"Your scrim has been decided," Nakajima annouo everybody. "You'll be pying against StormBlitz, the sed-stroeam in this region."

  "No way!" Kareeo be shocked even though she pretty much figured this out weeks ago. Like, it was impossible to keep the whole thing under ers with how much Fiona studied these guys at home in the past few weeks.

  "Hmph. The sed-stroeam?" elia lifted her . "Then they're no match for us, seeing as we're the stroeam, ohoho!"

  "... are we seriously doing this again?" Andria frowned. "Not to pour salt or anything, but aren't we shooting ourselves in the foot with these scrims?"

  "Whatever do you mean?" Nakajima asked.

  "First we challehe champions, now we're challenging the runner-up,” Andria expined. “Now, I don't want to insult anybody here when I say this, but we're clearly not ready for that grand stage."

  "Huh? Not ready?" elia raised an eyebrow. "Whatever do you mean? We have gohrough so much training! We are beyond ready!"

  Andria rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, we are most definitely ready. That is, ready to get mopped by our foes to the audience’s amusement."

  "Hmph. Perhaps that's the fate that awaits YOU specifically," elia argued. "But as for me, I shall use my noble might to thhly submit these oners!"

  "What a fident little flower you are..." Andria smiled wryly. She refrained from discussing the topiy further because they were clearly on different wavelengths here.

  "Andria's stance is reasonable," Nakajima said. "StormBlitz is a formidable foe. It's a team without a master, yet it has been sistently pg in the region's Top 3 for years now. And, this year's lineup definitely lives up to that reputation."

  These words didn’t instill much fidence. In fact, they only made Lua hold her head in despair. "So, our ces of winning are..."

  "Thinking about hypothetical ces will do us no good," Fiona asserted. "The fact of the matter is that we are going to challeormBlitz, therefore we must strive to win."

  "Yeah, exactly!" Karen grinned. "No matter who the oppo is, you always gotta imagine yourself beating them! Fake it till you make it!” She grinned fidently. “We might be sidered underdogs for now, and we did kinda blow it against the Leopards, but we're way stronger now!"

  "Well put, Karen." Nakajima nodded. "It's been almost two months sihe st scrim. All of you have beuch stronger warriors in that short time, I guara."

  This wasn't some empty pep talk. The Valkyries have indeed grown much stronger iwo months. They made an impressive amount ress, an amount Nakajima wasn't used to seeing from her pupils.

  So, this is the power of middle schoolers, huh. Nakajima nodded. It's rather impressive, I have to admit.

  In Nakajima’s experie was rare to see any pyer from the Aces improve at su astonishing pace. The way the Valkyries grew from beginners into aplished pyers was a delight to see.

  Of course, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. These girls improved so quickly precisely because they had so many obvious issues to iron out. heless, their progress was satisfying to monitor.

  At present, the Valkyries were already close in skill level to the Aces’ freshmen. This meant they weren’t ready at all for the high school petition, but for middle school, their skill level was sidered det enough in the region.

  By my estimation, they ow hold their ground against mional teams. Nakajima thought. The Leopards and StormBlitz are still out of reach, and I suppose Taurus and Stratus are a bit to for now. But, any other team is beatable.

  In the span of half a year, the Valkyries evolved from a team of nobodies to a serious tender for the region’s Top 5. This fact was certainly going to take the petitive se by surprise this year.

  I suppose this is what happens when a team in this regios a proper master-level coaakajima thought. Anybody with coag is bound to develop that much faster than the petition.

  The same was observable in the high school se, where teams without a coaaturally gged behind the rest. The only exception to that rule was the Knights, who didn't train under any master aill maintaiheir position in the region's Top 3. Essentially, they were like a high school version of StormBlitz.

  Either way, just by having a proper master, the Valkyries were already on the right path to success. And, despite some of their difficult personalities, all the girls here had been w hard these past two months.

  "Your oppos will be formidable, there is no denying it," Nakajima said. "But, with how much you've grown, you will not embarrass yourselves oage, that much I assure you. StormBlitz is a strong team, but this will not be another one-sided match."

  "R-Right." Lua rying to keep her s at bay. But, it was difficult to hide the fact she very much agreed with Andria's take on this topic. Both of them instinctively rejected the idea of fag another powerhouse so soon.

