The morning after Kenichi's announcement, Ryu woke up to find a handwritten schedule taped to his pillow.
OPERATION: MAKE RYU NOT TERRIBLEDays remaining: 20Instructor: KenichiStudent: Ryu (Professional Ball Magnet)Goal: Basic competency without causing property damage
Week 1: Foundation Building (Or: How to Hit the Ball Forward)
Day 1: Serving (Target: The net, not the fence)Day 2: Receiving (Target: Any direction that isn't backwards)Day 3: Setting (Target: Actual volleyball technique)Day 4: Spiking (Target: Not your own face)Day 5: Basic positioning (Target: Standing in the right spots)Day 6-7: Review and damage control
Week 2: Intermediate Skills (Or: Decreasing the Comedy Factor)
Day 8-10: Serve variations (Float, topspin, jump serve)Day 11-12: Defensive positioning and readingDay 13-14: Offensive strategies and timing
Week 3: Advanced Concepts (Or: Desperate Last-Ditch Efforts)
Day 15-17: Game situations and decision makingDay 18-19: Everything I forgot to teach youDay 20: Final exam (And emotional goodbyes)
"This looks ominous," Ryu said, studying the schedule while Kenichi gathered their practice equipment.
"Ominous? This is optimistic," Kenichi replied cheerfully. "I originally titled it 'Mission Impossible: Volleyball Edition' but decided that might hurt your confidence."
"What's the difference between basic competency and not terrible?"
"About forty points on every stat, but we're aiming low to avoid disappointment."
Day 1: Serving Spectacular Failures
"Alright," Kenichi said, standing at the service line with his usual patient expression. "Today we're going to master the basic serve. Notice I said 'basic' - we're not attempting anything fancy."
"What counts as fancy?" Ryu asked, bouncing the volleyball experimentally.
"Anything that requires the ball to go where you want it to."
Ryu's first serve sailed majestically over the net, over the fence, and directly into Mrs. Tanaka's vegetable garden next door. They heard a startled yelp followed by some very creative language.
"Well," Kenichi said thoughtfully, "it had excellent distance."
"Should we apologize?"
"Let's see if she throws it back first."
The volleyball came flying back over the fence with considerably more force than Ryu's serve, accompanied by Mrs. Tanaka's voice: "Keep your balls in your own yard, you little delinquents!"
"I think she's warming up to us," Kenichi said, ducking as the ball whizzed past his head.
By the end of the session, Ryu had managed to hit the net four times, the fence twice, and had actually gotten one serve to land in the opponent's court. Kenichi declared it a massive victory.
Day 2: Receiving Reality Check
"Receiving is about positioning, timing, and platform angle," Kenichi explained, demonstrating the proper stance. "Think of your arms as a board that redirects the ball where you want it to go."
"What if my board is broken?"
"Then we'll work with warped wood and hope for the best."
Kenichi's first serve came over in a gentle arc. Ryu positioned himself carefully, arms locked together, eyes on the ball. He made contact... and somehow sent it straight up into the air, where it got stuck in the basketball hoop twenty feet away.
They both stared at the ball in confused silence.
"How?" Kenichi asked, his voice filled with genuine bewilderment. "The physics don't work. The angle was impossible."
"Maybe I'm developing superpowers?"
"If your superpower is making volleyballs defy gravity, you might want to consider a career in entertainment rather than sports."
Day 4: The Spiking Disaster
"Spiking is about timing, approach, and contact point," Kenichi explained, tossing up a perfect set. "Watch my footwork - left, right, left, then jump."
He demonstrated a textbook spike that hit the court with satisfying force.
"Your turn," he said, setting up another ball.
Ryu approached with determination, his footwork surprisingly decent for once. He jumped at the right time, swung his arm in the correct motion, and made solid contact with the ball.
The volleyball ricocheted off his hand, flew backward over his own head, and somehow ended up wedged between two fence posts.
"I give up," Ryu said, flopping down on the court. "I'm volleyball-cursed."
"Cursed? No way." Kenichi sat down beside him, pulling out his worn copy of Haikyuu. "Look at this panel - Hinata trying to spike for the first time. See how he completely whiffs?"
"That's not encouraging."
"But look at this one," Kenichi flipped a few pages. "Same character, six months later. Growth happens, Ryu. Sometimes it just takes longer than we'd like."
Day 7: First Week Review
"Let's review what we've learned," Kenichi said, consulting his notes.
"I've learned that volleyballs hate me personally," Ryu said gloomily.
"Nonsense. You've made significant progress. For instance, you now consistently hit the ball when you serve."
"Into the wrong areas."
"But you're hitting it! That's fifty percent of the battle right there."
"What's the other fifty percent?"
"Direction, power, placement, strategy, timing, and not giving Mrs. Tanaka any more reasons to yell at us."
"That's more than fifty percent."
"I've never been good at math."
Day 10: The Float Serve Fiasco
"Float serves are all about contact," Kenichi demonstrated, hitting the ball with a firm, flat palm. The serve wobbled unpredictably through the air. "No spin, just pure, confusing movement."
