Miya Atsumu leaned down toward Hinata: "Then, Shoyo, will you help me warm up?"
Hinata raised his hands, which had already had his gloves removed, slapped both of them against Miya Atsumu's face at once.
The moment those hands touched his face, Miya Atsumu's smile instantly vanished, replaced by a slight look of shock and a grimace of pain.
Miya Atsumu gasped, "Hiss—so cold!"
Having finally succeeded in his prank, Hinata burst into laughter: "Hahahaha—"
Hinata pulled his hands back and placed them on his hips, a triumphant grin on his face. "Atsumu-senpai, I just had a snowball fight with Xiaoxia, my gloves fell off."
So his hands were still quite cold, even colder than Miya Atsumu's face.
Miya Atsumu touched his own face, which had been chilled by Hinata: "You've learned some bad habits."
Hinata raised his hand and gave a big thumbs up to himself. "Hehe, I learned it from Atsumu-senpai."
Atsumu-senpai protested, "Don't learn this one."
Looking at the pensive Xiaoxia, Miya Atsumu hurriedly spoke up: "Xiaoxia, don't learn that either."
Xiaoxia gave a huff, kicked off her shoes, rushed into the house first.
Atsumu-senpai is so annoying, her brother, who is always with Atsumu-senpai and ignores her, is also a little bit annoying. She decided she wasn't going to speak to either of them today!
Miya Atsumu was very satisfied with this result, pulling Hinata back to the room to change clothes.
Watching Hinata take off his jacket, he suddenly recalled the main point of the day: "By the way, Shoyo, I just ran into one of your junior high juniors."
Hinata paused for a moment while pulling off his thick sweatshirt, then he gave a sudden, forceful tug to pull his head out from inside the clothing.
He shook his messy hair, letting it return to its natural shape.
"Is it Tatsuya Yukiya and Yuki and the others?" he asked in surprise.
Glancing at Hinata's abs, which were already starting to take shape from his intense training, Miya Atsumu tossed Hinata's pajamas back to him. "Yeah, but that's not all."
As a result, Hinata was a bit dazed by the pajama top: "Not just that?"
What do you mean, "not just"?
Miya Atsumu replied with a squinty-eyed smile, "Your junior has gained another junior again."
Hinata had an epiphany: "Oh—the junior's junior!"
Putting on his pajamas, Hinata asked tentatively, "Um, Atsumu-senpai, how many are there? Are there enough to play a match?"
He probably won't have to go looking for friends to play basketball or football with like he does.
Miya Atsumu recalled for a moment, "It seems like including those three juniors of yours, there are six people in total, but I remember you saying you wouldn't have anyone left for the next term."
That means Yukinoshita Men's Volleyball currently has no Third Years.
If they can recruit a few players with decent skills when the new school year begins in spring, there's still a good chance.
After all, the Junior High situation in Miyagi isn't as complex as the high school level, where several schools can even stand in direct competition with one another.
Every year, the champions of the Interhigh Junior High preliminaries are either Kitagawa Daiichi or Shiratorizawa; if Yukinoshita is lucky, they might even make it to the top eight in the prefecture.
Miya Atsumu added, "And he told me to tell you that they won a match in Haruko last year."
Hinata burst into tears all at once: "Ohhh! There are six of them now! And they even won their first match!"
He raised his hand to wipe away his tears. "Tatsuya Yukiya—he worked so hard! He's so reliable!"
Compared to me, Tatsuya Yukiya has the true demeanor of a Captain!
His performance as Captain was such a failure; not only did he lead them to a crushing defeat against Kitagawa Daiichi, but he also had to attend classes over at the Women's Volleyball club.
No, Hinata-senpai is very amazing.
Suzuki Yukiya looked at the junior who had raised the question. "The orange-haired number 17 from Inarizaki in the match footage I showed you before was our former Captain at Yukinoshita."
“He really is an incredible person. It feels like.. he has nothing to fear.”
If he hadn't gone and begged the Women's Volleyball coach for us, we wouldn't even have a place to do our regular basic training.
Suzuki recalled the time before and after the match against Kitagawa Daiichi.
The most meaningful things he learned from Hinata were courage and willpower itself.
He wanted to become someone like Hinata and worked tirelessly toward that goal.
So..
He looked at the three juniors in front of him. "Tomorrow, don't let Hinata-senpai down."
Everyone from Yukinoshita nodded simultaneously: "Yes!!"
On the other side, Miya Atsumu also shared the same attitude as Yukiya: "I think Shoyo has already done a great job."
Hinata lowered his eyes: "But.."
Miya Atsumu's answer was quite simple: "Running into the King at the start of the match can only be described as bad luck, besides, no one gave up on volleyball because of that match. Right?"
