“Why do I have to do this kind of thing anyway?”
Inside the Karasuno volleyball gym, Oda Miki looked at the “Freak Duo” plus Ryūnosuke Tanaka excitedly stepping onto the court in practice uniforms. A pained expression gradually spread across his face.
“Captain, why did you have to drag me into this match? If you want someone to coordinate with Tsukishima, wouldn’t Yamaguchi be a better fit?”
“Mm~ Don’t worry about those details. Let’s work hard together, Oda!” Daichi Sawamura patted Oda Miki on the shoulder and said with a cheerful smile.
Oda Miki: “······”
‘This really doesn’t feel like the high school life I imagined.’
………
The match format was 3 vs 3.
Green Team: Sawamura Daichi, Tsukishima Kei, and Oda Miki.
vs.
Red Team: Tanaka Ryūnosuke, Hinata Shōyō, and Kageyama Tobio.
Kageyama served first.
After walking to the baseline with the ball in hand, he exhaled softly. Once he had calmed down, he slowly tossed the volleyball high into the air, leapt upward, and unleashed a high-speed jump serve with full force.
Bang!
The ball traced an arc through the air as it rapidly descended towards the backcourt of the Green Team.
“Oh! What an amazing jump serve!”
Watching from the sidelines, Kōshi Sugawara cried out in admiration immediately.
But in the very next second…
Just as the ball was about to hit the floor, a figure slid sideways and crisply smacked the high-speed serve.
It was Oda Miki.
“Nice Receive, Oda!”
Sawamura Daichi’s eyes lit up.
In volleyball, receiving is a better indicator of solid fundamentals than spiking or serving. From that single reception alone, Sawamura could tell that Oda Miki had an extremely solid volleyball technique.
As you would expect from a player on a championship team.
When he saw his first serve returned, Kageyama clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. However, he quickly refocused on the match and shouted, “Watch the defense!”
Bang!
The moment he finished speaking, a spike slammed down onto their side of the court.
Green Team scored first.
“So he really is a genius… In such a short amount of time, the power, speed, and precision of his serve have all improved.” Oda Miki glanced at his slightly reddened wrist and couldn’t help but comment.
“The one who should be surprised is me. Back in junior high, you couldn’t return serves like that.” Kageyama’s sharp gaze pierced through the block and landed on Oda Miki as he slowly spoke.
Oda Miki shook his head.
“That’s different. The only reason I can return your serves is because I’m used to them by now. In reality, my technique hasn’t improved all that much. At Nationals, there were plenty of teams with powerful servers. Back then, if you couldn’t return a serve, the match would basically end right there.”
There was another thing that Oda Miki didn’t say aloud:
Their team used to have someone who could perform this kind of serve too, with even greater speed and power.
“Nationals…”
Hearing that word, Kageyama’s breathing faltered slightly and his hands clenched subconsciously into fists.
Despite being quite famous within the prefecture during junior high, Kageyama had never once advanced to Nationals for various reasons.
“Nationals… This year, I’m definitely going.”
“Heh! You’re pretty fired up. But if you’re still the same as you were back in junior high, then you probably won’t stand much of a chance of winning this year either…”
“Hey, Oda!”
Sawamura Daichi’s expression suddenly changed. Worried that Oda Miki might be stepping on one of Kageyama’s emotional landmines, he sharply interrupted him.
“Relax, Captain. I’m not mocking him. After all, it was our school that defeated Kitagawa Daiichi back in junior high. I’m not petty enough to sneer at someone we’ve already beaten.”
Oda Miki waved his hand casually while speaking.
“I’m just stating a fact. I think Kageyama himself understands that, too.”
‘“Yeah~~ I know.” Kageyama’s expression remained calm, as though he had accepted Oda Miki’s words.
However, in Oda Miki’s eyes, although Kageyama had changed a lot since junior high, some of his deeper-rooted problems were far from easy to fix.
Nevertheless, Oda never expected to educate Kageyama properly. At most, he was simply giving him a reminder for now.
Afterwards, Oda Miki looked towards Hinata and said:
“And that guy over there… I’ll just call you Hinata-kun. Hinata-kun, your basic techniques are really poor…”
Hinata Shoyo: “( )!!!”
“But your physical talent is actually very impressive…”
Hinata Shoyo: “(o▽)o”
“So in the upcoming match, if you want to fully bring out your strengths, then you should focus on winning with your physical abilities instead of trying to compete with us in technique. Do you understand?”
“I understand!”
Hinata happily accepted Oda Miki’s advice.
Having played volleyball for three years at junior high school, Hinata had never received proper formal training, so advice from a ‘professional’ and ‘championship player’ like Oda Miki naturally sounded incredibly impressive.
“But I have a question. It’s a match right now, so why are you helping our side? Aren’t we opponents at the moment?” Hinata asked, confused.
‘Why?’
‘Of course, so you can get stronger faster, beat us quickly, and end the match sooner!’
Hearing Hinata’s question, Oda Miki silently complained to himself.
But outwardly, what he said was:
“Hahaha… What’s the problem with that? Don’t forget, we’re only playing a practice match right now. In the future, we’ll all be teammates. So compared to winning or losing, improving through the match is the more important thing.”
“OHHHHHH~~~~”
Hinata Shoyo cried out in amazement. His eyes sparkled as though he had suddenly achieved enlightenment.
But the very next second… he abruptly came back to his senses and exclaimed:
“No, wait! The result of this match is really important! If we lose, we won’t be allowed to join the volleyball club, and I won’t get to be your teammate!”
Oda Miki: “Uh… I don’t think the reason you can’t join the volleyball club has much to do with winning or losing. Captain kicked you out because on your very first day, you refused to listen to him and used a volleyball to knock off the dean’s wig.”
“…”
The air fell silent for a brief moment.
Then, the next second, Hinata Shoyo suddenly turned pale with shock and hurriedly asked Kageyama:
“Kageyama, don’t tell me he’s actually right?!”
Kageyama shouted back: “How would I know something like that?!”
Everyone else: ‘…’
‘Good grief… So even now, the two of you still don’t understand what you actually did wrong!’
(End of Chapter)