[39] Grade 11: IH National Tournament
"Crane! Cry! Pavilion!"
"His voice! Resounded! To! Heaven!!!!"
The taiko drums resounded loudly, following the chants of the Tsurumeikan.
Then the sound of gongs suddenly rose, like the clear cry of a white crane tearing through the clouds as it spreads its wings.
The Crane Cry Pavilion cheering squad went all out, with gongs and drums resounding like the cries of a thousand cranes, almost piercing the entire venue.
The atmosphere inside the Nagoya Municipal Volleyball Hall was absolutely deafening. Cheers, screams, and shouts of support surged from all directions toward the center of the court.
The cheers and shouts of supporters at the Crane Pavilion filled the air with joy and tears of happiness.
The supporters at Jingtashan expressed disbelief, incomprehension, and sighs.
Whether it was celebration or loss, the scale was so grand as to be almost overwhelming.
Cheers and sighs, joy and resentment—two completely different emotions collided in the stadium, igniting the intense sparks unique to sports competition.
Captain Jingtashan maintained that almost contorted save position, a pungent smell of pine resin rising from the floor, mixed with the salty taste of sweat, rushing straight to his throat and making his throat tighten.
After the referee gestured "touch the pole," the Jingtashan main attacker, who had just gotten up from the ground, suddenly noticed that tiny beads of blood were seeping from the scraped skin on his elbow.
"We lost."
Izuna bit her lip in frustration.
Their sweat, mixed with disappointment and melancholy, slid to the ground.
The referee blew his whistle, and both sides began their post-match etiquette.
The third-grade captain of Jingtashan School firmly grasped the hand of the first-grade captain of Heming Hall.
"A very exciting match..." Captain Jingtashan said after a moment of silence.
“We…” He paused, his Adam’s apple bobbing as if he were trying to swallow back some more intense emotion, “…benefited greatly.”
He spoke slowly, as if each word had been carefully polished between his teeth before he was willing to utter it.
His gaze swept over Imadegawa's sweat-soaked team uniform and his still-heavy chest, then over the row of white uniforms at Tsurumeikan, finally settling on the scoreboard—
There, frozen, lies a number that they couldn't reverse despite their best efforts.
"We are too." The first-year captain of Heming Hall also held Captain Jingtashan's hand tightly, looking directly into his eyes earnestly and gently.
"This year's spring high..."
"We'll be waiting for you in Tokyo."
......
After the post-match ceremony concluded, both teams returned to another rest area to await the final awards ceremony.
On the sidelines, the staff had already begun their work.
A staff member wearing black-rimmed glasses walked briskly to the scoring table and solemnly circled "Heming Hall" in red pen on a thick stack of race schedules, leaving a deep mark on the paper.
All the referees and officials gathered together to confirm the final match data.
Meanwhile, another group of staff members were pushing a movable, folding podium into the venue.
While quickly getting ready, the group in the Jingtashan rest area chatted amongst themselves.
"What a jerk—" Jingtashan's second-year ace complained, pursing his lips, "What an arrogant junior."
"That last sentence made it sound like they were the representative school of Tokyo, what do you mean by 'they'll be waiting for us in Tokyo'..."
"Take it easy, they're hoping to face us again in the Spring High School Championship." The libero elbowed his own unreliable ace junior.
"I really don't want to see them again..." Jingtashan, the deputy attacker, slumped in a rest chair, exhaling weakly.
"It's so exhausting to fight like this."
"The defensive blockade by the libero and number 4 was terrifying."
"And that setter, in the gaming world he'd definitely be a cheater—"
"Superb anticipation of the ball's trajectory, perfect ball control, and outstanding ball control..."
......
After the final whistle blew.
"Incredible."
As the player watched Imadegawa being sandwiched and held by the libero and the middle blocker, the player couldn't help but mutter to himself.
A few days ago, he hesitated about when to come to watch the game because he doubted that Heming Hall would be able to make it to the knockout stage.
Just a few days later, Heming Hall will stand on the podium of the national competition and raise the championship trophy.
If it were just over ten days ago, Jiao Ming would never have imagined that he would inexplicably run into a volleyball player from a distant place, someone he had seen in the newspaper and was somewhat interested in, near his own doorstep, and become acquainted with him.
He could never have imagined that the senior he met out of mere curiosity would win the championship step by step under my watchful eyes.
Time is so wondrous, space is so wondrous, everything is so wondrous.
The group of Inarisaki behind him huddled together, trembling.
Ace Eyes: "Really?"
Setter with beady eyes: "Is it really a 3-0 score?"
Tail-white beady eyes: "Are we dreaming?"
