The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

"Let me go, Koji! I will beat his ass, don't stop me!"

"Calm down, Jimmy! You embarrass yourself more here!"

Yuki and the other Tsunemori players stiffened their laughter when they saw Koji try his best to hold Ogawa back from rushing to the other side of the net to confront Akihiro. It wasn't like Ogawa was angry, per se. He was just embarrassed at Akihiro's mocking words, especially when he noticed it spread quickly to all the people in the building.

Hearing someone say 'home run' while snickering at him made the boy's face flushed red in embarrassment.

"Come on, if you want to beat his ass, do it with your skill, not your fist," Koji said helplessly.

"It is easy for you to say that since you are not the one who was humiliated here." Ogawa scoffed. "Do it with the skill and not with the fist? Do you think I have it in me to defeat that bastard in a pure volleyball game?" It was a pure question with no sarcastic remark. However, Koji couldn't help but blush, knowing the answer to the question already.

"Well… Maybe, you can ask for Yuki or Riku's help?" Koji offered a suggestion, yet his tone was uncertain.

Riku snorted, eliciting laughter from the other players. "Please, don't involve me or Yuki in your shenanigan." The blonde boy said.

"Yeah, Jimmy! Don't drag them into your embarrassing plot!" The others followed.

"Hey, it is Koji who wants to drag them here, why don't you all blame them?! How shameless!" Ogawa cursed.

Seeing the warm interaction inside the team, Yuki shook his head helplessly, yet a small smirk still formed on the corner of his lips. This scenario was far better than them falling into another one of depression pit just like before. While it was a pity that his turn to serve was finally over, at least with this kind of spirit, they would be able to keep the momentum for a while.

"Okay, let's focus back to the game." Yuki clapped, gaining his teammates' attention. "Since we are still on the lead, we should hold the score as long as possible to keep the momentum in our side. To do that, you all know what you should do, right?"

All the eyes turned solemn as they knew what Yuki wanted to say. "Yeah, we are going back to the basics now." Riku nodded. "Defend with all of our might and never let them score an easy point!"

"Yeah!"

-0-

After everyone regained their composure, the referee finally started the game back. This time, it was Lucas who served the ball. Yuki and Kaede prepared themselves in the back, ready to receive a powerful serve from the Brazilian boy. However, they didn't expect that Lucas didn't go for an ordinary jump serve here.

He gave a spin on the ball to make it drop down toward the ground quickly once it cleared the net.

"HOLY SHI – "

*BAM!*

"Sorry! Bad receive from me!" Yuki cursed when he saw the ball he received and went back to Konan's side.

"Don't worry, just recover quickly!" Riku shouted, taking over the command. "Jimmy, keep your eyes on their captain! Don't let him hit the first ball directly!"

Even though Matsumoto saw Ogawa come in his direction, he was unfazed by it. He was the captain of Konan High, there was no way he would run away from a weak player like Ogawa. His pride would never allow him to do that. However, as Matsumoto was about to jump and hit the ball directly, he suddenly heard a shout from behind.

"Captain, step aside!"

Matsumoto widened his eyes when his brain registered who just shouted at him. Even without turning his head, he knew the source of the shout came from Sawada. However, for all he could remember, the boy was always calm and polite and would never raise his voice to his senpai.

This was the first time he saw – or heard the setter was so excited like this, and he couldn't help but want to see what his kouhai wanted to do.

'Well, Nobu, if you want, hit it by yourself!'

Instead of jumping as he was about to do before, Matsumoto stopped and then turned sharply in the other direction to confuse Ogawa. Then, from his back, a small figure suddenly appeared, flying in the air already and was about to hit the ball.

"Damn! Don't think you can fool me!"

Ogawa took off from the ground immediately, both his hands extended far in the air. However, instead of spiking the ball, Sawada changed his stance flawlessly in the air, turning it into an overhead pass far to the wing side.

"Nice pass, Nobu!"

"Damn! He is there! Koji, stop – !"

*BAM!*

"OH! Nice kill, Captain!"

Yeah, the one who received Sawada's pass was Matsumoto. At first, the captain just wanted to go far from his original spot to distract the opponent's blockers and give Sawada enough room to do what the boy wanted to do. However, Matsumoto didn't expect to see the ball fly above him, and relying on his instinct, he executed the ball perfectly to add one more point for Konan High.

"Damn, Nobu! You really need to get out of your shell more often! That is awesome!" Matsumoto praised genuinely.

"Ah… It is nothing, Senpai." Sawada rubbed his neck sheepishly.

"No, it is not nothing, Nobu." Arizawa also chimed in. "Even though your usual stable style is not wrong, sometimes, you need to get out of your comfort zone to improve yourself."

"I got it…"

Even though Sawada nodded his head in the end, the others knew the boy did it politely, and their words didn't quite reach his head. Still, they didn't press their kouhai, knowing how difficult it was to change a person's style all of a sudden. Still, they were happy that Sawada was brave enough to take the first step, and it would be smoother for them to guide their kouhai in the future.

"Okay, since Nobu is on fire, I will follow it up!" Akihiro suddenly got himself fired up. Then, he turned his head immediately to the Tsunemori players on the other side of the net before throwing the most unexpected challenge of the day. "Hey, Tsunemori! Brace yourself! The next sequence will end with a clean block from me, so don't be too surprised later!"

Hearing that bold declaration, almost all the Konan players slapped their forehead, sometimes forgetting that their other kouhai was the exact opposite of Sawada, brash and idiot. As for the Tsunemori players, they stared blankly at Konan's middle blocker as the challenge that was just thrown at them hadn't quite sunk into their heads yet.

After a while, they all finally let out an appropriate response to the bold challenge from Akihiro.

"Eh?"