We haven't gone to pick up the activity check-in booklets yet, so we might not be heading the same way as you, senpai.
Ushijima didn't seem to mind, instead nodding and saying, "Then I'll head off first. See you at the Inarizaki No. 2 Gymnasium."
Watching Ushijima Wakatoshi leave, Miya Atsumu breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
The next second, he felt his hand being bitten.
Hinata didn't use much force, merely grinding his teeth lightly against the fleshy part near the base of the thumb in his palm to express his protest and dissatisfaction.
Miya Atsumu silently let go of Hinata and rubbed his cheek. "Did I hurt you?"
His movements just now were indeed a bit rushed; he wasn't quite sure if he would hurt Hinata.
Hinata looked up and stared at Miya Atsumu: "That's not true."
But since I've finally managed to run into Ushijima-senpai, I haven't even said much yet—
"My dear Shoyo-kun.." Miya Atsumu stood with one hand on his hip, tilting his head as he looked down at him, his voice drawn out in a way that made Hinata feel inexplicably nervous.
He posed a profound question: "Have you forgotten what we came out here to do?"
The protesting expression on Hinata's face stiffened.
He looked visibly guilty, silently taking two steps back.
Alright, he admitted that he had indeed become a bit too excited during today's visit to Adler, to the point where he completely forgot that they weren't here today to learn volleyball, but rather..
A date.
Hinata admitted his mistake honestly, "I was wrong, I confess."
Looking at his expression, Miya Atsumu curled his lips slightly. "Then I'm going to punish you."
Hinata steeled himself and shouted loudly, "Atsumu-senpai, do whatever you want, I definitely won't resist!"
A wicked idea, long since conceived, finally surfaced. Miya Atsumu curled his finger at Hinata: "Come, I'll tell you right now."
So..
Adler's activities were held in three different gymnasiums, consisting of seven items in total, all of which were various small volleyball tests or challenges.
Simple examples include performing bumps at a fixed position, where you must not step outside the circle and every ball must be high enough.
A more difficult example would be.. receiving ten first receives while being completely obscured by the net, where successfully receiving six would be considered a successful challenge.
And the one responsible for supervising this most difficult challenge was Coach Suzaku, who had just been speaking with Miya Atsumu and the others.
The conditions for success in this challenge are very harsh. Because the angles of the balls sent out by the serving machine are random, it is as if the challenger must defend the entire court alone; they are completely unable to observe the ball in advance and must rely entirely on anticipation.
Furthermore, it wasn't enough to simply receive the ball; the ball had to be sent to a designated location.
Since the activity began, four people have come to take on the challenge, all of them have failed; the best one managed to make four receives.
Although Coach Suzaku would also appropriately "go easy" depending on the age of the contestants, even the slowest ball speed from this machine is over 70 kilometers per hour, which would still be difficult for young children.
So.. for children under the age of twelve, their success threshold is three balls.
It means nothing else; this project is quite clearly a way to scout for Libero talent.
In this kind of project, the proficiency gained from training the day after tomorrow can basically be disregarded; what matters is extreme reaction speed and the instinct for receiving.
More sound came from the entrance again, Coach Suzaku turned his head to look.
When he saw the figure of someone walking in, he froze.
As the Head Coach of the team, he instinctively looked toward the staff members filming from the side.
—Because some orange-headed person was actually wearing a Fox-Wolf Helper plush headband.
Wait, this is Adler's home court!
This is getting a bit provocative!
But seeing Miya Atsumu follow close behind, Coach Suzaku shut his mouth again.
Fine, he admitted that he had indeed made the first move.
This event was placed at the furthest point from the gymnasium where the autograph session was being held. Following the standard route, it was a place people would only visit at the very end of the event, so most people who arrived early had chosen different routes.
Since this was the only event set up in this gymnasium, there was basically no one else in the venue right now.
Indicating that the photographer from Adler's own publicity department didn't need to take photos anymore, Coach Suzaku greeted the two: "Shoyo-kun and Miya-kun, are you here to challenge us?"
Looking at the net, which was covered so tightly, Hinata felt it was quite novel and tried to go around to the back to observe it.
Miya Atsumu grabbed his collar and said to Coach Suzaku, "Yes, but we need to warm up first."
Coach Suzaku was still very enthusiastic and wasn't displeased by Miya Atsumu's previous refusal: "That's perfect. I'll use this opportunity to introduce the rules of this project to you all."
Listening to Coach Suzaku's introduction, Hinata's eyes widened, his face filled with eager excitement: "Ohhh, ohhh, ohhh—that sounds amazing! Is that the automatic serving machine!"
Coach Suzaku laughed heartily and said, "That's right."
Hinata expressed great envy; if Inarizaki had this, he wouldn't have to pester Kumagai every day to practice his first receive.
Miya Atsumu asked, "Can it do a Jump Float Serve?"
Mentioning these pieces of equipment, Coach Suzaku puffed out his chest and said, "Yes, these are the latest models on the market. They can be set to perform jump float serves, though the ball's trajectory cannot be manually manipulated yet."
You have to know that among the current V1 teams, Adler's has the most capital; many of the training machines they use aren't even available to the Volleyball Association.
Miya Atsumu pointed out another critical question: "Will Dual Wield be included in this test?"
