The ball Hinata spiked flew just above Matou's fist and landed at the very back of the court.
Hanae quickly stepped aside and raised his hand in front of him, signaling, "Out!"
The referee looked down to check and ultimately ruled it out.
The side of Municipal Kobe erupted in cheers: "They broke the rally, they broke the rally!"
Matou-senpai is amazing! Akari's read was perfect!
On Inarizaki's side, it was a performance that looked as if the sky were falling for those two.
Hinata clutched his head: "My bad, my bad—"
He hadn't played a one-on-one for a long time, just as he was about to show off his skills, it turned into a joke.
Miya Atsumu clutched his head: "It was only a few centimeters off—"
Hinata had practiced this kind of tooling the block several times, had even practiced plays to avoid this exact situation, but Matou's arm length was still somewhat excessive, Hinata couldn't control it properly.
Coach Kuchibira and the manager beside him, Iguro, cheered together, "Nice! There's a chance!"
Starting the opening set so smoothly—this is a great opportunity.
Wakamura Souya serves.
At this critical moment of life and death, playing it safe with the serve is meaningless.
—Go for the score.
The moment he made his decision, Wakamura adjusted his form and tossed the ball straight up.
Aiming for the path Miya Atsumu would inevitably take as he moved toward the back row, Wakamura poured all his strength into the spike.
Miya Atsumu tried to dodge to the side, but the speed of Wakamura's serve was even faster than before, clearly an attempt to break through on the fly.
Taking a risk on a tactical break was high, but Wakamura's serve itself was quite ordinary; he was simply attempting to increase the ball's speed slightly.
Moreover, targeting his side covers a relatively large area, so it doesn't have much impact on the quality of the serve.
But.. being targeted like that gave Miya Atsumu a headache.
In a situation where it was impossible to dodge, Akagi decisively gave up on sending the ball forward and instead sent it toward the back.
Since there was no way to move forward anyway, he might as well just stay put.
Hinata raised his hand, calling out for the toss: "Give me the ball!"
Miya Atsumu didn't hesitate for long, sending the ball in the direction of Hinata's voice, and.. it was a flat set.
Looking up slightly at the ball, Hinata took two steps forward and leaped with a thud, accurately catching the ball's position and spiking it backhand toward Municipal Kobe.
Watching the ball Higashiyama barely managed to keep up, Wakamura's expression contorted: "That's monstrous."
A ball like that, which had nothing going for it except for the positioning and could only be described as a blind pass.. there probably aren't many people who could spike such a high-quality ball.
But to be fair, being able to maintain that level of quality on a receive from the baseline—Miya Atsumu is truly a freak.
Wakamura moved to chase the ball, jumping to send a back set toward the net.
Matou jumped in place, raising his hand and preparing to spike a line shot.
As Ginjima and Oori rushed over from the opposite side, he gave the ball a light tap, sending it over in a dump.
Akagi and Aran lunged from both sides almost simultaneously, it was impossible to tell whose hand reached the ball first.
Seeing that the ball was set quite high, Miya Atsumu couldn't help but praise, "Great save!"
As expected, after intensive training on counterattacks, everyone's quality of diving saves had improved quite a bit; at the very least, they could guarantee the height of the ball.
Hinata quickly swapped positions with Ginjima Yui, Miya Atsumu followed closely behind, setting the ball to Ginjima Yui in Position 4.
Matou, who had originally been watching Hinata, reacted a bit too slowly. By the time he chased after the ball, he had left a significant gap between himself and the side blocker, instantly creating a breakthrough point for Ginjima.
The full-power spike slammed down between the two opponents on the opposite side and then landed out of bounds.
The block went out, Inarizaki scores.
"YES!!" Ginjima pumped his fist fiercely.
As expected, the feeling of smashing the ball down like that is amazing.
Miya Atsumu patted Hinata on the back: "Nice cover."
Aran turned his head toward Ginjima, hoping he would join in the complaining: "Has this guy been getting more and more outrageous lately?"
Regardless, they always find a way to praise Hinata, completely ignoring those of us who put in the hard work without getting any of the credit.
Ginjima scratched his head. "He's always been like that, hasn't he?"
When he's in a good mood, he praises everyone; when he's in a bad mood, everyone looks like a pig to him.
But it was true, Atsumu was exceptionally indulgent toward Hinata.
But.. Hinata really has never let Atsumu down, which is a stark contrast to Aran-senpai..
Aran showed a deadpan expression.
