Haikyuu - Chapter 315 (Patreon)

The moment the whistle blew, Sakusa sprang into action, tossing the volleyball into the air. With his knees bent and his body leaning forward, he charged ahead.

Yamagata's gaze remained locked on Sakusa and the ball. He didn't dare let his attention wander for even a second.

As the volleyball slowly began to descend, Sakusa launched himself off the floor.

His right hand lined up with the ball, ready to strike.

Yamagata's nerves stretched taut to their absolute limit.

The next instant, he heard it.

"Bang!"

Sakusa slammed his hand into the volleyball.

It shot toward Shiratorizawa like an arrow released from a bow.

Yamagata immediately adjusted his footing, his mind racing as he tried to calculate what kind of spin the ball carried and what path it would take.

The volleyball swept through a wide arc, spinning violently through the air. It was almost impossible to tell whether it would land farther forward or farther back.

Yamagata's head was starting to hurt. Sakusa's serves had always been unpredictable, but if he watched closely enough before, there had at least been some pattern to them. Now Sakusa seemed to have completely stopped caring whether anyone survived. It practically felt like, if he couldn't score, he might as well kill someone with the ball instead.

After crossing the net, the volleyball spun violently several more times before its trajectory finally stabilized. Then it came hurtling straight toward Yamagata's face, fast as lightning.

Yamagata had been watching the ball the entire time. Its flight had been twisting all over the place, and since this was Sakusa's serve, there was no telling whether he had some little trick in store. Yamagata couldn't help growing increasingly tense.

Then, in the next instant, the ball's trajectory suddenly straightened and flew directly toward where he was standing.

Yamagata's pupils contracted sharply. The tiny image of the volleyball was the only thing reflected in them.

His eyes locked onto it like a sniper's scope.

He had only a fraction of a second.

Yamagata moved immediately, bending his knees and bringing his arms up to meet the ball.

"Bang!"

But sometimes, what the eyes saw and what the body actually felt were two different things.

Yamagata did receive the ball, but only for an instant. The moment it touched his arms, it ricocheted upward and flew behind him.

Yamagata frowned and immediately spun around to chase it.

He felt the ball was still salvageable, so he took off after it in a race against time.

Everyone else was moving as well, but their eyes remained fixed on Yamagata.

He chased the volleyball all the way toward the boundary. Just when it looked certain to fly out, it suddenly slammed down right on the line.

At the same moment, the referee's whistle rang out to signal the point.

"Beep————!"

The sound stretched through the arena.

Itachiyama had scored directly off the serve.

"Sakusa! Nice one!"

Komori saw the frustrated expression on Yamagata's face across the court and grinned so widely his cheeks nearly hurt. It wasn't often he got to see Yamagata suffer like this. Opportunities like this were few and far between.

Sakusa glanced at Komori's barely contained smugness and rolled his eyes.

"Don't gloat."

At his cousin's rebuke, Komori instantly wiped the grin off his face.

Right. Sakusa was absolutely right.

In some ways, Komori was definitely the type to blindly dote on his cousin.

Yamagata scratched his hair in frustration and said sheepishly to Reon, who had come over to him, "This kid's serves are getting harder and harder to deal with. I'll definitely get the next one."

Whether Yamagata was promising Reon or reassuring himself was anyone's guess.

Reon nodded. He believed Yamagata could do it, but Shiratorizawa had very little room left for error. Even a single point that seemed insignificant could affect everything that came afterward.

Reon didn't say anything. He simply patted Yamagata on the shoulder and gave him a look that said, I believe in you.

Yamagata returned to his position.

Tendo stood at the net, narrowing his eyes as he studied Sakusa at the service line.

In Tendo's eyes, Sakusa was gloomy, constantly wearing a sour expression as though everyone around him owed him a fortune. He really couldn't understand what Ryosuke saw in the guy. Sakusa wasn't good enough for Ryosuke at all.

Tendo secretly compared himself to Sakusa.

If he wanted to prove he was better than Sakusa, there was only one way to do it.

In this match, he would block every ball Sakusa sent his way.

The thought immediately sent Tendo's fighting spirit soaring. Despite normally looking half-dead from morning to night, he suddenly seemed pumped full of adrenaline.

Kawanishi, standing beside him, couldn't stop glancing over.

If emotions could take physical form, everyone would have clearly seen a little question mark hovering over Kawanishi's head while flames blazed around Tendo from head to toe.

Back on the court, Sakusa stood straight and proper at the service line. Pretending to casually roll his neck, he quietly stole a glance at Ryosuke.

Only to discover that Ryosuke was looking at him too.

Their eyes met without warning.

Sakusa immediately snapped his head back around as if he'd been burned, though the tips of his ears quietly turned red.

Ryosuke tilted his head, unable to understand what had gotten into Sakusa. After another glance, he went right back to chatting happily with Tsutomu Goshiki.

Meanwhile, across the stands, Keigo Atobe had been aiming his camera at Ryosuke the entire time. When he saw what happened, he became so furious his hair nearly stood on end.

He knew Sakusa was no good!

If he was serving, then just serve. What was he doing deliberately flirting with Ryosuke?!

If the telephoto lens in Atobe's hands had suddenly turned into an 8x scope, he probably would have sniped Sakusa on the spot.

"Beep————!"

The instant the whistle blew, everything else vanished from Sakusa's mind.

All that remained was the volleyball in front of him and Yamagata on the opposite side of the court. His entire presence settled into stillness.

Sakusa tossed the ball into the air and raised his head, tracking it as he prepared to serve.

The volleyball dropped into the perfect position.

Sakusa jumped and hammered it toward the opposite court.

"Bang!"

A deafening impact rang through the arena as the volleyball blasted toward Shiratorizawa's court like a cannonball.

At the sound alone, those who understood volleyball and those who didn't alike flinched in unison, almost feeling the pain themselves.

If that hit someone, wouldn't it actually kill them?

The volleyball spun toward Shiratorizawa's backcourt as Yamagata kept his eyes firmly trained on it.

The first serve had caught him too suddenly. He hadn't had time to get a feel for it, and Sakusa's serves really were difficult to receive.

But this time was different.

Yamagata was highly adaptable. One serve was all he needed to start getting a feel for it.

The volleyball twisted erratically through the air, its rotation becoming almost impossible to track.

A bead of sweat slid down Yamagata's forehead. His arms tensed as he took a large step sideways with his right foot, then dropped sharply into a crouch and thrust both arms forward.

No matter what, he was going to receive this one.

"Bang!"

The sound of the volleyball smashing into Yamagata's arms carried all the way across the enormous court and into the stands.