In the end, Hakuba pinned the blame for all of it on Hoshiumi. That kid had to be the type to bully the weak and fear the strong. Otherwise, there was no way things would have turned out like this.
While Hakuba was thinking that, it never occurred to him what the phrase "bully the weak and fear the strong" actually implied. ... The fifteen-minute warm-up passed in no time, and Bokuto still felt like he hadn't gotten enough.
If he hadn't warmed up properly beforehand, Bokuto's startup system definitely would have slowed down.
"Welcome, everyone, to the National High School Boys' Volleyball League. We are now on the third day of the tournament. The match currently on court is the round of sixteen, with the quarterfinals scheduled for this afternoon."
"That's right. The two teams on court right now are Kamomedai High School from Nagano Prefecture and Tokyo's second representative team, Fukurōdani Academy. Now, let's welcome the players from both teams onto the court."
Hoshiumi was, of course, in Kamomedai's starting lineup. Besides him, this was also everyone's first time seeing Kamomedai's captain, Reo Inube, the man who had only ever existed in legend, appear in an actual match. Naturally, that made everyone extremely curious.
Reo Inube was already a third-year. Although he had never attended any of the training camps or joint practices, most of the third-years still recognized him. After all, they ran into Kamomedai every year at Spring High and the IH.
Curiosity flickered in Ryosuke's eyes. Kamomedai had someone like this? Had his initial investigation not been thorough enough, or was there something strange about this guy?
Cats were intensely curious creatures. Until they figured something out, they would never let it go.
Goshiki pretended not to care, trying not to look like someone who had never seen anything before, but his eyes darting all over the place completely gave him away. He was very curious too about this captain who had suddenly popped out of nowhere at Kamomedai.
He had always thought Hirugami was Kamomedai's captain. Only now did he realize Hirugami might actually be the vice-captain.
But when he thought about it, that made perfect sense. It perfectly explained why Hirugami had been so busy managing this and that ever since his second year.
Seeing the curiosity Goshiki could not hide at all, Aaron shook his head in amusement. Sure enough, he was still childish.
Aaron's gaze followed the players still warming up on the court. Reo Inube, who had drawn everyone's attention, was grinning sheepishly while rubbing his head. The number on his jersey was 1.
Inube was frantically scratching his head, trying to figure out how to escape Hirugami's nagging.
"Inube-senpai! I told you this morning not to eat spicy food on an empty stomach. You agreed so nicely, but then! Why did you put that much chili in your tonkotsu ramen?"
The more Hirugami thought about it, the angrier he got. If Inube had simply eaten a bowl of ramen, he would not have said anything.
But despite looking big and sturdy, Inube's stomach was far more delicate than most people's. On top of that, he could never control his mouth. He had eaten a spicy, numbing breakfast first thing in the morning, and after a while, his face had started looking awful.
Not to mention, Inube had spent the thirty minutes before the match squatting in the bathroom. In the end, he had only made it onto the court right on time.
Hirugami was truly about to lose it. When he found out Inube was still in the bathroom and might even miss the match, Hirugami had nearly been scared to death.
He really had not expected that after keeping an eye on Hoshiumi, their unpredictable factor, he would forget that their own captain was no good either. Day after day, Hirugami's heart was practically lodged in his throat.
"Hehe, come on, I'll definitely listen to you next time. I really just forgot."
Yes, apart from having a bad stomach, Inube's memory was not very good either. He was the type who could be reminded about something over and over in the morning, then forget all about it before noon.
Inube looked pitiful. He had already felt guilty, and after Hirugami called him out like this, he had even less confidence.
Seeing him like that, Hirugami sighed, then put on a stern, serious expression.
"Captain, we have to win this match!"
"Got it!" The moment the match was brought up, Inube instantly perked up, and his expression became mature as well.
Neither of them said anything else. They quickly threw themselves into the match.
Kamomedai's starters were almost all familiar faces. Hoshiumi would definitely be on court. The combination of the Small Giant and the Blocker had worked every time, so Hirugami and Gao Hakuba would also be playing.
Keiichirō Kanbayashi loosened up his leg joints, ready to go all out.
Aikichi Suwa and Kazuyoshi Bessho exchanged a look, their eyes filled with determination to win. As for their captain, Reo Inube, he was not taking the court for the moment. Who knew what kind of trick Coach Aaron was holding back?
Fukurōdani, of course, would never give Kamomedai a chance to win. The lineup they were sending out now was the one Fukurōdani would only use in the finals.
