[Juh, at the Aoba Johsai Gymnasium]

  It had been a few days since Aoba Johsai cimed victory in the prefectural qualifiers. The initial excitement had worn off, and the volleyball club resumed its daily training as usual.

  "What are those two doing?" Iwaizumi Hajime asked as he stepped into the gym, spotting Taichi Kaedehara aarō Kyōtani locked in an intearing test in a er of the gym. A small crowd had gathered around them, spectating the se.

  "Looks like Taichi asked Kyōtani to teach him how to hit diagonal spikes, but Kyōtani refused. Then it turned into….this," someone nearby expio Iwaizumi.

  "With the way they're staring at each other, I'd guess they're having a test—whoever breaks eye tact first loses," Shigeru Yahaba ented, his tone amused.

  Iwaizumi rolled his eyes. None of them were taking training seriously, instead flog to this spectacle. Just as he was pting how to resolve the situation, Kyōtani uedly broke eye tact.

  "B. I'm going to practiy own," Kyōtani muttered, turning to leave.

  "One serving of fried chi!" Taichi blurted out, throwing out his ultimate bargaining chip.

  Kyōtani froze mid-step. After what seemed like an intense iruggle, he shook his head a walking.

  "One week's worth of fried chi!" Taichi upped the stakes like a mad gambler!

  "From Lawson," Kyōtani said immediately, spinning around and snatg a volleyball. He ha to Yahaba. "Yahaba, set for me."

  Yahaba stared at him, speechless. "…What?"

  This…works?!

  -------

  Half an hour ter, Taichi walked off muttering curses under his breath.

  Kyōtani's diagonal spikes were unique, and Taichi quickly realized they were beyond him. The key to Kyōtani's devastating spike wasn't just teique but his bination of power and flexibility.

  After a few attempts, Taichi mao mimic the trajectory of the spike, but it cked the power and sharphat made Kyōtaarō so effective. The meics of Kyōtani's teique were entirely untransferable.

  Fortunately, Taichi had a fallback.

  After Aoba Johsai's victainst Shiratorizawa, he pleted the first stage of his personal quest: helping Aoba Johsai reach the national tour. The reward ecialized training program that promised to increase his strength from 80 to 90 within a month—without promising his speed.

  Currently, Taichi's strength sat at 82. Ever meticulous, he couldn't help but feel slightly shortged.

  Since learning from Kyōtani was a dead end, Taichi set his sights on Tokyo. Aski oppos for advice was out of the question—no matter how thick-skinned he was, even Taichi wouldn't do something so tactless.

  Taichi had shared news of Aoba Johsai's prefectural victory with only two people in Tokyo: Kozume Kenma and Udai Tenma.

  Kenma replied that Nekoma would face their first-round oppo, Matsukawa Teical, on Juh. Taichi immediately promised to e and watch their match.

  Tenma, oher hand, responded with a g emoji—his manga, Zombie Swordsman Zobishu, had been celled!

  Taichi wasn't surprised. He sent a few f messages to Tenma and arrao visit him on his day off, promising a surprise.

  With permission from his coach, Taichi embarked on his jouro Tokyo to 'seek knowledge'.

  *

  "Tenma-sensei!"

  "Taichi-sensei!"

  The moment Taichi stepped off the train, Tenma rushed to greet him. The two csped hands tightly.

  For a long while, her spoke.

  "Taichi, you really made it to Nationals? That's incredible!" Tenma finally excimed.

  "Haha, it's nothing, really…" Taichi scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "By the way, Tenma-sensei…your manga really got celled?"

  Tenma fell silent. "…."

  Even after all this time, Taichi's versational style was as etric as ever.

  The two headed straight to Udai Tenma's rented apartment near his uy. After a brief exge of pleasaenma dht into the main topic.

  "Those editors are so harsh! They said I crammed too muto a single chapter, my characters aren't engaging enough, and I spend too much time introdug them...It's nothing but unreasonable criticism!" Tenma pined, his words tumbling out like a druirade.

  "Well…" Taichi scratched his head awkwardly. To be ho, he didn't know much about manga—he just enjoyed reading them. "A lot of it probably es down to pag. That's something only you refine, sensei."

  "Huh?"

  "But I do have a pretty good story idea we discuss," Taichi said fidently, pulling a notebook out of his backpack.

  "This is the surprise you mentioned?!" Tenma's eyes lit up as he eagerly grabbed the notebook.

  Siheir st meeting, Taichi hadn't fotten this mentor-like friend. The notebook tained something he'd written during his occasional moments of wakefulness in css—an outline of Demon Syer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.

  Taichi had no moral qualms about borrowing stories from his previous life. After all, it wasn't like he was struggling to make ends meet. If he were, he might have already embraced the life of a 'generic-literary pgiarist'.

  Tenma flipped through the manuscript, quickly engrossed in its tents. The opening lines captivated him immediately:

  "Tanjiro Kamado, a humble charcoal seller, lived a peaceful and happy life—until the day his family was attacked by demons. His mother and four younger siblings were brutally murdered, and his surviving sister, Nezuko, was transformed into a vicious demon..."

  Seeing how absorbed Tenma was, Taichi didn't interrupt. The manuscript covered the first six or seven volumes of the inal work, so it would take a while for him to finish reading.

  Taichi shifted his focus to his own pns for learnieiques. He decided to stay at Tenma's pce for the day and attend Nekoma's matorrow. Perhaps he could learn a few tricks from Kuroo Tetsurō.

  Yes, the pn was fwless!

  "Taichi!" Tenma called out suddenly, snapping Taichi out of his thoughts. He had skimmed through most of the manuscript and was visibly excited. " I really use this story for my manga?"

  Although Tenma was a rookie manga artist, he could tell that the story had a solid structure.

  Even the pag—his biggest challenge—seemed manageable with Taichi's detailed outline. More importantly, his instincts as a reader told him this story had everything it o succeed. It was gripping. It would sell. It would bee a hit!

  "Of course, it's yours. I don't want to be a manga artist, and I 't draw anyway," Taichi said nontly.

  "The's talk about profit-sharing!" Tenma sat up straight, suddenly all business.

  "Huh?" Taichi hadn't thought about that at all. He was just borrowing an idea and figured that everything after the manuscript would be Tenma's responsibility. How could he justify taking a cut? It felt like pure freeloading.

  "Ten pert!" Taichi decred decisively. Seeing Tenma's stunned expression, he quickly added, "You take nine; I'll take one."

  "What?" Now it was Tenma's turn to be dumbfounded. In his eyes, this long-form story was the product of painstaking effort. He hadn't expected Taichi to dismiss it so lightly.

  "Twenty" Tenma tered like a er trying to drive a hard bargain, except this wasn't for himself, "Twenty. Ahan that my sce won't be able to accept."

  "Sensei, let's focus oing the manga published first," Taichi said, cutting off the versation. "It's weird to discuss profit-sharing before we've even started."

  "Heh…" Tenma chuckled sheepishly. He had indeed already started fantasizing about being a famous manga artist.

  "Now that your problem is solved, it's time for my request," Taichi said, his expression turning serious.

  "Sensei, please teach me how to hit diagonal spikes!"

  _________

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