The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

-A little flashback-

'Kai, come here.' Akira called his defensive specialist.

'Eh? Me?' Kaede pointed his fingers at himself confusedly. 'What's wrong, Sensei?' He approached the coach with a concerned gaze. It was during the timeout after he checked Yuki's condition, when Akira suddenly wanted to talk to him. Even though the others were curious, since Sekine took over the pep talk, they couldn't know what Akira and Kaede talked about.

'Listen, I have one more task that only you can do it. I wonder if you are willing to listen?' Akira not beating around the bush and asked immediately.

Kaede was taken aback at the sudden request. But seeing there was no hint of a joke or prank in the coach's eyes, he knew it was something serious.

'What kind of task?' He finally asked.

Akira patted his shoulder before lowering his body a little so he could go eye-to-eye with his player. 'I want you to replace Yuki as the leader of the backline. Can you do that?'

'The leader of the backline? Me?!' Kaede was stunned. 'Why me?!' He shrieked, starting to panic.

'Just like I said, it is because only you who can do it.' Akira looked into his eyes. Seeing the doubt and hesitation in Kaede's eyes, Akira decided to add the fuel. 'In this team, only you and Yuki are capable of doing that, since you both are the two best defenders of the team and everyone respects it. But it would be a waste of Yuki's versatility if he was chained by responsibility on the back.

So, I want to use this moment when Yuki is not on the court to test whether you can be the leader of our defense or not. What do you think?'

Akira was glad when he saw Kaede got his point and didn't reject the idea. Seeing the boy was still hesitated, he gave the final push. "Of course, you can refuse the request, and I will only ask you to be an emergency leader until Yuki returns. But if you accepted it, Yuki would be freed from one of his responsibilities, reducing his workload and making him less exhausted.

This would bring our team to a new level. What do you think?'

-End of the flashback-

'You are unfair, Akira-sensei. Using emotional blackmail to rope me to this new responsibility.' Kaede chuckled when he remembered the last conversation with his sensei. 'But it doesn't mean I don't like it. Come on! Come!'

When he saw the ball was coming back to Kyoei's side, he shouted immediately, "CONCENTRATE! IT IS NOT OVER!", trying to warn his teammates. However, when he saw that no one was able to recover quickly, he growled in annoyance.

'Still too late! I cannot hesitate when taking the command!'

However, even though he was still cursing himself, that didn't mean Kaede forgot about the play. Seeing his teammates couldn't recover in time, he switched his priority from commanding to doing it by himself, staring intently at Nitta. And when the ball finally came…

*BANG!*

"SAVED! KAEDE SAVES THE BALL!"

"AWESOME, KAI!"

"COVER IT!" Kaede shouted once again, stopping his teammates from stupidly celebrating the play when it wasn't over yet. "THE BALL IS GOING DOWN! RIKU!"

"I got this!" .net

When the ball was an inch from the floor, Riku extended his foot far, letting the ball hit it instead of the floor. Seeing that, Hirano who was on the frontline rushed to cover the next ball, sending it far to the backline of Kyoei's side.

"COME ON! RECOVER!" Kaede shouted non-stop, didn't dare to relax.

All the Tsunemori players recovered instantly, ready for the next attack. They didn't care how many times they had to receive that kind of spike, but as long as it could stale the time for Yuki to return, everything would be worth it.

Nitta whose spike was able to be saved repeatedly started to get frustrated. When he saw the ball fly back to their own side again, he took a few steps back and started his run-up again.

'What a stubborn bastard.' He couldn't help but scowl. 'If you want to make this an endurance battle, let's do it! Let's see who is the first one to collapse!'

*BAM!*

"YOU MOTHERFUC–!" Nitta cursed frustratingly when once again, his spike met another wall from Tsunemori's side.

"OH! NICE BLOCK, HIRANO!"

"FREE BALL!"

Riku glanced sideways toward Kyoei's side and found that most of them had some kind of exhausted expression on their face. Unlike Kyoei players who expected to have a not-so-hard game, all the Tsunemori players were ready to fight until death even before the game. So, when they were able to drag the opponent into an endurance battle like this, it should be an advantage for them.

Unfortunately, it seemed exhaustion also started to hit Tsunemori too. When Riku was about to toss the ball, he didn't know what happened, but it suddenly slipped from his hand, falling straight to the floor.

*Thud!*

"Eh?!"

All the people inside the building had their jaws dropped in disbelief as their eyes fell into the ball that rolled down mockingly on the floor. When everything sunk into their head, it was Kyoei players who reacted first, roaring in celebration.

"OOOOH!"

"FINALLY!"

"GODDAMNIT! This is the longest rally I have ever played in my life!"

"Come on! Four more points!"

Meanwhile, all the Tsunemori players gathered around Riku immediately, looking at the blonde boy with a concerned gaze.

"You okay, Riku?" Kaede asked, worried.

Riku stared at his palm for a moment before shaking his head immediately, giving his teammates his brightest smile of the day. "Don't worry, Senpai. I am okay." He reassured the others. "My hands are sweating a lot, so the ball slips through it. I am sorry!"

Seeing his unconcerned expression, everyone sighed in relief. "Man, you scare the shit of us here." Okamura patted his chest in relief. "I am not worried about the mistake, since the game is not over yet. But if something bad happened to you too, I don't want to think of what should we do for the rest of the game."

"Yeah." The others nodded in agreement.

Right now, the responsibility as the moral pillar of the team lies in Riku. He was the one who carried the team offensively, so of course everyone would look up to him. The barrier of the senpai-kouhai relationship between them had crumbled already, as all the players there acknowledged each other as teammates, fighting side by side with the same status.

"21 – 19, huh?" Riku took a glance at the scoreboard, then stared at Yuki who couldn't even sit on the bench calmly by now. "It seems Akira-sensei wants to wait for one or two more plays and let Yuki's stamina recover before putting him back on the court. But before he returns, we need to score first.

If they widened the gap one more time, it would be hard for us to chase it even with Yuki on the court."

All of them listened carefully, knowing at this time, they needed someone to be a leader to guide them, and Riku was able to take that role.

"So, what should we do next?" Kaede asked. Riku pondered for a moment before his eyes fell on Kaede, making the defensive specialist look uncomfortable. "What?!"

Then, Riku grinned, as inspiration suddenly popped inside his head. "Well, I have an idea here…"