JSWGAS Chapter 107

107.

The tug-of-war on the court was intense.

This intensity became even more apparent after Tendō Satori entered the game. In fact, there were many people in the high school volleyball world who were skilled at blocking. Just in Aoba Johsai, there were several blocking team members with excellent skills: Date Tech’s captain was one, Aoba Johsai’s Saijō was one, and Shiratorizawa’s Tendō was of course one. However, the last one was special compared to the first two—

Shiratorizawa’s serve, the small ace’s overhand serve, was steadily received by Kokonoe and rotating position’s Furue. A short toss sent the ball to Oikawa in the number two position. Oikawa almost unhesitatingly chose Miyano, who was better at various tricky quick attacks, from the two jumping spikers in the front row. Arahata and Iwaizumi crossed to cover, blocking out of position—or so it seemed?

Miyano’s heart tightened. A dazzling red figure suddenly appeared in front of him, leaping into the air at the same time as him. All of that flamboyant hair stood up, revealing pupils that were narrowed into a point as they met his gaze through the crisscrossing net.

The middle blocker, who hadn’t been on the court for long, smiled happily at Miyano, his lips moving.

“…Too obvious?”

In a split second, Miyano understood his lip movements. His intuition sounded a fierce alarm, and the strong sense of crisis made him subconsciously abandon the line he had originally planned to choose, and his wrist turned slightly. Oikawa, who had been paying attention to the overall situation, warned loudly at this moment, “Careful—”

—Miyano’s cross-court shot was almost slammed into Tendō’s palm.

Arahata lunged forward, but still couldn’t save this ball that was blocked to death.

“Don’t mind!” He got up from the ground and took the lead in comforting Miyano.

The latter shook his head in annoyance. “Sorry, I knew I shouldn’t have changed my shot.”

“Tendō’s blocking is already very tricky.” Oikawa followed up with reassurance, wrinkling his nose. “He’s another annoying guy… but that kind of predictive blocking won’t be accurate every time, there will always be mistakes. I’m counting on you for the quick attacks later, Miyano-senpai.”

But Tendō Satori was indeed in good condition today, and blocked Aoba Johsai’s spikes quickly and accurately for the next few balls—until Arahata launched a strong attack from the number four position, and the volleyball flew out of bounds after scraping past Tendō’s palm, ending their continuous scoring.

“Nice ball, Arahata-senpai.” Oikawa came over and high-fived him with a grin, and by the way mocked Tendō, who was sighing and shaking his hand. “Oh, what a pity, I was worried that your arm would be broken, Tendō—after all, it looks so fragile. It’s great that you weren’t injured.”

Tendō drawled in reply, “Not at all, after all, these fragile arms have blocked you three times, Oikawa-kun. It’s not a good habit to be brave, you know?”

—This confrontation only ended when Iwaizumi, with a stinking face, pulled him away from the net, while Ōhira Reon on the other side chopped Tendō lightly on the head with a hand blade.

Iwaizumi, “Sorry, we made you laugh.”

Ōhira, “It’s our side that should apologize, please bear with us.”

Kokonoe rotated to the front row after this score.

The serve was in Aoba Johsai’s hands this round, and the right to attack was in Shiratorizawa’s—Ushijima Wakatoshi was right in front of the net, face to face with Saijō.

Kokonoe glanced at Saijō, who had been unusually silent since the start of the match, and then calmly withdrew his gaze.

—Saijō’s condition was unexpectedly good.

This thought flashed through his mind for a moment before being covered by another observed fact.

—Ushijima hasn’t entered his peak state yet.

Iwaizumi served. His serve wasn’t like Kokonoe Taka’s, deliberately dragging out the time to apply pressure, nor was it as tricky and aggressive as Oikawa’s. He himself was clear on this point, so he considered how to disrupt the first touch when serving.

Unfortunately, Shiratorizawa directly left a space open, letting the libero step forward to receive the ball, and the first touch was perfect. The setter observed his own team’s formation, and after catching sight of a figure running up to the net, he unhesitatingly passed the ball—that gaze was full of the momentum of ‘this ball is mine, I will score’.

Although it wasn’t obvious, Shiratorizawa did have a faint tendency to cultivate Ushijima, who was still a first-year, into the team’s core—he could now hit spikes that were no less than Captain Sōmura’s, and his skills would become more proficient in the future.

