Exchanging a glance with Inamura, who had entered with the team, Miya Atsumu clapped his hands. "Let's go, this is the end."
During the awards ceremony, the coaches were not with them; only the players were on the court to receive their final honors.
Coach Kurosu, standing not far away on the opposite side, gave everyone encouragement with his gaze; he had just confirmed the recipients of the individual awards, they were largely consistent with what he had expected.
The certificates, medals, trophies for the runner-up and third place were distributed, everyone returned to their lines.
Hinata looked down at the heavy medal hanging around his neck.
Unlike the golden championship medal, the runner-up medal was more silver in color, unlike the ones in the Hinata family home.
Looking on the bright side.. it also added a unique touch to his wall of honor.
But that color was certainly not as beautiful as a golden hue.
So.. one is enough.
[MVP, Karasuno High School, Hoshiumi Hikari.]
Hoshiumi Hikari, whose name was called, walked forward with his head held high. Having just won his first national championship, he was full of vigor, his hair, which he had tidied up during the break, looked spirited.
Hoshiumi greeted the Volleyball Association president presenting the awards, then walked down while holding the already framed gold certificate.
[Best Spiker, Karasuno High School, Hoshiumi Hikari.]
Hoshiumi, who was called upon once again, walked back and claimed his second individual honor.
Generally, the tournament MVP is tied to another individual award, unless the player in the same position on the runner-up team performs at a level far above the champion.
Hinata watched Hoshiumi's silhouette, his eyes filled with longing and yearning.
This time.. I'm afraid he'll come up empty-handed. I remember the Best Spiker is followed by a Middle Blocker, so it should be Hirugami-senpai.
After their overall performance declined, Hirugami-senpai's frequency of scoring through blocks increased; throughout the entire match, he committed almost zero errors, while he was occasionally deceived by feints, it was rare.
While Hinata Shoyo was lost in his own thoughts, the Volleyball Association president spoke again to announce the honors.
[Best Setter/Opposite, Inarizaki High School, Hinata Shoyo.]
“Oh! It's you, Shoyo!” Unabara, who was standing beside Hinata, was the first to speak.
Hinata himself hadn't come to his senses yet; he was still waiting for Hirugami-senpai to go up and receive the award.
Hearing Unabara's voice, he looked back with some confusion. "Huh? Me?"
He doesn't seem to be.. a Middle Blocker.
During this IH, he should have only played as Opposite and Wing Spiker.
The others behind him also urged him, "It's you, hurry up and go up."
Hinata looked up and met the encouraging gaze of the Volleyball Association president.
After confirming, Hinata stumbled forward, still unable to process what had happened.
It wasn't until he saw that certificate labeled Best Setter/Opposite that he realized a new award specifically for the Opposite position had been established.
Coach Unabara, standing behind the judges, nodded. "He truly deserves it."
In a traditional lineup, a team has three Wing Spikers, which is not an advantage when it comes to competing for individual awards.
Taking the above point and current international volleyball trends into consideration, starting from this year's tournament, individual awards for the Opposite position have been added.
Moreover, considering that not all teams have a clear distinction between Opposite and Wing Spiker, when evaluating this award, the Opposite and the Spiker are actually considered together.
The fact that Hinata was able to win this award meant that, in terms of statistics, his overall performance not only surpassed Hakuma but was also stronger than the others on his team.
The latter goes without saying; Hinata's own excellent physical conditioning allowed him to play through almost the entire match.
The latter is what truly deserves attention, because.. these are the awards the runners-up received, which means Hinata's raw stats are more than a notch above Hakuma's.
The other subsequent awards were also largely consistent with Coach Kurosu's guesses; the Setter was Miya Atsumu, the Libero was Komori, who took third place.
Carrying a sense of exhaustion, everyone returned to the hotel to rest for the night.
Because they had scheduled a therapist for the next day, they wouldn't be leaving Oita until the day after tomorrow, giving them plenty of time to rest.
After changing out of his sweat-soaked uniform, Hinata took his fresh underwear, a short-sleeved shirt, shorts into the bathroom.
Miya Atsumu was still lying on the bed outside, saying he needed to think about a few things.
Turning on the shower, the appropriately tempered water poured down from above, allowing Hinata to enter a state of relaxation as well.
After finally cooling down after a busy day, his brain began to start working again, he subconsciously began to think about the words Miya Atsumu had initially said to Hoshiumi Hikari.
The future looks promising..
Yes, although Karasuno's lineup includes freshmen, they are all very mature; it's clear that Coach Aran custom-built this lineup to target the weaknesses in Karasuno's formation.
Relatively speaking, their recruitment for Inarizaki wasn't very smooth, the coordination among the Middle Blockers is quite poor; they don't even have a fixed lineup even now, but looking at the later matches of this tournament, there is a high probability that the coach intends for Tokura to be in the starting lineup.
Tokura is very impressive, but just like he was before, he doesn't quite know how to play volleyball yet; however, that is something that can be honed through practice, the only thing lacking is coordination.
Karasuno's lineup is mature, which means their future progress will slow down, they might not even achieve any more major breakthroughs.
It also means.. that they, Inarizaki, can surpass their opponents through even greater progress and breakthroughs.
This isn't the end; IH is just the first tournament of the year. There are still the National Sports Festival and Haruko ahead, the ones who will be laughing last..
It will definitely, definitely be them.
Just at that moment, Miya Atsumu's voice came from outside the door: "Can I come in?"
Hinata froze for a moment, thinking Miya Atsumu had forgotten something in the bathroom, then nodded in agreement: "You can."
Miya Atsumu pushed the door open and walked straight toward him.
An embrace smelling of sweat enveloped him, Miya Atsumu's clothes were soaked by the water almost instantly.
