Asuto landed and looked toward Ushijima Wakatoshi on the opposite side of the court.
Their eyes met.
It was as if an invisible aura spread outward from the space between them.
“Ohhh~~ Ushijima Kun actually received a ball?”
“Idiot, Ushijima Wakatoshi is a national-level Ace. How could he not know how to receive? He just usually doesn’t because of Shiratorizawa’s tactics.”
“Amazing, Aoba Johsai. They’ve actually pushed Shiratorizawa this far.”
The title of “Absolute King” wasn’t earned for nothing.
Even though many spectators could already see that Shiratorizawa was at a disadvantage, more than sixty percent of the audience still believed Shiratorizawa would ultimately emerge victorious.
That confidence came from Shiratorizawa’s overwhelming record over the years.
Score: 1–1
Aoba Johsai regained the right to serve.
The closer the match drew to its conclusion, the more focused Oikawa became.
Standing beyond the baseline at Position 1, he gently tossed the volleyball into the air.
As expected, he unleashed another super high-speed serve aimed directly at the outside corner.
BOOM!
The serve was so fast that several Shiratorizawa players felt as though their feet had been nailed to the floor.
“Damn it… move! Move already!” Yamagata Hayato roared internally.
As Shiratorizawa’s libero, he had barely received any clean balls throughout the entire match.
For a libero, that was practically an insult.
Move…!
SMACK!
The super high-speed serve slammed directly into Yamagata’s forehead.
Unable to accurately judge the ball’s final trajectory, he had simply thrown his entire body toward it in an attempt to make the save.
With a sharp crack, the volleyball flew back into the air.
The crowd erupted.
“Wooooah~~~!”
“Shiratorizawa’s using their bodies to receive, too? And he used his head! That looked painful!”
“Looks like Shiratorizawa’s going all out now!”
THUD!
A fierce spike blasted through Aoba Johsai’s block, and Shiratorizawa claimed the point.
For the first time all day, Oikawa’s serve had been broken immediately.
“Seriously… couldn’t these bastards just quietly fight for second place?” Oikawa’s expression darkened.
Shiratorizawa’s fighting spirit had far exceeded his expectations.
1–2
Shiratorizawa led.
Shiratorizawa served.
After crossing the net, the ball was received by Watari Shinji.
Oikawa quickly linked up with Asuto on the right side for a quick attack. Just when Oikawa thought he had shaken off all the blockers, Tendō Satori suddenly appeared from who-knows-where.
And beside him was Goshiki Tsutomu.
The two jumped simultaneously.
Perhaps due to their extreme exhaustion, they could no longer properly control their bodies in midair.
The result was that they slammed directly into one another.
Pain instantly appeared on both of their faces.
Even so, they still forcibly formed a double block in front of Asuto.
BOOM!
The next second… A spike packed with tremendous force crashed into Goshiki’s arms.
In an instant, his hands were blown apart by the impact. The ball pierced through the gap in the block and landed in the back court for a clean point.
2–2
“Sorry!”
The moment he landed, Goshiki shouted his apology at the top of his lungs.
“Don’t worry about it. Next ball… just keep… trying.”
The other wing spiker, Ōhira Reon, patted him on the shoulder in an attempt to comfort his junior. Unfortunately, his breathing was so ragged that he could barely finish a complete sentence.
The intensity of this deciding set had exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Many people had predicted an epic showdown, but no one had expected it to become this brutal.
Putting everything else aside, just looking at the players’ physical condition was exhausting. The players’ heavy breathing seemed loud enough for even the spectators in the front rows to hear.
Even Asuto and Oikawa, whose stamina reserves were noticeably better than everyone else’s, had quickly become drenched in sweat after only a few rallies.
It couldn’t be helped.
Shiratorizawa was chasing every point relentlessly.
The offensive power displayed by the Oikawa–Asuto combination was enough to tear Shiratorizawa’s defense apart.
But what Oikawa had never expected was that Ushijima Wakatoshi, a player who looked as though he could collapse at any moment, was still capable of breaking through Aoba Johsai’s blocks through sheer individual strength and keeping Shiratorizawa right on their heels.
“Huff… Huff… Ushiwaka is just ridiculously strong.”
Watching Ushijima on the opposite side of the court, a player who appeared completely drained yet whose presence had not diminished in the slightest, even Iwaizumi Hajime felt that Ushijima’s strength had become almost absurd.
