With a loud bang, the ball flew toward Inarizaki's Position 4 at a very narrow angle, seemingly intended to be spiked directly into Karasuno's court.
Bessho's gaze followed the ball, just as he was about to move to the side to perform a block, a flash of orange suddenly caught his eye in his peripheral vision.
He whipped his head around to look. Hinata had jumped from behind the three-meter line toward the front of the net at some unknown moment, positioned at the back-three-and-a-half spot.
In the next second, the sound of the hit had already reached his ears.
The volleyball turned into a blur, flying over his head; having jumped a step too late, he ultimately failed to touch the ball.
BAM!!
The ball slammed heavily onto the floor, making a dull thud.
The whistle blew immediately after, Inarizaki scored consecutive points.
Nice play! Shoyo is the coolest!!
So cool, little radish—no, orange flash!!
Who are you calling a radish! You're staying behind to clean the stands later!
Watching from the stands, Shiratori couldn't help but say, "This style of play has been taken to a whole new level.."
On the other side, Akaashi turned his head slightly toward Shiratori, momentarily unsure of what to say.
This completely reckless way of playing.. it seems to have been pioneered by this person and his teammates. Later, it was picked up by Inarizaki and gradually became their standard way of playing.
But.. it's still so reckless!
Hinata made a peace sign toward Hoshiumi on the other side of the net, giggling, "A complete victory!"
Hoshiumi was feeling a bit numb at this moment. "They're not being honest at all.."
Now that everyone is incredibly exhausted, Inarizaki is still sticking to their carefree playstyle; don't their brains feel tired?
The moment Hoshiumi locked eyes with Hinata, he paused.
No, if he were the one executing this kind of serve, he probably wouldn't feel tired either.
—After all, it's interesting no matter how you think about it.
But he won't.
Blind hitting was built upon Miya Atsumu's absolute level of skill; without that ability, it would just be giving away points.
Scanning the scoreboard by the sidelines, which showed a significant gap, Hoshiumi slowly exhaled.
This set is likely lost. No matter how many mistakes Inarizaki makes afterward, they won't give them the chance to score five consecutive points.
And just as Hoshiumi had judged, in almost the same position during the next rotation, Ginjima's beautiful strong attack secured the final point of the set for Inarizaki.
The scoreboard froze at Inarizaki 25:20 Karasuno, with Inarizaki taking the first set.
Chapter 534: The 534th Fox
After switching sides and sitting down on the Coach's bench, Asahina said softly, "This is bad."
Takahashi unscrewed the cap and added, "It's looking really bad."
Bessho couldn't help himself, accidentally letting his inner thoughts slip out: "It really is bad."
Hirugami put down the towel in his hands and laughed, "Super bad."
“What the hell do you mean 'not good'!" Hoshiumi-senpai went crazy, wishing he could jump up and punch Hirugami's head.
It's only been one set. Just watch me crush them in the next set. That kind of serve is only effective because they're seeing it for the first time; once they adjust, it won't be anything to worry about.
Tokura Ria spoke up: "No, it's because Ai can't handle it that things are looking bad."
Hoshiumi bared his teeth and looked at him.
Yeah, Inarizaki has a very deep bench. Fukami isn't the only key player during critical points; Kumagai-senpai and Rishia-senpai are also among the best," Asahina nodded. "And I saw them call Rishia-senpai up just now, but it didn't work out.
Staring at the water cup in his hands, Asahina fell into deep thought.
They were able to win the IH because Inarizaki's team hadn't been well-coordinated at the time, they didn't even have a suitable person for the important role of blocker.
But now things are different. The trained Tokura has filled Inarizaki's final gap; even if his technique isn't fully mature, being able to avoid mistakes is already quite remarkable.
Moreover, the opponent's excellent arm length limited their offense to a certain extent, making their already relatively scarce scoring ability even more strained now.
With Unabara Uta's visible growth, Karasuno's "block and serve" system also failed to develop smoothly.
After all, as long as the First Receive doesn't fly off, Miya Atsumu can always orchestrate the most perfect offense.
Hoshiumi-senpai is indeed very strong, but it is meaningless if he is the only strong one.
Volleyball is a team sport; rather than a master carrying an entire team to victory, it is far more common for a rookie to cause the whole team to collapse.
However.. given the current situation, as the core playmaker, he must at least bear half the blame.
He lacked the ability to provide Hakuma and Hoshiumi with a better offensive environment, being forced by Inarizaki to deliver difficult sets time and time again, which caused the pressure on Hakuma and the others to skyrocket.
But there's no use thinking about that now. Regardless, he will do his best to provide good sets in the next set.
Even if he can't move anymore, Tokura Ria is still here.
His gaze swept across the crowd as Hoshiumi raised a question: "So.. what about Inarizaki's Serve?"
Everyone fell silent.
Hirugami shrugged and said with a smile under Takahashi's pitiful gaze, "Every cloud has a silver lining, there's always a way forward. There's no point in worrying so much; if it's meant to be received, it will be received."
Right, Ai?
Under Hoshiumi-senpai's death stare, Takahashi couldn't bring himself to say "yes."
