The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

It was Saturday morning, and the usually empty field outside the school was filled with whistles and a group of people running non-stop since a while ago.

*FWEEE!*

"Come on! Run again! Don't slow down!"

"Kobayashi, you can still increase your speed, right? Do it!"

The shout echoed on the empty field, filling their weekend morning with sweat and tears. Inwardly, almost all the victims here cursed their coach for not warning them of how torturous this practice was. They still remembered how their coach gave the instruction.

"Our practice menu today is interval running."

"Interval running?"

"Yeah. Basically, it is a practice form where you will deliberately change your pace as you run, alternating brief intervals of high-intensity exercise with periods of active recovery. To put it simply, this is a practice alternate between running and jogging, aiming to strengthen all the muscles in your body and build your endurance."

When explained verbally, the practice seemed to be ordinary, not that bad. However, the moment all the volleyball players started running, they finally felt the torture of interval running.

"RUN! RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN! COME ON!"

Yuki gritted his teeth as he increased his speed the moment he heard Akira's shout. It wasn't just him, but Riku and the other five players also doing the same. The moment Akira blew his whistle for the umpteenth time – that even everyone forgot how many times their coach had blown his whistle that day, the players slowed down, entering another period of slow running tempo.

At this time, it was clear for Akira to see which one of his players had the best physicality and which one had the worst. He was a bit grateful for the smaller team, thinking that it only made him easier to check their condition thoroughly one by one.

Still, looking at them whose breathing was raged and uneven and even some of them having to drag their body to keep running, Akira knew he still had a lot to do.

*FWEEE!*

"RUN AGAIN! INCREASE YOUR TEMPO! COME ON, KOBAYASHI! KAEDE!"

Seeing the players running with all their might even though they were already half-death, Megumi bit her lips nervously.

She also felt bad for the players there, knowing even though the description of the exercise sounded easy, increasing the running tempo for one minute, then changing it to a slow jogging tempo for another one and a half minutes before they went back for another fast tempo, if that was repeated over and over again, it would take no time for the players to collapse on the spot.

"Sensei, when will this interval run over?" She couldn't help but ask.

Akira glanced at her sideways for a second before saying, "It is either until thirty minutes pass or when they have reached their limit first."

*FWEEE!*

"JOGGING! SLOW DOWN, EVERYONE!"

Fifteen minutes had already passed, yet everyone looked more exhausted right now compared to one hour of playing volleyball on the court. Megumi could only pray everyone would be able to survive this kind of torture, especially when she heard Akira wanted to make this a regular practice.

"Come on, Okamura! Increase your tempo!"

The player whose name was mentioned was running staggeredly, dragging his heavy body until he left the track before collapsing on the ground. He was the first one to give into the situation, lying on the ground immediately. After that, one by one started to collapse, from Ogawa, Yuki, Riku, Asahi, and Kaede.

After twenty-five minutes, only Koji and Hirano were left running, still trying to fulfill the assignment.

"Man, those two are awesome," Riku commented.

"Yeah. They are the best in our generation." Kaede nodded proudly. "You know what? Even though we don't like it, we admit your talents are better than us, both of you. Still, if it is just endurance, maybe, we can outperform you two."

Riku and Yuki glanced at each other before shrugging helplessly, knowing that their senpai was right. Akira who heard that smiled before saying, "You are right, Kaede-kun. In terms of endurance, you might even be the number one in Tokyo."

"EH?!" All the eyes turned at him, shocked by the sudden praise.

"However," The coach still had this calm expression. "You know that endurance is not the only deciding factor in the game. So, in order to elevate the team to the next level, this is not enough. I will bring you to hell and drag you back, and after that, maybe we can be more optimistic for this team."

Thinking of the torture that they would have to endure in the future, some of them wanted to puke on the spot. However, the prospect of the improvement they would have after enduring all of this, they started to get giddy.

'Akira-sensei is right. It is not enough for us to be the number one only in endurance. We need to get better!'

After a while, to everyone's awe, Hirano and Koji were able to finish a full thirty minutes of interval running. While their condition was definitely worse among the players, they had this big grin that showed how proud they were of their own achievement.

"Good job, Koji!"

"Damn, Hirano! You are still a beast!

"Bah! It is still easy! Come on, give me another one!"

"You brat! How could you get so cocky suddenly?!"

Chatters and laughter spread among the players as they enjoyed the short break Akira gave. After twenty minutes, the whistle was blown again, and while they groaned and stood up reluctantly, there was something different in their eyes. Their expression changed, blazing with determination. It seemed Akira's words about the number one team in Tokyo in terms of endurance gave them a new motivation here.

"Well, as you can see, we only have eight players here, only one player on the bench when the competition began. Not an ideal situation, of course. That is why what I want to create first is an army full of restless players, an army who will still stand tall when our opponent has fallen from exhaustion. That way, we will have the ability to fight for the entire five sets even without a deep squad.

That is why we will increase the portion of the endurance practice until the national tournament begins."

Everyone groaned when they heard that. At first, they thought this interval running practice would only happen occasionally. But it seemed they were wrong. Akira was ready to torture them again with a more creative way to push them off their limit.

"As for your technical ability, I will be more specific training you lot about it." Akira continued. "We only have three weeks before the tournament begins, so it is impossible for a drastic change to be made. We also lose our big gun here, so to be an attacking team is impossible.

What I want to train you is how to keep the ball alive, because as long as it is still in the air, we are not losing yet. So, the next training session would be another survival test for you. Are you ready?"

"Yes, Sir!"