Chap5: Warm Up

I woke up as usual, before my alarm even had a chance to go off. I reached over and turned it off before it could make a sound, then headed to the bathroom to freshen up.

"I've gotten a bit of a tan since I came to Osaka." I noticed, looking at myself in the mirror. I have to say, I like spending time at the beach, it allows me to train well thanks to the sand.

After showering and drying my hair, I got dressed and tied it back neatly. I headed to the kitchen, grabbed some breakfast, and packed my bento into my school bag.

"You grabbed the wrong bento, Shin, that one's your grandfather's." my grandmother called out.

"Oh, right." I said, quickly swapping it with mine. "Okay, I'm off!"

"Have a good day, Shin." she replied warmly.

As usual, I left with my ball at my feet, weaving through the sidewalk like it was second nature. When I arrived at school, I dropped it off at the front desk. Ms. Akari lets me do that now without a word.

I headed to class, greeted my classmates, and sat down in my usual seat. The day passed like most others.

When lunch break came, I was sitting with the guys from the football team who were also in my class.

"Did you see the board at the entrance?" Soda asked, unwrapping his chopsticks.

"What's at the entrance?" Tsuji replied, raising an eyebrow.

"We've got a friendly match coming up." Soda announced.

"Makes sense." I chimed in. "The inter-club tournaments are starting soon."

"I'm counting the days, I can already picture myself out on that field." Soda added, clearly pumped.

"Yes, same here." I said with a nod. "I've been looking forward to this too."

We kept chatting about it, until the bell rang and classes resumed. Time passed, and finally, the school day came to an end.

Once classes were over, we all made our way to the field for practice.

At the end of training, Coach Ikeda called us in to huddle up.

"As you've probably heard." he began, arms crossed. "we've got a friendly match at the end of this week. We'll be playing against Inubishi Elementary from Kyoto. There are 14 of you, so three players will be on the bench. Don't take it as a defeat, take it as a motivation."

He paused, letting the words sink in, then continued, his tone steady.

"Here are the starting eleven

Ryota Tsuji in goal.

Makoto Soda, Junji Yamada, and Daigo Sasaki in defense.

Tatsuya Hayashi, Koji Yoshida, Yohei Kuramochi, and Toru Nakai as midfielders.

Mitsuru Ide, Shohei Mihashi, and Shin Orochi in the front line.

We'll be running a 3-4-3 formation. That's all for now."

After that, we wrapped up practice and all headed home.

I knocked out my homework quickly, then headed downstairs with my ball. Right at the entrance, I started practicing some shots, one-touch passes against the wall, and ball control drills.

'I should be able to create my own special shot.'

About 40 minutes later, my grandfather came home. He spotted me at the entrance.

"Pick up the pace a little." he said with a slight grin.

I did as told, tightening my rhythm and sharpening my movements. He took a seat on the steps at the entrance and quietly watched me train.

Once I was done, I sat beside him, slightly out of breath.

"How was your day at work?" I asked him.

He chuckled, then replied, "That's supposed to be my question… but yes, it was fine. And you?"

"I'm doing good too. We've got a friendly match coming up against a team from Kyoto. After that, the inter-school tournaments begin." I told him.

"Ah, the inter-school tournaments…" he said, a nostalgic look crossing his face. "It's been a long time. Your father used to love those. Back in the day, when he played baseball, he couldn't wait for that time of year."

There was a pause, his memories hanging in the air.

"Well, let's go in. We shouldn't keep your grandmother waiting too long," he said, getting up.

And with that, we went inside.

"What were you two doing outside?" she asked us.

"We were discussing the past." he said, smiling at her.

The rest of the week went by quickly, leading up to the much-anticipated day—our friendly match. We traveled to Kyoto, where Inubishi School was located.

"This place is pretty nice too." Tsuji commented as we arrived at Inubishi.

"Not wrong, but I prefer it at home." said Ide.

"We're not here to sightsee, boys. Let's head to the field." Coach said firmly.

So we made our way toward the pitch.

"Mr. Ikeda, it's good to see you." said the opposing team's coach.

"Likewise, Mr. Ryosei." our coach replied.

"The locker rooms are this way. Get changed, warm up, and we'll begin the match shortly." Mr. Ryosei instructed.

"Go ahead." Coach Ikeda told us, and we followed into the changing room.

Inside the locker room…

"Seriously? I wanted that number." a few of the guys were arguing over jersey numbers.

"I'm taking number 7." I said, pulling on the jersey. No one questioned it.

The number picking continued until everyone was ready.

As we stepped out of the locker room, we spotted the opposing team warming up on the field.

"Go warm up, the match is about to start." Coach Ikeda told us.

We nodded and began our routine.

After a few minutes of warming up, it was time to take our positions on the pitch. We got into formation.

As I took my place on the right wing, the player across from me looked over and said with a smirk. "Hope you guys can at least give us a decent warm-up."

"We'll talk about it again when we've beaten you, keep the same energy at that time." I shot back confidently.

He laughed. "We'll see."

And the whistle blew, kickoff.

Inubishi had the ball to start the match.