The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

Morita blinked once. Twice. Then the third time, yet still did not know what to do. He heard Bato's shout, loud and clear. However, he felt as if his feet were nailed to the ground, forcing his body to freeze as he was unable to move. However, as he was stuck in whatever void that was sucking him right now, Morita could see someone flash forward with no hesitation, and before he knew about it, the sound of the ball met a pair of hands rang loudly throughout the building.

BAM!

"One touch!"

"Oh! Nice one, Hori!"

"I got this! Taiyo, get ready!"

Morita hadn't even recovered his consciousness after witnessing how Hori – the smallest boy in the team – jumped to block Tsukiji's opposite hitter's attack earlier when Taiyo rushed in front of him to continue the play. Everything flashed right in front of his eyes with him being the spectator, and honestly, Morita was uncomfortable with this.

'What the hell am I doing here?! All of my kouhai are working their asses off to carry this team, and here I am freezing on the spot like a stupid statue!'

He clenched his teeth, getting angry over himself for being useless. Morita knew he wasn't the best leader here. Hell, he was chosen only because he was the longest to serve the team since he was in the first year. He still remembered why he joined the team, and that was just for fun. He knew that Keihin was far from the best, so he had never aimed for something high in the first hand.

However, everything changed a few months ago, when a genius boy called Sero Bato came to the team for the first time. He was like a headless chicken, so clueless about everything. However, when Morita saw the potential Bato showed just in a month, all the unrealistic dreams about him and the team making a splash in the national tournament suddenly appeared. Morita knew it was wrong, but he couldn't help it. The dream only intensified when the team won their last game and advanced through the top 32 for the first time in their history.

However, this game was a wake-up call for him. The dominance shown by Tsukiji High was enough to bring him back to earth, and when he remembered what kind of mess he was under the loud boos from the crowd, Morita felt all his hopes were gone.

But when he saw Bato's determination to get back on the game, something snapped inside Morita's mind.

Seeing the ball fly back to Keihin's side as another attack failed to score, he finally had enough and was ready to take action.

"TAIYO! BRING IT TO THE LEFT!" The captain shouted, raising his hand.

All the Keihin players were surprised when they saw their captain was back in the game again. Only Bato grinned, knowing full well that his captain wasn't just a small fish that would drown by a wave like this.

Morita narrowed his eyes, observing the wall set in front of him. It was pretty weak with only the opposite hitter ready to stop his attack, what with Tsukiji's middle blocker and ace being busy guarding Bato. This was definitely what Morita needed right now.

'This attack has to be a success, or my morale would drop once again. Come on, please, let me do this!'

BAM!

Even with Reiki coming as the second blocker to support Kiyoataka, he wasn't fast enough to cover Morita's spike. As a result, the cross-attack Keihin's captain did manage to pierce through Tsukiji's left side.

Morita panted slightly as he landed on the floor. His eyes were on the ball for a few seconds, looking at it with a complicated mood. However, when his eyes met Bato's, a wide grin spread from ear to ear as he finally realized what he had just done.

'I did it, huh…? I did it… I DID IT! I FUCKING DID IT! HELL YEAH!" He didn't know when the thought became a mumble, but the last thing Morita knew was that he roared through the sky, venting out all of his frustrations right away.

"Goddamn, Cap! I know you have it in you!" Bato jumped on him while also ruffling Morita's messy hair with his hand.

"Hey, don't be rude! I am still the captain here!" Morita scowled, yet a hint of smirk could be seen on his face.

"Good job, Captain! Your attack is unbelievable!"

"Hell, yeah! Even if it is just one point, at least it is a start for us!"

"Yeah! It is time for us to stab them from their back!"

Bato smiled a little when he saw everyone surrounding the captain. He was glad that his assumption was true. Once the captain had his engine turned on again, it would also trigger the same reaction from the others. Now with all of them going back to the game, even with how harsh the crowd booed, he had a reason to believe that everything would change.

'Now, the real game has finally started. Bring it on, Tsukiji!'

-0-

"Kiyotaka-senpai, go to the middle! Get ready to attack!"

"I got this!"

BAM!

