Hirugami glanced at him, frowning slightly. "Are you feeling unwell?"
Hakuma grimaced: "My legs are sore, my muscles are a bit tight."
Hirugami comforted him, "I'll have the coach give you a good massage in a bit, so don't get cramps."
To be honest, if Hakuma were to replicate that kind of running by Hinata just now, he would definitely suffer a cramp on the spot.
Hinata's serve was as unthreatening as ever, but he still calibrated his positioning as much as possible, forcing Takahashi to run a few extra steps.
Shiratori-senpai once said that if you want to achieve your goals, you have to accumulate them bit by bit through all sorts of small things.. How did that phrase go?
Never mind, it doesn't matter.
Hinata quickly followed up with receiving movement for defense.
Under the cover of the front row spikers, Asahina sent a back-row attack ball to Hoshiumi. Hoshiumi tried to use the block, but the quick-reacting Tokura managed to dodge it.
Miya Atsumu praised, "Beautiful!"
Seeing that the ball would not go out of bounds, he quickly stepped back and sent the ball out directly on his first touch.
Rishia Heisuke's cover was very fast; he followed up and put all his strength into spiking the ball.
Bessho Chigen stared at Rishia's movement, leaning his whole body back to touch the ball, while maintaining a downward pressing trend to a certain extent.
With a heavy thud, the ball landed on Inarizaki's court.
Miya Osamu slid from the back row in an attempt to save the ball, but in the end, he couldn't make it.
Inarizaki 23:24 Karasuno, Karasuno set point.
Great block, Bessho!
Rishia hurriedly apologized to everyone, "I'm sorry!"
The resilience of the opposing block was beyond imagination; his spiking style had essentially been figured out by Bessho.
The subsequent attacks will likely be difficult to handle as well; he must find a way to score using more technical balls.
Hakuma, having gained the service right, slowly walked to the area behind the baseline to prepare for his approach.
His jump serve was considered average among Karasuno, his accuracy control was poor, with his error rate remaining consistently high.
But Coach Aran didn't have such high requirements for him; as long as he avoided mistakes as much as possible, that would be enough.
Stretching his legs, Hakuma raised his hand and tossed the ball.
Watching the Head Referee, who had just prepared to blow the whistle to signal a time violation for Hakuma's serve, lower his whistle, Hirugami on the Coach's bench slowly breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness, that was close.
That Hakuma guy.. can he not count the timing when he serves?
But for Inarizaki, Hakuma's behavior of tossing the ball at the very last second was completely unpredictable, nearly causing Unabara Uta's reaction to be half a beat too slow.
After barely managing to get the ball up, Unabara Uta received a sharp glare from Miya Atsumu.
Miya Atsumu had no room to maneuver, so he could only manage to send a high ball to the back row toward Position 4 for Miya Osamu.
Miya Osamu's spike was completed quite well, but unfortunately, Hoshiumi caught up to it and used a forearm pass to keep it alive.
Hoshiumi was momentarily caught off guard by the ball. He braced himself with his hands against the floor to keep from falling, then quickly raised his hand and shouted, "Give me the ball!!"
Asahina did not hesitate for long, in the brief moment of the touch, he passed the ball to Hoshiumi Hikari.
Tokura and Rishia rushed to pursue it, but this time Hoshiumi's spike was incredibly decisive; he locked onto Tokura's fingers and drove the ball down with his fastest arm swing.
Hoshiumi scored with a back-row attack by tooling the block, bringing the score to Inarizaki 23:25 Karasuno, making the score 1:1.
With the score successfully leveled, cheers immediately erupted from the Karasuno side.
Nice one, Hikari-kun!!
Nice!
The players from both sides switched sides, after finishing their preparations near the Coach's bench, the Captain Miya Atsumu lightly clapped his hands and said to everyone, "No big deal, no big deal, it's just one set. Karasuno's current state can't last, we'll win it back in the next set."
No, if anything, Hakuma and the libero Takahashi are both reaching their limits, their reaction speeds have already slowed down.
For Inarizaki, the better choice actually wasn't to continue with this war of attrition, but rather to add fuel to the fire.
After weighing the options in his mind for two seconds, Miya Atsumu finally spoke, "In the next set, we'll play quick attacks. Rishia, you'll switch entirely to a defensive position, Unabara will provide cover for me."
Rishia Heisuke nodded. "Understood."
If he were to switch completely to a defensive position.. would that mean letting Osamu-senpai play the main attack on the other side?
Hinata looked at Miya Atsumu beside him, then at the two people he had pointed out, his stalled brain unable to figure out what Miya Atsumu was trying to do.
But he couldn't care about anything else at a time like this; whatever the captain commanded was fine, he was only responsible for executing it.
Hinata left his brain behind in the Inarizaki No. 2 Gymnasium, focusing entirely on adjusting his own state as quickly as possible.
It was only the second set, but in order to deal with Karasuno's block, his jumping frequency was very high, much higher than Hoshiumi's.
