Akira sighed, glancing at the scoreboard for a moment before turning at his players who were too exhausted to exchange conversation. After losing another five points in a row and the score was overtaken by Shimoyawata, he decided to ask for a timeout. Not only to give his players a break but also to cut off the opponent's momentum, just like what the other team did to them before.
Still, the atmosphere here was so gloomy right now.
Even though no one spoke anything, Akira could guess what they were thinking right now. The loss of the last five points earlier hurt, especially considering how hard they defended the ball. They put up a stubborn fight, not giving the opponent any easy points while also trying to strike back whenever they had a chance.
But when all their efforts produced nothing, they would definitely start questioning themselves, can they really beat their opponent?
"Okay, everyone! Listen to me!" He raised his voice to get everyone's attention. "Our strategy has been working pretty well until now, keep fighting over every ball and not giving them any easy point at all. We just have to be more clinical in our offense, not wasting opportunity in front of us."
All the players stared at each other silently, not knowing what to say. They also learned about their offense problem, but if only it was as easy to solve as Akira said.
"Well, since we need a change in our offense, Asahi, you will play after this." Akira continued.
"Yes, Sensei!" The bun-haired boy straightened his back while nodding firmly.
"Kaede, you are out for now. Preserve your energy and be prepared to come in again whenever you are needed." Akira said to the opposite hitter.
Yuki furrowed his brows for a moment, a bit confused with the change. While it was understandable to bring in Asahi from the bench since his senpai was better at attacking, it was illogical to replace Kaede who played well until now. If anything, it should be Ogawa who hadn't done anything yet up to this point.
However, it seemed Akira had his own arrangement.
"Asahi, you, Koji-kun, and Ogawa-kun will form a three-prong attack. Riku, you know what to do. Kobayashi-kun, if you can sneak from the shadow to add chaos, do it! Right now, what we need the most is to score, especially when our opponent thinks we don't have enough guns to break their defense. This will alert them and at least open up many options for our offense. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Sir!"
-0-
The exhaustion didn't just hit Tsunemori, but also Shimoyawata on the other side.
"Damn, I have never thought our first opponent would be this stubborn." One of the players cursed.
"Yeah. I thought we have to wait for at least in the third or fourth round to get this kind of tough opponent." Someone nodded in agreement.
"That number 19, though. He is something else." Hideo, the captain of the team shook his head while staring at Yuki. "He is reading us like an open book. That is something that even a top team in Tokyo would want their players to have. I wonder why he joined Tsunemori."
"Yeah! His game-reading ability is a beast!"
Everyone on their team noticed that Tsunemori's defense revolved around Yuki, and the glasses boy had already proven to everyone else that he deserved the position. Still, knowing the fact was one thing, and knowing how to solve it was another. Miura, the coach of the team kept tapping his chin, pondering on what was the best approach for this situation.
'If they suddenly have a solution to fix their offense, we will be in trouble. We need to overwhelm them first before they can do anything. Should I bring more offensive players to the court?' Then, his eyes turned to a player with jersey number 11 who tried his best to shrink his presence. 'Should I bring him in?'
Miura shook his head quickly, denying the idea. 'No, he is only for emergency. If we couldn't even beat a no-name school like Tsunemori, we might as well say goodbye to the tournament. And we are still on the lead, so why would I be so anxious?'
After having that thought, Miura coughed, gaining all of his players' attention.
"Okay, everyone! Listen to me!"
-0-
A few minutes later, all the players came back to the court. While there was still a bit of excitement shown in Shimoyawata's side, they were more subdued right now. And while depression still lingered around Tsunemori's side, they looked a bit better compared to before the timeout.
This was the essence of a timeout. By calling it, the coach wanted to cut off the momentum of the opponent while raising the morale of the team. That was what Miura did when Riku dominated the game with his serve, and that was also what Akira did too right now. This showed that both coaches mastered the timing of the timeout already.
"Kobayashi, be careful." Riku patted his shoulder.
Yuki nodded a little, rubbing his forearms a bit. By pulling out Kaede from the court, Tsunemori basically went all-attack for the game. Yuki knew why the coach did this, but it would make everything difficult for him who was responsible for defense.
Fortunately, the opponent didn't have anyone who could do a strong serve. Like this time, it was another ordinary one that went straight in his direction. Yuki had to wonder whether the opponent was dumb or something else, considering that he was the best defender of the team. Still, he received the ball, aiming it directly at Riku.
"RIKU!"
That shout was what made Yuki realize why the coach put Asahi on the court. The moment the ball went in Riku's direction, Asahi on the right side started to sprint forward, raising his hand to ask for the ball. Meanwhile, Ogawa also did the same from the left wing, creating a perfect mirror of each other. Their movement was so in sync that it was impossible to predict who would receive the ball, something that didn't happen when Kaede was there.
Not only that, Koji also lurked from the dark, using Ogawa as a distraction to move from outside of the sideline. Hirano also did the same, stepping back a few before running to the middle, ready for a quick. At that time, Yuki remembered Akira's message for him.
'If you have the opportunity, move from the shadow and create more chaos.'
This was the opportunity that the coach talked about.
Without hesitation, Yuki also moved to the right, supporting Asahi while spreading the opponent's blocker thin. All the Shimoyawata players had their eyes widened in shock, never expecting such an erratic coordination movement to be done in the middle of the game. They all stepped back except for two players who acted as the middle blocker on the front, trying to guess where the ball would go.
Would it be to the left?
Would it be to the right?
Or would it be a quick from the middle?
They guessed wrong all the time, since Riku who went unnoticed by the opponent suddenly changed his stance. Instead of tossing the ball overhead, he reached it with one hand before flicking it gently toward the opponent's area.
The ball bounced once on the floor, and for a split second, all the Shimoyawata players were paralyzed, unable to react in time. Then, they raised their head, turning their gaze to Riku in disbelief. The blonde boy himself just grins widely, wiggling his point finger playfully before provoking the entire opponent with one short sentence.
"Don't forget my existence, okay?"