The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

"Hey, everyone! Long time no see!" A charismatic voice that Yuki hadn't heard in a long time greeted them cheerfully—coming from the person who invited him and Riku to join this camp. "I hope you all find our school is up to your standards!"

Yuki blinked once at that. Then, he blinked again, trying to process what had just happened. After repeating the action several times, he finally found his voice and asked, "How could you be here?"

He blushed when everyone turned to look at him. While they didn't say anything, Yuki knew that some were laughing while others regarded him with concern. "I-I mean, shouldn't you be in… I don't know, Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium? This week is when the national tournament is being held, right?" he tried to defend himself.

Honestly, it was such a lame excuse that Yuki himself didn't believe it. He didn't even know when the national tournament was held; he only knew that it should be over before summer break. Using that as an excuse was just a poor attempt to save face in front of the other 17 talented players.

However, he didn't expect that somehow, the excuse worked.

"Oh, Kobayashi-kun from Tsunemori High, right?" Matsumoto, the source of the voice that had greeted them, asked politely—well, as politely as he could be. Yuki nodded slightly, his face still a bit red from embarrassment. "Well, glad that I haven't forgotten you! I still remember how impressed I was with your serving arsenal. Man, that was the first time I saw someone manage to tear through our defense in a long time. If—"

"Matsumoto-senpai!" the person next to him coughed. "Please, get to the point and answer his question!"

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that." The older boy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Anyway, it seems your time here has made you forget about the outside world. While you are all in the middle of the camp, we traveled to Nagano for the national tournament. As you can see, we kicked everyone's butts and brought the trophy back here." He grinned while stepping aside to reveal the trophy that was hidden behind him.

All eyes bulged in surprise, staring at the shining trophy with envy. The object in front of them was the goal of any high school volleyball player in Japan, so seeing it in person was enough to pump up their spirits.

"Wait!" Yuki suddenly widened his eyes in realization. Everyone turned to him, wondering what he had just figured out. "If Sawada-kun and Akihiro-kun are here, does that mean you played in the national tournament without them?!"

Everyone dropped their jaws when they realized the implication. While Sawada and Akihiro were just freshmen, all the players there acknowledged their talent. Akihiro was not an unknown name in the middle school tournament. It was surprising that Konan didn't bring them along to the tournament…

"Well, unfortunately, we couldn't bring them along with us." Matsumoto chuckled awkwardly as the other Konan players snickered behind him. "The thing is… Akihiro failed his midterm exam, so he wasn't allowed to go with us and had to attend supplementary classes. As for Sawada-kun, since we played against your team in the prefecture tournament, he insisted on being downgraded to a bench player, wanting to learn more from his senpai, or so he said. When he heard about this camp, he didn't hesitate to join, saying he would learn a lot compared to playing on the national stage."

Sawada had a red tint on his cheeks as all eyes turned to him. Yuki couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth in annoyance. While it was a reasonable excuse, Yuki had a feeling that Matsumoto was rubbing it in their faces, showing they didn't need their two freshmen to win the national tournament, which was both impressive and infuriating at the same time.

"That brings us to what we are going to do today!" Sato clapped his hands, announcing his presence once again. "I know some of you have already noticed the pattern of our training. First, we are going to serve, then receive, then set up an attack, spike, and lastly, we will train our blocks too. We have been training all of our basic skills, so what's left is to play the game itself!"

While everyone was still speechless over the sudden presence of Konan High's team, the others were smart enough to put everything together. "Wait, you mean to tell me that we are going to play against them?!" one of them asked, shocked.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Sato just raised his eyebrows and, with a challenging tone, said, "What? Do you think it's fitting to have the most talented players in the prefecture play against the best team in Japan?"

'The problem is that the best team in the prefecture is also the best team in Japan!' Some of them groaned inwardly.

Still, just like what Sato said, they were all talented players, and none of them would tap into their full potential without facing a strong opponent. The thought of playing against the best team in the country was enough to send their excitement skyrocketing. Some of them could hardly hide their grins since this would be their first time competing against such an amazing team. Seeing no fear in their reactions, Sato nodded in satisfaction.

"Good! There's no need for cowards to be here!" he exclaimed. "Today, we will play five sets, and I will rotate the players for each set, so you don't have to worry about not having a chance to play! Now, first team: Aizawa! Takeda! Subaru! Kobayashi! Ono! Hiromitsu!"

As the names of the first team were announced, reactions ranged from intrigued to disappointed.

"Man, having Kobayashi and Aizawa on the same team is unfair!"

"Damn, I have to wait?!"

"Damn, I want to play with Aizawa!"

"You just want to latch onto his tight, right?"

"Shut up!"

Yuki turned around, searching for his soon-to-be teammates. The other five seemed to be doing the same, and when their eyes met, they nodded in acknowledgment. He couldn't help but mutter, "Indeed, this is going to be interesting."