Chapter 263: The Two Hundred and Sixty-Third Fox
The bus came to an emergency stop after arriving at a public parking lot, everyone hurriedly got off the bus, while Coach Omimi also rushed over to the guard to borrow some cleaning tools.
Fortunately, Miyas Atsumu had brought extra clothes after Miyas Osamu vomited all over him, so they were able to change into them on the bus and avoid returning in dirty clothes.
Watching Miya Atsumu sit down on a roadside bench with Ginjima Yui's support, Coach Kurosu couldn't stop sighing.
Having changed his clothes, Miya Osamu also rushed off the bus, grabbing Miya Atsumu by the collar and shaking him repeatedly. "You bastard! Do you have no shame toward food or my wallet!"
Watching the slightly dazed Miya Atsumu and the furious Miya Osamu, Kumagai struggled to break up the fight: "Stop fighting, please stop fighting, senpais.."
In the car, Hinata was crying while cleaning up alongside Rishia Heisuke and Unabara Uta on the other side: "The autograph board.. the autograph board Giant-senpai gave me.."
Rishia Heisuke spoke up to comfort Hinata: "Didn't you guys exchange contact information? Try asking him later if you can get another one."
Unai Aman had a total of seven original drawings and autograph boards for Hinata, but three of them had just been soaked—and coincidentally, they were the most detailed ones.
The sight was so disastrous that even Rishia Heisuke felt a headache coming on; if it had been him, he probably would have just let it slide.
However, since this was something precious to Shoyo, he still had to offer some constructive suggestions.
Unabara Uta also poked his head over and chimed in, "Yeah, Shoyo, make sure you make Atsumu-senpai pay you back."
Hinata nodded heavily upon hearing that. "Yeah!"
Atsumu-senpai's mess must be compensated for!
By the time Coach Kurosu returned to suppress the Twins, Kumagai also rushed up with a frozen mop and a bucket of water.
Fortunately, they cleaned up in time; only two carpets were severely soiled, they would be fine after being taken down and washed thoroughly.
The bus driver had also worked with Inarizaki for over a decade, so he didn't press them too much about the accident.
Looking at Miya Atsumu lying flat in the very last row of the bus, then at Miya Osamu sulking in the first row, Coach Kurosu deeply questioned whether his choice of Captain was correct.
Suna had been holding up his phone to film for quite a while, his previous drowsy state on the bus had completely vanished.
Meanwhile, Ginjima Yui, Kosaku, the others couldn't keep up with the Twins' rhythm at all; in fact, they unintentionally ended up playing the role of instigators.
Feeling quite sad and angry, Hinata didn't say a single word to Miya Atsumu even after getting off the bus.
—Actually, it was mainly because Miya Atsumu had already lost part of his ability to speak, remaining in a semi-comatose state throughout.
After getting off the bus at the entrance of Inarizaki, Miya Atsumu, who had been hit by the cold wind, finally regained consciousness.
He immediately scanned his surroundings, then turned his head to ask Miya Osamu, "Where's Shoyo?"
Miya Osamu looked Miya Atsumu up and down, then let out a sneer and said, "You have the nerve to ask?"
Miya Atsumu, his memory fragmented, asked back, "Huh? What's wrong with me?"
He remembered that he had only made Miya Osamu's clothes dirty; he had even intentionally avoided Hinata, so he shouldn't have accidentally hit him.. right?
Miya Osamu silently pulled a half-full water bottle from his backpack and forced it into Miya Atsumu's hand: "Ask it."
Looking at the half-bottle of water in his hands, Miya Atsumu silently searched through his scattered fragments of memory.
In the end, he extracted the key point from the corner—Giant-senpai's autograph board.
Looking at the mockery on Miya Osamu's face, then at Suna's phone, which was practically filming the whole thing like a variety show, Miya Atsumu's vision went black.
Oh, the sky is falling.
Hinata, who had put his things away first, had already returned home with Rishia Heisuke.
Setting aside those unpleasant thoughts for the moment, he carefully put the remaining few manuscripts into the leftover picture frames from when he had framed the magazine and taped them to the wall.
The signature, blurred by water, was also on it; after being dried with a hairdryer, it left behind a large, faint ink stain, but Unai Aman's name could still be clearly seen.
Satisfied, he held up his phone and took a photo of the wall, then forwarded it to Hoshiumi Hikari.
[Hikari-kun! Look at this! [Attached Image]]
Hoshiumi-senpai on the other side seemed to be looking at his phone as well, as he replied to the message very quickly.
[Manga manuscripts? About volleyball?]
【Are you interested in these things? Then come over to my house later to take a look. My brother bought a whole set of OO basketball ones, but it seems they don't have any volleyball-themed ones yet.】
Who is this manga artist? I'll look forward to it.
Having carefully read every single word Hoshiumi Hikari sent, Hinata replied with two interjections: 【Hehe, I'll let you guess, Hikari-kun.】
Hoshiumi was puzzled: 【? Is it someone I should know?】
Hinata, who was incapable of keeping secrets, revealed the answer immediately: 【It's Giant-senpai! Unai Aman-senpai!】
Hoshiumi, who usually replied to messages very quickly, had not sent anything for a full five minutes.
After a long time, three massive question marks appeared on Hinata's phone screen.
【??】
Satisfied with Hoshiumi's shocked response, Hinata made a direct call and began rambling to Hoshiumi about the things he had encountered with the Little Giant today.
After listening from beginning to end, Hoshiumi went crazy on the other end of the phone for a moment: "Dammit! I left too early! I really want to see Little Giant-senpai with my own eyes too!"
