The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

Chapter 90: Riku's Revenge!

The next few minutes were like a personal show for Yuki. He pulled so many tricks for his services that it started to make Kyoei players doubt themselves. Yuki really understood the essence of an ace service that Sekine taught him and managed to implement it in a real game.

'So many players misunderstand that ace means powerful. No, in fact, it is way simpler than that. It doesn't matter whether your serve is powerful or not, but as long as your opponent cannot handle it and you can score so many points from it, you can call your serve an 'ace'. So, don't worry about the power. Use your head more.'

That was what Sekine said to Yuki in the training camp, and that was what Yuki did during the game. It was as if he turned into a devious magician, kept pulling magical rabbits out of nowhere to confuse the audience. And Kyoei's players who were the poor audience in that metaphor still couldn't comprehend how he did that, making it easier for Yuki to keep scoring from the service line.

It wasn't until his ninth serve in a row that finally, Kyoei players could sigh in relief. Their nightmare was finally over when Yuki's serve fell short to the net, couldn't cross the other side of the court.

"Sorry, everyone! I mess up!" Yuki apologized quickly.

"Don't worry, Yuki! You did a good job!"

"Yeah! Nine consecutive points from the service line is insane! Don't worry about it!"

By now, everyone was used to calling each other by the new nicknames Sekine had given during the intermission before. Of course, it was easier for the sophomore players to do that since they were older, but Yuki still felt awkward about not calling his senpai using any honorifics.

"Don't daze around like that, Yuki!" Riku's voice suddenly snapped him from his thoughts. "Keep your eyes on the ball! The next play is about to begin!"

Yuki shook his head immediately, trying to regain his focus back. Even though the current score was 9 – 0 for them, they couldn't let their guard down, knowing that losing one more set in this game would mean game over for the team. He stared intently at Nitta on the other side who was preparing to serve the ball, knowing that what came next would be a powerful one.

'Come on... You keep targeting me before, right? Do it again... Do it again... Yosh!'

As Yuki expected, a rocket serve hurtling towards his direction with incredible speed and accuracy. The ball was moving so fast that only a few players could track its movement.

However, the two players in Tsunemori's back line were those who could do that, and they came prepared for this serve as Yuki took a step aside quickly, and the player next to him reacted in synch as he stretched out his arms to reach the ball.

By now, Yuki had already noticed that Nitta wasn't too keen on a quick attack. While the Kyoei's ace managed to pull it up once or twice, the power generated was always lower than his normal spike, and Yuki could see that he was uncomfortable doing a speed attack. That was why he was confident that the ball that came next wasn't a quick.

*BAM!*

"Chance ball!"

"Nice block, Rano!"

"Yuki!"

Receiving the deflection block by Hirano, Yuki passed it to Riku on the front line immediately. This time, it was his turn to join the attack, and with a quick glance at the blonde boy, he cut through the middle from his initial position on the left back immediately, attracting three blockers to come into his direction.

"Riku!" He shouted.

Kyoei's blockers led by Haruo kept their eyes intently on him, while the rest of them stared at the other Tsunemori players, didn't want to get fooled once again by their trick.

Unfortunately, by doing that, they had already jumped voluntarily toward Riku's trap, and when all the eyes weren't on him, the blonde boy suddenly extended one of his hands higher to reach the ball before tapping it gently toward the other side.

*Thud!*

Time seemed to freeze in a second, as the only sound that could be heard there was the ball bouncing on the floor. All the Kyoei players were jaw-slacked, staring at the ball in disbelief. And out of them all, the one who had the most exaggerated reaction was Haruo, probably one of the best blockers in his generation who just got fooled by a cheap dump trick from the setter.

This really showed all the players there that even the best player could still be fooled once they lost their concentration.

The taller blonde boy kept staring at the ball with a complicated expression for a while before his head turned to the other side of the net where the smaller blonde boy grinned smugly at him.

"HA! Finally, I got you, Bastard!"