His positioning was deep, near the edge of the court, to allow for adjustments in his subsequent defense.
Miya Atsumu's gaze swept across the several players defending in Karasuno's back row.
At this moment, Karasuno's setter was in the back row, Karasuno was using a three-person receiving formation, meaning the setter's position was squeezed into the corner of the court. This also meant he had plenty of opportunities to interfere with him.
However..
He had no intention of doing that at all.
At the very last moment of the service limit, Miya Atsumu raised his hand to toss the ball, took a three-step approach to the baseline, leaped high into the air to deliver a full-power spike.
A heavy Power Jump Serve landed directly in Karasuno's court, aimed straight at Hoshiumi, a perfectly executed chest-aimed spike.
Hoshiumi's expression remained unchanged as he decisively stepped forward.
The setter was right behind him; he absolutely could not let his receiving affect the opponent's subsequent actions.
Hoshiumi spread his legs and raised his hands, facing the ball head-on.
Bang!!
A heavy thud rang out immediately after, under Hoshiumi's precise control, the ball with heavy spin was bumped straight up, landing near the attack line in the front row.
"What a receive! To handle a jump serve with a touch like that, Hoshiumi's fundamentals are absolutely impeccable!" Kito praised Hoshiumi loudly.
Oikawa Tooru let out a laugh: "However, since Miya Atsumu's jump serve was received by the opponent's hands, his jump serve definitely needs further strengthening. This shows that although the spin on this ball was heavy, it lacked sufficient forward power."
While the commentators were chatting and laughing, the ball spiked by Hakuma Mebuki was touched by Miya Osamu, who had moved away from the net, absorbing some of the power and sending it toward the back row.
"Nice touch!" Unabara Uta shouted before stepping back to follow up, slightly raising his center of gravity and using his hands to set the ball toward the front row.
Finger control is still superior to using the flat of the forearm; Unabara Uta's set was impeccable.
After giving his praise, Miya Atsumu followed up, jumping and performing a fake back set before sending the ball toward Position 4 in front of him.
Hinata took a four-step approach and jumped toward the net, controlling his explosive jump height and his arm extension in mid-air to the absolute limit.
Hoshiumi on the opposite side and Hirugami on the side had also moved up to follow.
Having experienced a previous mistake, Hakuma, who was already positioned a bit far away while defending against Miya Osamu's spike, did not follow up this time; instead, he stayed far away on the other side to provide support, ready at any moment to receive a ball from the front row.
Facing the double Block from Hoshiumi and Hirugami, Hinata's gaze bypassed Hoshiumi to look at Takahashi in the back row.
Sensing he was preparing a tip, Hoshiumi and Hirugami decisively pressed forward.
But in that very instant, Hinata directly tapped the ball into Hoshiumi's hands.
The moment the ball bounced into the air and hung suspended, Hinata used his left hand to lightly tip the volleyball, sending it on a tip over the net.
Hoshiumi turned and lunged forward, saving the ball at the critical moment.
“Nice save!”
Asahina passed the ball to Hirugami. After all, Hoshiumi's condition wasn't great right now; although Hakuma's spike could reach over the block, it was clearly being completely controlled by Inarizaki, making it not a good choice for a toss with both Miya Osamu and Suna on the court.
Hirugami jumped for a spike, although his timing was quite precise, Suna's faster reaction still allowed him to touch the ball during the Block.
Unabara Uta followed up from the back row again, delivering a quite high ball near the attack line. Miya Atsumu, jumping for the set, called out, "Osamu!"
Watching the ball fly toward him, Miya Osamu moved forward unhurriedly, jumping up while calmly watching Hirugami and Hakuma rushing over from the opposite side.
He didn't need to do anything extra, not even adjust the technical ball.
Miya Atsumu's instructions to him were simple: just spike with all his might directly at the opponent's block.
Hirugami and Hakuma were not in good condition; although there was plenty of time to jump, if he could just time his spike and ball speed correctly against their double block, he would definitely be able to smash it through the middle.
The moment he jumped, Hirugami had already guessed how Miya Osamu was going to play.
To put it bluntly.. at this very moment, it comes down to which of them has the faster reaction speed.
The moment the ball reached its highest point, Hirugami's gaze suddenly focused.
Miya Osamu had also completed his preparation for the spike, staring intently at the ball's position as he raised his arm and swung.
—It's now!
Hirugami extended one arm to block, cutting off the path of Miya Osamu's Kou Chokusen.
But the ball did not fly along the path Hirugami had predicted; instead, at the very moment he adjusted his arm, the ball slipped through the gap between his two arms above his head.
Norikura Isao from the back row took a step forward, attempting to receive the ball.
But the ball's speed was simply too fast, its power too great; the moment he went to receive it, he completely lost control.
The ball bounced out of bounds, but fortunately, it had a very high trajectory, making it possible to save.
Asahina, who was relatively close, had already lunged forward, sliding on his knees to lean his body back as far as possible to maximize his field of vision.
To be honest.. he actually struggled a bit with this kind of high-difficulty set, but at this moment, he had no other choice.
Hoshiumi's adaptability to various types of balls is extremely strong; even without a set, as long as he can ensure the ball is tossed high enough..
Then there definitely won't be any problems!
Of course, there was absolutely nothing wrong with a ball like that.
