The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

"Shut up, Nitta!" Another boy who had a bigger figure scolded the first boy coldly. "You know, underestimating our enemy would be your downfall, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." The boy called Nitta waved his hand casually. "You have said that so many times in the past, yet we have never lost against such a no-name opponent like them. Would it be better to use the time for more training?" He muttered inwardly.

The bigger boy just rolled his eyes in exasperation, yet didn\'t reprimand Nitta for the second time.

Yeah, in case you were wondering, those two were the pillars of Kyoei Gakuen, the ace of the team Nitta Zaki, and the captain Atsuki Ito. As a tradition of a big team, they gathered together a few days before the game to analyze the next opponent.

Even though Nitta complained a lot about wasting time, he still attended the meeting, knowing that if the ace didn\'t present, it would make the other players think they didn\'t take the opponent seriously, which was a big taboo in the elimination stage tournament no matter how easy their opponent was.

As for Ito, he had no complaints at all, always being a responsible captain and didn\'t mess around even when facing an easy opponent. Even though just like Nitta said, they had never lost against a weaker opponent, he still took every game seriously, showing a professional attitude while giving the opposite side the respect they deserved.

Still, even he had to admit that a meeting like this in the early round was not necessary, especially when he was one of the students sent by the team to observe Tsunemori\'s game in the second round. While the opponent had a decent team, it was still far enough to compete against them.

"Anyway, where is Haruo-kun?" Nitta suddenly asked. "I haven\'t seen him for a while."

The corner of Ito\'s lips twitched in annoyance as he suddenly felt tired remembering his kouhai\'s antic. "His homeroom teacher said he is taking an absence for another photoshoot."

"Again? Man, he is so lucky!" Nitta whined. "If only I have a legitimate reason to skip the meeting too…" He winced when receiving Ito\'s glare.

Haruo was their middle blocker, and while not the best player on the team, he was definitely the most popular one here. The tall and bulky figure he had, coupled with the handsome face and rare blonde hair with a cheerful personality was probably the best recipe to be a popular guy no matter where they were.

And adding to his monstrous blocking ability, it was not a brainer if a lot of volleyball-related products wanted him to endorse their product.

After waiting for a while, their coach finally arrived at the room. He was Kuniyama Saito, a young man still in his early thirties and had a youthful demeanor that attracted so many girls in the school to have a crush on him. The moment he entered the room, everyone straightened their back, knowing it was time for business.

Saito glanced around for a while before casually commenting, "So, like usual, it is only Haruo-kun who cannot join the meeting, right?" Everyone snorted, knowing that there was no heat in his words and the coach was just joking to ease the atmosphere.

"Sensei, can I not join the meeting too?" Nitta suddenly raised his hand, trying to test his luck.

Saito snorted, waving his hands. "In your dream, Nitta-kun." The others stiffened their laughter when they heard his response. "But since Nitta-kun didn\'t want to be in the meeting, let\'s start it as soon as possible so he can continue whatever he was doing before."

Nitta rubbed his head awkwardly as he was being subjected to Saito\'s sarcastic remark. Still, since the coach wanted to start the meeting, he went silent and didn\'t make another smart-ass comment again.

"So, our opponent in the next round is Tsunemori High." Saito began explaining. "It is an old, ordinary public school in East Tokyo. They don\'t have a strong tradition in volleyball, with the best result they have ever achieved being the fourth place in the Tokyo tournament four years ago.

Besides that, they are just an ordinary team that usually would be eliminated in either the third or fourth round of the tournament. Last year, they even lost in the second round, forcing them to compete from the bottom again this year. So… At the first glance, they are just an ordinary team, and the third round is going to be a piece of cake for us."

All the players there straightened their backs and leaned their bodies forward, knowing that when their coach used the words \'At first glance\', everything wasn\'t as simple as they thought it would be. And true to their thought, Saito continued, "BUT!" He raised his voice, making the players closest to him jump on their seats.

"I think we cannot underestimate them, especially considering they beat Shimoyawata in the first round. No matter how much weaker Shimoyawata is compared to last year, they are not an easy opponent to be dealt by an ordinary opponent, and I know you all can remember that too. So, don\'t think the next game would be so easy, okay?"

All of them nodded solemnly, their mind recalling the memory of the tournament last year. Yeah, before all the commotions Ezaki made that caused the team to be banned for a full year, Shimoyawata had already advanced through the top 8 teams of the Tokyo tournament by beating a lot of strong opponents, and one of them was Kyoei Gakuen.

For them to lose in the first round this year, the team that beat them shouldn\'t be easy to deal with.

"As for their players, there are only two noticeable players that you should take note of," Saito said. "First, the middle blocker, Hirano." He pointed his fingers at the image of a player with the jersey number 12. "He is an annoying one, always able to read the setter and pester the hitters simultaneously.

We will find it hard to deceive him with the setter, but if we can isolate him and force him to face Ito-kun, I think we will see something interesting here."

The captain of the team nodded, accepting the assignment to face Tsunemori\'s middle blocker.

"As for the other one, here, the glasses boy." Saito pointed at the image of Yuki on the screen. "He is the leader of their defense. Everyone, even the libero listens to his command, and based on what we see in the video of their second round, his judgment is more often correct than not.

We cannot judge his defensive level as their opponent in the second round didn\'t put up a decent fight, but we can assume that he is good in game-reading and receiving."

Even though it seemed a lot, the information was too vague. For once they regretted that they didn\'t have the record of the game between Tsunemori against Shimoyawata.

"Still, what I am worried about the most is not them, but their head coach." Saito continued, zooming in on Tsunemori\'s bench to show their coach. "His name is Shinji Akira, a former national team member when he was on the university team before he had to retire early due to a knee injury.

He coached a local team in Kyushu more than ten years ago and managed to bring them to the top 4 in the prefecture tournament before he flew to Italy to learn more about volleyball. He is also the direct disciple of Honda-sensei from Matsukita and Sekine-sensei from Tsukumi University, and I don\'t need to tell you how much those two weighted in Japan\'s volleyball, right?"

All the players nodded solemnly, finally realizing that the game wouldn\'t be as easy as they thought before. To have a coach with that kind of rich resume, they needed to be wary of what kind of stunt Tsunemori would pull in the next game. Still, they didn\'t seem to be worried about it, since they had the confidence to win the game.

"No matter how good their coach is, if he doesn\'t have the players to support his idea, it would be useless, right?" Nitta commented. "This would be an interesting game, but I don\'t think they have a chance to beat us."

"Yeah!" The other players shared his sentiment.

Saito let out a deep sigh, knowing that Nitta was right somehow about his judgment of Tsunemori. Still, he couldn\'t help but feel uneasy, thinking that there was something he forgot to tell the team that might be crucial for the game. But after thinking about it for a while and couldn\'t figure out what that was, he shook his head, decided to not think too hard about it.

\'If it is important, I am sure I will remember it soon.\'