The next day, Akashi never saw the dyed-hair college student on the court again.
No misunderstandings, please.
This had absolutely nothing to do with him.
After all, this was a public gymnasium, and it was quite common for a different group of people to show up to play on a "pickup court" every day.
Ahem, yes, that's right.
That was the only truth to the matter.
...
"Hey, kid, want to play a game with us?"
"Of course!"
Shortly after arriving at the public gymnasium, the familiar shout came from the volleyball court, and Akashi walked over with a smile.
About a week later, a rumor gradually began circulating within this particular gymnasium.
It was said that a middle schooler had been using the place as his personal training ground, constantly dragging people into games, and he enjoyed nothing more than tormenting his own teammates.
Akashi, who happened to be passing by, heard the rumor and shook his head before walking away.
"Honestly," he thought, "who is so rude as to start this kind of rumor? What if people mistakenly link it to me?"
Thus, from that day on, to prevent the rumor from attaching itself to him, Akashi temporarily reduced the frequency of his diagonal attacks and began developing the straight spike instead.
A straight spike executed purely from the center of the court has little training value.
So, to push himself to the limit, before every attack, Akashi would first throw in a few diagonal shots to bait the opponents' block and defense, while intentionally retreating to the boundary areas of the 4- and 2-positions (wing spiker positions).
By alternating between diagonal and straight spikes, Akashi's scoring ability greatly increased.
Consequently, it took a full week and a half before the rumor—"that middle schooler is back"—slowly began to spread again in the gymnasium.
After that, Akashi found that the difficulty of finding a team had sharply increased.
"It seems I've been linked to the rumor after all."
Akashi gently shook his head, then murmured, "Forget it. Since I can't find anyone here, I'll switch to another 'pickup court' to cause... continue my activities for a while."
Host: Akashi
* Power: 77.8 [Core Strength 77.5, Arm Strength 78.1]
* Speed: 74.9 [Explosive Speed 75.2, Reaction Speed 74.6]
* Stamina: 75.2 [Endurance 75.1, Cardiopulmonary 75.3]
* Jumping: 75.9 [Vertical 77.9, Hang Time 74]
* Basic Technique: 70.5 [Serving 69.2, Underhand Pass 69.4, Setting 63.3, Spiking 77.9, Blocking 73.6, Defense 69.6]
* Advanced Technique: [Diagonal Spike 69.1], [Straight Spike 68.6], [Jump Serve 70.7]
"Right, the next court will focus primarily on jump serves in actual combat!"
In the evening, after finishing his last game at the first public gymnasium, Akashi checked his attribute panel on the way home.
Through this period of training, Akashi's stats had seen another massive surge.
Although the growth from pure training was slowing down as his attributes increased, and the early benefits from his previous life's experience were mostly exhausted, the influx of Involution Value from his summer training special regimen was tremendous!
After all, not everyone can resist the temptation to slack off during the summer holiday.
Setting aside the technical skills for a moment, almost all of his pure physical attributes had now broken the 75 threshold, save for a few minor categories.
These breakthroughs in basic physical conditioning gave Akashi a very direct sense of his improved power.
Especially the Power attribute.
Perhaps because he had been competing against adults recently, the feeling wasn't immediately overwhelming, but Akashi had an underlying sensation that his spiking power would soon level up again, evolving into a completely new domain.
As for the advanced techniques:
The Diagonal Spike and Straight Spike developed quickly because Akashi's fundamental spiking technique was already at a high level.
The final technique, Jump Serve, was the jump-serve style Akashi developed as the best fit for his own strengths in power and jumping ability.
It sacrifices precise spot control to maximize the speed and power of the jump serve by utilizing his superior vertical leap and strength.
Since serving is the only technique that can be trained entirely without teammate assistance, this skill, despite Akashi never using it in a formal match, became the highest-rated of his three advanced techniques through private practice.
...
The following afternoon, Akashi set out early for another public gymnasium he had found on his phone.
Compared to the previous venue, this gymnasium was further away but was generally larger and more formal, with a greater number of volleyball courts. Presumably, it would also have fewer strange rumors circulating.
It took him nearly an hour of walking and taking the train to reach his destination: Sendai City First General Gymnasium.
This gymnasium was clearly far more formal. Upon approaching, one first noticed the outdoor soccer and baseball fields flanking the main building. Compared to volleyball, these two sports were obviously far more popular.
Even under the blazing sun, both fields were packed with people.
Walking into the indoor arena, the first sounds heard were the loud thudding of basketballs and the piercing squeak of various sneaker soles against the hardwood floor.
"Hey, kid! Want to play some volleyball? We're short a guy over there. Wanna join us for a match?"
Before Akashi could even reach the volleyball courts, a college student carrying an open sports drink walked by and initiated the conversation.
Akashi's eyes immediately lit up.
This kind of formal venue was definitely better; there were none of those inexplicable rumors popping up.
Akashi readily nodded and agreed.
A short while later, the college student, who introduced himself as Chiba, led Akashi to their court.
Unlike the completely impromptu teams he had encountered before, Chiba and his friends actually had a relatively stable team here. However, someone in their group had to leave mid-match due to an urgent matter.
"Chiba, how was it? Did you find someone?"
"Not bad. I just ran into a middle schooler on the way. How about you guys?"
"What a coincidence. I just grabbed a high schooler myself."
While Chiba was talking with his friend, Akashi's attention was suddenly drawn to a person who looked remarkably familiar.
Around five feet ten inches tall, with a spiky, close-cut blond haircut that included two black horizontal lines shaved above his temples, he wore a perpetually "annoyed" expression, looking exactly like a rebellious youth.
As Akashi looked his way, the person turned his head to look back, his eyes fierce, like a stray dog.
Akashi rubbed his chin, recalling memories in his mind, and muttered, "That guy, I think his name is... Kyoutani Kentarou."