The fourth day of the IH Tournament, the day of the Semifinals.
Starting from this day, the Center Court will be fully operational. In addition to the best-of-three format, all matches will follow professional match standards.
In the morning, the Men's Volleyball matches featured Itachiyama vs. Seito and Women's Volleyball featured Shinzan Girls vs. Kinranin, while the match between Inarizaki and Shirabu was the final match of the afternoon.
Having found a fairly good seat, Hoshiumi slumped in his chair, a cooling patch stuck to his forehead.
He lowered his eyes to look at the court below, where the members of Inarizaki and Shirakaba had already entered the court to begin warming up.
Hirugami, arriving late, reached out and handed him a popsicle: "This is yours."
"Thanks." Hoshiumi reached out to take it and slapped his own face with his hand.
The cool packaging made his somewhat drowsy brain clear up a bit. He reached out to unwrap it, took a forceful bite, held it in his mouth, attempting to keep himself awake.
Hirugami sat down beside Hoshiumi: "Your bite force is comparable to an adult crocodile's."
Hoshiumi narrowed his eyes, met Hirugami's smiling gaze, let out a cold snort.
He wanted to snap back, but the ice in his mouth hadn't melted yet, so he couldn't say a single word.
Hirugami, the only one able to speak, continued, "I know you're in a bad mood because you lost the match, but you shouldn't be secretly hiding under your covers crying after you turn off the air conditioning at night."
Taking advantage of the fact that Hoshiumi couldn't speak, Hirugami added the final sentence.
See, you've got heatstroke.
With a crunch, Hoshiumi bit into the popsicle in his mouth: "First of all, I have heatstroke because you turned off the air conditioning. Second, I wasn't crying."
He said fiercely, "Once the National Sports Festival comes, I'll crush them all!"
Hakuma Mebuki poked his head out and asked, "Hoshiumi Hikari was hiding under the covers crying yesterday?"
Hoshiumi went crazy: "I wasn't crying! You were the one crying! You were crying while eating yesterday!"
Nozawa looked back: "Hikari-kun cried?"
Hoshiumi Hikari was about to explode with anger: "I already told you, I wasn't crying!"
Suwa walked over to the other side of Hoshiumi and sat down, reaching out to pat his shoulder. "It's okay. If you cried, you cried. Just win it back next time."
Hoshiumi fell silent.
Seeing him like this, Hirugami burst out laughing: "It feels like he's really about to cry right now."
Hoshiumi Hikari lifted his foot without hesitation and stomped down hard on Hirugami's foot.
But Hirugami's reaction speed was very fast; he pulled his foot back immediately, causing Hoshiumi's foot to slam against the floor.
His foot went numb for a moment, the pain traveled up from the sole of his foot, eventually filling his entire brain.
Physiological tears welled up from his eyes instantly; Hoshiumi raised a hand to wipe them away, but he couldn't wipe them clean no matter what.
Captain Suwa raised his hand again, patting his back in a comforting manner.
Actually, he wanted to pat his head more, but..
As his gaze swept over Hoshiumi's slightly perfunctory but still upright hairstyle today, Suwa gave up.
The Karasuno members were all silent, even Hakuma, who usually loved to bicker with Hoshiumi, remained quiet.
Hirugami turned his gaze toward the court, no longer teasing his Ace.
Venting your emotions is indeed a very important thing; just wipe away your tears and stand up again.
In the very next second, a sudden, sharp pain shot through his toes.
Hirugami turned his head and met Hoshiumi's mocking smile.
This guy is so vindictive.
If Miya Atsumu were here, he would have to give Hirugami a "damn right" at this moment.
But unfortunately, Inarizaki's focus right now was on the Shirabu across the net, rather than the losers in the stands.
Bokuto in the front row suddenly became dejected, while Akaashi's face was written with confusion, having no idea what was wrong with Bokuto this time.
Fukurodani's funds were still quite ample, more than enough to support them watching the finals on-site, so they hadn't left yet.
Although everyone's mood was mediocre after losing the match, Bokuto's fighting spirit had already been reignited after yesterday's consolation.
So.. what happened?
Bokuto clutched his chest, his face written with unwillingness: "Akaashi.. I want to play in the National Sports Festival too."
There will be many strangers watching the National Sports Festival, that sense of achievement is nothing compared to the IH Tournament.
But the National Sports Festival itself is a direct commission where teams represent their entire region, as for the representative team from Tokyo.. without a doubt, it will be Itachiyama.
Akaashi's brain, which hadn't been sleeping well to begin with, completely stalled for a moment.
Help, what should I say at a time like this? Should I make a sarcastic remark or offer some comfort?
Would a sarcastic remark make things even worse? On the other hand, offering comfort might just end up fueling Bokuto's negative emotions..
Why did he feel like all the options were heading toward the worst possible outcome?
Miya Atsumu walked to the service position holding the ball, slowly exhaling a breath.
Even after taking a shower last night, he still forced himself to stay awake to watch the video recording of today's match between Karasuno and Shirabu.
Both Karasuno and Shirabu are teams with powerful blocking capabilities, their roster compositions are actually quite similar. The only difference is that Karasuno is better at serve and receive, while Shirabu focuses more on the offense itself with Kiryu on the court.
