V1C3 Part3

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3. OLD BUDDYAoki’s 1000 IQ mind is hinted at here

Also what are the main tags for this fandom???

Translation Notes

1. Pun on Oda’s name. Here the “Shin” is 神 (god) instead of “伸” which is the first kanji in Oda’s first name

2. Okuma’s name 大隈 shares the same pronunciation as 大熊 which means “big bear”

3. The 伸 in Oda’s first name means “lengthen” or “extend”

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“Odaaaa! I’m beggin’ you, play futsal. You can definitely be

in the amateur bracket on a pro level.”

“Odacchi! Why aren’t you doing softball? You’re even more

reliable than our regular shortstop. Oh, don’t be so modest. I’m not kissing

your ass. What’s the point of that?”

“Oda, why volleyball of all things?”

“You don’t have to play volleyball.”

“Oda!

No, Oda-Shin!” (1)

The seasons changed, and it was now midway through June. In

this rainy season, Oda shook off the group of male scouts who were wearing

mud-stained uniforms and jerseys and hot on his heels, and took refuge in the

student council room. It sounded good for those who called it a June tradition,

but for those who were targeted, it was just a dirty thing.

“I’m

comin’ in. Let me hide out a little here.”

Aoki, who seemed too tall for his own good as he tucked

himself on a folding chair and stared at documents, looked up. The sign reading

“Vice President” stood on one corner of the desks arranged in a square.

“Oh. I can hear it from all the way in here. You’re a

popular guy.”

“The member list has already been turned in. I don’t know if

they’ve been told by now. Even if they didn’t, I don’t feel like doing

anything other than volleyball.”

“Well, no need to be so hard on them. You should be happy

that they value you so much.”

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate it…I only dabbled with

soccer and baseball in gym. I seriously don’t know why people are giving me so

much credit.”

“Is that different from not being aware of your own

ability?”

“If it’s volleyball ability, I’m more than

aware of it.”

Hearing such a servile and submissive line from himself, he

immediately regretted it right after he said it. Aoki was silent for only a

moment while looking down at the papers.

“…Did you see who will be participating in volleyball? A

whole bunch of stuff came out just now.”

He changed the topic, acting as though he hadn’t heard

anything. I’m never a match for how he reads too much into things.

He pulled up the chair that was diagonally across from Aoki,

the corner of the desk between them. In addition to him, there were only a pair

of underclassmen officers sitting in the corner working on something.

The

main event organized by the student council in the first semester, the Seiin

Ballgame Festival, was coming in two weeks. The boys’ volleyball team were futilely

eliminated from prefecturals at the beginning of the month, and the road to

Inter-High and Nationals had just closed. Another one of the three major

national championships was the “Spring Inter-High Volleyball” in January. The

ballgame tournament during this period was by all rights nothing but a nuisance

to their club activities, because they had to restart immediately to prepare

for the prefectural qualifiers in September, right after summer vacation.

But for this year, he felt that this cushion was

appreciated. He was practicing as usual, but he couldn’t quite switch gears. The

handout distributed in class right after the prefecturals was undoubtedly one

of the reasons. He had stuffed that handout with the title “Second Future

Course Survey” into his locker without filling it in.

“It’s gonna be interesting this year.”

Aoki was handed a clipboard that holding several sheets of

paper. It was the list of names for each event in the ballgame tournament.

“The ones with the double circles are pros.”

“Pro” of course didn’t mean pro athletes. It was the

internal term for this ballgame tournament that referred to those who belonged

to the corresponding sports club for each event. The maximum number of pros was

set at three people for each team. The antonym of pro was “amateur”, and those

who had experience in middle school or dropped out of their clubs were

sometimes called “semi-pro.”

Classes

A to F were divided vertically through the grades for a total of six teams. A

supreme general would be nominated from the third-years of each team, and they

would compete for overall victory with the total points from all the events. Since

the captains of the main sports clubs were luckily scattered across the

different classes, it was an event that got somewhat heated with the power

struggles between the sports clubs.

He viewed the boys’ volleyball participant roster in order,

starting from Team A. Team A didn’t have the double circle—for softball and

futsal, where there were many qualifying members, there was competition among

the members for the pro slots, but sadly for their division, they actually fell

short of the number of slots.

“Oh, B’s got a killing.”

Team B also didn’t have any double circles, but when he

looked at the remarks column, he saw that there was an awful lot of rugby team

members. “So, are these remarks self-reported?” “No, the executive committee

collected it, but the tally was a bit late.” “You’re spending a lot of energy

on unnecessary things.” “You think so? Information gathering is fun, though.”

