Haikyuu - Chapter 332 (Patreon)

Daichi Sawamura smiled gently.

He'd seen the two little troublemakers run off from the start and simply hadn't stopped them. Thanks to Shoyo Hinata, they'd gotten a rare chance to come all the way to Tokyo, so Daichi figured he might as well let him enjoy himself.

Then he placed both hands on Koshi Sugawara's back and pushed him forward.

"Sugawara-senpai, you're still such a worrywart. Keep this up and you'll turn into an old man."

Then he turned around and called out, "Tanaka, come carry the bags."

And so Tanaka dutifully became their pack mule, following behind the two team parents as they headed into the arena.

Nishinoya, meanwhile, excitedly took pictures of everything around him with a camera he'd specifically gone to his grandfather's house to retrieve late the previous night.

By the time Shoyo Hinata and Kageyama ran into the arena one after the other, the third set had just begun.

Their timing couldn't have been better.

There were practically no seats left in the stands, so Shoyo Hinata and Kageyama had no choice but to stand at the very back.

Shoyo Hinata was short, and there were other spectators standing in front of him, completely blocking his view.

He kept rising onto his tiptoes and craning his neck toward the court.

"Shorty."

Kageyama snickered from behind him.

Shoyo Hinata immediately jumped up and tried to smack him on the head.

Kageyama had already predicted exactly what he would do and simply tilted his head aside, making Shoyo Hinata stomp his feet in frustration.

Just as Shoyo Hinata was about to get properly angry, someone extremely familiar appeared in his field of vision.

He grabbed Kageyama's clothes and shook him excitedly.

"Kageyama! Look! It's the Great King-senpai and Iwaizumi-senpai! There are still seats over there!"

Kageyama looked in the direction Shoyo Hinata was pointing.

Sure enough, he spotted a very familiar and extremely irritating diva.

The meaning in Shoyo Hinata's eyes couldn't have been clearer.

He wanted to go over and squeeze in beside Oikawa.

But Kageyama kept acting awkward about it.

Shoyo Hinata had no idea what he was being so difficult about and finally gave an irritated huff.

"Fine! I'll go by myself!"

With that, he stormed off.

Kageyama stared after him blankly.

He hadn't even said anything yet.

Why was Shoyo Hinata already angry?

Had he been in a bad mood lately?

That was what Kageyama thought, but his feet honestly followed right after Shoyo Hinata.

And in his head, he firmly insisted that he wasn't going because he wanted to.

He was only following because he was worried Shoyo Hinata would get lost.

Elsewhere, Daichi Sawamura led the rest of the little crows into the arena.

When he didn't immediately see Shoyo Hinata, he began scanning the crowd for that conspicuous head of orange hair.

Only after spotting him did Daichi relax.

Good. He hadn't gotten lost.

With those two hopelessly directionally challenged idiots together, Daichi wouldn't have been surprised if they spent three days and three nights wandering around the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

Oikawa and Iwaizumi were enthusiastically discussing how they thought the next set would unfold.

"I don't think that setter will use setter dumps nearly as often this time. If it were me, I wouldn't."

"The other side is already expecting it, and now they've put that monster Tendo back in. If he can't fool Tendo, the ball's probably getting sent straight back."

"Whether the attack scores is one thing. The bigger problem is that it could end up hurting his own team."

Iwaizumi nodded.

Oikawa might usually be ridiculous, but when it came to volleyball, he was more meticulous than almost anyone.

Iwaizumi completely agreed with his analysis.

"I think you're right. But I wonder whether Itachiyama's wing spiker can keep going."

Iwaizumi had watched that wing spiker carry on from the very first set until now, all while remaining one of the team's main scorers.

The sight gave him an unpleasant sense of déjà vu.

It reminded him of matches where Oikawa kept setting him ball after ball.

Calling that experience exhausting didn't even begin to cover it.

"Great King-senpai! Iwaizumi-senpai!"

Just as Oikawa and Iwaizumi were about to continue, a familiar and extremely energetic voice sounded beside them.

That familiar voice immediately brought Oikawa back to life.

He turned around.

Sure enough, there was a certain orange-headed little crow, along with Kageyama, who looked thoroughly unwilling to be there.

For a moment, Oikawa wondered if staying up too late had finally made him hallucinate.

He rubbed his eyes.

"Huh?! Why are Chibi-chan and Tobio-chan here?!"

Oikawa could hardly believe what he was seeing.

Had they come by themselves?

Were they running away from home?

What a pair of troublesome brats.

Shoyo Hinata spoke politely.

"Oikawa-senpai, we came to watch the match with everyone from Karasuno, but there aren't any seats left. I saw you still had some space over here."

Oikawa immediately understood what he meant.

And once he heard that the rest of Karasuno was here too, he relaxed.

"Sit, sit. Hmph. Tobio-chan doesn't get a seat."

Kageyama snorted and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I'm sitting."

"No, you're not!"

"Yes, I am!"

