Suguru Yagibashi

**Suguru Yagibashi** is a second-year at Johnan Public High School, and plays the position of **outside/opposite hitter** on the volleyball team. He wears jersey number 3.

## Appearance

Suguru is tall (his height is 189 cm) and very skinny. He is underweight, with his weight listed as 10 kg (this could be a mistake in the printing of the manga, though). He has messy black hair that he always wears held back with a broad, yellow headband. He has brown eyes and usually has a stern expression, unless he is excited or angry. He has been noted by some to be handsome, although he "never smiles" (in the words of the girl who commented on his looks).

## Personality

Suguru is not a very emotionally expressive individual, and has trouble expressing through words how he feels. He often prefers to just remain silent. In situations where he feels strong emotions, though, he yells and grabs people, becoming very intense. He is practical and serious, and likes to finish what he started, no matter what, making him a persistent and dependable spiker, too. He pays good attention to detail and does not trust new people easily, and when he does speak, he is very blunt and doesn't care about how people react to what he says.

## Plot

### Johnan Volleyball Team Transformation Arc

While the other team members were working on their assignments from Akira, Suguru was carefully observing. He then refuses to join spiking practice, bluntly telling Akira that he doesn't trust him and believes he is manipulating the team. This lead to an awkward argument between the team members and Akira, who confessed that he didn't see the full game of Johnan versus Seiryoh. After he revealed his feelings, though, the rest of the team trusted him a little more, but Suguru remained suspicious of his motives.

### Kanto Preliminaries Arc

During Johnan's match against Nanyou, most of Yagibashi's spikes were blocked, but his teammates saved the balls and kept the rally going. Once Katta scored their first point, all his mistrust towards the new first-years dissipated and he was shown smiling and blushing a little as he cheered with his teammates. He also demonstrated skill and power when using a jump serve, scoring a service ace for his team. Johnan won, and proceeded to the next round of the preliminaries a week later.

During one of their practices before a big match against Seiryoh, Suguru revealed that volleyball was the only sport he'd ever played and enjoyed, since he did not like kicking a ball or hitting it with a racket. He preferred the feel of the ball against his hand.

In the game against Seiryoh, Akira set to Yagibashi a lot, while using Kotaro as a decoy. This annoyed Kotaro, who complained that everyone focused on Suguru and not him, but Suguru got angry at this and yelled at Kotaro, telling him very bluntly that he doesn't spike as much because he's so short, but after Kotaro says that he could leave the court if he's not as useful as Yagibashi, Suguru grabs him and tells him that he admires Kotaro's social skills and persistence in volleyball, even though he himself has been playing volleyball for his whole life. After this important moment, the two are then able to work together on the court and pull off some good attacks, helping their team win against Seiryoh.

## Relationships

### Kotaro Wakatsuki

Suguru and Kotaro have known each other for an unknown amount of time, but long enough for them to have been "looking at each other's backs" (in the words of Kotaro) and envying each other for certain characteristics and skills. Suguru has said that he does not want to lose to Kotaro, and although his blunt comment about Kotaro's shortness caused him to get irritated, he made amends later by telling Wakatsuki that he looks up to him and envies him sometimes. After this, they were able to work together as teammates and support each other, which brought the whole team closer together.

### Akira Honda

Suguru did not trust Akira at first and believed he was being manipulative, but after playing together in matches and at practice, he was able to lose this mistrust and see Akira as his teammate. The two boys work together well and execute effective plays made possible by Akira's precise setting and Yagibashi's powerful and fast spikes, as well as his attention to detail and observance, which means he can watch the ball well and adjust to different sets.

### Johnan Boys' Volleyball Team

Yagibashi's relationships with the rest of his teammates are not touched upon in much detail in the manga, but they appear to get along and work well together. Yagibashi is not really the type to make friends and get along easily with people, due to his untrusting and non-emotional personality, but there do not seem to be very many major disagreements between him and his teammates.

## Trivia

* He is in second year class A, one class above Kotaro Wakatsuki.
* He has played volleyball since being a very small child.
* His favorite phrase is "Finish what you started."
* He is the only player on the team shown to wear a headband.
* The Japanese characters for his first name, Suguru, could also be read as "Yu."