Chapter 72 Volleyball 32

When Ms. Sato arrived with the boys from Miyagi Prefecture, the auditorium of Inarizaki High School was already packed with people.

Not only were two people squeezed into many single seats, but the aisles were also crowded with people. Members of the Inarizaki Student Council, with their work badges hanging around their necks, were working hard to direct and maintain order at the scene.

"There are so many people! This is the first time I've seen so many people at a school festival." Hinata Shoyo opened his eyes wide in surprise.

"The school festival is open to the public, and many people must be from other schools who come to see Kurikawa." Iwaizumi looked around and saw that many people were waving cheering fans with the word "sana" written on them, which was obvious at a glance.

Yamaguchi Tadaya was stunned. "And there are a lot of professional photographers, they look like they are from a TV station..."

"After all, our Sana's debut work's first broadcast ratings exceeded 20%~ It's normal for the TV station to pay attention to it."

Ms. Sato raised her chin proudly. "There's also a photographer from our company. This is a rare opportunity. I have to record it and post it as a business video. It just so happens that my role in the next movie also has a piano scene. The timing is perfect."

"Amazing...Ms. Sato and Kurikawa-san are both amazing!" After listening to the clear arrangements made by the professional agent, Hinata Shoyo's already bright orange eyes became even brighter, and his lively tone was filled with genuine admiration.

Miss Sato was stunned for a moment, then her heart melted, and the adult world was healed for a second.

She seemed to understand a little why Sana went to so much trouble to invite this group of teenagers from Miyagi Prefecture to come here.

"Thank you, Hinata-kun." Miss Sato smiled with relief and led them through the bustling crowd to the reserved second row of the best viewing seats.

"Okay, here we are. This is the seat Sana reserved for you."

"Thank you, Ms. Sato!"

"Thank you so much for your help!"

Ms. Sato waved her hand and left. As soon as the four first-year students from Karasuno, Oikawa Toru, and Iwaizumi sat down, they felt an extremely strong sense of oppression coming from the front, and the air seemed to be filled with spiritual pressure.

Sitting in the first row in front of them were the members of the Inarizaki volleyball club.

Hearing the voice of Sana's agent, Ms. Sato, the boys sitting in the front row turned around at the same time and met the eyes of the visitors from Miyagi Prefecture.

The moment they turned their heads, Hinata Shoyo felt as if he saw a group of foxes turning their heads, their sharp pupils flashing as they stared at their prey.

The light from the center of the stage at Inarizaki Auditorium shone on them, just like the light from the red and yellow lanterns in front of the Fox Temple, further increasing the sense of oppression.

“………”

The two first-year students in the Department of Small Animals of Karasuno shuddered, but the others were as calm as ever, not at all nervous, and looked calmly at the foxes who turned around.

"Zhi, am I seeing things right?" Gong You retracted his gaze and asked the twin brothers beside him, "Aren't these Tobio-kun, Shoyo-kun, Jumping Float-kun, and Glasses-kun from Miyagi Prefecture? How did they appear here?"

Miyaji: "You're not mistaken. They are right."

The floating ball player Yamaguchi Tadashi: “…”

Hotaru Tsukishima wearing glasses: “…………”

Oikawa Toru and Iwaizumi Kazuya fell into silence.

No, why does the above dialogue sound so familiar? Borrowing their lines requires copyright fees.

Kita Shinsuke asked calmly, "Yu, Zhi, is this someone you know?"

"Yes, Kita-senpai. We met last time when we went to Miyagi Prefecture to play against Shiratorizawa. Osamu, Kakuna, Sana, and I played a 4v4 against them. It was a very interesting match."

Since Yu commented that the match was very interesting, it seemed that they were quite strong, Kita Shinsuke thought calmly.

"There are two more people." Miyaji asked in a low voice, "The one with the mint green clothes and brown hair, is that the setter from the Miyagi Prefecture match video you watched that night?"

"Yes, his name is Oikawa Toru, and he's the top setter in Miyagi Prefecture. It's really rare that you can recognize someone you've never met before."

