Chapter 5: Tokonami Girls vs Karasuno Girls, Set 1
The whistle blew.
The first set had begun.
The ball came spinning toward Mao Aihara.
Her eyes followed it.
Her body moved automatically.
Fingers brushed the ball with perfect control, redirecting it cleanly toward Karasuno's setter.
Mao landed and immediately looked across the net.
There she was.
Reika Sawamura.
Tokonami's Priestess.
Second-year.
155 centimeters tall.
Calm.
Quiet.
And standing in the center of Tokonami's defense.
Mao's eyes narrowed.
Inside her mind, Kuroba was already watching.
There.
Mao followed his gaze.
Reika hadn't moved much.
She didn't need to.
Her positioning was almost unnervingly precise.
She wasn't simply standing where the ball was most likely to go.
She was standing where several possible attacks could be handled.
Mao's expression sharpened.
Power-saving mode.
Reika was clearly holding something back.
Her shoulders were relaxed.
Her movements weren't explosive.
She wasn't throwing herself around the court.
Yet when the next attack came toward her...
She was there.
A Karasuno attack was driven toward the corner.
Reika moved.
One step.
Platform out.
The ball popped upward perfectly.
"Nice receive!"
Tokonami transitioned immediately.
Mao watched.
The next rally.
Another attack.
This time Mao was the hitter.
She approached.
Her eyes scanned the block.
The defense.
The open court.
And Reika.
There.
A narrow angle opened beside Reika.
Mao attacked it.
The ball flew toward the seam.
Reika moved.
Her arms met the ball.
Up.
Perfectly controlled.
Mao's eyes widened slightly.
What...?
Kuroba's voice became quieter.
Again.
Mao attacked again.
Different angle.
Different speed.
Different contact.
Reika got there again.
Not dramatically.
Not desperately.
Just enough.
Another clean receive.
Mao landed.
Her expression remained calm.
But something inside her had changed.
I can't touch her.
Kuroba didn't disagree.
Not directly.
The next rally came.
Mao tried a sharper angle.
Reika covered it.
A soft attack.
Reika covered it.
A deeper shot.
Reika was already moving.
A floating serve.
Reika adjusted underneath it and passed cleanly.
The ball never seemed to escape her.
The audience began noticing.
"That's the Priestess."
"She's reading everything."
"No..."
One of the spectators shook their head.
"She's not just reading it."
Another player watching from the stands leaned forward.
"She's making sure she can reach it."
That was the difference.
Reika wasn't trying to predict the exact attack every time.
She was controlling her positioning so that multiple possibilities remained playable.
Mao understood it.
And that was dangerous.
Her usual game revolved around narrowing possibilities.
See the court.
Read the opponent.
Predict the response.
Choose the best coordinate.
Attack.
But Reika wasn't giving her a single obvious target.
She was creating a defensive zone where Mao's choices became increasingly difficult.
Mao's stomach tightened slightly.
Every angle disappears.
Kuroba's response was calm.
Then don't attack her.
Mao paused.
What?
Attack the court around her.
Mao's eyes shifted.
Tokonami's other players.
There.
A gap.
She changed her target.
The next spike went away from Reika.
It landed.
Point.
Karasuno.
The scoreboard changed.
Mao returned to position.
She glanced toward Reika.
The Priestess wasn't frustrated.
She simply smiled.
"Good."
Mao blinked.
Reika adjusted her stance.
"That's the right idea."
Mao's eyes narrowed.
Reika wasn't angry that Mao had avoided her.
She was almost pleased.
"You found the space outside my reach."
Mao stared at her.
Then smiled faintly.
"So you're telling me I shouldn't attack you?"
Reika shook her head.
"No."
She looked directly at Mao.
"I'm telling you that you shouldn't waste an attack trying to do something impossible."
A brief silence.
Mao's smile widened.
Inside her mind, Kuroba laughed.
I like her.
Mao agreed.
Yeah.
The rally resumed.
