The Birth of A Volleyball Legend-Chapter 451: Kikugawa High’s Timeout!

"I fucking know it!" Amagi exclaimed, grinning happily as he witnessed the game progress to the near end. All the Matsuyama Kita and Konan High players around him stared at the setter was a bit embarrassed to be in a spotlight out of a sudden, he coughed a little, clearing his throat as he wanted to play it cool. "Even from the outside perspective, Kobayashi-kun's greatest threat is his service, in my opinion, his clutch mentality is no less threat than that. Kobayashi-kun always performs greater the more his team needs him, and that is one of the reasons why they are thriving in this tournament! You cannot let him escape from your sight even for a moment, or he will punish you horribly in the next turn!"

All the people around them nodded unconsciously, feeling that Amagi was right in this case. However, they also stared at the boy strangely. Should he say something like that when Yuki did his amazing trick earlier rather than during his service time like this?

Of course, Amagi's teammates also realized that the setter comment was a bit too late. In the end, Gondo coughed, lending a hand to help his kouhai get out of his embarrassment. "So, do you think that Tsunemori still has a chance?" He asked.

Amagi smiled gratefully at his captain before snorting amusedly at his question. "Having a chance? If anything, they are my current favorite to win this game. What, disagree with my opinion?" The boy glared when he saw Matsumoto – Konan High's captain – snorted at him.

"Yes. Even though Kobayashi is an amazing player, he couldn't do it alone. This momentum will go away instantly once Kikugawa High manages to stay calm in this situation, and we all know that they can do it. You seem to think that volleyball is a one-on-one game, and one player is enough to win everything. Maybe, that is why your team sucks." He said the last part mockingly.

This time, not only Amagi and Gondo, but almost everyone on the Matsuyama Kita High team reacted, snapping their heads and glaring at their rival's captain fiercely. Sawada and Akihiro, the two freshmen on the Konan team were surprised to see their usually calm captain to mock Matsuyama Kita so blatantly like this. However, the others just ignored this, knowing that in his youth, Matsumoto was far nastier with his words toward the rival team.

"Okay, that is enough of childishness today, Matsumoto." Suddenly, a calm voice that could send shivers down everyone's spine no matter whether they were from Konan High or Matsuyama Kita High came from the edge of the row. When they all turned around, they could see Genzo Harada, the senior-year setter who should've been Konan High's captain before he suffered from a car accident speak. Even though his status right now was more like a bench warmer due to Sawada's presence. Still, even with all of that, everyone still didn't dare to ignore his words as he had real charisma as a leader of the team. "Just sit down and don't cause any trouble for us. You too, Matsuyama Kita's brat. It is okay for a playful banter once or twice, but make sure you can hold back your emotions. We all still want to resolve this conflict in the court, right?"

For a moment, tension rose as everyone stared at Genzo Harada intently. Some of the people who sat around them even started to move, worried that a conflict would break out. In the end, Amagi broke the silence with a huff before throwing his body back against the seat and saying, "Fine. Just, control your wild dog better, Genzo-san."

Matsumoto had a thick vein popped on his forehead, but before he could do anything, Genzo Harada glared at him fiercely, shutting up the captain instantly. Amagi just smirked when he saw that, feeling a small win over this matter. However, the debate over who would win this game was still hanging in the air. Remembering this, Amagi turned his head back to the court where Yuki was there and stared at his new friend sullenly.

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"For the sake of our friendship, you better win this game, Yuki! Don't embarrass me in front of those bastards!"

-0-

Little did all the players on the court know that they had just become the topic of the conflict between the two best teams in the country. Right now, all they cared about was thinking of a way to deal with this far-from-ideal situation. Well… At least for Kikugawa High.

"Sena-kun, get ready to play! You will replace Suzuki-kun in the next play." Arisawa Junya suddenly dropped a bomb out of nowhere.

"What?! Me? Replacing Captain?!" The boy named Sena was taken aback, pointing his finger at himself questioningly. The other players also had the similar reaction with some of them turning around to look at their captain. Suzuki himself just stayed quiet, waiting for the coach's instruction patiently.

"Yes, you are playing next, Sena-kun. Get ready." Arisawa Junya clicked his tongue impatiently. After the boy scampered off the bench to warm himself up, the coach turned his attention to the other players, addressing this matter immediately. "I know it looks strange for me to replace Suzuki-kun because not only he is our captain, but he didn't play terribly in this set. He still deserves to be on the court. However, from the tactical point of view, as long as it is Kobayashi's turn to serve, Suzuki-kun's presence would bring us more trouble rather than doing good for us."

"Eh?! How so?!" Even Suzuki was shocked by the bold declaration from the coach.

"Well, you see, his position during this rotation is behind Kaito-kun's, preventing him from joining the attack because he would clash with Kaito-kun on the right wing. Meanwhile, even though his defensive ability is good, Suzuki-kun is not a match for Kobayashi's serve. You can see it from the last few attempts where Tsunemori always had a good chance whenever Kobayashi aimed the serve at him. That means he is restrained in his position, cannot go forward because of Kaito-kun, and cannot reinforce the back because he would be a liability. So, rather than forcing our way like that, it is better to put Sena-kun, a defensive specialist on the court while letting Suzuki-kun recharge his energy. Is that a good thing for us?"

Well, when the coach put it like that, they could indeed see that the man had a point here. Even Suzuki didn't have any complaints, acknowledging that Arisawa Junya's argument was valid here. Not that the coach needed his concern and approval, of course.

"Also, if you really want to send him back to the court, it should be easy, right?" Arisawa Junya suddenly added, attracting all of his players. "If you want to let him back, just stop Kobayashi's momentum and bring the right to serve back to us!"