Kuroe Kao decisively took a step back, while Fujisawa Kafka, who had rushed in front of him, raised his hands to receive the ball and sent it toward a position further back.
Since moving forward was difficult, he wouldn't move forward.
Near the baseline, Kuroe Kao raised her hand, delivering a pass with an extreme angle and a very long trajectory.
Suna and Miya Osamu rushed toward the volleyball at the same time, blocking the path of the approaching Ouji Son.
Seeing the spin brought by the setter, Ouji Son's hands quickly rotated in the opposite direction, brushing the ball toward the other side.
The volleyball landed in the Inarizaki court at a very sharp angle, its spin causing its trajectory to graze the top of the net.
Aran reached out, using one hand to intercept the ball's trajectory toward the ground, but the ball flew straight toward the Position 2 marker.
Miya Osamu jumped immediately after, raising his hands to set the ball right in front of Aran.
Whether it was because he had been fired up by Hoshinoya, or because he had been called upon to step up in a crisis due to the juniors being unreliable today, Aran resolutely chose to spike a line shot through the opponent's three-man Iron Wall.
After the heavy impact, the slightly thin Rei was knocked backward by the force, the ball struck the court at Ichibayashi without much deviation in its trajectory.
Fujisawa Kafka didn't have time to dodge, the ball hit him directly in the face.
Ugh!
Bang!!
The volleyball soared high into the air, turning into a tiny black dot in everyone's sight.
Great save!
Kuroe Kao stepped over Fujisawa Kafka's fallen "corpse" and quickly chased after the ball.
During the jump, the volleyball was precisely sent to the front of Position 4.
Ouji Son, who had retreated outside the court, ran up again, turning sideways with the intention of spiking a short diagonal.
Before Suna could react and prepare to adjust, a hand swiped back, spiking the ball toward a spot just behind Position 3 in the front court.
Before he could even land, a shadow had already leaped from the ground.
With a heavy thud of impact, the ball was spiked, crashing back down onto Ichibayashi's court.
The ball was incredibly fast, no different from a Power Jump Serve; Fujisawa Kafka, who had just scrambled up, was hit squarely in the shoulder by the ball and fell back down again.
The whistle blew, Inarizaki scores.
The Inarizaki members turned their heads to look at the gloomy-faced Miya Atsumu.
Miya Atsumu, who had just spiked that ball, let out a soft breath and tilted his head to look at Miya Osamu.
Hinata, who had also intended to spike it directly, stared blankly, feeling a bit dazed.
—His ball!
“Nonsense.” Kita Shinsuke frowned slightly.
Coach Omimi completely relaxed his mindset: "As long as we score."
It was a bit chaotic, but these little guys all had their own rhythm.
Hinata raised his hands and cheered, "Atsumu-senpai is so cool!"
To be able to directly spike against an opponent's spike; that kind of decisiveness and technical ability is incredible!
Atsumu, who had been gloomy, softened his expression when he looked at Hinata. "Cool, right?"
Hinata gave him a thumbs up. "The most incredibly handsome in the universe."
As he spoke, Atsumu reached out and wrapped his arm around Hinata's neck: "Say it, 'Atsumu-senpai is the most handsome in the world.'"
Hinata complied readily: "Atsumu-senpai is the most handsome in the world!"
He lowered his head slightly to nuzzle Hinata's hair, after catching that familiar scent, Miya Atsumu couldn't help but curl his lips into a smirk.
He looked up, meeting Miya Osamu's gaze, which looked at him as if he were some piece of non-recyclable waste.
Miya Atsumu tilted his head slightly, raising an eyebrow at Osamu with a face full of a victor's smugness.
Miya Osamu was not being polite either: "You're like a pervert."
Miya Atsumu refused to admit it: "How am I a pervert?"
Osamu turned away in despair, looking at Suna beside him. "He's hopeless, this guy is completely hopeless."
He warned him again, "Shoyo, stay away from this pervert."
Hinata said with a face full of righteousness, "Atsumu-senpai isn't a pervert."
Miya Atsumu, now having a comrade on the same side, agreed enthusiastically: "Exactly, exactly!"
Looking at the two of them, Miya Osamu felt a profound sense of helplessness rising in his heart.
The scene of the two of them together this morning was vivid in his memory, in the end, his conscience overcame his annoyance with the twins.
Relying on the fact that his physique and strength were far superior to Miya Atsumu's, Miya Osamu forcibly pried Miya Atsumu's head away.
His voice was full of disdain: "You reek of sweat, don't just hug people."
Hinata continued, "It's fine, I won't find Atsumu-senpai gross."
Miya Osamu contradicted Hinata: "No, you do."
The referee urged Hinata to serve; Miya Atsumu had no more chances to struggle further.
Ouji Son, who had failed to score after two consecutive spikes, turned his head toward Kuroe Kao: "Kao, give me some good sets!"
