V1C4 Part3

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3. IN-AND-OUTERJust continuing to wing all the volleyball jargon here cuz i have no idea what’s going on

Translation Notes

1. Don’t know if there are English equivalents for these terms, but the Japanese uses terms like 表レフト (omote-left) and

裏レフト (ura-left), where omote refers to the aces of the team, who are put in the front row for as long as possible, and the ura refers to the players diagonal to them

2. A broad attack is basically where the spiker approaches and jumps towards the net when they hit

3. Pipe in volleyball refers to a back row set aimed at the middle of the court

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He had lied to Haijima about one thing.

Just

before he entered the training camp, he received an email from Yorimichi for

the first time in a long while. I’ll be back home in August, so let’s have

some fun. Then call me when I don’t have practice. That was about all they

exchanged back and forth, but he somehow failed to bring that up. Kuroba didn’t

think that hanging out with Yorimichi was in itself a bad thing. He wasn’t

going to go along with his smoking and drinking and riding double on a bike with

no helmet like he used to. Even he had already learned to be sensible about

that. He loved volleyball, his team was important to him, and he had

self-awareness as a member of a sports team. …And yet, Haijima talked like he

flat-out didn’t trust him.

Ah…geez, I’m feeling kinda gloomy.

“I’m getting a second helping of rice.”

When he stood with his empty bowl in one hand and a sullen

look on his face, Uchimura, sitting across from him, looked disheartened.

“After eating so much meat yesterday, how can you eat again

in the morning? I’m still not very hungry.”

“That stuff all got digested when I ran at night. Maybe you

should have gone for a run too, Senpai?”

“I’ll have to decline, since I’m not so young anymore,” his

senpai said like he was an old man, despite the fact he was only a year older

than him.

The school cafeteria was usually open to students only at

lunch time and only to faculty and staff in the morning, but during summer

vacation, breakfast was prepared for club members using the boarding house. In

addition, special meals were offered to members of the athletic clubs, which

was much appreciated. The morning special for today was the combo of grilled

fish and deep-fried chicken. The after-meal fruits were bananas and oranges.

They were free to get second helpings of rice.

When he opened the lid of the six-litre gas rice cooker, the

only remaining amount of rice was the rice grains sticking to the inside of the

rice cooker.

“Ma’am, there’s no more rice!”

He hit

the edge of the iron pot with the rice scoop and called out to the kitchen.

“How much white rice can you all eat? There are students from other clubs

coming for lunch, so please hold back a little.” A small old lady in an apron

powerfully carried a stainless steel cauldron to replace the empty pot. White

steam was rising from the pot where freshly cooked white rice was glittering.

When Kuroba left the rice cooker after piling a mountain of

rice into his bowl, Okuma and Oda were lined up behind him looking like this

was perfectly natural. Aren’t these two on their third bowls?

He returned to the table where Uchimura was, poured the

natto over his rice and started eating his second bowl. Uchimura was also not

lacking in appetite, and even though he was talking about something or other, he

stored everything in his stomach without leaving a single grain of rice or a

piece of vegetable on his plate, and he was about to peel an after-meal orange.

“I have no complaints about your stamina. But your mental

strength though… Can’t you do something about it?”

“…I know that. You don’t have to tell me.”

“And? What happened to your partner with the mental strength

of steel?”

“That’s how you’re comparing us…? Haijima’s still sleeping.”

Last

night, he and Haijima were dragged out of the boarding house, and the two of

them were made to do twenty dashes on the slope between the mountain and the

school. In the darkness of night where there was only moonlight, they could

only hear each other’s dying breaths as they dashed up the slope, pitching

forward and almost falling, then staggering downhill, and repeat. Every drop of

his urge to make merry with his school trip-like mood had been wrung out of

him, and he fell asleep in an instant as soon as he collapsed onto his futon

after he finally returned to the boarding house, where everyone was already

completely asleep. As expected of Aoki-senpai, he had felt.

He woke up this morning feeling hungry as usual because he

had recovered his strength after sleeping, but Haijima hadn’t recovered yet,

and he was still lying flat on his futon as though he was dead. It’s not

like one of our senpais came to keep an eye on us, and they wouldn’t have known

if you had cut down on the number of dashes… He wasn’t that kind of

flexible guy. When it came to volleyball, Haijima seemed to “not want to lose

to anyone,” not just in practice, but also in preparation and cleaning, and he

didn’t cut corners. Well, I think that part of him is pretty admirable, but

he only has two hands, so there are times when you just gotta cut those

corners.

