One week before the Tournament began. The girls' volleyball team saw a lot of improvements since the beginning of the year and they were all at ease with each other now. They believed in one another and did not doubt one second they could not get to the Nationals.

"Alright, girls! Come here for a minute!" the coach Takasaka called for everyone and waited for them to sit. She had a blank board behind her and she held a notebook and a pen in her hands. Most of the girls were really excited knowing what was coming next. However, the first-years were not sure they knew what was about to happen. They only expected the line-up for the tournament with some strategies. "There will be a lot of talking right now. Firstly, I have an announcement and a reminder for you all. To begin with, starting in September, you will have another coach that will be working with me." They all cheered happily, excited to see who they were. "Your new coach will be able to fill in when I'm not here so Ichima won't have to give you the instructions the days I am not here."

Yuki leaned towards Akane and put her hands next to her mouth to signal her she wanted to ask something. "I've always wondered, why's the coach barely here?"

Akane followed her lead and leaned as well next to her to whisper her response. "She's taking care of other clubs as well so she's very busy. She coaches basketball and badminton every time she's not with us."

The shy girl looked surprised by all the work that her coach had to do. "It must be so tiring," she whispered to herself as she looked back in awe to the adult in front of her.

"I asked him to come today so he should be here so-"

Before she could finish her sentence, a voice cut her. Everyone turned towards the door to see a rather young man, probably in his twenties. He had mid-length brown hair with some locks on his face that were almost hiding his right eyes. He had a piercing on the edge on his left eyebrow which made him look a lot more mature. His eyes were very dark, like the sky at night. He had a small beard that was growing with a little mustache. He was wearing a simple white shirt and some sweatpants. He looked well-built and athletic as the muscles in his arms could clearly be seen. He was carrying a red backpack that almost fell over when he barged into the gym. Sweats were running down his forehead and he looked exhausted like he ran for quite some miles. He bowed his head when he saw everyone looking at him and went along with his introduction.

"Hello, everyone! My name is Chibana Masashirou! I am your future coach! I'm sorry for being late!" he yelled in the gym, his head still down. Yuuka stared at him like she was trying to analyze him. It was a habit she got from hanging out with Oikawa a lot. He was always observing people and he was very good at understanding them very quickly and at changing his attitude depending on their characters. From the look of it, he seemed like a very energetic guy who was not afraid to talk to a crowd. He did not seem nervous in front of them despite not knowing anyone. He looked up when he heard the coach Takasaka called for him to come next to her. He walked towards her with assertiveness. It was obvious that he knew what he was doing.

Once the two coaches were standing next to each other, Takasaka continued to talk. Chibana was a few centimeters taller than her. "Chibana-san will be observing for now with me and when the new Term starts, he will be coaching as well. He just graduated from college so he still lacks experience. That's why I will ask you all to be patient with him at first." Then, she turned back her head to the man next to her and gave him a smile. She asked him if he wanted to say anything more but he shook his head. "Alright then. Before you introduced yourselves, I wanted to remind all of you that you have a practice match later against Jozenji High. The team made it to the quarter-finals at the last Interhigh Qualifiers so you should not underestimate them." They all cheered and nodded after her explanation. Yuuka remembered seeing them play when they were waiting for their next match. They had amazing techniques.

"To finish off," the coach continued. "We'll make a point on your improvements today. That way, Chibana-san will be able to know a bit more about you." Everyone got excited. They liked this part of their coach's speech. Every time, before a tournament, she would take the time to list everyone's improvement and told them how much it affected their plays. "We'll start with our youngest player." The first year started to get nervous upon hearing that. They were the one that had to improve the most after all.

"Yamada Yuki!" the silver-haired setter stood up nervously and tried to keep her eyes on the coach. "Position: setter. As you never played in a team, you had a lot of things to improve on." The latter nodded, the blush rushing to her cheeks. "And it's clear that you are the one who made the most progress here. Despite your shyness, you were able to communicate easily with everyone and we could tell how dedicated you were. You are very good at analyzing the situation which is something that setters should be able to do quickly. If you continue like this, you'll become a great setter. Do not slack off."

