The timeout ended, and the match resumed.

  Kaedehara Taichi served a floater. Although the ball's trajectory wasn't particurly tricky, his aim was sharp, targeting Kageyama Tobio.

  Kageyama was forced to receive the first touch.

  "Asahi!" Sawamura Daichi quickly covered and took on the role of the setter, delivering the ball to the familiar face of Azumane Asahi.

  "Double block!" Kunimi Akira and Hanamaki Takahiro leapt up to intercept.

  Iwaizumi Hajime received the ball ly.

  "Mad Dog-!" Oikawa Tōru set the ball to the left fnk.

  On the edge of the , a figure exploded into the court with the speed and ferocity of a leopard before s high into the air.

  "Triple block!" Sawamura Daichi, Azumane Asahi, and Hinata Shōyō jumped together.

  Thud! Thud!

  Two secutive booming sounds echoed as the spike was stuffed bato Aoba Johsai's court.

  "Tch." Kyōtaarō clicked his tongue in frustration and shook his head.

  Karasuno scored with a block.

  [Aoba Johsai 20 – 12 Karasuno]

  "OOOHHH—!" Every point Karasuno scored fueled their momentum, raising their spirits another notch.

  "Damn it! This idiot still refused to adapt. It's so hard to fix his bad habits!"

  Oikawa Tōru ractically itg to smack Kyōtani over the head.

  Even with three blockers in his face, the Mad Dog had insisted on spiking straight into Asahi instead of choosing the aoward the smaller blockers. What an absolute meathead!

  Grinding his teeth in frustration, Oikawa decided to let it go—for now. There was another issue at hand.

  "Kunimi, your sg-off time is over~"

  Kunimi Akira jolted in surprise. Did he notice? How embarrassing.

  "…Sorry."

  "If you keep this up, Coach Irihata is going to tear you apart after the match. Let's win this set first, and then you sck off."

  Kunimi: "???"

  "After all, 'high efficy, low effort, and stant posure' is your secret on, isn't it?" Oikawa lightly pushed Kunimi. "But when it ts, you'd better deliver."

  "Got it, Oikawa-senpai," Kunimi muttered softly, though a memory fshed through his mind—Kageyama's scolding from their middle school days.

  Yeah…I really 't afford to lose to Kageyama.

  Karasuno's turn to serve. Hinata Shōyō stepped up to the service line.

  Coach Ukai hesitated momentarily but ultimately decided against substituting in their pinch-server.

  For one, Yamaguchi Tadashi had only been practising his jump float serve for a week; it was his first time stepping onto the court, and the odds of a service error were high.

  Sedly, the current team on the court was in good rhythm, and there was o add unnecessary variables. The priority right now was to figure out Aoba Johsai's offence.

  Smack!

  Taichi barely suppressed a smile as he received Hinata's soft serve with ease.

  Bang!

  The sudden acceleration caught Karasuno off guard. Kunimi Akira, w with Oikawa in the tre, executed a lightning-fast quick attack (A-tempo).

  Aoba Johsai scored.

  [Aoba Johsai 21 – 12 Karasuno]

  "Damn it! With Taichi out of the front row, we pletely overlooked the quick attack option," Daichi muttered.

  Aoba Johsai served again. Hanamaki Takahiro delivered a standard jump serve, whiishinoya Yū received ly. Kageyama set the ball to the middle.

  Tsukishima Kei spiked past Kunimi Akira's block with a high, overhand kill, sg directly.

  Karasuno scored.

  [Aoba Johsai 21 – 13 Karasuno]

  "Answering back with a quick attack, huh? Kageyama really didn't like losing," Oikawa remarked under his breath.

  Karasuno served again. Sawamura Daichi targeted Oikawa with his serve.

  Smack!

  Oikawa instantly set the ball toward Kunimi's position.

  er! Tsukishima and Kageyama immediately leapt to block Kunimi.

  Whoosh!

  Kunimi jumped and instead set the ball to the left fnk.

  Boom!

  Kyōtaarō smashed the ball down for the kill.

  Aoba Johsai scored.

  [Aoba Johsai 22 – 13 Karasuno]

  "The set was too low," Kyōtaarō muttered.

  "I'm not the setter," Kunimi Akira replied ftly.

  Kyōtani bared his teeth in frustration, his expression twisted into a feral grimace.

  With a thwack, Iwaizumi Hajime delivered a sharp hand chop straight to Kyōtani's head. "The coordination was great, and the spike was solid."

