Farewell at the Club
March.
It was the season of graduation.
After attending the school's formal graduation ceremony, Akashi and Omae Masato headed to the volleyball club, where a small, intimate graduation ceremony was also being held for the club members.
Akashi and Omae Masato were the last to arrive. By the time they did, the other third-year starters had essentially finished saying everything they wanted to their first and second-year juniors.
Judging by the red-rimmed eyes of the first and second-year students, they had clearly just finished crying.
"Akashi, you're right on time. They've all finished. Now it's your turn, 'Ace'," Shimokawa Sando waved Akashi over.
Akashi walked over, and the juniors, instantly snapping to attention, all focused their gaze on him.
Undoubtedly, if their feelings toward the other third-years were respect, toward Akashi, it was pure admiration.
Leading the Senkoku Volleyball Club single-handedly from an unremarkably ordinary sports club to the Miyagi Prefectural champions, and then advancing all the way to the third round of the National Tournament—such achievements were more than enough to become a 'Legend' within the entire Senkoku Volleyball Club.
"Uh... actually, I don't have much left to say either! Everything that needed to be said was conveyed during the National Tournament. Going forward, the Senkoku Volleyball Club will rely on you to continue the glory."
...
After leaving the volleyball club, the graduating third-years, including Akashi, wandered aimlessly around the school campus for a while.
"Have you all finalized your high school choices?"
"Pretty much."
Kurata nodded and said, "I was lucky this time and just barely made the admission cutoff for Shiratorizawa. So after high school, I will be dropping club activities and focusing entirely on preparing for university entrance exams."
"Omae surprisingly had a great performance on the entrance exam and scored a bit higher than expected, so we temporarily switched to a stronger baseball school with a higher university acceptance rate—Higashida High," Kazama Juujirou said, sitting on the parallel bars.
Ota Miki spoke: "I'm going to the high school my brother attended. I'll probably continue playing volleyball in high school, but the focus will ultimately be on academics. Volleyball will remain just a hobby."
Kurata, Omae Masato, Kazama Juujirou, and Ota Miki were all basically following their original plans for higher education.
Akashi nodded after hearing them, then looked at Mishita: "And you, Mishita? Is your decision still the same?"
Mishita Ryuhei replied calmly, "Yes. I already said it—wherever you go, I go."
Akashi: "..."
Why does that sound a little... gay?
Scratching the back of his head slightly, Akashi showed a look of resignation: "You really don't have to do that. I told you before, with our skill, we could only realistically advance three or four rounds in the National Tournament at most. Even if that accident hadn't happened, our probability of winning that match wasn't very high."
Over two months had passed since the National Tournament.
In that tournament, Senkoku ultimately only advanced two rounds before being defeated in the third match.
One of the reasons for that loss was an injury to Mishita Ryuhei, which forced Senkoku to use a substitute setter immediately.
While the reserve setter, Nishimori Tomohiko, had decent coordination with Akashi, he lacked synergy with the other members.
The Senkoku team was fundamentally built around Akashi as the core.
In the first two matches of Nationals, the skills of the other Senkoku members were already becoming weaknesses, but the team barely managed to compensate due to Akashi's offensive power and the coordination with his setter.
But once Mishita Ryuhei left the court, Senkoku's weaknesses were completely exposed.
Realistically, even with their full strength, Senkoku's capabilities in the National Tournament would have peaked at the third or fourth round. The further they advanced, the more pronounced the team's flaws would become, and against national-level opponents, such flaws would be fatal.
"I know."
Mishita Ryuhei nodded calmly. "But the reason I chose the same school as you isn't because of that. I just want to see how far I, as a 'craftsman,' can go in the future."
"..."
"Alright. Since you've made your decision, I won't try to persuade you further. I hope the two of us can achieve better results in high school than we did in middle school."
With that, Akashi extended his fist.
Mishita Ryuhei paused momentarily, then cracked a small smile, extended his own fist, and lightly bumped Akashi's.
"That's nice!"
Watching the interaction, Omae Masato suddenly felt a pang of envy: "I'm so jealous that you two get to keep playing volleyball together in high school. Speaking of which, Miki, since you decided to continue playing volleyball in high school, why didn't you just follow Akashi or Mishita?"
"Absolutely not."
The moment Omae Masato finished speaking, Ota Miki crossed his arms and immediately refused.
"If I stay with that guy, I can already predict that high school volleyball life would be exhausting. I only plan to continue volleyball as a hobby, so my primary factor in choosing a high school was that the team must absolutely not be too strong."
"Besides, Omae, you're going to high school with Kazama, right? Do you really need to envy Akashi and Mishita?"
"Ah, well..."
Omae Masato was suddenly speechless.
He weakly turned his head to look at Kazama Juujirou, and was immediately met with Kazama's 'brilliant' smile.
Kazama Juujirou: "ψ(｀)ψ"
Omae Masato: "Σ(дlll)"
Akashi: "(￣ー￣)``````"
The relationship between you two is definitely a little... unusual.
Since it was graduation day, Akashi wasn't in a hurry to rush home to 'compete against himself'... Ah, no, to train.
The main reason was that ever since the third-year volleyball club dissolved two months ago, Akashi had been unable to gain [Over-Achiever Value] by competing against teammates. The only way to obtain [Over-Achiever Value] during this time was to compete against himself.
But competing against oneself was incredibly difficult.
Both the time and effort required, and the [Over-Achiever Value] gained, simply couldn't compare to before.
Akashi stayed out until evening before parting ways with the others and returning home.
As he stepped into the entryway, Akashi saw an extra person on the sofa. From the posture alone—sprawled out uselessly—Akashi knew without looking at the face that Akashi Kana was home.
"Welcome back, Akashi. Are your things packed?"
...
(I won't be writing about the middle school Nationals, as this is a fanfiction, and too much original content might feel like 'filler.' The focus going forward will primarily be on the high school matches.)