Haikyuu - Chapter 325 (Patreon)

Doichiro, who was blocking beside Sakusa, saw it too.

For a split second, he was terrified that Sakusa's hand had actually broken.

Then he suddenly remembered that Sakusa's wrist was always that flexible and let out a long sigh of relief.

Sakusa's wrist was simply too loose to withstand the full force of the spike.

The volleyball slipped past his hand and flew into Itachiyama's court.

As soon as the three blockers landed, they all turned around at once.

Komori was already crouched in the backcourt, knees bent, receiving the ball.

The volleyball bounced off his arms and rose high into the air.

Iizuna ran underneath it and jumped to set.

The moment Doichiro and Sakusa saw that Komori had kept the ball alive, they turned and began their approaches.

At this point, neither of them cared who Iizuna chose to set.

As long as they scored, that was enough.

Iizuna jumped and quickly surveyed the court.

At the net, Sakusa was already preparing to take off, but Ryosuke had his eyes firmly locked on him from the opposite side.

Goshiki and Kawanishi had divided up the remaining attackers as well.

One was watching Doichiro, while the other was keeping an eye on Nishio.

Now Nishio even had someone assigned specifically to him.

Kawanishi was worried the kid might suddenly pull another unexpected move.

After the last few rallies, it was hard not to be wary of him.

The rest of Shiratorizawa gradually shifted closer to the frontcourt.

Their defense up front was too thin.

There was no way Ryosuke could cover everything alone.

Shirabu, for example, had already moved forward and was positioned directly behind Ryosuke.

Sakusa bent his knees, preparing to jump.

Ryosuke immediately readied himself to block.

Then Iizuna suddenly changed his hand position.

Instead of setting, he switched into a setter dump.

Iizuna was at position two, with Goshiki nearby.

Goshiki kept glancing back and forth, one moment watching Iizuna, the next turning toward Sakusa.

The instant Goshiki's attention shifted to Sakusa, Iizuna acted.

Without hesitation, he gently tipped the ball over with his left hand.

Iizuna's left hand was actually quite powerful.

But this time, he deliberately used very little force.

Goshiki was far too close to the ball.

If Iizuna made the motion too obvious, Goshiki would react immediately.

And Goshiki's reflexes were nothing to underestimate.

If he noticed in time, there was no guarantee this attack would score.

Iizuna simply gave the volleyball a light push with his palm.

The ball floated softly over the net.

Goshiki was still looking toward Sakusa.

Sakusa had already jumped, but the ball hadn't gone anywhere near him.

Just as Goshiki started wondering what was going on, he suddenly saw Ryosuke stop his own takeoff and sprint toward him.

Goshiki understood instantly.

That damn setter had snuck the ball into the frontcourt again.

He whipped his head around.

The volleyball had already crossed the net and was slowly dropping toward the floor.

Goshiki rushed forward and threw himself into a dive.

The ball struck the back of his hand where it covered the floor and bounced upward.

But Iizuna had barely put any force behind the tip in the first place.

Even after hitting Goshiki's hand, the ball couldn't rise very far.

Everyone could only watch as it popped up a short distance before dropping again.

Ryosuke had sprinted over at full speed, but even he couldn't reach it.

The volleyball bounced lightly against the floor a few times before finally coming to a stop.

Ryosuke stopped too.

The referee's whistle rang out.

"Beep————!"

Itachiyama had scored again.

"Nice one, Iizuna! That was great, hahaha!"

Doichiro walked over laughing and slapped Iizuna on the shoulder.

He didn't care that Iizuna had just used him as a decoy.

If it helped the team score, Doichiro had nothing to complain about.

The stands erupted again.

Nothing excited a crowd quite like a scoring streak.

"Another beautiful play! Itachiyama has now scored several points in a row and has completely seized the momentum!"

"Nishio served, Yamagata received, and Shirabu adjusted the ball before sending it to Shiratorizawa's ace, Ushijima!"

"Itachiyama formed a three-man block. Ushijima went straight for the attack, but surprisingly, he didn't use his left hand. He attacked with his right instead!"

"As everyone knows, Ushijima's powerful left-handed attacks have scored countless points throughout major tournaments. It'll be interesting to see what changes now that he's able to attack with his right as well!"

"Ushijima's right-handed spike was touched by Sakusa's block, but Itachiyama couldn't stop it outright. Komori kept the ball alive, and Iizuna moved in for the next play!"

"Doichiro and Sakusa were positioned at three and four, while Nishio was at six, giving Itachiyama three possible attacking options!"

