The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

Honda Saburo groaned, walking slowly to the gymnasium as he felt the pain in his back. This was not the first time something like this happened. A bit ironic, of course, since people said they should do sport to keep their body healthy in an old age. However, this was the consequence of him hiding his back injury from the medical team when he was young.

Even though at the end of his career as a player, he tried to fix that problem with a lot of surgeries, he still felt the pain even after more than 20 years after his injury. Honda regretted his brashness in the past and cursed his younger self for not listening carefully when his old coach told him to take care of his body.

Now he knew that his old coach was right when he was told all the pain of the injuries when he was younger would accumulate in his old body.

'Whatever. After today, I will go to that place for another massage.'

Honda shook his head, turning his focus on the court. All the bench players of Matsukita rose immediately from their seats to greet him, yet he narrowed his eyes to the scoreboard.

Tsunemori High 6

Matsuyama Kita High 1

"Oh, we are five points behind?" Even though he said it casually, his words sent a shiver down all the players' spine. "Are we playing against Konan today?" He said it sarcastically.

The majority of the players on the bench were a bunch of freshmen and sophomore students. Unlike their senpai, they still had a healthy amount of fear for their coach. Hearing that sarcastic tone, they held their breath unconsciously, didn't dare to answer his question. Honda just shook his head, trying to see how a team like Tsunemori managed to take the lead against them.

*BAM!*

"Yoshi! Left!"

"Shit! Sorry! It is a bit short!"

"Don't worry! Kobayashi! Run!"

"Oh! A dink! Nice one, Kobayashi-kun!"

Honda nodded his head, clearly seeing how Tsunemori could outmatch his team until now. It wasn't just because his team underestimated them, but also because the opponent's setter was smart and creative enough to toy with the blockers. He noticed in the last few minutes, that Tsunemori's offense always started from the blonde boy with the jersey number 7.

That wasn't so strange considering he was the setter of the team, yet what surprised Honda the most was how all of his teammates trusted his instruction and did what he said without hesitation.

'Other than the number 19, he called all of the players there senpai. He should be a freshman, right?' He nodded a little, trying to hide his smile. 'Interesting.'

Still… The fact that his team underestimated his opponent…

"Is it because our opponent is just a no-name school that we couldn't concentrate to the fullest?" He suddenly spoke, gaining everyone's attention. His face was still full of smiles, not giving a hint of emotion at all. "Is it because Tsunemori is too weak for us?"

"W-Well…" All the players on the bench looked at each other hesitantly before replying, "That should be the case, right?"

"Yeah. How could we treat them like how we did against a strong team?"

"You are right…"

Honda could only sigh, his smile was full of helplessness. "As expected of the second-best team in the country. They can treat any team this casually as if it is impossible for them to lose."

The players who heard that didn't know what to say, couldn't figure out their coach's mood. However, they straightened their back immediately when they saw the smile on the old man's face disappear, replaced by the seriousness that only be there when something didn't go as well as he thought it would be.

"Well, I don't know about you all, but that arrogance and recklessness… I don't really need that in my team, don't you think so?"

-0-

"Come on, Senpai! Stop the opponent!"

"Keep your eyes on the number 3!"

"Don't let the setter toy you!"

All the Tsunemori players were surprised when they saw Matsukita's bench suddenly got excited. However, their opponent seemed to know what happened as they saw the players on the other side of the net had their faces paled.

"Oi, the old man is mad!" One of them said.

"Yeah."

"Amagi! If you are still careless and play this casually, the old man will change you without hesitation, you know?!" Gondo spoke to the setter.

"I know!"

Noticing the sudden shift of atmosphere from casual to heavy on the other side of the net, all the Tsunemori players knew that their opponent just started to get serious. It was a no brainer for them to guess the rest of the game would be difficult for them.

"Be careful, everyone!" Noriyuki reminded his teammates. "They are starting to get serious right now. Don't be too nervous, just think this is another training session for us. Koji, give us a good serve, okay?"

"Sure!"

When the referee blew his whistle, Koji served the ball to the top left, trying to aim at Amagi. It was a normal, slow serve that no players from Matsukita would have trouble picking it. One of them, the player with the jersey number 4 suddenly moved forward to protect the setter from getting the first touch.

"Nice receive, Tono-senpai!"

The moment the ball was received though, all the five Matsukita players – including Tono who just received it – suddenly scattered in all directions, trying to confuse Tsunemori's defense. Yuki could hear curses thrown in the air by his senpai who was too shocked by Matsukita's sudden change.

If before, when they were not serious, Matsukita would treat a chance to attack like this as a spike practice with only one or two players moving, now all of them made a coordinated move forward to create a distraction pretty quickly, not giving Tsunemori a chance to adapt with the situation.

