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My name is Chiba Tobira.
Today, my friends and I arranged to play some volleyball at the gym.
However, partway through, two of our teammates had to leave due to other commitments. With no other option, both teams found a high school student to fill in temporarily.
Honestly, our original goal was simply to find enough people to make up the numbers.
But who could have imagined that these two high school students would turn out to be so good?
One of them unleashed a perfect cross-court shot the moment he stepped onto the court.
The other directly smashed a super straight-line spike onto the sideline while facing our team’s strongest blocking duo head-on.
I just want to ask:
‘Have high school volleyball players become this good nowadays?’
‘We’re a college team.’
‘Is this reasonable?’
‘Is this really reasonable?’
· · · · ·
The college students on both the Red and Blue teams twitched at the corners of their eyes, feeling as though they had just been completely outshone. They looked at the high schooler on their own team, then at the high schooler on the opposing team.
They all had countless complaints, but when the words reached their mouths, nobody knew what to say.
“Nice spike!” Chiba Tobira finally managed to squeeze out after a long pause.
“Thanks for the compliment,” Akashi Asuto replied politely.
Thanks to attacks from the new high schoolers on both teams, the Red and Blue Teams each scored a point, bringing the score to 1:1.
After Asuto scored with his spike, Kyotani, who had previously only been unconsciously ‘provoking’ everyone around him, instantly focused all of his attention on Asuto.
In his eyes, which resembled those of a vicious wild dog, the desire to challenge Asuto was already beginning to stir.
At that moment, after the Red Team rotated, it was Asuto’s turn to serve.
“Huu…”
Standing outside the baseline, Asuto held the ball in one hand and slowly exhaled, trying his best to relax his body.
Then he began to approach and lightly tossed the ball upwards.
The moment the other players saw this, the college students on both teams froze once again.
They had originally assumed that Asuto’s serve would be similar to Kyotani’s.
But now, things suddenly seemed a little off.
BANG!
THUD!
Just as everyone was still processing what they could see, a heavy impact sound echoed through the court.
The Blue Team players immediately saw a blur flash before their eyes as the volleyball had already crashed onto the floor behind them.
“?”
“???”
Everyone on the court was instantly dumbfounded.
Looking at the volleyball rolling across the floor, question marks seemed to burst out of their heads like a raging storm.
This jump serve…
Is this a freaking high schooler?
Chiba Tobira, who had personally brought Asuto over, was probably the most shocked of them all.
He had also participated in a volleyball club back in high school.
Although his team had never advanced to the national stage, they had played against a team from the same generation that did make it.
If you had never truly faced them yourself, you would never understand; even though they were all high school students, the difference in ability between a Nationals-level team and an ordinary school club was not something that could be explained by score differences alone.
Because of this, Chiba Tobira could see clearly that Asuto already had the ability to compete at a national level.
Realizing this, Chiba Tobira was overwhelmed with emotion at his good fortune.
After all, randomly picking someone off the street and ending up with a high school student capable of competing at the national level was quite something.
He genuinely didn’t know whether his luck was good or bad anymore.
Bang Bang Bang…
Asuto was clearly unaffected by the thoughts running through everyone else’s minds. After scoring with his first serve, he immediately realized that his serving touch was particularly good today.
To maintain that rhythm, he prepared for his second serve the moment he got the ball back.
BANG!
After going through the same preparation movements, the volleyball shot out once again.
This time, the Blue Team players were ready and managed to track the ball’s trajectory.
But…
The speed was still insane.
Asuto’s [Jump Serve] completely abandoned control and placement, pouring all its focus into raw power and ball speed. It flew over the court and dropped directly in front of Kyotani.
With a landing point like that, against an ordinary jump serve or a better libero, it would basically have been a free ball.
Unfortunately, however, it was neither.
Although Kyotani’s personality wasn’t great, he was undoubtedly talented and hardworking.
The problem was that he wasn’t a libero on the volleyball court. He was an Outside Hitter.
The instant the volleyball came flying towards him, Kyotani managed to track its trajectory.
However, the moment the ball collided with his arms, the tremendous force disrupted his receiving posture. The ball flew off course and sailed directly out of bounds.
Score: 1:3.
“Damn it!”
Kyotani’s expression gradually became more irritated, clearly showing his dissatisfaction at having failed to receive the serve.
At the same time, his fighting spirit grew stronger and stronger as he looked towards Asuto, along with his increasing unwillingness to accept defeat.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Just keep it up on the next one.”
The Blue Team’s star player clapped his hands and encouraged Kyotani, signaling that he should keep trying.
Then… Asuto made a mistake.
He served the ball into the net.
The score became 2–3.
This was perfectly normal.
After all, service errors were extremely common even in world-class professional volleyball matches.
Not to mention that Asuto’s proficiency in the Jump Serve technique was still fairly low. Since it was his first time using it in a real match, succeeding twice in a row had honestly exceeded his expectations.
The Red Team setter patted Asuto on the shoulder to signal that his serves had been excellent and that he shouldn’t worry too much about the mistake.
Then the match continued.
In a pickup game, the first ball is usually a showcase for the newcomers.
After that, most of the match revolved around teamwork, as well as offensive and defensive tactics.
In that regard, Asuto and Kyotani obviously couldn’t compare with the veteran players, who had played together countless times.
Consequently, the number of balls sent to the two of them gradually decreased.
As for this, Asuto didn’t really mind.
After all, he knew his limitations very well.
Initially, as neither side was familiar with him, he might have been able to break through the opposing defense with his individual ability alone.
However, once everyone became familiar with each other, his current physical ability and technical level didn’t provide much of an advantage against the coordinated defense of these college players.
If he wanted to score consistently, he would ultimately have to rely on team coordination.
Here, he simply treated himself as an average ace hitter and focused mainly on learning.
Asuto understood this so clearly because he possessed the soul of an adult.
But Kyotani obviously didn’t.
For the young man nicknamed ‘Mad Dog,’ volleyball was all about smashing spikes and scoring through offense.
If he couldn’t spike, then where was the fun in that?
So after going a long time without getting the ball…
Finally.
The young hothead couldn’t hold back anymore.
When the score reached 22:24, with the Red Team already at match point. The Blue Team’s offense and defense had become increasingly stable. On the final attack, the Blue Team setter instinctively chose to pass to the veteran teammate he had coordinated with the longest.
But at the exact instant that final set left his hands…
Just as the Blue Team middle blocker was preparing to jump…
Suddenly, Kyotani charged forward from behind and forcibly stole the set right out of the middle blocker’s hands.
BANG!
A ferocious spike blasted past the block and flew over Asuto’s head in the back court…
Straight for a home run.
The ball slammed into a wall more than twenty meters away.
“Uh…”
(End of Chapter)
You can read ahead up to 30 chapters on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395