Mitsuki's two sons

Start of Training Week

    Training week. A week that schools dedicate to training their teams for the upcoming inter high preliminarirs. Usually they'll have one or two practice matches in that time to test their skills and improve from there. There was one team spending the week doing nothing but practice matches. What better way to get better than constantly putting yourselves in situations where you have to improve or fail?

    Yuei has a few matches planned for the end of the week, but right now they are each practicing their weaknesses, or helping others. These matches are a mystery to the kids in the sense that they have no idea what schools they are playing. Their coach believes that it doesn't matter what school you play, so long as you get proficient in all skills. No school is a one trick pony, so only practicing to deal with what they are best at will have you forgetting that they have other skills. They are more likely to win if they prepare for everything.

    Katsuki and Monoma are currently working together to help some of the first years work on blocking and receiving powerful spikes. Even though Bakugou isn't the teams Ace, due to the fact he is just a first year, he still has one of the team's most powerful spikes.

    "Lean your arms forward a bit more, Awase. If your arms are straight up, even if they hit them the ball is still likely to fall on our side." Monoma says. After Awase fails a block.

    "The whole point of a block is to keep the ball on the other side." Bakugou adds.

    They keep at this for the duration of practice. Monoma is a second year. He is the team's main setter. So having the main setter setting for one of the more powerful spikers is perfect practice. By the time practice is over every one of them has blocked Katsuki once, or at least retrieved one of his balls.

    "Good work today kids." Their coach, Shouta Aizawa, says. "Remember to get plenty of sleep tonight. We have a practice match tomorrow. We all need to be well rested so we can have our heads in the game and not in the bed."

-

    The team shows while Yuei is stretching. Of course, as the other class walks in, the students look over to see their opponents. Being a powerhouse means other powerhouses are likely to accept practice matches, but they hadn't expected to get paired against one right before the interhigh preliminaries. This was going to be an interesting fight. Very interesting.

    "Thank you for coming." Yagi, the teacher sponser for the club, says. He shakes hands with the coach who came with the team as the players head to the side of the court set up for them.

    "Aw man. I was hoping for an easy practice match to kick off these last few days." Kaminari groans.

    "The only way to get better is to constantly challenge ourselves with the strongest teams we can get." Their team captain, Iida, says.

    "Everyone gather around." Aizawa says.

   The Yuei team heads over to their coach. He looks at them and holds up the small whiteboard. It shows who will be in which position. Of course Monoma was in the setter position. Katsuki is happy to see he gets the starter position for this match. Koda, their very quiet ace, is holding his spot as well. Iida, as captain, also remains on the floor. Their libero, Shinsou as well. The last two who get to start are the only other third year, Shoji, and second year middle blocker, Kirishima.

    "This will be our starting lineup. I want you to do your best out there. Just do what you're best at. Remember, his is a practice match. Mistakes are ok. This is our chance to figure out what we need to work on the most. Got it?"

    "Yes Sir." They say.

    "All right. Plus Ultra on three." Yagi, their assistant coach, says.

    They place their hands in the circle, and then do their little cheer before running out to the court. Their opponents, Shiketsu High, wasn't that far behind.

    In their prefecture, Shiketsu is the favorite to win. Yuei has a reputation of being their biggest rivals. Ketsubutsu Academy is the only one that is even close to being on the same level as these two teams.

    Yuei is on the recieving side. Everyone in Yuei holds their breath. Aizawa started him in the back for this very reason. The serve is up, and... He gets his hands on it! His benched teammates cheer. After connecting the play, they get the first point. So far this is looking like it will be a good game.

    After rotation Katsuki has to stand to the side for Shinsou to run onto the court. Katsuki is a middle blocker like Kirishima. He chose this position for the very reason that he gets to be off court when in back row. This gives him the chance to observe the other team in a way he can't while on the court.

    "Good recieve, Kaachan." Midoriya says.

    "I don't need you to tell me that." Katsuki grumbles. His eyes immediately latch onto the court. "That serve had a hell of a lot of strength behind it."

    "That was Nagamasa Mora. He is a third year, known for targeting first years with his serves in hopes of getting points with his serve." Midoriya explains.

    "If they can't even get the ball up they don't need to worry about a strong attack." Katsuki says, nodding his head in approval of this strategy.

    "Too bad for him that the only first year out there spent most of middle school playing libero, and got good at recieves." Midoriya laughs.

    And unfortunately for them, Shiketsu already rotated Katsuki back in. Now his fight really begins.

-

    Three very exhausting sets later and they are sad to say they lost. Of course, they didn't use all of their weapons against Shiketsu today. Those weapons stayed benched for a very good reason. Aizawa wanted to leave his weapons concealed until they were really threatened.

    "You kids played really well today." Aizawa says as they pack up. "We have some good notes. Tomorrow we have another practice match. A very persistent man practically begged for us to do this before I could even give an answer. We are traveling to them this time. We won't be playing in our gym. So tonight get plenty of rest." Aizawa says.

    The team nods before heading off to the baths. Tomorrow is definitely going to be interesting.