The back-and-forth scoring continued until the score reached 4–4.
Only then did an unexpected twist finally appear in the match.
After a rotation, it happened to be Asuto’s turn to serve.
Faced with such a tense deadlock, Asuto decisively unleashed another cannon-like serve.
After swerving several times in midair, the ball ultimately headed toward Shiratorizawa’s side, specifically in the direction of Goshiki Tsutomu.
After four full sets of play, Shiratorizawa’s players had gradually begun adapting to the power behind Asuto’s serves.
As a result, their success rate in receiving them had increased slightly.
However… That improvement did not include Goshiki Tsutomu.
The foundation of successful serve reception lies in a player’s basic receiving technique. While Goshiki’s fundamentals were solid, he was still only a first-year student.
Goshiki understood this better than anyone.
As he watched the incoming volleyball, he knew he couldn’t receive it properly through conventional means, but simply letting the ball go and giving Aoba Johsai a free point was something he couldn’t accept.
So after a split second of consideration, he made the same choice Yamagata Hayato had made earlier.
He gambled.
He… received Asuto’s serve with his face.
A loud impact echoed across the court as Goshiki’s head snapped backward violently.
The volleyball shot high into the air once more.
As expected, Ushijima Wakatoshi capitalized on the opportunity and converted the play into a point for Shiratorizawa.
4–5
Shiratorizawa took the lead again.
However, before the team could celebrate, the referee suddenly blew the whistle frantically.
Everyone froze.
When they turned around to look, they were met with a shocking sight.
It was a face covered in blood.
The scene startled many spectators, but upon closer inspection, they realized the bloodied player was none other than Goshiki Tsutomu.
Blood was continuously pouring from his nose.
Apparently, he had tried wiping it away at first, which only resulted in half of his face becoming smeared with blood.
The match was immediately stopped.
A nosebleed wasn’t particularly uncommon in volleyball.
The capillaries inside the nasal cavity are relatively fragile to begin with, and some people are simply more prone to bleeding when struck in the nose.
So at first, neither Shiratorizawa nor Aoba Johsai paid much attention once they determined that it was merely a nosebleed.
But after the medical staff conducted a closer examination… everyone was stunned.
“Our preliminary assessment is a fracture in the nasal bridge,” The doctor said. “The exact severity will need to be confirmed with X-rays, but he cannot continue participating in the match.”
The diagnosis exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Instinctively, people turned to look toward Asuto in the Aoba Johsai bench area.
Just from receiving a serve… his nose bridge had actually fractured.
Just how powerful was this guy’s serve?
Goshiki clearly had no desire to leave the court.
Unfortunately, the decision was no longer his to make.
In the end, he was carried off on a stretcher.
Replacing him was Semi Eita, the pinch server who had previously appeared in both the second and fourth sets.
The match resumed shortly afterward.
When the Aoba Johsai players returned to the court and noticed that Goshiki had not come back, they were momentarily surprised.
But they didn’t dwell on it for long.
Their focus quickly returned to the match.
Whether it was an accident or pure coincidence, overall, Shiratorizawa’s substitution unexpectedly caused Aoba Johsai some trouble.
Not because Semi Eita’s serve was particularly dangerous.
His serves were powerful, but they weren’t the sort of overwhelming weapons that could consistently score points on their own.
Aside from earning two points during the second set, his serves had been largely ineffective throughout the rest of the match.
The real issue was that Semi Eita’s natural position wasn’t pinch server at all.
He was a setter.
As soon as Semi entered the game, Shiratorizawa unexpectedly formed a dual-setter lineup.
For Shiratorizawa itself, this was completely unprecedented, and for Aoba Johsai, it was also the first time they had ever faced a Shiratorizawa playing this way.
As a result, Aoba Johsai found themselves genuinely struggling to adjust.
The sudden burst of effectiveness from Shiratorizawa’s two-setter formation caught them off guard.
More importantly, it bought Ushijima Wakatoshi something incredibly precious: Time to breathe.
Because of this, even though Coach Washijō Tanji generally disliked setters with strong personal styles like Semi Eita, he refrained from making another substitution.
The battle continued.
Point after point.
Neither side was willing to yield.
Before long, the score reached:
12–13
Shiratorizawa still held the lead.
At that moment, Aoba Johsai called for a timeout.
And this timeout was not only Aoba Johsai’s final timeout… it was the last timeout available to either team.
