Chapter 31
Tanaka growls at what Oikawa said, as he was the one who failed to receive his dump spike last play.
"Calm yourself down, Tanaka! It is still our first play! the game has just begun! Don't let your focus down!" Sawamura encouraged his teammates loudly, snapping them from their irritation.
The game started again with Iwaizumi's serve. It landed on Azumane's hand who received it a bit too short for Kageyama. Right before Kageyama received the ball, Hinata has already started to run, crossing from the right side to the left at a high speed and jumping for a quick attack.
Unfortunately for Hinata, Matsukawa managed to block his spike softly, creating a new chance for Aoba Johsai.
"Chance ball!" Matsukawa shouted at his teammates. Watari received the ball perfectly, sending the ball to Oikawa. All of the Karasuno players took a step back, readying themselves for the possibility of a dump spike.
Surprisingly, Oikawa made an obvious move to spike, alarming Karasuno's blocker to jump at the same time. Unfortunately for Karasuno, this was once again a fake play from Oikawa. Right after the blocker jumped to block him, he changed his movement quickly in the air, from spiking to setting within a second. He sets the ball perfectly to Iwaizumi on the right side who spikes without any blocker guarding him, making it easy for the ace to score.
"Nice play, Oikawa!" The ace shouted at Oikawa while hiding his shock at his captain's aggressiveness.
'It is not just because of Kageyama. There is something else about why Oikawa plays this aggressively from the very beginning, and I will find it out after the game.' Iwaizumi thought inwardly.
Meanwhile, on the supporter side, Matheo nodded his head, approving of Oikawa's play.
"He did well, messing with his opponent's head since the beginning of the game. Now, his opponents will have to be wary of every movement he makes while thinking, will he set or will he dump his set once again? A good psychological attack."
As for Karasuno, they started to get tense after being fooled twice by Oikawa. Coach Ukai who saw that quickly asked for a timeout for his team. After a minute of the timeout, they calmed down for a bit before the game started again.
Iwaizumi served once again, which was received perfectly by Sawamura. The captain sends the ball straight to Kageyama, and all of Karasuno's players started to run for a synchronized attack. Aoba Johsai's blockers tensed a bit, preparing to guard Karasuno's spikers. However, Kageyama clearly didn't want to lose against Oikawa, as he managed to do a dump set as all of his teammates jumped, resulting in a point for Karasuno.
As the play silenced the entire stadium, Kageyama looked at the dumbfounded Aoba Johsai and said,
"I will do the same next play, please watch me carefully."
And then the entire stadium exploded with cheers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Oh my goodness.. It's been a long time since I saw an aggressive game like this. Is that Oikawa's junior you said before? He sure knows how to lit the fire!" Matheo could not stop but felt astonished as he watched the game.
As for Hiroyuki, watching this game live is surely more interesting than just reading the manga or watching it in anime from his first life. He didn't expect that Oikawa and Kageyama would do the same as in the original story. After taking a moment to breathe, he finally replied to what Matheo said,
"Yes, he is Oikawa's junior. I can see why he decided to do the same play as Oikawa. In the past, people would always say that Kageyama is more talented than Oikawa. That is why Oikawa is so competitive with him.
But just like Oikawa, Kageyama is also being competitive with Oikawa as he could not achieve what Oikawa did when he was in middle school, leading their team to the national tournament. That was where their competitiveness come from." Matheo nodded at the reason before turning his attention back to the court.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Oikawa is annoyed. The spotlight he gained before was easily grabbed by Kageyama's last stunt. He clicked his tongue at the Karasuno team. Suddenly, he felt a slap on his back, and when he turned his attention, he could see Iwaizumi growling at him,
"Focus, you stupid! Don't let your pettiness rivalry with Kageyama cloud your mind! The game is still on!" Oikawa chuckled at his friend.
"Don't worry, Iwa-chan. I am just annoyed that he copied me. It wouldn't affect my performance. In fact, I am on fire right now." He said, clenching his fists tightly. Iwaizumi was concerned about his friend's strange behavior, but he decided to let it slide for now.
"Good. Get ready for the next play."
The game started once again with a serve from Azumane. He did a good job aiming his serve at Iwaizumi. The ace received the strong serve shakily, a bit too short for Oikawa. Hinata observes Oikawa intently from Karasuno's back line, wondering what would Oikawa do. Suddenly, he remembered what Hiroyuki said about the setter's behavior.
-Short flashback-
'Hinata, you have very good eyes, so you can probably do it. Remember, when you face a setter, don't look at his eyes. You were fooled with the eyes trick several times by Kenma from my team, right?' Hinata nodded.
'So, if you face a setter, look at his shoulder, and it will tell you everything. If the setter wants to send the ball far to the corner of the court, he will lower his shoulder more than usual unconsciously to launch the ball faster. And if the setter wants to set the ball to the players behind him, the upper body will be turned around slightly to make the setter comfortable.
The trick will not help you most of the time, as you are just a normal human. But with this trick and the coordination between your eyes and your reaction, it could probably save your team in the future.'
-end of flashback-
Right now, Hinata who observed Oikawa intently can see the setter lowered his shoulder, so he quickly turned his attention to Hanamaki who was prepared to jump. Hinata looked at Hanamaki's eyes and realized,
'He wants to spike the ball to the area behind me!'
So Hinata immediately takes a step back and prepares himself to receive the ball. And he is right. The ball is coming to Hanamaki as it fools Tanaka on the front court. Hinata who was prepared for Hanamaki managed to receive the ball perfectly, shocking his entire teammates.
"Chance ball!" He shouted, snapping his teammate's thoughts.
Kageyama covers the ball quickly and sends it to Tanaka. The opposite hitter spikes it cleverly to Oikawa and forced the setter to receive it, leaving Aoba Johsai in a helpless situation without a setter for the second ball. Or that was what all of the Karasuno team thought.
Unfortunately for them, Oikawa sends the ball to the back, right to Watari. The libero exploits the rule of libero can only set from behind the attack line to set the ball back immediately to Oikawa. While all of the Karasuno players are in shock at Watari's play, Oikawa sends a strong spike straight to Kageyama who has to drop his body to receive it. However, he could not receive the ball perfectly, resulting in a point for Aoba Johsai.
Kageyama and the rest of the Karasuno members stared at Aoba Johsai players with stunned faces, and they can see Oikawa looking down at the falling Kageyama with a cold stare that send a shiver to Karasuno players. They all know what the stare means Aoba Johsai's setter.
It was his way to declare war, and the first blood goes to Oikawa.
------------------------------------------
Author note:
You can also read:
- Transmigrated Into Anime World as Kiyoko Shimizu's Older Brother up to chapter 38
- Naruto: Ashigaru up to chapter 08
I want to add more chapters to my Patreon account so you can read up to 10 chapters. But I still don't have that many chapters, so I just added them little by little. Hopefully, by the end of the week, you can read up to 10 chapters when you become a member. Thank you!
You can read all of it at my Patreon account, pat_reon.com/zwolf1 (Without '_') Thank you for your support! :)