Tsutomu Goshiki swung his arm and hammered the volleyball down with every ounce of strength he had. There was definitely a bit of personal feeling behind this one.
Doichiro jumped and spread his arms for the block. Tsutomu Goshiki deliberately aimed his spike straight at Doichiro's arm.
"Bang!"
Doichiro felt like his arm was about to snap. Worse, Tsutomu Goshiki had struck the inside of his arm, and getting hit there by a volleyball hurt like hell.
Doichiro's expression changed, and he nearly pulled his arm back on instinct.
It hurt. It seriously hurt.
What the hell had this kid been eating growing up? Where did all that strength come from?
That was what Doichiro was thinking, but his arm didn't shift even an inch. Maybe he'd give out in another second, but as long as he could hold on now, he would. Pulling away would be far too embarrassing.
The volleyball remained caught against Doichiro's block for only a fraction of a second. To everyone else, it was over in an instant, but to Doichiro, it felt like several minutes.
Finally, he gritted his teeth, put more strength into his arms, and forced the volleyball straight down along the net.
The ball dropped vertically beside the net.
Ryosuke watched it fall and immediately moved to receive it, but Tsutomu Goshiki was still in midair, directly blocking his path to the ball.
Ryosuke had no choice but to stop.
Tsutomu Goshiki also realized that Ryosuke couldn't cover for him this time, so he stuck out a foot, trying to receive the ball the same way Ryosuke had before.
The moment he extended his leg, though, he knew something was wrong.
His foot felt like it didn't even belong to him. Once he was in the air, he couldn't control it at all.
And just like that, the volleyball hit the floor.
"Bang!"
"Fweeeeeet!"
The referee awarded the point, bringing Shiratorizawa's service run to an end.
"After Ryosuke scored a point on serve for Shiratorizawa, everyone expected him to keep piling on the points! But Itachiyama's players responded with flawless teamwork, taking the point and ending Ryosuke's service run! A clash between powerhouse schools really is terrifying!"
The commentator was clearly enjoying himself so much that he'd even let an unprofessional phrase like "really is terrifying" slip out. If the organizers heard that, he was definitely getting his pay docked.
"Doichiro, nice work!"
Iizuna walked up from behind with a grin and gave Doichiro several hard slaps on the shoulder, laughing as he did.
Without changing expression, Doichiro calmly rubbed the spot Iizuna had just slapped.
"You flatter me, Iizuna-senpai."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the court, Tsutomu Goshiki landed and stared at his own foot in complete bewilderment, as if he were seeing it for the first time.
Why did receiving the ball with his foot look so easy when Ryosuke did it? Why was it completely different when he tried?
Reon noticed Tsutomu Goshiki staring at the floor and assumed he was blaming himself for failing to score. He was just about to offer a few words of comfort when Tsutomu Goshiki suddenly raised his head like a sunflower turning toward the sun and looked at Ryosuke.
"Ryosuke, why can't I receive the ball with my foot?"
Reon: ...
So that was what the kid had been thinking about.
Reon decided not to say anything.
Ryosuke froze at the question. He didn't know why Tsutomu Goshiki couldn't do it either. Ryosuke was the kind of person who had figured it out naturally, almost by instinct, so he had no idea how to explain it.
His face twisted with indecision.
He couldn't exactly tell Tsutomu Goshiki that he had no idea how he did it and that it had simply come naturally to him. Saying that out loud would make it sound like he was showing off.
Reon found Ryosuke's conflicted expression rather amusing, but in the end, he came to his rescue.
He placed one hand on Tsutomu Goshiki's head and the other on Ryosuke's.
"You couldn't receive it because you're not used to controlling your foot that way. Using your foot to receive a ball in midair is completely different from doing it while you're standing on the floor. You just need more practice. It's like when you first started blocking and couldn't control your hands properly. Using your foot works on roughly the same principle."
Tsutomu Goshiki nodded thoughtfully.
"So Ryosuke can receive with his foot because he's better at controlling the muscles in his body?"
Reon raised an eyebrow. He was almost impressed that the kid had managed to come up with such a sensible conclusion.
"That's right. So you need to learn how to control every muscle in your body too."
"Got it!"
Tsutomu Goshiki might not always be the quickest thinker, but when it came to actually putting volleyball techniques into practice, he was a genius.
It had been the same when Tendo taught him how to block. Tendo complained every day that Tsutomu Goshiki learned too slowly, but in reality, he was only a little behind Ryosuke and Tendo.
Tendo simply had a sharp tongue.