Bokuto and Keiji Akaashi, along with Konoha, Haruki Komi, the "Hexagonal Warrior" Tatsuki Washio, and Wataru Onaga, who was also 1.9 meters tall. Looking at it that way, both teams' lineups were truly stacked. This was the kind of setup you would normally only see in the finals.
The spectators who had chosen to stay and watch this match were in for a treat. On the surface, it looked like a small round-of-sixteen match, but in reality, it was practically a finals-level game.
They were getting more than their money's worth.
Both teams stepped onto the court and shook hands across the net.
"Please take care of us!"
"Please take care of us!"
And just like that, the match officially began.
Takurō and Aaron sat in their chairs, watching the match with everyone else. On the surface, they looked completely unworried, both of them feeling that their own kids would win this time.
But in private, who knew how many pairs of pants they had secretly rubbed holes into from nerves.
Before the match, the coin toss had given possession to Kamomedai. Standing in position one for Kamomedai was Gao Hakuba. As he walked to the service line, he even turned back and waved at everyone on Fukurōdani with an obnoxiously smug look.
"Oh, everyone, I'm really sorry. Hahahahaha. The first ball belongs to us, Kamomedai."
Wataru Onaga rolled his eyes hard. Just wait until I spike one right through you. For now, I'll let him act cocky a little longer.
Seeing that no one on the other side was paying him any attention, Hakuba pouted in boredom. Then he took the volleyball, slapped it hard against the floor a few times, and at the sound of the whistle, tossed it high into the air, preparing to serve.
"Bang!"
There was tremendous force in his right hand. The sound of the serve echoed through the arena, and the enclosed venue made it sound slightly distorted.
It was a steady, powerful jump serve, almost on Reon's level. Sure enough, the deeper a match went, the clearer everyone's true skill became.
Haruki Komi watched the serve, clear astonishment in his eyes. How long had it even been? He had already improved this much?
Tsk, tsk. One look and you could tell he had put in serious work. A person with talent who also worked hard should already be perfect, but Hakuba just had to go and act obnoxious in the middle of his perfect life.
The thought of Hakuba's usual smug, annoying attitude almost made Haruki Komi laugh. His mind wandered through all kinds of nonsense, but his movements and his eyes stayed locked on the volleyball.
This serve was a powerful jump serve with spin. At first glance, it was hard to notice, but as the ball got closer, it became clear that it really was spinning, the kind of spin that seemed to leave afterimages behind.
Haruki Komi felt his teeth ache and his stomach turn. He hated balls with spin. It wasn't that he couldn't receive them; it was that watching a ball rotate that fast made him dizzy. Especially in the match against Itachiyama, Sakusa's serve had spun so much that Komi had genuinely wanted to throw up on the spot.
And he was a Libero. To understand how sharp a Libero's eyesight was, just imagine a low-spec version of Ryosuke.
Even a low-spec version would make everything look incredibly clear compared to an ordinary person's vision.
Watching that high-speed spin made Haruki Komi feel sick. He could feel his stomach churning.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. Haruki Komi steadied himself and sprinted after the ball.
He decided he had to keep this little secret no matter what. Saying it out loud would be way too embarrassing. For the sake of his pride, Haruki Komi refused to let anything show.
The volleyball spun toward the backcourt. Haruki Komi found its landing point and chased it down.
He stretched out both arms, jumped into the air, and received the ball.
With a "bang," the ball bounced up. Keiji Akaashi saw Haruki Komi get the ball up cleanly. It did not fly wildly at all. It was a very stable first pass.
He ran over to set it. The ball from the receive rose and began to fall near Wataru Onaga and Tatsuki Washio. Both of them were close to it now. Bokuto was at the net facing off against Kōrai Hoshiumi. The two of them were ready for a head-on clash, prepared to slam the ball down the moment they touched it.
Keiji Akaashi glanced at Bokuto and confirmed that he was in an extremely excited state. If he set the ball now, Bokuto-senpai might very well get too worked up and spike it out of bounds. If that happened, Bokuto-senpai's activation system would pause. But if he did not let Bokuto-senpai hit this ball, he might get very upset, or even throw a tantrum, and the consequences would be serious.
There were two other possibilities. One, the ball would be blocked by the other side. The best possibility was the last one: Bokuto-senpai scored with this hit.
Then Bokuto-senpai's mood for the entire match would stay in scoring mode until the end.
After thinking it over, Keiji Akaashi felt that setting this ball to Bokuto would probably give them the better result.
If he did not set it to Bokuto, there would be no cheering him up. But if he did set it to Bokuto, even if something went wrong, he could still coax him back.
After careful consideration, Keiji Akaashi still decided to set the ball to Bokuto.
When Bokuto saw the volleyball flying toward him, his eyes lit up, bright and sparkling with uncontrollable excitement.
