Saturday, May 17, 2025

Chapter 2 – Recruitment into the Volleyball Club


"Alright, everyone. You’ve probably heard this a lot already, but first of all, congratulations on your enrollment. I’ll be your homeroom teacher—Sakakibara. I teach math. There’s a lot of stuff we’ll go over later, but first, let’s take attendance. We’ll do self-introductions after the entrance ceremony, so for now, when your name is called, just respond and raise your hand. No need to stand. Also, if I mispronounce your name, please correct me. Aizawa Sachiko."

"Here."

"Inoue Rin."

"Here~"

"Just say 'here,' not 'here~.' Oda Michie."

"Here."

Names were called one after another.

"Tachibana Hina."

"Here."

"Next… Tachibana Yuuri."

"Here."

"Just to confirm—you're officially going by 'Tachibana Yuuri' now, right?"

"Yes."

"I see. I think most of you can tell just by looking, but Tachibana Yuuri’s situation is a little... special. I’ll explain more after the entrance ceremony. Next—Tohira Asuka."

Whoa, so I get singled out? Well, I guess it can’t be helped. Attendance continued.

"And lastly, Watanabe Mayumi."

"Here."

"Alright. Looks like everyone’s here. All 36 of you are now members of Class 1-2. Let’s all get along. Now, for your first event—the entrance ceremony will start at 8:50 in the gym. It’ll probably take about 50 minutes, so if anyone needs to use the bathroom, go now. The rest of you, head to the gym. That’s all from me for now. Dismissed."

"Yuu-chan, do you need to use the bathroom?"

"I'm good."

"Okay, then let’s head to the gym."

And then—

"You’re Tachibana-san, right? The teacher said you have a 'special circumstance'? Also, are you mixed?"

The one asking was Tohira-san, the girl who entered class dramatically at the last minute and sits behind me. Ugh, bad timing.

"Um, I became a war orphan and refugee last July. I finally got Japanese citizenship just last month, so now I’m officially enrolled as a Japanese high school student. I think the teacher was confirming my name change after I got my citizenship. And yes, I’m mixed."

"...Huh?"

As expected, Tohira-san froze. If you’re going to freeze, why ask in the first place?

Well, honestly, if I saw a half-Eastern European girl with a Japanese name, I’d probably want to ask questions too. Can’t really blame her. But how many more times am I going to have to explain this...

I don’t mind explaining it each time, but watching people freeze up afterwards is tough—especially when the whole thing is a made-up story. It’d be nice if the whole school just somehow got the memo. For what it’s worth, when I mentioned I’m (supposedly) my dad’s illegitimate child from a fling in his youth, Tohira-san apologized profusely.


"Everyone, congratulations on your enrollment. From today, you will all—"

Is there some kind of law requiring all school principals to sound the same? Judging by the expressions of most students—myself included—everyone has already checked out mentally.

Still, the size of this gym is impressive.

These days, there are only 36 students per class, and just 6 classes per grade. But back in the late Showa to early Heisei era, there were 40 students per class and 9 classes per grade.

Multiply that by 3 grades, and the school had over 1,000 students at its peak. The gym was built to accommodate them. It’s big enough to fit four basketball courts.

"...And tomorrow, you’ll all be taking your first academic assessment at this school. Please don’t be discouraged, even if your results are poor."

The principal ended his speech on a grim note—but I know exactly what he meant. There will be students who fall into that category.


"I'm really sorry, Tachibana-san… both of you."

After the principal’s talk, there was the welcome speech from a current student, the new student representative’s speech (seriously, how are they chosen?), the school anthem, and the national anthem. All the standard items were checked off, and the entrance ceremony finally ended.

Right afterward, Tohira-san, who had been behind me in line thanks to our attendance numbers, came to apologize again for what happened nearly an hour earlier.

"I told you, I’m not bothered by it."

"Still… I just feel really bad about it. Oh, by the way, you’re a returnee student, right? But your Japanese is really fluent."

Well, I may look like a foreigner, but inside I’m a native Japanese speaker.

"I studied really hard for nine months."

Honestly, there’s no way you can get that fluent in Japanese in just nine months, but I stuck with my fake backstory.

"Tohira-san, did you need something from my little sister?"

I’m lucky I ended up in the same class as Hina. If something happens (not that it’s ideal, but), I can always hide behind her like I used to when I was her older brother.

"I just wanted to apologize for what happened before the ceremony…"

"I told you, I’m not bothered by it."

"Yeah, I get it. But I also understand why you’d feel awkward, Tohira-san. Still, if you really feel bad, I’d appreciate it if you’d just treat Yuu-chan like a normal girl from now on."

"Got it. I’ll treat her like any normal girl from now on. So, uh... ah! A test right after entering school? That sucks!"

"Is that something normal girls usually talk about?"

Hina chuckled, unable to help herself. But me, someone who spent two months as a high school boy three years ago—I knew exactly what was going on.

"It can’t be helped. The school doesn’t really know what our academic level is."

"Huh? But didn’t we all pass the entrance exam in February? Shouldn’t they know?"

