The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

Yuki cringed at the unexpected shout, quickly pushing his phone away from his ear. "I am happy for your success, Sugawara-senpai, really. But do you have to be so loud? You'll destroy my eardrums if you keep doing that," he moaned weakly, a pained expression on his face.

"…Oops." After a few seconds of silence, the person on the other end of the phone finally responded with a sheepish tone.

Yuki groaned, hating himself for expecting that kind of reaction. The person who had just called him was Arina Sugawara, and while it was rare for them to communicate over the phone, when they did, Arina always began the conversation with an excited shout.

"So, can you repeat what you said?" Yuki asked.

Mai stared at him questioningly, probably debating whether she should stay or leave. However, Yuki made a quick hand gesture for her to stay, reassuring her that the conversation wouldn't last long. No matter how important the subject was, there was no way Yuki would sacrifice his rare free time and let Arina drag him into this mess. He would rather spend his time with Mai and the other children than get involved in her conspiracy theory.

"You didn't listen at all, huh?" Yuki could hear the girl huff. "We finally found a way to kick the Maiko Group out of our school! The school's higher-ups have also started discussions to reactivate the old clubs again!" she said excitedly.

"That fast?" Yuki raised an eyebrow in surprise. "How did you do that? And who is 'we' that you're talking about?" Even though it was good news, Yuki felt everything was happening too fast. It had only been a week since the incident with the pharmacy company, and only two days since they last chatted. Now, the older girl was already bringing news of her massive success regarding this matter.

"Well, it's thanks to you for introducing me to Akira-sensei and Narita-sensei," she explained. "I'm sure you already know this, but those two investigated the matter thoroughly. They found the violations committed by the pharmacy company and the consequences if this information spread to the public. With my investigation results about the child labor violations committed by the Maiko Group, it was enough for Narita-sensei to pressure the entire group to fix everything to ensure the same incident won't happen again."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"So, Narita-sensei blackmailed the entire group?" Yuki asked.

"Blackmail? It's pressure, Kobayashi-kun. He is pressuring the group, not blackmailing them."

Yuki snorted at the girl's excuse. No matter how nicely she worded it, the reality was that Shingo Narita threatened the Maiko Group to comply with his requests or risk having their dark history exposed to the public. If it wasn't blackmail, he didn't know how else to describe it.

'Fortunately, Narita-sensei is a good guy and only asked the group to fix themselves. Imagine if he asked for something excessive, like money or status.' The thought made Yuki shudder, and he shook his head. "So, what's next? How did you convince the school's higher-ups to let go of the Maiko Group?" he asked.

"We didn't let them go, per se. They are still sponsoring the new clubs that are already there. We just convinced both sides to fix the contract so that it wouldn't violate any rules, and they wouldn't have to worry about someone discovering this issue in the future," the girl said.

"Oh?"

"Yes, we pressured the higher-ups with the evidence we gathered, and it didn't take long for them to fold to our requests. However, they are still hesitant and don't want to take the initiative."

"And let me guess, you asked Narita to pressure the Maiko Group to discuss this matter with the school, right?" Yuki asked wryly.

"Yup!" By the tone of her voice, Yuki knew she was smiling widely right now. "In the end, they fixed the contract between the two parties, and based on what Akira-sensei told me, while the amount the Maiko Group offered us decreased, they promised they wouldn't get involved in our internal matters and wouldn't exploit this relationship to get cheap laborers from us."

That was probably the best outcome of the situation. Yuki knew they couldn't ask for more, and while the Maiko Group could still pull the same tricks at other schools, that wasn't his concern. If Arina pushed the matter too far, there was a real chance that both sides would resist and throw away all her efforts.

After exchanging pleasantries for a while and hoping for his quick recovery, Arina Sugawara finally ended the call. Just a second later, his phone rang again, but this time, Yuki saw that his old coach's name was on the screen.

"Good morning, Akira-sensei," Yuki said as he picked up the call immediately.

"Good morning, Yuki-kun. Have you heard about the new developments at school?" Akira asked, getting straight to the point.

"Yes, Sugawara-senpai just called me and told me about it," Yuki replied.

"Good. Several teachers who were the former advisors of the old clubs and I have already talked to the headmaster. The final decision is that five of the old clubs will be reactivated. In addition to the volleyball club, there will be a swimming club, an athletic club, a choir club, and a kendo club."

'Those are all the clubs that survived the longest during the purge,' Yuki realized. 'It seems that even though the higher-ups permitted the reactivation of the old clubs, they wanted to focus on serious ones, not those that simply wasted their money.'

"So, what do you want to ask, Sensei?" Yuki inquired. He knew that there was no way Akira would call him just to share this information, and honestly, he suspected why his old coach was reaching out. Still, out of courtesy, he decided to ask and let Akira explain.

"Well, it's like this." He could hear his old coach take a deep breath as if gearing up for something. "Since the old club is being reestablished, can you join the team again?"

'Yep, as expected,' Yuki thought.

Since it was a reactivation of the old club, there was no way any of the students would be interested in joining. It should only be one or two who somehow forgot to sign up at the beginning of the term. So, the best way for the team to move forward was to rely on the old players. And since he had been one of the main players before, there was no doubt Akira would ask him to rejoin.

"There is one problem, though," Yuki said. "I have already joined the Tokyo Thunder U-19 team and the chemistry club, and I don't think I can leave them easily. If I insisted on joining all three, it would be too much for me to handle." Read the latest on empire

"Don't worry, I have already thought about it, and I have the perfect solution for you."