"Akashi-senpai, it's your turn next."
The voice in his ear pulled Mason Lee's drifting consciousness back to reality. At the same time, the sound of a ball bouncing and sneakers squeaking on the gym floor rushed into his head like a crashing wave.
He opened his eyes.
In front of him was a delicate-looking boy with a slightly nervous expression. Behind the boy, the familiar overhead lights of an indoor gym glowed down.
Mason Lee was completely baffled.
What's going on?
Who am I?
Where am I?
Am I still drunk?
"Akashi-senpai? Are you okay?" the boy asked again, noticing the confusion in Mason Lee's eyes.
He wasn't speaking English. It sounded like Japanese, but somehow, Mason Lee understood him perfectly.
Mason Lee looked at the boy again. As his brain tried to match the face to some half-familiar memory, a flood of images and emotions surged through him, painful yet strangely comforting.
…
Name: Akashi Asuka
Age: 15
Height: 179 cm
Currently a third-year student at Sengoku Junior High, Miyagi Prefecture.
Not long ago, he was blindsided during a fight and hit on the back of the head. For the rest of the afternoon, he'd felt dizzy and groggy, until he suddenly collapsed and blacked out. At that moment, completely unnoticed by anyone, Mason Lee had taken over his body.
Position: Volleyball team's outside hitter.
Currently a mid-practice match…
…
Mason Lee quickly pieced together the key points from the overwhelming rush of memories, and ended up even more confused than before.
"Did I just transmigrate? That voice in my head wasn't kidding?!"
…
Name: Mason Lee
Age: 24
After graduating from university, he spent two years working as a basketball coach at a local training center, three of those years were during the pandemic.
The pandemic made everything worse. Every industry was already highly competitive, and now it was even more brutal.
Back in college, Mason Lee had prided himself on being someone who could "grind" that is, work hard and push through. Otherwise, there's no way he would've secured a starting spot on the school team despite lacking natural talent, surrounded by monsters of athletes.
If he hadn't pushed himself so hard and ended up injured, he probably could've had a brighter future.
What he hadn't expected was that after entering the workforce, he'd run into a whole bunch of people who could grind even harder than him.
But they weren't grinding in skill or effort, they were grinding in office politics.
In other words, networking.
And that just wasn't his strong suit.
So despite his genuine efforts, he was constantly outshined by those who spent their time cozying up to bosses and supervisors.
When all your hard work doesn't match your rewards, even someone like Mason Lee starts to burn out.
That's when a mysterious voice suddenly echoed in his head…
"If you can't grind here anymore, how about grinding somewhere else?"
Still drunk off his ass, Mason Lee had no mental capacity to question why a voice was speaking to him. His only thought was:
"Grind? Of course I'll grind! Put me in a fair and square environment, and I'll grind those bastards into the ground."
And then…
He opened his eyes, and saw this scene.
Mason Lee was speechless.
He considered himself pretty adaptable, but transmigrating like this, so suddenly and casually, made him want to complain out loud.
Thankfully, he'd been an orphan in his previous life, with nothing holding him back. So it didn't take long for his brain to start working again, albeit with a dull headache.
Tch.
Young people these days… ambushing a guy in his twenties!
Wait, no, that wasn't me who got hit.
Never mind then.
"I'm fine, Nishimori. I've finished warming up. I'll go in now."
Mason Lee rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head, smiled at the delicate-looking boy, Nishimori Tomohiko, and headed for the volleyball court. He hadn't fully settled into this "Akashi Asuka" identity yet, but that could wait until after the scrimmage.
Nishimori stared at Akashi's retreating back, dazed.
Something about Akashi-senpai… feels different today.
…
"Volleyball, huh…"
Walking onto the court, Mason Lee felt a wave of nostalgia.
He'd studied a bit of volleyball in college, though mostly the theory. His main sport had always been basketball. But with the theoretical knowledge he had, and the muscle memory inherited from Akashi Asuka, he should be able to get through this practice match just fine.