Although Shirabu was the superior team in terms of the match result, in essence, it was simply letting the Ace carry the pressure all by himself.
This kind of playstyle is effective in the short term, but it isn't suitable for long-term competition. Karasuno's choice to prolong the duration of the match was a very wise move, but unfortunately, they were just a little bit short of success.
In that case, they shouldn't blame Inarizaki for seizing this victory.
Hinata made another mark in his notebook under the successful blocks for Oori Ren, then looked at Coach Kurosu beside him with a confused expression. "Coach, I don't know if it's just my imagination, but Kiryu-senpai's condition seems to be terrible."
Their block success rate was even significantly higher than in their previous match against Shiratorizawa, the match had only just begun, without even a single rotation having been completed.
Hinata knew very well that, with the continuous drain on their physical strength, the Inarizaki members' condition was not as good as before.
The fact that they could still pull off such a high frequency of blocks and shut-downs.. can only mean that their opponents have become weaker.
Especially Kiryu Ya-senpai.
Compared to the Hinata's impression of that senior who was as steady as a rock, he carried an unmistakable sense of exhaustion.
Yeah, I estimate Kiryu's stamina was already depleted yesterday," Coach Kurosu nodded. "There was a problem with their strategy; they intended to maintain their condition in the early stages, so they played too conservatively.
No.. should I say that, to some extent, Kusubashi underestimated Karasuno?
The situation for this year has basically become clear; although the possibility of a dark horse emerging cannot be ruled out, the strong contenders for the championship are still the old friends they are familiar with.
But next year.. Kurosu felt that the most terrifying opponent might be Karasuno.
After all, Karasuno is currently the only high school team held up by its second-year core. Even if the main third-years graduate next year, the incoming freshmen won't cause a major change in the team's overall level.
And the Karasuno Little Giant who has moved up to third year, Hirugami, their two-meter iron wall.. it is entirely possible they could surpass Itachiyama and become the greatest obstacle on their path to the championship.
But it didn't matter; Inarizaki would only get stronger.
The long whistle echoed through the court, the second match of the semifinals ended at a pace so fast that no one could react in time.
Inarizaki defeated Shirakusa 2-0, successfully advancing to the finals.
The scores for the two sets were 25:21 and 25:19.
Komori Motoya, standing by the sidelines, had a look of pure shock on his face: "That's insane.."
They had gone to five full sets to decide the winner when they played Shirabu in the finals, yet Inarizaki managed to take it this quickly.
Iizuna was not surprised at all: "It's normal. Shirabu's Libero and Ace were already at the end of their rope."
If we were to play, we would also choose the same strategy as Inarizaki.
In other words, by frequently changing the server to break Shirabu's rhythm, using Quick Attacks to crush Shirabu's defense to the maximum extent, then having the Middle Blockers counter to suppress Shirabu's own offense through blocking.
Sakusa lowered his eyes and thought for a moment.
The opponent for the finals was already clear, but he still felt that something was wrong.
Hinata's figure flashed through his mind, Sakusa said with a frown, "Inarizaki hasn't used a Quick Attack."
Iizuna froze for a moment: "Quick Attack? What Quick Attack?"
“Hinata mentioned it once, Wakatoshi also told me that Inarizaki uses a type of quick attack that's a notch faster than the conventional ones,” Sakusa explained simply. “The core should be Hinata.”
Amatori rubbed his chin. "Hinata won't be playing, so there's no need to worry, right?"
Setting Shirabu aside for now, the key point is that they didn't even use it when they played Shiratorizawa before.
Remembering something as well, Iizuna frowned. "No, I've watched the videos of Inarizaki's preliminary rounds, even Miya Osamu could hit a ball like that."
He clenched his fists. "I'll go back and tell Coach Utsunomiya so we can draft a new tactical plan."
Fortunately, Sakusa remembered; otherwise.. it really would have been a huge surprise.
The finals are scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, while the morning will feature the third-place matches for both men's and women's volleyball, giving them plenty of time to prepare again.
On the final day of the IH Tournament, Seito High School defeated Shirabu High School to take third place, the highly anticipated finals also commenced.
In the screening room of Karasuno High School, far away in Miyagi, Kageyama sat upright in the first row.
Looking at the tablet computer that Coach Ukai had stuck to the blackboard, he unconsciously clenched his fists.
The orange court was clean and clear as the commentator gave a brief introduction to the situation of both schools.
Yamaguchi Tadashi also grew nervous: "So Inarizaki really is this incredible.."
At this moment, he suddenly had a real sense of the opponent who had crushed them.
But he was equally curious.
Inarizaki at this level certainly wouldn't lack opponents, so why would they choose the obscure Karasuno for a practice match?
Thinking of a certain first-year who had been subbed in, an absurd thought crossed his mind.
He wouldn't be thinking of bringing that little brat here on a pilgrimage, would he..
He quickly shook his head, casting such a thought from his mind.
No, no, no! This is a team that has already made it to the national finals; how could they possibly travel a thousand kilometers just to play against a team at their current mediocre level for such an absurd reason!
During the live broadcast, the coaches and managers of both sides took their positions next to the coaching benches.