Miya Atsumu felt around a bit higher.
Hmm, there are some on his knees too.
Seeing Miya Atsumu preparing to touch things he shouldn't, Hinata Shoyo jumped straight off Miya Atsumu's legs.
He looked at Miya Atsumu with an expression of righteous indignation. "Stop messing around, Atsumu-ge. Let's go train quickly. You've finally made it back, there's still a month before the National Sports Festival starts. We need to use our time to build our chemistry."
Miya Atsumu spoke words of affection without so much as a blush or a skip of his heart: "But I missed you very much."
He looked at Hinata, his gaze sincere and earnest: "During these few days you were away, I missed you every single day."
Being stared at like that by him, Hinata felt the temperature on his face rise instantly.
But in the end, reason prevailed. Hinata averted his gaze, refusing to meet Miya Atsumu's eyes. "But.."
Miya Atsumu patted his own legs, then opened his arms toward Hinata Shoyo: "Come here and let me give you a kiss, just one."
Hinata stopped struggling, deciding to follow his heart.
He also missed Miya Atsumu, it was as simple as that.
As the end of October approached, the National Sports Festival, which had been postponed for nearly half a month, finally commenced.
Since this competition was moved back to Tokyo, the Inarizaki members only arrived one day early, rather than arriving even earlier to adjust their condition.
Unlike in the past, this National Sports Festival was not held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium like Haruko, but at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium.
Upon hearing the news, Hinata could no longer contain his excitement and even sent a message to Unai Aman to tell her about it immediately.
And Unai, who is currently working in Tokyo, expressed immediately that she would come to watch the match, hoping Hinata would save a seat for her in the Inarizaki supporters' section.
The National Sports Festival involves many different events; unlike Haruko, which only features men's and women's volleyball, there will be many more types of venues set up here at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, they will be much more diverse.
It was likely in consideration of this that the venue was set at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, which had not hosted a major tournament for many years.
The high school division matches for volleyball were scheduled for the second day of the tournament; all they needed to attend that morning were the opening ceremony and the inspection of the participating teams.
Listening to the music coming from the gymnasium, Hinata nervously straightened his sports uniform.
He turned his head to look at Rishia: "How was it? Did anything get messy?"
"It's absolutely perfect." Rishia gave him a thumbs up.
Hinata checked his hairstyle in the glass of the fire hydrant once more, only breathing a small sigh of relief after confirming it hadn't been messed up.
The inspection order was conducted from north to south based on geographic location, with Hyogo positioned much later.
It was still a long time before they would take the court, so they had plenty of time to get themselves ready.
But this time was different from before.
As the winning team of the previous National Sports Festival, Captain Miya Atsumu needed to lead Inarizaki onto the court first, carrying the Tournament Championship Flag.
Please bring in the Tournament Championship Flag.
Upon hearing the announcement, Hinata hurriedly moved over to Unabara Uta's side to watch the live stream of the National Sports Festival high school volleyball segment on his tablet.
The live stream had a slight delay, but not much; just as he leaned over, Miya Atsumu was entering the court holding the championship flag with both hands.
Miya Atsumu's hair was meticulously styled, his tall, handsome figure, combined with the championship flag in his hands, made him look as if he were enveloped in a layer of glorious light.
Unabara Uta sighed with genuine admiration, "So cool."
Rishia Heisuke nodded: "He is indeed very cool."
Hinata raised a hand to cover his chest: "This is just too cool—"
He had imagined the scene of Miya Atsumu carrying the flag into the stadium countless times, but even so, seeing it in person made it difficult to suppress the excitement in his heart.
Miya Atsumu said that Coach Kurosu would let him be the captain next year. He believed that Miya Atsumu wouldn't lie to him, so as long as they could win the championship this year, he would be the one leading the procession with the flag next year.
By then, he.. he will definitely, definitely be even cooler!
Watching the crowd huddle together, howling about how cool someone was, Aoba Kureha, who was standing right beside them, turned to her brother and asked, "What are the Inarizaki members doing?"
"Never mind what they're doing." Aoba Haruka was completely annoyed.
Hinata most likely didn't tell Miya Atsumu about the rumors he had spread before, after all, Miya Atsumu hadn't come to settle the score with them during their youth training days.
However, it can't be ruled out that he might remember this matter during this period and report it to Miya Atsumu afterwards.
As for the hotel for this tournament, they from Rakusan were staying two buildings away from Inarizaki, he had been avoiding Miya Atsumu from beginning to end yesterday, so he wasn't caught by him.
In the end.. all of this is Aoba Kureha's fault!
If he hadn't made wild guesses and said such nonsense, he wouldn't have believed it, he wouldn't have told anyone about it, Hinata certainly wouldn't have found out!
[Hyogo Prefecture representative, male, Inarizaki High School.]
Miya Atsumu was already standing in the middle of the court with the Tournament Championship Flag, so Miya Osamu, the number 2, was responsible for carrying the Inarizaki High School sign.
Stepping onto the very venue where the Little Giant once played, Hinata's heart was filled with overwhelming excitement.
