The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

"DAMN, DIE YOU BASTARD!"
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"You are not welcomed here!"

"Go home to your mother, Bitch!"

"Die, you Tsunemori fucker!"

Yuki twitched his lips a little at the constant insult thrown at him by the crowd. However, there was no big splash in his heart at all as he put on his best innocent smile which only infuriated them more. While the insults hurt, there was a reason why he pushed himself hard during the training session with the crowd brought by Arina Sugawara. He knew sooner or later that someone would bring up his status as an orphan or his poor living condition in an insulting manner, and Yuki didn't want to give them the satisfaction of successfully riling him up.

"You okay, Yuki?" Riku suddenly patted his shoulder, looking at him with a concerned look. "You have been spacing out for a moment. Should I ask the coach for a timeout or call the referee to stop the supporters from insulting you?"

"Don't worry about it, I am okay." Yuki shook his head. "Also, the insult is pretty tame compared to what I imagine. You still remember how I asked our senpai to insult me during our training, right?"

Riku tried his best to hide his wince as he remembered the unpleasant memory. While the others were pleading for mercy to the crowd, Yuki went overboard by asking them to give their worst, letting the boys Arina Sugawara brought to let loose of their colorful vocabulary. The hurtful insults like a whore's son, a murder threat, and even a racial insult that could put everyone in trouble if someone heard that were thrown, and Riku had to give a hat-off for his best friend to endure it. As a result, after a week of training, Yuki's heart hardened automatically at the insult thrown by Tsukiji's supporters by now.

"Just… Tell me if you are bothered by this, okay?" Riku finally said. "I know we have been training for this, but that doesn't mean the crowd could go away if their insult goes overboard. We can ask Akira-sensei to complain about this to the referee too, you know?"

"I know, I know, don't worry about me. Now, go back to your position. Shu! Shu!" Yuki waved his hand away as if he just chased away a stray cat. In return, Riku made a rude gesture with his hand that elicited a round of laughter from their teammates.

"Come on, Yuki! Give us another good serve!"

"Kill them all, Kobayashi!"

Yuki had a sweat drop at the bold supports shouted for him. He had to admit that the boys brought by Arina Sugawara had guts. Not only they were not afraid of being squeezed out into the corner of the building by the home team's supporters, but they also dared to fight back, insulting back the home team. With how brave they were outside of the court, of course, Yuki had to return the feeling with a good performance.

'Another two-man defense, huh? It seems my serve to the traffic trick has been spreading among the team in Tokyo.' Yuki murmured internally when he saw only Ishida and Kiyotake were on the back side of Tsukiji's court. 'Unfortunately for them, I am not a one-pony trick. Let's see if they can stop this.'

As the referee blew the whistle, Yuki tossed the ball as quickly as possible. However, when he was already in the air and about to hit the ball, the sound of the taiko drum echoed from the court.

DRUM! DRUM! DRUM! DRUM!

'Oh, what a nice distraction! Unfortunately, there is no use for it!'

The ball flew straight to the middle, the area between where Ishida and Kiyotake stood. Those two seemed to have experience working together on the defensive end as even without communicating, Ishida stepped forward immediately while Kiyotake let the libero handle the ball. However, before Ishida could reach the ball, it suddenly wobbled in the air, and before he could change his stance from underhand to the overhead pass, the ball had already slipped through his hand and fell behind him, yet still within the court.

Thud!

"OOOOH!"

"HE IS OUR SERVER! HE IS KOBAYASHI!"

The crowd from Tsunemori cheered loudly, dominating the building even though they were inferior in number. Honestly, if glares could kill, they all would be six feet under instantly, what with the murderous intent flared from Tsukiji's supporters.

"COME ON, GIVE US ONE MORE SERVE!"

Yuki raised his thumb to Tsunemori's supporters, acknowledging their support. When the referee blew the whistle, he took the serve as quickly as possible to get away from the drum distraction. Unfortunately, this time, Kiyotake was prepared as Tsukiji's opposite hitter managed to pick up his floater ball.

