Nasu, feeling as if he were being stared down by a wild beast, felt cold sweat instantly break out on his forehead.
Wait, wait, wait, what's going on?
Even if there were infighting within the team, it shouldn't be enough to make him look at him like that.
This made him feel like he wasn't a Libero playing a volleyball match at all, but rather a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
—More like a scapegoat, even.
The whistle blew, the Head Referee raised his hand, signaling Miya Atsumu to serve.
And Miya Atsumu didn't wait at all; the very second the whistle blew, he had already tossed the ball into the air.
Under Kita Shinsuke's gaze from the sidelines, Miya Atsumu, who should have been targeting the opponent's weaknesses with more float serves, instead delivered another incredibly powerful Power Jump Serve.
After a heavy thud, the court fell silent.
That ball went out of bounds, a glorious out.
Two bursts of laughter rang out from the front of the net.
Pfft.
Chapter 202: Two Hundred and Two Foxes
Atsumu.
A soft call rang out from the sidelines, making Miya Atsumu, who had been about to protest against Miya Osamu and Suna, unable to help but shrink his neck.
He looked back and saw Kita Shinsuke, who had sat down by the Coach's bench at some unknown point, and.. Kumagai, who was sitting obediently beside him with his hands placed dutifully on his knees.
Kita Shinsuke sat with his right leg crossed over his left, arms folded across his chest, quietly watching Miya Atsumu.
It carried the implication that if he kept playing so recklessly, he would be subbed out.
Miya Atsumu turned his head stiffly, pretending not to have seen.
He was wrong; he really knew he was wrong, he had to make his brain calm down.
But.. why is he glaring at him!
Aren't the culprits Osamu and Suna!
Ouji Son breathed a sigh of relief: "So lucky~"
The feeling of being hit by a violent jump serve like Miya Atsumu's is truly terrifying.
But along with such a high scoring frequency, Miya Atsumu's own serve error rate wasn't low either, averaging about three per match.
Kuroe Kao also breathed a sigh of relief: "The people from Inarizaki really are quite lacking when it comes to serving endurance."
He had discovered while reviewing Inarizaki's match footage that when Inarizaki engaged in sustained serving rallies, they almost always ended because of errors.
Especially Miya Atsumu and Aran, the two of them had the highest frequency of errors.
Hinata cheered for Miya Atsumu: "It's okay, Atsumu-senpai! You'll get the next point back!"
Before Miya Atsumu could even respond emotionally, Miya Osamu cut in, "Give it up, Shoyo, he's unreliable."
Besides, he's unreliable outside the court as well; even following Hinata around, he still lets Hinata get bullied.
Secondly, this guy is occasionally unreliable on the court as well; just now, his serve went out of bounds quite decisively.
Miya Atsumu was speechless.
He stood there like a frostbitten eggplant, feeling as though all the color had drained from his lips.
Fujisawa Kafka took the volleyball from Kuroe Kao's hands, circled around to the back row in the center, prepared to serve the next ball.
Watching Fujisawa Kafka stand at the baseline preparing to toss the ball, Iizuna in the stands was a bit surprised: "It's not a jump serve."
To be honest, this was already the national semifinals, aside from the Middle Blockers, almost no one didn't use a Jump Serve; Ichibayashi, being in Position 5, was being quite unconventional.
Watching Fujisawa Kafka's very familiar practice motion, Hinata froze for a moment.
He quickly put his hands behind his back, signaling to the others.
Akagi was a bit dazed, but he still imperceptibly raised his center of gravity.
Shiratori rubbed his chin. "A Ceiling Serve, probably."
When they played against Ichibayashi, Fujisawa Kafka had used a jump serve.
Giving up now would only be to prepare for a Ceiling Serve; otherwise, it would be meaningless.
Shimizu rested his chin on his hand beside him, the two of them imitating The Thinker together. "It should be."
He often kept his Ceiling Serve hidden, only bringing it out as a secret weapon when facing a difficult opponent.
In the next second, the Head Referee blew the whistle, signaling that Ichibayashi's side would serve.
Fujisawa Kafka did not move, but instead waited quietly for the time for the serve to pass.
In the final moment, he suddenly took a step back.
He tossed the ball up with his left hand, then swung his right hand back to build momentum.
