JSWGAS Chapter 112

“Intentionally?”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry! I just didn’t catch up…” Gujiang happened to witness the end of the oblivious conversation when he came from behind, and couldn’t help but feel choked, almost suspecting that these two guys in front of him were teammates from the same team. Fortunately, their conversation ended here, and Gujiang slowly walked over, “I thought you and Ushiwaka would be more at each other’s throats.”

Kokonoe Taka rubbed his fingertips: he should have retracted his hand just now, Ushiwaka would have spiked it out of bounds.

“There’s no shortage of people who dislike him, I don’t need to be one more,” he replied, “One is enough.”

Gujang followed the direction of his gaze and saw Ushijima being stopped by Oikawa Tōru across the net as he was about to walk out of bounds. During the brief conversation between the two, Oikawa Tōru’s face quickly turned pale.

Gujang: “…You’re right.”

“However,” he heard Kokonoe slowly moving his fingers again, “I really want to try… completely shutting down Ushiwaka or something.”

“Yeah, it sounds like fun.”

Gujang just felt that these two were terrible, even the skillful Saijo couldn’t do anything about that kind of cannon… But he quickly had no time to sigh, watching Ushijima Wakatoshi stand on the serving position, Gujiang couldn’t help but gulp.

“One serve for a point!”

“Serve a good ball! Ushijima!”

“Shiratorizawa—Shiratorizawa—”

Ushijima’s gaze shifted from Aoba Johsai’s front court to the back court. The four-person reception formation had the libero with the best receiving ability in the middle, with the largest defensive range.

Ushijima Wakatoshi wasn’t afraid of being targeted. In the junior high school team, he was the absolute core and ace, and many teams tried to use tactics to target him but only ended up with disastrous results… except for Oikawa’s team, which was able to achieve results even when the strength was not equal.

The scoreboard on the side of the court remained at 18:13, Shiratorizawa’s advantage zone. But Ushijima Wakatoshi didn’t see the frustration and heaviness that often appeared on his opponents’ faces.

–This is good.

He did the same action he had done thousands of times before, tossing the ball upwards, and then rushing out.

Ushijima Wakatoshi’s jump serve action was slower than others. Tossing the ball, running up, jumping, rotating—until the swing of the arm, the receiving player could clearly see the trajectory and landing point of the ball. But this obvious intention did not give Gujiang a sense of control and confidence to receive the ball, but a tension that made his hairs stand on end and his breath stop.

After all, he was facing a fully loaded cannon.

“Boom!”

Gujang took a step back to stabilize his center of gravity, raising his arm to receive the ball. Even with preparation, the weight of the cannonball forced him to kneel on the ground, using all his strength to resist the gravity of the ball.

“Sorry! Cover!”

The volleyball was bounced away, a half-decent first pass. Gujiang felt his stiff heart start beating again after shouting this sentence.

Being able to get one serve for a point is the best! Kokonoe and Oikawa exchanged a glance, and the latter immediately retreated, and started his run-up together with Iwaizumi on the left. When Kokonoe Taka arrived at the landing point of the ball, Oikawa and Iwaizumi had already completed their run-up, and the sound of their ground stomps perfectly overlapped, “Thump!”

“Kokonoe player and Oikawa player are interchanging positions—Oikawa player and Iwaizumi player jump at the same time!? Kokonoe will set the ball to—”

“Crap!” The setter stood in front of the net, gritting his teeth and staring at Kokonoe, “Are you cheating?! Isn’t this guy a middle blocker?!”

He didn’t feel it when he watched the video, but on the spot he realized that Kokonoe’s preparatory passing action was flawless. It was even more skilled than the setters of other schools they had encountered before.

He went to block Oikawa, Tendō was staring at Iwaizumi, and at the same time Kokonoe Taka finally touched the rough surface of the volleyball. The bandage hindered his sense of touch from exploring deeper, but it couldn’t resist the determination to dominate. And Oikawa Tōru, in the fleeting glimpse of the jump, immediately confirmed that he would not pass the ball to himself—if the person standing in that position at this time was him, he would make the same choice.

The abundant finger strength allowed Kokonoe Taka to control the volleyball more easily than when he was a child. The ring finger slightly adjusted the direction of the ball. He knew that if he set an ordinary ball, Iwaizumi could also hit it over. But even if Iwaizumi accepted everything, he would not be satisfied. He wanted to give A-Ichi the best ball after countless attempts like in the beginning… Then he remembered the countless balls that Oikawa had set for him, and remembered why his passes always suited his intentions.

–I have to do my best.

He realized this.

The ball flew out of his hand to a farther place, staying in front of Iwaizumi, who was once joked as being able to hit any bad ball.

Iwaizumi’s gaze paused imperceptibly. This ball was very suitable for him. It gave enough distance and took care of his dominant hand, reserving the direction of rotation: a ball that met his expectations.

He cracked a smile, and his wrist pressed down hard, wanting to avoid the block in the diagonal line and hit a clean straight shot!

But the red-haired middle blocker in front of him suddenly grabbed his hand towards the straight ball’s path! The volleyball smashed onto Tendō’s fingers!

Gujang was stunned, and instinctively dove to save the ball, but still couldn’t catch up with the volleyball that smashed into Aoba Johsai’s court.

“…Shiratorizawa’s Tendō Satori! A miraculous predicted block! It’s like a monster who knows everything!”

Tendō Satori listened to the commentator’s voice and the cheers from the Shiratorizawa stands, humming a peculiar tune. His narrowed pupils reflected a shrinking Iwaizumi, probing the emotions on his face especially clearly.

