~ Between Two People ~
A/N: Hola. Hola. Been a while! Apologies for the wait, life happened.
Quick note, if you find any mechanical errors and want to correct them, go for it. I'll edit them in the master copy that I have, but probably won't re-upload or re-edit it until I have time (if only there was all the time in the world...).
Without further ado, enjoy!
Disclaimer: Do not own Hikaru no Go.
Summary: Soccer-loving Hikaru found himself with visions of another world, another life, another Hikaru. As images unfold, Hikaru will find himself searching for Sai, an emerging professional Go player in his world, hoping for answers.
Chapter 4: Soccer and Go
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For the week leading up to the regional quarter finals, Hikaru was focused. The team had scheduled an extra hour practice every day after school in addition to the hour and a half that the team already had. There was also another two hour session on weekends. Hikaru was very preoccupied with the training and practices that he didn't have much time to think about Go, Sai, or his visions.
The quarter final game was scheduled on the first Saturday of February. It was held in a nearby city so Hikaru and the team had to take the bus there. Unfortunately for Hikaru, he couldn't find his bus pass which lead to a lecture from the coach and a frantic search for enough money to purchase a temporary pass. They arrived at the game with 10 minutes to spare. With barely enough time for warm-up, the game began.
The opponent, Kaze Lions, is seeded third in the region and Hikaru and his team had lost to them the previous year during the semi-finals. They were hoping to have their revenge this year around. They had re-watch their defeat many times and had trained to improve their weaknesses. Their opponent was a powerful offensive team who aimed to score as many times as possible to cover for their weak defense. Hikaru's team were equal in their offensive and defensive abilities. Thus strong offensive abilities versus so-so defensive abilities meant total annihilation.
The strategy for this game would be focused on strengthening their defenders, but mainly for the midfielders to steal the ball more often. It was going to be a tough match. Hikaru had an even more crucial role in this match, his ball control needs to be mistake-proof.
The game started out fast with Kaze Lions gaining the ball first. The struggle for ball control remained within the center of the field with interceptions and steals. Hikaru and his team were definitely better than the previous year, but the Kaze Lions was as well.
About half an hour into the game, Kaze Lions were bowling down the field with their forward protected by fellow teammates. Reiji and Hikaru were in too deep on their opponent side to fall back in time to aid and so the Kaze Lions took the chance in the weakened defense to score the first goal.
A few minutes after, fueled by revenge, Hikaru and his teammates broke through their opponents' defender and Daiuke evened up the score. With the game being tied, both teams were more cautious.
With fifteen minutes left in the game, the score stilled tied, and both team evenly matched, something different needed to happen. Hikaru got an idea. He called everyone back onto their half of the field leaving only Daiuke and Fubuki on the other side; nine defender and two attackers thereby making their defense impassable. The plan would force the Kaze Lions, who also lacked stamina if the game went to overtime, to bring up their players to attack and break through the barrier. Hikaru was betting the game on stealing the ball and counter-attack.
The Kaze Lions advanced with eight players, but had little effect. They tried advancing with nine players, with everyone evenly marked. Hikaru motioned for his teammates to back off a bit and the Kaze Lions managed to breach the defense zone and probably felt confident that they'll make the goal. It was then that Hikaru shouted for them to charge in and retrieve the ball. After much passes and steals between players on both side, Hibiki managed to protect the ball with his large frame.
It was time for a team offense. When everyone was certain that Hibiki has total control of the ball, they began running down the field towards Daisuke and Fubuki. The Kaze Lions was taken by surprise and the few seconds of confusion was enough for Hikaru and his team to rush through. Soon the ball was being passed between the winger and forward.
The score became 2-1 with ten minute left on the clock. The Kaze Lion were desperate to tie up the game. However, Hikaru and his team were ready. Their previous strategy worked and if they can keep it up, the game is theirs.
The game ended with Hikaru and his teammates advancing to the semi-finals!
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Hikaru couldn't wait until the regional championship is over. He was so sore from all the training which grew intense now that their team had made it to the semi-finals. Last year, they were knocked out of the semi-finals and they didn't want it to happen again. They were aiming for the championship title.
As soon as they defeated the Kaze Lions almost a week ago, there was little rest. There was a small party after the game, but the coach and captain wouldn't let the party continue for long. The team were going to begin their training the following day. Thankfully, the 'training' started with a few hours of watching their opponents games during the tournament.
