Kuroba, do you want to play basketball?

Coach Ukai once said, "There are no best individuals, only the best teams!"

Hayato never believed he could win on his own. Volleyball wasn't that simple. Even a powerhouse like Shiratorizawa could lose. Hayato thought anyone who believed they could dominate the world with individual strength could just go back to sleep.

From soccer to baseball, and even MOBA games, team competitions rely on overall cooperation. When everyone's skill level is similar, no one can childishly think they can lead everyone to victory just because they declare themselves invincible.

In the end, the focus of team competition lies in the first two words: team. Wasn't Kageyama strong at Kitagawa First? Very strong, but he was still substituted out. Ultimately, without a team, you can't move forward. It's the same for aces. While leading the team forward, the teammates are also supporting him from behind.

And now, Hayato's individual skill can't improve much further. Rather than strengthening himself, making the team stronger is what he should be doing right now.

If Hayato were a volleyball beginner, he wouldn't join the volleyball club. Starting from zero would be too difficult, and he'd just be a burden.

If Hayato were a seasoned volleyball player, he also wouldn't join the volleyball club. His mediocre skills wouldn't help them at all.

However, Hayato is an experienced and skilled ace captain, so he came. He decided to become Karasuno's pillar, leading everyone to nationals, and even to win the championship.

Some might say Nekoma's Haiba is also a beginner, but is Nekoma the same as Karasuno? No. With their flawless defense and team adept at receiving, Nekoma has the confidence and ability to take in Haiba. What about Karasuno? While extremely offensive, they also lose points very easily.

According to the plot, starting from the Interhigh preliminaries, Karasuno's match records are as follows:

First Round: Sen'nan 25-16, 25-13 Kakugawa 25-22, 25-19

Second Round: Johzenji 25-21, 25-20 Wakunan 25-20, 20-20, 25-23

Semifinals: Aoba Johsai 25-23, 28-26, 26-24

Except for the initially weak Sen'nan High, whom Karasuno defeated by a large margin, all other matches were hard-fought battles. Therefore, Karasuno cannot afford to add any more volleyball beginners to their team. Even Yamaguchi can only serve as a pinch server, which shows how poor Karasuno's defense is.

They even used all their strength to defeat Shiratorizawa in five grueling sets.

"So, Hayato-senpai, how much longer do we have to run?"

Hinata, panting heavily as he ran, asked breathlessly. This morning, after he rode his bike to find Hayato-senpai, he thought they would run together. Instead, Hayato got on his bike and made him run, with Hayato following him on the bike.

"Five more minutes of running, and then we can rest and practice receiving. We'll do receive drills."

Hayato checked his watch, realizing the time was almost up, and told Hinata to make a final sprint. As for receive drills, which are about receiving skills, they are also to prevent Hinata from having defensive gaps when he rotates to the back row. Although they wanted to maximize Hinata's strengths, Nishinoya, as the libero, doesn't rotate with Hinata every match.

Receive practice is indeed very necessary.

Finally done with the run, Hinata supported himself on his knees, breathing heavily, sweat dripping from his face onto the ground. A towel appeared above his head, and Hayato's voice followed.

"Good work. Here, have some water to rehydrate."

Taking the water bottle Hayato handed him, Hinata drank it down without a word, gulping greedily. After drinking for a long time, he finally stopped and let out a big sigh.

"Ah~ I feel alive again. Hayato-senpai, did you add anything to this water? It tastes like banana cream."

After drinking and licking his lips, Hinata noticed the unusual taste.

"It's good, right? I added a scoop of protein powder. This is a reward from Hayato-senpai for your special training. Well, I usually drink it myself, and I prepared one for you during this time. No need to thank me."

Hayato casually told Hinata, then took a few sips from his own water bottle to prove he wasn't lying.

"Oh! Is that so? Thank you, Hayato-senpai!"

The innocent Hinata believed Hayato's words and didn't dwell on it. After resting enough, the two found a park and began their receive practice.

Since the volleyball club had morning practice at seven, they returned together after practicing for a while. Upon arriving at Hayato's house, Hayato returned the bicycle to Hinata and sent Kiyoko a message.

Soon after, Kiyoko came out of her house. She wasn't very surprised to see Hinata. Hayato had sent her a message last night to explain. She nodded at Hinata, acknowledging him.

Hinata greeted Kiyoko energetically. Since he rode his bike, and although Hinata was innocent, he could understand some things. For example, now, he used his bike as an excuse to leave first, avoiding being a third wheel.

After saying goodbye to the two seniors and telling them he'd see them at school, Hinata slowly rode away from Hayato's house on his bicycle.

"How was this morning's special training?"

"Hmm~ It was okay."

With only the two of them left, Hayato and Kiyoko chatted as they walked towards school.

"You said you wanted to give everyone in the volleyball club a surprise. Is everything okay?"

"Of course. Kiyoko-senpai, just wait to be amazed. Hinata will make great~ progress before the summer training camp."

"Then I'll look forward to it."

"I think Kiyoko-senpai should be more excited about this Friday."

"No way. I think someone else is more excited than I am."

After arriving at school and parting ways with Kiyoko, Hayato found a familiar envelope in his shoe locker.

"This must be the usual love letter."

He took out the envelope, put his leather shoes into the locker, and put on his indoor shoes. Hayato opened the envelope and walked towards the volleyball club's locker room while reading it.

The handwriting on the envelope was delicate and the message was concise. It essentially said that during a previous physical education class, he was captivated by Hayato's basketball skills. After much hesitation, she decided to confess her feelings to Hayato and would wait for him behind the teaching building after school. Her name was Hatoya Kohane, from Class 2-3.

