A Serious(?) Training Arc
Late May. With the Inter-High (IH) preliminaries right around the corner, the volleyball club still hasn’t had a single practice match since April. There’s a reason for that.
In manga and such, it’s often portrayed like the advisor, captain, or manager can easily say “I’ve scheduled a match♪” and boom—it happens. But reality isn’t that simple.
First, the advisor has to contact another school. If both sides agree, then they coordinate a day for the practice match. From first contact to a set date, including schedule checks, it can take at least a full day, or up to a week. The actual match might not happen until a month later—if you’re lucky. Sometimes, it’s months away.
The issue here is that, as of March, our volleyball club only had three members and was on the verge of being disbanded. From what I heard, the team had been short on members since last summer, which meant they couldn’t even arrange practice matches. So, by March, we had no matches scheduled at all. Meanwhile, other schools already had their practice match calendars fully booked.
If we had been a powerhouse school, maybe others would’ve reached out to us. But no one’s going to invite a school that can’t even form a full team. Naturally, we weren’t able to schedule anything until after Golden Week.
But even after Golden Week, we still couldn’t arrange anything. Again, manga makes this seem trivial, but visiting another school or hosting one takes a lot of mental energy. Plus, as of April, Matsubara Girls’ High School’s volleyball team included two total beginners who didn’t even understand the rules. And due to our lack of members, at least one of them would have to play in the match.
Throwing someone like that into a match, after all the effort put into arranging it, would just ruin everything. That would be disrespectful to the other school.
So, we decided to wait until they learned the rules… and before we knew it, it was already mid-May.
That’s why we still haven’t had a practice match. This issue has been a headache even for our advisor, Saeki-sensei.
“Eri, do you have a minute?”
It was a Saturday when we were still struggling to arrange a practice match. As usual, the volleyball and basketball clubs—the “hardcore clubbers”—came to practice even though it was a day off from school. In the middle of practice, the basketball team’s captain, Okumura-senpai, approached our captain, Eri-senpai. Both of them are pretty serious people, so it was rare to see them talk during club hours.
After a short exchange between the captains, Eri-senpai spoke to Saeki-sensei while Okumura-senpai went to talk to Uesugi-sensei. Huh? What’s going on?
And now Eri-senpai’s making a circle with her fingers and smiling at Okumura-senpai???
Oh no, they’re coming this way.
“Everyone, listen up. We’re going to have a practice match after this.”
…Excuse me??
Turns out, it wasn’t just the volleyball club that had been struggling to arrange a match. The basketball club had its own problems. At the start of April—or more accurately, since the previous third-years graduated—the team had only four members. You need five to play basketball, so they couldn’t even field a full team. Three freshmen joined in April, so now they finally have enough people, but by then, it was too late. All the other teams at their level already had their match schedules filled.
So, like us, the basketball club hadn’t had a single practice match.
To address this, Okumura-senpai came up with a plan: the volleyball club would be the basketball team’s practice opponent, and in exchange, the basketball team would be the volleyball club’s practice opponent. Each game would be thirty minutes, for a total of one hour.
…A 30-minute basketball game sounds like actual death though…
Apparently, there will be handicaps in place. For the basketball game, the volleyball club is allowed to have six players on the court. Also, things like traveling and double-dribbling will be overlooked to some extent.
For the volleyball match, the basketball club is allowed more than three touches, and they can serve by tossing the ball in from behind the attack line.
Other adjustments will be made as needed during the matches.
“Yuu-chan, do you know the rules of basketball? We haven’t done it in P.E. yet…”
Ugh…
Asuka’s question made me realize something! Given my “street kid” background setting, it wouldn’t make sense for me to know the rules of basketball!
And in fact, up until May, P.E. classes were doing soccer on the field and volleyball in the gym—no basketball. So I probably have to pretend I’ve never played before.
“I, uh, learned from manga. It’s that sport where you… um, use your left hand for… y'know…!”
“With your strength, Yuu-chan, you might be able to pull it off, but normally, girls can’t do that kind of one-handed shot like in the manga. You just can’t get enough height for a proper shot.”
Yikes… so basketball is another sport where there’s a gender difference.
While I was panicking, a basketball team member (probably a second-year senpai) came over to give advice.
“That’s not true, you know? It’s not like guys have to shoot one-handed and girls have to shoot two-handed. Just do whatever’s easier for you. …Though, if you’re asking that now, I doubt we’ll be seeing many successful shots from you.”
