"Oi! Kimura! You are here!"


    Hearing his name called, a man in his middle age turned around, just to see his old friend waving at him. "So, you came, huh, Akira?"


    "Yes." Akira nodded with a smile on his face. "Please, take care of us."


    "Me too." The man named Kimura also nodded. Then, his eyes turned to Akira''s back to see a bunch of students following his friend. "So, those are your boys? They look rather displeased."


    Akira could only sigh helplessly when he saw his yers had some sort of sour expression on their faces. He could still remember the conversation he had with them yesterday after the talk about the team''s future; when he announced their training agenda in the golden week.


    -A little shback-


    "Starting from tomorrow, we will have a training camp for one week," Akira spoke.


    "Oh!" Excitement rose immediately. "Training camp? Where?" Ogawa asked.


    "Are you an idiot?" Okamura rolled his eyes. "If you say training camp, it should be the sea, right?"


    "So, in Okinawa?" Ogawa asked once again.


    "Hey, I have never been to Okinawa before!" Kaede suddenly said.


    "Me neither!"


    "Ah! I need to buy trunks!"


    "It has been a long time since I go to the sea! What should I bring there?"


    By now, everyone was so excited at the prospect of the training camp, ignoring Akira whose face darkened as he was being ignored. Still, he didn''t interrupt the conversation, letting their imagination run wild just to let reality p them hard tomorrow.


    ''Let''s see if you can still have the same enthusiasm when you see the ce…''


    -End of the shback-


    Akira didn''t even tell them all their designation, just letting the excitement rise to the peak as everyone talked about the beach enthusiastically. It wasn''t until they got off the bus that all of them realized the ce was far from the beach. They arrived at Tsukumi University, Akira''s alma mater in East Tokyo.


    That was why even by now, they still red at their coach who probablyughed his ass off when he heard their excitement about the beach.


    "Anyway, where is Megumi-senpai?" Ogawa suddenly asked.


    "She couldn''te." It was Yuki who answered the question. "It seems that Megumi-senpai''s parents had some business to do outside of Tokyo and she was asked to stay at home with her grandma."


    "Hoo…" All of them nodded in understanding.


    Well… All of them… Except for the self-proimed number-one fans of the girl.


    "Howe you know that information?" Koji scowled. "Megumi-senpai doesn''t even tell me anything."


    Yuki just rolled his eyes in exasperation before answering, "She replied to my text with that when I asked her whether she would join the training camp or not. Maybe, you should ask too if you really care about her, mister ''biggest fans''?" He said thest part sarcastically.


    "Why, you?!"


    "Don''t get irritated that easily, Koji!" Ogawa rolled his eyes in a simr manner as what Yuki did before, infuriating the new ace of the team more.


    "It is because of you that we are expecting Okinawa, Ogawa!" Koji snarked. "You are responsible for this disappointment!"


    "I thought it was Okinawa because Okamura said about the sea!" Ogawa defended himself while throwing away the me on his friend.


    "What? So, I am at fault now, huh?" The libero scowled.


    For a moment, things seemed to get heated among them. Kimura nced at Akira sideways, asking silently whether this would be okay. Tsunemori''s coach himself just shrugged it off, knowing they needed to do this to blow the disappointment away. A little voice inside his heart told him otherwise, though.


    ''Is it really okay? I thought training camp was designed as something to deepen the bond of the club members, but how could it be the opposite? Their rtionships might be even worse.''


    After a while, they all finally calmed down, went to the gymnasium inside the campus and started their training. To their surprise though, the first thing on the menu was a game against Tsukumi University''s C team.


    "Togano! Here! To the left!"


    *BAM!*


    "Oh! Nice save, Kobayashi!"


    "Agostini! Save it! Don''t let the ball fly over the!"


    "I got this!"


    *BAM!*


    "SHIT!"


    "A game right aftering over?" Kimura asked. He stood next to Akira as they both observed how the game went. "To have our C team as your opponent, which even though filled by the freshmen who just came out of high school, they still are excellent guys assembled from all around the country, the difference in power is too great. Your team won''t get anything from such a game."


    Akira nodded as if he had already expected that. "I know. But it needs to be at least an opponent at that level."


    "Oh?" Kimura stared at him questioningly.


    "RIKU! LEFT!"


    *BAM!*


    "Shit! Agostini, don''t make it so obvious!"


    "I don''t need you to say that, Kobayashi!" Riku growled as his set was predicted once again by the opponent. This was probably the thing a setter hated the most, being read like an open book and couldn''t put up a decent fight against the opponent.


    "Don''t get distracted, Kobayashi! Watch the ball!"


    "I got this!"


    "So, the condition is to get into the best four in order to not abolish the volleyball team?!" Kimura stared in disbelief when he heard what Akira said. Somehow, their concentration wasn''t on the court anymore. "That would be hard, you know? In Toyo, before getting into the best four, you have to face either Konan or Matsukita."


    "I know." Then, a small smile suddenly formed beneath Akira''s thick mustache. "That is why it is worth doing."


    ''Worth?'' Kimura was getting more confused. ''Does he think this game would be enough for them to prepare themselves against the two teams that even our A team struggled to defeat?''


    Kimura stared at his friend for a moment, trying to get a hint of emotion to show on his face. Seeing Akira''s calm face, he couldn''t help but ask, "Akira, why are you doing this?"


    "Huh?" Akira tilted his head confusedly. "What do you mean?"


    "You were a first-rate outside hitter at the university in the past, and if your knee didn''t break, you should have been Japan''s representative with Adachihara-senpai. Surely, there were many famous teams that asked you to coach them, right? Why did you agree to manage such a team?"


    Akira scowled at his words. "Hey, hey! Calling them ''such a team'' is a bit awful, don''t you think? Even though we are from the same generation, what you said is a bit too much!" Seeing his friend was unfazed though, Akira sighed before saying, "I want the honor."


    Kimura widened his eyes for a moment before parroting his words. "The honor? To be the leader who raises a youth team to a champion?"


    "No." Akira shook his head firmly. Then, without exining anything to his friend, he turned around and said, "The game is about to end. Let''s separate our way first before we discuss how should we do the joint training."


    Kimura was stunned for a second before he scowled, realizing what happened. "Akira Oi! Don''t ignore me like that, Bastard!"


    -0-


    "25 – 9 and 25 – 7? It has been a long time since I saw this team lost with such arge gap." Akira smiled teasingly at his yers.


    He received the dirty gazes from everyone, yet nothing was said as all the yers there copsed to the floor with faces full of sweat. It was clear by their erratic breathing that they were far beyond exhausted.


    "Well… This is still within my exhaustion." Akira said still with a smile, gaining his yers'' attention. "Our aim during this week would be massive physical strengthening. Endurance that cannot lose to any team would keep our chance open whenever the game is prolonged to the third set. From this point on, every day, you will have to do a lot of running.


    Look!" He pointed his fingers at the other side of the court.


    All the eyes turned in that direction, just to find the yers they just faced in the earlier game didn''t even sweat that much.


    "They still look like they have energy to spare, right?" He asked.


    "Damn…" The yers growled in annoyance when they saw the sight.


    "Those…" Akira continued. "Are the faces of you guys after this camp. Can you do it?"


    Facing the challenge from the coach, determination suddenly burned inside them. They all stared at each other for a moment before nodding their head collectively.


    "Hell, yeah!"


    "Let''s do it!"


    "Let''s show everyone the new Tsunemori after this hell is over!"