This time Mao didn't try to force anything.
She watched.
Tokonami's formation shifted.
Reika shifted with it.
One step.
Two.
Always maintaining her zone.
Mao watched her feet.
Her shoulders.
Her hands.
Her distance from her teammates.
Everything.
She's making the entire court easier for herself.
Kuroba's voice came quietly.
That's her Extreme.
Mao understood.
Reika's defense wasn't about one impossible reaction.
It was about making the number of impossible reactions smaller.
She was turning the court into a place where the ball almost always had somewhere she could reach.
Another attack came.
Mao received it.
The ball rose cleanly.
Karasuno transitioned.
Their setter sent it toward Mao.
Mao approached.
This time she didn't look at Reika.
She looked at the rest of Tokonami.
Right side.
Open.
Back corner.
Possible.
Line.
Covered.
Mao changed her approach at the last instant.
Reika noticed.
She moved.
Mao smiled.
Too early.
She redirected the attack toward the opposite side.
The ball dropped.
Point.
Karasuno.
The crowd reacted.
"She got around her!"
"Not through her."
"She forced Reika to move."
Mao landed.
Her eyes met Reika's.
Reika smiled again.
"That was better."
Mao's expression became more serious.
This wasn't a normal defensive player.
Reika wasn't trying to prove that she could stop every attack.
She was making Mao work for every attack that went around her.
The rallies continued.
Mao scored.
But never directly against Reika.
Tokonami scored too.
Whenever Karasuno tried to force a point through the Priestess, the attack disappeared into her hands.
Whenever Karasuno avoided her, Tokonami's other players took advantage of the altered attack patterns.
The score stayed close.
8-7.
9-8.
10-10.
Neither team could pull away.
Mao's breathing remained steady.
But her mind was working faster than before.
This wasn't like Shirato.
Shirato had tried to understand her.
Reika didn't seem interested in understanding her at all.
She simply made herself extremely difficult to score against.
Mao looked across the net.
Reika was breathing slightly harder now.
There.
A tiny movement.
A small tremor in her fingers.
Her shoulders weren't quite as relaxed.
She's not invincible.
Kuroba answered immediately.
Of course not.
Mao's eyes sharpened.
She's human.
The next rally began.
Mao attacked.
Reika received.
Another attack.
Another receive.
Another.
Another.
The ball kept coming back.
Reika's movements became slightly less effortless.
But she never stopped.
Mao finally understood.
The point wasn't that Reika couldn't be beaten.
The point was that beating her required making her work continuously.
And that was exactly what Tokonami wanted.
Mao's eyes narrowed.
So this is Tokonami's volleyball.
Kuroba smiled.
Now we're playing.
The next attack came toward Reika.
Mao didn't avoid her.
She attacked directly.
A powerful spike.
Reika's arms snapped into position.
The ball struck her platform.
For the first time, her feet slid backward.
But the ball still went up.
Perfect enough.
Tokonami transitioned.
Mao landed.
Her eyes widened.
Then she smiled.
"Good."
Across the net, Reika smiled back.
"Thanks."
The scoreboard changed again.
The first set was still anyone's.
Mao clenched her fist.
She had scored points.
She had found openings.
She had adapted.
But one fact remained.
She still hadn't beaten Reika Sawamura.
For the first time since Amaterasu awakened, Mao had encountered an opponent who didn't simply challenge her prediction.
She challenged the very idea that every opponent needed to be defeated directly.
Reika wasn't trying to stop Mao from attacking.
She was making Mao choose where the attack was allowed to matter.
Mao looked toward the other side of the net.
The Priestess stood ready.
Calm.
Focused.
Still moving.
Still receiving.
Still waiting.
Kuroba's grin appeared inside Mao's mind.
This is going to be fun.
Mao smiled.
Yeah.
She lowered herself into position.
The next serve was coming.
And this time...
She wasn't going to try to break the Priestess.
She was going to figure out how to beat the system protecting her.
The first set was far from over.