Before the two could even start bickering, Sugawara Koushi's voice drifted over from afar: "You two!"
Both of them fell silent.
Just as Hanae had judged, Oori Ren's serve was aimed directly at his position, hitting right beside him near the sideline, clearly forcing him into a diving save.
But.. he didn't need to act according to his opponent's intentions.
After taking a cross step, Hanae steadily positioned himself under the ball and received it.
Oori Ren's serve didn't have much speed, which became a point he utilized perfectly.
"Give me the ball!!" the Ace called out for the set once again.
Wakamura didn't hesitate to set the ball, having complete faith in his Ace's ability to break through the defense.
Seeing that the two from the other side, Oori and his teammate, had already rushed up to chase the ball, Hinata decisively abandoned the block and retreated to prepare for a cover receive.
As the diagonal spike came crashing down, Hinata reached out a single hand to cushion the ball.
Unfortunately, while the judgment was correct, the receive was a bit off.
"Nice receive!" Miya Atsumu was not stingy with his praise, immediately setting the ball to Aran.
Coach Kurosu, standing by the sidelines, nodded. "Many times, knowing how to play and having the courage to play are two different things. For Hinata and the others, it's the same."
First-year players easily find themselves unable to play boldly, but whether it is Hinata Shoyo, Hanae, or Kanzaki, they only gained this level of confidence through one victory after another.
For high school level matches, this is the most important thing.
Aran's spike was chased down by Hanae, under the Ace's cover, Wakamura sent the ball to Tosaka for a Back Quick Attack.
With Inarizaki's best libero for saving and chasing balls off the court, Tosaka was able to successfully score by using the block to tip the ball.
Aran skillfully raised his hand to take the blame: "My bad, my bad."
Miya Atsumu pointed out the problem with incredible sharpness: "It was clearly Rintaro who dropped the ball."
Suna jumped too half-heartedly during that last attack, giving the opposing blockers no reason to even watch him; there's no way Aran's three-man block would have scored.
Returning, Akagi raised his hand and gave a clap: "Alright, alright, next ball."
Tosaka serves, as Municipal Kobe prepares to step onto the court, the absolute core Matou Yukimaru replaces the Libero.
Suna tilted his head slightly, his previously relaxed state became much more serious.
This is their old friend, in terms of how sharp his blocking and quick attacks are.. he is not even slightly better than Tosaka.
Hinata clenched his fists.
Quick Attack! This senpai's Back Quick Attack is incredibly powerful! I can finally see it up close!
Speaking of which, he rarely uses a Back Quick Attack in coordination with Miya Atsumu; most of the time, he utilizes a Side Quick Attack that exploits the lateral distance from the net.
Unfortunately, with the Ace in the front row, Wakamura doesn't set Matou very frequently.
He didn't notice at all until Hinata Shoyo's service turn ended without any fanfare.
As soon as the rotation shifted to the front row, Atsumu immediately called for Suna, forcing him to jump for a Center High Ball.
Suna, who rarely jumps, hit a high ball in the center, which was nothing short of a surprise attack for Municipal Kobe.
Of course, that went for Suna himself as well.
However, just because he rarely plays doesn't mean he can't.
On the contrary, as one of the tallest players in Inarizaki High School, he could easily blast through Municipal Kobe's not-so-high block using just his height.
This isn't the terrifying 1.9m iron wall of Fukuda General, so if only Matou is playing at a high level, it's completely insufficient.
Inarizaki regained the serve, the score jumped to 8:5.
Inarizaki took the lead with 8 points and entered a time-out.
Coach Kurosu nodded. "Just keep playing at this rhythm. Shoyo, just keep judging your defensive responsibilities like this."
"Understood!" Hinata responded, while still recalling the opponent's libero's save that he had seen earlier.
On the other side, Coach Omimi and Kita Shinsuke distributed all the towels and water bottles.
Even though it was already the Regional Finals, everyone seemed relatively relaxed. Compared to the high-intensity and dense six-match schedule of the National Tournament, the Regional Qualifiers certainly didn't carry as much pressure; one could even say they had very little overall physical depletion before facing Municipal Kobe.
—Has the physical training been effective?
Coach Omimi's thoughts strayed for a moment.
The time-out ended quickly, Owari Aran prepared to serve.
That was a great serve, Aran-senpai!
Aran's serve was heavy and powerful enough, which was also the first time in this match that Hanae gave up on attempting a dig. Even so, Aran's precise serve to the baseline still caused him to misjudge it.
Coach Kurosu, standing by the sidelines, rubbed his chin. As expected, Hanae was somewhat unskilled at controlling the ball after a diving save.
“Wakamura-senpai! Save it!!”
The ball was headed toward Wakamura, but it was moving too fast and had too much spin, so the Setter didn't have enough time to handle it.
Miya Atsumu silently shifted half a step toward the center.
