Haikyuu - Chapter 333 (Patreon)

While Nishio was still lost in thought, Doichiro ran out from behind Sakusa. Leaving Nishio to block Ushijima alone would have put far too much pressure on him, and a solo block didn't have a particularly high success rate to begin with.

Shirabu set the ball to Ushijima. By the time the ball arrived, Ushijima was already there.

Ushijima jumped from position four and raised his left hand to attack. Nishio went up to block, and Doichiro managed to catch up as well, jumping beside Nishio.

No matter how many times Nishio faced Ushijima, that overwhelming presence still intimidated him.

Ushijima met Nishio's eyes in midair. He genuinely admired this first-year who had the courage to keep challenging his attacks again and again. Of course, if Nishio ever managed to score with a stuff block against him, Ushijima would consider that truly impressive.

Ushijima's left arm snapped upward, then hammered the ball down before it had any chance to escape.

"Bang!"

The moment Nishio saw Ushijima's swing, he knew it was going down the line. He immediately sealed the line with both hands, and Ushijima's spike struck his block head-on.

The instant Nishio touched the ball, an enormous pressure crashed into his hands. It felt almost impossibly heavy, as though his arms were being forced downward by sheer weight.

Nishio gritted his teeth and held on. The veins along his arms stood out sharply.

He desperately wanted to stop this ball.

But before Nishio's strength gave out completely, the volleyball ricocheted off his palms and flew away.

The tension instantly left his arms as he came back down.

Doichiro, beside him, had hardly contributed anything to the block.

He'd wanted to help Nishio stop the ball, but apparently some things really were best left to the specialist.

The volleyball deflected off Nishio's hands and flew toward Itachiyama's backcourt, where Komori was already waiting.

They'd faced Ushijima plenty of times before. Just from seeing the spike, Komori could tell the ball was going to travel deep.

What surprised everyone was that Nishio had managed to get his hands on Ushijima's attack at all.

Nishio had originally been thrown into this IH lineup because Itachiyama's previous blocker, now a third-year, had left the club to focus on his studies.

And when it came to blocking, the others hadn't actually been able to teach Nishio much.

Most of what he knew, he'd figured out on his own.

From that perspective, Nishio could probably be called a genius too.

The volleyball flew into the backcourt.

Komori adjusted with quick steps and brought his arms underneath it.

The moment he received the ball, the force nearly knocked his body sideways.

Komori was startled.

Was it really that heavy?

Watching Nishio's block, he'd assumed most of the force had already been taken out of it.

Because Komori had underestimated the impact and failed to absorb it properly, the ball flew extremely high.

Iizuna had no choice but to tilt his head back and keep tracking it while running.

Seeing Iizuna sprinting around with his neck craned upward, Komori couldn't help feeling guilty.

This one was definitely his mistake.

Fortunately, Iizuna was extremely capable.

As long as the ball wasn't completely impossible to reach, he could still turn it into something useful.

Once Iizuna finally judged where it would fall, he ran underneath it and waited for the ball to descend into setting range.

While Iizuna prepared, the rest of Itachiyama moved as well.

Sakusa sprinted toward the center of the net, taking position three.

The moment Sakusa moved, Tendo's eyes locked onto him like radar.

Sakusa had expected that.

On this play, he was only a decoy.

Kishimoto had already reached position four.

The moment Kawanishi saw Kishimoto move forward, his attention was drawn over.

Meanwhile, using Sakusa's body as cover, Doichiro quietly slipped into position behind him.

That was Itachiyama's biggest strategic adjustment for the third set.

Instead of relying on quick attacks close to the net, they were shifting toward back-row attacks.

If they couldn't shake Tendo while attacking at the net, then they would simply bypass him.

With several decoys moving across the front row, Tendo's attention would naturally be focused near the net.

And choosing Doichiro for the back-row attack was something the team had discussed beforehand.

Kishimoto and Nishio weren't particularly strong attackers, and Sakusa couldn't simply retreat into the back row himself.

If Sakusa suddenly moved back, Tendo would notice something was wrong immediately.

That left Doichiro.

Doichiro's front-row attacks close to the net often looked fairly ordinary, but that was because what he struggled with most was attacking directly into a block.

He was always worried that if he hit too hard, he might hurt the blockers on the other side.

