[41] Grade 11: Crane Pavilion

Heming Hall has stirred up an unprecedented storm in the national high school volleyball community.

This up-and-coming Kyoto team, which made it all the way to the finals in their first IH qualifier, not only represented the Kyoto region in the national tournament but also won the championship trophy.

In Kyoto, this miraculous victory propelled Tsurumikan's legendary status to its peak, and the entire city went crazy for the school.

The focus of all this was their outstanding-looking first-year captain and student council president.

Such a controversial figure should have been the subject of media frenzy, but due to Tsurumeikan's strict interview requirements—open only to leading Kyoto media and national media—this group has become even more mysterious.

Compared to the small-scale coverage of Kyoto's dark horse schools in national newspapers during the Kyoto qualifiers, the news of Tsurumeikan IH's victory swept the nation like a tsunami as the newspapers were published.

Anyone who has followed volleyball news has been awestruck by this legendary school that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

——————

"...Incredible!!! After being down 0-2, Heming Hall won three consecutive games, achieving a 'comeback from 0-2 down to win 3-2'! This dark horse school, making its debut in the national competition, has successfully defeated the established powerhouse!"

On the television screen, Inarisaki's journey in the national tournament came to an end.

The future fox cub outside the television screen wore a look of disdain.

"Inarizaki lost so badly."

Gong You pouted and kicked the trash can next to her feet.

"Are you going to another school for further education? Inarizaki is the only one in Hyogo Prefecture with the ability to make it to the national level, right?" Miyaji didn't even look up, and deftly pried open the soda bottle cap with a flick of his finger.

Gong You snatched the soda from his brother's hand with lightning speed and took a big gulp, deliberately making exaggerated swallowing sounds.

Gong Zhi didn't even raise an eyebrow, and turned around to take out a bottle of soda from the refrigerator.

"Or do you want to pursue your love in a different city and go to the school that beat Inarizaki?" Miyaji slowly spun his soda bottle.

"Luckily, that school isn't far away, it's in the neighboring Kyoto Prefecture. I'll fully support you in 'traveling the world for love'—"

"Huh?" Gong You pretended to grab Gong Zhi by the neck. "Don't use such disgusting language! Believe me or not, I'll make you 'wander the world' right now?"

As the two were playfully bickering, Gong You suddenly remembered a video clip he had seen on the forum before—the setter from Heming Hall who made a sudden stop to the ball at the point of the game; the ball's suspension in the air was as if it had been subjected to time magic.

...Tsk.

Gong You slammed on the brakes and loosened his grip on Gong Zhi's collar.

His fingertips unconsciously made a grasping motion in the air, as if trying to seize the frozen moment in that video that haunted him.

He certainly couldn't throw that unconventional ball—but damn it, he actually simulated the angle of force exertion from his knuckles countless times in his mind.

Gong You looked at his fingertips and suddenly laughed: "Azhi, practice 200 extra ball-handling drills tonight."

"ha?"

"Someday..."

The soda bottle made a soft "click" sound in Miyaji's hand. He raised an eyebrow and looked at the twin brothers who had suddenly become excited.

"I want the national tournament cameras to replay my shot in slow motion."

“Just wait and see—not only will I be the number one setter in the nation for junior and senior high school,” Gong You pointed a thumb at himself, a burning fighting spirit burning in his eyes, “but only me.”

"As for the others..."

He revealed a wild, untamed smile, like that of a wild fox.

"Just make way for me."

(ynHt) ——————

On the day they won the championship, they drew an SSR female main attacker who is now the captain and captain of the women's volleyball team at Tsurumeikan. Imadegawa and Kobiki once again burned through Tsurumeikan's reputation and urgently repaired the entire school, spending a lot of effort to receive on-site interviews from various national newspapers and magazines.

During this period, all staff members of Heming Pavilion continued to complete various tasks at a high intensity.

Their efforts in all aspects brought them rewards.

Just before the national youth team's training camp began, the two of them finally managed to save up enough resources for the second guaranteed gacha pull.

