Monday.
After a light hour-long morning workout, Akashi Asuka arrived early at school.
7:45 AM.
There was still more than an hour before the first period's morning reading session, so the campus was relatively quiet. The soft morning sun streamed gently through the tree-lined gates from the east, casting a warm glow. A breeze stirred the leaves, adding to the calm and peaceful atmosphere.
Until…
"Yo! Akashi, you're late today!"
Oomae Masato's loud and triumphant voice shattered the tranquility in an instant. Even the branches seemed to freeze, as if stunned into silence.
Akashi turned around with a sigh, staring at the sweat-drenched Masato.
"I'm not late, you just got here too early. So? What are you doing?"
Masato laughed proudly, hands on his hips. "Hahaha! Training, of course! And not just me, the whole volleyball team showed up early this morning. We all agreed: from now on, we're doing morning practice every day!"
"Akashi, this time you're the one falling behind!"
He beamed like he'd just won some kind of competition.
But then his attention drifted to the stack of books Akashi was carrying. He blinked in confusion. "Wait, what's with the books?"
"Studying." Akashi replied matter-of-factly.
"Oh! So you're, huh?!" Masato's face twisted in shock. "You, you, you said what now?! Studying?! Akashi, did you hit your head too hard yesterday? Should we take you to the nurse? No, better yet, maybe the hospital!"
"Cut it out."
Akashi rolled his eyes. "We're students. And what should youth be for? Playing sports? Of course not. It's for studying. For exams. If we can't even do that properly, what's the point of joining any clubs?"
His tone was firm and righteous, brimming with conviction.
Masato looked like he'd been struck by lightning.
"N-No way. That's totally wrong. You're not the kind of guy who studies! Did you forget our promise, to be academic failures together?!"
"And besides." he stammered, "yesterday you said, "
"What did I say yesterday?" Akashi interrupted.
"You said we were gonna train hard and get revenge against Shiratorizawa at the national tournament in October!"
"I did." Akashi nodded. "But first things first, there's less than two weeks until final exams."
"If we fail any subjects, we'll be stuck in summer school. And that would cut into our training time even more!"
With that, Akashi turned and headed toward the school library, leaving behind Masato, frozen like a statue beneath the falling leaves, utterly alone and helpless.
…
The library was almost empty.
Akashi couldn't help but think: Sengoku Junior High really was just a typical school, in academics, in clubs, in everything.
He pulled out the prep books he had just bought the day before. The materials covered both middle and high school content, purchased from a bookstore near the prefectural gymnasium.
In his previous life, Akashi's academic performance had been... average at best. Barely enough to get into a regular university.
But this time, with a second chance, and a new country with a different education system, he found studying unexpectedly enjoyable.
Meanwhile...
Oomae Masato was sprinting full-speed toward the volleyball clubroom.
"Bad news! The finals, !"
He burst through the door, panting and ready to shout, but stopped dead in his tracks.
Inside, aside from the usual team members, Coach Shimokawa was already there. But that wasn't the surprising part.
Standing next to him was a well-dressed woman in professional attire:
Saye Tanno, 31 years old.
Japanese literature teacher... and homeroom teacher for both Masato and Akashi.
Masato had barged in just as she was speaking with the team. She calmly turned toward him, gently pushing up her glasses.
A glint flashed across the lenses.
In an instant, Masato froze.
"G-Good morning, Miss Tanno!" he stammered.
"Good morning, Oomae." she replied, expressionless.
"You're just in time." Shimokawa said. "Miss Tanno and I were discussing something yesterday. Since everyone's here, we wanted to let you all know. Oh, and have you seen Akashi?"
"I just ran into him, he's in the library studying." Masato replied.
"Huh?"
The moment he said it, the entire club, coach and students alike, whipped their heads around in disbelief. Even Saye Tanno looked visibly surprised.
After all, among the volleyball team's members, the two biggest academic slackers were hands down Akashi Asuka and Oomae Masato.
So to hear that Akashi was voluntarily studying... was nothing short of shocking.
"Uh... should I go get him?" Masato offered.
"No need." Tanno replied, waving her hand. "If he's studying, there's no need to interrupt."
She turned back to the others and got straight to the point.
"Here's the situation. Yesterday, Coach Shimokawa approached me with a proposal: he wants to organize a summer training camp for the volleyball club."
"A training camp?!"
"For real?!"
"Yessss! You're the best, Miss Tanno!"
Before she could finish, the room erupted in excitement.
In Japan, school trips and club training camps were fairly common, especially at the high school level. But for junior high, it was rarer, mainly due to students being younger and less self-sufficient, making it harder to manage safety and logistics.
Since Sengoku's clubs had never performed particularly well, the school had never approved a camp before. But with the volleyball team now tying the school's all-time best record, Shimokawa finally had a good reason to push the request through.
"However, "
Tanno's tone shifted.
"Only students who pass all their subjects on the final exams will be allowed to join. Those who fail will have to attend summer classes instead."
The room went silent.
Oomae Masato: "?????????????"
------------
Note: If you guys want to read up to 30+ chapters in advance of the current story, you can support me on Patreon. You can read up to chapter 54 there! Patreon.com/Veltoria