Aoba Haruka turned back stiffly, his eyes filled with struggle and resistance. "That should be the Captain's job, shouldn't it?"
Harukawa shrugged. "I'm graduating soon, so you can be the Captain next year."
Aoba took a few steps back and ducked into the Players' Tunnel as fast as he could: "I won't!!"
Whoever wants to be the Captain can have it; he's definitely not going to be it!
Don't think for a second that I don't know; Devil and he are in the same batch! Devil hasn't even graduated yet next year!
Watching Aoba Haruka scramble away, Hinata, who was just about to wave to her, felt a bit disappointed: "Why did Haruka run off?"
Miya Atsumu rolled his eyes. "He's acting guilty."
Although he didn't know exactly what those people from Aoba Haruka's group had said behind his back that day, it didn't stop him from holding a grudge against those few people.
He asked Hinata, but Hinata wouldn't tell him.
It was all Aoba Haruka's fault, causing him and Hinata to be angry with each other for two days.
However, considering the current level of team cohesion and player skill, Shirabu is actually not as good as Rakusan; for the next match, he personally favors Rakusan.
No, it definitely wasn't because he wanted to crush Aoba Haruka to vent his frustration.
Absolutely not.
Coach Kurosu was very decisive in sending Miya Osamu for the draw this time; although Miya Atsumu had returned from the morning match as a starter, Coach Kurosu did not trust Atsumu.
When Miya Osamu returned as the starter, Coach Kurosu breathed a secret sigh of relief.
Regardless of whether they start or serve second, Shiratorizawa's S1 will not change.
Compared to the advantage of serving first, they need more to ensure the Ace has a strong opening position in Position 4.
In contrast, if they were to receive second, they would need to change rotations, making it impossible to start with the strong advantage of a three-point attack from the front row.
Standing in his position and rotating his wrists, Goshiki Tsutomu's expression could only be described as quite unsightly.
Inarizaki's specialty is to score points by relying on the absolute dominance of Miya Atsumu's service turn and their three-point attack. As the strongest server in high school, Inarizaki can basically guarantee an opening lead of two to three points when they have the first serve.
Between two teams where the skill gap cannot be significantly widened, there is a very high possibility of being dragged into a stalemate by Inarizaki.
Either find a way to suppress Inarizaki's scoring momentum, or execute even more terrifying offense in the following plays.
Goshiki Tsutomu exhaled softly, watching Miya Atsumu walk to a position four steps away from the baseline.
—A Jump Float Serve.
Libero Akakura also quickly realized this, shifting his center of gravity slightly forward without a trace, ready to move toward the ball's landing trajectory at any moment.
In the sudden silence, a sharp whistle rang out along with the referee's movement, the volleyball in sight rose into the air at that very instant.
It was the kind of buzzer-beater that Miya Atsumu had been loving lately.
Akakura's eyes were locked tightly on the ball, attempting to judge its trajectory in the shortest time possible.
The trajectory is too high.. No, there's no spin on the ball at all, it's constantly drifting left and right. It's impossible to tell where it's going to land.
The continuous pressure from the cheering since the very beginning had left Akakura's forehead covered in cold sweat; he steeled himself and took a step toward his right.
This judgment itself had little to do with the trajectory of the ball; the basis for his decision was that Yura was to his right, this time, there was a larger gap in the defense.
Unfortunately, he guessed wrong.
The ball dropped after crossing the three-meter line, falling toward the front row.
Aside from those two options, Miya Atsumu chose a third.
Yanagita reached out from the side to try and save it, but he was ultimately too late, the ball hit the floor.
The whistle announcing an Inarizaki score sounded immediately after, the scoreboard at the side of the court jumped to Inarizaki 1:0 Shiratorizawa.
Amatori, in the stands, gasped, "Whoa, this is bad.."
Aran shouted loudly, "Great ball, Atsumu! One more!"
Beside him, Unai Aman nodded in agreement. "No matter how many times I watch it, his serve is just as pleasing to the eye."
After a pause, Unai seriously rubbed his chin. "To be honest, I kind of want him to be my model."
Kita gave a light laugh. "Atsumu would be more than happy to do it."
“I can already guess what conditions he'll demand,” Aran said, raising a finger, “to draw it and then make a copy for Hinata.”
Unai nodded. "That makes sense."
Having successfully scored a point on the court, Miya Atsumu was already preparing for the second serve, this time he still intended to use a Jump Float Serve.
Kita Shinsuke nodded repeatedly.
Miya Atsumu's personality is quite flamboyant; many times, he would choose a Power Serve simply because it looked cool, even if it was disadvantageous to the situation. Being able to choose a Jump Float Serve with a higher scoring rate so calmly now shows that he has indeed matured a lot.
—Actually, that's not true.
Miya Atsumu spun the volleyball in his hands, lightly biting his lower lip.
Rather than scoring with a Power Serve, he now felt that toyed with his opponents using an ace or a Jump Float Serve gave him even more satisfaction.
