The date was August 9th. The location—well, technically it was in Tokyo, but more specifically, I was standing in front of a facility that the government had built under the official designation of "A training center for the comprehensive improvement of international competitiveness among top-level athletes."
I heard we were supposed to meet on-site, but… this is 100% the real deal. What the heck is "comprehensive improvement of international competitiveness" supposed to mean…?
No matter how you look at it, this is gonna end with me carrying the national flag. Thank you very much.
And there I was, standing in front of this very official-looking facility… wearing my Matsubara Girls' High School summer uniform.
This kind of situation probably calls for more proper attire, but then again, what exactly counts as “proper” for me right now? The answer I arrived at was: my school uniform.
Now that I think about it—maybe I should’ve just gotten a suit made—!!!
“Yuuuuu!!”
I tensed up the moment I sensed her presence, even before she actually called out to me.
“W-What’s wrong, Yuu? It’s me! Mika! Remember me?”
It was Mika-nee, wearing a suit.
“I know. That’s why I’m on guard.”
“??? Why?!”
“Mika-nee. What were you planning to do to me just now?”
“Well, it’s been a while since we met face-to-face, right? So I was gonna confirm our sisterly bond with some physical affection—”
“That. Is! The problem! Mika-nee, you’re always so rough!”
“Yuu, don’t tell me… do you hate me or something?”
“I hate how careless you are.”
“I see. but your onee-chan (big sis) loves you, so it doesn’t bother me at all.”
What a nightmare. We’re speaking the same language, but the conversation just isn’t connecting. I let out a sigh without thinking—and that was a mistake.
“Gotcha!”
“Gwah—!”
In an instant, she closed the distance and pulled me into one of her classic attacks: right arm locking me in place, left hand patting my head with excessive affection. Last time it was a headlock, but today she’s going with a bear hug.
Like I’ve said before, my height only reaches about Mika-nee’s chest.
Damn it! For an athlete, those things you’re squishing my face with are completely unnecessary, aren’t they?!
And it’s not like I’m underdeveloped or anything, so why is everyone around me like this?!
“Oooh, Yuu’s just the same as ever. So tiny, so soft, and she smells like a sweet, gentle girl. Cutest little sister in Japan—no, in the world!”
Ruffle ruffle.
NUWAAAAHHH!! I got up early and carefully brushed and braided my hair for today!!!
“Yuu’s hair is amazing as always. Hair like yours should be called silk thread, huh? And it smells really nice, too. Hey, what kind of shampoo—”
“Just let me go already!”
“?? Seriously, what’s gotten into you?”
“What’s gotten into me?! Mika-nee, you actually hate me, don’t you?!”
“That’s not true at all! I love you! I can prove it… Oh, I know! Your onee-chan will give you a fiery kiss—”
“Mika-nee, NO! You need to respect your own body more!”
I somehow managed to wrest myself free from Mika-nee’s grasp and took a few steps back. While keeping an eye on her, I checked my hair in a mirror. Yep. It’s a mess.
“Geez… Mika-nee, you’re way too rough!”
“Really? Compared to the people you're about to meet, I'm actually on the delicate side, you know?”
No way in hell—
“You must be Mika’s little sister!!!”
Suddenly, someone slipped their hands under my armpits and hoisted me into the air like a child. My view shot up from the usual 150 cm to well over 3 meters.
“Whoa! You’re tiny! And so cute! Hey Mika, are you feeding your little sister properly? She’s way too light!”
Saying that, the woman who had suddenly appeared started spinning me around in the air.
W-Wait a second! I’m wearing a skirt right now, okay?!
Even though it’s knee-length, if you twirl me around like this, of course it’s going to flare up. People might catch a glimpse of my underwear!
And I couldn’t hold it down since she was holding me up by the armpits. If I kicked my legs around, it would just make things worse. Only option left—voice protest!
“Please put me down! And who even are you, suddenly grabbing me like this?!”
“Whoa! I’m surprised! Little sis, even your voice is adorable! And your Japanese is super fluent too!”
Despite her comment, the tall young woman in a suit finally lowered me to the ground. Then promptly hugged me.
