From a certain social network on the night Tachibana Hina and Yuuri decided to join the volleyball club—
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[So, you both decided to join the volleyball club?]
[Well, kinda just went with the flow.]
[Mika-nee, question. Do you think it’s possible for a team like ours—with two total amateurs—to win at Inter-High or Spring Nationals?]
[Sorry, but realistically speaking, the chances are as close to zero as you can get.]
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The day after we decided to join the volleyball club. The trial period up through yesterday is over, and from today we’ve got regular classes up to fifth period. That said, for the first week it’s usually just teacher introductions and course overviews, so it's still pretty laid-back.
When I spent two months pretending to be a high school boy, we stayed in low gear until Golden Week, then suddenly switched to high gear after the holidays—flooring the gas pedal from there.
Anyway, after the chill classes were over, it was time for club activities. At Matsubara Girls’ High, clubs officially begin on the fourth day after enrollment. Incidentally, the first month—April—is treated as a provisional club period. Joining a club isn’t mandatory either, so more than half the students don’t join one at all. But here we are, changing and heading to the gym. …Seriously, how can these girls change clothes right in the classroom like it's nothing?
“““““Please take care of us!”””””
Hina, Tohira-san, Murai-san, Arimura-san, and I all entered the gym together. There’s something about athletic clubs—whenever they enter the clubroom, gym, field, or court, they always announce their presence with a “Sorry to intrude!” or “Please take care of us!”
“Oh, you made it.”
We didn’t think we were that late, but already waiting were a tall, young woman who seemed to be the club advisor (the same young P.E. teacher from yesterday) and three girls wearing sax-colored jerseys. They’re probably the third-years in the volleyball club.
Us first-years arrived all together, in a group of five.
“Yeah, I heard from the teacher. You five didn’t just submit the provisional forms—you handed in real club entry forms. Welcome to the Matsubara Girls’ Volleyball Club. Looking forward to working with you.”
One of the girls in jerseys welcomed us warmly. She was probably the club captain.
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[Mika-nee. So what can we do to raise that near-zero chance even a little?]
[Let’s see… If we’re going by the book, then there are three things you need to train thoroughly. First is basic physical fitness. Your team has five first-years out of eight, right? Then first, you need to build your stamina. Even for girls, there’s a significant difference in physical ability between middle and high school. Plus, all the new first-years just went through exam season, so they’ve been pretty inactive.]
[Makes sense. What’s the second?]
[Second is underhand receiving. In volleyball, you lose if the ball hits your side of the court. So to avoid that, you start with the fundamentals: underhand receives.]
[Still textbook stuff. What’s the third?]
[Serving. Serving is the only play in volleyball where you can demonstrate 100% of what you’ve practiced. That’s why it’s the most worth training.]
[Why is it the only play where you can demonstrate 100% of your practice?]
[Think about the plays that come after a serve. Normally, you receive the serve with an underhand pass, send it to the setter, who then tosses it to the spiker for the attack. But here’s the important part—you can never fully replicate the ball that comes from a serve. Most matches start with players facing off for the first time, dealing with serves they’ve never seen. You can’t recreate that. And if the initial serve reception isn’t perfect, the following set and attack won’t be either. The only play that’s unaffected by the opponent is the serve. That’s why it’s the only one where you can fully demonstrate your training.]
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“Class 1-6, from Sunagawa Middle School, Arimura Yukiko. Desired position: Libero.”
Starting from the first-years, we introduced ourselves one by one. Arimura-san went last for us, so...
“Alright, now it’s our turn. I’m the club captain, Itagaki Eriko, a third-year. My position is Wing Spiker.”
“I’m Ogino Miho, also a third-year. Position: Setter.”
“Last is me, Okazaki Yui. Position: Middle Blocker.”
“And I’m your advisor, Saeki Kanako. By the way, I graduated from Matsubara Girls’ High six years ago. I was also in the volleyball club then, so I’m an alum both of the school and the club.”
“Six years ago... wasn’t that the last year we made it to Inter-High?”
“Good memory. Yep, that’s right. I wasn’t the ace, but I did play as a regular and made it to Inter-High. My goal now is to bring the volleyball club back to its former glory. Be ready—practice is going to be tough!”
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[If we train basic stamina, receiving, and serving, we’ll be able to win?
[Nope. Even if you train those three perfectly, you’re only going from a 0% chance to 0.1%. You still won’t win. Because the strong schools you’re trying to beat are training those same three things too.]
[Then what do we do?]
[It’s simple. Since ancient times, there have only been two ways for the weak to beat the strong: change the rules, or change what’s considered common sense. And we can’t change the rules. So we change common sense.]
[What do you mean?]
[Let me check first—volleyball is a game where you score points to win, right?]
[That’s true of almost all sports.]
[Not quite. There are sports where you can win without scoring. Take soccer, for instance. If you keep your opponent at zero goals, you can still get a point in league play. And in tournaments, you can drag it into a penalty shootout where luck plays a big role. Soccer is a low-scoring sport, so defending hard is a legitimate tactic. But volleyball is different. No matter how few points you let in, if you score zero, you still lose. You can give up 10 or even 20 points—doesn’t matter. The first team to 25 wins.]
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Advisor Saeki-sensei said she wanted to assess our physical abilities. So we’re going to measure our maximum vertical reach—and the third-years are going to demonstrate first.
...Looks like Saeki-sensei has a rather mischievous personality. She must already know my physical abilities are ridiculously off the charts, and yet—
She deliberately said:
“The two with no experience should go last.”
This is that kind of setup, right? Like, "Save the best for last to blow their minds," kind of thing?
For reference, "maximum reach height" refers to the height your fingertips reach when you jump with a running start.
