Rishia shook his head repeatedly. "No, no, no, forget me! I'll just take Reo Mizuta for a stroll nearby!"
You've got to be kidding me; he didn't want to be dragged into running a marathon around the stadium by those two hot-blooded idiots for no reason!
Hinata felt a deep sense of regret, but he could only head toward the running track at the stadium to join Masaru Haseda, who was staying by himself and not saying much.
Just as Rishia Heisuke expected, the two were originally just taking a normal stroll, but for some reason, they suddenly started running.
"Ohhhhhh—Fourth lap!!" Hinata shouted as he led the way, counting aloud.
Masaru Haseda gritted his teeth and followed behind him, being led on a frantic sprint.
Rishia Heisuke, who happened to be passing by, decisively chose to take a detour to avoid getting caught up in the conflict.
Walking through the school alongside Rishia Heisuke, Reo Mizuta was not idle; instead, he kept asking for the information he needed.
Rishia-senpai, could you tell me a bit about the club? For example, the current First String lineup or what kind of activities are planned for the future?
Rishia Heisuke nodded readily. "Sure. By tradition, this weekend should be the freshmen's testing, where we play an intra-squad scrimmage with mixed positions. When we joined the club back then, we started right with that, which gave me quite a shock."
His instructor at the time was a Third Year substitute, but he didn't speak much to him, so he didn't know anything and wasn't as outgoing as Reo Mizuta.
Hearing this news, Reo Mizuta was also stunned for a moment: "That really is quite scary."
He could understand the intra-club scrimmage, but this shuffling of positions.. it would certainly make one feel quite flustered.
After listening to Rishia Heisuke talk a lot about the usual arrangements within the club, Reo Mizuta finally followed up by asking about the matters most important to him.
Rishia-senpai, Ginjima-senpai mentioned before that our Captain seems like a difficult person to deal with?
Is it a personality issue? Or is he just very strict?
Upon mentioning this, Rishia Heisuke's face paled visibly.
After a few seconds of silence, he stammered, "Both."
Reo Mizuta, who had approached this with the mindset of gathering information, also fell silent.
Even though he had heard that Miya Atsumu was a setter with a terrible temper, he had already prepared himself to be made difficult by his senior.
But.. looking at Rishia-senpai's expression, he somehow feels like things are going to be bad in every aspect.
Rishia Heisuke stopped in his tracks, placed a hand on the junior's shoulder, said with extreme seriousness, "There is one thing you must, must remember."
Reo Mizuta: "Yes."
Rishia Heisuke, who had seen through everything, said earnestly, "If possible, please don't make mistakes along with Shoyo, because he won't get scolded."
That's right, every time this happens, the one who ends up getting hurt is him..
Reo Mizuta was a bit dazed: "Huh?"
Was that actually something we needed to pay attention to?
Rishia Heisuke's expression became even more solemn: "Listen carefully to what I am about to say; every single word is important."
Reo Mizuta turned serious. "Please, go ahead, Senpai."
Rule number one: please do not interrupt Atsumu-senpai and Shoyo when they are talking to each other or having any contact.
“Second, please do not bring up any questions regarding Osamu-senpai's weight or body fat, try to avoid praising one in front of the other in front of Twins-senpai.”
Reo Mizuta nodded seriously, noting each one down one by one.
These were the Volleyball Club survival rules that Rishia Heisuke was preparing to pass on to him; every single one was likely very important, the first two already conveyed two key messages.
1. Captain Miya Atsumu has a very strong sense of possessiveness over that Hinata-senpai.
Two, the Twins-senpai probably don't get along well.
Rule number three: if a terrifying orange creature frequently appears by your side, you have no subjective desire to undergo extra training, please distance yourself from it as quickly as possible.
Rule number four: if you do something embarrassing, make absolutely sure to check if Suna-senpai is nearby; if he is, please bribe him immediately.
Rule number five.. Aran-senpai has graduated, so we'll skip that one.
Rule number six: Coach Kurosu loves dogs very much, so don't say anything bad about them. Secondly, please do not bring up topics like his daughter in front of the coach, because it seems the coach has been rejected by his daughter.
Listening to this increasingly bizarre way of speaking, Reo Mizuta let his mind go blank.
Wait, wait, wait, why does this Volleyball Club feel more and more unreliable the more I listen to them!!
After an unknown amount of time, Masaru Haseda was the first to surrender from exhaustion: "I give up.. Hinata-senpai.. I can't run anymore.."
Hinata stopped in his tracks, raising his hands and cheering, "Yes! The winner is me!"
Masaru Haseda felt like he could barely stand, yet Hinata could still jump around a few more times.
“You're amazing, Hinata-senpai, I'm truly impressed.”
He let the junior rest on a nearby bench, Hinata-senpai, acting as a senior, went to buy two bottles of drinks and brought them back to hand to him before sitting down himself.
He looked at the big guy beside him. "Katsuya, how did you start playing volleyball?"
Masaru Haseda lowered his head and recalled seriously for a moment, then answered honestly, "Back in my first year of junior high, I got caught climbing over a wall on my way to school by the PE teacher."
He thought that since I have long arms, a lot of strength, can jump, I could be brought into the Volleyball Club.
Hinata wondered, "Was he late?"
Climbing over walls.. he basically only did that when he was running late, since coming to Amagasaki, he has been going out for morning runs very early every day, so he really hasn't had a single record of being late.
Masaru Haseda shook his head. "No, my house is in the mountains. Sometimes it's faster to take a shortcut across the mountain road."
