The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

Akimi Barada was just an ordinary man. He wasn't an excellent head coach like Kawaki or even Akira from Tsunemori High. Hell, he didn't even meet the requirement to be a head coach. His former occupation before the disaster stroke was just a PE teacher, after all. The only reason why he could sit here as Fukushima Phoenix's head coach was because one of the team's new investors was an old friend and he was recommended to fill the position until the more capable person appeared to handle the job.

So, yeah, on the paper, Akimi Barada was not a qualified head coach.

However, even with his limited knowledge about tactical and technical aspect of this sport, one thing he knew the best was how to raise the team's spirit. For example, when he came for the first time, the team was in shamble. All the players were in their lowest spirits after losing so many family members and friends. Coupled with their position at the table which at that time was still on the rock bottom, no one had the motivation to continue playing. The only reason they didn't quit volleyball was because the team's new board decided to upgrade their contract from a junior player to a professional one, which was followed by an increase in their wage. They had no reason to reject the decent amount of money they would receive to play volleyball when most of the people in the same prefecture lost their jobs.

At that time, the players faced inferiority not only because of the turmoil after the disaster, but their performance was also far from something they could be proud of. So Barada created the team's infamous motto; act tough and domineering in front of their opponent, but be paranoid behind their back. Even if they were the worst team in the league, he wanted to inject new confidence into the players, and while at first, it was just a fake one so that they could look tougher, he believed that once the team started winning, the fake belief would turn into a true one.

This strategy was proven to be effective when they played under Barada for the first time. Even though in the end, they still lost the game, at least the players started to regain their confidence while the opponent started to see them in a different light.

By acting domineering, they forced the opponent to put them on the same level, and by being paranoid, they strived to take advantage of every single flaw revealed while also trying their best to be as careful as possible to minimize any possible mistake during the game.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Slowly but surely, Barada changed the team, giving them an identity to be proud of and bringing them out of their dark times.

So, yeah, while Barada knowledge-wise, Barada was far from qualified, he could still become a great coach by showing his proficiency in handling his players' spirit. That was why when he saw Nakamura's state after failing to receive the opponent's serve three times in a row, he didn't hesitate to call a timeout immediately, knowing that this would harm his players more if he didn't do anything.

"Okay, I am sure you are not underestimating your opponent. If anything, this just confirms our guess before the game that the boy has something to do with his serve." He started speaking.

Yeah, just like any other decent professional team, they would also conduct their intelligence gathering before playing a game, and Yuki's serve ability was also under their radar. However, they were still puzzled about why a lot of players froze over such a weak serve. If it was just one or two players, they would think it was a coincidence. But now that they also suffered from it, this left them with a big mark question.

How?

"Okay, let's break it down slowly. Nakamura, you are the biggest victim here, so tell me what is going on from your perspective." Barada pointed his finger at the short, blonde boy.

The defensive specialist pondered for a second before sighing in defeat. "I don't know! One moment I see the serve, but in the next second, my brain stops my body from moving! Hell, even if I was able to break out of that state, I am still too late to react! God damn, this is so frustrating!" The coach – and everyone else – let the boy vent out his emotion for a moment.

"So, you still can see the ball, but your body refuses to react?" Barada hummed, putting one palm on his chin. "What about the others? I know you help observing it too, so I want to hear from your perspective."

All the players there looked at each other for a moment before Mirai spoke first. "Other than it is an ordinary serve, I don't see anything special in it."

"Me too." Hachimura nodded in agreement.

Seeing the other players express something similar, Barada sighed, rubbing his forehead in a headache. However, before he could say anything, his eyes caught one of the players fidgeting his fingers to hide the nervousness and he couldn't help but ask, "Teru-kun, is there anything you want to say?"

When all the eyes turned to the setter, the poor boy had his face flushed red in embarrassment before he admitted something meekly. "Well… Unlike the others, I am not observing what is happening with the serve, so I don't have any idea of what are you guys talking about." Several players had a sweat drop at the innocent admittance from the boy. "What? Why are you looking at me like that? It is not my job to do that, you know? I have to be on the front as quickly as possible to initiate the attack!" The setter defended himself. Stay connected with empire

Barada sighed one more time at his players' antic. However, when he was about to move on to the next topic, a flash of inspiration suddenly hit his brain.

'Teruya is the only one who didn't observe the serve. Instead, he rushed immediately to the front, and coincidentally enough, the serve was always coming to the area between him and Nakamura. Is there any connection here?'

Barada didn't know that he was so close to becoming the first coach to figure out Yuki's trick without any external clue. However, this wasn't something he could answer by himself. He needed more data, and to do that, he had to make the team reveal the flaw so that Yuki would go for the trick again.

After pondering for a moment, Barada finally reached a decision and announced it. "Okay, hear me out. I have an idea here…"

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