Training Camp Day One – 6:00 p.m.
That wrapped up the afternoon practice. After dinner from 6:00 to 7:00 PM, we were supposed to have evening practice starting at 7:30, but since today’s training menu was particularly intense, Uesugi-sensei decided to cancel it. We argued that we could still keep going, but Uesugi-sensei shut us down, saying, “If you think you can still push through, that’s already dangerous. I have no intention of letting you go through what Okumura did.” And that was that—practice canceled.
Instead, the time would be used for a team meeting. Well, considering how much we learned from today’s training, it might be just right.
We packed up the equipment (though since we’ll be using it again tomorrow, the poles were left standing, and the net was just loosened and left as is), and everyone went to dinner.
By the way, even though we’re a girls' volleyball team, we eat a lot. Reiko, our big eater, of course, but honestly, all of us eat way more than what you’d expect a typical high school girl to eat. I mean, seriously, how is it normal to have just one piece of bread for lunch? That’s just not enough—anyone would be too hungry to move.
Honestly, I want to shout out loud: It’s the average high school girl who’s weird!
If you want to diet, maybe cut back on snacks before you start messing with your actual meals.
After dinner, it was bath time before the meeting. Normally I’d be looking forward to the big bath—since I love them—but...
“Yuu-chan? What are you doing? Let’s go to the bath!”
“Asuka, sorry. I’ll go in after everyone else.”
...
“Ahahaha... sorry. I didn’t realize. I thought it was weird that Hina hadn’t invited you, but… really, sorry!”
Asuka’s a girl too. She picked up on it.
＝＝＝＝
Even though girls' baths usually take forever, maybe because it’s training camp, or maybe they were being considerate, everyone was done in about 30 minutes.
The big shared changing room, all to myself. Honestly, it felt kind of nice. I had my little basket of favorite shampoo and things tucked under my left arm, towel slung over my right shoulder (yeah, I know it’s kinda old-man-ish), and headed into the bath.
What? You’re asking if I covered the front? There’s no one around. No need to—
“Ah...”
Sliding open the bath door, I locked eyes with someone already inside. We both thought we were alone, so of course, neither of us was covering up. Not a thread on either of us.
Also, just to note (for both of us), there was a white string hanging between Kaori’s legs.
Well yeah, makes sense. With eight girls around, overlaps like this are bound to happen.
＝＝＝＝
So awkward.
Right now, Kaori’s next to me washing her hair. In total silence. I didn’t mean anything by it, but the fact remains—I saw Kaori naked. And she’s on her period. Of course she’s upset.
The silence is painful. What do I do...
“Yuuri... um, sorry. I thought I was the only one here...”
Huh? She apologized? …Wait, is she embarrassed that she saw me?
“I, um, I don’t mind. Really. I’m the one who should apologize.”
“I don’t mind either. …Still, you were so active today, even though it’s a tough time. How are you okay?”
Wait, we’re continuing this conversation? I’m actually struggling here…
“W-Well, mine’s kind of light, I guess…”
Why are we even talking about this?
“R-Really? Mine’s light too. I can still do PE and stuff like normal…”
Why is this turning into such a candid heart-to-heart? I’ve only ever talked about periods with Ryou-nee—definitely not with Mika-nee or Hina. And now here I am, having this conversation with a classmate. This is rough.
When I glance over, Kaori’s ears are bright red.
＝＝＝＝
Perspective Change
Same time – Bath
POV: Nabekawa Kaori
＝＝＝＝
Idiot idiot idiot!!!
What am I doing, bringing up periods with someone I barely talk to!?
It was already awkward since I saw Yuuri naked, and now I made it worse!
…Yuuri’s body—even from a fellow girl’s perspective—was prett—No! No no no!!
“Kaori, are you okay? You’re all red.”
Yuuri looked at me, worried. Even in this situation, she’s being considerate...
“I-I’m fine. Sorry for asking something weird.”
