No, would it be better to hit right through the middle of the block?
The moment Hoshiumi twisted his wrist to forcibly adjust the trajectory of his spike, Hinata and Oori Ren moved simultaneously.
The block, which had originally left a slight gap, snapped shut in an instant, the arms of the two players transforming into a solid iron wall that completely shut down the path of the ball.
[So..]
[How about trying to block Hoshiumi?]
Bang!
The heavy sound echoed in everyone's ears, by the time the crowd had come to their senses, the volleyball had already landed at Hoshiumi's feet.
The score on the scoreboard jumped to Fukurodani 0:1 Inarizaki.
Hinata and Oori scored with a block.
Looking at his slightly reddened hands, Hinata suddenly clenched his fists. "Yes! We did it!"
Hoshiumi, whose spike had been blocked at the very start, had a distorted expression on his face: "Who taught him to block like that! That wasn't even a proper blocking posture!"
After high-fiving Hinata, Miya Atsumu looked at Hoshiumi with a smile.
Hoshiumi cracked up.
Chapter 89: The Eighty-Ninth Fox
Komori swallowed hard in the stands. "As expected.. that's how it is."
Sakusa turned his head to look at him; having been preoccupied with contemplating the possibilities of the trajectory change in Hoshiumi's last shot, he had not followed Komori's train of thought. "What?"
Komori pointed to the two sides of players who had already repositioned themselves on the court. "Hoshiumi and Hinata's spikes are hard to block because they jump so high and have such long hang time, both of them, just like you, have done a lot of research on using tooling the block."
The hardest part of blocking is the timing, so I was wondering if it might be more feasible to have these two block each other.
Sakusa nodded. "Yeah, you can only complete the calibration in such a short time if you understand it well enough."
If it were him, he wouldn't always be unable to keep up; he would just need more time.
The surroundings fell silent once again; Miya Atsumu was preparing to serve the second ball.
Hoshiumi took a deep breath, staring toward Miya Atsumu as he prepared to receive the serve.
Although Oori intended to use a serve cover against him, he could simulate it quite accurately based on what he saw.
However, speaking of which.. Hoshiumi didn't know what to say about Inarizaki for the moment.
Generally speaking, the Libero is the one targeted by serve reception, but Inarizaki had their sights set on him.
Bang!
The heavy sound of the spike rang in his ears once again, Hoshiumi quickly took a large step toward his left.
The volleyball slammed into the middle of the Fukurodani court, Hoshiumi and Kamibayashi both reached out almost at the same time.
For a split second, Kamibayashi wondered if he should hold back and let Hoshiumi take it, but then he remembered how Hoshiumi's defensive success rate during yesterday's summary was already higher than his own..
"I'll take it!" Kamibayashi finally spoke up.
The moment he heard Kamibayashi's voice, Hoshiumi immediately pulled back, taking a step in the opposite direction and retreating to prepare a running start for his subsequent attack.
Hinata's pupils contracted as he watched Hoshiumi's movements from across the net.
—His movements are so fast.
He left space for the Libero almost immediately, while simultaneously ensuring his movements didn't interfere with the Setter's actions and guaranteeing his own subsequent approach route.
If he were to do it.. setting aside whether he could be decisive enough to go for a receive while the Libero still had energy left, just handling all these things at once would be difficult enough.
However, as a substitute at this stage, he doesn't have many opportunities to get used to the rhythm of the entire team's coordination; he'll have to specifically check with Atsumu-senpai once he gets back.
Taking a step back to create a little distance from the net, Hinata raised both hands in front of his chest, while fixing his gaze on Suwa.
In terms of the concealment of his sets, the most formidable Setter Hinata has ever encountered is Miya Atsumu.
After playing many matches with Miya Atsumu in the team, the direction of some of his sets became clearer.
—This should be a high-angle back set.
Hirugami's figure appeared in the line of sight in front of the net, his jumping speed nearly the same as Suwa's setting jump.
Hinata shifted a step to his right, standing near Position 3, half a shoulder's width away from Oori Ren.
His brain raced for a split second, Hinata decisively jumped even earlier than Oori Ren, positioning himself precisely in front of Hirugami.
—No, should I call it a Back Quick?
With a loud thud, Hinata, who had leaned back slightly with some distance from the net, touched the volleyball spiked by Hirugami with his fingers held almost flat.
Nice touch!
Nice touch!
His center of gravity was thrown slightly off, Hinata had to adjust his lower body mid-air before finally managing to land on one foot.
After stumbling a few steps, Hinata finally managed to steady himself in front of the net.
But at this timing.. there wasn't quite enough time to complete the subsequent approach run.
At this moment, Akagi had already raised his hands and sent the ball directly over Miya Atsumu's head: "Atsumu!"
Hinata didn't hesitate for a second; he dropped his center of gravity, took a lateral step at Position 4, leaped almost from a standing position.
