The week flew by in a whirlwind of training for Taichi. His daily routine sisted almost entirely of eating, sleeping, and pying volleyball.
But some things seemed iable—like Oikawa, as always had found a way to injure himself with a mild sprain—likely from showing off while pying volleyball with his nephew—and was barred from any kind of practice for nearly a week.
Fortunately, he would be back for their practice match against Karasuno.
Css time for him became a very valuable rest period. During oh css, the teacher called on him to solve a problem on the bckboard.
However, as someone who had ehe rigour of the ese GaoKao, Japanese high sath felt like a gentle breeze to Taichi. Calmly and effortlessly, he solved the problem auro his seat, leaving the teacher with no further reason to bother him. It was a small detour in an otherwise focused week of volleyball practice.
Acc to the system's standards, a pyer's performance depends on five factors: speed, strength, jumping ability, stamina, and teique.
While the first four—speed, strength, jumping ability, and stamina— be improved through stific training and persistent effort, they are also heavily influenced by ialent, which determiheir ceiling.
Oher hand, teique is a learned skill, built through training and accumuted experience, and its potential for improvement is signifitly higher. It is often the deg factor in petitive py.
With the system's assistaaichi's teical skills had seen steady improvement. However, achieving mastery in blog, serving, receiving, setting, and spiking within a week was unrealistic.
Trying to do too much all at once would only lead to mediocrity.
He decided to focus his efforts on two critical areas: blog and receiving. Blog was his key tribution on the court, while receiving was the skill that would keep him on it—after all, if you couldn't receive the ball, nothing else mattered.
-----
The week passed quickly. By the end, Taichi's blog and receiving had reached a petent level. On Saturday, after training, Aoba Johsai's pyers gathered at their home court to await Karasuno's arrival.
Taichi dragged Yutaro Kindaichi to the school gates to greet the visitors.
"Why do I have to e?" Kindaichi grumbled, clearly relut.
"Because you were teammates with Kageyama ba middle sr. Obvious," Taichi replied.
Though, in truth, he was far more ied iing Hinata. For now, though, nobody had noticed Hinata's uential.
"He's nothing special," Kindaichi said with a frown. "Sure, his skills are top-notch, but he's terrible at pying as part of a team. He's a plete self-tred jerk."
".....Let's not talk about him then. Speaking of Karasuno, I heard their team manager is a real beauty~ ehehe"
"Really?" Kindaichi's face lit up with ued enthusiasm.
"Yep, the uppercssmeio. She's apparently quite famous…" Taichi chuckled internally. Shimizu Kiyoko's reputation seemed to precede her.
As the versation drifted, the sound of a bus pulling up broke the moment. The vehicle came to a halt, and a steady stream of bd-e uniforms emerged—Karasuno's volleyball team had arrived.
Taichi and Kindaichi strolled forward to greet them, only for a blur of motion to fsh past them.
"So fast!" Taichi's eyes followed the figure. Was that Hinata?
[Name: Hinata Shōyō
Height: 163 cm
Speed: 95
Strength: 65
Stamina: 99
Jump: 95
Teique: Blog (60), Receiving (60), Spiking (65)]
The system chimed in with Hinata's stats.
Taichi was taken aback. What kind of monstrous stats were these? Despite his modest height, Hinata's athleticism bordered on superhuman. Even at 163 cm, he radiated an overwhelming presence.
Before Taichi could process this, the whirlwind known as Hinata had disappeared into the distance while the rest of Karasuno's team approached.
"Apologies for the sudden rush. We're members of Karasuno's volleyball team, here for the training match your coavited us to. The one who ran off just now is one of our pyers—he o find the restroently," said Sugawara, Karasuno's ever-diplomatic setter.
It's really Karasuno! Taichi's heart raced with excitement. When he first arrived in this world, he had been too overwhelmed by the iy of matches to take it all in. But now, standing here, he fully realized—he was living in the volleyball world he had admired so deeply!
"Hey, Taichi! Stop daydreaming!" Kindaichi jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow.
Snapping out of it, Taichi posed himself. "Hello! We're from Aoba Johsai's volleyball team. I'm first-year Taichi Kaedehara, and this is my cssmate Yutaro Kindaichi."
Rubbing his side where Kindaichi had elbowed him, Taichi kept his posure while introdus tinued. Meanwhile, Kindaichi locked eyes with Kageyama.
"...Yo, King, long time no see. How's your little dictatorship over at Karasuno? I'm curious to see how it's going," Kindaichi taunted, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
The air grew tense. Leave it to a moody teeo escate things unnecessarily.
"Oh. Okay," Kageyama replied ftly, before being swiftly pulled away by his teammates.
Taichi led the Karasuno pyers to the court, his mind rag. While Karasuno cked key pyers like Nishinoya and Asahi at this stage, their individual stats suggested they were no pushovers. This match wouldn't be as straightforward as it seemed.
"Let's see…" Taichi's system began analyzing the ining pyers:
[Name: Kageyama Tobio
Height: 182 cm
Speed: 88
Strength: 90
Stamina: 95
Jump: 88
Teique: Serve (94), Setting (96)]
A terrifyingly well-rounded genius.
[Name: Sawamura Daibsp;
Height: 177 cm
Speed: 80
Strength: 88
Stamina: 80
Jump: 80
Teique: 88 (All-rounder)…]
The erstone of Karasuno, his bance was almost unnerving.
[anaka Ryunosuke
Height: 177 cm
Speed: 80
Strength: 90
Stamina: 88
Jump: 75
Teique: Spiking (80)…]
An aggressively one-dimensional powerhouse.
[sukishima Kei
Height: 190 cm
Speed: 75
Strength: 70
Stamina: 76
Jump: 76…]
pared to Hinata and Kageyama's overwhelming stats, Tsukishima's numbers seemed more subdued. Taichi rexed slightly, thinking, Finally, someone normal.
But he knew better than to uimate Tsukishima. The system couldn't quantify things like height advantage and volleyball IQ—both of which were Tsukishima's greatest strengths.
Shaking off his doubts, Taichi led Karasuno into the gym. After a brief exge of pleasahe match began.
Aoba Johsai's lineup: Iwaizumi Hajime, Yahaba Shigeru, Kindaichi Yutaro, Matsukawa Issei, Watari Shinji, Kunimi Akira.Karasuno's lineup: Hinata Shoyo, Kageyama Tobio, Tanaka Ryunosuke, Sawamura Daichi, Ennoshita Chikara, Tsukishima Kei.
While their captain and maier— Oikawa was yet to rejoin them, his absence didn't worry the team too much; it was just a training match.
What did e as a surprise was how disanized Karasuno was. Hinata, in particur, was a bundle of nerves. His movements were clumsy, his steps out of sync, a far cry from the explosive dynamite Taichi remembered.
Ah, right. This was Hinata's first high satch. His earlier trip to the restroom must have been a sequence of nerves.
Aoba Johsai took full advantage of Karasuno's disarray. They domihe first set, swiftly establishing a anding lead.
The final point of the set was almost ical: Hinata's serve hit Kageyama squarely on the head. Watg the 'King' simmer with rage as Hinata shrank into himself like a frightened chick, Taichi couldn't help but silently pity the e-haired whirlwind for three seds.
Taking the first set so easily, and with Karasuno's pyers looking more like unfunny stand-up edians than serious oppos, the mood in Aoba Johsai's camp grew rexed.
_________
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