“...Is it maybe that you didn’t know what to talk to me about?”
“Uh, yeah…”
I could feel despair washing over me.
The girl in front of me is far from ordinary.
Despite everything about how she was born, she’s always cheerful and gets along well with her half-sisters.
People say God doesn’t give with both hands, but Yuuri has a beautiful face, a cute voice, athletic ability (though I heard she can’t swim—really?), and great grades.
How many blessings does one person get, seriously...?
I honestly have no idea how to talk to someone like her. Up to now, we’d only ever exchanged simple greetings like “hello” or “practice is tough, huh,” but now we’re teammates...
“Ahh, I’m so glad. Honestly, I didn’t know what to say to you either!”
Yuuri smiled brightly.
“Hey, hey! So it’s been over a year since you played volleyball, right? But you’re already so good! What made you start again?”
She came in strong. Wait, she didn’t know how to talk to me either? But I’m just a normal high school girl, you know?
What Yuuri talked about was all normal stuff—how hard it is to wake up in the morning, how much time she spends taking care of her hair, that her one point of pride is her naturally straight hair (it’s the only thing she says outshines her sisters’), how her oldest sister always treats her like a little kid, and how her favorite food is spring rolls…
Totally normal things. Her skin color, her background—none of it mattered.
Also, Yuuri had serious girl skills. She was big on skincare.
No wonder her skin was so smooth when I touched her before. I was surprised at the time, but knowing it’s the result of effort and not something she was just born with… somehow that really warms my heart.
“You can’t stay beautiful without taking care of yourself, right? That idea that you can is just a guy’s fantasy.”
Yeah... Yuuri really is just a normal girl. She just happens to be a little more athletic and smart. Otherwise, she’s totally normal.
Before I knew it—
“Yuu-chan, how long are you going to stay in the bath? The meeting starts at 8:30, so you need to get out soon!”
“Ah, Hina-nee, sorry~ Kaori, let’s go!”
“Yuuri, fine, but at least cover the front before we go out.”
—I’d become able to talk to Yuuri normally.
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Perspective Change
After bath, in the meeting room
POV: Tachibana Yuuri
＝＝＝＝
Apparently, “naked companionship” is something that also works between girls.
And no, don’t be that killjoy who butts in with, “Actually, ‘naked companionship’ refers to emotional vulnerability, not literally being naked together.”
Anyway, even though I had no idea what to talk about with Kaori at first, now we’ve gotten close enough that we know each other’s favorite celebrities, hobbies, even what brands of makeup we use. That aside—
“Hina-nee, am I hard to talk to?”
I asked Hina, who was carefully brushing my hair.
Fresh out of the bath. The time was 8:20 p.m. The volleyball team meeting would start in 10 minutes.
The lodge where we were staying had a small meeting room—or rather, a shared lounge that came with the place. We’d reserved it to talk about team building going forward, and members were starting to gather one after another.
“Hm? Why do you ask?”
“Kaori told me earlier in the bath. She said I’m really hard to approach.”
“…Now that you mention it, maybe that’s true. Japanese people tend to be hesitant to approach foreigners, and let’s be real—Yuu-chan, you don’t look Japanese at all.”
If someone said that in the wrong context, “You don’t look Japanese” would be considered discriminatory. But I won’t nitpick here. It’s true—there’s no way I look East Asian. My body hair isn’t even black.
“Plus, your background. You stand out, so there’s a good chance the whole school knows about you—including your origins. When someone’s got that kind of heavy backstory, it probably makes people hesitate to talk to them.”
(Guess I screwed up, huh. I didn’t expect things to turn out this way…)
That last part was whispered into my ear, meant only for me. Hmmm. Maybe I treated the whole nationality issue too lightly. Or maybe calling myself a war orphan was too much. If I’d said I came from a peaceful country, maybe it would’ve been easier to…
No, if I were from a peaceful country but still didn’t have a family registry, that would’ve raised a whole other set of questions—like where the hell I’m even from.
