And in the entire arena, the most eye-catching person without a doubt was Bokuto, who was radiating light in all directions.
Akaashi! Give me the ball!
Watching Bokuto-senpai score with a straight spike right on the line immediately after receiving the ball, Rishia Heisuke remarked with emotion, "Bokuto-senpai's straight spikes are as spectacular as ever."
Hinata nodded seriously: "Yeah, I never get tired of watching Bokuto-senpai's spikes."
To be honest, it was the first time he had ever felt this way.
Even though the approach, jump, arm extension were exactly the same, Hinata could feel a consistent sense of seriousness and dedication in Bokuto.
It was as if.. every single ball was a mission that absolutely had to be accomplished, as he poured one hundred percent of his spirit and energy into it.
No, for a Spiker, scoring through a spike is indeed their mission.
The last person who could give him such an intense feeling of seriousness and sincerity.. was Miya Atsumu's set.
Hinata pulled Rishia toward a corner of the court, wanting to observe Fukurodani's volleyball from a slightly more side-on perspective.
Rishia understood exactly what he meant.
As members of Inarizaki's first-year substitute trio, what they are most proficient at this stage is refining useful information through visual observation.
"Heisuke, that movement Saru-senpai just made was exactly what Kiryu-senpai was talking about, wasn't it?" Hinata asked Rishia beside him.
Rishia nodded: "Fukurodani's most common patterns are the Ace's strong attack from Position 4 and the tiered formation behind Position 3. Generally speaking, if you can avoid these two routes, you can organize an offense with sufficient threat."
Hinata rubbed his chin, thinking hard: "So, if we want to limit Bokuto-senpai's offensive capabilities, could we also start from this aspect.."
Before he could even finish speaking, Akaashi had already set the ball toward Position 4.
Because the first pass was poor, the setter's set wasn't very good; he could only guarantee the height of the toss.
Quickly scanning the block of the Tochigi Prefecture representatives, Hinata instinctively judged—if it were him, he would choose to spike a short diagonal at a time like this.
Although his success rate for a short diagonal spike was not high, it was undeniable that it was the best option at this stage.
Hinata suddenly froze for a moment as the knowledge points he had discussed with Kusubashi and Michiko flashed through his mind.
No.. "A ball with an overly obvious trajectory might be a hint"?
The next second, the block on the opposite side remained unchanged, but the libero clearly took a large step toward his left, making it obvious that he was preparing to defend the short diagonal.
Bokuto's reaction speed was countless times faster than Hinata's; even though he was in a position with limited vision, he made a decision that was incredibly precise and entirely different from Hinata's.
—A line spike.
The opponent's tall blocker reacted just as quickly, extending a hand in an attempt to block the ball, but Bokuto's spike had immense power, smashing straight through the block in front of him.
With a loud bang, the volleyball slammed down outside the sideline.
But it had already hit the hands of the blockers before the ball touched the ground, so Fukurodani still scored the point.
Nice!
Nice spike!
Hinata's eyes widened: "That was amazing—I didn't even realize it was a trap at first!"
Rishia couldn't keep up with the pace at all: "What trap?"
If it were him, he would have tipped it over.
Hinata watched Bokuto-senpai high-fiving his teammates, but his mind was filled with the image of Bokuto-senpai's recent spike.
Generally speaking, the captain of a high school team is usually number 1, as a marker, a horizontal line is placed below the number on the front of the jersey.
The number 4 is given to the "Ace" of a team, such as Inarizaki's own Aran, or it is chosen by Karasuno for their Libero.
As for Bokuto, he was the first Position 4 spiker Hinata had ever seen.
Hinata suddenly spoke up: "It's decided!"
Rishia was even more confused: "What?"
Hinata's face was written with excitement: "During Haruko, I'm going to buy a short-sleeved shirt! The blue 'Ace's Insights' that Bokuto-senpai wears—I want to buy the same one!"
Cool, right?
Simply too cool!
Aran, who was munching on a banana, passed by the second-floor stands. He looked down at the two juniors chatting happily, his eyes filled with satisfaction.
But before he could enjoy his happiness for long, he ran straight into Miya Atsumu, who was cheering for Shiratorizawa with both hands raised.
Even though he was wearing a mask and a hat.. he wouldn't mistake him.
Aran said expressionlessly, "Atsumu, what are you doing?"
Miya Atsumu said brazenly, "You've got the wrong person, I'm Miya Osamu."
Chapter 66: The Sixty-Third Fox
As Miya Atsumu and Aran stood there in silence, Hinata's voice rang out from beside the court below, "Great save, Akari! Nice spike, Ushijima-senpai!"
The next second, Miya Atsumu decisively stuffed his mask into his pocket and dropped his supportive stance for Shiratorizawa, his face clearly written with dissatisfaction.
Under Aran's gaze, the High School's Strongest Setter slowly uttered a few words: "He really is busy."
Aran ate his last bite of banana and looked at Miya Atsumu somewhat speechlessly. "After all, unlike you, Shoyo is still very popular."
He was so popular that Coach Kurosu was on high alert every day for anyone trying to poach him, specifically Coach Kusubashi, who asked about him every single time they met.
After all, Hinata is still an unofficial member of the volleyball club's first string, so he really could be poached.
"He's not afraid of losing his voice from shouting." Miya Atsumu curled his lip.
