Author Note: Thanks to 'TotalApathy' and 'Sage Emperor of the Heavens' for agreeing to support me. If you would like to support me on 'P.A.T.R.E.O.N' (without the dots) and get your voice heard along with the added perk of being the first to see the next chapter before everybody else.
My ID is 'Chachingmel', let's finish this story together.
I do not own Haikyuu!
Enjoy!
Raanan was surprised to find out that he wasn't the first one here, when he was suddenly called by the coach at five in the morning.
Apparently, the coach was very effective with threats so half of the team showed up, half a sleep.
It was then he noticed, that they were all crowding around something, he pushed himself to the front of the line to see a note that was apparently from coach.
'Good morning, Team.
Practise will start on the beach at 7 am, anybody who is found to be late will have to run around the beach for half an hour.
You are forbidden from using any form of transportation to get to the beach.
Good luck'
There was silence.
Half of the people here weren't even aware enough to realise the full extent of what they were reading.
The beach?
Wait.
Wasn't the nearest beach, 2 hours, if you walked?
Raanan had known the man for long enough to realise he was serious.
He really wanted them to run all the way to the beach.
Well, he wasn't going to serve the punishment.
So, he turned around and began to run.
Running all the way to the beach.
Seeing him run, everybody realised the note in front of them was serious.
They were running at 5 in the morning.
Ch 7: The destabilisation of the team.
If it wasn't for his previous hellish training, Raanan would have collapsed the moment he hit the beach instead of breathing heavy.
To his surprise, the coach stood in nothing but a T-shirt and shorts, behind him were the pumped-up Russian Olympic Volleyball team.
"Almost there" Said, a voice that surprised him, he turned around to find Jonathan barely sweating coming down the steps onto the beach.
He whipped off his sweat.
"Phew, that was a good work out." The guy said.
"Your name is Jonathan Joseph, right?" The coach said.
"Yes" The guy said, looking proud of himself, what the coach said next shocked him.
"Start running up and down the beach, for thirty minutes"
"What!?" He said.
"Do you think, I didn't see you on the camera's, getting out of a car near the beach?" The coach said.
Jonathan gapped.
So that's why he was so fast. Raanan thought, for a moment there, he thought Jonathan had training like him.
"So, get running" The coach said, while the guys behind laughed.
"Damn it" Jonathan said, does the man realise how big the beach is!? And yet he was told to run.
Somebody took out a stop watch to count down.
Unfortunately, it wasn't just Jonathan who thought of this idea.
The members of the team were rich and looked for every opportunity to be lazy, they didn't count on the Principle himself giving the coach excess to the nearby cameras to catch them if they tried to cheat.
More than half of the team were forced to run when they arrived, getting some real exercise out of them.
In no time at all, the time was 7 in the morning, anybody who came later was made to run for half an hour and sit in mid squat for another hour.
A very brutal punishment for not being fast enough and a lot of them even barfed.
"Alright team" The coach said, "Take off your shoes and socks. Today we'll be practising on the sand"
Nobody had the strength to complain, in fact taking off their shoes and socks was met with relief.
The feeling of the sand between their toes was very welcoming.
Then the Coach blow the whistle to snap them back to horrid reality.
Then the Coach divided Them into two groups.
The Russian team was divided into two groups.
They all found out why this was so when they saw the two courts.
Raanan was put into group A.
Every fifteen minute's they were mad to swap courts.
They all quickly found out just how difficult it was to not just running barefoot on sand but playing a volleyball game on it.
But to everybody shock, the Russian team did not seem effected all, compared to everybody else who was stumbling.
Even Raanan was stumbling but ever since he was adopted, he didn't spend the rest of his very privileged two years just doing nothing.
Ever since his adopted parents hired the man, he had been running frequently with bare feet.
Running on cold hard stone floor, that no doubt had bumps and forced him to use different parts of his feet that he normal won't when running.
That experience was starting to kick in, making the Coach hide a secret smile before looked at the mess that was the whole picture.
It wasn't uncommon to see one or two members of the team slip and fall on their back, or worse, smack into each other.
But to his surprise Raanan wasn't the only one who was getting the hang of it.
Steef Hoppen was doing pretty well, as well.
From his data on the guy, he saw that he usually did yoga, so it was only natural that his balance was a lot better than a lot of guys on the team.
If he tripped and was about to fall, he used his balance to get grounded.
Looks, like I've found my Libero. Coach Bukin Jaromir Aleskeevich thought, he know it was important for a Libero to have a great sense of gravity, if the shorty could learn how to receive and pass a ball, a great Libero may be born to be the backbone of the team.
"CHANGE!" He yelled, the two teams from the school, began to swap courts, however they quickly learnt that their new opponent wasn't going to wait for them to walk to the sandy court.
The Russian team threw the ball over the net.
Forcing them to go beyond their safe walking speed to catch up, it wasn't surprising that only Raanan managed to get there in time, the other court was not so lucky, though.
The Russians were honestly surprised by Raanan quickness on the sand, he suddenly appeared from nowhere.
This guy...isn't he some kind of monster? One of the Russian players thought.
If they weren't careful, they could meet this guy at the next Olympic Volleyball Court.
It was no surprise that Raanan team lost, they simply weren't as skilled as him.
But they were learning.
Having the best in the world show you, how to play Volleyball meant that they would naturally pick up a much better posture then an average Volleyball team.
They were no longer, the guys who just stood on the court and did nothing as their opponents easily made point after point.
