"These guys are relentless!" Akagi Miari received the ball.

  Right now, Aoba Johsai was undoubtedly a powerhouse team, at least when it came t—they had no oints!

  Miya Osamu moved into position once more.

  Wheched Aoba Johsai's match against Nekoma, at least half of Nekoma's first touches could be sent directly to the setter. So at the time, Osamu didn't think it was much of a problem.

  But now, against Aoba Johsai, they hadn't had a single perfect reception!

  He had already covered far mround than usual, and judging by Aoba Johsai's momentum, this match wasn't going to end in just two sets.

  If it dragged into a third set, things would be bad for Inarizaki!

  "This is such a pain!" Osamu set the ball.

  Even with all these distras running through his mind, his set was still pinpoint accurate. Ojiro Aran sprinted in from the left a.

  "Triple block!" Matsukawa Issei, Kunimi Akira, and Iwaizumi Hajime all jumped together.

  Boom!

  A high-point spike.

  Ojiro Aran's spike soared over Kunimi's blod smmed into Aoba Johsai's court.

  [Aoba Johsai 8 – 4 Inarizak

  "YESSSS—!" Ojiro Aran roared. Nearly a third of the match had passed, and he had finally unleashed a satisfying spike.

  "Aran! Aran! That was awesome!"

  "Aran! Aran! You're the best!"

  Inarizaki's cheering squad erupted into a frenzy.

  Serve switarizaki to serve.

  "Osamu!" Kita Shinsuke called out from the bench. "Stay posed!"

  Miya Osamu stood at the service line, momentarily stuhen gave a slight nod in Kita's dire.

  Thats right. Inarizaki was the stro challehey were just oep away from the pinnacle.

  Right now, they were only four points behind.

  In the blink of ahey would catch up!

  "Tweet!—" The referee's whistle sighe serve.

  Osamu waited the full eight seds before ung the ball.

  Boom!

  "What a powerful serve!"

  "Taichi receives it, but the ball pt isn't ideal."

  "Oikawa moves in to adjust—despite the awkward receptioill sets the ball perfectly to the tre! Kunimi jumps, fag Inarizaki's triple block!"

  "He tips the ball lightly into Inarizaki's backcourt."

  "But this time, Inarizaki's libero, Akagi Miari, is ready!"

  "ce ball!" Akagi easily picked up the ball and called out.

  "Here we go!" Miya Atsumu jumped a. "Bon appétit!"

  Now, this was Inarizaki's pace. Atsumu's set soared to the highest point on the left wing.

  Ojiro Aran sprinted down the sideline, leapt, stretched his body to its limit, and tensed his right arm.

  Bearing the title of ace!

  "Triple block!" Matsukawa, Kunimi, and Iwaizumi all jumped again.

  Ojiro Aran avoided the tallest blocker, Matsukawa, and spiked a ferocious diagonal shot over the block!

  Boom!

  "Another on shot!"

  "Aran pletely ignored Aoba Johsai's block!"

  "But—"

  "Taichi digs it up! But the ball rebounds high into Inarizaki's court…"

  "Looks like he barely mao keep it in py!"

  Just as the ball cleared the , a figure suddenly leapt up and spiked it down.

  Bang!

  ōmimi Ren scores.

  [Aoba Johsai 8 – 5 Inarizak

  "ōmimi's height adva the is an absolute on!"

  "Aoba Johsai's front row looks a bit thin in this rotation. Against Aran's power and ōmimi's height, they have little room to manoeuvre—both in offend defence."

  Inarizaki had pulled back a point.

  Miya Osamu took a deep breath, regaining plete posure. He couldn't believe that he had actually been intimidated by Aoba Johsai's momentum at the start.

  When it came down to it, they were just relying on tw serving rotations—Oikawa Tōru's and Kaedehara Taichi's.

  Boom!

  Osamu sent out his sed serve.

  "I got it!" Watari Shinji received the ball.

  Oikawa immediately adjusted, and Aoba Johsai unched a full-team attack. If individual power wasn't enough, then they would break through with teamwork!

