The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

"Wait, what?!" It wasn't Yuki who reacted first, but his blonde friend. Riku rose from his seat, his eyes widened as he looked at his uncle as if he didn't know him at all. "What do you mean by cleansing our school of their influence, Jiisan? Why is this the first time I've ever heard about it? Also, have you already told Mom about it? If you keep her out of the loop, she will be livid, you know?!" He barraged his uncle with questions in one breath.

Akira cringed, imagining his sister, Riku's mother, sending her wrath upon him because he hadn't told her anything about this. Still, he didn't want to show any weakness, so he just coughed and shrugged it off as if it were nothing.

"Don't worry; I will tell your mother about it later," said the mustached man.

Yuki stared at his uncle skeptically before finally saying, "Well, if you say so."

"Anyway, back to the point!" Akira coughed again. "It's not just me who wants to cleanse the school of the Maiko Group's influence; some of the teachers do too. For example, Iida-sensei, who teaches Japanese, Suzuki-sensei, who teaches math, and even Miyazawa-sensei, who is the advisor of the chemistry club. Do you want to know why?" he asked.

Yuki pondered for a moment before a lightbulb clicked in his mind. "Because you all are the advisors of the old clubs that were disbanded due to the purge," he whispered.

"Exactly!" Akira nodded. "It's not that we disagree with the reason for the purge; the policy of the old clubs was problematic. As a result, just like the headmaster said, we couldn't produce anything and just wasted the school's money for fun. So, after thinking it over, we decided to try again to establish formal clubs with clear goals, whether for the short term or even the long term. Unfortunately, we were still rejected by the school board."

"Why?" Riku asked, confused. In his mind, what Akira and the other teachers did was remarkable and convincing enough to reopen the old clubs. There had to be something wrong with the higher-ups if they still rejected the proposal.

"Well, it's because of the Maiko Group's involvement," Akira said helplessly. "They are the biggest sponsor of our school at the moment, and they have significant influence over how the school runs its policies. It would be fine if they didn't want to get too involved, but they are determined to see no sports clubs or hobby clubs at the school, thinking they are just a waste of time. Unfortunately, some of the higher-ups at our school are also old-school teachers, so they agreed with the Maiko Group's demands in a heartbeat."

"So, you just want to uproot the group's influence from the school, right? Then how come you are involved in this conspiracy?" Yuki asked.

"Because, after digging around last week, I discovered a terrible fact: they exploited numerous loopholes to gain cheap labor in the form of internships for the students who graduated from the schools they sponsor. I knew that if I didn't do anything, it would be you who would suffer next, so I couldn't just stand by and wait until you were in trouble to take action," he scowled.

When Yuki heard his sensei say that, he suddenly remembered a particular girl who investigated this issue much earlier than Akira. 'Maybe I should introduce him to Sugawara-senpai,' he thought.

"So, that led you to him?" Riku asked, pointing at Shingo Narita.

It was a bit rude, if Yuki had to say so, and by the frown on Akira's face, it seemed his old coach also agreed. Still, since Riku and Yuki didn't really know Shingo Narita, Akira let it slide and just nodded. "Yes. Coincidentally, Narita-kun also feels there is something wrong with his company, and we decided to team up and investigate this matter together. After snooping around for a week or more, here we are, listening to your story about the incident three days ago," he concluded.

Yuki had a sweat drop on his forehead, knowing it shouldn't be as simple as that. In his mind, they were both adults with their own responsibilities, and there was no way they would open up to each other so quickly without any resistance. He could imagine them both playing cat and mouse, hiding information from each other as secret weapons to be revealed to the public when things didn't go as they wanted. Experience more tales on empire

However, as things spiraled in his mind, Yuki quickly shook it off, smiling incredulously. "Yeah, it's not a movie, so there's no way what happened between those two could be so dramatic," he chuckled inwardly.

Little did Yuki know, though, that he was closer to the truth than he realized.

"So, what are you planning to do next?" he couldn't help but ask.

Akira and Shingo Narita exchanged glances before shrugging. "Well, I will report it to the authorities and hope the company will implement some changes and not cross the line like this again," the younger man said.

"As for me, I will use this incident and the evidence I found before to pressure the school to sever its relationship with the Maiko Group. Hopefully, it will go smoothly, and we won't have to do this detective work anymore," Akira added, as it seemed he hadn't enjoyed his time investigating this matter over the past few days.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Before you do that, may I offer a suggestion?" Yuki suddenly asked, capturing the adults' attention. "You might want to discuss this with Sugawara-senpai, as she and the other members of the old student council have also been investigating the Maiko Group over the past few weeks. I'm sure you'd find their findings interesting."

Shingo Narita turned to Akira, not knowing who this Sugawara-senpai was. Akira merely hummed, contemplating while twirling his mustache. Everyone could hear him muttering, "Sugawara-san is a smart girl, and I know the other members as well. Although I don't know if they found anything crucial, it's still worth mentioning. I think we should try to visit her too, Narita-kun."

"Well, if you say so," the younger man shrugged.

After exchanging small talk for a while, the two adults finally left, but not before hoping for Yuki to recover quickly. Once everything was settled, Yuki and Riku stared at each other, still struggling to process all the explanations they had heard in the last thirty minutes.

In the end, Yuki took a deep sigh and smiled faintly at his friend. "Why does life seem to be so complicated like this? Man, I miss when what we worried about most was another set of interval runs, rather than a conspiracy like this."

"Me too, Yuki. Me too," Riku sighed.