The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

The news of Yuki having a personal training session with Sekine after finishing the regular one spread quickly among the players. To Yuki's surprise though, no one made a fuss about it. Their reaction was either pity for him having to do more training, excitement that he could improve more for the team, or curious asking what Sekine thought in private.

The only one who reacted negatively was Hirano – to his surprise once again who stared at him with a complicated expression before turning around and pretending this had never happened.

The training Yuki did with Sekine was also an unexpected one. They spent most of the time analyzing the video that the old man brought rather than training directly on the court, only using the last fifteen minutes to put what he just learned into action.

"More training would be no use for you. What you need the most right now other than physical improvement is knowledge and experience, and the best thing to implant that into your head is to watch a professional game and analyze it like we did right now."

That was what Sekine said.

While at first, Yuki couldn't understand his words, after watching so many games that the old man brought, he realized why he did this. It was an eye-opening experience, to witness so many amazing plays born even though what he just watched was just a record. The way those professional players approached the game was something beyond his understanding.

One moment one team got momentum, and without anyone noticing, it swift to the opposite side, just to turn back at them again in a blink. The competitiveness there was insane.

But since the main focus of his training with Sekine was the serve, Yuki had to put aside his desire to watch all the games and focus on his task. It was still amazing though, leaving him in awe after watching so many amazing tricks shown on the screen.

"What do you think?" Sekine asked.

"I don't know a serve could be this tricky," Yuki admitted openly. "I thought the trick I pulled against Shimoyawata was clever, but now, I doubt it is clever enough to fool another team."

"Don't sell yourself short." The old man patted his shoulder reassuringly. "What you did is still amazing, especially considering you found it by yourself. Even those professionals would find it troublesome when they didn't notice what you did. We call that 'a serve to the traffic'."

"A serve to the traffic, huh?" Yuki hummed. "I like that."

"Still, just like I said before, there is still room for improvement." The old man continued.

"There are so many tricks you can adopt here for your arsenal, like serving right after the whistle blows or waiting a little bit after the whistle blows to mess up the opponent's timing, aiming very close to the net or the endline, aiming at the weakest receiver, the setter, or the area between two players to cause chaos and misunderstanding, things like that.

Many people out there think that the service ace means a powerful serve, but that is not true. As long as you can score consistently with your serve, it can be called service ace."

As he was immersed in the training camp, Yuki didn't notice the time flew. Days change pretty quickly, and in a blink, Saturday finally came. This would be the last day of the camp before tomorrow, they would have to face the same university team that beat them before everything started.

Everyone was so excited to get revenge, especially when they all remembered how smug the university players were after the first game.

However, it had to wait until tomorrow, as currently, they did their last 4 vs 4 sparing in the camp.

*BAM!*

"OH! Nice receive, Koji-senpai!"

"Riku! Left!"

"Ogawa-senpai, keep your eyes on the left!"

"I got it!"

*BAM!*

"NICE BLOCK, OGAWA!"

"Follow it up!"

As the play kept going, Akira nodded in a satisfied manner at the progress shown by his players. "Their reaction speed is getting faster and their technique is also getting better. Koji's game reading is also improving. As expected, bringing them here is a good decision."

Sekine beside him just nodded his head silently, not giving any comment about the game. After an awkward silence befell among them for a while, he finally spoke his mind. "So, what do you plan to do with Yuki?"

"Yuki?" Akira had a sweat drop on his face with the closeness shown by the old man toward the glasses boy, even calling him his first name. Still, he didn't understand the question. "What am I going to do with Kobayashi-kun? I don't understand."

"Don't play stupid, Shinji, it is not like you." Sekine snorted. "Yuki's talent is amazing that honestly, it scares me a bit. He received everything I thought like a sponge, and even though he didn't notice it, his hunger for the game is getting bigger as time goes by. If nothing could be done, it wouldn't be long before you have nothing to teach him, and it would be detrimental to his development."

Akira fell silent as he pondered on his mentor's words. This was the thing he was afraid of the most. He felt it too, how quickly Yuki's improvement was. Sometimes, a tiny part of his brain told him to hold the boy a little so he wouldn't go too far, but it wouldn't be beneficial for the team and for the boy himself.

He was in a dilemma for a long time, and Sekine's words just made him hesitate more to decide what to do with Yuki.

After a while, he let out a deep sigh of frustration before asking, "So, what is your recommendation?"

"There is only one thing he needs to do, and you know it too, Shinji," Sekine said solemnly. "Yuki… Has to join a professional team as soon as possible."

-0-

"You have called me four times already during this camp alone if I am not wrong," Yuki said casually. "Are you sure I am not in trouble here?" He asked cheekily.

It was after the sparing game they had that Yuki was called by Sekine and Akira for a talk while the others went for the rest first.

"With that kind of cheek, I am sure you will get into trouble sooner or later." Akira snorted. "But no, you are not in trouble yet. Sekine-sensei has something to tell you, though."

"Jiisan?" Yuki tilted his head curiously. Akira had a sweat drop on his face once again when he heard the closeness between those two, with Yuki even calling the old man 'Jiisan'.

"Yuki, I am sure you have already noticed your amazing talent in this game." Sekine started talking, ignoring Akira's weird expression. "What you don't know, though is how amazing it was. In my opinion, if we are only talking about talent, you can be one of the best in Japan. It would be a waste if you keep staying on this team.

I know a good professional team that has a junior team around here that owes me a favor, so you don't need to worry about anything else. Your job is just to go to school for the next three years while training hard to improve yourself, and the moment you graduate, you will be able to enter the professional world directly. What do you think?"

Yuki was startled by the sudden offer from the old man. Even though in the last couple of days, he heard a lot about what a professional player's life looked like and the prospect of being one had been mentioned by the old man several times, he always thought it would be for the far future, not like this.

And unlike when he chose to do extra personal training a few days ago, this was a life-changing decision, and he had to think about it carefully.

Seeing the hesitation on his face, Sekine decided to give him the last blow by mentioning another one of the benefits of joining the professional team that would make any boys who loved the game drolled.

"With your talent and the right environment, Yuki, it wouldn't be a dream for you to become the player who represents Japan National Team in the future. Think about it."