Kyoko Makimura is a student who transfers into Fujimi High School and ends up in the same class as the protagonist, Kozue Ayuhara. Before arriving, she had been a promising tennis player, but her athletic career was cut short because her mother insisted that she abandon sports entirely and devote herself to academic achievement in order to enter a prestigious university. This background shapes her initial outlook: upon her introduction, she presents herself as the school's top student and openly looks down on Kozue for prioritizing volleyball over studies, treating team sports as a frivolous waste of time even though Kozue herself is a capable student. Her personality is initially haughty and dismissive toward anyone who values athletics, and she takes a condescending stance in her interactions with the volleyball team members. The primary motivation driving her at this stage is to uphold her mother's rigorous expectations and secure academic success. Over the course of the story, however, Kyoko’s perspective gradually shifts. Through witnessing the dedication and struggles of the players around her, especially Kozue, she begins to reexamine her own relationship with competition and physical effort. Her development moves away from outright hostility toward a more nuanced understanding of the commitment that sports demand, and the label of an academic elitist fades as she opens up to the social and emotional dimensions of team life. Her key relationships revolve around Kozue, who serves as a foil and eventually a catalyst for change, and her mother, whose pressure symbolized the obstacle she had to overcome. While not a volleyball player herself, her athletic past gives her a latent physical aptitude, and her sharp intellect makes her a perceptive observer of the sport’s tactical side. Kyoko’s arc ultimately illustrates a young person learning to reconcile external expectations with personal passions and finding respect for paths that differ from her own.