Shirabu shook his head. "No need. Just apply an ice pack properly, otherwise it'll definitely swell up in a bit."
Meanwhile, the Miya Twins, who hadn't even started fighting yet, were subdued by Coach Kurosu's foresight and knelt obediently on the ground.
Coach Kurosu's tactical clipboard clattered loudly: "You two, reflect on yourselves! This is a competitive arena! Do you want to get the juniors suspended by dragging them down with you!"
Miya Atsumu shifted the blame: "It's Osamu's fault."
Miya Osamu turned his head and glared at him: "I didn't do anything; you threw your stinky towel at me."
Atsumu retorted, "What do you mean stinky! My body wash smells great! Shoyo can testify to that!"
Osamu huffed, "Sweat has a smell! It's disgusting!"
Across the net, Kawanishi Taichi, who had been listening to the two of them bicker, exclaimed in shock, "Is that even the point?!"
Hearing this precise remark, Rishia Heisuke felt instantly refreshed in both body and mind.
Hinata looked at Miya Atsumu, then looked at Miya Osamu, not daring to say a single word.
He testified that Miya Atsumu's body wash smelled wonderful, but.. the smell of sweat was certainly not pleasant.
Coach Washijo didn't even bother with the others at this moment; he rolled the papers in the folder into a cylinder and tapped each member of Shiratorizawa one by one.
Kawanishi Taichi! Get back here!
What kind of Captain are you! What on earth was that set in this set! How were your hands positioned for the block! You're letting the opponent score by tooling your block.. Go back and practice on your own!
And you, Shirabu Kenjiro, don't think I'm going to stop paying attention to you just because you're retiring. Look at the sets you're giving! You gave a crucial ball to the Middle Blocker? What do I usually teach you? Crucial balls must go to the crucial, trustworthy people!
As he spoke, Coach Washijo tapped Kawanishi again, then looked toward Shirabu: "Do you think this is someone worth trusting?"
Shirabu shook his head.
Kawanishi is very unreliable, but he didn't expect the opponent to get so fired up under Inarizaki's instigation, especially since Kawanishi hadn't scored a single point on those previous few plays.
After glaring at Shirabu, Coach Washijo looked toward Goshiki Tsutomu, who was applying an ice pack to his face: "And you! Tsutomu!"
What happened to your reaction speed?
Are your legs broken, or are your hands stuck in the air? How could you not know a ball that big was flying toward you and try to block it?!
Listening to Coach Washijo scold everyone one by one and point out their mistakes from the previous set, Coach Saito let out a hearty laugh.
—Coach Washijo is quite energetic today as well.
After submitting the rotation chart for the Second Set, Coach Washijo withdrew his gaze from the opposing Inarizaki side.
He had a serious expression, his voice laced with a hint of teeth-gritting frustration. "Besides, Shoyo and the others are going easy on you guys. Can't you tell?"
Goshiki Tsutomu suddenly looked up. "Huh?"
Having just poured his entire heart and soul into the match and being struck just now, his head was a bit fuzzy, he didn't react at all to what the coach had said.
After a second's pause, Goshiki, extracting the key information, quickly reviewed the recent play, focusing his memory on Hinata's movement trajectory.
It seems.. that is indeed the case.
While it can't be ruled out that these are tactical adjustments made specifically to target Shiratorizawa's Block, it is true that Hinata's lateral movement frequency is not high, he rarely executes high-difficulty Quick Attacks.
However, Kawanishi-senpai's Block, as well as the way he learned to use the Decoy Block from Tendo-senpai, were indeed more effective at handling lateral balls, but Inarizaki's current style of vertical height suppression is quite difficult to deal with.
Thinking of this, Goshiki slowly turned his head to look at Hinata, who was saying something to Coach Kurosu beside him.
Coach Kurosu seemed to be asking Hinata something, Hinata lifted his leg and reached back to touch it as an answer.
Noticing something was wrong, Goshiki narrowed his eyes and stared at Hinata's leg for a long time.
After confirming the results of his observation, Goshiki suddenly spoke up and asked, "What is on Shoyo's leg?"
Coach Washijo, who was just about to make the final arrangements for the next set, froze for a moment, then followed his gaze.
But Coach Washijo's eyesight wasn't very good as he aged, so he didn't notice anything unusual.
He asked, "What's wrong?"
Goshiki replied, "Shoyo has something on his leg, skin-colored."
Shirabu took a look as well and gave a continued, certain response: "There definitely is."
Noticing the gazes of the Shiratorizawa members, Miya Atsumu, who had already stood up, moved a step and completely blocked Hinata's view.
Tilting his head with a smile, Miya Atsumu turned and asked, "When you jump and land, do you feel any sense of support?"
Hinata nodded. "Yeah, it's not as strong as an ankle brace, but it's still much more reassuring than jumping with nothing at all."
“And this doesn't just protect the Achilles tendon.. the muscles are stabilized too, right?” As he spoke, Hinata looked at Coach Omimi, his eyes questioning if he was correct.
Coach Omimi gave him a thumbs up: "Shoyo remembers very clearly."
“Get used to this feeling this afternoon, you can play even more freely in the matches tomorrow and the day after.”
They had actually tried it back when they were at school, but they hadn't faced such high-intensity competition like the National Tournament.
This kinesiology tape isn't cheap, once you put it on, there's no way to peel it off forcefully; you can only wait three or four days for the skin cells to naturally undergo metabolism and apoptosis, which reduces the stickiness and causes it to fall off.
Once it's applied at noon today, it will be perfect for use over the next two days. By the time the National Sports Festival is over and I return, it will have fallen off on its own.