Although he felt his physical condition wasn't an issue yet, his declining state would inevitably affect the quality of his subsequent scoring, so he had to resolve his own problems as quickly as possible.
Miya Osamu glanced at him twice, but ultimately said nothing.
Karasuno took the opening in the Third Set.
Both sides remained in their current rotations, maintaining the opening states they were most skilled and proficient in.
Asahina's first serve went wrong; due to severe physical exhaustion, he didn't jump fully and nearly missed the ball he had tossed up.
The ball grazed the net and dropped into Inarizaki's court. Suna, who was positioned forward, rushed over and managed to scoop the ball up in a very close call.
Miya Atsumu gave a word of praise: "Beautiful!!"
Even though Suna's reception was quite terrible, under these circumstances.. it wasn't something that couldn't be praised.
Suna struggled on the floor for a couple of moments before finally giving up on trying to get up to participate in the subsequent attack.
Miya Atsumu leaned back slightly, arching his back as he sent the ball with a clean toss toward Position 1.
Hinata had been waiting there for a long time, coordinating with Miya Atsumu to score with a Spike.
Inarizaki took this point incredibly fast, so fast that even Kito, sitting at the commentary desk, couldn't help but remark: [After playing through two high-intensity sets, Inarizaki can still orchestrate such a brilliant quick attack; they truly live up to the reputation of having the strongest setter and the orange flash.]
Oikawa Tooru was nearly choked by a mouthful of water, he looked at Kito in shock: [Isn't he the carrot-head?]
Kito explained, "Word is that Hinata himself has protested being called a carrot-head, so his fans have changed his nickname to the orange flash."
【It seems it's because they thought Hinata looked like a ninja and his surname is Hinata, so they referenced the title of the Fourth Hokage from Naruto.】
Oikawa Tooru's mouth twitched: [What on earth are they even talking about..]
Yamamoto blinked, suddenly realizing something.
Wait, it seems like since the beginning of this match, Oikawa has been selectively ignoring any topic related to Miya Atsumu..
On the court, Hinata was basking in the cheers from the entire crowd, looking quite triumphant.
As expected, this style of play is the most refreshing!
He turned his head to look at Hoshiumi Hikari, who was using his shirt collar to wipe away sweat, his eyes filled with high spirits.
Since the opponents have been worn down enough, he can let loose from here on out.
That means.. the next part is his time to perform!
Asahina turned his head to look at Takahashi. "How is it?"
Takahashi replied quite candidly, "I can't keep up. My dynamic vision can track him, but my body can't keep up."
Asahina looked toward Hirugami in the front row: "Hirugami-senpai, could you keep an eye on Hinata-senpai for a moment?"
Hirugami replied, "I'll try my best."
He was indeed the player in the best form at Karasuno right now, even though Karasuno had never used a technique like a one-on-one block before, but at this very moment.. he truly needed to use his remaining strength to slightly restrict Inarizaki's quick attack.
Just hold on a little longer.
The amount of sweat the Inarizaki Libero was producing had become visible to the naked eye; when Asahina's recent net touch resulted in an error, Unabara couldn't react in time.
The importance of the Libero is far greater than that of the Spiker; even if Hakuma's condition isn't great on this side, they still hold the advantage when all factors are taken into account.
“What a great serve!!”
On the other side, Hinata's voice could already be heard cheering for Miya Atsumu, sounding slightly hoarse, indicating that Hinata's condition was no longer at its peak.
No one's stamina is an bottomless pit, not even the widely recognized physical monster, Hinata.
He has the advantage of only playing half the court as a Middle Blocker, so.. he won't lose.
Hirugami's fighting spirit was burning brightly; he hadn't been this fully immersed in a match for a very, very long time.
It wasn't because of the so-called "responsibility of an Ace" from the past, or because of something like "not shaming the Hirugami name"; right now, his fighting spirit stemmed solely from his interest in this match.
Since he has chosen to continue standing on this court in high school, he has no reason to ever settle for being second best.
He wants to win, he wants to lead his team to become the strongest.
—That's all.
Miya Atsumu didn't waste any more time timing his serve; at this moment, his heart rate had long since exceeded its initial state, he had no confidence that he could accurately time it to the second based on his heartbeat.
Miya Atsumu let the ball dance in his palms, warming it up to get a better feel.
Then, with a sudden jerk, he trapped the ball firmly between his hands.
He held the ball in one hand and tossed it steadily forward.
[A perfect toss! Miya Atsumu's approach—Jump Float Serve!]
Takahashi's pupils suddenly contracted, a sense of absurdity surfaced.
Miya Atsumu hadn't performed a single Jump Float Serve during this match, also because he knew that he, Hoshiumi Hikari, the others were all very skilled at receiving movement.
But now..
Takahashi subconsciously raised his hand, moving his position to follow the ball, attempting to use his hands to control it.
The moment he made contact with the ball, his already numb fingers failed to provide timely feedback. He sent the ball quite high, but it did not go toward the front.
Sorry! Kongming!
Asahina, who had originally charged up from the back row, hurriedly turned back to chase the ball, lifting his head to aim for its position.