Kuroe Kao was stunned for a moment. "Aren't your spikes actually quite good?"
He felt that he had delivered those few balls quite well; although they didn't have the same effect as Miya Atsumu's, at the very least, there were no issues overall.
Ouji Son froze for a moment, then suddenly took a step back, nearly crashing into the net.
He turned his head: "That's because I'm good. If you just give me some good spikes, I'll score."
After a two-second silence, the Setter looked toward the First Receive: "Fujisawa Kafka, Miya Osamu, give me some good tosses."
Fujisawa Kafka clutched his nose as he scrambled up. After confirming there was no bleeding, he pointed toward Rei and Hoshinoya, who were blocking in front of him. "The block actually followed through and touched the ball; I thought I was being murdered.."
Watching the seniors successively shift the blame, Rei's temple twitched. "Seniors, please reflect on yourselves and stop shifting the responsibility."
Everyone collectively looked toward their current middle blocker: "So.. try to at least touch the ball."
Rei turned his head huffily, his gaze locking onto the first-year player on the opposite side who was just like him, Hinata.
He said in a heavy tone, "I'll try."
Hinata stood at the starting position for his approach, spun the volleyball in his hands, prepared to serve.
Osamu-senpai didn't let them hug and celebrate because he felt their score wasn't spectacular enough and the point gap wasn't large yet, so he intended to take the most beautiful point himself.
At the very end of the service time limit, he raised his hand and tossed the ball up.
The first step of an organized offense is to disrupt the opponent's offense.
Since it is known that the opponent's Libero and Setter are very skilled at defending targeted serves, the best choice at this moment would be to attack their strongest Ace.
So his best serve option at this moment was.. a soft serve that grazed the net.
When Suna saw the ball fly over his head and land precisely on the top edge of the net, he couldn't stop himself from flinching.
But fortunately, Hinata's block was successful, the volleyball cleared the net instead of falling and hitting him.
That's terrifying..
Hoshinoya stepped aside, Ouji Son reached out directly to spike the ball, before spinning around and gracefully returning to his position.
The support from Ichibayashi erupted instantly: "Lord Ouji—so cool!"
As the player with the most fans in Ichibayashi, Ouji Son's brilliant performance was, of course, a delight for everyone to witness.
After all, even though they both had curly blonde hair, Ouji Son was much more handsome than Hoshinoya.
"Nice one, Ouji!" Kuroe Kao quickly took her position, raising her hands to set the ball toward the net.
Ouji Son, who had just received the ball, executed a beautiful decoy attack along the sideline. After drawing away the attention and shifting the focus from Miya Osamu, Hoshinoya spiked the ball straight through Inarizaki's double block.
I—
Before Hinata could even finish his sentence, Hoshinoya's heavy spike came crashing straight at him.
In the heat of the moment, Hinata could only lean his body back as far as possible, using his entire arm, held in a crescent shape, to make contact with the volleyball.
BANG!!
The ball bounced up instantly under everyone's gaze, successfully absorbing the spin on the ball.
Yaku, in the stands, clapped his hands. "Perfect."
Beside them, Kashiinayuki also laughed heartily. "You guys are really missing out by not being able to come here in person."
Kuroo's voice came from the phone placed between the two of them: "It can't be helped, but this livestream has a delay, so you aren't allowed to tell us what happens in advance."
Nekoma was in Tokyo; although Nerima Ward wasn't very close to this area, taking the subway back and forth didn't take too much time.
However, after watching the Seijo match yesterday, Kenma inevitably came down with a fever that night and had no chance of coming.
Kenma's original intention was to just watch the live stream at home by himself, but Kuroo refused to agree no matter what, in the end, he dragged Yamamoto, Lev, the others to Kenma's house.
Everyone should be watching the live stream on the TV at Kenma's house right now.
"Great receive!" Miya Atsumu chased after the ball to perform the set.
Hinata, who had just received the ball, had already scrambled up from a backward roll, but he still didn't have enough momentum to attack and could only follow up to attempt a counterattack.
Miya Atsumu's ball went to Aran, who jumped up under the cover of Suna and Miya Osamu.
In Aran's line of sight, Rei's arm swung toward his side in the direction of a Kou Chokusen.
But.. the movement was too slow.
In the next second, Rei felt as if a thunderclap had erupted right beside his ears.
Pain shot through his hands, the volleyball flew off, landing out of bounds.
Nasu reacted the fastest, dropping his body low and lunging forward; a beautiful diving save sent the ball back into the court, though he nearly collided with the referee while rushing for the ball.
Kuroe Kao shouted loudly, "Spike it straight!"
Hoshinoya and Ouji Son jumped at the net almost simultaneously, realizing Hoshinoya was going to spike, Ouji Son also dodged at the first possible moment.