With a score like 25:8, any player with even a bit of mental fragility would likely have felt despair toward volleyball at that junior high age, not to mention the opponent being the surly-faced Kageyama from back then.
Now that everyone can talk about that match with a smile, Hinata must have done something.
—He could imagine it.
Unfortunately, no recording of that match was left behind, otherwise he really wanted to see what the ultimate scrub Hinata looked like.
Atsumu's tone was firm, he was also giving Hinata strength: "Believe in yourself, you've already done a great job."
A Captain isn't just some stereotypical role; just like an Ace, every Captain has his own way of doing things.
At this point, Miya Atsumu changed the subject: "For example, me. I can't be the same type of Captain as the Kita Team, but I'm confident that I won't do any worse than them."
And.. Shoyo, you have experience as a Captain, so maybe Coach Kurosu will choose you next year?
Although he thought Kumagai was very suitable for the role of Captain, given Kumagai's academic performance, he would inevitably have to devote a large portion of his energy to preparing for his final year exams, so it wasn't certain he would actually be chosen.
Moreover, although Hinata isn't always the smartest, intelligence isn't a mandatory requirement for a Captain; having the personal charisma to unite people is enough.
Hinata felt that Miya Atsumu made sense: "Re-really?"
After all, even Atsumu-senpai could be the Captain!
If he had the chance to be the Captain of Inarizaki..
Hinata let his imagination run wild, imagining his own face on a member of the Kita Team.
—It felt incredibly cool.
After a light cough, Hinata said firmly, "Then I have to become stronger."
Not just in terms of strength, but I also have to become a mental powerhouse, just like the Kita Team.
Hearing this, Miya Atsumu froze for a moment, before letting out a helpless smile.
You already are.
Hinata's eyes widened slightly.
At the same time, Coach Unabara, who was on a business trip to Osaka, received a message from an old friend, consisting of a sunglasses emoji and a video.
Setting aside his work, Coach Unabara clicked on the video with a solemn expression.
The sudden sound from the video was somewhat piercing, giving him a start.
What appeared on the screen immediately after were his future national team setter and his precious golden egg in the making, but.. they were playing badminton.
Kosano's next message popped up immediately after.
【Your good disciple is all mine now; I've poached them all to play badminton! [Smug. jpg]】
Coach Unabara let out a sneer and quickly typed a reply.
[If you had really left, you certainly wouldn't dare send me a single punctuation mark right now.]
Kosano went offline.
Coach Unabara was in a great mood after achieving a complete victory, he didn't continue reading the new report in his hands until he had enjoyed a nice can of coffee.
According to the rapid reports from his own people, there shouldn't be any problems with the Olympic bid this year, so he also needs to quickly select and train the players who will be of age by then..
Moreover, the 2016 Rio Olympics were also being put on the agenda, the plan from above was to have him take over the senior national team starting from 2016.
By then, players aged 20 or 21 will be in the prime of their careers, at the absolute peak of their physical condition.
He currently has two lines of thought: one is a high-powered offensive style centered around Ushijima, a lineup that would have no problem putting Miya Atsumu directly into the starting rotation.
And he was still thinking about the other one.
Could he try to have Kageyama, who possesses even greater talent and performance in the Quick Attack, work alongside Hinata—who is already on his list of key targets—to lead a completely different, ultra-high-tempo style of play?
However, both of them are still just seedlings at the moment; the specific direction of their development will have to wait until he tries it out himself to find out.
“Ah.. I can't wait.”
Before the sun had even risen, Hinata Natsu climbed out of her covers early and walked to the door of Hinata Shoyo's room with a head of messy hair.
This time, she was definitely going to catch him!
She tiptoed to open the door, seeing the lump under the futon on the tatami mat, she realized they should still be sleeping.
Xiaoxia circled around to the direction where a strand of yellow hair was showing, looking down at the two of them.
Xiaoxia's gaze was so intense that Miya Atsumu, relying on instinctual alertness, woke from his deep sleep.
He opened his eyes through the haze, only to see a head hanging upside down in his field of vision.
Some curly hair hung down from above; in the dimly lit room, the other person's face could not be seen clearly.
Just like.. a female ghost crawling out of a well.
Miya Atsumu woke up instantly.
He instinctively wanted to sit up and create some distance, but as soon as he moved, his brain, which had gradually begun to function again, reacted.
Hinata, who was clinging to him, was pulled up into a sitting position by him, after losing his footing, he slumped slightly against his waist.
With such sudden movement, Hinata also woke up.
He used one hand to prop himself up against Miya Atsumu's thigh as he climbed up, as he scanned the room with squinted eyes, he suddenly locked eyes with a pair of resentful eyes.
Hinata's heart, which had just begun to race, suddenly skipped a beat. "Aaaaaaaahhh—a ghost—!"