[9] Grade 11: Kyoto Preliminaries

"If you hadn't missed the game, the gains might have been even greater."

Little Chubby said with a hint of regret.

After only two seconds of regret, the little sparrow raised its head and continued chirping around Imadegawa Yuzuru.

"...Let's continue to utterly crush Yamazaki Tachibana in the next round! Gaining even more points will definitely boost our fame!!"

"You and Aoyagi didn't manage to hit that 'whoosh' shot you were practicing last game, and you also didn't hit that 'bang—' smash that went in so easily..."

"And another thing! We can serve in more different ways!! If our popularity continues to rise, we can gather enough resources for a new ten-pull! Maybe we can even get a new SSR while we're among the top in the country!"

Imadegawa Yuzuru was thoroughly annoyed by the little chubby bird's incessant chatter.

"don't want--"

"I've said it before, my stamina bar isn't enough."

"Rather than playing two matches in a mess, it's better to maintain the current mysterious persona. After the finals, the increase in popularity will be even greater."

"And even if you pull a new SSR, you can't take it to the IH National Tournament - the 12-person roster for the National Tournament can only be selected from the 15 people submitted in the preliminary rounds."

The little chubby bird looked listless upon hearing this.

It nestled listlessly on Imadegawa's shoulder, its round body pressed against his neck.

"Oh well--"

It never questions any of Imadegawa Yuzuru's decisions.

"yuzu!"

Imide Chuan Xihe opened his eyes.

Saotome Chihaya squatted down in front of the golden-eyed captain, looking up at him.

The pink-haired free agent, whose wish had been fulfilled, looked extremely docile from this angle.

"For the next game, I'd like to..."

The pink-haired freelancer suddenly stopped.

After spending more than two months together, the libero could sometimes understand some of the setter captain's thoughts, especially when he was in a particularly calm mood.

At that moment, he belatedly realized the guidance he had previously overlooked from the setter.

No matter how well they perform in the group stage, quarterfinals, or even the semifinals of the regional qualifiers, they won't make a splash on a national scale and won't bring any attention to Heming Hall.

But the final is different. As the decisive match for schools that qualify for the national championship, it is highly valued not only by the local high school volleyball community, but also by schools that have already qualified from other regions.

If a truly remarkable dark horse emerges, it might even attract the attention of qualifying schools across the country and even the entire high school volleyball community.

Crane Cry Pavilion is vying for this opportunity to make a name for itself.

Now, Chuanxi Crane has no intention of making a name for himself.

In Heming Hall's debut battle, which was open to the entire nation, the head of the Heming Hall Men's Volleyball Team had long ago grasped the thread hanging over the heads of every member of the team.

However, the libero, who had become agitated at the start of the qualifiers, completely ignored the instructions given by the head of the Tsurumeikan team from the very beginning—

Even without the support of a mentor or mentor, they must have the strength to compete for a place among the top teams in the country.

After all, even with the current six-dimensional attributes of the volleyball team's captain, training 24 hours a day for the next month until the start of the national competition, it would be impossible to play all five matches in the entire national competition.

Therefore, the team at Heming Pavilion must work together to form the most perfect "shield".

Not only is Imadegawa Yuzuru a "backbone" of the Tsurumeikan Men's Volleyball Club, but every member of the Tsurumeikan Men's Volleyball Club should also be his "backbone".

His hopes for Heming Hall were not just to defeat all his opponents and get a ticket to the national competition, but to reach the far-reaching national level—his sights were set on the top 16, top 8, top 4, and even the national champion.

Therefore, all members of the Heming Hall Men's Volleyball Team must take this as their goal.

—As for why Heming Hall couldn't make it into the national tournament?

Let alone Imadegawa Yuzuru not considering the possibility of Tsurumyoukan's failure.

For the Hemingguan Men's Volleyball Team, which is always striving for victory, none of the players ever considered the possibility of being eliminated in the preliminary rounds.

Now that Chuanxi Hemingguan has left, as their core team, it should have been activated only when they were advancing to the national level—for other strong volleyball schools, Hemingguan's men's volleyball team was too new, too inexperienced, and too easy to analyze. Therefore, before advancing to the national level, Hemingguan should have kept a trump card hidden from the beginning and caught them off guard.

But this core was activated ahead of schedule—

...For Chihaya Saotome.

In that instant, Saotome Chihaya's eyes shone as if two supernovae had collapsed due to gravity, their brilliance exploding with intense emotion.

Her lotus-colored pupils transformed into a crimson starlight in her heart at this moment.

The completely tamed pieces made a promise to the command tower—

"In the next round, we will reclaim the key to victory."

The pink-haired free agent's smile was full of determination.

......

The final of the Kyoto Prefecture regional preliminary round of the IH tournament concluded with the match between "Tsurumeikan High School Men's Volleyball Club" and "Yamazaki Tachibana High School Men's Volleyball Club" ending with a score of 3-1 (19-25, 25-23, 25-15, 25-20).

The Tsurumeikan High School Men's Volleyball Club won the championship and secured their qualification as the Kyoto Prefecture representative in the IH National Tournament.

The organizing committee is setting up a temporary podium backstage, while the players from the teams competing today are gathered in the assembly area to rest and await the awards ceremony.

The reason it's referred to as several teams is that on the day of the Kyoto preliminary finals, in addition to Tsurumeikan and Yamazaki Tachibana competing for a spot in the Kyoto Prefecture region, there was also a third-place match in the secondary venue between the third and fourth-place schools that failed to advance from the semifinals.

