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April.
The season when cherry blossoms bloomed.
The young Kageyama Tobio regretfully missed out on the prefecture’s number one volleyball powerhouse, Shiratorizawa, because his high school entrance exam scores were just a tiny bit short, by about ‘a hundred million points’, and instead chose the once-great but now declining powerhouse, Karasuno High School.
The first day of school arrived.
While everyone else was busy making new friends, getting familiar with their new surroundings, and joining clubs, Kageyama Tobio arrived early at the volleyball gym to start practicing.
Since losing the final middle school match against Sengoku Junior High, he had spent most of his time strengthening his serves, aside from reflecting on his own problems.
Precisely because of that, he ended up achieving the lowest exam score in his personal history on the entrance exams.
Just as he was halfway through practicing serves alone, a small figure burst into the gym, interrupting his training rhythm.
That’s right… This person was none other than…
It’s him! It’s him! It’s him!
Our little sunshine, the man destined for Kageyama Tobio…
Hinata Shoyo!
The first meeting between these two teammates, whose personalities were completely different yet destined to be intertwined, was never going to be peaceful.
After a series of events, including disliking each other on sight, angering the volleyball club captain, Sawamura Daichi, accidentally knocking off the dean’s wig with a volleyball, being kicked out of the gym, and various other incidents, the two were finally ready to play together.
The situation ultimately evolved, rather dramatically, into a [Rookie Match].
And right at that moment…
Three other newly joined volleyball club members happened to walk into the gym.
One of them was exceptionally tall, with short blonde hair and black-rimmed glasses. At close to 190 centimeters tall, he stood out dramatically among the group.
Another had an ordinary appearance, marred by several pockmarks, and would be completely unrecognizable if thrown into a crowd.
The last one was slim and handsome, but he somehow seemed weak.
The moment Kageyama Tobio saw the third man, the irritation in his eyes sharpened suddenly.
“You?”
The person Kageyama had fixed his gaze on stiffened for a moment. Then he slapped his forehead and gradually put on a mask of suffering.
“Why are you here?”
“I should be asking you that. With your ability, you should’ve joined Shiratorizawa by now.”
The corners of Oda Miki’s mouth twitched slightly. No matter how he thought about it, he had never expected to encounter this headache-inducing guy here.
After all…
The reason he chose Karasuno High School wasn’t just because it was his older brother’s alma mater.
There was another, even more important reason:
Karasuno’s volleyball club had been in decline over the past few years.
A middling-strength volleyball club like this one was perfect for satisfying his interest in the sport while still allowing him to slack off and coast through life.
On top of that, Karasuno’s advanced academic classes also had fairly decent university acceptance rates.
Combining those two factors, this should have been the ideal high school for Oda Miki to enjoy his youth peacefully.
But why was he here?
Why was he here too?
Suddenly, Oda Miki felt an inexplicable sense of dread about his future at high school.
“I didn’t get into Shiratorizawa.”
When he had told Hinata Shoyo this before, Kageyama Tobio had felt pretty embarrassed. But now, when faced with Oda Miki, he responded in a completely self-righteous manner.
Oda Miki felt a little powerless.
“Well, that makes sense. Shiratorizawa is also one of the prefecture’s top academic schools, so gaining a place based on exam results alone is genuinely difficult. Their volleyball style doesn’t really suit you either, so they probably didn’t offer you a place through the special recruitment scheme.”
“Hey, Kageyama! Who’s this guy? You know him?”
Seeing Kageyama, who had been arguing with him constantly since they met, suddenly chatting enthusiastically with someone he had just met made Hinata Shoyo dissatisfied, and he interrupted in a low voice.
“Hah? Shorty, you don’t even know who he is? Back in middle school, he was the opposite hitter for Sengoku Junior High School. You know, the team that defeated Kitagawa Daiichi, led by the ‘King’ standing beside you.”
Before Kageyama could respond, the tall boy standing beside Oda Miki, Tsukishima Kei, suddenly spoke up in a sarcastic tone.
The moment the word ‘King’ was uttered, Kageyama’s expression instantly darkened.
Oda Miki turned his head and glanced at Tsukishima Kei.
“Come to think of it, I had a feeling earlier that you were a pretty awful person.”
“Really? Then I’m truly honored by the praise coming from a ‘champion’.”
Oda Miki: “······”
‘Ah… this is exhausting.’
Even though it was only their first meeting, Oda Miki already felt mentally drained enough to want to quit Karasuno’s volleyball club altogether.
He had a strong feeling that if he kept hanging around these people, his high school life was going to become extremely ‘eventful.’
“Cham-cham-champion?!”
Hearing Tsukishima Kei refer to Oda Miki that way, Hinata Shoyo’s eyes instantly lit up as he excitedly bounced up and down.
“So amazing! I didn’t expect a champion to join our volleyball club!”
Oda Miki glanced at him.
Mm.
After confirming through eye contact…
Yep, he’s another overly energetic person.
Oda Miki silently took two steps backward, preparing to make use of his weak sense of presence and quietly slip away from this place that was making his blood heat up a little too much.
However, before he could leave the gym, he heard Kageyama’s voice come from behind him.
“Hey… what school did that guy end up going to?”
Without naming names, Oda Miki knew exactly who Kageyama Tobio was referring to.
After thinking for a moment, he turned around and replied:
“Him? Right now, he’s at…”
…
…
“H-He-He-He… Why is he here?!”
Yutaro Kindaichi and Akira Kunimi had just bought a drink each from the vending machines. Before they had taken more than a couple of sips, Yutaro suddenly widened his eyes as if he had seen something unbelievable and nearly sprayed his drink everywhere.
Akira Kunimi turned to look as well, a trace of surprise appearing on his face.
“So those two ended up coming to Aoba Johsai too?”
Directly ahead of them, a handsome, graceful, suave, and talented young man was walking towards the vending machines alongside an average-looking boy.
As they drew closer, the two in the distance also seemed to notice Yutaro Kindaichi and Akira Kunimi.
The handsome young man revealed a smile and proactively raised a hand in greeting.
“Yo! Meeting again already, you two! Looks like we’ll be fighting side by side for the next three years.”
······
(End of Chapter)
You can read ahead up to 30 chapters on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395