After his graduating class leaves, the team should usher in a major reshuffle. The pass serves the setter, and the setter serves the ace… turning into the team Coach Washijō favored.

But that was something for later.

Ushijima jumped from the three-meter line, and his left hand, packed full of power, swung forward fiercely. Saijō and Oikawa in front of the net jumped almost at the same time as him, with similar heights. But the shadow after Ushijima jumped almost enveloped Saijō. Saijō’s right palm was hit by a heavy object, and uncontrollably flung backwards—this force, which was much weaker than that of a spiker, only blocked the volleyball for a moment. Miyano was the closest to the ball, and made a diving save. But the rotation caused by the left-handedness made the ball swing in another direction—

“Ushijima’s high-point power spike! He broke through the block alone without the cover of his teammates’ tactical ball!”

After landing, Ushijima calmly glanced at them and turned his gaze away, leaving Oikawa gnashing his teeth and wishing he could kill him a thousand times with his eyes. But he quickly put aside his resentment, and warned in a deep voice as Ushijima Wakatoshi walked towards the service area on the side of the court.

“Little Ushiwaka’s serve.” His gaze swept around the team. “It’s our weak rotation….” Although he had expected that it wouldn’t be so easy.

That was indeed the case. Aoba Johsai’s front row defense was very comprehensive in this round, and their offensive power was also very strong, but their ground defense was slightly worse in this rotation—

“Just as we discussed before, the three players in the back row will receive the first touch.” Arahata took the lead. “Kokonoe’s reaction speed is the fastest, if a second save is needed, it’s up to you…”

Aoba Johsai had already conceived of a situation where the libero wasn’t on the court, so the pressure wasn’t too great now. But Ushijima’s ball was still a hurdle that was difficult for them to overcome: it had both power and speed, as well as the reverse rotation unique to left-handed players, making receiving the ball troublesome.

“The most important thing is to find a way to receive the ball first.”

Oikawa took a slight breath. “I’m counting on you.”

“I’m not used to you being so serious,” Arahata laughed, looking around. “In return, I’m counting on you for the attack.”

“Shiratorizawa Shiratorizawa!—Shiratorizawa!”

“Now serving is number 4, Ushijima, with a standing reach of 330cm, an ace spiker who has been shining since junior high school…”

“Serve a good ball!”

“Go for it, Wakatoshi-kun—”

Countless voices converged into a river, and at the end of the river, Ushijima Wakatoshi was not affected at all.

He took the volleyball handed over by the staff and quickly adjusted his condition. His body was slowly heating up… was it because of the atmosphere? But it didn’t feel any different from other matches in the past.

A chill ran down his back, and he suddenly noticed the discomfort of being stared at. Kokonoe in front of the net was looking at him.

The ball was tossed diagonally upwards, and Ushijima Wakatoshi began to run up, then his body flew off the ground. His molars were clenched tightly, the tip of his tongue pressed against his upper palate, and that left hand, which represented something special, the dominant hand that had almost left him, pressed down fiercely!

“Boom!”

A very dull and rapid sound.

Arahata almost turned himself into a shield. He took a step to the left and raised his arm to receive the ball head-on. It was just a pity that he was, after all, flesh and blood, and the skin on his arm was crackling as if it were being burned. What a heavy ball! Heavier than last time!

Remove the rotation, remove the rotation… how the hell did Furue remove the rotation of a left-handed player?!

Contrary to his wishes, Arahata only did the former well in the competition of force and rotation. The slight tilt of his arm gave a boost to the rotating volleyball, and it flew straight out of bounds!

“Sorry! Save!”

Miyano barely caught up before the ball landed, his right thumb hitting the volleyball and sending it back to Aoba Johsai’s half of the court. But the position was not good, and in the end, they could only get the ball over the net without an attack.

“Chance ball!”

The libero’s first touch was perfect, the setter jumped lightly, intending to use a feint to trick the middle blocker in front of the net. But the other side didn’t fall for it at all, and the look in his eyes as he swept over him even had a bit of mockery as if he were looking at a fool…

He should indeed be mocked. To Kokonoe, this feint was as obvious as a lamp in the darkness, far inferior to Suemi’s. He quickly took his place, and the ball was indeed sent to Ushijima by the setter.

The spiker and the blocker were clearly separated by the net. Oikawa, who jumped up last, filled the last gap in the three-man block. The probing of both sides had not yet ended, which made this short moment of fighting extremely sharp.