The fifth set saw timeouts being called far more frequently than any of the previous four, and by this point, both teams were calling timeouts for essentially the same reason: to buy their players a few precious moments of rest.
The match had reached a stage where the stamina advantage Aoba Johsai had painstakingly created during the fourth set had been completely exhausted.
At this moment, both Oikawa and Asuto were running on empty.
In fact, Oikawa’s physical exhaustion had become so severe that even thinking clearly was becoming difficult.
Huff…
“Is there any other way? Anything that can create a gap in the score? No… even tying the score would be enough…” Oikawa forced his exhausted brain to keep working, desperately searching for a way to break the deadlock.
Yet no matter how many possibilities he considered, every conclusion felt meaningless.
The match had progressed to the point where even if he came up with the perfect strategy, there was no guarantee his teammates still had enough energy left to execute it properly.
Even so… Oikawa refused to give up.
Or rather, he simply couldn’t accept defeat. Because in this match, he had already pushed himself to the absolute limit.
From tactical planning to on-court execution, Aoba Johsai had spent almost the entire game suppressing Shiratorizawa.
And what about Shiratorizawa?
They hadn’t done anything extraordinary.
They had simply relied on Ushijima Wakatoshi alone to overturn every advantage Aoba Johsai had painstakingly built.
No matter who it was, such a result would be impossible to accept.
“Oikawa-senpai. If you don’t know who to set to later… Then give every ball to me.”
Just as Oikawa was sinking into despair while searching for an answer, a voice suddenly sounded beside him.
His body trembled.
Turning his head, he found Asuto standing there.
Asuto’s gaze was calm. His dark eyes seemed unfathomably deep, like a pool of still water without the slightest ripple.
For a moment, Oikawa was stunned.
Then he smiled softly.
“Alright, Asuto-chan.”
…
Tweet!
The referee’s whistle sounded and the match resumed.
Aoba Johsai
Setter: Oikawa Tooru
Wing Spiker: Asuto
Wing Spiker: Kunimi Akira
Middle Blocker: Kindaichi Yūtarō
Middle Blocker: Matsukawa Issei
Libero: Watari Shinji
Shiratorizawa
Setter: Shirabu Kenjirō
Setter: Semi Eita
Wing Spiker: Ōhira Reon
Middle Blocker: Tendō Satori
Opposite Hitter: Ushijima Wakatoshi
Libero: Yamagata Hayato
Both teams had exhausted all of their timeouts and substitutions.
Aside from libero replacements, which could still be made freely, the lineup on the court was essentially fixed.
In other words, these were the final battle formations of both teams.
On Shiratorizawa’s side, Ushijima Wakatoshi’s complexion had become unnaturally pale.
It was the unmistakable sign of severe physical exhaustion. Yet despite that condition, his presence showed no signs of weakening.
Instead, it burned even more fiercely, like a flame blazing brighter as it consumed its last fuel.
On Aoba Johsai’s side, everyone’s fighting spirit was similarly at its peak.
Everyone except Asuto.
Unlike the others, his aura had not grown stronger. Instead, it had become completely silent like an abyss.
It was a darkness so deep that it seemed capable of swallowing everything around it.
Aoba Johsai to serve.
This point was absolutely critical. If Shiratorizawa won it, Aoba Johsai would fall behind by two points, and in a race to fifteen points, that would push them to the very edge of defeat.
THUMP!
The volleyball crossed the net and landed on Shiratorizawa’s side.
Shiratorizawa received it cleanly.
Without a moment’s hesitation, the ball was set high toward Ushijima Wakatoshi.
Ushijima leaped into the air. Even at this final stage of the match, his spiking form remained nearly flawless.
Kindaichi, the closest blocker, immediately jumped to challenge him.
But he quickly realized something horrifying.
No matter how hard he stretched, he couldn’t reach Ushijima’s hitting point.
As Ushijima prepared to swing his arm down for the spike, in that instant, a figure appeared in front of him like a phantom.
The figure materialized directly in front of Ushijima Wakatoshi.
BOOM! SMACK!
Two muffled impacts rang out almost simultaneously.
Then… the volleyball suddenly appeared on Shiratorizawa’s side of the court.
It struck the floor and bounced high into the air. The rising ball formed a stark contrast with the expressions of utter shock on the faces of every Shiratorizawa player.
(End of Chapter)