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March.
The season of graduation.
After attending the school’s graduation ceremony, Asuto and Omae Masato arrived at the volleyball club, where a smaller ceremony specifically for the club was also taking place.
They were the last to arrive. By the time they arrived, the other third-year starters had already said everything they wanted to say to their first- and second-year juniors.
Judging by the reddened eyes of the underclassmen, they had clearly already cried.
“Asuto, perfect timing! Everyone else has already spoken, so now it’s your turn, our ‘Ace’.” Shimokawa Mitsuto waved towards Asuto.
As Asuto walked over, all of the juniors in line immediately turned their eyes toward him.
There was no doubt about it.
While the other third-years of the volleyball club were merely respected by the underclassmen, Asuto was held in outright admiration.
By relying almost entirely on his own strength, he had led the Sengoku Junior High School Volleyball Club from being an ordinary, unremarkable sports club to becoming the champions of Miyagi Prefecture and even advancing all the way to the third round of the Nationals.
An achievement like that was enough to make him a legendary figure within the Sengoku Junior High School Volleyball Club.
“Honestly, there’s not much left for me to say either. Everything that needed to be said was taught to you during this Nationals tournament. From now on, the future glory of the club will depend on all of you.”
…
After leaving the volleyball club…
The graduating third-years wandered aimlessly around the campus for a while.
“So, have you all decided on your next schools yet?”
“Pretty much.”
Kurata Mao nodded and said:
“I got pretty lucky this time. I barely made it into the admission line for Shiratorizawa Academy, so after entering high school, I’m giving up club activities and focusing entirely on preparing for university entrance exams.”
“Omae overperformed on the entrance exams this time, and his scores were a bit higher than expected, so we temporarily changed plans and chose a stronger baseball school with a higher advancement rate… Higashida High School.”
Sitting on the parallel bars, Kazama Jujirō casually replied.
Oda Miki spoke next:
“I’m going to the same high school as my older brother. I’ll probably continue playing volleyball, but my academic studies will always come first. Volleyball will just be a hobby for me.”
Omae Masato, Kazama Jujirō, Kurata Mao, and Oda Miki had basically all chosen their future schools according to the plans they had made earlier.
After listening to them, Asuto nodded and looked at the last person remaining: Mishita Ryuhei.
“What about you, Mishita? Your decision still hasn’t changed?”
Mishita Ryuhei calmly replied:
“Yeah. I already said it before… wherever you go for high school, I’ll go too.”
Asuto: “…”
‘Why did that sound kind of gay?’
Scratching the back of his head helplessly, Asuto revealed a slightly resigned expression.
“You really don’t have to do that. I told you before that with our strength, at best we could only make it to the third or fourth round of the Nationals. Even if that accident hadn’t happened during the match, our chances of winning wouldn’t have been very high.”
More than two months had already passed since the Nationals.
During the tournament, Sengoku Junior High had only managed to advance through two rounds before being eliminated in the third match.
One of the reasons for that defeat was the accident involving Mishita Ryuhei, which forced Sengoku Junior High to temporarily replace their setter.
Although the substitute setter, Nishison Tomohiko, could coordinate reasonably well with Asuto, he had absolutely no chemistry with the rest of the team.
From the outset, the team had been built around Asuto as its core strength.
Even during the first two matches at the Nationals, the weaker abilities of the other team members were gradually starting to become a flaw. They had only just about managed to hold on, thanks to Asuto’s offensive power and his coordination with the setter.
However, once Mishita Ryuhei left the court, Sengoku Junior High’s weaknesses were fully exposed.
In truth, given Sengoku Junior High’s level at the time, they could at most have reached the third or fourth round on the national stage. The further they advanced, the more obvious their flaws would become. Against national-level opponents, these flaws would prove fatal.
“I know.”
Mishita Ryuhei nodded calmly.
“But the reason I chose the same school as you isn’t because of that. I just want to see how far I can go in the future as a ‘Player’.”
“…”
“Well, since you’ve made your decision, I won’t try to persuade you anymore. Hopefully, the two of us can achieve even better results in high school than we did in middle school.”
After saying that, Asuto extended his fist.
Seeing this, Ryuhei Mishita paused briefly in surprise before revealing a faint smile and lightly bumping fists with him.
“Man, that’s nice…”
Watching the scene, Omae Masato suddenly said enviously,
“I’m seriously jealous that you two can still play volleyball together at high school. By the way, Miki, since you’ve decided to carry on playing volleyball at high school, why don’t you just go with Asuto and Mishita?”
“Absolutely not.”
The moment he finished speaking, Oda Miki crossed her arms and rejected the idea without hesitation.
“If I keep hanging around with this guy, I can already tell that my high school volleyball life is going to be exhausting. From now on, I only plan to treat volleyball as a hobby, so the most important thing for me when choosing a high school is that its volleyball club cannot be too strong.”
“Besides, Omae, aren’t you going to the same high school as Kazama Jūjirō? Why envy Asuto and Mishita?”
“Uh…”
Omae Masato instantly fell speechless.
He slowly turned his head toward Kazama Jujirō, only to meet Kazama’s “bright” smile head-on.
Kazama Jujirō: “ψ(｀∇´)ψ”
Omae Masato: “Σ(っ °Д °;)っ”
Asuto: “(￣ー￣)““`”
‘There’s definitely something weird about the relationship between you two.’
Since it was graduation day, Asuto wasn’t in a hurry to go home and grind involution training…
Ah no, practice.
Mainly because ever since the third-year volleyball club members disbanded two months ago, Asuto could no longer gain [Involution Grind Value] by out-grinding his teammates. During this period, the only way for him to obtain [Involution Grind Value] was by out-grinding himself.
But competing against himself was honestly much harder.
Whether in terms of time and effort spent or the amount of [Involution Grind Value] gained, it was completely incomparable to before.
They hung out together until evening.
Only then did Asuto part ways with the others and return home.
The moment he stepped into the entranceway, he noticed there was an extra person lying on the sofa.
Just from that utterly useless sprawled-out posture alone, without even seeing the face, Asuto already knew that Akashi Kana had returned.
“Welcome back, Asuto. Have you packed your things yet?”
(Translator- The junior high Nationals arc won’t be written in detail. After all, this is a fanfiction, and writing too much unnecessary original content would feel like padding. From here onward, the main focus will primarily be on the high school matches.)
(End of Chapter)
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