked by Haruo or the spike was saved by the other Kyoei players. They only got points either from Hirano's block or the mistake from the opponent's side, never from a pure play.

For a setter whose role was to set up an attack, the situation that the team couldn't score from the normal offensive play was definitely a nightmare.

"You okay, Riku?" Koji asked.

"No, not really," Riku admitted frankly. "Our offense is stagnant and we cannot break their defense no matter how hard we try. It is so frustrating for me."

Even though he said it casually without any heat in his words, Koji couldn't help but feel ashamed of himself. In his opinion, it wasn't Riku's fault that their attack was stuck. It was because the hitters couldn't land a good hit toward the other side that they were stuck, and the main player to be blamed should be him, the one who asked the ball most of all the times during the offense.

Even though this was the new role that Akira instructed him to do, Koji couldn't help but feel guilty too, that he couldn't carry the team's offense just like what the coach hoped him to do. In his mind, he recalled the conversation he had with the coach in the past.

'Koji, I know you feel that you are not ready, but I need you to fill the shoes Noriyuki left." The coach said. "I don't need you to score a crazy amount of points for us. You know Noriyuki was never like that too. What I need you to do is to keep attacking even though you face a big wall you can never tear apart. I need you to never give up no matter how hard it is to score.

I need you to be the guy who will always attack the opponent even if your teammates have already given up on the game. Can you do it?"

At first, it sounded like an easy role for him. Just keep attacking no matter what happens. But now, when the offense kept failing and the morale of the team dropped whenever they were in offense, at this time Koji finally realized the pressure on his shoulder. He stared at the downcast expression on his teammates after another failure in offense, and he clenched his fist tightly.

'No, I cannot give up yet. I need to keep attacking no matter what. Not just for the team or for the coach who trusts me for this role, but also to prove to myself that I can do this. I need to score!'