Kuroo leaned back against his chair's backrest: "This kind of match is a rare find."
Even in matches involving Inarizaki and Itachiyama, many games could be dragged out by Sakusa and Komori, but the two sides on the court now were not to be trifled with at all.
Shiratori shook his head. "The next match might be even more intense."
Kuroo didn't react for a moment. "Who is the next opponent?"
Shimizu, who had brought drinks for the two of them, pressed the aluminum cans against their faces from behind, causing them both to shudder from the cold.
Seeing the two of them startled, Shimizu's laughter rang out.
It's Mr. Owl and Mr. Raccoon.
Kuroo's eyes lit up: "Oh, that's certainly something to look forward to."
Shiratori agreed, "It's a clash of titans."
The service advantage on the court had already passed into Oikawa's hands.
The cheering from Aobajohsai erupted almost instantly: "Nice serve, Oikawa!"
Go for it, Tooru-kun! Serve a great one!!
Inarizaki's cheering was not to be outdone, the boos grew even more intense.
Watching Oikawa Tooru walk to the serving position under the gaze of the entire crowd, Shiratori fell silent.
Where did this superstar come from..
Chapter 187: The One Hundred and Eighty-Seventh Fox
Hinata stared intently at Oikawa Tooru, who was spinning the volleyball in his hands, while his mind recalled Oikawa Tooru's serves from his memories and the video recordings.
He remembered Atsumu-senpai saying that Oikawa-senpai's serves were much faster than before.
When handling this kind of situation, one shouldn't use brute force; it's better to neutralize it through cleverness in one's posture.
However, Oikawa-senpai might not necessarily hit him, so he didn't need to be overly nervous..
In the next second, he felt Oikawa Tooru's gaze lock onto him.
Hinata's smile froze on his face, he felt as if his soul were about to leave his body.
He wouldn't hit him.. how could he!
His receiving skills were already inferior to Akagi-senpai's, most of the time, he was just a sitting duck.
But it didn't matter; in order to better protect his setter, he had been practicing his receiving skills hard for months.
He would never be afraid of Oikawa-senpai's serve!
Before the referee's whistle, he moved imperceptibly half a step toward Akagi, staying at the absolute limit of being offside.
Amidst the boos from Inarizaki, Oikawa Tooru curled his lips into a smirk.
Listening to the whistle blowing in his ears, he caught the ball with one hand.
The cheering from Aobajo gradually quieted down, making the boos from Inarizaki even more prominent.
But Oikawa Tooru didn't care; instead, after putting pressure on Hinata by staring him down continuously, he tossed the ball into the air just as the serve time limit was about to expire.
His tossing motion was extremely decisive, he essentially stepped forward immediately the next second after tossing the ball.
Hinata's eyes widened slightly.
Is he.. going to use a projectile motion movement to hit a high toss?
And just as Oikawa Tooru tossed the ball up, the Seijo stands, which had previously fallen silent, suddenly erupted with shouts.
Ugh—
Hey!!
Bang!
The sound of the hit exploded in Hinata's ears, almost synchronizing with the cheers from Seijo.
Without giving Hinata any chance to react, the volleyball slammed down near him in an instant.
The ball's speed.. it was so fast that he couldn't react at all!
Hinata raised his hands, wanting to pop the ball up using his forearms.
But the power of this ball was simply too strong, sending him falling backward directly.
Miya Atsumu, who had originally prepared to circle around to the setter's position, had just lifted his foot, leaving it suspended in mid-air without having taken the step, when he felt himself being bumped.
The sudden shift in center of gravity caused Miya Atsumu to fall backward as well, but fortunately, the fall wasn't fast, giving Miya Atsumu enough time to protect himself.
The volleyball flew out of the court and smashed into the second-floor stands.
As the whistle blew, the sound of the two from Inarizaki crashing to the ground rang out as well.
The irritable Amatori raised his hand and sent the racket flying back toward Iizuna: "Why is it me again!"
Komori raised his hand to cover half of his face: "The form was right, but.."
His weight was too light and his center of gravity was too high; he was completely knocked off balance.
Hinata lay on his back, looking up at the sky, seriously contemplating his life.
Although his seniors in the department often stuffed him with snacks after training, even Kumagai, Unabara Uta, Tokura frequently came over during class breaks to bring him milk, even Rishia would sometimes come to his house to eat fruit together after finishing his meal at home..
But for some reason, after this training cycle, he had only gained five kilograms.
