That calms Hinata down instantly. He was switched out midway and started trashing the hallway around before turning to Saeko with an intense look. Hinata thought of Ushijima, comparing his aura to the Small Giant’s. Jumping high above the net, Hinata slams the ball down and shows the entire stadium that Karasuno can no longer be called the “Flightless Crows” anymore. However, this is Karasuno’s tactic to distract Date Tech from the other spikers, allowing Asahi to breakthroughHinata and Aone shake hands after Karasuno wins the game.Karasuno goes back home to rest before their next match. The Karasuno members praise him, with Asahi holding Hinata up to the team. After a quick discussion with Ukai and Takeda, he turns to Hinata and notes that without Kageyama, Hinata has no value as a player. One where his eyes were narrowed, and he looked everywhere except Hinata's eyes. One night, as Hinata and Kenma are cleaning up, Kenma tells the former that he had been thinking lately of having a real match against Karasuno. Nekomata calmly tells Hinata that they'll play again at Nationals, and Hinata agrees excitedly. Hinata agrees, adding that there was no time to waste and they have to continue training. Kageyama sends him the ball and using his remaining strength, Hinata slams it down. The game's paused for Hinata to recover, and Hinata reassures his teammates that he's fine and just doesn’t react fast enough.
A few hours after Nekoma's match ends, Kenma texts Hinata, announcing his team's advance to nationalsIt's mid-November now and Karasuno is preparing for nationalsThe team goes inside the gym to retake measurements. On his way back to the court, Hinata notices Sugawara encouraging him. As stated by In the beginning, Hinata is easily agitated before a match due to his lack of experience. Both teams are keeping up by now, but Hinata can see Kageyama getting distressed over his and Oikawa’s differences in setting style. The Karasuno team gets off the court and goes to Takeda to thanks him. To make things worse, Kageyama seems to be troubled by something and finally snaps at Nishinoya and Asahi. Hinata has such an overwhelming presence on the court that it affects not only just his opponents but his teammates. Hinata and Kageyama are congratulated by Yachi for their successful quick strike.The second time fails though, but the duo isn’t worried at all. The following Tuesday, Hinata apologizes to Tanaka before practice begins. As he finally gets the right move, Daichi interrupts and yells at the two to go home. He swings his arms back as if he’s attacking before jumping high up. Soon, he graduated and entered his dream school, Karasuno High. He announces that with this, the new King of the Court is born. After practice ends, Hinata walks around with Kenma and Inuoka who reveals to him the new guy’s name–The next day, during a timeout in his practice match, Hinata looks over at Nekoma’s game again. In the car, Hinata glares at the road ahead and Saeko pinches his cheeks, telling him to relax.

However, Kageyama ends up beating Hinata in all of the challenges, and Hinata angrily challenges him to more. Hinata thinks over this for only a few seconds before running after Washijō. Hinata’s surprised at the huge risk Kageyama took in that move.

Upon entering the first year of high school, Hinata stood at 162.8 cm and grew to 164.2 cm halfway through the school year. To his dismay, both Kageyama and Tsukishima seem to be moving forward as better volleyball players. The conditions are that if the two first years lose, Kageyama will not be allowed to play as a setter as long as the third years are still around. The players are exhausted and many, including Hinata, have fallen asleep on the table.