"Oh—I get what you mean." Hinata understood Masaru Haseda's meaning instantly.
My hometown also had places where you had to take winding mountain roads to get to the city center. There were indeed some spots that were quite easy to climb, but most of the time, I would just ride my bike.
Hinata let out a soft "Ah" before suddenly asking, "I forgot to ask, Katsuya, where are you from? I don't have much of an impression of that name from Junior High."
Masaru Haseda answered honestly, "In Anasu, not far from Asari."
Hinata's brain stalled for a few seconds as he had absolutely no understanding of the geography of Hyogo Prefecture, then he silently pulled out his phone and scrolled through it.
Looking at the city that was almost touching Tottori, he was shocked. "That's so far!"
Then why did you come all the way here to go to school? Did you move?
He remembered that Minetai seemed to be over there, it was considered a school with quite a good level; he hadn't expected them to come all the way to Amagasaki for high school.
Masaru Haseda gave the answer: "I'm staying at the school right now. The coach arranged for me to share a room with my senpai."
Hinata quickly realized that the person the other was referring to must be Suna-senpai; currently, Suna-senpai was the only one in the First String staying at the dorms because he had come from Aichi Prefecture.
It really was the best choice to live at the school if he was coming here, though he certainly wouldn't have time to go home for training during the holidays.
Masaru Haseda scratched his head. "That coach with the glasses called my grandmother and told her that I wouldn't have to pay for anything to attend school and play volleyball here."
My grandmother said I should come, Kaku-sensei also said I should come, so I came.
At this point, he pursed his lips, the expression on his face made Hinata feel as though he himself didn't seem to agree with the matter.
Looking at his junior who looked like he was about to cry, Hinata reached out and patted his back.
It really must be a difficult thing to adjust to, being separated from one's family; he could completely understand feeling lost.
Masaru Haseda took a deep breath, his slightly reddened eyes looking toward Hinata. "I'm sorry, Hinata-senpai."
Hinata blinked, looking somewhat puzzled: "Why apologize?"
Masaru Haseda said very seriously, "Because you just provoked a senior, which was very disrespectful to him. Grandma says that if you do something wrong, you have to apologize."
"There's nothing wrong with trying to fight for a starting position. Competition is supposed to be like this; after all, I also had to compete for my spot in the first string." As he spoke, Hinata patted his chest, his face full of little pride.
But you picked the wrong opponent; I'm actually quite formidable.
Masaru Haseda nodded vigorously, his eyes filled with admiration for Hinata. "Yes, you're amazing, Senpai. I didn't see that coming at all."
Hinata gave himself a thumbs-up and made a suggestion to his junior: "Then you'll have to check out my highlight reel when you get back! It's super cool!"
After saying that, Hinata thought of something else and added, "Suna-senpai—I mean, your future roommate—he has a tablet and just bought a new smartphone, so you can ask him to show it to you!"
He didn't have any himself; whenever he wanted to watch some video, he had to borrow a tablet from Miya Atsumu or get a video tape.
These things are all very expensive, he didn't know how long it would take him to save up enough money from the prize money alone to buy them.
But.. when Xiaoxia needs these things, he will definitely make sure she has them.
Although Masaru Haseda wasn't sure if Suna-senpai was an easygoing person, he held the principle of apologizing to Hinata and fulfilling whatever requests were made, so he nodded immediately. "I'll watch it ten times."
Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed a little as well, saying somewhat sheepishly, "During Haruko, it happened to be the New Year holiday travel period. My grandmother and I were completely overwhelmed, so we had no time at all to watch television."
Later, Coach Kaku told me that you seniors won the championship, but the newspapers delivered to my grandmother's guesthouse only had reports about the Setter-senpai, so I wasn't very clear on how you seniors were doing..
"It's normal, it's normal," Hinata said, showing that he didn't mind.
He glanced around the vicinity surreptitiously, only after finding that Miya Atsumu was not there did he pat his chest and continue, "But the person who gets reported on later will definitely be me."
Masaru Haseda nodded. "I believe in Hinata-senpai!"
Although he had done something foolish, Hinata-senpai was an approachable person and didn't hold a grudge for his mistake at all; he was truly wonderful!
He will support Hinata-senpai forever!
After the Interhigh Junior High tournament ended in the second round last year, he went to school less often, spending most of his time at home helping his grandmother run the guesthouse business.
Although the location was remote and the number of guests wasn't very high, the two of them could still manage to make a living.
Because of that, he had once considered skipping high school entirely to stay home and run the guesthouse.
It wasn't until a certain day in October that Kaku-sensei, who was their junior high part-time volleyball club coach, came rushing to them, saying that Inarizaki High School in Amagasaki City wanted to recommend him for admission.
Moreover, this school won the national championship in the recent National Sports Festival, making them one of the top schools in the country.
He hadn't originally had many thoughts, but Kaku-sensei pulled him aside and talked to him for a very, very long time.
He didn't understand a single word of those grand principles, but he understood one thing from that conversation.
He is probably very suited for playing volleyball, Inarizaki is very formidable.
If he goes to Inarizaki, there is a very high possibility that he will have the opportunity to make a living playing volleyball in the future.
—He could earn a lot, lot of money.
Moreover, after the Inarizaki coach heard about his family's situation, he also spoke with his grandmother, saying that he wouldn't have to pay for school and that his room and board could be completely waived.
His grandmother and Kaku-sensei both persuaded him, so he ultimately came.
But in the end, he wasn't moved because of their persuasion.