In emergency situations, a setter will pass the ball to their most trusted spiker, will also execute tactics that require little thought, having become pure instinct.
And for Yura Shota.. it was a Back Quick Attack to coordinate with Matou Yukimaru.
As Miya Atsumu had expected, Wakamura sent the ball directly to Matou at the closest possible distance.
Miya Atsumu, Suna Rintaro, the third person, all prepared in advance, leaped up simultaneously, forming a solid block in front of Matou.
Matou's expression remained unchanged as he stared intently at Ginjima's fingers, tipping the ball at an angle.
Accompanied by a series of consecutive thuds, the volleyball flew high toward the second-floor stands.
Watching the ball, which was impossible to save, Akagi and Hinata both felt disappointed at the same time.
If it had been just a little bit lower, they would have been able to rush out and chase it.
Matou landed on the ground, looking at Miya Atsumu's slightly distorted expression and spoke softly, "Even if you guess it, you have to be able to block it."
The reason he could become the spiker most trusted by the setter was because he had enough ability to handle the bad sets given by the setter.
These three second years from Inarizaki are still too green; he easily caught them tooling the block.
Ginjima said nothing, merely pursing his lips in silence.
Hinata's eyes were shining. As expected, seeing this Back Quick Attack up close was even more shocking. The spike was so fast and decisive, even taking advantage of a small error by the blockers.
Municipal Kobe's Higashiyama Minami serves. He glanced at the positioning of Inarizaki's back row, it was exactly as he had anticipated.
The three people currently in the back row for Inarizaki are Akagi, Hinata, Aran.
Unlike when they played Fukuda General, Inarizaki didn't provide any protection for Hinata at the opposite position; instead, they had him and the other two perform the first receive together.
Compared to the other third years, Owari Aran and Akagi Michinari, Hinata's receiving level is definitely somewhat inferior.
Even looking at the previous match between Inarizaki High School and Itachiyama, Hinata was actually very easy to target.
It was just that, for Itachiyama at that time, the payoff of targeting Hinata was less than directly attempting to score from a serve.
But for him, it was different.
Although he can also perform a Jump Serve, he is only at a mediocre level.
Inarizaki itself uses a three-person formation for receiving serves, his serve basically doesn't score much anyway, so he might as well use it to target Hinata.
Anyway, Inarizaki was also putting pressure on their Libero, so he was simply giving them a taste of their own medicine.
Having made up his mind, Higashiyama retreated to the starting position for his approach, clutching the ball.
Spinning the volleyball between his hands, Higashiyama waited quietly until the very last second of the service time limit before tossing the ball up.
Unabara Uta, waiting in the staging area, loathed this: "Disgusting, absolutely disgusting."
He truly detested this behavior of serving within the time limit; after all, such a surprise attack was a real test of one's heart, making it very easy to fail to react in time.
However, achieving this kind of effect requires long-term practice.
But for schools at the level of the top eight in the nation, it was still a piece of cake.
Of course, because they had been tormented so many times, they weren't afraid of being on the receiving end.
—He was referring to himself as the Libero.
As for Hinata.. Unabara quietly broke a sweat for him.
Based on that blatant, scrutinizing gaze from the opponent's server just now, anyone with eyes could see that he had his sights set on Hinata Shoyo.
Higashiyama tossed the ball up in the very last second of the time limit.
Hinata kept his hands at his sides, maintaining a perfectly standard receiving stance, ready at any moment to meet the opponent's serve.
Don't panic; this number 8's serve is nowhere near the level of Atsumu-senpai or Aran-senpai; he can handle it.
Bang!
The sound of a heavy spike rang out, in an instant, the ball flew over the net, crashing down toward Hinata's side.
Coach Inubata's teachings flashed through Hinata's mind in rapid succession.
Remember the most standard, most efficient, most time-saving footwork: move first, then set your hands, once you're in position, you must, absolutely must, plant your back heel firmly..
But before he could even finish his thought, his body had already moved first.
In the next second, accompanied by an extremely solid thud, the volleyball flew high into the air, landing on the front row's attack line.
Miya Atsumu's voice followed immediately: "What a great receive!"
Just as Miya Atsumu said himself, he had said this exact sentence to Hinata Shoyo countless times before.
Perhaps it was out of encouragement before, but at this moment, it is praise from the bottom of his heart.
An absolutely perfect first receive, as solid as if it were delivered right into his hands by Akagi.
Half a year ago, he could hardly have imagined that this would one day come from Hinata.. No, it would be more accurate to say he could hardly have imagined seeing it during his second year of high school.
—It actually moved him a little.
A perfect first receive provides a tremendous amount of room for a setter to play, not only allowing them to save energy to help the spikers deal with the block itself, but even..
Miya Atsumu suddenly spun in mid-air, spiking the ball with one hand down into the center of the Municipal Kobe court.