The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

It was just a simple question. Honestly, everyone should be relieved that the problem wasn't that big. Or… So that was what they thought.

Unfortunately, reality didn't agree with that. For Uehara, even though Riku had a decent reason to not pass the ball at him, he would see it as a blatant disrespect toward the ace, as if the blonde boy wanted to challenge his status as the team's ace. Of course, it was just a paranoid thought here. Normally, he wouldn't even entertain that thought. However, empowered by Riku's amazing performance in the last couple of games and his horrible state today, he couldn't help but feel like he wasn't wrong. It didn't help that Riku didn't back down when he came at the younger boy, and instead, the setter dared to stare back at him with no fright in his eyes.

If Uehara was in doubt before, he sure knew now that Riku wanted to challenge his status on the team.

Seeing the tension grow higher even after the question was uttered, they looked at the two players warily, ready to separate them both if they had a clash here. After all, the league would never tolerate such behavior, and the punishment would be severe for the team.

Yuki himself tried his best to hold back rolling his eyes exasperatedly at his senpai. 'Really? Didn't he notice that he is under the watch of the two most troublesome players our opponent has? He would be able to see that if he can play calmer.'

Riku seemed to agree with that sentiment as he didn't even bat his eyes when he uttered his answer. "Senpai, even though it looks like you are in an empty position, Jun Amano and their captain have been eyeing you since the beginning of the play. They want to bait you to attack and crush your spirit by stopping your attack with an absolute block. Knowing that, do you still think I should pass the ball to you?"

Uehara was not convinced since he didn't see those two were coming at him. However, when he turned around to ask for the other's support, he felt betrayed when he saw Shou also nodded in agreement. Kojima of course would agree with that too since he was the one who reaped the benefit of it.

After spending another moment in silence and looking at the unwavering will in Riku's eyes, Uehara knew he wouldn't win this debate. Moreover, the team scored, so he couldn't say the blonde boy's decision was wrong. In the end, he just let out a deep, frustrating sigh before muttering, "Sorry." And left Riku alone.

"Man, that is tense." Kojima let out a relieved sigh when he saw the ace finally backed down. "Anyway, good pass, Agostini! Keep your eyes on me more in the future, okay?" He grinned.

"Of course, Senpai." Unlike with Uehara before, Riku's expression now was soft. After all, even though he was a lowkey player, Kojima was always polite to everyone, so it wouldn't hurt Riku to do a favor here and there.

All the Thunder players around them sighed in relief as the confrontation didn't break between those two. However, this incident was enough to alarm Kawaki that there was something wrong with his team.

The coach knew that seniority was a big thing in Japan. Hell, he was a part of it, having to respect his senpai so much while also enjoying the adoration from his kouhai. Even though he had never experienced it, he could guess what a huge blow it was to see his kouhai didn't listen to him and even pointed out his mistake. Of course, he wasn't blaming Riku here. It was within his right to send the ball to the player he thought would have the biggest chance to score. Still, he knew that Uehara wouldn't see it like that.

'I need to talk to them both in the future.' He took a note inside his head.

After the situation was controllable once again, the referee took his moment to reprimand both Riku and Uehara for delaying the game. Those two just nodded obediently, apologizing for their mistake. However, it was clear that they didn't take it by their heart.

A moment later, everyone was ready to continue the game. This time, it was Yuki's turn to be on the service line, and he could hear sharp breath from all around the building.

'Damn, it is him again!'

'Don't worry, Amano-kun will be able to handle it.' Experience exclusive tales on empire

'What if he sent the ball far from Amano?'

'Well, that is…'

As the whispers from the supporters were getting louder though, Amano suddenly took it to his advantage as he suddenly waved both his hands to the stand, encouraging them to get louder. At first, no one could understand what Amano wanted to do. However, once someone knew about his intention and did what he asked for, all the people on the stand followed it up immediately.

"Come on, Phoenix!"

"Your serve is suck!"

"You cannot score!"

"Your ace is suck!"

Yuki was taken aback immediately when he saw the supporters suddenly shout together at him. He would be lying to say that it wasn't intimidating. However, when Yuki's eyes met Amano's on the other side of the court, the glasses boy understood what Amano was trying to do.

'He wants to put pressure on me?! Is there something I reveal that gives away the clue that I am bad under pressure? Maybe, it is how I constantly take a deep breath before doing a serve?' Yuki didn't know that he was so right on the spot. 'Well, it doesn't matter anyway. Let's see if they can handle this.'

Of course, Yuki won't send his 'serve to the traffic' trick again. After all, the moment he grabbed the ball, Phoenix's defense formation shrunk as everyone gathered in the middle as if they wanted him to do that trick again. It seemed that they hadn't given up on revealing the trick behind it. Unfortunately, Yuki would never give them satisfaction by doing that. Instead, he had the intention to return the service Amano had done before.

BAM!

Even though the power was slightly behind Amano's, Yuki put more effort into making the ball spin more, and as a result, it curved outside sharply, going from a serve straight to the middle back into a curve one that Nakamura found a hard time to pick it up.

"Shit!" Nakamura cursed as his save was far from perfect. "It is close to the net! Shigeo, get it first!" He shouted.

"Tondo-senpai!" Yuki also shouted, calling out for his senpai.

The two blockers didn't need to be told twice to move. Even though they were almost useless in most of the offense plays, the aerial contest in front of the net was their specialty. They jumped at the same time, both extending their arms far to reach the ball first. Coincidentally enough, they touched it at the same time, and for a millisecond they hung in the air, they had a strength contest to see who could overpower whom and pushed the ball toward the other side of the court.

'Shit! What a brute!' Shigeo cursed as he felt the overwhelming power from Tondo.

'Ha! Don't think you can win this contest, Bastard!' Tondo thought as he pushed the ball more.

In the end, Tondo finally showed his class here by overpowering the Phoenix's blocker by a small margin. It was still enough though, to gain an edge in this aerial battle as he controlled the ball better and pushed it down the Phoenix's side.

Thud!

As the ball was falling on the floor, Tondo's face flushed red in excitement as he raised his hand high. "YOSSHAAAAA!"