"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Hank stood about three meters behind the service line, repeatedly bouncing the volleyball in place. He could feel the gazes coming from every direction. The court had gone so quiet that it felt like you could hear a pin drop.
Once he had finished preparing, Hank tossed the volleyball high into the air with one hand. Immediately after, he launched into his approach and jumped forward. The motion was so smooth that anyone watching could tell almost at a glance what he was doing.
This was not actually Hank's first time hitting a serve like this, but over on Kitagawa Daiichi's side, things instantly descended into chaos.
A lot of them started to panic. It was the first time they had ever seen a team from the same age group use this kind of serve. Not only could he toss the ball high with an approach and jump, he could also send it cleanly over the net in one motion.
A serving technique like that was something you simply could not pull off without a long period of training.
"A jump serve! Where did he even learn a serving technique like that? Don't tell me a volleyball club like North River Middle School's can actually teach something like this!?"
Kageyama was once again shocked by Hank's serve. He had never imagined that so many unexpected turns would happen today. That wing spiker from North River Middle School who had suddenly appeared was just too unbelievable… How had he done it?
Why was he this strong?
He was already absurdly strong. It was not just his jumping talent, or the jump serve he was using now.
None of it looked like something a substitute wing spiker should be capable of. With talent like this… why had North River Middle School kept him hidden from the start? During all his years in junior high, there had not been the slightest bit of news about him.
"Everybody move! I'll take it!"
At the very instant Hank served, the situation on Kitagawa Daiichi's court changed. Kitagawa Daiichi's libero thrust both arms out to either side, signaling for everyone around him to clear out and not interfere with his receive.
As far as he was concerned, Hank's serve had looked easy to receive. The ball was not especially fast, and it had no spin at all. A serve like that looked like something even a beginner might be able to handle.
But just as he became convinced that he would definitely receive it, the serve's trajectory, which had looked perfectly normal in his eyes a second earlier, suddenly began to sway left and right in an irregular pattern.
The moment he saw that, his mind went blank.
For an instant, he had no idea whether he should move right or left to pass it.
A serve with no pattern at all had already entered a blind spot in his understanding. It had gone completely beyond the range of what he could receive.
"Bang… bang… bang…"
As the sound of the volleyball hitting the floor rang out by his feet, Kitagawa Daiichi's libero froze in place.
He was the defensive anchor of the entire team, yet he had just been scored on directly by the opponent's serve… and when it came to a point like this, he had absolutely no answer for it.
Why?
"What exactly just happened? North River Middle School's wing spiker didn't serve that fast, so why was the ball able to drift left and right in midair? A serve can do that too!?"
"…"
Sitting in the stands, Hinata stared ahead with wide, stunned eyes, his entire face filled with shock. He had never seen a serve that could drift left and right in midair before.
A serve like that could actually exist?
"North River Middle School! North River Middle School! North River Middle School!"
After Hank's jump float serve, the North River Middle School students, who had already been fired up from the beginning, could no longer suppress their excitement. They started shouting at the top of their lungs to cheer for Hank.
There was no doubt about it.
A desperate comeback like this, where one person used his own strength to pull the entire team back up, was the kind of scene that would leave a deep impression on everyone, no matter whether they were boys or girls.
Without question, Hank had already become the center of attention for a huge number of students in the venue. The girls' reactions were the most obvious of all. They were at that age when feelings came easily, and after seeing someone as overwhelmingly dominant as Hank on the court—
for a moment, many of them were so captivated that they could not even speak.
"Don't you think that wing spiker from North River Middle School who just came on is kind of handsome…"
"Yeah, yeah… The more I look at him, the more handsome he seems. The whole match changed because he stepped onto the court. What's his name?"
"I think it's Hank!? I really want to get to know him…"
Hank had not even been on the court for thirty minutes yet, but the cheering for North River Middle School was already starting to overtake the cheers on Kitagawa Daiichi's side.
They all wanted to see it now—
whether North River, a team that had always been called weak, could really defeat Kitagawa Daiichi, the team that had the King of the Court!
"Damn it, where did that wing spiker come from? Even our libero can't receive his serve…"
"Why was someone like that hidden the whole time? North River Middle School really kept him buried deep!"
(End of Chapter)
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