The serve from Kitagawa Daiichi's captain was received cleanly by Yudai Hyakuzawa. At the same moment the ball touched his arms, their setter, Mori, had already begun to move.
His eyes locked on the ball floating in the air. As a beginner setter, Mori couldn't instantly predict where the ball would fall, so he had to adjust constantly, stepping, sliding, and repositioning.
He couldn't yet read the trajectory and decide on the attack plan like veteran setters could.
But his repeated side-to-side head movements gave him a wide field of vision.
Then, his mind drifted back to two months ago.
"Eh? You're saying every time I set, I have to visualize four offensive options in my head, then pick the best one?"
"That sounds... really hard."
Mori scratched his head awkwardly after hearing Ichinose Guren's demand.
"Let me ask you this," Guren replied, wearing an are-you-serious kind of look. "When you play Go, before the midgame, how many possible moves do you have with every placement?"
Mori immediately realized Guren was comparing the mental load of Go with that of volleyball, to make a point that Go required far more mental effort.
Liking intellectual debates, Mori quickly countered.
"No, Guren-senpai, you can't compare them like that."
"Go requires calm focus, you sit down, think in silence, and plan every move carefully."
"But when I'm playing volleyball, I'm already giving my all just to track the ball's path and make a clean set."
"It's hard to think and move at the same time when your body's working that hard."
Ichinose tilted his head, then laughed lightly.
"Well, well... it's just club activities anyway."
He said no more, just patted Mori on the shoulder and went off to his own drills.
But as he walked away from the training area, his steps faltered. He half-turned, as if about to say something to Mori, but stopped midway.
He stayed that way, half-turned, for two seconds before finally speaking up, just loud enough for Mori to hear.
"What's wrong, Guren-senpai? Did you forget something?"
"No, no. Just remembered something."
"Huh?"
"You used to play Go, right? You must've run into a lot of tough puzzles there too?"
"Yeah! Those were brutal. My teacher made me solve endgame problems to improve. I couldn't even start most of them, I'd sit for days before barely solving one."
"I see… hahaha. Keep it up, alright?"
"Eh? Why bring that up all of a sudden?"
Ichinose didn't answer. He just waved a hand behind him and walked back to his station to resume training.
Mori stared after him, confused, still wondering why his senpai had brought that up.
===========
The memory faded.
The match continued.
Mori darted side to side, eyes flicking rapidly between the court and the ball above.
Setter dump. There's a chance, but I'm not confident in the move. I might not even get it over the net. When in doubt, set to the captain. Give it to Guren-senpai. Keep that as a backup plan, but I need the best option, not just the safest one. Set to Hinata.
That might work! He hasn't spiked yet, and his small frame is deceptive. First-strike advantage!
Images of Kitagawa's blockers flashed through his mind.
Their block is semi-reactive, they predict first, then adjust midair based on the set's direction.
Right now, all their focus is on Guren-senpai. That makes this choice safer than sending it to him.
Back-row attack from Hyakuzawa-senpai… never tried that before. We only practiced front-row spikes. I've never set that far from the net.
And without the net as a height reference… I'd have no idea how high to set. Damn it. Can't risk it.
Alright then, it's decided!
Mori's rapid-fire thoughts stopped. His steps halted. The ball was now in his hands.
"Guren-senpai!!"
He shouted the name with all his breath, his voice loud enough to show his tonsils.
"As expected! The captain!"
"How naive!"
The three blockers at Kitagawa's net grinned. We knew it.
Their semi-predictive blocking system had all three of them already in position, knees bent, two-step approaches ready.
But just as it looked like Mori was setting to Ichinose, his weight suddenly shifted backward.
Then, whip!, he sent up a back set.
"I got it!"
SMACK!
Hinata Shoyo exploded upward, soaring far higher than anyone expected.
Because in Kitagawa's eyes, that small, wiry kid was just a filler player.
He couldn't receive well, couldn't block with his height, and surely, surely, his setter wouldn't be foolish enough to set him up against a wall of blockers all over 180 centimeters tall.
But that lack of understanding of Hinata's jump power, combined with the immense threat Ichinose posed, and Mori's misleading shout, all came together perfectly.
The blockers' reaction was too late. Their hurried jump couldn't even reach Hinata's height after his full sprint approach.
BOOM!
The ball slammed into the floor, bouncing up violently.
Kageyama dove from the back row, desperate to save it, but without a block to slow it down or direct its path, even his lightning reflexes couldn't catch it.
That's volleyball for you, a team sport above all else.
Because in pure one-on-one defense, when it's receiver versus spiker, predicting the spike's path becomes almost impossible once there are too many angles to choose from.
"Yoshaaaaaa!!!"
Hinata clenched his fist, shouting with unrestrained joy.
Of course, with his personality, there was never any chance he'd hold it in.
It was a set built entirely on trust, a pass born from Mori's faith, and for Hinata, it was his first official spike and point after two and a half long years of silence.
Ichinose Guren, watching from the side, stood frozen for a moment.
He knew everything Hinata had gone through: the empty clubroom, the lonely practices, the inability to compete, the endless days spent hitting a ball against a wall with no one to receive it.
By now, Hinata's practice swings had easily surpassed ten thousand.
And that spike, bursting with gratitude for being alive on court, for having a setter who believed in him, seemed to glow gold beneath the LED lights.
Ichinose couldn't help but mutter with a half-smile, half-sigh.
"What the hell… a grateful ten-thousandth spike? Crow Style: Hundred-Form?"
He snorted.
"It feels like I'm watching Netero's 'Guanyin Bodhisattva' all over again."
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