Utsunomiya insisted that I come over to the high school side to watch the match; was it Inarizaki and Karasuno?
Chapter 90: The Ninetieth Fox
An orange figure on the court rushed from the left side of the net to the other side at an extremely high speed, completing a cross with the setter in front of him before leaping up on one foot.
With a heavy thud, the volleyball was spiked at an incredible speed, landing precisely on the sideline.
Bessho Chigen in the front row of Karasuno couldn't keep up at all, nearly letting Hinata spike it into the net.
Unabara, who had just turned his gaze toward the court, froze: "Is this.. a front-cross Quick Attack?"
But how did he produce that kind of speed?
After only a single glance, Unabara fell into a state of profound shock, as several types of standard Quick Attack patterns flooded his mind in an instant.
In the end, his thoughts settled on the twins' Quick Attack that he had seen during the Interhigh.
Hinata and Miya Atsumu high-fived on the court, then jogged back to the net, locking eyes with Hoshiumi from across the net.
Hoshiumi clicked his tongue softly. "As expected, going for it directly is too difficult.."
Even if it was just a touch on a block, or something with a certain degree of limiting effect, he could still manage to reach it.
"I thought the Miya Twins' Quick Attack was already the limit.." Unabara muttered to himself.
At this point, his words suddenly stopped, he turned his head to look at Coach Hiya beside him with a look of sudden realization.
Theoretically, the primary role in a Quick Attack should be the Spiker, so the speed of this Quick Attack isn't related to the Setter's technique or the coordination between the two sides, but rather simply.. depends on the Spiker's own running speed.
Rubbing his hands together, Unabara gradually grew excited, even the frustration he had just felt over at the adult division calmed down. "Whoa, when I ran into him at the Interhigh last time, I was wondering if he was similar to Hoshiumi, but this is completely different."
If he were truly similar to Hoshiumi, then he would lose any value for further development.
After all, Hoshiumi is already the best player in this regard; there is no need to waste effort trying to develop another Hoshiumi, who might not even reach Hoshiumi's level.
But Hinata showed his absolute advantage in this very first encounter—speed.
Among all the players in their current recruitment list, he is in a league of his own.
Unabara, who had originally only intended to watch from the sidelines to observe Miya Atsumu and the others, ultimately walked up to the edge of the court and watched the match in the center quietly.
Meanwhile, Kurosu, sitting on the bench, tapped his fingers against his crossed arms and glanced at Bessho Chigen, whose expression currently looked quite grim.
It is indisputable that Karasuno's Hirugami Yukio and Itachiyama's Agatsuma Soushi are the two strongest Middle Blockers in the current high school level, to some extent, Hirugami is even stronger than Agatsuma.
This strength made Hirugami Yukio the undisputed core of Karasuno's block, someone whom no one could replace.
Therefore, in their initial strategy, Miya Atsumu advocated for focusing the Quick Attack primarily on Bessho Chigen, while using high balls or technical shots when attacking Hirugami Yukio's block.
As it turned out, in the absence of Hirugami, Hakuma, despite his height, could not perform precise blocks, it was also very difficult for Bessho Chigen to adapt to this kind of Quick Attack in such a short amount of time.
—So they had to hurry and widen the score gap.
The sound of the substitution signal rang in everyone's ears. On the sidelines, Rishia Heisuke took the number plate from Oori Ren's hands and walked to the serving position with the volleyball.
Raising his hands to his ears, Hinata shouted, "Heisuke, give us a good serve—!"
Rishia gripped the volleyball in his hands, shifting his gaze from the orange back of the head in front of him to land beside the opposing team's back-row Setter.
Finally.. they had both fulfilled their original promise, standing together on one side of the net.
So, he also wanted to extend this time as much as possible.
In other words—he was going to score.
The whistle blew, the cheering from Inarizaki instantly fell silent, providing Rishia Heisuke with the perfect conditions for his serve.
Taking a deep breath, Rishia Heisuke raised his hand and tossed the ball up.
It was still his perfected four-step approach, leaping high just less than five centimeters from the baseline.
He held his breath and swung his arm with all his might.
No hesitation, no fear.
The path to victory was already infinitely clear; he only needed to faithfully.. spike this ball.
BANG!!
In an instant, the volleyball flew over the net, precisely smashing down onto the path the back-row setter would have to take to step forward.
Nozawa, who was playing in the back row to receive for Suwa, had his center of gravity shifted backward the moment he tried to touch the ball. While struggling to control the ball, his expression changed drastically.
The speed of this ball.. what's going on?!
With a heavy thud, the volleyball flew diagonally out of bounds.
He shouted loudly to Hoshiumi behind him, "Hikari! Save the ball!"
Hoshiumi didn't pause for even half a second, instead using the momentum to dive forward in a diving save, sending the ball back to the net with a back set.
At the net, Hakuma pulled his hands back the moment he saw the trajectory of the ball's descent.
—The ball cleared the net.
