On the Inarizaki side, Miya Atsumu was also discussing strategies with Miya Osamu.
Miya Osamu said, "The simplest way is to have Rintaro, who has a height advantage, Yukihito perform direct overhand spikes."
Miya Atsumu shook his head like a rattle: "No, no, no, I reject that."
“Our Middle Blockers have no substitutes; how are the two of them going to play the rest of the matches if they're finished?”
They will most likely have to play against Itachiyama and Karasuno in succession; if it weren't for those two teams, things would be even worse.
Hinata struggled to push his way between the twins, raising his hands to try and get Miya Atsumu to pay more attention to him: "Me, me, me, me, me! I can do it, Atsumu-ge!"
Miya Atsumu waved him off. "Shoyo, you're not always in the front row, their back-row receiving after that block is too difficult."
Hinata shrank back: "Oh."
Miya Atsumu was right; he had just experienced it firsthand.
Kumagai rubbed his chin. "The opposing team's scoring efficiency isn't high, they are very good at stalling. Plus, they don't have an absolute core, so it's difficult to target them specifically."
Inarizaki wanting a quick victory is nothing more than a pipe dream.
Shiratori rested his chin on his hand.
But victory is a certainty. At most, we'll make substitutions after creating a decisive lead in the opening to let the starters rest and conserve their energy.
Yeah, Natsume is right!
The moment he heard those words, Shiratori turned pale with shock.
His body went stiff as he slowly turned his head toward the sound coming from behind him.
Bokuto crouched just two steps away from him, stroking his chin with a dead serious expression.
And Akaashi was right behind him, looking at him with a hint of apology in his eyes.
Shiratori's vision went black.
Help, how can you see ghosts in broad daylight?
It looks like he saw someone who shouldn't be here!
Akaashi gave Shiratori a look. "Bokuto-senpai is making a fuss about finding you, Shiratori-senpai. Since we're on the other side of the gymnasium, it took us a long time to wander over here."
—Bokuto-senpai wants to see you. I tried to stall as much as I could, but I still couldn't.
After delivering the critical information about showing weakness, Akaashi stated his purpose: "Besides, Fukurodani's match is also coming up soon. As the Captain, I cannot miss the pre-match meeting, so I'll leave Bokuto-senpai in Shiratori-senpai's hands."
Shiratori waved his hand weakly. "Go on, thanks for your hard work."
It is said that when Akaashi was a second-year high schooler, he was already doing this kind of work as Vice-Captain, now that he is Captain, he has even more to do, including looking after the seniors who have already graduated.
Comparing it to that.. Shiratori felt like he could still hold on.
Moreover, there are also Inarizaki's excellent graduates here, so I imagine Oori, Akagi, the others will be able to handle it.
Of course, that's assuming Bokuto-senpai doesn't keep pestering him.
Watching Bokuto sit down beside him, Shiratori's mind went blank.
He just wanted to be a quiet ghost, really.
Chapter 497: The 497th Fox
Standing firmly on the court, Hinata placed his hands on his hips, staring at Hayami, who was tilting his head while communicating with Sasaki on the opposing side.
Alright.. how should we play this set?
They still wanted to end things quickly, but looking at the current situation, it was clearly not very realistic.
Then we'll just have to play steadily. Osamu-senpai will use Strong Attack when he's in the front row, he'll focus on playing technical balls when he's in the front row. The most important thing is to slowly win this set.
Of course, it would be great if the opposition would just show a few openings.
Hinata raised his hands and stretched his body.
Kageyama and Yamaguchi, who had gone to peek at the adjacent court, returned to the sidelines of Inarizaki's side.
Although Star First plays at a slow pace, Inarizaki scores decisively, the point gap is large; the previous set was played very quickly.
As of right now, are there any other matches being played simultaneously that haven't finished yet?
Kageyama had originally expected that he wouldn't have time to watch the second set, but now it looked like there was still time.
The two of them took their positions closer to Star First, Yamaguchi pulled a notebook out of his jacket pocket. "Take a good look at Star First's details."
Compared to Inarizaki's flashy style of play, which isn't very practical for Karasuno, who currently lacks sufficient offensive options, a style that relies more on technical details rather than extremely high physical abilities would be much easier for them to digest.
Moreover, as a team that relies on its first receive and setting to maintain stability, they should strengthen their ability to dismantle the enemy's firepower.
Sasaki licked his lips, his gaze fixed intensely on Hinata, who had already taken his position at Position 4 in the front row.
Actually, he had wanted to go head-to-head with Inarizaki's Quick Attack for a long time, so he would let him see just how good Hinata really was.
As if sensing the unreliable thoughts in Sasaki's head, Hayami's sharp gaze swept over him in an instant.
Sasaki-senpai, calm down. Don't do anything out of line.
Sasaki gave an OK sign behind his back, signaling quite perfunctorily that he had understood.
Hayami frowned, highly skeptical as to whether Sasaki had actually understood what they had just said.
