The sound of the final spike hitting the floor—Kunimi Akira would remember it forever. A dull thud. That was all. Not a cheer. Not a scream. Just the sound of a ball striking the court. And with that, everything ended. Shiratorizawa Academy—a prestigious private school rising from the hills of Izumi Ward, Sendai. Seven appearances at the Interhigh in the past decade. Three times reaching the national quarterfinals. A team that had been called an "unbreakable wall" in Miyagi's high school volleyball world. And this year, too, they had been repelled by that wall. Evening light slanted through the windows of the Datte Kogyo gymnasium, casting long shadows across the floorboards. Kunimi Akira stood motionless in his sweat-soaked uniform, gazing blankly across the net. His teammates were already gone. The sensation of his shoes pressing against the pine resin clinging to the floor, the distant sound of the brass band from a classroom somewhere—it all felt impossibly far away. The smel