After Asahi's point, a bit of tension settled over Karasuno's bench. It was their usual move to swap out the middle blockers for one of their pinch servers when it was time to serve, but now that they had two, a question hung in the air: who'd be the pick, Yamaguchi or Kinoshita?
"Kinoshita, you're going in to serve!" Ukai ordered, making the boy tremble slightly with anticipation.
"Right…" Kinoshita swallowed hard, then stood up, grabbed his number plate, and handed it to Asahi.
"No need to worry. Next time it'll be you. I just figured it's better for him to get the experience of serving as soon as possible to shake off that anxiety he's been showing," Ukai said to Yamaguchi, who looked a little bummed about not being chosen.
"Okay," Yamaguchi agreed.
As he walked to the serving spot, Kinoshita felt his heart racing with nerves until he was jolted out of his thoughts.
"Kinoshita, power up that serve!"
"Kinoshita, power up that serve!"
With the encouragement from Karasuno's players, Kinoshita got ready for his first serve
.
"Right… arm straight out in front of me, then toss the ball nice and high, and hit it with my fingers together!" Kinoshita thought as he went through the motions, aiming for the left side of Wakutani's court. They watched the ball float over to their side.
"FLAP!" Kinoshita's serve grazed the net but made it across, heading straight for the opponent's floor.
"Damn it!... I've got it!" shouted Akiu, Wakutani's libero, diving to the ground to keep the ball from hitting, sliding his hand's base between the floor and the ball to pop it back into the air.
"Nice receive!" Hanayama praised with a confident grin, moving toward the ball to set it up for Takeru, who signaled with his arms that he wanted to spike.
"Takeru!" Hanayama called as he set the ball for Takeru, who was on the left and jumped for the attack, only to face a triple block from Daichi, Kageyama, and Hinata.
"Kageyama, I wanna try something… just cover the over-the-line…" Hinata requested as the three leaped to block Takeru. Mid-air, Takeru noticed Hinata closing off his cross with a simple straight-arm block. Like he often did, he tried angling the shot to hit Hinata's hands so it'd ricochet off the side and go out, but right then, Hinata shifted his arms diagonally. The ball smacked his palm and redirected straight to Wakutani's floor in a slick block.
3-1 Karasuno.
"That guy's crafty!" Takeru remarked, eyeing Hinata, who flashed a smug grin for pulling off the block.
"He's really tall. It won't be easy to score against him…" Hanayama said.
"It's not the height. He switched up his block angle at the last second to trick me!" Takeru explained.
"And that's a problem?" Hanayama asked.
"A little… but he's not the only one who can pull fakes. Just wait!" Takeru said, looking confident despite getting blocked.
"That was a killer block. Didn't know you could do that…" Kageyama said, mildly impressed.
"Yeah, but it won't work too many times. Now it's probably gonna turn into a mind game, with both of us messing with attack timing," Hinata explained, rubbing the back of his head just as a ball whizzed by, slamming into the net after Kinoshita's botched serve.
3-2 Karasuno.
"Guess I got too pumped! My bad!" Kinoshita said with a grin after smacking the ball too hard and hitting the net next to Hinata.
"It's cool! You did great!" Daichi said, patting Kinoshita's shoulder. He nodded and headed back to the bench with Nishinoya, who swapped out for Tsukishima.
"Hey, you caught what I did back there, right?" Hinata asked as he saw Tsukishima stroll up.
"Of course I did. That's exactly how you counter a guy like him. I'm not an idiot. Still annoying, though. Ironically, I'd rather face cannons like that jerk from Shiratorizawa," Tsukishima huffed.
After Kinoshita's flub, it was Takeru's turn. He served toward Karasuno's court.
"I've got this!" Tanaka called, stepping up to receive and passing it to Kageyama, who, after a quick glance at Wakutani's side, let Tanaka's ball pass him for a split second before jumping sideways and spiking it in a slick second-tempo attack that caught Wakutani's defense off guard.
4-2 Karasuno.
"Been a while since you pulled that one!" Hinata commented.
"That was dope, you moron!" Tanaka praised, smacking Kageyama's back.
After Karasuno's point, Asahi swapped out for Nishinoya, who was back on defense, and it was Hinata's turn to serve for the team.
"THERE IT IS! KARASUNO'S ACE IS UP TO SERVE!" a fan shouted from the stands.
"They've gotta fear Hinata-kun's serve! It's no stretch to say he's the best server in the prefecture!" said a Karasuno fan with an orange headband.
"Alright, here we go!" Hinata thought, holding the ball with both hands in front of his face before serving.
"None of them have a glaring weakness in receiving, so it's not worth targeting anyone. I'll just serve as hard as I can!" Hinata decided, tossing the ball up and smashing it with full force toward Wakutani's court.
"Crap!" Takeru thought, lunging for it, but the ball hit his wrist and flew off. It happened twice more before he finally managed a receive.
"My turn now!" Takeru said as Hanayama set him up. He faced a block from Daichi, Kageyama, and Tsukishima, who knew Takeru could exploit blocks despite his size. Tsukishima waited till the last second, but it didn't matter—Takeru clipped the tips of his fingers, sending the ball flying out to the back of the court.
7-3 Karasuno.
"That guy's a pain!" Tsukishima thought. As the match went on, he struggled to block Takeru, who put up a solid fight. But Wakutani couldn't hold up against Karasuno's onslaught, especially their synced attacks, and Karasuno took the first set 25-18.