What is it?
What is this?
What is Inarizaki doing?
What is Karasuno doing now?
Iizuna and Amatori stared at each other in the stands, while on the other side, Komoriya looked completely lost. Sakusa stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes cast down in silence.
Coach Himegomiya's mouth twitched. "This rotation is a bit too free, isn't it.."
Hinata Natsu, beside her, looked up at her. "Coach, I saw what my brother and the others are doing. Has Karasuno's rotation changed as well?"
On Inarizaki's side, they rarely substituted Miya Osamu into the Left Wing next to Hinata, with Ginjima Yui taking over the Right Wing. At the same time, Tokura and Suna's positions were also swapped, essentially overturning and rearranging almost the entire lineup.
Coach Himegomiya, who had already "defected" to Inarizaki, nodded. "Mm, Karasuno actually preferred to have Hakuma start in Position 4. Although Karasuno is playing second, they haven't adjusted their rotation many times due to the order of serve and receive."
“They've pushed Hakuma to the back row for this opening, likely to avoid Suna's strong blocking range to some extent.”
Hinata Natsu froze for a moment. "Huh?"
She looked at everyone's positioning, momentarily a bit slow to react: "But right now.."
Coach Himegomiya nodded. "Ah, Inarizaki moved Suna to the back; Suna is still facing off against Hakuma."
Having had his position taken by Coach Himegomiya, Shiratori sat one row behind with a look of resentment, flanked by Bokuto and Akaashi, whom he had called over.
Even though sitting in any row would be about the same for someone of his height, that.. that wasn't a valid reason for Coach Himegomiya to steal his seat!
This is too much!
Shiratori pulled at his jacket aggrievedly, but he didn't dare even think about resisting.
For the sake of his childhood friend's physical and mental well-being, he felt he had to maintain a harmonious relationship with Coach Himegomiya and his wife. At worst.. at worst, he would just go and complain to Coach Raphael later!
Coach Kurosu rubbed his chin, which he had cleanly shaved this morning, looking completely composed under the shocked gazes of Hinata and Kumagai.
Coach, you're incredible! You actually guessed they would avoid Suna-senpai!
I didn't even think of that layer..
Coach Kurosu raised his hand to signal everyone to stay calm: "There is indeed consideration in that regard, but it is mostly for our own tactics. Just play according to what we practiced before."
—Actually, there wasn't.
Miya Atsumu looked at his coach with his hands on his hips.
They changed positions simply because Miya Osamu's stamina was flagging after playing the whole match, because he had jumped too many times to cover the setter yesterday, making it difficult for him to keep up, so they switched to Ginjima to protect him.
Suna and Tokura's rotation was also for this reason; after all, they had to ensure continuity in the positioning between Suna and the Miya Twins, making sure that the three of them could maintain a coordinated block to stabilize the blocking work for two-thirds of the court.
As for the extras.. it was most likely a case of a blind cat stumbling upon a dead rat.
"Understood!" Hinata responded loudly, completely unaware.
It was great; not only did Atsumu-senpai draw the starting lineup for this match, but they also perfectly anticipated Karasuno's plan. It was quite simply the most perfect opening!
Hoshiumi clapped his hands, soothing everyone's emotions: "It's fine. Anyway, no matter what kind of Block he encounters, he always plays the same way, we still have the back row to use, so the overall impact isn't that big."
Hakuma nodded along, but soon realized something was wrong: "I feel like you just said something very unkind to me."
Hoshiumi replied bluntly, "As long as you know what you're doing."
His gaze swept over the Karasuno members: "In any case, there's no need to worry about what comes next. Just give it everything you've got."
Today's match, we are only allowed to win, not lose.. Do not leave any regrets.
Hirugami laughed heartily. "Of course."
Hinata reached out his hand toward everyone, Miya Atsumu pressed his hand on top of it.
The Inarizaki members quickly gathered in a circle behind them, placing their hands on top while listening to Miya Atsumu's final words of encouragement.
Miya Atsumu stared at everyone's hands in his field of vision. "There's nothing more to say. If we win, I'll treat everyone to sushi when we get back. There is no other possibility."
Let's go!!
Inarizaki victory!
After confirming the rotation, Miya Atsumu walked to the serving position, holding the ball.
Having finally secured the first rotation, it was time to use his serve to lay the foundation for victory in this match.
Aran, in the first row of the stands, raised his hand to cover his eyes, a voice of mock crying followed immediately after: "Atsumu—you've finally grown up—"
“Has the Inari God finally forgiven him—?”
His fake crying movement paused slightly as he turned his head past Oori Ren, who was standing in the middle, to look at Kita Shinsuke: "Even though I feel like Atsumu is just catching your luck, Shinsuke, since the way he came over to shake your hand was exactly the same as the way he just did that."
Kita Shinsuke curled his lips into a light smile and chuckled, "Atsumu works very hard; the Inari God will protect him."
Akagi couldn't help but say, "No, no, no, it's probably being bestowed elsewhere.."
On Karasuno's side, Takahashi stared at Miya Atsumu on the opposite side and let out a slow breath.