Hinata was somewhat dazed. The water temperature was very high, the rising steam caused his vision to become somewhat blurred. In his daze, he felt something slightly cooler than the rainwater flow onto his shoulders.
“I'm sorry, but.. let me hold you for a moment, Shoyo.”
Chapter 376: The Three Hundred and Seventy-Sixth Fox
The soft towel made a rustling sound as it rubbed against his hair, leaving Hinata feeling quite drowsy.
On the other side, the sound of the hair dryer wasn't loud. Just as Hinata was about to fall asleep, Miya Atsumu walked out carrying the hair dryer.
Using his hands to tidy his freshly dried hair, Miya Atsumu approached Hinata from behind, kneeling on the bed and reaching out to pull him closer. "Alright, come here, I'll blow-dry it for you."
Hinata squinted his eyes and leaned back gently against Miya Atsumu's body. "So sleepy.."
Miya Atsumu reached out and pressed his hand against Hinata Shoyo's back, preventing him from leaning over. "Sit up straight, I'm going to blow-dry your hair first."
Hinata sat still, Miya Atsumu plugged in the hairdryer and carefully dried Hinata's hair.
Miya Atsumu put down the hairdryer and used a comb to smooth out the hair that had become a bit frizzy from static electricity. "I've ordered dinner from the hotel; it'll be delivered shortly. Is there anything else you want to eat?"
Hinata said very, very seriously, "I want to sleep."
Hearing Hinata's words, Miya Atsumu refused him quite cruelly: "No, we still have to eat, take the clothes over to be washed, also.. also pack our things and put the certificates away."
There are no matches tomorrow, so it won't be a big problem even if we skip one meal," Hinata countered, counting off points on his fingers against Miya Atsumu. "The therapist is coming tomorrow, we aren't leaving until the day after, so we can pack our things tomorrow.
As for the clothes..
At this, Hinata turned his head to look at Miya Atsumu: "Coach Omimi and Osamu-senpai already took all the dirty uniforms, Coach Kurosu just asked Atsumu-ge if he wanted to take his wet clothes too, but Atsumu-ge refused."
Miya Atsumu felt a momentary pang of guilt.
He went to find Hinata purely out of instinct; by the time he snapped out of it, the clothes he had just changed into were already completely soaked.
If he could travel back in time, he would definitely, definitely not hide in the bathroom and refuse to come out just to save face.
Hinata patted his own face with his hands to wake himself up: "Alright, let's go drop off the clothes first. Once they're washed and dried, it should take about half an hour, dinner should be here by then."
“So reliable, Shoyo.”
Miya Atsumu let out a sigh of relief and lunged directly onto Hinata Shoyo. His own weight was not light, this sudden movement nearly knocked the weak Hinata to the floor.
Hinata pressed his hands against the nightstand to steady himself: "Ugh."
Miya Atsumu let go of Hinata and, while stepping back, sat back on the bed in a kneeling position, "Sorry, sorry."
Watching Hinata push himself up from the bedside table and turn back to look at him with a protesting gaze, Miya Atsumu suddenly remembered something: "Shoyo, did you forget to change your waterproof dressing when you showered?"
Hinata, who had just been about to speak to express his dissatisfaction, let out a soft gasp, finally realizing that something was wrong.
Miya Atsumu hurriedly reached out to wrap his arms around his waist, lifting him directly onto the bed, reached out to remove the dressing on Hinata's knee that Coach had applied temporarily in the gymnasium.
Hinata hadn't removed it while showering, water had seeped in from the edges, not only soaking the entire dressing, but also causing the wound on Hinata's leg to turn a bit white from being soaked.
Atsumu frowned, warning Hinata with his eyes not to move before getting out of bed to find Coach Kurosu for some iodine.
Hinata's wound wasn't large; the dressing used previously was only to prevent friction against his trousers, once it was disinfected and treated, he would just need to wait for it to scab over naturally.
Coach Omimi had just returned by the time Miya Atsumu left, while Coach Kurosu had taken Kumoita to the hospital emergency room for a follow-up examination.
Hearing Miya Atsumu ask for iodine, Coach Omimi was startled.
He asked while looking for something, "Is Shoyo injured? Did he slip in the shower? That shouldn't have happened; weren't you two showering together!"
Miya Atsumu remained silent for two seconds before reaching out to take the iodine and cotton swabs, answering simply, "No, it's just that the wound on his knee got wet. I'll disinfect it for him again."
Coach Omimi breathed a sigh of relief: "It's fine as long as he's okay."
“By the way, is Shoyo doing okay? Did he cry when he got back? Did you manage to comfort him?”
Omimi became increasingly worried as he spoke: "Winning or losing is a common occurrence in battle. Tell Shoyo to try and look on the bright side; we've had our share of runner-up finishes before.."
Miya Atsumu couldn't listen to any more and hurriedly interrupted, "Don't worry, Coach, Shoyo is very strong, he's much stronger than me; there definitely won't be any problems."
If you had to say it.. the one being comforted was actually him.
Before leaving, he glanced toward the restroom in this room, only then did he push the door open and step outside.
Watching Miya Atsumu leave, Miya Osamu, who was looking for supplies in the bathroom, poked his head out: "What do you mean, bathing with Shoyo.. that guy was definitely hiding in the bathroom crying just now."
He felt something was wrong when he went to get his clothes just now. Hinata had come out to open the door without even being properly dressed, he hadn't even dried himself off. Unless Miya Atsumu had broken his legs, there was no way he would let Hinata come.
Thinking about it now.. it was one hundred percent certain that Miya Atsumu had been hiding in the bathroom crying secretly, after hearing his voice, he didn't dare come out.
Coach Omimi said helplessly, "Crying a little is actually good; some emotions need to be vented before they can be put behind you."