The euphoria of being welcomed by Daichi and the others vanished as soon as the group returned to focusing on training. I had been assigned a corner of the court together with Hinata to practice the fundamentals. Sugawara explained patiently how to position my feet, but I could barely pay attention to him. The heat behind my sockets had become a dull throb, a physical presence pressing to get out.
Taking advantage of a moment when Sugawara went to retrieve a basket of balls, I slipped my phone out of my tracksuit pocket. I looked for a shadowed corner, away from the blinding lights of the gym spotlights, and activated the front camera.
"Let's see," I whispered, concentrating on that electrical sensation I felt flowing through my optic nerves.
I expected to see the bright scarlet I remembered from the anime, that unnatural red that would shout my difference to the world. Instead, what appeared on the screen left me stunned. My eyes were still black, that deep, dark color I had seen in the window reflection. However, digging deep into the pupil, I noticed something anomalous. Around the dark iris, thin red veins pulsed, almost invisible, and the pupil itself seemed to dilate and contract with an unnatural rhythm. At the center, a tiny scarlet speck in the shape of a comma appeared and disappeared like a mirage.
It wasn't a complete transformation.
"So they won't find me out immediately," I thought, with a mixture of relief and frustration. "But I feel it's there. It's awake."
I tried to push harder. I tried to visualize the flow of energy I felt in my brain and channel it into my eyes. For an instant, my vision changed. The outlines of the gym became incredibly sharp; I could see the fibers of the volleyball net on the other side of the court and clearly distinguish every single drop of sweat beading Kageyama's forehead as he served.
But it only lasted three seconds.
A sudden wave of exhaustion hit me like a speeding train. My knees shook, and I was forced to lean against the wall to keep from collapsing. I felt my stomach contract and a cold sweat drench the back of my neck. It was a different kind of tiredness than what you feel after a run.
I looked at my hands. They were long, with slender fingers, ideal for a setter or a blocker, but they were pale. Too pale. The memories of the "new Yuya" surfaced in my mind with painful clarity. This boy had never lifted a weight in his life. He spent his nights hunched over a monitor, eating junk food and sleeping late. He was tall, 184 cm of potential, but he was a giant made of clay. His muscles were weak, his heart wasn't used to the effort, and his lungs burned after just a few steps of running.
The Sharingan was a Formula 1 engine mounted on the chassis of a rusty old subcompact. If I tried to push it to the limit, my body would literally fall apart.
"Hey, Yuya! Are you okay? You look pale as a ghost!" Hinata shouted, running toward me with his usual inexhaustible energy.
"Yeah... just a bit of dizziness. I'm not used to this heat," I lied, forcing myself to stand up straight.
Just then, the familiar blue interface appeared before me, floating lazily.
[USER STATUS ANALYZED]
Name: Yuya Kazuki
Height: 184 cm
Role: None (Beginner)
Sharingan: 12/100 (1 Tomoe)
Physical Strength: 4
Agility: 4
Endurance: 3
[WARNING: The catalyst for the Sharingan is the Host's Physical Strength. Prolonged use in these conditions can cause nausea or prolonged fainting.]
[SYSTEM SUGGESTION: Begin physical strengthening training immediately. Currently, your arms have the same strength as vanilla pudding. Even an elementary school child could spike harder than you, and they'd probably have more stamina too.Stop whining and get moving.]
I huffed a half-bitter smile. It didn't matter how powerful my eye was if I couldn't stay on my feet for an entire set.
"Yuya, come here!" Daichi called me from the center of the court. "Let's see how you handle some simple receives. Tanaka, toss it easy, he's a beginner."
"Got it, Captain! Get ready, rookie!" Tanaka yelled, spinning a ball between his hands with an excited grin.
I moved into position. My legs felt like lead. I knew I could activate the Sharingan and predict Tanaka's trajectory with millimeter precision, but I also knew that if I did, I would probably faint in front of the whole team before even touching the ball.
I had to do it on my own. Or at least, I had to use only the bare minimum of that power.
Tanaka tossed the ball upward and hit it with a loud palm strike. It wasn't one of his best serves; it was a soft toss, but for my untrained reflexes, it still seemed fast.
Concentrate, I told myself. Don't activate it fully. Just a spark. Just a moment.
