[74] Grade 11: Spring National High School Competition
Even with a slight flaw in the first pass and a somewhat stiff trajectory, the third-year setter, Inarisaki, still managed to forcefully pass out this uncomfortable set ball, relying on his experience.
Meanwhile, Ooshiro was also ready to adjust his attack.
There was no hesitation in his eyes as he leaped high into the air and stretched out his body.
His powerful core strength allowed him to be prepared to go all out even when facing such a tricky set shot.
The volleyball grazed the fingertips of a teammate who was feinting an attack and jumping, spinning rapidly, and was fed by the setter to the best hitting point at the back of the net.
The Inarizaki team member's realistic movements and the jump that blocked the view successfully fooled Akiyama, who was in the front row of Tsurumeikan!
Akiyama hesitated in his judgment when faced with the sudden jump of Inarizaki, who was directly opposite him—the opponent's body completely blocked his view of the setter's movements, and he could only rely on intuition and experience to make a prediction.
Only after Akiyama jumped with all his might did he manage to catch the volleyball flying to the other side thanks to his excellent dynamic vision!
Akiyama attempted to forcefully shift his center of gravity in mid-air to compensate for the lapse in judgment.
However, his tall stature also became an obstacle at this moment, and the enormous inertia prevented him from easily changing direction in mid-air.
It seems like they're about to succeed?!
Inarizaki's teammates on the bench gripped their towels tightly.
...
don't want,
Ignore me.
A figure suddenly brushed past Akiyama, who had already jumped to block the net.
After the rotation, Aoyagi has returned to the front row.
His crossover step started so fast that it was just a blur, and his leap was surprisingly fast, even though he started later.
His height in the air was no less than that of Wei Bai when he jumped with all his might. His calm emerald eyes shone brightly, filled only with the volleyball that was about to be hit!
"Don't even think about it—going past!"
His long, slender arms blocked all possible angles of Tail White's diagonal line.
So that seemingly sure-fire smash landed hard on Aoyagi's clasped fingers, making a loud thud!
The volleyball was intercepted again and bounced back onto the court in Inarizaki at an even faster speed!
“—So annoying!” Akagi squeezed out the words through gritted teeth.
Although he was talking, he didn't give up on the ball that was about to land.
As a result, Akagi was propelled out like a spring that had been compressed to its limit. After a near-twisted diving dive, he managed to lift the volleyball up with his right forearm just before it touched the floor!
"once!"
Akagi shouted after feeling the volleyball hit his forearm.
The volleyball soared high, its arc not perfect, but enough to orchestrate a difficult attack.
And this ball seems to be passed to Oshiro – after the Inarizaki attacker who just made a feint, jumped, Oshiro also jumped.
"Don't even think about it!"
"Left wing!"
Akiyama and Aoyagi's voices rang out almost simultaneously.
...I was seen through.
The setter, Inarizaki, who had already landed after the jump pass, clenched his fingers in dissatisfaction.
Yes, that ball was actually meant for the second-year junior who made the feint.
As Inarisaki's hand was about to touch the volleyball, he attempted to avoid the block head-on with a diagonal shot—
However, the synchronized jumps of Inarizaki and his companion were incredibly fast, and the barrier formed by their four arms completely blocked all possible angles of attack!
"Bang--!!!"
Another, even louder, bang!
The volleyball was solidly blocked by two players with four hands, slamming into Inarizaki's three-meter line and bouncing even higher than the net.
"Tsk!" Setter Inarizaki clicked his tongue in annoyance.
The rest of the match, however, did not go as smoothly as Akagi had envisioned during the timeout.
Inarisaki became increasingly fierce, each spike seemingly engulfed in flames.
But for some reason, the rhythm on the field had a strange sense of disjointedness—
The Inarizaki team members felt that the transition between offense and defense was so fast that it was suffocating, and every breath felt like they were chasing time.
But whenever they looked up at the other side of the net, they felt that the movements of the group from Heming Hall were frighteningly calm. Every defensive rotation and every offensive organization was as clear and orderly as if they were watching a slow-motion videotape of Heming Hall.
This contradictory feeling, like a slowly rising tide, silently erodes the rhythm of Inarizaki (CMaX).
They felt more anxious than ever before, each breath filled with burning anxiety, desperately trying to accelerate and accelerate, attempting to tear apart the opponent's formation with a ferocious offensive.
But all their struggles seemed to fall into an invisible yet incredibly resilient spiderweb woven from water—
The more effort they exerted, the more tightly they were bound by the orderly rhythm of the Crane Cry Pavilion, all their power was quietly dissolved, unable to reach the true core.
Fortunately, Inarizaki was ultimately strong. With the tacit cooperation between the setter and ace over the past three years, the quick attacks honed with Oji, and Oji's stable output in crucial moments, they desperately chased the score.
The second round ended here on the scoreboard:
————
Tsurumeikan: Inarizaki
25:21
————
The score difference was not significant, which was the result of the Inarizaki team's fierce battle.
But when the Inarizaki team members walked off the field, their faces didn't show any relief; instead, they carried an indescribable anxiety and confusion.
They all turned to look at the black-bearded coach on the sidelines, their eyes filled with a mixture of resentment and a barely perceptible sense of bewilderment.
They had clearly researched so many tactical plans against Hemingguan before even facing them, and they used all the temporary tactics they came up with during the timeouts and substitutions in both games.
Even though they had given it their all, why did it still seem impossible to shake the Crane Cry Pavilion?
Why do I always feel like I'm not strong enough, as if every punch I throw is hitting thin air?
...Is Crane Cry Pavilion really that flawless?
