The ball flew toward Position 4, after a word of praise, Hoshiumi-senpai quickly moved to the net, preparing to spike.
But as the ball landed, Asahina couldn't help but frown.
No, that set had no spin at all; Hoshiumi-senpai didn't have enough time to adjust.
In this current situation, he must deliver a better set.
Hoshiumi used a feint to create an opportunity for himself to use the block, successfully scoring this point.
While Karasuno was cheering and celebrating, Miya Atsumu slowly withdrew his gaze.
In the shadow cast by the pole above, he quietly curled one corner of his mouth into a smirk.
Very good, keep it up.
Chapter 453: The 453rd Fox
Noticing that someone was watching him, Asahina turned his head toward the other side of the net, but no one met his gaze.
Hoshiumi turned his head to look at him. "What's wrong?"
Asahina, looking listless, stared down at the bottom of the net, ultimately swallowing that faint trace of doubt.
It's nothing, I might just be a little tired.
Hoshiumi opened his mouth, originally intending to comfort his junior, but in the end, he could only say, "Hang in there; the physical exhaustion on the opposing side is only increasing."
He couldn't offer comfort, he knew that Asahina didn't need any.
At this time, they could only hope that Asahina could hold on for a little longer and play out as much of the set as possible.
Although their substitutes included Tokura Ria, her performance in setter coordination was actually not very good; even though she could provide some reinforcement in terms of blocking and serving, she was not suitable for the current situation.
With Hoshiumi in the front row, Karasuno's scoring rate is higher than Inarizaki's, but once he returns to the back row where he can be disrupted by offense, he will be heavily "targeted" by Inarizaki.
Moreover, Hinata was right there in front at that time, the terrifying nature of Inarizaki's three-person front row attack needed no questioning.
Back and forth, Karasuno failed to narrow the gap between the two sides at all.
Unabara Uta received Karasuno's serve, after a round of offense and defense, Hinata used tooling the block to send the ball far away, but the quick-reacting Takahashi still managed to chase it down.
Unfortunately, the set was poor; not only was it out of bounds, but the height and speed were also unsuitable for a receive.
Asahina stared at the ball and quickly adjusted his position.
If they could get this point, they could avoid letting Inarizaki reach set point.
One more point, we'll tie the score and go to a tiebreak.
This ball.. can be set!
"Hoshiumi-senpai!" As Asahina called out, he took a step forward, arching his entire body backward with an extreme curve, reached out to touch the ball after confirming his field of vision.
The moment the volleyball touched his fingers, Asahina froze for a moment.
The touch felt wrong; the ball seemed a bit too far away.
In that brief instant, the ball had already been sent out under his control, but the angle was very low, it was falling toward the ground.
Hoshiumi instinctively wanted to chase it, but just as he lunged forward, the Head Referee blew the whistle.
Karasuno's number 9 committed a ball handling violation, Inarizaki scores.
Inarizaki set point.
Kito slapped the table: "Oh no! He hesitated!"
The biggest taboo for a setter is hesitation when setting, especially in a situation like this where he wants to attempt a high-difficulty ball; if he fails to control it properly, a holding violation will be called.
Oikawa Tooru also felt a sense of regret: [Inarizaki's coordination is working, Asahina's condition is dropping very quickly.]
Asahina's performance on difficult balls is nothing short of excellent for a first-year setter, but due to a lack of experience, he isn't quite that outstanding yet.
He had thought.. that he might see the opponent make some kind of breakthrough on the spot.
Yamamoto nodded: "It looks like Karasuno's setter might break down even faster than Inarizaki's libero."
This is the opposite of what happened during the Interhigh; back then, Karasuno had the upper hand because Inarizaki was struggling with their form, but now, Inarizaki is the one controlling the pace against Karasuno.
Hmm.. Is the ultimate victim actually Itachiyama?
"Asahina is actually a smart person," Sakusa suddenly spoke up from the stands.
Komori, beside him, looked at him, waiting for his next words.
Sakusa stared at everyone on the court and continued, "The suppression against you yesterday was his orchestration throughout the entire match; theoretically, it shouldn't be hard to see that Inarizaki was targeting him."
Komori understood. They had played against Karasuno and knew very well that Asahina was very skilled at using his positioning to lure spikers.
Yesterday, Karasuno frequently used tooling the block, the control over the spiker's spike location and timing was all the opponent's doing; it was clear he was a very meticulous player.
Compared to before, Asahina's performance today was indeed somewhat unsatisfactory.
Moreover, unlike a certain very clever setter in his memory, Asahina is very proactive when it comes to setting. Making large-scale runs to save balls is also a common occurrence for him; of course, this is also related to the fact that Karasuno's receiving lineup isn't that strong. Naturally, this is also the main issue that causes his physical exhaustion to intensify.
Amatori propped up his face and muttered, "Thinking is quite exhausting for brain cells."
Iizuna looked at him with some surprise: "You're actually saying things like that."
Amatori's hand slipped, nearly causing his head to slam into the back of the front row seat. "Hey! I'm a college student, for goodness' sake! Is there really a need to mock me like that!"
Iizuna laughed, "It's not like you got in through exams, you basically never passed math when you were in high school. Even Coach Utsunomiya was called in by your math teacher several times."
Besides, the passing grade for the physical education department is much lower than our usual subjects.
Komori from the Physical Education Department nodded, confirming this.