“Haijima doesn’t have much stamina, right? I guess he’s not

perfect.”

Uchimura

tilted his head while tossing an orange into his mouth.

“That guy has plenty of flaws.”

When Kuroba answered sullenly, a plastic tray was placed on

the table with a bang.

“O-Oh, Haijima. Good morning.”

Uchimura pulled himself away from the table, flinching

slightly.

“…’Sup.”

With a

sour expression like there was a sign reading “low blood pressure” pasted to

it, Haijima pulled the chair next to Kuroba. His club activity switch still

wasn’t flipped, so he was wearing his glasses, and his thin bangs were bouncing

in a strange way due to his bed hair. When Kuroba somehow failed to speak up

and kept silent, Haijima also kept silent towards him and began to bring his

food to his mouth with his eyes mostly closed and a face that looked like he

was about to throw up. He spiked with his left and right hands, but he

basically used his left hand for holding pencils and chopsticks.

Kuroba, who had been wolfing down his second bowl of rice

without a care in the world, slowed down his eating speed to match Haijima’s,

thinking that it would look like he had an easier time even though they ran the

same amount.

“You don’t look so good, you know? Don’t force yourself to

eat if you can’t eat. Just eat a banana or something. I’ll eat one too.”

“I’m just sleepy from all the sleeping time I lost. I can

eat.”

Haijima was strangely stubborn towards Uchimura’s concern

for him, and he greedily shoveled down the rice that he had been slowly bringing

to his mouth with so much vigor that he had to wash it down with miso soup. Is he

doing this out of spite…? No wait, I have stuff I’m annoyed with him about too.

Kuroba wasn’t happy with him. But Haijima didn’t even notice his

dissatisfaction anyways.

He felt like an idiot and began energetically moving his

chopsticks again. The fatigue in his body was reset after he woke up from

sleep, and he planned to show his best performance today, but the gloomy feelings

in his heart still haven’t cleared up.

Uchimura shrugged his shoulders at the two who were tilting

their bowls and turning their chopsticks like they were competing against each

other, then said, “I’ll be leaving, then,” before taking his tray and quickly

leaving the table.

***

Kuroba’s position was the so-called “front-left” among

left-side players, and it was considered the ace position in high school

volleyball. Oda was the back-left, diagonal from him. (1) The left-side players,

who took on a large percentage of the team’s total attacks and hit from both

the front row and back, generally had the most number of hits. Aoki was the

front center, and the back center who was diagonal to him was Okuma, who they

were trying to polish at a quick pace. The right-side position that was

diagonal to the setter Haijima was filled by Kanno. The left and right-side

attackers, as well as the centers, were the so-called “attacker” positions.

The basic six-person team composition was two left-side

players, two centers, and two right-side players. Due to the rotation, front

row and back row players often changed places, attackers in the same positions

were placed diagonally from each other so that the front row’s height and

offensive power were maintained. The ability to receive in the back row was

also necessary for the left and right positions. Receiving formations were the

key to using more difficult combination attacks.

There

was also a player in a special position called a libero. He mainly replaced a

center player, who retreats to the back row, and played a central role in

receptions (serve receive) and digs (spike receive). It was this position that

did the miraculous dive in the middle of a rally. Hokao was this libero. And

Uchimura was like a jack-of-all-trades who could step in if there was a

shortage of people. There was no way Seiin could afford to have a reserve for

each position.

They spent the afternoon of their second day of training

camp practicing combo attacks. Two to four attackers went onto the court and

coordinated a team play together with the setter Haijima. Although he had many

thoughts about Haijima, Kuroba called out to him for a set. “Alright, over

here!” Haijima glanced at him. He felt like he had an annoyed look on his face.

Haijima ignored Kuroba, and—also skipped Aoki, who also jumped

for a C quick, before jump back setting the ball to Kanno, who ran right up to

the antenna on the right side. The precision of Haijima’s back set was so

unchanged from when he set from the front that it made one wonder if he had

eyes on the back of his head. Quick attacks ranged from A quicks to D quicks,

with A being the closest to the left side from the setter’s set position. B was

a little farther. C was the closest to the right side with a back set, and D

was a little farther. A combination attack was when another attacker got

involved with the decoy quicker and disrupted the opponen’s blocking. Of

course, there were times when a set went to the quicker. It was the setter’s

chance to show what they could do by putting together a tactic that made full

use of all the attackers on the court and make the most optimal set at each

moment.