So what should I have done—
“Maybe you should start by just trying to communicate?”
It was Mana who appeared.
“I hope you won’t take this the wrong way, but Yuuri-chan, you’re always with Hina, right? And I’ve heard that when meeting someone new, it’s almost always Hina who does the talking while you kind of hide behind her? If people see that, they’re going to think you don’t want to talk to others. And if there’s a rumor going around that you’re like that, then yeah—it makes sense that you’d be hard to approach.”
Ugh…
Back when I first enrolled, I had no idea what to say to high school girls, so I used to hide behind Hina all the time. We still move around together now, but back then I was behind her, while now I walk beside her. That’s at least some progress.
At the time, Hina would talk first to strangers, and if I felt like I could keep up with the conversation, I’d join in.
By the time May rolled around, I was starting to get used to things, and the people around me were also getting more comfortable with me. So at least in Class 1-2, I don’t think anyone sees me that way anymore (or so I hope). But from the perspective of students in other classes, I probably made a strong first impression in that first month:
Yuuri = a painfully shy girl who follows behind her big sister Hina.
“Based on what I’ve seen in PE and during club activities, I didn’t think you were that shy. But that first impression really sticks, and even I found it hard to talk to you at first. Especially with your looks on top of that.”
Mana kindly refrained from bringing up my official background.
“I see... Everyone’s so nice, I didn’t even realize they thought that way about me until just now. Hey, Mana, how do you connect with people you’re not close to?”
“Well… I think it starts with accepting the other person.”
Hmm. So basically, be receptive and open to whoever tries to communicate with me. That’s… pretty rational.
“So with that in mind, Yuuri-chan… let me brush your hair too♪”
“……”
＝＝＝＝
Perspective Change
Same time, in the meeting room
POV: Shirasagi Mana
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“Wow, amazing. So silky...”
I couldn’t help but say it out loud.
Yuuri-chan, who’s said to be the cutest in the entire first year—no, maybe in the whole school—had hair that let the comb glide through like water.
“This must be a lot of work to maintain, right?”
“Oh, you can tell? I’m super particular about shampoo, conditioner, and treatment!”
I figured she must be meticulous about that radiant hair, and sure enough, once I asked, she started chatting animatedly about it.
“Huh, so you don’t use a flat iron or anything?”
“I feel like heat damages hair, you know?”
So instead, she focuses on proper washing. She even brought a high-end dryer with low-temperature airflow to the training camp.
Usually, girls who are super cute tend to get cold shoulders from other girls—but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Yuuri-chan.
It sounds harsh, but by our age, there are girls who would smile and sell out their friends for a guy. But Yuuri-chan doesn’t give off even a whiff of being interested in boys.
I’ve talked with her a bit, and whenever the conversation turns to romance, she goes quiet—and it’s not just disinterest. She almost seems disgusted by the idea of dating guys.
But she’s still cute. When I asked her why she tries to stay pretty, she said her three older sisters taught her it’s a girl’s duty. Apparently, if she didn’t follow their instructions to the letter, they’d make her redo everything until she got it right.
I glanced over, and Hina said, “At first, she couldn’t even wash her own hair. And she didn’t know anything about skincare either, so it took two full months to train her.”
She showed me a photo from last November—before the training began.
The raw material was amazing, but her hair was just long and messy, and her skin was totally neglected. It was… bad.
Then there was a family photo from January. Yuuri-chan looked much closer to the image we know now.
Good job, Tachibana sisters!
“I’ve been talking about myself a lot. Tell me about you, Mana!”
“Oh-ho? And what do you want to know?”
“Why did you start playing volleyball in your second year of middle school?”
“Just like I said before—the third-years retired in July, and the team didn’t have enough members. I was in the go-home club, but they dragged me in. I was pretty athletic for someone not in a club, so…”
“You were in the go-home club? With those broad shoulders?”