Watching Hinata leap up as if he were sprouting from the ground, Hirugami and Hoshiumi both froze in surprise.
He jumped straight up from where he stood? And that posture..
The ball had already left Miya Atsumu's hands, flying toward Position 4 at an extremely high altitude.
As he prepared to jump for the block, Hirugami finally realized where the sense of incongruity was coming from.
First of all, Hinata's vertical jump from a standing position was incredibly absurd, second.. that posture wasn't even a traditional jump; he might as well have been holding a badminton racket!
And the most important third point is..
Hinata's hand suddenly swung through empty air, then he bent his body slightly, preparing to crouch as he landed, keeping his entire posture very low.
The one who actually performed the spike was not him, but Owari Aran, who had jumped from the back row behind him.
A loud thud rang in Hirugami's ears.
Even though he had leaned back to adjust his blocking position the moment he realized something was wrong, he only managed to touch the ball with his fingertips.
“Touch!”
From the back row, Kamibayashi and Nozawa rushed out almost simultaneously, both of them chasing after the direction where the volleyball was falling.
Kamibayashi performed a diving save, pushing off the ground with a movement that covered nearly four meters, hitting the ball mid-air with his fist just before it hit the ground.
The moment his body hit the ground, Kamibayashi rolled to the side to avoid crashing head-on into the advertising boards.
"Save the ball!!" Nozawa shouted to everyone at the net.
Hoshiumi had already stepped up to chase it, leaping lightly at the edge of the net, poised to spike the ball directly as it flew over the top of the net.
Hinata followed at the same time, reaching out a hand, preparing to contest the ball with Hoshiumi.
But Hoshiumi had no intention of competing with Hinata; instead, he used one hand to hook the ball toward the other side, sending it to Hakuma Mebuki at Position 2.
Kita Shinsuke also didn't expect this to happen, his speed in moving forward to block was a little too slow, allowing Hakuma Mebuki to spike the ball completely over his reach.
The ball slammed into the ground, Miya Atsumu, being the closest, failed to receive it, giving Karasuno a point.
Watching his service game get interrupted, Miya Atsumu clicked his tongue. "So annoying."
To be able to pull off a fake spike even in an emergency like that.. this kind of all-around Wing Spiker is truly annoying, especially when they're on the other side of the net.
Yeah, he missed Miya Osamu a little bit, though only a little.
Hoshiumi gripped the net, staring at Hinata in shock: "No, who taught you that jump just now?"
What on earth did Inarizaki teach Hinata? It's such a random mix!
Hinata reacted instantly, answering with a hint of pride, "It's my physical trainer, Coach Kosano from Seijo."
—Although he hadn't expected there would be a day when such a technique would actually come in handy.
A while ago, Coach Kosano was once again invited by the Junior National Team to go abroad. During that time, he helped him adjust his training program via video calls and secretly taught him several different jumping techniques behind Coach Kurosu's back.
Later, Coach Kurosu was furious when he found out, cursing Kosano for poaching players behind his back.
Hinata wasn't quite sure what was so special about jumping; he only knew that at certain times, it was indeed useful.
Far away in Miyagi, at Aobajohsai, Oikawa Tooru stared expressionlessly at the tablet in front of him, while Coach Kosano, who had appeared from nowhere, was patting him on the back.
Look, look, Hinata's jump is so good, he's just missing a racket!
Coach Kosano was quite excited: "I'm serious, if you two played badminton, playing men's doubles, he could play at the front and you could play at the back, it would be absolutely perfect."
On the other side, Coach Irihatsu's face had gone dark, he kept shooting murderous glares at Kosano.
But he couldn't say much about it. On one hand, Coach Irihatsu knew that Coach Kosano hadn't actually made any moves to poach players; he was just talking big, he had even helped Oikawa Tooru get an introduction to people from the Men's Volleyball National Team.
He had even spent a lot of energy worrying about Kyokutsu during this period, it was unclear what his true intentions were in getting involved with their Volleyball Club.
Although there has been no word from the Junior National Team yet, Coach Kosano explicitly said that people would come to watch the finals in Miyagi.
Regardless of victory or defeat, as long as they show a certain level of value, there will be an opportunity to move even further.
Even though Oikawa Tooru had already planned to go abroad with Jose, if there was a chance to stay in the country.. why not.
On the screen, Hoshiumi, who had said something to Hinata at the net, turned under the referee's signal and took the volleyball, preparing to serve.
Spinning the volleyball in his hands, Hoshiumi tilted his head slightly to observe the referee's movements.
The moment the referee blew the whistle, he raised his hand and tossed the ball into the air.
Akagi's alertness reached its peak.
This guy.. why is he suddenly playing a buzzer-beater?
If a serve timed to the buzzer is a mental torture, then this kind of buzzer-beater is a sudden, unexpected ambush.
Obviously, the latter is even harder to deal with.