บท 6: Offense vs Defense! A Battle of Two Different Playing Styles!

"Excuse me! Give me a way, please! Excuse me!"

Outside of the gym, a girl sprinted down the hallway, sweat-drenched all over her shirt. She kept running while apologizing to the people she passed through, trying to get there as soon as possible. Inwardly, she cursed her homeroom teacher for holding the entire class back for about thirty minutes before letting them go with their business.

When the girl arrived at the gym, she stopped immediately, panting like a cow while holding her knees to support her body.

"I am sorry for being late, Akira-sensei! Genta-sensei asked us to choose the representative for each class and hold me back for about thirty minutes!" She bowed her head, trying to apologize to the volleyball team's coach while explaining what happened.

However, she didn't expect that not only her sensei was not responding at all, but even the players were doing the same. It confused the girl a bit as since she was the only female member of the team, all the boys usually would be excited for nothing whenever she arrived at the gym.

"Sensei?" The girl tried to peek at the coach carefully from her bow.

"Ah, sorry, Ayaka-san, what are you saying again?" The coach finally spoke to her, yet his words indicated he didn't pay attention to her. The girl called Ayaka had her lips twitched a little in annoyance before sighing, "Well, Sensei, I am sorry I came late. Can I take a seat?"

"Oh, yeah, sure!"

The girl huffed before throwing her body on the seat next to the coach. Her name was Ayaka Megumi, and her identity here was the manager of the volleyball team. And no, her role was not to clean the court after the activity or wash everyone's jersey after the game. In fact, it revolved around something every person would fear, paperwork.

Yes, she was the one responsible for the team's administrative work; from registering the new members of the team to the school database to the point of registering the team for every tournament they would enter. Without her, the team would be just a bunch of people gathering together and playing volleyball as a hobby. That was why sometimes she was treated as a queen by the boys.

This time though, the girl was confused when she didn't receive the warm greeting from the other. She trailed Akira's line of sight, trying to see what kind of event would make the team ignore her like that. Then, her eyes caught two familiar figures on the court, one with rare blonde hair and the other with glasses on his face.

"Are those two the new members?" She asked curiously.

"Well, the blonde one is the new member," Akira replied, his eyes still on the court. "He is my nephew, Agostini Riku. You should have known about him if you checked our Facebook group for once." He added dryly.

Megumi blushed a little, trying to avoid Akira's gaze. Facebook was the social media that bloomed recently among the students and almost every club kinda makes one for their members to communicate with each other. Megumi was probably one of the few people who didn't like hanging around the group, and sometimes, it caused her to get any news later than the others.

"Oh, is he the one who kept chatting and inviting everyone to play games together last night?" Megumi suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, so it seems you still take a look at what happened in the group too." Akira chuckled playfully. Then, he cringed when the memory of what happened last night emerged in his head. "Sorry about that one. I will try to discipline him better after this."

Megumi just gave him a little understanding smile. While there was no etiquette rule established in social media, some people thought that it was rude to invite others to chat and play games after 9:00 PM. It was usually the time when almost all the people fell asleep to get ready for the next day.

Unfortunately, that was exactly what Riku did last night.

He kept inviting everyone to play some sort of online game that Megumi couldn't understand anything about. But since the group kept ringing until midnight time, she knew there were a lot of players decided to hang out together with him. That was probably why he could get so close with each other players even though today was just the second day of school.

"Well, you said only one of them is the new member. What about that glasses boy?" She asked curiously.

"That boy…" Akira's face suddenly turned serious, surprising Megumi a little. "He is the person I kept racking my brain since yesterday, trying to come up with an idea of how to recruit him to join our team."

-0-

*BAM!*

"Shit! It bounces to the net!"

"Yuki! Cover it up!"

"I got it, Senpai!"

Yuki moved forward immediately, extending his arms far away while leaning his body forward, trying to keep the ball in the air. He lost his balance a bit, falling down to the floor after saving the ball. However, it was enough to keep the ball alive.

"Nice cover, Yuki!"

"Sakai-senpai, here!"

"Kaede is about to jump! Follow my lead! One! Two! Three! Go!"

*BAM!*

"KUSO!"

"YOSH! Nice block, you two!"

Kaede cursed out loud as his spike was blocked by a wall formed by Riku and Ren, the outside hitter of the opposite team. However, when they all thought the ball was dead, Okumura, the libero and the guardian of the team suddenly dived acrobatically, saving the ball with the back of his palm before it could touch the floor.

"Oh, damn! Pancake!"

"Yori-senpai! Follow it up!"

"Yuki!"

Hearing his name was called, Yuki took a step back before running forward and jumped. Riku on the other side didn't want to lose. He also did the same while extending his arms high, trying to set a wall that Yuki couldn't break.

"Come on, Riku! Don't lose again!"

Amidst the chaos, the duel between those two happened once again. Looking at the wall in front of him though, Yuki didn't lose his calm. He remembered the trick Riku had done when the game just started and suddenly smirked, giving the blonde boy a bad feeling.