"But unexpectedly, Iizuna didn't set at all! He attacked himself from position two with a left-handed tip and scored!"

After listening to the commentary, Ryosuke felt an unusual sense of frustration and let out a sigh.

Blocking by himself had already been stressful enough.

Now Iizuna had started attacking too.

Ryosuke wasn't just responsible for watching Itachiyama's wing spikers and middle blockers anymore.

Now he also had to account for the setter.

The pressure had increased again.

An attacking setter really was as troublesome as people said.

Ryosuke had a feeling that Iizuna's setter dumps wouldn't stop here.

If anything, he might become even more aggressive.

But Ryosuke currently had no good way to restrain him.

Setter dumps were already difficult to defend against.

And Iizuna was left-handed on top of that.

Goshiki thought Ryosuke was blaming himself, so he hurried over to comfort him.

"It's fine, it's fine! That last one was my fault. If I hadn't kept looking around, maybe I could've gotten it."

The more Goshiki talked, the more convinced he became that it really had been his fault.

His mood started sinking too.

Ryosuke couldn't help finding it a little funny.

Now he was the one who had to comfort Goshiki.

"It wasn't your fault. Even if I'd been there, I might not have gotten that ball."

"If anyone's responsible, then I guess it should be me."

Yamagata walked over, scratching his head.

He looked a little embarrassed.

Aside from serve receive, Yamagata felt like he hadn't contributed much during this match.

Ryosuke and Goshiki had been covering most of the defensive work themselves.

Ryosuke shook his head.

Then he looked at Yamagata.

"Yamagata-senpai, I'm going to need you to keep a closer eye on the frontcourt from now on. Anything we can't block, I'll leave to you."

Yamagata thumped his chest confidently.

"Don't worry. Leave it to me."

Ryosuke nodded, and everyone returned to their positions.

Itachiyama still had the serve.

This time, however, the server was Doichiro.

Doichiro's serving was decent.

At the very least, it was better than Nishio's.

Doichiro walked to the service line and served.

The ball crossed into Shiratorizawa's court, where Yamagata received it.

From there, the rallies began unfolding exactly as Ryosuke had feared.

Sakusa, despite being a wing spiker, suddenly stopped attacking as often.

Instead, Iizuna became the one aggressively scoring.

Sometimes Sakusa acted as a decoy while Iizuna slipped the ball over.

Other times Iizuna specifically targeted gaps in the block.

It was almost impossible to defend against.

"Bang!"

Iizuna scored with another setter attack.

This time it wasn't a tip.

He slammed the ball down hard with his left hand.

With Sakusa and Doichiro acting as decoys, Itachiyama had now pulled five points ahead.

Ryosuke pushed himself off the floor yet again.

He had already lost count of how many times he'd dived during this set.

Iizuna's attacks were incredibly difficult to read.

Yamagata was trying to watch the frontcourt too, but he couldn't cover everything at once.

Most of it still fell on Ryosuke.

"Beep————!"

The referee's whistle sounded again.

Goshiki jogged over and reached down to pull Ryosuke up.

Seeing him covered in dust, Goshiki started patting at his clothes while muttering, "It's fine, it's fine. We'll shut them down on the next one."

Ryosuke sighed.

"Ugh. This is frustrating."

It was the first time Ryosuke had ever truly felt frustrated on the court.

Seeing his mood drop, everyone came over to comfort him.

Ryosuke only waved them off.

"It won't affect my play. Don't worry."

Ushijima looked around.

Both Goshiki and Ryosuke were visibly deflated.

So he finally spoke.

"From now on, we'll focus on offense."

"Goshiki, Kawanishi, Ryosuke, and I will form a four-option attack."

"When Ryosuke isn't attacking, he'll block. Anything we aren't confident we can stop, let it through to Yamagata."

"If we keep focusing only on defense, we'll stay on the back foot."

With the same calm expression as always, Ushijima laid out their next plan.

Normally, Ushijima rarely gave instructions.

With the coach and Reon around, he usually preferred to speak as little as possible.

But the team's morale had dropped.

As captain, Ushijima had to step in.

The plan was simple, direct, and effective.

He hadn't said anything earlier because he'd wanted Goshiki and Ryosuke to gain experience.

But after watching the two first-years struggle through rally after rally, even Ushijima couldn't keep leaving everything to them.

The moment Ushijima finished speaking, three pairs of admiring eyes turned toward him.

Shirabu: Ushijima-senpai is as dependable as ever.

Goshiki: So cool! That's our ace!

Ryosuke: Ushijima-senpai is surprisingly dependable on the court.