The net height for high school girls' volleyball is 2.2 meters.
You don’t necessarily need to spike or block at your max reach height, but in girls' high school volleyball, if you can’t reach at least 240 cm, you won’t make it far.
If you can reach 280 cm, you could probably be the ace at most schools.
At 300 cm, you're looking at national-level ace attacker or blocker status.
The heights and max reach numbers for the senpai are:
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Itagaki-senpai: Height – 165.4 cm | Max Reach – 258 cm
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Okazaki-senpai: Height – 170.9 cm | Max Reach – 271 cm
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Hagino-senpai: Height – 160.0 cm | Max Reach – 251 cm
Considering the average height for high school girls is below 160 cm, they’re all taller than average.
...I thought I was fairly average in height, but it seems I’m still considered short around here.
“Alright. That’s it for the third-year examples. First-years with experience, you're up next.”
First up from the first-years is Arimura-san.
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Arimura-san: Height – 143.4 cm | Max Reach – 248 cm
That’s surprisingly high for her height. If she were just a bit taller, she might be able to play positions other than libero.
“That assumption is meaningless. You can train for skills, but height isn’t something effort can change.”
Arimura-san bluntly shut down that possibility. Maybe she struggles with her height in her own way.
Second from the first-years is the overly energetic Tohira-san. She was noisy before jumping, but when it came time to measure, she got serious. Her jumping form was also surprisingly clean.
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Tohira-san: Height – 168.7 cm | Max Reach – 284 cm
Her jumping power is insane. To go over 280 cm with a height under 170 cm? But that's not even the most important part!
“Tohira-san, you're left-handed?”
“Yeah. I was forced to use my right for writing and eating when I was little, but my dominant hand is still my left.”
A lefty spiker is amazing. Her jumping’s on point, her form was solid—this girl could be an incredible wing spiker.
“284 cm, huh? Alright.”
Next up: Hina. She’s actually really competitive.
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Hina: Height – 173.8 cm | Max Reach – 286 cm
““I lostttttt!!””
For some reason, both Hina and Tohira-san shout about losing.
“Why is it that Tachibana-onee-san... Argh! This is so annoying! Why does it mean that Hina-san lost?!”
“Just call me Hina. If you say ‘Tachibana,’ it’ll get confusing with Yuu-chan. I’ll start calling you Asuka, too. Anyway, I’m 5 cm taller than you, right? Then I should be beating you by 5 cm in max reach, too. But the difference is only 2 cm. So clearly, I lost.”
“Max reach includes height, though. Plus, you’re aiming to be a setter, right? You don’t even need that much jumping power. I’m a wing spiker. If my spike reach is lower than a setter’s, that’s a big problem.”
“Positions rotate constantly in volleyball. There’s no such thing as a setter who never spikes. Is your idea of volleyball stuck at the elementary school level where there’s no rotation? Besides—”
To someone who didn’t know better, those two wouldn't seem like the same girls who were arguing just yesterday about whether to even join the volleyball club.
They’re already shaping up to be a good pair.
Incidentally, the third-year senpai were left utterly speechless.
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[Isn't it kind of contradictory that the team that scores 25 points wins, but you said earlier that receiving is important? Doesn’t that mean offense is more important than defense?]
[It's not contradictory. To deliver a good spike, you need a good set. To deliver a good set, you need a good receive. It’s all connected. And here’s the important part—
even in girls’ volleyball, a well-executed spike only results in a point about 50% of the time.][Fifty percent? So even with a great spike, half the time it gets stopped?]
[Exactly. It gets blocked or received. But that’s not the case in men’s volleyball, and there’s a reason. In the pro men’s game, spikes can reach speeds of 150 km/h. In women’s, it’s about 130 km/h. That speed difference comes from physical strength, which can’t be helped. But reflexes aren’t all that different between men and women, right? So in men’s volleyball, the higher speed means a much higher success rate for spikes. The strategies are different, too. Girls’ matches involve more rallies. Because spikes alone don’t always secure points. They scrape together one point at a time using quick attacks and back attacks.
In contrast, men’s volleyball is more about brute force—super aces hammering points without any tricks.
Also, it’s not just power—height matters too. In women’s volleyball, reaching 3 meters is considered world-class. But in the men’s game, even high schoolers who can only reach 3 meters might not make it past the regional tournament.]
[Well, yeah. You can kind of see that when you watch world tournaments on TV.]
[That’s the general, common-sense understanding. Now, Yuu—I know just how high your physical capabilities are.
By the way, no female volleyball player has ever reached a maximum jump height over 340 cm.
So… what if, hypothetically, you could jump to 350 cm?
What if you could spike from that height?]
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I was told to jump last, so Murai-san went before me. She’s a volleyball newbie, and it showed—her form was all over the place, like she was just copying what she saw.
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Murai-san: Height – 176.5 cm | Max Reach – 281 cm
To get that kind of result with such a messy form… If she learns proper technique, she might actually turn out to be something amazing.
“Last is Tachibana Yuuri. Just like during the physical fitness test—go all out and blow us away.”
If I’ve been personally called out, then there’s no way I can’t blow them away.
I give it everything I’ve got—this is my best possible jump, right now.
“…Huh? No way… right?”
“Did she just jump higher than the basketball hoop?”
“Actually… I think she might’ve jumped higher than my entire height…”
The third-year senpai were left stunned, utterly dumbfounded.
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Tachibana Yuuri: Height – 156.1 cm | Max Reach – 348 cm
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[Girls’ volleyball is built around rallies. But what if someone could spike so fast and high over the block that no one could react? Then it wouldn’t be a rally.
Now do you get it? The strategy Yuu and Hina need to take?]
[Break the rules of common sense—
and muscle your way to 25 points with pure power.]
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