Walking through the gates of the Inarizaki No. 2 Gymnasium, Hayami stood with one hand on her hip and looked at Hinata. "By the way, watching you play these past few days, I think I've roughly figured out some ways to change direction without relying on your knees."
Hinata's eyes widened. "Really? How come I didn't know that!"
Hayami pointed toward the court, which was still empty at the moment. "You'll see once you come over and take a look."
Because Miya Atsumu had to attend a meeting, they ate very quickly, at this time, there were only the two of them in the Inarizaki No. 2 Gymnasium.
—It's a perfect place to discuss some secret weapons.
Hayami stood still in the middle of the court, bending slightly with her hands pressing against her knees. "While it's true that sudden changes in direction and acceleration usually involve twisting at the knees, that.. only applies to those heavy, clumsy players."
He looked at Hinata, who was squatting by the sidelines observing him: "What is Hinata's state when he's performing quick blocks at the net?"
“Hmm..” Hinata rubbed his chin and began to think deeply. After a long time, he responded, “Just like that, swinging?”
Hayami couldn't help but laugh.
He followed up, saying, "Yeah, exactly like that."
It's essentially all about the ankles; the rotation starts from the ankles and moves upward. It's not about rotating the upper body first and relying on the knees to carry the movement through.
Hinata nodded vigorously: "That's it, that's exactly the feeling!"
Hayami shrugged at Hinata. "My Achilles tendon isn't as long as yours, Hinata, so when executing this specific movement.. I need to lower my center of gravity as much as possible to shorten the conduction process, in order to achieve a rapid turn."
After giving a simple demonstration of the process, Hayami turned her head to look at Hinata. "It's quite practical in relative terms. How do you feel about it, Hinata?"
Hinata squinted his eyes. "One more time?"
Hayami happily agreed, demonstrating to Hinata how to quickly transition from Position 1 to near Position 6 to receive a cross shot.
Hinata looked up at Hayami. "As expected, this kind of turning motion is very difficult to read."
Hearing this, Hayami was a bit slow to react: "Hard to judge?"
What was hard to judge?
Hinata's expression was quite serious: "Yeah, it's hard to judge."
After locking eyes with Hinata for five seconds, the moment a certain connection clicked in her mind, Hayami suddenly understood.
Ah, you mean it's hard to predict which direction I'm going to move in advance?
Hinata nodded. "Right, from the perspective of the opposing spiker, it's not easy to predict which direction you're going to go.. ah."
At this point, Hinata suddenly paused.
Under Hayami's confused gaze, he suddenly stood up, walked up to her, grabbed her hand: "Hayami-san! Can I go back and discuss this with our Libero?"
Hayami was a bit dazed. "Of course you can. It was originally inspired by you, Hinata.. But I remember your Inarizaki libero is a big guy?"
Not to mention that this playstyle itself requires high levels of fundamental skills and natural talent; even just considering the sheer size of the Inarizaki libero, it would be difficult for him to use such a low-center-of-gravity running style.
Having such a high center of gravity while running like that makes it very easy to get injured, even if you did have it, it wouldn't be of much use.
Hinata's face was full of excitement as he grabbed Hayami's hand and shook it frantically: "That's fine, thank you so much, Hayami-san!"
Is it.. is it really okay?!
Hayami's mind was in a whirl, but seeing Hinata's excited expression, he swallowed the rest of his words.
In any case, the Inarizaki coach would never agree to a truly risky playstyle. How it's specifically handled will depend on what Inarizaki thinks, but if Hinata wants to use it, let him use it..
Just as Miya Atsumu said, the schedule for the final day of training camp had changed significantly compared to before; the morning individual drills and physical training sessions were canceled, replaced by a gathering that wouldn't start until nine-thirty in the morning.
As soon as Hinata walked through the doors of Inarizaki No. 2 Gymnasium, someone called out to him, "Hinata—over here, over here!"
Hearing that familiar voice, Hinata froze for a moment before looking over, only to find it was Iizuna Sho, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, while Komori and Sakusa were already by his side.
Hinata turned his head to look at Miya Atsumu beside him.
Atsumu tilted his head and gave an extremely annoyed click of his tongue, then waved him off. "Go on, go on. Just don't let me make you cry in a bit."
In today's scheduled sets, he and Hinata were only on the same team for one set..
He decided that he would add Coach Hibari Ten to his list of people he hated.
Don't worry, the one who cries will be Atsumu-ge.
Hinata rushed toward Iizuna with joy on his face: "Iizuna-senpai! Long time no see!"
Iizuna's mouth curved so wide it almost reached his ears, he felt elated as he looked at the group of formidable players before him: "Come, come, come, let's warm up."
Hinata approached with great excitement: "Will I be on the same team as Iizuna-senpai?"
He hadn't even faced Iizuna in a full set of matches yet; was he actually going to get the chance now?
Iizuna shook a finger: "No, we'll play together in the Second Set; for the First Set, you'll play with Kageyama.
As he spoke, Iizuna reached out to beckon Kageyama, who had already entered the room: "Kageyama! Over here, over here!"
Although he had never met Kageyama, he had seen the resumes of this year's youth training players that Coach Unabara had given them before coming here.
A setter as promising as Miya Atsumu.. he was equally looking forward to him.