Miya Atsumu, who had already moved forward, chased after it immediately: "Kill ball! Shoyo!"
He raised his hand, sending the ball into the hands of Hinata, who was jumping near the three-meter line, while simultaneously giving him an indicative glance.
The ball was originally very close to the net, but after Miya Atsumu's first touch and set, the entire attack distance became quite perfect.
Bessho Chigen and Hakuma Mebuki quickly moved up to prepare for a block.
Hinata still jumped very high, but not high enough to surpass Hakuma's reach. This spike.. it could potentially be blocked directly.
Bessho lowered his arms, attempting to face the incoming spike with the most perfect posture.
Hoshiumi, who was in the back row preparing to receive the ball, felt a sense of dissonance so intense it was almost suffocating.
In his field of vision, Hinata's movements were clearly somewhat off; it didn't look like he was preparing for a spiking arm swing, but rather.. preparing to raise his other hand?
No, no, no.
The pre-match conversation flashed through Hoshiumi's mind, appearing alongside Aran, who was preparing to leap at Position 4.
In an instant, everything—the rational and the irrational—connected at this very moment.
Hoshiumi shouted immediately, "Nozawa-senpai! Position 4!"
No longer blocking together with the other two, Nozawa rushed toward the Position 4 marker, while Hinata had already completed his jump set.
The target of the set wasn't Aran, but rather..
Rishia Heisuke, performing a back row attack from behind Position 3.
Hinata's set for this ball wasn't actually very good; he only managed to get the ball to Rishia's hitting point.
But for Rishia, it was more than enough.
After a heavy thud, the volleyball slammed down over the descending block, pinning itself to the floor near the three-meter line.
The whistle blew, Inarizaki scored another point.
Hinata immediately raised his hand and rushed toward Rishia: "Ohhh! Heisuke! It worked!"
Rishia raised his hand, the two of them high-fived heavily: "Great play, Shoyo!"
Miya Atsumu gave a light laugh, his face filled with an unmistakable look of satisfaction.
Saying that Hinata should just set directly to Aran was nonsense; if he actually messed it up, that would be real trouble. No matter what, they had to first let Hinata and Aran's group build up some confidence.
And as for Hinata, the person who most frequently blocked his spikes was, without a doubt, Rishia Heisuke.
Hinata was absolutely familiar with Rishia's hitting point, he almost never made a mistake with it.
Aran was dumbfounded. "Huh? He can actually do that?"
How was he not aware that he could even coordinate a fake spike into a real one?
Why didn't he say so earlier! He's been on edge until now!
Miya Atsumu gave a small chuckle and gave Aran a thumbs-up. "Absolutely reliable, you can rest easy."
Suna, who was behind them, pursed his lips but said nothing.
Hinata wouldn't make a mistake when setting for Rishia, but he couldn't guarantee the same for them..
Unabara fell silent for a moment by the sidelines, decisively choosing to stop thinking about that ugly pass just now, instead focused his attention on Rishia: "This number 14's adaptability is also quite good; he was even able to spike that last ball, his serve intensity is even higher than it was during the Interhigh. He's progressing very quickly."
Hibari glanced at Unabara, noticing this guy's excitement almost immediately.
Unabara stroked his beard. "Oh my, where on earth did Kurosu dig up such talented prospects.."
Although the youngsters, including Suna, do not yet meet the standards for the Junior National Team selection, Unabara is very optimistic about their future, as they also possess excellent vision.
Rishia's second ball did not score, but Hoshiumi's beautiful tooling of the block from the back row broke Inarizaki's service run.
Hakuma Mebuki of Karasuno serves.
Watching Hakuma walk to the service position, Akagi found it difficult to relax.
You can basically let your guard down completely during this kind of service rotation; after all, everyone has seen Hakuma's serving level, he isn't much stronger than Hinata was six months ago.
And things turned out exactly as everyone expected; Hakuma's serve hit the net, giving Inarizaki a point.
Unabara, who had long been envious of Karasuno's two-meter-tall giants, raised his hand to cover his eyes: "I still need more training."
Just watching from the sidelines for this short amount of time, his emotions were riding a roller coaster.
On one hand, he was overjoyed that there were still so many talents waiting to be discovered by him; on the other hand, he was nearly suffocated by frustration at the abysmal fundamentals shown by those few people as they appeared one after another.
As expected, it's better to cultivate talent from a young age.
Whether it was Hakuma or the newcomers from Inarizaki, they all exuded a sense of greenness, which was on a completely different level from Hoshiumi, Hirugami, Miya Atsumu, Aran, who had received top-tier national-level training from a young age.
Unabara suggested, "How about we start watching all the Interhigh matches starting next year?"
Hibari was silent for two seconds. "Aren't you going to sleep?"
At the same time, Hinata walked to the service position holding the ball.
Unabara became serious, looking forward to Hinata's serve.
After all, he was a student of Kurosu, with the likes of Miya Atsumu and Rishia setting such a high standard, his serve couldn't possibly be that bad.