To my delight, this time I finally drew a starting player from the men's volleyball team as my backup option—an SSR-level opposite hitter.

Although not a pure outside hitter, he was good enough to handle most situations in high school games.

It's important to know that the position divisions in school volleyball clubs are relatively simple: there are only four basic positions: outside hitter, middle blocker, libero, and setter.

At this stage, the "opposite setter" is usually classified as a variant of the main attacker.

Imaichi Kawakita, beaming with joy, grasped the hand of the baby-faced setter (crossed out) outside hitter he had personally delivered.

The blue-eyed setter (crossed out) and outside hitter also warmly shook hands with Imadegawa.

The two gazed at each other tenderly for more than a minute inside the volleyball hall of Heming Hall.

Unable to bear watching any longer, Saotome stepped between the two and severed their clasped hands with a chop to the bone.

The free agent firmly grasped his new teammate's hand, looking up at the receiver with a scrutinizing gaze: "Welcome to Tsurumei-kan. Nice to meet you. I'm Saotome Chihaya."

The baby-faced man with blue irises responded with his almond-shaped eyes curving upwards: "Nice to meet you, I'm Koizumi Minato."

"It's Minato from 'Omi no Sea/80 Minato no Minato'~"

Saotome gritted her teeth inwardly.

...Was this person doing it on purpose?

When he doesn't know that the next sentence is "Crane さはに明く"?

Let's just say "port" directly, why bring up the connection between Waka and the port?

Or is this a way of putting them in a tough spot right from the start, testing their cultural level?

"Saotome-chan?" the blue-eyed man replied softly, "Your hand hurts a little from squeezing it."

"I'm really sorry to say that I'm quite strong."

Saotome tightened her grip quickly, only releasing it after the tall, slender receiver in front of her showed a pained expression.

"It's alright~" Koizumi's gentle smile remained unchanged.

"This is incredibly exciting—" Little Chubby Bird said, comfortably huddled to one side, cracking sunflower seeds. "The new SSR's power is a bit too much."

Meanwhile, the volleyball club captain, Imadegawa, watched with satisfaction as the SSR members interacted in front of him: "Look how well they get along."

"We're sure we can achieve even better results in the next national competition."

"Weren't we the national champions last time? Is it possible to achieve something better than the championship?" Little Fatty was so surprised that he dropped his melon seeds.

Imadegawa: "Isn't winning the championship more easily the same as a better result?"

During the IH national stage, Imadegawa only had six SR cards besides Saotome and Aoyagi, one of which was a free agent. With Saotome being the superior card, he was practically useless.

Of the remaining four SR cards, only one is for the main attack branch support position, while the other three are all for the secondary attack position.

Although Imadegawa urgently practiced putting two of the three secondary attacker cards with a strength of 3 into the main attacker position, their secondary attacker attributes can only bring out their advantages in the secondary attacker position. Putting them in the main attacker position can only be described as mediocre.

Fortunately, the tactical plan set in advance brought great returns from this national competition. After the competition, Heming Hall finally had the basic configuration of a normal volleyball team, and no longer needed to use the middle blocker as the outside hitter.

And who knows, maybe before the Spring High School Qualifiers, we can get another chance to pull a new SSR card from the pool.

If they can draw the new SSR card before the Spring High School Qualifiers, just like Aoyagi before the IH Qualifiers, Imadegawa will immediately include the new SSR in the starting lineup for the Spring High School Qualifiers.

Not having enough time to get used to each other isn't a problem; there's still a month until the national competition after the qualifiers.

After all, there's an inherent gap in potential between SSR and SR cards, so prioritizing SSR cards is the obvious choice. Furthermore, besides their different future potential, their initial stats also differ; newly released SSR cards come with longer volleyball training time and deeper volleyball experience than SR cards.

After greeting the free agent, Koizumi turned to another SSR present.

Two tall volleyball players looked at each other at eye level.

Aoyagi subconsciously lowered her eyes to avoid the probing gaze of the blue-eyed man opposite her.

Koizumi stepped forward, took his hand and shook it: "Hello, nice to meet you, I'm Koizumi Minato."