Yuki didn't panic though. As the ball was in the air, his eyes kept locking on Amagi's, trying to figure out where the setter would send the ball. Unexpectedly though, Amagi didn't go for any complicated offense play. He just played it simple, sending it short to the middle.

However, before anyone from Tsunemori could react, Gondo suddenly sprinted toward the ball with an incredible speed that Yuki could hardly believe came from such a huge body. With a swift and powerful motion, Gondo swung his arm hard, unleashing a mighty force that sent the ball flying to Yuki's left.

*BAM!*

'I got this!'

Even though it was a powerful spike, Yuki's eyes could still follow it perfectly. This was something he realized not a lot of people have, the dynamic vision to make everything seem slowing down in his world and the reaction speed that could match his eyes. He leaned his body towards the ball, ready to extend his arms far to receive it.

However, as the ball sailed through the air, Yuki suddenly noticed Yoshi next to him also made a move. In a split second, they realized they were both thinking the same thing - they wanted to receive the ball.

The hesitation was brief, but it was enough to cause a miscommunication. Both players hesitated, and then, as if by instinct, they retreated back, expecting the other to take the ball. The problem was, they both retreated in the same direction.

The ball continued to fall, and as they both stopped short of where they had been standing, it landed behind them with a strong thud, hitting the floor with a resounding crash.

"Yossha!" Gondo roared, celebrating his first point of the game.

"Nice spike, Gondo-senpai!"

"Damn, you gorilla! That could snap anyone's hand if they tried to receive it!"

As all the Matsukita players celebrated with each other, Yuki raised his hand immediately when he saw Yoshi was about to speak to him. "Sorry about that one, senpai. That was my fault. I should've said something before, but I am too focused on the setter." He apologized immediately.

Yoshi – and all the players who heard that – were stunned, not expecting Yuki to admit it immediately. The third-year opposite hitter even thought that it should be him who apologized since it was his responsibility to lead the communication on the back, not Yuki's. However, for whatever reason he had, Yoshi swallowed his words, just giving his kouhai a simple nod before walking back to his spot.

Riku who saw that furrowed his brows, knowing that it wasn't fair for Yuki to be the only one blamed for that miscommunication. He scowled more when no one said anything to Yuki, then turned his head to Akira, asking for help. Unfortunately, his uncle just shook his head, asking him to let it go while signaling that he would address this matter later, so Riku could only keep it quiet for now.

The next few minutes turned into a disastrous one for Tsunemori. Matsukita finally went full power, showing there was a reason why they could be the second-best team in Japan.

Amagi ran the offense for them like a puppet master, instructing them all to move in the direction he wanted while toying with Tsunemori's blocker, forcing them to move from left to right just to be fooled once again to the opposite direction of where they went.

While having the same aggressive and creative playing style as Riku, Yuki noticed that Amagi did it better. Unlike Riku who still gave a hint where the ball would go by subtly glancing in one direction before sending the ball there, there wasn't anything Yuki could see from Amagi's body language.

No, to be more precise, he gave away so many flaws in his body movement just for it to be turned out as a fake.

This was when Yuki realized what it meant to be a fake master. All of Amagi's subtle body movements could be used as a distraction to fool the opponent into thinking he would do something before the setter would do the opposite.

Yuki could only shake his head exasperatedly, admiring the setter's cunningness on the court.

"What's wrong, Kobayashi?" Riku suddenly asked.

"Nothing." Yuk shook his head. "Just admiring the opponent's setter."

"Yeah, he is such a crazy bastard." Riku nodded, glaring at Amagi. It was clear Riku was unhappy he was outmatched in the setter duel today. "Still, we need to cut off the loss here, or we will bleed forever."

"I know."

"So, any idea?"

"Why do you ask me that? Should you ask our senpai?"

"Because they are useless!" Riku hissed angrily. "Don't you see how they acted on the court?! Always stay passive and look at each other like they don't want to take the blame! Bloody hell, I swear having four sticks would be better compared to them."

Yuki had a sweat drop, didn't expect Riku to have an outburst in the middle of the game. If the situation wasn't that bad, he would laugh out loud at the strong accent he just heard. Even though Riku was half-Italian, Yuki had never heard him talk with a foreign accent, so to listen to it right now was something refreshing for him.

However, Yuki could also see why the setter was so frustrated. When he first stated about the lack of communication problem in the evaluation session after his first training game, he didn't know it would be this bad. No one wanted to take the initiative to do something and everyone always waiting for the others to make a move to cover their asses.

