The voice coming from beneath the fox was clearly Miya Atsumu's.
The red fox raised its hands and pulled off the massive mascot head, revealing Miya Atsumu's face underneath: "As expected of Shoyo, you recognized me instantly."
Hinata's eyes lit up: "That's amazing! We actually have something like this!"
He didn't even know!
Arima Shuji, who had come back to pick up the flyers, laughed. "Hahaha, actually, they just arrived."
It was something the cheering squad gave them after they won the Haruko championship, intended for future cheering, but they just happened to be using it now.
Miya Atsumu, who had been spun around by Hinata several times, laughed and then leaned down slightly, reaching his hand out toward Hinata.
A furry paw was extended toward Hinata: "Then.. Shoyo, are you willing to transform with me?"
Hinata grabbed it without any hesitation. "I'm willing!"
The Inarizaki Men's Volleyball stall was set up in the middle of the entire street near the Volleyball Hall, directly across from their school's Baseball Club.
They are one of the top teams in the country, so they naturally secured the best location without any dispute.
There were many students who had an interest in sports themselves, or who wanted to strengthen their bodies through exercise; as long as they passed by this way, they would be able to see the eye-catching banner of the Inarizaki Men's Volleyball Club.
People came up to the table one after another, their faces appearing in the sight of the Volleyball Club members, some excited and some looking nervous.
Wearing the "Volleyball Club Public Relations Ambassador" sash, Rishia Heisuke skillfully poured water for the newcomer and handed over a flyer along with a standardized school-wide club application form.
Having gradually regained his confidence through several conversations, Rishia Heisuke said naturally, "Hello there! Are you interested in volleyball?"
The young boy, who didn't seem very confident, said nervously, "Yes! Because I watched the seniors' Haruko matches, I want to try volleyball!"
Rishia Heisuke pushed the club application form toward the other person. "If you've already seen the matches, is there anything else I need to introduce?
The other person shook his head rapidly, picked up the pen beside him, prepared to fill out the form.
At this moment, the excitement on his face outweighed his previous nervousness, he filled out the form bit by bit under Rishia Heisuke's guidance.
“Name, class, enter your current height and weight here.”
The largest box below can be used to write your junior high school background, your hobbies and talents, or even anything you want to say to the Coach and your seniors.
"Okay!" The boy nodded, writing the name "Nishizawa Hokuto" on the form.
Fukami and Masaru Haseda, who were classmates in the Sports Course, had become acquainted through spending time together over the past few days. After all, they had both been admitted through volleyball, so the two of them had plenty of common interests and quickly became friends.
Reo Mizuta, from the same year, chose the general education course of his own volition, so he was not in the same class as the two of them.
The instructor Coach Kurosu assigned to Fukami Subaru was Unabara Uta, but since Fukami always walked with Masaru Haseda, Unabara Uta simply dumped both of them on Hinata, enjoying the leisure for himself.
Fukami walked at the very front, hands clasped behind his head, bouncing with excitement. "Once we finish submitting our club application forms today, we should be able to join the team for training in a little while, right?"
Previously, Hinata had been the one leading them through physical training and things like that, so they didn't get many chances to actually touch a volleyball.
He felt an itch in his hands right now, a strong desire to test himself against those powerful seniors.
Masaru Haseda nodded. "Yeah, Shoyo-senpai said the club tryouts are usually scheduled for the weekend, so it should be the day after tomorrow."
The deadline to submit the application for joining the club is Thursday night; after that time, you would have to go to the office to find Coach Kurosu and hand it in yourself.
Based on the deduction, the testing should be this week. Hinata had mentioned to him before that the participant list for the IH had to be submitted in May, so the screening had to be conducted as soon as possible.
Even if they are recommended students, they still must participate in the club tryouts.
After all, there is a limit on the number of players on the official roster; if there are exceptionally talented individuals among those who weren't admitted through recommendation, they might find themselves pushed down to the Second String.