Ryu watched the ball's erratic path with fascination. "It's like it can't decide where to go."
"Exactly! Now you try."
Ryu tossed the ball up, stepped forward, and hit it with what he thought was proper technique. The ball spun wildly through the air, curved in a perfect arc, and somehow managed to go through the basketball hoop and get stuck in the fence at the same time.
"That's not physically possible," Kenichi said, staring at the ball in amazement.
"Should I put it on my resume? 'Special skills: Defying physics with volleyball'?"
"At this point, I think you should."
Day 12: Reading the Game
"Volleyball is chess with a ball," Kenichi explained, drawing diagrams in the dirt. "You need to read the other team's tendencies, predict their moves, and position yourself accordingly."
"What if I can't even read where my own ball is going?"
"Then we'll start with reading picture books and work our way up."
They spent the session with Kenichi calling out different scenarios while Ryu tried to position himself correctly. It went about as well as expected.
"Opponent is setting their outside hitter," Kenichi called out.
Ryu ran to the left side of the court.
"I said outside hitter, not outside linebacker. You're supposed to be ready to dig, not tackle someone."
"In my defense, the terminology is confusing."
Day 15: Game Situations
"Today we're simulating actual game scenarios," Kenichi announced. "I'll be the entire opposing team, you'll be... well, you."
"That seems unfair."
"Life is unfair. Volleyball is just preparation for that reality."
They practiced different situations - serve receive, free ball coverage, transition plays. Ryu's improvement was measurable in that he no longer sent every ball into neighboring yards, but his success rate was still somewhere between "optimistic" and "delusional."
"At least you're consistent," Kenichi offered after Ryu's seventh consecutive attempt to dig a spike ended with the ball hitting the fence.
"Consistently terrible."
"Consistently improving! Yesterday you hit the fence twelve times. Today it was only seven."
"That's... actually encouraging?"
"See? Progress is relative."
Day 17: Panic Teaching
"Okay, we're running out of time," Kenichi said, his usual calm demeanor showing cracks. "There are seventeen things I still need to teach you, and two days to do it."
"What seventeen things?"
Kenichi pulled out a list that was somehow three pages long. "Blocking footwork, defensive rotations, offensive systems, serving strategy, psychological warfare, proper nutrition, equipment maintenance, injury prevention..."
"Psychological warfare?"
"Very important. Sometimes you need to intimidate opponents with your sheer unpredictability."
"I don't think that's intentional."
"Even better! They'll never see it coming because you don't know what's coming either."
Day 18: Everything Else
"Time for rapid-fire education," Kenichi announced. "I'm going to teach you everything I can think of in no particular order. Ready?"
"No."
"Perfect. Lesson one: Always warm up properly. Lesson two: Keep your eye on the ball at all times. Lesson three: Communication is key - call for every ball. Lesson four: Stay low in defensive position. Lesson five..."
The information came at Ryu like a fire hose. Hand positions, foot positions, body positions, mental positions. Strategies for serving, receiving, attacking, and defending. Rules, regulations, and referee signals. Equipment care and court etiquette.
By the end of the session, Ryu's head was spinning.
"Did you get all that?" Kenichi asked hopefully.
"I retained approximately seven percent."
"Which seven percent?"
"The part about staying low and not hitting Mrs. Tanaka's garden."
"Those might be the most important parts anyway."
Day 19: Advanced Theory and Emergency Wisdom
"Today we're covering the mental game," Kenichi said, spreading out several notebooks filled with his observations. "Volleyball isn't just physical - it's psychological, strategic, emotional."
"That sounds complicated."
"Everything worthwhile is complicated. That's what makes it interesting."
They spent the morning discussing team dynamics, communication patterns, and reading opponents' body language. Kenichi showed him how to identify a setter's tendencies, how to predict where a spiker would attack based on their approach angle, and how to use positioning to influence the opponent's choices.
"See, volleyball is like a conversation," Kenichi explained, drawing stick figures on the court with chalk. "Every move you make is saying something to the other team. Every position you take is asking a question or giving an answer."
"What if I don't speak volleyball yet?"
"Then you learn by listening first. Watch how experienced players move, how they communicate, how they solve problems. Eventually, you'll start to understand the language."
In the afternoon, they worked on what Kenichi called "emergency skills" - the things Ryu would need to know if he ever found himself in a real game situation.
"Basic serve receive formation," Kenichi demonstrated, placing imaginary players around the court. "You're here, your teammates are here and here. The serve comes, you pass it to here, the setter runs the offense."
"What if my pass doesn't go to 'here'?"
"Then you improvise. Volleyball is chaos barely contained by rules and good intentions."
They practiced emergency sets - what to do when the regular setter couldn't get to the ball, how to call for help when you were out of position, and the fine art of keeping the ball alive no matter what.
"Remember," Kenichi said as they worked on desperate save techniques, "ugly volleyball is still volleyball. A point scored with terrible form counts just as much as a perfect spike."
