Haikyuu - Chapter 340 (Patreon)

Goshiki took the opportunity to bury his face in Ryosuke's chest and refused to come out, his arms wrapped around him like a puppy stubbornly throwing a tantrum.

Tendo narrowed his eyes when he noticed. He quietly walked over, pinched Goshiki by the back of the neck, and pulled him away from Ryosuke. Goshiki blinked in confusion, still trying to figure out what had happened when Tendo spoke.

"It's not like you'll never play another match. And you, are you taking advantage of Ryosuke?"

"No way!"

Goshiki denied it immediately.

Then he remembered exactly what he'd just been doing, and his entire face turned bright red. Watching the color spread visibly across Goshiki's face, Ryosuke couldn't help laughing.

"All right, Tendo-senpai, stop teasing Goshiki. Goshiki, don't worry. I'll win this match for both of us."

Goshiki proudly raised his head, finally freeing himself from Tendo's hand.

"Of course! When you go back in, I'll cheer for you and nobody else!"

Ryosuke smiled and nodded. Watching how happy Goshiki looked, he suddenly realized that he had a genuinely close friend now. When he'd first entered high school, he'd never imagined he'd end up becoming this close to someone.

"They're really close, aren't they?"

Tendo watched Goshiki leaning against Ryosuke and talking endlessly, and couldn't keep the sourness out of his voice.

Ushijima turned expressionlessly and stared at him for several seconds, as though Tendo would be dealt with immediately if he said anything more inappropriate.

Besides, Goshiki's intentions and Tendo's were completely different. Goshiki simply liked Ryosuke as a close friend. Tendo, on the other hand, never approached Ryosuke without ulterior motives.

Under Ushijima's stare, Tendo awkwardly shut his mouth.

To be fair, Ushijima could be pretty intimidating when he simply stared at someone without saying a word.

Once everyone had rested and adjusted enough, the match resumed.

Both teams returned to the court, with Ryosuke replacing Kawanishi.

Tendo glanced sideways at Ryosuke walking onto the court beside him and felt like fireworks were going off inside his chest.

This was great.

He got to play alongside little Ryosuke.

And even better, their opponent was that annoying clean freak, Sakusa.

The corners of Tendo's mouth kept rising.

When he reached his position, his eyes met Sakusa's across the net.

Sakusa immediately looked away.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Shiratorizawa had the serve for this rally, with Reon serving.

Reon carried the volleyball to position one and raised a hand toward the referee to show that he was ready.

The referee nodded and blew the whistle.

"Beep————!"

The match resumed.

Up in the stands, Shoyo Hinata instantly became excited the moment he saw Ryosuke return to the court.

He grabbed Kageyama by the shoulders and shook him back and forth.

"Look! Look! Ryosuke's on the court!"

Kageyama, his face darkening, pried Shoyo Hinata's hands off him.

"I can see that! Stop shaking me! My arm's about to break!!"

The last sentence came out almost as a shout.

Kageyama usually only reached that volume when yelling insults, so Shoyo Hinata had probably genuinely hurt him.

Koshi Sugawara turned toward them with a smile.

"I know you're excited, but maybe don't be quite so excited. Can you two keep it down?"

His ears had nearly been destroyed by Kageyama and Shoyo Hinata's voices.

After being warned by their smiling team parent, the two instantly fell silent.

Their eyes, however, continued fighting an intense battle of their own.

Compared with Daichi Sawamura, Shoyo Hinata and Kageyama were actually more afraid of the usually smiling Koshi Sugawara.

They always had the feeling that truly making him angry would end in disaster.

Perhaps that was simply small-animal instinct.

On the court, Reon tossed the volleyball after the whistle, targeting Komori in the backcourt.

Komori noticed the stare and looked up, smiling at Reon from across the court.

Reon smiled back.

Then he began his approach.

His smile toward Komori might have been friendly, but his serve certainly wasn't.

"Bang!"

The long-suffering volleyball was deformed by Reon's strike yet again and rocketed toward Itachiyama's backcourt at a speed that was almost comparable to Ushijima's serve.

Komori's teeth practically hurt just looking at it.

Reon's serves were miserable to receive.

And things were only going to get worse.

After Reon's serving turn would come Ushijima.

After Ushijima would come Ryosuke.

All of Shiratorizawa's strongest servers were lined up together.

Komori had a bad feeling that once this match ended, he was going to spend some serious time recovering in bed.

