Nagumo laughed loudly. "The stomach is still there, after all."
Watching the two people stumble in as if they were drunk, Hinata, who was still changing his shoes at the entrance, was a bit dazed: "Who is it?"
Both of them were bundled up tightly; even though it was clearly spring, they were still wearing scarves, masks, hats, sunglasses.
Could it be.. they're here to rob us?!
Thinking of this, Hinata was startled and hurriedly rushed into the gym.
Kumagai, who was coming out to get a water bottle and a towel, nearly collided with Hinata. He steadied Hinata and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong? Why are you in such a rush?"
Hinata raised his hand and pointed toward the door. "Akuma! There are, there are bad guys!"
Kumagai looked over upon hearing this and recognized the newcomer immediately: "Nagumo-senpai? And also.."
He thought back to Nagumo's acquaintances, it seemed there was only one person of this height—the former Captain of neighboring Municipal Kobe, Wakamura Souya.
“Wakamura-senpai?”
"Eh?" Hinata, who had already shrunk behind Kumagai, poked his head out and just happened to see Nagumo-senpai take off his checkered scarf.
Nagumo-senpai!!
Hinata's eyes widened, he almost rushed out in his volleyball shoes, but luckily Kumagai grabbed him.
Nagumo quickly put on his shoe covers, having regained his agility, he walked over to the two of them. "Long time no see. Aran told me you have a practice match coming up, since I happened to be in Osaka, I thought I'd stop by on my way."
“Yeah.. I happened to run into Souya, so we came over together.”
Actually, that wasn't the case; the reason was that Wakamura-senpai had called him to invite him to Osaka for a visit.
Then, he very "casually" brought up the matter of Shirabu and Inarizaki playing a practice match, mentioned in passing that his current teammate was originally from Shirabu.
Nagumo, who had plenty of free time after just finishing his school's opening placement exams, also wanted to gather material for the web design competition he was planning to enter, so he gladly agreed to come along.
Moreover, going back to Amagasaki would allow him to see his parents, so it was entirely beneficial for him.
Kumagai pointed the way for the two of them: "If you seniors want to watch the match, just go straight to the second floor; you can take the stairs over there. We're about to start warming up inside, so we won't be able to escort you upstairs."
There are still seats available upstairs; if they stayed downstairs, they would have to stand the whole time and would also most likely be caught up in the commotion.
Nagumo nodded. "Alright, I'll go say hello to the Coach and then I'll head over."
After speaking, Nagumo followed Hinata and Kumagai into the gym, while Wakamura went toward the stairwell on his own.
The gymnasium rented by Inarizaki only had seating on one side, the second floor only had four rows of seats; all together, it could only accommodate about seventy or eighty people.
The moment he entered the spectator area, Wakamura saw Kiryu Aran and Oikawa Tooru sitting together.
Noticing the newcomer, Kiryu looked up and spoke with a hint of surprise, "Souya? I thought you said you weren't coming?"
Wakamura sat down beside Kiryu and pointed a finger toward Nagumo Kanata, who was talking to Coach Kurosu below. "My friend is from Inarizaki, he insisted on dragging me along."
Oikawa Tooru's expression was one of shock, feeling as though his emotions had been betrayed: "Don't you hate people from Inarizaki? And you even have friends from Inarizaki?"
He had said plenty of bad things about Inarizaki to Wakamura-senpai before and after the practice matches two days ago.
Of course, he was avoiding what Aran said.
Wakamura leaned his elbows against the back of his chair, his posture quite unrestrained: "There's no conflict here."
Oikawa Tooru raised a hand to stop him. "No, no, no, that is a conflict!"
While it was obvious that he hated Inarizaki, he only hated a specific person; he and Hinata still had a very good relationship.
And Wakamura-senpai was not only an arch-rival of Inarizaki during high school, but he had even joined him in badmouthing Miya Atsumu.
Wakamura replied, "He's not with Inarizaki anymore."
Aran whispered in Oikawa Tooru's ear, "This guy was best friends with our player back in Junior High—the kind of best friends who are rivals."
Oikawa Tooru looked even more bewildered: "No, no, no, this is a much bigger problem! Can rivals actually become best friends!"
He couldn't imagine it; he truly could not imagine it.
Him becoming best friends with Ushijima Wakatoshi or something.. he must be having a nightmare!
Wakamura, who was still talking to Kiryu, poked his head over and asked, "What are you two whispering about?"
Oikawa Tooru hurriedly waved his hands. "It's nothing, it's nothing."
As one of only two people in the venue who spoke the Kanto dialect, he now felt like he was being surrounded by a group of Kansai manzai comedians.
Iwaizumi, save me, this is terrifying—
Suna, whose accent hadn't been swayed by the Kansai people for over two years, looked down at Hinata, who had already become half-Kansai thanks to Miya Atsumu and the others.
He raised his finger and pointed at the person on the other side of the net: "That number 5, you can try focusing your attacks on him in a moment."
Among the first-year high school players, except for those who specialize as a Libero, most have at least some issues with receiving.
Among the three wing spikers, Honda as Kiryu's successor also possesses very well-rounded overall abilities. Although Suzune Akai is a first year, she comes from a libero background, so her main issue lies in her offense.
Therefore, it would be best to target Tomomichi Chita, who currently has the most potential within Shirabu.
Glancing at Shirabu's current formation, Hinata felt somewhat uncertain.
