Atsumu, who was in front, sneezed, causing Miya Osamu to immediately step three paces away. "You.. you didn't catch a cold from kicking off your covers last night, did you?"
Miya Osamu acted as if he were avoiding some kind of virus, keeping a distance from him that was almost as large as Sakusa's.
Miya Atsumu refused to admit that he had kicked his blankets off yesterday. "No way! You must have been talking bad about me in your head."
Kenma understood, he had guessed correctly.
He immediately shook his head. "No, just calling my name is fine."
"By the way, Kenma, I'll be playing in today's match too!" Having resolved the issue regarding his address, Hinata quickly brought up the most important matter of the day.
Kenma let out a faint smile. "That's great, then."
He quietly observed Hinata, who was still rambling on, as his mind began analyzing today's match.
The last time we met in Tokyo, Hinata said he was still in the Second String, yet in such a short amount of time, he has already earned a chance to play.. He must have some kind of exceptional talent in some area.
Receiving? Impossible.
It shouldn't be a block either; considering Miya Atsumu is definitely the core of Inarizaki right now, that leaves only the offensive side.
A serve? A spike? Or was there some special tactical significance to it?
Kuroo stole a glance at Kenma and Hinata.
Kenma's gaze.. it was as if he were playing some kind of detective game.
However, he had a bit of an impression of this little guy; he seemed to have seen him at the entrance of the club back then.
Is he an Inarizaki Libero?
Meanwhile, as Hinata, who was talking with Kenma, walked toward the gymnasium, his voice grew increasingly faint, leaving Kenma feeling a bit bewildered.
"What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Kenma asked tentatively, looking at Hinata, whose expression had become somewhat strange.
Hinata shook his head vigorously. "No, I just suddenly realized.. this seems to be the first time I've played in such a formal training match."
If he doesn't perform well.. Coach Kurosu won't give up on him, will he!
No, no, no, he has to perform well, at the very least.. no mistakes!
Hinata raised his head, suddenly realizing that because he had been walking so close to Kenma, he had unknowingly wandered into Nekoma's team area.
Everyone wearing red and white sports uniforms turned around, looking at him in unison.
It felt like a tender young animal had fallen into a pack of ferocious felines, as if he might be swarmed and devoured whole.
Hinata couldn't help but shiver uncontrollably. Just as he was about to step back, someone pressed against his back.
He turned around and found it was Rishia Heisuke.
Rishia forced himself to remain calm, grabbing Hinata and leading him away from the Nekoma encirclement: "Let's go, Atsumu-senpai was just calling you."
Okay, okay," Hinata nodded hurriedly, "See you in a bit, Kenma!
That was close, I almost got eaten—
After rescuing Hinata from wandering into enemy lines, the group arrived at Inubushi Higashi's Gym 2.
Gymnasium 2 wasn't very large, with only two courts, but the second floor had over a dozen rows of spectator seating, clearly built specifically for matches.
Inarizaki and Nekoma had no history together, they weren't very familiar with each other.
Nekoma hasn't had much success in recent years, so match footage is hard to find, Inarizaki had already stated in advance that they would be changing their lineup.
It could be said that.. neither side had a clear concept of each other's strength.
At Inarizaki's request, Nekoma did not wear their uniforms this time either.
After a simple warm-up, Kuroo put on his bib marked with number 1 and glanced out of the corner of his eye at the Inarizaki members over there who were choosing their numbers.
He turned to the Nekoma members and said, "While it's certainly a rare opportunity to play a practice match against a powerhouse like Inarizaki, it's obvious that.. we're being looked down upon."
From the initial negotiations where they didn't even claim to be fielding their full First String, to later requesting that neither side wear their uniforms, every single detail proved that Inarizaki wasn't treating this match as a serious practice game.
It's just a feeling.. like they're just playing around.
"Indeed, it's infuriating." Yaku also put on that differently colored vest.
Unfortunately, Aran didn't know what Nekoma was thinking; if he did, he would definitely be complaining like crazy.
Not playing the First String wasn't because they looked down on Nekoma, but because they recognized Nekoma's defensive capabilities, which is why they chose them to build chemistry with their future primary focus players.
As for the request not to wear their uniforms, it was absolutely not because they didn't take this as a serious practice match, but rather..
Some of them didn't have team uniforms.
Having reached an agreement with Yaku, Kuroo began to contemplate how he could make the opposing team take them seriously. "In any case.. let's start by giving them a bit of a scare."
On the other side, Miya Atsumu was still enthusiastically suggesting, "So what I mean is, to prevent the opposition from looking down on us because we didn't field our full first string.. how about we go big right from the start?"
“Are you serious?” Miya Osamu looked at him.
Aren't you afraid of messing up right at the start? The seniors aren't here to bail them out today.
Miya Atsumu said with a serious expression, "I'm being very serious."
“A few days ago, Kita-senpai and I already watched the footage of Nekoma's Tokyo preliminaries from last year. That boy with the bob cut.. well, he has a bowl cut now, he's very good at controlling the tempo with back-row counterattacks.”