The ball hurtled toward him.

Komori quickly got into position and extended both arms.

The volleyball slammed directly into his forearms with a heavy impact.

"Bang!"

For a moment, Komori almost thought his arms had broken.

He forced them upward with all his strength, and the volleyball shot high into the air.

Extremely high.

Iizuna felt like his neck was about to break.

High passes could sometimes be useful because they gave everyone time to reset and breathe.

For a setter, however, they weren't particularly pleasant.

Especially when they kept happening over and over.

Iizuna's neck was starting to protest.

He tilted his head back, found the volleyball, and patiently waited beneath it, ready to jump and set.

Sakusa and Doichiro continued using the crossing pattern from earlier, one approaching from position two and the other from position four.

Both moved cautiously.

They had to.

Shiratorizawa had just added another wall to the front row.

The chances of getting blocked had risen considerably.

Iizuna judged the descending ball around midcourt and jumped to set, scanning the court out of the corner of his eye.

Sakusa and Doichiro were crossing.

Across the net, Tendo was preparing to jump.

Ryosuke hadn't arrived yet.

Kishimoto was moving in from the back row toward position four.

One glance was enough for Iizuna to understand the situation.

He had no intention of setting to Sakusa or Doichiro.

Tendo was already waiting across from them, and Ryosuke was still on the way.

If those two stood together to block, forget volleyball. They could probably stop an atomic bomb.

Sakusa was strong enough to challenge them, of course.

But this wasn't the right time to force the issue.

For now, Itachiyama needed to keep Shiratorizawa occupied with smaller tricks.

Iizuna shaped his body from the backcourt as though he were setting to Sakusa.

The moment Sakusa and Tendo both bent their knees to prepare for the jump, Iizuna suddenly changed his target and sent the ball to Kishimoto, who had just reached position four.

Kishimoto saw the set coming and immediately jumped for a powerful spike.

Ryosuke reacted just as quickly.

The moment he saw Tendo jump and realized Iizuna hadn't sent the ball there, his mind started working at full speed.

Then he locked onto Kishimoto at position four.

That's it.

The ball was definitely going to Kishimoto.

The moment Ryosuke was sure, he turned and sprinted toward him.

"Bang!"

Kishimoto jumped and attacked.

This play was about speed.

No special technique was necessary.

By the time Ryosuke reached the right area, it was already too late to block.

So he changed plans on the spot.

Instead of blocking, he crouched near the net on Shiratorizawa's side and waited to receive the spike.

Ryosuke was completely confident he could keep this ball up.

Kishimoto's attack wasn't difficult to read.

One glance was almost enough for Ryosuke to picture the entire trajectory.

Sure enough, Ryosuke received the spike from directly beneath the net.

"Bang!"

The ball flew back into the air.

Hearing footsteps approaching from behind, Ryosuke rolled across the floor and cleared the way.

"Whoa, you can do that?"

Shoyo Hinata stared at Ryosuke with wide, admiring eyes.

Receiving an opponent's spike right at the net couldn't have been easy.

The impact alone had to be enormous.

And Ryosuke had simply taken it.

Sitting farther back, Tsukishima clicked his tongue.

If it were him, he'd much rather coordinate with Nishinoya than try to receive an attack directly under the net.

Those balls were genuinely difficult to dig.

Especially for someone like Tsukishima, whose receiving was only average.

Yamaguchi noticed Tsukishima's expression beside him and quietly covered his mouth to hide a laugh.

Tsukki was definitely imagining something unpleasant again.

The moment Ryosuke rolled aside, Ushijima appeared from behind him.

He swung hard at the ball Ryosuke had just received.

"Bang!"

Kishimoto froze for a split second.

Then he recovered.

There was no way he could block an attack like that by himself.

"Kishimoto!"

Nishio's voice came from behind him.

Kishimoto immediately sidestepped to the left, clearing space for Nishio.

Komori was also waiting alertly in the backcourt, ready to receive.

Nishio had rushed over so quickly that his jumping form was slightly messy.

That didn't matter.

As long as he could still apply force through his hands, it was enough.

He reached both hands toward the volleyball and tried to press it down.

"Bang!"

The ball crashed into Nishio's palms.

For a brief moment, the two forces held against each other.

After one or two seconds, Nishio realized he truly couldn't hold it any longer.

So he relaxed his hands and deliberately let the ball deflect toward the backcourt.

Komori, who had been waiting there from the start, crouched and received it cleanly.

