“Give me a toss, give me a toss, give me a toss—"
Having played a bit too much, Miya Atsumu silently raised his hand and gave him an OK sign: "I'll give it to you right away."
Akagi, sitting in the stands, rested his chin in his hand and smiled with a hint of helplessness. "He's been completely spoiled."
Aran said expressionlessly, "Being used as a decoy to take the pressure is an Ace's fate."
Miya Atsumu used to persecute him, but he's going to pay him back for all of it!
Oori glanced at Aran, looking as if he wanted to say something but held back.
He really wanted to say that people are different from one another.
Standing in the front row, Hinata shouted, "Osamu-senpai, give us a good toss!"
Walking toward the service line while holding the ball, Miya Osamu let out a sneer toward Miya Atsumu behind him. "Don't worry, I'll score from my serve before you do this set."
In the previous service turn, Miya Atsumu's scoring rate with his Serve was decent, but in this service turn, he failed to score a single point with both of his serves.
Miya Atsumu clicked his tongue lightly. "Tsk, if you can score, then you're amazing. I'll ask Coach to let you eat pudding for two days."
Miya Osamu's simple desire to win was stimulated once again, his expression instantly turned solemn: "You said it."
Hanae, who was preparing to receive the ball, felt a slight tingling sensation on his scalp. Why did it feel like the opponent's fighting spirit had become even stronger?
The next second, with a heavy thud, the volleyball smashed down directly overhead.
The moment he heard the sound of the impact, Hanae had already adjusted his stance, giving up on trying to strike the ball directly with his arm and instead choosing to cushion it.
As it turned out, his choice was absolutely correct.
This ball was both heavy and spinning; if he chose to receive it with a strong attack, he would inevitably lose control.
Watching the ball fly high into the air, Hanae also breathed a sigh of relief: "Kito!"
Unabara stepped forward and received the ball Murata had tipped over: "I've got it!"
Miya Atsumu was quite satisfied with Unabara Uta's reception of that ball: "Nice receive!"
He looked at the situation in the front row and raised his hand to send the ball toward Position 4.
Although Rishia Heisuke's jumping ability was average, he could work on improving it; at the very least, relying on his height, he could clear an opponent's block of this level by a little bit.
Looking at the height of the ball flying toward him, Rishia Heisuke, who was preparing to move forward, experienced a moment of confusion.
This position.. was meant for him, right?
But the confusion was only brief; based on the positioning and the final hitting point, it should have been a strong attack from Position 4 by him, while Hinata would be performing a quick attack at Position 3 under this kind of coordination.
Rishia Heisuke was no longer confused; he stepped forward quickly, preparing to jump and spike.
Just then, a flash of orange appeared in his field of vision, a hand intercepted the ball at a higher point just before him.
With a loud smack, under the shocked gazes of Rishia Heisuke and all the blockers from Municipal Kobe, the ball flew over the block and slammed down near the baseline.
Hanae, having been a step too late, lay flat on the ground. Upon hearing the whistle, he silently rolled over, lying on his back on the floor and beginning to reflect on the past decade of his life.
What kind of unforgivable mistake did he make to have the heavens send such an opponent to torment him..
Hinata landed on the ground, raising his hands high to declare his absolute victory.
Even if he has to deal with the pressure, he will still pull off a beautiful play!
As expected, Atsumu-senpai was a man of his word; he said he would give him the ball, now he had given him the ball.
The stands of Inarizaki were already in a complete frenzy. That recent super-hand spike was clean and decisive; after they had grown tired of the long rallies, it completely ignited the entire stadium.
“Nice shot, Shoyo-senpai!”
That was amazing, Shoyo-senpai!
Oikawa Tooru narrowed his eyes, his expression full of disbelief: "Hey, hey, hey.. Shoyo-kun just stole the ball from Position 4, didn't he?"
"That's just how Position 4 is," Nagumo laughed.
Aran had gone through this before; it was practically a rite of passage.
Facing Hinata's bright, turning eyes, Rishia Heisuke fell silent for two seconds.
Before Hinata could start feeling confused and disappointed, Rishia hurriedly raised his hand toward him: "Nice play, Shoyo!"
He could tell that Shoyo hadn't realized at all that the previous ball wasn't meant for him!
After high-fiving Rishia Heisuke, Hinata raised his hand toward Miya Atsumu again.
Miya Atsumu curled his lips into a smirk and walked toward Hinata with a face full of smiles.
Although he rarely gives high balls to Rishia, had just promised to toss to Hinata, this ball really wasn't meant for Hinata.
However.. whoever spikes it, it's theirs! He only cares about the result!
So Miya Atsumu raised his hand with a bit of a guilty conscience and gave him a heavy high-five. "Nice play!"
Setting everything else aside, the quality of that last play was truly impeccable, leaving the opponent with absolutely no chance for a counterattack.
As the score changed, Inarizaki took the lead, the game went into a time-out.
Miya Atsumu took the towel handed to him by Masaru Haseda, suddenly turned his head to look at Kumagai, who was saying something to Unabara Uta. "Kuniharu, did you see it clearly?"
Kumagai nodded. "Yes, I observed Municipal Kobe's rotation according to Atsumu-senpai's instructions; the tactical command is carried out by the Captain, Higashiyama, the Middle Blocker, Koga."
