Ogata raised his hand and pointed to himself.
Huh? Me?
After a brief moment of thought and analysis, Coach Kurosu responded, "That's a good proposal. Tomoya is indeed very suitable for it."
Because the Block was a bit too niche and tricky, he hadn't considered it before.
Now that Miya Atsumu mentioned it, he felt it was well worth a try.
Hinata's eyes lit up: "A guess block? Wouldn't that be super interesting?"
He stared at Ogata and said with great anticipation, "Learn it! Tomoya, come learn it! I really want to play this!"
Tokura looked at Hinata, then looked at Suna, silently shrank his neck.
If Ogata learned, Hinata would have one more practice partner, someone would be sinking with him.
You should know that ever since he started mastering the Block, the lazy Suna has activated an automatic evasion function for Hinata's practice invitations.
Nowadays, the blockers who are usually persecuted by Hinata are him and the filler, Masaru Haseda.
So, he also spoke up, "True, Tomoya is very capable; it feels like there won't be any problems at all."
Ogata scratched his head. "It's possible, but my motor skills are terrible."
He belongs to the type.. whose physical coordination is quite poor.
“Then wouldn't that be even more suitable?” Miya Atsumu said, spreading his hands. “As for a Read Block, you just need to make the right judgment and dive straight for it.”
Ogata quickly calculated it in his mind: "Okay, I'll try it when I get back."
Hinata cheered, "Alright!"
He turned his head and gave Tokura a high five.
Ogata, feeling strangely as if he had been tricked onto a pirate ship, remained silent for two seconds before finally deciding to ignore that sense of dissonance that he was about to be sold out.
Anyway, there would be no point in him protesting; for Hinata's sake, Demon Senior would surely have the next year's lineup perfectly arranged before graduation.
By then, they would probably come up with a thousand eight hundred reasons to drag him into studying, so agreeing now would be the wise thing to do.
When it comes to knowing when to yield to the circumstances, he believed he was quite an expert.
After all.. he didn't want to go lie in the flowerbed in front of Sankan and become company to those weeds.
Coach Kurosu smiled and tapped the whiteboard with a marker to signal everyone to look back.
“Alright, we will discuss these in detail when we get back. For now, let's continue with Shiratorizawa.”
Shiratorizawa's Libero is a Second Year player, has no match records prior to this year.
Based on the available information, his First Receive stability isn't as good as Unabara's, but his success rate is basically on par, placing him at a mid-level standard.
Coach Kurosu looked at Hinata: "If you can't break through the Block, there's no need to go out of your way to avoid the Libero."
“He doesn't have much experience, so he's very easy to slip past.”
Hinata rubbed his hands together: "I completely understand."
Having little experience means he is easy to manipulate.
After playing so many matches against Libero like Komori-senpai and the others, he now really missed the feeling of being able to toy with an opponent's Libero using all sorts of fishing techniques.
Although he still needs to conserve some energy for the quarterfinals, it should be enough for him to use.
Coach Kurosu nodded and continued, "The third-year player Yanagita will take over Ohira's position to provide cover for our Ace, Goshiki. However, his offensive capability is even stronger than Ohira's. At times, Goshiki will handle the receiving himself, which is a deceptive point that needs to be noted."
The topic shifted back to Inarizaki itself, Coach Kurosu immediately placed Rishia's nameplate at Position 5.
For this match against Shiratorizawa, Heisuke will be in the starting lineup.
Rishia Heisuke sat up straight.
Coach Kurosu continued, "You are quite familiar with Goshiki Tsutomu, so you should have a clearer understanding of his spiking style than anyone else."
Rishia Heisuke nodded. "Yes."
Coach Kurosu instructed, "Cover Hinata well; don't give the opposition a chance to target the Ace."
Unabara as well, keep a close eye on the opponent's Number 8. His spike accuracy is quite good; if Goshiki is unable to break free, he might be the one to suppress our Ace.
Unabara Uta responded, "Understood."
Coach Kurosu looked at Miya Atsumu: "Regarding the tactics for this match.."
Miya Atsumu replied, "Choosing to completely suppress the Ace, I suppose."
Even though Shiratorizawa's lineup has changed, Shirabu-senpai's thinking is still very easy to predict.
After all, Shiratorizawa is still a very standard single-core team; Goshiki is far from being as mature as Ushijima-senpai, making him much easier to target.