If something went wrong, no apology could be heard as everyone acted like nothing happened, sweeping it under the rug.

If Amagi on the other side was like a puppet master handling five powerful puppets to kill the opponent, Tsunemori's team was like a bunch of dead puppets who lost their master and didn't know what to do.

"So, what are we going to do?"

Yuki pondered for a second before saying, "Well, let's do it like when we are in the 2v2 game. Drop back a little and be ready to receive the ball. Let's show our senpai how the game should be played."

It was ironic for Yuki to say that considering he was still new in volleyball, not even a month in it. However, even a rookie like himself knew how troublesome this situation is right now.

Hearing Yuki's words, like a beast that was about to be freed from its cage, Riku showed a feral grin, his excitement spiked up. "Fucking finally! That is what I want to hear from you, Kobayashi. Let's fucking do this!"

-0-

"Sensei, are you sure you don't want to call a timeout?" Megumi asked. "The situation is pretty bad right now. Maybe, a break and some pep talks would work?"

Akira who heard that just laughed hollowly. "Do you really trust the words that came out of your mouth, Megumi-san? You know how bad our situation has been since Hisashi graduated last year."

Megumi blushed, knowing clearly what Akira meant. She also noticed this problem too. Since the captain of the team last year, Togarashi Hisashi graduated from the school, everyone acted like a confused deer being freed to the wild, not knowing what they should do in that position.

No one was willing to take the initiative to do anything or take responsibility for something that had already been done, making them look like a pig waiting to be slaughtered.

It was painful for her and even Akira to watch from the sideline, yet no matter how hard they tried to fix it, nothing changed.

"So, what do you think would be the difference this time?" Megumi asked.

"Those two." He pointed his fingers at Yuki and Riku. "They are going to save us from our downfall."

-0-

*BAM!*

A strong serve was thrown by Gondo, the captain of Matsukita to Tsunemori's area. Koji and Noriyuki who were the closest to receive the ball hesitated, both didn't want to receive it. But before they could retreat, a blonde hair suddenly flashed in front of them, catching those two players off guard.

"Move!"

To Matsukita's surprise, it was Riku who received the ball. It was not often for a setter to pick up the first ball willingly or for his teammates to let him do that considering someone needed to orchestrate the offense. However, what surprised them more was the fact that after he received the ball, it was Yuki who stood in front of the net, ready to replace him as the setter.

"Kobayashi! Here!"

"Left wing, Agostini!"

Just with two players, the atmosphere on the Tsunemori's side suddenly got lively. Not just Matsukita players, but even their own teammates were frozen on the spot, didn't know what they should do. But Riku and Yuki ignored them all. They both moved flawlessly, trying to set their own offense. Two of Matsukita's blockers tried to follow Riku's movement.

However, without even glancing at the opponent's position, Yuki suddenly turned his setter stance into a normal spike one, whipping the ball hard with his arm.

*BAM!*

It was just a normal spike, not even a quarter of the one Gondo did before. However, since Yuki did it in the second ball and when he acted as a setter, no one was expecting it to come. The glasses boy aimed it to the bottom left near the sideline. The player who guarded that area tried to pick it up, yet he reacted too late.

He couldn't adjust his stance, making the ball hit his shoulder and bounced out of the court.

Everyone was left in stunned silence, their head turned to where the ball was as they tried to process what just happened. Riku and Yuki themselves gave a high-five to each other, celebrating the play like they were the only players on their side.

"Nice one, Kobayashi! Though, did you just steal my move?!"

"Your move? Don't be so full of yourself." Yuki snorted.

"What do you mean by that?!" Riku cried.

They bickered for a while before Riku suddenly turned around to the four senpai of his while letting out a challenging smirk.

"Well, what do you think? Do you want to join here or for us to do it alone?"

-0-

"What the hell is that?!" Not just the players on the court, but even the ones on Matsukita's bench were not spared from the shock that Riku and Yuki just caused. "Did the setter switch position with that number 19? But I thought he was a defensive specialized player!"

Their reaction was understandable considering Yuki had never been involved in the offense before this, always acting as a good defensive player on the back line.

"You focused on the wrong part! He did a dump spike! Against us! What the hell?!"

"When was the last time we got fooled by this kind of play?"

"It should be in the last spring tournament against Mihama, right?"

"Yeah! Even Konan's setter couldn't do that against us!"

Amidst the chaos happening around him, Honda leaned his body forward, his focus was not only on Riku anymore, but also on Yuki too. He smiled, nodding his head in a satisfied manner before turning his head toward Tsunemori's head – or to be more exact, to the head coach of the team.

"You have some interesting players here, Shinji-kun… Interesting, indeed…"