Yuki could not stop herself from smiling after hearing her words and nodded vigorously as she sat back down. Akane nudged the older setter next to her with a smirk. "Careful, you have a rival now," she joked while laughing. Aoi only yawned and totally ignored her. The latter, annoyed, turned back to listen to the coach.

"Christiana Oliver." The Western girl stood up, excited to hear what was coming next. "Position: middle-blocker. Obviously, you are great for the position regarding how tall you are and you are able to use it at your advantage when blocking players. Your blocks are great and you always try to stay compose and match the opponent pace to stop them. Your attacks greatly improved as well and your back attacks are starting to get through. I can't wait to see you play in an official match."

"Yes! Thank you, coach!" The tall girl smiled happily and bowed before sitting down once again. She was fired up and readied to play the upcoming matches. Yuuka chuckled at her reaction. It was fairly easy to reach her.

"Hondashi Yanni!" The last youngest player stood up. She stood straight, her arms along her body. She tried to show that she was not nervous when it was obvious that she was. "Position: middle-blocker. We're lucky our second tallest player is as well playing a blocker position. You and Christiana are amazing at this, I think you are catching up with our Captain's level. You don't talk much and are quite a hot-head sometimes and you get the job done. The most remarkable thing is your services. You only started this year on jumping serves and you are able to get them, most of the time, right. Yuuka is the best person I know for teaching jumping serves. She taught Ryuu before you and she was able to quickly get the hand of it. But you improved much faster than I thought you would and you can be proud of that. You are a very consistent player and I know you'll do great in the future."

"Thank you, coach!" Yanni sat back down and tried to look stoic. However, Yuuka could clearly see that she was as excited as the others were. She wanted to tease her but she felt the captain's eyes on her back and quickly stopped all thoughts of teasing her poor underclasswoman.

"Kinshihirou Ana, position: libero. As always, you are quick-witted just like your sister. When you're not messing around with her," Ana could feel daggers stabbing her from behind. "You are able to show a top-tier level. You don't hesitate to jump in to save the ball and you always push yourself no matter how tired you are. That's some great quality so keep it up. However, stop messing around that much."

That coach started at her menacingly and the young libero felt more daggers making their way in her back. "Y-yes, coach," she said, almost apologizingly, as she sat back down. Everyone laughed at her, even her sister.

"You should not laugh, Sasha. You are the same," she added with a smile as she stared at the oldest sister. The latter looked away and instantly shut her mouth. The coach cleared her throat and focused back on the team. "Ryuu Akane, position: wing-spiker."

"Yes, Ma'am!" She stood up and waited impatiently.

"Great teamwork and communication with the team. Your straight line attacks are amazing and your cross attacks really improved a lot. Keep it up."

"Yes, coach! Thank you very much!" she bowed and sat down. Her eyes were shining and she had a slight blush on her cheeks. She did not need much to be fired up, she was quite simple-minded but that was her charm as well.

"Kinshihirou Sasha, position: libero," the oldest sister stood up, a bit nervous. "You are the best libero we ever had on this team. There are not many balls that go past you. Once on the court, you are scaringly quiet and focused compared to your usual self. I would love it if you were like that during practice as well but, you are the team's biggest defense so, I'm counting on you again this year."

Sasha smiled at the coach and nodded. "Yes, Ma'am! I'll do my best!"

"Kirua Aoi, position: setter. She's our vice-captain despite her lazy attitude," she explained to Chibana behind her. "Your synergy with everyone is as great as always and you were able to easily get on with our young player. You know how to exploit everyone's ability and do not hesitate is your movement. I just wished you were more fired up like Ryuu sometimes."

The setter only nodded and did not say anything back. She sat back and waited for the speech to finish. The coach sighed and went on.

"Ichima Mayu, position: spiker or middle-blocker. She is currently playing spiker as we have two middle-blocker. She is also the captain. As always, you are able to bring everyone together so well. You are the core of the team and it will be much harder for them to work so well together if you were not here. Your defense is amazing and your feints are always placed at the right time. Keep it up, captain."

"Yes, coach! Thank you!" Ichima sat back down and smiled. Yuuka gave her a thumbs-up and she gave her one back as well.