Ushijima felt the familiar heat again. The thought of being puzzled by where the heat came from didn’t linger in his mind for too long. It seemed that the wind had been holding up his body ever since he jumped. Until the volleyball slammed violently into the palm of the block in a turbulent motion, its power undiminished.

—Left side, straight shot.

At the critical moment, Saijō keenly captured Ushijima’s subtle gaze, and the originally tilted palm changed direction almost without thinking. Decisive, fierce, excited, various emotions stirred together, Ushijima’s gaze fell on him, and his movements did not have a trace of stagnation.

The volleyball charged horizontally, shattering the smile hanging on the corner of Saijō’s mouth, along with the strength of his hands.

The referee blew his whistle, and Shiratorizawa took the lead with 8 points—finals usually adopt a five-set, three-win format, and when the leading team reaches 8 points and 16 points, the game will enter a 1-minute technical timeout.

Coach Irihata sat steadily on the bench, letting the players think for themselves.

“When blocking, we still have to pay attention to the timing and the angle of defense. The most important thing is to make Little Ushiwaka understand that there is a wall standing in front of him all the time—Shiratorizawa’s setter almost gave all the ball possession to Ushiwaka to let him start earlier, we can’t let them have an easy time.” Oikawa said, “The first touch still needs to let Iwaizumi also defend one position… but in this way, the battle line will probably be dragged out.”

Oikawa had already experienced how difficult Ushiwaka was to deal with. Although he had been hoping that Ushiwaka would get sick and be absent—but in fact, he was also the one who least wanted to see this happen. After all, it was impossible to quickly conquer this guy, who had a certain reputation throughout the country, like clearing mobs when passing a level.

But he didn’t want to lose.

Arahata followed his words and continued to think, “Bite the score to death?… Our offensive power is very strong, and our tactics are more diverse… it won’t be too difficult to score, this is indeed a way.”

Volleyball was originally a sport where you wouldn’t lose as long as the ball didn’t touch the ground. Even if they couldn’t gain an advantage in a short period of time, Oikawa Tōru was confident that he could seize their flaws in the long run.

However…

“Can your stamina keep up?”

It was Coach Irihata who had been silent for a long time who asked this question.

His gaze swept across everyone from left to right, and after receiving nods from several furry heads, he smiled and said gently: “Then let’s try this idea first… of course, don’t forget to think—think about how to play this current ball well.”

…

…………

“Saijō-senpai.” Kokonoe’s slightly low voice sounded in his ear. “Is your hand okay?”

Saijō then pulled himself out of his dazed state. He looked down at his fingers. His right index and middle fingers were slightly red and swollen, the fingers that touched the ball when blocking just now.

“…I’m fine.” He replied in a muffled voice, forcing a smile.

Before he could continue to say anything, “The coach just said to have Hisada-senpai serve a jump float when it’s your turn to serve.”

“Huh?… Oh, I got it.”

“I’m kidding, the coach didn’t say that.” Kokonoe Taka raised his eyebrows, holding a water glass. Saijō realized that he had wrapped his fingers with bandages at some point.

“It’s not a good habit to lie…” He muttered, avoiding his sharp gaze and changing the subject. “Sigh, I really admire Oikawa and Iwaizumi for being able to compete with Ushijima all the time… that kind of spike is really scary, left-handed people are cheating…”

The technical timeout finally ended, and Saijō breathed a sigh of relief, stopping the nonsense that even he didn’t know what he was saying. And just as he was about to follow the others back onto the court, Kokonoe’s sudden voice came from behind.

“—Are you afraid?”

…

…………

Ushijima was not disturbed by the short timeout. His second serve still maintained its previous power, smashing head-on towards Aoba Johsai.

The landing point wasn’t difficult to judge, in between Arahata and Iwaizumi. “I’ll take it!” Iwaizumi decisively stepped to the side to cover, receiving this ball head-on. A muffled sound of flesh colliding, the volleyball rushed towards the number two position, the first touch was halfway there, and Iwaizumi also had to kneel down to stabilize his center of gravity due to the reaction force.

The angle of this ball wasn’t very good. When Oikawa hurriedly took his place, there weren’t many attack points he could choose from, and Shiratorizawa’s blockers quickly judged the more stable route of attack and defended—but this ball, which should have been hastily played, was surprisingly stable.

