Haikyuu - Chapter 336 (Patreon)

Once Tendo got over that brief burst of amusement, he started feeling irritated again. The third set had barely begun, and Itachiyama had already fooled him several times. There was no way he'd be happy about that.

In previous matches, Tendo had always been the one messing with other people. Now the situation had been completely reversed.

He started thinking about how he could get them back.

"Itachiyama scores! This rally began with Kawanishi's serve. He sent it deep, forcing Komori to chase it down and receive, after which Iizuna adjusted the play.

"Kishimoto and Sakusa crossed in front of the net for a crossing attack. Iizuna sent the set forward, Sakusa jumped, but Tendo saw that Sakusa wasn't the actual attacker and stayed down. Then Kishimoto jumped, and Tendo followed him, only for Kishimoto to turn out to be another decoy!

"Using the crossing attack in front as cover, Doichiro came in from the back row and successfully finished with a back-row attack! Tendo couldn't adjust in time, and Itachiyama takes the point!

"Serve now goes to Itachiyama. Let's see what happens next!"

After the point, Sakusa looked at Doichiro.

"Good job."

Doichiro was almost flattered into disbelief.

He'd actually been praised.

By Sakusa, of all people.

That was rare.

Since Sakusa had praised him, Doichiro immediately felt that he absolutely couldn't betray that trust. He answered with a serious expression, "Thank you, Sakusa-senpai. I'll keep it up."

He looked so fired up that Sakusa gave him several curious glances.

It was Sakusa's turn to serve next.

Under everyone's attention, he carried the volleyball to the service line and waited.

Once all the players were ready, the referee blew the whistle.

"Beep————!"

Sakusa took a deep breath and tossed the volleyball into the air.

At the same time, up in the stands, Oikawa smiled at Kageyama.

"Tobio-chan, watch this serve carefully. From now on, don't copy me. Learn from one of the nation's top five wing spikers instead.

"You'll never be able to imitate his wrists, but his serving style suits you better."

Kageyama and Iwaizumi both turned to look at Oikawa in surprise.

They even had the exact same thought.

Was Oikawa really being this nice?

Naturally, Oikawa noticed their expressions and immediately exploded.

"What's with those looks?! Lord Oikawa is being kind for once, and that's how you react?!"

Iwaizumi studied Oikawa's indignant expression.

He didn't look like he was plotting anything.

So Iwaizumi turned seriously toward Kageyama.

"Oikawa usually talks like an idiot, but he's right about this. Sakusa's serving style suits you better."

"Watch carefully. There's a lot you can learn from him."

Since even Iwaizumi said so, Kageyama finally nodded seriously.

Then he hesitated before saying to Oikawa, "Thank you for the advice, Oikawa-senpai."

Oikawa snorted and pretended not to hear him.

Kageyama looked at him, then tried again.

"Thank you for the advice, Oikawa-senpai!"

Oikawa still ignored him.

Kageyama looked genuinely lost.

Iwaizumi couldn't take it anymore and slammed a fist onto Oikawa's head.

"Trashykawa! Answer him!"

Oikawa grunted from the hit, then shouted angrily, "I heard him, I heard him! Stop already!"

The truth was that Oikawa hadn't especially wanted to help Kageyama.

Kageyama's serve had been getting stronger and stronger lately, to the point where he was beginning to close in on Oikawa.

But there was still something missing.

Then Oikawa realized that his own serving style was somewhat similar to Sakusa's.

Oikawa himself had already been wondering whether he should borrow some elements from Sakusa's serve.

And now there was Kageyama 2.0 standing right beside him.

Naturally, Oikawa wanted Kageyama to test the idea first.

Either way, Oikawa had nothing to lose.

If Kageyama failed, then that meant this direction didn't work, and Oikawa wouldn't have to waste time going down the wrong path himself.

If Kageyama succeeded, even better. Oikawa could try incorporating the style too.

As for Kageyama himself, Oikawa might find the genius annoying, but he was still perfectly happy to cultivate a powerful rival for himself.

"Bang!"

The sound of contact snapped everyone back to the court.

Kageyama looked over and realized Sakusa had already served.

He immediately regretted talking to Oikawa.

He'd missed the start of the serve.

Kageyama radiated resentment.

The ball was already flying, and everyone's attention followed it.

This serve had once again surpassed Sakusa's previous limit.