Aran sat down in the empty seat next to Miya Atsumu and pulled a second banana out of his jacket pocket. "The National Sports Festival should be a bit better. After all, each prefecture can only send one team, so when the time comes, Kyoto will likely send Rakusan, Tokyo will only have Itachiyama.."
Meeting Miya Atsumu's gaze, Aran pulled out a third banana and gestured toward him with it. "Want one?"
Miya Atsumu hurriedly refused, "No.. where did you get such a huge pocket?"
Aran remained silent for two seconds before finally showing Miya Atsumu the hole in his pocket: "Because it's broken, the jacket has two layers, so now the entire jacket is my storage space."
Miya Atsumu gave Aran a thumbs up.
The overall results of the Round of 32 were ultimately quite similar to Coach Kurosu's predictions, mostly consisting of familiar faces.
In today's match, Inarizaki didn't expend much energy overall, but their opponents in the round of sixteen are Shonan Institute of Technology, an established powerhouse from Kanagawa that relies on defense to disrupt their opponents.
It was predictable that this would inevitably be an extremely physically demanding match.
The next morning, the members of Inarizaki woke up one after another, prepared breakfast, then headed toward the gymnasium.
Hinata pushed Miya Atsumu, who was sleeping spread-eagled, called him to wake up just as the seniors had instructed: "Atsumu-senpai, it's time, you need to get up."
If it had been Miya Osamu calling him, Miya Atsumu would definitely have chosen to keep sleeping.
But.. hearing a voice that clearly wasn't Osamu's, Miya Atsumu bolted upright, remembering that he had a match today.
Yawning, a still sleep-deprived Miya Atsumu drifted into the bathroom under Hinata's fervent gaze, intending to wash up and wake himself up.
"Good morning, Atsumu-senpai!" Hinata was as energetic as ever.
Hearing Hinata's voice, which was clearly a bit hoarse after that shout, Miya Atsumu, who was brushing his teeth, didn't even know where to begin his critique.
By the time he finished rinsing his mouth, Hinata had already changed his clothes and was standing at the bathroom door waiting for him to come out so he could go in and wash up.
Completely awake, Miya Atsumu used his hands to tidy his hair and replied, "Good morning, Shoyo."
Ah.. this is a completely different feeling from living with Miya Osamu.
Someone wakes him up gently in the morning, doesn't fight him for the bathroom, responds to every word he says, never scolds him.
This is heaven—
The two of them packed up very quickly; after all, they didn't need to worry about the room, as hotel staff would come to clean it later, so they only needed to gather the things they needed for today.
Because of the habit of waking up early to go for a run, Hinata called Miya Atsumu quite early. Consequently, by the time they finished, Ginjima and the others in the next room hadn't even woken up yet.
While leaning against the doorway waiting for the others to head out, Miya Atsumu turned his head and asked Hinata Shoyo, who was crouching on the floor organizing Coach Omimi's folder, "Shoyo, do you know what day it is today?"
Hinata stopped what he was doing, stared at the pale yellow wallpaper for a long time, finally replied tentatively, "The third day of Interhigh?"
Miya Atsumu raised a finger: "That's right, the third day."
Miya Atsumu glanced down the hallway, seeing that no one else had come out, he quietly stepped toward Hinata. "So, Shoyo, do you know the nickname for the third day?"
"A nickname?" Hinata rubbed his chin, thinking seriously about Miya Atsumu's question, completely unaware that the person who asked had moved much closer.
"I don't know. Does even Tenshu have an alias, Atsumu??" Hinata had intended to turn back to look at Miya Atsumu, but just as he turned his head, he found himself staring into a pair of eyes right in front of his face.
Hinata was startled; his posture while crouching on the ground was already unstable, as he instinctively leaned back, he fell straight onto the floor.
He looked at Miya Atsumu with some confusion: "Atsumu-senpai?"
Watching his reaction, Miya Atsumu, in a good mood, let out two low chuckles from his throat.
He leaned forward slightly, reaching out to brace his hands on the floor beside Hinata, stared into those eyes as he said softly, "It's 'The Demon's Third Day'."
The Third Day of Demons?" Hinata repeated instinctively, "Why? Is there some ritual on the third day to summon monsters?
How could he not remember such an arrangement? But even if there were such an arrangement, he wouldn't be afraid, because they had the protection of the Inari God!
Miya Atsumu narrowed his eyes. "I wouldn't say that's entirely wrong. After all, the third day is the only day with both morning and afternoon matches scheduled, basically several players end up collapsing in every tournament."
"Fa-fall off?! Are there really monsters!" Hinata's eyes widened.
Hahahaha—" Miya Atsumu laughed quite happily, "Actually, the monster's name is 'Low Stamina'.
He subconsciously began to think seriously about whether 'Stamina Depletion' was the name of a monster from that region, Hinata froze for a moment before finally realizing what Miya Atsumu meant.
He suddenly realized, "Ah! That's right, two matches in one day, they're the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals."
Just thinking about it felt terrifying, but he believed his physical stamina had always been excellent, so he should..
Miya Atsumu suppressed his smile and looked down at him, as if he could see right through what Hinata was thinking: "No problem, right?"
Stared at by those deep eyes that resembled a black dwarf star, Hinata grew nervous: "What?"
Even though he hadn't said anything just now, what was with this feeling of being caught, as if he had done something wrong..
Atsumu sized up the clearly startled Hinata: "Shoyo was just thinking about whether he played the whole match without any problems or something like that, right?"