The basketball player chuckled awkwardly. Yeah… fair point. It’s not like I’ve played enough to claim I have experience. Though with my current jump height, I might actually be able to dunk…
Amidst all that, the practice match began—and surprisingly, it got really exciting.
First up was basketball. Sure, we might be basketball novices, but the volleyball team has height and jumping power on its side.
“Whoa! She’s so tall!”
A simple jump block was enough to make the basketball club members cry out. Hina, Reiko, and Yui-senpai are all tall, and once they jump, they’re like a wall. As for me, while I didn’t play on a team, I’ve at least messed around with basketball during PE and recess back in elementary and middle school.
My jump shots were pretty sloppy since I’ve never practiced with my current strength, but they at least resembled the proper form. And I can do layups. More than anything...
“No way! Was that an alley-oop??”
“How are you doing that at your height?!”
Yeah, that. Back when I was a guy, I could just barely reach the rim. But now, I can touch well above it with ease. So even dunking isn’t a problem anymore.
As for the rest of the volleyball team, Asuka stood out as especially good. Her movements screamed “experienced player.”
Despite all the hype, the basketball team still predictably dominated the basketball match.
Of course they did. Even if we’re athletic, we’re mostly beginners—aside from maybe Asuka. No matter how absurd my sprinting or jumping ability is, it doesn’t mean much if I can’t make use of it.
And then there’s the basketball team’s captain, Okumura-senpai—clearly amazing even to an untrained eye like mine. Her jump shot success rate was insane.
That loud Maejima girl was ridiculously fast. Her drives were so good she kept scoring before we even had a chance.
“Aaahhh!! Ugh, she got past me again! Yuu-chan! You don’t have to hold back with her! Just slam into her if you have to!”
“Asuka, if I slam into her, it’s a foul…”
“It’s fine! Mirai’s sturdy like a tank!”
“Uh, Yuuri, was it? Give it up. Asuka’s basically a wild brute with the intelligence of a monkey. It’s impossible for her to grasp the rules of a refined sport like basketball.”
“Who are you calling a monkey?!”
“Who do you think?!”
...Do you two have some kind of compulsion where you have to start a catfight mid-practice match?
・
・
・
After the basketball portion, Okumura-senpai approached me.
“You’re amazing. I’ve never seen a girl pull off an alley-oop before.”
“Haha, well, it’s only because I’ve got the physical ability to brute-force it…”
The match was rough. I got passed like I was standing still, fell for every feint, and overall just got shredded. Honestly, I’m worried the basketball team didn’t get any real practice out of it.
“Not at all. What matters is having all five players on the court and practicing in a real game setting. That’s valuable. I mean, that’s why Eri—your volleyball captain—set up this match with us too.”
So, practicing as a team, huh…? Come to think of it, we haven’t really done that either.
“By the way, Okumura-senpai. Your team has official matches coming up too, right? Is your knee okay?”
Okumura-senpai wore a large brace on her right knee. Volleyball players use knee pads because they slide and dive a lot, but basketball players don’t usually wear them. In fact, she was the only one on the team wearing one—and only on her right knee. She didn’t show any signs of pain while playing, but…
“Oh, this? Mmm, it’s been hurting forever. I’m kind of used to it by now. Doesn’t stop me from moving. I just treat it like menstrual cramps—annoying, but manageable.”
She said it so casually, but that can’t be good…
“Anyway, next is the volleyball match. Since you helped us out, we’re going all-in this time—even if we suck.”
The volleyball match that followed really was helpful for us.
We won, of course—even with some handicaps—but the real value was in what we learned. Blocking, covering, setting, spiking—the whole flow, all practiced with a full team of six.
And I realized something: rotations are actually a huge pain. Also, Reiko and I are massive defensive liabilities.
Honestly, Maejima from the basketball team had better receiving skills than us. Even her spikes were weirdly good. Is she… experienced?
“Of course she is. Mirai played volleyball with me in elementary school. But then she went and joined the basketball team in middle school!”
Asuka pouted as she said it. But hearing that made Maejima snap.
“Look who’s talking! You played mini-basket with me back in elementary school! Then you ditched basketball for volleyball in middle school!”
And so began yet another round of their endless girl-talk-turned-insult-fest. I’ve lost count by now. You two really never get tired of this, huh?
Still, I get it now. It's late May, and I finally understand why those two don’t get along. Based on their arguments, it sounds like they were both in local clubs for mini-basketball and volleyball back in elementary school.
Then in middle school, they went their separate ways—one chose basketball, the other volleyball—and that’s what drove the wedge between them.
…Are they manga characters or something? When’s their “make-up and become best friends again” event supposed to happen?
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