The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

An awkward silence descended among all the people present as everyone stared speechlessly at the girl who had just rudely barged into the room. After a few seconds passed, it was Riku who finally broke the silence with his casual comment.

"Not wasting time to ask how he is and going straight to the point? Wow, a real dick move, Sugawara-senpai. A real dick move, indeed."

Yes, the girl was Arina Sugawara, the third-year princess student whom Yuki had just befriended in the last few weeks. Yuki was curious, though. Based on what Riku had just said, it seemed they were no strangers to each other. However, aside from the meeting with the volleyball club, he couldn't recall those two interacting openly like this.

'Maybe it's a popular student thing,' he thought.

"A D-D-Di-Di-!" Arina Sugawara stuttered, her face flushed from Riku's crude choice of words. Poor girl; she didn't even know how to repeat it properly—too pure to be tainted by Riku's crudeness.

Fortunately, Kato came to the rescue, slapping Riku's shoulder a bit hard. "Don't say such crude words to a lady, okay?"

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"Ouch! What the hell, Kato-san?! Where did you learn to be so violent? You act more like a gorilla than a lady! Ouch! Stop it, woman!" The blonde boy tried his best to avoid Kato's flying hand.

Mitsuki couldn't help but giggle; she always found it funny to see her shy daughter keep the two boys in line. Although Arina Sugawara's face was still red from embarrassment, she also let out a small giggle, finding the situation amusing. In the end, Riku huffed, rubbing his shoulder dramatically while throwing a playful glare at the girl.

"How can you still exert so much strength while sitting in a wheelchair?" he complained.

Yuki blinked a few times as his friend's words didn't register in his mind immediately. However, after everything sunk in, he finally realized what had been bothering him since his guests arrived an hour ago. "Kato-san, you use a wheelchair?" he asked in surprise.

All eyes turned to him immediately, and seeing the confusion on Yuki's face, Riku seized the opportunity to mock his friend. "Wow, Yuki, I know you just had an incident yesterday, but I would never think your brain would deteriorate to the point where your attention span is worse than that of a dull goldfish. It's so sad, you know?"

Silence fell once again in the room, and everyone stared at the blonde boy in disbelief. However, unlike before, this awkward situation was broken by the muffled giggles of the girl, which quickly turned into full laughter from everyone. Even Yuki couldn't suppress a smile, having to admit it was a clever joke—a rarity from his blonde friend.

After a while, the laughter subsided, and Kato turned to Yuki with an amused smile, answering his earlier question. "Yes, Yuki-kun, I am using a wheelchair. Even though the sprain isn't that painful anymore, my mom still insists that I use it." She rolled her eyes exasperatedly at her mom.

"I'm just worried that you aren't fully recovered, dear. Please bear with it," Mitsuki replied with a smile.

Kato sighed helplessly, her expression seemingly saying, 'See?', which elicited a chuckle from Yuki.

"Anyway!" Kato suddenly turned her head to Arina Sugawara. "Back to the topic: although it was wrong for Riku to use those crude words, senpai, you need to be more sensitive! You cannot just barge into a hospital room without asking about the patient's condition first and go straight to business like this, you know?"

"A-ah! I'm sorry!" Arina Sugawara flustered. "I heard the way you bickered from outside, and I assumed that Kobayashi-kun was okay. But it's still rude of me to do so! I'm sorry!" She bowed awkwardly.

Kato sighed and said, "Well, don't do that again, okay?"

Yuki chuckled softly, finding the situation amusing. Kato, who was usually shy around new people, turned 180 degrees among those she was comfortable with and became quite assertive. Just like now, even Yuki, the one who was the actual patient, had no chance to say anything as she scolded Arina Sugawara and Riku mercilessly for being rude. This was a side of her he had never seen before.

"So, do you want to know what happened yesterday? Shouldn't you, I don't know, inquire about it directly to Kato?" he asked curiously.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Noticing that the conversation had shifted back to yesterday's incident, everyone grew somber. Arina Sugawara shook her head in response. "No, this is the first time I've seen you both since yesterday. Before this, I visited the other students first to make sure they were okay."

"Wait!" Yuki frowned, interrupting her explanation. "What do you mean by visiting the other students? Were there any injuries?"

"Physically, none. Just you," she shook her head. "But mentally, almost everyone has experienced some trauma from it, and I can't blame them. The incident yesterday was very frightening, even for me. I could still see you leaving to search for Kato-chan in my dreams. Everything felt like a nightmare, and I know a lot of students feel the same way."

Yuki nodded thoughtfully at her explanation. After pondering for a moment, he finally detailed what had happened, from his suspicion about the strong smell of alcohol to his quick reaction upon hearing the emergency alarm, and up to the point where he couldn't find Kato in the crowd.

Even though he told the story in the flattest tone possible, it was still enough to affect the mood in the room. Yuki noticed Riku held his breath unconsciously, and Mitsuki gripped her daughter's hand tightly when he recounted how he had carried the girl on his back as he ran, despite his condition worsening with every passing second.

After he finished his story, there was another moment of silence as everyone looked at him in disbelief. Riku finally shook his head before speaking with a tone full of awe. "Man, don't take this the wrong way, please. But I'm glad you experienced the shittiest disaster in Japan a few months ago. If it weren't for your calmness during the incident, I'm sure I wouldn't be able to laugh at you and Kato-san today."

Mitsuki nodded in agreement, her face paling as if all the blood had drained from her head. The image of her daughter being carried by the boy in front of her was insane, but knowing he had done it while his vision was impaired and his breathing was compromised was too much to handle. She grabbed her daughter's hand tightly, trying to reassure herself that her daughter was here and okay.

As for Arina Sugawara, her expression turned solemn before she rose from her seat and bowed deeply. "I'm sorry! My incompetence yesterday almost cost you both your lives. If only I could have held Kato-chan's hand tighter…" She clenched her fists.

"Eh… No need to fuss over it. It's over already," Yuki waved his hand nonchalantly.

However, Arina Sugawara disagreed. She shook her head and pulled out the newspaper that he had also read before they came. "No, it's not over yet. Now, we need to discuss this."