Kito held one hand up in front of his eyes, looking up to track the ball's position: [The first receive went high—it's really high—]
[Asahina kept up in time! After a fake turn toward the Ace in Position 2 with his back to the net, he adjusted for a Hou Si!]
Norikura Isao kept up with the ball, jumping and putting all his strength into the spike.
On the opposite side, Miya Osamu and Suna had already kept up, with Suna still choosing to handle the ball with a touch.
Shiratori said, "That ball should have been blocked directly."
Bokuto rubbed his chin and replied with a serious expression, "But he probably wouldn't be able to do it."
He had played in the Finals against Inarizaki and knew Suna's physical condition very well; the further the match went, the fewer times Suna would choose to go for a direct block.
Shiratori nodded. "That's right."
The way Suna plays is actually efficient enough, but after all, this is a long match of five sets; to still have this level of touch precision in the third set is already quite remarkable.
Bokuto turned his head to look at him, his eyes filled with surprise: "Natsume! Today, I can actually understand what you're saying!"
Veins bulged on Shiratori's forehead.
He repeated "calm and composed" to himself several times before finally replying, "Is that so? Then I'll speak to you like that from now on."
He wanted to learn from Hinata's spirit, adopting different ways of interacting and maintaining different levels of distance when dealing with different people..
Bokuto's eyes were shining: "Natsume!! You're too amazing!"
Shiratori waved his hand feebly, pressing a single hand against his temple to suppress his headache.
On the court, Miya Atsumu once again coordinated Hinata to perform a spread-out Negative Tempo Quick Attack at Position 4, while simultaneously driving Suna in the center to execute a standard Quick Attack slightly slower than Hinata's.
The moment Miya Atsumu sent the ball out, Hirugami, who had been staring at Hinata's position, quickly completed a switch with Hoshiumi to block Hinata's line spike.
Asahina was currently in the back row; although he could complete the subsequent second attack, the best choice was not to put pressure on Asahina, whose form was already declining.
Hirugami's positioning was incredibly precise; just as Hinata was preparing to adjust for a short diagonal, Hoshiumi pressed down with one hand, cutting off his spike's trajectory.
With a heavy thud, Hoshiumi blocked the ball directly back into Inarizaki's court.
As he descended, Hoshiumi flashed a smile at Hinata.
—Who do you think taught you that Short Diagonal the most?
Hinata's expression was serious as he controlled himself, landing on one foot and completing the deceleration process as quickly as possible.
He heard it—someone had saved the ball, they could still continue their offense.
Unabara Uta dove forward to dig the ball, but in his rush to recover, he couldn't maneuver his body smoothly. In his desperation, he could only curl up as much as possible to minimize his footprint, striving not to interfere with Hinata's subsequent approach.
Hinata leaped directly over Unabara, pulling back to create space for his approach run.
Meanwhile, Unabara took advantage of the gap in Miya Atsumu's set to scramble out of Hinata's path, circling back from outside the court.
The Ace shouted for the ball: "Give it to me!"
As everyone began to lose momentum, his voice became exceptionally clear.
In the court dominated by monochrome, it seemed that only that dazzling orange hair and the red and green volleyball were the most eye-catching.
—Unable to look away.
Miya Atsumu decided to follow his instincts; he wanted to set the ball to Hinata, that was all.
He knew.
No matter when it is, Hinata never fails him.
Jumping once more, performing another arm extension, the ball flew toward him once again.
And Hinata's eyes had been so focused and certain from beginning to end, never clouded by exhaustion or confusion.
Hirugami watched Hinata, only to find that even though he was exhausted..
That person smiled.
Thud!
Thud!!
Two heavy thuds occurred in succession as Hinata's spike hit Hirugami's wrist with perfect precision.
The ball, carrying a slight side spin, grazed Hirugami's wrist and flew off like a drill, slamming into the ground outside the court.
The whistle blew the next second; Karasuno's block went out of bounds, Inarizaki scores.
The score jumped to Inarizaki 2:0 Karasuno at this moment, cheers erupted throughout the entire arena.
Great job, Shoyo!
Unabara's save was amazing!!
Atsumu's set is amazing!!
[Inarizaki scores consecutive points at the opening, their offensive momentum is unstoppable!]
Hirugami let out a slow breath, raising a hand to wipe the sweat from his chin.
Unexpectedly, Inarizaki actually decided to play at a fast tempo?
He turned his head toward Coach Aran and made a hand gesture of a five to him.
Iizuna frowned slightly in the stands: "If Inarizaki plays like this.. aren't they afraid their own spikers will run out of stamina first?"