The Inarizaki side remained calm, but the spectators in the stands gasped, "A float serve!"
Shimizu laughed. "Just as I thought."
Akagi had already adjusted his position and moved backward, looking up and staring intently at the flying volleyball.
As soon as he confirmed the volleyball was landing near him, he shouted, "I've got it!"
“What a first receive!” Miya Atsumu shouted, moving expressionlessly under the ball.
Hinata and Suna approached from both sides toward the center, preparing to cross in front of the setter.
Rei on the opposing side was constantly staring at Hinata's movements.
As Hinata prepared to sprint toward Position 2 to jump, he also took a step forward to follow him.
Miya Atsumu frowned slightly, but he still raised his hand to set the ball toward the side of Position 2.
Hinata locked eyes with Rei on the other side of the net, took a deep breath, then leaped up at the net with a heavy thud.
Watching the setter's toss approach, Rei became excited as well: "That's it!"
He had gambled correctly; in this situation, number 7 definitely preferred to set for number 17!
But at the very moment he jumped, Hinata's hand didn't spike at all; instead, he let the volleyball pass right in front of him, letting it fall toward the area near the marker.
Miya Osamu, who had been running up from outside the net at an angle nearly parallel to it, leapt into the air at that exact moment.
His parabolic trajectory during the jump allowed him to make contact with the ball just less than half a meter away from Hinata as he reached his peak.
With a loud bang, the volleyball had already been spiked by Miya Osamu.
With no block in sight, his line spike went through like it was an empty space, smashing straight toward the sideline.
Rei's eyes widened, his face filled with shock.
No, is there really a way to coordinate like that while spreading out?
This isn't even volleyball anymore, it's acrobatics! Who runs like that!
Besides, the opposing team didn't even call a play, so how did they know to play it like that?
Is it telepathy between twins and their junior?
Sitting in the stands, Oikawa Tooru glanced at the back of Kyokutsu's head two rows ahead and said nothing.
Perhaps these people from Inarizaki just.. have an amazing level of unspoken understanding when it comes to acting on whatever thought comes to mind.
After all, they were all trained by the same teacher, so their thinking logic and playing habits were easy to understand.
Coordination achieved solely through instinct and raw physical ability.. it's truly annoying.
The moment Hinata landed, he bent down and crouched to avoid being collided with by Miya Osamu, who was jumping at an extremely high speed from a close distance.
Ichibayashi's Fujisawa Kafka's save was barely passable, but since he was close enough and had fast reaction speed, he managed to reach the ball with a diving save before it hit the ground.
Save it!
"Nice save!" Kuroe Kao remained calm, quickly following up with a jump and a beautiful arching back.
The volleyball was sent precisely to Position 4 by him, without even a single bit of cover from the other players during the entire process.
All eyes were cast upon Hoshinoya at this moment, making him the target of everyone's attention.
Hinata stepped forward at Suna's call, jumping to prepare for a block near the Position 4 marker.
He didn't need to aim for a direct kill; just getting a touch on the ball would be enough.
Moreover, the purpose of his block was more to "make the opponent realize there is a block here," thereby forcing them to be more cautious in their choice of shot.
But.. Ichibayashi's Ace doesn't play by the rules at all.
A full-force spike slammed straight into the block once again.
Even though Hinata tried to keep his body as straight as possible to pop the ball up, he was still knocked off balance, the ball lost control.
The volleyball fell toward Ichibayashi's side, crashing outside the court.
The ball went out of bounds, the last person to touch it was Hinata.
The whistle blew, Ichibayashi scored.
Miya Osamu frowned. "That's completely unreasonable.."
Although people often joked that Ushijima relied mostly on sheer power to overcome everything, compared to an ace like Ichibayashi, Ushijima's playstyle might actually be considered a bit gentler.
After all, Ushijima wouldn't just smash every ball into the block without considering the situation.
And this Ace, Ichibayashi.. was relying entirely on the excellent setting provided by the setter to choose a violent strong attack time and time again.
—And it was quite effective, too.
Hinata sat on the ground, clutching his hand.
For a moment just now, he thought he had been hit by a truck!
Suna immediately reached out toward Hinata: "Is your hand injured?"