Even Yamagata in the backcourt couldn't clearly read the spin.

He could only narrow his eyes and try to judge it as carefully as possible.

But during that brief second before the ball crossed the net, Yamagata couldn't see anything useful at all.

His breathing grew heavier.

Once the volleyball crossed the net, it moved even faster.

The spin became even harder to read.

All Yamagata could make out was the rough curve of the trajectory.

He drew in a breath and stared at the ball.

Just before it reached the backcourt, it suddenly veered toward his right.

Yamagata reacted instantly.

He stepped sideways and bent his knees to receive.

But before he could even raise his arms, the volleyball slammed heavily into his shoulder and bounced back into Shiratorizawa's court.

"Bang!"

Yamagata grunted.

His shoulder almost felt numb.

That guy really didn't hold back when he served.

Even Sakusa froze for a moment.

He'd imagined plenty of possible outcomes, but he genuinely hadn't expected Yamagata to receive the serve with his shoulder.

Remembering how hard he'd hit that ball, a trace of apology entered Sakusa's eyes.

The volleyball flew high into the air.

Everyone was worried that Yamagata might have been hurt, but the rally was still going, so they could only check on him afterward.

Shirabu craned his neck upward, searching for the ball.

It had gone extremely high, and the bright lights inside the arena momentarily doubled his vision.

He blinked hard.

Finally, he found the ball and sprinted toward its landing point.

Once it dropped into a usable position, Shirabu jumped and set.

Ushijima and Kawanishi began their approaches from the backcourt.

Reon followed not far behind Ushijima to cover the attack.

Tendo focused on marking the opposition.

Yamagata's shoulder still ached faintly, but for now it didn't interfere with his receiving.

He kept his eyes mostly on Itachiyama's side, occasionally checking Shiratorizawa's positioning.

By the time Ushijima and Kawanishi reached the net, Shirabu's set had arrived.

Nishio and Kishimoto had originally planned to split their blocking assignments because they couldn't tell who would attack.

But this set was clearly heading toward Kawanishi.

So both moved in front of him and jumped together.

Kawanishi was attacking from between positions two and three.

The instant he heard the ball coming from behind and saw both blockers sticking tightly to him, he knew the set was his.

He jumped without hesitation, raised his arm, and met the familiar feel of the volleyball.

Kawanishi swung.

Across from him, Nishio and Kishimoto raised both hands.

This time, their coordination was solid.

One sealed the cross-court lane.

The other sealed the line.

Seeing both routes closed, Kawanishi gave up on trying to force the spike through.

Instead, he drove the ball into Nishio's hands.

The moment Nishio tried to press downward and stuff it, amusement flickered through Kawanishi's eyes.

Before Nishio could react, Kawanishi lightly brushed his hand underneath the ball.

The volleyball spun away.

Nishio stared at his suddenly empty palms, eyes wide.

He had absolutely no idea what had just happened.

"Bang!"

The ball landed in Itachiyama's court.

Point to Shiratorizawa.

Kawanishi landed looking extremely pleased with himself.

"Nice one, Kawanishi. Haven't seen you use that in a while."

Yamagata jogged over with a grin.

He'd seen plenty of Kawanishi's attacks over the years, but the one Yamagata found most disgusting was this kind of block-out.

Strictly speaking, Kawanishi's technique wasn't even a normal tool off the block.

It was more like wiping the ball off the hands.

Compared with the usual block-out, this version was softer and far more unexpected.

"Beep————!"

The referee awarded the point.

"What a brilliant play! Shiratorizawa ends Sakusa's service turn after a single rally!"

"Sakusa serves, and Yamagata somehow keeps the ball alive with his shoulder! Shirabu sets, Kawanishi attacks, and against a two-man block, Kawanishi calmly tools the ball off the hands to score!"

Nishio was still standing where he had landed.

At first he'd been confused.

Then he got angry.

His face was already turning red.

Poor Nishio had never seen that kind of play before, much less dealt with a hitter who used that style.

Now that he'd suddenly encountered it, he had no idea how he was supposed to respond.

"That was disgusting."

Kishimoto shook his head.

He had originally planned to comfort Nishio, but even thinking about the previous play made him feel annoyed too.

Still, seeing Nishio sulking, Kishimoto softened his tone.

"It's fine. If Kawanishi attacks again, let me handle the block."

