"Hey, everyone! Long ti no see!" A charismatic voice that Yuki hadn't heard in a long ti 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 tis, 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 so were laughing while others regarded him with concern. "I-I an, shouldn't you be in… I don't know, Tokyo tropolitan Gymnasium? This week is when the national tournant is being held, right?" he tried to defend himself.
Honestly, it was such a la excuse that Yuki himself didn't believe it. He didn't even know when the national tournant was held; he only knew that it should be over before sumr 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 sohow, 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 embarrassnt. "Well, glad that I haven't forgotten you! I still rember how impressed I was with your serving arsenal. Man, that was the first ti I saw soone manage to tear through our defense in a long ti. 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 ti 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 tournant. 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 an you played in the national tournant without them?!"
Everyone dropped their jaws when they realized the implication. While Sawada and Akihiro were just freshn, all the players there acknowledged their talent. Akihiro was not an unknown na in the middle school tournant. It was surprising that Konan didn't bring them along to the tournant…
"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 supplentary classes. As for Sawada-kun, since we played against your team in the prefecture tournant, 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 freshn to win the national tournant, which was both impressive and infuriating at the sa ti.
"That brings us to what we are going to do today!" Sato clapped his hands, announcing his presence once again. "I know so 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 ga 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 an to tell that we are going to play against them?!" one of them asked, shocked.
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!' So 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 excitent skyrocketing. So of them could hardly hide their grins since this would be their first ti 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 exclaid. "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 nas of the first team were announced, reactions ranged from intrigued to disappointed.
"Man, having Kobayashi and Aizawa on the sa 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 seed to be doing the sa, and when their eyes t, they nodded in acknowledgnt. He couldn't help but mutter, "Indeed, this is going to be interesting."
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