Aoyagi stiffened: "...Nice to meet you, I am Aoyagi Mio."

Koizumi: "Nice to meet you from now on, Aoyagi-chan~"

Aoyagi: "...Nice to meet you."

A faint light flashed across Koizumi's pale blue iris.

...This doesn't pose any threat.

After the group finished greeting each other, Imadegawa clapped his hands: "Chihaya, you'll be in charge of Minato from now on."

Before Saotome could reply, Koizumi flashed a sweet smile at Imadegawa: "Yuzu-chan, you can call me 'Mina-chan'~"

As cards drawn from the card pool, they are born knowing the name and appearance of their master.

Now, when Chuan draws cards, he also knows their names, appearances, and talents, so there is no process of exchanging names.

However, this new SSR card is quite friendly.

Even Saotome, who arrived earliest, only tried calling Imadegawa by his nickname after spending some time together, while the reserved Aoyagi is still at the stage of calling him by his name.

He left Sichuan today, but only smiled and remained silent.

Koizumi blinked, then immediately changed her mind: "Calling me 'Minato' is fine, but can I call Kozuru 'Yuzu-chan'?"

He deliberately softened the last syllable, with a hint of tentative sweetness.

"casual."

"Okay, Yuzu-chan~"

Koizumi turned to Saotome, clasping her hands together and curtsying with her eyes: "Then I'll be relying on you, Saotome-chan~ Please take good care of me~"

Saotome's temple throbbed, and she thought to herself: This guy... is even more troublesome than Aoyagi...

The pink-haired freelancer gave a fake smile: "Don't worry, I'll definitely 'take good care' of you, Koizumi-kun."

......

Shortly after Koizumi was selected, Imadegawa and two others were invited to Tokyo to participate in a national youth team training camp.

The blue-eyed, baby-faced boy saw Jin off at the school gate with reluctance.

After seeing the three of them off to the car, Koizumi leaned against the window, blinking her big, wet eyes, and said in a coquettish tone, "I'll train hard at school, Yuzu-chan, please miss me in Tokyo~"

After a reluctant farewell to Imadegawa, Koizumi couldn't resist waving perfunctorily to Saotome and Aoyagi, saying, "Have a safe trip, Saotome-chan and Aoyagi-chan too~"

The assistant coach of the national youth team, who had come to pick up the Kyoto Prefecture national youth team members for their training camp, looked at him inquisitively.

Who is this?

He was wearing the sports uniform of the Heming Hall volleyball team, but he probably didn't play in the last national tournament, right?

The assistant coach subconsciously noticed the jersey number on the baby-faced player from the Heming Gymnasium.

Crane Cry Pavilion... Number 3?!

————————

(Feeling guilty, I start touching myself) I almost missed it; I've been frantically following the gossip these past two days—

The interview won't be detailed, and the report will probably be mentioned later through flashbacks or other people's accounts.

The twins suddenly appeared in this chapter. I hadn't initially planned to write about them, but the twins inexplicably came online (Yu, you really are an incredibly proud and competitive second writer).

A new SSR has appeared, how can we stand still?

Koizumi Minato (こいずみみなと/Koizumi Minato) nickname is みな/mina, "Minato" means port, which is taken from "The Collection of Many Leaves": iso no saki/漕ぎ回み行けば/海の海/八十のMINatoに/Crane さはに明く

Kominato's name and Tsuru's recent (hands on hips) attributes will be revealed in Spring High School Combat. This chapter should give us a glimpse into Mina-chan's personality—

Kominato wasn't originally this personality in my outline, how come it changed instantly after I wrote it out? (It's terrifying, my brain really got linked to Tsuru's world.)

As for the jersey number, there probably won't be a number 2—(the volleyball club members are all unconvinced, so no one can be number 2) (that's how it is). The next numbers should be Minato number 3, Oo number 4, Chichi number 5, the new SSR number 6, and so on.

(Why did the latecomer surpass the former? Because Minato fought and snatched it...) (Minato, you're so lucky)