Or rather, those things themselves have no meaning at all.
Hearing this, Miya Atsumu was actually stunned for a moment.
At this moment, for the first time, he looked directly at the Captain of Municipal Kobe, someone he hadn't paid much special attention to before.
Wakamura tilted his head slightly, glancing at Matou and the others who were observing them from behind.
His tone was incredibly firm, without a shred of doubt regarding the path he had chosen: "I am here for the championship."
Perhaps he had merely woven a lie for himself that he could accept. Rather than the fact that "he was inferior to a junior," perhaps "the Inarizaki coach didn't like short players" was something he could actually stomach.
Hinata's appearance burst the lie he had told himself, forcing him to face that bloody reality.
But.. so what?
The past is set in stone; people cannot stay in the same place forever.
And he will also continue to move forward, until he climbs to the summit and loudly proclaims to everyone—
He has been here.
Finally, Wakamura looked up at Miya Atsumu: "Anyway.. see you in the finals. We're not the same as before."
The strongest Setter lowered his eyes. "I'll be looking forward to it."
Wakamura turned around and walked toward his teammates.
Of course, he was looking forward to it as well.
It wasn't just the anticipation of the upcoming victory or defeat, but rather a curiosity to see just how much that "little guy" chosen by Inarizaki would grow.
Watching the backs of the Municipal Kobe players, Miya Atsumu suddenly said, "To be honest, I'm actually getting a bit interested in Wakamura-senpai now."
Hinata tilted his head, not understanding what Miya Atsumu meant.
Miya Atsumu raised his hand and pressed Hinata's head: "Alright, let's go watch Hoshiumi's match."
"Alright!" Hinata nodded.
After accompanying Hinata to watch Karasuno's match, the two returned to the hotel together for a meeting.
Inarizaki's opponent tomorrow is Kindaichi Industrial, which is also an established powerhouse that achieved a top eight finish in the national championships last year.
Pre-match preparation is still very important; after all, even seeded teams can be knocked out in the first round by a sudden dark horse.
The changes brought by two months of time are truly immense. Fortunately, Coach Kurosu and the others did not notice any difference in Kindaichi Industrial compared to the preliminary rounds after watching their first match.
If they aren't hiding their true strength, then they can temporarily be removed from the "major threat" category.
The next day, Inarizaki's match was in the second round.
With nearly half of the teams already eliminated on the first day, the secondary venue was repurposed for warm-ups.
The pace of the first round of matches was unexpectedly fast, with most ending in 2-0 sweeps.
Under the gaze of the masses, the "strongest challengers" also stepped onto the orange floor; in the men's volleyball competition, the match between the second representative of Hyogo Prefecture and the representative of Nagasaki was underway.
Inarizaki won the toss and would start.
Hoshiumi narrowed his eyes by the sidelines. "Is Inarizaki's luck a bit ridiculous or what?"
He didn't seem to have seen Inarizaki use a jump float serve much.
For Inarizaki, who now has the Dual Wielding server Miya Atsumu, securing the first serve essentially guarantees that they can seize the initiative the moment the match begins.
With full confidence, Inarizaki had no intention of changing the rotation and still chose to start with the S1.
"Here he comes, the Dual Wield." The captain of Kindaichi Industrial clapped his hands.
Meanwhile, Miya Atsumu had already walked four steps forward while holding the ball, preparing to wait for the referee's whistle.
He raised his hand and clenched his fist.
With Miya Atsumu's movement, the music came to an abrupt halt.
In the silence, the only thing Hinata could hear was his own heartbeat.
The whistle sounded incredibly clearly in his ears, he couldn't help but imagine himself standing there.
One second, two seconds..
The moment the hand reached the fifth second, Miya Atsumu raised his hand to toss the ball.
Hinata stared intently at Miya Atsumu's movements, involuntarily holding his breath the moment he jumped.
With a loud bang, the ball spiked by Miya Atsumu flew over the net, smashing into the area near Kindaichi Industrial's front row.
It was impossible to tell whether Miya Atsumu's serve was a jump float serve or a power jump serve; the Kindaichi Industrial players failed to move forward in time, the ball hit the floor, Miya Atsumu scored the point directly from the serve.
"What a serve by Miya Atsumu—" the Inarizaki supporters cheered in timely response.
Komori Motoya, who was also watching this match, had a solemn expression: "The trickiness of this jump float serve.. it's even more terrifying than before."
