[42] Grade 11: National Youth Team Intensive Training Camp
The shuttle bus from Kyoto Prefecture arrived at the Tokyo National Youth Training Camp at a moderate time.
When Imikawa, Saotome, and Aoyagi got off the train, the shuttle bus from Hyogo Prefecture had just arrived.
After exchanging glances for two seconds, Ooshiro and Imadegawa subconsciously raised their hands to greet each other.
Now, as I leave Sichuan, I nod to him.
So, Ooshiro, who had just gotten off the train, naturally walked together with the three people from Tsurumeikan.
"Congratulations on winning the championship, IH." Wei Bai's first words were congratulations. "Your final match was absolutely fantastic."
Inarizaki's team members had not previously exchanged contact information with Tsurumeikan and the others, and had only watched their matches from Tsurumeikan's perspective, without ever encountering the Tsurumeikan members again after the match.
This was the first time the members of Tsurumeikan and Inarizaki had spent time alone together since the IH National Round of 16.
"Thank you." Imadegawa smiled.
He didn't feign humility, but readily accepted the praise his former rivals had given his team.
“You have quite a few people from your school.” Ooshiro glanced at Aoyagi and Saotome. “I’m the only one from my school who was selected.”
He sighed with some regret: "If our ace senior hadn't been over the age limit, it would have been great. If he were still a sophomore, maybe we could have participated in this training camp together."
Imadegawa said, "Then you can start looking forward to it now, that next year's classmates or juniors will come with you to participate in the training camp."
"Haha, thank you for your kind words!" Wei Bai laughed heartily.
Led by staff, the group carried their luggage and placed it downstairs in the dormitory building.
Then the staff led me to the stadium.
Upon entering the stadium, many players from areas not far from Tokyo had already arrived.
The lively atmosphere of greetings and reminiscing stopped abruptly for a few seconds after the group entered the Crane Cry Pavilion.
After a brief silence, some murmurs of discussion resumed.
"Are those the players from Heming Hall who won the championship this year?"
"That's them. The captain of the Crane Cry Pavilion is easy to identify."
"Leaving aside Jin Chuchuan, the height of that free agent at Heming Pavilion is unique, isn't it? Who else could be that tall?" The voice was lowered.
"It's easier to tell by hair color, isn't it? Who wouldn't recognize Imadegawa's unique gradient hair?"
"Their middle blocker is here too, but he seems to have no presence at all."
Who is that dark-skinned guy next to them?
"I don't know him."
A familiar-looking contestant whispered, "He's not from their school. He looks like a contestant from Inarizaki who made it to the top 16."
"Are Inarizaki and Tsurumeikan on good terms?"
"I've never heard of that. Didn't the report say that Heming Hall had never played volleyball matches before?"
"I remember Inarizaki is in Hyogo Prefecture, right? They're not even in the same region."
The discussion was very quiet; the others could only hear a few intermittent sentences.
But the keen-eared Imadegawa and the chubby little bird, who wasn't human, heard everything.
"We're the center of attention!" Little Chubby proudly puffed out his chest. "That's the power of our Crane Cry Pavilion!"
Since it was his first time participating in the national youth training camp, Ooshiro didn't know anyone particularly familiar with the place, so he felt at ease continuing to follow the three from Tsurumeikan.
As the four of them stepped inside and were about to find a place to stand, a spiky-haired teenager who had rushed back from the restroom turned around in a hurry and bumped into the group of people standing near the side of the gymnasium entrance from behind.
Ooshiro and Aoyagi stumbled as they were bumped by the boy with his hurried steps.
"Ah—I'm so sorry!!!"
The boy with the spiky hair quickly grabbed the arms of the two men, one in each hand.
Are you alright?
Wei Bai waved his hand: "It's nothing."
"...It's alright." After regaining her balance, Aoyagi quickly glided behind Imadegawa.
"It's good that you're alright! Hello! I'm Kotaro Bokuto from Fubuki Academy!" The boy with the spiky hair patted Shiro's shoulder and laughed heartily.
Wood Rabbit originally intended to take pictures of one in each hand, but the other black-haired one ran too fast and was a bit too far away, so he only took a picture of the shoulder of the larger one who was closer.
Social butterfly Oshiro also enthusiastically introduced himself: "Hello! I'm Oshiro Aran from Inarizaki."
Mokuto's bright eyes looked at the three people from Imadegawa.
Before Imadegawa could speak, Bokuto said, "I feel like I've seen you somewhere before..."
He scratched the back of his head, looking confused.
From Imadegawa's perspective, he saw the chubby little bird circle the owl twice in surprise: "It's Kotaro Bokuto from Furutani!"
In his mind, Imadegawa responded, "He's one of the top three spikers in the country, is it really that strange to see him here?"
Little Chubby nodded: "I was indeed a little surprised."
"Every time and spacetime contains countless parallel worlds, and the storylines of each parallel world are not exactly the same."
The chubby little bird landed back on Imadegawa's shoulder, its tiny paws gently gripping his collar.
"Although Kotaro Bokuto got the number 12 jersey in his first year of high school, it doesn't necessarily mean he'll be selected for the national youth training camp, since his performance is always up and down."
"It's really rare to meet him now during his first year of high school when he was on the national youth team."
The little chubby bird blinked its beady eyes.
"However, with his pure love for volleyball, he will eventually pursue a professional career."
"But the volleyball world I'm responsible for isn't just this one type—I handle both men's and women's volleyball. So the last time I met Kotaro Bokuto in the national youth training camp was more than a dozen worlds ago."
Imadegawa: "It seems you really like him."
The chubby little bird flapped its wings and flew to Imadegawa's head: "No, not really—I like every kid who has a passion for volleyball, it's just that Bokuto in this national youth stage is really not very common."
