"Wow~ So many people!"
"Kana, look! Over there, it's a TV crew and a camera!"
Standing in the designated spectator area prepared by the organizers, Renko Mizuta chirped excitedly like a little sparrow, her voice non-stop with glee.
Akashi Kana, standing beside her, sighed. "Calm down, Renko. You're getting way too hyped."
"The Spring Tournament National Tournament Championship Opening Ceremony now officially begins..."
The venue announcement echoed through the arena. Kana quickly tapped Renko on the shoulder, reminding her, "Stand up straight! The match is about to begin."
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Player Entrance!
"Representing Saitama Prefecture, Shinzen High School!"
"Representing Miyagi Prefecture, Aoba Johsai High!"
As the ceremonial music played, the Aoba Johsai volleyball team marched into the arena.
The enormous venue, along with the endless flashes from cameras all around, made many of the players visibly stiff, their emotions swinging between excitement and nervousness.
"Look, look! Our school's team is coming out!"
"It's Oikawa-senpai and Akashi-kun, they look amazing!"
The spectators, especially the school's music club members in the audience, began stirring with excitement as Aoba Johsai entered. Akashi Kana, too, was seeing her brother Akashi Asuka in this kind of setting for the very first time. Even now, it didn't feel quite real.
The image of the brother she remembered just didn't match up with the Akashi Asuka now walking out before the nation.
The ceremony moved along swiftly. After a brief opening speech, the fifty-two qualifying teams exited the arena as instructed, leaving only the teams scheduled to play in the first round.
Aoba Johsai was one of them.
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[Up next is the first match of the Spring Tournament National Tournament Championship men's tournament on Court 2: Representing Saitama Prefecture, Shinzen High School, versus Representing Miyagi Prefecture, Aoba Johsai High.]
[This is Shinzen's fourth appearance at nationals, making them one of the tournament's regulars. In contrast, Aoba Johsai is making their very first appearance on this national stage.]
[However, it would be a big mistake to underestimate them. During this year's qualifiers, Aoba Johsai defeated last year's Top 8 team, Shiratorizawa Academy, to earn their spot in this tournament...]
Unlike the regional qualifiers, the national championship featured professional commentary to help even viewers unfamiliar with volleyball understand the action.
The moment the announcer mentioned Aoba Johsai's upset win over Shiratorizawa, a wave of shock rippled through the venue.
Aoba Johsai might not be well-known nationally, but Shiratorizawa, and especially Ushijima Wakatoshi, were household names across the country.
As soon as the commentator revealed that Aoba Johsai had taken down Shiratorizawa, within seconds, over a dozen teams in the stands turned their gazes toward Aoba Johsai's players.
"Whoa~ That's scary. I didn't realize Shiratorizawa was that famous."
Feeling so many eyes on them at once, several Aoba Johsai players visibly tensed under the pressure, but no one was more stressed than their opponents: the players from Shinzen High.
"Wait, wait, what?! This has to be a joke! How unlucky are we to run into them in the first round?!"
Originally, when Shinzen found out their opponents were an unknown school they'd never heard of, they were quietly relieved, thinking they'd lucked out in the draw.
But now someone had just told them this "unknown" school had actually defeated Shiratorizawa.
Not a funny joke.
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Both teams, weighed down by different kinds of pressure, began warming up.
Ten minutes later.
The referee blew the whistle to signal the end of the warm-up.
[Warm-ups are over, and the match is about to begin. Let's get right to it! It's Aoba Johsai versus Shinzen High, and Aoba Johsai will serve first.]
[Their first server is player number 1, Oikawa Tooru, team captain and setter. Let's see how his opening serve goes... Oh! What a shame! Oikawa's serve had power, but it landed out of bounds. No point for Aoba Johsai.]
Oikawa's serve soared far outside the court.
0–1.
Shinzen High took the early lead.
"Lucky break!"
The Shinzen players celebrated among themselves.
Meanwhile, Aoba Johsai regrouped and encouraged each other.
"Sorry! I misjudged the ball!" Oikawa apologized right away.
"Don't worry about it!"
"It's fine, just nail the next one!"
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"Coach, that serve just now...?"
In the rest area, Aoba Johsai's team manager Sadayuki Mizoguchi frowned at Oikawa's failed serve.
Coach Nobuteru Irihata nodded, confirming Mizoguchi's suspicion. "Yeah, Oikawa was definitely nervous on that one."
While service errors are common in volleyball, a seasoned coach like Irihata could tell the difference. That serve wasn't a calculated risk, it was the result of stiffness and nerves.
"Oikawa is usually calm under pressure, but this is his first time at nationals. The crowd, the size of the venue, the cameras, it all gets to you. It's only natural he's tense."
"So what do we do? Should we call a timeout?" Mizoguchi asked anxiously.
"No need to panic–" Irihata said calmly. "Yes, it's our first nationals, but not every one of our players is going to get nervous."
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[Now it's Shinzen's turn to serve. It lands between Aoba Johsai's libero and Oikawa, another strong serve. But the libero, Shinji Watari, manages to receive it! Though the pass isn't ideal, you can tell the team's still a little tense, understandably so, given it's their first time on this big stage.]
[Oikawa takes the ball and sends a set high toward number 8, Akashi Asuka. But the set's a bit slow... Shinzen has already formed a double block right in front of him. This could be trouble for Akashi, ]
BOOM!
SMACK!
Before the commentator could finish, a thunderous sound rang out across the court.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Akashi Asuka soared into the air like an eagle taking flight. Without hesitation, he swung his arm with explosive force directly at the double block in front of him.
The next second,
The ball shot out like a cannonball, obliterating the double block and continuing its devastating path straight at Shinzen's libero. The force sent the libero stumbling as the ball deflected off his arm and shot high into the air, eventually landing more than ten meters behind him on the court.
The entire Court 2 fell silent.
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