But ever since Xiaoxia started wearing thicker clothes to ward off the cold, her brother had clearly been coming home much earlier.
Lying prone at the doorway of the lit room, Xiaoxia peered through the crack in the door at her brother, who was sitting at his desk lost in thought, pouted unhappily.
Behind her, her mother gently patted her shoulder. "You can't disturb your brother while he's studying; let your father play with you instead."
"But.." Hinata Natsu turned back, attempting to argue.
Mom and Dad took her hands at the same time and led her away from the entrance of Hinata Shoyo's room.
“Your brother is working hard for his dreams.”
Hinata Shoyo had never listened to a lecture so intently before.
Rishia Heisuke himself wasn't particularly good at studying, so he was unable to provide Hinata with enough help.
Aside from playing ball together for a while after school, Hinata spent his time buried in his studies.
Day after day of studying, daily training.
And then.. with a heart full of trepidation, he stepped into the final examination hall.
The cherry blossoms in Amagasaki City bloom much earlier than in Sendai. Just as the branches were becoming heavy with flower buds, the admission list for Inarizaki High School was officially released.
Rishia Heisuke, who had already been admitted through special recommendation, Hinata Shoyo woke up early to check the admission list, but the scene was already packed so tightly that not a single person could pass through.
Relying on his height, Rishia Heisuke peered over the crowd to look at the display board first.
The first ten lines.. nothing.
Lines ten to twenty.. there were none either.
Rishia's hands were clenched into tight fists, his heart was in his throat.
The people in the front row who had already seen the list gradually dispersed, Hinata, who had been unable to see the list clearly due to his height, finally managed to squeeze his way to the front.
What appeared before his eyes was the end of the list.
In an inconspicuous corner in the lower right, there were four characters he knew incredibly well.
Heisuke!!
Hinata Shoyo snapped his head up and looked at Rishia Heisuke, who was still searching desperately for Hinata's name.
Hearing Hinata's call, Rishia Heisuke followed his finger and looked at the second to last name on the entire admission list.
[Fujisaki Junior High School Hinata Shoyo]
His grades in other subjects were mediocre, even poor, but he scored exceptionally high in English, which single-handedly boosted his total score.
A tremendous sense of joy surged through Rishia's mind, he cried out in shock, "Shoyo!!"
The two of them high-fived and then cheered loudly.
You made it!!
I passed!!
Miya Atsumu, who had just entered through the Inarizaki back gate and was preparing to head into the gymnasium for training, was startled by the sudden burst of cheering from behind him.
Miya Osamu turned around and saw Hinata and Rishia Heisuke performing a comedy routine in front of the notice board: "What are you guys doing?"
Whenever he passed by that riverbed, he would always see the figures of those two playing ball; Miya Atsumu had grown accustomed to seeing them.
He yawned. "Ah, it's Rishia Heisuke and his little friend."
Rishia?" Miya Osamu was stunned for a moment. "Transferred to Yako's ace?
He and Miya Atsumu were both graduates of Yako, but Rishia Heisuke transferred from the neighboring city after they had already retired, so they hadn't seen much of him before this.
"Doesn't Osamu know? In another month, he'll be our junior." Miya Atsumu withdrew his gaze from the two of them.
If they play well enough, they might even swap out Piggy Osamu.
Come to think of it.. he didn't seem to pay any more attention to the way those two played.
But then again, there wasn't much to see; it was just Rishia Heisuke playing along with a rookie.
It was a shame, though, to see such explosive power go to waste.
Miya Osamu rolled his eyes. "Why don't you go back and take another nap?"
Not to mention they didn't normally use many first-years anyway; Miya Atsumu was a pure special case. He and Suna had spent most of their time on the bench during the Interhigh, they had only received a few chances to play during this Spring High.
With the current roster being so complete, no matter how you look at it, there's no room for first-years.
Unless.. there are freshmen among them at the level of Miya Atsumu and Ushijima, or someone with a particularly outstanding ability who could serve as a key player.
Well, just thinking about it, it's clearly impossible.
Aran's voice drifted over from a distance: "Hey! What are you guys just standing there for! The coach is going to get angry—"
Actually, he wasn't, but Heisuke looked a bit dangerous.
Coach Omimi laughed heartily while holding his notebook.
He poked his head out from behind Aran and looked out, just in time to see the two people who had already wandered over to the back door.
Omimi froze for a moment. "Isn't that Rishia Heisuke?"
After communicating with Coach Kurosu on the other side, he turned his head to look at Aran. "Aran, go ask Rishia if he wants to come in to recognize someone."
