Kurai takes a deep breath. Closing his eyes and stepping back, hopping on both feet slightly before sprinting forward. Smashing his block stepped onto the concrete and flew up towards the ceiling. Stretching both feet out and landing on the boxes stacked up to 43 inches.
"Got it, one set of 15 reps… now one more set of 15." Kurai hops down from the boxes and grabs his water bottle, taking a swallow of the juice inside.
"Kurai…!" Kurai perks up, looking towards the weight room entrance. Max smirking and waving, Kyle close behind.
"Oh, good morning," Kyle groans.
"Dude, are you crazy? It's like… 7:00 in the morning…" Kurai shrugs.
"I don't know what you mean; I got here at… 5… 5:35 I think? Been getting my morning reps in before practice." Max chuckles.
"You're a mad man, you know that?" Kurai nods.
"I've been told that before." Kurai dries his face with a towel. "Oh, and Coach wants us to practice mainly our serves today." Max and Kyle groan. Max pauses and looks at Kyle.
"Why are you complaining, Kyle? You're a Libero??" Kyle groans again.
"Because now I have to receive your all's serves!" Kurai shrugs, turning around.
"Good luck." He sprints forward, jumping up the 43-inch box again. Hopping down as Max chuckles nervously.
"Dude's a beast."
--
Kurai tossed the ball, overhand serving it to Kyle, who bumped it up. Kurai exhaled, spiking it back to Kyle, who bumped it back. Kurai lifted his hands and set it high. Kyle stepped forward and lifted both arms to overhand receive the ball. Kurai caught it.
"Nice pepper, Kyle." Kyle nods.
"Gotcha, ain't no biggie… I need to be at my best if I'm going to receive your serves in practice today." Kurai chuckles.
"I'd like to see you try." Jordan steps over, waving his hand.
"Don't argue, you two; Coach isn't even here, so don't strain yourselves before practice even starts." Kurai shrugs.
"We know." Kyle puffs up his cheeks.
"We weren't arguing," Jordan smirks.
"Oh really? You weren't?" Kyle shakes his head.
"Definitely not."
Coach Copley claps his hands.
"Everyone gather together, let's have a little meeting over here." Kurai turns.
"That means you too, Max… if you don't, Coach might take you off the starting lineup." Max freezing.
"Wha- no, he won't, I'm too valuable!" Kurai chuckles
"Sure."
Coach Copley stands at a little podium in the front.
"Okay… let's go over a few things… First off, the bracket for the upcoming VNL Qualifiers… as you know, it's a Round Robin Bracket… and they just sent us our Group… We are in Group C… in a round robin bracket with Poland, Brazil, France… and Russia." The screen behind Coach Copley flickers on. The large screen shows the round robin bracket as everyone turns to look up at it.
Max groans.
"Come on… Brazil? Again??" Jordan nods.
"We'll have to deal with them better this time, now that we know how they play." Kyle smirks.
"Playing against the best defensive team in the world AND the best offensive team in the world one right after the other? Oh boy…"
X USA Poland Brazil France Russia
USA X
Poland X
Brazil X
France X
Russia X
Kurai's eyes widened before shrinking into a smirk.
"Oh, this is going to be good," Coach Copley claps his hands.
"Coach Micah will pass out the fliers of information we know about our opponents' starting lineups. Be sure to look into those when you get the chance to see what we're looking for." Assistant Coach Micah steps forward with a stack of papers. Coach Micah reached one out for Kurai.
"This one's yours, Kurai." Kurai grabs the paper. Looking through it, several names stand out.
Poland: Lucas Baker - Jersey #1
Brazil: Dougal Wilson - Jersey #8
France: Ajax Adams - Jersey #4
Russia: Kaneko Vlast - Jersey #4
Kurai smirks.
"So it'll be a war of the Monster generation, huh? Interesting" Coach Copley exhales.
"Now… Last week we held Tryouts for new teammates and scouting, and out of the 112 that participated, only 2 were selected this year." Everyone looks up as the doors of the gym open. "Let's welcome to the team…"