It’s currently 1:40 PM. Only 20 minutes remain before the match begins. Realistically, we can't prep all the way up to the start time, so we probably have just over 10 minutes left for warm-ups.
Tch. Not enough time. Even if both teams are under the same conditions, this schedule is just messed up.
"Next, Yuuri."
"Yes!"
We’re in the middle of open practice. But since it’s basically already out in the open, I go all out—full jump, full spike.
BOOM!!
For some reason, the venue starts murmuring. Is it that? That the rumor about the spike being real?
Whatever. No time to care. Gotta focus on practice.
We only have time to do spike practice from two positions—left and center—because of the time restrictions. Not a big deal for me since I don’t normally jump from the right, but I feel bad for people like Yui-senpai.
The one who has it worst is Eri-senpai. As captain, she has to go deal with the other team’s captain before the match—talking about who serves first and all those annoying procedures. Which means Eri-senpai goes into the match today without having done any spike practice.
This schedule really is garbage.
Also, honestly, I want to practice my serve too. Sure, I train regularly, but I’d like to hit a few to get the feel before going into a real match.
Ah, Eri-senpai just came back.
"Coach, they’re serving first."
"Got it. Alright, everyone, we’re switching to serve practice. Not much time. Move fast!"
""""""""Yes, ma'am!!""""""""
We move into serve practice. Still feels like we’re being watched. Actually, it seems like people are surprised? Everyone looks kinda uncomfortable. It’s like the whole venue is staring at us. Wait… is this because of me?
I ask Hina.
"Hey, Hina-nee. Feels like the whole venue is watching us. Is it because I’m cute?"
“…Take this!”
My answer is a punch to the head from Hina. So mean. Just a little while ago, she was telling me I should be more aware of how cute I am…
Three minutes before the match starts. We huddle at the bench for a quick team meeting.
"Something’s weird. It’s like they don’t know anything about us."
Saeki-sensei murmurs. But I agree. Even if it’s just the first match of a local prefectural qualifier, in this day and age, I can’t believe there’s no information at all about last week’s game."
I mean, we managed to dig up some videos and comments on Tsurudome High and Tamaki Commercial High, our current and likely next opponents.
It’s weirder to think that none of our previous opponents—Kurakami High or Kikuboshi High—said anything online like:
“There’s this foreigner at Matsubara Girls who jumps like a manga character!”
That kind of silence seems too unnatural.
"Hey, did any of you ego-search our team online?" Miho-senpai asked us that.
Ego-search meaning looking yourself up online, right?
"I did on Saturday night. We won so dramatically, I thought I’d find stuff like ‘Super Spiker Emerges!’ But all I saw were clips of Yuuri slapping people, so I gave up."
"Same here. Some were awful, like ‘Yuuri is the lovechild of a gorilla and a human.’ I stopped looking after that."
"Yeah, at first there were lots of rumors like that. Stuff like ‘She’s a genetically modified enhanced human.’ I was so pissed."
"Sorry, I’m not interested in gossip like that, so I didn’t check anything."
So basically, everyone but Reiko ego-searched—but they all gave up because the slap video was all over the place. And by Monday, even that video had disappeared.
…
Wait a sec.
"Could it be… that there’s no video of our match online at all?"
"I didn’t go deep into the web, but yeah, I don’t think there’s anything easily accessible. Plus, if it’s just text, no one would believe that Yuuri can jump like, 150 cm in the air…"
…
Does this mean… our surprise attack strategy is still viable?
"Then we’re lucky. Alright! Let’s take the first set before Tsurudome can get a read on us!"
BEEEEEEP!!
That was the signal for the start of the match.
The first serve from the opposing team wasn’t very strong. Eri-senpai received it. It was a bit off, but Hina sent an open toss to the left.
Before jumping, I quickly checked the opponents. Two players near the net were watching the ball—likely the blockers. One more nearby—probably a block follow-up and feint coverage.
Confirmed. They don’t know anything about us.
As expected, my spike pierced the floor cleanly near the attack line.
1–0 to us.
There are two quick ways to deal with my spikes—well, more like prerequisites to even stand a chance against them.
First, abandon the idea of blocking and assign all six players as receivers. My spikes are too high to block anyway. It’s more effective to have everyone focus on receiving.
