Chapter 1: The Starting Point of Yukigaoka Volleyball and the Rich Guy
Slightly hurried breathing sounds escaped from between the nose and mouth of an orange-haired boy.
"Huff"
The boy wore a white short-sleeved shirt, athletic shorts, and a pair of volleyball shoes that showed signs of frequent use.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
Three different-quality volleyball collision sounds rang out in extremely short succession from between his palms, the wall, and the ground—continuous and uninterrupted.
Over the past two years, even without teammates to practice with, unable to gather enough people to participate in matches.
Even when he wanted to practice spiking, he couldn't find anyone to set the ball for him.
But still, Hinata Shoyo continued his solitary practice as always.
Bumping the ball with both arms in place, or practicing spikes and serves against the wall by himself.
Among his three childhood friends, whenever he managed to catch any one of them when they were free.
They would be dragged by Hinata Shoyo to set balls for his spiking practice.
This practice would continue until his friend's arms were hit red and swollen by the volleyball's reaction force, sometimes even causing subcutaneous bleeding.
But today.
Hinata Shoyo's monotonous, unchanging daily life had a slight change.
A gentle but powerful voice came from behind him.
"Do you like volleyball?"
Hinata Shoyo froze.
Just like usual, he was wearing the same ordinary white short-sleeved shirt and athletic pants as always.
No different from the past two years, during after-school activity time, hitting the ball against the wall he had practiced against countless times.
But—
Looking at Hinata Shoyo, who seemed somewhat slow to react, as if he hadn't heard clearly,
Ichise Guren patted the volleyball he had brought to school, a smile on his face.
Once again, he asked more slowly.
"Do you also like volleyball?"
There was no curiosity on Ichise Guren's face, nor any appearance of someone asking a question.
His tone was full of certainty, affirmation, and confidence.
As if saying:
'You're absolutely a one hundred percent volleyball fanatic, aren't you!'
---
**CrossFit Gym Bathhouse**
"Hey hey! Guren!"
Hinata Shoyo's energy seemed endless.
Even though he had just experienced an extremely high-intensity training session.
A session of ATP + functional training + height-development exercises that Ichise Guren had specifically designed for him.
After a brief bodyweight stretching and foam rolling session in the rest area, Hinata Shoyo in the bathhouse seemed to have already recovered all his energy.
Meanwhile, Hyakuzawa Yudai, whose height and weight far exceeded Hinata Shoyo's, was still silently sitting on a larger stool, resting while washing himself.
Hinata Shoyo, who had just been jumping around from the cold water, started bombarding Ichise Guren with questions once his body recovered.
"Do we really not need to run? Isn't aerobic exercise the best endurance training?"
Like a curious baby, he cheerfully questioned Ichise Guren while washing his body on his small stool.
Ichise Guren, with his bangs hanging down, looked at the naked little sunshine with slight disdain and inconspicuously moved a bit further away.
Then he continued his hair-washing endeavor.
After the foam from his hair was gradually washed clean by the cold water,
He slowly began to speak: "Only high-intensity exercise lasting more than one minute is suitable for aerobic training."
"Volleyball, like basketball and soccer, involves intermittent rather than continuous high-intensity movement patterns."
"High-intensity exercise within ten seconds relies on the human body's phosphocreatine system, while high-intensity exercise in the ten-second to sixty-second range mainly depends on rapid glycolysis for energy. Only after exercising for more than one minute does the aerobic system provide energy."
Hinata Shoyo: "Ten seconds... phosphocreatine... glycolysis... aerobic..."
Looking at Hinata Shoyo, whose eyes were already spinning in circles, Ichise Guren was used to this elementary school dropout drowning in the ocean of technical terminology.
So he clapped his hands to snap Hinata Shoyo out of his daze.
"Well, cardiopulmonary function does need appropriate aerobic exercise. Running three to five kilometers at moderate frequency is enough."
He ruffled his orange-red hair.
"Finish washing early and rest early. Remember to eat the nutrition meal I prepared for you when you get home. Good food and sleep are what help you grow taller."
At the mention of growing taller, Hinata Shoyo was no longer confused—he instantly went from spinning eyes to starry eyes.
"Oh! Yoshi! I'll wash up at the fastest speed, then go home to eat and sleep!"
His fighting spirit ignited, as if invisible flames were burning around him.
While quickly washing himself, he muttered something under his breath.
I want to grow tall!
I want to become a giant!
I want to grow taller step by step!
I want to be the tallest!
Looking at the easily combustible Hinata Shoyo, Ichise Guren sighed.
"This is the advantage of idiots—they get fired up so easily."
He touched his chin and began to think.
In the original work, this guy only reached about 172cm as an adult, right?
If I provide him with specialized training and nutritional supplements in advance, I don't expect him to exceed his genetic height by a full 12cm to reach 190cm, but he should at least be able to grow to 176-180cm, right?