"Nonsense! You played the game video all night and it kept me awake." Miyaji twitched his lips. "But I didn't expect to see someone wearing mint green clothes instead of the fluorescent yellow-green clothes from Jingta Mountain."

"Now that you mention it, it's true." Gong You frowned and lowered his voice. "Damn it, how many people wearing green clothes are there?"

Miyaji: “…”

He also wanted to know the answer.

While the twins were passionately complaining, the orange-haired boy in the back row was the first to greet them enthusiastically, "Hello, Miya-senpai and Kaku-na-senpai!"

Upon hearing his own name, Kakuna Rintaro nodded, quite like a senior.

Kageyama Tobio and Yamaguchi Tadaya quickly greeted their seniors as well, and Tsukishima Hotaru also nodded in greeting.

"Oh, what a coincidence." Miya Yuu returned to the mature smile of a senior. "Did you come all the way from Miyagi Prefecture? I didn't know our Inarizaki school festival is so famous."

"Yes, Miya-senpai." Kageyama Tobio said honestly, "Because it was my senior who invited me personally, that's why I came."

Gong You: “…”

The mature smile of the senior cracked.

He discovered that this Feixiong Jun was really capable of making even the simplest of sentences extremely irritating in his calm tone.

But he himself had no intention of angering anyone, he was just stating the facts, which can be considered a kind of ability.

"Okay, be quiet, the show is about to start." Kita Shinsuke said calmly but with a sense of pressure: "Focus on watching Sana's show."

"Yes! Senior Bei!"

Miya Yuu sat up straight in an instant, Kakuna Rintaro clenched his phone, and Miyaji looked around the other parts of the auditorium. After confirming that there was no one wearing a fluorescent yellow-green jacket, he turned his attention back to the stage.

As the host finished his opening remarks of "Welcome everyone to the Inarizaki Academy Festival", the announcer announced that the first program to be performed was the piano performance of "Experience" by Sana Kurikawa from Class 2, Grade 2.

The moment the name Kurikawa Sana was heard, cheers and continuous applause rang out in the auditorium, and the performer had already attracted everyone's attention before she even took the stage.

"Senior sister is so awesome..." Hinata Shoyo's eyes were filled with admiration and excitement.

"As expected of a star who has debuted as an entertainer, his popularity is really not to be underestimated..." While Yamaguchi Tadashi was sighing, he was a little surprised to see that the young girl Sometsukishima, who had been looking uninterested, suddenly took off her headphones and looked at the stage.

"It's nice to watch the show occasionally, Iwa-chan." Oikawa Toru said softly, supporting his chin.

“Yeah.” Iwaizumi watched as the stage lights went out, plunging into complete darkness, and the entire audience fell silent.

Everyone held their breath, waiting for the performance to begin.

The red curtain slowly opened, and a circular light came on, shining on the black piano in the center of the stage - and the girl in a gorgeous dress sitting in front of the piano.

There was a burst of gasps all around.

Sana Kurikawa wore a champagne gold slim-fitting dress, and the princess-style tassel shawl design on her shoulders made the overall look not too mature.

The girl's long black hair was tied up high behind her head with a golden headdress, completely revealing her facial features which became even more delicate and beautiful after she put on makeup.

It was a completely different outfit from usual, and under the dazzling lights of the stage, it seemed to create an even more insurmountable sense of distance.

The teenagers in the audience were slightly stunned.

…Is it an illusion?

In an instant, I felt that she was even further away.

The whole audience was silent until the first note flowed from the girl's slender fingertips.

"Experience" is a work by Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi. It has the majestic style of classical piano music while retaining a modern musical feel. It is indeed a song that is very suitable for performance on the stage of a school festival where students are the main audience.

Kurikawa Sana lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes trembled slightly, and she began to play a song.

The piano melody at the beginning is gentle and peaceful, like an interstellar travel picture slowly unfolding before your eyes, full of tranquility.

But as the audience is immersed in the tranquility, the melody gradually changes, suddenly becoming anxious and uneasy, making people listen attentively and hold their breath, just like a drowning person trying to grab a piece of driftwood to save himself, but can only watch hope drift away from him.

