Coach Suzaku quickly tore open the packaging, reached out to take the headband off Hinata's head, put on the Shwaiden Adler style one: "Wear this today; it's a reward for the brave."
Of course, it was also to prevent Hinata from being mobbed by Shwaiden Adler's fanatic fans when he went out.
Hinata reached out to touch the bird spreading its wings on his head and gave a cheeky grin toward the coach. "Thanks, Coach Suzaku!"
Suzaku added, "Once you've collected all your stamps and come back to find me, I'll take you to the storage room to pick out some volleyballs."
Hearing this, Hinata froze for a moment, but he didn't understand what Suzaku meant.
He just nodded, then said goodbye to the other person.
Miya Atsumu stood with his arms crossed, watching Hinata return.
The first thing he wanted to do was take off the Shwaiden Adler mascot headband and fix Hinata's hair that had been flattened by it.
In fact, he didn't actually plan on letting Hinata walk around Shwaiden Adler wearing the headband; he just wanted to spite the coach who tried to poach him right in front of his face.
After all.. Shwaiden Adler himself probably wouldn't hold the two of them back, but it's hard to say with some of the irrational fans.
Coach Suzaku took the initiative to ask, "Miya-kun, do you want to give it a try?"
Miya Atsumu shook his head. "This one? I'll come back and try it later."
He could tell that Hinata was in a hurry, so he decided to go through the simple and quick items from the beginning first.
"Alright." Coach Suzaku nodded.
Hinata grabbed Miya Atsumu and they ran out together, only having enough time to say hello to Inamoto.
Mingsha watched the two of them leave, raising a hand to scratch his head with a hint of disappointment. "I didn't even get to have a proper conversation with them.."
Meanwhile, on the other side, after asking Ushijima and confirming that he intended to observe for a little longer, Inamoto decided to take the court.
He silently cheered himself on and said to Coach Suzaku, "I'm ready!"
Coach Suzaku froze for a moment, then asked subconsciously, "Was that just Hinata's?"
Inamoto didn't quite understand what Coach Suzaku meant, only replying, "Yeah, that's right."
Is this the only event in this gymnasium? Besides the one Hinata is doing, are there any others?
Suzaku decided to respect Inamoto's wishes and signaled that they would still provide it in the Dual Wield style.
A few minutes passed, Inamoto collapsed onto the ground, unable to get back up.
Out of ten balls, he only received two.
Not human.. they're both not human..
That damn Shwaiden Adler isn't human, Hinata, who could receive five of them, isn't human either.
Was that even a human's reaction speed?! He simply couldn't keep up! The ball just suddenly appeared; it was terrifying!
On the other side, Hinata and Miya Atsumu had already begun their speed-run through the events, starting with the one with the fewest participants.
Compared to the previous event, the preceding activities were all very basic and simple; some were successful by just using a serve to hit a water bottle, while others involved an S-shaped shuttle run.
Hinata swept all the events and returned to the last gymnasium with a stamp booklet containing all seven stamps.
It was different from when they arrived; most people had already progressed to this point, so there was a long line at the entrance.
Coach Suzaku, who was feeling a bit tired from standing, was sitting to one side, while a long-haired male coach had taken over his duties.
Unlike the scene of laughter and cheers in the previous gymnasium, Hinata heard children crying as soon as he entered.
In his field of vision, Inamoto was crouching in a corner, the Junior High junior he had brought along was also sulking.
Hinata was a bit bewildered: "What happened?"
Seeing the culprit walk in, Inamoto, who already knew the truth, suddenly stood up: "It's all your fault—Hinata!"
Because there was a grand prize at stake, everyone who followed them in decided to give it a try, as it evolved, Dual Wield actually became a permanent fixture.
Up until now, Hinata was the only one to pass all the tests, although there were two children who passed after the difficulty was lowered.
Miya Atsumu raised an eyebrow slightly. "No way, are you all really that weak?"
Persecuted Inamoto, maintaining the mindset of a dead pig that isn't afraid of hot water, asked decisively, "Atsumu-senpai, which difficulty level do you plan to challenge?"
Miya Atsumu didn't hesitate: "The easy one, of course."
He curled the corner of his mouth.
“A person's greatest asset is self-awareness.”
Chapter 464: The Four Hundred and Sixty-Fourth Fox
Inamoto's mind went blank, as he watched Miya Atsumu's smile, he felt like his whole world was falling apart.
He and Mingsha both attempted that level of difficulty just now, but Mingsha only managed to receive one, now he is sulking.
Coach Suzaku had originally wanted to let Ushijima give it a try, but Ushijima had come here primarily to discuss something with the youth training coaches, so he had just left and did not participate.
In the end.. the only ones being persecuted by those two from Inarizaki were the two of them!
He said! No wonder Coach Suzaku had that attitude from the very beginning! It turns out Hinata's challenge was the ultimate difficulty version!
After scaring his junior, Miya Atsumu, in a great mood, turned and waved his hand at the two of them. "Reflect on yourselves, you two. I'm going to go line up."
The prize Hinata received belonged to Hinata himself, he still really wanted Heiwajima-senpai's autograph. Besides, a volleyball was worth quite a bit of money; he might as well take it.
Inamoto watched Miya Atsumu leave, then stared for a while at Hinata, who had already started talking to Coach Suzaku and was being patted on the head by him, before silently pulling out his phone and typing with grief and indignation.
