What on earth! What did the seniors understand! Why couldn't he understand a single word!
Komori glanced at the Inarizaki back row players who had readjusted their positions, confirming the suspicion in his heart.
Indeed, in the previous exchange, the sharpness of Kageyama's serve had been fully demonstrated.
Although he managed to neutralize one of them, once Kageyama recalibrated, he would certainly not make things easy for Hinata.
Whether it was a heavy spin or a high-angle ball, there was always a way to make Hinata struggle when he was targeted. Furthermore, Hinata's small build and light weight meant that even if he could stabilize his center of gravity, he could not fully contend with sheer, brute force; it was entirely possible for him to be knocked straight to the ground.
And for Karasuno, achieving this was more than enough.
When one possesses sufficiently strong defensive capabilities, even the slightest interference with an opponent's attack acts as a massive disruption to the balance. Of course, it is a disruption that tips the scales in Karasuno's favor.
Inarizaki probably realized this as well, which is why they decided to move Hinata directly out of the first receive position.
Hoshiumi delivered the final verdict: "But I reckon Karasuno is beyond saving in this set."
Inarizaki's consecutive scoring streaks had already secured a perfect advantage, Karasuno's key Server was unable to make an impact; at this rate, they had absolutely no way to stage a comeback.
Hirugami smiled. "We just need to minimize the error rate on defensive plays like the first receive and the block, prevent the opponent from scoring."
Hoshiumi rolled his eyes. "Don't tell those kinds of bad jokes; they aren't funny at all."
Hirugami looked sideways at Hoshiumi. "I'm being serious."
Hoshiumi looked at Hirugami Yukio with a look that said he was an idiot. "Huh?"
Nishinoya stood on the Karasuno court with one hand on his hip, waiting for Kageyama's serve.
Relatively speaking, Inarizaki is not good at defense, but this weakness is not something Karasuno can easily overcome and defeat.
As for Inarizaki's fierce offense, Karasuno did not handle it very well.
Our strengths are weaker than their strengths, our weaknesses are more obvious than their weaknesses..
No matter which angle you looked at it from, Karasuno's winning probability was extremely low.
The only chance they had was to find a way to prevent Inarizaki from scoring.
But.. can we do it?
No, he must.
Nishinoya watched Miya Atsumu on the opposite side in silence, his mind exceptionally calm.
This set is likely lost, but the match is best of three, so he must use the remaining time in this set to memorize and see through Inarizaki's offensive patterns as much as possible.
Only in this way can he provide better sets.
Tsukishima thought the same.
Benefiting from the fact that both the Spiker and the Setter were sufficiently flexible, that the probability of the First Receive being off-target was not low, Inarizaki didn't have a systematic tactical system at all.
To put it bluntly, the way they played was completely spontaneous; however, being spontaneous didn't mean playing recklessly, but rather deciding the next play based on Miya Atsumu's sudden inspiration during the set. Unlike Shiratorizawa or Seijo, they didn't rely on fixed tactics for every specific rotation.
But it was precisely because of this that Tsukishima felt he had an advantage.
Because the tactical coordination was somewhat improvised and relied more on mutual understanding most of the time, there were loopholes that could be seen through.
As long as he can exploit this flaw, he might be able to increase his block scoring rate.
However, he had no intention of artificially forcing the opponent into making tactical errors by suppressing a single player, as he had done against Shiratorizawa, because that was meaningless.
As the Ace, Hinata is a master of technical balls; the duo's block finds it difficult to restrict his offensive rhythm, if they try to bait his trajectory, they might ultimately fall into Hinata's trap.
Moreover, Inarizaki has enough offensive options; it doesn't have to be Hinata.
Everyone except the Libero is a potential attacking point. He didn't believe that, given Miya Atsumu's personality, he wouldn't let his own Libero learn to be a Setter; perhaps Inarizaki could also flexibly apply multi-faceted simultaneous attacks.
The more Tsukishima thought about it, the more frustrated he became, because from the very first set, he still hadn't been able to find the correct way to solve the problem.
There's no other way.
In times like this, one should do just as Sugawara-senpai said.. by shifting part of the responsibility onto one's teammates.
If Kageyama's serve doesn't score this time, he will mock him mercilessly.
He talked about challenging Miya Atsumu's position as the number one Server, but in the end, he couldn't even score from a Double Receive against the two main hitters, he isn't some High School's First Libero either.
That's just too embarrassing..
The moment Tsukishima snapped out of it, the heavy thud of Kageyama's serve already rang out behind him.
Rishia's performance was also very straightforward; he threw himself flat against the ground and bumped the ball up.
A Double Receive is indeed difficult, but he didn't have the strict requirement of ensuring the subsequent attack, so he could receive it any way he wanted.
Miya Osamu, having secured the ball, showed no mercy, spiking it directly onto the fingers of Tsukishima, who had only just lunged forward after being thrown off balance by Suna.
