Haikyuu - Chapter 329 (Patreon)

The commentator rattled off a long explanation, then secretly sighed where no one could hear him.

Commentating was skilled work too. One slip of the tongue could mean a deduction from his pay.

Making a living really wasn't easy these days.

Over on Itachiyama's side, Komori stared at Yamagata with shining eyes.

That receive just now...

Komori was unbelievably jealous.

He wanted to show off in front of his juniors like that too.

That play had been seriously cool.

Damn you, Yamagata!

He'd improved again!

Komori screamed internally.

If he didn't work harder, someone else was going to take his throne as the "number one libero."

No one knew about the storm raging inside Komori's head, and it certainly didn't stop the next rally from beginning.

Shiratorizawa had taken the previous point, so they would serve next.

Under everyone's gaze, Shirabu walked to position one.

Shirabu considered his own serving ability pretty terrible.

The only thing he could really be proud of was his accuracy.

In that regard, he was similar to Iizuna. Since they were both setters, naturally their precision was better than average.

Remembering Iizuna's previous serve, Shirabu decided to imitate him and target the player who was least comfortable receiving.

When Iizuna had served earlier, he'd probably assumed Goshiki was bad at receiving.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have deliberately aimed for him.

Iizuna simply hadn't realized how capable Goshiki had become.

Shirabu, however, had already been quietly observing every member of Itachiyama.

Everyone on the team was good at receiving.

Of course, a few weren't particularly outstanding.

Nishio, for example.

His blocking was undeniably excellent, but his receiving was fairly ordinary.

So Shirabu immediately selected Nishio as the lucky target.

Nishio, who was busy thinking about how to handle the next block, suddenly felt a chill run down his back.

Why did he feel like something bad was about to happen?

Once both teams were in position, the referee blew the whistle.

Shirabu took a deep breath and tried to relax his body before tossing the volleyball into the air.

After several months of brutal training, Shirabu was no longer the player who could only hit a pathetic little serve.

Now he could jump serve.

The volleyball rose.

Shirabu began his approach, reached the right position, and jumped.

His body drove his arm forward as he struck the ball hard.

"Bang!"

The volleyball flew out fast and steady.

Komori raised an eyebrow.

Not bad.

Shirabu's serve actually looked pretty decent now.

After all, plenty of people had personally witnessed how terrible Shirabu used to be at serving.

He had practically grown stronger right before the eyes of all these upperclassmen.

The ball crossed Shiratorizawa's court and flew straight toward Itachiyama.

More specifically, straight toward Nishio.

Nishio was still standing there.

When he saw the ball coming, he didn't panic.

If he didn't receive it, Komori-senpai would definitely handle it.

If Nishio tried to receive it himself, he might only get in the way.

His reasoning was genuinely for the sake of the team.

Unfortunately, he'd overlooked Komori's current position.

Komori was behind him.

From Komori's perspective, the serve looked as though it were coming toward him.

Technically, its trajectory really was headed in Komori's direction.

It was simply going to drop earlier than expected.

While Nishio continued standing there, blindly placing his faith in his beloved Komori-senpai, Komori finally noticed something was wrong.

This serve wasn't aimed at him at all.

It was aimed at Nishio.

As expected of a setter.

Shirabu was every bit as devious as Iizuna.

"Nishio, receive it!"

There was no way Komori could circle around Nishio in time.

And if he suddenly told Nishio to move aside, the kid would probably panic.

So it was better to simply make him receive it.

Nishio flinched at Komori's sudden shout.

Then muscle memory took over.

He immediately crouched and brought his arms together.

If everyone else received because they recognized what needed to be done, Nishio was basically voice-activated.

As a first-year, he often couldn't keep up with the thought processes of his senpai.

After repeatedly realizing that this caused problems with their coordination, Nishio had eventually developed a simple approach.

Whatever his senpai said, he did.

If his senpai told him to do something, there had to be a reason.

What a beautiful quality, this absolute trust in his upperclassmen.

Yeah, right.

Beautiful, my ass.

Komori's shout activated Nishio like a switch, and he immediately dropped into position.

"Bang!"

The volleyball landed cleanly on Nishio's forearms.

But because he'd been forced to react so suddenly, his receive wasn't perfect.

Iizuna and Komori didn't demand much from him.

As long as Nishio got the ball up, that was enough.