  Notig Lua’s growing , Andria realized she had done an oopsie. I shouldn't stain that i flower with my own plicated feelings oter. I should’ve kept these thoughts to myself for now.

  And so, Andria initiated her redemption arow that I think about it, the coach makes a good point. The team's skill level is definitely a world apart from where it was two months ago. Everybody evolved into beautiful butterflies in such a short time~!"

  "Um, do you really think we improved that much?" Lua asked.

  "But of course!” Andria excimed. "A mere g our ranks should tell the eory. I was caught in a neverending limbo between Gold and Ptinum a month ago, but now I'm halfway through Ptinum.”

  "ht.” Lua nodded. “I was also stu low Gold for a while, but now I’m in Ptinum V."

  Of course, it was natural for them to rank up over time as long as they kept on a regur basis. After all, the dder grind rewarded more points for winning than it deducted for losing. This system was desigo motivate pyers to keep grinding ad infinitum, at least until Diamond where people say you must be decisively above 50% win rate tress.

  But, even the grind to Ptinum was rough. A 50% win rate barely cut it at these ranks. Lua had been progressing at a snail’s pace for a while now.

  To climb to Ptinum and beyond, pyers had to also sistently perform well and grab bonus points through personal achievements. That’s how Fiona was already Ptinum I despite getting into cers much ter than Lua and Andria.

  In fact, for quite some time now, most of the team was stuck at around the same ranks. Only Fiona and Karen had been making substantial progress.

  But i months, the eeam started moving forward at a good pace. After overing the shock caused by the first scrim, everybody realized the immense gap that existed between the Valkyries and the rest of the region. It pushed them to work that much harder in order to catch up to the petition.

  “If our ranks aren’t proof that we’ve improved, then what is?” Andria asked. “So, with that in mind, I apologize for my hasty remark from earlier. The way we are now, our team has a real ce at defeating anybody from the region!”

  “R-Right!” Lua regained some of her usual vigor. Now that everybody was on the same page, she felt far more fident about the whole arra. They could do it! Yeah!

  Alright, that expression looks good enough. Andria nodded in satisfa after seeing her little white lie bring the desired result. However, in truth, Andria didn’t believe a single word she had just said, not even for a moment.

  So, the team’s ranks improved. What of it? They only took a tiny step forward. All the strong teams in the region boasted Diamond and Challenger pyers. The Valkyries were still like small fry in parison. They had absolutely zero ce against StormBlitz.

  Why ’t we have a fair scrim for once? Andria ranted on the i retrained a poker fa the outside. She didn’t want to i any of that venom into the team.

  Karen and elia ag like they’re fident about this, so I’ll do the same for the sake of the team’s morale. After all, that’s what stage ag is about.

  As the child of a professional actor, Andria learned such cepts from a young age. Humans had to ersonas in order to smoothly i with each other, and sometimes it was necessary to hide orue feelings for the sake of others.

  The ive feelings Andria harbored toward these unfair scrim arras were like a barrel of poison. If she opens the lead, the toxicity will pour out endlessly and smear the eeam. She didn’t want that to happen, so she had to py along.

  Though, I’m definitely going to file a pint with the coach ter. Andria thought. This nonsense isn’t right. What is even the point of going up oage if we’re fated to be sughtered? It makes no sense.

  Surely, the coaderstood just how absurd it was. So, why was the proving of this nonsense?

  Maybe there are reasons, but I don’t see them right now. Andria thought. So, all I do is keep rebelling against the authorities. Such is my duty.

  The young team was about to receive a terrible beatdown for the sed time in a row. This wasn’t right.

  But, there was a time and a pce to voice her pints oopid that time wasn’t now. So, she refrained fruing any further for now.

  With all resistance dying down, Fiona cluded that everybody was on board with this idea. "We have two weeks from now to prepare for this match," she said. "I have extensively researched their team with Lua's help, so we will begin by holding review sessions. The first step toward victory is uanding our oppos.."

  "Hold a sed," Andria interrupted. "Lua, you’ve been researg the Leopards?"

  "Um, yes, I have…"

  "So, you khis was ing."