He gently and slowly raised his hands, then lunged toward Hoshiumi.
“Help me, Hoshiumi-senpai!”
Hoshiumi agreed without a second thought: "Alright."
He turned his head toward Hakuma, flashing a rather wicked smile. "So, that's the situation. Good luck with your attack, Meisei."
Hakuma nodded seriously. "Okay."
Asahina took the clipboard handed over by Coach Aran and filled in his team's rotation: "Inarizaki probably won't change their rotation, so we'll stick to our previous playstyle and try to avoid Inarizaki's strong zones as much as possible. Bessho-senpai, you guys take care of Hinata-senpai's Quick Attack; don't let them slip past the blockers."
Bessho's expression was serious, just when Takahashi thought he was about to agree with the spirit of a senior, Bessho spoke.
“That's impossible, isn't it?”
Of course, he was confident that he could limit Hinata even under partial blocking, but the opponent certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to spike directly into the net; most of the time, they would definitely choose to play technical balls.
Moreover.. Inarizaki has more than one quick attack point, with their overall high physical stamina, it's almost impossible to counter.
Asahina's pen tip paused, nearly piercing the paper: "Senpai, have some backbone."
Bessho received a sharp glare from Hoshiumi and shut his mouth, saying no more.
Inarizaki's rotation was exactly as Asahina had expected, using the same positioning as the previous set; Miya Atsumu was in Position 2 to ensure the first serve of the rotation, with Ginjima responsible for covering him.
Karasuno, on the other hand, used their usual opening with the setter in Position 1, while Hakuma stood in Position 4 to maintain their strong opening range.
Seeing himself and Hakuma facing off, Tokura was exceptionally excited.
Great, he can continue to challenge the 2m players again!
Watching Tokura, who was eager to try again on the court, Akaashi couldn't help but frown. "Inarizaki's physical conditioning is a bit too good.."
Shiratori nodded. "Indeed, Inarizaki's physical training is probably the best quality among all high schools. Even with the match being this intense and close, they still have energy left."
By contrast, it was obvious that Karasuno was starting to struggle to hold on.
Based on Inarizaki's offensive state and overall tactical deployment in the First Set, it was obvious they had no intention of dragging the game out against Karasuno.
After all, Inarizaki's quick attack system was built on high-intensity movement; once the game dragged on and their spikers' stamina ran low, they would inevitably lose out to Karasuno in a strong attack battle.
Asahina's serve was received by Unabara Uta, after Tokura Ria and Ginjima executed a split movement to pull the blockers away, Miya Atsumu utilized a good first receive to set the ball, allowing Miya Osamu to score with a spike from the back row. Miya Atsumu then took over the Service Turn, delivering a beautiful Jump Float Serve.
Atsumu's control over the Jump Float Serve was incomparable to before; even with the ball's erratic trajectory, neither Takahashi nor Hoshiumi, who had retreated to cover Asahina, could predict where the ball would land.
The moment the ball crossed the Three-meter Line and began to drop, Hoshiumi was the first to react. Having already positioned himself further forward, he lunged decisively, using one hand to cushion the ball.
"Great save!" Asahina praised, circling from the side as he chased after the ball.
Hoshiumi had no conditions for an attack; the only ones prepared in the front row were Hirugami and Hakuma.
Furthermore, because of Hoshiumi's forward position, Hirugami's approach lacked sufficient space, leaving him with little room to maneuver.
After making a basic assessment of the situation, Asahina passed the ball to Hakuma Mebuki.
This set was sent extremely high, a set designed to force Hakuma to jump at his highest contact point.
Inarizaki's Miya Atsumu, Ginjima, Tokura rushed together, the three of them blocking in front of Hakuma, intending to kill the ball directly.
Their block was flat, intended to press the ball down as it was spiked. If they didn't do this, it would be very difficult for them to touch the opponent's spike, they would be tooled.
Watching the volleyball in his field of vision and the faces of the Inarizaki blockers, Hakuma thought hard.
When it came to attacking, he had always used a simple and direct approach, but it was clearly not very effective.
Perhaps.. the Coach and the others want him to play more technical balls like Hoshiumi?
As this result was achieved, Hakuma's gaze shifted slightly upward, locking onto Ginjima's fingers on the side.
The next second, just as Ginjima was about to step forward to receive the spike, the ball hit a high point, causing Ginjima's entire center of gravity to shift off balance.
With a loud bang, the ball flew out of bounds toward Inarizaki's Position 5 at an extremely high angle.
Hinata, having recovered, rushed to chase after it, but the force of this ball was even greater than Hoshiumi's, its speed increased even more after it bounced off the net.
He watched helplessly as the ball landed outside the railing, ultimately unable to reach it.
The whistle blew, Hakuma scored by tooling the block.
The moment the cheers erupted, Amatori froze in the stands: "Whoa, for real?"
That Hakuma actually scored a point using a technical ball, even broke Miya Atsumu's Service Turn?
Akaashi sighed in realization, "It was a misjudgment."
Hakuma's unconventional play was indeed difficult to read, so losing the point was only to be expected..