Haikyuu: Zero To Almighty-Chapter 504: Playing Mind Games (Double-Length)
Kaedehara Taichi held the ball in one hand and walked toward the service line. The members of Tachibana Red Falcons immediately shifted into a five-man receive formation. Against a serve that even Black Jackals and EJP had trouble handling, they had no room for carelessness.
"Tweet!—"The whistle sounded.
Almost at the same time, the volleyball was tossed into the air.
Taichi's left toe tapped the floor to initiate his approach—left, right, left—a three-step rhythm as precise as a metronome. Each step landed perfectly in place, his pace gradually accelerating, every cell in his body primed for the imminent burst.
Thump!
His sneakers scraped the court with a deep, heavy sound as Taichi launched himself into the air. His body extended into a graceful arc, left arm naturally stretched forward to maintain balance, right hand pulled back to generate power.
As the ball dropped into the optimal striking zone, Taichi's right arm snapped tight and swung forward in a flash. His palm struck the dead centre of the ball with pinpoint precision, sending a ripple across its surface.
BOOOM!!!—
A shockwave of air rippled outward from the impact.
THUD!!!
The players of Tachibana Red Falcons stood rooted to the ground, unmoving. Knees slightly bent, bodies leaning forward—they remained in the exact same posture as before the serve.
It was as if time itself had frozen them.
A full second passed…
"Line in!"
The sideline referee swung his flag downward, signalling the ball had landed inside. He hadn't seen the ball's path clearly, but the fresh white imprint on the baseline told the story.
Kaedehara Taichi scored directly off the serve!
[DH 14 – 12 Red Falcons]
"129.2 km/h!!!"
"He broke the record again…"
The home commentator had already grown numb. A speed unattainable to most players seemed as easy as drinking water for Kaedehara Taichi.
Gulp—
Adam Schmidt stood frozen. His Adam's apple bobbed as he forced down a mouthful of saliva. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead and stung the corner of his eye, snapping him back to awareness. He blinked hard.
"Ah man, I thought it might break 130 km/h." Taichi said, sounding almost disappointed, casting a half-smile toward Tachibana's back row.
"That little punk…!" Adam Schmidt's fists clenched involuntarily at his sides.
In the regular season, Taichi hadn't carried this overwhelming presence.
How can a mere high schooler feel this…oppressive…?
Kippei Kitajima glanced at Adam's expression and immediately understood—he was still underestimating Taichi.
Despite DH sweeping Tachibana Red Falcons 2–0 in the regular season, both times Taichi had been in an "off state." The first game came right after back-to-back losses to Black Jackals and AD, leaving him mentally drained; the second was a trial run to test Kujō Reiji under pressure, and Taichi played casually.
Had Adam done his homework—had he truly studied Kaedehara Taichi's season performance—he wouldn't be this stunned.
"From the moment you treated Taichi as just another rookie…from the moment you started worrying whether he was a high schooler or pro…your defeat was already sealed," Kitajima thought, a trace of pity in his eyes. "In volleyball, there's only strong or weak. Nothing else."
DH continued serving.
Kaedehara Taichi launched his second serve.
—BOOM!!!
"Adam!"
Thud!!!
The ball landed just behind Adam Schmidt and flew out of bounds.
Another service ace!
[DH 15 – 12 Tachibana Red Falcons]
"118 km/h."
Though noticeably slower than the first, both Akutagawa Jirō and Sakata Hajime had already tracked the ball's trajectory—yet Adam Schmidt still failed to react.
"Adam, you—"
"Can it!" Adam cut off Jirō's words. "I've already figured out that kid's serve. Next one, I've got it!"
Jirō frowned. He didn't understand why Adam was losing his composure so quickly. Then again, he hadn't experienced what it felt like to be targeted by Kaedehara Taichi.
Taichi stood at the service line once more, raising a finger to point directly at Adam Schmidt.
"One more chance."
"Bring it on, you brat!!" Adam roared.
BOOM!!—
Taichi's third serve was launched.
Adam's eyes lit up—the trajectory was clear. Just as he expected, balls that powerful were almost always guesswork. This one, though it looked intimidating, likely didn't even hit 110 km/h.
So, he really is targeting me again? Cocky little punk! Adam surged forward to meet the ball.
But just then, the ball curved unexpectedly—carried by intense sidespin—and brushed past his arm.
"What the—?!"
Adam's eyes widened in disbelief.
Smack!
Akutagawa Jirō dove in from the side and managed to make the first touch.
"Ball's up!!"
