A: But if we can't score on the subsequent attacks.. humph.
【Suna Rintaro, the monster of the blocking line and a spiker.】
Q: There is a question everyone is curious about: is Suna-san's waist flexibility natural?
A: It's natural; my joints are quite flexible, Sakusa from Itachiyama is too.
Q: Do you also do waist stretches during your usual warm-ups?
A: Of course, just like this—(demonstrates the waist-twisting part of the warm-up)
Q: It looks like something that would make you want to try it.
A: Shoyo and the twins have already tried it, but..
[Hinata Shoyo, the meteoric Little Giant of Inarizaki!]
Q: Congratulations on your victory! Hinata-san, your performances in several matches were truly stunning and left a deep impression on everyone. Do you have any thoughts you'd like to share?
A: I will become even stronger, just like Atsumu-senpai said. Five.. no, I'm going to work hard for eight consecutive championships!
Q: Do you have any players who left a deep impression on you, Hinata-san? For example, your favorite, the strongest, or the most difficult to deal with?
A: My favorite player is Hoshiumi-senpai from Karasuno, the person I admire most is Unai-senpai from Karasuno, the strongest person I know is Atsumu-senpai, the most difficult opponent is probably Shiratori-senpai.. The most reliable is definitely the Kita Team, there's no one I don't want to play against anymore, the one I want to defeat most.. is probably Hoshiumi-senpai.
Q: Is he the person you want to defeat most, even though you like him? I can tell that Hinata-san and Hoshiumi-san really have a great relationship.
A: Yes! Hoshiumi-senpai is like a mentor to me; he was the one who first helped me determine my future direction.
Q: I see. Is there anything you want to say to your future self?
A: Hmm.. I definitely want to be the one standing at the end on the court, in every sense.
Chapter 132: The One Hundred and Thirty-Second Fox
After Hinata scored once again by coordinating with Kumagai from the sidelines, he cautiously looked toward Coach Kurosu on the sidelines, attempting to catch a glimpse of satisfaction or happiness on his face.
But.. Coach Kurosu was focused on discussing something with Coach Omimi and didn't look at him.
A feeling as if the sky were falling rushed into his heart, Hinata wanted to fall to his knees.
As for spiking, there's not much to say since he hasn't practiced it much, so it's likely no different from before; in fact, because he hasn't worked together with Akuma for a long time, the two of them have mostly been playing using standard tactics.
And after practicing receiving for so long, his first receives during actual matches were often off-target as well; it was only because Akuma used his positioning to cover for him that they were salvaged.
Summary.. there was nothing noteworthy to speak of.
The coach isn't even looking at him anymore; he won't perform terribly, will he?
Next, he was going to be scolded for not practicing hard enough, then having the starting position—which was originally meant for him after Osamu-senpai was no longer there—taken away..
Kumagai, who was just about to give a high five, looked at Hinata's desolate back and suddenly felt that something was wrong: "Sho, Shoyo?"
Nothing even happened; Shoyo's serve didn't hit the back of his head, so wasn't that actually quite good?
Akuma.." Hinata looked up, a pale face appearing in Kumagai's field of vision, "I'm finished.
Aran, on the other side of the net, was stunned for a moment. "Where did that conclusion come from? You were playing quite well, weren't you? What, did you sprain your ankle? Or did you get a cramp in your leg?"
That shouldn't be right. Hinata's warm-up was very thorough, his ligaments are naturally better than everyone else's. This isn't even a high-intensity match, so how could he have sprained an ankle?
Hinata's expression was dull and lifeless: "I feel like I played incredibly terribly."
Aran blinked. "Hmm?"
Once he snapped out of it, he immediately started rolling up his sleeves. "Who said that? I'm going to settle this with him! Was it Atsumu-senpai!"
However, Aran also knew that Atsumu would likely be the first one excluded. Aside from occasionally being a threat on the court, Atsumu had always been very indulgent toward Hinata.
It couldn't be Coach Inubata! It can't be, Coach Inubata has the best temperament; he hardly ever got angry even when he was coaching the twins back in the day.
Kita looked toward Coach Kurosu on the sidelines and raised his hand to signal a time-out.
Meanwhile, Coach Kurosu, who was still repeating how the old man Washijo had been being sarcastic toward him, turned around and found that his world had collapsed.
The three people still running laps also turned their gaze toward them, seeing Coach Kurosu pull Hinata away.
Meeting Hinata's gaze, Coach Kurosu gave a headache-inducing nod. "What's wrong with you?"
Hinata answered honestly, "I feel like I've been playing terribly; I haven't been able to master anything."
I've been practicing receiving all this time, but I still can't get my first receive in position, I haven't come up with anything new for my offense. My progress is a bit slow.
Coach Kurosu heard this and checked the date on his phone. "It's only been a week; it would be strange if you had mastered anything by now."
Besides, the first receive is the most difficult skill in volleyball, you're already doing very well. I can see your progress; your stability in receiving has improved much more than before.
"I know, but.. I feel like I've slowed down." Hinata tried his best to describe his feelings.
Hearing this, Coach Kurosu's originally furrowed brow relaxed bit by bit, leaving him feeling somewhat caught between laughter and tears. "Shoyo, you have to realize that when you first arrived, you were basically at zero."
Going from 0 to a passing score of 60 is easy, of course. But with your hard work and talent, we've already raised you to an 80 in the shortest amount of time.
