JSWGAS Chapter 93

“The wall,” what exactly is this wall?

Saijō also displayed his penchant for mystification in this regard, only leaving a firm, “You’ll know,” before smilingly beginning to instruct on other techniques. He was a clever man who knew how to maintain social distance, his words and conversations neither too intimate nor too distant.

——Only occasionally, Saijō’s gaze towards the volleyball court would be a little strange.

This point, amid the reverie evoked by the sweat scattering, quickly dissipated.

With the preliminary rounds approaching, Coach Irihata, after observing the team members’ condition for some time, began considering the list of official players to field. He circled and marked the ink-printed names with a black pen, finally stopping at two or three names. After hesitating, when the office door was knocked on by Captain Arao, Coach Irihata looked up: “Call Oikawa over here.”

Arao nodded, took the training menu, and went to find Oikawa.

The latter was sitting on the sidelines, wearing the lighthearted smile he always displayed, which formed a stark contrast to the cold face next to him. And the dazzling fellow didn’t make things easy even when resting. As Arao approached, he happened to see him waving to the girls who had come to the second floor of the gymnasium upon hearing the news, eliciting a chorus of screams.

Arao twitched the corner of his mouth: “I think I understand why the coach doesn’t approve of us finding a manager…”

Oikawa Tōru turned his head, only hearing the last word: “Manager? Arao-senpai, no wonder I’ve felt you’ve been a bit restless lately—could it be that you want to attract the attention of girls, showing off your reliability and strength, that you’ve been spiking the ball out of bounds?”

“…” Arao thought he would never be able to get along with frivolous guys in his life, “Oikawa, the coach wants to see you.”

The voice sounded forced, squeezed out from between his teeth. Oikawa Tōru, seeing the fierce glint in his senior’s eyes, knew when to stop: “Yes—”

He stood up, handed the water bottle in his hand to Kokonoe next to him, and hummed a cheerful tune as he walked away. And without his obstruction, Arao also met the eyes of the other two juniors: “Thanks for your hard work, Kokonoe.” He said heavily, “And Iwaizumi.”

Iwaizumi Hajime didn’t hear their conversation just now at all because Kokonoe was in between them, so he nodded with a question mark on his face. Kokonoe, however, immediately reacted, raising an eyebrow with a smile that was not quite a smile, “You too.”

The volleyball club didn’t have a manager, so miscellaneous tasks fell to members who weren’t official players. After practicing a few sets of blocking, Kokonoe Taka withdrew from the court and came to the sidelines to pick up his water bottle. The slightly cool liquid flowed into his mouth, extinguishing the dryness produced by exercise, but this coolness didn’t last long before it disappeared… the water was gone.

Glancing at the bustling training ground, Kokonoe Taka swept back the hair near his ears that was soaked with sweat, draped a towel over his shoulders, and walked out with his water bottle. As soon as he left the door, a breeze greeted him, quickly carrying away the rising temperature. He let out a relaxed breath, casually wiping away the sweat that slid down his brow bone as he walked.

Several classmates who passed by greeted him, and Kokonoe Taka responded casually, his eyes sweeping over their neat uniforms. The washbasin wasn’t too far from the gymnasium, reachable by passing through a green lawn. It was quiet here, unable to hear the calls and spiking sounds from the gymnasium, only the sound of water droplets falling from the unclosed faucet.

He walked forward and turned on the faucet with a little force. Whirr, the water flowed from the pipes into the vast world. He bent over and washed his face, feeling the coldness pierce from his skin into his bones; he cupped his hands and splashed the thin layer of water onto his face—the heat completely dissipated, and the sound of splashing water poured into his eardrums. Most of his black hair was wet, and too lazy to wipe it with a towel, he simply shook his head haphazardly. Kokonoe Taka placed the water bottle under the faucet that had been turned down, staring at it, and closed the valve just before the bottle’s opening was filled.

As he was about to pick up the water bottle and return to the gymnasium, a hand with distinct knuckles suddenly reached out from the side, rightfully taking it, “Oh, were you getting water for me? I’m very grateful—”

Kokonoe Taka knew who it was without even looking. He felt a familiar annoyance: “…That’s mine.”

