“How cruel…”
Even Oikawa, who had earlier scored five straight points against them, couldn’t bear to watch the Ōmisaki players standing frozen in place like statues anymore.
Just when the other team had finally started to regain their morale, Asuto delivered another devastating blow.
It was practically psychological torture.
The score became 9:1.
No matter how mentally resilient the Ōmisaki High School players were, cracks were beginning to show in their composure after suffering continuous bombardment from serves.
The Ōmisaki High School coach sat on the bench, chewing his thumbnail anxiously.
It wasn’t just him.
Even Aoba Johsai’s head coach, Irihata Nobuteru, had not expected the match to develop like this.
After all, while he knew that Asuto and Oikawa’s serves had surpassed those of ordinary high school players, professional athletes still regularly made service errors.
Although Oikawa and Asuto’s serves were powerful, they were still a step away from the professional level.
Even during regular practice, service errors occurred frequently.
A situation like today, with continuous service aces one after another, was rare even in practice matches, let alone an official tournament.
Irihata Nobuteru wondered inwardly:
‘Are these two in unbelievably good form today?’
Boom!
As Irihata was thinking this, Asuto’s fourth serve flew out once again.
Now that he had gradually regained his serving feel, Asuto could finally unleash almost all of his power.
The volleyball crossed the net and plunged directly towards the libero of Ōmisaki High School.
Yet even so, the libero failed to receive the ball.
10:1.
This dealt another heavy blow to Ōmisaki High School.
Asuto had just scored directly off the opponent’s best receiver.
If the libero couldn’t handle the serve, nobody else had any confidence in receiving it.
“Tweet!!!”
The coach of Ōmisaki High School could no longer remain seated and immediately called another timeout.
Their final timeout of the set.
Four serves forced the opponents to use up both of their timeouts.
This instantly caused an uproar among the surrounding spectators.
After the timeout ended…
Having had his serving rhythm interrupted twice in succession, Asuto inevitably lost his rhythm.
As a result, his fifth serve after returning to the court did not score directly.
Because he had lost his touch, he failed to make proper contact with the ball at the moment of impact.
The volleyball slipped awkwardly off his hand and barely scraped over the net.
Ōmisaki High School successfully returned the serve.
Their setter quickly organized a counterattack…
However, Kindaichi and Issei Matsukawa stuffed the spike dead.
The volleyball slammed into the floor.
Looking at Aoba Johsai’s two front-row blockers, who were 189 cm and 187 cm tall, respectively, Ōmisaki High School’s Ace Spiker broke down completely.
“Whoa! Aoba Johsai’s blocks are so high!”
“We were so distracted by the serves from Aoba Johsai’s numbers 1 and 8 that we completely ignored everyone else. But now that I’m looking properly, Aoba Johsai’s lineup this year is terrifying! Their offense and defense are practically flawless.”
······
11:1.
Thanks to Kindaichi and Issei Matsukawa’s successful block, the serve remained in Asuto’s possession.
Boom!
Asuto launched his sixth serve.
The impact was just as explosive as before.
However, the instant the volleyball left his hand, Asuto sensed that something was wrong.
‘Crap! It slipped.’
Sure enough…
In the next second… The Aoba Johsai members watched helplessly as the ball crossed the net but showed no sign of descending.
It continued flying all the way toward the baseline of Ōmisaki High School’s court before finally beginning to drop.
Under normal circumstances, this ball would unquestionably go out of bounds.
But unexpectedly… An accident occurred.
Just as the volleyball was about to fly out of bounds and the line judge at the back was preparing to raise the flag, the libero from Ōmisaki High School suddenly dashed forward and saved the ball.
This stunned not only his own teammates but also the Aoba Johsai players for a moment.
Even more absurdly, after the ball had been successfully returned, not a single player from Ōmisaki High School managed to react.
They stood there like statues, helplessly watching as the ball floated back onto the court and dropped to the floor.
Thud… thud… thud…
For an instant, the atmosphere of the entire court fell deathly silent.
Every player from Ōmisaki High School suddenly felt as though all sound had disappeared from the arena.
Aside from their own heavy breathing, they could hear nothing else.
An overwhelming pressure descended upon them like a collapsing skyscraper.
The physical exhaustion and mental fatigue they had been suppressing until now burst forth all at once, and it felt as if a dam had given way.
Reflected in the libero’s pupils was the volleyball rolling across the floor.
In that instant, his mind went completely blank.
“So even their last psychological line of defense has collapsed…”
Seeing the mistake on the other team, Oikawa knew the set was over.
Compared to falling behind in the score, the collapse of a team’s mentality on the court often led more easily to total defeat.
Ōmisaki High School’s coach called for a substitution decisively.
The starting libero was taken off the court and temporarily replaced by a substitute.
But at this point, the substitution no longer had much meaning.
Ten minutes later, the first set ended with a score of 25:7.
………
Second set.
Ōmisaki High School’s starting libero returned to the court.
Overcoming the psychological shadow left by Asuto’s serves in such a short amount of time was obviously no easy task.
However, Asuto did not display the same dominant serving style in the second set.
Although he still scored points with his serves, he also made more errors.
But Asuto had never relied on serving alone as his weapon.
Bang!
The volleyball shot out like a cannon shell and smashed directly through the opponent’s triple block.
“Damn it!”
The three blockers from Ōmisaki High School landed on the ground and glared at the tall figure across the net, their faces full of frustration and unwillingness.
Did this guy really not have a single weakness?
Asuto turned around.
Not far away, the scoreboard changed once more.
Another point for Aoba Johsai:
23:11.
By now, there weren’t many spectators left on Aoba Johsai’s side of the stands.
Ever since the second half of the second set, the outcome of the match had been painfully obvious.
“Nice spike!”
The Aoba Johsai members gave Asuto a token round of encouragement. But, judging by their tone, they sounded completely drained of enthusiasm.
There was no helping it.
When it came to spikes that everyone knew would definitely score, the Aoba Johsai players genuinely found it difficult to act excited.
After all…
They weren’t professional actors.
After the point… Aoba Johsai rotated positions once again.
After this rotation, Oikawa returned to position one.
In the end… Oikawa scored two consecutive points with his serves, successfully securing Aoba Johsai’s first victory.
(End of Chapter)