The Birth of A Volleyball Legend
Chapter 497 - 497: The Game Day!

The game day that everyone had been waiting for finally arrived, and even though it was a weekend, the school somehow was full of students. Those who were at the school were the ones who couldn't get the ticket since about 1500 pieces of tickets were sold out within five minutes after the registration was opened. Still, even though they couldn't go to the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, they decided to go to the school with two purposes; first was to greet the players before they left for the battlefield, and second was because the headmaster put a massive screen in the school's gymnasium, letting everyone who wanted to enjoy the game came and watched together with their friends.

"Come on, Yuki! Good luck!"

"Don't be too pressured! Just show them your usual style!"

"Don't you dare to lose against those bastards, okay?!"

"Hey, you cannot say that! Matsuyama Kita High is the second-best team in the country, and their level is far beyond us!"

"Still the second-best team, right? Not the best one?"

Yuki and the other players could only smile stiffly, trying to be polite while also trying to get on the bus as quickly as possible. They all cursed Akira inwardly for the coach's carelessness, not telling them that there would be such a crowd in the school and also still insisting on the school being their meeting point. There was no way that Akira, as the head coach and the physical education teacher in the school, didn't know about this beforehand.

Fortunately, some of the students who were there knew a little bit of sports and realized that they had to maintain their best state from the very beginning, so they asked the other students to give way and let the volleyball team players went into the bus quickly. Those guys who took initiative to explain this was a God's give, as it allowed the players to slip through the crowd and went straight to the bus.

"Man, they are crazy…" Ogawa huffed, frowning a little when he realized that he had sweated already. "I've already exhausted, and we are not in the gymnasium yet! Damn!" He cursed, eliciting laughter from the other players.

"Well, if you are so concerned about this, maybe you can complain to Jiisan. Who knows, maybe you will have enough time to rest on the bench later." Riku shrugged.

"Don't try to trick me like that, Riku, that is mean." Ogawa twitched the corner of his lips annoyedly. "Also, there is no way in hell that Akira-sensei would put me on the bench. After all, our players are limited right now, and every resource matters." He said nonchalantly before the boy realized what he had just uttered, gasping immediately while putting both hands to cover his mouth within a second. Unfortunately, he was a bit too late here, as negative auras suddenly urged on the team once again, turning everyone back into their depressed state.

"So, this is going to be our first game without Koji, huh?"

"Damn, that would be rough."

"Also, we only have seven players currently, so we cannot afford any substitution other than for Oka. We cannot afford to get injured or even collapse from exhaustion later, right?"

"Yeah, you get it right. This is going to be a rough journey."

The atmosphere turned gloomy as everyone remembered Koji once again, and Ogawa himself, the main culprit behind everything, twitched the corner of his mouth speechlessly. He didn't expect that his casual words would be enough to bring down the entire team's spirit.

"Okay, let's not talk about a depressing topic like this!" Asahi clapped his hands loudly, trying to save the atmosphere before it was plummeting too far to be saved here. "Oi, Kai! You are the one with a lot of connections outside! Think of a different topic to talk about here!" He pointed his finger at the defensive specialist of the team.

"Eh, me?!" Kaede was taken aback when he got called out of nowhere. "How would I know the recent gossip when in the last couple of days, I have always been with you guys? The only thing that I know is that Yuki and Kato-chan seemed to get closer to each other, nothing more and nothing less!"

Yuki coughed immediately when he heard that, sending his fiercest glare toward his senpai. He was just chilling on the front section of the bus while minding his own business, so why would Kaede drag him into this mess? He also felt the corner of his mouth twitch a little at the sudden hostility from the others, knowing full well that they were here for his blood. Fortunately, it was still pretty early in the morning, and Yuki's brain could still run at a high speed. It didn't take a long time for the glasses boy to find a topic to divert the other's attention from him.

"By the way, do any of you guys know how many people from our school would come to the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium and support us directly?" He asked. It wasn't just his attempt to change the topic, but Yuki himself was genuinely curious. After all, there were about 1500 tickets sold for today, and unlike in the game against Kikugawa High in the quarter-final before, he knew that Matsuyama Kita High had a larger fanbase, and they were not a bunch of paper tigers like Kikugawa High's supporters. No, if anything, the opposition coming from Matsuyama Kita High's supporters would be far worse than anything that they had ever faced before, so it was important to have a group of supporters who had their backs.

"Wanting to change the topic? A nice attempt, Yuki." Asahi snorted amusedly. Seeing the curious gaze from the others, though, he answered, "I don't know the exact number, but I heard that we only get about 300 tickets for this game."

"300 tickets? Only fifty more than the last game?" Riku frowned. Even though it was still quite a lot, compared to the total tickets sold in the last game, which was only about 1000, the addition of 50 seats seemed nothing here.

"To be more exact, we have 375 tickets in our hand, and some of the students would also go independently, so our number should be around 600 people." Arina Sugawara suddenly came out of nowhere, followed by Akira and Megumi who entered the bus too. "The number is still quite the same, but I heard that the opponent's supporters this time would be far fiercer than before, so you have to be careful, okay?"

Everyone nodded unconsciously before realizing who was just speaking here. "Sugawara-senpai? What are you doing here?!" Almost everyone asked in unison.

"What? I cannot be here for you guys?" Arina Sugawara smiled prettily, which made some of the players blush. "Joke aside, though, I am here to give you one last support before the game."

"One last support?" Everyone couldn't help but wonder here.

"Yup!" The girl nodded cheerfully, her hair bobbed a little because of that. "Come here! You should've known everyone here, right? Why would you be so shy?"

Then, right after that, a boy who almost everyone here was familiar with, yet hadn't seen for a long time, suddenly entered the bus. He had this awkward look while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, not knowing what to say. He didn't need to say anything, though, as his presence alone was probably the most shocking thing here. Almost everyone had their jaws dropped in shock, thinking that this must be some kind of a cruel joke from Arina Sugawara. In the end, it was Asahi who finally broke the silence with a single question.

"Yori-senpai? What are you doing here?!"