See! He knew the first ball would definitely be his. Keiji Akaashi really understood him so well!
Bokuto jumped to spike, his golden eyes fixed on the blockers across the net. At that moment, he looked like a raptor hunting its prey, ready to tear his opponents apart in the next second.
Kamomedai had known from the start that this ball would definitely go to Bokuto. They understood his setter even better than Bokuto did.
The moment they saw Keiji Akaashi set the ball, Hakuba and Hirugami had already started moving. Their eyes had locked onto Bokuto even earlier. The instant Bokuto jumped, Hakuba and Hirugami timed their own jumps perfectly.
They cut off any tricks involving timing or spatial gaps.
The muscles bulging under Bokuto's uniform looked like a small mountain erupting. It was easy to imagine that a spike from arms like those would have the force of a cannon.
Hakuba had blocked his spikes before, but just thinking about the feeling of that volleyball smashing into him made Hakuba feel awful all over.
"Bang!"
What he feared came true. The volleyball slammed hard into Hakuba's arm.
The tremendous force was difficult for Hakuba to handle. His arm was knocked off course against his will, and the volleyball flew along his arm into Kamomedai's court.
Keiichirō Kanbayashi seemed to have expected this scene long ago. When Hakuba and Hirugami had run over early, he had also moved behind them to receive. Just as Hirugami could guess that Keiji Akaashi would definitely give the first ball to Bokuto, Keiichiro could probably also guess that Bokuto would definitely aim this spike at Hakuba's arm. In this rally, Keiichiro was clearly thinking several steps ahead.
"What an exciting start! Fukurōdani's Setter, Keiji Akaashi, sends the first ball to their ace, Kōtarō Bokuto. Kamomedai follows up with a two-man block, and Bokuto's diagonal spike hits the blocking middle blocker's arm, successfully breaking through the block!"
"But unfortunately, Kamomedai's Libero, Keiichirō Kanbayashi, seems to have predicted everything. He was already waiting behind Hakuba, ready to receive, and defended that ball!"
This was the strength of a seeded team. They set the court alight right from the opening play, and the pace picked up from the very beginning.
Keiichiro received the ball. The moment Bokuto saw it, his whole mood instantly collapsed. His emotions plummeted, and he blankly followed everyone else as they moved.
Everyone's hearts sank at the sight.
Oh no. Bokuto had gone back into negative mode.
Keiji Akaashi felt a headache coming on too. He had known this outcome was possible, but actually seeing it happen still irritated him.
He was not irritated with Bokuto. He was irritated with the people from Kamomedai. Why couldn't they just clear a path for his team's ace? Every single time, it was these people who put Bokuto-senpai in a bad mood.
The first pass Keiichiro received flew straight toward the net.
He had already tried to absorb the force, but the ball still flew very high. And after hitting the block, it had also met resistance, yet it still came flying over with that much power.
Thinking again about Hakuba's block just now, Keiichiro felt a little complicated. For a moment, he could not tell whether Bokuto or Hakuba was stronger.
Kazuyoshi Bessho was right at the net. The ball was far too close to the net, leaving no chance to set.
In a situation like this, he could only hit it directly and go for an overpass.
Kazuyoshi Bessho's brows knitted together like a caterpillar. What was going on with Keiichiro? He had never shown this kind of accuracy during practice matches. How was his aim so good now that they were in an actual match?
There was no point thinking about it now. Kazuyoshi Bessho jumped at once and reached out for the overpass.
Washio and Onaga were both near the net. When they saw the ball come over, they jumped to block it. Calling it a block was not quite right; it was more like a battle over the ball. Onaga did not even understand why he had jumped after Washio.
They could have just pressed this ball straight down, yet now they were going up for a double block. Wasn't that a little too cautious?
Kazuyoshi Bessho knew someone would definitely come to block him, so he had never planned to spike it in the first place.
With his right hand, he gently flicked the volleyball and sent over a drop shot.
Washio jolted all over. Good grief. So it was not just an overpass, it was a drop shot too.
Onaga froze as well.
Both of them had thought this overpass would be a spike, and their blocking forms were already set. They had not expected a drop shot...
Fortunately, Haruki Komi appeared in position in a flash and dove right by Washio's feet to receive the ball.
The volleyball bounced up again.
After diving, Haruki Komi quickly got back to his feet.
He saw Keiichiro looking at him from the other side of the net, then gave him a provocative smile.
Keiichiro stared right back, unwilling to back down. Their eyes met for a brief instant, then both of them quickly looked away.
Then they turned aside, each hoping they could shut the other down.
...
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