But now he no longer had time to think about these things; the current priority was how to get through Miya Atsumu's Service Turn.
As Miya Atsumu walked toward the service position, Hayami mentally counted the steps Atsumu took to create distance while simultaneously warming up his own ankles.
Six steps, Power Serve.
With his power level having increased slightly, Miya Atsumu's probability of hitting a Power Serve or a Jump Float Serve has become roughly equal.
And against them, who were doing quite well at receiving jump float serves, Miya Atsumu abandoned the float serve entirely. Although Miya Atsumu hadn't specifically targeted him before, it was already the second set, so one couldn't rule out that Miya Atsumu had now judged that he could target him.
However, Miya Atsumu remained calm.
He had read Hayami's test report during the Junior National Team, so he knew very well that the opponent's physical condition had recovered quite well; making a decision to target Hayami would be no different from giving Star First a chance to counterattack.
Therefore, his target for this serve was still Kuwabara.
After all, Star First is currently playing entirely in a Position 1 and 2 style, making it impossible to target the setter, Izumi Nozomi.
But it wasn't a huge problem; even if Izumi Nozomi played comfortably, Star First's offense was only so much.
Hatta, who had received the ball, shouted to the others, "Sorry, save it!"
Staring at the ball's trajectory, Hayami rushed out.
A better solution would be for him to directly set the ball to Position 4 at the net from outside the court, allowing the spiker to perform.
Without hesitation or worry, he was wearing his knee pads properly.
Hayami rushed to get ahead of the ball at top speed. The moment the ball's trajectory passed its peak and began to fall, he leaned his entire body backward, his gaze locking onto the high point at Position 4.
—It's no problem.
The sound of a light touch rang in everyone's ears. As the volleyball flew toward the net, Hayami, who had leaned his body backward, lost his balance.
He quickly turned and lowered his center of gravity to avoid landing on his spine or the back of his head.
Hayami wore thick knee pads, with straps and metal supports on both sides to protect her knees, but even so, her body stiffened the moment her knees hit the ground.
A slight pain flared up, but it was a normal, familiar sensation of impact, the kind that even occurred during training.
He pushed himself up from the ground and sprinted back onto the court at his top speed once again.
Arashiyama used all his strength to spike the ball after catching it. Miya Osamu and Suna rushed in to try and touch the ball, but Arashiyama's spike had immense power; after flying upward, it landed directly out of bounds.
The whistle blew, the referee signaled a point for Star First.
Watching the ball smash into the third-floor stands, Hinata raised both hands and cheered toward Hayami on the opposite side, "Great save, Hayami!!"
Hayami straightened her posture. "Of course."
He pulled his gaze away from Hinata and turned his head toward Arashiyama, raising his hand. "Nice spike, Arashiyama-senpai."
Arashiyama froze for a moment, but after reacting, he quickly walked toward Hayami and gave him a heavy high-five.
Seeing Hayami with his hair being rubbed by Sasaki until his neatly tied ponytail was a mess, Hinata turned and gave a tug to Miya Atsumu, who was leaning in to adjust his position.
Miya Atsumu leaned down close to Hinata, bringing his ear near.
Hayami seems to be having a lot of fun today," Hinata whispered, "let's make him even happier.
Miya Atsumu readily agreed, "Sure."
His smile was deep, a hint of coldness swept through his eyes as his gaze flickered across the net. "Then let's make him a little more 'happy'."
The members of Star First cheered for Izumi Nozomi as he prepared to serve: "Give us a good one!"
Few teams can take the first point from Inarizaki; this is a quite good start.
Izumi Nozomi took a deep breath.
He felt that Arashiyama made a lot of sense. After playing an entire set, he was now two hundred percent certain that someone in Inarizaki was practicing Dual Wield and had no intention of showing it to them.
They could guess it was because he was still playing, hoping that in the future, other teams wouldn't be rendered speechless when facing Inarizaki's server.
Offering a two-second moment of silence in his heart for the unknown liberos of the future, Izumi Nozomi raised his hand to serve.
He decided to start slacking off; no matter who he played against, he just needed to avoid the Libero who clearly had high proficiency.
After the heavy thud, the volleyball disappeared from everyone's sight once again.
The Ceiling Serve was hit very high and had a longer hang time, so Nishizawa Hokuto had time to give instructions to the others.
Confirming the landing spot of the ball, Nishizawa Hokuto shouted out immediately, "Ginjima-senpai! Left front!"
Ginjima didn't hesitate at all, stepping forward and raising his hands to prepare for the receive.
Izumi Nozomi was truly at his wit's end.
Against a Libero who had been specifically briefed on such a unique serve, he truly had no way to do anything; he could only hope that Sasaki and the others' subsequent blocks would be effective.
Miya Atsumu praised loudly and stepped forward quickly to set: "Great receive!"
His deceptive setting motion was difficult to read, Sasaki, who had already adjusted himself into a blocking position, attempted to make a calm assessment.