The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

Chapter 97: Connection Between Yuki & Hirano! (II)

Yuki was never a mind reader. He didn't even know what he was thinking sometimes, let alone what was inside the other people's heads. However, just for this time, he activated every single cell inside his brain to concentrate himself into one player, trying to see whether he could read the other's mind or not. And that player was of course Hirano, the middle blocker of the team.

It seemed wrong though, to say he wanted to read Hirano's mind. No, what Yuki wanted to do currently was to see every tiny detail of Hirano's body movement, trying to predict where the blocker would go and what wanted to do. He wanted to see whether the connection he felt before when the collision happened was real or just his imagination.

'Come on, Senpai... Let me prove this... Come on...'

Yuki stared at the blocker intently from behind, even forgetting that they were still in the middle of the game. He was so eager to see whether what happened before was pure accident or there was something more behind it. And after what seemed to be forever, the chance finally came.

After the chaotic overhead ball situation which Hirano managed to deal with that calmly, the ball flew with a high speed toward the wing. Hirano also moved there, however, he deliberately slowed down his speed, as if wanting to do something. All of this movement was caught by Yuki's eyes, making the glasses boy more confused.

'This is not your regular speed, Rano-senpai. What are you going to do? Wait! Oh! I got it!'

When his eyes met Hirano's for a millisecond, realization suddenly hit him hard like lightning. Hirano deliberately slowed down his speed to give the opponent's hitter the illusion that he couldn't get it. The millisecond silent communication between those two was enough for Yuki to figure out Hirano's intention here and rush forward to fill in the gap.

Yeah, what Hirano wanted was to give the opponent's hitter the illusion that no one was going to block him on time. And when the hitter lowered his guard, he would appear out of nowhere like a ghost, inserting himself next to his senpai and blocking the ball at the same time.

*BAM!*

"ONE CHANCE!" Yuki shouted when he felt the ball hit his hand.

"I got this!"

Koji picked up the ball easily, sending it to Riku. Not wanting to give the opponent any chance to recover, the blonde boy jumped immediately, spiking the ball by himself. His action caught the opponent off guard, and the ball fell far to the backside of Kyoei's court.

"YOSSHAAAA!"

"Sorry! A bit short!"

"Don't worry about it!"

*BAM!*

"YEAAAAH!"

Once again, Tsunemori managed to score another point from a quick counterattack initiated by Yuki's soft block. All the Kyoei players could only stare at each other helplessly. They didn't know what happened on the other team.

One moment the situation looked bad with the collision between their two best players, now those two were so in sync to cover each other's back and prevented them from scoring any point again.

Another unknown witchcraft from Tsunemori High.

"Any idea on how to deal with this situation, Captain?" Nitta asked. Although his tone was nonchalant, Ito could see the nervousness behind it. It seemed even the ace started to worry about the game too.

"I don't know." Ito also shook his head with an identical helpless expression. "The strategy to target the number 19 seems to look more idiotic right now, especially if the number 19 keeps coming forward and joins the blocker. With those two on the front, even though our attack is not easy to get killed directly, they could soften the blow and make it easier for their teammates to pick it up."

"Captain, I ask if you have any solution or not, not to praise them like that." Nitta clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Well, I am analyzing their game here. At least it would give us an image of why we cannot score easily again. And it is not like you are providing any solution too here." Ito retorted back snarkily, the muscle on his face also twitched a bit, showing the irritation that started to rise.

For a moment, they stared at each other intently while the tension around them rose astronomically, making their other teammates nervous. However, one particular person who had zero ability to read the situation suddenly interrupted, which ironically saved the team from blaming and pointing their finger at each other.

"Ano... Senpai, can you hear my idea first?"