"Huh?"
The ball deflected off Jirō's arm and veered out of bounds.
"What are you spacing out for, Adam!" Sakata roared as he sprinted past him.
Tap…tap...tap...
The ball hit the ground. Sakata couldn't save it.
Kaedehara Taichi scored three points in a row off his serve!
[DH 16 – 12 Red Falcons]
"What the hell are you doing, Adam?!" Jirō snapped.
"That ball…the way it bounced off your arm—how did it even fly in that direction?" Adam murmured.
"What are you talking about?" Jirō frowned. "Don't tell me…you didn't notice he was serving with his left hand?!"
"Beep! Tachibana Red Falcons request a timeout."
Coach Hiyoshi stood courtside with a grim expression, clearly displeased with his players' performance.
-----
"Beep! Tachibana Red Falcons substitution."
"Yusaku Fukami IN, Adam Schmidt OUT."
[Yusaku Fukami—Outside Hitter:Height: 192 cm
Serve: 85 | Receive: 90 | Dig: 88 | Set: 85 | Spike: 90| Block: 85
Spike Reach: 342 cm /Block Reach: 328 cm.]
Coming out of the timeout, Coach Hiyoshi benched the foreign player Adam Schmidt without hesitation.
"Tweet! Substitution for DH."
"Kujō Reiji IN, Kitajima Kippei OUT."
Coach Nick, seeing Tachibana Red Falcons bolster their defence, decided to go all in with offence to close out the first set.
DH continued serving.
Taichi's serve was finally received cleanly.
The ball soared to the net, and Akutagawa Jirō quickly moved into position to set.
Fwoosh—!
Hakuba Gao jumped from the middle for the spike.
"Double block!" Tom Wilde and Kujō Reiji leapt together—
"This is…DH's Twin Towers over two meters tall!" The home commentator's excited voice echoed through the stadium.
Hakuba Gao hadn't expected that a single substitution from DH could make their front-row block feel so overwhelming.
Across the net, all three front-row players stood over two meters tall. Tom Wilde and Kujō Reiji rose side by side in the air like a towering wall. Their long arms stretched forward, wide palms nearly blotting out the light above, completely sealing off Hakuba's spiking lane.
His usual height advantage vanished in an instant—but Hakuba Gao hadn't come this far relying on just his height!
BOOM!!—
He put his full weight into the spike. The ball slammed viciously into the blocking wall!
—Smack!
The sheer force of the impact caused Kujō Reiji to sway slightly in midair, but he grit his teeth, tensed his arms, and forced the ball back.
The ball rebounded upward after striking the net.
— "Hakuba!"
— "Kujō!"
BOOM!
Tom Wilde reached the rebound first. Still with strength to spare, he came down with a vicious follow-up spike!
The ball pounded the centre of Tachibana Red Falcons' court and bounced high into the air.
Tom Wilde scored with a powerful stuff spike.
[DH 17 – 12 Red Falcons]
The point gap widened to five.
Kaedehara Taichi served the fifth ball. Yusaku Fukami, who had just been subbed in, barely managed to receive it.
"Damn it, this guy's ball control is too precise!"
Akutagawa Jirō scrambled to cover, but in the end, he could only toss the ball to their biggest front-row threat—Hakuba Gao.
"Kujō, drop your arms a little!" Taichi shouted from the back row.
He wasn't sure if Hakuba had attempted a bounce shot last time, but the angle suggested the possibility. Rather than focusing solely on blocking height, Taichi preferred to keep the threat of a block looming.
Hakuba once again faced the twin block—and for a moment, he was stuck in a dilemma.
BOOM!!!—
—Smack!
Thud!
The ball slammed back onto Tachibana's side.
Kujō Reiji scored off the block.
[DH 18 – 12 Red Falcons]
"Tweet! Tachibana Red Falcons request timeout."
Within just a few minutes, they had burned both timeouts. But they had no choice—because in those few minutes, they hadn't scored a single point!
Coach Hiyoshi tapped the tactics board over and over. He hadn't imagined that DH could force them into a corner just by relying on one player's serve. It wasn't even about building an attack anymore—their players were struggling just to receive the serve, and that alone wasn't enough. Without organising a threatening offence, they'd never break free from this cycle.
"Were you trying for a bounce shot just now?" Ojiro Aran asked.
"Yeah." Hakuba nodded. "DH's back row has those three…I felt like I couldn't break through them."
