Compared to his previous state of just blocking, he had clearly become much more difficult to deal with. It was obvious that his blocking was no longer just a casual attempt to touch the ball, nor was it a precise, lethal strike like when he was facing Hoshiumi Hikari; instead, he was making his moves only after taking the opposing side's middle blocker into consideration.
He had become more conservative, in doing so, he had become even more difficult to deal with.
But even knowing this, Wakamura had no intention of telling his team's Ace; instead, he said, "Kanzaki, be careful, this little brat is planning to target you."
Hearing this, Kanzaki immediately became extremely alert: "Understood!"
The person who can drag that Agatsuma-senpai to his death is coming to keep an eye on him.. this is just too exciting!
Watching the blazing fire rising behind Kanzaki, Wakamura expressed great satisfaction.
Regardless of whether Inarizaki will switch to their maximum defensive mode, they must first bring out the best in their own team's condition.
Watching Hinata and Oori whispering to each other, Wakamura placed his hands on his hips.
It seemed like the people from Inarizaki had done their homework as well, so he would try to change his own habits for the time being.
“I've got it!”
Aiming for Miya Atsumu's serve, Hanae stepped forward and once again turned his body to pass the ball.
What a great receive!
As Kanzaki sprinted across half the court to Position 1 to prepare for a spike, Wakamura used his original posture to set the ball to Tosaka on the other side.
Tosaka, who had moved to Position 4 to execute a Flat Quick Attack, timed it perfectly to exploit the gap beside Ginjima and spiked the ball, which slammed down near the sideline in the blink of an eye.
Miya Atsumu had already moved forward, while Akagi from the back row dove forward, saving the ball before it hit the ground.
Atsumu!
"Nice!" Miya Atsumu quickly chased after it, raising his hand to deliver a perfectly timed back set to the already leaping Hinata the moment his body arched.
Municipal Kobe's block was a step too late, so even though Hinata didn't jump particularly high, he still managed to hit over the block.
Wakamura narrowed his eyes.
It was that kind of Quick Attack again; it's so annoying.
But the Libero, Hanae, reacted incredibly fast, thrusting a single hand out to cut off the ball's path.
With a loud bang, the volleyball flew into the air once again, dropping toward the net.
Wakamura had already rushed to keep up, lowering his center of gravity and leaping just five centimeters from the net, looking as if he were about to send the ball up with one hand.
Hinata focused his attention on the ball once again, while simultaneously observing Kanzaki Hirohiko moving into action again out of the corner of his eye.
But at that very moment, the volleyball suddenly flew over the net, Wakamura's hand failed to touch it.
Hinata moved a step faster, attempting to reach for the ball, but he couldn't keep up.
Municipal Kobe Libero scores.
Even Kanzaki, who had been shouting for the ball, was completely stunned, while on the other side, Tosaka landed on the ground with a look of helplessness.
But then, the first-year Ace, having finally reacted, cheered, "That was so cool! Akari!"
Wakamura turned back, throwing a provocative glance at Miya Atsumu.
"Wow, what a move." Miya Atsumu said, his face full of disgust.
This is way too disgusting; who could possibly react to that in time?
Akagi rolled his eyes: "You do it even more often than that, otherwise where would all my points come from?"
Miya Atsumu cleared his throat: "It's all tactics, tactics."
Meanwhile, on the other side, Hinata was still staring at Hanae Akari, who had just chased down his Quick Attack.
The opponent's movement to reach out was very decisive, making it clear that he was in a state of constant vigilance against the Quick Attack.
Yesterday, when he and Atsumu-senpai were watching the video, Atsumu-senpai said that the Number 4 Libero wasn't performing well at that time.
Indeed, at that time, the opponent's reception of most of those spikes was extremely poor, they would decisively choose to go for a diving save on some of the more difficult balls.
Compared to before, the current Number 4 is more like Komori's state, possessing enough confidence and precision in all his underhand passes to give the Setter the best possible space to play.
—I'm so envious.
Will he also become like this one day?
Yeah, I definitely have to become like this.
Becoming the strongest support behind the Setter.. it's absolutely cool!
Wakamura's serve wasn't as powerful as Miya Atsumu's, making Akagi's response relatively easy.
But the Ace rotating to the front row was quite difficult to handle, Municipal Kobe's three-point attack remained powerful.
Aran's spike was incredibly powerful; Hanae managed to handle it, but the pass was still too close to the net.
Wakamura pushed his hand under the volleyball with one hand, creating distance between the ball and the net, barely managing to send it to a place where a spiker could hit it.
With a loud bang, Kanzaki swung his body to the side as he spiked, doing his utmost to avoid touching the net.