“Mika, this girl’s way too cute!!”
“Muuu!!”
What the heck is this person’s deal? I guess she’s Mika-nee’s friend or something, but she’s even more chaotic than Mika-nee. Also, if you’re going to hug someone, be gentle! I’m gonna suffocate!
…Come to think of it, ever since I became a girl, people like Ryou-nee, Mika-nee, and Hina have been hugging me like this a lot, but at least they’ve all been gentle about it. Never painful or suffocating like this.
“I told you, right? Now I have the two cutest little sisters in the world. Anyway, Yumi, you’re about to smother my litle sister, so let her go.”
“Oh, whoops.”
“Puhah!”
Taking advantage of the slack, I quickly escaped and hid behind Mika-nee, who I hoped would act as my ally.
“Huh? Did she just reject me?”
“Could be. My little sister seems to dislike people who are too rough.”
“Then I’m in the clear. Out of everyone gathering here today, I’m definitely one of the delicate ones.”
You’re kidding me. She counts as one of the delicate ones?!
“…Mika-nee, who is that?”
I peeked out from behind Mika-nee and looked at the woman. Since she’s here today, she must be a top volleyball player.
She’s definitely over 180 cm tall. Looks to be about the same age as Mika-nee. With the suit it’s partly guesswork, but she’s got the body of a world-class volleyball player.
No wonder Mika-nee doesn’t look like a typical athlete. I’m not gonna say where, but… yeah.
“She’s Yumi. Shigeno Yumi. We went to the same high school. Right now she’s the ace spiker for the U-23 team. And just so you know, Yumi, this cutie here is my little sister, Yuuri. She’s mine, so no taking.”
Uh, since when did I become Mika-nee’s property?
More importantly, she said they were high school classmates. That means this Shigeno-senpai might be one of the reasons Mika-nee switched from spiker to libero.
“I see. In that case, I’ll just steal her. Yuuri-chan, right? You can call me Yumi-oneechan. Go on, say it~♪”
Eh?!
＝＝＝＝＝＝
“Compared to the people you're about to meet, I'm actually on the delicate side, you know?”
That’s what Mika-nee said to me.
I thought she was joking—like, 90% sure she was kidding. But she was dead serious.
How should I put it… Everyone here is just so rough. Whenever someone sees me, they say stuff like, “So tiny and cute!” and then they start picking me up, hugging me, flipping my skirt—basically doing whatever they want.
I’m not a damn doll!
The candidate players were supposed to change into gear and gather at the arena, but even while changing...
…Yeah, I won’t even talk about that. Actually, I’d like to erase it from my memory.
This place doesn’t just have members of the senior All-Japan team—it also includes promising players from the U-23 group.
That’s because this training camp isn’t focused on the next immediate tournament. It’s looking ahead to the World Championship next year, the World Cup the year after that, and the Olympics the year after that. So they’re bringing in U-23 players with the expectation that they’ll be active members of the All-Japan team by then—or rather, they have to be.
For the record, I’m the only high school student invited here. Not because I’m special or anything—it’s just that the Inter-High is going on right now, so all the top high school players are there.
Anyway, everyone here is way too tall. Volleyball inherently favors taller athletes, so if you gather the best Japanese players, it’s only natural that most of them are tall.
Even among liberos, whose height doesn’t matter as much, the shortest one here is 162 cm. That’s still 6 cm taller than me.
Mika-nee, who’s already considered tall for a woman at 177 cm, isn’t even particularly tall here. I wouldn’t say there are tons of players taller than her, but they’re definitely here, like it’s nothing.
And then there’s me—thrown into the mix at 156 cm. What do you think happens?
“Wow, this is the first time a wing spiker shorter than me got invited!”
“You're just a high school freshman? That’s amazing.”
“You must be super popular with the boys at school. Huh? Girls' school? What a waste!”
They’ve completely labeled me as a cute mascot or pet. My neck even hurts. Sure, we have tall players on the Matsujo volleyball team—Kaori is 178 cm—but here, there are players over 180 cm, so I have to keep looking up.
They even bend down to talk to me. But the way they do it feels like how someone talks to a little girl. I mean, I am younger than them—some of them are over ten years older—but still...