Coach Kurosu patiently explained it to Hinata.
Actually, generally speaking, once you reach the 60 mark, the speed tends to drop sharply. For example, Hakuma Mebuki from Fukurodani is still hovering around 70.
Hinata's current score of 80 is actually largely achieved thanks to Atsumu, what Coach Inubata needs to do is to solidify Hinata's foundation, giving him the capital to climb from 60 back up to 80 on his own.
“But from 80 to 100.. that gap isn't just a simple 20-point difference; it's only natural that you'll feel your speed slowing down.”
If you fail to maintain your footing even slightly, you risk regressing. What you need to do now is not to keep moving backward, but to first master the fundamentals in front of you.
In fact, from a certain perspective, regaining stability in steps that were once unsteady.. is itself a part of making progress.
Because the error rate has decreased, it will no longer be a gap that can be targeted.
Hinata didn't quite understand, but he understood that the coach said his current state was normal.
The coach was very satisfied with his condition and encouraged him to keep going.
—That's enough.
The same principle applies to offense. So-called 'secret weapons' are just clever shortcuts; they may be effective in the short term, but once an opponent has thoroughly studied them, their threat level naturally decreases.
Coach Kurosu patted Hinata's shoulder: "It's not that Itachiyama has that many playstyles that could be called unorthodox; what allows them to always stay in the top tier is their sufficiently solid fundamentals."
Not making mistakes is the greatest weapon.
Hinata understood this sentence.
Indeed, if he could have made fewer receiving errors and been more stable with his serves during the Semifinals, they could have won even faster.
Coach Kurosu couldn't help but nod. "You've already eaten plenty; now it's time for digestion."
Immediately after, Coach Kurosu looked at Miya Atsumu, who was running laps: "For the upcoming intra-team practice, don't practice with Atsumu; instead, play more regular tactical drills with Kumagai Kuniharu to get a feel for things."
Hinata stood up straight and responded loudly, "Understood!"
Miya Atsumu immediately protested, "Coach—I can play regular tactics too—"
He could do everything; although he might lose control while performing tricks, most of the time..
Kita Shinsuke gave Miya Atsumu a brief glance and said calmly, "No talking while running. Everyone gets ten extra laps."
Rishia Heisuke's vision went black.
He didn't say anything!
Suna stared intently at the back of Miya Atsumu's head, his thoughts unknown.
After the morning's intra-squad match ended, Hinata returned to Coach Inubata to practice receiving.
And until Hinata left, Miya Atsumu never had the chance to play a single set with him.
Squatting at the entrance of the gym, Atsumu, who had just finished running fifty laps, let out a long sigh while looking toward the school gates.
Seeing him in this state, Kita Shinsuke turned back to look at Ginjima Yui.
Ginjima understood immediately and shouted, "Atsumu, come on, let's go to the gym—"
Miya Atsumu collapsed to the ground.
It had been only two short weeks from the end of the National Sports Festival to the start of the Haruko preliminaries. Inarizaki itself already had a heavy academic workload, since the Volleyball Club's training sessions were held after school, they could only manage a maximum of about three hours of practice.
Even so, Coach Kurosu managed to complete the final team coordination training before the preliminaries began.
The preliminary screening for the Haruko qualifiers had already concluded in August. The second round, to be held this weekend, consists of only four matches and will be completed within two days.
Lying on the tatami mat, Miya Atsumu turned his head to ask Hinata, who was scribbling away to finish his homework, "Are you nervous? It's your first time playing all the matches as a starter."
Hinata stole a glance at Kumagai's homework below, quickly wrote down the answers, replied, "I'm nervous. I hope I don't get diarrhea."
Whether it was excitement or nervousness, once he got too worked up, he would easily get a stomachache..
Miya Atsumu didn't even know what to say anymore: "Seriously, why don't you go to the hospital for a check-up? Is this some kind of pre-match syndrome?"
Hinata looked at the leisurely Atsumu. "Don't you have homework to do, Atsumu-senpai? You won't have time to do it in the next two days."
Miya Atsumu raised his arm, thinking of Hinata giving a thumbs up: "Someone's doing two sets of homework."
Right, since Miya Osamu isn't playing in the match, he can just do the homework for both of them.
Watching Hinata pull Kumagai's math homework out of his bag as well, Miya Atsumu's head was filled with question marks: "Kumagai finished it all?"
Wasn't this the homework that was just handed out today? Why was it all given to Hinata?
Hinata turned back and gave Miya Atsumu a thumbs-up: "Akuma finished it all in one go while we were changing in the locker room."
Very luckily, the assignments for all of their classes this time were the same workbook, unlike before when they were all different.
This is the homework for all the top students in the entire grade! It's extremely useful for reference!
Miya Atsumu sat up abruptly: "If he had put even a little bit of his brain into volleyball, he wouldn't have organized such an ugly attack."
Isn't that quite clever? As for the setter, why did he play like that!
Akuma's setting is also very impressive, it's just that Atsumu-senpai is even more impressive..
Observing Miya Atsumu, Hinata said in a low voice, "And if you just put even a little bit of that brainpower into studying, Atsumu-senpai.."
Miya Atsumu lunged forward, using his hands to mess up Hinata Shoyo's hair. "You're getting bolder lately, actually daring to make fun of your senior."
Stay away from Aran from now on; his habit of making sarcastic remarks is becoming contagious.