Coach Suzaku looked at him with a hint of surprise, then smiled and said, "Of course not, but if you want, I can arrange it."
“If the challenge difficulty is increased, the rewards for collecting all the stamps will also become even more abundant, right?”
—For example, obtaining admission to their Adler training camp, becoming a part of Adler after undergoing training to build synergy.
Coach Suzaku's smile grew even deeper, he instinctively ignored the faint chill creeping up the back of his neck.
He just wanted to poach a newcomer, not target Minka Shugo or Oliver; he believed Coach Sansou wouldn't come here to assassinate him.. right?
Hinata stepped up, "You mean we can have volleyballs with everyone's autograph on them!"
He raised his hands high and shouted loudly, "Then I want to take on the challenge! I want to take on the challenge!"
Coach Suzaku thought seriously about how many unopened Mikasa they had left in their warehouse, but when he thought about the difficulty of this challenge and felt that the two of them would definitely not succeed, he agreed, "Sure."
However, if you want to use Dual Wield, the difficulty will become extremely high, so I'll lower the requirements for you just a little bit.
Five balls, how does that sound?
Hinata nodded without hesitation.
He had just seen that the range for a successful receive was not a circle, but a nine-meter long and one-meter wide area spanning fifty centimeters both in front of and behind the entire Attack Line.
Although his receiving accuracy was still mediocre, he had quite a bit of insight when it came to the act of "receiving"!
Miya Atsumu chuckled, then silently took two steps backward.
Coach Suzaku turned his head to look at Miya Atsumu: "What about Miya-kun? Is he also participating in this?"
Miya Atsumu, whose receiving skills were actually not particularly good, smiled and said, "No, I'll just do the regular ones."
First Receive was indeed a bit too difficult for him; since entering high school, he had not practiced his first receive properly for three years.
After all, even if Inarizaki's first receive was poor, it would at most only force him to run a couple of steps to cover for the opposite, rather than truly making him perform difficult first receives frequently.
However, he still had confidence in his own overall strength; by accepting challenges of ordinary difficulty, he could at least guarantee a special prize even if Hinata failed.
With the incentive of a "volleyball signed by all the professional players of Adler," Hinata warmed up even more vigorously.
He decided that if he could get a volleyball signed by all the Adler players this time, he would have Atsumu help him get one in the same style as the Black Jackals' later.
Anyway, he couldn't bear to play with a volleyball covered in signatures, but whether it had one signature or more than twenty, it was still a signed volleyball!
Besides, having so many signatures on a single ball.. just looking at it makes one feel incredibly happy!
Meanwhile, on the other side, Coach Suzaku was seriously contemplating how to transport more than twenty volleyballs to Hinata's house.
During the break in Hinata and Miya Atsumu's warm-up, people who had finished the previous items came over to challenge this item.
But in the end, the opponent only managed to receive two out of the ten balls before leaving in defeat.
Fortunately, the prizes were not only for completing all the challenges; there were also corresponding commemorative rewards for completing six challenges.
Having confirmed that he was in perfect condition, Hinata raised his hand and rushed toward the court: "I'm ready! I'm ready!"
Having finished the blocking test next door and deciding he wanted to come and see this highest difficulty event, Ushijima had already walked in through the entrance.
Watching Hinata standing in the middle of the court rubbing his hands, Ushijima came to a halt beside Miya Atsumu.
Miya Atsumu rubbed his chin, not greeting Ushijima, but instead contemplating the practical feasibility of this training drill.
This test might seem to require a ball machine, but it could actually be replaced by manual labor; at the end of the day, all that is needed is a cloth capable of blocking the net, or they could even just drag out an Inarizaki banner to use.
When facing Karasuno's serves, their field of vision was actually never clear enough.
Moreover, this training program was primarily focused on reaction speed itself, making it very suitable for Unabara Uta, Nishizawa Hokuto, the others to practice.
While Miya Atsumu was lost in thought, the sound of Coach Suzaku's whistle echoed across the court.
This was the whistle signaling a serve in a regular match; within the next eight seconds, the serving machine on the opposite side could be activated.
Hinata stared intently at the top of the net, which was partially obscured by the cloth.
He had just observed that the serving machine's nozzle was quite low, so rather than a direct spike, the ball's trajectory might lean more towards a low-angle tip.
Although this amount of arc is negligible in a vertical eighteen-meter volleyball court, it is predictable that the parabola created by this ball to pass over the net will inevitably cause the ball to have a momentary pause as it clears the top of the net.
—That was enough space for him to make an adjustment.
With a loud bang ringing in his ears, Hinata's vision instantly focused straight ahead.
In the next instant, the volleyball peeked over the top of the net. Without hesitation, he stepped a step and a half back and to his side, lowering his center of gravity in an attempt to receive the ball.
But the speed of this ball was faster than he had anticipated; his movements were still a bit too slow, it grazed past him.
Hinata glanced at the volleyball that had rolled out of bounds and was being picked up by the staff, silently calculating the situation of that last ball in his mind.
It was no problem; he had a rough idea of the trajectory and basic spin of the volleyball as it came flying toward him.
Miya Atsumu commented, "Actually, you can cheat a little bit with this."
Ushijima looked at him: "Cheating?"
Miya Atsumu tapped his ear. "I can judge the starting position of a serve just by the sound."