They understood that he couldn't be perfect at everything.

Not everyone was like those monsters from Shiratorizawa, who looked as though they'd started playing volleyball before they were even born.

Nishio was what a normal, talented first-year was supposed to look like.

The normal first-year successfully got the ball up.

From behind him, Komori shouted, "Nishio, nice ball!"

The first pass was a little off target.

But if Iizuna could work with it, then it was fine.

Iizuna sprinted after the ball to set.

Players on both sides moved at once.

Since the first pass had gone deep into the backcourt, they could completely rule out an Iizuna setter dump.

Now they only needed to watch for a long set or a back-row attack.

As usual, Sakusa ran at the front.

And once again, Ryosuke stuck to him like a shadow.

Sakusa felt strangely helpless.

Ryosuke was absurdly good at marking people.

How many rallies had it been already?

Yet Ryosuke was still keeping his attention fixed on him.

Didn't his eyes ever get tired?

Sakusa genuinely couldn't understand it.

Sakusa moved from the back row toward position three near the net.

Behind him, Doichiro used Sakusa's body as cover, preparing to surprise them with a back-row attack.

Who would actually hit the ball depended entirely on Iizuna's set.

Iizuna surveyed the entire court from the air.

Every player's position was visible to him.

Sakusa had already run into Ryosuke's block several times.

There wasn't much point in continuing to attack Ryosuke directly.

Someone else could be targeted instead.

For example, Goshiki, whose composure wasn't quite as stable.

Goshiki was currently at position four, ready to jump at any moment.

Nishio was responsible for watching him.

But Iizuna couldn't exactly ask Nishio to attack again.

So he abandoned that idea.

Instead, he sent the ball toward Sakusa's side.

Sakusa heard the ball coming and jumped.

Ryosuke didn't rush when he saw Sakusa take off.

He needed to see the volleyball itself.

Sure enough, when Sakusa jumped, Ryosuke saw no sign of the ball rising behind him.

Iizuna was trying to fool him again.

Sakusa landed almost immediately.

Then Doichiro jumped from behind him.

Ryosuke's gaze immediately locked onto Doichiro.

Doichiro bent his knees and took off as if to spike.

The volleyball rose behind him.

Ryosuke jumped too.

Then something changed.

Just as Ryosuke left the floor, Doichiro landed.

The timing was wrong.

His jump had ended far too quickly.

Ryosuke instantly realized he'd been fooled again.

The moment Doichiro landed, he ducked low and hurried away.

Sakusa appeared seamlessly underneath the ball.

By then, Ryosuke was already descending.

Sakusa raised his arm and hammered the volleyball down.

Ryosuke had no time to adjust.

All he could do was watch it hit the floor.

"Beep————!"

"What a brilliant play! Shirabu targeted Nishio with the serve. After Nishio received it, Iizuna moved in to set and chose Sakusa as the attacking option!"

"What's especially worth mentioning here is the coordination between Sakusa, Doichiro, and Iizuna!"

"At first, Doichiro was positioned behind Sakusa and appeared ready for a back-row attack, while Sakusa acted as the decoy in front, creating an opening for Doichiro."

"After Sakusa landed from his first jump, Doichiro came from behind and jumped to attack. But he didn't make contact either!"

"Only then could everyone see that Iizuna had sent a very long, slow set."

"After landing from his first jump, Sakusa had already circled behind Doichiro. Then, once Doichiro jumped, Sakusa took off a second time!"

"That second jump was the real attack!"

"Shiratorizawa's Ryosuke saw through Doichiro's initial back-row attack, but he failed to read Sakusa's second jump. That's how Itachiyama took the point!"

"The play itself wasn't especially complicated. The difficult part was the coordination between those three players and their control of the timing."

"Their teamwork was outstanding!"

The giant screen replayed the rally.

Everyone could clearly see Sakusa landing from his first jump, ducking down, and circling behind Doichiro.

The entire sequence had been incredibly smooth.

One look was enough to tell they'd practiced it plenty of times.

Ryosuke wasn't particularly surprised anymore.

He'd known Sakusa wouldn't simply attack in the most straightforward way.

He just hadn't read that rally clearly enough.

It wasn't as though Ryosuke had never considered the possibility of that kind of play.

He had.

But he'd assumed Sakusa wouldn't actually use something like that in a real match, so he'd immediately discarded the idea.

