Gulp~
“The Great King’s serve!”
Seeing Oikawa Tooru walk to the end line at Position 1 with the ball in hand, Hinata Shoyo couldn’t help but swallow nervously.
The other Karasuno players also grew serious.
After all, during their previous practice match against Aoba Johsai, Oikawa had only appeared briefly in the final set, but his serves had made a deep impression on everyone.
Standing behind the end line, Oikawa casually bounced the ball a few times. The warm, friendly smile that seemed permanently fixed on his face remained unchanged.
“Kageyama, let your senior show you how it’s done.”
The volleyball was gently tossed into the air.
Oikawa’s serving motion was almost identical to Kageyama Tobio’s.
Or rather, Kageyama’s serving motion was identical to Oikawa Tooru’s.
A faint, almost imaginary background soundtrack seemed to begin playing…
BAM!
The next second, the volleyball shot through the air like a meteor, soaring over the net before diving straight towards Karasuno’s libero, Nishinoya Yuu.
“The serve went to Nishinoya! Was that a mistake?”
Several players on the Karasuno bench reacted with surprise.
Nishinoya stared intently at the incoming ball. It seemed as if the spinning trajectory of the volleyball was reflected perfectly in his pupils.
“It’s a straight-line serve… no, it’s going to curve.”
THUD!
Nishinoya suddenly shifted sideways.
He cleanly received Oikawa’s serve with a solid impact.
“Nice receive, Nishinoya-senpai!” Kageyama shouted, quickly moving beneath the ball.
At the same time, Hinata Shoyo in the front row had already leapt high into the air.
Whoosh… BAM!
The volleyball flew from Kageyama’s hands, crossing half the court in an instant, and was smashed down by Hinata, who had his eyes closed as always.
6–3.
“Huh? They actually received it?”
Oikawa ran a hand through his hair as he returned from behind the end line, looking genuinely surprised.
“What a demonstration that was! Didn’t they Receive it perfectly?”
Iwaizumi walked over and promptly kicked Oikawa in the backside.
“Besides, there were so many other places you could have served. Why did you have to aim right at their libero?”
“Oh, come on. I thought that, if we were going to capture the bandits, we should capture the king first. If we could take out their libero right now, the rest of the match would be much easier, wouldn’t it?”
He shrugged, grinning carefree as usual.
“But honestly, who would have thought their newly substituted libero would be this good?”
Despite his joking manner, Oikawa was genuinely surprised.
Although he had intentionally targeted the opposing libero, the speed and movement of his serve meant that most opponents would struggle to receive it, even if they knew exactly where it was headed.
Yet Karasuno’s libero had managed to produce such a clean reception the first time he saw Oikawa’s serve.
That wasn’t something an ordinary libero could do.
“Beautiful Receive, Nishinoya!”
Seeing Nishinoya successfully receive the serve and immediately launch a counterattack, Ukai Keishin finally let out a sigh of relief.
“Coach Ukai, was Aoba Johsai’s Oikawa-kun’s serve just a mistake?” Karasuno Volleyball Club advisor Takeda Ittetsu asked in confusion.
“No.”
Ukai shook his head.
“He deliberately targeted Nishinoya. With Karasuno already behind, if that serve had scored, it could have easily created the illusion that Nishinoya had been completely shut down. And once that happens, the pressure the team is already feeling from being behind would become even heavier.”
“If that kind of pressure isn’t handled properly, it’s very easy for the entire team’s mentality to collapse.”
“That setter on the other side has a lot of tricks up his sleeve.”
“Luckily, Nishinoya received that ball. Otherwise, the rest of this match would have been really…”
Ukai left the sentence unfinished.
“The situation isn’t looking good.”
In the substitute area of Karasuno, Oda Miki suddenly sighed as he observed the formations on the court.
“Hm? What do you mean the situation isn’t looking good? Didn’t we just score a point?”
Hearing Oda Miki’s mutter, fellow first-year Yamaguchi Tadashi instinctively asked the question.
Oda Miki glanced at him and said:
“I mean our formation. After the latest rotation, Hinata, Kageyama and Tanaka-senpai are currently in the back row. None of them are particularly good at receiving serves. The player who’s about to serve for Aoba Johsai next is…”
On the court.
After Karasuno scored that point, Hinata officially rotated into the back row.
Meanwhile, libero Nishinoya Yuu moved to the front row and was substituted for Tsukishima Kei.
Hinata delivered a terrible serve, which the back-row players of Aoba Johsai received with ease.
Then Oikawa Tooru organised the offence. After using his teammates as decoys, he set the ball to Akashi Asuto.
Akashi then performed a solo time-difference attack, effortlessly evading the single blocker in front of him to score.
7–3.
After winning the point, Aoba Johsai rotated positions.
Asuto moved to Position 1.
“Asuto, give us a good one!”
“Just don’t serve rubbish like Oikawa’s serve! Otherwise, I’ll start to look down on you…”
“Hey!”
…
“Ooooooh! Is it finally happening?”
“The super-powerful serve Oda was talking about!”
Hinata’s eyes lit up and his entire body trembled with excitement the moment he saw Asuto walk towards Position 1 on the opposite side of the net.
He had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
Ever since hearing from Miki Oda that Akashi’s serve was incredibly powerful, he had been eager to see it for himself in a real match.
Even better, he wanted the chance to return one.
And now, that opportunity had finally arrived.
Holding the ball, Asuto stepped behind the end line.
He gently spun the volleyball several times in his palm.
Then he closed his eyes and slowly exhaled.
When he opened them again, his gaze was calm and still, like a placid lake.
In that instant, every member of Karasuno on the other side of the net suddenly changed their expression.
Asuto wasn’t emitting an overwhelming aura.
Yet, at that exact moment, they all felt a chilling coldness surge from the soles of their feet to the tops of their heads, causing them to shudder involuntarily.
“Be careful. It’s coming,” Kageyama Tobio warned.
Across the net, Asuto gently tossed the volleyball into the air.
Then he began his approach.
Step by step, he accelerated.
Run-up.
Jump!
Swing!
…
The next instant…
BOOM!
The impact was so loud that it seemed to silence the entire gymnasium.
Upon making contact with Akashi’s palm, the volleyball appeared to freeze in mid-air for a split second.
One side of the ball visibly caved in under the tremendous force.
Then, it was as if a ring of white air exploded around it.
The blue-and-yellow ball shot forward like a bullet.
In an instant.
The ball vanished completely from everyone’s sight.
Before the Karasuno players could relocate its trajectory…
THUD!
…a heavy impact sounded from behind them.
The volleyball had already smashed violently into the floor.
The force of the impact compressed the ball into a half-sphere before it bounced high into the air.
(End of Chapter)