The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

"COME ON, TSUNEMORI! ONE MORE SET, WE CAN DO THIS!"

"Yuki, give them hell again! Don't let them get up from their slump!"

"Riku-sama! We are counting on you!"

"Oi, Hirano! You did a good job before! Keep it up!"

As all the Tsunemori players walked back to the court for the final set, Hirano was probably the happiest and the most excited player out of everyone. He could still hear people talking about his amazing block that ended the second set before, and even though his stoic face prevented him from showing his feelings, he could feel his chest rising in pride.

He couldn't help it, though. Before Yuki and Riku came, he was the team's best player. Even though the former team with the senior year players had a lot of amazing talent like Yori with his stable performance, Noriyuki with his explosive power, or even Yoshi with his aggressive playing style, everyone still felt optimistic the most about him. After all, he came from a pretty decent middle school in Tokyo whose performance in the national tournament exceeded everyone's expectations.

Hirano had never told everyone that he was just a bench player in that school.

It didn't help that in the first showdown he had with his senpai, Hirano managed to impress everyone with his solid performance. Coupled with his amazing height, he quickly became the prince of the team.

However, that only lasted for a year, before two amazing freshmen players suddenly came and stole all the limelight from him.

Oh, don't get him wrong, Hirano didn't hate Yuki or Riku at all. Hell, he admired them both and their courage to fight against the system during the confrontation they had against the senior year members. It didn't help that those two were amazing players, what with Yuki and his comprehensive ability on the court and Riku with his complete control over the play that happened there. Those two were incredibly talented, and Hirano knew that with them both in the team, they would be able to go further beyond their imagination.

However, the problem was within himself. See, Hirano was always a quiet boy, and with his stoic face, it didn't take a genius to figure out that he didn't have a lot of friends. However, just like any other boy his age, he also yearned to be a popular boy, surrounded by a lot of friends and laughed together. He had a glimpse of that during his time as a freshman, but it was stolen pretty quickly by Yuki and Riku.

Oh, no, he didn't have a grudge against those two. He just felt salty for their popularity, yet couldn't do anything about it. After all, those two gained it fair and square, and with their lively personality, they were born to be in the spotlight. That didn't mean he would stop trying, though, and the way he chose to do was just to put 100 percent of his effort silently until someone finally noticed it.

After all, just like any other quiet boy outside, he also shared the same principle; action always speaks louder than any word.

However, that changed when Kaito barged into the school rudely a few days ago and made himself a common enemy for the entire school. For the last few days, the school was taken by the entire storm caused by the boy. All the talks always revolved around him and how rude he was, and suddenly, everyone was united by a common enemy.

This shouldn't change Hirano too much. However, when he saw Kaito's playing style during the intelligence meeting, one thing popped into his head.

'I can stop him.'

It was not like Hirano underestimated Kaito or being arrogant. No, he acknowledged that the obnoxious boy was an amazing hitter who could attack from any direction with the same quality. Hell, the boy's height and vertical jump were higher than him, which honestly also intimidated Hirano a little bit. However, the boy's thought wasn't that complicated at all. The boy was somehow a bit similar to Koji, having a simple mind and always relying on the setter's setup. Even though the boy did his best to conceal his attacking behavior, the setter would give up some, which would give Hirano a chance to stop him.

That was his chance to be a hero again!

Unfortunately, things didn't go as well as he thought it would be. In the first set, he played horribly, not being able to stop even a single attack from Kaito. To make it more embarrassing, the boy kept trash-talking him and he didn't have anything to refute since… Well, he was the loser. He had to rely on Yuki and Riku once again to fight back, which even though it was embarrassing, he had already had a thick skin to brush it off as a teamwork.

However, Hirano didn't give up. Even though he suffered from one defeat after another, he still kept his eyes sharp, observing the whole game and trying to figure out the habit that Kaito had. He didn't believe that someone could be so flawless. Even Lucas Silva from Konan High also had a flaw. It was just that no other team in Japan was able to take advantage of it.

True enough, after waiting for a while, Hirano was finally able to see it.

Kaito – for all of his amazing strength – had a problem recognizing the blocker in front of him. Well, that was understandable, since the boy could always jump higher than anyone else in the court.As a result, he always puthisattention more on the players in the back row.

When Hirano noticed that the first time, he was dumbfounded, not knowing whether to be surprised or to laugh bitterly at this. This was the first time he knew a problem existed because the boy was too amazing, and he didn't know what to think of it. This was a fine example of 'having trouble seeing the tree because the person is too focused on the entire forest'.

However, all of the anxiety and negative feelings he had disappeared instantly when he finally managed to stop Kaito's attack. It was a sloppy attempt, and he knew he was one second too late to do that. Hell, the block itself was too short, and if not for luck, it would get entangled into the net before falling back to Tsunemori's area.

However, in the end, he did it. It didn't help that the block was a game winning play, allowing the team to tie the game. Now that everyone had their attention on him once again, his confidence rose at its peak, and Hirano felt like he could beat even the best player in the world in his current state.

As all the players were back to the court, he glanced over the net and smirked when he saw Kaito was back too, ready to restart the game.

'Come on, Bastard! I will let you become my stepping stone!'