Once the plan was settled, everyone returned to position.

Doichiro walked back to the service line yet again.

He had been standing there for quite a while now.

Iizuna's scoring streak had practically welded him to the service position.

Doichiro tossed the volleyball up.

Just like in the previous rallies, he jumped and struck it.

Yamagata honestly found Doichiro's serves fairly easy to receive.

He adjusted his position slightly and handled it without much trouble.

"Bang!"

Yamagata delivered a beautiful first pass to Shirabu.

Shirabu ran beneath the ball.

Then, as he prepared to set, everyone moved at once.

Ryosuke sprinted toward position two.

Ushijima moved into position three.

Goshiki followed behind Ushijima, ready for a back-row attack.

Kawanishi was also preparing to attack from position four.

Nishio initially followed the same pattern as before, preparing to watch Goshiki.

But this time, Goshiki didn't jump.

Ushijima did.

Nishio was briefly caught off guard, but quickly adjusted.

"Kishimoto!"

Kishimoto had been preparing to block at position four.

The moment he heard Nishio's shout, he rushed over.

He saw Ushijima and immediately understood.

There was no way Nishio could block Ushijima alone.

Kawanishi still had Doichiro covering his side.

And even if Doichiro couldn't get to the block, Komori was in the frontcourt and ready to cover.

Meanwhile, Sakusa was marking Ryosuke at position two.

Ryosuke, however, felt confident that he could break through Sakusa's block.

Everyone waited for Shirabu to set.

But Shirabu didn't.

Instead, he went for a setter dump.

Shirabu was positioned between positions three and four, where he could easily run a quick play.

Nishio believed he would too.

After all, throughout the entire match, Shirabu had given everyone the impression that he was the kind of setter who simply did his job and set the ball honestly.

No tricks.

No setter dumps.

Almost too straightforward.

Shirabu shaped his hands as if he were setting to Ushijima.

Ushijima jumped to attack.

But at the last moment, Shirabu subtly changed his hand position.

Even Ushijima thought the ball was coming to him.

He jumped to spike, only to find nothing there.

Turning his head, he saw Shirabu gently flick the volleyball over the net.

The ball skimmed past Kishimoto's arm as it crossed.

The entire point of the play was to disguise the setter dump as a normal set.

Shirabu deliberately sent the ball close to Kishimoto's shoulder so he would assume the ball was going to Ushijima.

That hesitation would stop Kishimoto from reacting in time.

And because the ball passed outside his arm, even if Kishimoto did realize what was happening, he would still struggle to reach it.

To receive a ball on the outside of your arm, you had to completely readjust your posture.

Kishimoto was already airborne.

There was no way for him to reposition himself properly.

The volleyball brushed past his shoulder and fell toward the floor.

Kishimoto and Shirabu's bodies also blocked Komori's view.

Komori had been hovering near Kawanishi.

The moment he saw Shirabu preparing to set and Ushijima preparing to attack, he immediately backed up to prepare for Ushijima's spike.

He never expected Shirabu to send over such a soft setter dump instead.

And even without Shirabu's attack, Ushijima's spike could still have scored.

Even if Ushijima's attack had been blocked back, Goshiki was waiting behind him.

He was ready to attack the rebound, and from that position he could also launch a back-row attack.

The entire formation had one purpose.

They had to score this point no matter what.

They had prepared three separate options.

If none of them worked, then they were truly in trouble.

And if they won this point, Ryosuke would be the next server.

With the way Ryosuke served, tying the score in one rotation wasn't impossible.

The volleyball skimmed past Kishimoto's shoulder and dropped.

Both Kishimoto and Ushijima froze for a moment.

Kishimoto recovered first.

He tried to copy Ryosuke and use his foot to save the ball.

But the moment he tried to move his leg, his center of gravity shifted.

He landed awkwardly, unable to even lift his foot properly.

"Beep————!"

The referee's whistle rang out.

It was Shiratorizawa's first point after Itachiyama's scoring streak.

The stands immediately erupted.

"Nice one, setter!"

"Shirabu-senpai is so cool!"

"Shirabu-senpai, please hit me!"

Something strange seemed to have slipped into the cheering.

Either way, Shirabu's play had broken through the gloomy atmosphere in a single move.

The tension finally cracked.

After landing, Ushijima gave Shirabu a strange but approving look.

He hadn't expected Shirabu to be this devious.

Even more surprising, Shirabu had apparently finally moved past his old belief that "real men don't need tricks."

Ushijima nodded approvingly.

"Shirabu, nice work."