It has been less than six months since Miya Atsumu began practicing his Dual Wield, yet the overall quality of his serves has already surpassed many players who rely on Jump Float Serves to target key receivers.
Miya Atsumu's serves scored four points in a row before finally ending with a powerful serve that went out of bounds.
The captain of Kindaichi Industrial stepped up to the service line, at the same time, the Inarizaki cheering squad, who had been cheering for Miya Atsumu, suddenly turned into a chorus of boos.
Hinata froze for a moment. "Eh?"
Why did the booing suddenly start? Was this part of their cheering?
Coach Kurosu said nothing, quietly watching the opposing server commit a service error due to nervousness, while at the same time, the boos from above grew even louder.
Hinata suddenly reacted. Wait, he remembered hearing once that if you didn't play well on the court, you would be scolded mercilessly.
So it wasn't the coach, but his own supporters?
Seeing Hinata shrink his neck, Kurosu chuckled, "Don't be afraid. It might be a bit unethical, but it is indeed a dirty tactic within the rules."
This tradition existed even before he took over the Inarizaki Men's Volleyball Club, it truly has a long history.
Kurosu said seriously, "Don't worry about it. Just focus on yourself and do your best with every single ball; that will be enough."
Hinata withdrew his gaze from the Inarizaki cheering section and nodded, saying, "Okay."
Komori's smile was somewhat strained: "It's happening, Inarizaki's cheering."
This is truly a headache..
Sakusa-senpai also nodded.
Although it didn't affect him personally, it was certainly annoying enough.
Ah.. Inarizaki's cheering is as annoying as ever.
On the other side of the court, Wakamura also clicked his tongue.
In the regional qualifiers, Inarizaki held back quite a bit, but once they reached the nationals, they completely let loose.
Municipal Kobe also successfully took the first set. Although their opponents were newcomers without much history, they had the advantage of having players with excellent mentalities.
As the second set progressed, they fought back hard, not falling behind by as large a margin as they had in the first set.
Among their opponents, the one who could truly be called an "Ace" was one of the Middle Blockers.
Even though his height isn't considered high for a Middle Blocker, his reaction speed is definitely among the best.
Listening to the noise from the Inarizaki brass band on the other side of the court, Wakamura, standing at the service line, became eerily calm.
Regardless of all that nonsense, his current goal is to secure the victory in this match.
As soon as the whistle blew, Wakamura raised his hand and tossed the ball into the air.
The heavy serve arrived in the opponent's court in an instant and was received with a diving back-set by the Libero.
But this ball was simply too close to the net, leaving no room for the Setter to play.
The Spiker at the net jumped directly and spiked the ball down.
With a loud bang, Matou Yukimaru executed a precise block, sending the ball back.
Nice block! Yukimaru!
However, the opposing setter's reaction speed was also incredibly fast, instantly extending his legs to bump the ball up.
On the other side, the right wing spiker quickly moved into position, stepping in to cover the setter's role and lifting the ball up.
“Zawano!”
The called-upon Middle Blocker moved to Position 4 and leaped powerfully, putting his full strength into a spike to meet Matou on the other side.
The power of this spike was extraordinary, Matou, who had intended to block it, failed to control the ball.
The volleyball flew uncontrollably from the blocker's hands, landing outside the court.
Save the ball!!
If he couldn't save it, the opponent would score using a tooling the block.
Several shouts reached out from all directions toward the rapidly spinning ball. Just before it hit the ground, long fingers slid underneath it, sending the ball flying high into the air.
The entire arena erupted: "Great save! Cover!"
The nearest Setter sprinted forward, eventually catching up to the rapidly descending volleyball near the sideline.
In a world of upside-down spikes, the only constant is the spinning ball.
The yellow and blue sphere, composed of two colors, carried everyone's heavy aspirations, the moment it touched his fingers, his heart nearly skipped a beat.
But at this moment, they wouldn't think that far ahead.
It was even.. so simple that no further explanation was needed.
The set, which remained accurate to the centimeter even in emergency situations, flew out the moment it touched the hands, steadily delivering it into the Spiker's hands.
“Aran! Spike it!!” Miya Atsumu shouted.
Then, at the moment of landing, he rolled to the side to dissipate the impact, coming to a stop right in front of Hinata, who had already stood up from the coaching bench.
Without a moment's pause, Miya Atsumu pushed off the ground to stand up and charged toward the court once again.
That's right.
No need to reminisce.
No need for applause.