Their opponent this time, Corce Tigre, is seeded second in the region and are the favorites to win against the number one seed and last year champion, Lance Dane. No one was surprise at the final's potential line-up since whoever created the line-ups put the two team on opposite blocks so that the only way for them to meet would be during the finals.
Corce Tigre, unlike the Kaze Lions, are a defensive team. They'll seek an opportunity for a counterattack through the game, but their main goal is to prevent a goal. So far during the tournament, they had only let one goal through. Hikaru's coach and Hiroto are trying to come up with a play that'll secure the game against such a tough opponent.
With about a week left before the semi-finals, Hikaru was currently on his way towards a different soccer field for practice. The team's usual soccer field had a bad case of gophers. The temporary practice field was far from Hikaru's house which forced him to wake up a bit earlier if he didn't want to be late. Being late for class is one thing, but being late for soccer practice the week before a big game was suicide. He didn't want to do extra laps after an exhausting session.
"Aw, man," Hikaru muttered quietly to himself as he adjusted the bag strap on his shoulder to keep it from slipping.
A flash of black and white caught Hikaru's eyes and he stopped to look at the culprit. It was a poster for a Children Go's Tournament being held all day in the building that Hikaru stopped in front of.
"Hm," Hikaru was curious. "Guess it ain't a geezer's game."
A series of images flashed through his mind.
"Ugh," Hikaru murmured, annoyed. "Guess I'll check it out after practice if I'm still alive by then." With soccer day in and day out along with trying not to flunk his classes, Hikaru had been ignoring Go and the images in his head. He doesn't mind the images as much as the emotions that would randomly flood him. And currently, he felt guilt.
About three hours later...
"Argh, stupid Reiji," Hikaru muttered darkly, rubbing his left arm. During a practice game, Reiji had refused to follow Hikaru's calls and thus caused an accident involving legs, arms, and falling. Hikaru was sure that there would be a bruise on his left arm by tomorrow morning.
"Hm, I'm sure it was around here somewhere," Hikaru glanced left and right trying to find the Go event with his hand shading his eyes from the hot afternoon sun.
Thud!
Hikaru was too busy looking around to notice that he had walked right into someone and the impact made Hikaru stumbled backwards and the bag on his shoulder fell. As he reached down to grab his bag, someone spoke.
"Watch where you're going punk." The gruff and annoyed voice came from the other person.
Hikaru scowled at the rude tone. He glanced up and saw a man in a white suit with a cigarette hanging from his lips and sunglasses over his eyes.
"You were the one in the middle of the sidewalk," Hikaru barked back. It was at that moment, several images passed through his head of the same man in the white suit. Oh man, seriously? Hikaru thought and refrained from groaning. He couldn't believe the older man was in his visions as well. Hikaru prayed that the man in the white suit wasn't anyone important in his visions like Sai because Hikaru don't think he'll like this man much; there was something with the other man's aura that made Hikaru shuddered.
"- fault."
"What?" Hikaru realized that the man in the white suit had said something while the images were playing.
"Never mind. Just watch where you're going next time, kid," the man in the white suit proclaimed and began walking away.
Hikaru watched the other man walk away and realized that he was walking straight towards the Children's Go Tournament. I'm here, so might as well, Hikaru thought and wait a few seconds before following the other man into the building.
Hikaru almost gasped as he stepped into the enormous hall where dozens of children were playing Go while their parents were watching from the side, urging their child on. Certain matches had quite a number of spectators while others had one or two. The air was so tense with concentration from the players to the spectators; it felt like one of Hikaru's soccer matches, just a lot quiet.
Hikaru was amazed at how young these children were, many were younger than him! He spotted the nearest table to him and something flashed in his eyes. He recognized that it was the game currently being played. Hikaru blinked and felt he understood how the game was going. The boy who had the black stone placed it on the board and Hikaru noticed that the boy played a stone below where Hikaru knew he should.
"Oh, so close! You should have gone right above that." Hikaru spoke before he realized he did.
"Huh? Oh.."
Crap. Hikaru realized his mistake when everyone turned to look at him, including the young player. Hikaru tried to inch back and leave the way he came, but there were people beginning to crowd around him.
"Hey you!" The voice belonged to a dark-haired man who clasped his hand on Hikaru's shoulder in a vice grip.
"What are you thinking? Interfering with a match, this is a serious event." The same man scolded despite Hikaru apologizing to him.
"Mori-san, calm down." A familiar voice called from behind.
Hikaru looked up and saw the same man in the white suit and wished the ground would open and swallowed him up. Damn Go, Hikaru thought darkly.