Moreover, between the two people in his year, he is the only one who hasn't won any honors, even his practical experience is pitifully little.
If one really had to be eliminated, eighty percent of the time, it would be him.
With those thoughts in mind, the two of them had already wandered over to the side of the Inarizaki Men's Volleyball Club booth.
What came into view were the Second Years explaining things behind the table, the Third Years Ginjima and Arima Shuji helping out in the back by handing out water, Suna holding a camera to take photos of the event for Coach Kurosu's later report.
For some reason, Miya Osamu, wearing the Captain's tag, stood nearby with his hands on his hips, using a megaphone to repeatedly play pre-recorded messages.
Especially towards the Baseball Club's booth, they would change positions every few moments to launch another verbal attack against them.
Of course, it was the same on the Baseball Club's side; they even prepared two loudspeakers to launch trash talk attacks at the Volleyball Club.
[The Invincible Army! The posture of Kings! The Haruko champions, Inarizaki Men's Volleyball Club, is your only choice!]
[Koshien qualifiers for twenty consecutive years! The Baseball Club is the strongest! And—we have a manager!!]
Standing in the middle of the road, Fukami and Masaru Haseda quickly received flyers from the Baseball Club, the Baseball Club members who forced the flyers on them insisted on dragging the two of them over there to sit for a while.
I can see that you two both have quite good physiques and must be people who love sports, so come and check out our baseball!
Masaru Haseda was momentarily at a loss for words: "No.. this.."
He turned his head to look at the Volleyball Club's booth, but there were indeed many people crowded around it, plenty of students were passing by; the seniors hadn't noticed the farce happening on their side.
But.. aren't two people missing?
Where are Captain Miya Atsumu and his dear Shoyo-senpai? Why aren't they here?
Just as the two were about to be dragged under the Baseball Club's canopy, Masaru Haseda suddenly felt himself being pulled.
A yellow paw reached out from behind, a somewhat short fox snatched the Baseball Club flyer and stuffed it into the pocket near his stomach.
On the other side, Fukami was also intercepted by a tall, somewhat orange red fox, whose treatment of the Baseball Club flyers was much more crude; he directly tore them up and tossed them into a nearby trash can.
Then, the two foxes simultaneously shoved the Volleyball Club flyers into the hands of Masaru Haseda and Fukami, giving a thumbs-up together.
Also left feeling a bit dazed, the Baseball Club members watched in shock as the two foxes, one tall and one short, carried the person away, with the shorter one even turning back to make a face at him using a doll's face.
Watching the two foxes return, Miya Osamu raised an eyebrow. "You're back?"
Without waiting for them to say anything, he grabbed two more stacks of flyers and shoved them into the two foxes' hands. "Alright, let's go."
At this moment, even Masaru Haseda realized that something was off.
He looked at the yellow fox closest to him. "Shoyo-senpai?"
Having had his identity revealed, Hinata raised his paws, patted his chest, then struggled to give a thumbs-up with the plushie's hands.
Masaru Haseda stepped forward without hesitation, taking the stack of flyers from Hinata's hands. "I'll help."
Fukami got excited: "Me too, me too! I want to wear this costume next year!"
He has never worn a mascot costume in all his life!
Hinata used both hands to struggle to form an OK sign.
"Long live Shoyo-senpai!" Fukami cheered.
He knew Hinata was the best!
Heaven knows that the first time he went to visit Hinata with Unabara Uta, the other person looked at him with an extremely wary gaze, making him think he had done something wrong without even knowing it.
However, once they became familiar with him later, Hinata became quite approachable and even took them to try and grab the limited daily specials at the cafeteria every day—though, of course, they suffered total defeat.
It was said that the American football team had already made grabbing limited editions one of their daily training exercises; they couldn't compete with them at all.
The four of them left the Volleyball Club's booth in a grand procession, heading toward the area near the soccer and track and field booths at the stadium to intercept people, handing out a Volleyball Club flyer to everyone they saw.