If he's lucky, 180+ isn't impossible either.
But this guy's parents...
Their genetic height really isn't enough...
The trio, having finished washing up, walked out through the main entrance of the CrossFit training facility in an orderly fashion.
Each of them held a cup of nutritional supplement, silently drinking it—this was a supplement customized according to their individual physical conditions, serving as a pre-dinner snack.
"I'm going , bye-bye."
With a straw in his mouth, making his speech unclear, Hinata Shoyo got on his bicycle and headed home.
Hyakuzawa Yudai also gave a very brief farewell.
"Guren-nii, I'm going home too."
Ichise Guren raised his hand: "Oh, go ahead. Give my regards to uncle and aunt."
After watching Hyakuzawa Yudai also walk away, Ichise Guren looked down at the time on his phone.
'Seven o'clock, about time.'
He then unlocked it and called someone in his contacts.
"Ayasaki-san, sorry to trouble you, but could you pick me up at CrossFit No. 3?"
"Yes, Young Master Ichise, I'll be right there."
In less than eight minutes, an Alphard van stopped beside Ichise Guren, and the door slowly opened.
A handsome middle-aged man with an impeccable hairstyle in the driver's seat had already opened his door, preparing to get out.
Ichise Guren stopped him with his voice.
"It's fine, Ayasaki-san. This car has automatic doors, no need to help open them. I only have one bag, I can just put it in the back seat."
"Hai."
Ayasaki Hayate very obediently stopped getting out of the car and waited for Ichise Guren to get in.
Stepping into the car and casually placing his sports bag in the back seat, Ayasaki Hayate perceptively pressed the door button.
After the door slowly closed, he started the vehicle.
"Ayasaki-san, we can go home now."
Ichise Guren lay comfortably in his seat, telling the driving Ayasaki Hayate their destination.
"Hai."
Ayasaki Hayate observed Ichise Guren's condition through the rearview mirror, then quietly continued driving in silence.
Ichise Guren also fell into reminiscence during the brief silence.
His thoughts drifted to long ago.
It was exactly the first decade after the end of Japan's bubble era.
Ichise Guren's grandfather's family rode the winds of the bubble era, working in the entertainment industry's newspaper business, and embarked on the path to wealth.
Moving from the countryside to the big city, the clever but frugal old man of the Ichise family, after earning some money, didn't indulge in wild spending like the nouveau riche in the city.
Instead, he first bought a lot of cheap farmland in his rural hometown, then quietly invested the money he continued to earn into shops and real estate.
Thus, without any loans, Ichise Ryohei's industries and assets safely transitioned through that intoxicating bubble era.
He successfully entered the entertainment industry and benefited from the lipstick effect. His son, Ichise Hiroshi, chose to enter the two-dimensional industry.
After his son Ichise Guren was born, in 2000, four-year-old Ichise Guren used paintbrushes his mother bought to draw very crude but captivating One Piece sketches with character designs that perfectly appealed to male tastes.
Especially the concepts of Haki and Devil Fruits, which were full of interesting possibilities.
Ichise Hiroshi found them extremely interesting and brought them to his company to show off his genius son.
A manga editor at the company, who had originally planned to work as a high-level executive at a startup for a generous retirement package, used his years of manga editing experience to keenly sense the potential for explosive popularity.
Thus, an improved art style and plot-modified version of One Piece was born.
Novel and unique character designs, dramatic plot twists, and the charm of ocean adventure quickly conquered a group of otaku in the island nation.
The dedicated scriptwriter and ultimate editor-in-chief, Ichise Guren, also very professionally used his childlike yet limitless imagination and strict review standards to ensure that One Piece didn't disgrace its previous life's prototype.
With One Piece's serialization in Weekly Manga Magazine, Ichise Publishing quickly welcomed its period of business takeoff.
Later, based on the genius son's doodle sketches, they successively launched Naruto, Slam Dunk, Hunter x Hunter, Rurouni Kenshin, The Prince of Tennis, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Shaman King—all S-level manga IPs.
They swept through the island nation's two-dimensional world, and the powerful cash flow from the weekly magazine supported Ichise Animation Production Company.
Relying on the parent company's super-strong IPs and cash flow support, a bunch of high-quality animations delivered another dimensional crushing blow.
The Ichise family thus joined the financial conglomerate class.
Thanks to the old man's hometown sentiment, although most of Ichise Group's affairs were conducted in Tokyo, Miyagi Prefecture—this hometown that had accompanied the Ichise family through most of three generations—still housed the headquarters of this top-tier conglomerate.
And for a genius like Ichise Guren, who had strong opinions from an early age, his parents basically didn't interfere much beyond financial support.
This is why Ichise Guren chose to attend school in Miyagi Prefecture.
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20 advance chapters at patreon.com/Eatinpieces