Chapter 42: Chapter 42 - VS Tokonami (Part 1)
After the referee's whistle, the team captains shook hands and the players gathered together. The sound of various cheering squads could be heard, but the most prominent was Date Tech's supporters.
"Good game!" everyone shouted in unison as all the players shook hands and headed to the bench.
"Alright, everyone... no beating around the bush now, you've improved a lot since I started coaching you, and you must know how good you are now, so stay calm and just do what you've practiced!" said Ukai.
"And show them what the 'New Karasuno' looks like!" said Takeda, raising his fists excitedly but calming down right after.
The game begins with Tokonami serving.
"Komaki, power serve!" shouted one of the players as number one from the opposing team served, and subsequently, the ball went toward Hinata, who easily received it and sent it to Kageyama.
"Who should I set to first?" thought Kageyama.
"The first one should be for you!" thought Kageyama while making a back set to Hinata, who took a powerful jump before the middle line of the court and flew toward the ball, hitting it with his left hand and making it go through Tokonami's triple block, landing on the floor next to one of the players who couldn't react in time.
1-0 Karasuno.
"Damn! That guy's left-handed... we'll have to pay attention to that next time!" said one of the boys.
"You're right, Chaya," agreed Komaki.
"Nice point!" praised Tanaka while grabbing the ball and going to serve. After tossing the ball up, Tanaka jumps and hits it, making it fly toward Tokonami's defense, which manages to receive it.
"Nice receive!" said Haga, the setter, who then set the ball to Ikejiri, who after jumping to try his spike, faced a triple block from Daichi, Asahi, and Hinata.
"So high!" exclaimed Ikejiri after observing the barrier that appeared in front of him. He tried to hit the side of Asahi's hands, who managed to deflect the ball back to the opponent's court, scoring a block.
"Nice block!" shouted Sugawara from the bench.
"Look at that old man! Isn't he ashamed of competing against these kids?" said someone from the audience.
"Indeed, he should be halfway through college by now!" added another person.
"I'm not old..." sighed Asahi.
After serving again, Tanaka's serve is well received by Tokonami's defense, which manages to direct the pass to their setter, who this time tries to set to their middle blocker, Chaya, who received a double block from Asahi and Daichi and hits the side of Daichi's hand. The ball was going toward Karasuno's floor when Tanaka dove to prevent it from touching the ground.
"Nice receive! Go, Daichi!" shouted Kageyama while making a bump pass to Daichi, who manages to jump and spike the ball onto the opponent's court floor.
The next three attacks made by Tanaka, Daichi, and Asahi were successful without the Tokonami team being able to stop them.
"Oh! It seems their team became even more interesting using Hinata as the wing spiker Ace," observed Oikawa.
"Maybe, but they're playing against such a weak team! We can't use this as a reference!" said Kindaichi.
"Hey! Don't forget they beat us!" warned Iwaizumi.
"I can't lose like this!" thought Ikejiri while jumping and hitting the ball with all his strength, making it fall next to Tanaka and scoring the first point for his team.
6-1 Karasuno
After scoring, it was Chaya's turn to serve for Tokonami, and after serving, he was easily received by Tanaka, who manages to pass smoothly to Kageyama.
"Nice receive!" said Kageyama, who after looking at the opposing team's defense, sets to Hinata in position four, who manages to hit the ball into an empty space in the opponent's block with his left hand, making it hit the opponent's floor.
"Damn!" complained Shibuya, Tokonami's number 10 middle blocker, who got confused when trying to block Hinata's left hand, leaving a big space for him to spike.
"It's okay, we've never trained to stop a player with this style, we'll get used to it!" said Ikejiri.
After Hinata's point, it was Asahi's turn, who served firmly to the opposing team's defense, which managed with difficulty to receive, forcing the setter to make a bump pass to Shibuya.
"It's obvious it's coming here," thought Tsukishima, who jumped together with Hinata to block the opponent's number ten, who was easily blocked, and the moment the ball hit the floor, the opposing team's coach called a timeout.
"Hey! Are you really going to play the entire game spiking only with your left hand?" asked Kageyama, slightly irritated.
"Of course, it's a good time to test this in a tournament!" replied Hinata.
"Just leave it like that, for now it's working, but if it starts to go wrong, stop it immediately!" said Ukai.
"Right!" said Hinata while making a salute gesture to Ukai.
The game returns with Tokonami's team scoring a point with Komaki, who managed to hit the side of Daichi's hands.
"Nice point," said Tamagawa.
"Yes! Maybe we can compete!" said Ikejiri, whose thoughts were frustrated by a point from a quick attack between Kageyama and Tsukishima, and then Hinata going to serve.
"Well! It's time to get serious with the serve!" thought Hinata while serving normally with his right hand using his strongest serve that hit Sakurai's arms, the libero who couldn't stop it.
And then something happened that surprised everyone who was watching the game: Karasuno's team managed to score ten points in a row just with Hinata's serves.
"Who is that orange-haired guy, that's already the tenth in a row!" said someone in the crowd excitedly.
"He's Hinata Shoyo, I had heard rumors about his serve being incredible, and they're really true!" said another person.
"He's so handsome!" said a girl from the audience.
After Hinata's sequence of points, Tokonami's team seemed very shaken, and in the following attacks, they couldn't compete against Karasuno, who managed to finish the first set with a score of 25-6.