His dangerous gaze fell on the uninvited guest shaking the water bottle. The latter pretended not to notice his pressing gaze and took a big gulp of water carelessly: “Whoa, I’m alive again…”

“Is that so?”

Kokonoe Taka’s gaze had already shifted from the annoying guy to the pool—Oikawa Tōru swore he saw the subtext ‘should I just stuff him into the pool’ on that face, and couldn’t help but cautiously take a step back. After realizing his weakness, he slowly moved his steps back again.

“Always being petty will easily turn you into a mother hen like Iwaizumi, you know?”

“I’m going to tell A-I about this.”

Oikawa Tōru piously returned the water bottle: “Please forgive me, Great Gentleman Kokonoe.”

He quickly changed the subject: “I happened to run into you, Coach Irihata wants you to go to his office.”

“What for?”

“It’s the official match lineup, I guess.” Oikawa Tōru said casually, then revealed a meaningful smile, “—Go ahead?”

Oikawa Tōru returned to the gymnasium ahead of him, and the smile he showed before he left made Kokonoe Taka feel a kind of… peculiar discomfort. Coach Irihata’s office door was ajar, and he gently knocked with his finger, “Knock knock,” and almost as soon as the sound fell, Coach Irihata’s gentle voice came from inside the room, “Please come in.”

As soon as he entered, what caught his eye were the photos and certificates displayed on both sides. Coach Irihata keenly noticed where his gaze landed and said with a smile, “Those are group photos of the past players. After you guys finish the competition this year, we’ll also take a commemorative photo.”

“Excuse me.” Kokonoe Taka said softly, retracting his gaze, “Did you call me for something?”

Coach Irihata coughed lightly: “Um… it’s like this. Kokonoe, although I arranged for you to play the middle blocker position during the last exchange match… from the results, it wasn’t bad. However, I still don’t know what you think.”

“I noticed you’ve been learning blocking techniques from Saijō recently, are you planning to play middle blocker in the future?”

Kokonoe Taka was silent for a moment: “Coach, what position do you think I should play?”

Coach Irihata was a little surprised: “Hmm… you’re improving very quickly. Although your setter skills are not as good as Oikawa’s for the time being, you have a certain degree of accuracy, and if you were at other high schools, you could already compete for the position of official setter; you still need to practice receiving. Offense is your strong suit, your serving and spiking levels… to be honest, they’ve already surpassed the average players of Aoba Johsai.” He said frankly, “This kind of talent is very daunting.”

Kokonoe Taka calmly supplemented his words: “‘Genius,’ right?”

Coach Irihata didn’t deny it: “I think many people have already used this word to describe you. But I think the simple word ‘genius’ is not enough to summarize… you practice a lot extra.”

“After all, I only started playing ball this year.” Kokonoe Taka replied, “If I don’t work hard… I can’t let others accommodate my progress.”

Coach Irihata sighed almost imperceptibly, he shook his head gently and returned to the initial question: “What do you think? Is there any position you want to try?”

“…”

He was silent for a somewhat long time, and Coach Irihata just waited patiently.

——I don’t want to consider the setter position for the time being… not because Tōru is a setter; he still doesn’t understand what Saijō’s ‘wall’ means…

Gray fog, stars; advance, converge.

What should he choose? At least for now…

“…I still want to play middle blocker for the time being.” He said so, his voice echoing in the corner of the room, “I want to try… if I can block Ushijima.”

Coach Irihata nodded. He didn’t seem surprised by this answer.

And before Kokonoe Taka got up to leave, the coach, who usually left more space for thinking and choosing to the students, asked the last question.

“Although it’s a bit late to say this now,” Coach Irihata looked at the student’s paused figure with a smile, “but volleyball is quite charming, isn’t it?”… At least more charming than basketball! Coach Irihata remembered the teacher of the basketball club who had not given up on digging his members into the basketball club, and silently added a sentence in his heart.

Undoubtedly, the branches quietly sprouting beneath the indistinguishable mood had already spoken the answer.

……

…………

The list of official players was announced a week before the preliminary rounds began. In addition to several high-year students who had always been the main players, the names of three first-years were prominently listed.

