The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

Chapter 60: Training Camp (I)

KY: Hey!

KY: How are you doing?

KY: I heard the science club is forced to close down. You okay?

Ayaka Kato: I am good.

Ayaka Kato: Yeah, it sucks. But my president managed to negotiate with the school.

Ayaka Kato: Instead of being disbanded directly, we have half a year to achieve something in Tokyo.

Ayaka Kato: Something that would make the school's higher-ups think we are worth investment.

Ayaka Kato: I heard the volleyball team is the same, right?

KY: Yeah. If we cannot be the top 4 teams in the prefecture, we are done.

Ayaka Kato: Wow, that is tough.

Ayaka Kato: I heard Tokyo has the top two teams in the country, right?

KY: Yeah.

Ayaka Kato: Well, good luck with that!

KY: You too.

-0-

"COME ON! RUN FASTER!"

Even though the summer hadn't come to the country yet, today's weather was surprisingly good for any outdoor activity. However, that only meant the torture the Tsunemori team received would be more intense. Under the scorching sun, they kept running and running, increasing and decreasing the tempo constantly following Akira's instructions.

They were not sure for how long did they start running today, but it felt like an eternity.

After a while, Akira finally nodded, blowing his whistle once again to ask everyone to take a rest.

"Good job!" The coach was satisfied. "All of you finished full thirty minutes of interval running just three weeks after I introduced it to you. This is beyond my expectation."

Even though the players were exhausted, their faces lightened up when they heard the praise. "Does that mean we can stop doing this again forever?" Kaede asked, his tone was full of hope.

"Good! Then, let's start the training!"

-0-

Since the training is designed for a libero, it was not a brainer that Okamura offered himself to do it first. He did a good job, showing off why he was the best defender on the team.

While he missed the ball a few times, he made it up by sending it back to Akira's circle spot, and while he also read the setup wrong a few times, the libero kept the ball in the air most of the time, and that was what made Akira satisfied the most.

Asahi also did a very good job. It was slightly worse than Okamura, naturally. But he wasn't the best defender in the first place. His reaction wasn't fast, but he made it up with his receiving ability which he had a knock on it, aiming almost all the ball he saved to Akira's circle spot.

In the end, even though he dropped the ball more than the libero, due to his accurate aim, Asahi managed to keep the count lower than his friend.

Kaede was also the same. As the defensive-oriented player, he did his job well, saving the ball left and right. Unlike the first two players who read the play first before they moved, the opposite hitter used his instinct completely, starting to move even before he knew who would be the one to hit the ball.

It left everyone in awe as all of them couldn't understand how could someone's instinct be so accurate.

The next three players didn't do as well as their friends, though. Koji, Ogawa, and Hirano struggled to keep the ball up in the air. The first two were attacking-minded players, so it was difficult to read the game. As for Hirano, he was the complete opposite of them.

He used his experience as the middle blocker to read everything well, but his ability as a receiver was abysmal, making his count the highest one currently.

The biggest surprise came from Riku. While everyone knew he had a solid basic, they all thought since the blonde boy was a setter, he wouldn't be that good. Who would expect that Riku was so good his count was close to the first three players?

And when it was Yuki's turn...

*BAM!*

"Come again!"

*BAM!*

"Next one!"

*BAM!*

"Come on!"

Everyone was in awe as they witnessed how Yuki moved flawlessly, kept flying all around the court to save the ball. It took almost ten minutes for them all to finally force the glasses boy to let the ball to drop the floor. He really showed his talent to all the players there, making them curse inwardly at how unfair God was when giving a person such a talent like that.

Still, even though there was jealousy, the most dominant feelings they had toward Yuki were admiration and excitement as they were glad he was their teammate.

Akira himself shook his head in wonder at the sight of Yuki saving the ball. Just like what he expected the first time he saw Yuki, Akira knew the glasses boy would be the most talented player he had ever coached up to now. Still, he was satisfied with the overall result, not just him alone.

'As expected, they are more suitable as a defensive team. All of them could work flawlessly to defend against any kind of attack, and with more polishing, those three would be able to improve too to my standard. But this is not enough... We need to have more weapons if we want to win against Konan...'