"138 km/h!"

—"138 km/h!!!"

—"Oh my god! Kaedehara Taichi has actually pushed his serve speed up to 138 kilometres per hour! That's exactly the same as Wilfredo León's world record for the fastest serve!"

The camera cut to León in the audience, who was clapping vigorously with a genuinely delighted smile.

Following the audience's gaze, Kaedehara Taichi locked eyes with León, his gaze deep and distant.

[Wilfredo León—Outside Hitter:Height: 202 cm

Serve: 99 | Receive: 99 | Dig: 92 | Set: 95 | Spike: 99| Block: 99

Spike Reach: 385 cm /Block Reach: 362 cm.]

"Next…it'll be your turn."

-----

San Juan continued to serve.

Kaedehara Taichi tossed the ball, jumped, and swung. The moment it left his hand, he pressed his wrist downward.

—BOOM!!!

The ball barely skimmed over the net and dropped sharply.

"Isn't that Alexander's serve?!!"

Smack!!!

Alexander sprinted forward, dropping to one knee, and received the ball underhand.

"He actually—!"

Although surprised by Taichi's serve, Trentino quickly launched a counterattack.

Kageyama moved to cover and adjusted the set fast. Zaytsev leapt from the middle for a quick attack!

"Double block!" Conte and Loser jumped at the same time.

—BOOM!!!

The ball blasted over the block and streaked into San Juan's back row.

Smack!

"I wouldn't be so arrogant as to underestimate you," Kaedehara Taichi received it smoothly, "I'm not like Oikawa-senpai, after all."

Oikawa sprinted in to cover and set the ball high to the middle. Conte leapt for a spike!

"Double block!" Zaytsev and Yuri jumped together.

BOOM!!!—

The ball hit the block and deflected out of bounds.

Off the block and out.

Conte scored!

[San Juan 15 - 6 Trentino]

"Oh! Come on!"

A collective groan came from the audience. They had finally received Taichi's serve, only to fail in the counterattack.

Although Trentino's players didn't show any visible mistakes, the atmosphere around them was suffocatingly heavy.

"Nice receive, Taichi," Oikawa praised. "By the way, did you just say something bad about me?"

"No," Taichi immediately replied.

San Juan continued serving.

Coach Ferdinando seemed resigned now, already starting to plan the lineup and rotations for the next set.

Taichi served his ninth ball!

—BOOM!!!

"There's no mistake!" Alexander's pupils shrank. That was his own serve style!

Moreover, Taichi had used his right hand on the last ball, and now he switched to his left hand!

"Bastard!"

Smack!

Despite the enormous psychological pressure, Alexander managed to receive the ball steadily. His movements were unaffected by his mental state—if anything, they had grown sharper.

"Beautiful receive!" Kageyama shouted.

On the court, Kageyama had always been objective, not biased by personal conflicts (though he had previously decided not to set to Alexander, but that was due to his form).

Whoosh!—

The ball flew to the middle again. Zaytsev was already at the net.

Conte and Loser's double block was just a fraction of a second late, and the ball shot right over them, falling into San Juan's centre court!

—BOOOM!!!

Smack!!!

Santiago dove and saved the ball but was flipped over by the force.

The ball flew far out of bounds.

Taichi immediately chased after it.

Zaytsev's spike had tremendous power, and since the block barely slowed it, Santiago's hurried save didn't absorb the force.

SMACK!

The ball rebounded so fast that even Taichi could only barely bump it back into play.

—"Loser!"

—"Ivan!"

The ball floated too close to the net, almost stuck on the tape.

Loser and Zaytsev both jumped, hands pressing on the ball simultaneously.

Although they were about the same height, Zaytsev's jousting technique was clearly more refined.

SMACK!—

The ball dropped toward San Juan's side.

Smack!

Bruno covered it!

Oikawa immediately shifted the set to the right wing.

Thud!

Taichi soared from the back row!

"That bastard! Can he give us a break?!!"

Without a single breath to spare, Trentino's front line hurried to the right.

"Triple block!" Boro, Zaytsev, and Yuri all jumped together.

"Right hand?!"

Yuri focused intensely, swinging his arm low to the right to seal the line shot.

BOOM!!!—

The ball hit the block and ricocheted back toward San Juan's side.

Thud!!!

It landed just outside the right sideline.

Off the block and out.

Kaedehara Taichi scored!

[San Juan 16 - 6 Trentino]

"Good—but not enough." Taichi twirled a finger beside his temple. "Think a bit harder!"