  "More or less, yes..." Lua lowered her head. She never received an official firmation from Fiona but she always suspected that was the case. "I had a feeling something was in the works there, but to think we’ll be fighting them so soon…."

  "Oh, I see how it is. You have the burden of insight, don't you?” Andria nodded in uanding. “You were the oasked to gaze into the abyss, so you know its horrors better than anybody."

  "Yes..." Lua shuddered at the mere recolle of the data she gathered. paring the Valkyries to StormBlitz was just depressing. It didn't take a genius to figure out just how badly that match will py out.

  "Our oppos are formidable, that is a given," Fiona said. "However, no team is invincible. At the end of the day, the pyers in StormBlitz are middle schoolers like us. They be overe."

  "Yeah, you tell 'em, sis!" Karen grinned. "We're going to mop the floor with these guys!"

  "Indeed," elia agreed. "We shall elegantly execute these plebeians aablish ourselves as the most eam in the region!"

  "Yeah, sure..." Andria spat a sigh. She didn't have the energy to voiy further objes against the overfident trio.

  Fiona was fident she would lead the team to victory through her jungling skills and her shot-calling. Meanwhile, Karen was a simpleton who enjoyed difficult challenges. And as for elia, that lunatic was ever fident in her ability to aplish pretty muything. There was really no ving any of them that this scrim was a terrible idea.

  These overfident three created the impression the majority of the club was on board with the StormBlitz arra. So Lua, being the fickle flower she was, ended up being swept in the current.

  As for Andria, she had no choice but to py along. "Very well," she said. "If you're all so fident about this, the us embark on this treacherous jourogether!" Even though we are destio fail…

  With that, the winds calmed down. Everybody was now “on the same page” in regards to the uping scrimmage. At least, that’s how it appeared.

  "Good." Nakajima nodded in satisfa. She purposely stayed out of these arguments to let the girls solve their problems on their own.

  Simir in-fights might occur during petitive games, and Nakajima will not be there to solve the issues for them. So, this bickering ted as training in its ht.

  "As Fioioned, you will begin by reviewing StormBlitz," Nakajima expined. "After that, we'll move to practical training. For the wo weeks, I want each of you to think long and hard about how yoing to py this match. Set yoal to nothihan StormBlitz’s total defeat, uood?"

  "Yes, master."

  "What was that weak response!?” Nakajima demanded. “A mouse squeaks louder than this! , one more time. Uood!?"

  "Yes, master!" the team responded in unioe how embarrassing some of them found it.

  In particur, Karen couldn’t help but giggle after the fact. Heh, I bet Coach just likes being called "master". What a weirdo.

  You see, Nakajima wasn’t just a “coach”. No, she was a MASTER!

  A master of what, you may ask? Who knew!? But, she totally was! Apparently.

  So yeah, for some ungodly reason, Nakajima insisted everybody called her "master". To this day, she always scolded whoever refused to ply with this arbitrary rule.

  Naturally, Kareo be one of the most frequent criminals in regards to this stupid rule. She used to frequently call Nakajima “coach” on purpose, sometimes calling out to the woman for no particur reason other than to annoy her. Heh, these were fun times.

  Even now, when everybody replied "Yes, master!", Karen did it very quietly. Like, the whole thing just sounded awkward, you know?

  Is this some Japahing? Karen wondered. I mean, ain't nobody talks like that nowadays. Heck, is this woman even really "Japanese"? Sometimes I wonder.

  Nakajima was definitely sp a Japanese name and the look, yet her English was hel . It didn’t feel like she had much of an at, whily made the whole setup that much more dubious.

  Aren't there all those memes about hoanese people only know how to speak "Engrish" or whatever it's called? Heh, 't tell if the memes are lying or our coach is just special.

  Either way, Nakajima didn’t fall into that stereotype. Maybe because she was an exception to the rule, or maybe because she wasn’t actually ACTUALLY Japanese. Nobody khe “master” was a total enigma on that front.

  Of course, a coach who spoke fluent English was a blessing. Nakajima taught the team properly, her instrus were insightful and to the point. Kareo appreciate that about the coag. In fact, sometimes she was almost willing to call Nakajima “master”. Almost.

  And so, it was uhe guidance of this "master" that the Valkyries set out to challehe 2nd stroeam of the region...!

  DarkestCymore