You can read ahead up to 30 chapters on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395
Beep!
As the final whistle blew, Sengoku Junior High secured a 2:0 victory against Shinkongji Private, advancing to the quarterfinals.
After their morale completely collapsed in the first set, Shinkongji Private never managed to make a comeback. It could only be said that Shinkongji Private’s coach had judged people with frightening accuracy.
Reaching the quarter-finals of the preliminaries enabled Sengoku Junior High to break the Volleyball Club’s historical record.
However, the members of the Volleyball Club were not as excited this time because they now had even higher goals.
While Sengoku Junior High remained calm, however, the other schools across Miyagi Prefecture exploded into an uproar.
The elimination of a seeded team like Shinkongji Private School by a dark horse team was enough to make Sengoku Junior High famous throughout Miyagi Prefecture.
The footage of this match was quickly compiled into recordings and rapidly spread everywhere…
Kitagawa Daiichi Junior High was the first school to obtain the videotape.
Of all the quarter-finalist teams, they were the only ones to have previously faced Sengoku Junior High. Furthermore, everyone on the team, from the coach to the starting players, had an extremely deep impression of Akashi Asuto.
In the video room, after watching the recording of Sengoku Junior High vs. Shinkongji Private, the coach and players of Kitagawa Daiichi fell silent.
“So strong… Is this guy really a ‘monster’?”
“Back during the Prefectural Athletic Meet, that Number One was already hard enough to deal with. And now, after just one summer break, he’s improved this much again? Is he even human?”
Several of Kitagawa Daiichi’s starters could not help but complain after seeing Asuto’s performance in the match.
Coach Kitagawa maintained a solemn expression, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking. Judging by his grave gaze, however, his mood was clearly far from good.
“You’ve all finished watching the tape. Now tell me what you think. Kageyama, you start first,” Coach Kitagawa said.
“Yes!” Kageyama Tobio immediately stood up and replied.
“We played against Sengoku Junior High in the first half of this year. At that time, they were already a fairly strong team, but their strength depended entirely on their Number One ‘Ace’. But now, you can see from this match alone that every single player at Sengoku Junior High has improved by a level.”
“Although the other members still can’t compare to their ‘Ace,’ at least they are no longer the team’s weak links.”
“And besides that…”
“Sengoku Junior High’s ‘Ace’ is truly terrifying. When we played them earlier this year, although their Ace had incredible offensive skills, his defense was practically at a beginner level.
“But now, in just a few short months, all of his defensive techniques have become flawless. Honestly, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed that such a person could exist. If we play them again, they’ll undoubtedly become one of our greatest enemies.”
Although Kageyama Tobio still had personality flaws at this stage, his insight was exceptionally sharp.
In fact, there were many things in competitive matches that simply could not be fully understood from videotapes alone. If you did not experience them personally on the court, you could never truly gauge an opponent’s power.
Yet, having watched only once, Kageyama Tobio had already analyzed sixty to seventy percent of Sengoku Junior High’s current combat strength.
As they were in the same tournament bracket, Kitagawa Daiichi moved quickly to discuss countermeasures.
However, compared to Kitagawa Daiichi, there was another school that was even more anxious at that moment:
Yamabuki Industrial Affiliated Junior High School.
According to the tournament schedule, Sengoku Junior High’s next opponents were to be Yamabuki Industrial.
Only after defeating Yamabuki Industrial would Sengoku Junior High earn another chance to face Kitagawa Daiichi.
The quarter-final matches were due to begin the following Saturday.
In other words, Yamabuki Industrial had just five days to devise a strategy.
Although this might sound like a decent amount of time, formulating tactics for a match could not be achieved just by talking.
Not to mention…
Once a team had finalized a tactical strategy, they still needed to practice it before they could use it properly in an actual match.
As for those spur-of-the-moment ideas that arise during a game, they might work temporarily once or twice. However, they could never be relied upon continuously because they lacked stability.
Yamabuki Industrial’s coach and players worked tirelessly to come up with strategies.
Meanwhile, on the other hand… Sengoku Junior High was studying Yamabuki Industrial’s playstyle.
After all, they were the challengers in the upcoming match.
Compared to the difficulty Yamabuki Industrial faced researching Sengoku Junior High, researching Yamabuki Industrial was much easier for Sengoku Junior High.
This was because traditional powerhouses like Yamabuki Industrial had played countless official matches over the years, leaving behind a large number of game recordings.
Sengoku Junior High, however, was different.
While they had also participated in many official matches on the surface, in reality, the only tape that truly held research value was the one of Sengoku Junior High vs Shinkongji Private.
In the blink of an eye… Five days quietly passed.
Saturday arrived.
The match between Sengoku Junior High and Yamabuki Industrial officially began.
“Please take care of us!”
“Please take care of us!”
The two teams bowed to each other, and once the greetings were over, the players walked to their pre-arranged positions on the court.
However, once everyone had taken their places, the Yamabuki Industrial players looked at the formation of the Sengoku Junior High players, and their expressions instantly changed drastically.
“Wait a second… Is there really a need to go this far?”
Sengoku Junior High’s full formation was clearly:
Front row, from left to right:
Position 4: Kazama Jūjirō
Position 3: Mishita Ryūhei
Position 2: Omae Masato
Back row, from left to right:
Position 5 — Oda Miki
Position 6 — Kurata Mao
Position 1 — Asuto
…
Beep!
The referee blew the whistle to signal the start of the serve.
Standing outside the baseline, Asuto bounced the volleyball lightly a few times, and the pre-match instructions of Mishita Ryuhei surfaced in his mind:
“Yamabuki Industrial’s style is that of a defense-oriented team with evenly balanced members. Their team structure is extremely stable. If the match drags on for too long, it’ll be very disadvantageous for us. So, from the outset, we must crush them with full force.”
BOOM!
The instant Mishita Ryuhei’s words ended in his mind, Asuto launched a serve toward the opposite court.
The sound of a palm striking a volleyball exploded through the air, and the ball shot forward like a meteor, crashing towards the opposing court and directly towards the libero.
This was one of the flaws of the Power Jump Serve.
As all of the user’s strength was devoted to maximizing the power and speed of the serve, once the volleyball crossed the net, aside from ensuring it landed in bounds, controlling its precise landing point became impossible.
Sometimes, if it happened to fly directly towards the opposing team’s main libero, the chances of them receiving it increased significantly.
Just like now.
Although this ball was traveling at a speed that had nearly surpassed the opponent’s reaction limit, Yamabuki Industrial’s main libero still relied on years of instinctive training. His body moved before his brain, enabling him to receive the ball the instant it arrived.
The moment the nerves in his wrist registered contact, he instinctively felt a surge of joy.
“I got it!”
That thought flashed through his mind, but in the very next second, his expression changed dramatically.
He suddenly realized that this ball wasn’t just fast.
The strength contained within it was terrifying.
BANG!
A powerful impact surged through his arms. Before Yamabuki Industrial’s libero could perform a proper force-dispersing motion, the volleyball was launched upwards with great force.
DUANG!
The ball smashed directly into the railing of the second-floor spectator stands.
Meanwhile, the libero, whose balance was destabilized by receiving the ball, fell flat on his back onto the floor.
(End of Chapter)
You can read ahead up to 30 chapters on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395