It had been a full week since Yuki joined the team again. The training was getting more intense, something he had never done before in his life. Every day would end up with him dragging his body back to the orphanage. Still, he persisted, did everything with no complaint at all.
Yuki still remembered Aiko's request the night he decided to accept Mattheo's offer.
"Even though they didn't give you a lot of requirements, I want you to excel in everything they ask. If they want you to be in the top ten students, don't be satisfied with that. Be the top three or even the best one. If they want you to help the volleyball team, don't just help casually. Be the best player possible for them. That way, you will not embarrass yourself in front of Mattheo-san and Maria-san. Can you do that?"
Even though it wasn't easy to improve his grade while keeping up with the volleyball team, since it was Aiko's request, Yuki still did it without hesitation. In the morning, he would always wake up earlier than anyone else, start running around to warm up his body before finishing all the homework he hadn't done yet. After that, he would try his best to listen to what the teacher taught in the class so that he wouldn't have to study more outside, then after school was over, he and the other nine players would receive the torture Akira called practice for two full hours before finally went back home.
Still, Yuki felt it was not enough. He still had so many weaknesses he needed to cover. And one of them was the lack of special ability to intimidate opponents. That was why on Friday, when the team had a day off, he dragged his two friends to help him practice alone.
"I get why you asked Riku to join, but why are you dragging me into this too, Kobayashi?" Kato grumbled, putting her book in her bag.
Yuki could only clap his hands, sending an apology gesture toward the girl. He knew she was not keen on a physical activity like this. Still, the boy appreciated the fact that she was willing to come and help him train.
"So, what are we going to do, Kobayashi?" Riku asked, still doing his stretching.
"Well, let's work with my serve first," Yuki said. "I have a lot of ideas of how to make it deadlier, but first of all, I need to get my control better. I need to be able to send the ball where I am aiming to, not even a single inch could be missed."
Riku had a sweat drop on his face. "Aren't you a bit too harsh for yourself?" For all Riku knew, while power-wise, Yuki was far behind, the glasses boy had far better serve accuracy in the team compared to the others, and he might even be the best one there. However, Yuki was not satisfied with that.
"I know I can still get better at it. Just bear with me." He said stubbornly.
Riku and Kato stared at each other for a while before they shrugged and decided to help their friend. There were no people there in the gymnasium on Friday evening, everyone seemed to be busy preparing their weekends. But that worked well with Yuki, as he could modify the court as much as he wanted for a day without any complaints from the other students.
In a moment, the plain court in the gym suddenly had many circles with different colors on one side of the net.
"So, how are you going to practice?" Riku stared at the modified court interestedly.
"Well, for the first half an hour, I am going to serve toward that side," Yuki pointed at the side with circles in it. "You are going to pick a color. And I have to aim my serve at the colored circle. If my serve lands on the colored circle, it is one point for me. But if I miss a circle, for every miss, I will have to do five serves on the wall. At the end of the day, you tell me how many wall serves would I need to do, okay?"
This time, Riku gulped nervously, clearly intimidated by the practice method that Yuki came up with by himself.
"Once again, aren't you a bit too harsh to yourself?"
"No, trust me! This will work!" Once again, Yuki was stubborn that his method would work.
Riku pondered for a while before sighing at himself. "Well, if you are sure."
After that, the only sound that could be heard in the gymnasium was the ball hitting the floor and Kato's shout to tell whether it was in or out. For the first ten serves, Riku and Kato still went easy for Yuki, giving him an easy target to aim. It was in the area around the middle back, which also was the easiest spot among the others.
However, when the count was more than 10, the two suddenly up their game. From one corner to another, Riku and Kato kept giving Yuki a tough spot to aim, always playing near the sideline. The glasses boy clicked his tongue as he missed five serves in a row.
"Oi, Kobayashi! What happened? Do you really want to do wall serves that badly? It is fifteen already!" Riku shouted mockingly.
"Shut up, Agostini!" There was a thick vein popped in Yuki's temple as he also started to feel frustrated. He took a deep breath, knowing he needed to be calm if he wanted to do this successfully. In his mind, Yuki recalled everything, from starting his run-up to hitting the ball slowly, trying to see which part he could do better.
'My wrist is a bit stiff. Maybe, I need to relax a little.'
Yuki played with his wrist a little before taking a deep breath, starting to do his serve again. This time, Kato gave a purple color, the sign to target far into the baseline on the left side. It was the spot where Yuki failed to aim before, yet this time, he hit the ball with confidence.
Riku who watched from the outside widened his eyes as he saw the quality of the serve was far better than before. It flew far to the back where Yuki was aiming in the first place. Riku kept his eyes close to the ball until…
*Thug!*
"Out!" The blonde boy shouted.
Still, even though the ball didn't go into the circle Yuki was aiming for, Riku knew this attempt was closer than before. The ball just landed slightly further, yet everything Yuki did was right. And it seemed the glasses boy also realized that as he also had a big grin on his face.
'Finally, there is something here!'
-0-
Unbeknown to them, in the teacher's office, Akira took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. The drawing of the first round of the national tournament was finally over, and the result was on his desk. He hadn't seen it yet, praying inwardly that the worst-case scenario didn't happen.
Unfortunately, Murphy's law worked like a bitch here.
The moment he saw the name of the school paired against Tsunemori, Akira widened his eyes, his mind went blank. After a while, he finally reacted, yet only one word came out of his mouth.
"Shit!"