Iwaizumi Hajime, who had come looking for Oikawa Tooru after he failed to return in time, wanted to punch him, but he turned serious the moment he noticed the situation on the court.
What's going on? Why does he feel like a fight is about to break out?
Reaching out to stop Iwaizumi Hajime, who was about to speak, Oikawa Tooru forced a smile, but his eyes were filled with rage.
Veins popped on his temples; it seemed he used every ounce of his strength just to squeeze those few words through his teeth.
“Ten o'clock tomorrow morning. I look forward to your arrival.”
After saying those words, Oikawa Tooru turned and left, without giving Miya Atsumu another glance.
Watching Oikawa Tooru's retreating back, Iwaizumi Hajime, who was leaning against the door, also spoke slowly: "Return the volleyball."
Miya Atsumu pointed toward the ball cart over there. "Be my guest."
The gymnasium fell silent, Hinata, who had completely failed to keep up with the rhythm, blinked. "Are we having another match?"
With Miya Atsumu's hand still resting on his head, he wasn't quite sure whether to shake him off.
Miya Atsumu didn't answer him, but instead said, "Shoyo-kun, it's all your fault, I lost."
"Huh?" Hinata was stunned.
Lost what? They haven't even played a match.
The High School's Strongest Setter rubbed the fluffy, soft head beneath his hands and said in a great mood, "So.. tomorrow, you have to win it back for me."
Although he didn't understand exactly what had happened, Hinata knew that he had another match to play.
He looked up at Miya Atsumu, his eyes full of anticipation: "Leave it to me! Atsumu-senpai!"
Aran, who had originally intended to volunteer so that Hinata could experience the position of an Ace, was a step too slow; Suna, who had just pressed the stop button on the video recording, had already raised his hand.
I'm taking a break.
Playing matches for three days straight will really be the death of me..
Miya Atsumu replaced the Captain to relay Suna's request to the Coach: "Alright, Shoyo-kun will play as a Middle Blocker tomorrow."
Anyway, the coach let them have free time, so why shouldn't playing a practice match count as free time!
If he hadn't been held back by Miya Atsumu, Hinata would likely have lunged forward to give Suna-senpai a hug: "Thank you, Suna-senpai! Long live Suna-senpai!"
Akagi hesitated slightly, "Don't we need to wait for Shinsuke's permission?"
If he gets into a conflict with people from another school, I expect he'll give everyone a lecture when he gets back.
Aran shook his head, remembering the look in Kita's eyes before he left. "I think Shinsuke definitely agreed."
Rather, it's more like.. Kita left on his own because he knew things would develop to this extent.
Oori also nodded: "But I expect there won't be a shortage of running laps."
Kita's tacit approval was one thing, but they still deserved punishment.
Aran complained, "It'll be the end of the world when the coach comes back.."
In the volleyball gym on the other side, seeing the Captain and Vice-Captain return with grim expressions, the members of Seijo's Second String didn't even dare to breathe heavily.
Kawarai, who had just returned after finishing his post-graduation intentions, spoke up and asked, "What's wrong? Why is everyone so angry?"
Iwaizumi Hajime's answer was blunt: "A training match is scheduled for tomorrow morning at ten."
On the other side, Matsukawa was stunned: "Huh? That's so sudden! Which school?"
Looking at Oikawa's state, it couldn't be Shiratorizawa, could it?
That's impossible. How could Coach Irihatsu allow Oikawa to face Shiratorizawa in a private match?
Oikawa Tooru started flipping through things without even looking up: "Third place in last year's Haruko Nationals."
Yagihata Shu, who was practicing serves, dropped the ball in his hands. "What?"
What Third String? Did he just hear the words "Nationals"?
Watching Oikawa Tooru pull out a tablet to prepare to record the video, Iwaizumi Hajime frowned. "Oikawa, you're being too reckless."
I know—
Before Oikawa Tooru could say anything more, he was interrupted by Iwaizumi Hajime's words.
But.. well done.
Regardless, this is an opportunity to face a top-tier school, let alone the opponent being that "Miya Atsumu."
Maybe.. it's an opportunity for Oikawa as well.
—An opportunity to have his name known outside of Miyagi.
After Coach Kurosu learned about the situation, he didn't say much, Kita only gave everyone a symbolic penalty of running laps outside.
Just as they were originally supposed to play a practice match against Seijo, the captain and the coaches all began making tactical arrangements for the next day.
When he returned to his room after showering, Hinata immediately noticed Miya Atsumu looking at something on his tablet.
Having not yet dried his hair, he squeezed into the space beside Miya Atsumu and leaned in to look at his screen: "What are you looking at, Atsumu-senpai?"
Seijo's footage," Miya Atsumu replied, "I got it from someone from Shiratorizawa.
That's unexpected, they even have the footage from the first round of last year's regional qualifiers.
Miya Atsumu, catching the scent of shampoo, turned around and saw Hinata, whose hair was matted down from being wet: "Dry your hair."
