The National High School Comprehensive Sports Tournament is commonly known by several other names, including the High School League, Summer League, High School Cup, and INTER HIGH.
It was the most highly anticipated summer sporting event in Japan.
Not just volleyball, but also basketball, football, and many other sports held their competitions during this period.
During this season, not even professional sports broadcasts could rival its popularity.
It truly could be called one of the grandest events for high school students across Japan.
……
The Miyagi Prefecture volleyball preliminaries were held at Sendai City Gymnasium.
This venue hosted both Groups A and B.
During the early stages of the preliminaries, there were not many spectators in the gymnasium.
Even so, when Aoba Johsai arrived, they could still see several reporters and cameramen.
Most of them were journalists from volleyball magazines.
Within Miyagi Prefecture, Oikawa was probably the second biggest high school volleyball star after Ushijima Wakatoshi.
Half of his popularity was due to his skills.
The other half was down to his looks.
As the top seeds in Group A, Aoba Johsai did not need to play in the first match.
After discussing it, Irihata Nobuteru decided that, before their second-round match, they would observe Karasuno’s game.
After all, the practice match they had played against each other before had made quite an impression on everyone from Aoba Johsai.
“We need to study Karasuno’s duo and their powerful Quick Attack carefully. They could become our opponents later,” Irihata Nobuteru said.
“Yes!”
Everyone responded in unison.
“But there’s no need to be overly nervous. In terms of overall strength, we’re still the stronger team. Although Karasuno now has Kageyama, we also have… hm?”
Halfway through speaking, Irihata Nobuteru suddenly realized that something was amiss.
When he turned around, he immediately noticed that two people were missing from the group.
“Where are Oikawa and Asuto?”
“Ah… well…”
“What is it?”
“The two of them seem to have been surrounded outside by girls from other schools…”
Everyone: “…”
Irihata Nobuteru: “(￣ー￣) Iwaizumi, Mishita!”
Iwaizumi Hajime and Mishita Ryuhei: ‘Understood!’
……
At the entrance to the Sendai City Gymnasium…
Asuto and Oikawa stood side by side, surrounded by a crowd of fashionably dressed girls.
Oikawa wore the gentle smile of a natural playboy as he cheerfully greeted the girls around him.
“Hm? A photo together? Of course, no problem.”
Meanwhile, Asuto looked at him expressionlessly and replied flatly:
“Oikawa-senpai, do you know why you always lose to Ushijima-senpai and Kageyama Tobio?”
“Hah? Who says I lose to those two?” Oikawa immediately turned his head and protested indignantly.
“Heh.”
Asuto said nothing.
He merely curled his lips into an expression containing thirty percent mockery, seventy percent ridicule, and ninety percent disdain as he stared at Oikawa silently.
Oikawa: “……Then tell me why.”
Asuto: “Because neither of them has a girlfriend.”
Oikawa: “Hah? What kind of reason is that?”
Asuto: “Think about it. They can devote more energy to training because they don’t have girlfriends. They don’t waste time going on dates, either. They have more time to rest and recover physically because they don’t have girlfriends.”
“If you calculate it carefully, a girlfriend wastes at least two hours of your time every day. Rounded up, that means you train at nearly half the rate of those two. And your talent isn’t even better than theirs to begin with. Under those circumstances, it would be strange if you could beat them.”
Oikawa: “…”
“Bullshit! Those two idiots aren’t single because they choose to; they just can’t get girlfriends in the first place.”
Oikawa finally came to his senses.
He had almost been led astray by this brat’s twisted logic without realizing it.
Asuto shrugged helplessly.
“Well, if you refuse to believe me, there’s nothing I can do about it. But you’d better pay attention to the time. We’ve been away from the team for quite a while already, and I have a feeling…”
Bang!
Before he could finish, a volleyball suddenly flew in from behind and hit Oikawa’s forehead with a thud.
“Hiss! That hurts! Damn it! Even Coach has never hit me like that!”
His angry shout stopped abruptly.
Then Oikawa was dragged away by Iwaizumi Hajime, who had just arrived.
All that remained was the disappointed groaning of the nearby girls.
“What a shame!”
The girls watched Oikawa’s retreating figure being hauled away.
Then, after only half a second, they looked away.
“By the way, Asuto-kun, could you take a photo with us?”
Asuto nodded.
“No problem, I…”
“Sorry, sorry, our team’s match is about to begin, so could everyone please make way?”
Before Asuto could finish speaking, Mishita Ryuhei walked over with a smile and dispersed all the girls with a few words.
Then he turned towards Asuto and sighed.
“Seriously, can’t you keep a lower profile?”
Asuto spread his hands innocently.
“This really isn’t my fault this time. I was completely dragged into it by Oikawa-senpai…”
Asuto shifted the blame decisively.
Well…
Not really ‘shifted,’ because this time he had genuinely been implicated by Oikawa.
Although Asuto often attracted attention from girls after entering Aoba Johsai High School, that mostly happened on campus.
Outside of school, he still wasn’t particularly famous.
But Oikawa was different.
As a star player who frequently appeared in volleyball magazines, he naturally stood out wherever he went.
Most of the girls surrounding them this time were Oikawa’s fans.
As for Asuto… He had simply been caught up in it because he was handsome.
This just proved that boys also needed to protect themselves when outside.
After returning to the team… Coach’s lecture had already ended, and Asuto fortunately escaped disaster.
Oikawa glared furiously at Asuto in dissatisfaction.
Then Iwaizumi Hajime rewarded him with another bang of a punch.
······
The two teams on the court were currently warming up.
One side was Tokonami High School.
The other side was Karasuno High School.
“Oh? There’s an extra libero, and another tall guy too. They weren’t there during the practice match before. Are they new members?” Standing in the spectator seats, the Aoba Johsai players immediately noticed the two additional members on Karasuno’s team, Azumane Asahi and Nishinoya Yuu.
Meanwhile, on the court, Kageyama Tobio from Karasuno instantly spotted Oikawa and Asuto in the audience.
Asuto was one thing.
But the moment Oikawa and Kageyama Tobio’s eyes met…
Their gazes immediately locked onto each other…
(End of Chapter)