Hinata, still immersed in the joy of having reached the shore, was completely unaware that a dark shadow had already cast itself over him.
It wasn't until Rishia stood at attention for no apparent reason that Hinata turned around, only to meet Aran's gaze as he looked down at him.
Ah, a dark but super powerful senior.
"I'm flattered by your praise, but.. how about you drop the prefix?" Aran's expression was slightly distorted.
A wild laugh from Miya Atsumu came from behind: "Hahahaha—Black-Black Senior!"
Aran! Hahahaha—
Meeting Rishia Heisuke's shocked and panicked gaze, Hinata Shoyo only then realized that he had actually said it out loud.
Seeing that these two were about to enter a mode of prostrating themselves to apologize, Aran quickly spoke up to interrupt them: "Rishia, the coach asked me to ask if you want to go inside for a tour."
"Is it okay, Owari-senpai?" Rishia Heisuke was stunned for a moment.
He hadn't officially enrolled yet; he had only visited once before during the special recruitment.
Aran spread his hands. "It's not like there are many days left anyway."
Just then, Aran felt a burning gaze staring at him from beside him.
In his field of vision, the eager Little Orange could no longer contain himself and tried to catch Aran's attention.
He was forced to ask, "Is this your friend?"
Rishia Heisuke naturally knew what it meant to have a friend of over six months, replied directly, "Yes, Hinata Shoyo is also a freshman who has already been accepted into Inarizaki, he also intends to join the volleyball club."
Hinata proactively raised his hand to ask, "Um! Owa.. Owari-senpai! Can I visit too! The volleyball club!"
Aran scratched his face, mentally reviewing the volleyball club's rules.
This.. shouldn't count as bringing outsiders in, right?
In the end, Aran still brought the two of them together through the school gates.
He pointed toward the inside of the gymnasium, then turned back to the two and said, "I'm going to ask the coach. You two wait at the entrance for a moment."
Hinata peered inside through the crack in the door, his entire being filled with uncontrollable excitement.
This was the first time he had seen the men's volleyball club's gymnasium with his own eyes.
How exciting!
Author's Note:
This time, it was the little sun who didn't fill out the answer sheet incorrectly!
Chapter 3: The Third Fox
Hello, seniors! I am Rishia Heisuke!
“Please treat us well!”
Under the guidance of the two coaches, Rishia Heisuke bowed and greeted everyone else, while on the other side, Hinata Shoyo was still looking around, observing the Inarizaki No. 2 Gymnasium.
This gymnasium was even larger than the one he had gone to for the match against Kitagawa Daiichi, it was completely incomparable to the ones at Yukinoshita and Fujisaki.
Because it wasn't a regular training day, there weren't many people in Inarizaki No. 2 Gymnasium. Aside from the first-string players lined up over there, there were only a few second-string members cleaning up the court.
Not long after, Rishia returned to Hinata's side: "The coach said there's a practice match against Gota in a bit, he wants me to go up and try a few serves."
Hinata's eyes widened, his gaze filled with envy: "A match—"
Rishia's face also couldn't hide his excitement: "Yeah! A match!"
His experience in actual matches was indeed pitifully little. Although he had received a few opportunities to play after transferring to Yako, the team was eliminated in the third round of the preliminaries, so it was better than nothing.
Even if it was just being able to go up and serve, it would be good; it just so happened that his jump serve had become increasingly proficient lately, he was eager to know how it would perform in a real match.
Rishia Heisuke pointed toward the court on the middle left. "Then I'm going to warm up first."
Mm-hmm," Hinata nodded, then turned his gaze toward the second-string members on the other side who were pushing out the volleyball cart, "I'll help pick up the balls!
Watching Hinata strike up a conversation and become familiar with the members of the second team in such a short time, Rishia Heisuke breathed a sigh of relief.
He took out the protective gear he had originally intended to use for playing volleyball indoors with Hinata Shoyo and prepared to put it on, while Coach Kurosu was also giving a brief briefing on the precautions for the upcoming match.
Rishia Heisuke was still familiar with the various procedures of practice matches, he quickly followed behind the Inarizaki group to begin warming up.
Around eight-thirty, Gota and the others lined up and arrived at the Inarizaki Gymnasium.
Hinata Shoyo, who had been picking up balls, saw everyone stop and hurriedly followed the others in bowing, though he was quite clumsy at it.
Please take care of us!!
While Gota went to change his shoes, Inarizaki's warm-ups continued.
“Nice spike! Next!”
The two setters from Inarizaki kept setting for the others, while Hinata observed everyone's spikes while picking up balls by the sidelines.