Seeing Hinata obediently start drying his hair, Miya Atsumu raised his hand and clicked on the file labeled this year's Interhigh Finals.
Miya Osamu, who was lying on the quilt flipping through a magazine, looked up and saw the two people watching the video with intense focus; feeling that his ears were much quieter, he was very satisfied with the current situation.
But before he could turn the next page, a sudden exclamation erupted from beside him.
“Atsumu-senpai! This serve is so fast, I can't see it at all! Shiratorizawa's Libero actually let it fly right past him!” Hinata was shocked.
“Wait, wait, wait, what's up with this serve?” Miya Atsumu also had question marks popping up over his head. “Is this the level of skill you'd expect from the top four of a small rural prefecture?”
Miya Osamu rolled over, moving even further away from the two of them.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Atsumu-senpai, is that a banana serve?! The curve is massive! It's even more incredible than the demonstration video Coach showed me before!" Hinata's voice rang out continuously.
Miya Atsumu's voice followed immediately: "How does the spin on this serve feel even more outrageous than Ushijima-senpai's?"
Kansai and Kanto accents alternated, doubling the effect of the noise.
Veins popped on his forehead, Miya Osamu, whose head was splitting from the noise, stood up from the tatami mats: "If you're going to be this loud, go outside! You bastard, Atsumu!"
Rishia had just returned from his shower and reached the doorway when the room door was suddenly flung open, followed by Hinata and Miya Atsumu's tablets being tossed out.
As for Miya Atsumu himself.. he was fighting with Miya Osamu.
Author's Note:
Oh yeah! I can finally get rid of this kid's desk! I love big desks!
I'll see if I can finish the renovations by tomorrow; if I can get it done, I'll write even more!
Chapter 34: The Thirty-Fourth Fox
Just as Hinata and Rishia were preparing to step in and break up the fight, the door to the adjacent room was pulled open.
Suna didn't even stand up; he just crawled on the floor and raised his phone to record the Miya Twins' "pillow fight."
However, he didn't take many photos; after taking a few simple ones, he reached out his hand toward Hinata.
Without even needing this senior to speak, Hinata had already obediently handed over his phone.
Suna lay on the ground and quickly forwarded today's frontline report to his column subscribers.
Returning the phone to Hinata once again, Suna slowly crawled back, maintaining his original position.
Ginjima, having returned from getting water, finally voiced the thoughts he had been holding in for months: "Why do I feel like Rintaro is getting more and more enthusiastic about taking photos of the twins? Shoyo, what kind of scheme are you and Rintaro plotting together?"
“Ah, it's Star..”
Before Hinata could finish his sentence, a pillow suddenly flew across the room, hitting him right in the face.
The heavy pillow, combined with the force used by the thrower, knocked down Hinata, who hadn't been standing steadily to begin with.
“Shoyo! Don't die!”
Hinata's phone flew out, Suna, who had poked his head out after hearing the commotion, caught it steadily.
A new message popped up on the phone. The sender was saved as "The Greatest Hoshiumi-senpai," and the entire text consisted of only one thing: [Hahahahahahahaha—]
Suna nodded with satisfaction, then followed it up with an animated GIF.
Miya Atsumu, who had no idea what was going on, was still fighting fiercely with Miya Osamu for the last pillow.
A voice that sent chills down everyone's spines rang out faintly: "You guys.. settle down."
Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned around, seeing Kita Shinsuke, who had been sitting in the living room for an unknown amount of time.
The next moment, accompanied by the sound of tearing fabric, the pillow the twins had snatched was declared dead.
Down feathers flew out, scattering and covering every corner of the room.
This time, it was truly quiet.
But immediately following that was Coach Kurosu's breaking voice: "You're going to have to pay for this!!"
Rishia shook the collapsed Hinata: "Shoyo—hang in there—"
Just as Inarizaki was about to blow the roof off, Oikawa Tooru's house was exceptionally quiet, with only the sounds of Oikawa Tooru repeatedly pressing the spacebar to pause the playback and Iwaizumi Hajime eating behind him.
Watching Oikawa Tooru repeatedly watch the same footage of Miya Atsumu's serves, Iwaizumi Hajime brought up the question he had been curious about.
“I haven't even asked yet, where do you find all these videos? It's too comprehensive; you even have the footage of their practice match against Shirabu?”
Aobajohsai's connections aren't particularly extensive; perhaps their best connections would be over at Tohoku, but even then, they shouldn't be able to specifically collect footage of Inarizaki.
Oikawa Tooru fell into an eerie silence, his entire expression twisting slightly.
When Iwaizumi's puzzled gaze turned toward him again, he said in an extremely low voice, "I asked Wase for it."
"Who?" Iwaizumi really hadn't heard clearly.
Oikawa Tooru was exasperated: "Wase Eita! From Shiratorizawa! The Shiratorizawa that has been stepped on by Inarizaki for over three years straight at the national tournaments!"