October 25
Sendai City Gymnasium
The Miyagi Prefecture Qualifiers for the All-Japan High School Volleyball Championship, commonly known as the Spring Tournament, had officially begun.
Eight teams from last summer's national qualifier quarterfinals, along with eight winners from the first round of this Spring tournament, had come together, a total of sixteen teams, all vying for a single ticket to Nationals.
Early Morning.
The sun had barely risen over the horizon, yet Sendai City Gymnasium was already packed with people.
The first round of selection matches had concluded the day before. The seeded teams from last year's top eight didn't need to participate in the initial round.
And among them, Aoba Johsai, last summer's Miyagi champions, had been automatically placed as the #1 seed. Officially, the draws were random and fair, but in practice, a top-seeded team like Aoba Johsai was highly unlikely to face a strong opponent early on.
Although Aoba Johsai's first match wasn't until the afternoon, the whole volleyball team had shown up at the gym early in the morning, not out of diligence, but mostly just to skip classes.
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"I know full well... bathrooms are where you're most likely to run into dangerous individuals. So I must stay alert. Extra alert…"
Outside the men's restroom in Sendai City Gymnasium, Hinata Shoyo crept slowly toward the door, his face tense with caution, eyes scanning his surroundings carefully.
He moved so slowly and suspiciously that, if this weren't a public restroom, any bystander would probably mistake him for a criminal.
But no matter how cautious he was, some encounters were simply unavoidable.
"What are you doing?"
Just as Hinata was about to step through the restroom door, a voice rang out from behind.
Hinata jumped three feet in the air like a startled rabbit.
Spinning around, his eyes went wide with fear.
"G-g-g-great King… and the Cover Ace, Akashi-kun?!"
Akashi Asuka: "???"
Cover Ace?
What kind of bizarre nickname was that?
"Pfft~~"
Oikawa Tooru couldn't hold in his laughter after hearing it.
Akashi paused for a second before realizing what Hinata probably meant, his photo on the cover of Volleyball Monthly.
"I heard you guys beat a two-meter-tall opponent recently. Nice job, little guy."
"Ah? O-oh! Y-yeah, we, n-no wait, we didn't!"
"Hah? So did you or didn't you?"
Oikawa, clearly enjoying himself, deliberately put on a delinquent act, looming over Hinata with a menacing grin.
"This little brat's a real pain on the court too. Since no one's around… maybe we should just bury him somewhere."
Akashi: "..."
Hinata: " I-I-I-I'll be going now! You two go ahead and enjoy the restroom!"
Hinata actually looked terrified. He spun on his heel and dashed away in the opposite direction. But he didn't make it far before, bam, he slammed right into something solid.
Or rather… someone.
Looking up, he saw a wall of muscle.
It was none other than Wakatoshi Ushijima.
"(Д)ノ AAAAAAAHHHH!!"
"Hm?"
Feeling something bump into his leg, Ushijima looked down in confusion, then blinked in mild surprise.
"If I'm not mistaken… you're Karasuno's Hinata Shoyo."
He then looked up and spotted two familiar faces.
"And… Oikawa. Akashi. What are you two doing here?"
Akashi: "..."
Oikawa: "..."
That… is an excellent question.
Akashi shot Hinata a weird glance. Sure, he'd heard that Hinata seemed to have a strange sort of "restroom encounter constitution", but even so, the hit rate today was outrageous.
"Whoa~~ Is that Shiratorizawa's Ushijima and Aoba Johsai's Akashi meeting face to face before their matches?"
"That tension… it's like a spark waiting to ignite!"
"Wait, who's that short kid in the middle? He looks kinda familiar…"
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A clash between Aoba Johsai and Shiratorizawa was major news in Miyagi's volleyball world, and even on a national scale, a meeting between these two powerhouse schools was headline-worthy.
Both teams had the strength to make it to the top eight at Nationals.
"Hey, Hinata, you're still not, "
Just as the air grew thick with tension, another voice rang out from behind.
Everyone turned.
It was Tobio Kageyama.
He had come looking for Hinata, but froze the moment he saw who else was gathered at the bathroom entrance.
"Ushiwaka… Oikawa… Akashi…"
"Long time no see, Tobio-chan–" Oikawa greeted coldly.
Understandably so, he didn't exactly have many people he hated in Miyagi. But now, outside a single restroom, three of the people he disliked most were standing right there.
Kageyama paused for a second, then narrowed his eyes sharply.
"I don't care who we face today, Karasuno is going to win."
Ushijima, calm as ever, replied,
"Doesn't matter. Shiratorizawa accepts all challengers, regardless of who they are."
With that, he turned and walked away.
Kageyama also left in the opposite direction, Hinata quickly scrambling to follow.
And just like that, the bathroom entrance was left with only two people:
A now twitching Oikawa Tooru, and a dazed, deeply confused Akashi Asuka.
"…This. This is exactly why I hate those guys–" Oikawa muttered, fists clenched.
"None of them ever listen to a damn word anyone says!"
Scowling, he stomped off in frustration.
Leaving Akashi behind, alone, and completely unsure of why he'd even come here in the first place.
"…Wait. Wasn't everyone's original reason for coming here… just to use the bathroom?"
Akashi scratched his head.
Still baffled, he finally stepped into the restroom, relieved himself peacefully, and returned to the venue.
"Yo, Akashi! You're back–" said Hajime Iwaizumi, waving.
"What's up with Oikawa? He looked pissed when he came back just now."
"Oh, probably because he got into an argument."
"…An argument? But didn't you two just go to the restroom?"
Akashi nodded, a little dazed.
"Exactly! That's what I can't understand. We were just going to the restroom. But in the end, I was the only one who actually made it inside."
Iwaizumi: "?????"
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Completed version available on Patreon.com/Veltoria