Coach Blackbeard crossed his arms, his gaze sweeping over his panting, sweat-drenched team members, before finally letting out a slow sigh.
That sigh contained a multitude of emotions: a critical examination of the Crane Cry Pavilion, and a clear understanding of their own predicament.
"Something feels off, doesn't it?" he said in a deep voice, breaking the silence. "It feels like you can't throw a punch, your rhythm is always a beat behind, like you're being dragged along by something you can't see?"
The Inarizaki team members nodded silently.
“That’s because,” Blackbeard’s gaze fell on the golden-eyed setter on the other side of the net, who was quietly drinking water with an expressionless face, “you are being ‘boiled’.”
"That kid Imadegawa... he's not competing with you for every point. His goal now isn't to quickly crush us like he did in the previous games against other schools."
"He's 'controlling the temperature'—like boiling a frog in lukewarm water."
"He lets you score some points, even encourages you to make some great attacks, makes the game look incredibly intense, gets your blood pumping, and makes you feel like you can win if you're just a little faster and stronger."
"But he also used his terrible passing and tactical distribution to slowly raise the 'temperature' of the game bit by bit—that is, the rhythm, a rhythm that he completely dominated, seemingly stable but constantly increasing pressure."
"You feel anxious because your bodies instinctively sense that the water temperature is rising and you are feeling the impending suffocation."
"He doesn't need any more fancy skills or sophisticated tactics; he just needs to calmly, consistently, and irresistibly drag you into his rhythm."
"Did you notice? In these two sets, he used his strongest and most distinctive setter technique, the lob, very rarely. He was constantly playing fast attacks and hardly ever lobbed high balls."
Coach Kurosu was referring to Imadegawa's "instant stop and ball control" technique. After more than half a year of honing his skills, Imadegawa's technique has become even more perfect. In the video analysis by Inarisaki and others, it was already evident that Imadegawa's ball control timing has become more perfect.
But just as Director Kurosu said, the Inarisaki group recalled something.
Imadegawa used this move only three times in these two games. Most of the time, he was playing fast attacks with his teammates from Tsurumeikan. Even when Koizumi was in the front row, he was playing fast attacks.
“By the time you truly realize that the temperature is unbearable…” Blackbeard paused for a moment, “it’s often too late.”
“Now, the water temperature is already very high. The third round…” he took a deep breath, “will be the time to decide whether we fight our way out of this pot or get completely cooked.”
Coach Kurosu's words were like a bucket of ice water poured onto the burning hearts of the Inarizaki team members, bringing a chill that suddenly cleared their confused minds.
—Yes, they had already figured out that Imadegawa of Tsurumeikan was a master at controlling the rhythm of the game, and all the video footage clearly pointed this out.
They also thought they were mentally prepared.
During the timeout, Coach Blackbeard had repeatedly reminded them in subtle but pointed ways, such as "stay calm," "play at our own pace," and "don't let the opponent lead you by the nose," not to fall into Tsurumeikan's rhythm trap.
But it wasn't until this moment, when Director Blackbeard bluntly and cruelly exposed their ignorance with the naked and cruel metaphor of "boiling a frog in lukewarm water," that they suddenly realized—
That lingering sense of anxiety, that feeling of being powerless and stifled, that perpetually out-of-control feeling—
It wasn't because of their own decline in performance, but rather because of an invisible giant web meticulously woven by their opponents called "rhythm".
From the very beginning, they unknowingly walked step by step into the psychological cage that Imadegawa and his ilk had tailored for them.
This belated realization is more chilling than simply being behind in the score.
So when the Inarizaki group looked at the calm figure on the other side of the net again, their eyes were filled with unprecedented solemnity and vigilance.
Looking at their solemn expressions, Blackbeard's heart sank as if a stone had been dropped into it, each beat carrying a heavy, stagnant resistance.
He glanced at Kita Shinsuke, who remained consistently calm.
That shouldn't be the case.
Blackbeard, the supervisor, frowned deeply.
He specifically placed some players with extremely stable mentality in the lineup to deal with the potential loss of rhythm and mental fluctuations that Tsurumeikan might cause to Inarisaki.
Especially Bei, who is his most admired teammate, possessing a calmness and focus far beyond his peers.
In these two difficult sets, whenever Kita Shinsuke was substituted in, he truly acted as a rhythm cooler, always managing to help Inarizaki regain his composure and cool down his overheated state in his own unique way.
But why...?
Why did the team ultimately end up in this situation?
Why is it that even the existence of the North seems unable to fundamentally reverse this slow decline?
————————!!————————
(Sucking the little ones' paws) I've been too busy lately, so I'll be posting all the comments for these chapters this weekend.
The "boiling frog" analogy came about because Coach Kurosu brought in the tranquilizer Kita-Fox, so Kozuru switched to Plan B. Otherwise, it would have been a quick victory. Actually, Coach Fox's tactics were good, but Kozuru and the coaches had already prepared numerous plans – the difference between scalding directly in boiling water and slowly boiling in lukewarm water. Like last time at IH, it was essentially scalding them, slowly breaking down each player individually, especially in the Shiratorizawa match where Eita suffered the most. The previous Spring High matches were basically like this, but the Spring High Inarizaki match was even more subtly tense. It wasn't about breaking down individuals one by one, but rather applying pressure here and there, making everyone feel they weren't being pressured by Tsurumeikan and therefore still had hope, but in reality, they were being subtly pressured – (after all, everyone knows Tsurumeikan loves to use psychological pressure, especially Inarizaki, who was pressured last time, so a preventative plan was implemented this time, hence Kozuru's pre-prepared Plan B).
And Inarizaki is almost finished too, just two or three more chapters, three at most.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