Even Rishia didn't eat as much as him, yet he had actually gained nearly ten kilograms!
Even after being forced into a weight loss regimen by the coach, he still gained more than he did before!
—He suddenly felt that perhaps he had been eating too few rice balls and Pudding.
The Kita Team was right; one needs to eat more staples to have the fat necessary to turn into muscle.
Eating well was also one of his tasks.
Miya Atsumu, being pressed down underneath, let out a muffled groan: "Shoyo, get up."
Hinata, who had only just realized there was someone underneath him, practically bounced up instantly, turning to perform a smooth dogeza: "I'm sorry, Atsumu-senpai! I'll definitely receive the next ball!"
Senpai, you aren't hurt, are you! I didn't mean to crash into you!
Oikawa Tooru, on the other side of the net, watched the commotion with interest, saying, "What tyranny, absolute tyranny."
Iwaizumi Hajime raised an eyebrow: "This is how Kunimi and Kindaichi describe Kageyama, isn't it?"
It was completely inappropriate to use it here, because Miya Atsumu on the opposite side was currently coaxing Hinata.
"No problem at all, your senior is doing just fine." Miya Atsumu stretched his joints to show Hinata that he wasn't injured.
You'll just have to hit it back in a moment, yeah, just keep your eyes on Oikawa-senpai.
Aside from the left-handed Ushijima, Oikawa Tooru is the only person in the entire high school circuit capable of delivering such a heavy, powerful serve with intense spin.
If they can stably receive Oikawa Tooru's serves, there will be nothing to fear even when they reach the professional stage.
Oikawa Tooru took the ball handed back to him by the staff member, preparing to serve the next one.
This time, Inarizaki also made a slight adjustment to their back row positioning, with Akagi moving closer to Hinata's position.
On the other side, Miya Osamu led the defense, while Aran retreated from the front row to provide support.
Essentially, the formation has changed from the previous three-person receive formation to a four-person one, making it arguably the strongest defensive formation currently available in the high school circuit.
Komori, watching from the stands, was shocked: "Wow, this.. Inarizaki doesn't use this much when they play us, right?"
This is the greatest sign of respect for a server, enough to show just how much Inarizaki values Oikawa Tooru's serve.
But to be honest, a heavy, spinning serve like that would likely fly off even if it were his first time encountering it, let alone for Hinata, who has only just emerged from his novice stage.
And..
After a brief silence, the Aoba side cheered again just as Oikawa Tooru tossed the ball.
Ngh—Hey!!
Feeling the wave of sound pressing over from the opposite side, Komori couldn't help but swallow hard.
This sense of pressure is simply too intense..
But this time, under Akagi's cover, Oikawa's serve had no chance to strike Hinata directly.
After seeing it in person once and gaining an understanding of Oikawa's serve speed, Akagi decisively chose to predict the play based on Oikawa's spiking posture.
Having positioned himself perfectly, he lowered his center of gravity and pointed his arms toward the ball, using the most basic technique of simply absorbing the spin.
“Atsumu!”
Miya Atsumu, having already moved to the Attack Line, jumped in place and used a single-handed touch to spike the ball directly toward the opponent.
This ball came quite unexpectedly, but Watari Chikaharu's reaction speed was still very fast.
Combined with the energy he had spent on setting earlier, his judgment regarding the Second Attack became even sharper.
"Oikawa-senpai!" He reached up and sent the not-so-heavy ball flying.
Iwaizumi Hajime and Kyokutsu completed a cross in front of Oikawa Tooru, charging toward both ends of the net to launch an attack.
After using another feint to draw away part of the block, Oikawa Tooru sent the ball to Iwaizumi Hajime, who was facing him.
Iwaizumi Hajime was in peak condition while spiking from Position 4, combined with Oori and Aran's blocking being a half-beat slow because they were overly cautious of Kyokutsu, it left him the perfect route for a line spike.
Even though Miya Osamu was in the back row preparing to receive, it.. wasn't a major problem.
Because it was a lateral movement, it wasn't a near-perfect jump, but simply a single-leg takeoff.
But Iwaizumi Hajime's raw strength alone held up this ball, the moment he spiked it, he unleashed an incomparable power.
The volleyball didn't dodge or swerve, smashing straight toward Miya Osamu.
The moment his arm made contact with the volleyball, Miya Osamu felt that something was very wrong.
The next second, the volleyball flew straight out of the court, completely confirming his premonition.
"Nice!!" Iwaizumi Hajime cheered, turning to high-five Oikawa Tooru.