"Yeah, I mean, the ones with bad scores didn’t pass. And this is just an ordinary public high school. Bribing your way in would be a total waste of money…"

"That’s exactly why it’s a problem. Public high schools use the same exam questions regardless of ability. That means there were a lot of easy 'gimme' questions so that lower-performing students could still get some points. But a test paper doesn’t tell you whether someone answered those questions easily or just barely scraped by. You didn’t need to solve the hard questions to pass here, but they don’t know if you totally blanked on them or nearly got them right. That’s why tomorrow’s test will have questions more suited to our real academic levels."

"......"

"......"

"To go even further, I think the principal's comment earlier—'Don't be discouraged even if your test scores are bad'—is also meant to let us experience that reality sooner rather than later."

"That just makes no sense. You might not know this, Yuu-chan, but your onee-chan here is actually pretty good at studying. I never scored below 80 on any test in middle school, you know?"

With a proud ahem, Hina puffed out her chest—easily surpassing 80 in another area too.

How do I know her top size?

Well, our parents are absent, so house chores are divided up. And when you're on laundry duty, you end up washing your sisters’ underwear too...

Damn you, Boob Demon!!!

"Hina-nee. You know that 'never scored below 80 in middle school' thing? Pretty much everyone here could say that. Naturally, the average score will be higher too. Unless everyone gets exactly the same score, someone will be below average."

"Ah..."

"...Oh."

It looked like both Hina and Tohira-san realized it from what I said. This isn't like before. From now on, we'll be taking tests surrounded by people of similar academic level. Our academic rankings over the next three years of high school life—this competition has already begun.

"Huh? I thought high school life was supposed to be more... fun..."

None of us had a reply for Tohira-san's lament.


"Alright, everyone’s back. Then let’s start homeroom. There’s something I want you all to be aware of as you begin your real high school life. That is: you are both adults and children. So where’s the boundary between adulthood and childhood? It's simple—being able to take responsibility for your actions makes you an adult. Being unable to means you're still a child.

Let me give you an example. Until middle school, even with poor grades, you could move up to the next year. But not here. If your test scores are bad, you won’t move on to the second year. Whose fault is that? It’s your own responsibility for neglecting your studies.

Of course, part of the blame lies with us teachers if we can’t get you to learn, so there will be some safety nets in place. Still, don’t forget that there are students who, unfortunately, fail to make use of those and end up repeating a year—or even dropping out.

Also, if you violate the school rules and dye your hair, you’ll face punishments in stages: warning, disciplinary action, suspension, and finally expulsion. You alone are responsible for your actions."

"Sensei, what about Tachibana-san?"

A classmate interrupted Sakakibara-sensei’s talk with a question. Honestly, I wanted to ask that too. My current hair color is ash blond. If they told me to dye it, I wouldn’t necessarily refuse... but I’d prefer to keep it as is.

"Did you not hear me? I said, ‘those who dye their hair in violation of school rules.’ I’m not going to tell someone with naturally light hair to dye it black. Same goes for perms—if it’s your natural hair, we won’t fault you for it."

"Sensei, in that case, do we need a certificate to prove it’s our natural hair?"

A classmate with wavy chestnut short hair—really well-suited to her—asked that. If that really was her natural hair, she might need a certificate.

"Don’t worry, Makino. I know that’s your natural hair. And more importantly, we teachers believe in your integrity. If you say it’s natural, we’ll believe you. At least at first. It might sound harsh to talk about things like studying or banning dyed hair, but that’s not the point. In fact, it’s the opposite. High school is about freedom. As long as you can take responsibility, you can do pretty much whatever you want. I’m turning 43 this year, and I’ll say this with confidence: high schoolers get the best of both worlds—being both kids and adults."

Our homeroom teacher, Mr. Haruto Sakakibara, looked like a scrawny, high-strung guy, but it turns out he’s a bit of a hot-blooded type.

According to him, his subject—math—includes points for submitted work. Those are calculated separately from the midterm and final exams, so if you're not confident in tests, make sure to at least do your homework.

He also said, “Tachibana is a Japanese citizen as of March. That’s all.” When someone complained that was too vague, he replied, “She’s no different from anyone else. She has eyes, a mouth, hands, and feet. She’s just another high school girl like you.”

I see. He probably knows my background, and still insists I’m not someone special. He’s a good teacher.

Thus, Sakakibara-sensei’s surprisingly passionate homeroom session ended without incident.

Tomorrow, we’ll have an academic test covering middle school material. Ugh, what a pain. Oh, but before that, I need to go get permission to commute by bike. If I remember right, those who want permission have to gather behind the school near the bike racks. I was about to head there with Hina when Tohira-san called out to us.

"Hey, Tachibana-san, have you guys decided on a club yet?"

Is this a club recruitment attempt?

"Not at all. I’ll think about it if something interesting comes up during tomorrow’s club introduction."

From what I can tell, Hina’s athletic. If it’s a sport that doesn’t rely too much on past experience, she’ll probably do well.

"Um, what’s a club activity?"

I do know what Japanese-style club activities are like, but pretending not to here seems like the better choice. Maybe satisfied with our answers, Tohira-san perked up and eagerly started trying to recruit us.

"In that case, you two should totally play volleyball with me!"

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