At the end, the piano music became more and more loud, rapid, forceful, resisting, and surging—

In the intervals between rapid playing, the girl even covered the keys with the red blanket on the piano, which did not affect the continuation of the performance at all.

——Carpet piano.

Completely cover your view of the keys and rely on feel, fingering, day-to-day training, and muscle memory to play the most difficult part of the entire piece.

Such ostentatious and flagrant show of skill, so unreasonable, yet the degree of completion is so high.

But even the show of skill did not affect the emotions that surged out of her.

Grievance, unwillingness, resentment, and uneasiness.

It is the emotion conveyed in her piano music.

Listening to her piano music, Miya Yu and Miya Osamu were stunned one after another, and subconsciously thought - did Sana remember her parents?

But at the end of the piano music, the situation is reversed. After an excellent soft playing and timbre processing, the melody turns into a sense of perseverance and fortitude, as if one can see the struggle against the unfairness of fate.

This piece of music is like telling the story of a person's life, from the cry of a baby at birth, the peaceful and tranquil first half of life, the ups and downs in the middle, to the final movement of fighting against unfair fate.

After the song ends, it seems as if I see a person's life, and the experiences in different periods of life flash through my mind like a kaleidoscope.

Music can convey stories and emotions. In the girl's final almost crazy show of skill, the audience felt the passionate emotions she expressed through the black and white keys.

Until the last note fell, the black-haired girl breathed a sigh of relief, and the whole audience fell silent.

Immediately, there was a burst of thunderous applause.

“Wonderful! So wonderful!!”

"As expected of Kurikawa-san! Inarizaki's goddess!!"

"Am I seeing right? She can span an octave with her thumb and middle finger... What a talent and strength!"

"This fingering is amazing."

There were voices of praise and compliments all around, and the regulars from Inarizaki and Miyagi Prefecture, who were sitting in the first and second rows at the front, finally recovered from their surprise.

Oikawa Tooru looked surprised, "Iwa-chan."

Iwaizumi: “What’s wrong?”

"Is it too late for me to learn piano now? This is so cool."

Oikawa Toru mused, "In Kuri-chan's song just now, I seemed to see the whole process of us being suppressed by Ushijima and then defeating him. Is this the power of music?!"

Iwaizumi: "..."

The lingering sound of the girl's shocking piano music was still in his mind. Before he could savor it carefully, Oikawa Toru's words made the face of Ushijima Wakari appear before his eyes.

Iwaizumi immediately closed his eyes and held back from attacking with his rock fist.

The other side.

"...Kageyama." Hinata Shoyo suddenly said, "Senior, she's really amazing."

What should we do to shorten the distance between ourselves and such a dazzling person?

Rarely, Kageyama Tobio didn't respond, and Hinata Shoyo looked at him.

...Huh?

Could it be that Kageyama could be so engrossed in things other than volleyball?

The black-haired boy was looking at the stage with a rare absent-minded expression.

Even Tsukishima Hotaru's usually expressionless face flashed with a complicated look.

Seeing the rare reactions of the two, Hinata Shoyang was stunned for a moment, rubbed his eyes, and almost thought he had seen it wrong.

“…Kageyama?” He waved his hand in front of the other person.

Kageyama Tobio was stunned for a moment before coming back to his senses.

"What's wrong with you? What are you staring at so intently?" Hinata Shoyo looked at the stage in surprise. "Senior has already left the stage."

“………”

After thinking for a moment, Kageyama Tobio said, "Hinata, I just seemed to... finally saw the senior's appearance clearly for the first time."

"Ah," Hinata Shoyo was confused and didn't understand what was going on. "What are you talking about, Kageyama? I haven't heard that you are nearsighted."

Not myopia.

But before today, he had never really looked at her clearly.

But just now, when the piano music sounded, under the stage lights, the girl's appearance finally became clearer.

Kageyama Tobio finally saw Kurikawa Sana's appearance clearly for the first time.

It turns out that it was her senior sister.

It's not volleyball.