Akagi didn't have beady eyes; instead, he grinned menacingly: "Ooshiro Aran! Can you pinch your own thigh instead?!"
Tail White swiftly withdrew his hand.
Big Ear, who was squeezed between Ooshiro and Ace, said: "Thinking about it this way, our Inarizaki loss wasn't so bad. At least we beat Tsurumeikan 3-2."
Ace straightened his back: "It was only through a 'comeback' by Tsurumeikan that we caught up with Inarisaki—"
Akagi said quietly, "Who was it that said Tsurumeikan didn't show their true strength when they fought us?"
"Okay, let's not talk about it anymore." *3
Big Ears reached out a hand from the crowd and precisely covered Akagi's mouth.
"Akagi, stop talking."
......
Shiratorizawa is on the other side of the diagonal from Inarizaki.
I am completely convinced.
Semi raised his hand to cover the upper half of his face. Under the cover of his hand, only a few rays of the lights from the National Tournament venue seeped into his eyes.
"Even a strong team like Jingtashan was manipulated by him..."
"And what am I anyway?"
Suddenly, a warm hand patted him heavily on the shoulder.
"Hey~ Eita feels terrible about himself now? That's right!"
Seto looked up, startled.
The red-haired middle blocker leaned down and pressed down on his shoulder, his voice light and cheerful:
"Precisely because you can clearly see the gap—"
"They're a hundred times more terrifying than those blindly confident idiots!"
After Tendo spoke, Soekawa, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation, suddenly hugged Semi and shouted, "Our Eita is just as good!"
After Soegawa, Ohira and Yamagata also rushed up to hug him.
Tendo pulled Ushima along as they squeezed into the group of people in front of them.
The members of Shiratorizawa were also huddled together in some unknown corner.
——————
The remote Miyagi Prefecture.
Am I living in the world of some mindless, melodramatic soap opera?
After Shiratorizawa's defeat, he turned to watching Oikawa Toru, who was being broadcast nationwide by Tsurumeikan, sobbing and biting the corner of Iwaizumi's jacket.
"How could someone lead their school, which was making its first appearance in the national competition, to the national championship in their first year of school?!"
Oikawa originally just wanted to study the first-year setter who led his team to defeat Shiratorizawa and his team's tactical style.
The result, however, witnessed the Hemingguan team, led by Jin Chuchuan, gradually advance to the finals and win the national championship.
As a setter himself, Oikawa unconsciously put himself in the shoes of the Tsurumeikan setter when watching the game.
After being brought into the picture, the setter from Qingcheng became even more depressed.
Whether it's precise ball control, keen judgment of the game situation, strategic command, or mastery of the game's rhythm...
Every detail that Imadegawa demonstrates showcases his extraordinary abilities.
From any perspective, Imadekawa is undoubtedly a top-tier setter of exceptionally high standard.
...Is this truly the best high school in the country?
...But the best setter in the country from junior high doesn't seem that scary.
—In fact, before Tsurumikan made it to the national tournament, Oikawa had already heard of the school's name and even studied Imadegawa's serve videos.
He never imagined that this school would one day defeat Shiratorizawa and become one of the top four in the nation.
He never expected that the setter he considered a "key server" would be so strong.
——————
On the day that Tsurumikan defeated Shiratorizawa, Oikawa Tetsu once again went online to look up information about Tsurumikan.
Oikawa's original intention was to find recordings of Tsurumikan's performance in the national tournament, but the posts on the forum completely refreshed his understanding.
"Nine consecutive points from serves break IH's historical record"
—So Shiratorizawa wasn't defeated by the opponent who broke the record for consecutive service points?
Oikawa felt sorry.
There's one less joke to make fun of Niu Ruo.
"A magical pass with extraordinary hang time."
—This is something Oikawa knows.
When the setter from Hemingguan first cleared the ball, he and Iwa-chan even watched the live broadcast.
"The captain and setter of the Crane Cry Hall is actually the president of the first-year student council."
—Huh? What?
Oikawa clicked on it out of curiosity.
Then I was overwhelmed by a barrage of compliments.
When Tsurumeikan only secured a representative spot in the Kyoto preliminary round last time, the local Kyoto forums were relatively reserved—
After all, Kyoto people with refined tastes tend to be reserved by nature. They do admire Tsurumyoukan, the high-end aristocratic school that Little Fat Bird had hinted at, but they won't express it too enthusiastically. So, they only promote it more in print media.
But after Imadegawa broke the IH all-time scoring record and after Tsurumikan made it to the finals, Tsurumikan's illustrious reputation suddenly began to spread among the people of Kyoto and became even more widespread.
