It was just before 8 a.m. on the second day of the joint training camp.
From behind me, a cheerful humming could be heard since early morning.
“Ta-da♪ How do you like it, Yuuri-chan? I tried a bun today!”
The one happily playing with my hair since morning was Mana. No, calling it “playing” might be a bit rude. Mana was actually helping tie up my long, time-consuming hair into a neat style. As long as it doesn't get in the way of volleyball, I won’t nitpick the arrangement.
Looking in the hand mirror Mana gave me... I’ve got a Western-looking face, but surprisingly, I think it suits me.
“I always thought buns only worked on East Asian faces, but it suits me better than I expected.”
“That’s because the base is already good. Yuuri-chan looks great in anything.”
“I don’t think that’s true... but thanks, Mana. I appreciate it.”
“No need to thank me. Just let me style your hair again tomorrow, okay?”
It's a curious thing—how much a hairstyle can change someone’s impression. But in order to play around with hairstyles, your hair has to be long enough in the first place. And mine, when let down, reaches all the way to my hips.
Mana took notice of that and started treating me like a life-sized doll, experimenting with different hairstyles.
Well, I get where she’s coming from. When I first became a girl, I found this long hair nothing but a nuisance. But after living with it for over a year, I’ve grown quite attached to it.
And it really is fun how much a different hairstyle can change your image. I never noticed this back when I had short hair.
But growing your hair out nicely takes real effort. In fact, even Hina gave up:
“I thought I’d grow mine out to my waist like you, Yuu-chan, but I just can’t.”
Usually, it’s Hina who does my hair in the mornings, but today Mana begged both of us and we let her take over. And so, I ended up with a bun.
“Hey, Hina-nee. What do you think? Does it look good?”
“Yeah, it suits you. Should we ask Ryou-nee to get you a cheongsam (Chinese dress) next time?”
“Please don’t. Seriously.”
Hina and her unnecessary comments again. Not long ago you were like:
“Yuu-chan is as cute as a fairytale princess, so I think she’d look great in a princess-style dress.”
“That’s a great idea, Hina. Let’s go with that. Yuuri, let’s get you an outfit like that...”
Hina and Ryou-nee conspired to buy me these totally impractical dresses and maid outfits—not even the cheap cosplay kind, but full-blown custom-made ones! (Measurements? We’re family, we more or less know, so no need for that!)
They’ve been sitting in the closet ever since. What am I even supposed to do with them?
And if you get me a cheongsam too, my closet’s going to be filled with clothes that can’t even be machine-washed!
Anyway, while we were having a chill time before practice...
“Ahhh! There you are, Yuuri-chan!”
The one who shouted the moment she spotted us was Sayaka. She’s full of energy this morning.
“Geez! I wanted to eat breakfast with you, but you never showed! It’s already almost 8, you know? If you don’t eat properly, you won’t last through practice!”
“Breakfast? Saya-nee, we already ate. Right, Hina-nee?”
“Huh? Since when?”
“We finished breakfast and left the cafeteria before 7:30, so no surprise we didn’t bump into each other.”
“You guys ate that early? Did you go straight to breakfast after waking up? But your hair’s all done and everything...”
“We woke up before six.”
This training camp may be a school event, but it’s surprisingly relaxed. The teachers must really trust us.
Sayaka seems to think the free time is from 6:30 p.m. after practice until lights-out at 11 p.m.—so about four and a half hours. But that’s not quite right.
In reality, it’s from 6:30 p.m. after practice until 8 a.m. the next morning—13 and a half hours of free time.
Sure, there are some conditions:
“Finish dinner by 9:30 p.m.”
“Be out of the bath by 10 p.m.”
“Be in bed by 11 p.m.”
“Wake up by 7 a.m.”
But these are fine as long as you finish them earlier.
For example, the four of us (me, Hina, Yuki, Mana) didn’t do any extra practice yesterday. We ate dinner right after practice, bathed around 7:30 p.m., studied until just before 10 p.m., and then went to bed.
Today, we woke up at 5:30, took our time getting ready (girls have their routines—just go with it), and practiced volleyball from 6 for about an hour. We were nicely hungry by 7, so we had breakfast then.
For some reason, most people only pay attention to “lights out at 11” and “wake up by 7,” and end up following that rigidly. But that kind of schedule would wreck this whole camp.
Think about it: there are girls from four schools here.
Our school, Matsujo, is the only one with a small roster. Some, like Kichiya High, brought enough members to form three teams. That’s around 80 high school girls total.
If they all used the showers or sinks at the same time in the morning, there’s no way the facilities could keep up.
People like us, who use them a little earlier and more leisurely, are essential to keeping the whole system running.
As for meals—the lovely ladies from the school cafeteria come to cook for us at lunchtime, and dinner plus the next day’s breakfast are reheated meals.
We actually felt bad about them having to come out just for us and said thanks yesterday, and they told us:
“The cafeteria’s closed during summer break, so if there’s no work, we don’t get paid. You guys holding this camp helps us, too.”
So this training camp is also supporting the cafeteria staff’s jobs. It’s all quite well thought out.
“By the way, Hina, Yuuri-chan—who’s this?”
