In St. Mary’s Junih for Ladies, sports were a plicated topic. The school strived to educate "proper dies", and different people had different opinions about whether a "dy" had any need for something sweaty and petitive like sports. In particur, many of the older staff often voiced their displeasure on this topic.

  heless, in the world outside, women's sports have been being more and more popur. Not only professionally, but also among kids and teens.

  As such, it became on to expect schools to provide support for such activities. In fact, for some parents, it was a deal breaker when a school didn’t have any sports clubs.

  To not lose too many “ers”, the school had no choice but to adapt. So, about two decades ago, St. Mary’s started supp sports clubs. There was some internal strife among the education staff oopid to this day there were some teachers who didn’t look favorably on sports activities. But fortunately, most of the fra was gone by now.

  And so, St. Mary’s adopted sports and made them avaible for those who wao partake in them. However, the school had retively fewer students than the average school, and only a portion of them were ied in sports in the first pce. This naturally led to a limited number of club options.

  Soccer and basketball were the two most popur sports among teens these days, but these two didn’t appeal to girls as much as they did to boys. As such, though there were some attempts to form such clubs in the past, these projeever kicked off because they failed to attraough students.

  In the end, most of the girls who joined sports clubs went for trad field. It ort with the least direct frontatioween petitors, and it also offered a broad variety of activities so it was easier to find something attractive there.

  heless, there was one ball game that mao bee retively popur among the girls: volleyball. Out of all the ball games, this was the only ohat mao get a club in St Mary’s.

  Despite its humble beginnings, this club quickly made a name for itself at the regionals. The school ied in a proper female coach for the club, and the results spoke for themselves.

  As, with the school being so small, it didn’t have a stable influx of talent every year. As a result, the team had some years in which it underperformed greatly.

  The coaoticed this ing trend and came up with an unusual solution. She requested the school to permit students to attend multiple sports clubs at the same time if they so desired. This was rather unorthodox pared to how things operated in other schools, but it made a lot of sense.

  At the middle school level, athletic talent was sometimes more important than specialized practice. For example, a talented girl from the trad field club, who already trained hard on a regur basis, could easily outshine many members of the volleyball club at their own game. Somebody like that, who already had a great athletic affinity, might need far less volleyball training than others in order to perform well at the regionals.

  This was simply a matter of having undeveloped bodies. Almost nobody in the volleyball club went through enough years of specialized training to be sidered a "volleyball specialist". Their bodies hadn’t yet rebuilt themselves to specialize in the sport, therefore anybody who was athletiough had a ce to do well.

  In fact, Fiona’s success in so many sports was rgely thanks to this factor. Her intense regur training regime built up the core of her body in such a way that allowed her to perform well in anything.

  However, she was like a jack of all trades and a master of none. Some coaches had already warned her that dividing her focus between so many sports would eventually e back to bite her.

  No matter how much professional coag she keeps receiving, at some point, it won't be enough anymore. In the end, specialization was bound to beat generalization. Those who dedicated themselves wholly to a single craft were bound to stand at the top of the highest level of petition.

  And indeed, Fiona had already started feeling the impact of this i years.

  For example, she used to practice judo at one point in time. Like in every other field, she showed much promise at first.

  At first, she performed well in petitions. As, her glory was short-lived. Soon enough, she started running into oppos who practiced judo far miously than her.

  These girls were often bigger and physically strohan Fiona, and they practiced judo that much more. At some point, it felt like an impassable wall formed between Fiona and the top of the petition for her age. She could no loay he top as a generalist.

  Of course, she might have had a ce if she chose to dedicate herself wholly to the craft, but fog on judo alone did not i her. And so, Fiona quit petitive judo in favor of fog on other sports.

  This was just the first field she had to quit due to not being a specialist. In time, more and more fields will prove themselves too difficult to pete in.

  In fact, st year, Fiona had already lost the tennis regionals to anirl. Unlike Fiona, her oppo was a tennis purist and the daughter of a pro pyer to boot.

  As frustrating as it was, developments like that were just a matter of time. Eventually, the entire image of “the La Princess who excels in many sports” will bee fotten history.

  However, such heavy topics were still in the far future. For now, Fiona was still a middle schooler and the majority of her petition was half-baked as athletes.

  So, using simir reasoning, the volleyball coach at St. Mary’s mao vihe principal that the volleyball club should be allowed to recruit members from other clubs. Students who showed excellent athletic ability were bound to be an asset in petitive games ahe team maintain its prestige in the region in a more sistent manner.

  On paper, these borrowed students still “beloo one club”, so to speak. The main club was the ohey had the most obligation to while the volleyball club had sedary priority. These students were wele to join practice but it was not strictly demanded of them on a regur basis.

