Chapter 91

"I knew I'd find you here this early." Yui said, smiling at me.

"Ah, Yui-chan." I called, 'throwing' myself back on my feet.

*She's talking normal?*

"Are you hungry? I'll prepare something real quick." I said, putting on my shirt.

"I'm not hungry."

*Huh? Something's really wrong.* I thought.

"Aren't you tired? I saw how much you guys trained yesterday." She said, sitting on the bench.

"Well… I'll have to endure if I want to be better. I'm not really good now. I need this training." I said, smiling.

"I see… even when you're good enough."

"No I'm not. You're even more impressive. I heard you could perceive where the ball will be heading to." I said.

"The way you say it makes it sound weird." She said before chuckling.

"Well, I did try my best when learning it. It's really nothing."

"That's a nice skill you've got there. I'm sure many others would like to have such skills. Even I want to know where the ball will be going." I said.

"Is… that so?" She asked, looking down.

"Yeah. Don't you think so, too? I think it's really impressive. I couldn't believe it when I was told. You're really impressive, you know." I said.

"H-heh…? W-well, I don't mind teaching you a few things."

"Are you sure? You really don't need to." I said.

"We're friends, of course I'll help you. Let's go to the field." She said as I nodded.

"Okay then, if you say so." I said, smiling and walking behind her.

*Haha, nailed it!* I thought, smirking.

◇◇◇

"It's really not hard. Hm… how to explain this… Aha! Do you remember how you 'perceived' your teammates in the last match you guys played?" She asked.

"Me? Perceive my teammates? No, no, I don't think something so dope happened." I said, waving my hands.

"No, I'm sure you did. When you suddenly made a pass to your right even when Teijiro wasn't there." She said.

"… oh! Then. I don't know. I just felt like he'd be there." I said.

"I see. It's the same with the 'perceiving of the ball'."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. Well, it's not much of a secret, but I'd love to keep it between the two of us." She said as I nodded.

We began training after she told me the basics. The basics that she told me about sounded really unrealistic, but after we began training, I kinda got the hang of it.

"Okay, you'll probably need to keep up with the training for a month or two to get the hang of the basics." She said, drying off her face.

"Hm? I think I've got it, though." I said, juggling the ball.

"Are you serious now? I don't think it's possible." She said.

"Well I do get the hang of things easily." I said, smiling at her as we walked back to the dorm.

"I don't believe you. Well, you'll just have to try it out with Kenji." She said.

"Thanks… really." I said as she looked up at me.

"… it's nothing." She said.

"I see…"

*Even though it's just the basics, she's really helped me.* I thought.

◇◇◇

"Okay! Are you ready to be marvelled once again?" Kenji asked, his left leg on the ball.

"Yeah." I said.

"Come on, come get it." He said, smiling at me as I walked towards him.

I tried kicking the ball away, but he tapped it over to his right leg.

"I'm not done yet." I said, crouching a little and sliding my leg towards his right leg, pulling the ball towards me.

"Heh…? You now know where it's gonna be. But do you know how to keep the ball?" He asked as I smiled at him.

"Of course, it's your turn to take it."

"Haha, let's see how long you'll keep that smug face." He said, trying to steal the ball from my left leg.

"…"

"Huh?" He asked, looking at my leg.

"Hehe." I laughed.

"It's still on your left? But I just tried…"

"Well, before you tried kicking it off my left leg, I passed it to my right, and when you tried kicking it off my right, I tapped it back to the left." I said.

"Damn, you learnt it so soon. I didn't even notice." He said.

"Haha, thanks." I said.

*Well, I've been trying to run 5 laps around the compound within 2 minutes since this morning.* I thought.

"Since you're good at that, let's go over to the more advanced one."

"Okay."

"Running and dribbling while creating the afterimage." He said, moving backwards.

"Okay."

"There! I'm coming towards you. Try to steal the ball from me again." He said.

"Okay!"

He ran towards me, tapping the ball forward constantly.

*Okay, he's coming to me directly. The ball's on his leg so it'll be easier to steal it.* I thought, looking down at his leg.

*Huh? It's getting confusing. I'm seeing… two balls…?* I thought.

"Heh!" He snorted, running past me.

"Whoa."

"You can't do better than me so easily." He said as I sat on the floor.

"Ah… that… might actually be true."

*What's this feeling? At some point, the way I felt from seeing his legs move. I could see it clearly. What was that again? What was it called…?*

"Ecstasy?"