As a result, netizens on high school volleyball forums quickly uncovered the rest of the identity of this first-year setter captain from Kyoto.
—The overwhelming praise for Tsurumikan and Imadegawa was gathered from Kyoto newspapers and magazines, which were obtained by infiltrating local Kyoto forums.
They not only discovered that Imadegawa was an excellent setter and the captain of the volleyball team in his first year, but also that he had become the student council president in his first year at a prestigious private school.
As Ooshiro had previously guessed, the high school girls who knew about volleyball did indeed have the idea of forming a support group for Imadegawa, and even posted a message to recruit like-minded people.
—After all, the captain of the team that won the championship is just too ugly!!!
The homepage of the Kyoto Volleyball Forum's call for enthusiasts features a candid photo that can be described as a "divine image".
The setter captain of the Heming Hall, with his white and red gradient hair, slightly raised his head, his eyes following the volleyball that soared from his fingertips.
His expression was serene and focused, his light-colored eyelashes casting delicate shadows on his eyelids, and a faint, gentle curve at the corners of his lips, as if he were holding not an ordinary volleyball, but a precious and fragile dream.
—That sweat-drenched face practically shone under the stadium's overhead lights, its beautiful features almost unfair.
Especially the slightly upturned corners of her eyes, tinged with a faint red from exercise, made her bright golden eyes appear even clearer, as if they contained the lights of the entire stadium.
This guy doesn't look like a volleyball player who spends all day on the court. He looks like a protagonist from a carefully crafted teen idol drama who has accidentally wandered onto the set of a sports anime.
With his roles as student council president and head of the sports department who won the national championship in his first year, he's practically a super perfect pretty boy straight out of a manga.
As a result, the female high school students quickly fell for him.
One female high school student remarked, "This is a real-life combination of Atobe and Yukimura..."
A comment below read: "Shouldn't the school be Akashi in Kyoto?"
The original poster replied: "Whatever! I'm totally hooked! From now on, Imadegawa will be Kyoto's new calling card!"
Oikawa even saw several familiar IDs enthusiastically replying to the post recruiting members for the girls' fan club.
Oikawa subconsciously clicked on the homepages of these IDs.
Oikawa:? ? ?
Oikawa:! ! !
—Isn't this a fan of Oikawa-sama?!?!
Oikawa cut out and checked the forum name.
The six large characters "Kyoto Volleyball Forum" are prominently displayed.
...Students from Miyagi Prefecture came to Kyoto's volleyball forum to post and bump threads for other schools' setter support groups.
Oikawa secretly hates it.
Aoba Josai, the setter who is extremely image-conscious and loves being fawned over, is biting a handkerchief.
Damn it! Why haven't Oikawa-sama's fans started a thread like this?
Oikawa-sama also wants a fan club—
Let's return to the present.
"Iwa-chan~ Look at them~" Oikawa Tetsu clung to Iwaizumi, his drawn-out voice filled with exaggerated lament.
"We're definitely just background characters in some teen drama, aren't we?!"
Oikawa grabbed Iwaizumi by the collar and pulled him back so hard his head almost hit the storage cabinet next to the sofa. "You're the kind of background character who just says 'Wow, that's amazing!' when the main character wins! A pathetic extra who only deserves to sit in front of the TV and doesn't even get a close-up shot—"
Unable to bear it any longer, Iwaizumi tore her childhood friend off.
But Oikawa seized the opportunity to grab her wrist: "Iwa-chan! We must—"
Before he could finish speaking, Iwazumi covered his face with a blanket.
Then a muffled voice came from under the fabric: "At least let him finish his cool lines..."
————————
(Your pet cloud hamster is back online—) (Quickly stretch out your paws so I can pet this little hamster like crazy)
The finals are over, time to wrap things up! The national youth team training camp is coming soon!
Today was a rare day with a lot of inspiration; I almost reached 4,000 words! (Proudly hands on hips) I hope every future chapter will be bursting with inspiration!
Inarizaki and Shiratorizawa's babies are all such good babies! And Oikawa, you're so cute! I really need to find a way to bring Aoba Josai into the Tsurumeikan training camp too (I really want an ultimate showdown between the two setters).
There should be more daily activities coming up? (I'm not sure yet, I haven't written about that.) But I can confirm that next up is the National Youth Team - Inarisaki Practice Tournament - Spring High School Tournament. The large training camp at Tsurumeikan will be held for the second year of high school, and we'll invite more schools to Tsurumeikan for team building once we have more students.
Where should the national IH tournament be held next year...? (Starting to imagine what will happen in the future) (Deep in thought)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