  Bang!

  Kaedehara Taichi fired a back-row attack, sg with ease.

  [Aoba Johsai 9 – 5 Inarizak

  Even though Inarizaki had lost a point, Osamu was now viheir ce to overtake Aoba Johsai would e in the rotation!

  -----

  The mattered a deadlock, with both teams trading points. Eventually, Aoba Johsai was the first to reach 20 points.

  The atmosphere on the crew even more teime was running out for Inarizaki.

  [Aoba Johsai 20 – 16 Inarizak

  "Tweet!—" "Inarizaki calls for a timeout!"

  With that, Inarizaki had used up both of their timeouts for this set.

  "Hooints did Kaedehara Taichi and Oikawa Tōru score on their serves?"

  Now that they had finally broken through Kaedehara's service rotation, Osamu turo Inarizaki's team manager.

  "Oikawa got three, and Kaedehara got five..."

  "Damn it. Just dealing with Oikawa was already annoying enough, and now there's an even bigger pain in the ass—Kaedehara Taichi." Osamu scowled.

  "It's because your serves are too weak. If you could serve like me, we would've won by now," Atsumu quipped.

  "Shut up! I'm not in the mood for this!"

  "I'm just speaking the truth!"

  Just as the twins were about to start bickering again, Kita Shiepped between them.

  "We're still behind. Are you tw to lose this match?"

  The twins fell silent.

  Sensing the tension, Ojiro Aran quickly stepped in to ease the mood. "Coach is about to go over our strategy. Focus up!"

  "This is our st ce," Coach Kurosu Norimune said, holding up the tactics board. "We o take advantage of this rotation—Kaedehara Taichi and their big guy are both off the front row. This is our opportunity to turn the game around!"

  "Use our serves tet Kaedehara. His reception has improved signifitly, but as long as we disrupt his back-row attack, that's enough."

  "Victory belongs to Inarizaki!"

  "Yes!"

  -----

  The timeout ended, and the match resumed.

  It was Osamu's turn to serve again.

  "My serves are plenty strong! That idiot acts like everyone's as obsessed with volleyball as he is!" Osamu grumbled under his breath, standing at the service line.

  He had half a mind to smack Atsumu in the back of the head.

  "Hm?" Atsumu turned around. "Don't do anything stupid! Just focus on your serve!"

  Ojiro Aran sighed. "At this point, we should've just let these two duke it out off the court and be doh it."

  Osamu tossed the ball up, eyes locked onto Aoba Johsai's back row.

  Boom!

  The serve flew straight toward Kaedehara Taichi, pletely undisguised.

  "Seriously? You think I'm that easy tet?" Kaedehara was more than ready, receiving the ball ly.

  Here it es!

  The entire Inarizaki team locked onto Oikawa Tōru's movements. No matter who he set to, they were going to shut it down and terattack!

  But—Oikawa didn't go to the ball.

  He sprioward the along with the others.

  "What the hell?!"

  Kunimi Akira had stepped in as the setter!

  A simultaneous multi-position attack!

  Kunimi took off from the right-side three-meter line.

  Matsukawa Issei, Oikawa Tōru, and Iwaizumi Hajime all uheir approach from different a the .

  Inarizaki's instincts screamed that Oikawa would be the oo spike, but the way the other two swung made them hesitate for even a split sed.

  Boom!

  "Kunimi Akira scores!"

  "From the far right, he fired a straight-line shht at Ginjima Hitoshi!"

  "There was ation in his movement at all. Inarizaki only realized his true iion at the very st moment!"

  "Kunimi Akira outpys Inarizaki once again!!!"

  [Aoba Johsai 21 – 16 Inarizak

  "That was close…almost went out," Kunimi muttered zily, unfazed by the entator's excited praise.

  With just a single py, Aoba Johsai had pletely ralized Osamu's serve rotation.

  Inarizaki's eba—before it could even begin—was already halfway shattered...

  _________

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