Leisure Time

As the Nekoma and Karasuno captains shook hands in farewell, expressing their gratitude and promising to meet again at the national tournament, the friendly atmosphere shifted into a dark aura of "we're going to win."

Hinata had made many friends during the week, and he waved goodbye to everyone before leaving. Bokuto, however, stopped Hayato.

"Kuroba, you guys went through so many matches with us, so you can't just lose to Shiratorizawa with Ushijima on their team, understand?"

"Don't worry, Bokuto-senpai, we'll defeat Shiratorizawa and advance to nationals!"

Hinata, who had come closer, puffed out his chest and answered first. Hayato slung an arm over Hinata's head.

"You sure talk a big game, Karasuno's worst receiver, Hinata."

"Ugh, senpai, I've improved a lot already."

Hinata retorted weakly, his sore spot hit. Seeing this, Hayato ruffled his hair and left him with a "you're still a long way off."

Over there, the new members of Kiyoko's fan club, Nekoma's Yamamoto Taketora and Tanaka, were hugging and crying.

"See you at nationals, my best friend."

"Oh!"

Tsukishima, standing nearby, calmly interjected.

"Can't we come for training during winter break after we break through the preliminaries?"

That was true. Because they made it to the top 16 in the national league, Karasuno only needed to play two matches in the first round of preliminaries on August 11th during summer break. Their first match was a bye, and if they won both matches, they would advance to the prefectural representative selection tournament in October. If Karasuno passed the selection tournament, they would be able to represent Miyagi Prefecture in the national tournament.

The Japan Spring High School Volleyball Championship, or Spring High for short, was the national tournament exclusively for volleyball. The summer high school athletic meet they lost to Aoba Johsai was the All Japan High School Comprehensive Athletic Meet, which included all types of sports.

So this was the last chance for Daichi and the other third-years.

Once they boarded the bus, everyone quickly fell asleep. The week-long trip had left them exhausted. This time, Hayato didn't sit with Kiyoko; he leaned against the window with an eye mask on to rest.

Long bus rides were always dull and monotonous. When they finally returned to school, they woke up the sleeping club members. Everyone stretched, yawned, and took their luggage off the bus. The team leader, Teacher Takeda, didn't say much.

"Everyone worked hard this week. I won't say too much more. Tomorrow, I'm giving you all a day off to rest. Alright, you're dismissed. Be safe on your way home."

"Yes! Thank you for your hard work!"

It was a habit of sports clubs to always answer loudly together. Teacher Takeda quickly stopped them, as it was already late and too much noise would disturb the neighbors.

Everyone dispersed and went their separate ways. Hinata rode the bicycle he kept at the school's bike rack to take Hitoka home.

"Hinata, keep up the good work."

"Of course!"

On the way home, Hinata pushed his bicycle and chatted with Hitoka. Seeing Hitoka, he suddenly remembered their conversation about crushes during the training camp.

But unfortunately, Hinata, whose mind was filled with volleyball, only thought about it for a moment before discarding the thought.

It was such a romantic situation, going home with a girl from the same grade, but one was a volleyball idiot, and the other had no romantic thoughts either. As a result, the two of them just talked about volleyball.

Hayato and Kiyoko, on the other hand, were different. Hayato carried his and Kiyoko's luggage on his shoulders, while his free hand was intertwined with Kiyoko's as they strolled under the streetlights.

"Everyone in the volleyball club has improved so much."

"Yeah, Kiyoko-senpai, you took a lot of notes these past few days, right? I saw that notebook never left your hands."

Speaking of the notebook, Kiyoko took the opportunity to mention everyone's training progress over the week. Hayato listened to her speak with a smile, not interrupting her. Their homes were close to the school, and since it was already late today, they couldn't go to the shopping street to buy ingredients.

In a short while, they arrived at Hayato's house. After returning Kiyoko's luggage, Hayato hugged her.

"I'm heading back then, Kiyoko-senpai, goodnight."

