As he grabbed the ball from the referee, Yuki nced sideways toward the scoreboard.


    Shimoyawata High16


    Tsunemori High13


    ''Three points behind, huh?'' He muttered while bouncing the ball to the floor.


    As thest person in the rotation to serve the ball, Yuki was surprised it took so long for his turn toe finally. But that just meant once one team gained momentum, it was hard for the other team to stop it. Still, he was proud that the team could match the intensity of Shimoyawata, the so-called third-best team in Tokyo right now, and still put up a decent fight.


    However, Yuki knew something needed to be changed here.


    If all the long and exhausting rallies that had already happened in this game were prolonged until the end, it would be Tsunemori who was at a disadvantage. After all, there were only two yers avable on their bench, and one of them had to be rotated constantly with the middle blocker.


    It was farpared to the thick squad that the opponent had, which contained at least six to seven bench yers that were ready toe into the court.


    So, if nothing drastic happened, they would die first before seeing the end of the game.


    ''Okay, I have been training my ass off for this. Let''s see how effective my new serve is.''


    Yuki took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he as trying to visualize where he wanted his serve tond. The moment the referee blew his whistle, Yuki tossed the ball slightly into the air before hitting it softly. It was a normal serve, not the floater he was proud of. He saved it untilter since after three weeks, he wasn''t able to reach the level of control he wanted.


    But with a normal serve, everything was different.


    There was no twist in his ball as it flew directly to the other side of the. One of the Shimoyawata yers moved forward since the ball was about to fall into the middle front. However, he was frozen on the spot out of a sudden, letting the ball fall gently into the floor.


    *Thud!*


    "Yosh!" Yuki clenched his fist, celebrating his first sessful serve. While they didn''t understand what happened, all of his teammates also came to him for a high-five.


    "Good job, Kobayashi!"


    "Keep it up!"


    Meanwhile, all the Shimoyawata yers stared at the yer who was frozen on the spot with questioning gazes. The yer himself flushed a little before apologizing. "Sorry, that was my bad. I don''t know what happened."


    Hideo as the captain nodded before anyone could say anything. "Don''t let the same mistake happen twice, okay?"


    "Yes, Captain."


    In their mind, there was nothing special in Yuki''s serve. It was a normal one that any novice yer should be able to receive. However, when the second serve wasing and the same yer reacted toote to pick up the ball, questions came into their head.


    "What happened, Senki?" Hideo asked. "Is there anything wrong with his serve?"


    "I don''t know." The yer named Senki was as confused as the others were. "It looks like any ordinary serve, but I don''t know why I hesitate again."


    The confusion grew as the third serve from Yuki came, and this time, while Senki could receive the ball, it was a shaky, short pass. Ueno as the setter couldn''t pass the ballfortably with that kind of ball, so he could only rely on an underhand pass toward the left side.


    *BAM!*


    As Hideo tried to spike the ball to pierce Tsunemori''s blocker forcefully, the set-up was too short, making it easier for Hirano to block it. The cold-blooded blocker didn''t even move from his spot, just jumped and the ball came into his hand.


    "NICE BLOCK, HIRANO!"


    "Goddamnit, that is a clean block!"


    "Nice! We tie the game!"


    As celebrations broke on the court, Akira on the sideline couldn''t help but shake his head, looking at Yuki with a marveled expression.


    "That boy… When did he learn that trick?"


    Seeing the coach noticed what happened, Megumi who had no idea asked, "I don''t understand, Sensei. What Kobayashi-kun did was just regr serves, nothing special like his usual floater. How could that Shimoyawata''s yer not able to receive it perfectly?"


    Akira nced at the girl sideways before exining, "It is because of his tricky route that Kobayashi picked."


    "Tricky route?"


    "Yeah." Akira nodded. "Do you know the base position for a setter on the court?"


    Not understanding where the conversation would go, Megumi still answered, "The front-right, right? To make it easier for the setter to pass the ball to a right-handed outside hitter on the left."


    Akira nodded once again in approval. "No matter where is his position in the rotation, right after the opponent serves, he has to move to that position quickly. It seems Kobayashi noticed that and aimed at the setter''s route to go back into that spot.


    When seeing the settering from the corner of his eyes, the yer who has to receive the ball unconsciously thinks that the setter is about to receive it. That is why he was alwayste to receive the ball."


    Megumi and Kaede who heard the exnation could only stare at their kouhai in awe. Don''t think it was easy, but it required a precise serve that someone wouldn''t be able to achieve overnight. Then, all the personal training that Yuki always did after the normal session suddenly made sense for them all.


    "So, that is why he always said that he wanted to hone his control, huh?" Kaede grinned in admiration. "What a beast."


    Akira also nodded in agreement with Kaede''s sentiment. He didn''t know how could a yer with only one month of experience in volleyball think of such a way to exploit the opponent''s rotation to turn an ordinary serve into a killer one. It seemed that he had to talk to Yuki about more tricks in serving the ball so that the sses boy could be more creative and versatile there.


    It had to wait forter though, as right now, Yuki was preparing himself to do his sixth serve in a row. He took the ball calmly before releasing such an ordinary ball. However, this kind of ordinary ball would give Shimoyawata PTSD if they lost the game.


    "Move, Senki!"


    Wakamatsu, the guy with the second-best defense in the opposite team besides the libero stepped forward. While they still didn''t know why Senki was unable to receive such an easy ball, they knew there was something wrong with it. As the best defender on the court right now, it was Wakamatsu''s duty to check it out by himself.


    Unfortunately, he was so focused on the ball that he didn''t notice the presence of Ueno that came into his peripheral vision affected his judgment. It was just like Senki before, he was frozen on the spot as if waiting for his teammates to receive the ball first. In the end, the ball fell shortly in front of him with ease, no one was quick enough to save it.


    Horrors could be seen in Shimoyawata''s yers'' expressions. It was as if they were somehow bewitched by Yuki to freeze on the spot. No logical exnation came inside their head to exin the serve, and why they couldn''t react in time for that.


    Meanwhile, Yuki who had just done another masterss serve spread his arms widely, nothing could hide the smug smile on his face. The sessful six serve in a row was a testament to his hard work in thest three weeks. Even though at first nce, nothing special in it, he could still toy with such a difficult opponent like Shimoyawata as if they were just a novice team.


    ''Now that we are on the lead with three points, let''s see what they would do. Can they figure out the secret of this serve?''