Many people think that Tendō is a weirdo, and the hitters of various high schools who have been blocked by him since the preliminaries can even form a few tables of mahjong—but he himself probably enjoys it very much.

“Hum-hum hum… It’s all the fault of Wakatoshi-kun getting excited, making me have to do something too.” He complained in an intimate tone, “But you’re surprisingly easy to block… The former ace of Kitagawa Daiichi?”

Iwaizumi squeezed out a, “…Huh?” from his throat.

Tendō patted his butt and left after the provocation, leaving Iwaizumi glaring at his back with a black face.

“Don’t mind him.” Kokonoe Taka stretched out his fist and exchanged a look with Oikawa, the latter turned his head and said something to Arase and Gujiang, “That kind of block is completely irregular, and the hit rate is not 100%, don’t be led astray by him.”

Iwaizumi let out a breath, and bumped fists with him, “Yeah, I know.”

…It’s just a pity about that ball.

He clicked his tongue irritably, but the surging unwillingness was gradually soothed by a soft promise.

“I’ll leave the subsequent power attacks to you, A-Ichi.”

“…Okay.”

Ushijima’s second serve.

Gujang’s arm had been repeatedly hit and smashed until it was painfully numb, and he couldn’t help but gasp when he adjusted slightly, presumably his skin was already covered in bruises. But at this time, he still tried his best to leap to the right, a half-decent first pass.

Oikawa had to run a distance to cover: Shiratorizawa’s advantage rotation. Tendō, Sonomura, and Ōhira are in front of the net, they must be rotated as soon as possible… A-Taka’s back-up set is a surprise attack, and the timing must be appropriate… Although Tendō’s block is very cheating, his personal characteristics are too obvious, and he can’t block a back-row power attack.

Kokonoe used the net distance to pull open, and Sonomura subconsciously moved over there; Miyano and Iwaizumi ran alternately to disperse the block, and the ball was finally set by Oikawa to Iwaizumi’s position—

Did he want the ace who failed to score just now to take back this point himself? No, no, intuition told Tendō that it would never be that simple…

As expected, Iwaizumi swung at the air, and a big Arase suddenly jumped out from behind him! He jumped with the cover of multiple attacks, and only Tendō followed him!

Oikawa’s pass was in place, and the time gained by the cover also made this attack unprecedentedly heavy.

“Multiple staggered covers, and finally the captain Arase’s back-row attack breaks through the block!”

“Niceball!”

Tendō watched the Aoba Johsai members celebrating with their teammates, his gaze lingered on Iwaizumi’s profile for a moment, “It’s really unexpected, you haven’t wavered at all… Sorry, Wakatoshi-kun, I couldn’t defend the advantage of your serving rotation.”

Ushijima Wakatoshi slowly blinked his eyes, and a drop of sweat fell along his forehead to his jaw, “It doesn’t matter.”

Sonomura also walked over, and asked with concern, “Is your hand injured?” He knew very well the strength of that gorilla Arase, and looked at Tendō’s arm with even more pity.

“It’s completely fine.” Tendō Satori moved his wrist, the joints clicked, “Rather—I feel like it’s coming.”

19:15, Arase served a powerful jump serve, the setter set the ball to Ōhira, but Kokonoe got a touch in front of the net. Gujiang covered in time, Oikawa set the ball to the three position, and Iwaizumi hit a time attack.

19:16, aiming at Ushijima, disrupting the first pass, the setter’s unexpected second attack was received by Oikawa, Kokonoe passed the ball, and Arase scored with a left-side quick attack.

20:16, Ushijima scored with an overhand spike.

21:16, Tendō scored with a solo block.

21:17, a back-and-forth battle, and finally Tendō’s A-style quick attack was blocked by Iwaizumi.

21:18, Miyano scored with a dump shot.

“The point difference is narrowed to three points…” the small reporter on the sidelines said softly, gripping the camera tightly, “Shiratorizawa is four points away from winning this set.”

Reporter Inoue’s photo-taking sound had not stopped just now. Just as he was about to say something, he heard a familiar voice from behind.

“Inoue? What are you doing here?”

Inoue saw the person coming clearly, surprised, “Nishikiori-sensei? I’m filling in for a colleague… What about you, why are you here?”

The two tennis men looked at each other in the volleyball hall, and for a moment they each felt a little inexplicably guilty. Nishikiori Koshi, in casual clothes, helplessly took off his sunglasses and pointed towards the court, “I’m here to care about the honorary member of our association… That kid promised me that if he doesn’t win the game, he will help me with a small favor.”

Inoue thought to himself that your smile is a bit scary, “Is it Kokonoe, number 12?”

“Oh, you know him?”

“Uh,” Inoue hesitated, “My previous job was related to a tennis player with the same surname ‘Kokonoe’, so I learned a little bit… I heard that a few years ago there was a very talented child who had been living in Miyagi Prefecture, but then disappeared, so I guessed that.”

Nishikiori immediately understood, he sighed slightly, “That person ah… Your guess is correct. That child is indeed Kokonoe Hikohito’s child. But for this child, it would be better if that father disappeared.”

“…”

“Why, do you think I’m being unkind?”

“No, there must be a reason for you to say that.” Inoue said, “In fact, my previous job was connected to the United States Tennis Association. I know the surname ‘Kokonoe’ because of a scandal there that had a big impact, but was later suppressed—”

Nishikiori’s gaze became serious, “Can you tell me more about it?”