Before the call-up, they had conducted thorough background checks on every player and were very clear on everyone's growth trajectory.
In Kageyama's case, he might not give his teammates one hundred percent of his trust so quickly.
However.. someone had been using a knife to coerce him into showing his true feelings.
“Nice play!” Hinata cheered, raising his hands after scoring with a quick attack, gave Kageyama a high five.
Coach Hiya looked at Coach Unabara: "How about letting Kageyama adapt for a day first? I feel like he hasn't quite kept up with the current training rhythm."
Coach Unabara readily agreed, stroking his chin with a wide smile. "Then let Kageyama play as the setter for today, we'll switch his position tomorrow."
The adaptation speed is quite fast; I estimate he'll be on the right track by tomorrow.
Coach Hiya nodded in agreement, "With Hinata and Miya Atsumu leading the way, there shouldn't be any major issues."
Hearing these words, Coach Unabara fell silent.
He looked at Hinata, who was trying his best to liven up the atmosphere among a group of inactive teammates, then looked at Miya Atsumu bickering with Hoshiumi, before speaking with some difficulty.
“Setting Hinata aside, with Miya Atsumu's personality.. he probably won't bother with such trivial matters.”
Besides, handling the players' psychological well-being is a task for us coaches. I'll have a chat with these few players who have some slight issues tomorrow morning before physical training.
Even though he was a coach for the Junior National Team, he was well aware of what Miya Atsumu's reputation was like in high school volleyball.
Letting Miya Atsumu mentor a junior.. he couldn't even bear to imagine the outcome.
Coach Hiya laughed. "Hinata is being led by Miya, so there shouldn't be any problem, right?"
Coach Unabara refuted seriously, "I think this is Hinata's problem."
The afternoon's intra-squad training consisted of three sets in total, the final result of the first set was a victory for Hinata's side.
After some period of working together, Kageyama found it easier to direct Sakusa and Suna, gradually finding the comfort zone of these two super energy-saving Spikers and being able to execute good plays.
In the end, they won by a narrow margin of two points.
In the next two sets, which involved some positional changes, Hinata was assigned to play one set as a Setter and one set as a Libero.
In the set where he played Libero, the opponents were Komori and Suna. Perhaps out of a sense of retaliation, Komori ran Hinata all over the court, basically never letting him get back up.
Hinata, who doesn't play the Libero position very often, committed quite a few fouls; by the end of a single set, he had almost reached four fouls.
Hinata collapsed on the floor, unable to get up: "I'm.. such a loser.."
Having returned from the victory, Miya Atsumu reached out and patted his back, pulling him up. "Didn't you play really well? I saw that your successful saves were quite high."
Hinata was comforted: "I'll do better next time!"
Just like how Komori-senpai used to play as a Wing Spiker, one must experience it from the opponent's perspective to better grasp their weaknesses.
Watching Miya Atsumu and Hinata leave together to go eat from a distance, Aoba Haruka reached out and grabbed the nearest person, Kageyama: "Are those two in the same dormitory?"
Kageyama recalled the scene from yesterday's registration; he remembered that Suna-senpai had indeed taken the initiative to live with Hanae.
He nodded. "Yeah, they live together."
If they're dating.. it would be quite normal for them to live together.
“I knew it!” Aoba Haruka clenched her fists secretly. “I'm telling you, those two seem like family. Most people don't realize it, but I figured it out along with my younger brother.”
And the fact that Miya Atsumu-senpai and Hoshiumi-senpai had such a bad relationship during today's match only confirms my suspicion..
If I had to say, it's clearly some kind of drama where someone breaks up a family and then squeezes themselves in!
Aoba sighed with regret, lamenting this strange triangle.. no, quadrangular relationship.
Kageyama selectively listened to part of it, then caught the key point: "Family? Hinata has a younger sister, right?"
Aoba was even more shocked: "What! Is it a pentagon relationship!"
Kageyama recalled the meager knowledge in the corners of his memory: "Miya Atsumu-senpai and Osamu-senpai are twins, Hoshiumi-senpai probably isn't an only child either, right?"
"Then he's definitely not an only child! After all, Hin—" Before Aoba Haruka could finish his sentence, Hakuma, who had only overheard half of it as he passed by, suddenly spoke up.
Hikari-kun has an older brother.
Aoba felt like his brain was failing to keep up: "Rokkaku!"
These interpersonal relationships were a bit too complicated—what a terrifying family dynamic!
Kageyama was completely on a different wavelength from Aoba Haruka; he only noticed the word "family" that Aoba Haruka had mentioned: "They'll become family in the future, after all, since they're dating."
Dating is for the purpose of marriage, so once married, you become family; there's nothing wrong with that.
Hearing this again, Aoba felt his vision go dark: "Dating—"
He thought they were joking last time, but since Kageyama said it, it must be true.
Aoba waved his hands repeatedly, feeling like his brain couldn't quite keep up: "No, no, no, the bloodline aspect is one thing.. but from an ethical standpoint.."
Kageyama scratched his head, not understanding what Aoba was saying.
Chikatani called out to Kageyama, "Kageyama! Want to go eat!"
Kageyama nodded, then said goodbye to Aoba Haruka: "I'm going to eat, see you later."
No, this isn't right.." Aoba was still standing there in a daze, "No, no, no, I have to keep this a secret, but..
By the time Hinata and Miya Atsumu finished eating and came to take a bath, the bathhouse was already basically empty.
