Creak!
As the referee's whistle blew, Tsukishima, now in the back row, served the ball again!
The serve flew straight to the back row of Mujinazaka!!
Smack!
Received by Kiryū!
Usuri sprinted directly beneath the pass!!
He set the ball high above his head!
Unnan was already mid-air!!
Quick attack through the middle!
On the other side of the net, Akira had also leapt up for the block!!
Kageyama rushed in to provide coverage!
Bang!
Keisuke Unnan tried to send the ball past the block, but it was dug up by Tanaka, who had already positioned himself there!!
"Right wing!!"
Before Kageyama even completed his set, Mujinazaka's blockers shifted once more toward Akira's position!!
They knew—if they wanted to stop Akira's attack, blocking coordination was essential!!
If they committed their blocking elsewhere…
Even if Akira launched an attack, the chances of the back row receiving it cleanly would be slim!!
Swish!
After Tanaka's dig, Kageyama's second touch went straight up!!
Toward Akira!!
Seeing this, the entire Mujinazaka squad snapped to attention!
This ball had to be received!!
Even if they couldn't save it cleanly, at least someone in the back row had to touch it!
Because—this could be the last play of the set!!
Up until now, they hadn't successfully received a single one of Akira's spikes!
Unless they got lucky and managed a clean pickup this time!
Otherwise…
This would be the final rally!!
Under the tense stares of everyone on Mujinazaka, Akira jumped from the right wing!
All three front-row players immediately converged to block!
In Mujinazaka's back row, Bishin and the others watched anxiously as Akira soared on the opposite side of the net!
They knew too!
If they let another one of Akira's spikes land, their off-court strategy talk would just include one more failed scenario to analyze!!!
Amidst the mounting tension, Akira attacked!!
No—this wasn't a spike!!
It was…
A tip!!
Akira had noticed that Mujinazaka's players were too focused!
Too convinced that he would spike…
Far too locked into his attacking rhythm!
During the previous rally, they had been laser-focused on reading the direction of his strike!
And in this situation, based on past experience, if he went for a tip…
The back row would have no time to react!
And Akira's decision was completely correct!!
The moment he tipped the ball, everyone's expression stiffened!!
They had braced for a full-power spike!
After their earlier effort, the three back-row players were even confident they could finally touch one of Akira's spikes!
But what they didn't expect was that for this final play…
Akira didn't spike, but tipped the ball gently to a spot no one was guarding!!
All three back-row players dove to save it at the same time!!
But Akira's chosen landing point was too clever—right behind the three front-row blockers!!
So even though they reacted immediately, all they could do was watch the ball hit the floor!!
Creak!!
The referee's whistle blew!!
Karasuno scores!!
Set over!!
"Damn it!"
"What a shame!"
Bishin clenched his fists in frustration and punched the court beneath him.
"It's fine."
Unnan reached down to pull him up.
"Come on!"
"We need to figure out that attack as soon as possible!"
"Yeah!!"
...
"What did you think of that match?"
Back on the sidelines, Ukai was the first to speak.
"Hmm…"
Akira hesitated for a moment before responding:
"I think I've figured out what they were trying to do."
"Oh?"
At that, everyone turned toward him.
Ukai himself had just noticed the same thing. He originally thought he'd be the one to notice it from the bench.
He hadn't expected that Akira, in the thick of the game, would realize it himself!
Now he was curious—were their observations the same?
Feeling everyone's gaze, Akira continued:
"I think they specifically targeted me in this match."
"What??"
Everyone on Karasuno was surprised.
Akira rubbed his chin and continued:
"Because in this match, I received a lot more serves and spikes than usual."
"Plus, there were some odd choices made by Mujinazaka when I attacked…"
"So, I think their strategy in this game was to wear me down physically."
"Exactly!!"
Ukai nodded firmly.
With a bit of exasperation, he added:
"Probably because your Spikes are just too hard to stop. That's why they targeted you…"
Akira responded calmly:
"That's normal."
He'd expected this kind of day to come.
Akira knew—it was the price of scoring points.
If given the chance, even he would instinctively target the opponent's most dangerous player!
In past matches, other teams had done the same.
Back in the semifinals against Inarizaki, their serves and spikes had focused on him plenty of times too!
But Akira had handled it well!!
Over time, it even made Inarizaki hesitate!
Attacking Akira might drain his stamina—
But their own scoring pace would suffer heavily!
But Mujinazaka was different!!
Their targeting was blatantly obvious!!
They practically set aside scoring altogether just to make him the focus!