Of all the dozen or so possibilities Ryosuke had considered, Sakusa had chosen the one he'd thought least realistic.

And it had worked.

Ryosuke couldn't help admiring him.

At the same time, a faint irritation mixed into that admiration.

That unfamiliar feeling lingered inside him.

How long had it been since Ryosuke had felt something like this?

It was strangely refreshing.

Goshiki, meanwhile, was so angry about the previous play that he was practically stomping his feet.

That setter on the other side was definitely no good.

He was full of dirty tricks.

The ball hadn't even been aimed at Goshiki, but that didn't stop him from feeling thoroughly annoyed.

He stormed over to Ryosuke, yapping like an angry little dog.

"Damn it! Damn it! That was way too sneaky! Who attacks like that?!"

Goshiki was so furious that even his bowl cut seemed to stand on end.

They'd lost the serve again.

Itachiyama had the momentum now.

Goshiki had a faint feeling that they might not be able to take this set.

Ryosuke sighed and reached out to press Goshiki's hair back down.

Ryosuke himself wasn't even that angry.

Goshiki, meanwhile, looked ready to explode.

"Goshiki, calm down. It's fine. We'll take the next point back."

"If you're obviously angry and let them see it on your face, they'll start targeting you."

Those words instantly silenced Goshiki like someone had grabbed a duck by the throat.

He was still furious, though.

He continued muttering under his breath, glaring at Iizuna with what he clearly believed was an intimidating expression.

"Sooner or later I'm going to smash right through all of you. We're definitely winning. Damn Itachiyama. Damn that attack..."

Kawanishi approached just in time to hear Goshiki's muttered curses.

He didn't know whether to laugh or sigh.

Then he smacked Goshiki on the forehead.

"Can you think about something positive for once? It's just a difference in how the two teams play."

Goshiki lowered his head and fell silent.

He seemed to realize that their situation wasn't exactly promising.

"It's fine. I'm here."

Ushijima calmly spoke as he took his position beside Goshiki.

The moment Ushijima said those words, the almost godlike aura surrounding him practically blinded Goshiki.

Goshiki instantly forgot what he had been about to say.

He simply nodded at Ushijima over and over.

Once both teams were ready, the next rally began.

Doichiro was serving for Itachiyama.

He stood at position one.

The referee's whistle had barely sounded before Doichiro served.

His entire goal was to catch them off guard.

He jumped and struck the ball with his palm.

"Bang!"

The volleyball spun across the court.

Yamagata quickly moved toward his predicted landing point.

Then he bent his knees and received it.

"Bang!"

The volleyball rose high.

Shirabu ran while tracking it overhead.

When the ball dropped into the right position, he jumped and set it to Ushijima.

At that moment, everyone's attention centered on Ushijima.

Under all those eyes, Ushijima swung his left arm and drove the ball down with all his strength.

Across the net, Nishio, Kishimoto, and Sakusa formed a three-man block.

"Bang!"

The impact thundered across the court.

Nishio felt as though his ears had nearly gone deaf.

His eyes remained fixed on the volleyball as he raised both hands.

...

"Beep————!"

"Bang!"

"Nice ball! Get back on defense!"

"Ushijima-senpai!"

"Beep————!"

"Bang!"

...

From then on, the spectators' eyes followed the volleyball back and forth across the court, with startled cheers breaking out every few moments.

The battle between the two teams became increasingly intense.

Ushijima and Sakusa attacked harder and harder.

Every now and then, Goshiki and Doichiro joined in with their own exchanges.

The score remained locked in a constant struggle.

One side would pull ahead by a point.

The other would immediately tie it again.

Shiratorizawa refused to let Itachiyama pull away.

The score had reached 32:33.

The set had dragged into an exhausting battle.

Even watching it made people's nerves tighten.

Itachiyama currently led Shiratorizawa by one point.

But no one on their side dared relax.

They needed to end the set immediately.

If Shiratorizawa scored one more point, Ryosuke would rotate back to serve.

And if Ryosuke stepped into position one again, their IH run might end right there.

Everyone on Itachiyama was tense.

Sakusa walked to position one and loosened his body, trying to keep his muscles from stiffening.

"Beep————!"

The referee blew the whistle for the serve.

Sakusa remained still for a moment, settling into his rhythm while silently counting in his head.

Six seconds.

Almost seven.

Right on the limit...