"Ogata-sensei, I'm taking him to the back." The man called Mori-san stated as he took a firm hold of Hikaru's wrist and began dragging him to the opposite direction of the exit.
"Let go of me or I'll scream," Hikaru threatened, tugging on his wrist. He just spoke up, it can't be that big of a crime, could it? He didn't need to get in trouble here if he can help it. He didn't want to be suspended from the team because he got in trouble. "Let me go. It was an accident."
"Be quiet, you," the man in the white suit who Hikaru assume is Ogata-sensei said before turning to the two kids at the table and asked, "Can you tell me what happened?"
"I put my stone here and that kid says 'so close, you should have gone right above it'." The boy who placed the stone replied, pointing to the corner.
"This..." Ogata-sensei muttered.
"Geeze, what's the big deal anyway?" Hikaru asked, exasperated and still unable to free his hand away. Everyone was so serious. A woman in the crowd, who Hikaru guessed to be the mother of one of the boy was frowning and giving Hikaru the death glare. More people were tuning in to figure out what was going on.
"Why you-!"
"How dare you just speak up like that after looking for a second and ruin my son's game?" the woman finally spoke up and pointed at Hikaru accusingly.
"What, you said he only took a quick look?" Ogata-sensei asked, stunned. He looked back down at the pattern and scowled.
"Man, you guys are nuts. I said I'm sorry already." Hikaru exclaimed, finally managing to wrestle his wrist away from the dark-haired man. The man gave him a glare, but Hikaru didn't care. He had to find some way to get out.
More and more people were gathering and whispering to one another. Hikaru took the chance at the crowd and squeezed his way through before high-tailing it out of there. He heard a variety of different voices calling for him to stop running or come back, but he wasn't going to be an idiot and stay where he'll get into trouble. He took a quick glance over his shoulder and saw the official guys were trying, and failing, to make their way through the crowd.
"Once again, I'm sorry!" Hikaru shouted and gestured back, hoping that those words would be enough.
Though Hikaru was confident of his running abilities, he didn't think he can run that long since soccer practice had already taken a chunk of his energy. Hikaru ran until he was sure that nobody was following him before stopping to catch his breath.
"Man, these Go people are crazy," Hikaru huffed and mumbled to himself and looked behind him again to make sure that he wasn't followed.
Even though the soccer team had went to lunch after practice, Hikaru was hungry again. He wondered if his mother might have some leftover lunch he can have. With that in mind he went home, determined not to think too much about the earlier incident.
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Ogata Seiji regretted not grabbing a hold of the punk with blond-dyed bangs himself. At first glance, Ogata thought that the boy didn't belong at the event and only entered because he was curious. He was wearing a bright yellow shirt with the number five on it and soccer shorts. Ogata can guess that the bag the boy was carrying had sports equipment in it.
Ogata was currently looking over the game that the kid ruined and he couldn't believe that the kid was able to solve a problem like this in just a glance. Even as a pro, it took him a second or third glance to be able to solve.
"Sounds like we had some trouble." A voice came from the doorway.
"Oh, Toya Meijin. Take a look at this." Kakimoto-sensei called and pointed to the goban with the recreated game.
"Even a pro would need a moment to think to solve this situation. A boy just took a quick peek and saw it," Ogata explained as the Meijin walked over to look at the board.
"He looked just like a punk that I didn't even thought..." Kakimoto trailed off. Everyone in the room that witnessed the spectacle were also thinking the same.
"To notice instantly the move to defeat the opponent. I didn't think there could be a kid other than Akira that could do something like this," Ogata said and sighed. "We didn't even get a name."
"Hm, I wonder..." Toya Meijin stared at the board and contemplated Ogata's comments. Perhaps this boy was the one that Akira played?
"Sensei?"
"No matter, if he's as good as we think, we'll see him in the Go world," Toya Meijin stated. He hoped for the sake of Akira that his words were true.
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GGOOOAAALLLLL!
The announcer screamed. The audience in the stand erupted in screams and shouts of their own. After all, it was the first and probably last goal of the game since there's only five minutes left.
Hikaru soaked in the crowds' cheers as he ran towards the person who scored. Fubuki did it! If they can keep the opponent from scoring in the next five minutes, the game was theirs and they could avoid overtime.
Five minutes later, with victory assured and the finals in another two weeks, Hikaru and his teammates went crazy jumping over and into one another, cheering and screaming. It was an extremely tough and concentration-dense game.