Because of that, he unconsciously held back whenever he attacked into someone.

Iizuna had tried to correct that habit countless times, but Doichiro had never managed to get rid of it.

From the back row, however, that problem disappeared.

Doichiro had excellent explosiveness and stability.

His back-row attacks were even better than Sakusa's.

Because of his wrist, Sakusa relied more on explosive contact and manipulation of the ball.

A back-row attack demanded a steadier, faster approach, which wasn't really Sakusa's specialty.

In a way, Doichiro was Itachiyama's secret weapon.

For the first two sets, Sakusa had carried most of their offensive load, trading attacks with Ushijima.

Now the pressure shifted to Doichiro.

Iizuna spotted Doichiro behind Sakusa and sent the ball toward position three, using their ace as the decoy.

He jumped, locked onto Doichiro's position, and delivered the set with perfect precision.

The volleyball that had been flying wildly after Komori's receive became completely obedient the moment it reached Iizuna's hands.

Sakusa heard the set and took a few steps back before beginning his approach.

Tendo narrowed his eyes as he watched him jump.

Sakusa took off.

Tendo jumped too.

But something felt wrong.

Halfway through his jump, Tendo adjusted and came down as quickly as he could.

No wonder it felt strange.

This ball wasn't for Sakusa at all.

If Sakusa were really attacking, he would've already completed his approach.

There was no reason for him to start it so late.

That little motion had clearly been meant to bait Tendo into jumping.

Tendo felt as though he'd seen through everything.

Sakusa noticed Tendo landing early and frowned.

He'd known fooling this guy wouldn't be easy.

But it didn't matter.

Even if Tendo understood the plan, there wasn't much he could do about it.

That was the beauty of an open strategy.

The attack wasn't happening close to the net, so Tendo couldn't simply shut it down.

As Sakusa landed, he moved aside.

Doichiro was already in the air.

His target was Shiratorizawa's frontcourt, directly behind Tendo.

Doichiro deliberately controlled his power.

He didn't want the ball traveling too deep, but he also didn't want it dropping too close to Tendo.

The ideal landing point was somewhere in the frontcourt.

Best of all would be sending it just over Tendo's head, where he couldn't block it.

Doichiro mentally mapped out the trajectory, then moved.

He drew his body back into a smooth bow, allowing himself to generate both speed and accuracy.

The next instant, his body snapped forward.

His right hand struck the center of the volleyball.

"Bang!"

The ball tore through the air like a bullet, aimed directly behind Tendo.

To Tendo, however, it looked like a perfectly normal attack.

He was confident he could stop it.

So he jumped.

But as Tendo raised both hands, the volleyball sailed just over his fingertips.

The instant it cleared him, Yamagata reacted.

He'd been watching that side the entire time and immediately threw himself into a dive.

But once the volleyball passed Tendo's fingertips, it dropped sharply toward the floor.

Yamagata couldn't reach it.

All he could do was watch it land.

"Bang!"

"Beep————!"

The referee awarded the point immediately.

Tendo stayed where he was, looking at Doichiro.

The moment the ball passed his fingertips, he'd understood what had happened.

This kid was better than he'd expected.

And Tendo knew that if Doichiro kept attacking like that, Itachiyama would probably start pulling ahead.

This kind of attack had never been Tendo's strength.

Even if he adjusted his jump height correctly, Doichiro could simply alter the height of his spike.

Right now, Doichiro held the initiative.

They could have Yamagata focus more heavily on the frontcourt.

Whenever Doichiro attacked from the back row, Tendo could stop blocking and simply let Yamagata receive.

But that would immediately double Yamagata's defensive burden.

Tendo didn't want to become dead weight.

"That one was my fault. I should've gotten it."

Yamagata took responsibility, but Tendo waved him off.

"No. I didn't block it in the first place."

"If he keeps attacking from the back row, I'm probably going to have to count on you."

Yamagata blinked.

Then he grinned and gave Tendo a hard pat on the shoulder.

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

It was the first time Tendo had ever told Yamagata, "I'm counting on you."

Naturally, Yamagata accepted without hesitation.

Ushijima glanced toward Tendo with a trace of concern.

He and Tendo had been teammates for three years.

They ate together, trained together, and practically lived alongside each other.

Of course Ushijima knew exactly where Tendo's weaknesses were.

