JSWGAS Chapter 89

89.

Ushijima Wakatoshi stood at the service line.

The atmosphere on the court tensed up, regardless of allegiance.

He bounced the ball, quietly raising his eyes to observe Aoba Johsai’s formation. A middle blocker stood at the net, with Oikawa behind him, along with three other outside hitters and a libero.

Even now, he still believed that Oikawa Tōru should come to Shiratorizawa. Oikawa’s skills had improved once again. Although he hadn’t joined the team for long, he could accurately set the ball to each player’s strengths, controlling the condition of the hitters. But even so, Aoba Johsai was still behind Shiratorizawa in points. Why wouldn’t he come to the stronger side?

Ushijima Wakatoshi didn’t understand why Oikawa Tōru kept refusing his invitations. He couldn’t see through what was hidden beneath Oikawa Tōru’s smiling face, and he had no interest in it.

——Except for volleyball.

——Apart from volleyball, nothing else was important.

He took a running start and jumped, leaping high with a large final stride, his body stretching out in an exaggerated manner. At the moment of contact with the ball, he fully enveloped it, bending his wrist and pushing it forward.

“Boom!”

When Kogae saw the serve clearly, a slight fear involuntarily spread from the bottom of his heart: Can I receive it? Or can’t I? This is Ushijima’s serve after all.

The landing point of this ball was actually easy to judge, but the difficulty was the super-strong power after abandoning high precision, and the rotation brought about by using his left hand when hitting the ball. Kogae stepped to the right and raised his arms to receive the ball—the moment his arms were heavily crushed by the giant force, the ball uncontrollably bounced off and flew onto the net.

“Sorry!” Kogae shouted, gritting his teeth.

“Don’t mind! Next ball, switch serve!”

Oikawa Tōru’s comforting voice followed closely. Kogae deeply exhaled a breath of turbid air, as if trying to drive out all the fear that had just been born from his body. It’s a wonder you can still smile, Oikawa. I’m sorry for always saying you’re a frivolous guy… Now it seems you’re much better than me, a retreating senior.

Ushijima’s second serve had undiminished power. After preparing himself, Kogae tried his best to unload half of the gravity, but the receiving angle went wrong. The ball flew high over the net and into Shiratorizawa’s court.

“Sorry!”

“Chance ball!”

The shouts rang out one after the other.

Shiratorizawa’s back row passed the ball perfectly, the front row middle blocker jumped to cover, and Semi Eita quickly moved to the number two position, squatting slightly and jumping lightly. Ah, I know, I heard you, don’t shout so loudly, Ushijima. I know you are the best option at this time.

The curve of the ball was slightly high and fast, and when it steadily stopped in the air for a moment, Ushijima Wakatoshi, who was jumping from the back row, was almost a giant in front of it. He had no distracting thoughts, only the desire to spike and the certainty of scoring. With a wide field of vision, he could clearly see that Aoba Johsai’s libero hadn’t filled the position in time, and saw Iwaizumi chasing after him, trying to block…

——At the same time, he saw a wall composed of a pair of unfamiliar hands.

——It was the person who had provoked him before.

“Spike it down.”

“Block it.”

Completely opposite thoughts collided fiercely in the eyes of the two, biting each other, vowing to determine who was superior. The ripples that arose in Ushijima Wakatoshi’s heart because of the sudden shadow in front of him gradually stopped, replaced by the desire to break through this still-immature wall.

The extremely powerful spike grazed Kokonoe Taka’s right pinky finger, and the skin that came into contact with the ball felt a burst of heat as if ignited by fire. The pain extended along the nerves in the burning sensation, and still showed its presence fiercely when landing.

Arao and Kogae lunged forward at the same time, but failed to save the spike. Shiratorizawa scored. Their eyes met, and then quickly moved away.

…Is this all you’ve got? Your seriousness?

Ushijima Wakatoshi stood at the service line again.

To be honest, the pressure of not being able to switch serve was like watching yourself be swallowed by the waves, a sense of powerlessness as you quietly watched yourself drown. Kogae forced himself to let go of those random, strange thoughts at this moment. Receive this ball, just receive this ball—

“Kogae-senpai.” Before the referee blew the whistle, he suddenly heard a voice from the front row, “In the previous training, you could receive most of my serves and Tōru’s serves, and accurately set them back to the number two position.”

The voice paused for a moment: “With Kogae-senpai’s height, you could even try the position of middle blocker… But senpai is a libero now, right?”

A height of 1.81cm was already an excellent talent with very good conditions in the high school volleyball world. Oikawa Tōru and Hanamaki Takahiro had guessed Kogae Kazuya’s position on the first day of joining the team, but in the end, no one won the bet—Kogae Kazuya was a libero, and liberos were generally played by players with shorter heights.

A long whistle blew for the serve, and Kokonoe Taka in the front row stopped speaking and stared intently at Ushijima Wakatoshi’s movements.

His serve was still like the previous two, sacrificing a certain degree of accuracy for power that was like a cannonball. Kogae felt his breathing slowly become lighter, and his whole body was becoming lighter. He even suspected that the ‘lighter’ him would be shattered into pieces by the cannonball.

The volleyball hit his arm, sinking, falling, rubbing painfully, tearing. He was indeed going to be knocked over by Ushijima’s serve as he had expected. He indeed lost his balance in embarrassment, uncontrollably falling backward, his face covered in dirt, sprawled out on his back.

——But compared to his disheveled appearance, the volleyball flew gently towards the number two position.

A clean and beautiful arc.