Amatori wanted to refute it, but after stammering for a long time, he still couldn't say anything.
He began to act spoiled: "That's too much! Isn't that just bullying!"
Iizuna turned his head to look at him. "You're the one who failed."
If you must say, he is the only one in this generation of our Volleyball Club with a high deviation score; the rest, Agatsuma and Amatori, are typical slackers whose deviation scores only stay in the middle or lower end of the school because of bonus points from their competition results.
Seeing that Amatori was about to throw a tantrum and act like a rogue, Iizuna changed the subject: "But it's true what you said, thinking is indeed something that consumes a lot of energy."
And unlike Miya Atsumu, Asahina's mind is more delicate, almost to the point of being overly cautious. He stays in a state of high alert most of the time, so the mental exhaustion is naturally much greater.
But the dullness caused by the gradual depletion of physical strength isn't the only reason," Iizuna continued, "it's mostly because when you're in the thick of it, you lose your perspective.
On the surface, Inarizaki seems to be targeting the setter, but their actual behavior is suppressing Hoshiumi, who is providing cover for him, as well as Hakuma, who is conducting unconventional attacks from the back row.
Iizuna's voice was very calm: "It looks like.. they're using the setter as a decoy, but in reality, they're targeting the Ace."
But in reality, Inarizaki's goal is that outermost layer; all the rest of the arrangement is meant to lead the setter into making a mistake.
Amatori's mouth twitched. "Isn't this just a pure nesting doll situation?"
Iizuna chuckled, his entire being in an exceptionally relaxed state, possessing a sense of relief as if he were finally no longer the one being tormented on the court: "Right? Actually, it's just a very simple logical loop."
Unfortunately, in a fast-paced match, those involved cannot analyze the situation from a third-person perspective.
Asahina clenched his fists, then slowly released them.
He had confirmed that he had warmed up before the match began, but why did it feel like the blood still wouldn't reach his fingertips?
The sense of unease did not disappear; instead, it grew even stronger.
Why?
Where exactly does this strange sense of unease come from?
The seniors are all working hard, although Takahashi is not in good form, he is also doing his best to keep the team running.
All he had to do was complete his task, supporting the block while providing a sufficiently stable set; he absolutely could not make a mistake like that just now..
Wait.. he made a mistake?
His hands hanging at his sides twitched for a moment, a gust of wind brushed past his ears, the sound of the ball hitting the floor reached his ears.
Asahina looked at the now-empty opposite side with a sense of confusion. As the sound of the whistle rang out, Hinata's figure sprinted from one side of the net to the other and high-fived someone.
Feeling someone looking over, Hinata tilted his head slightly to look, meeting Asahina's eyes.
Because the other person usually looked so listless and didn't even seem to open his eyes much, he only just now noticed that Asahina's eyes were a beautiful shade of gray.
He gave Asahina a small smile.
For this match, they spent the entire morning in meetings. Thanks to the hard work of Miya Atsumu, Kumagai, Ogata, they have almost completely organized the footage of all Karasuno's matches from this year, even some of Takahashi's matches from junior high.
The match footage that had been watched many times before was thoroughly studied once again, combined with this National Sports Festival match, they found many points to exploit.
And the arrangements for this match were made under these known conditions.
It's what Shoyo mentioned yesterday. After discussing Nekoma's Pudding-head's playstyle with Kuniharu, I think it's something we can use, but we'll need to make some adjustments based on our own situation against Karasuno, mainly regarding some small details in our offense and blocking.
In the meeting room, Miya Atsumu used a laser pointer to tap on Asahina's photo hanging on the whiteboard: "Osamu, if you aren't confident you can score when you spike, you can try playing near the setter."
Miya Osamu was stunned for a moment. "Wouldn't that be too obvious?"
Miya Atsumu shook his head decisively. "No, the more obvious it is, the easier it is to be ruled out."
Don't they appear in crime dramas all the time? The suspects with the strongest motives are often the ones with the least suspicion, then a Dog-headed Detective comes along to rule out the wrong answers.
Osamu raised an eyebrow: "Who is the Dog-headed Detective?"
Atsumu used his Captain's authority: "Then you can be the Dog-headed Detective, Osamu."
Before Miya Osamu could object, Miya Atsumu had already looked toward Hinata. "However, exhausting Hoshiumi is indeed a very important point. If possible, Shoyo, you can try tooling the block against Hoshiumi and Takahashi."
After Hinata nodded, Miya Atsumu turned and said, "Also, regarding the setter Asahina, is there anything else we need to keep in mind?"
If there's nothing else, we'll proceed with the upcoming arrangements based on the information we already have.
Addition!" Hinata raised his hand decisively. "It seems like Asahina-kun.. likes self-reflection quite a bit?
He had noticed it during the last match against Karasuno; whenever many mistakes occurred, Asahina was usually the quickest in the team to take the blame.
Moreover, during the training at the Junior National Team, he also chatted quite a bit about daily life with Hoshiumi-senpai; he remembered Hoshiumi-senpai mentioning how he had to mediate the occasional minor conflicts between Asahina and Takahashi.
Miya Atsumu's eyes lit up, he pointed his whiteboard marker toward Hinata's side: "Shoyo-kun provided the key information!"
Being someone who likes to self-reflect means he is the same type as Goshiki, a player with a stronger sense of responsibility; a clever mind will easily lead him into a mental trap.