Watching Akakura quietly step forward before the referee blew the whistle, he couldn't help but curl his lips into a smirk.
The whistle blew again, this time, Miya Atsumu did not wait until the very last second of the service time limit like before; instead, he once again chose to time his serve right with the whistle.
Seeing Miya Atsumu toss the ball immediately, the Karasuno members in the stands grimaced in disgust.
Takahashi's hands were trembling as he pointed at Miya Atsumu. "This guy.. he's just too dirty!"
By establishing a fixed impression of the opponent through the early stages of the match and then suddenly tearing that label away, he now felt a great deal of sympathy for Akakura.
Akakura didn't react at all, while Miya Atsumu's ball was hit even higher and faster than before.
He watched the ball fly right over his head, then suddenly drop near the baseline.
Cursing inwardly, he quickly turned his head and dove to chase it.
But his movement was already too late; fortunately, Yanagita on the other side reacted in time, lunging forward and using his fingers to tip the ball.
Yanagita used his hands to protect his head, Akakura touched the ground in time to land sooner; although the two collided, neither was injured.
The ball fell to the front row, but it was very low and grazed the net.
Shirabu watched the ball, moving his feet to get underneath it, stepping wide and lowering his center of gravity to leave as much space as possible for the spike to make contact.
However, the conditions of this ball were indeed too poor, leaving him with very little room to maneuver.
Given his ability, it was almost impossible for him to pull off a back set.
Shirabu chose to trust the Ace.
After all.. he didn't have any other choice.
Suna stepped forward without hesitation, Miya Osamu was already in position.
Although he had judged that Goshiki Tsutomu would be the one to spike this ball, Hinata was not prepared to move up for the block.
In such a clear-cut situation, he didn't think Suna and Miya Osamu would miss. What he had to do now was be on guard against Goshiki Tsutomu's cross shot on the other side.
The ball flew straight into the center of his field of vision. Goshiki Tsutomu held his breath, the moment the ball flew toward him, his eyes locked onto the gap for a line shot appearing beside Miya Osamu.
Because the Setter needed protection, Unabara Uta had moved over to cover that line for defense.
This set from Shirabu was rushed, the height of the set wasn't good enough, so Goshiki Tsutomu didn't have much room to adjust.
At the moment he spiked, Miya Atsumu reached out one hand to block the cross shot, precisely intercepting its trajectory and forcing it back down onto the court.
Yanagita, in the back row, hadn't even had time to get up and could only watch helplessly as the ball hit the floor.
The whistle blew, the scoreboard beside the court updated again, showing Inarizaki 2:0 Shiratorizawa.
Inamura covered his face with his hands. "Aren't we doomed?"
Koldorf nodded, "But there was really no other choice; he could only gamble that his spike would be faster than the opponent's block."
"But clearly, he lost that gamble," Hoshiumi laughed.
In this situation, the best option should have been a dump; after all, Inarizaki's back row defense was relatively vacant, Unabara Uta couldn't cover the front row, so if someone were to receive it, it could only be Hinata.
Even though it's difficult to score on this ball when the set from the setter isn't in place, being able to disrupt the opponent's subsequent offense will help their own block perform effectively.
Watching Goshiki Tsutomu go to pick up the ball, Hinata's mouth hung open slightly.
Goshiki exhaled softly, tossed the ball back to Miya Atsumu, returned to his position.
Just as he was reflecting on that last play, a voice suddenly drifted over from not far away.
“Akari, you wouldn't be afraid, would you?”
Goshiki Tsutomu shuddered all over, looking up at Hinata with a look of utter disbelief: "I.. afraid?"
Hinata said very seriously, "Because you look really nervous, Akari."
Goshiki froze, subconsciously lowering his eyes toward the bottom of the net. "Ah.."
Before he could say anything else, Hinata's next words followed: "But being nervous won't help, because the winners will definitely be us."
“Akari, just relax, I'll go a little easy on you!”
Goshiki Tsutomu looked up, staring at Hinata with an expressionless face.
The two stared at each other for two seconds. Goshiki Tsutomu saw the seriousness in Hinata's eyes, a vein suddenly popped on his temple.
—Give his sense of being moved back to him!
Goshiki gritted his teeth. "Huh? Are you kidding me? There's no way I'd get nervous!"
Just you wait, I'm taking the next point right back!
Goshiki Tsutomu, with his fighting spirit burning brightly, turned and took a step back, settling into his position while staring fixedly at Miya Atsumu, who was preparing to serve.
The opponent was clearly laughing, he was laughing with quite a smug and treacherous expression.
Goshiki grew even angrier.
Shirabu looked at Hinata, but said nothing.
Suna glanced at his team's Ace, looking as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.
He felt that.. he should have the right to slack off reasonably on the court, but right now he felt like he was about to lose all those wonderful things.
The whistle blew, Miya Atsumu delivered his third serve.