He knew Unai hadn't come today, the stands were filled only with supporters from various schools, but he would definitely perform brilliantly in tomorrow's match.
Unai Aman had specially come to Oita to watch their match during the last IH, but they failed to win the championship; this time, he definitely won't let Unai down.
The cheers in the arena were incessant, the shouts from the Inarizaki supporters were incredibly clear.
For this tournament, the officials assigned the area next to the main podium to Inarizaki, facing the Shiratorizawa supporters; the two sides echoed one another, creating a massive commotion.
Standing in the lineup, Hinata looked up at the banners hanging before him.
[Next, we will proceed with the pre-match oath.]
[Male representative, Inarizaki High School's Hinata Shoyo.]
[Women's representative, Amari Yuka from Shinzan Girls' High School.]
Hinata's expression instantly turned solemn as he quickly jogged out of line, standing in the position the coach had previously instructed him to take.
Seeing Hinata come out, Amari Yuka glanced down at him.
The two of them exchanged a glance, stood before the microphone, raised their hands to take the oath facing the opposing team's tournament flag.
The Captain is responsible for carrying the flag, while those who represent the team to take the oath are generally the team's true Ace.
Last year, the person representing Itachiyama for the oath was Komori. While part of the reason was Sakusa's reluctance to step out into the spotlight, it was more due to Komori's irreplaceable importance within the Itachiyama team.
Hinata had once recited the oath in the lineup along with everyone else, but after learning that he would be representing the team to deliver the oath this time, he had practiced it seriously countless times.
His journey in volleyball began at last year's National Sports Festival, this time.. he will also face every match in his absolute best condition, until he finally captures that trophy once again.
I swear.
.. We shall uphold the Olympic spirit, facing every match with the utmost passion and the most serious attitude..
Chapter 402: The 402th Fox
Standing below the court, Coach Washijo had his hands behind his back, quietly listening to the voice echoing through the entire gymnasium via the microphone.
His gaze swept over Coach Kurosu standing at his side, then he slowly pulled his gaze back.
Once upon a time, Hinata was standing by his side, watching everyone undergo this solemn and sacred ceremony.
He remembered the desire and longing in Hinata Shoyo's eyes, so intense, so impossible to ignore.
Just like.. that little beast who knelt before him and said he would be armed to the teeth.
And now, the one taking the baton and leading everyone in the oath had become Hinata.
He knew this day would come sooner or later, but he never expected it to arrive so quickly.
A lukewarm snort came from Coach Washijo's throat.
—He would tentatively admit that Coach Kurosu did have some ability when it came to developing players.
Coach Saito turned his head slightly toward Coach Washijo, noticing the faint smile on his cheek, followed suit with a smile of his own.
He looked at that high-spirited youth and sighed softly, "Hinata has grown up."
There were some things Coach Washijo wouldn't say, so he would say them instead.
Coach Washijo nodded. "Mm."
Hinata Shoyo and Amari Yuka, they are both children of Sendai. As the representative of Miyagi Prefecture, he was equally proud of the two of them.
It's just a shame..
Coach Washijo shook his head and turned his gaze back toward his Shiratorizawa team not far away.
Shirabu's intention to retire was already quite clear, so he also made a conscious effort to let Yura play a few matches during this National Sports Festival.
They had confirmed the tournament schedule, in terms of the overall schedule, it was actually in Shiratorizawa's favor; until the quarterfinals, the only difficult opponents in their bracket were Star First and Fukuda General.
Although Fukuda General took second place at the National Sports Festival last year, the seeding was still generally based on Haruko and the Interhigh.
After official discussions by the National Sports Festival committee, the final seeded spots were awarded to Inarizaki, Itachiyama, Karasuno.
In theory, the other seed should have gone to Fukurodani, but since Itachiyama was the only representative from Tokyo, the spot remained vacant.
The seed for the district where Shiratorizawa is located is Inarizaki.
Star First and Fukuda General will meet at an earlier stage, only one side will advance to face them.
Fukuda General's performance at the IH can only be described as mediocre.
For Fukuda General, whose training cycle is about two years, they entered another year of a slump after that graduating class from Shiratorizawa left.
Although there are some first-year high school students with decent potential, they haven't been properly trained yet, making it difficult for them to handle the opponents' strong zones.
They weren't very clear on the situation regarding Star First.
Like Nekoma, Star First is a school known for the intensity of its first receive. The starting libero from the previous Star First team has already graduated, their successor suffered a serious injury during last year's National Sports Festival and hasn't appeared in a single match since.
Even if Star First could maintain a pace of finding a new Libero every two years, they are currently facing a period of transition.
Star First's performance during the Interhigh was quite poor; although their final result was acceptable, it was far from the performance one would expect from an established powerhouse.
Besides, given Shiratorizawa's current situation, even if they could successfully fill the Star First Libero position, they would still have enough confidence to defeat their opponents.
In the end, their opponent will depend on which of these two sides wins.
As for the quarterfinals..