They won this match by a narrow margin; there's no need to hold back.
Atsumu let out a light chuckle. "As for letting Aoba Kureha run wide for a one-on-one block.. isn't that what you're best at handling, Shoyo?"
"Yes." Hinata nodded, a confident smile on his face.
Agatsuma's face flashed through his mind, Hinata's expression suddenly froze.
He looked up at Miya Atsumu's profile and spoke tentatively, "Um.. Atsumu-ge, I have an idea."
Miya Atsumu looked at him. "What?"
"It's about the potential match against Karasuno," Hinata replied.
Hinata struggled to organize his thoughts: "In the last match against Karasuno, the opponents were actually playing more to our rhythm, on top of that, our stamina reserves in the early stages weren't as high as theirs.. So, we simply had no way to compete with them at our best in the later stages."
Um.. what I mean is..
Miya Atsumu had already understood what Hinata meant: "I understand."
This time, Karasuno got the Joker, so we can do the exact opposite, right?
Hinata seriously tried to recall the meaning of the idiom Miya Atsumu had used, then nodded vigorously. "Yeah, yeah! That's exactly what it means!"
Miya Atsumu curled his lips into a smirk. "A war of attrition.. I like it."
In any case, when it comes to personnel reserves, we definitely won't lose to Karasuno, while Karasuno's weakness is quite obvious.
Last time, in the second set against Karasuno, Karasuno's strategy of targeting the opponent's condition ultimately resulted in a win for Karasuno, but with the Libero injured, they were unable to maintain their initial lead.
Moreover, given the situation at that time, even if Unabara Uta hadn't been injured, it would have been difficult for her to play through the entire match due to the previous game against Itachiyama.
If things went smoothly, they could shift their entire focus onto Hakuma Mebuki and Hoshiumi Hikari.
No.. actually, wouldn't the simpler approach be to target their setter, Asahina, their libero, Takahashi?
Unlike Inarizaki, who currently have high-quality substitutes available for their Libero, Karasuno does not actually have any suitable replacement players for those two important positions; even when Takahashi was injured previously, he still insisted on playing through the match.
Some wicked plans were slowly taking shape in Miya Atsumu's mind.
Hinata watched Miya Atsumu's smile gradually become twisted and dark, he couldn't help but take a step back.
—So scary.
Miya Atsumu cleared his throat and wiped that terrifying look off his face: "We'll deal with the Karasuno matter later. We need to see their match against Itachiyama first. Our top priority is studying Rakusan."
They not only needed to win, but to win as quickly as possible, using maximum strategic planning to minimize their own exhaustion.
It is the same for all major tournaments; victory is not just about the win or loss of a single match or the strength of both sides. The planning of the entire tournament cycle and physical management are of even greater importance.
In a war of attrition, the side with more cards in hand will ultimately emerge victorious; it is as simple as that.
Glancing at the blue banner hanging on the opposite side, Miya Atsumu slowly lowered his eyes.
It's time for the reckoning.
With today's schedule concluded, Miya Atsumu and Hinata returned to the hotel after saying goodbye to Inarizaki's Kita Shinsuke and Aran.
On the way back, Miya Atsumu's phone suddenly rang.
Hiu Unyan leaned over curiously to take a look. "Who is it? Is it Coach Kurosu?"
It wasn't very late yet, so it probably wasn't Coach Kurosu urging them to head back.
Miya Atsumu took a look at the caller's name and silently hung up the phone.
He had no intention of communicating with the other party right now; he still had to rush back to prepare for battle. He would deal with it after the entire match cycle was over.
Facing Hinata's eyes, which were full of curiosity, Miya Atsumu eventually gave him an answer.
I'm here to deliver the money.
Chapter 429: The Four Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Fox
I hung up.
Kageyama looked at Yamaguchi across from him and declared the result of his call for advice with an expressionless face.
To be honest, this was already the fifteenth time he had been hung up on by Miya Atsumu.
In other words.. whenever he called Miya Atsumu, the call was never answered immediately; it was usually a long wait before Miya Atsumu called him back.
This time, they mainly wanted to ask for Inarizaki's insights on front-row and back-row cross attacks.
Kageyama considered his coordination with Tsukishima and Yamaguchi to be quite good for now. Given that they could both execute Back Quick and Short Quick, they should pursue cross-tactics involving the Opposite.
However, if you wanted to ask about these issues with positioning, you could have asked Hinata, but.. he couldn't even send messages to Hinata; they were basically in a state of no contact.
To be honest, he didn't know what was happening.
Tsukishima Kei crossed his arms over his chest, a hint of mockery appearing in his expression as he looked at Kageyama: "Are you even up for this, King?"
Yamaguchi laughed it off, "Maybe he's just busy. Inarizaki has the Semifinals tomorrow, so he's probably in a meeting right now?"
Actually, they weren't.
Miya Atsumu was sharing a single extra-large bowl of tonkatsu rice with Hinata, enjoying being fed by Hinata.
When Osamu and the others went to the restaurant to pick up the takeout, they didn't check if there were enough utensils inside, which resulted in every bag only containing a single pair of chopsticks.
Although the hotel had utensils available, they could also order room service to have the hotel staff deliver it, Miya Atsumu didn't want to.
—It definitely wasn't because he wanted Hinata to feed him.
The tablet computer in front of the two was playing today's match between Rakusan and Shirabu, the two ate quietly, offering no commentary on the game.