Thud!

"Oh! Nice receive, Kiyotake!"

"Neito, quick! Here!"

As Reiki made a move from his spot, Yuki also reacted quickly. He rushed to the front line immediately, getting ready for Tsukiji's captain together with Hirano. However, before he jumped, Yuki caught Neito's eyes on the far wing side where another Tsukiji player was using Reiki as a cover for his sneaky attack, and knowing that the spot was too far for him to make it up, the glasses boy shouted, "ASA! COVER STRAIGHT!"

Asahi who was alone in the left field didn't need to be told twice. Yuki himself moved back a little, positioning himself to receive a cross-spike. Surprisingly, the boy decided to brute force his way through Asahi's wall, which was so close to success if only Asahi was one second late to adjust his stance.

BAM!

"One touch!"

"Shit! Sorry, not my best attack!" The hitter shouted. It seemed he wanted to aim for a block-out, which was a big failure since Asahi managed to deflect the attack and turned it into another chance for his team to attack.

"I got this, I got this!" Riku spread his arm, signaling his teammates to get out of his way while also preparing themselves to attack. "Yuki, move!" He shouted. Based on that shout only, people would mistake that the attack would go in the glasses boy's direction. However, it was another bait thrown by Riku to divert the opponent's attention before he passed the ball back to Asahi. "Senpai!"

"SHIT! BANJO, MOVE WITH ME!"

BAM!

Unfortunately, no matter how quickly Tsukiji players wanted to recover from their position, they were one second late as Asahi's spike pierced through their defense. The captain of the Tsunemori team just raised his fist proudly when he saw his attack was successful.

"OH! WE GOT THEM!"

"His name is Asa! He is our captain!"

"Ole! Ole! Ole!"

Tsunemori's supporters went crazy as they started singing and dancing to celebrate the point scored by Asahi. Honestly, Yuki felt pity for their teachers for having to deal with this shit on a daily basis.

"Damare you baka!"

"Go home you Aho!"

"This is our fucking home!"

'Ouch, this is going to become a chant war between two groups of supporters.' Yuki winced. 'Something like this either would end up wholesome or getting worse, there is no in-between.'

For the next couple of minutes, the sound inside the building became so loud it started to be unbearable. Yuki was sure that if something like this kept going for too long, the referee had to take action to deal with it.

And true to his thought, before Yuki did his fourth serve of the game, the referee signaled him to stop before calling Asahi and Reiki to the middle of the game. Even though he didn't know what they were talking about, by their animated hand gesture that involved pointing to the crowd alone, he could make an educated guess about it.

After exchanging words with the referee and Reiki, Asahi finally went back and asked all of his teammates to approach their own supporters. "What is wrong, Asahi-kun?" Arina Sugawara as the leader of the crowd came quickly when she saw the team was approaching them.

"Oh, nothing. The referee just wants to keep this game running without any problem. He wanted me and their captain to talk to our supporter's leader to not go overboard with both loudness and our insults. Well, you know the gist of it." Asahi explained nonchalantly.

"Oh?" Arina Sugawara raised one of her eyebrows slightly. "And what do you think?" All the boys in the crowd also turned their attention to Asahi.

"Well, pardon my French, but I think the warning means shit for us," Asahi said bluntly which made some of his teammates snicker in the back. "As long as things are not escalated to the point a fight could break among the supporters, the referee doesn't have any ground to stop this game. Loudness and insult are a part of the game, and as long as it is not racial or other discrimination insults, there is no way the game would be stopped. So, yeah, just go as crazy as before, I am sure they are going to do the same. Come on! We are counting on you guys!"

All the boys behind Arina Sugawara grinned ferally before they started shouting, "Hell, yeah! Let's show those motherfuckers who are the superior school here! Don't worry, Asahi! Everyone! We will watch your back!"