By the time we gathered at the arena, everyone already knew my name and had agreed to call me “Yuuri-chan.”
The only one who doesn’t use -chan is Mika-nee, but she still uses a nickname for me.
As for me, for some reason I started calling everyone “Onee-chan” (big sis). And that was because I messed up at the beginning.
“You can just call me Yumi-oneechan. Go on, say it♪”
“Shigeno-san.”
“Nope. Try again.”
“Shigeno-senpai.”
“Wrong again. Come on—Yu-mi-o-nee-chaaan~”
“…Yumi-san.”
“So close! Come on, say it!”
“Mika-nee…”
“Just give in. Yumi’s persistent. You know Hina’s friend, Sayaka-chan? She calls her Onee-chan too. Compared to that, Yumi’s the same age as me—should be easier to call her that, no?”
“Sigh… Yumi-oneechan. That good enough?”
“!! Yup, perfect. You can call me Yumi-nee too, like Mika. And I’ll be calling you Yuuri-chan♪”
This conversation at the entrance got around, and suddenly everyone was saying stuff like, “If Shigeno’s getting called Onee-chan but I’m just being called with -san, it’ll mess up the team dynamics.” And before I knew it…
Now everyone on the team insists I call them Onee-chan, or ○○-nee, or Onee-sama, or something similar.
What kind of weird play is this!?
And I mean, isn’t the atmosphere way too chill? Can we really compete with the world like this?
As I was thinking that...
“Is everyone here?”
A woman who looked to be in her late 40s or early 50s walked into the arena—and the atmosphere instantly shifted.
All the players suddenly had serious athlete faces.
Ah. So that’s the kind of people they are.
＝＝＝＝＝＝
Just as I’d been told beforehand, this training camp is meant to prepare for the World Championship next year and beyond, with the main goals being meet-and-greets between the All-Japan and U-23 players, and medical evaluations.
Later, I heard directly from the All-Japan coach that the main reason I was invited was for the medical checkup. I mean, anyone could see my physique shouldn’t allow me to jump like that. They wanted to medically confirm that it wasn’t the result of doping or anything like that.
Makes sense now. I’d thought it was weird that a total amateur like me got invited.
That said, while the camp’s focus is meet-and-greet and medical exams, that doesn’t mean there’s no practice.
When it came to technical drills, though, I just couldn’t keep up at all.
Take spike receives, for example—we do them at Matsujo too. But here, the power and precision of the spikes were on a whole different level. I kept failing over and over, and in the end, they had to adjust the difficulty just for me.
Mika-nee kept stepping in to cover for me, saying, “My little sister’s only been playing for four months…” Sorry…
But when it came to serving practice, it was a different story. I did my usual jump serve, and suddenly everyone’s eyes changed.
“Yuuri, that’s amazing. There’s no other girl who can serve like that.”
Shigeno-san—now Yumi-oneechan—spoke to me.
“Unlike you, Yumi-oneechan, all I have going for me is my serve and spike...”
“…Ah. Sorry. You’re really earnest, huh? That was a joke. During practice, you can call me Shigeno-san or Shigeno-senpai. Of course, Yumi-san or Yumi-oneechan is fine too.”
It was a joke!? How was I supposed to know!?
Looking around, everyone had these faces like, “Aww, she actually thought that was serious. So cute!” I’m telling you—I couldn’t tell!
Next up was spike practice. Honestly, this was pretty much the main reason I came here.
When I spiked from a height that’s unthinkable in the world of women’s volleyball, with a power that’s also unthinkable, they finally realized I wasn’t invited as a cute mascot—I was here as an actual player.
“Tachibana, the younger one.”
The woman who’d shifted the air in the arena—Coach Tashiro—called out to me.
“Tachibana. Try spiking one more time, right here.”
What could it be? I mean, I thought it was a pretty good spike, if I do say so myself?
Following her instruction, I spiked again.
Afterward, I looked over to Coach Tashiro, and for some reason she was gazing up at the ceiling before letting out a deep, deep sigh.
And then, she said something crazy to me:
“Tachibana. You can jump 10 cm higher.”
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