You can rest easy, Kita Team.
We will become people whose names even your great-great-great-grandchildren will have heard!
Hinata quickly added, "Even your great-great-great-grandchildren will know!"
Kita Shinsuke couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Hahahaha—then I'll look forward to it."
Rishia Heisuke wiped away his tears: "Aran-senpai, I'll miss you."
Without Aran-senpai, who else will be able to roast the twins!
If you keep things bottled up inside without saying them.. you'll end up with internal injuries!
Aran patted the junior's shoulder: "Don't worry, don't worry, I'll come back to visit you all often, so don't be so reluctant to see me go."
He was finally going to break free from the twins and head toward a bright future!
—Although Oikawa Tooru, who would be working with him for a year and was supposedly preparing for language exams abroad, didn't seem like a pushover either.
Completely out of control, Hinata clung to Kita Shinsuke without letting go, covering him in snot and tears.
“Kita Team—"
“Aran-senpai—!”
Akagi-senpai—
“Oori-senpai—"
For Hinata, this was the first time he had experienced a parting within a club.
The deep bonds formed through a year of spending every day together and competing on the court had long since become his most precious possessions.
Although he didn't want to say goodbye, but..
They must continue moving forward.
Chapter 252: The 252nd Fox
After formally handing over their team uniforms, Kita Shinsuke and Akagi Oori rarely came to the club anymore.
Aran, on the other hand, has remained perfectly consistent, showing up to the Volleyball Club on time every single day to serve as a practice partner for everyone.
Aran had received an invitation from the V1 League's Tachibana Red Falcons several months ago. At that time, Coach Jose Blanco had personally come to Inarizaki to seek out Coach Kurosu.
As a very experienced mentor, Coach Kurosu had actually already secured sufficient benefits for Aran at that time.
However, Coach Kurosu prevented Aran from signing a contract with the Tachibana Red Falcons.
At that time, among the five top Wing Spikers, only Aran and Kiryu had no clear intention of pursuing higher education, but the offer Tachibana Red Falcons gave Aran was actually lower than the offer Azure Rockets gave Kiryu.
And Coach Kurosu's reason for stalling.. was, of course, to win another championship to increase Aran's market value.
As it turned out, they did it.
Yesterday in the Inarizaki meeting room, Aran had already signed a three-year contract with the manager and Head Coach Jose of the Tachibana Red Falcons, accompanied by his parents and Coach Kurosu.
The final offer was nearly thirty percent higher than it had been a few months ago, of course, the buyout clause was increased significantly as well.
For a newcomer, this market value is already top-tier.
And yesterday afternoon, Coach Kurosu received consecutive emails from Kanagawa and EJP Gods, though, of course, they had all been rejected.
Even when looking at everything comprehensively, the Tachibana Red Falcons offered the best terms.
Watching Aran acting as a practice partner on the other side of the net, Coach Kurosu's smile deepened, feeling extremely satisfied with the results of the negotiations.
This year, he only needs to deal with Aran, but next year is when the real headaches will begin for him.
Whether Suna will choose to continue playing volleyball is still uncertain, but as a mentor, Coach Kurosu feels that there is a ninety percent chance Suna will continue playing.
In that case, the bare minimum he would need to handle next year would be the contracts for both Miya Atsumu and Suna.
Especially Miya Atsumu.
In fact, since the end of Haruko, he had been receiving a steady stream of emails from many V1 League teams inquiring for information, but he had simply glanced through them and replied with non-committal responses for the time being.
After all, Miya Atsumu is not just a treasure belonging to Inarizaki, but a treasure belonging to the entire Japanese volleyball world.
A setter with immense talent, a clear mind, profound passion is the rarest treasure in the world of volleyball, even far surpassing an ace spiker.
After all, a setter is the core brain of a team, also the one who drives those top-tier spikers.
Those teams only came early to ask because they were trying to look for an easy opportunity, but the experienced Coach Kurosu would not be fooled.
He has confidence in his student; Miya Atsumu will surely grow into a world-class Setter, so.. he deserves the best.
However, it is worth mentioning that in addition to the emails asking about Miya Atsumu and Suna, he also received emails from the V1 League's Dai Nippon Railway and several V2 Alliance teams asking about Hinata.
Coach Kurosu fell into a silence after reading those emails.
It's understandable if the Third Year players were already making schemes, but Hinata is only a First Year—how is someone already plotting against him?
That's right, I'm talking about Utsunomiya, who sent him eighteen formal, flowery emails!!
He hadn't even had a chance to talk to Hinata about that matter yet, but Utsunomiya was already impatiently pressing him for an answer.
Hinata is still just a kid who hasn't even moved up to Second Year!
