"Heh." Miya Atsumu laughed out of sheer frustration.
"My bad, my bad!" The only first-year on the court, Nishizawa, slid smoothly into a kneel to apologize.
In the stands, Teacher Gojo had already smoothly blended into the sea of boos from the Inarizaki supporters, laughing heartlessly at his own student: "Hahahaha—Yukihito, what on earth are you playing!"
Coach Kaku, facing the demonic Inarizaki supporters for the first time, was a bit flustered. He looked at Masaru Haseda, who was still in the waiting area, felt a sudden surge of panic, glancing at Haseda's grandmother beside him with a hint of worry.
Meanwhile, Teacher Gojo had already grabbed Haseda's grandmother and laughed together at Tokura on the court. "Grandma, Grandma, did you see that? He almost missed it; that was so embarrassing."
Haseda's grandmother chuckled, "The difficulty was too high; it's understandable that he didn't hit it."
Looking from Nishizawa to Tokura, Miya Atsumu burst into a laugh of sheer frustration: "Heh."
Tokura also followed Nishizawa, dropping lightly to his knees.
Looking at Inamura on the other side of the net and Ogihara beside him, he whispered, "Bullying juniors, what a demon."
The Ace, who had just served a terrible ball, walked over to the group and reached out to grab Miya Atsumu's sleeve, pulling him back and smoothing things over for everyone: "It's okay, it's okay, Nishizawa Hokuto and Yukihito have already worked very hard! There really was nothing that could be done about that ball just now."
Miya Atsumu rolled his eyes at the air. "You're still talking about those two? Your serve was absolutely terrible. Don't you dare tell anyone I was the one who taught you."
Hinata pulled a long face: "I'll work harder next time."
He quickly changed the subject: "But Kami-senpai's wrist is getting more and more incredible; how did you even hit that ball just now?"
As he spoke, Hinata raised his hands, attempting to simulate Sakusa's recent movement.
Rebellion.
A voice came from across the net.
Hinata looked up and met Sakusa's calm eyes.
His mouth hung open, his face filled with disbelief. "Eh? How can you hit such a heavy topspin when the wrist is facing the other way?! Is it Kami-senpai's magic?"
Ogihara Ayato raised a finger: "That's right, it's magic."
Hinata's eyes widened. "That's amazing—"
Sakusa said nothing, having no desire to argue with Ogihara about whether he could actually perform magic.
Miya Atsumu's mood worsened.
He reached out, grabbed Hinata by the back of his collar, threw him back to the back row: "Still playing with magic? If you serve another one of those trash serves, you can get off the court."
Having had his enthusiasm dampened, Hinata pursed his lips and silently returned to his position in the back row.
He decided to hold a grudge.
Atsumu-senpai clearly had the chance to set the ball just now, but he didn't expect Nishizawa to be able to save it; his reaction was too slow, so he could only use his foot!
If he goes back and reviews the footage, he's going to report him to the coach! He'll make Atsumu-senpai do extra training!
As a high schooler nearing graduation, Sakusa's technique has become even more mature, his dominance at the net has reached a terrifying level.
Even though Komori was not on the court during Ogihara Ayato's service turn, Sakusa relied solely on his powerful offensive ability to win consecutive scoring opportunities for Itachiyama.
Whether it was Tokura in the front row for blocking, or Nishizawa in the back row responsible for receiving, neither had sufficient ability to handle such a spin serve.
Shiratori said with some emotion, "It seems Itachiyama's Tianji's Horse Racing is quite effective. In comparison, Karasuno lacks the kind of offensive power that can settle a match decisively, resulting in mediocre results."
Hinata Natsu blinked and asked, "Who is Tianji? Does horse racing have anything to do with this match?"
Hearing this question, Shiratori felt his heart melt in an instant.
Finally, it wasn't questions like "What horse?" or "Is there a horse on the court?"—
Shiratori patiently explained to Xiaoxia, "It's a four-character idiom. When used in this context, it can be understood as using your team's strong zone to counter the opponent's weak zone, thereby scoring effectively."
Xiaoxia nodded earnestly, "I understand, just like Kami-senpai."
Hearing this title, Shiratori froze for a moment. "Do you know Sakusa?"
Hinata Natsu quickly analyzed the point of Shiratori's question and immediately said, "I've been studying under Coach Himegomiya and have seen you a few times at the Inarizaki No. 2 Gymnasium; Motoya-ge told me to call you that."
Shiratori fell silent for a moment, turned to look at Hinata's mother, asked tentatively, "Then, does Xiaoxia have any impression of me?"
Hinata Natsu nodded. "Mm, the first time my brother won a championship, he was playing in a match against you, Shiratori-senpai. I remember it very clearly; you were amazing."
During the Spring High last year, you also asked me for a photo together, Senpai. He's my brother's friend.
Shiratori pressed down the corners of his mouth that were curling up and said softly, "That's right, that's right, actually, I'm super close with your brother."
If you don't mind, you can just call me by my name. My name is Natsume.
Xia's expression turned serious: "Natsume-ge."
Shiratori beamed, "Mhm, if you run into any trouble or get bullied in Tokyo in the future, you can come to me."