I don't know what kind of serve Miya Atsumu will choose.. In any case, I'll take a central position first while staying on guard against both Jump Float Serves and Power Serves.
The whistle blew in his ears, as Miya Atsumu moved, the Inarizaki cheers instantly fell silent, providing him with an absolutely quiet environment for his serve.
Atsumu's gaze locked onto Takahashi.
Facing Komoriya head-on was certainly not a wise move, but.. he was just a first-year Libero, he didn't think much of him.
—He was going to bring out Inarizaki's momentum.
The moment the serve time limit reached four seconds, Miya Atsumu raised his hand and tossed the ball.
As the ball was tossed with a bit of spin, Miya Atsumu stepped forward quickly, following its trajectory within the original six-step approach distance.
Less than ten centimeters from the baseline, Miya Atsumu took his final step and leaped powerfully.
A heavy thud rang in Hinata's ears, causing his eyes to widen slightly.
In the case of Miya Atsumu's Power Serve, he rarely puts this much effort into his final step; a sound like that usually only occurs when a Spiker performs a Spike.
That also means.. Miya Atsumu jumped very high, intending to maximize his hang time to better drive his body's power.
Ah..
Damn, I want to see it so badly!
Bang!!
A heavy thud exploded immediately behind him, in the brief moment Hinata blinked, the ball had already appeared in his field of vision.
This ball was fast, it had a lot of spin.
Takahashi's current position.. he won't be able to reach it.
While cursing inwardly, Takahashi took a step back in an attempt to receive the ball.
Miya Atsumu's ball was hit with the spin from the toss, he used an immense amount of force. The ball's speed was likely similar to the previous one, but this heavy sensation..
The ball hit Takahashi's arm directly and bounced toward his face.
Takahashi subconsciously turned his head to avoid it, the ball, having lost its momentum, flew out of bounds at a very high speed. Norikura Isao lunged to chase it down, but ultimately, he was too late.
The whistle blew, Inarizaki scores.
Hinata turned his head and cheered, "Great ball, Atsumu-ge!"
Miya Atsumu gave Hinata a thumbs-up from afar, then took back the volleyball that had been thrown back and returned to prepare for the second serve.
Cold sweat beaded on Takahashi's forehead.
You have to realize that during their pre-match preparations, they had discussed the issues with Miya Atsumu's serve.
After playing so many matches over several days, it was only natural for everyone's condition to decline, so the reference material they used for Miya Atsumu's serve was their match against Itachiyama.
But that last ball was a heavy blow to him. Whether it was due to a change in opponents or not, the opponent's condition was clearly better than yesterday.
Aran pointed out the problem sharply: "They couldn't target the Libero and stifle Atsumu yesterday, could they?"
Because of training yesterday, he only watched the first half of the First Set, he clearly looked quite disinterested after Miya Atsumu's serve.
Indeed, Miya Atsumu really enjoyed the feeling of crushing the opponent's Libero, but this tactic was impossible to execute against Itachiyama.
Now Takahashi has become a punching bag for Miya Atsumu's performance..
Aran silently clasped his hands together in a moment of silence for Takahashi: "Poor Karasuno first-year Libero."
Miya Atsumu felt exceptionally wonderful after successfully landing an ACE Serve.
On Karasuno's side, the positioning shifted slightly, with Hoshiumi and Hirugami both dropping back to provide cover for Hakuma and share the pressure from Takahashi on the other side.
Takahashi's physical condition was nowhere near as good as Komoriya's, his form had long since declined from what it had been before today.
If Miya Atsumu really focused solely on him.. he might collapse in less than two sets.
All they could do was compress more than half of the defensive coverage originally handled by Takahashi for Karasuno.
Miya Atsumu curled his lips into a smirk.
It didn't matter; no matter how much they pressed, it was impossible to take the Libero, who was mainly responsible for defense, out of the game.
Spinning the volleyball lightly in his hands, Miya Atsumu sent the ball into a high toss once again.
Noticing that Miya Atsumu still used a six-step approach, Takahashi pursed his lips.
Don't panic, Miya Atsumu's serve isn't as fast as Saru's was yesterday; he can see it clearly, as long as he can handle the spin on top..
Before Takahashi could even finish his internal pep talk, Miya Atsumu had already spiked the ball.
Miya Atsumu's ball control is still very strong.
Although the trajectory was slightly off due to the opponent intentionally increasing the power, it was still kept within the court by Miya Atsumu.
Takahashi gave up struggling and decisively performed a diving move toward the corner.
He dived a little too early, the ball almost hit his shoulder, but fortunately, he shifted his body slightly, allowing the ball to fly toward the front of the net instead of going out of control.
Asahina finally breathed a sigh of relief: "What a great First Receive!!"
This ball is a little high, but.. it's not a big problem.
After a quick glance at Hoshiumi's and Hirugami's positions, Asahina chased down the ball after a two-step approach, lowering his center of gravity before leaping upward.
The approach allowed him to catch the ball, but he didn't have many options for the set; he could only try to make the set as high as possible, sending it toward Position 4.