Listening to Miya Atsumu, who had been analyzing the situation seriously, suddenly veer off into something inexplicable, Kita Shinsuke and Oori Ren both cast confused glances toward him.
Kita lowered his head and thought seriously for a moment: "I remember Shoyo has the other person's contact information, so they probably chat from time to time."
Miya Atsumu's expression twisted even further.
They didn't finish watching Nekoma's match this afternoon, before today's matches end, they need to head over to watch the matches in another district next door.
There are many strong schools in Tokyo, but looking at them as a whole, none are particularly outstanding; perhaps Nekoma is a bit stronger.
Especially with their starting lineup changed, they had compensated for some of their previous lack of offensiveness, making them even more threatening.
After a brief period of rest at Itachiyama, the Inarizaki members headed back home and returned to their preparations for the National Sports Festival.
It had been over a week since returning from Tokyo, Nagumo and the others had already left the First String to report to the Second String.
Since it wasn't a formal retirement, Inarizaki didn't hold a formal retirement ceremony. Except for Nagumo, who proactively gave his jersey number to Kumagai, no one else's number was reused.
The National Sports Festival was fast approaching, since the Haruko preliminaries had nothing to do with them, the most important thing at this stage was coordination and consolidating their fundamentals.
Early in the morning, the coaches had already set off for Kobe to watch the matches, leaving Kita to organize the members for individual practice, while the retired former First String senior was also nearby holding up signs.
It wasn't for anything else, primarily to practice the counterattack for the second and third-year students.
In that match against Itachiyama, Inarizaki's disadvantage in counterattacks was clearly exposed under the high pressure of the opponent's blocking.
And among the first-years, besides Unabara Uta, all three were practicing serves.
After all, Rishia and Kumagai both primarily act as key servers, whereas Hinata.. is simply focused on the importance of improving his serve stability.
Hinata does not pursue the extreme serves that Rishia Heisuke does at this stage; according to the coach's arrangement, he only needs to increase his serve success rate to around seventy percent.
Sitting by the sidelines, Rishia Heisuke took a sip of water and watched Hinata toss the ball at the starting position for his run-up.
It was nearly dusk, Hinata had already completed more than eighty of his final set of one hundred serves.
Based on the current success rate, it barely reaches 70%. Once the success rate stabilizes, he can start doing bottle serves.
Taking a deep breath, Hinata raised his hand and tossed the ball into the air.
Miya Atsumu, waiting for the next set of training, turned his head slightly to watch Hinata's movements.
Compared to when they practiced jump serves the day before, Hinata's ball tossing motion was several times cleaner.
Hinata took a running start and jumped about ten centimeters away from the baseline.
Kita nodded on the other side.
Previously, when Miya Atsumu was training Hinata, he pursued a meticulous approach run rhythm, but later the coach stepped in to adjust him, instructing Hinata to leave as much distance as possible from the baseline to avoid foot fault violations.
With a loud thud, the ball landed steadily inside the lines, without any errors.
Having successfully served, Hinata pumped his fist and cheered, "One more!"
—A serve that could only be described as mediocre.
Miya Atsumu rested his hands on the ground, leaning back slightly in a very relaxed manner.
That being said, considering this was achieved in only three months.. one could call it nothing short of brilliant.
Before Hinata could serve the ball, Coach Omimi's voice came from the entrance of the gymnasium.
Coach Omimi, who had just returned from Kobe, looked toward the first-year students with a smile and said, "Shoyo, Kuniharu, come here for a moment."
Rishia looked back in confusion, watching the two of them walk toward the coach.
Hinata, who almost thought he had made some mistake without knowing, looked up at Coach Omimi: "Coach? What's wrong?"
Having completely guessed what it was about, Kumagai looked excitedly at the two large bags held in the coach's hands.
After signaling with a look for Kumagai to remain silent, Omimi said with a stern face, "How has Shoyo's serve training been going?"
Hinata stood up straight: "Today's success rate is already at seventy percent!"
Very good, stay in this state," Omimi nodded in satisfaction. "And then.. these are for the two of you.
After saying that, he pulled a black team jersey out of one of the bags and stuffed it into Hinata's arms.
Then he handed the clothes from the other bag to Kumagai, Hinata could see the number 3 written on them.
Coach Omimi was all smiles: "You two try them on to see if they fit; if they don't, they'll need to be taken back and altered."
Holding the shoulder of the jersey in his hand, Hinata stared at the white number 17 on the black uniform, his eyes filled with excitement: "A black team! So cool!"
Watching Hinata raise his hand to take off his clothes, Kita Shinsuke's voice drifted over faintly: "Change once you're inside."
What kind of bad habit is it to stand at the doorway catching a breeze and taking off your clothes right after finishing training and being covered in sweat?
Watching Hinata come running back, Aran let out a hearty laugh.
The weather in late August was no longer as hot as before, it became quite cool as evening approached.
Miya Atsumu, who had been running wildly in the freezing wind back in February, had previously received a whole week of intensive training as a reward.. Thinking about it this way, Atsumu really was a handful.
Miya Atsumu reached out toward Hinata, Hinata handed the jersey directly to him.
After taking the clothes, Atsumu checked the size, then looked up at Hinata, who had already taken off his short-sleeved shirt.
The youth's somewhat slender body had only a thin layer of muscle, but compared to his physical examination at the start of the school year, his once soft belly had become firm; surely in a few more months, he would have a beautiful muscular physique.
Although not particularly bulky, the strength in his entire waist was more than sufficient.