After saying that, he added another sentence, "If Higashiyama is in the back row, then Koga handles the instructions."
Masaru Haseda suddenly looked at Kumagai again, his entire brain stalling for a moment.
What? Did he miss some key plot point?
When did Captain Atsumu assign the task? And what does Kumagai-senpai think of it?
Hinata's expression was equally solemn: ".. I don't understand at all."
But it didn't matter; with Atsumu-senpai and Kumagai there, tasks requiring high-intensity mental effort weren't his responsibility yet.
At this stage, his task is simply to complete every offensive and defensive duty; Atsumu-senpai will give him the corresponding instructions.
Hearing that Hinata didn't understand, Masaru Haseda finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Even Shoyo-senpai can't understand it despite being so skilled, so it must indeed be some kind of high-level technique; it's understandable that he doesn't understand.
The key server, Fukami, replaced Hinata to serve.
Hinata took his number tag from Fukami's hand and reached out to pat his shoulder. "Serve a good one!"
Fukami gave Hinata a confident nod. "Leave it to me! Hinata-senpai!"
Higashiyama warned, "Be careful, he's the best server in the prefecture."
Although Hinata's offensive performance isn't very prominent while he is in the back row at this stage, he still plays a significant role in defense and coordination, making him capable of being substituted out.. This freshman's serving ability is likely incredibly formidable.
As it turned out, his inference was correct.
Fukami's first serve, which focused on the quality of its spin, left Kanzaki completely unable to control it, earning a point for Inarizaki.
Moreover, unlike Miya Atsumu, who specifically targets the Libero, Fukami carefully chose to launch a targeted attack against Kanzaki, whose skill level was lower.
Although the pressure had decreased, the scoring rate of this kind of first-time kill was extremely high.
However, for the second ball, Municipal Kobe made targeted positional adjustments on their side, leaving Hanae to handle the play.
Municipal Kobe scored on the counterattack, breaking Fukami's service turn.
Masaru Haseda, waiting in the substitution area, felt a deep sense of regret: "Ah.. what a shame."
However, this was the first time the first-years had appeared in such a formal competition; being able to score a single point was already quite impressive.
The service right subsequently passed to Rishia Heisuke.
Having also been a key server, he has become even more stable after becoming a starting Wing Spiker, able to deliver a powerful, heavy spike with every serve.
“I've got it!” Hanae dove to save the ball, Kito also prepared to organize the follow-up attack.
Miya Atsumu quickly scanned the movements over at Municipal Kobe, confirming Kumagai's judgment.
After confirming, he quickly stepped up to follow the block: "Touch! Unabara!"
Unabara rushed up to set the ball, trying to maximize its height, while simultaneously calling out to Miya Atsumu, "Atsumu-senpai!!"
The moment he jumped, Miya Atsumu's fingers had already changed the ball's direction during that split-second contact, killing all the spin and sending it unerringly toward Hinata, who was jumping from Position 4 in the back row.
Shoyo!
Watching the ball fall toward him, Hinata's pupils constricted slightly as they followed the ball's position.
Starting from his own position, the predetermined contact point after his jump, through the path the volleyball traveled, it finally landed toward Higashiyama Minami, who was exposed on the side of the opponent's block.
Unlike his usual tosses, this one Atsumu-senpai gave him contained a clear, instructional message.
And now, he could clearly read exactly what Atsumu-senpai wanted him to do, rather than relying solely on intuition and bodily instinct.
But.. Higashiyama himself is a vital part of Municipal Kobe's receiving and defensive system. Why does Atsumu-senpai want him to hit the opponent?
Forget it, whatever.
Anyway, he couldn't figure it out either; since Atsumu-senpai had given him a task, all he had to do was complete it—complete it two hundred percent!
In the gap created by the block, Hinata performed a back-row dig, sending the ball with intense topspin.
No matter what Atsumu-senpai plans to do next, scoring won't be a problem at all!
After a soft sound, the ball flew over the net and immediately dropped, grazing the top of it as it fell.
Being the closest, Higashiyama could only choose to dive for it, using one hand to send the ball to a position slightly further back from the net.
Miya Atsumu narrowed his eyes, then, after landing, he stood at the net alongside Ginjima and Miya Osamu, both of them staring at the ball flying through the air.
Under Miya Atsumu's gaze, Ginjima and Miya Osamu moved one step toward Position 4 of Municipal Kobe, subtly closing in on Koga and the restless Kanzaki in the back row.
After the attack, Hinata, having seen that he didn't score, immediately retreated and moved back with the block, pressing up the back half of the court alongside Rishia Heisuke, while Unabara Uta took responsibility for defending the front row as originally arranged.
From the perspective of Kito, who was following this ball to act as the setter, it could be described as flawless.
He instinctively glanced ahead before jumping, but Higashiyama had only just stood up, Koga was running toward the edge on the other side.
Because of Hinata's last play, their overall positioning was a bit messy. Higashiyama-senpai performed a diving save to cover the area where Murata-senpai was running, but the offensive conditions for everyone else were not very good..
To whom? To whom exactly should he give it?
Kito, who had always followed the rule of giving the ball to the Ace and acting according to the seniors' instructions in all other situations, was currently in a state of complete confusion, having no idea what to do.