I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second and summoned that small spark of heat. When I opened them again, the ball seemed to have left a visible trail in the air. I saw the exact spot where it would fall. But when I tried to move my legs to intercept it, my body responded with frustrating slowness. I was uncoordinated. My brain knew where to go, but my muscles were lagging.
PAM.
The ball hit my left forearm, zipping away sideways and crashing into the ball cart.
"Ouch..." I muttered, feeling the sting on my pale skin.
"Not bad for the first time, your reaction was fast, but you need to coordinate your feet better!" Sugawara encouraged me, approaching with a kind smile and stepping into a perfect ready position. "See, Yuya? The secret isn't just watching the ball, but anticipating it with your whole body. In volleyball, if you wait for the ball to arrive, you've already lost. You have to 'call' it toward you."
Thus began an intensive lesson on the fundamentals. Sugawara explained to me how the receive wasn't a hit, but a coordinated push starting from the legs. He had me do dozens of lateral lunges, correcting the position of my thumbs which, if placed incorrectly, risked breaking upon impact. Then we moved on to volleys. "Use your fingertips, Yuya. You have to feel the ball, not slap it. Imagine it's an egg you don't want to break."
I nodded, but every explanation was a torture. My body wasn't used to that tension. My quads began to burn after only ten minutes of lateral movements, and sweat dripped into my eyes, making it difficult to maintain even that minimal connection with the Sharingan.
By the thirtieth repetition, my arms had turned bright red and my vision was starting to get blurry.
[PHYSICAL LOAD DETECTED]
[NEW MISSION AVAILABLE] Objective: Complete Sugawara's physical training. Reward: +1 Physical Strength, +1 Endurance.
"One more time," I said to Tanaka, clenching my teeth and ignoring the nausea rising in my throat. "Send me another one."
Tanaka laughed, impressed by my stubbornness. "That's the spirit! Keep your eyes on the ball, Yuya!"
When Daichi finally whistled the end of practice, the world around me began to spin dizzyingly. I don't even remember how I made it to the wall. I slumped against it, sliding slowly downward until I found myself sitting on the parquet, my back against the cold surface of the wall. My white shirt was so soaked I could have filled a bucket just by wringing it out. I breathed with my mouth wide open, making sounds that resembled a broken bellows more than a human being.
I'm... going... to... die... I thought.
In that moment, a shadow loomed over me. I painfully lifted my eyelids and saw Hinata, who looked as fresh as if he had just taken a stroll in the park.
"Hey Yuya! That was fun, wasn't it?" he exclaimed, hopping in place with an irritating vitality. "Tomorrow we could try spikes! Zwam! And then Boom! Did you see how Kageyama jumps? It's crazy!"
"Hinata..." I whispered with a hoarse voice, raising a trembling finger. "If... if you don't stop jumping... I swear... I'll vomit on your new shoes."
Hinata froze instantly, looking at me with pure terror and taking three steps back. "V-Vomit? Daichi-san! Yuya is dying! He's turning green!"
"I'm not green... it's just... the aura of failure," I murmured, closing my eyes as I heard Tanaka burst out laughing in the background.
"Stop scaring him, Tanaka!" Sugawara scolded him, approaching with an ice-cold water bottle that he pressed against my forehead. "Great job today, Yuya. You lasted much longer than I expected for a total beginner."
As I felt the cold of the bottle bringing a sliver of life back to me, I began to reorganize my thoughts. The memories of the timeline I was in started to crystallize thanks to the physical exertion. I looked at Daichi and the others and understood exactly where we were.
We are after the match with Nekoma, I reflected.
The defeat against Nekoma High's cats was still stinging in the gym air. It was a transition period, the moment when everyone was desperately trying to evolve for the Inter-High tournament. The level was about to rise drastically. Aoba Johsai, Oikawa Tooru... and then the clash with Ushijima.
[MISSION COMPLETED] [REWARD: +1 Physical Strength, +1 Endurance]
I left the gym when it was already dark. The evening cool was a blessing. The road was uphill, but as I watched Kageyama, who despite practice being over continued to hurl balls against the wall with almost frightening obsession, I realized I couldn't stop. The Sharingan would give me the vision, but only my sweat would give me the right to stand on that court.
The climb to the top had just begun.