Mingsha took a step toward him. "What are you going to do, senpai?"
Inamoto said with a face full of righteous indignation, "Call Komori-senpai over for revenge."
They couldn't handle a challenge of this difficulty, but Komori-senpai definitely could!
Staring at Inamoto's profile for a while, Mingsha asked earnestly, "Senpai, we don't have any extra tickets, ticket checking should have stopped at the entrance.."
Inamoto knelt on the ground.
Suzaku said to Hinata with a smile, "The timing is perfect. I'll take you to the storage room to pick out some volleyballs, we can take a commemorative photo while we're at it."
Shwaiden Adler holds this event once a year, everyone who passes all the tests stays behind for a group photo, which is hung separately on the walls of their activity room to make it convenient for future newspaper publications.
Actually, the prizes for passing the first six items were what most people managed to get. Because the difficulty of the final item was so high, only about six or seven people were actually able to pass everything in each session.
And because of the scene Hinata caused this year, only three people had qualified by the time more than half of the event had passed.
But since we have to select players, we might as well increase the difficulty to the maximum.
Future activities should follow this same level of difficulty, though the prizes for succeeding in all six items should be raised a bit higher..
Hinata asked proactively, "Can we wait for Atsumu-ge?"
Glancing at Miya Atsumu, who was still in line, Coach Suzaku readily agreed, "Of course."
Everyone in front of Miya Atsumu had failed, so when it was his turn, the coach standing by the side of the court instinctively prepared to have the difficulty set to the high-difficulty Dual Wield mode.
But in the next second, Miya Atsumu raised his hand and said, "I'll just try the regular version."
What a joke, he had no interest in humiliating himself.
Moreover, after the match the day before yesterday, his legs still feel sore, so it's impossible to ask him to attempt such a high-difficulty challenge!
Coach Suzaku glanced at Miya Atsumu and couldn't help but chuckle.
He turned his head toward Hinata and said, "Good job in the match, I look forward to your performance at Haruko."
Hinata nodded earnestly. "I'll do my best, I won't let my results be any worse than this time!"
Hearing him say that, Coach Suzaku's smile deepened: "Then I'll be looking forward to it."
To be honest, if Hinata could truly achieve the goal of getting better results at Haruko that he spoke of, then he would indeed choose to advise his old friend to stop being so obsessed with Hinata.
There is a chasm as wide as a canyon between winning two consecutive championships with the team and winning two MVPs.
It's not that Hinata's standards would become higher, but rather that a player like him requires an abundance of resources to be fully utilized, Dai Nippon Railway, currently in the lower-to-middle tier of the V1, might not be able to afford to support him.
Moreover, even if Dai Nippon Railway were willing to exhaust all its resources to nurture Hinata, it would ultimately fail to see a corresponding return, as it would lack the strength to recruit teammates capable of matching him.
From his perspective, the players suitable for Dai Nippon Railway should actually be players like Hakuma Mebuki, who already possess established talent and only need to be developed along a predetermined path, rather than players like Hinata, whose potential is impossible to see the end of.
Blind recruitment would be a burden to both the players and the club itself.
Miya Atsumu's performance was quite stable; he received seven out of ten balls in easy mode, exceeding his target.
After all, the speed of these balls wasn't particularly outrageous, Miya Atsumu's own ball control was quite good, making this kind of project with broad judgment relatively easy to handle.
Hinata cheered by the sidelines, "That was so cool! Atsumu-ge!"
Watching Miya Atsumu walk over to high-five Hinata, Coach Suzaku laughed heartily, "You players from Inarizaki certainly have a great bond."
Miya Atsumu, who had pulled out his stamp collection album, felt a momentary pang of guilt for half a second, but he still honestly handed the album to Coach Suzaku: "Of course, the relationship between us Inarizaki players has always been very good."
After all, I am a mature Captain, I should be able to handle the relationships between my teammates.
Hinata glanced sideways at Miya Atsumu and silently shut his mouth.
After stamping Miya Atsumu's one as well, Coach Suzaku asked him which player's signature he wanted during registration, Miya Atsumu's answer was, without a doubt, Heiwajima.
As for Hinata, there was no special registration, since the current priority was to let Hinata choose twenty-two volleyballs for himself.
Although they only kept Mikasa in their warehouse, because they had partnerships, they didn't just have the standard colors and styles; there were also some limited editions from previous events, such as pink, purple, red, yellow colorways, as well as some with very vibrant patterns.
Those were things they didn't even use during their usual training, they had been piling up in the warehouse gathering dust, so they could only rely on various events to give some of them away.
However.. now is a perfect time for them to go and play.
After taking a photo with Miya Atsumu and Hinata, Coach Suzaku led the two of them to Shwaiden Adler's warehouse.
The warehouse was huge, with all kinds of equipment arranged in an orderly fashion according to their different uses. Once the lights were turned on, it looked very tidy.
Coach Suzaku led the two of them all the way to the very back, passing several carts filled with volleyballs along the way.
In front of a wall covered with a dust sheet at the very back of the warehouse, Coach Suzaku stopped in his tracks.
“We're here.”
After saying that, he pressed the switch on the wall, the curtains above slowly pulled apart to both sides, revealing a massive steel racking system inside that was over ten stories high.
Looking at the dazzling array of volleyballs above, Hinata's mouth hung open, his face filled with shock.