Realizing he had narrowly escaped death, Hinata tentatively looked up at Miya Atsumu, his eyes filled with a hint of pleading, as if asking if he could go play volleyball now.
After a few seconds of silence, Atsumu gave a light click of his tongue. "I'll go with you."
He didn't mean anything else by it; he was simply worried about Hinata's knees. Since it didn't involve running and jumping, it didn't matter.
Coach Kurosu had already mentioned the matter of teaching Hinata setting to him, so now was the perfect time.
After all.. his setting is the most impressive.
On the other side, Coach Kurosu and Coach Omimi were also on their way to Itachiyama Volleyball Gym.
Coach Kurosu held the contacts for nutritionists and masseuses that he had snatched from the drunken Utsunomiya, his face filled with satisfaction.
He said with a hint of pride, "Utsunomiya isn't even good at drinking; he can't hold his liquor as well as Himegomiya."
Coach Omimi's face was written with shock.
You swapped your own drink for Sprite while the other person was in the restroom, you have the nerve to talk about them?
Coach Kurosu didn't even blink as he pushed open the doors to the volleyball gym.
After standing by the sidelines for a while, Coach Kurosu finally couldn't suppress the pride and smugness on his face: "Human potential is naturally infinite, but when it comes to training, quantifiable data is the most intuitive."
It's just like how I say Hinata Shoyo has great physical abilities, but until actual data with reference value comes out, it's impossible for anyone to place him on the same level as a genius like Oikawa.
He stood there with his hands behind his back, watching Hinata as he calibrated with the setters on the court: "At the end of the day.. results are what matter most."
And now that Shoyo has received recognition through the data on paper, next.. is the official debut.
Coach Omimi said at the appropriate time, "The venue for the National Sports Festival has been decided; it will be in Gifu Prefecture, the first day of competition is set for October 5th."
—This is a special day.
Coach Kurosu pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose: "Then let's give Atsumu the gift he wants most."
I'm afraid Atsumu has been waiting for this day for a long time.
Of course, as a coach, he was the same.
"Go back and work on Hinata's receive and serve again; don't go up there and mess up," Coach Kurosu added.
It would be quite a spectacle if someone performed a face-first receive or if a serve hit Miya Atsumu in the back of the head; if that happened, he wouldn't even have any dignity left as a coach..
Omimi thought of something else: "By the way, the preliminary round for tomorrow's Tokyo Haruko Qualifiers is about to begin. Do you want to go take a look?"
There are simply too many teams in Tokyo, so the preliminaries were split into two separate sessions.
The top four teams from the Interhigh have already been fast-tracked to the regional top sixteen. The remaining teams will compete to decide the rest of the seats within this month, the final selection won't begin until November.
Because they were also guaranteed a spot, there was no conflict with the Interhigh; after all, the Interhigh representatives, Itachiyama and Fukurodani, would not be participating in these qualifiers.
Among Inarizaki's old friends, Nekoma will likely participate in this competition.
Kurosu had no objection to this: "Then I'll just take a look."
Just hitch a ride with Itachiyama and that should do; we can take the opportunity to see if any dark horses have emerged.
Chapter 77: The Seventy-Seventh Fox
As for Hinata Shoyo, he was still in a state of complete maladjustment to the delicate work required of a Setter.
Moreover, there was a very serious problem: his hands were smaller than those of the other setters, meaning he couldn't directly use much of the experience they had regarding ball control.
But Coach Kurosu's only requirement for him was to maintain a state where he could serve as a substitute; any advanced skills would have to be practiced gradually.
With his arms crossed over his chest, Miya Atsumu felt his temples throbbing; he somewhat regretted agreeing to come down here with Hinata.
Hinata is quite fast at learning things, but when it comes to being a Setter.. he's completely thick-headed.
"Shoyo, don't turn your wrist outward when setting, or you'll injure your thumb." Miya Atsumu had lost count of how many times he had said this.
How is this the same problem as Karasuno's King..
On the other side, Iizuna spoke in a soft, gentle voice, possessing many times more patience than Miya Atsumu: "When you can't set it properly, just set a high ball to Position 4 or Position 3, ensuring both the height and the distance from the net."
After setting another ball, Hinata looked toward the visibly silent Iizuna. "Like this? Iizuna-senpai?"
And the increasingly irritable Atsumu spoke with more urgency: "Imagine the feeling of a Spiker jumping from this position to spike, or just put yourself in that position—don't you know how high you can jump?"
No other requirements, just high enough. You're the one who needs to set it high.
Iizuna demonstrated it for Hinata: "Like this, if you can't control your position well, try to set it as high as possible, about one ball's height above the net. Of course, don't make the angle too large, or it will fly out of the boundary lines."
The mistake Hinata makes is one that almost all beginners make; to put it simply, he "isn't familiar enough with the ball."
Especially since Hinata had mainly been practicing forearm passing before, there was still a huge difference between that and the technique of using the palm to make full contact with the volleyball to control the direction of the set.
If it were that simple to develop a good Setter, the Setter position wouldn't be such a rare talent in the entire volleyball world.
Aran, who was currently training Rishia on short diagonal attacks, stared at Miya Atsumu for a while, then looked at Hinata, who was shrinking his neck while being lectured by Miya Atsumu, finally let out a sigh.
A complete defeat, Atsumu.
