"Good job, Riku!"
"Nice spike!"
"Damn! That serve is killer!"
All the Tsunemori players praised the blonde excitedly. While they knew Riku had a powerful ace, they didn't expect it would work against Shimoyawata. Well, they should have expected that, since it worked a few times against Matsukita. Still, this was a good thing for Tsunemori whose morale was low before.
As for Riku himself, he furrowed his brows before turning at Yuki, asking, "Wha the hell is that set? Slow it down, Kobayashi!"
"What do you mean by slow it down? You think I don't know how fast you can run? Please, don't be such a baby." Yuki just rolled his eyes, looking at him in disgust.
They both glared at each other for a moment, making everyone afraid that the two freshmen would make a commotion. It seemed they had not forgotten yet the cause of all the chaos inside the team was those two.
However, their worry was unwarranted, since a second later, they both had a similar grin on his face before high-fiving each other.
"Good job, Kobayashi!" Riku's grin was ear to ear as he praised his glasses friend.
"Yeah! You executed the ball perfectly." Yuki also nodded, praising back his blonde friend.
Still, they were not as excited as the others. For both Yuki and Riku, the last play was just a normal operation, built from the understanding of each other's ability to react. Yuki knew Riku was as good as any hitter when he was given a chance, and he also knew the blonde boy liked to do a quick attack, so he gave a quick set near the net to take the opportunity of the confusion from the opponent. The same could be said for Riku who understood his friend's ability to set the ball really well, so he could just let the glasses boy take over the ball.
This was the connection between them both that came from always playing with each other in the last month.
"Come on, Agostini. Give us a good serve again!"
"Sure!"
Riku took the ball again, bringing it to the outside of the court for another serve. The momentum was on his side, and as all the confidence in the world was in his grasp, the blonde boy unleashed another powerful serve. However, Shimoyawata was ready this time. There was no chaos on their side as they moved neatly, giving room for the player who received Riku's serve before to do the same again.
*BAM!*
"Sorry! That is a bad one!" The player apologized quickly.
The ball he received flew close to the net, far from the setter who was on the right side. Having no choice, the on the left side had to cover for the second ball, and as he was no setter, he couldn't set it perfectly to his teammates, wasting the opportunity for them to attack.
"Send it to the number 19! Don't let him get the second ball!" One of them shouted.
It seemed since Yuki set the ball earlier, Shimoyawata thought Tsunemori's setter was him. It was a good strategy to force the setter to receive the first ball. Unfortunately, they were completely wrong here.
"Agostini!"
"Got it!"
The moment Yuki shouted Riku's name, the blonde boy prepared himself immediately to initiate the attack. All the opponent's players had their eyes widened at the gesture, looking at the blonde boy in disbelief.
"What the hell?! Isn't he the outside hitter?!"
Yeah, they mistook Riku as an outside hitter since he delivered a powerful serve and spike before. Seeing the moment of confusion that hit the opponent one more time, of course, Riku didn't hesitate to take advantage of it. He tossed the ball far to the left side where Koji was waiting, and the second-year hitter executed the play perfectly, sending a cross spike to the right back of the opponent's side.
*BAM!*
"OSH! Nice spike, Koji-senpai!"
"Yeah! Goddamnit, Koji! That is such a beautiful cross!"
"Hey, don't shake my hair like that, you bastard!"
As the Tsunemori players celebrated another point for them, their opponent gathered around, discussing about what to do. Gone was all the trace of playfulness and excitement that could be seen before, and now, they all had this serious expression that meant business.
"Ueno, what do you think? Who is the setter between those two?" Hideo, the captain of the team asked.
Ueno, the boy with ponytail hair who was also the setter of the team shook his head. "It is difficult to determine that right now. While the blondie looks more natural, the quick set the four-eyes did is not something anyone who has no experience could pull that easily. I need more time to observe."
After pondering for a moment, Hideo finally said, "Maybe, it is their strategy to mess with us. Facing such a difficult opponent like those two, we need to be more careful to not fall into their trick. Keep your eyes on them carefully, okay?"
"Sure."
That was a solid approach based on logical reasoning. Unfortunately, they made a rookie mistake here. Too focused on figuring out who was the real setter, they forgot to talk about the dire threat from Tsunemori that they hadn't solved yet, and that was Riku's ace serve.
That was why when the next serve came, they had no strategy to deal with it, could only repeat their mistake earlier.
*BAM!*
"SHIT! Someone, cover it up!"
"I got it!"
Luckily for them, while the ball was flying far outside of the sideline, the closest player to get the ball was Ueno. As a setter, he had the ability to start an attack even though he was in an unfavorable position. Without even looking at his teammates, he sent the ball back to the court, straight to the player with the jersey number 3 on the right side.
Since it was an emergency set, the accuracy was not good, and the set was too short for the number 3 to spike the ball with full power. He wanted to aim the ball to a specific spot in Tsunemori's blockers to get a second chance to attack. However, the two big walls formed by Hirano and Yuki – who suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the front line – were enough to stop the attack.
*BAM!*
"OH! A clean block! Nice one, Hirano!"
"Good job closing the gap too, Kobayashi!"
"Come on!"
As the momentum for Tsunemori was at its peak, Riku put the last nail in the coffin by hitting an untouchable powerful ace serve, straight piercing the defense area between the middle back and the left back, adding the lead for Tsunemori into four points.
"YOSSHAAAAAA!" Riku roared wildly, followed by the other players whose excitement went far and beyond.
It was at this time that the Shimoyawata's head coach finally rose from his spot and asked for the referee, "TIME OUT!"