Rather than following the opponent's tempo, it's better to break the deadlock from the very beginning.
Hearing this, Kita nodded from behind.
This is a match for the juniors, so seniors like him and Aran won't interfere too much.
He had originally worried that the twins wouldn't be able to control the situation, but now it seemed Miya Atsumu knew exactly what he was doing.
“Atsumu is right,” Coach Kurosu said, affirming Miya Atsumu's judgment, “but you must take note that the opposing Libero is very strong. If you aren't absolutely certain, try your best to avoid him.”
In addition, Atsumu, pay attention to giving Heisuke more spikes so he can get used to them. Unabara, don't be nervous either; the opponent's ace doesn't have the same overall quality as Aran, Kiryu, the others.
Shoyo, just follow Atsumu's plan. Try not to receive the ball, be more proactive with your blocking.
Everyone responded in unison, "Understood!"
Glancing at the somewhat distracted Hinata, Coach Kurosu called out to him, "Shoyo? What's wrong?"
Startled awake, Hinata shouted at the top of his lungs, "I understand!"
Rishia really wanted to cover his face with his hands. It was over; ever since he had pulled that person back from Nekoma, he had a bad feeling about this.
The others on the team might not know, but he knew quite clearly.. Hinata was a complete coward!
When he accompanied Hinata to take the Inarizaki entrance exam back then, Hinata was so nervous he didn't sleep all night, it's said he even almost had diarrhea during the math exam.
Fortunately, he managed to scrape by and get in with the second-to-last score in the entire school.
Rishia's brain was thinking at high speed.
Right now, Hinata lacks experience, it is possible he isn't even clear on what exactly he is supposed to do.
What should be done? How can I prevent Hinata from tripping over his own feet on the court because of nervousness..
As if sensing what Hinata was thinking, Coach Kurosu spoke up, "It's okay. Just follow Atsumu closely; with Atsumu there, you have nothing to fear."
Hinata currently lacks the ability to think independently, so he still has to rely on Miya Atsumu's coordination.
A fine sword requires a top-tier swordsman to truly reveal its edge.
And Miya Atsumu's ability in this regard.. could absolutely be called the best in all of high school.
Miya Atsumu reached out and patted Hinata's shoulder: "Don't worry, just leave it to me."
The Setter's eyes were full of mischievous smiles, yet his words were as if they possessed a magical power that instantly put one at ease: "Shoyo-kun will spike every single one of the Setter's tosses, right?"
Hinata nodded, his entire body relaxing slightly.
That's right, with so many seniors around, there's nothing to be nervous about.
Even if he performs poorly, he'll just go back to training slowly with the Second String like before; his opportunities won't be limited to just this one chance.
Miya Atsumu's hand on Hinata's shoulder tightened slightly, forcing the still somewhat uneasy little guy to meet his eyes.
“I'll make good use of you, Shoyo-kun.”
Hinata looked at himself in Miya Atsumu's eyes, his heart, which had been suspended in mid-air, finally settled completely.
He heard himself say, "Okay."
The captains of both sides drew lots, Inarizaki went first.
Both Nekoma and Inarizaki use a standard S1 rotation, meaning the setter starts at position one, which ensures that the front row can execute a three-point attack from the start.
Another commonly used rotation is starting with the ace in the strong position at number four, but Inarizaki doesn't use this very often.
Because for that small Wing Spiker, Aran, to start at position four, the rotation would need to shift clockwise once more from the S1 formation, which would mean moving the incredibly strong server, Miya Atsumu, to the end of the rotation to serve. This was clearly not a cost-effective strategy.
During the rotation confirmation phase, Kuroo saw at a glance that the position Hinata was standing in seemed to be the Middle Blocker.
Kuroo closed his eyes and looked again.
—Still a Middle Blocker.
Oh no, we're doomed.
When they were planning just before the match, they had used Karasuno's Little Giant as a blueprint for their guesses, planning to attack using techniques like off-the-block tips supplemented by high balls in the middle.
But now that the little guy is standing in the Middle Blocker position, it means.. he's a Quick Attack player.
When replacing Kuroo, Yaku spoke up to comfort everyone, "It's fine, it's fine, it's just a quick attack. If the power isn't enough, it won't be hard to receive."
How much faster could it possibly be?
Hinata also swapped positions with Unabara Uta and stood in the waiting area.
Standing in the serving position, Miya Atsumu spun the ball in his hands.
Although I haven't seen much, in those Nekoma High School videos, the light-haired Libero is quite formidable; he is the strongest Libero I know, aside from Komori Motoya.
And when it comes to receive stability alone.. perhaps Nekoma's Libero is even stronger.
However, Yaku and that one from Itachiyama share a common weakness—they aren't very good at receiving serves.
Once that was known, everything else became easy to manage.
Nekoma's overall receive formation was positioned very deep, because they knew Miya Atsumu's specialty was the power serve, with most of the landing points falling in the back row.
Yaku widened his eyes as he watched Miya Atsumu, who was preparing to serve on the opposite side, observing his every move.