Surprised by Hayato's sudden hug, Kiyoko didn't resist. Instead, she gently stroked his back with her hand. After Hayato let go of her, she smiled at him.

"Mm, goodnight. Go back, take a bath, and get some good rest."

Back in his own home, Hayato unpacked his luggage and put everything away. He then prepared to run a bath. Turning on the faucet, he took out some ingredients he had bought earlier from the refrigerator and simply made a bowl of udon noodles, served with fried shrimp tempura. It was summer, and he was too lazy to make anything more complicated.

While cooking, he also went to the bathroom to turn off the faucet. The bathtub was already filled with hot water. After finishing dinner and placing the dishes in the sink, he took a relaxing hot bath, changed into his pajamas, and returned to his room. He spent an hour doing his summer homework. Seeing that it was almost time, Hayato lay down on his bed to sleep.

Even he felt sore all over after a week of continuous training. In addition to training, they also had to do extra exercises in the morning and evening.

Hayato finally woke up groggily at 10 AM, having slept soundly. He picked up his phone from beside his pillow and saw several unread messages. As expected, they were from the "physical strength idiots" duo, Hinata and Kageyama. They had sent him messages at 6 AM, asking if he wanted to go practice with Grandpa Ukai.

"Those idiots who only have volleyball in their heads. Do they even know what rest is?"

He cursed them with a smile and replied, telling them to rest well. He explained that during holidays, it was important to let the body rest fully to train better, though he knew it probably wouldn't work on those two.

Soon, the messages were marked as read. Both of them replied, saying they would train for a bit longer, though he didn't know how long that "bit longer" was.

Ignoring them, Hayato first washed up and then cleaned the dishes he hadn't washed yesterday. After breakfast, he planned to do a thorough cleaning of the house. He had been away for a week, so the house was due for a cleaning.

He took the bedding out to the yard to air it out and happened to see Kiyoko leaving her house. Seeing Kiyoko still dressed in her sportswear, Hayato didn't think much of it. Although Kiyoko would dress up when they went out together, it didn't mean she wouldn't go out in sportswear. Hayato never interfered too much with Kiyoko's choices.

"Kiyoko-senpai, good morning."

"It's already noon. Just woke up?"

Kiyoko smiled as she watched Hayato hitting the futon with a bamboo beater, guessing he had just woken up.

"For me, the time I wake up is morning, hehe. It's a day off, so I slept in a bit longer. Kiyoko-senpai, where are you going? I'll accompany you."

"Sure. I need to run an errand for my mom to buy some hot pot ingredients. We're having hot pot tonight, how about it, want to come?"

Waving the small notebook in her hand, Kiyoko extended the invitation. As soon as he heard "hot pot," Hayato readily agreed.

"Of course we're going!"

After placing his fujiwara on the floor, Hayato changed his clothes and walked into the house through the glass sliding door facing the yard. He then came out of the entrance, locked the door, and walked with Kiyoko towards the shopping street.

"Oh, right. In a few days, the Spring High committee is coming to our school to take some photos for their records," Kiyoko suddenly remembered and told Hayato as they walked.

The records were just team photos and registration of new players' information. Karasuno, unlike Ushijima, didn't qualify for individual features yet. This collection of records would be distributed to various high schools before the tournament and also sold in a booklet at the entrance during the games.

"Oh~ Will there be player interviews?"

"Do you think Karasuno has enough recognition for that?"

Realizing he was overthinking, Hayato scratched his head with a smile.

"Not now, but definitely in the future."

"You're quite confident."

"Of course."

"Then I'll look forward to it~"

Upon arriving at the shopping street, Hayato accompanied Kiyoko as she bought a large amount of groceries. Considering Hayato's appetite, Kiyoko added extra meat and vegetables for him. Naturally, Hayato insisted on paying for this portion.

After all, if he was going to freeload, he couldn't let Kiyoko pay for it.