Inter-High Prefectural Qualifiers, Day One.
We’d made our way to a certain city-run gymnasium, about two hours away from our school via a combination of train and bus.
I mean, seriously—why the hell did we have to come all the way out here? There’s a huge city gym like thirty minutes on foot from Matsujo (our school), isn’t there?
There are even buses running there from the nearest station, so why isn’t that the venue?
What? It’s being used for the basketball Inter-High qualifiers? …Hmph. I’m starting to feel a little murderous toward the basketball team, just like Asuka would.
If the venue were closer, we could’ve had at least another hour of sleep this morning. Naturally, I was grumpy.
“Yuuri, if you keep sulking like that, your cute face is going to waste, you know? Besides, there are boys here today. Could be your chance!”
…Chance for what, exactly?
My body may be female now, but my mind is still male. That means I’m attracted to women, not men. Honestly, just imagining dating a guy gives me chills. It’s a hard no for me on a biological level.
On the flip side, since my body is female, it would probably make things complicated for any potential girlfriend. Yeah, I’m basically destined to be single forever.
Anyway, why are there guys here? Because today is the Inter-High prefectural volleyball qualifiers, and it’s the same for the boys.
There’s no need to separate the venues by gender, so both boys’ and girls’ matches are held at the same gym.
Today, only one school out of three boys' teams and one out of four girls' teams will advance.
This venue alone will see five schools playing their final matches, as most third-years are expected to retire after the summer. When you think of it like that, this is a pretty heavy event.
Oh right, that earlier comment came from one of my senpai. I shouldn't ignore her.
“Well, I’m not really sure about the whole romance thing. I just think it’s more fun when everyone’s hanging out together.”
I could hear whispers from around me—"Yuuri, you’re such a kid." The only one who knows the truth, Hina, was snickering. I’ll remember this, just you wait!
Inside the gym, the boys were casually changing right out in the open. Well, yeah, of course they would.
When I asked where we were supposed to change, I got dragged all the way to the girls’ locker room.
Apparently, “This isn’t an all-girls school, so don’t go around shouting about changing out in the open!” Whoops. My bad.
“So what kind of team is Kurakami High, our first opponents?”
I asked this out loud while changing, not directing it to anyone in particular. Maybe someone knew.
“They made it to the top eight in last year’s prefectural qualifiers. They're not flashy but they play solid defense and wait for their opponents to mess up. That’s how they rack up points.”
Asuka-san, where do you get this info from?
“By the way, our first match in last year’s qualifiers was also against Kurakami High. We lost two sets to one,” said Eri-senpai.
Uh, shouldn’t that kind of info have been shared sooner? They’re basically our fated rivals now!
“Well, that has nothing to do with us now. Last year’s Kurakami and this year’s Kurakami are different teams. Same goes for us.”
“Eriko’s right. Everyone done changing? Let’s head out for warm-ups.”
““““““““Yes, ma’am!!””””””””
Just so there are no weird misunderstandings: under our uniforms, we wear quarter-length shorts that go about halfway down the thigh.
After leaving the locker room, I could feel even more eyes on me than before. I get that my looks give off a “half-Japanese” vibe and draw attention, but still—why would changing into a uniform make such a difference?
“Maybe it’s because now you look like a player, not a manager. That’d surprise people.”
“Wait, manager? You mean my hair?”
“Probably.”
When I let my hair down, it goes all the way to my waist. For games, I tie it back in twin braids to keep it out of my eyes.
Other than me, the ones with longer hair are Reiko and Miho-senpai, both with hair reaching past their shoulders, also tied up today.
Nobody on our team has a super short cut. Even the shortest styles still cover the ears.
So what? Let us grow our hair out if we want. It’s not like hair length changes how you play!
We started warming up near the venue. Not especially good or bad—pretty much the usual.
Just before the match, during the official warm-up, Reiko and I held back on our jumps during spike practice as per the strategy—just some light leaps.
“Coach, we’re serving first.”
“Got it. Let’s go. This is the first official match. Don’t let it be the third-years’ last match!”
““““““““Yes, ma’am!!””””””””
BEEEEEP!!!
"Let’s do our best!"
Both teams bowed from the end lines, then walked to center court. After shaking hands, the match began.
The starting lineup was as previously announced. On the bench were Yuki, who swapped in as libero, and Miho-senpai.
No. Focus on the game!
Shortly after the whistle blew, Eri-senpai served to start the match.
As always, she aimed for a nasty spot—far to the left of the opponent’s back-left, yet still landing cleanly inside the line with pinpoint accuracy.
The receive was disrupted!
But their cover play was solid. The ball came back over the net as what’s commonly called a “chance ball.”
In girls’ volleyball, this is perfectly fine. As long as the ball doesn’t drop, you can still win.
Normally…
Yuki received the return. Naturally, she delivered an A-pass—cleanly passing the ball right into the setter’s position.
Then Hina, textbook as ever, sent up a high, careful toss.
And then—
Squeak-squeak—squeak!!
I ran in, took my backswing, and leapt high into the air. At this height… there’s no way anyone could reach me!!!
BOOOM!!!
A perfect spike, landing right around the opponent’s attack line. None of Kurakami High’s players even moved. They just stared.
Even the ref took a second to react before blowing the whistle.