Receiving wasn't one of Tendo's strengths.

If he couldn't stop the ball with a block, then he would eventually have to receive it.

Ushijima couldn't help worrying about his friend.

Tendo himself was much less bothered.

He'd been concerned at first, but soon came up with a good idea.

It would simply require testing Doichiro a few times.

Tendo's plan was straightforward.

He would observe the highest point of Doichiro's attack.

Then he'd determine the lowest.

Once he knew that range, his instincts could help him predict the height of each spike.

And once he knew the height, everything became simple.

He just needed to jump to the right place.

Tendo refused to believe that Doichiro's contact point was higher than his own.

He narrowed his eyes.

His expression was full of calculation.

Sakusa saw that look and understood that the back-row attack wouldn't remain effective for long.

So he called Doichiro over.

"Use the back-row attack twice in a row, then stop."

"Don't let Tendo figure you out."

Doichiro nodded, although he felt a little disappointed.

He'd actually wanted to hit a few more.

It had been a long time since he'd been able to attack like this in a major tournament.

It felt great.

Still, Sakusa's instructions came first.

If Sakusa said something, there was probably a reason.

Itachiyama's specialty was blind faith in Sakusa.

Once Sakusa finished giving instructions, everyone returned to position.

The referee looked over both sides and blew the whistle.

Kishimoto stepped into position one again and tossed the volleyball upward.

He began his approach.

When the ball reached the ideal point, Kishimoto's right hand struck it hard.

"Bang!"

Even Kishimoto was surprised by how good the serve felt.

Yamagata was caught slightly off guard too.

But it didn't matter.

Whatever kind of serve came at him, Yamagata intended to receive it.

The problem was that this one was faster than expected.

Caught unprepared, Yamagata had no choice but to dive in the backcourt.

He hit the floor smoothly and somehow got the ball up.

The volleyball rose.

Shirabu immediately chased after it to set.

Ushijima moved toward position three.

Reon followed behind him to cover the attack.

Tendo stood at position four, directly across from Sakusa.

Position two was completely empty.

Seeing that, Kawanishi moved over to position two so he could cover if the ball came back.

Shirabu was currently positioned between three and four.

From there, he could run a quick set in either direction.

Everyone's attention centered on him.

Under all those eyes, Shirabu leaned his upper body back, clearly preparing for a back set.

The apparent target was Ushijima.

Seeing Shirabu prepare to set, Nishio and Kishimoto tensed and readied themselves to jump.

This time, however, they didn't jump immediately.

Jumping too soon made them easy to fool.

After being tricked repeatedly in the previous rallies, Nishio had finally learned that lesson.

Mostly.

Because while Nishio was still hesitating, Ushijima jumped.

The moment Nishio saw him take off, he pulled Kishimoto into the block with him.

If Shirabu had been asked, he would've said that Nishio had definitely learned from his mistakes.

Just not enough.

Nishio didn't even want to jump.

But every time Ushijima rose directly in front of him, something in Nishio's brain immediately screamed that the attack was coming.

Ushijima jumped.

His left arm rose high.

Then he swung hard at empty air.

Nishio and Kishimoto straightened their arms and braced for the impact.

But the expected pain never came.

Nishio's heart dropped.

Something was wrong.

Damn it.

They'd been fooled.

The moment Nishio landed, he whipped his head around.

The volleyball was already flying into their court.

He desperately reached one hand toward it, but the ball was moving too fast.

He couldn't touch it.

The volleyball continued toward the backcourt.

Komori finally threw himself to the floor and managed to keep it alive with a diving save.

Everything had happened in an instant.

Nishio was still confused because he hadn't even seen how the ball had crossed the net.

The explanation was actually simple.

While Ushijima pretended to attack, Shirabu had changed his back set into a setter dump.

Both blockers had committed to position three, their attention completely consumed by Ushijima.

Everyone else was positioned toward four.

Even if they realized what Shirabu was doing, none of them could get around position three in time to reach the opposite side of Shirabu and block him.

That left Komori as the only line of defense.

Fortunately, Komori had kept his eyes on the frontcourt.

Otherwise, Itachiyama might have lost the point immediately.

Komori managed to get the ball up in the scramble, but the first pass was well off target.

Now Iizuna would have to fix it.