After being tormented by the Setter all night, Hinata felt even more awe for Atsumu-senpai, to the point that he skillfully avoided the time Miya Atsumu woke up the next morning and instead followed Coach Ukai onto the Itachiyama bus.
Then he realized.. Atsumu was also on the bus.
Miya Atsumu reached out and grabbed Hinata, who was about to turn and get off the bus: "What are you hiding? It's not like I'm going to kick you off the court just because you can't receive a ball properly."
Hinata was stiff all over: "No.. I just suddenly feel like my stomach is a bit.."
Under the gaze of Atsumu and Kita on the other side, Hinata swallowed the second half of his sentence and finally sat obediently beside Miya Atsumu.
Sitting on the other side of Kita, Oori ignored the pleading look Hinata threw his way and chose to close his eyes to rest.
The scale of Tokyo was many times larger than Amagasaki City, by the time they arrived at the gymnasium in Nerima Ward, it was already close to nine o'clock.
Also due to the distance, the Tokyo qualifiers are not held all at once like in Hyogo; instead, they are divided into several different regions based on geographic location.
The gymnasium they arrived at is the competition venue for the district where Nekoma High School is located.
Among the several powerhouse schools in Tokyo, only a handful can pose a threat to Itachiyama, Nekoma is undoubtedly one of them.
The distance to Tomi's place is indeed quite far; it would be a waste to make a special trip just to watch the match, so it would be better to watch the recording later.
During the hour and a half in the car, Hinata had already quickly cheered himself up and started asking Miya Atsumu questions about setting.
Not having to watch Hinata's terrible setting on the court, Miya Atsumu was clearly much more patient, answering almost every question.
By the time Inarizaki and the Itachiyama group found the court where Nekoma was playing, their match had already progressed to the second set.
Even with the opponents clearly being at a very mediocre level, even Nekoma, who specializes in a slow pace, managed to take the first set with a score of 25:15..
Atsumu slightly raised an eyebrow.
This can't be right, is Nekoma's offense really this strong?
Even if a large part of the reason is that the opponent's strength couldn't keep up, with Nekoma's scoring ability, it should theoretically be difficult to pull ahead by a 10-point lead like this.
Just then, Hinata poked him from the side. "Atsumu-senpai, was that person there when Nekoma came before?"
Hinata pointed toward the tall, gray-haired man who was cheering alongside Inugami in the waiting area; his height seemed even more prominent next to Shibayama Yusei.
By eye.. he's at least 1.9m or more.
Miya Atsumu also looked at the person Hinata Shoyo had mentioned; he was indeed quite eye-catching.
The serve passed to Kuroo, Yaku also left the court to swap with the opponent; that gray-haired number 11 stood in the Middle Blocker position facing Kuroo.
Hinata also froze for a moment: "Eh? Inugami is a substitute now?"
But on second thought, it made sense; the height advantage of the Middle Blocker position is simply too great, so of course they would want to make full use of better players.
In the next second, that number 11 performed a block-out for everyone, it was a rather low-level mistake.
Miya Atsumu had already vaguely realized something and remained silent, while the coaches on the other side didn't know what to say either.
Only Hinata raised his hand in confusion to simulate the movement: "How did it touch just now? At that angle, a normal block shouldn't have touched the ball over the net, right?"
Miya Atsumu said expressionlessly, "It was just a superb technique."
Hinata blinked: "Huh?"
During the conversation, Yaku below had already used his incredible reaction speed to save a ball that was about to smash against the wall.
Attention was instantly drawn away as Hinata shouted in excitement, "Great save, Yaku-senpai!"
After the spike scored, Kenma lightly raised his head and caught sight of a familiar figure by the second-floor railing.
Yaku also looked up and saw Hinata waving frantically at them.
Kenma curled his lips into a slight smile. "It's Shoyo."
Yaku raised a hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead. "And the Miya Twins, why are they here?"
Looking at Kenma's expression, Lev suddenly took a step back: "Kenma, you smiled!"
Kenma returned to his expressionless state: "I'm not a game NPC, besides, even NPCs have expressions.."
—He wasn't smiling simply because he had a headache.
After Nekoma's match ended, Hinata immediately went to find Kenma and the others, looking quite at home among the Nekoma team.
"Kenma! I can play in the National Sports Festival!" Hinata reported the good news to Kenma.
Kenma seemed to have anticipated this already and wasn't particularly shocked. "That's great, but we won't be able to go to the National Sports Festival.."
Hinata's face was full of eagerness: "Then let's meet at Haruko! Kenma, you'll definitely be there too, right!"
Yeah, I'll definitely be there," Kenma said with a light laugh. "Also, congratulations on becoming the national runners-up.
You're already an ultimate boss, Shoyo.
On the other side, Haiba Lev gasped, "National runners-up? This little shrimp?! He's only a tiny bit taller than Yaku-senpai—"
Before he could finish his sentence, Nishi was kicked to the ground by Yaku.
Miya Atsumu narrowed his eyes, eventually forcing himself to change the subject: "That number 11, although his technique is quite poor, his offensiveness is unexpectedly strong."
Oori Ren nodded: "Yeah, his vertical jump is quite high."
"Not just that, his arms are very long, his spike speed is also very fast.." Miya Atsumu rubbed his chin.
That's not right. Shoyo has only met that Nekoma setter twice; since when were they so close?