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“Speaking of which, have any of you actually researched Sengoku Junior High before?” Middle Blocker Takahiro Hanamaki from the White Team suddenly seemed to remember something and couldn’t help asking.
The moment he said that, everyone else froze for a second.
“Now that you mention it, I really haven’t looked into them carefully either. By the time I first heard the name, the preliminaries were already over. I only learned from a volleyball magazine that this year’s Nationals qualifiers had produced a ‘dark horse’.”
“I went to watch a couple of middle school preliminary matches before, but I never saw Sengoku Junior High play. Maybe they had already finished their games by then. What about you, Iwaizumi-chan?” Oikawa Tooru asked, rubbing his chin and turning towards Iwaizumi Hajime.
Iwaizumi shook his head.
“I only learned about them through the volleyball magazine too. But I think the coaches probably know a lot more about Sengoku Junior High. After all, our school tried to recruit their ‘Ace’ before, though I heard he turned us down.”
“I originally thought that, having rejected us, he would go to Shiratorizawa Academy, so I didn’t pay much attention afterwards.”
Shigeru Yahaba blinked in surprise.
“He rejected Aoba Johsai? Then why did he suddenly end up here?”
“Who knows.”
“No way… They’re the middle school champions, aren’t they? Even Oikawa never won a championship, and yet none of us know anything about them, even though there are so many people here?”
Oikawa immediately looked as though he’d been stabbed in the chest.
“”!!!∑(Дノ)ノ Hey, Hanamaki-chan, there’s really no need to remind everyone that I never won a championship!”
Coincidentally, even during their time at middle school, Sengoku Junior High School only truly became famous after they defeated Kitagawa Daiichi.
Before that…
Although Sengoku Junior High had been considered a dark horse, they were still far from capable of causing a shocking upset.
While the Aoba Johsai high school players did pay some attention to middle school tournaments, their primary focus was clearly still on high school volleyball.
The one person most interested in middle school matches, Oikawa, was paying more attention to Kageyama Tobio from Kitagawa Daiichi at the time.
Given all these factors, every Aoba Johsai player knew that Sengoku Junior High School had won the prefectural middle school championship, but their knowledge came solely from magazine articles. They knew absolutely nothing about the actual abilities of Akashi Asuto and Mishita Ryuhei.
The Aoba Johsai High coaches and team managers had researched Asuto in order to recruit him, but the problem was…
“So what do we do now? Should we call a timeout and ask Coach?” Someone suggested.
“Keep dreaming. There’s no way Coach would help us right now. It’d be too unfair to the freshmen,” Iwaizumi rejected the idea immediately. “Besides, we don’t know them, and they don’t know us either.”
“Since they’re opponents we’re facing for the first time, are we third-years really supposed to be scared of a bunch of first-years? Don’t joke around. If word of that got out, the Aoba Johsai Volleyball Club would lose all its dignity.”
By the end, Iwaizumi’s tone had become stern.
Oikawa’s eyes sparkled.
“So cool, Iwaizumi-chan!”
After that little motivational speech…
The third-years, who had started to overthink things, suddenly snapped out of it. The hesitation and uncertainty in their eyes vanished completely, replaced by the pride and self-respect befitting upperclassmen.
And once the players’ mentality became decisive, the aura of the entire team changed along with it…
“Come on then, first-years. Let us show you the true strength of third-year seniors.”
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“What’s going on with them? The atmosphere suddenly feels completely different!” Yutaro Kindaichi had keenly sensed the change in momentum of the White Team, and the hairs on the back of his neck had immediately stood on end.
“Not sure, but one thing’s certain; we need to be more careful from here on,” Shinji Watari replied with a serious expression on his face.
But, at that very moment, instead of preparing for defense, Mishita Ryuhei suddenly covered the back of his head and moved away from the center of the court.
“Mishita, what are you doing?” Kindaichi asked in confusion.
“Nothing. Safety first,” Ryuhei replied casually without explaining further. Some things simply couldn’t be explained with words alone.
He looked up towards the opposite side of the court. Seeing the steadily rising pressure and momentum emanating from the White Team, he quietly muttered in admiration.
“Wow! What an incredible aura! But unfortunately, that sort of thing is completely meaningless against a true ‘monster’. My monster may not be very good at motivating teammates, but when it comes to crushing opponents, I’ve honestly never met anyone more vicious than him…”
As if in response to Mishita Ryuhei’s quiet words, Akashi Asuto, standing beyond the baseline in position one, took a deep breath and slowly tossed the volleyball into the air.
“A jump serve?”
The White Team members were all stunned when they saw Asuto’s motion.
The next second…
BOOM!
…a thunderous impact exploded overhead.
Before the White Team players could even react, they only caught a blur flashing before their eyes as the volleyball came crashing straight down toward their court.
“Don’t underestimate your seniors too much, you damn first-year brat!”
At the critical moment, Iwaizumi instantly shifted sideways and successfully received Asuto’s serve.
But before the White Team could celebrate, Iwaizumi suddenly felt an overwhelming force erupt from the ball. The terrifying impact left him with no time to absorb the momentum.
Smack!
The ball rebounded high into the air and flew all the way across the gym, crashing heavily into the second-floor railing with a loud clang.
The court fell silent once again.
This time…
It wasn’t just the White Team. Even his own teammates; Yutaro Kindaichi, Akira Kunimi, and Shinji Watari, were frozen in place.
No one knew how much time had passed before Kunimi finally muttered quietly:
“What a monster… Even high school players can’t return this guy’s serve properly?”
Even Mishita Ryuhei was slightly shocked.
“As expected of high school players. To think they could actually touch Asuto’s serve on the first try… that’s seriously terrifying.”
Kindaichi swallowed hard.
“So scary… If that ball had hit the back of my head just now… No wonder all those guys used to cover the backs of their heads whenever they played against Sengoku Junior High. Why does his serve look even scarier from a teammate’s perspective?”
The three freshmen, who had each experienced Asuto’s serves to varying degrees before, had different thoughts running through their minds.
Meanwhile, the Aoba Johsai upperclassmen, who were seeing Asuto’s serve for the first time, were completely dumbfounded.
“Y-You… you can actually do a jump serve?!”
Shinji Watari stared at Asuto in shock. Whether from excitement or disbelief, his fingers were trembling slightly.
“I’ve been able to do it since middle school. Didn’t you know, Watari-senpai?” Asuto asked, looking confused.
He was genuinely confused.
After all, though Asuto wasn’t trying to brag, as the Ace of the middle school Nationals qualifying champions, he believed he should at least have some degree of fame even at the high school level.
Watari scratched his cheek awkwardly.
“Uh~~ I only knew you were the ‘Ace’ of the championship team. The volleyball magazines didn’t really report much else in detail.”
“But even for a champion, your jump serve is way too powerful!”
Asuto tilted his head.
“Powerful? It’s okay, I guess. That last one didn’t feel very good. I’ll try to hit an even better serve next time.”
Shinji Watari: “∑(△｀)???????”
(End Of This Chapter)
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