Raanan honestly thought things were going good until...
"F*UCK THIS SHIT!"
Everybody was started.
The person who shouted was Bradigon, the back-up setter.
Everybody looked at the guy in surprise.
"Is there something wrong, Mr Malone?" The Coach said.
"YES, THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG!" Bradigon said. "I can't do this no more!"
Silence.
"Every day, I come home in pain and throw up." He said, many could relate to that. " I can't even sit down straight. Even my learning is being affected, because, I'm too tired to do anything! And for what!?"
Silence.
"I say let the Principle bust me for how much I've spend on the club's card and disband the club!" He said. "Because at least, whatever punishment my parents dish out won't be nearly as bad as what I'm going through right now. Why are we even trying so hard when we we'll never catch up"
Startling most of the team.
"Don't you all realise it, yet?" He said, "We're not up against, out of shape rich folks like us. The people we will face, have years of experience in Volleyball! They will be People who had been on the Olympic team. Chosen for All Japan Youth and now they can call themselves the very best in the country. Do you think we have a chance in hell against those people?! What do we have, except for Raanan?!"
Everybody looked at the emotionless teen.
"There is no background on him playing in Volleyball match and yet why is he this strong!?" He said, revealing that he had done a background check on him. "It's called natural inborn talent. Nobody else has that, so why should we kill our self's trying to compete with somebody who had a head start from the very beginning?"
Yes, why should they?
Bradigon had said what most of them were thinking.
Was disbanding the Volleyball team really such a bad idea?
Could any punishment be worth this hell, they were forced themselves into?
They weren't Raanan who seemed to be good at everything, without even trying.
Then Bradigon began to leave.
"Mr Malone. I didn't dismiss you" The coach said.
The answer he got was a very ungentlemanly like, middle finger.
And it wasn't just Bradigon who left, many of them looked at each other and began to leave, soon what was once 20 had slim down to 11 in seconds.
Raanan was now worried about his new debut into the Volleyball world.
The next few days, only 11 people showed up for practise, only 11 people kept at it.
The coach was well aware, that if nothing changed on the day of the match, the team was screwed because they needed far more substations to survive a whole game especially one with high pressure.
"Hey, what are we going to eat tonight?" Bradigon said, his body was stiff but he wasn't in pain anymore.
He and his former team mates, decided to go out and buy something from the nearby town, wanting to walk to get their stiff bodies working again.
"Don't really care, as long as there is something warm in my stomach" Said, one guy.
This was the life.
No waking up at an unholy time, forced to run for several hours.
No falling face first into sand.
No being constantly hit by a ball that felt like a hammer to catch.
Their skin was clean for the rest of the day.
And then somebody saw something.
"Hey, isn't that Raanan running over there?" One of them said.
"Where?" Bradigon said, "That's impossible"
Practise has long been over, what kind of crazy person wouldn't just leave?
But when they all looked, they found out it was indeed Raanan, they would all recognise the emotionless eyes anywhere and he was indeed running.
The Raanan who barely sweated in the times they saw him, was now drenched in an incredible amount of sweat.
Then they finally noticed the launcher near him, it was launching Volleyballs at a much faster speed then an average human arm can throw.
He was getting pummelled but instead of shying away or setting the launcher to a much lower speed, he faced it had on, trying his best to catch up to each ball one after the other.
He was bruised and battered but he was still standing strong.
Watching him, was kind of alluring.
They couldn't help but wonder what was driving him to do this, even after practise had finished and everybody had gone back to their rooms and was most likely having a very fancy dinner.
They felt the incredible urge to join him.
Even when he was illusion Hinata, the ability to push somebody to their max and beyond did not come from thin air.
And was he having fun?
Everybody was confused, even though he wasn't smiling nobody could mistake the fire in his eyes whenever he managed to catch a ball.
It made their blood boil.
It felt like watching a person who had found their purpose in life.
What the hell where they doing with their lives?
#The Next day#
Coach Bukin Jaromir Aleskeevich sighed, watching Raanan and some others being forced to train at the side lines because they didn't have enough people to have another match alongside the other one.
Those who didn't play where trained by one of the best teams in the world.
For Raanan he was taught a high level technique that involved making the ball go into an entirely different direction then, where his palm was facing.
It was no surprise that he was having trouble learning while everybody was brushing up on their fundamental's.
Then they heard something strange.
The sound of running feet and heavy breathing, they turned and was surprised to see the guys who had quit.
"I thought you guy's quit" The coach said, "Aren't you supposed to be curled up in your luxurious bed right now?"
This was certain awkward.
But before anyone of them could open their mouth, the man said.
"Well, don't just stand there! Get, running! I don't want to hear any excuses. If you're here, you're here"
Everybody was surprised, before smiling and doing what he asked.
Raanan wasn't sure what happened but it looked like the hole in the team was healing.
And if it was healing, then that meant his plans were back on track.
Soon he would return to a place, he had abandoned years ago.
And scene!
Next chapter, it a few days until the match and the team crowds around the line-up, only to discover something shocking. Raanan isn't playing. Unfortunately, the next chapter won't be released until I have 5 P.A.T.R.E.O.N.S (without the dots). I've decided to take a Hiatus. Who knows? It might take a year to several years, depending on how many people want the next chapter badly enough.
If you're interested in becoming one of the remaining three P.A.T.R.E.O.N.S (without the dots) needed for the next chapter, my P.A.T.R.E.O.N (without the dots) ID is 'Chachingmel'.
See you in some years.
