Coach Kurosu cleared his throat twice.
Whatever he says about copying or not, he's right here.
He is a teacher at Inarizaki, after all; give him some respect.
Wakamura, on the other side of the net, glanced over at the laughing and chatting Inarizaki side, his expression souring even more.
Wakamura glared aggressively at Matou beside him: "Yukimaru, crush them for me."
Sighing, Matou raised a hand to rub his hair and said indifferently, "I can't."
Wakamura protested, "Hey! Give me some face!"
After confirming with the referee that Hanae's injury had been treated, the match resumed.
After Inarizaki scores, Miya Atsumu serves.
In the silent gymnasium, Hanae emptied his mind at a single gesture from Miya Atsumu.
If they were shonen manga protagonists, they would definitely be the type still grinding for levels.
Otherwise..
How could we have run into such a terrifying overlord.
Chapter 139: The One Hundred Thirty-Ninth Fox
Hanae took a deep breath.
Bring it on; he definitely won't be afraid.
The next second, accompanied by the heavy sound of a hit appearing near his ears, the volleyball had already flown over the net and smashed down beside him.
Just like the previous set, the serve was aimed at an extremely tight position on his side, clearly intended to force him into a diving save.
Forcing himself to suppress his own movement, Hanae lowered his center of gravity and used his flexibility to reach the ball with his arm.
His precision with the diving receive was simply too low, Municipal Kobe needed his high-level receive to allow the setter to perform better, so no matter what, he could not let Inarizaki get the better of him.
Amatori couldn't help but praise aloud in front of the screen: "Impressive."
Iizuna also nodded in agreement: "He has great potential."
This is likely the most talented Libero to emerge since Yaku and Komori.
Even though Yaku has never entered the public eye because Nekoma itself hasn't achieved great results, as a Libero personally trained by Coach Nekota, people will naturally be keeping an eye on him.
Behind him, Agatsuma's eyes lit up as he wrote down the answer to that question, but.. there was a typo.
"What a great receive!" Wakamura, who was already in position, raised his hand to set the ball toward Kanzaki in Position 4.
Meanwhile, Ginjima and Oori had been eyeing Kanzaki for some time, they moved to block him almost the instant the ball passed, positioning themselves firmly in front of him.
After a full set of testing each other, Kanzaki already knew Oori's abilities incredibly clearly.
Knowing full well that he had no way to spike through these two, Kanzaki decisively chose to hit a backhand spike toward the right short diagonal to avoid the block.
But that was the only path Oori and Ginjima had left for him; even though his reaction speed was already very fast, Oori was still just a bit too late to block the ball.
Touch!
Having already swapped positions with Aran, Akagi dove forward in a spectacular dig to keep the ball in play: "Atsumu!"
"Beautiful!" Miya Atsumu quickly followed up, leaping forward while arching his back in a beautiful curve.
His fingers touched the ball and applied force in an instant, sending it with unerring precision into the hands of Hinata, who had already leaped into the air at Position 2.
The entire process was executed without a single moment of hesitation; anyone watching would consider it a textbook example of a running approach jump followed by a back set.
Having just pulled back from the net, Kanzaki quickly moved to where Hinata had jumped, creating distance from the net before attempting to touch the ball.
But Hinata's speed was simply too fast; even so, Kanzaki still failed to touch the ball.
Hanae dove in a diving save, but in the end, he was just a little too late.
The Inarizaki members cheered, "Nice play!"
After high-fiving Hinata, Miya Atsumu immediately looked toward Kumagai, who had just arrived by the coach's bench and was preparing to sub in for Oori to serve.
——Did you see that? That is a demonstration of standard form. What kind of terrible toss was that you just gave me?
Kumagai placed both hands on his knees, sitting extremely upright, didn't dare to even breathe heavily under Miya Atsumu's gaze.
—His current crappy skills aren't up to that yet! Let him practice for another year!
Miya Atsumu withdrew his dangerous gaze, preparing to serve the second ball.
Before serving, he glanced at Kumagai once more.
—Watch closely, see what a true Dual Wield looks like.
In fact, Kumagai was already watching him intently, even without Miya Atsumu having to glare.
As Inarizaki's substitute setter, Miya Atsumu was undoubtedly his blueprint. If he had the chance to become a starter in the future, he would be satisfied as long as he could achieve even half of what Miya Atsumu could.
Hanae pinched his own leg, forcing himself to calm down.
Losing two points in a row right at the start, it was even during an Inarizaki service turn.. To be honest, he couldn't even control the fear rising within him.
But this wouldn't do; no matter the circumstances, as a Libero, he could never back down.