The conversation between the two in their minds did not take long to occur in the outside world.
After pondering for a while, Mutu suddenly clenched her right fist and tapped it against her left palm, a look of sudden realization appearing on her face.
Then he loudly said to Imadegawa:
"Ah! You're Akashi Seijuro from Kyoto!!!"
—It's unclear who first came up with this title, but it somehow spread among members of the volleyball teams at several top volleyball schools.
It is said that because Imadegawa has red hair and gold eyes, and became the student council president and sports department head in his first year at the Kyoto school, and his name also has five characters, he is the real-life "Akashi Seijuro - volleyball version".
Akashi Seijuro's original eye color was red, and at most, one of his eyes was gold when he had a split personality.
An unknown volleyball player who coined this nickname has his own unique explanation: Imadegawa is Akashi with a fully developed second personality.
Therefore, Imadegawa is "Akashi Seijuro" with double the level of the Great Demon King.
As for the fact that Imadegawa's original hair was a white-to-red gradient with only the ends having a touch of red, this was selectively ignored.
Because it was so descriptive, the nickname eventually spread by word of mouth among all the volleyball club members who had been beaten by the Crane Sound Hall.
Even members of ordinary volleyball powerhouses who had never played against Hemingguan had heard of it in their circles of intersecting schools.
—After all, the Crane Pavilion has really gone viral this year.
Mutu remembered the nickname while the volleyball team was watching the videotape of this year's IH tournament to learn from their experience.
As for Imadegawa's original name—sorry, his original name was too long, and Bokuto couldn't remember it.
Bokuto's voice was extremely loud, and the gymnasium, which had been filled with whispers, instantly fell silent upon hearing his enthusiastic call of "Akashi Seijuro."
The contestants who didn't know the name looked confused and didn't understand what "Wooden Rabbit" meant.
Volleyball players who knew this name looked at Bokuto with admiration.
Shouting out someone's nickname in front of them in public—
Young man, you have quite the nerve!
Imadegawa:......
The chubby little bird, who has a very low threshold for laughter, laughed again (yuFN) and passed out.
It laughed so hard it could barely flap its wings, and nestled on Imadegawa's head, shaking wildly.
Wood Rabbit belatedly noticed the silent expressions of the four people in front of him.
Bokuto spoke urgently: "Ah! I remembered!!! You are the 'いまがわ'...'いまがわゆう'... from Hemingkan"
His voice suddenly faltered, his brow furrowed, and he tried to recall the correct pronunciation.
"Wait...is it 'いまでがわ'?"
"'いまがわゆうづる'? That's right..." Bokuto opened his hands to count the syllables, "It should be 'いまでがわ'...'ゆう'...'づる'?"
At this time, the other party gently corrected him: "It's 'Imandegawa Yuzuru' (いまでがわゆうづる)."
Wood Rabbit's eyes lit up: "Yes, yes, yes! That's it! 'Imaedawa Yuzuru'!!!"
He scratched his head and laughed sheepishly, "Sorry, I almost said 'Jin Chuan'! I forgot the 'Chu'!"
Imadegawa shook his head: "It's alright, my surname is indeed not very common."
"I've got it now!" Wooden Rabbit's eyes lit up. "It was a pleasure meeting you!!"
After leaving the river, Bokuto continued to turn his burning gaze to the other two people present.
His excited gaze darted back and forth between the group, sweeping across their faces like a searchlight.
Saotome crossed her arms, looked up at the overly energetic owl, and said in a lukewarm tone, "I am Saotome Chihaya of Tsurumei-kan."
Aoyagi weakly spoke, echoing the last syllable of Saotome's: "...Tsurumei-kan, Aoyagi Mio."
Wooden Rabbit burst into another cheerful laugh: "It's a pleasure to meet you all!!"
After exchanging names, the group stopped standing by the door and instead chose a corner to walk over.
Wooden Rabbit naturally followed them to the corner.
"Are you the only one selected from your school?" Wei Bai asked.
"Hey! Hey!" Mokuto raised his hands high. "Owl Valley's super ace is here! Although my teammates are all very strong, I'm the only one who was chosen this time!"
“Me too,” said Wei Bai.
Mokuto put his arm around Tail-White's shoulder and said excitedly, "That's perfect! Isn't this fate's arrangement? We can form the strongest duo! Let's cheer each other on during training!"
"Then please guide me from now on." This was the first time Ooshiro had met such an outgoing person, and his face showed an unusual bewilderment at the excessive enthusiasm.
After finishing her conversation with Shiro, Bokuto whirled around in the direction of Imadegawa, her golden-brown eyes sparkling: "Wow, so many people came to your school! That's amazing!"
"As expected of the 'super defense' of Tsurumeikan!!!"
————————
(Exhaling and wearily rubbing his paws) Please let all jobs in the world become an eight-hour workday with four days off! Ahhhhhh!
Because the timeline is quite early, there are many personal interpretations (this is also a personal interpretation that Oohaku and Bokuto didn't meet during their junior high school years. You can't tell from the original work whether they knew each other or not, so I happily made the personal interpretation that they didn't meet in junior high school).
And—my little treasures are so cute (fingers) I really want to play the Akashi Seijuro meme (I did it once during the preliminaries). The original outline was supposed to include Mini Basketball, but I later realized it would be more fun to play it directly without it. (Deepest remorse to the team leader, but I'll do it again next time!) (Runs away taking the blame)
However, our Little Crane is completely different from the squad leader. Little Crane is a cute but unlucky little bird with a slightly wicked sense of humor.
And the owl is so cute... This chapter was easy to write without any stumbling blocks (thank you to our little crane and owl).
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