Hinata chuckled. "I saved two tickets for Hoshiumi-senpai! It's just a shame that one of the light-haired Position 1 character sketches got ruined by the water Atsumu-senpai spilled.."
Hoshiumi made a mental note of Miya Atsumu's blunder: "This guy is way too unreliable."
Hinata thought about it seriously for a moment and subconsciously made an excuse for Miya Atsumu: "But I feel like most of it was actually Osamu-senpai's fault. He made Atsumu-senpai eat too much, so Atsumu-senpai was feeling unwell from the very beginning.."
Hoshiumi interrupted immediately, "Stop, let's not talk about him anymore."
“Regarding your going abroad, I asked Coach Aran for you..”
Hinata and Hoshiumi chatted for a long, long time, so long that the sun was swallowed by the western horizon and the sky was dyed in shades of indigo.
The extremely excited Hinata posted the things from his wall, along with photos of himself with Oliver and the others, on his social media homepage, adding the caption—It was so great to be able to see the Little Giant!
While still in Osaka, Inunari Shion naturally scrolled past this update, she immediately noticed that carefully displayed, yet sold, autograph board.
He smiled helplessly and turned to open a chat window.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Hinata, who was still lying on the floor admiring his own wall, received a mission from his mother.
Shoyo, we're out of laundry detergent at home. Can you go to the supermarket and buy some—
Hinata Shoyo jumped up from the ground: "Okay, Mom!"
Before he finished getting dressed and headed out, Xiaoxia raised her hand and tossed something over: "Brother, your wallet—"
Hinata, who had almost forgotten the most important thing, turned around and accurately caught the coin purse Xiaoxia threw to him: "You're so reliable, Xiaoxia!"
I'll be right back! I'll bring you some snacks!
As soon as he pushed open the courtyard gate, Hinata noticed something move in his field of vision.
Instantly on high alert, Hinata tucked his wallet away, then tiptoed toward the dark figure crouching under a nearby streetlight.
The moment he saw the other person's hair color, Hinata's eyes widened. "Atsumu-senpai?!"
What are you doing here! Why didn't you call me? It's so cold outside!
The one crouching there was none other than Miya Atsumu.
Despite wearing thick clothes, the freezing weather still turned the tip of his nose bright red.
Atsumu-senpai looked up, casting a pitiful expression at Hinata as he leaned toward him. "I called, but Shoyo's number was busy the whole time."
Hinata felt a bit guilty upon hearing that. Oh, right, he seemed to have been on the phone with Hoshiumi Hikari all this time..
So he subconsciously chose to deflect the topic: "Atsumu-senpai, hurry up and get up. Go inside the room to warm up."
He reached out to grab Miya Atsumu, trying to pull him up, but he was unsuccessful; Atsumu-senpai remained squatting there, motionless.
After a few seconds of silence, Miya Atsumu suddenly spoke up and asked, "I'm sorry."
Hearing Atsumu-senpai's words, Hinata's mind went blank for a few seconds. "What?"
Setting aside the fact that the number of times Miya Atsumu had apologized was practically zero in his mind, the main issue was that he didn't think the other guy had done anything worth squatting in front of his house all afternoon to apologize for.
Miya Atsumu lowered his head, avoiding eye contact with Hinata: "I ruined the Little Giant's autograph for Shoyo."
To Hinata, it must have been something incredibly important, there might not even be another one like it.
Hinata, who had indeed been sulking about this for a while, frowned and decisively reached out both hands, putting all his strength into trying to "pull" Miya Atsumu up from the ground.
"None of that matters." Hinata's tone was extremely firm.
What's important right now is that if Atsumu-senpai stays crouching here any longer, he's going to catch a cold. Didn't Atsumu-senpai tell me yesterday to take good care of my physical condition?
You're the Captain now, Senpai, you need to lead by example!
Miya Atsumu looked up, watching Hinata's features scrunch up as he pulled on him with such force.
He asked tentatively, "So Shoyo doesn't blame me?"
Hinata nodded like a little chick pecking at grain: "I don't blame Atsumu-senpai, it was the car's fault!"
Atsumu-senpai pressed further, "Is it really okay, even if you ruined Shoyo's idol's autograph?"
Hinata continued nodding. "It's fine. I've made plans to meet Giant-senpai again later, so I'll just ask Giant-senpai to give me another one then."
Besides, that signature only smeared a little, so I'll just treat it as part of the background.
Miya Atsumu asked the original question again: "Shoyo really forgave me?"
Hinata answered decisively, "It was all an accident!"
After all, he himself suffered from severe motion sickness; he had vomited in cars many times when he was little, he even almost threw up during his trip to Tokyo last year.
It just got wet; it's not like Atsumu-senpai tore it on purpose, so how can you blame Atsumu-senpai?
Miya Atsumu stood up abruptly, grabbing Hinata just as he was about to fall backward due to his loss of control.
Hinata felt something very cold brush against his neck, followed by a cold ear pressing against him.
“I knew Shoyo was the best.”
Hanging his entire weight on Hinata, Miya Atsumu flashed a satisfied smile, one tinged with a hint of cunning, in a spot where Hinata couldn't see him.
"Atsumu-senpai, you should go to my house to warm up. I'm going to buy some laundry detergent and I'll be right back." Hinata patted Atsumu-senpai's back, signaling him to let go.
Atsumu-senpai's body was really cold; he must have been waiting outside for a very, very long time..
Thinking of this, Hinata took the initiative to suggest, "It's getting late, Atsumu-senpai, why don't you stay at my place tonight? Is there anything you need? I can go buy it for you."