Hanae shouted at the top of his lungs, "Bring it on!!"
Wakamura, who was being blocked by Hanae, clenched his fists tightly, but quickly relaxed them again.
Thinking that much is useless; first, think carefully about how to counterattack in this situation.
You absolutely cannot let a ball received by a junior go to waste.
I've got it!
Receiving the ball once again, Hanae's set was quite good after slowly getting used to the intense pressure of Miya Atsumu's serves.
"Give me the ball!!" the Ace shouted again, calling for a toss.
Hinata stepped back to prepare for the spike, while simultaneously subconsciously shifting his focus toward Kanzaki.
Generally, if the first receive is in place, Wakamura-senpai would be more inclined to set the ball to the wing spiker..
Wakamura thought so too.
He looked up at the volleyball falling toward his position, thinking about what to do.
Kanzaki's performance in attacking was certainly not weak; even during the previous Interhigh, he performed excellently against many established powerhouse schools, though he was indeed much weaker compared to someone like Aran or Bokuto-senpai.
This is also why they would instantly fall into a disadvantage the moment they encountered a well-rounded school like Itachiyama or Inarizaki.
But.. he doesn't only have one Ace to rely on; the other players can also play an absolute role in the offense.
After jumping, Wakamura raised his hand to set the ball to Tosaka, who jumped behind him. With only one person from Inarizaki's block closing in, Tosaka decisively spiked the ball toward the corner of the Inarizaki court where Hinata was located.
Wakamura felt in a great mood as he watched Oori Ren's slightly stunned expression.
By utilizing the momentum of the block, this is actually a play that Inarizaki frequently uses.
When everyone thought he would set, he sets it to the one person it could absolutely never be. That.. is much more interesting, isn't it?
Hinata's expression instantly became colorful after completely failing to receive the ball.
The moment everyone from Inarizaki looked over, Hinata hurriedly took the blame: "My bad, my bad!"
Ahhh, he's making that same old mistake again.
In moments like this, you can't focus on the Spiker; you have to keep your eyes on the ball!
Coach Kurosu laughed loudly on the sidelines.
Actually, even if they focused on the ball, they might not be able to receive it, since this kind of Back Quick Attack is quite fast, but.. having the awareness to know what they did wrong is enough.
Just like how the back row on the Municipal Kobe side can't receive the ball when a block is ineffective, if their side fails to follow through with a block on the contact, receiving a Quick Attack is also very painful. It's just that many times, Oori Ren and Suna have faster reaction speeds, allowing them to consistently provide Akagi and the others with a stable receiving environment.
"YES!!" The Municipal Kobe side erupted in cheers.
The service naturally passed to Murata.
Theoretically speaking, Murata's service turn would also feature their powerful serves, but their performance in this kind of gymnasium was quite limited. Additionally, since Inarizaki's dual-wing and libero receiving style was remarkably stable, even a very high lob serve was barely managed by Akagi.
Raising his hands to steadily tip the ball up, Akagi called out the setter's name: "Atsumu!"
Atsumu quickly moved in to set the ball: "Nice receive!"
Hinata blinked.
That overhead receiving style is indeed incredibly cool, but he can't stabilize it yet. Once he has practiced his forearm passes enough, he must find an opportunity to practice his overhead receives properly.
Coach Inubata, sitting in the stands, rubbed his chin. "I guess he should practice using his hands as well, after all?"
The ball control precision of the palms and fingers themselves is much better than that of the forearms, once you get used to it, you can utilize it frequently during the first receive.
As luck would have it, he had also promised Coach Kurosu to help practice setting, so he would learn them both together.
Thinking of this, Coach Inubata suddenly froze for a moment. "Wait, that's not right.."
The assistant beside him blinked. "What's wrong?"
Inubata narrowed his eyes. "Is that guy Kurosu taking advantage of me? I'm only teaching because of Atsumu and Shoyo, so why is someone still making demands?"
The assistant remained silent.
Coach Kurosu has been ordering that for half a month already, you're only just noticing.
After Higashiyama scored with a tip, Municipal Kobe broke Ginjima's service turn, it was Tosaka's turn to serve.
After swapping positions with Hanae, Matou Yukimaru returned to the court.
Hinata also became alert.
Matou-senpai's pressure during a block is more than just a little stronger than Tosaka-senpai's, so he's going to start running a quick attack as well.
Matou gave Higashiyama a look, Higashiyama winked back, signaling that he understood.
Miya Atsumu reached out and grabbed Hinata's clothes, pulling him back a little.
As Hinata looked over in confusion, Miya Atsumu raised a finger, gesturing the number one.