Among the high school coaches, Coach Washijo was the most famous. There were also many players and assistant coaches who graduated from Shiratorizawa within the Black Jackals, having just graduated from university, he still had a very deep impression of that eccentric old man in his memory.
On the Inarizaki Coach's bench, someone turned their head toward Coach Kurosu and asked Tokura, "Can you reach it?"
Tokura clenched his fists. "I'll try my best."
Rishia glanced at the profile of his teammate beside him and silently lowered his head.
To be honest, with Hakuma's height and jumping ability, as long as the set from the setter isn't problematic, he can basically reach almost any block.
However..
Tokura rubbed his chin and said, "Shoyo mentioned before that Hakuma-senpai isn't very good at things like tooling the block against a Woguo, so it's better to just create some space and touch the ball."
Rishia Heisuke grabbed a roll of athletic tape used for finger taping and handed it to him: "Then tape your fingers up. If you don't secure them, it's easy to get injured when you hit those kinds of balls head-on."
"That makes sense." Tokura agreed wholeheartedly, then began wrapping his own fingers, recalling how his senior had done it before.
Watching his clumsy manner, Coach Kurosu sighed and reached out with the tape, "I'll wrap it for you."
On the court, Hoshiumi's serve flew straight toward the front of Miya Atsumu in the back row, Miya Osamu, retreating to assist with the receive, lowered his center of gravity to take the ball.
The moment Miya Osamu delivered the first receive, Hinata immediately raised his hand for the ball: "Give it to me!!"
At this moment, Hirugami Yukio's sharp gaze swept toward Hinata.
In his impression, if Hinata calls for the ball and Miya Atsumu gives it to him, it tends to be a high ball.
But now, with him and Hakuma-senpai at Position 4, with this kind of block height.. Hinata has no way to create a gap through a direct spike.
If he were Hinata, he would lean towards using an individual time difference.
But this time he guessed wrong; Hinata didn't hesitate at all, having already jumped to the high point at the net before the setter could touch the ball. His movement was seamless, with no intention of using an individual time difference whatsoever.
And in the next moment, the ball was flicked directly in front of Hinata by Miya Atsumu's wrist.
As Hakuma and the even further Norikura Isao moved in, Hinata used his hand to tip the ball, brushing it over the block to create a downward spin to the side.
The ball flew past Hirugami and Norikura Isao, smashing into Karasuno's front row.
Takahashi from the back row lunged forward, but unfortunately, he didn't touch it.
From Hoshiumi's serve to this moment, barely two seconds had passed. Inarizaki's counter-attack in the Second Set was breathtakingly fast.
Hinata landed with bent knees to absorb the impact, his expression calm and certain.
Individual time difference requires two jumps, which is a bad draw in a situation where endurance is already being contested.
From the moment he saw Karasuno's block follow through, he had already decided how he would strike. As for a spike at a different angle for a Short Diagonal.. he had long since trained it into muscle memory; he wouldn't make a mistake.
“Nice kill, Hinata!” In the stands, Unabara gripped his clipboard tightly and cheered loudly for Hinata.
Even though it has been many years since I was away from the court, watching a match like this still makes my blood boil with excitement.
So cool! Ace!!
One more!
“It's a Super Short Diagonal,” Shiratori said, drawing out his voice as he mimicked Shimizu's tone.
Bokuto jumped up immediately: "It's my Super Short Diagonal!!"
A ball hit at an angle of about seventy degrees from the sideline can be called a Short Diagonal, but to achieve the effect of passing through a three-person Block, it must be hit at eighty degrees.
Hinata's Short Diagonal was played exceptionally well, but even back at Central Physical Education University, Rishia Heisuke had asked him how to achieve even more extreme Short Diagonals, he had shared all his secrets with him!
Seeing the two of them achieve a rare resonance, Shimizu blinked and asked Shiratori, "Are you really not moving back? There is still an empty bed."
They hadn't put anything on Shiratori's previous bed, so now it was just bare wooden boards.
Although Shiratori is living quite well in the next room now and gets along okay with his roommate, he comes over almost every day; at this frequency, he might as well just move in.
Upon hearing this, Shiratori's smile faded. "I refuse."
He refuses to work 24 hours a day without a break!
Shimizu said with a smile, "Mr. Sunshine is actually quite quiet when he's sleeping.."
Shiratori said with absolute certainty, "You have ulterior motives."
Hoshiumi let out a slow breath on the court. "As expected, it's not that easy."
The cover and coordination between the Twins is truly a headache; it would be easier to play against Ginjima on the other side.
And.. the fact that Hinata can still pull off a Short Diagonal in this situation.. his physical reserves are simply absurd.
Is he truly an inexhaustible well, or is he just pushing himself to the limit at the end of his rope?
Having bypassed the front row, Hirugami watched Hoshiumi, who was eyeing Hinata, who had already moved to take his position in the middle.
He thought it was probably somewhere in between the two.
Hinata's physical strength certainly hasn't hit its limit yet, but if he keeps running like this, he probably won't be able to hold out much longer.
Wiping the sweat from his chin with his hand, Hoshiumi Hikari let out a long breath.