  "Yessir—" Kyōtani replied, his tone begrudgi obedient.

  Kaedehara Taioticed that even without participating directly in the offence, Aoba Johsai still mao score sistently. The gap betweewo teams hadn't shrunk at all.

  It made sense. Long before he had joihe team and grown into the pyer he was today, Aoba Johsai had never been a weak team.

  With Oikawa Tōru as their lin, they alyed as a unified whole, squeezing the maximum potential out of every single pyer. That was—and always had been—Aoba Johsai's signature style.

  Bang!

  Iwaizumi spiked for the kill.

  [Aoba Johsai 23 – 13 Karasuno]

  Oikawa and Iwaizumi exged a smiling high-five. Ahat overlooked Aoba Johsai's former ace would be in for a painful surprise.

  As Taichi reflected on his journey so far, he noticed something about his use of the 'super quick attack'.

  Unlike Kageyama Tobio and Hinata Shōyō, who used it as 'the stro decoy', Taichi had always wielded it as one of his ons to fuse oppos.

  If he were to call himself a 'decoy', then the only one being deceived by the act was himself.

  Of course, Taichi had always aspired to be the ace. He never eaihe idea of merely serving as a decoy. But surely Oikawa had already realized this—so why hadn't he said anything?

  Boom!

  Kyōtaarō hammered down a sharp cross-court spike, sg again.

  Aoba Johsai had reached set point.

  [Aoba Johsai 24 – 13 Karasuno]

  Kaedehara Taichi suddenly thought to himself that his ret matches felt somewhat like Ushijima Wakatoshi's style of py.

  Whenever he was on the offehe rest of the team merely focused on receiving and delivering the ball to him.

  In the end, it was always up to him to spike and score.

  But this kind of py didn't align with Aoba Johsai's team-orierategy. Moreover, Taichi cked Ushijima's overwhelming skill and dominanaturally, the result was a situation where he could be easily shut down.

  So, what should he be doing now?

  As he watched Hanamaki Takahiro pick up a spike, with Oikawa waiting up front for the set, Iwaizumi and Kyōtani readying themselves for an attack, and Kunimi sing Karasuno's positioning, the answer became clear.

  He o blend in.

  Kaedehara Taichi adjusted his position and started his approach.

  Oikawa's lips curled into a faint, nearly imperceptible smile. I nning to tell him after this set was over…

  The ball was set high, and Aoba Johsai unched a multi-position simultaneous attack.

  Bang!

  Even Kageyama hadn't anticipated that Oikawa would set the ball to Kaedehara Taichi, who had been nearly silent in the back row up until now.

  Taichi executed a back-row attad spiked the ball down for the final point.

  [Aoba Johsai 25 – 13 Karasuno]

  "Tweet—" The whistle blew, signalling the end of the first set.

  For a moment, Karasuno's pyers were frozen in disbelief—both at Kaedehara Taichi's back-row spike and the lopsided score dispyed on the board.

  A twelve-point gap loomed over them like an insurmountable mountain.

  Meanwhile, Aoba Johsai's pyers quickly headed to their bench, grabbing water and taking their brief rest. There was still a sed set to py.

  "Oikawa-senpai, why have you beeiack aloly?" Taichi's question came out of nowhere, abrupt and blunt. Still, he figured Oikawa would uand what he was getting at.

  "Kunimi's been sg off, and I haven't said anything about that either~," Oikalied, dodging the question.

  Hearing his name, Kunimi slowed his steps and quietly edged farther away from Oikawa.

  "But Kyōtani-senpai is always used as a decoy, isn't he?" Taichi pressed on.

  Iwaizumi, sensing Kyōtani's rising agitation, quickly pulled him aside.

  Oikawa turo Taichi and pressed his index finger against Taichi's forehead. "Mad Dog's offense is already polished. You, oher hand, still need work."

  Idiot. How you be so dense about something like this?

  The coaches and the third-years had, of course, noticed Aoba Johsai's subtle shift in strategy. However, they all agreed that the ge would be the team. For the sake of victory, everyone was willing to adapt.

  Taichi suddenly recalled the timeout earlier—ohat had seemed almost as if it were called just for his sake—and couldn't help but ugh softly.

  So that's what it was all about. This is Aoba Johsai.

  _________

  [T/N] - If you guys want to read 50 Chapters in advance of the current story, you support me on my Patreon. Trust me, it's awesome!

  Link - (P)atreon./Iseebbsp;[Remove the brackets]