The integration of the new offensive weapon did not go smoothly, perhaps because they were not familiar enough. Currently, Kokonoe Taka’s tosses could only be received by Oikawa and Iwaizumi. And among these two, Oikawa’s success rate was even higher—he proudly taunted Iwaizumi for being shorter than him in this regard—height, of course, was also one of the means he used to be sarcastic. Kokonoe Taka had rapidly risen to 1.84m, and Oikawa was also heading towards 1.80m—looking solely at the height increase, Iwaizumi happily won the last place.

Kokonoe Taka had been practicing with Miyano and Furue from the second year during this period. The former practiced cooperation with him, while the latter acted as the receiver of his serves. And after the list of official players was announced, these two seniors exchanged glances.

“As expected.” Miyano said.

“As expected.” Furue said.

“As expected, what?” Kokonoe said.

His sudden interjection startled Miyano: “Do you walk without making a sound?”

“It’s the two of you who have been exchanging glances affectionately.” Kokonoe Taka subtly buried them, “As if I were air.”

“…You’re not even pretending to act like it after getting familiar?” Furue’s mood was complicated, “It only hurts when the knife is stabbed into yourself… Although Oikawa is usually annoying, at this time I feel it’s really good that he usually attracts the fire.”

Kokonoe Taka didn’t deny it, “So what exactly are you two seniors ‘expecting’?”

Furue was a little embarrassed, but Miyano had no choice but to put his arm around Kokonoe Taka’s shoulder, telling him to come a little closer, “It’s not a big deal to tell you, after all, you’ll know sooner or later…” He was a little headache, “We’re talking about the previous setter before Oikawa—”

——Aoba Johsai also had a setter with delicate technique and a steady style before Oikawa Tōru appeared.

It’s just that the setter was injured in last year’s match, missed almost a year of training, and it seems that he won’t be back this year.

“Nan’nichi Haru-senpai withdrew due to injury during the match against Shiratorizawa last year, he hit the equipment on the side of the court while saving the ball and fractured his wrist.” Miyano said in a low voice, “That was the fourth game of the match against Shiratorizawa, the score was 1:2, the small score was 22:24… We were behind. The ball that Nan’nichi-senpai desperately saved failed to become our counterattack horn, and we lost in the end.”

He went on to say: “At that time, Arao-senpai was very guilty, and even stopped coming to training for a while… He and Nan’nichi-senpai have a very good relationship.” He shuddered when he said this, “Saijō-senpai insisted on coming, but he didn’t seem to be in a good mood either, the aura when he blocked even made me think he would kill me…”

Furue solemnly interjected: “Saijō-senpai is terrifying when he gets angry. Kokonoe, when you have a cold face and expressionless, and your eyes are even fiercer—that’s how it feels.”

Miyano complained: “What expression? An assassin’s expression?”

With this interruption, the atmosphere was not as low as before. Kokonoe Taka twitched the corner of his mouth and asked, “Then what?”

“I don’t know, anyway, Arao-senpai came back after a while.” Furue shrugged, “We only have one substitute setter, and we almost exhausted him during training… so everyone started trying to set the ball. As a result, it was as bad as it could be.”

“It only got better after you guys joined the team.” Miyano said, he let go of his hand, “Well, don’t worry too much about the passing mistakes these two days, compared to this guy’s extremely bad tosses.” He pointed at Furue, “Your tosses are not bad, it will get better with practice.”

Furue: “…Do you believe I’ll bite you?”

Miyano generously opened his arms, covered in sweat: “Please?”

——In fact, Coach Irihata had mentioned this previous setter named Nan’nichi when he called Oikawa Tōru over.

“Nan’nichi-senpai,” he said, his tone as frivolous as ever, “is A-Eagle very interested?”

Kokonoe Taka narrowed his eyes and quickly found that Oikawa Tōru knew more than he thought, “Not interested.” He turned his head away.

The latter shrugged, “Eh, then why did you tell me this, are you afraid that I’ll overthink?—The answer is, I don’t care.” Oikawa Tōru smiled indifferently, “Even if that senior wasn’t injured… I’m confident that I can do better than him.”

“More than these, A-Eagle, I’m more concerned that you’re also on the list of official players.” Oikawa Tōru said slowly, word by word, exceptionally clearly, “You’re about to stand on this court—and when you really stand on it, don’t be afraid.”

Kokonoe Taka didn’t look at him, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

“…I won’t be.”

He said in a low voice.!