The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

"Come on, Kobayashi-kun! Hold on and rise!"

"Urgh…." Yuki groaned when he heard that order, trying his best to rise from his squat position with weight that was half of his body weight on his back. After a while, he finally managed to get into a proper standing position, and Hirokazu Ishihara, the man responsible for supervising everyone's physical training, finally nodded.

"Good! You can put the weight down on the floor. Rest for two minutes, and we will continue with the next training session," he said.

Yuki groaned immediately, knowing that the torture was still far from over. Some players watching from afar could only stare at him in pity, yet no one dared to approach him for fear of attracting Ishihara's attention.

It was still pretty early in the morning when all the players had gathered around the gym behind the school owned by Konan High. Yesterday, when Yuki saw the school for the first time, he thought it was a bit too ordinary, but upon seeing its backyard, he realized his naïve assumptions were gone. What he found there was a pretty big gym with even a swimming pool, and there were still several closed rooms whose contents he didn't know. After looking at this, Yuki was finally convinced that this was one of the best sports high schools in Japan.

Unfortunately, Yuki didn't have the luxury to explore all of that, as Ishihara, the physical trainer among the staff, suddenly arrived. Within fifteen minutes, his body ached, and he felt as if all his strength had evaporated in an instant. It didn't help that his breakfast was still thirty minutes away, so he had to survive this torturous training before he could enjoy it.

While Yuki was trying his best to keep his breath steady, his eyes wandered around, noting that everyone was also in the middle of their physical training. He could see Riku groaning while the blonde boy held a plank position as Ishihara corrected his posture; Tanaka was doing a deadlift; some players were exercising with barbells. Overall, while it was exhausting, everyone still followed the training regimen without complaint.

"Come on, Kobayashi-kun, get up!" After checking on another player, Ishihara returned to him. "While your volleyball skills might be at the top of the list, you are still behind in terms of physical fitness. So, if you want to catch up, we still have several exercises to complete this morning. Come on!"

Yuki groaned once again as he tried his best to rise from his position. It seemed that groaning would be a common response for everyone this morning.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic! You are still young, and it is still easy," Ishihara snorted. "Wait until I introduce you to leg day, and then you can start cursing at me."

Yuki shuddered at the implied threat from the older man. Whatever leg day was, if it allowed him to curse at the coach, he didn't want to know anything about it.

The next thirty minutes dragged on, with Yuki having to follow every instruction from Ishihara. The exercises he did varied, from bodyweight exercises such as push-ups and squats without weight to using equipment that always took a toll on him. There was one thing in common, though: all the exercises Yuki did focused on increasing his strength, something the boy still lacked.

"Okay, five more seconds, Kobayashi-kun! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! It's over! You can rest now, and I will check on the others first. In five minutes, you can go back to your dorm and wait for breakfast, okay?"

Ishihara's voice didn't quite reach him, as Yuki was still panting heavily on the floor after having to maintain a plank posture for sixty seconds. That was probably the longest sixty seconds he had ever waited for.

"So, finally finished your training, Kobayashi-kun?" one of the boys asked amusedly.

Yuki didn't know who it was and had no intention of opening his eyes to find out. He merely nodded silently while enjoying the coolness of the floor.

"Well, come on! We need to take a shower before breakfast. Don't worry, I asked Sato-sensei, and he said that physical training will only be held in the morning. The rest of the day should be easier for us."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Somehow, those reassuring words only made Yuki panic more. In his mind, he thought that this kind of torturous training would only be held about once a week. But when he heard that it would happen every day?

Man, Yuki didn't know how he would survive at all.

-0-

"Come on, Yuki! It's not that bad!" Riku teased him.

Yuki just groaned, slapping his friend's hand away from his shoulder irritably. "Of course, you'll say that! I can't believe you enjoy something like this! Why would you need all those muscles, by the way? You're a setter, for God's sake! Act like it for once!"

It was after everyone had taken a shower and gathered for breakfast when Yuki realized that Riku had arrived late. After asking around about his friend's whereabouts, Yuki was horrified when he found out that Riku had secretly approached Ishihara to demand more physical training. What made it worse was that the older man agreed to let Riku come in half an hour earlier than anyone else.

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"So, what is going on here?" the boy who was Riku's partner in the tournament yesterday—Ono, if Yuki remembered correctly—asked.

"Oh, nothing. Just Yuki being a wuss about working out in the gym," Riku rolled his eyes exasperatedly.

"Ah, is this your first time working out there?" Ono asked Yuki sympathetically.

"First time? No. But I can definitely still count the times I've worked out in the gym on one hand," Yuki grumbled.

Indeed, this wasn't his first time in the gym, considering Kawaki and the coaching staff of Tokyo Thunder U-19 had already introduced him to that hellish place. However, it hadn't been a month since that time, and Yuki had yet to get used to the training intensity there. That was why he was so grumpy about working out in the gym.

"Well, let's forget about physical training. I overheard Sato-sensei's conversation with the other staff, and I think you will like our next training," Ono said.

"Oh?"