Yusuke Takeuchi

* Pre-timeskip
* Post-timeskip

## Image gallery

**Yusuke Takeuchi** (Japanese: **武内祐介** *Takeuchi Yūsuke*) is a third-year student at Kumazawa Academy. He currently plays for the boy's volleyball team as a middle blocker and serves as vice-captain.

## Appearance

Standing at 196 cm, Takeuchi is said to be an extremely imposing figure with a powerful muscular frame. He has short dark brown hair with teal-coloured eyes and is usually seen wearing a serious facial expression.

## Personality

Despite coming off as intimidating from his physical appearance, Takeuchi is actually very kind-hearted and even-tempered. Being the vice-captain, he has a soothing and gentle personality for his teammates and acts as a pillar of support for them. Compared to his captain, Takeuchi is significantly more calm and laid back. Because of this, he tends to be the one to help keep certain players calm or from getting too full of themselves. Takeuchi has also shown to be relatively close to the first-years as he helps them understand words or phrasings that their coach or captain use in their instructions.

Nevertheless, Takeuchi is very confident in his abilities as well as those his teammates possess. He is shown to not get easily riled up during a match nor does he let himself be caught up in the pressure of a difficult situation. During matches, Takeuchi often remains calm and composed even during difficult situations. He is very determined and solely focused on stopping the opponents, taking his job as a blocker to heart.

## Statistics

 Stamina
 Game Sense
 Technique
 Speed

Due to his height, Takeuchi has become one of Kumazawa's most well-known players. However, in terms of overall skills, he is one of the team's least talented members. He is the only starting member unable to perform a jump serve. Nevertheless, he rarely falls for decoys and his height makes him a formidable player on both offense and defense. His spikes are high and powerful, able to go above blocks and making receives difficult.

Takeuchi, along with Matsumoto and Durand, make up the Iron Wall of Kumazawa.

### Skills

* **Bunch Read Blocking**: Takeuchi is a dangerous blocker thanks to his height, and forms Kumazawa's "twin towers" with Matsumoto which is known as the strongest blocking pair in the nation. He is easier to fool with decoys than his partner, but his height gives him enough leeway to jump twice before a spike is launched, allowing him to remain a threat even after biting on a decoy. His incredible height and long arms, he is able to stop attacks such as feints with little to no effort. He is also shown to easily beat others when in a joust.

* **Whip Spike**: Takeuchi's most notable offensive ability is his whip-like spike due to his long limbs. Takeuchi's height adds to the success of this spike as it gives him a higher point to hit from and can often go untouched by blockers.

* **Broad Attack**: Takeuchi is proficient at doing a broad attack. Due to his huge strides, he would outpace his opponents and spike before a block could be put up. He is capable of pulling off a broad attack spontaneously with Okamura.

* **Reflexes**: Takeuchi is shown to have incredible reflexes as a result from having complete control over his body. He is able to move his arms in an instant when he sees where a spiker is planning to spike.

* **Receives**: Takeuchi has demonstrated that he is very reliable when it comes to defense. Like the rest of Kumazawa, he is solid in receiving opponents spikes and is also able to make a capable receives of difficult float serves.

## Etymology

* The name **Yusuke** means "help, assist" (祐) (**yū**) and "forerunner, herald" (介) (**suke**).
* Yusuke's surname **Takeuchi** means "military, martial" (武) (**take**) and "inside, within" (内) (**uchi**).