"Beep!—"

The whistle for the technical timeout sounded again.

From the first technical timeout to this one, Trentino hadn't scored a single point!

The gap had widened to 10 points!

-----

"Akaashi…did I accidentally stumble upon a truly extraordinary monster back then…?"

In a Tokyo apartment, Tenma Udai watched the live stream of San Juan vs. Trentino on his tablet, shivering slightly.

"He really is

terrifying," Akaashi Keiji commented calmly. "I always thought Taichi wasn't ordinary, but to become an international superstar…that's really a bit much."

"You might not believe it, but I actually taught Taichi volleyball before," Tenma Udai reminisced. "His skills were still pretty bad back then, but he learned extremely fast—and most importantly, he was unbelievably devoted to volleyball…"

"Sensei only looks so lively when he's not talking about manga," Akaashi dryly interrupted.

"Uh…well," Udai turned his head away awkwardly, "but we agreed beforehand that we could watch the match today!"

"Yes." Akaashi nodded with a blank face. "On the condition that you don't fall behind on your manuscript."

"I know! I'll work twice as hard tomorrow!"

Udai watched Akaashi's expression carefully. Although they had grown much closer, he still felt intimidated whenever Akaashi got serious.

"Then please continue, sensei," Akaashi added. He had only meant to remind Udai, but now he was genuinely curious. "I'm also very interested in what Taichi was like at the beginning."

-----

The technical timeout ended. Both teams returned to the court, and the match resumed.

"It doesn't surprise me that Taichi is winning, but…shouldn't the gap between them be smaller?" Nitta Asahiro rested his chin on his hand. Just yesterday, when Trentino defeated São Paulo, they had looked completely invincible to the Ryujin players.

"There definitely shouldn't be such a huge score gap," Kunimi Akira drawled lazily. "Looking at the first set, Argentina and Italy were on equal footing."

"Plus, even though Taichi's side took the set, it was actually Kageyama's side that had more initiative toward the end."

"So there are two possibilities. First, Argentina was still probing Trentino's strength in the first set and hadn't gone all out. Second…Italy accidentally provoked that petty guy and couldn't handle the consequences."

"Pfft—"

Hearing Kunimi call Taichi a "petty guy," Nitta unexpectedly felt it was quite fitting.

If not for the fact that Kindaichi Yūtarō was also from Aoba Johsai, Nitta might have believed everyone from Seijoh was as sharp and cunning as Kaedehara Taichi and Kunimi Akira.

-----

BOOM!!!

Zaytsev spiked and scored!

—"Trentino finally breaks the momentum and starts a small surge! Looks like they're not giving up on the second set just yet!"

[San Juan 18 - 10 Trentino]

"They probably just don't want to lose too miserably," Kunimi said indifferently.

Looking at Taichi's team now, it seemed almost impossible for Hinata's team to beat them tomorrow. In other words, San Juan would secure first place in Group A. As for Ryujin, after their crushing defeat against Lublin, their best chance was to beat Mazembe and advance as second in Group B.

Then, on the fourth day of the Club World Championship, Ryujin would face San Juan—the team of Kaedehara Taichi and Oikawa Tōru.

"To be honest…I don't want to lose that badly either," Kunimi murmured. He was painfully realistic and couldn't see any chance of victory for Ryujin.

"Hm? What did you say?" Nitta tilted his head, not catching Kunimi's mutter.

"Nothing," Kunimi waved a hand, indicating they should just keep watching.

-----

"Fabio once again digs Conte's attack!"

"Kageyama pulls away, Ryan and Alexander go for a double quick, but the real attacker is Yuri from the back row!"

"Double quick decoy with a back-row swing—this is a strategy Trentino often uses since Kageyama joined!"

Smack!

"Santiago digs it up! San Juan regroups to attack!"

"Oikawa sends a high set to the left! My god!"

"Taichi leaps above the block and smashes violently!!!"

"That's brutal!"

"Even though Fabio was in position, he couldn't dig it up!"

The ball slammed heavily onto Trentino's court.

Kaedehara Taichi scored!

[San Juan 24 - 16 Trentino]

Serve rotation. San Juan to serve.

Oikawa Tōru with a powerful jump serve!

The ball drew a perfect arc and flew toward Trentino's back row.

Yuri barely managed to receive it, but the first pass was low.

Fabio rushed in to save it, bumping it toward the net. Boro leapt from the right side for a spike!

BOOM!!!

The ball evaded the double block.