"Contact!" Hinata proactively adjusted his hand position, popping the ball upward.
At this distance, even a slight deviation could cause one to hit the ball over the net before the Spiker can spike it, so a conservative touch would yield a better result.
"Great touch!" Akagi followed up with a dig.
With Hinata providing cover on the other side, Aran raised his hand and spiked the ball toward the approaching semi-blocker.
Why was there still half a block.. It was because Kanzaki had only moved half a step toward Hinata, so there was still a chance to recover.
Unfortunately, a block of this level is no match for the spike of a super Ace.
After returning from a round at the National Sports Festival, besides Hinata's evolution, the one who changed the most in the Inarizaki team was still Aran, whose overall condition had stabilized significantly.
Every spike was incredibly powerful, making it much easier for Suna to create opportunities for Hinata.
After the spike scored, the score became Inarizaki 5:2 Municipal Kobe.
Coach Kuchibira stood up by the sidelines to signal a time-out.
Hinata stole a glance at Wakamura-senpai, who was saying something to everyone on the opposite side, then turned and whispered to Miya Atsumu, "I suddenly feel like I've learned so many things."
For some reason, it felt as though the speed of the opponent's spike had slowed down, he could see the trajectory of the opponent's movements more clearly during the block.
Miya Atsumu shook the water bottle in his hand: "Isn't this normal? Some things are things you already know how to do; you just need time to digest them."
Whether it is receiving or blocking, it is actually all about observing the Spiker.
And Hinata himself is the most difficult type of spiker to handle; as long as he can fully commit himself and add a bit of sufficiently practiced fundamental skills, he can actually keep up.
As for quality.. that is a long-term endeavor.
Coach Inubata's training focuses on building fundamentals, while gaining sufficient practical experience is another matter entirely.
Unfortunately, there won't be a training camp with Shirabu's side in the next two months, so I don't know how the coach will arrange things. It would have been wonderful if someone like Ushijima or Kiryu could have come to act as a sparring partner for Hinata.
—Coach Kurosu thought so too.
He had even secretly packed Hinata's train ticket to Sendai behind everyone's backs.
Meanwhile, in the cafeteria of a certain high school in Sendai, Tendo Makoto walked toward Ushijima and Goshiki Tsutomu, who were standing shoulder to shoulder, looking at something.
What are you looking at?
Goshiki Tsutomu hurriedly made room for Tendo Makoto: "The Hyogo Haruko Qualifiers Finals."
Tendo smiled as he circled around to Ushijima Wakatoshi's side, squeezing between the two of them, leaned in to peer at the computer screen: "No need, I'll just take a look before I go."
Whether it was due to the influence of Hinata earlier or not, Goshiki had become increasingly bold in speaking to Ushijima lately, the frequency of his questions had also increased.
It was truly heartening.
Oh my, that first receive from the little one of Inarizaki..
“That was a pretty good receive.”
Coach Saito's eyes widened, unable to believe what he was seeing.
How did he remember Hinata not being like this two weeks ago?
A laugh suddenly came from beside him.
Saito looked back and saw Coach Washijo's smiling face.
Although he was gritting his teeth a bit, he was clearly quite happy.
"That guy Kurosu, he must have hired a professional to give him private lessons," Coach Washijo said, seeing through the truth at a glance.
That's truly impressive; I wonder which expert it was.
Chapter 136: The One Hundred and Thirty-Sixth Fox
After the time-out, Oori Ren continued serving.
Suna raised a hand to the side of his head, quietly watching the Municipal Kobe members standing ready on the other side of the net, while simultaneously providing cover for Oori's serve.
Glancing at Miya Atsumu, who was positioned quite far forward beside him, Suna lowered his head, lost in thought.
“What a great serve!”
Across the net, Hanae's expression remained unchanged, as he quietly estimated Oori Ren's possible movements in his mind.
His task was to receive the ball; everything else had nothing to do with him.
Because he is the lifeline of the team, he must never lose his composure, no matter the circumstances.
Even if targeted, it is better to stand up and handle the pressure.
Sugawara Koushi sighed in admiration in front of the computer, "This Libero has incredible mental fortitude."
Sawamura Daichi laughed, "After all, he's the Guardian Deity."
Kageyama lowered his head and thought for a moment, looking at the back of Nishi-senpai's head, but his mind drifted to Miya Atsumu.
If I were to use that senpai's words, it would be—if I can't score from the balls I receive, then everyone else shouldn't bother playing volleyball anymore?
Tsukishima looked down at Kageyama. "You look like you're thinking about something disgusting."
"Huh?" Kageyama raised an eyebrow.