"I knew it. I guessed you'd be here." Beside the vending machine, Iwaizumi Hajime had just bought a canned drink when Oikawa Tōru's voice suddenly chimed in from the side.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well, naturally, I came to see if our dear 'Ace' was crying!" Oikawa poked his head out, saying with a "cute" expression.
Iwaizumi Hajime gave him a look of distaste: "Don't think of me as useless like you, you jerk Oikawa! Besides, I'm not the team's 'Ace' anymore."
"Aww~~ But in my heart, you'll always be the best 'Ace'!"
Oikawa Tōru's voice sounded a little "teasing" in the first half of the sentence, but when he got to the second half, his expression became serious.
Believe it or not, this overly sappy remark truly flustered Iwaizumi Hajime for a moment.
After a long pause, Iwaizumi Hajime finally spoke again: "If you came specifically to comfort me, there's no need. I'm not like you; I won't be jealous of a junior's talent."
"Is that so? But it doesn't look to me like Iwa-chan is the kind of person who gives up so easily, is he?"
Iwaizumi Hajime: "..."
"Damn it! Since you know that, why did you come specifically to remind me? Are you trying to mock me?"
With a bang, Iwaizumi Hajime slammed the drink can onto the ground. The formerly calm expression disappeared, replaced by an unspeakable rage.
Oikawa Tōru's gaze was calm: "Mock? Of course not. I just... understand how you're feeling right now."
Iwaizumi Hajime immediately fell silent.
The atmosphere became deathly quiet.
A moment later, Iwaizumi Hajime said: "Sorry..."
Oikawa Tōru smiled: "It's fine! If Iwa-chan hasn't vented enough, you can actually smash two more cans, and I'll pay for them."
Iwaizumi Hajime pursed his lips, covering his forehead: "No, you misunderstood! I was apologizing to myself just now, because I didn't expect myself to react in the same way you do. That's honestly embarrassing."
Oikawa Tōru: "ヽ(;Д｀) Eh????"
...
The New Pairing
"Please take good care of me from now on, Akashi-chan."
"Please take good care of me, Oikawa-senpai."
When they returned to school for training the next day, Oikawa Tōru took the initiative to greet Akashi.
Since Oikawa Tōru's primary training partner for a long time to come would be Akashi, communication between the two was unavoidable.
Becoming the "Ace" didn't change much for Akashi. The main issues with changing the "Ace" lie in the shift of the tactical core and the increase in the number of attacking sets.
These aspects largely fall under the Setter's responsibilities.
Therefore, after changing the "Ace," the busiest person was not Akashi, the "Ace," but Oikawa Tōru, the Setter.
Another change was the matter of regular training pairings.
In the past, as a first-year, Akashi's training partner was usually Mishita Ryuhei. But now, his training partner had been switched to Oikawa Tōru. Mishita Ryuhei, in turn, was paired with Iwaizumi Hajime.
This change in the "Ace" position truly exhausted Oikawa Tōru.
Although Oikawa Tōru deeply loved Iwaizumi Hajime, his 'wooden stick,' once he actually started using it, Oikawa Tōru had to admit that Akashi's 'steel spear' was simply too fantastic.
After all, no matter how many tricks Oikawa Tōru had in his head, there were only so many positions a 'small wooden stick' could play.
But the 'steel spear' was different.
With Akashi becoming the "Ace," his explosively powerful physical attributes meant that virtually any trick Oikawa Tōru could conceive of, Akashi could fulfill.
Oikawa Tōru experienced an outburst of inspiration during this period.
During this time, Oikawa Tōru was relentlessly training during the day and working tirelessly into the night, all in an effort to quickly and deeply understand Akashi's limits and develop all of Akashi's various attacking techniques one by one.
Consequently, in just one or two weeks, not only Oikawa Tōru but also Akashi felt like he had opened up a new world.
After all, Mishita Ryuhei's ability was limited, so most of the time, the attacking method was to simply set the ball to Akashi, and then... nothing else happened.
So, even Akashi himself was discovering for the first time that his body could pull off so many different moves.
And whenever this happened, Iwaizumi Hajime and Mishita Ryuhei, training on the other side of the court, would inexplicably feel as if something had sprouted atop their heads.
...
Publishing Success
On the third Saturday of May, while Akashi was training alone, his editor, Wakayama Hinatsu, sent the sales figures for the second week of his novel.
Since the novel's publication, The Cautious Hero (Shinchō Yūsha) sold 5,024 copies in the first week and 5,347 copies in the second week. Both sales results ranked fourth among the publishing house's internal monthly sales.
To be honest, this result was somewhat beyond Akashi's expectation. Although this was still the heyday of print media publishing in Japan, such a result was nonetheless excellent.
To give a simple example:
Akashi's contracted royalty rate for the novel was 10\%, and his payment was calculated not based on actual sales, but on the amount printed by the printing press.
The initial print run of the novel was 5,000 copies, but later, seeing the surge in sales, the publishing house urgently added another 15,000 copies.
The Cautious Hero is priced at 820 Japanese Yen per book.
Calculated at a 10\% royalty rate, this means that based on the current print run alone, Akashi has already earned 1,640,000 Japanese Yen.
"Good heavens! Why am I even playing volleyball? At this rate, I feel like I could live off this one novel for the rest of my life!" Akashi was shocked himself when he did the math.
However, compared to Akashi, Wakayama Hinatsu seemed even more excited about The Cautious Hero's success.
As an editor, having the first author she was responsible for achieve such results right after starting out meant a significant bonus from the publishing house, not to mention anything else.
As long as these results could be maintained, Akashi's first novel wouldn't have to worry about being canceled.
Wakayama Hinatsu sent a congratulatory email as the second message.
The third email was an invitation for Akashi to meet again to discuss the details of the next part of the novel.
Although Akashi felt there wasn't much need for discussion, since he had already finished writing the second volume, and even the third volume was nearing completion, he thought about it and eventually agreed to Wakayama Hinatsu's request. After setting the meeting location, Akashi returned to his training.
...