‘Damn you, Aoba Johsai, for fighting dirty!’
‘You can’t play fair, you bunch of little punks.’
‘Wasn’t this supposed to be a one-on-one serving duel?’
‘How dare you call for reinforcements?’
The Shiratorizawa members were on the verge of losing their composure.
Oikawa and Ushijima Wakatoshi had been competing against each other for years. They had witnessed the two of them showing off their serves, crushing the opposing libero’s morale and exchanging ‘friendly greetings’ countless times before.
It was kind of like that thing.
The first time it happened, it was a bit uncomfortable, but after experiencing it often enough, you gradually got used to it.
Originally, Shiratorizawa hadn’t thought there was anything wrong with it.
But who could have imagined that Aoba Johsai would add another person to the mix?
Not just anyone… they wanted to send two monsters at them at the same time.
That was something Shiratorizawa simply couldn’t accept!
Especially when the person they added was such a powerful player.
What did they think Shiratorizawa was?
The team collectively condemned Aoba Johsai’s behavior as shameless, but not everyone was willing to admit defeat.
Yamagata Hayato thought: “I may look honest and harmless, but you can’t underestimate me like this.”
‘It’s just a serve. It’s not like I’ve never received one before. He’s just a first-year rookie. His serve is just a little more powerful.’
‘What else does he have besides power? There’s no way he can really compare to Oikawa.’
BOOM!
A cannon-like explosion suddenly echoed above the Aoba Johsai court.
The sound was so sudden that several Shiratorizawa players could hear their ears ringing.
By the time they had recovered, they realized that the volleyball had already flown behind their court.
Everyone stood there for a moment in confusion, unable to process what had just happened.
It was only when the referee blew the whistle and the scoreboard changed that they finally realized that Aoba Johsai had scored.
5:4.
“What the hell was that?”
“Was that even a serve?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“That was stronger than it was during the practice match. Can a high school student really hit a serve like that?”
Yamagata Hayato’s resolve was beginning to crumble.
In preparation for Asuto’s serves, Shiratorizawa had undergone specific serve-receive training as a team.
After all, although Asuto’s serves were incredibly powerful, Shiratorizawa’s players still had a decent chance of handling them with solid receiving fundamentals and a bit of luck.
However, before they could demonstrate the results of this training, they suddenly discovered that Asuto’s serves had evolved to a whole new level.
The upgraded Heavy Artillery Serve delivered a devastating blow to Shiratorizawa.
They were left completely stunned on the spot.
Aoba Johsai’s cheering section erupted into chants of Asuto’s name. That single serve instantly reignited the atmosphere that had only just cooled down.
Building on this momentum, Asuto slowly tossed up his second serve.
BOOM!
This time, with everyone prepared, the Shiratorizawa players finally identified the source of the cannon-like noise.
Asuto soared into the air like an eagle spreading its wings.
Then, using the strength of every muscle in his body, he hit the ball.
At the moment of impact, the volleyball visibly compressed beneath his palm, with ripples spreading across its surface as it caved inwards. The surrounding air seemed to explode with a shockwave.
Whoosh!
The ball shot forward like an artillery shell.
In the blink of an eye, it arrived above Shiratorizawa’s court.
Faced with such an overwhelmingly powerful serve, Yamagata Hayato didn’t even have time to get into the right position to receive it.
All he saw was the ball slamming into his shoulder.
His body was thrown off balance by the impact, and the volleyball disappeared into the distance.
6:4
Then came the third serve.
Like Oikawa and Ushijima Wakatoshi before him, Asuto displayed impeccable form on his serve today.
His terrifying serves blasted across the court like heavy artillery.
Yamagata Hayato, Shiratorizawa’s libero, simply couldn’t consistently return them.
As soon as the ball touched his arms, the force of it would send it flying off in a random direction before he could control it.
7:4
Aoba Johsai reclaimed their three-point advantage.
For his fourth serve, Asuto, being a proud man, firmly remembered the traditional virtue of ‘returning courtesy for courtesy.’
So he generously ‘chose’ to make a ‘serving error’ as well, gifting Shiratorizawa a point. (He couldn’t concentrate and sent a home run.)
Thus, the score became:
7:5.
Although the match had only just begun, the serves of Asuto, Oikawa, and Wakatoshi Ushijima were so exceptional that the two teams’ liberos had already been completely worn out before they had even properly entered the game.
Yamagata Hayato and Shinji Watari:
“You guys are incredible. So noble, so lofty. Do liberos not have human rights?’
“Is there no justice? No law?”
Facts proved that… On the volleyball court, justice and the law were not particularly useful.
Throughout the first set of the final, Asuto was hardly involved in anything other than his serves.
It wasn’t because he didn’t want to be.
The problem was that Oikawa simply didn’t give him the opportunity.
Against other teams, that might not necessarily be the case.
However, when it came to Shiratorizawa and Ushijima Wakatoshi, Oikawa’s experience was simply too extensive.
‘Although most of that experience consisted of failures.’
Oikawa: ‘That last sentence was completely unnecessary.’
From the moment they met, it was as if sworn rivals had crossed paths; their eyes practically glowed with hostility.
The tension was already obvious during the serving battle.
However, once the match entered the offensive and defensive exchanges, their confrontation became even more intense, with every clash drawing metaphorical blood.
Ushijima Wakatoshi had an exceptional physique and overwhelming power.
In that regard, Oikawa simply couldn’t compare.
The difference in their builds was obvious just from looking at them.
But Oikawa had variety.
Lots of variety.
His sets allowed Aoba Johsai’s attackers to launch assaults from any direction, at any moment, and from any angle.
While Ushijima Wakatoshi could sometimes score through a triple block with sheer force, Oikawa’s sets could render Shiratorizawa’s blockers completely unable to keep up with Aoba Johsai’s attacks.
When these two ultra-offensive players started trading blows, the front-row blocks of both teams were rendered ineffective, easily torn apart.
As for the liberos in the backcourt… There was even less to say.
Against an Oikawa and a Wakatoshi Ushijima performing at their absolute best, the two liberos, Shinji Watari and Yamagata Hayato, who could only be described as excellent rather than truly gifted, weren’t merely ineffective; they were useless.
They were basically just there for show.
Consequently, serve possession changed hands at an extremely rapid pace, and the score climbed steadily higher.
Overall, however… Aoba Johsai held a slight advantage in the opening set.
This was because they had two monsters.
Asuto hadn’t done much in the first set, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t touching the ball.
In fact, there simply wasn’t any need for him to do more.
Oikawa’s sets were so perfectly timed and positioned that Asuto usually only needed to jump and spike. There was no need for him to do anything extra.
Furthermore, during the next two serving rotations, although Asuto wasn’t in the same explosive form he had shown at the beginning, he still managed to help Aoba Johsai gain another point of advantage.
Relying on that small edge, Aoba Johsai maintained their lead all the way to set point.
In the end, they successfully claimed the first set of the finals.
(End of Chapter)