The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

In the end, Uehara was replaced by a boy one year older than Yuki whose name was Jiro. Only Shou who was a close friend of Uehara cared enough to worry about the ace. As for the others, let alone Yuki and Riku who were newcomers here, even Tondo and Kojima didn't even bat their eyes when they heard that Uehara was replaced. They both recognized the ace's terrible performance and knew that if it was them on his feet, they would be out of the court a long time ago.

"Don't be too nervous, Jiro-senpai." Riku patted the new boy's shoulder reassuringly. "Don't get dragged into the game's pace. Walk at your own pace, you are strong enough to do that."

Yuki was surprised when he heard what Riku said. 'It seems he is close enough with Jiro-senpai here. Since when?' He mused. Unfortunately, this would be a mystery to solve another day since the referee signaled them to come back to the court already.

It was in the middle of the second set, and the Fukushima Phoenix was currently in the lead against the Tokyo Thunder with a score of 14 – 5. Nine points were definitely a huge gap to chase in a volleyball game. Coupled with the fact that they had to play with no ace, this was like a mission impossible for the Thunder.

'We need to do something to regain our form and bounce back before the game turns to be a lost cause.'

Unfortunately, unlike in anime or any other fictional stories, miracles didn't happen quite a lot in reality, and even more so when they needed it the most. No matter what the Thunder players tried, they would always meet the Phoenix's unbreakable wall. They exerted all their resources to attack, yet they only managed to score a few times, and not a single successful method was replicable to help them score another point.

Hell, Riku, who was always proud of his creative approach as a setter, also started to feel exhausted when he faced this situation. The Phoenix suddenly turned into a precise, well-oiled machine that never made a mistake while slowly capitalizing on its advantage.

In the end, the second set was finally over with the Fukushima Phoenix winning it by a large margin, 25 – 9.

"Shit, this is getting ridiculous!" Shou cursed while throwing a towel to the bench. His current expression was a clear definition of frustration. "How could they play so consistently like this?! Are they a bunch of fucking robots or what?!"

"If this is how they play, no wonder they can climb from the bottom rock to the top six. Hell, I won't be surprised if they can push their luck to the top four." Tondo said bitterly.

The atmosphere on the Thunder's bench was grim during this intermission. Everyone was so depressed about this game. Honestly, as a mediocre team, they were not a stranger to defeat. Hell, more than half of their games this year ended up with them being the loser. However, they still had the illusion that the Phoenix was the worst team in the league, so to realize that they had flown high in the air already while the Thunder was still the frog at the bottom of the well was very frustrating.

"Okay, let's try to forget the first two sets and treat this as a new game," Kawaki shouted. "Right now, don't think about making a miraculous comeback or something like that. Just make sure you defend well and score as many points as possible! Our target now is to win the third set first, and once we achieve that, we can talk about how to proceed the game further."

Of course, the scenario of them losing the third set wasn't talked about, since that only meant one thing. They would get swapped 3 – 0 by the Phoenix.

"Jiro, I know you want to play stably here, but I put you on the court as one of the attackers, so you need to be more aggressive! Don't worry about defense, Kobayashi is enough to cover the entire back row."

Yuki winced unconsciously when his name was mentioned and at the sudden task, the coach suddenly gave without consulting with him first. Not that he would refuse it, but to cover the entire backcourt alone was a bit too much even for him.

"Agostini, you need to move more in the third set! You will not have Kobayashi for your emergency setter, so you have to make sure that you read the game quicker than anybody else and cover a wider area, okay?!"

"Yes, Sir!"

"Shou, you…"

"Kojima, don't overthink and…"
Your next chapter awaits on empire

"Tondo, stay calm and wait, okay? Make sure…"

Kawaki spent more than half of the break time instructing all of his players in such unbelievable detail that the players themselves were left dumbfounded here. Unfortunately, no matter how good the coach was, in the end, the main protagonist was still the player, and if they couldn't translate the instruction into the game itself, nothing much would change.

BAM!

"Riku, cover!" Yuki shouted after saving Amano's spike.

"I got this!" Even though the ball flew to the far opposite wing from Riku's position, the blonde boy still rushed as if there was no tomorrow. "Jiro-senpai!"

Yuki couldn't help but frown when he saw the ball was thrown at Jiro. Not that he didn't like the new guy, but Yuki always felt that Jiro lacked the decisiveness to do anything out of his comfort zone. Jiro would always seek stability, and it was good for defense, but in offense, it could only be translated as predictable, and that was the thing you didn't want for your offense.

BAM!

"Oh! Nice receive, Mirai!"

"Teru! Pass it high!" Amano pointed his finger to the sky, asking for the ball. All the supporters on the stand rose from their seats immediately, knowing this was probably the attack that would kill the game.

"Come on, Amano! Kill it!"

"Kill it!"

"Kill the game!"

With that kind of encouragement, Amano didn't disappoint. Even with Tondo and Shou jumping in front of him, he still didn't lose his composure, waiting for a while until the two blockers reached their highest point and started to land before using his strongest spike to destroy their wall.

BAM!