It doesn't matter; he doesn't have as high an activity level, so the time he spends on this court will definitely be longer than Hinata's.
But..
Hoshiumi glanced at Hakuma-senpai's calves, which were subconsciously tensed in the front row, frowned imperceptibly.
He is no problem, but it's hard to say for his teammates.
Before Suna has been worn down, Hakuma's role in the offensive push is vital.
Was accepting Inarizaki's challenge after the last set really a mistake?
No, in fact, they were only a hair's breadth away from taking the first set; it was simply a matter of a tiny margin resulting in a massive difference.
Hoshiumi and Hirugami Yukio exchanged a glance from the front row, then cast a subtle look toward Miya Atsumu.
Hirugami nodded, signaling his understanding.
In the next counterattack, Karasuno successfully regained the service right thanks to Hoshiumi's back-row attack, Hirugami moved to the serving position.
Glancing at the positioning of Unabara Uta and Miya Osamu beside him, Miya Atsumu had a vague feeling that something was going wrong.
If he isn't mistaken..
Chapter 364: The 364th Fox
He is currently in the middle of the back row; although his positioning makes him difficult to target, he must remain at least one step behind Hinata due to the rules.
To avoid interfering with Hinata's subsequent movement as much as possible, he also couldn't push the opponent toward the net.
So.. there are quite a few ways to target him.
Before Miya Atsumu could make any further attempts to struggle, the whistle had already blown, they were unable to make any more adjustments.
Meeting Hirugami's gaze, Miya Atsumu curled his lips into a smirk.
He just used that move to trick Hoshiumi Hikari, now he's been tricked right back.
At Karasuno, where the primary tactics revolve around serves and blocks, Hirugami's serve is naturally not weak either.
Hirugami's jump serve is also quite impressive now, when it comes to timing and clutch performance, he isn't much behind Suna; from this positioning, targeting Miya Atsumu would be effortless.
In the final second of the serve time limit, Hirugami Yukio raised his hand and tossed the ball up.
After his approach, he jumped steadily in front of the baseline, suddenly pulling back his strength at the moment of the spike and lightly tapping the ball away.
This ball was aimed at Miya Atsumu's feet, so the placement wasn't particularly difficult to handle.
But.. whether the serve itself was easy or difficult to receive didn't really matter.
Hirugami's only goal was to have Miya Atsumu perform the first receive, that was all.
Seeing this ball hit the front row, Hinata originally wanted to step back to receive it, but even with a light tap, the speed of Hirugami's serve was not very slow, his movement couldn't quite keep up.
Miya Atsumu reached out, accepting his fate: "I'll take it!"
After the sound of the collision, the ball flew toward the side near the Attack Line, Miya Osamu had already moved into position to prepare for the set.
Hinata and Suna had already adjusted their attacking positions. Miya Osamu raised his hands to touch the ball, decisively setting it toward Suna at Position 3.
Hakuma and Bessho converged at the net, watching Suna's movements and jumping in sync with him, their hands precisely meeting right in front of Suna.
Just as Suna was about to adjust the ball's trajectory for a short diagonal spike, Norikura Isao's figure suddenly appeared over there; his arm followed up from behind, blocking the ball's path and forcefully forcing it back.
Unabara, from the back row, pushed off the ground and dove, but in the end, he still couldn't reach it.
The ball landed on the floor in the front row, Karasuno scored with a block.
"Nice play!!" Hirugami Yukio, who had just served, immediately rushed to the front and high-fived Norikura Isao, who had just scored the point.
"I will keep working hard." Norikura Isao also nodded with full confidence.
As expected, Hirugami and Bessho were right; with the setter's own offensive capabilities being insufficient, Suna's spike routes would become somewhat monotonous to a certain extent, his movement for a short diagonal would also become very obvious.
He had just transitioned from behind the entire block to make it in time, he even clearly gave Suna a fright.
—What a sense of accomplishment!
Norikura Isao, who had been targeted by Suna's changing serves more than once, clenched his fists tightly, his eyes filled with excitement.
"Tsk." Miya Atsumu made no effort to hide his irritation, clicking his tongue not just at Miya Osamu, but also at Suna.
Suna glanced at him and spoke up before Miya Atsumu could say another word: "It's fine, being targeted as the setter is just fate."
Miya Osamu couldn't help but chuckle.
Suna managed to clear himself of any blame, so with that statement, Miya Atsumu couldn't shift the blame onto him anymore.
Seeing the blame flying toward him, Hinata prepared to dive in a panic to admit his mistake: "My fault—I should have retreated to cover for Atsumu-ge!"
But he was positioned so far forward that he was truly unable to do anything about it.
Miya Atsumu gave Hinata a gentle smile, then turned and pointed at Unabara and Stupidji, saying, "It's fine, Shoyo. It was Unabara and Stupidji's fault, it has nothing to do with you."
Unabara shrank his neck, too afraid to speak his anger.
After calming Hinata, Miya Atsumu looked at Unabara Uta, communicating with him through his eyes.
But Unabara Uta, still immersed in that previous play, completely failed to receive the signal. Miya Atsumu, frustrated, grabbed him by the collar and spoke directly into his ear, instructing him on what to do next.