When it was time to make a decision, he didn't hesitate at all. He could even act on impulse and take a gamble, yet he still carefully observed every player's position and condition on the court. His setter's mindset was practically stronger than Atsumu Miya's, and Atsumu Miya was the actual setter.
Atsumu Miya had originally wanted to make a sarcastic remark, but when he met Ryosuke's beautiful, jewel-like eyes, that little bit of irritation in his chest somehow vanished.
He raked a helpless hand through his hair, then reached out to pinch Ryosuke's cheek.
"Ryosuke-kun, you're being pretty rude, you know."
Ryosuke was still standing there in a daze. Seeing Atsumu Miya's hand about to pinch his face, he was still hesitating over whether he should refuse.
Just then, a gloomy, slightly familiar voice drifted over.
"Atsumu Miya, put your hand down."
Atsumu Miya froze. Huh? That sounds familiar. Who is that? Ruining my good time?
"Sakusa!"
Ryosuke spotted Sakusa behind Atsumu Miya, cheered, and threw himself at him. Sakusa's freezing expression softened as he caught Ryosuke steadily, his voice carrying a tolerance and fondness he had not even noticed himself.
"Slow down. Be careful not to fall."
Atsumu Miya's jaw nearly hit the floor. Who was this? Who was this person? Had Sakusa been possessed?
Sakusa stroked Ryosuke's little curls, then lifted his head, his gaze cutting into Atsumu Miya like a knife.
"Do you not want that hand anymore?"
Atsumu Miya shuddered, then shouted guiltily,
"What's wrong with it? What's wrong with touching him a little? Ryosuke-kun is this pretty! What's wrong with me touching him?!"
"Gah!" Atsumu Miya felt a hand land on his shoulder. Then the owner of that hand squeezed hard, and his handsome face twisted in pain.
"Is that so?" Ushijima looked at Atsumu Miya with a dark expression. He had only been gone for a moment. How had so many flies already started buzzing around?
"Wakatoshi Ushijima?" Atsumu Miya turned his head and saw Ushijima, then glanced at the hand on his shoulder, unable to understand why this was happening.
By all rights, shouldn't he have been the one smoothly flirting with the little beauty and leaving him completely dazzled? Why was nothing going the way it should?
"Ryosuke, come here." Ushijima glanced coldly at Atsumu Miya. When he saw Sakusa standing beside Ryosuke, his hand tightened again.
"Ow, ow, ow! That hurts! Ushijima, let go!"
Atsumu Miya felt like his shoulder was about to be crushed.
"Ushijima-senpai!" Ryosuke happily ran over, and Sakusa followed after him as well.
Only then did Ushijima let go of Atsumu Miya's shoulder. Atsumu Miya was a little confused. He had clearly only wanted to flirt with the kid a little, so why had these two suddenly appeared?
"Sorry, Atsumu Miya-senpai." Ryosuke suddenly remembered that he had not introduced himself properly yet. He smiled shyly and pressed his lips together.
"My name is Ryosuke Hanyu. I'm Shiratorizawa's number six Middle Blocker. I'm a first-year, and I'm here for the training camp."
"Huh?!" Atsumu Miya felt like the world was becoming less and less real. What kind of first-year got invited to the national youth team? Even Ushijima and Bokuto had not been like this back then.
He looked so thin and delicate, yet he was actually a middle blocker? Atsumu Miya found it unbelievable.
"Ryosuke-kun."
Ryosuke heard someone call his name again. It seemed he really did know quite a few people on this national youth team trip.
Kageyama found Ryosuke in the crowd with his bag on his back. Before he came, Hinata had told him to stick close to Ryosuke. After all, he did not know many people here, and Ryosuke could introduce him around.
Although Kageyama really did not want to follow instructions, he thought Hinata was actually right, so he obediently went to find Ryosuke.
"Oh! Kageyama, long time no see."
Ryosuke greeted him with a smile, then introduced him to everyone.
"This is Tobio Kageyama, a first-year from Karasuno. He's a setter. Kageyama, this is Sakusa-senpai from Itachiyama, and that's Atsumu Miya-senpai from Inarizaki. Atsumu Miya-senpai is also a setter."
Atsumu Miya's gaze instantly landed on Kageyama, and a faint sense of crisis rose in him. A genius first-year setter, huh…
"Enough." Ushijima cut off their greetings. They were clearly here for training camp, but with this many people, it was starting to feel like another team-building event.
"The back door is closed. Let's use the front entrance."
Ushijima took out a cap and set it on Ryosuke's head. The brutal sun had already turned Ryosuke's face red. Sakusa also reacted and gave Ryosuke a mask to put on.
Seeing Ryosuke fully equipped, Ushijima nodded in satisfaction and led the group away. Ryosuke kept turning back to wave at Kageyama and Sakusa, telling them to follow.
