"YOSSHAAAA!" Matsumoto chest-bumped with Lucas as they both celebrated the play. "Good job, Lucas! That is what I am looking for!"
"Yeah! Matsumoto! You did a good job distracting their blockers!" Lucas had a big grin on their face.
Even though the conversation was a bit strange since Lucas couldn't understand even for a bit of what Matsumoto said, they still celebrated the point crazily. Then, as if wanting to return the trash talk Haruo threw before, Matsumoto turned around and smirked, looking at the opponent blockers provocatively.
"Well, thank you for realizing that I exist. Please, always keep your eyes on , okay?"
A thick vein popped on Nitta's temple, and before he could say anything, Haruo reacted imdiately by putting his arm in front of his senpai's chest, holding the ace back from returning the talk. They both knew – well, at least Haruo knew – that it was their fault to get fooled in the last play, so the best thing they could do right now was to return the favor in the next play, not talking back angrily at Matsumoto.
However, that didn't an he was less angry here. He just had better control of emotion as he knew that he was more useful on rather than off the court.
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"Co on, Senpai. We need to mind our business first right now. Let's return this humiliation tenfold after this."
"Hell, yeah! That is the spirit!"
Unfortunately, Konan High had a different plan for them. As it was Shimada's turn to serve the ball, Matsumoto approached the defensive specialist and whispered sothing at him, to which he replied with a serious nod. For a mont, all the Kyoei Gakuen players were worried about a hidden strategy, just to be dumbfounded when the serve Shimada did couldn't even cross the net.
Splash!
"Oh, what a pity!"
"Don't worry, serve is not Shimada's strong point!"
"Co on, Shimada! Don't be so depressed! It is okay< just go back and do your job!"
While the supporters on the stand tried to reassure Shimada that the mistake was okay, all the players on the court had a different thought. On the Kyoei side, most of them wondered why sothing felt off about it, while on Konan's side, Matsumoto and Lucas had a small smirk on their face as if they just committed sothing sacrilegious. In the end, it was Haruo who realized Konan's intention first.
"So that's it!" He whispered in realization. As all of his teammates turned around, he continued the explanation, "They want to shorten my ti on the court by deliberately missing the serve, and with this, I am only one rotation away from getting subbed off. This is their intention in the first place!"
So of them widened their eyes in shock at the revelation while Nitta cursed out loud. "THAT FUCKING COWARDS!"
"Is that even allowed, though?" Aki asked skeptically.
"Yeah, after all, they lost a point deliberately, a bit outrageous, but nothing like a match-fixing scandal where they tried to lose a ga deliberately." Ito nodded solemnly. "The question is, who is crazy enough to lose a point deliberately against us?" Not that he wanted to brag, but Ito was proud that his team was the first one who managed to steal a set from Konan High this year, sothing that would definitely boost the myth around them in the future.
"Well, apparently, the best team in the country is crazy enough to do so," Haruo muttered wryly.
For a mont, the atmosphere there turned solemn as they had no answer to this situation. Even though the score gap was narrowed down to one point again, they all were not relieved by that, but worried that in the next rotation, they would lose their best player later. The fact that Konan High, the best team in the country, even used such a dirty underhanded tactic like this to put him out of the equation told them all how much threat Haruo possessed in this ga.
"Okay, this is sothing unavoidable. Sooner or later, we will have to play without him. What we can do for that ti is to stay strong and keep the score as tight as possible, not giving them any chance to widen the score easily. You all got it?" Nitta spoke seriously.
Even though the answer he got was only weak nods from his teammates, he couldn't do anything about it since the referee had already blown the whistle. Now, they had to go back and resu the ga in a low mood, which was pretty dangerous to do against Konan High.
"Co on, Haruo! You cannot leave before helping us narrow the score first! Do your fucking job!" Nitta called out from the front line.
Unfortunately, for how versatile he was, serve was not sothing that Haruo excelled in. He dropped a normal, ordinary serve, which went straight to Matsumoto on the left side of the court.
Thud!
"Oh! Nice save, Matsumoto!"
"Sawada, give it to !"
When Lucas, Matsumoto, and Kenta Maeda rushed forward to form a tri-pronged attack, all the Kyoei players tensed imdiately, wondering where the ball would go. "Co on, everyone! Concentrate! We need to keep the possession on our side as long as possible! Don't let them force us to the next rotation!" Nitta shouted, trying to encourage his teammates.
He himself didn't stay idle, kept tracking Lucas's movent as he was determined to stop the opponent's ace. He scowled a little as he saw Ito lose track of Matsumoto, cursing inwardly as he realized Haruo couldn't rush forward to help reinforce the block. Still, everything was still under control, as most of the Konan attackers were already locked down by his teammates.
Well… Most of them, except for one.
Sohow, they forgot that Sawada existed not only for setting up the ball, but the setter could also take the initiative to do a solo offense. Just like in the first play of this set, the freshman setter twisted his body around in the air, extending his left hand high to reach the ball before slamming it down to the spot right in front of the baseline.
BAM!
"HELL, YEAH!"
"Nice one, Sawada! Show them your magic!"
"Co on!"
As Konan players were celebrating with each other, an awkward silence fell on Kyoei's side as no one expected the surprise dump spike from Sawada. Then, the atmosphere turned gloomy imdiately as they all realized that in the next rotation, Haruo would be out, and they were still 3 points away from the ho team.
At that ti, they all thought the sa, "We are so screwed up!"
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