By the time school was nearly over, Rishia had already received more than sixty club application forms.
This is just the tally for today; some people are still undecided, so it will likely have to wait until tomorrow.
Miya Atsumu raised his hand and pulled off his headgear, revealing hair that was already soaked with sweat. "It's over—"
"It's over!" Hinata, sitting beside him, also slumped onto the ground, his hair also matted to his head in damp strands.
Although today's mission didn't involve the extreme physical exhaustion of playing a match, standing all day while carrying a heavy load in such a poorly ventilated environment was still quite uncomfortable.
Although the task of wearing mascot suits wasn't something only the two of them could do, the mascot suits themselves consisted of one large and one small one, the smaller one fit Hinata perfectly.
As for the larger one.. The Coach's original intention was to have the taciturn Rishia Heisuke do it.
But Miya Atsumu said he wanted Rishia Heisuke to get some training in, since Miya Osamu didn't want to look at Miya Atsumu's face either, he simply stuffed Miya Atsumu into a mascot suit, taking over the Captain's duties himself and acting as the Captain for the day.
Ginjima, who was helping to organize the applications, said to the two of them, "Don't catch a cold; go take a shower over at the gym."
Hinata raised his hand. "Okay—"
Their own Volleyball Hall didn't have a place to shower, since the gym belonging to their Volleyball Club was still under renovation, they could only go to the public gym instead.
After taking a quick shower with Miya Atsumu, Hinata felt completely revitalized: "That feels so good!"
Miya Atsumu, who had just finished getting dressed, also stretched to loosen up his muscles.
To be honest, the mascot suit itself was fine; aside from the head being a bit heavy, there weren't many problems. The main issue was that he hadn't been able to speak all afternoon, he had nearly suffocated.
Meanwhile, Miya Osamu had repeatedly warned him not to make a sound, otherwise his fans might surround him, leaving him no chance to continue working with Hinata.
Miya Atsumu strongly agreed, he truly succeeded in not being recognized by anyone.
Leaning in to catch a scent from the top of Hinata's head, Miya Atsumu scoffed at the smell of the shampoo provided in the gym.
As Hinata looked over in confusion, Miya Atsumu continued, "I'll blow-dry your hair for you, then we can go back to the Volleyball Hall changing room to look over this year's club application forms together."
Hinata nodded. "Okay."
Miya Atsumu carefully dried Hinata's hair, his technique was excellent; instead of making Hinata's hair puff up into a messy ball like he did to his own, he styled it into a quite coordinated hairstyle for Hinata.
Admiring his masterpiece, Miya Atsumu nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad, not bad at all."
After tidying his own hair, Miya Atsumu put on his jacket and followed Hinata out of the gym doors.
Most of the people were still in the Volleyball Hall; after all, even though there were activities in the afternoon, evening practice was still held as usual. Although it was self-directed training, everyone's enthusiasm remained very high.
"The application is in the locker room, go get it yourself," Miya Osamu said without even looking up, as he was helping Tokura practice blocking.
"I got it." Miya Atsumu nodded, dragging Hinata, who was trying to enter the gym for training, in the opposite direction.
Hinata struggled desperately, trying to break free from Miya Atsumu's grip to head into the Volleyball Hall: "I want to play volleyball—"
He hadn't touched a volleyball in over twelve hours! He would die if he couldn't touch a volleyball!
However, Miya Atsumu's strength was not something he could break free from, Miya Atsumu dragged him into the locker room with a very firm attitude.
Under Hinata's accusing gaze, Miya Atsumu shrugged his hands. "Shoyo, didn't you say you wanted to learn how to organize documents? Let's do it together."
Organizing club application forms is also one of the Captain's important duties. Since Hinata has the ambition to become Captain, it would be best for him to learn how to do it together.
Hinata believed Miya Atsumu's excuse without any doubt: "Understood!"
That's true, it would be a good chance to see what kind of people the new students are.