Haikyuu - Chapter 326 (Patreon)

Shirabu froze.

Then the flush spread from his neck all the way to the top of his head, and he hurriedly shouted, "I was already good to begin with!"

He quickly turned away to calm himself down, his face so red it looked like steam might start coming off it.

Ryosuke watched Shirabu's ears turn bright red and fell into thought.

So Shirabu-senpai embarrassed this easily?

How had he never noticed before?

In reality, Shirabu was only embarrassed because the praise had come from Ushijima.

After all, Ushijima was his idol.

Goshiki came bustling over as well.

"Shirabu-senpai, that was amazing! Nobody even reacted to that play!"

Shirabu turned toward him with a proud expression.

"Of course."

That play had been incredibly satisfying for Shiratorizawa.

For the past several rallies, they'd been completely on the defensive.

Iizuna's setter attacks were powerful, irritating, and extremely difficult to receive.

Now Shirabu had taken a point back with the exact same kind of attack.

It felt incredibly refreshing.

The commentator's voice followed immediately.

"Great play! After Itachiyama's scoring streak, Shiratorizawa has changed its approach, shifting from defense to offense!"

"Itachiyama's Doichiro served, Yamagata received, and Shirabu moved in to set. Meanwhile, Goshiki, Ryosuke, Kawanishi, and Ushijima all approached the net as potential attackers!"

"But unexpectedly, Shirabu disguised the attack as a set before switching to a setter dump! The ball slipped past Kishimoto's arm as he blocked and landed on the court, allowing Shiratorizawa to finally take a point back!"

"And now the serve returns to Shiratorizawa! Let's see what kind of performance they'll give us next!"

The flush on Shirabu's face still hadn't completely faded after receiving so much praise.

At that moment, Iizuna walked up to the net.

He stared at Shirabu for several seconds before breaking into a grin.

"I didn't expect you to have a move like that too, Shirabu."

Iizuna really was surprised.

He'd heard people from other schools saying Shiratorizawa had changed, but he hadn't thought much of it.

At most, he'd assumed it simply meant they'd brought in some talented new players.

But after actually playing against them today, Iizuna finally understood.

Shiratorizawa had changed in every way.

Their teamwork had changed.

Their individual play had changed.

Everything was different.

This was a completely new Shiratorizawa.

The moment Shirabu heard Iizuna's voice, he immediately calmed down.

Even the lingering redness on his face disappeared.

"Iizuna-senpai, you're giving me too much credit. I'm a normal setter too, after all."

Iizuna smiled in a way that was difficult to read.

"Then let me see what else you can do."

With that, he turned and walked away.

The instant his back was turned, however, the corners of his mouth lifted.

He looked genuinely pleased.

Of course Iizuna was happy.

There was nothing more enjoyable than meeting an evenly matched opponent.

Off to the side, Kishimoto sighed.

Somehow, he was the only one who ended up suffering.

That last play had genuinely scared him.

The ball had brushed right past his arm, and he hadn't even managed to block it.

For a moment, Kishimoto had thought he'd made a mistake.

That terrified him.

Failing to receive a ball was one thing.

But making a clear mistake?

He'd get chewed out for that.

As Shiratorizawa's longtime rival, Oikawa had been staring wide-eyed ever since the play happened.

This was the first time he'd ever seen Shirabu use a setter dump in a major tournament.

And he'd even sent the ball right past the blocking arm.

That was vicious.

"Since when did Shirabu get this sneaky?!"

Oikawa looked genuinely indignant.

Iwaizumi stared at him.

"You think Shirabu's sneaky? Then what does that make you?"

Oikawa immediately quieted down after getting jabbed right where it hurt.

Then he grinned.

"I was just surprised, Iwa-chan. This is a limited-edition Shirabu. You don't see this very often."

"If you like it that much, arrange a practice match after the tournament and experience it yourself."

Iwaizumi had already seen straight through him.

Oikawa's grin widened.

"Oh, that'd be so embarrassing~"

Iwaizumi turned his head away.

He couldn't stand looking at that expression.

Oikawa might complain about Ushijima every single day, but if he got the chance to play a practice match against a school like Shiratorizawa, complete with free practice partners, he'd be thrilled.

While the two of them whispered back and forth in the stands, the match below had already resumed.

Ryosuke stood at the service line with the volleyball in his hands.

Finally.

It was his turn to serve.

He could finally score directly for the team.

Standing at the service line, Ryosuke chose the serve he was best at.

A powerful hook serve.

He turned his shoulder toward the net and tossed the volleyball into the air.