Oikawa dug it up, though the first pass was only semi-accurate.

Conte covered and set the ball high in the middle. Taichi jumped for the attack!

"Double block!" Ryan and Alexander jumped together.

BOOM!!!

The ball ricocheted off Alexander's arm and popped high.

"Touched!"

"Chance ball!" Fabio set it perfectly.

Kageyama jumped to set, Alexander quick attacked from the middle!

Kaedehara Taichi blocked directly in front of him.

Whoosh!—

The ball flew to the high left side. Ryan jumped for the spike!

Bruno jumped for a single block but got cleanly overpowered. The ball smashed into San Juan's back row.

Smack!

Santiago dug it up again!

Oikawa quickly covered and sent a high set to the right. Ramos jumped for a quick attack!

BOOM!!!—

The ball slipped past Boro's left hand on the block.

Yuri dove and miraculously dug up the sharp cross shot, but the ball flew out of bounds.

Fabio lunged and saved it, sending it high to the middle. Alexander leapt for the spike!

BOOM!!!—

—SMACK!!!

"Blocked again!"

"Taichi stuffed it! Conte picks it up steadily, Oikawa organizes the attack again!"

"Kaedehara Taichi jumps high in the middle and smashes it down hard!"

The ball shot through the seam in the block and nailed the centre of Trentino's court.

Fabio could not get back up in time.

Kaedehara Taichi scored!

[San Juan 25 - 16 Trentino]

"San Juan's relentless attacks left Trentino completely powerless!"

"Beeeeep!—"

The long whistle blew.

The second set was over.

Winner: CA San Juan.

-----

"Two to zero…"

"Two to zero again…seriously?!"

"Is San Juan really this strong? Trentino looks totally stunned!"

"Are we about to see a 3–0 sweep?"

A shocked uproar spread across the stands. San Juan's dominance in the second set was hard for them to accept.

"What's Alexander doing? Isn't he supposed to be Italy's hope and future?!"

"Is there really any hope for a comeback with this score?"

"That guy…Kaedehara Taichi, he's so strong it's basically illegal, isn't it?!"

In Group A—this so-called "group of death"—the group's lowest-ranked club, Argentina's San Juan, was so strong it inspired fear.

-----

"This is really…an unthinkable situation," Zaytsev stared silently at the scoreboard on the big screen. "I guess…no matter what, we should have taken that first set…"

As the captain, Zaytsev knew he should be motivating his teammates and giving them instructions. But after facing such an overwhelming reality, he found himself momentarily speechless.

"It's too late…being down 0–2 is truly hopeless," Zaytsev thought. "Their strength is overwhelming. They aren't a team you can reverse-sweep by winning three straight sets."

"Miracles don't happen…and even if they did, it would be nearly impossible to actually win this match."

"Don't give up! The match isn't over yet, is it?!" Kageyama couldn't stand the suffocating atmosphere anymore and shouted, "Didn't we say we'd win? There's always a chance!"

"No—even if I die, I'll create opportunities for you all to score!"

"D-don't say 'die'…that's way too heavy…" Fabio forced a smile. "But…I can't accept losing without even taking a single set."

"You're all so stubborn," Zaytsev watched his teammates quietly. "Fabio must be exhausted…Normally, he should get a break, but it seems we really can't do without him."

"...I'm sorry."

An unexpected voice spoke up—Alexander.

"It's my arrogance…I dragged all of you down."

Ryan: "Huh?"

Boro: "What?"

Yuri: "Dellero, what are you saying?"

Fabio: "Look at you! You've grown up, Alex."

The players suddenly burst into laughter. This scene was even more surprising than being down 0–2.

"I'm not joking," Alexander said seriously. "I can't beat him alone. I need all of your help!"

"Huh," Zaytsev had a strange expression. "Didn't think you'd admit it so directly."

"But…not winning now doesn't mean we won't win in the future. You still have plenty of time."

Zaytsev looked at Coach Ferdinando. "Is it my turn now?"

"As long as you're ready," Ferdinando nodded.

"Seems like…I'll have to push myself even harder this time…"

"You look kinda happy," Fabio nudged Zaytsev lightly in the waist.

"Do I?"

Fabio pointed at Zaytsev's face—somehow, he was smiling.

"Maybe…it's because I really want to beat him too!"

— "Kageyama!" Zaytsev and Alexander shouted in unison, "We're counting on you next!"

"Yeah." Kageyama's expression turned firm.

"I will give it everything I've got!"

_________