Second, be mentally prepared for hard hits. When my spikes or serves hit the floor, they make a painful-sounding thud. That sound tends to intimidate people, but in reality, getting hit by one only hurts slightly more than a regular spike—it’s not something that’ll injure you.
That makes sense, since it’s not like the volleyball gets any heavier. It’s less than 300 grams—it’s not going to break bones.
The basketball club we practiced against once understood these two things. They’d seen my spikes echoing like thunder in the gym and knew full well that they were un-blockable. Plus, they said, “Basketballs are way heavier, harder, and more painful!” So they weren’t afraid and challenged my spikes head-on.
Of course, that didn’t mean they could always receive them, but at least they didn’t freeze up in fear. Because they went full receiver and filled the gaps, and dared to try receiving, they even managed to pick up a few of my spikes during the practice match.
Naturally, none of those were perfect passes or anything, but it's still way better than letting me score uncontested spikes.
The exact opposite happened last week with Kurakami High. They were experienced, and strong within the prefecture (according to Asuka), which made them fall victim to their own conventional wisdom. All the way to the end of the first set, they kept assigning blockers against my spikes. As a result, their defensive coverage thinned out, and I could target those holes.
And then there’s the panic caused by the sound of my spikes. Again, getting hit by one won’t injure you. If it did, men’s pro volleyball would have players getting hospitalized every match. If they’d realized that, we wouldn’t have seen that ridiculous 25–3 score.
And now, before this team has a chance to calm down, we’re racking up points!!
Now it’s our serve. Since the first serve came from them, we rotated one position backwards on purpose so that our first server would be none other than the terrifying Eri-senpai, whose serves are monstrous.
Oh! Just as planned—the trajectory suddenly changed right before the opponent tried to receive, and they messed up. They tried to cover it, but couldn’t return it properly.
Service ace!
2–0!
Eri-senpai serves again. It went to a good spot, but the opponent had a solid receive. They passed it to the left for an open toss. Easy read. Our blockers are Yui-senpai, Hina, and me. We’ve got height. Spikes from open tosses aren’t getting past us!
Block success! …but the point goes to the other team. What? Apparently, Hina touched the net. Probably that thing up front bumped into it.
Yep… big boobs are… (the rest omitted)
2–1.
Now it’s their serve.
Wait—it's coming straight at me! It's too close to call—should I take it overhand or underhand!?
Uh, stay calm. In situations like this, take two steps forward for an overhand or two back for an underhand—Yuki sa—
Wait what the hell! It’s already here! There’s not even a second between that!
“Gweh!”
I let out a sound a girl really shouldn’t be making and “received” it with my chest (well, more like it just hit me). My knees and hips were totally straight—Yuki would call this a textbook bad receive…
But Yuki quickly covered the ball as it rolled off me. Hina returned it to their court!
Tch. How dare they make me look bad!
Tsurudome High tried to spike the returned free ball, but our block stopped them.
3–1!
・
・
・
“Alright. We took the first set. Let’s ride this momentum and take the second one too.”
We won the first set against Tsurudome High 25–11. After the second rotation, they stopped assigning blockers to my spikes. Just as planned.
“They should’ve figured out what kind of team we are from that first set. Let’s exploit that in the second. Hina, make good use of the center line next.”
“Yes, ma'am!!”
In the first set, we focused almost all our spikes through me and Reiko. Because of that, the opposing team is probably thinking something like:
“Matsubara Girls’ attacks always go to the left from open tosses.”
And they’d be right. Our main weapons are the spikes from Reiko and me. So by the second half, their eyes will naturally drift left. Since they’re used to us playing from open tosses, they’ll probably assume we don’t do quick sets.
But they’d be forgetting our secondary weapons. Especially Asuka—she’s an incredibly strong spiker. In the second half, we’ll mix in Asuka, Eri-senpai, and Yui-senpai to throw the enemy into chaos!
That’s our strategy.
Step one: focus all attention on me and Reiko. Once they’re locked on the left side, we’ll suddenly launch quick attacks from the center. If they shift to cover the center, we’ll go back to blasting them from the left.
Preparing only for me and Reiko won’t be enough. The key to this tactic is that we steal their attention—so much so that they don’t even think beyond us.
And just like that, we took the second set 25–12.
On the neighboring court, Tamaki Commercial High took the first set as expected and was leading the second. Looks like they’ll be our opponent in the next match.
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