"Well, how about tasting your own weapon?"

With a mischievous grin, Yuki suddenly slowed down the arms that had coiled back and was ready to be unleashed like a whip, changing his mind from a powerful spike into a soft one. He tapped the ball gently, letting it float over Riku's hands that was still in the air. While several players from the opposite side wanted to cover, they were too surprised, didn't expect Yuki to pull up the same stunt Riku did earlier.

"YOSSHAA!!" Yuki roared wildly.

"Nice kill, Yuki!"

"Damn! Genius is really different!"

"Good job, boy!"

As he celebrated the point with his temporary teammates, gone was all the politeness and the fake façade Yuki had always worn when facing strangers, his true self as a normal hot-blooded teenager was fully exposed.

Everyone didn't mind though. They preferred it when Yuki was honest with himself rather than showing his mask to them. And they were also happy, thinking that Yuki finally started to accept himself as one of the volleyball team's members. When they heard that Yuki lived in an orphanage, they knew there was a big chance the glasses boy would refuse their invitation. However, looking at how it went until now, it seemed the genius of the volleyball would stay longer with them.

"So, what is the score between us two?" Yuki couldn't help but tease Riku; he pushed his glasses upward. The blonde boy just huffed, annoyed. However, he still gave Yuki the answer. "It should be 4 – 1 for your lead. Don't be too happy, though. I will beat you soon!"

Yuki shook his head amusedly. "Well, I will wait for you. Please, take your time slowly, okay?"

He turned his head, staring at the board to check for the score. The big yellow board showed 10 – 5, his team was still leading. Then, his eyes accidentally landed on the bench, or to be more exact, on the girl who sat next to the coach, and he was taken aback by the familiar feeling he had for the girl.

'Is that the girl who sat behind me in the class? What is her name again?' He wondered confusedly. 'Is she also a member of the team?'

However, he denied the idea immediately after making an eye-contact with the girl, and she waved her hand and smiled to greet him.

'No, that girl is too shy to do that. This girl must be someone who coincidentally looks familiar with her or her relative.'

"What's wrong, Yuki?" Yoshi asked.

It still amazed Yuki how quickly he got close to everyone on the team. They even started calling each other with their first name here, something he would never be comfortable enough with strangers. Maybe this was how boys made friends. It only took one game of volleyball which they fought together to change the stranger status to best friends, something which Yuki himself wouldn't complain about.

However, right now, his mind was on the girl next to Akira. "Who is she?" He decided to ask.

Yoshi's eyes trailed to the spot where Yuki pointed before grinning. "Ah, I get it. Are you interested in her too?" Yuki's mouth twitched at the soft jab he received from his senpai. "Well, she is the manager of the team, Megumi-san. You will have to step on so many corpses if you want to approach her."

'So a popular girl, then.' Yuki nodded silently.

"Well, if you are really interested in her, you can ask to Koji over there." Yoshi pointed at the player on the opposite side with wild, spiky hair. "He claims to be her number one fan and would do anything for her. Even though I don't know whether Megumi-san had ever asked him to do anything, I do not doubt his commitment to her. Koji would jump over the cliff if she asked him to do so.'

Yuki had a sweat drop in his face at the information he just received.

"Well, we can talk a lot about her later. You will also communicate with her a lot after this. But for now, let's continue the game."

"Sure."

-0-

Megumi blinked her eyes repeatedly, still wondering what happened. She had been the manager of the team in the last two years – this year would be her third and never in her mind she thought the team would be able to play an amazing volleyball like this.

And all of that revolved around the two freshmen who were playing on the court right now.

"Noriyuki-senpai! Ogawa-senpai! Run!"

That was the shout from Riku, the blonde boy who Akira claimed to be his nephew. He was playing as the setter for Noriyuki's team, the brain of every play for them. It wasn't like anything Megumi had ever seen from Yori before. Unlike the third-year setter who always liked to play solid and safe, with Riku, everyone was involved in the offense, and no one knew where the ball would go until the blonde boy decided it in the last second.

He was like a conductor in an orchestra, waving his baton to command the others to follow his arrangement.

"Senpai, left. Follow my lead. One, two, three, jump!"

*BAM!*

"YOSH! Nice block, Hirano-senpai! Kaede-senpai!"

"Good job to you too, Yuki!"

Turning her eyes to the other team, Megumi saw how Yuki blended perfectly with his senpai. If Riku was a master at conducting offense for his team, Yuki showed off his talent as a natural leader, taking the lead in commanding everyone to defend the ball. Megumi knew while the team had several players who were good in defense, the biggest problem always lay in communication.

Hirano Fuji, one of the best middle blockers in Tokyo was always a solo player. He had never been good at giving orders or commanding his teammates to do something for him. And to make it worse, his cold personality was the exact opposite of Okumura, the loudmouth libero on the team. The clash of personalities between those two sometimes led the defense into pure chaos, making it hard for their teammates to do it properly. Only Yoshi and Noriyuki were probably charismatic enough to take the command on defense, but their reading-the-game skill was never top-notch.

