Chapter 29
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Time skip two weeks after Hiroyuki's conversation with Sanzaemon, Third person PoV
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It is Saturday morning, a time when almost all the people find it as extra time to sleep after working hard for five days. Unfortunately, Hiroyuki could not do the same right now as he found himself sitting at the train station in Miyagi, waiting for someone to come out from one of the trains that come from Tokyo.
Hiroyuki didn't have to wait for long, as only thirteen minutes after he arrived at the train station, he could see a European face among all the Japanese that come out of the train. The man wore Italian Jersey with dark glasses on his face. He is Federico di Matheo, the head scout of Vero Volley Monza, a volleyball club from Italy.
"Mr. Matheo! It's good to meet you!" Hiroyuki greeted in fluent English. The Italian man showed a slight smile on his face before he hugged Hiroyuki.
"It's good to meet you too, Hori. How are you, my friend?"
"I am doing well, thanks." Hiroyuki smiles back at him as Matheo released his hug.
"Well, it is clear to me that the atmosphere here did you really well, far better than Tokyo." This makes Hiroyuki chuckle a bit.
"I won't deny that, definitely." Then Hiroyuki checked his clock and said, "Maybe we can go to the stadium right now so you can speak to Oikawa before the game?" Matheo just nodded at me.
"Sure, let's meet the man of the day. I am impressed with the video of him. What can you tell me about Oikawa?" He asked Hiroyuki curiously.
"Well, I think you will have a good time talking with him. Oikawa is very passionate about volleyball and didn't shy to praise or criticize players he thinks are good or bad. Sometimes I can even hear him berating himself when he played under his standard. He is also a very communicative player inside the court, something that I think you Italian will appreciate the most." Matheo snorted at Hiroyuki's assessment of Oikawa.
"You did a good job selling your friend. Now I have high expectations of him. Let's hope that this friend of yours didn't disappoint me." Hiroyuki just smiles and didn't show any sign of worry.
"Well, I told Oikawa I would try to tell you all the good things about him, but I also warned him that it is him who would need to impress you. So if he cannot do that, then he is not good enough for your team."
"You are just as clinical as the last time I met you." Matheo gives Hiroyuki an amused smirk as we find a taxi to take us to the stadium. In the journey, Hiroyuki takes time to warn Oikawa to meet him before the game.
[Hiroyuki: I am on the way to the stadium with Mr. Matheo and he wants to meet you before your game. Meet us outside the stadium.]
Within a minute, he received the answer from Oikawa.
[Oikawa: Right before the game? You definitely know how to put pressure on me, Yuki-senpai.]
[Hiroyuki: Don't be nervous. Just treat it as if you are in a pregame press conference, just like a professional.]
[Oikawa: Nervous? Are you sure you are talking about me, and not the shrimp?]
Hiroyuki snorted at the mention of Hinata who will definitely make a mess at the beginning of the game due to his nervousness. Unfortunately for him, his opponent today is the hungry Oikawa who wants to impress Mr. Matheo, so Hinata's nervousness will probably cost him a lot of points for Karasuno.
"Have you talked to your friend?" Hiroyuki can hear the amused tone of Mr. Matheo who sit beside the driver.
"Yes, and he is definitely ready to meet you." He nodded but didn't give Hiroyuki another reply. It took them almost an hour before they arrived at the biggest stadium in Miyagi, filled with four volleyball and basketball courts.
When they arrived, the outside of the stadium has already filled with the crowds who want to watch the game between Karasuno and Aoba Johsai.
"Impressive. I really miss the atmosphere of a volleyball game in Japan. Even high school game is filled with this much crowd, and it is not a national tournament." Matheo muttered lowly.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I still remember my last game with my high school in the national tournament, and I can say the crowds there are much noisier than the crowds in all of the games I played during the Junior World Cup." They talked for a bit more before Hiroyuki saw the glimpse of Oikawa wearing a mask and cap coming from the inside. Hiroyuki snorted, remembering how famous Oikawa is among the girls,
"Well Mr. Matheo, it seems Oikawa is finally here." Matheo turned around to see Oikawa, and he snorted too at Oikawa's ridiculous appearance but didn't make a comment.
