The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

Megumi blushed at the sudden praise and shook her head quickly. "It is nothing, Sensei. I just want to contribute to the team too just like the others."

Yeah, unbeknown to the others, the plan to have a big lunch together was Megumi\'s idea. After seeing the distraught state shown by the players, she remembered how excited they were when the team had a sukiyaki party after the game against Kyoei Gakuen. She thought it was worth repeating, and fortunately, the plan was successful this time.

"Even though the plan is unsuccessful, Megumi-san, there would be no one who dares to say you are not contributing enough to the team," Akira said seriously. "Without you, the team would be in a scramble by now."

Indeed, Akira was not exaggerating when he evaluated Megumi\'s role in the team so highly. Without the girl, they wouldn\'t be able to have a new jersey to use, wouldn\'t be able to compete in a tournament, and wouldn\'t even be allowed to take an absence when they were going to play in a school hour. Overall, he could even say Megumi\'s role was bigger than him.

"Anyway, the atmosphere is quite good right now." Akira changed the topic. He stared at the players on the court who were competing with each other for who would get the most points from their service and couldn\'t help but feel satisfied. "We need to take advantage of this momentum to make our best preparation for the next game."

After that, the practice started to get more intense. Akira made sure that every aspect of the practice would be targeted for the game against Konan. For example, Hirano, Riku, and Asahi practiced a lot to increase their reaction, knowing Konan\'s setter, Sawada, would be hard to read.

Chapter Find:

On the other hand, Kaede and Yuki were in hell, as Akira wanted to increase their pain tolerance by having them face the entire team spiking the ball at them.

Without them noticing, it had been almost three hours since they started practice today. It was twice as long as the practice yesterday, yet they still didn\'t show any sign of exhaustion. This made Akira happy, since it only meant the team was back into their prime condition by now.

Unfortunately, the sky was already dark outside, and they had to leave the school as soon as possible. After cleaning up the mess, they all went back to their home. Even Riku who usually took his time to visit the orphanage didn\'t have the energy to do that, too tired from the training. This was understandable, since the training session ended far later than usual.

Yuki checked the time on his phone, and it showed 20:44 already.

\'Man, no wonder the road is so quiet already. Everyone should\'ve been asleep by now.\'

When Yuki arrived, he also met a similar quiet atmosphere. There was no one in the usually crowded kitchen, and the only sound that could be heard was a snore or two from the children\'s room. However, Yuki couldn\'t help but smile when he saw a plate full of fried rice on the table. There, he could also read a small note placed close to the plate.

\'Yuki-kun, don\'t forget to eat something before you go to sleep. If it is cold already, you can reheat it on your own. Enjoy the fried rice! Aiko.\'

In the middle of the soothing silence, Yuki started to enjoy the food. He didn\'t even change from his sweaty shirt into a new, clean one first, as his stomach gurgled pretty loud, asking for him to feed it.

As he enjoyed the food, Yuki\'s mind started wandering around. It had been such a long time since he enjoyed food alone. Usually, there would be two or three children squabbling with each other or Aiko who was chatting with him. It was a completely different situation compared to before he lived here.

Although at that time, Yuki still had his parents, they were usually busy and would only come back home late. He was used to eating alone before, so Yuki had never thought he would feel lonely in the same situation.

It seemed living with the others in the orphanage had already changed his mindset a little bit.

*Bzzzt…* *Bzzzt…*

The sound of his phone vibrating in his pocket snapped Yuki from his thought. He frowned a little bit at the continuous vibration, trying to think who would call him this late. When he saw the name displayed on the screen, his face lightened up instantly.

"Hi, Yuki-kun!"A cheerful sound suddenly greeted him. "Long time no talk! How are you? I heard from Akira-sensei that you will have a game in the next two days, right?"

"I am doing good, Maria-san."Yuki had a genuine smile on his face. "What about you and the others?"

"Oh, we are good! Here, Isabella and Gabriella are next to me, wanting to talk to you too."

"Yuki-nii, how are you?!"

"Bella, don\'t push me around!"

"What do you mean pushing you?! It is you who push me first!"

Yuki laughed a little when he heard the squabble from the other side of the phone. Yeah, the one who called him right now was Maria Silvestri, the lady of the family who sponsored his education. Just like the promise he made to them, they communicated with each other regularly just to exchange news.

And while Yuki had never said it out loud, he secretly enjoyed their weekly call, thinking of them as his cool, distant family.

"Hmm… So, you are going to play against a Brazilian player, huh?" Maria hummed after she heard Yuki\'s story about his next game. Even though he couldn\'t see Maria\'s face, Yuki could imagine a playful smile formed as she asked before. "Well, you are in for a treat, Yuki-kun."