In the remarks column, in addition to the current club the student belonged to,

information such as their club activities in middle school and outstanding

results in the school physical fitness test were added. If one were to see this

list without knowing Aoki’s character, one might be a bit horrified.

The rugby player called Okuma of Class 2-B had a face and

name that matched (he thought it was “大熊” (2),

but he guessed those were the actual characters). At the level of a ballgame

tournament, just having a big guy in front of the net was effective to some

extent. Three rugby players over 180 centimeters in the front row might be a

rather formidable opponent.

Next,

Team C had three double circles in a row—3-C’s Aoki Misao ◎,

2-C’s Kanno Akito ◎, and 1-C’s Kuroba Yuni ◎.

“…What’s with this bias? Isn’t this all-star team against

the rules?”

“It’s no more than three. That’s not against the rules.”

Aoki said carefreely. “It’s just a coincidence that there are three people in C

class this year. I didn’t manipulate that, so I don’t need you complaining

about it.” Isn’t that an implicit admission that he manipulated in the other

cases?

“Well, worst case scenario, I might drop out. I also got

work on the management side. I’ll leave it to Kanno to cover for Kuroba.”

“Don’t drop out. It’ll be boring without you.”

When Oda said that without missing a beat, Aoki looked at

him with slightly widened eyes. That unconcerned attitude of Aoki’s always

irritated him for an instant.

“It’ll be interesting…We’ll definitely beat you.”

He declared provocatively. Aoki smirked from the corner of

his mouth.

“We’re not going to go easy on you, you know?”

“Of course. If you hold back even just a little bit, then I’m

never going to talk to you again.”

“Aw, come on, give me a break.”

Aoki

was 193 centimeters, Kanno was 181 centimeters, and Kuroba was 184 centimeters.

Oda remembered everyone’s numbers, which were filled out on the entry sheet for

the most recent tournament. Aoki, who would undoubtedly be the tallest of all the

participants in the boys’ volleyball division, was the center, and Kanno, who

had a good balance between offense and defense, was placed on the side. Kuroba

was still quite inconsistent and capricious, but as long as he went with the

flow, he would display outstanding offensive power.

The ballgame tournament was like an escape for his feelings,

and he was more of a passive participant than anything, but…he was getting a

bit excited. For a small club with eight members, they could do a four-to-four

minigame at most, not being able to do a proper intragroup game. Even if it included

amateurs, under the rules of a proper six-person system, they can compete with

that lineup. There was no other opportunity like this.

The problem was the strength of his own team, but if they

had someone who they could use even just a little…he skimmed past the next two teams,

D and E, to finally reach the F team he would be leading. At the top of the

list was Oda Shinichiro ◎ of 3-F. About four people were

chosen from each grade below, but there were no double circles besides Oda.

Compared to Team C, he couldn’t help but feel discouraged.

“…Haijima?”

That name was there.

Haijima Kimichika of 1-F. He of course didn’t have the

double circle.

When he looked up from the list, Aoki nodded as if to say you

finally noticed that? It seemed that this was the climax of “it’s gonna be interesting.”

“I didn’t think he’d choose volleyball. Wonder what brought

that on. He’s been running away from you ever since that thing happened.”

“He’s not running away from me, and wasn’t that thing

because of your assault?”

“I told

you, it wasn’t assault. I was just telling him to be a little more careful

about how he should speak to third-years.”

“With your foot?”

“Well, the foot was unintentional.” What’s the definition

of assault where you do that and don’t call it assault?

After the incident in early April of the new school year in

which Aoki kicked Haijima’s butt hard, every time they happened to catch sight

of each other in school, Haijima was the one who acted casual…From our point

of view, it’s blatantly obvious that he’s changing his route and escaping. He

was big, so he could be recognized immediately even from a distance, but he

wondered if he didn’t know he stood out. If you’re just unconsciously enjoying

the benefits of that height, give it to me…He thought. Even here, his

desire as a captain to have Haijima on the team and his personal feelings of

jealousy mixed with each other.

The first practice day for Team F was next Monday. After one

week of team practice, the ballgame tournament would arrive.

“I wonder if he’s gonna come.” What kind of face would he

have if he came?

“Well, he might be the type who shamelessly comes with a

face that says ‘My friend signed me up for an audition without asking me.’”

“Oi oi, that’s harsh…”

Contrary to his gentle appearance, Aoki had quite a sharp

tongue. According to him, he had a principle of not holding back what he wanted

to say and not doing what he didn’t want to do. But if you asked Oda, there was

a part of him that thought, Is that so? Are you saying everything you wanted

to say to me?

