Suna turned his body to follow up, while Miya Osamu prepared to head toward Position 4 to block Hakuma.
But in that same instant, Hirugami suddenly jumped from the center, spiking the ball just as the setter's toss flew out.
The ball flew off the side of Suna's arm, hitting the back row baseline; both Rishia and Unabara dove for it at the same time but failed to receive it.
Aran in the stands was dumbfounded: "What on earth was that?"
Amatori slapped his thigh. "Look! I told you that getting too close to Inarizaki would lead to a bad end! Karasuno is starting to play recklessly!!"
Kito praised repeatedly: [Hoshiumi's feinted spike successfully deceived Hinata, Hirugami's brilliant Position 3 quick attack cooperated to win this point for Karasuno!]
[In addition, Hakuma is protesting against Hoshiumi, who is setting the ball.]
Oikawa Tooru couldn't help but complain, "That looked more like stealing the ball.."
The trajectory of this toss was clearly meant for Position 4, but Hirugami took advantage of his close proximity and just spiked it directly down.
It was as if Hoshiumi and Hirugami had actually coordinated to play exactly like that.
Yamamoto said with a laugh, "It's like the feeling of having to deceive the enemy and your own teammates first."
Chapter 455: The 455th Fox
Miya Atsumu adjusted his positioning to a spot closer to the front row, to avoid being targeted by Hoshiumi's serve.
Asahina's decision to take the first receive surprised him a little, but it wasn't as if it was completely unpredictable.
After all, Karasuno's recent playstyle wasn't exactly random; the fast-paced playstyle with Hoshiumi acting as the setter had existed from the very beginning.
After having more contact since entering their third year, the chemistry between Hoshiumi and Hirugami has become even stronger than before; their coordination on tosses that require extreme timing and control is absolutely seamless.
Of course, it was also because Hoshiumi's setting ability itself had become stronger than before, the precision and accuracy of his tosses were quite excellent.
Hoshiumi started early and has a wide range of skills; in fact, he would have no problem even as an Opposite.
However, compared to the flexible Hinata, Hoshiumi was indeed slightly lacking in his advantage in opening up the court, was unable to provide sufficient support for the whole team. He also lacked that kind of overwhelming strength capable of crushing everything in his path; relatively speaking, the Right Wing position was indeed more suitable for him to perform.
And after giving up cover for the setter, the Right Wing is also a very suitable position for the Opposite to receive the toss.
Of course, just like Inarizaki's use of the Opposite to receive the setter's toss, the prerequisite for this playstyle to be effective is that both the setter and the person receiving the toss must possess a certain level of offensive threat.
As for Karasuno's current playstyle, it still depends on whether Hakuma can produce results while the setter remains stable.
To his surprise, Asahina's attitude was as if he didn't intend to continue playing setter anymore, giving off the feeling of someone who had chosen to just give up after being targeted so much.
But Miya Atsumu wouldn't believe it. Asahina couldn't possibly give up being the setter completely; once an opportunity arises, the opponent will surely throw them a curveball, so he must remain vigilant.
—Let's observe a bit more.
Hoshiumi spun the volleyball in his hands, let out a breath, then locked his gaze onto Miya Atsumu on the opposite side.
To be honest, after being targeted by Miya Atsumu for so long, he felt a bit of a desire for revenge.
After repeatedly confirming the cover positions of Miya Atsumu and Miya Osamu, Hoshiumi raised his hand and tossed the ball.
Time-outs during service are a very effective tactic, but the Inarizaki Libero is well-acquainted with them. Miya Osamu, Suna, the others are all experts in this area, so it won't have any particularly significant effect in such a tense situation.
In the current situation, it would be better to further pursue serve precision.
[A beautiful chest-aimed spike; Hoshiumi is attempting to use the serve to disrupt Inarizaki's subsequent offensive positioning.]
【Miya Osamu reacted quickly, lowering his center of gravity and using his forearms to receive the ball.】
As Miya Atsumu adjusted his positioning to move up from the back row, he glanced at Rishia out of the corner of his eye, a thought flashed through his mind, making his eyes light up.
If you must talk about comfort zones.. actually, the current playstyle isn't even what Inarizaki is best at.
The current style has undergone several adjustments, making specific compromises to account for the differences in the players' abilities.
Among them, the handling of the Wing Spiker is particularly important.
But Rishia's performance in these few matches has been quite stable. Perhaps.. they can make further adjustments.
Hinata rushed to the net from the side, lowering his center of gravity while drawing his arm back, preparing to jump.
At the same time, Miya Atsumu completed the setting, sending the ball high toward Position 4.
Locking onto his position, Hirugami and Hakuma quickly closed in, Norikura Isao, who was slightly further away, also hurried to follow, as Karasuno once again completed their three-man block formation.
Norikura Isao mentally recited the secrets of blocking in his head.
—To block a short player, you must jump a little later..
The moment Hinata's feet left the ground, three players from Karasuno leaped up simultaneously.
But seeing the trajectory of this ball, Hoshiumi, who had just adjusted his position in the back row to prepare for Hinata's line shot, realized something was wrong the moment he saw it.
