Chapter 73: The Sun That Shines on Everyone
After Hinata Shoyo and Nishinoya Yu finished their greetings, and all the second and third-year regular players had arrived at the gymnasium, everyone in the hall naturally gathered around their captain, Sawamura Daichi.
After Sawamura Daichi introduced everyone to the second-year Nishinoya Yu, Nishinoya began his enthusiastic greetings to the new students.
"That tall guy with the fierce-looking eyes!"
"Oh! Kitagawa Daiichi! That's a strong school too!"
"My middle school played against your school once - we lost 2:1. Ahahahaha!"
"Of course it's because of the uniform! That pure black student uniform! So cool!"
Sawamura Daichi and Sugawara Koshi exchanged glances and couldn't help but comment.
"This guy is really noisy."
"His voice is still as loud as ever."
When the loud-voiced Nishinoya Yu looked toward Ichise Guren and Hoshino Masaru on the other side, his eyes lit up.
"Oh! You two!"
"You're first-years too!"
"Pretty good at serving and receiving!"
"Blue-haired kid! You play libero, right?"
Meeting such a noisy senpai for the first time, Hoshino Masaru was a bit dazed and somewhat at a loss as he replied.
"Y-yes, I play libero."
"Ohh! Not bad at all! Practice hard, okay!"
Nishinoya Yu gave Hoshino Masaru an encouraging pat, then turned to look at Ichise Guren.
"You look familiar somehow. Have I seen you somewhere before?"
"Eh~ I don't think so. I don't remember meeting Nishinoya-san anywhere."
Nishinoya Yu stared suspiciously at Ichise Guren's face, feeling like he'd seen him somewhere before. Then he started circling around Ichise Guren, his bleached yellow bangs swaying back and forth.
"Oh! I remember now!"
He placed his left hand under his chin and struck his open palm with his right fist.
"You!"
"Haven't you been in Volleyball Monthly magazine?"
"That middle school ace spiker who led his team to the national semifinals last year!"
Ichise Guren was caught off guard by Nishinoya Yu getting so close, and for a moment didn't know what to do with his hands. He could only awkwardly hold them in front of himself as he answered Nishinoya Yu's question.
"Ah, ah, that should be me."
"Oh!"
"You're pretty strong!"
"How about it? Want to become Karasuno's ace?"
"Hahahaha! After you defeat the current ace, you'll be the ace!"
Wherever Nishinoya Yu appeared, there would always be bold laughter surrounding him.
Meanwhile, Hoshino Masaru just felt that this genius libero senpai was a bit too noisy.
After greeting all the first-years present, Nishinoya Yu asked about something that had been on his mind.
"Speaking of the ace, where's Asahi-senpai? Didn't he come to practice at lunch?"
"Well..."
Both Sugawara Koshi and Sawamura Daichi stammered as they explained the actual situation.
.....
Although Hinata Shoyo didn't understand what was happening, none of this seemed very important to him. He quickly pushed aside his questions about these matters and ran up to Hoshino Masaru to ask:
"Hoshino! How good is his receiving ability?"
Hoshino Masaru rolled his eyes. This guy always brought up sensitive topics, and he replied irritably:
"Better than mine."
"Yosh! I'm going to find Nishinoya-senpai to learn receiving!"
?
Hoshino Masaru looked at Hinata Shoyo with complete bewilderment.
"Are you stupid? Your level is way worse than mine, so why are you going to learn from him?"
Sometimes, Hoshino Masaru really couldn't understand Hinata Shoyo's thought process. The prerequisite for learning from such strong players should be that your own level is strong enough too, right? Otherwise, they probably wouldn't think much of you.
But for Hinata Shoyo, this never seemed to be a problem. Moreover, Nishinoya Yu was a senpai on the same team - asking him for advice when you have questions is perfectly normal, isn't it?
"Why not?"
Hinata Shoyo's small face was full of confusion.
"Hoshino, you also said that what I lack now is experience and accumulated daily training, so what's wrong with me learning from strong people?"
"You can only get stronger by learning from everyone who's better than you, right?"
After saying this, Hinata Shoyo didn't continue this topic with Hoshino Masaru anymore. His little head only thought that if they kept chatting, Nishinoya-senpai would walk away.
The other players, seeing that Hinata Shoyo was going to ask Nishinoya Yu for receiving advice, all followed their own thoughts and quietly followed the little sun out of the gymnasium.
Only Ichise Guren, who was observing from the sidelines, and Hoshino Masaru, whose thoughts had become very chaotic, remained. Although he didn't want to admit that little monkey Hinata's viewpoint was right, Hoshino Masaru was actually very clear in his heart.
Hinata Shoyo's approach was correct. It's just that most people think asking others for advice is troublesome for them and not very good. And if you get refused, it's also embarrassing.
But, as Steve Jobs said, don't be afraid to ask others for help.
Compared to what you want, embarrassment is just the least important thing.
"That monkey! Where does this single-minded desire to get stronger and exaggerated action power come from?"
"Damn it!"
In his daze, Hoshino Masaru suddenly realized he actually felt a trace of jealousy toward Hinata Shoyo.
'This guy...'
'He's not running slower than me - he just started running later than me.'
'I don't want to lose to you.'
'Face your own heart honestly.'
For the first time, something called ambition appeared in Hoshino Masaru's eyes.
No longer composed, no longer ordinary - ask yourself honestly what it is you really want.
"Guren!!!"
"You don't need to rest yet!!"
"50 more powerful jump serves!"
"Blast them over here with everything you've got!"
Ichise Guren, who had just entered standby mode, showed a half-fierce smile at this moment, grabbed a volleyball with one hand, and rolled his right shoulder.
"Very good. Are you ready?"
"Masaru!"
'That's right, teammate. Show some ambition.'
'I won't interfere too much with your own growth.'
'Would you stop playing volleyball if you left me?'
'Progress always comes with hardship, and the only thing that can resist these is your inner self-drive.'
'Only by understanding this point can you keep moving forward on the path ahead.'
....
The Miyagi Prefecture Board of Education received a phone call.
"Yes, this is the Miyagi Prefecture Education Committee."
"Yes! Hello!"
"Yes!! I understand! I will pass it along!"
"Yes, I've checked that the fax machine is on."
"Thank you very much for your concern and guidance, we are deeply grateful!!!"
"Thank you for your hard work, looking forward to meeting again!!"
***
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