Number 9, Akai-san, is standing in the Opposite position, while Number 5, Chita-kun, is at the Left Wing Spiker position. Theoretically speaking, Number 9 should be the one to receive for Number 5.
Hinata, who could already analyze these basic positions with such clarity, looked at Suna: "Wouldn't it be better to try a different approach against Honda-senpai?"
This is not a long-set match, so they cannot wear one side down like Aobajohsai did against Shiratorizawa.
If both of those players' roles are too "specialized," it would actually be easier to target Honda on the other side, since Honda still shares the responsibility of covering the setter with the Libero.
Suna nodded, affirming Hinata's idea: "That's very clever, but even a defensive specialist would find it difficult to deal with a Quick Attack when they lack experience."
This also means that you can actually consider the Quick Attack as one of two separate categories from other types of attacks.
Hinata, having been praised, puffed out his chest and held his head high. "I completely understand!"
The previous lottery result had placed Shirabu as the starting player, Tomomichi Chita, who had once won the award for Best Server at the national level, also stood at the serving position.
Unabara rubbed his hands together with some excitement, lowering his center of gravity in preparation to receive the ball.
The strongest Server in the whole tournament? Let him come and face me!
Nagumo-senpai was also sitting next to Wakamura-senpai on the second floor, while on the other side, Aran was sandwiched between Kiryu and Oikawa Tooru, so there was indeed no space for him.
The whistle blew in the court just at that moment. Tomomichi Chita spun the ball in his hands, silently counting down the time remaining for the serve, looking for all the world like someone planning to time it to the very last second.
Oikawa Tooru crossed his arms over his chest. "That's truly disgusting."
That being said, for a mature Server, this was the absolute fundamental of fundamentals, it worked every single time.
To be safe, the Inarizaki side adopted a three-person formation for the first receive, with Hinata Rishia and Unabara Uta both waiting for Tomomichi Chita to toss the ball.
For the current Hinata, this kind of serve that hits the time limit at the very last second was no longer a difficult task.
Relatively speaking, he still felt somewhat averse to buzzer-beater serves.
In the final instant of the serve limit, Tomomichi raised his hand and tossed the ball up.
Unabara Uta's gaze locked onto the volleyball that had already reached mid-air, he moved a step toward the center of the court the moment Tomomichi Chita jumped to strike the ball.
I'll take it!!
Rishia Heisuke and Hinata Shoyo both moved a step toward the edge of the court, then Hinata quickly moved diagonally to create distance for a run-up, charging with large strides toward the front of the net.
He was already very familiar with this movement; as long as the ball could be sent his way, it would definitely..
With a loud thud, the ball hit Unabara's arm, but an unexpected spin caused the ball to lose control the next instant, smashing out of bounds.
Hinata, who had already jumped up, landed with controlled force and turned his head to look behind him: "Eh?"
Unabara Uta slid on his knees at high speed: "Sorry, sorry! My bad!"
Damn it!
When he was doing his homework before, this person clearly wasn't very good at performing spin serves, has he been practicing this specifically for nearly a year now..
Miya Atsumu clapped his hands. "Next ball, next ball."
The best Server among junior high school students nationwide..
He certainly has some skills; that last serve was incredibly fast and contained a bit of spin that wouldn't significantly alter the ball's trajectory, making it hard to see with the naked eye, but it hit the arm before the force could be absorbed.
But losing just one of those is enough, right?
Miya Atsumu looked back, casting a casual glance at Unabara Uta.
Unabara Uta instantly snapped to attention, not even daring to breathe heavily. "Yes! I'll definitely receive the next one!"
He had let the previous footage form a preconception, which was a major mistake.
Wakamura, in the stands, rested his chin on his hand. "Our Akari is still amazing."
The Shirabu, the Inarizaki, the Aobajohsai players beside him said nothing.
There was no denying that; the Libero from Municipal Kobe was indeed the best among the next generation.
Tomomichi Chita prepared for his second serve once again.
Under the full concentration of the Inarizaki trio.. it hit the net.
Seeing that Inarizaki had added a point to the scoreboard, Tomomichi Chita's expression became extremely grim. "Tsk."
Hinata Shoyo, who was just about to rotate forward, suddenly locked eyes with Tomomichi Chita and was startled by his expression, involuntarily taking a step back.
He knew it! This person is definitely someone hard to get along with! So scary!
Aran nodded, ruthlessly retorting to Wakamura's recent boasting, "Our Atsumu is indeed the best."
Even an extremely talented freshman like Tomomichi Chita couldn't avoid making mistakes due to a lack of proficiency and experience.
When they played against Karasuno before, Kageyama's serve was very sharp, but his success rate wasn't high enough.
Before Wakamura had a chance to protest or object, Aran shouted directly, "Atsumu, serve a good one!"
Miya Atsumu also decisively chose to time his serve to the very last second, just like Tomomichi, but.. his serve wasn't quite so gentle.
"I've got it!" Nishi Haruma shouted as he closed in on the ball, taking a large stride toward its landing spot.
With a loud bang, a ball that was almost identical to Tomomichi Chita's serve, but more than twice as powerful in both speed and spin, slammed directly into Nishi Haruma.
He failed to follow up in time and couldn't even touch the ball with his arms, getting hit in the shoulder instead.
Nishinoya's center of gravity was thrown off by the ball, he fell backward.