Even if Yanagita provides cover, it would be meaningless.
After all, even Ohira wasn't able to fully protect Ushijima before, the number of times Ushijima had to perform his own receiving movement was not insignificant.
Miya Atsumu curled his lips into a smirk. "Besides, there's no need for us to target him directly with serves or spikes; we can just start by exerting mental pressure through our Block."
A sense of responsibility.. many times, it's better not to target the person himself.
Suna tilted his head slightly to look at him.
Hinata swallowed hard, his brain screaming danger: "That's so scary, Atsumu-ge."
That dark aura felt like it was going to spread over to his side.
Thinking from Akari's perspective.. this kind of scene is just a bit too terrifying.
Miya Atsumu laughed loudly. "Don't worry, I'll definitely make him cry."
In the Shiratorizawa locker room on the other side, Goshiki Tsutomu was watching the Inarizaki match footage very seriously.
Hinata did not play in the morning matches, so they had very little reference to work with; most of their tactical discussions could only be based on the IH footage.
But Hinata must have made even more terrifying progress over these past few months.
He knew very well that Hinata was that kind of person.
Goshiki clenched his fists, his palms covered in sweat.
Shirabu had already decided to retire after this match; it was unlikely he would have the time for volleyball once he entered medical school.
So.. this might be the last volleyball match of Shirabu's entire life.
He didn't want his senior to be left with any regrets.
If it were like last year's Haruko Preliminary Round.. he would definitely, definitely regret it for the rest of his life.
Since he arrived at Shiratorizawa, their best achievement has been reaching the top eight in the nation.
In these final moments, he wants to cross that line.
Tell the seniors.. he has grown.
Something was thrown into his field of vision, Goshiki instinctively reached out to catch it. He found it was a banana.
Shirabu's voice followed immediately: "That's the last one. Eat it and then close your eyes and rest for a while."
There is still a long time before the match begins, so use this time to properly adjust your condition.
Goshiki Tsutomu replied, "Yes."
Watching Goshiki earnestly start peeling and eating, Shirabu looked down at him and said, "This is the match you've been looking forward to, isn't it?"
Goshiki nodded, the food still in his mouth.
He had wanted to play against Hinata on an official court for a long, long time, but unfortunately, because he hadn't lived up to his potential, he never had the chance.
Shirabu turned his head.
Where Goshiki Tsutomu couldn't see, he curled his lips into a slight smirk.
“Don't overthink things.”
Just enjoy it.
Author's Note:
Yuzu: I'm going to grab both career and money! I'll earn from both prize money and endorsements!
BJ Manager: Atsumu-kun—you are my savior!!
Chapter 413: The Four Hundred and Thirteenth Fox
[Next up is the high school boys' volleyball group competition, the third match of the Preliminary Round, a match between the Miyagi Prefecture representative team and the Hyogo Prefecture representative team.]
Aoba Haruka stood by the court, crossing her arms and pursing her lips as she stared at the two teams that had already entered the arena.
Their match is next, although he should have gone back to the meeting by now, he still wanted to watch this match.
It's nothing; it's not that he's interested in the strength of Inarizaki or Shiratorizawa.
Instead, it was..
Shi—ratorizawa!!
“Go, go! Inarizaki is the strongest!!”
Aoba turned his head to look at Harukawa, who had followed him, said with an expectant look, "Captain, I want this."
Harukawa thought about it seriously.
Unlike the absurd request from Aoba last time, this intensified cheering actually has a positive effect on the school's image, it is actually possible to get it approved.
But the scale of Shiratorizawa's cheering is large because their Volleyball Club is the largest club in their school, with a membership of over a hundred people.
Inarizaki does not have as many official members as Shiratorizawa, but their presence is massive because their Brass Band Club is large, one of the best in the country, works unconditionally with the sports clubs.
As for us, Rakusan.. with the boys' basketball and girls' football teams looming over us, no Brass Band Club to cheer us on, achieving an effect like that is nothing more than a pipe dream.
Harukawa proposed very seriously, ".. You should go ask the Student Council President to approve more funds for us."
That's right, although Rakusan is a famous elite school, it doesn't mean their Volleyball Club lacks money.
Because they have a devilish Student Council Manager; although he would approve their budget, no one would want to apply for it.