The block was tricked by himself… and the distance of this ball from the net was relatively far, maintaining speed, and the height was slightly lower. Various details flashed through Oikawa Tōru’s mind, restraining the strength of his fingers, and he sent out this ball. His peripheral vision saw Kokonoe, who was running up and entering the three-meter line, jump forward after the last small step. It was as if the wind that was stirred up when the volleyball was sent over also allowed him to glide in the air—

—Fly according to your own desires.

—I will make you stronger.

The block was easily thrown off in the combination of the setter and the middle blocker, and the libero immediately covered in the back row, but noticed something was wrong the moment he touched the ball—it was so light, completely different from the number 12’s previous balls! The strength of the rotation was misjudged, and the angle of the dig was too far forward! This obvious mistake almost made Coach Washijō on the sidelines yell out. The volleyball was dug over the net by him, and Aoba Johsai would not miss this opportunity.

Kokonoe Taka, who had just landed, almost timed his next jump to perfection, the height that ordinary people would shy away from was fluid and easy for him. He raised his hand, and sent the ball back to the opposite side of the court accurately and quickly.

“A very excellent far-net quick attack! This tactical attack caught Shiratorizawa by surprise. The tip ball was also spiked very decisively.” The commentator exclaimed, “Kokonoe’s jumping ability, hang time, and reaction speed are all amazing, he can jump very high even without a run-up… just like his name, he’s like a flying aerial overlord.”

—And on the stands, Ibuki suddenly stood up at this moment. This action could be described as a crane standing among chickens. The Aoba Johsai students from front to back all turned their heads to look at him, but he seemed unaware, staring straight at the court, and after a long time, he cursed.

Until Junko dragged him back to his seat, he was still maintaining his expression of shock, as if his worldview had just been reorganized. Seeing him like this, Junko hesitated about the words she originally wanted to complain about. “What’s wrong?” she asked carefully.

Ibuki turned his head to look at her in a jerky manner, as if he were a robot without lubricant, “…That, this, he———that guy———no, Kokonoe——”

He stammered and said half a day of incoherent sentences, and in the end, he even blurted out strange honorifics like ‘sama’.

After staring at each other for a long time, Junko worriedly wanted to touch his forehead: had he developed a fever and become stupid?

Ibuki instead thought she was a bit stupid—”Don’t you know who that person is?!”

“…Of course I know,” Junko answered blankly, “Isn’t he Kokonoe-kun? And your honorifics are so strange…”

Ibuki hated that she wasn’t made of iron, and even felt a sense of tragic grandeur of ‘I am the only one who is awake while everyone else is drunk’ when he realized that his classmates in the front row were also paying attention to their conversation with a confused and curious expression———he didn’t even think that it was also because of the commentator’s unintentional remark that he noticed the secret identity of his junior, who was one grade younger than him.

“Last year’s All-Japan Junior High School Tournament!” he prompted eagerly, gesturing wildly. “That very famous Teikō Middle School in Tokyo! The one that won three consecutive championships… no, it should be four consecutive championships this year! But that’s not important right now!—”

Not only Junko, but the people nearby who heard his voice were also full of question marks.

“What is it?!”

Ibuki was almost driven crazy———he finally remembered that he lived in a modern society, and frantically took out his phone and typed words into the search box in a panic, then suddenly held his phone up to Junko.

The phone displayed a search result from a web encyclopedia, and Junko stared blankly at the name of the entry: ‘Kokonoe Taka’—how coincidental, it has the same name as Kokonoe-kun… but what is Ibuki showing her this for? Before she could react, the constantly spinning photo was finally loaded——

So handsome!

This was her first reaction. No wonder she focused on the wrong point, the encyclopedist cleverly used a photo with a perfect angle, light, and timing to attract attention. The protagonist of the photo was standing in the air, the light pouring down like a pair of unfolded wings; the muscles flowed smoothly, the fingers were pale and slender, pressing the orange sunset into the horizon. The photographer didn’t know what angle he was at at the time, but he was lucky enough to capture the exposed half of his face and those eyes that looked down at the camera, cold, sharp, and crazy.

Junko, “So handsome.”

Ibuki, “Right, that’s what I said… No! That’s not it!”

He pointed at this face, trying to awaken his girlfriend who was starting to giggle. “Isn’t this Kokonoe!”

Junko, “Ah, Kokonoe-kun…” She paused, and then there was an deafening silence.

Junko screamed, “…Kokonoe-kun?! Everyone’s Kokonoe-kun?!”