After all, the two of them had finished training late, since they were chatting about today's matches while eating, they didn't eat very quickly.
Miya Atsumu's movements were a bit faster, as he came out first to change his clothes.
Hearing the sound of changing shoes, Miya Atsumu turned his head to look at Hinata, who was walking out of the bathhouse wrapped in a bath towel: "Did you have fun today?"
He rummaged through the locker in front of him, pulled out a bottle of milk, tossed it to Hinata.
Hinata reached out to catch it, quickly putting on his slippers and sliding all the way to Miya Atsumu's side.
Unscrewing the cap, Hinata looked up and smiled at Miya Atsumu: "I'm happy! I've faced so many different players! And I've tried out many different positions too!"
“Shoyo, your setting is decent; you've got about a tenth of my skill.” Miya Atsumu looked up, gulping down the bottle of milk in his hands until it was empty.
Hinata tilted his head slightly to look at him, under this movement, Miya Atsumu's Adam's apple became exceptionally clear; the contour moving up and down as he swallowed had an indescribable sexiness.
Just as Hinata was about to lean in, Miya Atsumu's eyes, which had been looking at the ceiling, instantly shifted, locking onto the suspicious orange-headed boy.
Caught red-handed, Hinata just gave a cheeky grin and instead reached out to touch Miya Atsumu's Adam's apple.
Miya Atsumu grabbed Hinata's hand. "Hmm?"
Hinata forced himself to reach out with his other hand to feel it, then said with some regret, "I'm clearly not much younger than Atsumu-ge, so why hasn't my development been as good?"
His muscles too, his secondary sexual characteristics as well; even Rishia, who is the same age, has developed better than him.
Following Hinata's movement as he looked up, Miya Atsumu glanced down at his Adam's apple. "Not really, it's much more noticeable than last year. Even if it's a bit late, Shoyo is growing well."
As he spoke, Miya Atsumu's gaze shifted downward, landing on Hinata.
He curled the corners of his mouth slightly. "Your muscles are well-trained, too."
Noticing Miya Atsumu's gaze, Hinata leaned closer to him. "Do you want to feel it?"
Miya Atsumu cleared his throat. "Ahem, we're still in a public area."
Hinata narrowed his eyes. "It was Atsumu-ge who started this in the first place."
Atsumu was the one who insisted on flirting with him in front of everyone, now he was actually pulling the whole "gentleman" act.
Miya Atsumu raised a finger, brushing away a droplet of water that had fallen from Hinata's hair onto the side of his face. "If you think about it, Rintaro might pop out from some corner, there's also Hoshiumi-senpai, who could flash into existence at any moment.. This isn't good."
Hinata turned serious. "That really isn't good."
The sound of splashing water could still be heard from the bathhouse, coming from Kageyama and others who had entered later than them, people he was not yet quite familiar with.
Yeah, this place really isn't a place to linger.
After finishing the milk in his hands, Hinata licked his lips, then jumped up to rummage through the cabinet for his clothes.
Miya Atsumu looked at Hinata and continued the previous topic: "Setting aside the technical aspects, Shoyo, your setting is quite good."
Putting on his underwear, Hinata turned his head to look at Miya Atsumu: "You can't just set that aside—"
As a Setter, if he has deficiencies in his technique.. wouldn't that mean he is completely useless!
“If you can get the ball out, you get the point,” Miya Atsumu said. “In terms of the ability to move teammates around, you're much better than someone."
Videos of this kind of internal match probably don't exist, after all, Inarizaki isn't the only team around.
If possible, he really wanted to collect match footage of Hinata playing in different positions.
Especially as a setter.
Hinata's setting.. it had quite a unique charm of its own, it was truly a sight to behold.
Hearing Miya Atsumu's praise, Hinata gave a couple of huffs and quickly pulled on his short-sleeved shirt and shorts.
Watching Hinata finish putting on his clothes, Miya Atsumu smiled slightly, picked up two sets of change of clothes, stood up first. "Let's go, time to do the laundry."
Hinata quickly followed, "Okay!"
The laundry room inside the Volleyball Association was also equipped with washer-dryer combos; when the two of them went in, Hoshiumi and Hakuma were still waiting for their clothes.
Seeing Hinata come in, Hoshiumi had just started to smile, but the moment he saw Miya Atsumu, he suppressed that smile again.
"Hikari-kun!" Hinata shouted, clutching a basin of clothes; he wanted to give Hoshiumi-senpai a hug, but his hands were full.
Hoshiumi's interest in saying something vanished the moment Miya Atsumu stepped in. He looked at Hinata: "Get some good rest, we'll continue playing tomorrow."
Hinata raised his hand in response, "Roger!"
After stuffing his training short-sleeved shirt into the washing machine, Miya Atsumu set the timer and then set an alarm on his phone, before standing up and saying, "Alright, just come and get it when the time comes."
The washing machines were communal, Sakusa chose to shower first partly because he wanted to use the cleanest washing machine.
Hinata blinked. "Then, are we going back?"
Atsumu nodded. "Let's go."
Closing the door to the room, Hinata turned his head to look at Miya Atsumu, who was clearly unhappy.
He felt somewhat helpless: "Atsumu-ge, can't you and Hikari-kun really just make peace?"
Both are very important to him, he doesn't want the relationship between the two of them to remain so strained.
Miya Atsumu's face was full of seriousness: "Is that my problem? It's Hoshiumi's problem!"