Amatori's eyes widened: "Who? Who are you talking about? Hinata?"
You've got to be kidding me. Hinata hasn't even been a regular starter for this National Sports Festival; who can play as well as he can!
"No, what I mean is.. relying on Hinata alone definitely won't be enough." Iizuna shook his head.
If everyone else is mobilized in sync, will the remaining Inarizaki players be able to keep up with Hinata and Miya Atsumu?
Amatori waved his hand. "Don't worry about that."
Inarizaki has so many people on the bench, it wouldn't be a problem to bring out someone from Position 3 to use as a Spiker; that guy has immense strength.
Recalling Kumagai's spike, Komori gave a bitter smile.
Indeed, compared to the extremely ferocious Kumagai, Miya Atsumu seemed not even that fierce.
The service right passed to Karasuno's Norikura Isao, with the scoreboard by the court frozen at Inarizaki 6:5 Karasuno.
Norikura Isao lightly rotated the volleyball in his hands, exhaled slowly, raised his hand to toss the ball.
His serve was aimed directly at Unabara's side in the back row, intending to force him to dive for a save.
He felt that Inarizaki must be insane; in order to maintain the condition of the Setter and the Ace, they had pushed the Libero to the brink of exhaustion in just a little over two sets.
Is Inarizaki not planning to play the rest of the match?
Even if Karasuno fails to take this set, they have seen Inarizaki's condition without a Libero during the Interhigh; although they are still competitive, they would certainly be crushed from start to finish by Karasuno.
Since the opponent had presented this weakness right before them, he had no reason to let it go.
Unabara Uta made a dig on the ball, just as Norikura Isao had expected.
The ball was dug up by him and sent high toward the front row.
"Great first receive!" Miya Atsumu praised Unabara Uta once again.
Unabara Uta's overall performance in today's match was quite good; considering Imai had even provided him with tickets to the Sky Observation Deck, he decided to be a bit nicer to Unabara Uta for the next month.
Miya Osamu spiked from Position 4, Takahashi rolled over to receive the ball.
Hoshiumi, having secured the ball, immediately sent a pass toward Position 2. Bessho Chigen in Position 3 jumped as if to attack, but the ball went straight to Asahina, who had already moved into position.
Asahina jumped to spike.
With not enough blockers following up, even he, who wasn't particularly skilled at offense, managed to successfully spike the ball near the sideline.
Miya Osamu used one hand to pop the ball up, sending it back toward Miya Atsumu's head.
Tokura, having completely missed the ball, couldn't help but let out a soft click of his tongue, feeling slightly irritated.
Even Karasuno's setter was participating in the offense, but this proved that Karasuno was currently at their wit's end, throwing out every offensive tactic they could find.
The more one uses a playstyle outside of their comfort zone, the higher the probability of a mistake.
Next time, he will definitely be able to block the opponent's spike.
Miya Atsumu performed a fake set, sending the ball over the net with a Second Attack.
Hoshiumi rushed over to save the ball, sending it back up once again.
Asahina dove under the ball and used one hand to pass it to Bessho Chigen.
Bessho tapped the ball lightly, dropping it into Inarizaki's court, forcing the only person who could free up a hand, Miya Atsumu, to land and turn his head to save it.
Miya Osamu took over the responsibility of the setter, just at that moment, Hinata raised his hand from the side: "Over here!"
It was a signal, a signal they had never actually used before.
In fact, everyone in Inarizaki understood the meaning of the signal; it was just that Miya Osamu himself had never received it before.
Because.. this was something Miya Atsumu and Hinata had briefly used within the team before.
The moment Bessho's gaze swept toward Hinata, he suddenly realized that Hinata had already jumped.
Bessho's brain stopped working.
Wait.. what was that?!
In the next second, the volleyball accurately passed through Hinata's hitting point and was spiked directly into Karasuno's court by him.
The ball hit the ground with a loud thud.
And it wasn't until this moment that everyone realized what had happened.
It was a negative tempo Quick Attack from Inarizaki's Position 2, with the toss coming from Miya Osamu.
[Miya Osamu?!] Oikawa Tooru exclaimed in shock.
He knew Miya Osamu could set, but he had never seen Miya Osamu set such a difficult ball before.
Whether it was last year or this year, because Hinata took over a portion of the Quick Attack duties, Miya Osamu's presence had diminished, as he spent much of his time patching up the team's defense.
And now, Miya Osamu is once again showing everyone his fangs.
Iizuna leaned back in his chair. "You know.. when it comes to all-around ability, Miya Osamu is actually the strongest in Inarizaki."