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“ROOOAAARRR~~!”
Looking completely fired up, Omae Masato let out an excited howl towards the sky.
The referee shot him a warning glare immediately.
‘Why do you have to howl every time your team wins a point? Can’t you learn from your team’s ace and keep your cool after scoring?’
17:12.
In a volleyball match where offense and defense constantly alternate between both teams, once the score gap reaches five points or more, the outcome is usually all but decided.
A comeback wasn’t completely impossible.
It’s just that Asuto would never give Kosen Junior Academy that opportunity.
Second set, 24 minutes in.
The Sengoku Junior High School Volleyball Club won the second set 25–21.
After winning two consecutive sets, Sengoku Junior High’s momentum surged, while Kosen Junior Academy fell completely silent.
Even their coach no longer seemed to know how to motivate the team.
However, in the third set, Kosen Junior Academy suddenly exploded with momentum when Asuto unexpectedly fell into poor form during that round. He made errors on all four of his serves, handing Kosen Junior four points and allowing them to pull back one set.
The overall score became 2–1.
Asuto’s mistakes gave Kosen Junior Academy’s coach a glimmer of hope, as he could finally see a chance of a comeback.
But that faint hope was extinguished in the very next set.
At the start of the fourth set…
Asuto scored two straight points with his serves.
After that, he displayed astonishing physical ability. Even after three grueling sets, when players from both teams were almost exhausted, he still had incredible vertical jump height and devastating spike power. Despite facing triple blocks repeatedly, he smashed through Kosen Junior Academy’s defense with powerful spikes, scoring several more consecutive points.
And with that, the qualifiers finally came to an end.
Final score: 3–1.
For the very first time since its establishment, the Sengoku Junior High School Volleyball Club had earned qualification for the Nationals.
When the result was announced, everyone at the match erupted into excited cheers: the Sengoku Junior High volleyball club members, the coaches, the teachers in the stands, the Vocal Club members, the cheering students, and the parents.
Especially the volleyball club players.
Whether they had been on the court or not, they all rushed towards Asuto like madmen, surrounded him completely, and lifted him high into the air.
“Champions! We’re champions!”
“Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!”
“We’re going to the Nationals too!”
…
There were celebratory cannons, ceremonies, awards, and interviews.
For the first time in their lives, everyone at Sengoku Junior High School experienced what it felt like to be treated like champions.
Especially Asuto.
As the ace who had practically carried Sengoku Junior High School to the national stage single-handedly, he was the focus of considerable attention from reporters.
Of course…
Most of the reporters were from sports newspapers and magazines in Miyagi Prefecture, but it was still quite remarkable.
After the match ended…
Back home, Asuto finally enjoyed a relaxing weekend.
To be honest, today’s match against Kosen Junior Academy hadn’t put as much pressure on him as the earlier battle against Kitagawa Daiichi Junior High. In terms of pure strength, the strongest team among Miyagi Prefecture’s middle school volleyball teams this year, aside from Sengoku Junior High, was still Kitagawa Daiichi.
Of course, that was assuming that Kageyama Tobio could perform normally.
When Monday arrived, and everyone returned to school, a huge banner had already been hung in the centre of the school building.
[Congratulations to Our Volleyball Club for Achieving Outstanding Results at the Nationals!!!]
The principal of Sengoku Junior High School was probably even happier than the volleyball club members.
In Japan, the results of extracurricular activities are one of the most important factors influencing a school’s enrollment rate and the caliber of its students. For many academically excellent students, the second most important factor when choosing a school is often the range of clubs and extracurricular activities on offer.
A school’s enrollment rate and the quality of its incoming students directly affect the amount of financial support it receives from the board of directors.
One could easily imagine, then, that, just how enormous a surprise and delight it was for the principal of Sengoku Junior High School when the volleyball club, which had always been fairly mediocre and unremarkable, suddenly performed exceptionally well this year, winning the Miyagi Prefecture championship and advancing to the Nationals.
The main players instantly became celebrities within the school.
And they were real celebrities.
Due to Japan’s educational system, a middle school would typically have two or three hundred students per year group, with around thirty students in each class.
In such a small student population, news of a major event in a single class would usually spread throughout the entire year group in less than a day.
As for the volleyball club’s historic achievement this time…
Half a day was enough for the news to spread across the whole school.
From Monday, when they returned to school…
For quite a long time afterwards, Masato Omae would be constantly surrounded by a group of boys listening to him brag.
Meanwhile, Asuto experienced the exact opposite.
For the past several days, he had been constantly surrounded by groups of younger girls.
And those girls were unbelievably annoying.
They didn’t come to ask him about volleyball.
Nor did they come to listen to him boast.
Instead, they bombarded him with all kinds of weird and random questions.
For example:
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“What kind of girls do you like?”
“Which high school are you planning to attend?”
…
These questions had been driving Asuto crazy lately.
Question after question after question.
What’s the point of just asking?
‘If you girls actually have feelings for me, at least make a move already!’
Naturally…
All of that was just him joking around in his head.
In reality, while things were indeed like that during class hours, once school ended, Asuto and Omae Masato could barely be found by their classmates.
This was because the entire volleyball club had entered closed training sessions to prepare for the upcoming Nationals.
Every member of the volleyball club was overflowing with enthusiasm this time.
Not only because it was the first time the Sengoku Junior High Volleyball Club had participated in the Nationals, but also because, for the third-year members, it would be their last appearance.
Consequently, Asuto had recently found himself unable to ‘go all out’. Although he was still training far more than his teammates, he could no longer push himself to double his usual efforts. Consequently, he had gone several consecutive days without receiving any feedback from the [Involution Grind Value] system.
Meanwhile, Shimokawa Mitsuto had been wearing a cheerful smile every day recently.
Clearly, with the volleyball club reaching the Nationals, the school’s rewards for him would probably be substantial.
On the other side of the school, the Vocal Club had also been practicing hard during this period.
Even though they were only there to cheer the team on, the volleyball club was about to compete on the national stage. If they embarrassed themselves during the matches, they would end up being laughed at by the entire country…
For the sake of this Nationals tournament, every member of Sengoku Junior High was putting in effort in their own way.
And so, time gradually passed by.
In the blink of an eye, two weeks went by.
The Nationals were about to begin.
Every member of the volleyball club stood ready and fully prepared as they headed toward Tokyo…
(End of Chapter)
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