The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

Ida Hasebe was 34 years old, still pretty young to be considered a head coach. However, no one would think he was too inexperienced to handle his position. After all, unlike most coaches who came from a professional route, he dove deep into the coaching track straight after graduating from high school, starting to take courses on everything related to volleyball from scratch. No one knew his motivation, yet since everyone could see his talent, no questions were asked about it.

For more than fifteen years involved in this world, Hasebe had seen so many amazing players. From a setter who could control the entire play in his palm, to a spiker so powerful that no blocker wanted to face him head-on, to an all-around player who could excel in any position on the court—hell, he had even seen a dual-wielding spiker who could attack with both left and right hands with the same quality. He had already seen it all. That was why it was not easy to impress him at all.

However, color him surprised when Hasebe saw such a unique style in Yuki Kobayashi.

The boy wasn't the strongest in the room. Hell, he was far from it. However, what he lacked in strength, he covered with his creative mind. Honestly, if Hasebe thought the blonde boy on the opposite side of the court was creative, what Yuki was doing right now put it all to shame.

He couldn't even guess what Yuki would do next. One moment he was on the left side, and a second later, the boy had already rushed toward the opposite side frantically. His style, which involved jumping from one position to another, was honestly exhausting to watch, but Hasebe could see this was Yuki's way of surviving.

Then, there was also his service arsenal.

For as long as Hasebe could remember, he had never seen a boy resort to trickery like this. They would always go for a powerful jump serve or a spin serve, and the furthest trickery they would be willing to attempt was a floater serve. So, for him to see Yuki using the simplest serve—exploiting everything from the rules of the game to his opponent's micro-reactions—was something refreshing. It didn't help when he saw the dumbfounded expression on the other players, who were left wondering what kind of sorcery Yuki had used to fool his opponents.

"Man, if old man Sekine saw this boy, he would drool in envy," Hasebe muttered. Little did he know that the old man he was thinking of was actually the mentor of the boy in front of him.

"Well, I wonder how he would fare against the other players," he mused. When his eyes landed on one particular boy in the crowd, who was also observing the game carefully, Hasebe suddenly felt the urge to smirk, thinking, "It would be interesting to see how Kobayashi would deal with him.

-0-

Riku knew that his friend was amazing. Hell, he was probably the first one to acknowledge that Yuki was a genius. However, having played with Yuki for a while, he had forgotten how desperate it felt to face Yuki's service trickery.

"Damn four-eyes and his serve," he scowled.

"Riku, he is your teammate, right? Any idea how to handle his serve?" Ono asked. Honestly, at this point, they both had already given up on winning the game, just wanting to limit their opponents' points from Yuki's serves.

After all, who would've thought that they would lose so miserably, to the point where they couldn't score even once against their opponents?

"I wish I had some advice. But for all the times our team has trained with him, he has about an 80 percent success rate from behind the service line, and the other 20 percent is still enough to trouble his opponents. So no, I'm sorry, but I don't have any idea of how to handle this situation," Riku said bitterly.

Ono sighed, having anticipated this kind of predicament. "Well, we cannot let him humiliate us like that. I will join you in the back row," he said.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Riku arched one of his eyebrows slightly. "Really?"

"Yes," Ono nodded. "While you are better than me at receiving the ball, at least with me, we can cover a wider area in the back."

Riku pondered for a moment before he nodded slowly, realizing that Ono had a point. Unfortunately, he forgot about Yuki's favorite trick, which was to aim at the crowd. Right when Hasebe blew the whistle, the glasses boy tossed the ball slightly and hit it gently.

The ball was close to Riku, and the blonde boy was ready to receive it. However, when his peripheral vision caught Ono's movement going in the same direction as the ball, he froze, thinking that his partner would receive it. As a result…

Thud!

The ball fell gently behind them, with the two players unable to react due to the miscommunication.

9 – 0

"Oh! Is this a new trick?!"

"Damn, this is probably the same witchcraft he used against us before!"

"His serve is so nasty! I cannot wait to receive it myself!"

The crowd was excited to see Yuki score from the service line nine times in a row. Tanaka himself could only chuckle wryly, having done nothing in this game. Part of his mind wanted to ask Yuki to hold back and let him take some action, knowing this was also a part of the evaluation. However, it was good to win without any effort, and if he knew better, the more they won, the tougher the opponent would be. So, he decided to let Yuki go berserk and save his energy for their next game.

"Come on, Kobayashi! Give me another good serve!" he shouted shamelessly.

"Damn, he is so shameless!"

"Yeah! He got a free win like this! How lucky!"

Tanaka could hear the disapproving voices around him from the crowd. Still, he didn't care about them. After all, he was there for a training camp, not to make friends. He had already toughened his skin even before he stepped foot inside the building.

Yuki took a deep breath. Sweat on his face showed that he was starting to consume more stamina than he liked. Still, he knew it had just begun. He would have to be better at preserving his energy so that he wouldn't exert too much effort on stamina-consuming serves like his sidespin serve that required his utmost concentration if it was not necessary.

Still, he didn't expect Riku to forget his favorite trick, though. Unfortunately for the blonde boy, they were opponents this time, so Yuki would show no mercy to his friend.

"Let's see if you can handle this, Riku!"

Thud!

With his precise serve, Yuki could aim the ball wherever he liked. Just now, he aimed it toward Ono's direction, but still not too far from Riku's spot. They both reacted simultaneously, yet when they noticed each other's movements, both Riku and Ono stopped, thinking that their teammate would pick it up.

In the end, the same result as the last play occurred, with both unable to save the ball as it fell behind them.

11 – 0