V2C1 Part1

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1. VICTORY CEREMONYPrevious || Index || Next

Settled in a corner of the second-floor bleachers with his

teammates, Ochi Mitsuomi gave perfunctory applause to the victory ceremony

taking place on the floor below. Everyone was already ready to leave, sitting

listlessly with their enamel bags at their feet.

It wasn’t that they were frustrated, so they didn’t have the

kind of regret where if they had worked a little harder, they might have been

the ones who were being honored in that place. It was a great accomplishment

for their team just to get third place in the prefectural tournament and get a

ticket to the Hokushin’etsu Tournament for the first time. Although they didn’t

achieve any results in the Hokushin’etsu Tournament, they could say that their

three years of club activities were fulfilling in their own way. Well, he did

cry a bit after their loss, so his eyes were still stinging.

The winners of the boys’ and girls’ tournaments were about

to be presented with their certificates and cups. Before they could watch to

the end, they were called to leave. Apparently it had to do with the return

bus.

It happened when he had just left his seat, carrying his

bags and following his teammates.

Cheers

broke out in the gym, shaking it. Slightly startled, Ochi turned his eyes back

to the victory ceremony.

The captain of the boys’ championship team thrust the cup he

had just received high above his head. His teammates, who had been standing in

a row with admirable expressions on their faces, were cheering, “Subaruuuuu!” “Thank

you, Subaru!” “Yo, big man!” “Su-ba-ru!” “Su-ba-ru!”

Oh, is that so his teammates could see it better…? That’s

what the “Thank yous” are for…

Even though the girls’ trophies haven’t yet been presented,

a huge commotion ensued, causing the tournament committee chairman and other

officials to frown. Ochi, who had nothing to do with any of them, was anxious,

wondering how he could do such a performance in the middle of a formal event

with so many bigshots and parents watching. They might get yelled at later…well,

maybe none of the bigshots can get mad at him.

The third-year captain of Shinei Middle School, the team

that went to the Hokushin’etsu Tournament as the first representative of Fukui

Prefecture and dominated the tournament with unparalleled strength, Mimura

Subaru.

He thought it was safe to say that there wasn’t a middle

school volleyball player in Fukui who didn’t know who Mimura Subaru was. One of

the best spikers in the prefecture. The darling of the prefectural middle

school sports federation. The idol of middle school girls in the prefecture. A

show-off. Someone with plenty of guy friends (apparently)—he was famous in many

ways.

The presenter’s voice was barely audible over the cheers,

and the representatives loosely returned to their respective team rows. As soon

as he turned his back to the officials’ table, Mimura held up his index finger to

his team.

“Number one!”

He

grinned and started to almost dash, still holding up the “number one.” His

teammates must have known what he was doing, because they all formed a net to

catch Mimura with their arms. Mimura wasn’t a big guy, but he dove with his

whole body into the “center of everyone,” jumping so comfortably that he leapt

over the heads of the taller players.

Laughter filled the gym.

…What if, though?

As Ochi watched the scene from the back of the distant

second floor, he wondered vaguely how it would feel like to be the teammate of

Mimura Subaru, one of the weavers of that net.

At

that time, he could only imagine it as happening to someone else——

—-

April of

the following year. In the same high school gym, Ochi stood shoulder to

shoulder with Mimura.

“I’m Ochi

Mitsuomi, from Matsumoto First Middle School. I…I look forward to working with

you.”

While Ochi’s

nervous and shrill self-introduction was met with sparse applause,

“I’m Mimura

Subaru from Shinei Middle! It’s nice to meet y’all!”

When

Mimura made his lisping self-introduction, the seniors applauded him loudly as

though they had been waiting for him. “Our goal is to win Nationals!” Whether

or not anyone took his pleasant-sounding declaration seriously, there were

cheers of “Yeah!”

When he

decided that he wanted to continue playing volleyball in high school, the

school he wanted to attend was a foregone conclusion. Fukui Prefectural Fukuho

Technical High School—the Fukuho boys’ volleyball team was a favorite of middle

school volleyball players in the prefecture, boasting the largest number of entries

in national tournaments. The athletic teams other than the volleyball team were

also considered to be strong in the prefecture.

They had

participated in two of the three major national tournaments—the summer Inter-High

and winter Spring High Volleyball—for five consecutive years. In regards to

high school boys’ volleyball in the prefecture, Fukuho was undoubtedly the

best.

It was rare

for beginners who wanted to start playing volleyball to join the team. They

were all experienced players who had come from middle schools all over the

prefecture, hoping to play on a high-level team.

In other

words, the fact that he went to the same high school as Mimura Subaru was not a

miraculous encounter at all, but simply inevitable.

However, even

though what he imagined came true and they became teammates, it was another

story if Ochi could have been part of the web that welcomed Mimura like that

scene from the victory ceremony.

The hurdles

to becoming a regular were naturally high because of the high caliber of the players

who came here. Even Ochi, who had played on a team that placed third in the

prefecture in middle school, wasn’t even able to sit on the bench at

tournaments and was just a first-year “among others” who cheered in the stands.

Ochi’s

imagination was left in limbo when it only half became reality.

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