Oof, that stung.
…Compared to other girls, I do have broader shoulders.
Yuuri-chan is petite and delicate, very girly, but I’m not.
“And your legs—your calves are really—OWW!!”
“Okaay, that’s enough, Yuu-chan. …Sorry, Mana. This is why I still stay by Yuu-chan’s side.”
“Mana, just a heads-up. Yuuri can be kind of a gas-leaker sometimes.”
“She probably doesn’t mean any harm, but her words can hit like a knife.”
“Let’s give her a warm welcome. Yuki, Asuka, and I have all been roasted by Yuuri at least once. That just means she’s warmed up to you.”
Suddenly, Hina delivered a solid knuckle to Yuuri’s head.
The other three looked on like this was just the usual routine.
“Yuu-chan! How many times have I told you! Calling someone ‘sturdy’ or ‘tall’ isn’t a compliment to a girl! Seriously, you never learn. Now, apologize properly!”
“I’m sorry, Mana.”
Yuuri apologized under Hina’s watchful eye. Well, I’ll let it slide.
“It’s true that I’ve got broad shoulders and calves like fish roe. From first to sixth grade, I was in a serious swimming school. That gave me this body.”
“Why didn’t you continue swimming?”
“That school was only for elementary kids. Other kids went on to middle school swim clubs, but I wasn’t that great—barely placed 4th or 5th in the prefecture. And there wasn’t anywhere nearby to practice, so I quit.
Thanks to swimming, I had good stamina, so even though I was in the go-home club, I was pretty athletic. That’s when the volleyball team roped me in. They said, ‘Just lend us your name and show up for games—you can be a ghost member.’ But before I knew it, I was training with them, and in the end I was all-in.”
“…Mana, I’ve been meaning to ask—did you go to Rokuzaki Middle School?”
“I did, but how’d you know?”
“You might not remember, but I played against you in last year’s middle school prefectural finals. I lost, though.”
“…Sorry. I don’t remember that at all.”
Whoa. I had played against Yukiko back in middle school.
“Huh? Mana, you were in Rokuzaki’s volleyball team? Then do you know Chika Okino and Masami Tokumoto?”
“Chika’s the one who dragged me into the club!”
“Gahhh. I’ve been losing to those two since elementary school!”
“You mean the Takeishi Fairies?”
“Yeah. Our team—the Shirasawa Volleyball Club—couldn’t lay a finger on them.”
“No kidding. Those two were insane.”
Asuka and Mirai knew Chika and Masami too. And then…
“Wow… small world. I got crushed by the Takeishi Fairies back in elementary school too.”
“Huh? You know them too, Hina-nee?”
“Well, if you were a volleyball kid around here, you’d know who they were.”
It really is a small world. Apparently Chika and Masami were the best volleyball players in our grade in the area.
“Well, makes sense. In middle school, they told me, ‘Just stand at the edge of the court and space out,’ and I still ended up a prefectural champion by third year.”
“Wait, that led to a championship?”
“Yeah. Even though Rokuzaki had one weak link—sorry Mana—they still won. Spikes and serves aimed at her got picked up by someone else.”
“Their ace, Okino-san, was big and good at receives.”
“Unlike a certain short ace who sucks at defense.”
“All right, Kaori. Outside. Now. You’re not that good at receiving either!”
“Whaaat? I wasn’t saying Yuuri’s bad or anything—”
Clunk
“Hm? Oh, you’re all here already. Good, good—early is excellent. All right, let’s start the meeting.”
Uesugi-sensei entered the room. Saeki-sensei would be arriving soon too.
I only started volleyball because of a fluke in middle school.
I originally enrolled at Matsubara Girls’ High School with the goal of joining the advanced academic track. But somehow, just because I had broad shoulders, Mirai dragged me into the basketball club, and now I’ve gotten caught up in the volleyball club too.
…Wait a second. Am I just getting swept along with everything?
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