Although he didn't intend to lose, it didn't stop him from feeling unpleasant right now.
Kito tilted his head slightly toward him, his voice gentle: "Don't say that; it's just that everyone has their own specialties."
Oikawa Tooru's expression remained unchanged. "I understand."
Volleyball is not a sport that can be won solely through technique; there are many things that can influence the course of a match.
There must be a clear barrier on the path to the higher levels; it is just that the directions in which they need to break through are different.
Fortunately, Oikawa was certain that his foundation was solid enough and his accumulation was sufficient.
Perhaps one day, even the things he excels at will become a barrier before those geniuses.
When that time comes, he will make a good joke out of Miya Atsumu and the others.
Yumi Matsuo couldn't be bothered to think about those things.
He just wanted to tear Miya Atsumu's hand off to see if it was mechanical.
But after thinking about it for a while, he gave up.
—Because he felt that a machine could never do it.
Meanwhile, a commotion erupted from the stands above the Inarizaki cheering area.
I missed one.. no, I missed countless!
A voice, sounding somewhat on the verge of a breakdown, drifted from the shadows: "I told you I could go ahead by myself! If you want to go, you can just come later, so why won't you let me leave?"
But.. I don't want to walk alone, I can't help it if I catch a cold and get diarrhea..
The other person slapped his chest with a loud thud. "Whichever match you want to see, I'll play it for you when I get back! I'll do it all!"
The first person to speak slumped in his chair: "No, I don't want to watch you."
Chapter 435: The 435th Fox
Uehara didn't know what Yumi Matsuo was thinking at this moment; he only knew that he had finally reached a moment of rest from his first receive.
He rubbed his hands together, his spirit, which had grown somewhat numb from Inarizaki's fierce offense, became excited again as he gazed intensely at Hinata.
Come on, hurry up, he was already prepared to make the first perfect First Receive of this set!
Aoba Haruka glanced at him briefly, her eyes filled with a faint sense of disdain.
The match has been going on for this long, Uehara Tsuyoshi hasn't managed to provide a single good First Receive..
It seems they were too easy on each other during their usual team practices, but aside from Miyazaki-senpai, Rakusan truly doesn't have anyone particularly skilled at serving.
Unlike Inarizaki, where basically everyone's serve is very mature, they can completely serve as practice partners for the Libero.
It's decided.
For the sake of his Libero and for Yumi Matsuo, who was running all over the court, he decided he would continue to practice his serve intensively after this match.
For some reason, even though it should have been a moment of relaxation, Uehara Tsuyoshi could feel a faint chill running down his spine.
The whistle had already sounded in his ears.
Hinata patted the ball against the floor, counting in his head while adjusting his touch.
They didn't actually spend much time on serves during their pre-match warm-up, after all, it was widely acknowledged that Rakusan's first receive was merely average; they were relatively balanced, with no specific player being unable to receive a serve.
Moreover, his serve was itself a tactical play, primarily intended to disrupt the opponent's subsequent offense.
But.. as expected, there was a sense of unwillingness.
Hinata's gaze locked onto Uehara, then slowly moved upward, finally landing on the faces of several players in the front row.
—Are you going to try it? That so-called "deceptive" serve?
Give it a try; it's not like Coach Kurosu will bury you underground if you fail.
As long as it doesn't hit anyone else's head.
Having made his decision and confirmed his touch, Hinata tossed the ball forward.
He took a large step forward and leaped lightly before the baseline, arching his entire body backward in a wide curve before transferring that power forward.
At the moment of contact, Hinata suddenly pulled back his strength, tapping the volleyball lightly.
“Whoa—!” Oikawa Tooru, standing by the sidelines, began to grimace.
Miya Atsumu felt a gust of wind rush past the back of his head, but fortunately, Hinata's ball control had become quite mature by now, the ball's destination was not the back of his head.
The ball hit the top edge of the net above his head, then, driven by the force, tumbled over the net and fell toward the ground.
Aoba Kureha hurriedly reached out, trying to receive it, but he failed to react in time, furthermore, his center of gravity was unstable.
Although he managed to touch the ball, he still fell to the ground.
Miya Atsumu praised loudly, "Beautiful, Shoyo!"
Hinata breathed a sigh of relief.
To be honest, if he had used even a little less power on that last ball, it probably wouldn't have cleared the net and would have dropped right over Miya Atsumu's head.
Great, another day survived!
The members of Rakusan, whose formation had been completely disrupted, hurriedly readjusted their positions, Yumi Matsuo managed to send the ball back toward the net.
On the other side, Miyazaki Sho jumped against the Inarizaki block, choosing to confront them head-on by using his maximum strength to spike the ball directly toward Rishia Heisuke's position.
Rishia tensed his body to prepare for such a heavy ball.