How many people could actually learn blocking that quickly?
In that sense, Tsutomu Goshiki could definitely be called a genius.
Tsutomu Goshiki returned to his position, but he was already thinking about how he should train himself to control his muscles better. Of course, he'd have to wait until the match was over before putting any of those ideas into practice.
For now, the match came first.
After Doichiro brought Ryosuke's service run to an end, it was Itachiyama's turn to serve.
Nishio was up.
Nishio felt like he'd barely done anything and had somehow been handed a chance to serve for free. Grinning happily, he hugged the volleyball and trotted over to the service line.
Iizuna watched his cheerful expression and smiled.
"Nishio, I'm not asking for much. You don't have to score five points or anything, but you can at least get two, right?"
Iizuna was smiling pleasantly, yet Nishio inexplicably tensed up.
If he told Iizuna right now that he couldn't even score two points, Iizuna-senpai would probably give him some loving discipline on the spot.
Nishio nodded nervously.
"Don't worry, Iizuna-senpai. I'll definitely score two."
There wasn't the slightest bit of confidence in his voice.
Still, Iizuna was already used to his junior acting like a mouse in front of a cat whenever he saw him.
Iizuna turned away and rubbed his face thoughtfully.
Did he really look that frightening?
He was clearly smiling so warmly.
Under everyone's gaze, Nishio carried the volleyball to the service line.
The referee glanced at both sides. Once he saw that everyone was ready, he blew the whistle.
"Fweeeeeet!"
The instant the whistle sounded, Nishio seemed to become a completely different person. His timid demeanor vanished, replaced by a focused readiness to attack.
He held the ball in one hand and raised it in front of his eyes, gazing calmly at the volleyball.
Then he tossed it up and began his approach.
The volleyball rose lightly into the air.
Up in the stands, Hirugami raised an eyebrow with interest when he realized that Nishio was going for a jump float serve.
He genuinely hadn't expected Itachiyama to have another player who could use a jump float serve.
His impression of Itachiyama had always been either "that powerhouse school from Tokyo" or "the Itachiyama where Sakusa plays."
He'd never paid much attention to the rest of Itachiyama's players before. Now that he did, he realized each of them had their own distinct strengths and style.
After Nishio tossed the ball, he accelerated into his approach. When the volleyball reached the right height, he pushed off the floor with both feet and jumped.
Even Nishio's takeoff looked different from everyone else's.
His movements were remarkably light, as though he barely had to push off the floor to rise into the air.
He extended his right hand and pushed against the left side of the volleyball.
The ball floated gently away from Nishio's hand.
Yamagata was stationed in Shiratorizawa's backcourt.
The moment he saw Nishio jump, he knew this wasn't going to be an ordinary serve. There was a good chance it was a jump float serve.
At the same time, he couldn't help wondering what was going on with jump float serves lately.
One after another.
It wasn't as though jump float serves were supposed to be everywhere. Why did it suddenly seem like everyone knew how to do one?
Yamagata found it strange, but he didn't dwell on it.
Jump float serves really were harder to learn than most other serves.
In a relatively small place like Miyagi, if you gathered every team together, you could still count the players capable of using a jump float serve on one hand.
There simply weren't many of them.
For one thing, the technique was extremely difficult to learn. Reaching a level of proficiency like Atsumu Miya's took at least three or four years of practice and an enormous amount of time and effort.
Another reason was that most coaches at schools in Miyagi didn't require their players to learn jump float serves.
Those coaches had once been players themselves. Some might have been wing spikers, while others might have been setters. If they hadn't known how to use a jump float serve back then, naturally they wouldn't expect their own players to learn it either.
At most, they would teach their players the basic theory behind the jump float serve, just enough so that they wouldn't be completely lost if they encountered one during a match.
Simply put, the resources available for learning jump float serves were limited.
Even occasionally encountering a jump float server in an actual match was already rare.
And yet, since the start of the IH tournament, Yamagata had seen at least five or six of them.
They really were starting to feel as common as cabbages.
Bringing his attention back to the match, Yamagata watched the volleyball's trajectory shift unpredictably as it floated toward him.
Yamagata took several steps forward as the ball approached.
By the time he settled into the position he'd predicted, the volleyball was already in front of him.
He extended both arms and lowered his body to receive.
The volleyball wobbled toward his arms, looking as though it would fly straight into his platform.
But Yamagata didn't relax for even a second.
Jump float serves were famous precisely because their flight paths were so unpredictable.