"Finally, Maeda Yuuka, position: spiker."

"Yes, coach!" Yuuka excitedly stood up.

The coach walked to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Keep it up." And she walked back.

The ace stood there for a second before opening her mouth. "W-what do you mean 'keep it up'?! There's nothing else to say?!"

"I mean," Akane started talking with one eyebrow raised. "You excel at everything so is there really anything to say?"

"You don't need to brag because you're a genius," Aoi said as she walked away.

"B-but! I know there's always room for improvement! Coach! Give me something!"

She thought for a moment before sighing and scribbling on her notebook. "I guess, you can work on your services so they are more precise."

"Alright! I'll do that!" Yuuka dashed towards the carts where all the balls were while screaming. "Now, I'm fired up!!"

Yanni clicked her tongue. "Yuubaka."

The girls walked to the court to continue to warm up before Jozenji's team arrived. Aoi and Yuki stood by the net and the two liberos were opposite to them to receive the balls. They trained one after the other for attacks. The two coaches sat at the bench and observed their training. "So," Takasaka started. "What do you think about the team right now?"

Chibana kept his gaze on them while answering her. "They seem to get along well and to count on each other which is key to a team-based sport. I feel like, they really look up to the oldest players, am I wrong?"

Takasaka shook her head. "They really respect them. After all, they are the greatest players this team ever had. Together, they reached the Nationals every time but never managed to reach the very top. Kirua seems very lazy and doesn't seem like she wants to be here but, she is quite a monster on the court. Her mind thinks of so many things at once, it's impossible to imagine. Sasha is quite impressive as well, I rarely saw her unable to receive an attack except for one person that keeps on surprising her. Ichima is a very reliable person and is good at whatever positions you put her in. And Yuuka, well... I don't know anyone who's as skilled as she is."

Chibana stared at the team for a few minutes before asking a new question. "However, something is bothering me. Why are there so few players when it is a national team?"

The head coach sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "There had been... a few problems last year. Despite going to the nationals, there used to be conflicts within the team. That's the reason why we did not participate in the second tournament last year."

"What happened?"

"It's a long story. But let's just say, there was a lot of jealously between the older players and the youngest. So, a lot of them have quit, not only the third year but the second year as well. Our actual third and second year that you see today is the remain of the team," she paused a bit as she continued to observe them. "I guessed many did not want to join a broken team. We're lucky enough to still be considered as one of the top schools." Chibana frowned a bit and observed the team once more. He did not seem to understand why they would be conflict within this cheerful team.

"It will be difficult next tournament without any replacement." The other coach nodded but she believed in her team. They just had to hope that no one would get hurt.

"Come at me, Yuuka!" Sasha's voice echoed in the gym. The two adults stopped talking for a moment to look at what was going on. Yuuka smirked and sent the ball to Aoi. Right after sending the ball, she sprinted to the net and jumped. Aoi looked annoyed and quickly got into position. She tossed the ball easily towards the spiker who was already at the net waiting. Yuuka spiked the ball before she knew it was coming and smashed it on the ground next to the libero. Sasha stood there in shock before frustration built up and she yelled at the ace to go for another one. The action went so fast that no one was really able to react.

"Wow! We did it! We actually did it!" Yuuka screamed in joy as she looked at her setter. "That was amazing, Aoi!"

Aoi slapped the top of her head, annoyingly, and glared at her. "I told you to signal me before! We're not ready to make that kind of thing yet!"

"B-but we did it!"

"Yes! Out of a million tries!"

Mayu chuckled nervously as she looked at the duo. "I know she wanted to do like Kageyama and his friend but god, I never knew she would be able to do something close enough."

"What was that?!" wondered the new coach.

Takasaka stared at them, shocked as well. "Ichima and Yuuka told me that the boy's team they went to last time had some crazy fast attack and that Yuuka wanted to give it a try but, I never thought she would be able to do it."

"Excuse us!" a new voice echoed in the gym. Everyone turned towards the door the see a team with yellow jerseys standing there. "We're here for the practice match."

Yuuka smirked and turned to Aoi once again. "It's time to try it out in a match."

Aoi sighed. "I suppose I have no other choice."