“Eh!? Um, this is volleyball, you know? Wouldn't it be better to just forfeit...”

Volleyball is a game where teammates hit the ball back and forth, returning it to the opponent's court. Naturally, if playing alone, every return must be made within a single touch, making it impossible to have a proper match.

“No, if forfeiting means losing anyway, then please let me continue.”

“Uh... what should we do...”

“We don't mind.”

“Yeah, we're the ones who injured him, after all.”

“...Understood. If both of you, as the opposing team, say so.”

“Beep!”

The previous point went to the opposing team, making the score 19 to 19. The blond guy and the guy with the nose piercing were already smiling faintly, confident of their victory.

However, fortunately, the serve was mine. If I could land two consecutive service aces, that would end it.

I tossed the ball high into the air.

“Tei!”

—Zan!

“Wha—!?”

Neither the blond guy nor the nose-pierced guy could react at all to my jump serve.

“Ooooooh!”

The crowd erupted at the sheer speed of my serve, the fastest of the day, and the fact that I was playing alone. The score was now 20 to 19. One more point and our team would win.

“Beep!”

“Tei!”

“Tch!”

“Nice one!”

My jump serve was stopped by the blond guy. It was a much faster serve than before, but I guess I couldn’t land two service aces in a row.

“Here I go!”

“Yeah!”

The nose-pierced guy set up a toss. The blond guy, having regained his balance, prepared for an attack. I moved up to the net, taking a blocking stance.

The situation was exactly the same as before, but since I was the only one blocking, the back was completely open. This time, he wasn’t aiming for my face but the empty space instead.

However, thanks to my foresight skill, I could see the ball’s trajectory in slow motion. I timed my block to not only stop his attack but also direct the ball straight into his face.

“Guhah!”

The ball I deflected hit the blond guy’s face and flew out of the court.

“Oww!”

He collapsed, clutching his face. But since it was just a deflected attack, it was far weaker than the spike Abe had taken earlier.

“W-Won by the Abe-Tachihara pair!”

“Ooooooh!”

“Hey, you did that on purpose!”

“Damn, that hurt...”

Blood dripped from the blond guy’s nose. The ball hadn’t hit him that hard, though, so he was already getting back up while holding his nose.

“No way. The ball just happened to hit your face after my block. Or... was your attack slow enough that I could aim like that?”

In reality, I hadn’t needed to hit his face, but I was a little pissed that Abe had been deliberately targeted. I had aimed at the blond guy’s face on purpose and thrown in a taunting remark.

Now that he had taken a ball to the face just like Abe, got a nosebleed, and suffered the embarrassment of losing a two-against-one match, this was enough for now. But if anything had happened to Abe, I wouldn’t have let it slide so easily.

“...Damn it, you’ll pay for this!”

“Screw you!”

They spat out the typical thug-like parting words and left. Only the top three teams got prizes in this tournament, after all.

“Tachihara-kun, congratulations!”

“Amazing! You can do jump serves?”

“I've practiced a lot.”

What guy doesn’t dream of doing a jump serve? I had tested it several times before reaching the semifinals.

Though most of them ended up as service errors, giving points to the opponent. Since I didn’t want to mess up in the semifinals, I had stuck to safe serves—until the very end, when I loosened my control skill a bit and hit it harder.

Not being able to land the second serve was unexpected. Those two were pretty strong. Even with a one-point lead, if I had played normally, I might have lost.

“You're amazing, aniki! Let’s go for the championship!”

“Nah, I’m forfeiting.”

There was no way I was going to play the finals alone. If I gave it my all, winning would be easy, but that wasn’t the point. I just didn’t want those two to make it to the finals.

Later, I got a call from Watanabe, who had taken Abe to the hospital. He had undergone tests, but there were no abnormalities. Apparently, he had already gone back to the inn. I was really relieved there was nothing wrong.

Since our third-place team had forfeited, we all watched the actual finals together. Both teams were far stronger than us, making it a high-level match worthy of the title.

Thinking about it, we had only made it to the semifinals because of Abe’s lucky draw.

The winners were two bodybuilder-types who looked like they could be competing in a physique contest. The runners-up were two high schoolers around our age, but they were way better than us—probably in a volleyball club.

With so many participants and spectators, the awards ceremony was a bit embarrassing. I had never been formally awarded anything before.

As the sun began to set, we changed clothes and went shopping before returning to the inn. Spending time shopping with Kawabata-san and Sayama-san was bliss, but it ended all too quickly. Not that I’d say out loud that it would’ve been even better without Mogi-san there.