The volleyball drifted toward the left, and Yamagata adjusted his arms in the same direction, ready to lift them.
The bottom of the ball was already touching his arm. Yamagata began to put strength into his platform to send it upward.
It looked as though he'd made contact.
Then, in the very next instant, the volleyball suddenly veered away from his arm again.
Yamagata's body reacted before his mind did.
He swung his arms toward the ball's new trajectory, trying to recover the receive.
But there was no chance to save it.
After slipping past his arms, the volleyball floated gently to the floor with a dull thud.
"Bang!"
The referee's whistle followed immediately.
"Fweeeeeet!"
Nishio breathed a sigh of relief the moment he heard it.
That scared the hell out of him.
Thank goodness he'd scored.
Getting a service ace past Yamagata was practically like snatching food from a tiger's jaws. If he hadn't scored, Iizuna-senpai would've definitely given him grief afterward.
After scoring the ace, Nishio looked immensely pleased with himself.
He stared at Iizuna, desperately signaling with his eyes that he wanted praise. If he'd had a tail, it would probably have been wagging behind him.
Iizuna found the sight hilarious.
Suppressing his laughter, he spoke.
"Well, well. Nice work, Nishio. A service ace, huh? Make sure you score on the next one too."
Nishio's eyes lit up.
"Of course, Iizuna-senpai! Just leave the next one to me!"
A single compliment from Iizuna had Nishio so delighted that he barely knew which way was up anymore.
Behind him, Komori rolled his eyes.
Whenever Nishio saw Iizuna, he acted like a puppy greeting its owner. But whenever he saw Komori, he turned into a rabid dog that wouldn't stop hounding him.
Favoritism!
This was blatant favoritism!
Komori was extremely displeased.
He immediately decided that from now until the end of the IH tournament, Nishio wasn't getting a single pass from either him or Iizuna.
Komori was going to show Nishio exactly who stood at the top of Itachiyama's food chain!
Nishio, of course, knew absolutely nothing about this.
He was still happily basking in Iizuna's praise.
The little incident on Itachiyama's side didn't attract much attention.
Over on Shiratorizawa's side, Yamagata had fallen into deep self-reproach.
He felt that failing to receive the previous ball had been entirely his fault. If he'd reacted just a little faster, it definitely wouldn't have reached the floor.
He should've spent more time practicing against jump float serves before this.
Yamagata stood there alone with his head lowered, lost in thought.
From Ryosuke and Tsutomu Goshiki's perspective, however, it looked like Yamagata had completely shut down because he'd missed the receive.
The two exchanged a glance, walked over together, and awkwardly tried to comfort him.
"Yamagata-senpai, that receive just now was... was really good..."
"What Tsutomu Goshiki means is that you'll definitely receive the next one, Yamagata-senpai!"
The moment Tsutomu Goshiki started trying to comfort Yamagata, Ryosuke realized something was wrong.
Anyone who knew what Tsutomu Goshiki meant would understand that he was trying to encourage him. Anyone who didn't might think he was deliberately mocking Yamagata.
So Ryosuke stiffened and shouted several times louder than usual, successfully drowning out Tsutomu Goshiki's voice.
Yamagata had been thinking about exactly why he'd failed to receive the serve and had gotten so lost in thought that Ryosuke's shout made him jump.
He snapped back to reality.
Looking at Ryosuke and Tsutomu Goshiki standing on either side of him, Yamagata finally realized that they'd come over to comfort him.
He waved a hand.
"I'll definitely receive the next one. I let my guard down on that last serve."
Yamagata had realized that the biggest reason he'd failed was simply that he'd underestimated the situation.
People seemed to have a habit of underestimating their opponents at different times.
Even though Yamagata had already warned himself after the last time not to underestimate anyone during a match, he'd still fallen into the same trap again.
He didn't really understand why.
Still, he decided that before every match from now on, he would silently repeat the words "Focus. Don't underestimate your opponent" three times.
"What are you two still standing here for? Get back to your positions. The next rally's about to start."
Once Yamagata came back to his senses, he noticed that Ryosuke and Tsutomu Goshiki were still standing beside him and hurried them along.
Tsutomu Goshiki wanted to say something else.
He was convinced Yamagata had to be pretending he was fine. After all, whenever Tsutomu Goshiki made a mistake, he would feel bad about it for ages.
But after taking another look at Yamagata's expression, he realized Yamagata genuinely didn't seem bothered by the previous play anymore.
Only then did Tsutomu Goshiki follow Ryosuke back to his position.
...
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