This height and ball speed were already the best Asahina could provide.
As the Ace and a Spiker, he had to give the opponent a sufficient response..
Hinata stepped back from the line of sight, while Suna and Miya Osamu on the other side had already completed their rotation with him, taking over the front to launch an attack.
Hoshiumi keenly sensed something was wrong.
Inarizaki could have clearly executed a Quick Attack at a time like this, but they didn't; they even sent the first receive high on purpose?
It was almost as if.. he was ensuring that even if Miya Osamu failed to score, he would have enough time to get up and continue the subsequent attack.
But there was no time left to hesitate.
With just a double block, he will definitely find an opportunity to break through!
Hoshiumi rushed forward, lowering his center of gravity to jump beneath the ball, his gaze focused on the ball above while simultaneously observing the two blockers jumping to meet him.
Opportunities, there were indeed opportunities.
But..
Suna's expression was calm as he subtly pressed down his left hand.
He certainly knew that Hoshiumi could find space for a spike, but.. the already poorly timed set wouldn't give him that chance.
Bam!
The sound of impact rang out again as Suna slammed the ball directly back into Karasuno's court.
Hoshiumi's breath hitched; it was already too late by the time Takahashi lunged behind him. The ball hit the floor, the whistle blew immediately after.
The scoreboard at the side of the court jumped to Inarizaki 2:0 Karasuno, further widening the score gap for Inarizaki.
[Inarizaki scores consecutively!]
Yamamoto was highly excited: [Suna's precise predictive Block completely killed any possibility of Karasuno scoring on this counterattack!]
Kito nodded while also commenting, "Suna's momentum today is incredible; in these first two rotations, he's already had several successful blocks, hasn't he?"
Oikawa Tooru watched intently, only snapping back to reality to offer his own commentary: "Miya Osamu's spike and Hirugami's block just now were also very interesting. Miya Osamu performed a counter-prediction against Hirugami's anticipation."
[Even though it was a battle of reaction speeds, in the end, it was still a psychological war.]
Kito was satisfied with his junior's professional performance once he entered the zone: [Besides, Unabara Uta from Inarizaki's back row followed up in time just now. Even if Hirugami hadn't made a change and had simply blocked Miya Osamu's spike, Inarizaki would still have been able to execute a timely counter-attack.]
Yamamoto turned and said, "However, the decisive factor was still Hinata's first play, wasn't it? It caught Hoshiumi off guard and completely disrupted Karasuno's setup."
Kito nodded: "True, Hoshiumi's condition isn't great, so Karasuno has lost an important scoring point."
[By comparison, Hakuma's offensive methods are still too one-dimensional.]
On the court, Hoshiumi wiped a bead of sweat from his chin and turned to look at Hakuma Mebuki.
Seeing him frown, Hakuma also pursed his lips.
He understood, even though he still couldn't quite grasp it.. but he would work hard.
The height of the Block on the opposite side was insufficient, frankly, there were only a few types of touches that could be dealt with. As long as he could provide the right response, he could definitely avoid being touched.
Suna glanced at Hakuma from the side but said nothing.
He looked at Miya Atsumu, who was preparing to serve the next ball, used his gaze to silently protest against him.
He disagreed two hundred percent with the strategic arrangement Miya Atsumu and the others had finalized.
But for the sake of the overall strategy, he still needed to follow Miya Atsumu's arrangements. After all, in terms of the ability to consider things from a macro-strategic perspective.. Miya Atsumu was indeed stronger than all of them.
However, this doesn't mean he would play entirely according to Miya Atsumu's arrangements; he would also score in his own way, such as through a Block.
When it comes to things like scoring.. Inarizaki never turns them down, do they?
Serve a good one!
Miya Atsumu tossed the volleyball in his hands, glanced at Takahashi, who was standing ready, then tossed the ball with complete composure at the very last second of the serve limit.
Karassuno has quite a lot of experience dealing with timing-based plays, so if they used them frequently, the ultimate effectiveness would diminish even faster.
His Dual Wield is already a powerful scoring tool on its own; as for a method like second-timing, which has such extremely high requirements for the environment.. it's better to leave that to Suna.
Otherwise, if Suna can't score even a single point from his serves, he'll turn around and dig up some old, ugly photos to blackmail him for snacks again.
For a moment, Suna's thoughts, with his hands held in front of him, drifted away.
He suddenly realized something.
Although Miya Atsumu still cared about his personal image, his blackmail was no longer as effective as before, Miya Atsumu was even starting to develop a subtle tendency toward being a comedian.
As long as it wasn't a photo so ugly that it would make people or dogs loathe it, Miya Atsumu would often just look at it and wouldn't destroy his Pudding.
Now Hinata and Miya Atsumu are on the same side, having even left the victim alliance that Miya Atsumu had persecuted them into.
Looking at it from another perspective, would Hinata try to give Miya Atsumu some righteous persuasion regarding something like trying to help him maintain his image?
Maybe even Miya Atsumu would become a bit more kind just so he would bother Hinata less?
Although he felt the probability of it working was low, it was still worth a try.
After all, he never wanted to see his fake phone model lying in the trash can, a flowerpot, or the flowerbed in front of the gymnasium in the Locker Room ever again.
Who knows, one of these days Miya Atsumu might succeed, the one lying in the trash can will be his real phone.