The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

"Riku! To the left! Go high to the left!"

"Don\'t get blocked again, Senpai! Here!"

"YOSSHAAA!"

Kimura, the head coach of Tsukumi University\'s C team stared in awe as he saw how much improvement all the Tsunemori players had over the week. Gone was once chaotic offense, and now, everything seemed to be organized carefully.

They had a signal now on how they wanted to attack, and even though their coordination still needed to be polished, at least he could see the intention behind every attack they did today.

Tsunemori\'s defense also improved. In fact, the biggest improvement they had after the camp was mainly in this department. If before, they were always counting on Yuki, Kaede, or Okamura, the lone defender practice they had always done two hours per day ensured that everyone could be a libero now.

They suddenly became the most stubborn team on earth, didn\'t want to let the opponent get even a single point that easily.

But what surprised Kimura the most was how well suddenly Tsunemori worked as a team. By the glimpse he had seen for a while until now, even though there was not so much improvement jump on individual\'s ability, as a whole team, they worked well, too well if he had to say, like a well-oiled machine.

They knew each other\'s strengths and weaknesses and knew when they should cover the others, when they should take advantage of their teammate\'s position, when to let the others take over the ball, and something like that.

Unlike the first game last week, they acted like a bunch of veteran players who had already been together for a while, not a high school team anymore.

\'Is it really… The same team as the one from a week ago?\' He muttered in disbelief.

"How about it?" Akira asked smugly. "You are surprised, right?"

Kimura could only nod his head stupidly as he stared at Tsunemori players whose performance was getting better as time went by. He turned his head and looked at Akira in awe for managing to improve the players this much just in a week. The one he stared at himself had his eyes on the court, looking at his players with eyes full of pride.

Curious, Kimura decided to ask, "Akira, a week ago, you said that you want honor, right? What kind of honor were you talking about?"

Akira didn\'t expect Kimura to ask the question at this time. Still, a soft smile formed on his face as if he was reminiscing the past while his eyes were still locked into the game.

"HIRANO-SENPAI! LEFT! COVER UP THE WALL! KOJI-SENPAI! STOP THE STRAIGHT!"

Those two players clicked their tongues in annoyance when they heard their kouhai take the command and instruct them about where to move. While they admitted Yuki\'s brain worked faster in recognizing the game pattern, that didn\'t mean they liked being told what to do, especially by their kouhai.

Still, they did as the glasses boy asked, jumped at the same time to form a two-man wall to stop the attack.

"OH! Goddamnit, Koji! That is a clean block!"

"Nice cover from you too, Hirano!"

"You said the honor you want is not for making a team strong from nothing, right?" Kimura asked, his eyes were also on the court, staring at the Tsunemori players who celebrated with each other. "Then, is there a higher honor aside from that as a leader?"

Akira kept silent for a while before saying, "Do you know what kind of school I coached the first time?"

Kimura raised his eyebrows a little. "I don\'t think I can remember that, honestly."

"I don\'t blame you." The coach chuckled richly. "If anything, I would be surprised if you remember it, but the first school I ever coached was a small school in Kyushu, filled with a lot of delinquents as its members. Smoking, brawling, bullying, any crimes you can think of that teenagers could do, they had already done that by the time I signed to coach the team.

At that time, the school had already lost their patience giving me an ultimatum to get into the best 8 in the prefecture tournament."

"Just like right now?" Kimura arched his eyebrows slightly.

"Not really." Akira laughed merrily. "They were by far the worst team I have ever coached. Not only they have never touched the ball even once, but they also didn\'t have the drive to play too. If anything, they just used the volleyball team as their lair to do their crime. It was so difficult back then." He smiled, reminiscing the past.

"Then, why did you choose a job like that? I know there were several professional teams that offered you a better condition."

"Oh, don\'t get me wrong, the condition is good there. Even though it was a public school, the payment was pretty high." Akira smiled. Then, his expression turned somber. "But if I have to say why, I was recommended directly without my consent by Honda-sensei."

"Honda-sensei?" Kimura was taken aback. "Honda Saburo, the legend himself?!"

"Yup. I played under his wing before I went here." Akira nodded. "But back to the story, it was after my second surgery and the doctor said I should stop playing volleyball, when all of my passion for the sport seemed to die inside me. And Honda-sensei noticed that too, I guess. That\'s probably why he recommended my name for that job."

Kimura sighed, couldn\'t understand Honda\'s train of thought. If he saw his students lose their passion, he would talk to them, not send them away to get a more troublesome job like that.

"It was bad at that time." Akira smiled. "There wasn\'t even one guy who played volleyball seriously. There were even some occasions when I had to drag them to train, and sometimes, I even resorted to violence, something I am not very proud of until today. And what I taught is not honorable either. I just taught them how to win the game no matter what the consequence was.

From provoking the opponent, touching the net sneakily when the opponent was about to spike or block the ball, and so on. Still, they couldn\'t put into practice even a quarter of what I taught."

"So, they were abolished?" Kimura asked.

"No, not abolished. Demoted should be the correct word." Akira corrected. "They can still play volleyball if they want, but the school won\'t help them in any official matter if they want to play in a tournament, and they won\'t get any help, especially regarding funds from the school."

"That\'s harsh," Kimura commented.

"Yeah, but that is the agreement." Akira nodded. "However, after sticking around for another year as the informal coach, when the third-year members graduated, three representatives of the team came and told me this…"

"It was fun playing volleyball with you, Sensei." One of them said.

Akira was taken aback, then furrowed his brows deeply. "D-Don\'t lie…" He said, somehow guilt crawled into his heart. In his mind, he recalled the training he put them on and thought, \'Volleyball is fun? I didn\'t teach you any of that, yet you still come saying that to me? What kind of joke is this?\'

The three students in front of him exchanged glances for a while before one of them sighed, saying, "Yeah, it is a lie."

"It wasn\'t fun at all, Sensei." Another one added, his smile was full of pain. "But… You didn\'t abandon us, Sensei, so we all thought hard… What should we tell you to make you the happiest…"

At that time, tears rolled down his face as the guilty feeling suddenly ate Akira alive. He sobbed hard like a child, bowing his head deeply toward those three. "I AM SORRY!" That was when Akira finally realized his stupidity. "Sorry… I am so sorry…!"

"Don\'t cry, Sensei…" One of them also had tears on their face.

"We were holding ourselves so much to not cry, but instead, we wanted you to feel honored…"

"Our juniors… Please, teach them more fun volleyball!"

"At that time, I realized, that rather than creating a strong team, the first thing I should do was about creating a place where anyone could learn how to have fun by playing volleyball. And after watching how the next generation trained, I understood, that just from hard practice there will be moments when kids feel the joy of volleyball."

Kimura stared in awe at his story.

"The following year, the volleyball team returned to being an official team." Akira continued. "And the year later, they got into the best 8 just like the target the school set for them. But my happiness didn\'t come from getting good results or praise from the headmaster. It is from the joy that I saw on my player\'s face."

He paused for a second to see the game for a while.

"It is the same for Tsunemori." Akira continued, his expression turned somber. "Someday, when they graduate… Volleyball is fun… Even if it only came out of one mouth… I think, there is no greater honor I can achieve as a teacher more than that."