Kageyama walked behind them, while Atsumu Miya continued staring at him without the slightest restraint. Kageyama frowned. This Atsumu Miya-senpai was so strange. That kind of look made him really uncomfortable.
Ushijima cleared the way outside, pushing through the crowd blocking their path, and they finally reached the main entrance.
There were still two staff members stopping people at the door. Quite a few people stretched their necks, trying to see what it looked like inside.
Ushijima stopped in front of the staff, then took out his athlete ID. The staff checked it carefully and let him in.
When the others saw what Ushijima had done, they each took out their own IDs as well.
Before the competition began, the national youth team had already notified each school to prepare athlete IDs for the selected students. Every ID had the private seal of the National Youth Volleyball Association, so there was no way anyone could sneak in by pretending.
"Why can they go in?" someone behind them shouted unhappily when they saw Ushijima and the others entering.
The staff had long since been worn down by this crowd and rolled their eyes hard.
"They're proper athletes. Stop crowding around if you have nothing to do."
The moment those words came out, the noise started up again. Everyone stuck outside the door wanted to sneak into the training camp. If other people could go in, then surely they could too.
The crowd pushed and shoved. Ryosuke, who had not yet made it through the entrance, was surrounded by people and stood frozen in place, at a loss. Some people rushed forward, trying to force their way in, while others shoved Ryosuke from behind.
For one instant, Ryosuke felt "fear."
"Ryosuke!"
Through the haze, Ryosuke heard Bokuto's voice. When he turned his head, he saw Bokuto struggling through the crowd while dragging Keiji Akaashi by the shirt.
"Keiji Akaashi, don't get lost!" Bokuto shouted back at Keiji Akaashi.
Then he hooked an arm around Ryosuke's waist and simply carried him inside.
Seeing this, the staff reacted quickly and shut the door. The voices outside disappeared along with it.
"Phew…"
Ryosuke stood in place with a hand on his head. The feeling of being surrounded just now had been awful.
"Ryosuke!"
When Ushijima saw Ryosuke had come in, he was rarely flustered and hurriedly checked on him.
Sakusa also rushed over behind Ushijima. Other people might not know, but Sakusa knew very well that Ryosuke disliked places that were too noisy and was afraid of being surrounded by people…
After Ushijima entered the door and turned around only to find that Ryosuke was not there, his heart had dropped.
Atsumu Miya slapped his forehead and said Ryosuke was still outside. Then Ushijima saw Ryosuke surrounded by the crowd, his small face pale… Thank goodness Bokuto had come afterward. Otherwise, Ushijima might have been scared half to death.
"Thank you, Bokuto-senpai…" Ryosuke had been frightened earlier and only recovered after a little while.
"No problem! I'm Bokuto, after all! Hey, hey, hey!"
Keiji Akaashi: "......…"
"Pfft." Ryosuke was amused by Bokuto, and now his face finally did not look so pale.
Sakusa carefully watched Ryosuke's expression. Once he saw that Ryosuke was all right, he finally let out a breath of relief. Thank goodness Ryosuke was fine.
"Let's go." Ushijima rubbed Ryosuke's head and led him away. This time, he followed behind Ryosuke himself so he could keep him in sight and prevent him from getting lost again.
Before he knew it, Ushijima realized that another group had gathered around Ryosuke. Sakusa was leading the way, Atsumu Miya was sneaking closer to Ryosuke, Kageyama was following Hinata's advice and sticking even closer to Ryosuke, and Bokuto was talking to him.
"Ryosuke!"
"Kōrai!"
Oh, now Kōrai Hoshiumi had joined them too. For the first time, Ushijima gained a clear understanding of Ryosuke's popularity. How exactly did he manage to get along with all these people with such different tempers and personalities? It was truly baffling.
"Oh, looks like an interesting kid."
Standing on the second floor, Hibarida watched them from the shadows. Almost at first glance, he noticed the kid surrounded by people. Then he looked at the ones around him. Every single one of them was one of the top geniuses in the volleyball world.
This child really was something. Hibarida flipped through the information forms with great interest, wanting to see just who he was.
But in truth, it was not that exaggerated. The main reason was that Ryosuke had a good temper. He did not argue with people. At most, he would sulk by himself, but he never brought negative emotions to anyone else.
Everyone liked beautiful things. Even someone with a dog-like temper like Atsumu Miya lost his edge the moment he saw Ryosuke, let alone the others. Among this group, Ryosuke was the youngest.
Aside from Ushijima, who had a fatherly heart, and Sakusa, whose feelings were unclear, the rest of them all treated Ryosuke like a little brother.
One of the nets in the training facility had been taken down. Today, a platform had been set up, with lots of equipment arranged around it. The coaches had not arrived yet.
