"Who was that No. 10 on Aoba Johsai?!"

  "Hooints did he score?!"

  "I don't know….I don't remember ever seeing him in the junih tours."

  "Is he a first-year?!"

  All eyes on the court fixated on Aoba Johsai's No. 10.

  Oikawa Tōru let out a bitter ugh. "Taichi….Back then, I thought he'd make a good decoy. But now, it seems like he's been aiming to bee the ace all along." He recalled how Taichi had just called for the ball, using a tone Oikawa had never heard from him before.

  BEEP! Karasuno made a substitution—#9, Tobio Kageyama IN; #2, Koushi Sugawara OUT.

  Koushi Sugawara g Taichi Kaedehara's bad the gring point differen the scoreboard. With unwilling steps, he walked off the court.

  "Please!" he muttered, his voice trembling slightly.

  "We won't lose!" Tobio Kageyama decred without the slightest hesitation.

  "It's my fault," Ukai Keishin said, his face heavy with guilt. "At the start, I put Sugawara in to help the team stabilize—to calm their nerves them some emotional momentum."

  "And he did. His uability, and how his setting style was pletely different from Kageyama's, threw Aoba Johsai off for a while," Ukai tinued.

  "But I didn't expect Aoba Johsai to adjust so quickly. Oheir No. 10 moved to the front row, their offence didn't falter. If anything, we failed to switch Sugawara out in time, and that left gaps in both our defend attack."

  Ukai sighed, his indecision gnawing at him. The rapid shifts on the court left him feeling powerless as problems tinued piling up.

  They're amazing… so amazing!

  Aoba Johsai is incredible!

  I want to py!

  I want to py!

  I want to py!

  Let me py, let me py, let me py, let me py!

  Ukai could feel the restless energy radiating from Karasuno's bench. Among the substitutes sat a small, ferocious beast brimming with an uing hunger for attack—Shōyō Hinata.

  Taichi Kaedehara gnced over at Karasuno's bench as well and smiled faintly at the eager Hinata.

  "Don't worry. I'll beat you soon enough."

  Tobio Kageyama walked bato the court, f what could barely pass as a smile—a smile so strai looked closer to a grimace.

  Karasuno pyers: "…"

  Aoba Johsai pyers: "…" What's with him? That's terrifying…

  Tsukishima Kei instinctively took a step back. "Please stop that expression, King."

  "Don't back off, Tsukki!" Ryūnosuke Tanaka scolded. "Kageyama might actually mean it!"

  Nishinoya Yū hesitated before adding, "I think… I think that's supposed to be a smile. Probably…"

  "Don't add 'probably,' Nishinoya!" Asahi Azumane snapped.

  Daichi Sawamura felt a mix of emotions as he watched Kageyama. This was the same Kageyama who had once said, "If I could receive, set, and spike all by myself, I'd be fine." And now, here he was—smiling(?) at his teammates.

  "All right, all right, quit teasing Kageyama. Let's pull that score back!" Daichi ordered.

  "Yeah!!"

  Even though Kageyama's idea of encement wasn't what the team had in mind, the effect seemed to be the same. Satisfied, Kageyama took his position.

  Aoba Johsai served. Nishinoya dug the ball perfectly, sending it straight to Kageyama. This was his first py sining ba. Down by ten points, they had to make this t—this ball had to shift the momentum.

  It was an important ball, carrying immense pressure. Hinata still wasn't on the court. In a moment like this—

  "Take it away! Tanaka-senpai!"

  The ball soared perfectly into Ryūnosuke Tanaka's hitting zowisting his body, Tanaka delivered a sharp cross-shot that slipped past Aoba Johsai's blockers and smmed onto the court floor.

  A small but deadly cross-shot—the 'monk head' had brought Karasuno back a point!

  [Aoba Johsai 16 – 7 Karasuno]

  "Yes!!!"

  Karasuno's stagnant score finally ticked upward as Shōyō Hinata returo the front row.

  Karasuno served.

  "Tsukishima, serve a good one!"

  "ce ball!"

  Takahiro Hanamaki received the ball, and Taichi Kaedehara began his approach.

  "He's keeping up!"

  Hinata's smaller frame made him look even faster when he ran, as if he were ripping through the air itself.

  "Oouch!"

  "Cover it!"

  Just as Taichi had mao block Hinata earlier, this time Hinata's mao block Seijoh's Quick Attack.

  The moment Hinata nded, he was already sprinting across the court to un attack from the other side.

  Taichi was back to square orag Hinata relentlessly.

  "That little guy is incredible! He just whooshed over to the edge of the court!" A spectator iands couldn't help but excim.

  Smack!

  "Oouch!" Taichi Kaedehara shouted toward the back row.

  Akira Kunimi set the ball up, and Oikawa Tōru, mindful of Kaedehara's stamina, sent the set to Iwaizumi Hajime on the right side.

  "Double block!" Tobio Kageyama and Ryūnosuke Tanaka's block was effective.

  Iwaizumi adjusted his shot, tipping the ball past the blockers toward Karasuno's backcourt.

  Daichi Sawamura dug the ball, and Hinata was already on the move again.

  "Three secutive running attacks?!"

  "Look! It's oher side this time—the left wing!"

  From the far left, Shōyō Hinata leapt into the air as Kageyama's set soared perfectly toward him.

  This time, Hinata found a route past Taichi Kaedehara's blod spiked the ball sharply.

  Smack!

  Shinji Watari received the ball!

  It got dug again?! Ukai Keishin frowned in disbelief.

  Hinata's attack shouldn't have been so easily received. His eyes sharpened as he tracked the pyers' movements on the court.

  The ball Watari received arced back toward Oikawa Tōru. Kaedehara nded and immediately transitioned into the offence.

  He had no time to rest—if the ball didn't hit the floor, he couldn't stop moving. Watg Hinata's relentless pace made him realize that fact all too clearly.

  Boom!

  Oikawa Tōru, with a sudden sed touch, spiked the ball straight down. All eyes had been focused on the moving attackers, and the ued dump caught both teams pletely off guard.

  Oikawa scored.

  [Aoba Johsai 17 – 7 Karasuno]

  Both Taichi Kaedehara and Shōyō Hinata stood on the court, panting heavily from exhaustioheir eyes were locked firmly on Oikawa Tōru.

  "Sorry," Oikawa said with a teasing smirk. "I stole the spotlight, didn't I?"

  Aoba Johsai served again. The two pyers, who had barely rested for thirty seds, immediately started marking each other once more.

  "That little guy is jumping everywhere….He's amazing, but he looks exhausted…"

  From the stands, the spectators couldn't help but agree—it was tiring just to watch.

  On opposite sides of the he two No. 10s seemed to mirror each other as they sprinted a madly.

  Volleyball ort of stant jumping. That also meant it ort of perpetual battle against gravity.

  They jumped to bait their oppos. They jumped to block. They jumped to spike.

  If the rally dragged on, those same as would repeat again and again within short intervals, leaving no time to catch their breath.

  As their stamina waheir minds began to blur. It was at these moments that dangerous thoughts crept in—

  "Just finish the ball already. I don't care who…"

  "Let the ball hit the floor…"

  "Please let it nd on the oppo's side…"

  But even after the exhausting rally dragged on, a resolute voice rang through the court.

  "Give me the ball!!"

  From the far-right side, Shōyō Hinata jumped once more.

  "Not happening!"

  Oher side of the he block was right there to meet him!

  Boom!

  The ball didn't make its way to Hinata. Ryūnosuke Tanaka, almost unguarded on the left, smashed the ball down decisively.

  Karasuno scored!

  [Aoba Johsai 17 – 8 Karasuno]

  _________

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