“That’s right!” Ibuki was particularly indignant, nodding frantically. “That Teikō ace who won three consecutive championships! The small forward who has never lost and is unstoppable! Many schools in Tokyo didn’t find him on the list of new students last year, and it is said that it caused quite a stir—”

He didn’t realize that it had become a little quieter around him, and really felt heartache (for missing the opportunity to be carried by the boss), almost crying out in public, “Why did this Kokonoe go to play volleyball?!?”

Not to mention the uniform actions of the Aoba Johsai side, who began to lower their heads and take out their phones to check the encyclopedia information of their junior, classmate, and classmate.

The battle on the court continued.

The balls that Oikawa sent to Kokonoe Taka gradually became reckless—or rather, he was cooperating with the play style of the middle blocker who was beginning to play in a grand manner. When Kokonoe Taka wanted a quick set, he sent a quick set as if he had heard his heart; when Kokonoe Taka wanted to hit a power spike, he was also unsparing in indulging him.

The most important thing was that under this almost permissive behavior, he was still able to pull Kokonoe Taka to prevent him from breaking away from the Aoba Johsai team—

“We lost.”

In a certain classroom at Itachiyama Academy in Tokyo, Suemi Yamabuki let go of his hand and threw his phone on the desk. His classmate, Itazuna Osamu, turned his head and glanced at the live broadcast on his phone, a little surprised. “You still follow volleyball?”

“It’s just that there’s someone I care about who is playing volleyball now.” Yamabuki Suemi shrugged and sighed a little sadly. “Well… someone I care about very much. But now… well, there’s someone more suitable than me to be his teammate.”

Itazuna was silent. “…Your tone is like a girl who has lost her love.”

Yamabuki Suemi, “…Did you finish your homework?”

“Achoo!”

Oikawa Tōru sneezed loudly after scoring this point, walked off the court, and, regardless of everything, aimed his spearhead at Ushijima Wakatoshi, “Is it because Little Ushiwaka was tricked by me with the block that he’s secretly scolding me in his heart?”

Iwaizumi, “…Ushiwaka is not such a boring person. Did you stay up late yesterday?”

Oikawa, “Uh.”

Seeing that Iwaizumi was about to start nagging again, Oikawa Tōru quickly tried to laugh it off—

“Actually, I’m also a bit cold.” Kokonoe Taka saved him, frowning. “It feels like someone has been talking about me.”

Iwaizumi’s attention was immediately diverted by him. “Ah? Did you catch a cold? Or do you feel unwell?”

Arahata, “Iwaizumi is really like a mom at times like this.”

Iwaizumi heard his complaint, turned his head and glanced at Oikawa, his tone cool, “Oh, is that so? Then I have quite a few unfilial sons.”

The atmosphere relaxed between your words and my words.

To be honest, the score on the court at this time was not bad—16:14, Aoba Johsai was in the lead, the second technical timeout. But this difference of only two points was exchanged for the spikers who were already sweating profusely after playing only half the game.

Their cheeks were buried in towels, and the non-heat-conducting fabric was also stained with a scorching, heavy aura, but when they raised their heads again, they were smiling lightly at their teammates———they didn’t want to lose, no one wanted to lose. So they had to firmly grasp even the slightest advantage.

Among them, Arahata and Iwaizumi were the most prominent. These two people were almost running all over the court, shouldering part of the ground defense that Furue couldn’t take care of, and also carrying out several powerful attacks; the next was Oikawa, who had been setting all the time. Although his movements weren’t too many, the setter was originally a position that used more brains, and he was now resting without letting go of the slightest opportunity; Saijō had several touches, his stamina was the weakest, but fortunately Furue rotated in, and his condition was still good…

Compared to the others, Kokonoe’s condition was very good———Oikawa’s passes were just right, and he was playing comfortably and happily. What’s more, his stamina had always been the best, and at this time, it could only be said that he had completely stretched his muscles and completed his warm-up.

It wasn’t just him.

The second technical timeout ended quickly, and when he returned to the court, he sensed something and looked towards the other half of the court—

The black hole of the huge cannon muzzle was aimed at him, and the fuse had been completely lit. Kokonoe could imagine how deafening the roar that cannon would make. When he came back to his senses, Ushijima Wakatoshi’s half-lit and half-dark pupils were also staring at him.

His footsteps paused slightly, and their gazes crossed.

Kokonoe Taka walked towards his teammates.