The Birth of A Volleyball Legend-Chapter 437: Dominating the Game! Winning the Second Set!
A pin-drop silence fell in the building as everyone stared at Yuki in awe. They didn't know what kind of witchcraft he pulled, but they all knew that it was impossible for Kaito to make such a lowly mistake. They were convinced that Yuki bewitched the boy before they both jumped just like how the glasses boy always bewitched his opponent during his serving time.
However, no one complained about it. If anything, cheers exploded as everyone was ecstatic to see that Tsunemori finally stopped the bleeding that they received from Kaito.
"Oh! Finally! I have been waiting for this!"
"I don't know what you did, but good job, Yuki!"
"Come on! Can you see his face?! He doesn't even know what just hit him!"
"You are right! Hahaha!"
While everyone was celebrating the point, Yuki sent a silent thumbs-up to Riku who orchestrated everything. Yeah, even though the executor was him, the one who controlled everything was still Riku. With Kaito's amazing jump, they both knew that to stop a shorter attack, the boy needed to lean his hands a bit more than usual. That was what they aimed in the last play to fool the boy into making a mistake like that.
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Of course, it wasn't as easy as the theory. In the real play, the ball had to be close enough to the net and yet short enough to give Kaito the illusion that the pass was far from perfect so that the boy would be eager to block the next attack. If this didn't happen, there was a possibility for Kaito to stay calm and not rush forward for a block.
This was where Riku's role was crucial. He timed perfectly where to send the ball so that it fell in the spot right behind the net, in which Yuki just had to push the ball gently to end the play. No matter what happened in between, the final result wouldn't change at all, a net touch foul by the opponent.
If it was a basketball sport, this could be described as a foul-baiting play.
Now, even though it was just one play, everyone knew that it wasn't Kaito who accidentally made a mistake, but Yuki and Riku who orchestrated everything. This psychological burden was big enough to give Tsunemori the momentum of the set. It didn't help that Tsunemori also had a rotation, and now, Hirano was back on the court while Yuki was on the service line. This was probably their best lineup to follow through the momentum they created earlier.
"Come on, Yuki! You can do this!"
"This is our chance! Four points away!"
"Don't let it slip away so easily!'
Yuki glanced over the scoreboard and noticed that they were currently four points away from winning this set and tied the game. '21 – 15, huh? Not a close score but not that safe too for us to relax. I need to end this up as quickly as possible.'
With that in mind, Yuki went all out from the beginning. First, he threw the same exact floater to Akito, Kikugawa's pinch server who just threw the same earlier, knowing full well that a pinch server was usually the weakest in a normal play. True to his thought, the pinch server failed to receive the ball perfectly as it bruised his forearms before going out of the court.
Thud!
"YEAH!" Yuki clenched his fist, celebrating for the play. Then, he turned his head at Kikugawa High's side and said, "That is how you do a floater!" This was a provocation that Yuki threw to return the favor after Kaito did the same earlier. If he didn't do it, not just him and his teammates, but his supporters would be dissatisfied.
Meanwhile, all of the Kikugawa players could only fall into depression, yet couldn't do anything about it. They also had already used their timeout this set, so they couldn't cut off the opponent's momentum by doing that again. Now, they just hoped that they would be lucky enough by somehow stopping Yuki's serve accidentally or the glasses boy would make a mistake later.
Right after that, Yuki went for a sniper serve straight to the baseline. This was a risky serve that was testing the linesman's observation to see whether it would go in or not. Tachibana who received the end of it also hesitated for a second, wondering whether he should pick it up or not. In the end, he decided to not risk it to luck and picked up the ball.
"Shit! Sorry!" Tachibana shouted. His hesitation cost him the best timing to receive the ball, and in the end, he couldn't give the best pass for Ayane to launch a quick counterattack.
"Don't worry, Senpai! I got this!" Knowing that giving the ball to Kaito was always effective, Ayane didn't hesitate to send it to his kouhai once again. However, the ball was too close to the net, so the boy could only push it gently so that he wouldn't touch the net again.
"Oh! A chance ball!"
"Riku!"
Seeing Yuki rushing from the back, Riku also calculated his timing so that he could give a perfect pass. Kaito stared at those two warily, worrying about the possibility of another trick. However, this psychological burden that Yuki put in the earlier play became his downfall as the boy didn't expect that Yuki and Riku would just pull an ordinary quick attack from the back.
BAM!
"Hell, yeah!" Yuki and Riku high-fived each other, celebrating the point they just earned. "Two more! Come on, we can do this! Two more!"
After three successful plays in a row, Yuki's confidence was at its peak. Right when the referee blew the whistle to restart the game, he launched a powerful jump serve that surprisingly enough went untouchable before it slammed the floor violently.
BAM!
"YOSSHAAAA!" Yuki punched his chest violently, not expecting this result at all. While he had already mastered a jump serve, this was the first time he had an untouchable ace service. Moreover, he did that in a crucial situation to get the game point. That was why he was far more excited than usual.
"Come on! One more time!"
"Give us one more serve!"
BAM!
Getting carried by the momentum, Yuki threw another jump serve. Unfortunately, this time, Suzuki managed to save it perfectly, giving their team a chance to counterattack for the first time in the last few minutes.
"Yes! Finally!"
"Come on, Ayane-senpai! Give it to me!" Kaito raised one hand, asking for the ball.
All the Tsunemori players tensed, knowing that this was a decisive play. If they could stop this attack, not only it would end this set, but this would also give a huge blow to Kikugawa High, which would give them an advantage at the beginning of the final set. However, if they couldn't do that, even though the chance to win this set was still in their hand, they would also crack a hole for Kikugawa High to fight back, and with how dangerous Kaito was, they didn't want to think about that even for a second.
Kaito himself grinned. He saw the ball flying straight in front of him, yet it was high enough that he believed that he was the only one who could reach it. True enough, when all the front players jumped, his hand reached the higher spot, and he only needed to slam it down to score the point and also break Tsunemori's momentum.
Or…. So that was what he thought.
Unfortunately, right before he swung his arm, another pair of hands suddenly appeared in front of him. Unlike the others, though, it was high enough that Kaito could see his spike would be blocked if he didn't do anything. Unfortunately – once again – he really couldn't do anything about it. He was one second too late to adjust his stance, so as a result, nothing changed, and the ball he hit bounced back to his own area.
BAM!
For a moment, another silence fell as everyone stared at the ball in disbelief. Hirano who was the main preparator of this play had his face flushed, forgetting how to react to this situation. It was a second later that everything finally sunk in, and when the middle blocker realized that he killed the set, he punched the air violently, roaring to vent out all of his emotion in one go.
"COME OOOOOON!"