With just that one glance, Miya Atsumu could already imagine the state of the opponent's power generation when swinging his arm.
—It's beautiful.
But as expected, he was still too thin. If he could gain another thirty jin and convert it all into muscle through proper training, his support in terms of strength and speed would be even more terrifying.
Before Miya Atsumu could even come to his senses, Hinata's voice had already rang out: "I'm so jealous.. six-pack abs!"
Everyone looked at Kumagai.
Kumagai quickly pulled on his team jersey, stood with his hands on his hips looking at Hinata, said comfortingly, "Hinata, you'll have them too in the future."
Hinata rubbed his chin, his next blunt remark nearly made Kumagai crack open on the spot: "I remember Atsumu-senpai has eight, Akuma, have you been lacking exercise?"
Rishia Heisuke's voice rose weakly: "Shoyo, six-pack or eight-pack is something you're born with.."
Unabara Uta offered constructive advice at the right moment: "If you want to see Akuma's eight-pack abs, you can give him two more problems to solve."
Kumagai, who was constantly being victimized by those three blockheads for no reason, collapsed completely. He suddenly felt that being hit in the back of the head wasn't that big of a deal, at least it wouldn't cause him to lose face in front of his senior.
Every previous setter in Inarizaki's history has been so cool, so why has the style changed so much with him!
Hinata took his uniform back from Miya Atsumu, after changing, he stood before Atsumu with his arms spread wide in excitement. "Atsumu-senpai! Am I cool?!"
Miya Atsumu gave a thumbs up. "Cool."
The Inarizaki uniforms are so cool; they are a perfect match for Hinata!
Chapter 78: The Seventy-Eighth Fox
October, Gifu Prefecture.
Unlike the Interhigh and Haruko, the opening ceremony of the National Sports Festival was grand and lively. The athlete parade involved many different sports mixed together, the venue for the opening ceremony was not even located at the volleyball competition site.
Because of this, the first match of the high school volleyball tournament was not held on the same day as the opening ceremony; the adult division matches were scheduled to begin even earlier.
Standing beside Miya Atsumu, Hinata sized up the young players competing on the court.
Most of the competing teams in the National Sports Festival adult division were prefectural teams, consisting basically of players drafted from universities and professional teams, many had never even played together on the same team.
But bolstered by powerful individual abilities, they didn't make any particularly major mistakes in their coordination.
Seeing the rhythm on the court was even more intense than high school matches, Hinata was very excited: "This is the first time I've seen a professional match in person."
"Are you serious?" Miya Atsumu was stunned for a moment.
Amagasaki City is not far from both Osaka and Kyoto; he had previously gone to Osaka with Aran and the others to watch matches.
But then again, Sendai is.. indeed a bit remote.
Hinata looked up and asked Miya Atsumu, "Atsumu-senpai, have you seen it? In person?"
Miya Atsumu nodded. "Of course. We even went to see the Black Eagle Flag last year, but we haven't had the time to go this year."
"What is Black Eagle Flag?" This once again touched upon a blind spot in Hinata's knowledge.
Miya Atsumu ran through it in his head and gave Hinata a simple explanation: "It's an important tournament following the V1 League. The participants for the Men's Volleyball side are the top eight from V1, the top four from V2, the top four from the university level."
It's worth mentioning that the first-place winner of the Haruko in Women's Volleyball will also be invited to participate, in recent years, it has basically always been Shinzan Girls' High School.
Hinata's eyes widened: "In other words.. high schoolers have the chance to compete against the top players of the V League!"
Miya Atsumu also sighed, "Yeah, unfortunately, there's no such system in Men's Volleyball yet."
Mentioning this, he thought of an important topic: "Speaking of which, Shoyo, have you decided where you want to go after graduation?"
Hinata answered without a second thought, "To continue playing volleyball, of course."
Hearing this answer, Miya Atsumu felt somewhat helpless. "Ah.. I know. I mean, do you want to go straight to a professional team or go to university?"
Rubbing his chin in serious thought for a while, Hinata answered honestly, "I don't know. If I can still play volleyball in college, it doesn't feel much different. But my grades aren't that good either.. I'll probably listen to Coach Kurosu's advice when the time comes."
He looked up at Miya Atsumu: "What about you, Atsumu-senpai?"
Miya Atsumu replied decisively, "I don't want to continue my studies. Being able to join a professional team directly after graduating high school is the best option."
Hinata nodded. "That's still great! Atsumu-senpai will be in high demand in the professional leagues, after all, he is the strongest Setter."
After letting out a snort, Miya Atsumu leaned over the railing in front of him. "I just don't know if Osamu will still be on the same team as me. If not, that's for the best; then I can crush him without any hesitation."
After all, as the High School's Strongest Setter, I'll definitely end up in a better team than he will.
Hearing Miya Atsumu's words about a bright future, Hinata Shoyo was momentarily stunned.
He hesitated for a moment, but finally said, "But Atsumu-senpai.. I feel like Osamu-senpai doesn't seem to like volleyball that much."
Suna also gave him the same feeling; unlike Atsumu-senpai, Suna didn't seem to have the feeling that he lived for volleyball.
Moreover, compared to Suna, who is "up for anything," Osamu often gives Hinata the impression that he already has other plans in mind.
No way," Atsumu's refusal was as decisive as ever, as if he hadn't even thought about it, "We are twins, after all.
After a strange pause, he straightened up and looked at Hinata: "Are you ready for tomorrow's match against Shonan?"