Ryosuke and Atsumu Miya, both looking like they had never seen the world before, wandered around curiously. Hoshiumi enthusiastically acted as their guide, talking confidently about all the equipment. Ever since his last visit here, his coach had also applied through the school for a batch of equipment patents.
The equipment at Kamomedai was now about the same as the national youth team's.
Ushijima stood not far away, watching Ryosuke. Hirugami stood beside him. The two of them stood there like statues, making the people who wanted to come over and strike up a conversation too intimidated to approach.
"Phew… There are so many people outside." Komori arrived late, wiping sweat from his forehead, and looked at Sakusa with resentment in his eyes.
It was this shady bastard! He had not woken him up this morning and had nearly made him late!
Thinking of that, Komori stormed off, ready to settle the score with Sakusa.
"Ah! Motoya Komori!"
Komori heard someone call his name, and then someone in a red school uniform darted out.
Komori took a closer look and remembered who it was.
"Oh! Morisuke Yaku."
Komori remembered him. This was the Nekoma senior who had gone head-to-head with him in receive during the prefectural tournament. Komori considered himself fairly talented as a Libero, but he had run into defensively strong Nekoma, and on top of that, Yaku was Nekoma's Libero.
He had been especially difficult to deal with. In that match, Yaku had saved quite a few points all by himself, but at the very end, Sakusa finished it with a single ball.
Thinking of that, Komori still felt a lingering chill. If Sakusa had not pulled through back then, they might not even have made it into Tokyo's top two.
"Hahahaha! This time, let's settle things here, Motoya Komori!"
Yaku had set his sights on Komori, and Komori also reached out to shake his hand.
"I'd be more than happy to. Though honestly, I really do think I'm not as good as you."
Wakatsu Kiryū saw the two people talking by the entrance and quietly shifted away without going over to greet them. He was not familiar with either of them and did not even know their names.
"Kageyama, hello."
Someone also came up to Kageyama. The person was from Miyagi as well, Eikichi. He still had a very deep impression of Kageyama.
He had known this stunning genius since junior high. He had never expected that brilliance to fade so quickly afterward. He had expected even less to see Kageyama again at this year's prefectural tournament.
Those sharp sets were simply perfect. Someone like him should not be buried in a small place like Miyagi.
"…Hello." Kageyama felt awkward and secretly took a step back.
"My name is Chigaya Eikichi. I'm a Middle Blocker. I hope I can receive your sets during this training camp."
Kageyama took another step back. He kept feeling that this person was strange. He was too enthusiastic.
"Tobio Kageyama." Kageyama dryly squeezed out his name. He really had a hard time dealing with outsiders.
Ushijima glanced at Kageyama. This seemed to be Ryosuke's friend. Should he go over and help him out?
"Ring, ring…"
Just as Ushijima was about to step forward, his phone rang. He frowned and took it out. Everything he tried to do today kept getting interrupted. Nothing was going smoothly.
"Hello." Ushijima walked aside to answer the call.
"Kita?"
Ushijima's good friend, Inarizaki's captain Shinsuke Kita, had called him.
Shinsuke Kita's gentle voice on the other end sounded somewhat helpless.
"Sorry, Wakatoshi. I wanted to ask you for a favor. During the training camp, could you help me keep an eye on Atsumu Miya? Don't let him mess around. With no one there to discipline him right now, I'm worried he'll cause trouble."
Hearing that, Ushijima turned his head and glanced at Atsumu Miya. When he saw him circling around Ryosuke, his eyes narrowed. Ushijima thought that Kita was absolutely right. He really did need to "look after" this kid properly.
Why did he keep hanging around Ryosuke? Shameless.
Ushijima's wariness toward Sakusa had now risen into equal wariness toward every single person who tried to get close to Ryosuke.
"Don't worry, Kita. Leave it to me."
Only then did Shinsuke Kita let out a breath of relief. Having someone watch him was truly the best possible outcome.
"Thank you, Wakatoshi. When we meet at IH, I'll bring you rice balls my grandma made."
Ushijima smiled, then said without any courtesy,
"Bring more."
The rice balls made by Shinsuke Kita's grandma were truly a delicacy. Even someone like Ushijima, who had no particular food preferences, thought they were especially good. Ryosuke would definitely like them too.
Shinsuke Kita was a little puzzled, but still agreed.
After chatting for a while, the two hung up.
Ushijima glanced over at Kageyama and found that Kageyama had already moved far away from the person from earlier.
Before he knew it, on only his third day in Tokyo, Ushijima had already unconsciously placed himself in the role of everyone's guardian.
Normally, Reon took care of everything on the team, but the group that had come to training camp this time… mm… each of them had their own quirks.
The others were all first- or second-years. Bokuto, a third-year senior, was not even as reliable as Ryosuke. Kiryu was a total blockhead, and since it was Yaku's first time at training camp, he would definitely focus on training.
At this moment, the beginnings of Ushijima's worried guardian look had already taken shape.
...
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