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After the Inter-High Prefectural Qualifiers Round 3
Tamaki Commercial High School Side
POV: Yokota Sayaka
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We won the third-round match, but the seniors all look grim. Even the ever-cool Ichikawa-senpai looks... upset.
…I want to believe it only looks that way.
"Yokota. Number 6 from Matsujo… was it Yuuri Tachibana? You're acquainted with her, right? What kind of girl is she? Why is a foreign exchange student playing at just a regular public high school?"
Ichikawa-senpai has the wrong idea about Yuuri-chan. I get where she's coming from, but...
"Yuuri-chan… Number 6 from Matsujo isn’t in Japan for volleyball. She was a war orphan, and during an overseas business trip, the parents of Matsujo’s Number 4 found her and adopted her as their daughter."
There’s a lot more to it, but as someone not directly involved, I don't think it's my place to say.
"I see... Sorry for jumping to conclusions."
Her misunderstanding was cleared up, but the atmosphere grew even heavier...
We headed back to the locker room to wipe off sweat, then made our way to the coach.
Our coach, Kumada-sensei, looks like a stereotypical middle-aged P.E. villain in a school manga.
A buzz cut streaked with gray, tanned skin from being in the sun, a stern face, and a bulky body supposedly built through judo back in his school days (though a good bit of that muscle has turned to fat now).
And he’s always in a tracksuit. He even wears one to official ceremonies like the opening or closing of the school year.
…But he teaches math. Why!?
Coach Kumada was smirking ominously.
“Kukuku. They’ve got some game. But we’re not just gonna sit back and take it.”
“…Coach, what’s so funny?”
Ichikawa-senpai, understandably, pressed him.
“Oh, Ichikawa. You’re about to see something real interesting.”
He handed her his smartphone. From what I could see glancing over his shoulder, it looked like a video of the Matsubara Girls' match that had been going on next door.
After watching a little, Ichikawa-senpai let out a soft chuckle.
“Oho, quick on the uptake as always, Ichikawa. Already noticed it, huh?”
“Yes. Yokota gave me the hint I needed.”
…I have no idea what she means. What did I do?
“Everyone, listen up. For our next match, I can see a path to victory. I’ll say it clearly: Number 3 and Number 6 on their team are amateurs.”
!!
“Wait, Maki. Those two have such powerful spikes—how can you say they’re amateurs?”
Yamaki-senpai questioned Ichikawa-senpai’s claim.
“No, Yacchin (Yamaki's nickname). You’ve got it backwards. They’re amateurs who can only spike and serve. Watch this.”
She showed us Matsujo’s formation on the smartphone, one frame after another.
“Number 3 and Number 6 don’t participate in defense at all. At most, they jump during blocks. For male super aces, it’s not unusual to focus entirely on offense and skip defense—but even so, their spikes are strong enough to earn the title. Still...”
She showed us clips of Yuuri-chan and the other player making mistakes.
“Look. Their reaction to the ball is completely amateurish. I asked Yokota earlier—Number 6 didn’t come to Japan to play volleyball. She probably started playing after entering high school.”
I’ve never heard of Yuuri-chan playing volleyball before, so that’s probably true…
“B-but her spike is undeniably amazing, right?”
“Oh yes. Her spike and serve are incredible. And to think she can do that after just two months of playing volleyball—she might be a genius. But genius, prodigy, or average joe—time is distributed equally to all. So what did she sacrifice to be able to spike like that after just two months? At the very least, she gave up on learning to receive and set. What else did she give up to reach that level?”
Then, Ichikawa-senpai showed us a compilation of just the spike scenes from Yuuri-chan and Number 3.
“See it now? They only spike balls that go high. In other words, they can only hit off open tosses. And the direction they hit—when spiking from the left, it’s always cross-court. They can vary it a bit within that angle, but they can’t hit straight or inside.”
Ah...
“And they don’t do quick attacks, so once the toss goes up, we’ll have time to get into position. Plus, if their spikes are only cross-court, we don’t need to cover the straight direction. We just stack our defense accordingly.”
“Um, even if we know where the spike is coming from, it’s not like we can always stop it, right?”
“True. Realistically, we might only block one out of every three spikes from Number 3, and one in five from Number 6. But without a plan, they’d probably score 5 out of 5. If we can dig even one or two, the whole strategy shifts. And the opponents aren’t flawless either. There are openings. For example—”
From there, Ichikawa-senpai was on fire. She’d only watched the video once, but she kept pointing out weaknesses in their play. The way she explained it all—it felt like...
“So? Still think we can’t win?”
For some reason, I started feeling like… we actually could win.
“Oh, now you’re finally showing some spirit.”
At last, the coach spoke up.
“I say this all the time, but there’s no reason to fear your opponents more than necessary. Ever heard the saying, ‘To a coward, every enemy looks like a vast army’? Don’t inflate their skill beyond what it really is. Sure, their spikes are crazy powerful. Even pros probably wouldn’t be able to block every one. But they’re just high schoolers like you. If you don’t shut your brains off and keep thinking about how to win, then you can win. There’s something I noticed that Ichikawa didn’t mention—”
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POV Switch
Inter-High Prefectural Qualifiers – Round 4
Tamaki Commercial High School Side
POV: Ichikawa Makiko
Right after Yuuri’s spike
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The spike from the former Angel-chan, now Monster-chan, just happened to hit my arm.
Yeah. It was nothing but a coincidence.
Even if I’d predicted the direction of the spike, there’s no way I could’ve reacted after it was launched, moved to the right spot, and received it cleanly—not with a spike that fast.
I mean, seeing it up close, it was way faster than I imagined.
If I hadn’t already known that a high-speed spike was coming, I probably wouldn’t have even managed to extend my arm.
And then, the ball that hit my arm just happened to soar into the air.
Honestly, I was just hoping it would go up, but the ball ended up going high toward the right. If nothing else, it looked like it was going to fall past the right sideline.
This is our chance.
"Yacchin!"
Even before I called out, Yacchin was already on the move.
She raced to the ball, which was about to drop beyond the right sideline, and managed to send up a toss that flew parallel to the net, above the white band!
As expected of my partner! She knows exactly the kind of toss I want!
The ball flew in a flat line rather than in a high arc.
Mari-chan jumped in the center of the court to spike it.
In response, Monster-chan and the rest of the Matsujo blocking team jumped as well.
Mari-chan is 162 cm tall.
Factoring in the jumping ability of their three blockers, it’s fair to say their effective height is somewhere in the high 170s.
Especially Monster-chan and number 3, who jumped in the center—they had an effective height equivalent to someone around 190 cm tall.
A triple block like that is rare in girls’ volleyball, but with that kind of height, it makes sense. Most high school girls’ spikes would get shut down easily.
But... sorry.
Mari-chan was a decoy.
She jumped like she was absolutely going to spike, and even went right up to the moment of contact—but then, intentionally, stopped her hand in mid-air.
Naturally, the ball continued traveling from right to left, losing height as it went—and toward the left.
Having already rushed in from the left for just this moment, I made a light jump and gently pushed the ball over the net with the pads of my right fingers, just barely clearing the net.
The ball dropped as it was.
The small libero on the opposing team noticed and stretched her hand out in desperation, but couldn’t reach it.
BEEEEP!!
We scored a point.
Monster-chan.
Your spike is incredible.
But you know...
In volleyball, height and power aren’t always necessary to score points.
Matsubara Girls' High School vs. Tamaki Commercial High School
Set 1 – Midway Score
0 – 2
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