“…Hey,

you already handed that in, right? The future course thing…”

Even if he thought it was better to think about it later, it

got stuck in his head for a long time. There were invisible pebbles strewn

about. It felt like those pebbles were plugging up the holes where energy was

spouting out from.

Since it was the second future course survey, there was a

first one as well, but at that time there was only the choices of literature or

science and national or private schools. However, this time there was a column

for writing your specific university of choice. For the time being, since this

was a university prep school, there was hardly anyone who chose to find a job

or go to a vocational school.

There was a pause, as though the sudden topic had caught him

off guard, but Aoki’s tone didn’t change when he opened his mouth.

“Oh, not yet. I haven’t decided yet.”

It was a shock to be lied to. You were the one who

already handed it in. I asked while knowing it, actually.

However, all he said was, “…I see. Well, you’ve still got

time.”

The rumor had also spread to Oda’s class. First choice, the

Kyoto University’s faculty of law—Apparently, there was someone who peeked at

Aoki’s handout that had been handed into the staff room. Who would have thought

it’d be Kyodai? He was shocked that he was that smart. No, I knew

that, but still.

It was

at that time that he had the belated realization that until that point, he

almost never talked to Aoki about anything other than volleyball. We’ve seen

each other almost every day for more than two years, so isn’t that pretty

weird? In the first place, volleyball was the only thing they had in

common. Except volleyball, their interests didn’t intersect at all (to be

precise, volleyball was Oda’s only interest). Oda only ever brought up

volleyball and never asked Aoki what his interests were, or what he wanted to do

in the future.

I mean, Kyodai? Supposing that we won the prefectural

representative rights for Spring Inter-High, you couldn’t retire until the main

tournament in January. Even if you studied for the entrance exam in your spare

time while you’re not doing club activities, will you be able to get into law

school at Kyoto University? ——He only thought those things and couldn’t say

it aloud. Because, what would he do if Aoki announced that he was going to

prioritize entrance exams and retire? He probably couldn’t see him out quietly.

He felt like imposing his own convenience and telling that he couldn’t retire

because they barely had enough members. No, I’m sure Aoki will prolong his

retirement as long as he can and stick with me. But, that only increased his

debt to him.

Hey, how do you feel about being stuck with me? If you

take away volleyball, then I’m just a boring person.

“Hey, do you…enjoy being with me?”

“What?”

He sounded half-crazy, as expected. He felt like it was an

extremely sissy question and wanted to crawl into a hole.

“Ah…what’s wrong, Shin? You’re acting weird.”

“Weird?”

Apparently, it was weird for him to worry about anything

other than volleyball. Even he himself thought so. As far as his path after

high school was concerned, he could cite a number of intercollegiate powerhouse

universities he was interested in as long as it was volleyball-related. But he

was at a loss as soon as he stepped away from volleyball. He wondered if he

lost in the Spring Inter-High qualifiers and retired, he would finally have to

find something else he wanted to do, and though it was impossible to assume

that they would fail the qualifiers, the idle thought flashed across his mind. Though

he still only wanted to think about volleyball right now, his mind was too

distracted to focus on one thing. If anything, the time when he couldn’t only

think about volleyball has arrived.

Bzzzz, the seat of the chair beneath Aoki started

vibrating. “Mm, ‘scuse me,” Aoki put his hand on his behind. His hand that was

as long and thin as his physique operated his phone.

“Geh, a summons text from the president. I gotta go.”

“I’m going back too. Sorry to bother you when you’re so

busy.”

“Yeah, but our conversation—”

“No, no, it’s done.”

He

didn’t think he was convinced, but Aoki didn’t try to dig in any further,

putting his phone away and got up as Oda stood. When they stood in a line,

Aoki’s shoulders would be what was in his line of sight. It was somewhat easier

when they were looking at each other, but the fact that he had become

accustomed to the gap in their lines of sight made him feel mixed feelings in

its own way.

Oda was 163 centimeters tall. The difference in height

between him and Aoki was exactly twenty centimeters. The gap hadn’t been filled

at all since he entered high school. He sometimes hated that his parents really

named him Shinichiro. (3)

163 centimeters was barely taller than the average height of

a typical girl, and while having a small build meant having a small build, he

wasn’t extremely small. In other sports, there were plenty of male athletes in

the 160 centimeter range who flourished in international competitions.

But for a volleyball player, and furthermore for an

attacker, it was a fatally insufficient height. Even if he could manage it in high

school, it would never work beyond university. He hadn’t told anyone yet that

he was going to play volleyball until high school, but he was seeing the end in

himself.

Why volleyball of all things?

But…there’s

only one reason for that, isn’t there?

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