Not until the last bite of pork cutlet rice was in his mouth and swallowed did Miya Atsumu say, "That was a bit unexpected."
Hinata, who still had one last piece of tonkatsu left for himself, was still chewing. After hearing Miya Atsumu's words, he looked up at him with a confused expression: "Huh?"
Miya Atsumu wiped his mouth and replied, "Compared to before.. Rakusan's playstyle has changed significantly."
As he spoke, Miya Atsumu paused the video and pointed to Kureha's figure on the screen, saying, "The two of us have already discussed Kureha's situation before, there isn't much difference from our previous deduction."
“It's mainly Miyazaki Sho; he's playing much more aggressively than before.”
Shoyo also quickly wiped his mouth and packed up his lunch box: "That's only natural, right?"
Atsumu-ge said before that Kureha's blocking has improved, which would free up the spikers responsible for back-row defense, which means.. Miyazaki-senpai can focus more of his attention on offense.
Miya Atsumu chuckled. "Exactly, that's right."
Besides being certain, Miya Atsumu didn't forget to belittle someone: "Shoyo really picks things up quickly; he's much better than some guy who's constantly thinking about handing me money every single day."
Hinata lifted his chin and gave his toes a slightly proud little shake. "Of course!"
Atsumu curled his lips into a pleasant smile and leaned back against the back of his chair. "That's basically it; there isn't much else worth noting."
Hinata froze, sitting up abruptly and turning to look at Miya Atsumu with a look of disbelief. "Doesn't it seem like there are too many jumps? And you haven't talked about Miyazaki-senpai's offensive style yet?"
Miya Atsumu turned his head to look at him. "Is this something that needs explaining?"
He reached out to adjust the video's progress bar, gesturing with his chin toward Miyazaki Sho on the screen. "Long arms, good at hitting spin, that's all."
Hinata nodded, indicating that he understood: "I see, I get it now."
Mentioning the long arms, Miya Atsumu recalled something he had tossed into a corner of his memory: "Oh, right, Coach Kurosu just told me that Tokura Yukihito hasn't returned yet?"
Hinata, who was just about to go throw away the trash, froze.
He turned his head toward Miya Atsumu. "Atsumu-ge, I think you should have mentioned this sooner."
After saying that, he pushed the door open and went straight out, walking to the room next to the next one to knock on Kumagai and Tokura's door.
“Akuma! Akuma! Are you in? Is Yukihito back!”
Miya Atsumu stood up and walked toward the door, peeking over to look: "It shouldn't be that big a deal. How old are you now, staying out all night?"
Kumagai opened the door from the inside: "Yukihito? I don't know, it seems he really hasn't come back yet. Coach came looking for him just now."
Hearing that, Miya Atsumu felt as if the sky were falling.
“No way? He really didn't come back? What time is it even?!”
While returning to the room to find his jacket, Miya Atsumu silently added another mark to his mental tally against Tokura, repeatedly lashing him on his blacklist.
Hinata called the coach immediately. Coach Kurosu's notification was likely meant for Atsumu to contact Tokura, but someone had completely forgotten.
Hearing Coach Kurosu's voice on the other end of the phone, Hinata paused while getting dressed. "Eh? Coach, are you with Yukihito?"
Having already finished getting dressed, Miya Atsumu looked toward Hinata. "Where are you?"
Hinata replied, "In the hotel lobby on the first floor."
Miya Atsumu wanted to take off his clothes and lie back down on the bed, but in the end, he stopped himself.
Forget it, let's go take a look. What on earth is that guy up to this late at night..
When the two of them reached the first floor, Tokura and Coach Kurosu were sitting on the sofa talking, both of them wearing smiles on their faces, looking as though nothing had happened.
Hinata rushed to Coach Kurosu's side immediately, taking the seat next to him. "Yukihito, what did you go do?"
"Osamu-senpai said there's a shop near the hotel with delicious dessert porridge, so I planned to go try it, but instead.." Tokura raised a hand to scratch his head, his face written with embarrassment.
I got lost.
Miya Atsumu silently snapped the cheese-flavored Calbee snack he had originally prepared for Hinata, his gaze toward Tokura becoming extremely unfriendly. The intensity in his deep eyes caused even Tokura to instinctively shrink his neck.
Tokura held his head and bowed: "I'm sorry, it won't happen again.."
Hinata patted his chest with his hand and let out a slow sigh of relief. "So you were just lost! I thought you'd been eaten by some terrifying monster in a restroom!"
Atsumu raised a hand to cover his face. "Where do I even begin to complain about this.."
Tokura looked up at Hinata and Miya Atsumu, who showed no intention of sitting down, before finally fixing his gaze on Coach Kurosu. "Um.."
Coach Kurosu understood what Tokura was concerned about, so he turned to Miya Atsumu and said, "Kuniharu said he just finished organizing the key points from today's Rakusan match, so go up and take a look."
Knowing that Coach Kurosu was trying to get rid of him, Miya Atsumu clicked his tongue, then turned back and said to the coach with a smile, "Then I'll head up first."
As he left, he made a mental note of Tokura and Kumagai.
Watching Miya Atsumu leave, Tokura finally let out a slow breath, his whole body relaxing a little.
Coach Kurosu tapped his arm with his finger and asked proactively, "I remember I arranged for Masahito and the others to go with you; why did you end up leaving alone?"