Yuki yawned tiredly as he stretched his stiff body, having a hard time waking up early by now due to the harsh training in the volleyball team. Akira had been crazy in the past few days, kept increasing their training portion to the maximum limit, pushing them to the edge in every session. He didn't know why the coach suddenly did that, but still, no one dared to complain.
After gathering his soul, Yuki blinked for a few seconds before checking his phone. It was his morning routine now, checking any new information either from the class's group or from the team's group. He furrowed his brows the moment he saw the latest update on the team's group.
'Gather up at 6:30. I have an announcement to make.'
There was no morning training today, and Akira had never asked for a team meeting this sudden. Yuki wondered what kind of announcement his coach was going to make. Still, he rose from the bed before doing his morning routine, tidying it up and taking a cold shower before he went down to the kitchen. There, Yuki could see Aiko was preparing for everyone's breakfast alone as the other children hadn't woken up yet.
"Are you having a morning training?" Aiko asked without even looking at him, flipping the egg on the pan proficiently.
"No, Obaasan. But Akira-sensei wants us to have a team meeting this morning, so I have to go early." Yuki answered while chucking a slice of plain bread into his mouth. "What about you? How does your day look?" He asked back.
"Hmm… Let me think about it…" Aiko pondered for a second. "After accompanying Mai-chan to her school, I have to go with Hiko-kun for his checkup, and after that, go for some shopping to fill the fridge. After that, I will probably go to Sachi-san's place like yesterday. Oh, thank you for introducing us, by the way."
"Don't worry about it." Yuki waved his hand nonchalantly.
Yeah, since Yuki didn't work again after getting sponsored by the Silvestri family, he brought Aiko to Sachi so that the matron could replace him there. Fortunately, the old woman didn't mind that, welcoming Aiko enthusiastically. Yuki was glad though that Aiko could work there, as it meant she could cut off her work as a waiter which exhausted all of her energy and replaced it with the easier job.
After checking the time on his phone, Yuki rose from his seat while snatching two more slices of bread. "Sorry, Obaasan. I have to go first."
"Well, don't forget to text me if you will come back late, okay?"
"Sure!" Yuki nodded, putting on a pair of shoes that the twin sisters of the Silvestri family bought for him. "Bye, Obaasan! Say hello to everyone for me!"
"Bye! Take care!"
On the road, Yuki met Kaede and Okamura who came from the other side, they both had the same tired look on their face as him.
"Good morning, Senpai." Yuki greeted politely.
"Morning." Okamura yawned big. "Any idea why Akira-sensei calls us this early?"
"Nope." Yuki shook his head. "But if I have to guess, it is probably related to how anxious he was in the last couple of days."
"You are right. And it is us who received the end of it. Life is unfair, for sure." Kaede grumbled. "By the way, I heard you have been training your serve recently. How did it go?"
Yuki cringed a bit when he remembered his training. "It didn't go as well as I thought." He admitted. While there were several occasions where he seemed to get inspiration, Yuki couldn't still control his serve as well as he was expecting himself to be.
"Well, that is training for you. Not everything would go instantly even for a genius like you. Just enjoy the process and don't be too anxious." Unexpectedly, Kaede gave him good advice.
"Yeah." Yuki nodded quietly.
It still amazed him how Yuki could get this close to his senpai, especially after the big mess he made that sent all the third-year players out of the team. Fortunately, the sophomore players had no hard feelings for him, and after getting tortured together by Akira, they were as close as they could be right now. It seemed it was true that only suffering together could bring people closer immediately.
They arrived at the school ten minutes later, and there were still no students could be seen around them. There was still one hour before the class began, so it was no wonder the school was still pretty empty. But the moment those three entered the gymnasium, they were surprised to see they were the last ones to arrive. All the five players together with Megumi and Akira were already gathering there, waiting for their arrival.
"Good, you are here. We can finally start our meeting." Akira nodded.
Yuki sat next to Riku immediately, whispering to the blonde boy quietly, "What happened?"
"I don't know. Jiisan has been so cranky in the last few days that I don't want to be in his sight again until he is better." Riku shrugged, yawned big. It seemed he was also still sleepy here.
After a while, Akira finally coughed, gaining everyone's attention. When all eyes were on him, he announced immediately, not beating around the bush. "The drawing for the first round is out already."
There was silence for a couple of seconds as his words were still processed inside everyone's heads until it was Kaede who reacted first. "Really? How come we haven't heard anything about it yet?" He asked skeptically.
"Because I haven't told you anything about it yet, sorry about that one," Akira admitted freely. "At first, I want to tell you only after I have an idea of how to deal with them, but unfortunately, our first opponent would be a massive headache."
While Yuki had no reaction on his face, the other players were confused. The first round usually was filled with either weak teams or new teams. There should be no strong opponent there. Or even if there was, it should be a new school that went under the radar, so there was no way their coach would be this worried.
Unfortunately, they were so wrong this time.
"Our next opponent is…" Akira sighed deeply before continuing, "Shimoyawata High."
Silence settled over once again, and this time, it was more severe. Even without knowing anything about Shimoyawata High, Yuki knew by everyone's reaction that this was a strong team.
Apparently, Riku also noticed that and asked the question, "So, are they as strong as Matsukita?" Since the only opponent he faced in this country was Matsukita, the blonde boy could only compare the next opponent to them.
"As strong as Matsukita? Definitely no." Akira snorted. "But in the last couple of years, they were probably the most famous rising star in Japan's volleyball. Just three years after they joined the tournament, they made a huge commotion by beating everyone in Tokyo before being beaten by Konan High. And since then, up until now, only two teams have managed to beat them in a real game, and that is Konan and Matsukita High."
Riku widened his eyes in surprise. "How come such a good team dropped into the first round? Should they be qualified for the second or the third round immediately?"
"Well, they should be, if only the incident one year ago didn't happen." Akira nodded. Yuki straightened his back immediately, ready to listen to the story. "At that time, they have just recruited Ezaki Tachi, probably the most talented hitter in the middle school tournament two years ago. All their supporters were excited, thinking that it was finally the year they would beat the top two national teams. Unfortunately, in the quarter-final of the Tokyo tournament, Ezaki suddenly snapped, throwing a fist toward the referee, creating a big chaos. Long story short, he and the team were punished by a year ban from all competitions and had to compete from zero again, and this tournament would be their comeback time."
"And they would play against us, for fuck's sake!" Kaede groaned immediately. "What the fuck happened to our luck?!" The atmosphere there turned gloomy as everyone also cursed their luck.
This was the worst situation for the team. They hadn't recovered from losing their important third-year players yet, and the first opponent they would have met was probably the strongest team out of everyone in the first round.
For a moment, the future seemed to be so bleak that even Riku who was usually cheerful couldn't say a single word. However, the one who felt stressed the most was Akira. Even though he had never said anything yet to the team, he still remembered the headmaster's ultimatum.
'If your team couldn't reach the semifinal, unfortunately, we have to give up on you and the team as well.'