His body rotated to the right as his weight gradually shifted with it.

Then he planted his right foot.

Power surged through his waist, driving his torso and arm forward.

His palm whipped through the ball.

"Bang!"

The serve looked extremely powerful.

But Ryosuke knew what he was doing.

He'd already estimated its speed and arc.

As long as it stayed in bounds, he didn't particularly care where it landed.

After all, if even he didn't know exactly where the ball was going, then the receiver on the other side definitely wouldn't either.

This was Ryosuke's first serve of the set.

He'd been worried that his touch might be off.

But after making contact, he realized it actually felt pretty good.

Much better than he'd expected.

Komori had been on guard from the moment Ryosuke stepped to the service line.

He'd experienced this serve during previous practice matches.

He couldn't receive it.

He simply couldn't.

Even after Komori eventually figured out a few tricks for dealing with it, Shiratorizawa had usually already pulled the score back by then.

Komori privately called Ryosuke's serve the "Dark Serve."

It crushed whatever hope you had left and wrapped you in pure despair.

Even the team's momentum would start to sink with it.

The volleyball shot off Ryosuke's hand.

Komori gathered himself and focused completely on the ball.

Its rotation was violent.

It looked like a drunk middle-aged man going berserk, smashing everything in sight before swaggering away as though nothing had happened.

Komori could feel the pressure coming from it before the ball was even close.

The volleyball wobbled toward the net.

Its landing point was impossible to read.

Komori was already sweating.

There weren't many serves in the world that could make him completely lose sight of where the ball was going.

Still, the serve carried plenty of power.

It looked as though it would travel deep.

Komori shifted into adjustment steps and moved slightly backward.

The ball crossed the net with a sharp rush of air.

Now it clearly seemed to be heading right.

Komori cautiously moved in that direction.

As a libero, he knew better than anyone that what his eyes showed him in the moment wasn't necessarily what would happen next.

After estimating the general area, Komori waited nearby for the ball to come to him.

For the moment, it was still traveling quickly and steadily.

Then, as it neared the floor, the ball suddenly accelerated.

At first, the change was too subtle to notice.

It wasn't until Komori blinked and found the volleyball practically in front of him that he realized it had gotten faster.

Seeing the momentum behind it, Komori quickly stepped backward.

Then something even stranger happened.

The ball seemed to stop.

At about an arm's length from Komori, it suddenly lost its momentum and floated softly to the floor.

Komori froze.

Ryosuke was just as stunned.

He'd only intended to make the serve powerful and keep it in bounds.

He had absolutely not expected this.

That strange trajectory had been pure luck.

"Beep————!"

The volleyball hit the floor.

Ryosuke remained frozen where he stood.

He hadn't expected that result at all.

Komori's eyes were wide too.

From the outside, the serve might not have looked quite that ridiculous.

But anyone who actually tried to receive it would understand.

"Whoa... that's incredible!"

Aside from the two people directly involved, Nishio was probably the most shocked.

He was still a complete beginner when it came to serving.

The best serve he'd ever seen belonged to Sakusa.

He hadn't expected Ryosuke's to look even more terrifying.

Nishio was genuinely stunned.

"Shiratorizawa scores immediately on their first serve after regaining possession!"

"Ryosuke's hook serve truly lives up to its reputation!"

"Now let's see whether Ryosuke can use that serve to bring Shiratorizawa all the way back and tie the score!"

The commentator's voice came in at exactly the right moment.

"That was a great serve."

Yamagata watched Ryosuke's shot with obvious interest.

He couldn't help wondering whether he could receive something like that himself.

His hands practically itched to try.

But the match was still going on, so he restrained himself.

Goshiki had already seen Ryosuke score on serve plenty of times.

He gave his usual praise, sounding almost completely emotionless.

"Wow, Ryosuke. You're amazing."

Goshiki clapped like a seal.

Ushijima nodded toward Ryosuke.

"Nice work."

Then Kawanishi suddenly hooked an arm around Ryosuke's neck from behind, nearly choking him hard enough to make his eyes roll back.

Laughing loudly, Kawanishi slapped Ryosuke repeatedly on the shoulder.

"It's all on you now, Ryosuke! Serve a few more like that and you'll be the first person to finish an entire match with nothing but serves!"

He sounded so fired up that even Kawanishi himself started getting excited.

Ryosuke laughed while pulling Kawanishi's arm away from his neck.

"All right, senpai, I get it. But ending the match entirely through serving sounds impossible no matter how you look at it."

