The Birth of A Volleyball Legend
Chapter 48: Ezaki VS Tsunemori!

"What the hell is that?!" Megumi exclaimed, her eyes bulged wide. It wasn't just the players on the court who were shocked by this sudden development, but even those who were on the bench felt the same too. "His spike is harder and faster than Noriyuki-kun!"

"I should have expected something like this to happen soon." Akira groaned. "That boy is Ezaki, the culprit behind Shimoyawata's absence in any official tournament last year."

Once again, Megumi had her eyes widened which made Akira afraid it would pop out soon. "You mean the problematic guy who always picked up a fight left and right?"

Akira snorted at her description. "Not completely wrong, but you forget one thing, Megumi-san. He is not just an ordinary problematic guy, but a talented problematic guy. He was one of the best hitters in Japan when he was in middle school."

The problem Ezaki possessed for Tsunemori was not how hard he could spike. If so, Akira would be happy to stick Hirano onto him all day. No, the problem here lay in Ezaki's jumping ability which was far from normal. Freakish even. No matter how good the blockers he had, it wouldn't matter if the hitter could jump higher than them.

Akira kept rubbing his mustache while observing the court. While he looked calm, by now, everyone knew it was the coach's way of dealing with his uneasiness. After a while, he finally took a decision.

"Kaede-kun, prepare yourself. You will go for Ogawa-kun after this."

"Yes, Sir!" Kaede straightened his back and nodded solemnly

-0-

"Eh? Kaede-senpai is replacing Ogawa-senpai? Why?" Riku asked, confused at his uncle's decision.

"I don't know." Koji shrugged. "But let's trust Akira-sensei's arrangement."

Riku nodded slightly, yet still confused and a bit unhappy with this decision. He had no grudge against Kaede, of course, but the blonde boy would prefer to play with Ogawa who was more active in offense, especially when Yuki and Okamura were still on the court too.

By doing this substitution, Akira basically told his players that he intended to go defensively and play passively at the beginning of the second set.

'Is it because of that guy?' Riku stared at Shimoyawata's number 11. 'Kobayashi is right. He is so troublesome.'

The game continued once again with Hideo doing another serve. This time, with three of the best defensive players were on the court, there was no worry on Tsunemori's side. Kaede received the ball perfectly, letting it fly slightly above him.

"Nice receive, Senpai!"

"Riku! Here!"

With Ogawa out of the court, now, the blonde boy only had Koji and Asahi on the wing to attack. However, an idea suddenly popped into his head. He glanced sideways at Yuki, and just like any good friends, their chemistry kicked in as the glasses boy also started to move.

"They are going for a back attack! Be wary of the number 19!" Wakamatsu shouted when he saw Yuki lurking from the shadow, trying to warn his teammates.

But as they had their eyes on Yuki and the two other attackers on the wing, they forgot about Riku's biggest weapon here as the blonde boy tapped the ball slightly over the net, dumped it gently to fool the entire court.

Well… Everyone… But one player with the jersey number 11.

"WHAT?!" Riku widened his eyes in shock, never expecting someone to see his trick. In hindsight, he should have expected that, considering the setter would always do the same whenever the team did a synchronization attack.

Ezaki managed to recover the ball perfectly on the front side, and after that, he ran back a little to get some space before rushing forward and leaping to the sky. No matter if it was the first or the second time they saw it, Tsunemori's players were still in awe at the sight of Ezaki's upper body slightly above the net. However, this time, they came prepared.

"Kaede, tell everyone except for Hirano to fall back whenever that number 11 is going to attack," Akira told Kaede when he was about to come into the court. "His jump would render our wall useless, so rather than being stubborn and keeping the wall intact just to be ignored by that player, let's retreat and receive the ball openly."

That was Akira's instruction to countermeasure Ezaki's threat. As for why left Hirano as the sole middle blocker instead of retreating completely, well… Let's just say the cold-blooded middle blocker had something inside him that could intimidate the hell out of the opponent.

*BAM!*

"Oh! Nice, Hirano-senpai!" Yuki shouted as he received Ezaki's spike.

Yeah, just like earlier, the combo between Hirano's intimidation on the front with Yuki's tough defense in the back was enough for Tsunemori to stop the opponent's attack. Yuki could only shake his head when he saw his senpai just walk it off as if he didn't do something special. Sometimes, he wondered why such an amazing middle blocker came to a no-name team like Tsunemori.

Still, the spike coming from Ezaki hurt. A lot.

If by the look of it, Yuki guessed it was at the same level as Gondo from Matsukita, when he received the ball, he knew he was wrong. It was on a completely different level. Like, Gondo's spike was a child work compared to Ezaki's. The pain in his forearms was real, forcing him to retreat after that and not join the attack.

But the play itself wasn't over.

Yuki had to recover his position quickly as Asahi's spike was deflected by Ezaki, creating another chance for Shimoyawata to attack once again. And when the attack came again, he received another one, smirking when he saw Ezaki had a thick vein popped on his forehead, fuming that another one of his attacks was received as if it was nothing.

"Nice receive, Kobayashi!"

"Kill the ball immediately!"

The game went back and forth for a while, with Ezaki as the main attacker for Shimoyawata started to get frustrated after his spike was saved by Yuki perfectly three times in a row. The heated battle between Ezaki and Yuki made all the people outside of the court hold their breath unconsciously, sometimes wincing when they heard the sound of the ball hitting Yuki's forearms.

It wasn't until the fifth attack Ezaki wanted to hit that everything changed. Blinded by the frustration for Yuki, he ignored everything else, and when he spiked the ball, a wall formed by two arms suddenly appeared in his sight.

'Wha-?'

*BAM!*

As he spiked the ball, it hit the wall straight away, and when Ezaki turned around, he was greeted by a cold stare from Tsunemori's middle blocker. Yes, it was Hirano who came in clutch, blocking the shoot for the first time in the second set. He didn't speak anything, but his eyes told everyone what he thought.

'Don't think I alone cannot stop you!'