This time though, even if he had two troublesome players on his team, Yuki united them both under his command, making them follow his lead to win the sparring game. Hell, even Hirano who was infamous for his cold personality was willing to listen and even accept Yuki's high-five from time to time.

It was at this moment Megumi realized why the coach thought highly of Yuki.

"They are interesting, right?" Akira suddenly asked, startling Megumi a bit.

"Yeah." She admitted, praising both Yuki and Riku. "I don't know what kind of good karma did we do in our past lives, but to have two amazing freshmen in the same year sure is one hell of luck."

Akira nodded in agreement, then let out a long sigh. "Yesterday, his reading-the-game ability made me think he is a good seedling to be a middle blocker. Then before this game, his train of thought when receiving Riku's serve convinced me he would be good as a libero too. But now, I realize he is the perfect opposite hitter in my mind. Good at receiving, blocking, serving, defending, and even spiking, he is one hell of a player. Unfortunately, he still didn't have any idea to join us."

Megumi who knew that Akira was talking about Yuki and had already heard about his background story also sighed regretfully. It would be a pity for someone this talented to miss out on the team because of this.

"Well, let's try to convince him again after this." She said the last part to reassure the coach.

"Yeah…" Akira nodded, his gaze was far away. "Let's do it again later…"

-0-

Back to the court, Riku was cursing so loud right now. And the subject of his curse was of course the glasses boy he deemed as a rival on the opposite side. He glared at him at the intensity that if it could kill, Yuki would probably be six feet under right now.

The root of it all was simple. It was Yuki's turn to serve the ball, and twice he did, he aimed the ball straight at Riku. And while Riku was a decent defender, he had never seen a floater from this close, let alone receiving the end of it.

'Damn this Bastard!' He cursed once again in Italian. 'Never received a formal training? What a joke! Which novice can serve a nasty floater like this!' His face darkened more when Riku saw the infuriating smirk on Yuki's face directed at him. 'I know this bastard is targeting me! Damn!'

"Calm down, Riku!" As the captain of the team, it wasn't the first time Noriyuki handled teammates with a bad temper like him. "Don't think about it too much. Listen here."

After discussing the arrangement for the next play with the captain, Riku's face lightened up a bit, knowing this was the chance for him to get revenge.

"Thanks, Senpai!"

Yuki who was on the other side of the court ignored their interaction, thinking it wouldn't change too much. He took a deep breath, tossing the ball slowly through the air before hitting it gently, making sure it didn't have too much spin while in the air.

Honestly, Yuki didn't know this kind of serve had its own name. For all he knew, he had a knack for it the first time he saw his teacher doing this serve and had used this a lot in the past whenever his PE class was having a volleyball game to tease his opponents, and it always worked. He just didn't expect this would work against a school team that was also preparing for a serious tournament.

However, this time, it was a little bit different. While he still aimed at Riku, – he admitted he did this deliberately – the moment the ball passed over the net, Riku switched position with Noriyuki to avoid his serve. The captain received it perfectly, using his overhand pass to give the ball directly to Riku on the front line.

"Nice pass, Captain!"

Yuki was about to run forward, going back to his position as one of the blockers. However, he was surprised by how Riku handled the ball. Instead of tossing it to his teammates, the blonde boy didn't wait for too long and killed the play directly in the second ball, spiking it straight in his direction.

Getting caught off guard, Yuki flinched a bit, couldn't dodge the hit that came straight to his face. He used his hand to block the ball, yet his action made it bounce far outside of the court.

"Ha! I got you this time!" Riku smiled smugly, showing his childishness to Yuki.

Yuki himself just shook his head, smiling exasperatedly. This was the second time he received the same trick from Riku, and honestly, he wasn't even that mad. The intense game made Yuki forget anyone could kill the ball at any time as long as it hadn't been touched for more than three consecutive times by one team.

Later in the near future, Yuki would know this so-called dump trick was Riku's go-to move whenever the blonde boy was excited.

"Wait over there, Kobayashi! This time, I will let you see my serve!" Riku shouted from the other side. It seemed he wanted to retaliate against the torture he received before.

Yuki just grinned slightly, challenging him with another shout. "Well, do it if you can!"

Even though they both were separated by 24 meters – the length of the court – and the eight players on the court, it was still easy for them to make an eye-contact. The clear cerulean eyes met the brown one as the tension between those two increased rapidly.

Even though they both were just freshmen, the other players still gave them the respect they deserved, letting those two have their duel this time. All of Yuki's teammates stepped aside, giving him the space to receive the ball.

Seeing this, Riku grinned, knowing their senpai had already set this stage for him. With a flick of his wrist and a burst of strength, the blonde boy launched the ball into the air, watching with fierce determination as it soared towards its target. Time seemed to slow down as the ball hurtled toward the opponent's court.

*BAM!*

After that, the last thing people heard from the volleyball court was the explosion-like sound echoed all over the gym before hell broke loose.