Seeing that Ryosuke wasn't falling for it, Kawanishi reluctantly let him go.

Across the net, Komori replayed the previous serve in his head and clenched his fists.

Ryosuke had improved again.

If this kept up, Shiratorizawa might keep control of the serve for a long time.

Just thinking about it made Komori feel awful.

He needed to find some way to end Ryosuke's serving run as quickly as possible.

Sakusa walked over and looked at him.

"Don't think too much about it. Ryosuke's serves have always been hard to receive."

Then Sakusa walked away.

Komori remained where he was, tilting his head in confusion.

Had Sakusa just... comforted him?

For a moment, Komori was so moved he nearly cried.

Ever since Sakusa had been old enough to understand things, he'd looked down equally on anyone he considered both unintelligent and childish.

And in Sakusa's eyes, Komori somehow qualified as both.

Poor Komori had practically grown up under Sakusa's sharp tongue.

So that unexpected sentence hit him hard.

Komori even found himself thinking that if he'd known Sakusa was going to say something like that today, he would've brought a camera and recorded it.

What a waste.

The referee glanced over both sides.

Seeing no problems, he blew the whistle for the next rally.

"Beep————!"

At the sound, Ryosuke tossed the volleyball into the air and smoothly repeated the same motion as before.

"Bang!"

The serve shot across the court.

Komori braced himself like he was facing a major threat.

He was nervous.

But he was also strangely excited.

He bent his knees and quickly adjusted his footwork.

This serve was much faster than the previous one.

Fortunately, Komori's reactions were quick enough to keep up.

The volleyball crossed the net and reached Itachiyama's backcourt in the blink of an eye.

Its actual path was slightly different from what Komori had predicted.

He adjusted with quick steps.

Then, once he reached the spot, he extended both arms to receive.

But he still missed.

The ball was simply too fast.

Combined with the unexpected trajectory, it slipped right past him.

Literally past his arm.

The volleyball brushed beside Komori and landed two or three steps behind him.

It came dangerously close to the boundary line.

Ryosuke's eyes immediately locked onto it, his heart jumping into his throat.

Fortunately, it stayed in.

"Beep————!"

Ryosuke scored directly on serve again.

Only three more points remained before the score would be tied.

Hibarida watched the serve with obvious satisfaction and nodded repeatedly.

Excellent.

His serving was excellent too.

And his mentality was strong.

The more Hibarida watched Ryosuke, the more he liked what he saw.

He was already starting to think about how he could bring Ryosuke and Goshiki to the national team together.

In the stands, Hirugami watched Ryosuke's serve with a puzzled expression.

How exactly was Ryosuke controlling a ball like that?

A serve with that much movement was extremely difficult to control.

At best, a player could work on its spin and speed.

But having the ball practically stop in the middle of its trajectory?

Wasn't that the kind of thing that only happened in novels?

Hirugami had a feeling.

Ryosuke might be about to take over the entire court.

After the point ended, everyone quickly returned to position and prepared for Ryosuke's next serve.

The referee blew the whistle again.

Ryosuke began his third serve.

Standing at the service line, he could feel that his touch was scorching hot.

He felt like he could keep serving like this for a long time.

If he maintained this condition, then maybe Kawanishi's ridiculous idea of ending the match through serving alone wasn't completely impossible.

Now Ryosuke was fired up too.

As the whistle faded, he turned his shoulder toward the net and tossed the volleyball into the air again.

Then, before the ball knew what hit it, he slammed it forward.

"Bang!"

This serve was visibly faster than the last.

Komori adjusted his feet, preparing to receive.

There was no way he could identify the pattern of a serve like this with his eyes alone.

For a moment, anxiety started creeping in.

Should he move forward and actively chase it?

Or should he stay put and wait for it to come to him?

If he chased it, he risked reading the trajectory wrong.

If he waited, he'd limit his own options.

The volleyball was already coming.

Komori stopped hesitating.

He stepped forward decisively.

Experience had taught him one thing.

Don't wait.

Don't hesitate.

Hesitation meant defeat.

He took two quick steps forward, bent his arms, and raised them toward the incoming ball.

Just before the volleyball reached his forearms, it suddenly curved strangely toward his right.

Komori reacted as though he'd been expecting it.

His arms shifted right as well.

From the moment he'd moved in to receive, Komori had known there was no way the ball would behave that simply.

Something would change.

So he'd kept his eyes fixed on it the entire time.

Sure enough, just before contact, the volleyball changed direction.

Komori had correctly anticipated its next movement.

But even then, he still couldn't keep the ball up.