Norimune Shiramine

**Norimune Shiramine** (Japanese: **白峰 法宗**, **Shiramine Norimune**) is the middle blocker and blocking specialist of the **Golden Generation** (Japanese: **黄金世代**, *Kogane Sedai*) group of the **Kiyose Higashi Academy Boy's Volleyball Team** (Japanese: **清瀬東 学院 男のバレーボール分隊**, **Kiyose Higashi Gakuen Danshi no Bareboru Chimu**) as well as for the Tokyo Brilliant Railway Division 1 Team. He is also the team's second strategist.

## Appearance

Norimune is a bespectacled young man with smooth and somewhat messy blonde hair that is parted on the right, dark green eyes and a beauty mark underneath his left eye. He has a tall and lean yet muscular physique and he is also considered as the best looking guy among the Kiyoshi Higashi Boy's Volleyball Team by all who encounters him. He usually wears a sweater over his school uniform. He also usually wears a mask on his face when he is alone, so as to not be caught by the paparazzi.

## Personality

Contrary to his strategic counterpart, he is calm and collected, as well as extremely blunt to a fault. At time, the things he say can come off as rude and inconsiderate, when all he was doing was just either pointing out the obvious or is making an observational comment. He is very much aware that he is the most handsome player amongst the Golden Generation, and often times teases his teammates about it, particularly Yukitaka. Often pointing out how he's lucky to even have a single girl fawning after him, whereas others would run away.

Despite his extremely blunt nature, he is aware when the things he says can be too harsh and sometimes chooses not to speak it out loud for their sake. In times that he does actually hurt someone with his words, he has shown to panic inside even though he seems calm on the outside.

Although he doesn't show it and teases him a lot, Norimune actually respects his captain, Yukitaka, and would always defend him against those who would argue that he isn't needed on the team. Stating that out of everybody in the team, he is the most dedicated and hardworking volleyball player that could earn anyone's respect just because he trains so hard. He even agreed to Keiichiro's statement, that Yukitaka is almost like a '*protagonist that's growing before their eyes*'. He also states that watching Yukitaka train hard, pushes not just him but everyone else in the team to get better, further reinforcing his respect towards him.

## Statistics

 Stamina
 Game Sense
 Technique
 Speed

From the very beginning of his volleyball career, Norimune was displayed to be an immensely proficient blocker who makes use of his height, calm mindset and his tenacity to stop his opponents. He is the undisputed backbone and the cornerstone of **Kiyose Higashi Academy Boy's Volleyball Team** (Japanese: **清瀬東 学院 男のバレーボール分隊**, **Kiyose Higashi Gakuen Danshi no Bareboru Chimu**), as he never gets fooled by decoys and is excellent at creating a good defensive block against opponents. While he himself is an excellent blocker that mainly scores off blocks, his main contribution to the team is his ability to effectively come up with blocking strategies that he directs to his teammates to stop a certain blocker. Dubbed as the **Iron Wall Advisor** (Japanese: **鉄の壁 顧問**, **Tetsu no Kabe Komon**) or the **Enclosing Wall** (Japanese: **囲い壁**, **Kakoi Kabe**), he is the other brain that mainly strategizes the blocking variations and group blocking techniques that could be used to slow down an opponent and eventually completely stop them.

Although his power and overall athleticism, is especially lacking compared to his teammates. He makes up for it with efficiency, conserving energy and always being calm. His main belief is that "*the one who has more energy may lose the battle, but will win the war*". This belief is also shown in his blocking strategies, dictating the momentum and tiring out the opponents by strategically placing blockers in certain areas or purposefully creating seams in a block so that it would go straight to either the defensive specialist, Tomokazu, or the Libero, Akifumi. Either way, his job as a blocking and defensive strategist is to shut down spikers, either by tiring them out or by employing a variety of blocking tactics, such as: bunch shifting, in which all three blockers bunch up in the middle of the court; stack blocking, in which all three blockers bunch up on one side of the court to mark the opposing Ace or another powerful spiker; and shading, in which two blockers bunch up in the middle and a third is deployed to the edge of the court, almost at the pin.

**Jumping Reach:** 335cm

### **Skills**

 Setting
 Spike
 Technique
 Block

* **Masterful** **Strategic Blocking:** Alone, Norimune is a skilled read blocker that has established himself to be the cornerstone of the team's blocking game and is often trusted to stop an opponent's spikes. He is capable of grasping the nuances of the blocker and the spiker, utilizing proper posture, timing and jumping to match his block timing with the moment the ball is spiked downwards to completely catch a spiker taller and stronger than him. His perceptive and logical nature also allowed him to excel at reading the path of a toss to deduce where the ball will go to put up the block. On the occasions where he misreads, he can quickly correct himself and still put up a decent block. He observes each play that is happening in front of him and acts as the team's blocking playmaker, directing other blockers in his line to effectively shut down an opponent.
* **Excellent Jump Float Serve:** Unlike his strategist counterpart, Keiichiro, Norimune prefers to preserve as much energy as he can even during serves, as such he mainly utilizes the float serve as opposed to his usage of the spike serve. Although, he may not be able to rack up as much points as Keiichiro, he has shown to be just as good at aiming his float serves as much as Keiichiro aims his spike serves, and has helped out Kiyose Higashi High in many clutch moments. Like Keiichiro, he can strategically aim at areas where the receiving is weak, albeit not as good as Keiichiro but still good enough to score consecutively for a limited time. His jump float is also shown to be fast and unpredictable displaying to slowly float through the air but suddenly travel down fast, making it difficult to receive for some Liberos and Defensive Specialists.
* **Logical and Efficient Playstyle:** Efficient and intelligent, Norimune is not that type of player that likes to moves on instinct unlike others. He prefers to think logically and think up a proper and practical solution to problems, whether be it in real life or even in volleyball. So long as he remains calm and identifies the problems properly, he can make use of the information to come up with plans while still staying as extravagant as possible. As such, during matches, he rarely falls for an opponents' decoys, and is capable of employing a variety of legal tactics to win, including the One Person Time Difference attack which isn't so popular in the current age of volleyball. He is quick to process all the players' information and deduce where the toss will go to put up a strong block. In addition, Norimune has shown an incredible ability to stay cool-headed, applying pressure to his opponents and sometimes intimidate them.

## Relationships

### **Miyako Himekawa**

Miyako Himekawa is Norimune's manager and childhood friend and was the one who introduced the world to him through connections and various media roles that she got him. The two are engaged after their families saw how the two work well for each other, and as a publicity stunt. However, they both truly like each other and are happy that their parents sort of support their relationship, even though it is kind unprofessional to be in a relationship with your own boss, client or manager.

## Trivia

* **Favorite Food:** Roasted Pork
* **Current Concern:** Gaining weight
* **Star Sign:** Leo
* **Hobby:** Photography