"You haven't been with the team very long. If you don't know how to deal with a ball like that yet, just avoid it for now."

"Leave it to me."

Nishio was still dissatisfied at first.

Then he thought about it again.

Kishimoto was right.

Right now, Nishio still wasn't fully capable of handling every block by himself.

Being able to touch the ball at all was already pretty good.

Better to leave situations like this to his senpai.

If Kishimoto heard that reasoning, he might actually have thrown up from frustration.

Touching the ball depended entirely on whose attack it was.

Nishio had already gotten his hands on spikes from Ushijima and Reon.

If Kishimoto had been the one facing those attacks, even he would have had to wonder whether he could manage the same.

Nishio simply lacked confidence.

Getting fooled on the previous rally had only made that worse.

But in the eyes of everyone on Itachiyama, Nishio was already an excellent blocker.

If he hadn't been, the team never would have trusted him enough to put him on court.

Yamagata was still talking with Kawanishi when Kawanishi suddenly asked, "Your shoulder okay?"

Tendo and Shirabu, who had come closer, immediately pricked up their ears.

Yamagata rolled his shoulder and felt the dull soreness there.

It didn't seem serious.

He shook his head.

"I'm fine."

At that moment, Sakusa also walked up to the net.

He looked at Yamagata for several seconds.

Only after Yamagata turned toward him did Sakusa awkwardly say, "Sorry."

Yamagata felt the ache in his shoulder again, then smiled.

"It's fine. That serve was really good, though."

After receiving the compliment, Sakusa's expression became noticeably less intimidating.

He nodded and returned to position.

In the stands, Hirugami thought back to Kawanishi's attack and silently sympathized with Nishio.

Even Hirugami himself wouldn't have been able to do much against a ball like that.

That kid really had it rough.

Still, Kawanishi had developed a pretty nasty sense of humor.

He hadn't played like that in the past.

Now that he was a third-year, his style was getting stranger and stranger.

The players returned to position, and the next rally began.

Shiratorizawa had stopped Sakusa's serve immediately, and their momentum was running high.

Tendo walked to position one, casually spinning the volleyball in his hands as he waited for the referee's signal.

Once both sides were ready, the referee blew the whistle.

"Beep————!"

The instant it sounded, Tendo tossed the volleyball up.

He aimed toward the spot farthest from Komori.

Tendo knew his serve wasn't especially threatening.

So in this situation, the best he could do was send it deep enough to make Komori run farther and burn a little more energy.

"Bang!"

The volleyball left Tendo's hand and flew toward the opposite side from Komori.

That happened to be very close to Nishio's current position.

Nishio's eyes widened when he saw the ball coming toward him, and he prepared to receive.

Then he remembered something.

He glanced aside and saw Komori already running toward him.

Nishio immediately stepped out of the way and left the receive to Komori.

He understood his own ability perfectly well.

His receiving was neither terrible nor particularly good.

He could keep the ball alive, but the first pass he produced usually wasn't very pretty.

Better to leave specialized work to the specialist.

Once Komori saw Nishio move aside, he accelerated toward the landing point and settled into position.

The ball descended quickly.

Komori raised his forearms and delivered a beautiful first pass toward the frontcourt.

Iizuna saw it coming toward him, adjusted his position, and prepared to set.

Sakusa had already moved into the front row.

This time, he intended to attack with full power.

Doichiro stayed behind Sakusa to cover the attack.

Kishimoto jumped from the opposite side as a decoy.

But Kishimoto wasn't quite convincing enough to draw Tendo's attention.

If it had been Doichiro, Tendo might at least have spared him a glance.

Iizuna back-set the ball to Sakusa, placing it perfectly within reach.

Sakusa jumped.

Tendo jumped with him.

Tendo focused entirely on Sakusa's hand, trying to read the attack from the movement of his fingers and wrist.

Sakusa raised his right arm.

His eyes were fixed on Tendo's left hand.

Tendo noticed where Sakusa was looking and assumed Sakusa planned to drive the ball directly into his palm.

So Tendo began putting strength into his left hand.

Then, at the exact instant of contact, Sakusa suddenly snapped his wrist.

The ball curved sharply away from Tendo's palm.

A super-sharp cross-court shot.

"Bang!"

"Huh?"

Tendo stared at the volleyball, momentarily stunned.

It hadn't even touched his hand.