The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

'Listen, everyone.' Arisawa Junya spoke during the intelligence gathering with his team. 'If you see either the number 3 or the number 5 of Tsunemori High on the right side!" He pointed his finger at Asahi and Koji on the screen. "Try your best to aim your attack to their right side."

All the other Kikugawa players stared at their head coach questioningly. "Is there any reason for it, Sensei?" Suzuki asked.

"Yes!" Unexpectedly, Arisawa Junya nodded. "You might not believe it, and I don't have any intention to show the evidence to you guys That would take a long time to show. In this case, just trust me, I have been dedicating myself to figuring this out for the last few days, and I find out that those two players have a hard time aiming the ball when it goes in that direction. Even though in the end, they could still save it, the ball would fly far to the left side to a place where a lot of players found it hard to recover."

All of his players widened their eyes as they realized how valuable this information was. However, Arisawa Junya didn't stop just like that.

"Not only that!" He continued, his breath was heavy with full of excitement. "Whenever the ball is going to the left side, there is a 60 percent chance that Kobayashi would pick it up. The left side is his territory, after all. And if you see Kobayashi acting as their emergency setter, you can be sure that there is about a 70 percent chance that he would go for a blitz attack for Agostini and a 30 percent chance for him to go for a direct spike from his spot. Trust me, they will do exactly as I said right now!"

'Damn, Junya-sensei is right! The ball really comes to their left side!' Suzuki was in awe when he remembered what their coach said during the intelligence meeting. 'Now that it is Kobayashi who picks up the ball…' He exchanged glances with Ao, the team's middle blocker for a second before they both reacted simultaneously. 'Then, they would go for a blitz attack… Here!'

BAM!

Seeing the block was successful and the ball bounced back to the spot behind Riku, Suzuki's face flushed red in excitement before he roared wildly, "HELL, YEAH!" Then, he turned to Ao next to him before high-fiving the middle blocker excitedly. "Good job, Ao! That is such a good block!"

"Yeah, Captain! Nice support too!" Ao also shared the grin on his face.

They were followed by the other Kikugawa players who came and gave a high-five, showing the team's unity.

Meanwhile, on Tsunemori's side, although Riku felt sorry for his failure, the team still wasn't worried that much about this. After all, the first time would always be considered a coincidence, so they just brushed it off as if it was nothing. They didn't know that Arisawa Junya had already eyed them with a small smirk as if he had seen all of their moves from afar.

'Just wait, Akira-sensei. Next, you will see the horror of my team.'

-0-

The next ball was still in Kaito's hand, and the boy tried to do the same by targeting Koji on the right side. Fortunately, Koji saw the ball go too wide and just let it slide, and when he saw it fall outside of the court, he clenched his fist tightly.

"YOSSHAA!"

"Oh! Good observation, Koji!"

"Yeah! That is how you do it! Don't think too much about the failure before!"

"Come on, Koji! Show your dignity as the ace!"

The excitement on the stand grew more when they all saw Riku take the ball and walk to the service line. While he wasn't as good as Yuki, the blonde boy was the second-best server in the team, and when he was in his best condition, he could threaten even Konan High as the best team in the country.

Riku himself took a deep breath, trying to get his body as relaxed as possible. Even though this situation wasn't as crucial as when Yuki took the first ball, he knew that in time when both teams needed to stabilize the game like this, a service ace would make a huge difference for both teams, and that was what he was trying to do.

'Okay, no need to overthink this. Let's just go for the initial plan and target him.' Riku murmured, putting his eyes on Kaito on the right back.

Just right after the referee blew the whistle, he sent the most powerful serve he could pull, aiming straight in Kaito's direction. Of course, just like before, the boy stepped aside, letting Yusuke next to him to cover the ball. However, even though Yusuke managed to receive the ball better than when he did against Yuki, the power Riku sent was enough to blast the boy away, making the ball bounce back to Tsunemori's side once again.

BAM!

"Oh! Nice serve, Riku!"

"A Counterattack! Come on!"

Riku who saw the ball bounced back to the middle side of Tsunemori's court shouted, "GIVE ME THE WAY!" Without hesitation, Asahi and Yuki who was the closest to the ball stepped aside, letting Riku handle the ball even though he just recovered from doing the serve.

"SHIT! He is going to spike directly!" Suzuki shouted. "Ao!"

"I got it!"

Unfortunately for Kikugawa's blockers, instead of spiking the ball, when Riku saw them both reacting in time, he changed his stance in the air, and instead of spiking, he went to toss the ball to the left side where Yuki was standing.

"Oh! What a fake!"

"Come on, Yuki!"

Not wanting to lose momentum, Yuki passed the ball to the other wing as quickly as possible. With no blocker in front of him, Koji grinned, knowing full well that this was his chance to shine. He didn't even bother at the sight of Ao and Suzuki trying to recover from their original position, knowing full well that those two would be late to stop him.

What he didn't expect, though, was the presence of the third blocker who suddenly appeared in front of him. Hell, Koji didn't even know what happened, and the next thing he knew, a pair of imposing hands suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking his way to attack. As a result…

BAM!

The ball bounced back to Tsunemori's spot, adding another point for Kikugawa's side while also changing the privilege to serve once again in this game.

Tsunemori High 6 – 3 Kikugawa High