While warming up, Hinata saw several familiar faces walking in one after another: "Ushijima-senpai! Kiryu-senpai!"
Kiryu walked over first and gave Hinata a light high-five: "Long time no see, Hinata."
Ushijima also nodded to him: "Long time no see."
Looking at Ushijima Wakatoshi's figure, which was even more imposing than in his memory, Hinata's eyes were filled with nothing but envy.
As Ushijima and Iizuna greeted Sakusa, two more voices drifted over from not far away.
Hey—Hinata! You've grown!
I really have grown, Shinsuke would be very moved if he saw me.
Hinata lunged forward directly: "Bokuto-senpai! Aran-senpai!"
Aoba Haruka crossed her arms over her chest and whispered to Kageyama, "Ah, they're all here."
Kageyama didn't react in time: "What?"
Aoba Haruka pointed to the two people in front of Hinata and the three behind him: "That's the thing, the top five wing spikers from the last high school tournament are all right here."
That's terrifying, Hinata. This network of connections is already completely invincible..
After looking Aran up and down, Hinata said to Aran very seriously, "Senpai, you seem to have turned paler."
Aran-senpai pressed his hand firmly onto Hinata's head. "Atsumu-ge is really corrupting you. I'm definitely going to give you a good lecture in a moment."
He knew that one becomes like those they associate with; by following Miya Atsumu, Hinata would eventually turn into a complete black sesame ball.
Bokuto also stared at Aran, sizing him up for a while. "Lan-lan, you do seem to have turned pale."
Now it was Aran-senpai's turn to be uncertain. He rubbed his chin. "Really? Although it's true that I haven't been out in the sun for a long time, I shouldn't be that pale.."
Aran-senpai blinked at the two of them. "So, did I get more handsome?"
The two of them studied him for a while longer before speaking one after another.
"His aura is more mature, his physique is more upright, he looks full of reliability," Hinata said with great seriousness.
“So handsome, super handsome, even though I'm the most handsome—that's what Natsume and Akaashi decided.” Bokuto nodded repeatedly.
Aran was encouraged by the two of them: "I knew it, I knew the manager was just talking nonsense. I'll have him take a new set of photos for me later; how could my merchandise sales be the lowest?"
“Give it up, Aran. Neither of them said you were handsome. If you want to increase your merchandise sales.. your top priority is to assassinate Oikawa-senpai.”
Miya Atsumu stood not far away with his hands on his hips, pointing out the reality with utter ruthlessness.
Aran refuted, "What nonsense are you talking? I'm very popular with kids too, okay!"
Atsumu shrugged. "Kids don't care about looks; they just think you're special."
Don't think for a second that he doesn't know; the most discussed topic among Tachibana's fans is whether Aran is a foreigner!
Aran refuted him again: "But Oikawa is also very popular with children."
Miya Atsumu continued to offer terrible advice: "Look, both adults and children like Oikawa-senpai. If you just bury him, your popularity will skyrocket."
Aran had already seen through everything: "You just simply can't stand Oikawa, can you?"
Atsumu was filled with sadness at Aran's words: "How could you say that? I want to respect Oikawa-senpai."
He hadn't made a compilation of dirt on Oikawa, nor had he ever slandered him; how could it be said that he couldn't stand the other man?
Aran-senpai rolled his eyes, refusing to believe Miya Atsumu's bullshit: "I don't believe a word you say."
He reached out and put his arm around Hinata's shoulder, leading him away from Miya Atsumu. "Come on, Shoyo, let's not play with him."
Listening to the two of them bicker, Iizuna sighed with emotion, "They really are close."
Komori tried his best to smile: "Hahaha.."
The messy reunion ended with the arrival of the coaches. The coaches didn't say much before the match, merely making simple arrangements for both sides of the upcoming matches, followed by joint exercises and tactical exchanges between the teams.
Looking around at his teammates from the first set, Hinata was rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "I get the feeling this is going to be an amazing lineup."
However, it was a bit of a shame that Hoshiumi and Iizuna went to another court.
But then again, it made sense; the coach wouldn't consider putting him and Hoshiumi on the same side of the court at the same time.
Aoba Haruka blinked. "The draw—who's going to draw?"
Everyone looked toward Hinata at the same time.
Hinata's luck with the draws during these past few days of matches has been quite good; if possible, starting would certainly be more advantageous.
Hinata walked up to Coach Arakune, who was serving as the Head Referee for their match, with his chest out and head held high. "Then I'm going in!"
After not waiting long, Miya Atsumu walked over.
The coin was tossed and fell, the final result was—Hinata's side won the toss.
Aran said to Ushijima, who had made the decision to let Miya Atsumu draw lots, "I told you we shouldn't let him do it; his luck with drawing lots is terrible."
Ushijima was a bit bewildered.
In his memory.. Inarizaki's luck with the lottery should have been quite good, but it was certainly possible that Hinata, also from Inarizaki, would have the upper hand over Miya Atsumu?
Having read Ushijima's thoughts, Aran spoke again: "No, this has nothing to do with Shoyo; it's entirely Atsumu's fault."
If one had to say where Atsumu-ge's luck went.. Hinata really did have to take some of the blame.
—Though he felt that Coach Kurosu would also have to pay a price for this.