Although he didn't know her, Hayato knew the class. Physical education classes here were held with two classes together, divided by gender. One PE class happened to have the boys playing basketball and the girls playing volleyball. It was probably during that time.

"Yo, Hayato, what are you doing?"

In the corridor between the main classroom and the sports club activity room, Tanaka and Nishinoya met up and saw Hayato alone, so they went over to greet him. As Hayato turned around, the love letter in his hand was revealed.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, could this be the legendary l-o-v-e l-e-t-t-e-r? Damn you, you damn city boy."

Speaking English in a playful manner, Tanaka grumbled about Hayato receiving a love letter. But knowing Hayato, it wasn't unusual for him to get one, so most of his complaint was teasing, though a good chunk of it was genuine envy and jealousy.

"Damn it, you're living the dream, man. Just being Kiyoko-senpai's childhood friend is already enviable enough."

Nishinoya nudged Hayato's side with his arm, venting his own dissatisfaction.

The friendship between boys often grew stronger through roughhousing. After a bit of playful roughhousing between the three, Hayato put away the love letter. He hesitated for a moment before asking Nishinoya about the girl, Hatoya Kohane.

Although asking like this clearly indicated who the sender was, Hayato didn't know her and couldn't think of a good way to refuse. Nishinoya was in class 2-3, so Hayato thought he might know, but Nishinoya said the girl wasn't very noticeable usually, and he didn't know much about her either.

This kind of useless information was completely unhelpful. Hayato rubbed his forehead in frustration, finding the situation tricky. He had no experience in rejecting confessions. How could he refuse without hurting her feelings?

As the morning practice officially began, Tanaka and Nishinoya still wanted to report Hayato to Kiyoko. But Hayato slung an arm around each of them and bribed them with a bottle of green tea each, finally getting his schadenfreude-filled companions to leave him alone.

Thanks to the love letter, Hayato was a bit absent-minded throughout the rest of the day's classes after morning practice. He didn't even react when the teacher called on him, making a fool of himself in class.

Finally, after school, Hayato, who had arrived early, looked a bit nervous behind the main school building. The entire second-year class of the volleyball club was ambushing them from behind the bushes not far away.

"Hey, isn't it a bit rude to spy like this?"

Ennoshita tried to dissuade them.

"This is Hayato's first confession since coming to Karasuno. As his friend, how could I not be here? Right, Nishinoya?"

Tanaka said in a gossipy tone.

"Yeah, as a member of the second-year review group, I feel the same way."

Nishinoya was also there for the spectacle. Hayato had gotten familiar with these second-year students during the exam review sessions. After he'd spilled the gossip about Hayato, everyone else naturally joined in to watch.

"Shh, keep it down. Look over there, is someone coming?"

A petite girl with pink hair, wearing her school uniform, walked over. Seeing that Hayato was already waiting, she hurried her steps.

"I'm sorry for making you wait, Kuroba-kun. I'm Hatoya Kohane."

The girl bowed politely and apologized in a soft voice.

"It's fine, I just got here myself."

Hayato felt a bit nervous looking at the pink-haired girl in front of him because he really needed to reject her properly.

"Oh, it's a loli-type girl."

"So cute."

"Her voice is soft and pleasant too."

The onlookers behind the bushes whispered amongst themselves.

"Um, ever since I saw you playing basketball before, I've been thinking about you."

After a pause, the pink-haired girl clenched her fist, cheering herself on internally. The atmosphere reached its most critical moment.

"Kuroba-kun! Please..."

"Join the basketball club!"

The sudden turn of events almost made Hayato fall over.

"Huh?"

"Actually, the moment I saw your playing style that day, I thought you'd be perfect for our basketball club. Ah, I'm the manager of the basketball club. Our captain has been worrying about not having new members lately. Coincidentally, we had a class together that day, and I noticed you, Kuroba-kun."

Changing her soft speaking style, the pink-haired girl spoke rapidly.

"Wait, wait, so this letter was just to ask me to meet you privately to invite me to the basketball club?"

Hayato asked in disbelief, his mind temporarily unable to process it.

"Ah, y-yes, because if I came to your classroom to find you, it would cause trouble for you. Isn't it more convenient to have a private conversation like this?"

Hatoya Kohane tilted her head and said innocently, leaving Hayato speechless.

After explaining that he had already joined the volleyball club and would focus on that, Hatoya Kohane, who had been rejected, looked a bit dejected. Then, after apologizing to each other for wasting each other's time, she walked away alone. After she left...

"Pfft."

Someone couldn't help but let out a quiet laugh.

"Alright, it must be tough holding back your laughter behind the bushes. Just laugh it out."

Hayato, who had discovered the second-year group long ago, shook his head helplessly. Then he heard the boisterous laughter of his mischievous friends.

"Hahaha, sorry, Hayato, but it's just too much, hahaha."

With his arm around Nishinoya's shoulder, Tanaka was laughing heartily. Nishinoya's eyes were watering from laughter. Besides Ennoshita, who came over to pat Hayato's shoulder in sympathy, Kinoshita Hisashi and Narita Kazuhito were also laughing quite loudly.

"Okay, okay, if you've had enough laughing, let's go train. Honestly, are you guys that free to come all the way here?"

Hayato shooed them away impatiently, feeling quite embarrassed. After agreeing that the matter was over and no new people were to know about it, everyone laughed, and then one by one, they came over to pat Hayato's shoulder.

Although they promised Hayato they wouldn't leak the story, the second-year group couldn't help but laugh whenever they saw Hayato's face during the afternoon training. This made everyone else wonder what was wrong with the second-year students today. Hayato, grinding his teeth inwardly, could do nothing about their stolen laughter and could only try to ignore it.

After training with Hinata at Coach Ukai's house, the day passed with embarrassment and laughter.