Probably.
Maybe.
"Akashi-senpai!"
"Akashi-senpai!"
As soon as he stepped onto the court, a group of first- and second-year students bowed to him. Judging by their expressions, though, there was more fear than respect.
Understandable.
Aside from being the team's outside hitter, Akashi Asuka had another title—"delinquent."
Although he hadn't done much besides getting into a few fights, in a Japanese school environment, just being labeled a "delinquent" was enough to make most students wary.
In Japan's school ecosystem, the top dogs were: the smart kids, the star athletes, and the delinquents.
Akashi Asuka happened to be at the top of at least two of those categories.
Actually, maybe all three.
Because according to the memories, he was also pretty damn good-looking.
In just over two years of Junior High, he'd already received more than twenty chocolates and love letters on Valentine's Day.
"Please take care of me!"
"Looking forward to playing with you!"
After a brief exchange, the two teams lined up, shouted their greetings, and the match began.
Akashi Asuka was placed on the Red Team. The main players were split across both teams. On his side, two other main players had joined: setter Ryuhei Sanashita and opposite hitter Oda Miki.
Tweet!
The whistle blew.
The Red Team served.
A second-year sub served underhand, a basic serve for Junior High level. The ball arced through the air and landed steadily in the back row.
"Mine!"
The Blue Team's libero, Neko Kurata, shouted as he received the serve cleanly. Their backup setter quickly followed up and set the ball high above the net to the middle blocker, Oomae Masato, who had already leapt into the air.
Boom!
Smack!
Two sharp sounds rang out in the gym.
The first was Oomae's spike. The second, Akashi Asuka's block.
He had the tallest height on the entire team. In most cases, scoring directly past him in a practice match was no easy feat.
At 179 cm, for a third-year Junior Higher, he was already exceptionally tall.
There were taller players his age, sure, but not on the Sengoku Junior High volleyball team. Their overall strength was average for Miyagi Prefecture.
Meanwhile, the top school in the region, Shiratorizawa, was rumored to have an average starting height over 180 cm.
"Hmm... Shiratorizawa. Why does that name sound so familiar?"
The thought flickered by, and Akashi shifted his focus back to defense.
Though he blocked the spike, the point wasn't scored. Neko Kurata, the libero, had managed to dig the ball. The Blue Team was already setting up their second attack.
To be honest, Akashi was a little impressed.
They were only just entering their final year of Junior High, yet the intensity was already this high. He'd always heard Japanese schools were serious about sports, but now, experiencing it firsthand, he truly understood.
At the very least, these kids were serious about volleyball.
"Heh..."
Akashi grinned. He had to admit, he was starting to get excited.
In competitive sports, if you aren't serious, there's no point in playing.
Now he understood why that voice had brought him here. In a way, school sports were a truly fair and intense grind.
The ball soared again. Oomae jumped once more, and Akashi followed his rhythm.
But the next second—
The ball sailed past Oomae and landed on the left side of the net. There, another figure with a nearly identical jump height leapt high into the air.
It was the other middle blocker, Jujiro Kazama.
Smack!
With a loud crack, the ball slammed into the floor and bounced high.
Score: 1–0
"Ha! Got you, Akashi! Today, Kazama and I are gonna take you down!" Oomae laughed, hands on his hips. While most of the younger students were scared of Akashi, the main players had a pretty good relationship with him.
Still…
Both Oomae and Kazama had been eyeing Akashi's "ace" position for a long time.
What can you say?
The grind never stops.
Akashi didn't respond to Oomae's "provocation." Instead, he looked at the spot where the ball had just landed.
He wasn't upset, in fact, the corners of his mouth curled up, and his expression turned... just a little unhinged.
Subarashii.
This competitive atmosphere, this pressure to grind harder than everyone else, this is what really gets him going.
Ding!
[Detected: Host's "Grind Soul" is burning...]
[Activating Grind System...]