The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

The third set had run for about fifteen minutes, and the momentum was completely on Giant Bear's side right now, all courtesy of Haruo's amazing performance. The successful block he pulled against Uehara before was enough to boost his confidence, and with the new players who were eager to grab the spot in the main team, they played collectively and managed to frustrate the Thunder to death.

"LEFT! Someone, go to the left!"

"I got this!"

BAM!

"HELL YEAH!" Haruo roared as he once again stopped Uehara's attack with a clean block.

Uehara was at a loss as he stared at the ball fell behind him confusedly. This was the fourth time in this set that his spike met the wall in the form of Haruo's hand, and honestly, he didn't know what changed. In the last two sets, he managed to ignore the block as if it was just a wet paper, not it suddenly turned into a great wall of China, and he had no idea how to proceed after this.

Fortunately, the coach was Kawaki and not Uehara. Since the beginning of this set, the old man hadn't stopped observing the game, and after narrowing his head intently to watch how the last play was revealed, he finally made a decision. "Tachibana-kun, Kobayashi-kun, get ready. You both will play in a moment."

"Eh? / Me?!" The two players whose name was mentioned were taken aback by the sudden instruction.

"Yes, you. Or do you think you are not ready to play?" Kawaki asked with a flat tone which ironically was more intimidating than him being angry.

"N-No, Sensei! I am ready!" The boy – Tachibana – nodded frantically as he put off his jacket.

Yuki didn't need to be told twice as he got ready the moment he realized his name was called. This time, he was far more excited than usual because the situation itself didn't require him to come as a pinch server. That meant Kawaki valued his ability to be a part of the game changer together with Tachibana.

"Okay, listen carefully because I will not repeat it." Kawaki started his pep-talk. "Currently, our offense is stuck with either Shou or Uehara as our endpoint, and that makes us predictable. Tachibana, I want you to replace Kojima and play aggressively, and Kobayashi, keep your eyes on their middle blocker. Out of the six points they received this set, four of them are from him. Also, if you have a chance, you can join the attack too. So, you know what to do, right?"
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Both Yuki and Tachibana nodded simultaneously, telling the coach that they understood his instruction.

"Well, if you are ready, go! Also, don't forget to knock some senses on your teammates!"

-0-

"Hey, that pinch server boy is back!"

"Really? Right now?!"

"Yeah! It seems he is not just a one-trick pony."

While most of the audience on the stand were confused when they saw Yuki enter the court, the residents of the orphanage didn't think about it too much and just squealed happily when they saw their big brother was back. "Yuki-nii is playing again! He is playing again!" Hina bounced on her seat excitedly, trying to get a better look at the court.

"Yes, Hina-chan, he is playing again. But you have to be calmer, or else you will annoy the people next to you." Kato explained while apologizing quietly to the person sitting next to the little girl. "Also, Jiro-kun, please keep your eyes on your little sister. Mai-chan, don't go too far from your seat. It would be troublesome if we lost sight of you."

Some people looked at her strangely, not knowing what circumstance forced a girl who still looked like a teenager to take care of four hyperactive children just to watch their so-called big brother play. Kato didn't care, though. She just turned her eyes to the two older girls who promised to help her and glared at them, silently cursing them both for their teasing gaze.

Far from the stand, Yuki who was unaware of their interaction took a deep breath, preparing himself for the next play. Surprisingly enough, even though he had already played in the first two sets, this was somehow a more nerve-wracking experience compared to before. After all, he wouldn't be on the service line here so everyone would focus more on his performance now.

'Come on, send it here…'

BAM!

Just like before, the serve coming was – while not the most powerful one – still decent enough to force all the Thunder's players to react. It went straight to Tachibana's direction, which the boy himself just avoided directly as Yuki came to cover him.

"Nice receive, Yuki!"

With four players moving together to attack their side, Haruo had to treat this carefully. If before, he could stop the attack with his block three or four times in a row, that was due to the player limitation that Riku had, with only Shou and Uehara available on the front line. Haruo just needed to put his focus on those two and Riku's surprise dump attack and everything would be easy. However, this time, he couldn't do that.

'Okay, where would the ball go… His eyes are on the ace again, but I doubt that he would use the same attack over and over again. The new player is also too obvious, he would never do that. So, that leaves…'

BAM!

Before Haruo could even jump, the ball was already flying through the net. Haruo blinked for a moment, not knowing what just happened. When the sound of the ball hitting the floor finally sunk inside his head, he blinked once again confusedly.

"… Eh?"

It seemed he wasn't the only one who didn't know what happened. Almost all the people on the court – hell, even those who were on the stand – wore the same confused face, not knowing what was going on there. But when Haruo turned around and caught Yuki landing on the floor with a huge smirk on his face, the taller blonde boy widened his eyes in realization.

'Shit! He makes his presence disappear after he receives the serve before, just so that he can sneak from behind and jump when we all are unaware. And of course, that bastard blondie would be able to pull something like this. They have been teammates for a long time, for God's sake! Well played, you two. Well played, indeed.'

As for Yuki himself, he let out a small smirk as the tension on his shoulder was finally gone. When he saw Haruo's awe expression, he couldn't help but smirk and think, 'Just because I am a defensive player, don't think that you can forget about me so easily, okay?'