Chapter 23: Post-Match Review and the Next Morning
In the Miyagi Prefectural Gymnasium, the three Karasuno players looked at the 2-0 result of Kitagawa Daiichi's defeat to Yukigaoka, exchanging puzzled glances.
They had come prepared to gather intelligence on the promising "King" Kageyama Tobio of Kitagawa, but instead witnessed Kitagawa Daiichi being crushed by Yukigaoka.
The three were well aware that with Yukigaoka's crystal clear player configuration and two spikers far beyond the middle school level, as well as a fundamentally sound libero, after taking down Kitagawa Daiichi, apart from the powerhouse Johzenji, there would be no other equal opponents in Miyagi.
And relying on Ichise Guren's overwhelming offensive power, Yukigaoka had a high chance of advancing all the way to the national tournament.
By that time, the battle-hardened Yukigaoka captain (Ichise Guren), the 195cm giant (Hyakuzawa Yudai), the low-profile yet impactful libero (Hoshino Masaru), and the highly jumping short player (Hinata Shoyo) - whichever high school these four ended up at, they would become formidable rivals for the coming year.
And if... if these four truly joined the same high school volleyball team, that team would instantly become a Miyagi prefecture contender, even if the school's volleyball program was previously weak.
"Wow, wow."
Sugawara, with his arms behind his head, walked alongside his friends with a resigned expression.
"I just wanted to gather intel on the 'King', but ended up with a wild card, an Ace, and two Ks."
"Feels like next year's Miyagi will be swarming with strong opponents."
"No problem! I'll just blow them all away!!!"
Hearing Sugawara's words, the suddenly fired-up Tanaka let out a loud shout on the street.
He was then promptly whacked on the back by Daiichi.
"Don't make so much noise on the street! It'll disturb people!"
"Alright, alright, I got it."
Despite his straightforward personality, Tanaka actually valued the etiquette of communicating with his teammates. While he didn't express it verbally, he still had a delicate side within.
The three continued chatting as they walked back to Karasuno.
Meanwhile, at the Yukigaoka gymnasium...
Since they had already played a match today, the Yukigaoka players had expended enough physical effort, and their energy levels were quite high.
So after returning to school, Ichise Guren didn't arrange any additional training, only holding a simple post-match review meeting, allowing the players to individually reflect and share what they saw as their own shortcomings and strengths from the match, and how they could improve their personal and team abilities.
During the meeting, each player carefully recalled and considered their performance, involuntarily starting to mimic their own actions, thinking about how they could have done better.
For Ichise Guren, his volleyball philosophy had only one tenet: volleyball is a sport for six people.
No matter how strong or scoring-capable the ace spiker, without the defensive first touches and setter assists, relying on the ace alone could never accomplish point-scoring attacks.
And how to make the team stronger was something he had his own approach to - constant reflection and practice.
Every moment, thinking about how to do better, then putting it into action - this was the way to progress in any industry or endeavor.
The post-match review was one of the highly effective methods among the countless thinking and learning techniques.
After the review meeting ended, Ichise Guren was ready to head home for proper recovery and rest. High-quality rest was the key to better restoring and enhancing physical athletic abilities.
But when he reached the gymnasium doors, he was surprised to find that not a single player had left.
Each of them was doing some light practice, wanting to ingrain the improvements and ideas from the review meeting, so they could do even better next time.
Scratching his head, Ichise Guren certainly understood this was an excellent situation - every team member had a strong drive to progress, and was taking action to realize it.
But as the captain, Ichise Guren unhesitatingly pulled open the doors, startling the enthusiastically training players inside.
He then shouted sternly at the innocent team members:
"What are you all doing?"
The just-crackling gymnasium fell into complete silence.
"Are you treating the things I always say as empty words?"
"How many times have I said - training must be scientific, appropriate, and progressive!"
"As athletes, properly managing your physical reserves and condition is a must!"
"All of you, go take a hot shower, then cover up and sleep!"
"Yes, sir!"
The players, not daring to argue with the captain's authoritative presence, obediently responded. Under Ichise Guren's supervision, they cleaned up the equipment and the gymnasium, changed clothes in the activity room, and headed home.
The next morning, in the Yukigaoka activity room...
"What?!"
It was the impulsive Hinata Shoyo, the wild beast, the monkey.
"Ichise! Are you slacking off tomorrow?"
"How can you just say that so casually?"
Hinata looked at Ichise Guren, who had spoken those words with an unchanged expression, with a shocked expression.
The other teammates, though not speaking up, their strange expressions already conveyed thoughts identical to Hinata's.
Ichise Guren, leisurely peeling and taking bites of a banana, spoke in a muffled voice.
"I'm just saying, I'll be the support player tomorrow."
"Give you all more opportunities to fight, to feel the opponent, to experience the match..."
The mischievous Hoshino Masaru subtly made a sarcastic remark.
"Saying it like you don't need to accumulate match experience yourself... Even though you're a middle schooler like us."
But the serious Hyakuzawa Yudai refuted his sarcasm.
"That's not the same. Ichise-senpai has been going abroad during school breaks since 3rd grade to participate in volleyball practice matches, he has far more match experience than us, and has also trained with world-class coaches and player development specialists."
"A lot of our weird but useful training methods and volleyball concepts beyond middle school knowledge, he learned from them."
Hearing this, Hinata's expression was filled with envious admiration.
He practically had "How come you get to go abroad and face strong opponents, and have such great training conditions! I want that too!" written all over his face.
And Ichise Guren was fully aware of what Hinata was thinking.
"Everyone, you don't need to envy me. The plans I've made for you all were finalized after remote communication with my coaches. Did you really think those strange tests I had you do were just to mess with you?"
"Really?! Ichise is the best!"
Hinata first maintained his doubts, but after getting Ichise Guren's confirmation, immediately entered full-on adoration mode.
Hoshino, Mori, and the "Three Smalls" finally understood where Ichise Guren's hellish yet well-paced training that tormented them to the brink of death came from.
The four stared at Ichise Guren with an expression of 'Oh! While it was very effective, you really did spend a lot of money to put us through hell, huh?'
This powerful resentment made Ichise Guren's skin crawl, and he quickly fled the room with a "Keep training well!" before anyone could say more.
As he hurried to the bus pickup, Hoshino raised the war cry.
"After him! We'll keep an eye on him on the way!"
But when they got on the bus, the four ended up just sitting expressionlessly, watching the blindfolded and headphone-wearing Ichise Guren resting.
"Damn him..." x4
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