But the players in the front row had already jumped, it was too late for him to warn them.
Hinata did not complete the jumping process, but instead directly abandoned his arm extension and descended, pulling back his momentum.
After his soles touched the ground and transferred his momentum, he shifted his center of gravity once more, being propelled upward by the ground into a jump.
[Individual time difference!]
Staring at Hinata's hand movements as he cleared the block, Hoshiumi quickly adjusted his position, attempting to intercept the ball's trajectory head-on.
But Hinata's spike was aimed entirely at scoring; he avoided the position where Hoshiumi could reach it, hitting the ball from a high point toward the front court.
Hoshiumi dove for it, but in the end, he still couldn't save it.
The whistle blew, Inarizaki scores.
Nice one, Shoyo!
Nice play!!
Hoshiumi got up from the ground, bracing himself with his knees as he slowly exhaled.
He was getting a bit anxious; he shouldn't have tried to save that ball just now. It was already obvious he wouldn't be able to reach it, his priority should have been to conserve his energy.
But.. if he didn't give it his all and try, he knew he would always feel a sense of regret.
Hinata stared at Hoshiumi, blinking at him. "Hikari-kun, how was my individual time difference!"
Hoshiumi's expression contorted for a moment, after stammering for two seconds, he replied, "That's disgusting."
Hearing this, Hinata grinned, his expression looking very happy: "Hehe, thanks for the compliment, Hikari-kun—"
Hoshiumi said fiercely, "I wasn't praising you!"
Hirugami gave a helpless smile: "A little guy with a big attitude."
But it was true; Hinata's individual time difference technique seemed to have been learned from Hoshiumi at the very beginning.
On the other side, Hakuma raised his hand to scratch the back of his head, his face written with confusion.
Wait.. something seems clearly wrong. Why does he feel like he's being tricked all the time?
Not only was he being deceived by the opponents, but his teammates were deceiving him as well.
Uncertain, let's wait and see.
After Inarizaki successfully regained the Service Right, Miya Osamu moved to the back row to serve.
His serve was quite cautious, once again choosing to time it to the very last second to put as much pressure as possible on Karasuno's first receive formation.
After thinking for a moment, Miya Osamu decisively hit the ball into the space between Asahina and the high ball.
Just as Miya Atsumu had judged, even if Karasuno's setter was prepared to receive, they could not let the opponent off the hook because of it; perhaps being liberated was exactly what Asahina had planned.
Takahashi did not hesitate, shouting out loudly, "I'll take it!"
If the ball were going toward Hoshiumi-senpai, he could let Asahina receive it, but since the ball is with him, he has no reason to let the setter reach for it.
He rolled to the side, using one hand to bump the ball up toward the area near the front row attack line.
But he got up a little too slowly, blocking Hoshiumi just enough that he couldn't smoothly move forward to execute a back-row attack.
This ball failed to score directly, but Miya Osamu's objective had been achieved; he decisively stepped forward two steps, allowing himself to defend the right side of the court.
Takahashi's serve was good, Asahina took advantage of the excellent positioning to step forward decisively, delivering a beautiful and sharp set to Hakuma.
The height of this ball was sufficient, the placement was excellent. Hakuma did not let the ball go to waste; while in a high contact position, he smashed the ball toward Inarizaki's back row, aiming directly for the area near the baseline.
Unabara Uta arrived in position just in time, but her center of gravity was too far back, she was knocked down by the ball, causing it to fly out of bounds.
Hearing the whistle blow, Unabara Uta slid into a diving position at top speed to apologize for the mistake.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry! It was my fault!
"Tsk." Miya Atsumu couldn't help but let out a click of his tongue, making Unabara Uta tremble even more.
He turned his head to look at Unabara Uta: "Can you handle it or not?"
Unabara Uta shuddered all over and hurriedly moved his arms and legs to prove that his condition was quite alright: "No problem at all!"
Suna lightly raised an eyebrow, turning his head to look at Miya Osamu: "Is he actually worrying about a junior?"
Miya Osamu teased, "Isn't he just telling Unabara to get off the court?"
Hinata rubbed his chin and speculated, "It's concern, isn't it?"
He held up a finger and said seriously, "Because Atsumu-ge will really make Unabara get off the court."
“That makes sense.”
That makes a lot of sense.
The reason Hinata gave convinced the two of them.
Atsumu turned his head fiercely: "Hey! I can hear you!"
Forget Suna and Kazuharu, why is Shoyo also acting up with those two!
Unabara Uta silently retreated to his proper position, attempting to reduce his presence.
Amatori speculated, "Karasuno is trying to disrupt the flow, attempting to seize victory amidst the chaos."
Iizuna nodded, giving an affirmative answer: "After all, the focus right now is how to avoid falling into Inarizaki's rhythm."
“In the last set, Karasuno's rhythm was completely thrown off by Inarizaki, to the point that they couldn't play freely for the entire set.”
He remarked, "I must say, the effects of Inarizaki's training for blocking are quite significant; they have completely grasped Hakuma's weakness."