The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

Despite how Bato always portrayed himself as a feral boy, he was far from it. He had never fallen so low to the point of giving up his mind to enhance the beast inside him and followed his animal instinct just for the sake of a momentary improvement in the middle of the game. No, if anything, he was proven to his opponents several times that he was closer to the genius like Yuki instead of those mindless beasts who only knew how to throw a brute spike.

Since he started playing this game, Bato has been blessed with exceptional body-to-eye coordination and observation skills that exceed any ordinary player's expectations. The boy knows how to utilize this ability to the optimum. Bato didn't just use his exceptional ability in the game; he also used it to help him train to be a better player.

People would always find him spending his time either on the court or in front of the television, trying to figure out every mechanic necessary to master the basics of this game. Some might say it was stupid, like, watching it would be less valuable and more of wasting time compared to trying directly on the court. Letting his body feel it directly, some said.

However, Bato didn't care about their opinion. He knew where his advantage lay, and with his exceptional observational skill, he managed to cut even half the time to train the basics so he was ready to play the game. For a guy who had only played volleyball for half a year, his dedication to the game sure was admirable.

That was why, with the amount of pride and dedication he carried on his back, when he saw the serve Reiki threw went straight at him without any deception in it Bato felt insulted.

'Are you kidding me?!' Bato had the urge to facepalm. "Does he really think he can just destroy me with this half-ass serve?!' (Little did Bato know that this was the fastest Reiki could pull.)

With a scowl on his face, he didn't even flinch, stepping back a little before letting the ball fall onto his forearms. Hell, he didn't even need to redirect it to the setter since the serve itself was so easy to handle. However, with how offended he was, Bato decided to take immediate action. Discover more stories at My Virtual Library Empire

"Taiyo! Send the usual!" He shouted while running forward.

It took only two seconds for him to recover his position from receiving the ball to jumping forward for a quick attack, which was a testament to his speed. Taiyo – Keihin's center – also didn't disappoint, sending it right in front of Bato.

BAM!

The sound of the ball slamming on the floor was loud enough to make everyone wince. This was probably one of the few differences between Yuki and Bato. While it took Yuki a long time to build the muscle to do something powerful like this, Bato had the advantage of having his dad work as a construction worker. Even though he was still a rookie in this sport, no one doubted he packed so much power inside his body.

"HELL YEAH!" Bato roared, silencing the crowd. "Nice pass, Taiyo! A bit shaky, but the route is perfect! Don't be so nervous playing in front of a bunch of assholes, they cannot do anything about us!"

Some of Keihin's players flinched unconsciously while the others wanted to smack Bato straight on his head for that. Provoking the home team's supporter was never a good idea in any sport, and they didn't know what kind of devil possessed their friend here. Fortunately, Tsukiji's supporters were buzzing so loudly that his words were drowned immediately.

Meanwhile, on the stand, all the Tsunemori players jumped from their seats just like any other people there, staring at Bato with bewildered expressions. "Holy shit! Who the fuck is that guy?!" Ogawa asked in disbelief.

"While I will not use Jimmy's crass words to say it, I have to agree. This comes out of nowhere. He doesn't belong to a no-name team like Keihin." Asahi added.

Megumi herself went back to her phone immediately, searching for any information she had about the boy. "I got it!" She exclaimed, gaining everyone's attention. "His name is Sero Bato, and he is a sophomore student just like most of you. His experience…" Megumi widened her eyes in shock as she read the information slowly. "He has none. He is a rookie."

"….. Shit!" Asahi who was always level-headed finally cursed. "So, they have their other version of Yuki?!" The atmosphere turned glum when they imagined another team had their genius at the same level as Yuki. Even though they loved the boy, that didn't mean they weren't frightened by him. They all witnessed the horror of how Yuki destroyed so many team's dreams, and the prospect of having to meet someone like him was not something they looked forward to.

"Hey, hey, aren't you all overthinking this?" Kaede said, trying to be optimistic. "I mean, it is just one play, right?! We cannot assess his full capability with just that alone! We need to see more about him, and who knows, maybe, things are not as bad as we thought they would be."

Well, yeah, comparing Bato to Yuki seemed to be a bit stretchy here. They hadn't even seen Bato's full capability. The only thing they were sure of was the fact that just like Yuki, Bato managed to shine brightly even if he only trained for a few months.

Still, it was still the beginning of the game, so they had more time to figure this out.

The next one to serve the ball was Morita, Keihin's captain. The crowd went quiet immediately, waiting for the boy to toss the ball before messing up his timing with their devious trick. It was clear that Morita was nervous here. After taking a deep breath, he tossed the ball slightly forward, starting to run before leaping forward to get the ball. However, as he was about to slam it, the sound of the drum rang once again like before.

DRUM! DRUM! DRUM! DRUM!

"Shit!" He cursed. Fortunately, Morita was clever enough to change his stance from a powerful serve into an ordinary one. Even though it didn't pose any challenge for Tsukiji players, at least this scenario was better than the serve hitting the net like before. "Everyone, get ready! Keep your eyes on them all and don't let anyone go!" He shouted.

Three players on the front tensed, bracing themselves for the attack. Bato himself was calm. He was way calmer than any other players in the court right now. He kept his eyes on everyone on the court, analyzing thoroughly inside his head where the ball would go. Before Tsukiji's setter even passed the ball, he moved immediately, having already guessed what Tsukiji wanted to do.

"WHAT?! He moves already?!" Riku stared in disbelief from the stand.

It was a gamble play from Bato, a hit-or-miss strategy. If his prediction was correct, the play would blow everyone's mind and make them all crazy. But if he mistook it, he would only make a fool of himself.

However, Bato didn't make a losing bet.

"SHIT!" Reiki cursed when he saw the opponent's blocker in front of him.

Reiki didn't know where the flaw was revealed and didn't expect that Bato would be able to pick it up and predict that the ball would go at him even before the setter passed it first. Still, he didn't have any choice but to deal with this messy situation quickly. He had half of his mind to create a rebound for a second attack. However, by doing that, Bato would win this confrontation, and his pride would never allow it.

So, he decided to wait until Bato jumped to fool the boy with a delayed attack.

'Ha! As expected, he is still a rookie!' Reiki hid his smirk. 'Now, I need to wait for one more second so that he has already reached his peak and starts landing before I can jump too. Now!'

Yuki winced unconsciously from the stand when he saw Reiki manage to get the upper hand in this confrontation. That was a nasty delayed attack, and with this, Bato would lose momentum in the air, and no matter how strong he was, facing Reiki who was full of power, it was impossible for the boy to deal with it.

Or… So that was what he and everyone thought.

However, Bato didn't go down. He stayed in the air long enough like time seemed to freeze around him, both his hands extending far to block the shoot. The ability to hang in the air for that long was basically unheard of, and Reiki started panicking. Knowing the pair of hands wouldn't go away that easily, he tilted his body a little, trying to change from a straight spike into a cross-attack. However, Bato managed to read him like an open book, and before Reiki could even do that, the pair of hands moved like a guillotine, ready to kill his attack.

BAM!