"Yuki-senpai! Finally, I found you here!" Oikawa panted, taking a breath after running for a while. Hiroyuki shakes his head and slapped Oikawa's back,
"What are you thinking, you idiot! Running around just before the game? Save your stamina!" Hiroyuki scolded Oikawa who gives him a slight pout.
"Eeeh?? How can you say something like that? You know it is hard for me to go out just before the game with all of my girl fans waiting for me, right?"
If anyone hears this conversation, they will think that Oikawa is just throwing banter at Hiroyuki. But Hiroyuki knows Oikawa well enough to recognize the setter's trembling hand and realized how nervous he is to meet Matheo, so Hiroyuki decided to introduce not to waste time and introduce the two of them.
"Mr. Matheo, this is the friend of mine I have been told about, Oikawa Tooru. Oikawa, this is Federico di Matheo, the head scout of Vero Volley Monza."
"I have heard a lot of good things about you from Hori, and I can say it's good to finally meet you, Mr. Tooru." Matheo offered his hand to shake which Oikawa takes quickly as he introduces himself.
"Thank you, Mr. Matheo. It's good to meet you too. I hope I can meet your expectation today" Oikawa replied in English fluently. Hiroyuki released a relieved sigh as he confirms there is no language barrier between Oikawa and Mr. Matheo.
"How much time do you have before the game?" Oikawa takes a look at his watch and said,
"About 45 minutes."
"How about we talked in the café near here? It will take 10 minutes at most as I only want to know you." Mr. Matheo makes a suggestion that Oikawa approved quickly.
"Do you mind if I am not going with you? I want to meet my sister before the game, and she is the manager of Oikawa's opponent." Hiroyuki asked, which was answered by Matheo's raised eyebrow.
"Really? Your sister's team will be playing and you are with their opponent right before the game?" Matheo asked amusedly.
"My sister knows about Oikawa and she didn't mind about it, so I don't see any problem with that." Hiroyuki shrugged. "So, do you mind if I am not going with you?"
"Sure, I will go with Oikawa and he will escort me back here. Let's meet at the entrance gate." Hiroyuki nodded and leaves the two, searching for Karasuno.
After searching for a while, he finally found them just arrived outside of the stadium, so he went there and greeted his sister,
"Kiyo-chan!" the one who received the greeting turned her attention to Hiroyuki and smiles slightly.
"Yuki-nii! What are you doing here!"
"Well, I want to see the game between Oikawa and Hinata as both of them trained with me for the last month." Then Hiroyuki took a glance at the Karasuno team who looked at him carefully.
There is not much change in Karasuno, with Nishinoya and Tanaka being as loud as usual. Yamaguchi and Hinata clearly showed more confidence than the last time Karasuno played against Nekoma.
But to his surprise, the biggest change comes from Kageyama. While he is still grumpy, he didn't shout at Hinata or glare at Tsukishima. He just talked with Sugawara and surprisingly Yamaguchi. It seems his assessment of Yamaguchi is right. He can blend with anyone without any problem, definitely a good trait for a captain.
But Hiroyuki's surprise didn't end there as when Kageyama saw him, the first year quickly go and faced him, bowed slightly to the surprise of his teammates and said,
"Thank you for what you said to me the last time we met. It opened my eyes clearly to my own weakness. I am very grateful to you!" Then he raised his head again and leave as if he didn't do anything wrong.
'It seems he mellowed down for a bit and learn how to work with his teammates, and not how to use them.' Hiroyuki mused, and suddenly he smirked while thinking about the upcoming game.
'Well, I wonder how will the game turn out to be?'
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Author note:
You can also read:
- Transmigrated Into Anime World as Kiyoko Shimizu's Older Brother up to chapter 36
- Naruto: Ashigaru up to chapter 07
I want to add more chapters to my Patreon account so you can read up to 10 chapters. But I still don't have that many chapters, so I just added them little by little. Hopefully, by the end of the week, you can read up to 10 chapters when you become a member. Thank you!
You can read all of it at my Patreon account, pat_reon.com/zwolf1 (Without '_') Thank you for your support! :)