Hearing this, Hinata Natsu couldn't figure it out.
Could this tall Natsume-ge have some powerful connections? Is he some kind of hidden, mysterious character?
Shiratori held up one finger: "I can give you a verbal education."
Just as Xiaoxia showed a very confused expression, Shiratori raised a second finger: "If reasoning doesn't work, I also know a thing or two about combat."
Hinata Natsu fell silent.
She turned her head to look at Hinata Shoyo, who was rushing out of the court to save a ball, for a moment, she didn't know what to say.
Whether it's Atsumu, Sakusa, or even Shiratori, whom I've just met..
Brother, what kind of people have you been getting involved with out there! Every single one of them feels more terrifying than the last!
However, Natsu knew that it wasn't actually a big deal, because.. unlike Atsumu-senpai, these people were all her brother's friends, not enemies.
Sakusa was about to rotate to the back row, but with one point still needed to tie the score, Inamoto couldn't help but feel a bit anxious.
Inamura, who had already rotated to the back row, raised his hand to call for the ball: "Nice ball! Give it to me!"
Sakusa had already rushed from Position 2 in the front row to Position 4, once again occupying a favorable position on the wing to prepare for a strong attack.
Tokura kept a close eye on Sakusa's movements.
In these few exchanges, he had roughly grasped some of Sakusa's spiking patterns for this set; many times, his opponent was willing to use the advantage of his spin to hit the ball close to the front row.
Nishizawa, in the back row at this position, has very little room to maneuver, but he can disrupt Inarizaki's subsequent counter-attack rhythm to the greatest extent possible.
So.. all he really needs to do is control his distance from the net, ensuring Sakusa doesn't get an easy chance at a short diagonal.
Although this might result in him touching the net or hitting the ball over the net, he was still confident in his body control.
Tokura was extremely close to the net, almost touching it.
He was positioned near the center of the net, right in the path of Sakusa's sharp cross, pressing his hands down forcefully toward the other side; he had already reached over the net, effectively shutting down the short diagonal completely.
And since he and Sakusa would not meet at the moment of the spike, there was naturally no need to worry about the trouble of hitting the ball into the net.
Sakusa frowned slightly, but he indeed had no choice but to abandon his original plan.
Seeing that there was still an opening next to Miya Atsumu, Sakusa decisively sent a line shot.
But the line was not Sakusa's specialty, Tokura's intense restriction of the ball's trajectory gave Miya Atsumu an opportunity; he placed a single hand in the ball's path and slammed it back down.
Sakusa controlled his body, lifting the ball as he twisted his torso.
The ball brushed the net, Koldorf locked his eyes on it, preparing to spike it directly.
But at the very moment of the spike, Tokura, having already landed, jumped again, pressing both hands down to send the ball back into the Itachiyama court.
This time, the members of Itachiyama failed to save it, Inarizaki scores, breaking Inamura's service turn.
Tokura pumped his fist and cheered, "Yes! I've found my rhythm!"
Teacher Gojo, in the stands, raised both hands and started twisting: "So cool, Yukihito—so cool I want to cry—"
He also grabbed Haseda's grandmother and cheered together, "Grandma, Grandma, did you see that? My kid is so cool!"
Watching that giant golden python wriggle back and forth, Tokura's vision went black.
Chapter 521: The 521st Fox
Miya Atsumu stood with one hand on his hip, offering Tokura a word of praise: "Nice play."
That's right, that's exactly how it should be played.
Tokura himself possessed sufficient physical advantages; he simply needed a certain amount of time and experience to explore how to fully utilize them.
Relying on Suna's movements wouldn't be the entirety of Tokura's future, after all, as Tokura didn't possess that same mindset for reading people that Suna had.
However, he estimated that he likely wouldn't have the chance to see the moment when the opponent truly found his direction on the court.
But.. whether it was for Inarizaki or for Hinata, he hoped that moment would arrive quickly.
The service right passed to Tokura, as Tokura walked backward while holding the volleyball, he glanced toward the Coach's bench, where Fukami was already waiting, holding his substitution number card.
Tokura smiled, the signal for a substitution sounded immediately after.
Fukami walked to the sidelines and completed the substitution process with Tokura.
Subaru, hit a good one!
Hinata's voice rang out across the court, reaching Hayami's ears as she hunched her shoulders in the stands.
Sasaki rested his chin on one hand, turning his head to look at Hayami.
Staring at the small ponytail on the other's head for a while, Sasaki leaned over and nudged him with a shoulder.
Hayami moved away from Sasaki, having no desire to listen to what Sasaki had to say next.
He knew that you can't get ivory from a dog's mouth.
Hayami didn't want to listen, but Sasaki wanted to speak.
Sasaki drew out his voice: "Aww, I'm so jealous that people get to call you by your name—"
Hayami frowned, turning to the side. "Noisy."
Sasaki put a hand on Hayami's shoulder and pointed a finger toward the court, where Fukami was already preparing himself upon hearing the whistle. "You should try to earn it then."
Hayami pursed his lips. "There isn't much to fight for here; it's Hinata's freedom to call him whatever he wants."
Sasaki let him go and leaned back against the chair: "How spineless, poor little Subaru."