1–0
First point goes to us.
“…There’s no way we could’ve received that…”
I heard a Kurakami player mutter in disbelief.
The rest of the match was one-sided.
Even though it was one-sided, the opponents were still impressive.
For example, Eri-senpai served 15 times in total, and not once did she score a service ace.
Eri-senpai's serves are brutal—completely at odds with her gentle and calm personality.
She uses what's called a floater serve, a no-spin serve that, due to air resistance, changes direction suddenly just as you try to receive it.
And she can place it anywhere she wants on the opponent’s court with nearly 80% accuracy.
As an aside, when Reiko or I receive one of those serves, we can only cleanly touch the ball about once every three attempts. Even when we do touch it, it usually flies off in a totally wrong direction.
If we manage to actually lift it into a half-decent pass, we consider ourselves lucky—maybe one out of every 15 times.
And even then, it's not an A-pass, not even a B-pass. Most of the time, it’s a C-pass at best.
To think Kurakami High took 15 of those monster serves, returned every single one, and even managed to turn many of them into spikes… that’s honestly incredible.
But unfortunately for them, they were up against the wrong team.
Even if our receives got a little messy, as long as the second touch lifted the ball high enough, I could convert it into a spike and send it right back at them.
In reality, Reiko and I have spent the last two months doing nothing but practicing spikes and serves.
Everything else? Pretty much neglected.
According to our coach, Saeki-sensei:
“Leave the receiving to the others. Yuuri and Reiko, all you need to focus on are blocks, spikes, and serves. For blocking, just jump with someone else.”
And so, we followed his instructions faithfully.
As a result, while our receiving and setting are tragic in actual matches, our spikes and serves are finally passable.
Now, about my spikes—sorry to say this, Kurakami High, but I doubt your blockers can even reach 270 cm.
My spikes kept blasting through, more than 30 cm above their hands, and slamming into their court again and again.
The score now: Set 1, 18-2.
Up to this point, I’ve been involved in every single point we scored.
Here’s the breakdown of our 18 points:
-
Spikes: 16 points
-
Kill blocks: 2 points
All of them were mine.
The two block points happened because they didn’t know anything about us.
They probably thought they could spike over me because I’m short. Big mistake.
Sure, I’m short, but my blocking reach is the highest on the team.
As for the 2 points we lost:
-
One spike of mine went wildly over the sideline – 1 point
-
I touched the net during a block – 1 point
Again… both my fault.
Let me repeat:
I’ve been involved in every single point so far. (Cue the deadpan stare.)
Now the serve is back on our side again.
That makes it the third time we’ve gotten the serve, and now it's my turn to serve.
“Alright! That tricky Number 6 on their side just rotated to the back row! Now’s our chance!”
I heard their coach shouting. How naive.
Sure, I’ve rotated into the back row, but that also means Reiko is now in the front line because we’re on opposite ends of the rotation.
More importantly… are you even going to be able to receive my serve?
I take six steps backward from the center of the end line.
Then I turn around, take a deep breath—fuuu… suuu…
This is my routine, the one I perfected over two months of training.
Then—
“M-Meeean! You guys are so mean! Can’t you trust me just a little!?”
“This is us trusting you!”
“Yeah! We totally trust the power of your serve, Yuu-chan!”
Looking around, I see everyone has spread out to the sides of the court, leaving the center wide open.
Since I serve from the center, that basically means… they don’t believe I’ll land the ball in the opposing court.
Well, I do still hit the net in practice a lot, sure…
And they’re all covering the backs of their heads, too.
So yeah, they believe in the power, just not the accuracy. Rude. I could cry.
BEEEEEP!!!
I wanted to complain a little more, but the whistle blew.
I’m pretty sure I only have 8 seconds to serve after that.
Two steps for the run-up.
Toss the ball on the second step.
Then three more steps, just like when spiking. Total of five steps.
That’s why I took six steps back—to allow a full-powered approach without going over the end line.
The fifth step is the jump. And then——
BAM!!
A spike serve—something you almost never see in girls’ volleyball.
That’s my serve.
My first one landed as a no-touch ace, scoring without the opponent even getting a hand on it.
“No way you can return that… That’s basically a guy’s spike…”
I heard one of the Kurakami players mutter, but I pretended not to notice.
After that, I served six more times.
Now the score is 24-3.
All 6 points were my service aces.
Then the serve rotated back to them, and my role temporarily ended—since the libero, Yuki, comes in to replace me.
“How is it? Your first official match?”
Coach asked me with a smile as I returned to the bench.
“It feels kind of floaty… I’m not really sure.”
That was my honest answer.
I always get nervous during matches—same as when I was a guy.
“I see.”
Coach gently patted my head.
“The match isn’t over yet. But that serve… was good.
…Except for the last one. But hey, those 10,000 practice serves paid off.”
Yep.
Since April, I’ve practiced that spike serve 10,000 times until today.
…Sure, there’s that one manga where the guy shoots 20,000 jump shots in a week, but let’s be real—that’s insane.
Even this was pretty extreme. It was hell. But it paid off.
…Well, out of the 7 serves I did today, one did fly completely over the back line like a home run. Oops.
Matsubara Girls’ High School VS Kurakami High School
Set 1:
25 – 3
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