The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

After the opening speech was over, the camp was finally started. For convenience, Chikako and her staff decided to separate the participants into five groups, which coincidentally enough put three people in each group. It was a no-brainer for Yuki, Kato, and Amagi to form a group immediately.

Seeing the excited participants, Amagi couldn't help but let out a sigh. "Man, it is good the camp is lively."

This perked Yuki's attention. "What do you mean, Amagi-san?"

"Well, my mom started the camp just two years ago, and at that time, the number of participants there was just five. It was quite depressing, you know?"

"Really?!" Kato chimed in with eyes widened in surprise. "How come?" In her mind, even though she had only been there for about one hour, the opening speech alone was enough to convince the girl that the camp would be awesome. It was hard for her to think that this kind of camp wouldn't be popular.

"Well, mainly, it is because the camp itself is still new, and you have to admit that astronomy wasn't that popular for a high school student. After all, it wasn't even taught in the school, right?" Amagi shrugged. "So, yeah, we have no leverage compared to the other science camps outside."

"That's…. Sad." Kato struggled to put the word in her mouth.

"Eh, don't worry about it. Just as I said, things got better every year. The first time the camp was held, the participants were five, then the next year increased to nine, and now we have fifteen. Who knows, maybe next year we will have twenty or thirty." He said, trying to be optimistic.

Their conversation was interrupted as the next event was about to start. Yuki blinked confusedly as everything went smoothly without even a single person checking the requirements for the camp. It seemed the camp itself was pretty loose about it.

The next event was a lecture about Astronomy 101, and the speaker was a man younger than Akira with slightly messy hair. When the light was dimmed and the screen was on once again, all the whispers and chatters died down immediately.

Unlike Chikako though, it was clear that the man on the front was not used to speaking in front of audiences. He stuttered a lot and had to pause the explanation several times to gather his thoughts. Still, Yuki could appreciate the effort, especially when the content was interesting.

"Now, let's talk about how small we really are in this vast universe." The man said. A new slide appeared on the screen, showing a tiny dot against a huge photo of the universe. "Here's Earth," she said, pointing to the small circle. "And here's the universe around it." The image seemed to stretch on and on, filled with swirling galaxies, bright stars, and mysterious black holes.

"Are we really that tiny?" Someone whispered in wonder.

"Exactly!" exclaimed the man, noticing their wonder. "If Earth were the size of a grain of sand, the entire Milky Way would be the size of a beach! And our galaxy is just one of many in the cosmos. Think about this: if you take a step outside tonight and look up at the sky, you'll see only a tiny fraction of all the stars and planets up there."

Gasps could be heard as everyone stared at the slide in awe. Even though the knowledge of how small Earth was compared to everything in space when it was compared directly like this, it really showed them how small they were in the universe.

As for Yuki, when mentioning this, his brain suddenly brought him back to the time when the disaster struck. The memories of how the building crumbled like it was made of wet biscuit and how a tsunami with a height far taller than even the tallest building he had ever seen struck, everything seemed to slip through his mind.

Then, a gentle tap snapped him from his thought. "You okay, Yuki?" Kato asked, concerned. "Your breathing is getting heavier." She had her hand on Yuki's. Fortunately, the room was dark, so Yuki was sure the girl wouldn't see him blushing.

"Don't worry, Kato-san, I am okay." Yuki said reassuringly. "Just remembering the disaster and how small us humans were." Kato gave a sympathetic gaze, knowing full well that this topic would hit him hard.

They spent the rest of the lecture in silence, with her hand still on Yuki's. Fortunately… Fortunately, there was no one they knew who could see their state now, or everyone would tease them mercilessly.

-0-

The lecture continued for the next fifteen minutes, and Yuki had to hold back the urge to grin like a loon. Kato herself had her face so red that if Yuki could see it, he would be afraid she would faint there. However, no matter how embarrassed they were, they still didn't let go of each other's hands, spending the rest of the time holding hands like that.

Unfortunately for them, their fun time had to be interrupted as the lecture was finally offered. The next agenda was lunch, and they didn't know how it slipped through their mind, but when the lunch was announced, the sound of their stomachs grumbling could be heard loudly, making them blush in embarrassment.

"Oh, I guess you both are starving, huh?" Amagi smirked teasingly.

"W-Well, the journey from Tokyo to Gunma is pretty long, you know?" Yuki stuttered, trying to defend himself.

"Eh, don't fret over it." Amagi waved his hand nonchalantly. "I know how exhausting it was to climb from the foothill to here for the first time. It is a miracle that you both can hold back your starvation until now. "

The lunch itself went pretty quickly, and Yuki took that opportunity to get to know about the other participants. After chatting with them all, Yuki could conclude that most of the teens here didn't know a lot about astronomy, but took an interest in the flyer spread in their school. It seemed someone who had already known what she liked and wanted to do like Kato was pretty rare, which made Yuki relieved.

After a while, the lunch was finally over, and the next activity was about to begin. However, when they were directed to the grass field, Yuki could see Kato's eyes shining in excitement as she saw what they were going to do.

"Welcome back, boys and girls!" Chikako greeted cheerfully. "Now that the appetizer is over, let's start doing something productive! For the next two and half an hour, we will learn how to assemble a professional telescope, so get ready for it!"