The volleyball rose toward the front of the net again.

"Bang!"

When Nishio saw Komori get the ball up, he let out a breath of relief.

He thought he'd finally found the right way for himself to deal with Ushijima.

This approach probably only worked for Nishio.

But as long as he could hold the ball against his palms for even one second, that would buy enough time for Komori or another teammate in the backcourt to move into place.

As long as the volleyball didn't hit the floor, the rally wasn't over.

The same method could work against any wing spiker stronger than Nishio.

As long as his teammates were there to support him, Nishio was confident that an attacker directly facing his block wouldn't score easily.

Komori got the ball up.

Doichiro jumped from the back row and launched another back-row attack.

The instant Ryosuke saw it, his radar went off.

From the bench earlier, Ryosuke had already noticed that Doichiro's contact point on back-row attacks shifted up and down.

The change happened in an instant.

Tendo-senpai might not always be able to control the height of his block precisely enough.

Knowing that, Ryosuke moved behind Tendo to cover.

"Bang!"

Doichiro attacked.

The volleyball passed cleanly over Tendo's fingertips by only a few centimeters.

Tendo's expression instantly twisted in frustration.

"Bang!"

Then the familiar sound of a receive came from behind him.

Hearing it, Tendo's irritation eased slightly.

After getting the ball up, Ryosuke quickly checked everyone's positions out of the corner of his eye.

No one was in a particularly good position to attack.

Then he'd have to do it himself.

Once Ryosuke reached that conclusion, he didn't hesitate.

He chased after the ball and began his approach.

Tendo didn't move away from his position near the net.

Instead, he stayed directly in front of Ryosuke, using his body to screen Ryosuke's approach from the blockers.

Doichiro saw the ball rise, but couldn't see any Shiratorizawa player moving to attack.

Then he noticed Tendo starting to quietly shift aside.

That immediately gave the play away.

The next attacker had to be hidden behind Tendo.

Nishio was already moving toward Tendo.

Seeing that, Doichiro became even more certain.

He followed Nishio over.

Tendo realized the two of them had figured it out, so he stopped pretending.

He simply stepped aside.

Only then did everyone see Ryosuke behind him.

As soon as Tendo cleared the way, Ryosuke silently accelerated his final steps.

He reached the ball and bent his knees to jump.

Nishio and Doichiro jumped with him.

In midair, Ryosuke's eyes met Nishio's.

Nishio watched every movement intently, analyzing him.

Ryosuke didn't attack often, but when he did, his spikes were strong.

His playing style was somewhat similar to Kawanishi's.

If you weren't careful, he'd lure you straight into a trap.

But Ryosuke didn't look like the kind of person who would deliberately play tricks.

He must have been corrupted by Kawanishi.

Kawanishi: That's a huge accusation. I can barely carry it.

Ryosuke: ...guilty.

Noticing Nishio studying him, Ryosuke raised one hand and smiled.

Then, under Nishio's confused stare, Ryosuke suddenly raised his other hand as well.

Instead of spiking, he sent the ball away with both hands.

A fake spike into a set.

The ball went to Ushijima at position two.

Even Ushijima looked briefly stunned.

But his excellent ability to adapt on the fly took over immediately.

He adjusted and combined with Ryosuke for a quick attack from position two.

Coach Washijō, who was secretly watching the match on his phone during a meeting, nearly had his eyes pop out of his head.

He hadn't taught Ryosuke that.

Had the brat found himself another coach behind his back?

Or had he been secretly practicing on his own?

Whatever the answer was, Coach Washijō was angry.

And when Coach Washijō got angry, everyone at Shiratorizawa suffered.

Since he would never bear to punish Ryosuke alone, the rest of the team was almost certainly going to be dragged into it too.

They could only wish themselves luck.

The set arrived perfectly at Ushijima's hitting point.

Ushijima put strength into his left arm and swung.

"Bang!"

The volleyball slammed into Itachiyama's frontcourt.

Komori dove toward it almost the instant it touched the floor.

"Beep————!"

The referee awarded the point, and cheers erupted from the sidelines.

The girls supporting Ryosuke shouted until their faces were red.

"So cool! Fake spike into a set!"

"Ryosuke! Ryosuke! You're the coolest!"

"Go, Shiratorizawa! Go, Shiratorizawa!"

Reon's fans were also thrilled that his service turn had been preserved.

"Reon! Reon! One more point!"