"So my specialty could be ugly volleyball?"
"Your specialty could be whatever keeps your team in the game. Some players are artists, some are craftsmen, some are just stubbornly effective."
Day 20: Final Exam and Farewell Preparations
"Today we find out if any of the past twenty days actually stuck," Kenichi announced, setting up a comprehensive skills test. "We're going to run through everything - serving, receiving, setting, spiking, basic strategy."
"What if I fail?"
"Then we'll know what to work on when I visit during breaks."
The skills test was... revealing. Ryu's serves now had a roughly sixty percent chance of crossing the net and landing in bounds, which represented massive improvement. His receiving was still erratic, but the balls were generally going forward instead of backward. His setting looked like actual volleyball technique, even if the results were inconsistent. And his spiking had evolved from "dangerous to self and others" to merely "unpredictable."
"Well?" Ryu asked nervously as Kenichi tallied the results.
"You've definitely learned things," Kenichi said diplomatically. "Your form has improved dramatically, your understanding of the game is solid, and you only hit yourself in the face twice during the entire test."
"Is that good?"
"Considering you used to hit yourself in the face six times per practice session, yes."
They spent the final hour of their last practice session just playing - not drilling specific skills or working on technique, but simply hitting the ball back and forth, enjoying the rhythm of the game and each other's company.
"You know what I'll miss most?" Kenichi said as they collected the balls for the last time.
"What?"
"Your complete inability to do anything the normal way. You've taught me that there are at least seventeen different ways to serve a volleyball, most of which shouldn't be physically possible."
"I'm an innovator."
"You're definitely something."
As they walked back to the building, Kenichi pulled a small notebook from his bag. "I have something for you," he said, handing it to Ryu. "It's everything I taught you, written down. Drills, techniques, strategy notes, even some of the physics explanations that went over your head."
Ryu opened the notebook to find page after page of detailed instructions, complete with diagrams and encouraging notes in the margins.
"You made this for me?"
"I've been working on it every night after you went to sleep. That way, even after I'm gone, you'll have something to refer to when you practice."
"Thank you. For everything. For teaching me, for protecting me, for being my friend."
"That's what friends do, Ryu. They look out for each other." Kenichi's voice grew softer. "And this isn't goodbye forever. Shiratorizawa isn't on another planet - I'll write letters, maybe visit during breaks. And someday, when you're playing for your high school team, I'll be in the stands cheering you on."
"You really think I'll make a high school team?"
"I think you'll do whatever you set your mind to. You've got more determination than anyone I've ever met, and that counts for a lot in volleyball."
That evening, instead of their usual practice session, Kenichi spent time making sure his replacement plan would work. He'd already spoken to Mrs. Hayashi about establishing a formal volleyball club for interested residents, with older kids teaching younger ones. It wasn't the same as having a dedicated mentor, but it would give Ryu and others a structured way to continue learning.
"Koji's actually pretty good at basic serves," Kenichi noted, reviewing his observations. "And Takeshi understands strategy better than most kids his age, even if he's been too angry to show it lately."
"What about Hiroto?"
"Hiroto's got good instincts for reading the game. If he can channel his energy into volleyball instead of causing trouble, he might actually be helpful."
They discussed the dynamics of the group, how to handle conflicts, and what resources would be available after Kenichi left. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing.
"Promise me you'll keep practicing," Kenichi said as they prepared for bed. "Even when it's frustrating, even when the balls don't go where you want them to, even when other people don't understand why you care so much about this sport."
"I promise."
"And promise me you'll find your team. Not necessarily here, but somewhere. Volleyball is meant to be played with others."
"I promise that too."
That night, Ryu lay in his bunk reading through Kenichi's notebook by flashlight. Every page was filled with careful instructions and encouraging comments: "Remember to follow through on your serve!" "Don't forget to call for the ball!" "You're improving every day!"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
[Current Status:]
[Host: Yukitaka Izumi (Soul: Ryu Miyamoto)]
[Level: 1 (11/100 XP)]
[Skill Points Available: 0]
—
[Stats:]
- Serving: 2/100
- Receiving: 1/100
- Setting: 3/100
- Spiking: 0/100
- Blocking: 0/100
- Stamina: 15/100
- Jump Height: 28/100
- Game Sense: 15/100
—
[Abilities:]
- Empathic Connection (Level 1) - Active
- Critical Strike (Level 1) - Locked
—
[Active Quests:]
- Daily: Complete 1 hour of focused volleyball practice (Deadline: 4 hours)
- Tutorial: Successfully receive 10 serves in a row (No deadline)
- Main: Find Your Team (Deadline: 30 days)
—
[Status Effects:]
- Memory Integration (60% Completed) - (Processing orphanage training period)
- Identity Crisis - Severe guilt and emotional distress (6 hours)
- Family Bonding - Enhanced emotional connection, +10% XP gain from family activities (56 hours remaining)
- Emergency Sleep Mode - Forced rest for mental stability (Completed)