Of course, regarding those emails from the V2 Alliance, Coach Kurosu rejected them one by one with the same attitude he used with Miya Atsumu.
And the friendly inquiries from Dai Nippon Railway regarding investing in Hinata's future were also met with equally gentle replies.
He also stated that Hinata is still in a growth stage and nothing is certain yet, that current resources are sufficient for Hinata's growth, so he politely declined the investment.
After all.. his children all deserve the best.
Feeling a brief moment of pride for his hard work over the past few days, Coach Kurosu turned his gaze back to the court: "Heisuke, move! Observe the ball's trajectory and act immediately; don't hesitate!"
Watching Rishia Heisuke and Unabara Uta stare at each other before failing to receive Kumagai's serve, Coach Kurosu's initial joy faded slightly.
What, is there something on their faces?
Stop looking at the person, watch the ball!
Focus! Don't be fooled by the setter's movements; don't be too reckless when following up on the block!
Yukihito! Don't move like that when blocking! Don't imitate that gray-haired guy from Nekoma! Don't just cheer!
Watching the players on the court, Coach Omimi was also feeling an immense headache.
They have been using the new lineup for training for a week now, but the coordination has been very poor, especially with the serious imbalance in their overall defense.
Unabara Uta's experience is significantly lacking compared to Akagi, Rishia Heisuke, who is responsible for covering the Libero's defense this time, also faces the issue of insufficient experience.
Combined with Ginjima's lack of adaptation to the Middle Blocker position, there were gaps everywhere, from blocking to receiving.
Especially since the one acting as a practice partner for the opposition right now is Aran; he seizes every single opportunity.
However, what is reassuring is that this current lineup possesses extremely strong offensive capabilities; with the exception of the Libero, every single player is a player capable of a Strong Attack.
In particular, Ginjima's offensive capability is even stronger than Oori Ren's, which allows him to provide better cover from the middle blocker position.
But..
Sorry, sorry, it was mine!
Mine, mine! I didn't touch the ball!
I didn't receive it, sorry!
Listening to the wave of apologies rising from the court, Coach Kurosu raised his hand to cover his face.
It's fine, it's fine. They still have several months to work on their coordination, the new students haven't even entered their higher grades yet..
It's fine!
During the halftime break, Coach Kurosu reviewed the current situation once again.
Miya Atsumu had already taken the responsibility of judging the Quick Attack blocks upon himself, under normal circumstances, Ginjima's ability was more than sufficient.
The priority was to train Tokura, whose height was superior, so that he could also free up the others for more suitable positions.
As for the two freshmen he had already selected, one was a Setter and the other was an Opposite.
The setter is Reo Mizuta, an excellent server who had already mastered the jump serve in his third year of junior high.
Unfortunately, as a setter, his own abilities were merely mediocre; he lacked the extraordinary brilliance of Miya Atsumu and the perfect finesse of Kumagai.
The Opposite, Masaru Haseda, was also someone he scouted from the second round of last year's Interhigh Junior High preliminaries.
At that time, Haseda Masaru led the team as the Ace and Captain, but he was the only one in the entire team with decent skills; one could say his teammates were not very good at playing.
But precisely because of that, Coach Kurosu took a liking to him at a glance, seeing that he was quite good at spiking, receiving, setting.
Properly nurturing a spiker of the same type as Aran and Rishia is also a goal.
On the court, Aran was already surrounded by everyone, answering questions for the juniors from all sides.
Meanwhile, the Captain, Miya Atsumu, was standing with his arms crossed, lost in thought, Hinata soon hurried over to him as well.
Glancing at Hinata, who was huddled close to someone whispering, Coach Kurosu once again recalled the large number of emails from Utsunomiya.
In the end, he raised his hand and called Hinata over.
Hinata jogged up to Coach Kurosu with a look of confusion. "Coach?"
Glancing at Miya Atsumu, who was leaning over to peek, Coach Kurosu decisively decided to move to another spot to talk: "Come outside with me first."
Miya Atsumu, who was just about to come over and listen in, missed his chance, at that same moment, Miya Osamu's voice rang out from behind him.
“Atsumu, Kuniharu has some questions for you.”
Miya Atsumu had no choice but to give up on following them out; after letting out a soft click of his tongue, he walked back.
He is the Captain now, so he must prioritize the Volleyball Club.
Coach Kurosu, who had already walked near the locker room, was the first to speak: "I've asked about that beach volleyball matter you mentioned before."
Hinata's eyes lit up, as he had been wondering why Coach Kurosu had called him out.
Coach Kurosu continued, "Central Physical Education University currently offers courses in this field."
Although the domestic level is quite average, they have frequent international exchanges. Most students go abroad to study through official channels to train in top beach volleyball nations—for example, Brazil.