——Why didn’t Kogae Kazuya play other positions, but became a libero, which has lower height requirements?

To be honest, Kogae Kazuya had almost forgotten why he started playing libero in the first place. It was a past event that had become blurred in his mind, with only the wooden floor, the back of his outstretched hand, and the volleyball smashing into the back of his hand remaining in his memory. He could smell the dust rising from the floor in his nose, and a faint, vague scent that he could smell every time he saved a ball after that.

Ah, why did I become a libero?

He knew what the answer was, he knew why he had refused the advice of his former coach to switch to outside hitter or middle blocker, and knew why he was still on this court at this moment.

——What I like the most, is only this ah.

“——Sorry, cover…!”

Kogae Kazuya got up from the ground, gritting his teeth. He had retreated just now, and was afraid. He was proud of his leading receiving level in the team, but he felt fear when he saw Ushijima’s serve: he was clearly the last line of defense in the team, the backing of all his teammates. But he was afraid of his own weakness in not being able to receive the ball, so he even wanted to refuse to try.

Although this ball unloaded the force, it was ultimately farther away from the number two position where Oikawa was. He needed to run and adjust, and the attacking methods he could try would become monotonous.

Although it was indeed surprising that the opponent’s libero changed from a rigid and sluggish receiving posture to being able to receive Ushijima’s serve now. But Shiratorizawa operated quickly like a precise machine. The three-person block in front of the net was about to be in place, and Semi Eita stared intently at Oikawa Tōru’s movements.

Oikawa, who are you going to set to? Who can you set to?

Under the public gaze, Oikawa Tōru instead took a step back and began to run forward.

What is he doing?!

Isn’t he a setter?!

Kogae’s voice finally reached the ears of Shiratorizawa’s team members a step late.

“——Kokonoe!”

The middle blocker standing in front of the net was indeed closer to the volleyball than Oikawa. A sideways step could receive it——But isn’t this guy a middle blocker?! He just jumped to try to block Ushijima, but failed——

His elbows were bent and naturally raised, his hands placed in front of his forehead. His thumbs pointed backward towards his eyes, his palms relaxed, waiting to envelop the ball with his hands at the moment of contact.

Although there were very obvious personal habits in it, it was indeed a standard setting posture.

“Cover!”

The sudden situation caught Shiratorizawa off guard, and the slow beat when organizing the defense was fatal in the game. The boy in front of them, who had seamlessly switched from a middle blocker to a setter, was extremely unfamiliar to them, which extended from what kind of attack he would choose——Iwaizumi on the wing and Arao in the mid-court crossed over to cover, plus Oikawa Tōru, who naturally integrated into the group of hitters. Who will he set to?

Quick attack? Semi-quick attack? Quick open? Or organize a strong attack? A secondary attack initiated by him was not impossible. Many attacking options appeared in front of him, but they were all just guesses——The movements had no inclination or flaws, as if any kind of attack was possible.

Tendō Satori recalled Kokonoe Taka, whom he had met before the start of the school year. Bold, calm, and self-centered—I guess it’s a secondary attack. He thought, at this time you will definitely grasp the attacking rights firmly in your own hands. Just like when you forcibly pulled Wakatoshi-kun, who was only looking forward.

Semi Eita quickly put himself in that position. Arao’s strong attack was not to be underestimated, Iwaizumi’s quick attack was also very threatening, and Oikawa was excellent as a setter. But he might not be able to coordinate the attack with this miraculous move, it was probably just a feint. In comparison, he thought the opponent would choose the easier-to-break Arao——

No. No no no no.

When Semi Eita jumped in mid-air, he happened to meet the gray pupils that were divided into several fragments by the net. Kokonoe did not have any particularly outstanding performance during the rotation, and he bore most of the pressure from Ushijima Wakatoshi—that kind of persistence was even strange, as long as Ushijima jumped, Kokonoe would definitely jump along.

Although the fact proved that it was difficult for Kokonoe to block Ushijima, Semi Eita chose those attacking routes with higher scores than Ushijima Wakatoshi, who had a block in front of him, and used this point to score several points.

In the fleeting height pull, he noticed that those gray eyes were not looking at him, but fell on a place farther away from him, as if he had insight into their thoughts in an instant.

——No, it’s not Arao, nor Iwaizumi, let alone a secondary attack.

Ten fingers touched the ball at the same time, and then the elbow joint straightened, the thumb pressed forward, and sent the ball to the most familiar place, without hesitation, so naturally. Kokonoe Taka remembered that he had hit Oikawa Tōru several times in this position in order to practice the ball, and finally had to bribe him with juice from the late-night convenience store.

The speed of the ball was extremely fast, and the arc was straight, and it was too late for Shiratorizawa’s block to make adjustments. In the end, they could only futilely watch the ball pass through their airspace and stop in front of Oikawa Tōru, who was jumping high, like a standing morning star. The latter stayed in the air, his eyes swept across faces with different expressions, and finally locked on Ushijima Wakatoshi in the backcourt.

And he greedily watched the small emotions that appeared on that hateful and hateful face. Didn’t expect it? Surprised? Don’t look like you’re having facial necrosis, be more honest with me, admit that we’re strong.

——You watch me closely.

His upper body turned slightly to the right, his right arm pulled backward and upward, pulling his body into a reverse bow, his arm swung violently, squeezing the unpleasant emotions together at the moment of hitting the ball, and bursting out together.

——The trajectory of the volleyball in the air was undoubtedly a fatal and sharp bullet, and it would not stop until it hit the target!