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After all the players were around him, he coughed, started talking, "Well, I have good news and bad news here. Which one do you want to hear first?"

Yuki and several players cringing a little bit, didn\'t like the fact that they also had bad news here. If their guess was correct, the bad news should be related to their opponent in the next round.

"How about hearing the bad one first?" Kaede suggested. "You, know, reverse psychology? So that we can have something to cheer us up if the news is too bad for our health."

Everyone was surprised to hear his suggestion, not expecting something so smart to come out of his mouth. Kaede had his mouth twitched in annoyance at their reaction, scowled.

"What the hell is that reaction?"

"Are you okay, Kaede?" Okamura suddenly came and pressed his hand on his friend\'s forehead. "The temperature is normal. He is not sick."

"What if he is an impostor?" Koji also joined the fun, starting to ask with a serious face. "Tell us a fact that only the real Kaede would know."

By now, Kaede had a thick vein popped on his forehead as he slapped Okamura\'s hand while growling, "You want a fact that only real Kaede would know? I can give you one. I can kick all of your asses here in five seconds. You want to test it?"

"Oh, yeah, he is the real one." Okamura retreated his hand quickly, didn\'t want to test his friend\'s patience. "Just testing, you know? It is not often you say something smart like that."

Akira snorted while the others stiffened their laughter, didn\'t want to receive the boy\'s ire. "Okay, since this is the first time we heard something smart from Kaede, maybe we should follow his suggestion."

"Not you too, Sensei!" Kaede cried comically amidst the laughter broken around him.

Akira coughed, trying to get everyone\'s attention. "Well… The bad news is that we will have a tough opponent in the next round. Megumi-san, the video please." He asked the manager who opened her laptop and operated the gadget quickly before playing a video there.

"That is the game between Kitazawa High against Kyoei Gakuen that just ended an hour ago. Megumi-san and I went there to observe the game and record it as our intelligence weapon, and color me surprised when I didn\'t expect that kind of level to be shown in the second round."

All the players straightened their backs immediately when they heard about that, dreadful feeling built up inside them as they started to imagine how terrible their next opponent would be.

"The winner of the game and our next opponent would be Kyoei Gakuen. And while they are not a school with a strong history in volleyball competition, if you follow the news on the high school competition in all sports, you should\'ve heard about them."

"Really?" All of them raised their eyebrows simultaneously, inwardly trying to recall any memory related to Kyoei Gakuen. "I have never heard about them. What about you?"

"Nope, never in my life."

Seeing all of them didn\'t have any idea about their next opponent, Akira decided to give a brief introduction before they watched the video. "Kyoei Gakuen is a rising school in the last couple of years, bought by a wealthy family who have the ambition to conquer the country in all sports competitions.

Just in the last two years, they won the national tournament in football and dominated the country in basketball, and this year, they set their eyes on volleyball."

Everyone was stunned, never expecting such an outrageous thing could happen in reality.

"Just like how they dominated football and basketball competition, this year, they use the exact same strategy, offering so much money to recruit the best players available from the other schools." Akira continued.

"Is that legal?" Yuki couldn\'t help but ask.

"Oh, unfortunately, it is very legal," Akira said with a grim expression. "While this method was frowned upon by the community, they couldn\'t deny the offer could help so many players who came from a poor family to pay for their education. That is why the official doesn\'t ban this method."

Everyone felt depressed, knowing that while they despised the method, they wouldn\'t be able to refuse if Kyoei Gakuen came to offer scholarships for them.

"As for their players, Megumi-san, please play the video." Akira gave a nod to the manager. "First, they have the middle blocker, the number 8, Haruo." He pointed his finger at the tallest players on the video. "He is a freshman like Kobayashi and Riku, but his experience in this game is far better than those two, or even any of you here.

He was dubbed by the volleyball magazine as one of the best prospects in the country right now, probably only a few people in his generation could match his talent. As for his playing style… Just imagine he has Hirano\'s aggressive blocking style with Yuki\'s game-reading ability."

Everyone shuddered at that thought, didn\'t want to imagine something that scary as their next opponent. In a second, the impression of a good guy that came from Haruo\'s cheerful demeanor in the video disappeared instantly, knowing it was a trap for them.

"Then, they have their captain, a solid guy as an outside hitter on the left. Here, he is the number 2." Akira continued, pointing his finger at a player with a cold face, just like Hirano on their team. "His name is Ito, and while he doesn\'t have so much power inside him, but damn, his creativity is so nasty.

Hirano, while I doubt you suffer from him, don\'t get frustrated when he managed to fool you a few times."

Hirano was taken aback for a second before nodding his head solemnly. This was probably the first time he heard the coach reminding him about the opponent, and honestly, this made him curious. Now, he couldn\'t wait for the game to see what kind of ability this Ito had.

"As for the last player…" Seeing the sudden solemn expression on Akira\'s face, everyone was tensed immediately. "He is their ace and probably the most dangerous player on their team, another outside hitter from the second year. His name is Nitta." He pointed his fingers to a spiky-haired boy with the jersey number 14.

"In the last game against Kitazawa, he himself managed to contribute about 24 points out of the 50 they scored. His technique is perfect, and he has such a raw power that can be comparable to Ezaki from Shimoyawata or Gondo from Matsukita. And the most noticeable thing about him is his mental fortitude.

Some people would call him an egoist, but he has this drive to always get the final ball to attack the opponent, and it works in the last game. I don\'t know why such an amazing player went undetected last year, but based on my observation today, he is the most dangerous player that we have to face in the next game."

The atmosphere was heavy as the players all watched the video in front of them, of how this Nitta managed to pierce any kind of defense set up by the opponent for him. Inwardly, they started to imagine what would happen in the next game and how would they stop such a player, and they had to admit this wasn\'t an easy task to do.

"What about the other players?" Riku asked.

"Well, fortunately, while the others are good, they are not so noticeable as the first three. They are just there to defend the ball, and their setter is also someone who is intimidated by Nitta so easily. See?" He nudged his head at the video where Nitta scolded the setter for not giving the final pass to him.

"Well, at least there is some comfort here…" Yuki said wryly, eliciting dry chuckles from the others.

"Oh, I don\'t buy that." Riku shook his head immediately, gaining the other\'s attention. "Do you think it is suspicious for a team that could buy even the best players in the country to have half the players of the team as cannon fodder? Even though they stayed passively during the last game, I still think they hide something here."

All of their faces darkened, knowing that Riku was right. There was no way a team that aimed to dominate the tournament would have three useless players starting on the court. There must be some sort of conspiracy here.

"Good." Kaede moaned. "Just good. After Shimoyawata, now we have this super-rich team as our next opponent, and there is also still Konan High waiting for us if we want to save the club. Goddamnit, it is like the universe doom us to fail!"

Akira furrowed his brows, not from Kaede\'s words, but for how it affected the other\'s mentality. The atmosphere around was too heavy, and honestly, he couldn\'t blame them for being so depressed like this. Their luck had been shit this tournament, and it wasn\'t something that they could control at all.

Unfortunately, he didn\'t have any words to cheer them up. Even the good news he bought was probably not good enough to lift up the mood. After pondering for a while, he shook his head, decided to let his players drown in depression for now while he thought about strategy for the next game.

At least, it was still two weeks before the third round began, and they would have time to recover their mentality and be ready for the game.

\'Now, let\'s see if I can crack this troublesome team or not…\'