The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

\'What do you mean by me joining the offense?!\' Kaede shrieked, his voice rose a little.

\'Pst! Lower your tone!\' Riku hissed immediately. But just as I said, I need you to join the offense after this. You don\'t have to do it all the time, but at least you need to score one point before Yuki returns to the court.\'

Unlike Kaede who started to fall into a panic state, everyone who heard his explanation looked at the blonde boy skeptically. \'No offense, Riku. But why Kai? He hasn\'t been involved in any offense since the beginning of the game. Would it be too risky?\' Koji voiced the question everyone had in their head.

\'That is why Kai has to do it!\' Riku said once again to convince the other. \'Our option for offense is limited right now. Until the next two rotations, Oka-senpai would be on the court and couldn\'t contribute anything to our offense. If I could only depend on Koji and Jimmy, it would be hard, since the opponent had already adapted to their style.

That is why we need a surprise element, and that is why I ask you and Rano-senpai to join.\'

\'Fuck him and his absurd idea!\' Kaede cursed when he recalled the conversation before. After thinking for a while, he cursed once again to another person. \'Fuck Akira-sensei and his absurd idea too!\'

Yeah, Kaede was still overwhelmed. Before this game, he was at best the defensive specialist of the team, just replacing Yoshi after the third-year student made a big commotion. However, before the game ended, a pair of uncles and nephews suddenly roped him into their absurd idea, and before he knew it, he had become the commander of the backline and also the secret weapon to surprise the opponent.

Everything went so fast that he couldn\'t even comprehend it.

\'Don\'t worry, Senpai. You don\'t need to join the offense all the time.\' Riku\'s words popped into his mind once again. \'If you do that, the surprise attack would not work. No, we need to wait for the right timing to make it successful. Just wait for my signal. Before that, let\'s defend the next ball and not let them score again, okay?\'

\'Asking me to join the offense without letting me out of my responsibility? What a jerk.\' Kaede snorted. He took a deep breath once again, trying to clear his mind. \'Let\'s not overcomplicate things and focus on what is in front of me first. Okay, take a deep breath… Let it out…\'

While Kaede was trying to relax his mind, the referee finally blew the whistle, resuming the game. The serve was still the same, not strong enough to score directly against Tsunemori. Koji covered Riku\'s spot and picked the ball up, giving the setter the chance to get the second ball.

"RIKU!"

"Okay!"

Riku turned his head around to see the situation on the court. When his eyes met Kaede\'s, he shook his head gently. \'No, it is not this time. Let\'s wait until their position is scattered before we start the surprise attack, okay?\' Seeing his gesture, Kaede took a step back, knowing that his participation wasn\'t needed this time.

When the ball was finally about to fall to his hand, Riku finally took action. He tossed it high, sending it to the left side. Koji who was there didn\'t hesitate to jump, leaping high into the air before smashing it as hard as he could.

*BAM!*

"ONE TOUCH!"

"Oh! Nice block, Haruo!"

Unfortunately, Koji\'s spike was still easy to get anticipated by Haruo. However, it was still within Riku\'s expectations.

\'Listen, Senpai. You have two tasks out there.\' Riku talked to Koji earlier. \'First, you need to make sure you don\'t give them an easy ball, and second, make sure you leave a strong impression on the opponent. Can you do that?\'

Even though Koji wasn\'t successful in giving the opponent a difficult time, at least he gave the impression that his performance was still stable, not deteriorating due to exhaustion.

Seeing the ball was received easily and another attack was coming, all the Tsunemori players stepped back, getting ready. Looking at them, Nitta growled in annoyance before asking for the ball again.

"YAMADA! HERE!"

The setter gulped nervously when he received the glare from Nitta. Even though normally, Nitta was easy to get along with, when frustrated, he would always scare the shit out of his teammates. Not many players could stand still when Nitta was in this state, so rather than having to deal with him, it would be better to pass the ball to Nitta to avoid trouble.

Unfortunately for Kyoei, Nitta was in a rampage state right now. All he had in mind was how to break the stubborn defense Tsunemori set, and since he wasn\'t a smart player on the first hand, instead of thinking about tricks, the hitter believed in power more than anything else.

He tried to gather the power inside him, not caring about the wall formed in front of him as he smashed the ball, trying to tear down everything in front of him.

Or so that was what he expected.

"RANO! MOVE!"

"Get ready! One! Two! Jump!"

*BAM!*

"Oh! A kill block! Nice, Hirano!"

"No! It is not over!"

"Damn! A pancake?! Are you kidding me?!"

Just in a few seconds, two consecutive amazing plays happened on the court. First, it was Hirano who finally blocked Nitta\'s spike straight to the floor and Aki who out of nowhere suddenly appeared on the front line, saving the ball a second before it could touch the floor and keeping it alive.

"Holy shit! This is insane!"

"It is not over yet!"

"Everyone! Recover!"

The ball flew wildly to the frontline, touching the net before bouncing back softly to Kyoei\'s side. Haruo who was there reacted quickly to save the ball. Unfortunately, while he could save it, he couldn\'t send a good pass toward his teammates. In the end, Yamada had to send the ball over the net, giving up the chance to attack the opponent.

"Chance ball!"

In the middle of the chaos, Riku took a glance to the other side of the net, and when he was sure they couldn\'t recover quickly enough, he suddenly shouted, "KAI, NOW!"

Everyone was taken aback by his sudden shout. However, there was only one player who understood immediately what was going on, and that was Kaede, the one who would steal the limelight from everyone else.

Even though he wasn\'t the fastest player among the others, Kaede\'s tiny body allowed him to move under everyone\'s radar, and before anyone could realize it, he was already in the air, knocking the ball instantly.

*BAM!*

Silence descended on the building as everyone was too stunned to react. Everything went so quickly that they couldn\'t comprehend what just happened. Amidst the deafening silence around them, it was Kaede, with his chest rose up-and-down heavily, who reacted first.

"YOSSHAAAAA!"

Then, he was followed by all the Tsunemori players who ran straight to him full of excitement.

"Nice kill, Kai!"

"Goddamnit, that is awesome!"

"Come on!"

There were a lot of reasons why they were so excited. First, they managed to cut off the two points lost they suffered before. Then, the surprise attack they set carefully was successful, and Kaede who had never joined the offense suddenly gained the confidence to spike the ball. All of those were good enough reasons to be excited.

But their excitement didn\'t stop just like that. As if God was smiling at them, when their head turned to the bench, they all had a similar grin as the one they had been waiting for was finally ready. Yeah, there, they could see the glasses boy standing behind the sideline, ready to play. Looking at their friend, they all thought the same.

\'Finally!\'