"Ushijima looks like he's enjoying himself."
On the sidelines, Washijo Tanji rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
Ushijima Wakatoshi had never been the type to show his emotions openly. Even his teammates often struggled to read his mood from his expression alone. In all of Shiratorizawa, perhaps only two people were exceptions.
The first was Tendo Satori, whose eerie intuition sometimes let him sense Ushijima's true feelings.
The second was Washijo himself, as his coach, he could see right through him.
"He must be thrilled to finally meet a worthy opponent–" said Irihata Nobuteru, standing beside Washijo. "After all, for a king, finding a proper challenge isn't easy."
Irihata's gaze landed on Akashi Asuka. With both his and Ushijima skills rising rapidly, it had become increasingly difficult for either of them to find opponents who could truly push them to their limits.
3:4.
The serve rotated back, Ushijima Wakatoshi to serve.
Boom!
With a deafening roar, the left-handed spike shot toward the Blue Team's court. The angle wasn't especially tricky, but the sheer power behind the ball was overwhelming.
"Oi, oi, oi, are you guys all insane today or what!?"
Komori Motoya wanted to curse. Dealing with just one monster's serve was hard enough. But three? That was enough to crush a man's soul.
He had to stay fully focused on every single serve, one slip-up, and those three freaks would snatch the point away like it was nothing.
Smack!
Diving forward, Komori barely managed to dig the serve. But his posture was completely ruined, in fact, every time he'd tried to receive their serves today, he ended up in a heap.
Sakusa Kiyoomi set the ball, and Wakatsu Kiryu went on the attack.
A thunderous spike slammed into Akashi Asuka's arms. It didn't break through the block, but the impact sent the ball crashing downward against the net, so fast that Oikawa Tooru didn't even have time to react.
3:5.
Now it was Komori Motoya's turn to serve.
He fired a jump serve, which Oikawa received. Akashi set it, and Ushijima scored.
4:5.
Watching the Red Team cleanly return his serve and convert it into a textbook offense, Komori cursed them out with both middle fingers, mentally, of course.
"Damn it! Just because you guys have killer serves doesn't mean you're all that!"
The serve rotated again, this time to Akashi Asuka. As he stepped up to the line, Komori glared at him from across the court.
"Just try it, you bastard. I swear I'll receive your serve this time!"
────────── ✦ ──────────
"What pressure…"
Akashi Asuka stood at the service line, holding the volleyball in his hands. Oddly enough, his mind began to wander.
"When was the last time I felt pressure like this?"
Still, instead of anxiety, he felt a rush of happiness.
"This is amazing… I think this might be the first time I've ever truly felt joy like this. I… I don't want this match to end."
Boom!
His body moved on instinct. The moment the referee's whistle blew, Akashi tossed the ball and struck it with a powerful swing.
Whoosh!
The ball cut through the air like a missile, drawing a massive arc over the net.
"Not again… Is this guy seriously making that kind of serve a standard weapon!?"
Komori's expression crumpled. Another banana serve from Akashi. Not just the players, even the coaches on the sidelines found themselves speechless at the sight.
Thud!
The ball slammed into the floor, completely bypassing both Komori and Sakusa's defensive range. Even someone as skilled as Sakusa couldn't receive a serve he couldn't predict.
5:5.
Akashi's serve evened the score once again.
And he wasn't done yet. He followed up with another serve.
Boom!
That cannon-like impact again, it still made everyone flinch, no matter how many times they heard it.
This time, the ball wasn't a banana serve. It looked like a typical power jump serve.
But Komori, with his exceptional dynamic vision, saw through the disguise.
"It's not a banana, and it's not a standard power serve either. He… reduced the spin slightly?"
Just altering the spin a little was enough to create a third type of serve?
"What kind of monster are you!?" Komori's face twisted in frustration.
For most players, changing the spin strength wouldn't change much, normal jump serves already had spin, and unless you had insane speed or control, the effect was negligible.
Only at the extreme ends, like the floaty, no-spin Jump Floater or the wild, spinning Drift Serve, did spin truly matter.
But Akashi was different.
His power alone gave his serves enough force to weaponize even the slightest tweak in spin.
Until now, just his unintentional spin variations had already made Komori's life a nightmare. But now Akashi was deliberately lowering the spin, creating something akin to a "weakened jump floater", a serve that floated unpredictably despite its power.
It made Komori's job exponentially harder.
Smack!
He locked onto the ball with every ounce of his focus, his eyes practically spinning in their sockets. At the very last second, he tracked the ball's landing spot.
He reached out—
—but the ball suddenly floated upward in a small arc, just before contact. That tiny upward drift completely ruined his timing.
Thud!
The ball grazed his forearm and bounced several meters away, crashing to the floor.
6:5.
Silence fell over the court.
"Komori… missed?"
The players from Itachiyama stared wide-eyed, faces filled with disbelief.
"That's impossible… He read the landing point. Why couldn't he receive it? Was there another curve right at the end?"
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Completed version available on Patreon.com/Veltoria