“Ah, right! Sorry. This is Sayaka Yokota from Tamaki Commercial. She was my friend back in middle school. Sayaka, this amazing receiver here is Yukiko Arimura. And this one who joined in July is Mana Shirasagi.”
“Nice to meet you! Since we’re all friends of Hina and Yuuri-chan and volleyball buddies, just call me Sayaka♪”
“Nice to meet you, Sayaka. Then just call me Mana.”
“I don’t like the ‘-ko’ in my name, so please call me Yuki.”
Ooh, is this the birth of inter-school friendship?
Just as I was getting moved by the moment...
“Wait, Yuuri-chan. You told me not to touch your hair before, but you let Mana do it...?”
“Well, Mana’s gentle with it. You’re kind of rough, Saya-nee...”
“Come on! Let me do it toooo!”
Sayaka dramatically complains. Don’t think I forgot what happened last time I let you try!
“Hey, Yuuri-chan. Even though we’re the same age, you call her Saya-nee? Then I could be—”
“Saya-nee’s birthday is in July, which is still understandable. But Mana, yours is December 9, right? Mine’s December 7. So I can’t really call you ‘onee-chan.’”
“It’s just three days! Call me Mana-nee toooo!”
Technically, I was born three years earlier, but let’s not get into that.
As Sayaka the eccentric and Mana bonded over their shared enthusiasm...
“Wait, you and Mana took a bath together last night and even slept in the same futon?”
“Yup yup! And Yuuri-chan was—”
……
Yeah, no good conversations are going to come out of this.
Before things got any weirder, I quietly slipped away.
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
Most of this week-long training camp consists of practice matches. However, it's not only practice matches from beginning to end.
This afternoon, like yesterday, we’ll have endless practice matches under the same rules. But the morning is different. While yesterday’s morning was a standard team practice, today has a slightly different flavor.
Today’s theme is: “This is how our school practices” presentation session.
According to the ikemen senpai I asked yesterday:
“Starting from tomorrow, the mornings will be used to showcase other schools’ training routines. Basically, we get to see how other teams train and learn from them. In return, we also show how we usually train, practice together, and exchange feedback.”
So that’s how it works.
Today, we’ll be doing Tamaki Commercial High School’s usual 2-on-2 training as a group. As a side note, tomorrow is our turn—us from Matsujou—and we’ll be demonstrating our usual core training routines.
“The purpose of this drill is to evenly acquire and improve every skill besides serving—namely, receiving, setting, spiking, and blocking. First—”
Tamaki Commercial’s coach, Kumada-sensei, explains the purpose of the practice. I’d heard rumors about this, but it really does sound like a pain.
There are only two players on each side of the court. Because of the nature of volleyball, you can’t touch the ball consecutively. Which means the two players have to keep the rally going between them...
Let’s say the two players on court are A and B. If A receives the ball, their roles will be:
-
A: Receive & Spike
-
B: Set (& Block)
Under normal circumstances, A and B would keep those roles throughout. But in Tamaki’s training, after a spike is made, A and B have to switch roles. In the next rally:
-
A: Set (& Block)
-
B: Receive & Spike
This forces both players to perform every skill, like it or not.
“—Well, rather than explaining everything, it’s faster if you just watch. We’ll start with the beginner version. Katou, Kasuga, Nitta, Yokota—you’re up.”
A group of what appear to be first-years, including Sayaka, begin a 2-on-2 match. But this is…
“The 2-on-2 drill is aimed at improving all-around volleyball skills, but unless the rally takes shape, it’s meaningless. So in the beginning, we place restrictions on spikes and blocks. Normally, blockers jump not in front of the spiker but to their dominant-hand side. But for beginners, we have them jump to the off-hand side instead. This makes it easier to spike. Spikers are instructed to aim their spikes directly at the opponent’s receiver. Of course, in a real game you’d aim for the open space on the court, but if you can accurately target a receiver, you’ll naturally be able to aim for gaps too.”
Makes sense. Having a blocker in your way is annoying for a spiker, but if they’re on your non-dominant side, it’s at least easier to hit. …Well, blocking is still annoying either way.
And the block in this case isn’t meant to obstruct, but to help players get a sense for timing their jumps.
Spiking at the receiver trains spike control and gives the receiver a chance to practice digging spikes.
Setters who jump to block have to immediately go into setting mode afterward, and after a spike, you immediately switch roles with your partner, right?
Yikes…
Now I get why Eri-senpai and the others used to call this the “training from hell.” It’s tough on your stamina and you have to constantly monitor the other side of the court. It’s intense...
“Now then, that was the beginner version. Next is the advanced version—without any spike or block restrictions.”
……
Sayaka and her group’s 2-on-2 was already impressive, but this... this is on a whole different level.
The 2-on-2 happening now—featuring the current captain who also played as a regular in the June Inter-High qualifiers—is just unreal.
The blockers are flying to interfere with the spikers, and the spikers, in turn, are anticipating that and using all kinds of techniques to get around them.
The quality of the sets and receives is also extremely high.
But what’s truly amazing is that all four players on the court can perform every skill at a high level.
Ahh, I see now. This is the secret behind Tamaki Commercial’s strength—and the reason they produce so many all-rounders!
Alright, let’s try it ourselves!
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