"SHIT! Sorry!"

"One touch!"

Once Morita was out of his slump, everything went differently for Keihin. They might not be the better team compared to Tsukiji, but their resilience managed to push their opponent onto the edge. Just like this time, Neito, Tsukiji's setter wanted to set up a quick attack, just for Bato to read it easily while the other Keihin players rushed toward the ball to save it from falling to the ground.

Neito scowled once again, somehow getting annoyed by how Keihin always managed to save the ball. He started to lose his patience here, and when he saw his middle blocker friend was two seconds late to cover Keihin's next attack, he finally snapped.

"JOZU, MOVE YOUR ASS AND JUMP OR I SWEAR TO GOD – !"

BAM

He hadn't even finished the sentence before the setter felt the ball fly close through his face, falling right on his back. Neito had a cold sweat on his back as he realized how close his face was to getting smacked by the ball that he somehow forgot about his anger toward the middle blocker.

"You okay, Neito?" Reiki asked cautiously. Neito could see Jozu – the middle blocker he was about to scold before – hiding nervously behind the captain, frightened of him. Poor boy, he was just a freshman and had to deal with this crap. Neito would feel bad about him if only his mood right now was better. "Don't think too much about this, Neito! You know that we are still in the lead, right?" Reiki said once again to calm down the setter.

Neito had half of his mind scowled at Reiki's optimistic view. As much as he loved his captain, Neito was realistic enough to see the situation they were currently in. Their lead was shortened to just five points, and while usually, it was enough for them to seal the deal, they also had to face the opponent with a surge of momentum on their side after scoring four points in a row.

So, yeah, Neito didn't share the same optimism his captain had.

"Whatever." After a while, Neito finally clicked his tongue. "Just remember this, Reiki. If anything wrong happened, it would cost us your last tournament. So, treat this more seriously." He pointed out to the captain.

"Eh, just like I said, don't worry! We got this in our hands!" Reiki patted his back reassuringly.

Unfortunately, the reality was far from what Reiki and Neito were hoping for. Keihin's wave of offense was unstoppable, and it took everything they had to just get through Bato's wall and send a spike that could tear apart Keihin's defense like Reiki did when the game just started before. The effect the crowd had on Keihin players also started to wear off, with all the Keihin players managing to ignore it most of the time.

The game was completely on Keihin's side, and by how it went until now, no one could deny that the away team had a chance to tie or even win the first set of the game, something that scared the shit off all the people inside the building.

"Come on, Reiki! Wake up!"

"Bastard! Kiyotake, don't let them do anything they want just like that!"

"Yeah! Where is your fucking pride?!"

The crowd seemed to have enough after seeing their lackluster performance, and not a single Tsukiji player could tell why they didn't deserve this treatment. The only thing they could do right now was to play the best they could while hoping they could end this set with a win as quickly as possible.

BAM!

"One touch!" Bato shouted after deflecting Reiki's spike.

Reiki himself scowled, finally showing his frustration. This game was pretty tough for him. At first, he managed to gain an advantage against Bato just with his own speed. But now, Keihin's middle blocker showed his monstrous talent by adapting to his speed slowly, and now they both had a similar speed which gave Bato in advantage since he was the bigger boy here.

"Taiyo, get it to the left!"

Reiki scowled once again when he saw Keihin's captain was ready to attack. Besides Bato, Morita was probably the best player Keihin had. He was creative, knew how to deal with multiple opponents, and didn't know when to give up. Honestly, Reiki wondered how those two could end up in a no-name team like Keihin High.

However, that wasn't the best time to think about that.

"Jozu, follow my lead! We jump together from one, two, now!"

BAM!

Even though Reiki couldn't see the ball, by how shaken Jozu was, he knew Morita managed to destroy their wall once again, and honestly, it was so frustrating.

"Hell yeah!" Morita roared, spreading his arms wide to get a hug from his teammates.

"Good job, Captain! Now, we are back to tie again"

"Come on, we can do this! Let's win the first set!"

As excitement was at the peak though, suddenly, there was a movement from Tsukiji's bench, and a second later, their libero stepped into the court, ready to join the game.