  But, this was just the formal definition on paper. In practice, the volleyball coach coaxed many students inturly joining the volleyball club in their practice. Fiona and Karen were also two victims of the woman's schemes.

  And so, today as well, Fiona and Karen found themselves heading to volleyball practice early in the m.

  Just to be clear, this was not something Fiona signed up for of her own volition. She always found team sports difficult to pete in because achieving victory relied on many factors that were outside of her direct trol.

  There was nothing Fiona hated more than being uo fully trol her own fate. Whenever she lost a game, she wa to happen on her own terms. It had to be a situation where she pyed to the utmost of her ability and that simply proved insuffit.

  As such, trad field, swimming, tennis, piano, and chess were the fields she ehe most. She was aware of the prestige behind the school’s volleyball club but she had absolutely no i in joining it.

  But, in time, her reputation made things difficult for her. The media fawned over the "La Princes", so Fiona had no ce of esg the attention of the volleyball coach.

  And so, the foxy ulled some strings to recruit Fiona into the club. Truly, it was a rather tiresome experience.

  At first, Fiona refused the call. Unfortunately, it did not end at that. The school spoke with her multiple times, effectively pleading with her to do it "for the sake of the school".

  However, with how packed Fiona's schedule already was at the time, she insisted on turning them down time and again. But, they persisted, annoyingly so. It felt like the volleyball coach had no iion of giving up for as long as she was alive.

  In fact, the woma as far as to ceive a story about how that year's volleyball club was "g in talent" and “had little to no ce at the regionals”. It was debatable whether that was truly the case, but she was the coach so the school had to take her at her word. Truly, a shrewd woman.

  The worst part was how genuinely passiohe woman was about all of this. She used to be a professional volleyball pyer and her as radiated just how much she loved the sport even now. So, from her perspective, she just trying to find talent to nurture for her beloved sport.

  Truth be told, the woman's passion nearly swayed Fiona more than a few times. She came but a few steps away from falling into that well-crafted trap.

  heless, Fiona always stood her ground in the end. She simply was not ied in a team sport, and her schedule was already too packed to allow any distras.

  Therefore, for a long time, Fiona had been defleg the invitation. She had plenty of other important matters to take care of, so she had no i in increasing her load.

  In particur, as it was her first year of middle school, Fiona was greatly anticipating a certain chess match at the regionals. She was hoping to hold an official rematch with Yuel Fermond, provided the man’s skill did not rust to the point he would be elimi the prelim.

  This was a real . After all, Yuel performed poorly a year prietting eliminated by Cato before ever reag Fiona at the finals. It was quite a mentable matter, sidering this was the man who somehow triumphed over Fiona a year prior.

  After seeing Yuel’s poor performance against Cato, Fiona could not help but wonder whether she misjudged the man’s skill level. Perhaps his victainst Fiona was naught more than a fluke, a one-in-a-million ce.

  Yet, every time Fiona reviewed that match, a shudder ran through her. It was not like she had never faced defeat before in her life, but that o, in particur, etched itself into her memory. She simply could not fet about it, no matter how much time had passed.

  There was something vile about that mat particur, something that rubbed Fiona the wrong to this day. It felt as if Fiona lost herself during that battle. Perhaps she did not even lose to Yuel Fermond at all that day. Rather, she lost against herself.

  That was why she simply could not let go of that match. On that day, Yuel Fermond exposed a gring weakhat Fiona had in chess, and he used that one weako strike her down.

  Therefore, Fiona wished for a proper rematch ever since. She practiced hard sihat day, learning all manners of less ventional pys for the sake of being prepared for any situation. Today, she could fidently cim that she was more resilient thao surprising plications.

  heless, to properly close the book on this whole arc, Fiona desired to py against Yuel Fermond one more time and to properly defeat him. Only then, she will finally be able to move on.

  And so, Fiona anticipated this och during her first year of middle school… but it never came. Yuel Fermond did not show up for the regionals that year.

  Frankly, Fiona was not sure what to make of it. Did Yuel quit chess? Or, did he simply miss this oour for some reason? Will she ever get her much-desired rematch…?

  Truth be told, Fiona was itg to head out and front the man directly oopic. But, at the same time, she felt as if this might be a sign to finally let go. With how busy her schedule was, it should be easy enough to lose herself in a lot of other activities aually fet about this topitirely.

  heless, every now and then, Fiend still found herself w why Yuel Fermond did not show up to the tour. But, every time the question popped up, she made it into a policy to perish the thought and focus oher many activities of her life.

  But then, one day, the devil showed up and dragged Fiona bato this bottomless s…

  DarkestCymore