Creak!
Looking at the referee's whistle signal, Kageyama knew.
The serve was about to begin!
He tried hard to keep his mind calm, but on the other side, the increasingly rapid drumbeat seemed to pressure him into rushing the serve!!
Whap!
Kageyama took a deep breath and tossed the ball again!
But just as he jumped, he suddenly realized something was wrong!
Because of his earlier impatience, the toss was a bit too far forward!!
Thwack!
In a rush, it was already difficult for him to control the power of his serve!
All he could do was hurriedly send the ball over the net!
Thump!
Ōmimi, who was in the front row, easily received the ball!
Now, everyone could see it—
Kageyama's rhythm had been disrupted by the pounding drumbeat!
"Haha! That looks promising!"
"I didn't expect it to work so quickly this time!"
"This setter from Karasuno must be a first-year, right? He still needs a lot more experience under pressure!"
"Hopefully it messes with his setting too. That'd be ideal!"
...
In the Inarizaki cheer squad section, delighted chuckles continued to ring out.
And on the court, their attack had already begun!
Boom!
Ojiro unleashed a powerful spike, grazing Karasuno's blockers and heading straight for the backcourt!
But at that moment, Nishinoya, who was positioned there, moved like lightning!
Thwack!
He dug the ball cleanly!
However...
The ball's position wasn't ideal!!
"I got it!"
Without a second of hesitation, Kageyama sprinted toward the falling ball!
"Huh?"
"That setter from Karasuno—he's still going for it?"
In the audience, the members of Fukurōdani couldn't help but think the same thing.
"Judging from that serve just now, he's not looking too sharp!"
"And the position of this ball is pretty bad…"
"If he messes up again, his mentality might completely collapse!"
"Does Karasuno even have a backup setter?"
...
They weren't the only ones—most of the spectators were watching Kageyama run with skeptical eyes!
But at this moment, Kageyama wasn't nearly as nervous as everyone assumed.
'A badly positioned ball like this…'
'Would've thrown me off before!'
'Especially after messing up a few serves…'
'But now…'
He had already made it under the ball just as it came down!
With a smooth motion, he executed a precise back set!!
'A ball like this—just give it to the ace!!'
Crunch!
Akira, on the opposite end, seemed to have anticipated it and leapt immediately!!
"Stop him!"
In this tricky situation, Inarizaki saw a chance to block Akira's spike!
Even if they couldn't stuff it, they wanted to create an opening for a counterattack!
So this time, they closed off nearly every possible angle!
To outside observers, if Akira really wanted to break through, he'd have to burn a lot of energy and use the kind of raw power spike he'd opened the match with!
But in the face of this tight defense, Akira didn't flinch.
The three Inarizaki blockers didn't even catch a flicker of emotion on his face!
Boom!
A lightning-quick spike burst through the three of them at an impossible angle!!
A super inside corner shot—just like the one Bokuto used to pull off!!
"Woooah!!"
From the sidelines, Bokuto couldn't help but shout when he saw it!
"That was even cooler than when I do it!!"
On the court, the Inarizaki defenders in the back row didn't even have time to react before the fierce spike landed squarely inside the three-meter line!!
Creak!
Karasuno scored again!!
"What a miraculous spike!!"
"Even with a shaky serve, Karasuno's Akira still claimed the point with a crushing offensive play!"
"Strong on both offense and defense—an absolute threat!!"
"If you run into their team later, you'd better be prepared!"
"Can you really withstand an explosive surge like that??"
...
"Don't stress."
Akira, having completed the attack, turned to Kageyama and said:
"Just serve normally."
"As long as we keep scoring, they'll shut up."
"I know."
Kageyama turned away coolly and walked toward the sideline.
It was still his turn to serve!
...
"This Kageyama guy…"
"He just got encouraged, but now he's acting like nothing ever happened!"
Watching this, Keishin Ukai wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.
"What should we do?"
Unlike his calm demeanor, Ittetsu Takeda was starting to panic:
"Are we just going to let Inarizaki's cheer squad keep interfering like this??"
"Hmm?"
Ukai was briefly stunned, then chuckled and replied:
"Haha!"
"Don't worry, Takeda-sensei!"
"Akira's up next!"
"In the face of absolute strength, even Inarizaki's cheerleaders will fall silent!"
"Is that so?"
Hearing that, Takeda blinked in surprise.
No wonder Ukai had stayed so composed the entire time!
He already had full confidence in his players!!
As Takeda stood there momentarily stunned, Ukai shifted his gaze back to the court.
"I'm sure… he thinks the same way."