Um.. Atsumu-kun, could you give me your autograph?
Miya Atsumu tilted his head slightly to glance at Hinata, who was smiling and saying something to Shiratori Natsume, then turned back and replied, "Sure."
The girl cheered, then handed over a gold-rimmed autograph board: "Please sign here! We love you so much! Good luck in tomorrow's match! We'll be there to cheer for you!"
Miya Atsumu caught the autograph board, pulled a black signing pen from his pocket, then bit the cap off with his teeth, quickly scribbling a fairly perfect signature for her.
Hinata, standing behind him, glanced sideways at him and blinked without saying anything.
Shiratori reached out and poked him, showing him his own signature: "Is this okay?"
Hinata nodded vigorously: "That's perfectly fine!"
He handed the notebook back to Bokuto again, pointing to a blank space and asking Bokuto to sign it: "There's also one for Bokuto-senpai, just sign here!"
Bokuto handed the beef jerky in his hand to Hinata, staring at the notebook in deep thought for a while. "Signatures.. Oh, I get it!"
He picked out a very eye-catching fluorescent pink pen and scribbled down an extremely ugly name with a series of quick strokes.
Seeing his handwriting, Shiratori fell silent.
“Shoyo wants an autograph, why did you just write some random name for him?”
His temples were throbbing: "Don't tell me you still haven't designed your own signature."
Bokuto hadn't reacted yet: "A signature? Isn't it just a matter of writing my name?"
“And.. um.. a design too?”
After saying that, he looked at his own signature, then looked at the perfect signature of Shiratori above him, which was as elegant as a master calligrapher's, felt that something was indeed missing.
Bokuto leaned in to look at Shiratori and asked, "Then Natsume, can you design one for me? I really can't wrap my head around it."
Shiratori replied irritably, "I don't care, do it yourself."
Bokuto looked again at Akaashi, who had just finished using the restroom and returned to greet Hinata: "Akaashi—an autograph!"
Akaashi wasn't sure what was happening: "What?"
Shiratori waved his hand. "He wants you to help him design a signature."
Akaashi thought for a moment, then said, "Shiratori-senpai would be better at this kind of thing, I remember Shiratori-senpai's handwriting is very beautiful."
Before this, he had never seen anyone's handwriting be so neat and beautiful.
Bokuto drew out his voice: "Natsume—"
Miya Atsumu, having finished signing autographs for his fans, walked over and whispered into Hinata's ear, "Look, Shiratori-senpai is completely under his thumb."
He could tell that Bokuto himself might not have intended that at all, but in his usual social interactions, Bokuto could figure out where the other person's limits were and then use his subconscious way to seek their compromise.
In this regard, although Hinata does not do it quite that way, it is actually not much different.
Although Shiratori was strict with Bokuto, he could rarely withstand his persistent pestering, most of the time, he would ultimately grit his teeth and agree to all of Bokuto's various requests.
Hinata nodded seriously. "Yeah."
Sensing something was off, Miya Atsumu looked down at Hinata. "What's wrong? You don't seem very happy. Did Bokuto-senpai bully you?"
Hinata didn't look at Miya Atsumu, but simply shook his head, watching as Shiratori directly tore up the paper that had both his own signature and that caterpillar-shaped scribble from Bokuto on it.
And then he used the back to write several very artistic signatures for Bokuto.
Bokuto looked left and right, but in the end, he couldn't find a single fault.
Shiratori gave up: "Go back and study it yourself; you can ask Coach for his opinion."
He subtly shifted the trouble onto Coach Raphael, then signed his name again on a blank page and handed the notebook back to Hinata.
Shiratori solemnly instructed, "If you want Bokuto's right now, you can have him sign a new page."
He couldn't accept his signature being placed right next to that unrefined name!
If it were Hinata, he might be able to tolerate it, but Bokuto would be absolutely out of the question!
After speaking, Shiratori pulled a clipboard from his pocket and handed it to Miya Atsumu: "Atsu-kun, will you give me an autograph?"
Miya Atsumu had originally wanted to refuse, but under everyone's gaze, he ultimately agreed: "Okay."
After getting Miya Atsumu's signature, Shiratori looked at Hinata again.
Hinata waved his hands dismissively. "I haven't even finished designing my own signature yet.."
Shiratori suggested, "Then once you've finished the design, you have to give me one first."
Hinata was just about to nod when Miya Atsumu chimed in from beside him, "No way, Shoyo promised to sign for me. Shiratori-senpai, you can wait until Shoyo joins a professional team and it's Fan Appreciation Day."
Shiratori didn't bother listening to Miya Atsumu and said to Hinata again, "I'll be there whenever you call.
Miya Atsumu's expression contorted.
Before leaving, Shiratori also pulled a series of snacks out of his pocket, such as chocolate bars and beef jerky prepared for Bokuto, shoved them all at once into Hinata's hands.
See you tomorrow—
Hinata also waved to the two of them: "Mhm, see you tomorrow, seniors!"
Miya Atsumu couldn't help but curl his lip. "College students really have too much free time, don't they? Don't they even train?"
Hinata blinked. "The university championships are held in November, right?"
I remember Natsume-senpai saying that their freshmen haven't been merged into the various regional prefectural teams yet, so they can't participate in the National Sports Festival, but they will be competing here next year.