But it itself is actually just like any other ordinary protective gear; although it can provide a certain amount of support, it relies more on the players' own sense of self-protection.
Even while wearing an ankle brace, many players still suffer sprained ankles and injuries.
By now, Hinata's self-protection training is almost complete, so the protective gear is really just the icing on the cake.
Coach Omimi made a final decision: "It just so happens we have extra materials left, so let's apply some to Unabara when we head back tonight."
Hinata nodded, agreeing on Unabara's behalf: "Yeah!"
Unabara tried to struggle a bit: "Do I really have to.."
It feels quite terrible once it's applied, especially after leaving the court, where there's a very noticeable sense of discomfort.
For example.. it's a bit sticky.
Coach Kurosu smiled slightly. "This is necessary protection, Unabara."
Unabara Uta accepted his fate.
In the Second Set, Shiratorizawa took the first serve, the opposing team also chose an S1 Opening, with Yura Shota serving first.
Although Goshiki himself would have preferred Shirabu to be in the starting lineup, Shirabu hadn't been able to break the deadlock for Shiratorizawa in the previous set. After considering various factors, Coach Washijo ultimately decided to let Yura take the court.
Shirabu had no objections to this arrangement.
And Goshiki, who understood this was for the sake of victory, said nothing either, simply obeying the arrangement in silence.
In the previous set, he could decide whether or not to make substitutions because they had no chance of winning, but for this set, rearranging everything from the start.. that will require some serious study.
Hinata stood firm near Position 5 in the back row for Inarizaki, while Rishia stayed very close to his side to provide protection for his first receive.
Yura's serves were quite good. After entering Shiratorizawa's high school team, the jump serve training he had already been doing was officially added to his schedule, he had seen some results after practicing it for over half a year.
If you had to say.. he is much stronger than Shirabu.
Yura's gaze slowly swept over Hinata, then shifted to Unabara Uta on the other side.
Although there are various styles of serves, such as Power Serves, Jump Float Serves, Side Spin, they ultimately fall into two categories based on their purpose.
One type is the ACE serve, which aims directly at scoring, while the other is the tactical serve, which aims to disrupt the opponent's subsequent attacking formation.
A typical example of the former is Miya Atsumu; whether it is a Power Serve or a Jump Float Serve, Miya Atsumu pursues nothing but an ACE.
The latter is exemplified by Suna; while his own serve power is limited, his grasp of tactical serves is incredibly precise, hitting almost exactly where he intends. Coupled with his own precise control over tactics and reading people's minds, even though he couldn't perform a jump serve before, his tactical serves are among the very best in the entire high school volleyball world.
However, when an ACE is possible, no one would settle for a tactical serve, so Inarizaki would frequently use Suna in that position to serve for crucial points.
It was obvious that Suna's jump serve wasn't proficient enough yet, his tactical approach was also significantly lacking; he would probably be substituted even more frequently.
Many things flashed through Yura's mind in an instant, finally, his gaze fell upon the ball in his hands.
Unlike Miyano, he had many competition records since junior high and had even represented Shiratorizawa at the National Tournament, so he wouldn't get stage fright in a place like this.
He also knew that he couldn't score directly from a serve, so.. he actually leaned more towards tactical play.
The Ace has a Wing Spiker protecting him, the other side is the Libero.
It seemed as if there were almost no openings, but.. it wasn't actually an impenetrable wall.
Spinning the volleyball lightly in his hands, Yura tossed the ball in the final second of the time limit.
Chapter 418: The 418th Fox
The heavy thud of the hit rang in everyone's ears, in the next second, the volleyball flew over the net, dropping straight down into the space between Rishia and Unabara Uta.
The general purpose of a tactical play is to disrupt the connection between the setter and the spiker's subsequent attack, or to strike directly at the seam of the opponent's back-row defense, causing chaos in their defense.
Yura hit it very accurately, landing it basically right between the two of them.
However, regarding how to receive various tactical balls, Coach Kurosu had long ago organized a complete set of rules for everyone.
During regular club practice, to avoid causing subsequent tactical confusion due to how these tactical balls are received, it is better to let the ball drop than to allow others to reach for it haphazardly.
Of course, in an actual match, the goal is to avoid losing points, so if someone really can't make it, others will have to step in to receive it.
On a ball stuck in the middle like this, Inarizaki's requirement is that it must be received by the Libero.
Unabara Uta lowered his center of gravity with a cross-step toward the back-side, bringing his arms together to receive the ball head-on.
A crisp sound rang out as the ball bounced with a heavy thud, landing near the front row's attack line.
Miya Atsumu praised loudly, "What a great First Receive!"
Miya Osamu took a sufficient approach distance and raised his hand for the ball: "Give it to me!"
On the Inarizaki side, the front row players had already completed their rotation between the two sides, Miya Osamu at Position 3 had already moved behind Position 4, preparing for a Strong Attack.
Kawanishi's peripheral vision, however, was locked onto Suna on the other side.
The more obvious the target, the more likely it is to be a decoy. Considering Miya Atsumu's personality, it would actually be more probable that he would choose to use Suna's center high ball as cover to coordinate a staggered attack with Hinata in the back row.
Catching Hinata's diagonal approach run, Kawanishi confirmed this guess.
But having learned his lesson from the previous set, he no longer dared to reveal his chosen target too early.
Anyway, looking at the rhythm of Inarizaki's offensive coordination, it wasn't a Quick Attack, so he would have plenty of time to follow up with a Block; there was no need to worry about the timing of his jump.