In addition to these four teams, a small number of school teams that participated in the Kyoto Prefecture IH preliminary knockout stage also came to the venue. In addition to the three major team awards, the organizing committee will also announce the best individual player award for this Kyoto regional tournament at the awards ceremony after the finals.

However, only the top three teams remained in the assembly area to rest.

Within the set area.

The runner-up team's ace, Tachibana Yamazaki, hugged the third-place team's main attacker with tears in his eyes.

"—Now I understand why you guys called them 'the ultimate defense that can't be patched up'!!!"

"He's a monster! A monster!!!"

"That was disgusting!!! It made me want to throw up!!!"

Yes, the school that won the bronze medal match was none other than one of the top four schools in Kyoto that had fought fiercely against Tsurumeikan yesterday.

...So loud...

Everyone at the Crane Cry Pavilion is looking over here!

The third-place team's main attacker bent his back more and more, like a sunflower melting in the sun, trying to drag Yamazaki Tachibana, whose arms and legs were wrapped around him, into the floor of the Kyoto Gymnasium.

If there were a crack in the floor, he would definitely shrink into it immediately.

Yamazaki Tachibana kept repeating herself:

"This is disgusting! This is disgusting! I feel like throwing up!!"

"Playing in the backcourt will get you caught, and playing in the frontcourt will get you blocked and caught again!!!"

"They'll catch everything except balls that go out of bounds!!!"

"That 1.9-meter-tall middle blocker's diving form is even more perfect than our school's libero!!!"

What an outgoing person...

Is there anyone who can save him...?

The main attacker looked at his teammates.

His closest middle blocker whistled and turned his head away with a grin.

The rest of his teammates quickly looked up at the sky, some at the ground, and some faced each other and gazed at each other affectionately, but none of them looked at him.

The third-place team's main attacker was furious.

Where are Yamazaki Tachibana's men?! Why haven't they brought their ace attacker away yet?!

Unable to do anything about their own teammates, the third-place team's main attacker chose to take their anger out on the runner-up team.

The other players on the third-place team secretly watched the two of them having a good time.

Meanwhile, on Yamazaki Tachibana's side, apart from the energetic ace, all the other players were slumped in the chairs next to him.

They simply didn't have the energy to rescue the poor volleyball player who had been defeated by the same opponent and unilaterally dubbed a "good brother from the same school" by Yamazaki Tachibana.

After this match, Yamazaki Tachibana's players were truly demoralized.

(oVjo) Even Yamazaki Tachibana, the chief setter who had been enthusiastically challenging Imadegawa Yuzuru shortly after the start of the third set, looked listless.

He wanted to have a brain-to-brain battle with the captain of Heming Hall as a setter—instead of being dragged out by Heming Hall in such a drawn-out and somewhat disgusting match.

The third set of the final was a bit easier. The captain of Tsurumeikan was ruthless in organizing the attack, and the entire Tsurumeikan team was in high spirits, so the pace was slightly faster. Although the score in this set was so bad that Coach Yamazaki Tachibana couldn't bear to watch, at least Yamazaki Tachibana's players played quite enjoyably.

In the fourth game, Captain Tsurumeikan did not play, and Yamazaki Tachibana was dragged out by the opponent for more than forty minutes before finally getting close to match point.

Coach Yamazaki's tactical adjustments in the fourth set were ineffective. His starters remained on the bench, and substitutes were brought in to fill in, yet Tsurumeikan managed to catch up point by point. When the starters returned to the court, the volleyball flew back and forth between the two halves of the court, never touching the ground.

What should have been a good final match turned into a relaxed and easy exhibition game.

By the end, Yamazaki Tachibana had exhausted all six substitutions and two regular timeouts, while the starting players of Tsurumeikan seemed to have plenty of energy left.

Especially that pink-haired libero from the Crane Sound Hall, he seemed to be on steroids. He played several sets in a row, running all over the court to receive the ball, and even in the fourth set he was still full of energy, showing no signs of fatigue.

Coach Tachibana Yamazaki watched from the sidelines with a bewildered expression.

How can someone stay on the court the entire time and still get more and more excited and consistent as the game progresses?

Is he a Saiyan?!

Is it possible to unlock the feature at the end of each game where you're near death and revive with full health and combat power?

Even after defeating Yamazaki Tachibana, he didn't seem to have exhausted his energy at all—the pink-haired libero from Tsurumeikan and the No. 4 middle blocker from Tsurumeikan were now circling around their own setter captain repeatedly.

Director Tachibana Yamazaki had mixed feelings.

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This chapter was incredibly difficult to write, even more so than the last one. It almost drove me to despair. I spent four or five hours writing from afternoon until evening and only managed to produce a thousand words, with many drafts already rejected. But I'm extremely satisfied with the finished product!!!

Haya-chan actually desperately wants to prove that she is needed and will not be easily abandoned, and she relies heavily on her partners. Tsuru just happened to hit that spot, so Haya-chan was completely controlled by Tsuru, hehe.

And some of the descriptions of Tsuru in this chapter are based on Haya-chan's perspective. As for what Tsuru is really thinking, even her own mother doesn't know (frustrating).

Information Update (as of the day of the Kyoto Qualifier Finals):

Name: Imadegawa Yuzuru

Team position: Setter

Height: 177.5cm Weight: 61.6kg

Birthday: January 30th

Favorite food: a secret

My recent worries: I'm so tired.

Overall ability (out of 5): Strength 1; Stamina 1; Speed ​​2; Jumping 1; Skill 3; Intelligence 4.