The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

Fifteen minutes later, all the players from both teams were on the court already, ready to start the game. Even though it was the opener of the stage, the tension was pretty high there with so much stakes on the table for both teams. For Tsunemori High, all were eager to create history for their school, and for Kikugawa High, their head coach really showed his ambition to win against his master.

Of course, for the spectators, this was probably the best scenario possible. They didn't come here for a boring game, so the more clashes happened between the two teams the better.

"Come on! Just kill each other!"

"Strangle his throat, Riku! Choke him!"

"Look at his smug, stupid smile! He is provoking you guys! Asahi, just go and punch his face!"

Yuki had a sweat dropped on his face as he listened to the crowd. If he didn't know better, he would think that they were in the middle of a martial arts match. As he walked to the service line, though, he could hear his name start to get chanted from the stand. However, he just shook it off, trying his best to put his concentration on the game. He knew that a good opening would boost the team's morale, so he couldn't mess this up.

'Listen, Yuki. We are not here just to defeat them, but also to kill them in the most brutal way. So, no more half-ass serves! Just go all out with your most powerful one, okay?!'

Asahi's words rang inside his head once again as Yuki waited for the referee to blow the whistle. Honestly, if he didn't have to, he wouldn't go for his senpai's suggestion. After all, he was always cautious with his serve and never bothered with a small trick or two when doing it. In his mind, as long as he could score, everything was allowed.

However, he also knew that all of his teammates had their blood boiling right now. So, if he tried to use some cheap tricks, this would discourage them all, which would be bad in the long run.

'Well… It seems I need to abandon my previous cautious approach.' He sighed before narrowing his eyes sharply to the opponent's formation. 'So be it! Let's see if they can stop this!'

FWEEEEE!

Right after the referee blew the whistle, Yuki tossed the ball slightly in the air before leaping forward, recoiling his arms while gathering strength inside his body. He narrowed his eyes a little, focusing on Kaito who he and the team considered as the opponent's biggest weakness. There, he could see Yusuke was moving to cover his friend. That was a good approach to protect their best player from having to receive the ball. Unfortunately, Yuki was not an ordinary server.

'Well, if you want to go there, don't forget about your original position!'

BAM!

Yusuke who was half on his way to cover Kaito was startled when he saw the ball come to his original position. He tried to react and throw his body acrobatically to save the ball, but it had a quite nasty spin, curving slightly into his body. As a result, he could only close his eyes and brace himself for the impact before finally, the ball hit him straight on the chest and bounced directly to the floor.

"First point!" Yuki pointed his finger to the sky cooly as he celebrated the successful serve. "This is just the first!" He repeated his words, punching his chest excitedly. He didn't have to wait for so long as in the next second, a loud noise broke through the building as everyone was cheering on him.

"OH! THAT IS OUR YUKI!"

"OUR WUIET ASSASSIN, YUKI KOBAYASHI!"

"Hell, yeah! Nice serve, Yuki!" Kaede who was the closest to him gave a high-five. "Damn, with you on this team, everything is going to be easy! Come on, keep this up!"

"Yeah! Give us the second one, Yuki!"

"Don't worry about everything, just go all out!"

Facing the encouragement from his teammates and the cheers from the crowd, Yuki's confidence rose to the peak level. He saw that the opponent's players were gathering around and discussing something, yet he couldn't care less about it. Even though he had already heard about their playing style during the intelligence meeting, he still didn't want to take a risk and aim at the player he had never seen taking action before. So, his target was still the same, either Kaito or Yusuke.

'Usually, my opponent would just brush the first attempt off, thinking it is either coincidence or I am just that lucky. This will be my advantage for the next serve.'

Right after the referee blew the whistle, Yuki still didn't change his target, going for Yusuke. Unlike before, even though Yusuke was stepping forward to get into Kaito's position before the ball was launched, he was still aware that he could be the target, so he managed to react in time to get the ball. However, due to him being out of position, his receive was far from perfect, and the ball just flew far to the right wing which their captain had to rush outside to cover it.

BAM!

"Shit! Sorry, Captain!"

"I got this! I got this!"

Unfortunately, while Suzuki managed to recover the ball, since he couldn't see the court clearly, he didn't know where he sent the ball to. As a result, the ball flew far too close to the net, and even though Ao, Kikugawa's middle blocker wanted to reach for it first, Hirano was still one step faster, tapping it lightly and dropping the ball into Kikugawa's territory.

Thud!

"Oh! Nice kill, Rano-senpai!"

"Nice judgment! You react to the play perfectly!"

"Keep it up!"

After two successful ace services in a row, the momentum was completely on Yuki's side. He also knew that the same trick wouldn't work three times in a row, so, he went back to the original plan to target Kaito.

'Now that I show my intention to target Yusuke, he would be wary of my next serve. This is my chance to go back to the original plan and kill him right on the spot.'

With that thought in mind, Yuki threw the ball for the three times in a row in the last minute, hitting it with his full power. The accuracy itself wasn't as good as before, and the route was not as complicated as his usual style. Just pure, raw unadulterated power. However, it was enough to catch the opponent off guard, and just like he thought before, Yusuke reacted too late as he was entangled with the idea of Yuki targeting him again, resulting in Kaito having to face the ball alone. In the end…

BAM!