That’s what Haijima talked about yesterday. A combo with

a center’s C quick and a right side’s broad jump—.

A

sharp spike was driven in with a slap from the right side.

Kanno-senpai is

so good…he marveled inwardly. He was an attacker whose special qualities

were his fast swings and good control, and he was also good at getting around

blockers (there was a suspicion that the blockers momentarily forgot his

existence because he had such a weak presence). The right side also jumped to a

double quick along with the center. A wide-ranged broad attack (2) was also

required. Many times, a player who is a consistent receiver would be put in the

position. It was a position that required the ability to be an all-rounder.

Kanno wasn’t assertive, but he reliably executed the role that was given to him

without hesitation. It seemed that Haijima also had a high opinion of Kanno. A

guy who fundamentally didn’t communicate with other people always said a few

words to him and made minor corrections after each set.

He called the set with all his might and when he was ignored,

he felt that he was being lame, so he was determined to make up for it by

hitting a big one as soon as possible.

But that didn’t go according to plan. After that, Haijima

didn’t set to Kuroba at all. Not even a single one after several hours of play.

It seemed that today, Haijima’s interest was in creating a combo between the

centers and the right-side players.

Halfway through practice, he stopped calling for the sets

and his jumping became half-hearted, which made Oda angry with him several

times. “Kuroba—. Concentrate more. Even if a set doesn’t go to you, look around

and think about your next move.”

“…I know that.”

When

he answered with a rebellious attitude, Oda shrugged his shoulders like he had

no idea what to do and made a proposition to Haijima. “Haijima, why don’t you

try another combo after you finish this one? The pipe (3) might be faster if you

do it with Kuroba.” He didn’t like the way he talked like he was obviously

fussing over him. Even though we’re both first-years, it’s like only Haijima

is special…I don’t disagree that he is special, but he doesn’t even seem to

notice how much he’s valued by the captain, much less be thankful. The

things that he was happy to be told about yesterday strangely got on his nerves

today.

Though Haijima looked extremely annoyed at having cold water

thrown on the practice he was taking part in, this was the first time in a long

while he looked over at him.

“Kuroba.”

His body reflexively stiffened at being called. Haijima put

his hands on his hips, kicked the floor with his heel once, sighed, and then

spoke.

“There’s no point in you being here, so just get out of here.”

“Hah…!?”

His voice cracked at the sudden discharge notice.

“Wha, you…Don’t get too full of yourself, is a setter really

dropping an attacker because of a personal grudge?”

“Grudge?” This guy looks like he has no idea what that

means.

“You’re still mad that you had to run because of me.”

“I’m

not gonna be picky for a stupid reason like that. Are you an idiot?”

This guy really put an emphasis on the first syllable of

“idiot”. Don’t play blind to your stupidity! He really is such an unpleasant

guy.

“So why…”

He grabbed Haijima’s arm and pressed him for an answer.

Haijima’s face twisted slightly as he glared back at him aloofly. He looked and

saw that he had put too much strength into his fingers and they were digging

into Haijima’s arm, turning the skin there white.

He clicked his tongue and dropped Haijima’s arm as though it

was on fire.

“Uchimura-senpai, could you please do receiving practice

with me?”

He turned on his heel and left the court with long strides.

“Huh? Alright,” Uchimura answered in puzzlement and followed him. “That

moodiness of his…” The mutters of his senpais, who seemed to have given up on

him, hurt his back, so he couldn’t turn back to the court anymore. I’m not

the bad guy here…While frustration welled up within him, he pushed the ball

cage to a corner of the gym. If he were to roll this thing with all his

strength and smash it against the wall, it would dissipate a little, but that

wasn’t going to happen, so he had no choice but to use all his self-control and

push it with normal force.

The training camp that had been fun until the first night

had suddenly become boring. Was this payback for getting carried away by

feeling like he was on a school trip, just as Haijima said? He wasn’t really

getting carried away. He had been plenty fired up for working hard at practice.

That was all gone now with Haijima’s attitude.

He was

the one who joined the team in April, but Haijima, who joined later, became an

indispensable member of the team from that point on, and their senpais yielded

to him. More than anything, Oda was captivated by Haijima. When it became like

that, now that Nagato was gone, he was the only one treated like a halfway

middle schooler, and not acknowledged as a necessary part of the team.

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