Chapter 28: Shiratorizawa!!
After a nutritious yet moderate lunch and a comfortably restful nap, the seven members of Yukigaoka arrived at the Prefectural Gymnasium, vibrant and full of energy.
Rested and refreshed, they were ready to face the challenges of the afternoon matches.
Their strategy of conserving energy paid off—they could now physically match other county powerhouse teams who had undergone three years of rigorous training without such luxurious breaks.
After all, none of the other teams had the privilege of such a lavish rest period.
Ichise Guren surveyed his teammates gathered in a circle, beginning their usual warm-up routine.
"You all rested well, right?"
"Yeah!" came the chorus from three voices.
"Oh man, it had to be the captain, huh? Our stamina bars are definitely longer than those other afternoon teams,'" Hoshino Masaru remarked while sipping his sports supplement drink.
"That's honestly true! Guren, that bed in your hotel was insanely comfortable! The baths too—so relaxing!" Hinata Shoyo chimed in sincerely, not bothering to hide his enthusiasm.
Feeling fully recharged, Hinata puffed out his chest with pride, flexing his modest muscles and immediately launching into Yukigaoka's standard pre-match comedy routine—always the morale booster.
Suddenly, a voice called out.
"Goshiki-senpai!"
Yura Shota, Shiratorizawa Junior High's second-year starting setter, glanced at his ace, Goshiki Tsutomu, who was still watching the opposing team with an expression of pure astonishment.
Goshiki's eyes betrayed a simple yet undeniable thought: That guy is tall.
Yura's curiosity was piqued.
"Goshiki-senpai… what's up? You seem really surprised."
Goshiki's shock was genuine. After all, they were supposed to have watched the recorded footage of Yukigaoka's previous match, yet his reaction was that of someone seeing it for the first time.
"How come that serve still amazes you? Haven't you seen the tapes from Kitagawa Daiichi?"
"No. I haven't."
Without hesitation, Goshiki admitted that he hadn't watched the highlight videos.
Yura's surprise quickly turned to confusion.
"Why didn't you watch? Kitagawa Daiichi's always been our rival."
Goshiki shrugged with a hint of defiance.
"Why waste time watching a team that hasn't beaten us for the last few years and that just got knocked out in the first round this year?"
Yura blinked, momentarily speechless, recognizing a strange logic in Goshiki's words.
For the past several years, Kitagawa Daiichi had been suppressed relentlessly by a volleyball prodigy: Ushijima Wakatoshi from Shiratorizawa Junior High.
From middle school until their high school years, Ushijima dominated completely.
Even when both Ushijima and Itsukawa Oikawa Toru ( Kitagawa Daiichi's captain) advanced to high school, Ushijima's overwhelming presence continued to suppress Oikawa.
Oikawa came to realize by the end of middle school—the game wasn't just about individual talents but about the strength of the whole six-player lineup.
Despite his skill, leadership, and award-winning setting ability—being named best setter in Miyagi prefecture and boosting his teammates' performance over 120%—he could only manage to reduce a straight sweep to a 2-1 loss against Shiratorizawa.
That was a harsh blow.
Oikawa's personal journey, deeply centered on volleyball for three intense years, left him with a strong aversion toward the notion of "talent" as an unbeatable force.
Though Oikawa possessed the skill to be recruited directly to Shiratorizawa High's team as a special recruit, he refused to accept defeat and join the rival side.
Instead, he decided to build his own team in high school and seek redemption.
Unfortunately, the story went on without him ending Shiratorizawa's dominance.
In Kageyama Tobio and Hinata Shoyo's first year of high school—Oikawa's third year—he still hadn't broken Ushijima's stranglehold on Aoba Johsai High.
In fact, during the prefecture-level qualifiers that year, Oikawa's team was eliminated by Karasuno before even facing Shiratorizawa in competition.
After losing that chance, he quietly left for Argentina to join an indoor volleyball club there, sharpening his skills overseas.
Eventually, he acquired Argentine citizenship and began challenging Japan's legendary generation of volleyball prodigies on an international stage.
Back to the present moment on the court...
Yura Shota, upon hearing that Goshiki had not watched the previous day's match footage, remained somewhat stunned.
He couldn't fathom the mindset of his team's ace who didn't seem fazed by Yukigaoka's performance.
It was clear why Kitagawa Daiichi's hadn't won against them: they had faced the monster main hitter Ushijima Wakatoshi from Shiratorizawa Junior High.
Ushijima was now ranked among the top three high school aces nationwide.
From Yura's perspective, although Goshiki had strong offensive skills, he was no match for Ushijima's level.
Yura recognized that Goshiki depended heavily on his spike techniques to score, but without reaching the level of maturity and flair of a player like Mutou, this spike style was only the foundation for a national-level team's ace.
Even the top five aces in the country possessed all the weapons that Goshiki wielded, often with more devastating effectiveness.
But for someone like Goshiki, who had been praised since childhood, the true test was in how he handled adversity and long rallies.
In those tight, back-and-forth matches, his mental fortitude sometimes fell short.
Yura glanced at him thoughtfully—knowing things could get even tougher from here on.
****
25+advance chapters at patreon.com/Eatinpieces