Fortunately, both his and Tokura's blocking postures were flawless, their builds were sturdy enough that they successfully pressed the ball back down.
Aoba Kureha, who hadn't even had time to get up yet, lunged forward and performed a dig to keep the ball in play.
Harukawa shouted from below the court, "Beautiful! One more!"
Miyazaki called out for the ball again, "Give the ball to me!"
His offensive conditions weren't good enough just now, but this time.. he will definitely succeed!
Yumi Matsuo was even calmer than him; after scanning the three people in Inarizaki's block, he decisively passed the ball to Aoba Haruka in the back row.
Tokura, whose attention had been drawn by Miyazaki Sho, did not react immediately.
On the other side, Miya Atsumu, who had already decided to give Tokura full authority over blocking commands, did not say a word; instead, as Tokura moved toward his side, he jumped in sync with Tokura's movements and rhythm.
Aoba Haruka was performing a back-row attack after all, so it wouldn't matter if his reaction to the block was just a little bit slow.
Haruka was also aware of this, so from the very beginning, she hadn't intended to spike the ball directly over the net; instead, she aimed for the opening created by Tokura and Rishia's late jump, hitting the ball directly at Tokura's fingers.
Tokura couldn't dodge in time and was hit squarely.
The whistle blew, Aoba Haruka scored by tooling the block.
"Nice!" Haruka cheered, pumping her fist.
Kureha, who had already climbed up, also raised his hand and walked toward Aoba Haruka.
Under Haruka's dissatisfied gaze, Kureha slowly lowered her hands, only then did the other person come over to high-five him.
Miya Atsumu turned his head to look at Tokura Yukihito, his expression dark and his tone stern: "Have you not had enough of being beaten by Shoyo yet?"
Something as easy to judge as a back-row tooling the block, this guy didn't even react!
I'll have to ask Coach to get Tokura another arcade membership later, so he can go play Whac-A-Mole to his heart's content!
Tokura stood straight, not even daring to breathe heavily: "No, I was wrong. I will definitely know when to stop next time."
He had actually forgotten that he should have pulled back, thinking only about how he could shut the play down completely.
In the case of a back-row attack, the ball's trajectory when tooling the block will be very flat; as long as he pulls back his hand to ensure he doesn't touch the ball, there is an eighty percent chance it will go straight out of bounds.
Even if it doesn't go out of bounds, it would still be an easy Opportunity Ball to handle.
However, Hinata's height is a bit shorter than Aoba's, since he had previously spiked Hinata's type of spike straight down, he had been careless.
Miya Atsumu rolled his eyes. "Go back and take your punishment yourself."
Tokura hung his head dejectedly: "Yes.."
Teacher Gojo clapped silently in the stands: "That's rough, Yukihito, getting bullied again—"
That blondie is quite something; he's got my flair from back in the day!
After taking a look at the opponent's eye-catching hairstyle and color, the cool laser sunglasses, the high-saturation outfit that was difficult to evaluate, Unai Aman fell into silence.
He felt that.. Miya Atsumu's sense of style might actually be a bit better.
At the very least, he wouldn't end up in a situation where he could dress however he pleased just because he was good-looking.
Rishia Heisuke's serve was incredibly powerful; although it didn't result in a direct score, it disrupted Rakusan's formation to the greatest extent possible, even earning an Opportunity Ball for Inarizaki.
To save the ball, Harukawa was not in a blocking position at that moment; only Miyazaki and Yumi Matsuo rushed over.
After being scolded twice in a row by Miya Atsumu, Tokura rose up in righteous indignation. Under Miya Atsumu's set, he executed a beautiful high ball from Position 3, smashing straight through Rakusan's block.
The heavy sound startled Coach Natsume on the sidelines, as he watched his own player fall, he was momentarily stunned.
Wait, is this tall, lanky guy from Inarizaki really this strong?
How did I not notice that before?
Miyazaki lay on his back on the floor, contemplating life, his fingers stinging with a burning pain.
What?
What happened?
Aran clapped his hands repeatedly in the cheering area: "I told you that you can't use Rintaro as a complete reference for Yukihito! Using him as a reference for blocking is fine, but for offense, he's definitely not up to it."
With Rintaro's strength, he struggles to spike through a block, but Yukihito can do it. Although Yukihito's strength isn't as great as Kuniharu's, he and Heisuke are more or less on the same level. Coach Kurosu asked me about it before, but Yukihito's fundamentals have never been that good, he hasn't put much effort into his offense.
Unai Aman was also surprised: "Really? I couldn't tell at all."
Teacher Gojo silently straightened his yellow tie, puffing out his chest and giving a proud huff.
Seeing that Unai had no intention of speaking to him, he took the initiative to approach.
Do you know how Ballroom Dance is danced?