DH's defensive line—Kaedehara Taichi, Yoshii Hiyu, and Kubo Wataru—formed a wall across the backcourt. Hakuba had a strong sense that even if he barely managed to get the ball past the blockers, it would still get picked up. So, he gambled on a bounce shot in hopes of resetting the play.
But DH's front row didn't leave any gaps. The angle of the block had sent the ball rebounding straight back to Tachibana's court.
"Next time you try that, give us a signal first," said Sakata Hajime. "That way we can set up a proper decoy. In situations like this, a soft tip is the way to go. Even if it gets blocked back, as long as we dig it up, we regain possession."
"Got it, Sakata-senpai."
-----
Coach Hiyoshi finished relaying tactics just as the timeout ended.
Since there was little hope of turning the tide in this first set, their top priority now was figuring out how to break Kaedehara Taichi's service rotation.
"Tweet!—" The whistle blew.
Kaedehara Taichi served his sixth ball.
What confused Tachibana Red Falcons was that the timeout hadn't cooled Kaedehara's rhythm—instead, it gave him a chance to rest and reset.
BOOM!!!—
No one touched it.
The ball slammed between Akutagawa Jirō and Yusaku Fukami and shot upward.
Another service ace from Kaedehara Taichi!
[DH 19 – 12 Red Falcons]
"121 km/h!"
Smack!
Coach Hiyoshi slammed his clipboard hard on the bench—Goddamn it, is this even fair?!
The head referee shot him a warning glance. Hiyoshi awkwardly picked up the clipboard and pretended to wipe it clean like nothing had happened.
"Will someone please just break my serve already? I wouldn't mind switching servers." Kaedehara Taichi rubbed his right shoulder and flashed a grin toward the Red Falcons. "It's honestly tiring serving this much."
"Yeah right, how many serves have you even done?" Yoshii Hiyu rolled his eyes from the back row. "This guy's so dramatic."
The players of Tachibana Red Falcons were stone-faced, clearly not in the mood for jokes or banter.
"…No sense of humour," Taichi muttered.
He served the seventh ball.
"Left hand!"
"I've got it!"
Yusaku Fukami screened the serve while Akutagawa Jirō received it, sending the first touch cleanly to the front row.
I swear on my pride as a setter, this ball has to—! Jirō and Hakuba both sprinted toward the net.
The most threatening play Red Falcons could run at the moment was a quick set to Hakuba, but there was always the chance they'd fake it and have Ulrich spike instead.
Tom Wilde stood firmly in front of Hakuba. Kujō Reiji hesitated briefly but shifted to cover Hakuba as well.
"Kujō, leave him! Cover the right!" Taichi called from the back.
Without hesitation, Reiji abandoned his read and sprinted to the right.
"Tch!" Akutagawa shifted the set to the right side.
Ulrich leapt to spike the ball.
"Double block!" Kujō Reiji went up, joined by Iizuna Tsukasa moving over from the side.
"Take this!"
Ulrich swung—
And missed.
The ball was set not to him, but to Ojiro Aran flying in from the back row.
BOOM!!—
He crushed the ball just as DH's front-row blockers were landing.
Smack!
The ball slammed into Yoshii Hiyu's arm and deflected out of bounds.
"Tch. So close."
Yoshii clicked his tongue in frustration. He had read the play perfectly, but the sheer power of the spike knocked his receiving stance out of line.
Ojiro Aran scored!
[DH 19 – 13 Red Falcons]
After a long and painful rotation, Tachibana finally broke serve.
Clap clap clap…
Strangely, the first to applaud was Taichi himself.
"Well done, Ojiro-senpai. Beautiful spike."
Akutagawa Jirō finally understood a sliver of what Adam Schmidt must have felt earlier—this guy really knows how to mess with your head. The vein on his forehead throbbed visibly.
Serve rotation changed. Tachibana to serve.
Ulrich launched a powerful jump serve, but Kaedehara Taichi received it easily with perfect form.
Iizuna Tsukasa jumped and set from the front row.
Akutagawa Jirō had Fukami shadow Iizuna's movement while he and Hakuba split up to block.
Fwoosh—!
The ball sailed high toward the far right.
Kujō Reiji leapt for the spike.
"Not happening!" Hakuba jumped solo to block.
Kujō swung down with a sharp, slicing motion—but merely brushed the ball.
BAM!—
Smack!
The ball grazed Hakuba's arm and flew out of bounds.
Kujō Reiji scored off the block!
[DH 20 – 13 Red Falcons]
"Whew—" That was Kujō's first postseason spike point.
"This feels amazing. I want more!"
_________
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