"Bang!"

Iwaizumi couldn't take it anymore.

At this rate, these two were going to destroy Aobajosai's reputation completely.

"Iwa-chan, why'd you hit me?! Don't I have any dignity?!"

Oikawa complained loudly.

Iwaizumi genuinely couldn't understand it.

Taken separately, the two of them seemed mostly normal.

At worst, Oikawa was a little full of himself.

So why did everything turn into complete chaos whenever Oikawa and Kageyama were together?

The noise made Iwaizumi's head ache.

An almost visible dark aura began radiating from him as he suppressed his irritation.

"Both of you, sit down!"

The moment they sensed that Iwaizumi might actually be getting angry, Oikawa stopped fooling around.

He sat down with an irritated huff.

Kageyama sat too.

Shoyo Hinata had already claimed a seat with an excellent view while Oikawa and Kageyama were busy bickering.

"Huh? Ryosuke isn't playing?"

The moment Oikawa heard that, he eagerly explained the situation to Shoyo Hinata.

"Ryosuke probably won't play during the first half of this set."

"You got here too late. Otherwise, you would've seen him score four straight points from the service line in person. Just watching it made me feel refreshed all over."

Shoyo Hinata's eyes grew brighter and brighter as he listened.

His chest practically swelled with pride.

Of course.

Someone as amazing as Ryosuke scoring directly from his serves was practically normal.

"But Shiratorizawa isn't in a great situation either."

"Ryosuke scored that many points by himself, and Ushijima and the others scored plenty too, but they still lost the last set."

Shoyo Hinata and Kageyama spoke in perfect unison.

"How?!"

Clearly, neither of them believed him.

In their eyes, Shiratorizawa was already one of the strongest teams around.

Oikawa snorted at their expressions.

"I have no reason to lie about something like this."

"Shiratorizawa really has been playing well this year, but there's still a noticeable gap between them and those Tokyo powerhouses."

Shoyo Hinata fell silent after hearing that.

Fine.

They'd watch the match.

Once they'd seen it themselves, they'd know whether Oikawa was right.

Oikawa waited for the two of them to argue with him.

And waited.

Neither said anything.

Finding that boring, Oikawa turned his attention back to the court.

The players from both teams had already entered, and Itachiyama was preparing to serve.

There had been some lineup changes at the start of the third set.

For Shiratorizawa, Goshiki and Ryosuke were both on the bench.

The players currently on court were all second- and third-years.

Ryosuke watched Tendo's back as he moved farther away and felt strangely restless.

He wanted to be out there too.

He didn't want to sit on the bench like this.

Once an athlete had experienced being on the court, none of them could willingly sit on the sidelines forever.

Ryosuke wasn't in the best mood today either.

He sat there frowning, lost in thought.

Goshiki, however, saw that Itachiyama was about to serve and suddenly sprang up from his chair.

He hurried into the locker room, grabbed something, and came running back.

Ryosuke looked at him in confusion.

He was just about to ask what Goshiki had brought when Goshiki shoved something into his hands, dragged him to his feet, and started waving the purple-and-white pom-pom in his own hand.

"Shiratorizawa! Shiratorizawa! Let's go! Ushijima! Ushijima! Charge straight ahead!"

Goshiki shook the pom-pom hard enough to make it rustle loudly, then tugged at Ryosuke, trying to get him to join in.

Ryosuke looked at Goshiki twisting from side to side.

Then he looked down at the pom-pom in his own hand.

He slowly fell silent.

Nobody had told him before the tournament that he'd be expected to cheer like this.

To be perfectly honest, Ryosuke did not want that pom-pom.

His social anxiety had finally started getting better.

Now, thanks to Goshiki, Ryosuke felt like he might stay introverted for the rest of his life.

"Come on, come on, Ryosuke~"

When Goshiki saw that Ryosuke still wasn't joining in, he resorted to shamelessly acting cute, even adding a playful lilt to the end of his voice.

Ryosuke stared at Goshiki's wet puppy-dog eyes.

He couldn't think of any way to refuse him.

In the end, he reluctantly gave in and awkwardly took the pom-pom.

Goshiki immediately pulled him fully to his feet and began demonstrating the routine.

"Look, it's like this, then this. Twist a little, then make three circles with your hands at the end. Super easy. Ryosuke can definitely do it."

Life was hard.

Ryosuke sighed.

Then he started copying Goshiki's movements.

Goshiki demonstrated while repeatedly turning around to make sure Ryosuke was following correctly.

Once he decided Ryosuke had more or less learned it, Goshiki confidently opened his mouth.

He drew a deep breath and shouted from his diaphragm.

"Shiratorizawa! Shiratorizawa! Let's go! Ushijima! Ushijima! Charge straight ahead!"

"Go, Ushijima! Go, Reon! Go, Tendo!"

His voice was so loud that everyone on the court immediately noticed.

Yamagata turned around.

His previously gloomy mood instantly brightened.