He could tell that Ginjima had no intention of mocking the twins; instead, he was mocking him with his eyes.
Fine, he admitted that when his condition was unstable, it was indeed a bit frequent.
But that wasn't an excuse for Miya Atsumu's double standards; even when he was in top form, he never praised him the way he praised Hinata!
Bathed in Aran's resentful gaze, Ginjima Yui walked to the service position.
The whistle blew, the eight-second countdown began.
Spinning the ball on his fingertips, he then bent down to bounce it on the floor, Ginjima took a deep breath before tossing the ball up.
His serve had to be used for something; since Miya Atsumu's service turn failed to pull ahead in the score, he had to shoulder an even greater responsibility.
He couldn't control the precision like others could, but he still had absolute confidence in his power.
After all.. during the previous practice matches, he even sent Hinata flying with a serve.
But even though they were both just over 1.6 meters tall, Hanae was not Hinata.
As a professional Libero, it was impossible for him to be sent flying by a power serve.
After lowering his center of gravity, Hanae used his forearms to receive the ball.
"Great receive!" Wakamura-senpai raised his hands and sent the ball to Kanzaki.
Kanzaki, jumping from the back row, managed to tip the ball over the three-man block from Inarizaki, which still had the same topspin side-spin seen before.
But Akagi, who already had a sense of the speed of such balls, followed up with incredible speed, while diving close to the ground, he managed to dig the ball up.
Nice save!
Miya Atsumu leaned his body slightly backward, while arching his back, he sent the ball forward with a set.
Aran, who had already prepared himself at Position 4, took four steps forward and leaped high with a heavy thud.
The super Ace's full-power spike tore straight through the side of the block and slammed heavily onto the sideline.
Hanae had no chance to save the ball as he followed Hinata and Oori to cover the other side.
"Alright!" Aran clenched his fist tightly, then abruptly turned to look at him before Miya Atsumu could reach out to pat Hinata, raised his hand.
—Praise me!
Miya Atsumu fell into an eerie silence for a second, but ultimately raised his hand to high-five Aran: "Nice one, Aran."
Aran said expressionlessly, "Can you be a little more sincere?"
Miya Atsumu replied decisively, "No."
This is how an Ace should normally be; there's nothing to brag about just for doing one's job.
Aran was indignant.
More than half of the reason his condition was so poor was Miya Atsumu's fault!
Hinata rushed forward with both hands raised high: "Aran-senpai! That last play was so cool!"
Aran grinned and high-fived Hinata. "Of course, I'm the Ace!"
For a moment, Akagi thought he saw little flowers fluttering behind Aran.
Miya Atsumu pursed his lips, merely turning his head in silence to look at Rishia Heisuke, who was waiting by the sidelines to come on and serve for Oori.
Kumagai, in the waiting area, pressed his hands together.
This time, the one being glared at finally wasn't him; as expected, whoever serves for Oori-senpai gets glared at.
So, he will always like Suna-senpai.
Suna, sensing something vaguely, turned his head to glance at Kumagai: "You can't escape it."
Kumagai, having not understood at all, blinked.
What can't be escaped?
But Suna had no intention of explaining further; he just watched quietly as Ginjima prepared for the second serve.
It was incredibly silent on the side of Municipal Kobe at this moment, as everyone watched Inarizaki with solemn expressions.
They barely held the upper hand during Miya Atsumu's service turn at the start, but they were immediately overtaken by a series of consecutive points..
Wakamura said calmly, "Stay steady, don't let the score gap widen."
"Whoa, the pressure is intense." In front of the screen, Amatori wiped away non-existent sweat.
"You're clearly enjoying this." Iizuna looked at the corner of Amatori's mouth, which refused to drop.
Amatori gave a thumbs up: "Of course, seeing others suffer makes me happy."
In the middle of the court, Kiryu's feigned dump tricked Aran and Oori into thinking he would hit over the net, allowing Municipal Kobe to score a point.
"Don't worry about it," Miya Atsumu said, clapping his hands.
Aran was on fire, scoring again with a spike.
The overwhelming pressure from the Ace's spike clearly made Hanae feel like he couldn't keep up, combined with Inarizaki's intentional targeting of him for two sets, Hanae, who was already lacking in stamina, found it quite difficult to play.
Inarizaki took even more advantage of the momentum, subbing in Rishia Heisuke to serve.
Unlike Miya Atsumu's Dual Wield, Rishia Heisuke's serve was just an extremely ordinary power serve, but.. it was heavy and sharp enough.