Players from professional teams will also participate, but because this year's National Sports Festival was postponed, causing its schedule to conflict with the V League schedule, the quality of the participating teams in this year's National Sports Festival has dropped by more than just a little compared to previous years.
Most of them are all university students. Although there are players with high quality comparable to professionals, it is ultimately a bit less exciting without professional players leading the teams.
Miya Atsumu's focus was as sharp as ever: "Since when did you two become so close?"
Hinata answered honestly, "I heard about it while practicing beach volleyball at Central Physical Education University, because I was very curious about university life."
As the two of them were about to walk into the spectator stands, a voice rang out from the side: "Ohhh! Shoyo-kun! Can you give me an autograph?"
It was clearly a child from elementary school, or perhaps just starting junior high, who also raised their hand: "Me too, me too!"
Hinata-senshu is amazing! I want to be as strong as you in the future!
Hinata replied, "I can, but I haven't practiced my autograph yet.."
The young, cheerful woman shook her head and handed over a volleyball: "It's okay! Just write a name!"
Miya Atsumu pursed his lips behind them, his gaze toward the other person not being particularly friendly.
Under the expectant gazes of the two, Hinata very, very seriously wrote his name on that volleyball, ten thousand times more carefully than he had filled in his name on an exam paper.
The child waved vigorously at Hinata: "Goodbye, Hinata-senshu! Good luck in your match!!"
Hinata also said goodbye to him, "See you!"
Walking into the corridor, Hinata immediately noticed Miya Atsumu's unpleasant expression.
He guessed almost instantly what was on Miya Atsumu's mind and couldn't help but say, "Atsumu-ge, you're actually getting jealous of a child."
Miya Atsumu turned his head and pointed toward the previous position with his nose. "Is that a child?"
Hinata's eyes widened: "That lady is clearly that kid's mother!"
Hearing this, Miya Atsumu froze. "For real? She looks so young?"
Hinata patted his chest. "Trust me, there's no mistake."
Although the other party had a way of maintaining his youth, his intuition was never wrong, he could feel that sense of intimacy between the two that stemmed from familial bonds.
Hinata stopped in his tracks, hands on his hips as he looked at Miya Atsumu: "Speaking of which, Atsumu-ge was clearly the first one to go and sign autographs for the fans."
Even though Hinata was clearly the shorter one, Miya Atsumu felt like he couldn't hold his head up.
But Miya Atsumu didn't care, still stubbornly insisting, "It was clearly Shoyo who went to talk to Natsume-senpai first, you didn't even care about me."
You didn't even realize I was lost, Shoyo.
Hinata stared at Miya Atsumu: "I know, I've been watching Atsumu-ge all along."
Under such an intense gaze, Miya Atsumu couldn't help but take a step back.
He steadied himself, narrowing his eyes slightly as he looked back at Hinata. "A sudden confession? You really know how to cheat, Shoyo."
"Huh?" Hinata tilted his head, failing to realize what Miya Atsumu was saying.
He was merely stating the facts.
Just like on the court, during an attack, he sometimes doesn't even need to look at the ball, but he must keep an eye on the Setter's position.
Miya Atsumu's figure was always right in front of his eyes.
For a moment, Miya Atsumu didn't know what to say. He let out a soft sigh and raised his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright, this match is about to end anyway. Let's get ready to go back and watch the footage."
Hinata nodded in agreement: "Okay!"
Just as Miya Atsumu had said, by the time they returned to the second floor, the long notification sound had already gone off. The score on the big screen froze at Shirabu 24:26 Rakusan, with Rakusan winning 2:1.
Watching the two teams lined up on the court to greet each other, Hinata said softly, "Next year's opponents will be Haruka Arai and her team.."
Miya Atsumu nodded slightly and commented coldly, "It won't be a big problem. The biggest change for Rakusan lately is that their overall coordination is much better than before, but their fundamentals won't undergo any major changes in a short period. Their previous offense and defense intensity was just okay, they won't be too difficult to deal with now either."
Hinata pondered for a moment before replying, "But if their coordination improves.. they'll be able to keep up with Kureha, the Middle Blocker, right?"
I remember their Captain Harukawa's blocking is very strong.
Given that they already possessed some advantages in blocking, strengthening the blocking on the other side is very significant.
Just like Inarizaki themselves, by injecting fresh blood like Tokura into the situation where Suna was already the core of the block, their blocking will no longer be the weakness it once was after their coordination gradually improves.
In short, it probably won't be easy for him to score too many points against Rakusan's block this time.
Miya Atsumu thought for a moment before replying, "Yeah.. I suppose so."
Hinata froze for a moment. "Sort of?"
To be honest, as a player who transitioned from Wing Spiker to Middle Blocker, Aoba Kureha's own processing isn't all that clear," Miya Atsumu said, pointing his finger at the tall guy on the court, "His own judgment isn't very strong, so many times before, he would act on impulse and just resort to one-on-one blocks.
But his height is excellent, he's fast enough, so his one-on-one block ability is actually very strong.
Hinata understood: "So by being in the back row now, he'll actually lose his previous advantage in mobility?"
Miya Atsumu gave Hinata a thumbs up. "That's exactly it."
While I wouldn't rule out the possibility that they're holding something back, given Rakusan's overall performance level.. it's unlikely.