The moment Goshiki saw Yamagata looking at him, he added another shout.

"Go, Yamagata!"

Reon was so amused that his shoulders shook as he tried not to laugh.

But one look at Ryosuke's little expression, which practically said, Life is fine, but death wouldn't be so bad either, completely broke him.

Tendo, meanwhile, stared at Ryosuke with stars in his eyes.

This was cheerleader Ryosuke.

A limited edition.

At that moment, Tendo deeply regretted having to be on the court.

Otherwise, he would've recorded the entire thing and watched it repeatedly once he got home.

Sakusa also watched Ryosuke fumbling awkwardly with the routine and felt his heart soften.

Suddenly, Sakusa felt confident that they could win this match.

On Shiratorizawa's side, Reon finally finished laughing and addressed the others.

"You see that? Ryosuke and Goshiki are cheering for us."

"None of you are allowed to let them down. Let's show them how their senpai play volleyball!"

"Yes!"

"Reon's right! We absolutely can't let them down. This set decides everything!"

"Let's go!"

Ryosuke and Goshiki's little performance completely reignited Shiratorizawa's fighting spirit.

As for Ryosuke himself, he looked fine on the surface.

Mentally, however, he'd already left his body.

He deeply regretted ever being soft-hearted enough to agree to Goshiki's request.

One moment of weakness.

A lifetime of introversion.

Naturally, Keigo Atobe, who had been watching Ryosuke the entire time, wasn't going to miss a second of this.

He raised his camera with its enormous telephoto lens and started taking picture after picture.

So cute.

So cute.

So cute.

Keigo Atobe hadn't seen Ryosuke this embarrassed in a long time.

Ever since Ryosuke started high school, he'd grown increasingly thick-skinned.

He wasn't nearly as fun to tease as he'd been when he was younger.

Photos this precious were absolutely going to become family heirlooms.

Even Sakusa couldn't stop looking at Ryosuke.

His gaze simply refused to move away.

The corners of his mouth were practically stretched to the back of his head.

Poor Nishio caught sight of Sakusa's bizarre grin and immediately shuddered.

"Beep! Beep! Beep!"

The referee had no idea what was happening with either team.

Why weren't they starting?

He blew the whistle several times to hurry them along.

Only then did Sakusa reluctantly tear his eyes away.

The instant his gaze shifted toward Shiratorizawa, it became noticeably less friendly.

Sakusa genuinely couldn't understand why Ryosuke hadn't chosen Itachiyama when he entered high school.

If he had, they could've gone to the same school.

Pulling his thoughts back to the match, Sakusa refocused.

Itachiyama's server was Kishimoto.

Kishimoto stood at position one, repeatedly spinning the volleyball in his hands, trying to improve his feel for it.

Once everyone was back in position, the referee nodded in satisfaction and blew the whistle.

"Beep!"

The instant he heard it, Kishimoto served.

He tossed the volleyball into the air, chased it with his approach, jumped, and struck it hard.

"Bang!"

Kishimoto's serve was actually pretty good.

But against Yamagata, it was child's play.

After estimating the general landing point, Yamagata moved into position, crouched smoothly, and received it with precise timing.

"Bang!"

The volleyball bounced cleanly off Yamagata's forearms and traveled toward Shirabu.

Shirabu couldn't help thinking that Yamagata-senpai really did give the most comfortable first passes.

He jumped and set.

As Shirabu moved the ball, the rest of Shiratorizawa sprang into action.

Ushijima and Reon crossed paths in their approaches, one moving toward position two and the other toward position four.

Tendo and Kawanishi focused on watching Itachiyama's attackers.

Tendo's gaze instantly locked onto Sakusa.

If anyone wondered where Ryosuke had learned that GPS-like ability to mark an attacker, the answer was obvious.

He'd learned it from Tendo.

Tendo's marking was even more ridiculous than Ryosuke's.

Ryosuke occasionally lost track of his target.

Tendo almost never did.

He rarely fell for feints.

Even if Iizuna tried to bait him, Tendo simply ignored it.

Seeing Ushijima move toward position four, Shirabu immediately sent the ball there.

He remembered what Ushijima had said before taking the court.

Set every ball to him.

Ushijima and Reon crossed during their approaches, overlapping briefly around position five.

Itachiyama's blockers immediately split their attention between the two.

They didn't know who would attack, so they had little choice.

Nishio, however, was certain Ushijima would be the one to hit.

He didn't even need to think about it.

It was just like how Iizuna-senpai would definitely set to Sakusa-senpai in the final set.

But Kishimoto had shifted his full attention toward Reon.

That left Nishio alone against Ushijima.

Nishio started to panic.

Sometimes, he really could predict which direction Ushijima was going to hit.

But so what?

With his skinny arms and legs, there was no way he could actually stop that ball by himself.

He genuinely couldn't understand it.

Those two blockers from Shiratorizawa were both even thinner than he was.

So how on earth did they manage to block anything?