After a heavy thud, the ball flew out of the court and landed outside.
The whistle blew, Inarizaki scores.
"Tsk." Kageyama couldn't help but let out a light click of his tongue after losing the service turn.
Tsukishima, in the front row, glanced at his reddened hand and turned to look at Kageyama with a scoffing laugh. "Can you actually do it, King? If you can't beat the little guy, you can't even score points when you and the dual spikers are doing a double receive?"
And you're saying you want to challenge the High School's First Server? Don't make me laugh.
Hinata felt like he had been shot in the knee.
S-Shorty—
How could Tsukishima say that to him! Weren't they the best of companions!
Kageyama blinked and asked with genuine sincerity, "Did I ever say that?"
Miya Atsumu couldn't take it anymore and snapped, "Is that even the point?!"
The point is that Kageyama's serve is incredibly terrible; he didn't score at all!
Chapter 507: The 507th Fox
Tsukishima was very angry.
To be honest, he had never lost control of his emotions like this on the Karasuno court.
After all.. most of the time, everyone at Karasuno is very reliable; instead, it's he, with his physical limitations, who sometimes holds them back.
But today was different. Time and time again, it was Kageyama who ran into trouble, it was even on something Kageyama was extremely skilled at, like serving.
Tsukishima felt like he was about to explode with rage.
Facing Kageyama's innocent and somewhat stiff expression, Tsukishima suppressed his anger once again.
Thinking about it carefully, Kageyama really had no other choice.
His specialties were similar to Miya Atsumu's, but because Miya Atsumu was more mature due to his age advantage, Inarizaki's adaptation to Kageyama would inevitably be much smoother.
Especially regarding the serve. Receiving serves is a difficult problem for the vast majority of high school teams, but for a powerhouse among powerhouses like Inarizaki, they have many schemes to handle such intense pressure.
Even though Unabara Uta and the others couldn't perfectly handle Kageyama's power serve, Miya Atsumu's skill allowed him to compensate for it smoothly.
Before this, Karasuno had actually played this way as well.
However, during this time, Nishinoya gradually found his rhythm again and developed new ideas. Currently, their first receive has also stabilized, meaning they no longer need Kageyama to fly across the court to fix mistakes, allowing them to shift more of their strategic focus toward the offense.
But.. it clearly wasn't enough.
Kageyama looked at Rishia Heisuke on the opposite side and couldn't help but frown.
Whether it was his illusion or not, Rishia's movement just now as he decided to dive onto the floor was a bit too decisive, as if he hadn't planned on receiving his serve normally from the very beginning.
That was so spineless.
Hayami's mouth twitched in the stands, expressing her contempt for Rishia's behavior.
Shiratori smiled. "But if Inarizaki continues to play like this, the Karasuno side, as the servers, will truly be powerless to do anything about it."
No.. if you had to say it, even the strongest Server would feel a sense of helplessness when facing such a rogue Receive.
Tsukishima stopped glaring at Kageyama.
Every team they had played against was exceptionally wary of their serves.
In previous matches, they were able to score through sheer dominance, but now, that might not be enough.
If they want to win, they must find other effective scoring strategies.
Watching Tsukishima's frowning, deep-in-thought expression, Hinata rubbed his hands together.
He moved to the front row; he could face Tsukishima's block head-on!
So exciting!
Can Tsukishima give it his all and block him once! He really wants to experience being blocked in the front row!
Even though Miya Atsumu had told him that Tsukishima's blocking was similar to Suna-senpai's, he felt it was completely different.
Compared to Suna-senpai, Tsukishima actually prefers to use his brain before jumping for a block, so his baiting tactics would be more effective after the opponent has already jumped.
He hadn't fully shown his skills during the last clash, but this time, he was absolutely, definitely going to pin that obnoxious Tsukishima, who just called him a shrimp, to the floor!
Sensing the ominous aura spreading from beside him, Suna silently took a step to the side.
How terrifying. Luckily, he and Hinata are still teammates..
Tsukishima lowered his head, exchanged a glance with Hinata, then looked away, having no intention of continuing to pay him any attention.
Come on, he was already prepared.
Sweeping his gaze over Hinata's back of his head and Tsukishima Kei's face, Miya Atsumu, who was in a rather bad mood, bounced the volleyball in his hands.
To be honest, he was feeling quite annoyed right now.
How could anyone call Hinata a midget? Compared to the first time he met Hinata, Hinata has already grown by a quarter of a Hello Kitty!
Hinata felt as if an arrow had been shot into his back, but the Head Referee had already blown the whistle to signal Miya Atsumu's Serve, he no longer had time to turn his head to see who was targeting him.
But he felt that Rishia and Unabara Uta would definitely never do such a thing.
After ruling out everything else, there was only one truth!
It really was Atsumu!