The coach had decided to strengthen their defensive plays even more which initially confused most of the players on the team. The Corce Tigre played defensively so shouldn't they be going offensive to defeat them? The coach, captain, and Hikaru came together and saw that offensive plays were typical so they were going to try for a different way. It was risky and required everyone to be on guard at any moment. They were going to imitate Corce Tigre's game-play.
Fubuki and Daisuke were ready at any moment for a counter attack while the rest of the team aimed to prevent a goal. The match became a game of back and forth with interceptions and missed shots. Both teams' defense were in top form. With minutes left on the clock, Hikaru and his team need to make a counter attack as soon and as efficient as possible otherwise they would be forced into overtime.
Corce Tigre were probably thinking the same and grew more aggressive in their plays leaving a few holes in their defense. Hikaru managed to hold them off and stole the ball before calling out for their counter attack. This was probably their only chance for the goal and everyone on the team knew that. With the weakened defense, Fubuki managed to score with an assist from Daisuke.
"Let's go celebrate!" an excited voice shouted.
The game was long over and the audience had left. The players were walking out of the locker room heading towards the bus to head home. It would be around dinner time by the time they get back to their school and thus everyone agreed that they should go get dinner and celebrate.
"Man, I can't believe that it came down to the wire," Hikaru said and stretched his arms over his head to rid of a few kinks in the shoulder.
"They're not seeded second for no reason," Reiji responded beside Hikaru.
"It's also a bit of luck. They rushed it at the end," Hiroto said from the other side of Hikaru.
"Well, luck is a skill," Hikaru replied with a silly grin on his face and flashed a peace sign.
"Only-"
"Shindo?"
Hikaru turned around towards the voice and saw someone unexpected. It was the boy from the Go Salon that one time. The other boy was dressed quite formally with his slacks and purple dress shirt, a stark contrast to Hikaru's messy appearance. He tried to remember the name, but the euphoria of going to the finals overwhelmed everything else. "Oh, it's you. Err... You're..."
"Toya Akira," Touya supplied readily, "It is you then. I want to have another match."
"Match? What's he talking about, Hikaru? We're already super exhausted from the one we had today," Reiji asked from the sidelines and looked between Hikaru and the other boy in confusion. The boy name Touya Akira looked way too fragile to be playing soccer.
"Uh, it's complicated," Hikaru said to Reiji before turning back to Toya, curious. "What are you doing here?"
"There is an event nearby," Toya answered as if that would explain everything, but his face was determined, "I want a match."
"A match is-"
Hikaru was interrupted midway by Kudo calling out to him. "Hikaru, hurry up. We need to go. Everyone's hungry!"
"Yea, we're coming." Reiji shouted back and turned to grab Hikaru's arm to head off. "Come on."
"Sorry, but not now. We're going to go celebrate our victory!" Hikaru announced to the other boy with an apologetic grin. With that said, Hikaru quickly followed Reiji back to the bus where his other teammates were waiting. To be honest, Hikaru was somewhat relieved of the way out. He didn't want to deal with Touya at the moment. It's too troublesome.
"Wait, -"
Hikaru turned and saw Toya ran after him and shouted something out, but he couldn't hear it from the loud excitement everyone on the bus had. All he could do was give a helpless shrug to the other boy before boarding the bus. Hikaru saw Toya's look of frustration and disappointment and Hikaru thought the other boy was silly; after all, it was only a Go match.
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Two weeks later...
The air on the bus was thick with despair and regret. Hikaru felt defeated. Everyone around him felt defeated. They had just lost their chance at the Regional Championship to the Lance Dane. They were so close! They came so far!
By the time the clock ran out, both teams were tied 1-1 and they had to go overtime. It was there that Lance Dane trounced Hikaru and his teammates by scoring a quick goal thus winning by 2-1. Hikaru and his team knew their stamina wasn't the best and they did trained to be better, but all the training, the sweat, and the exhaustion just wasn't enough.
Silence reigned during the bus ride on their way home as everyone reminisce on how close they were to becoming number one. It was heartbreaking and the coach knew his team needed some time to reflect.
The bus stopped at their school and everyone filed out in silence, eyes downcast, and body slumped over.
"Alright, listen up everyone!" the captain and goalkeeper shouted and all heads slowly looked up and face Hiroto.
"We had time to wallow in our loss," Hiroto began loudly and calmly.
Hikaru knew that as goalkeeper, Hiroto was probably the one that felt the most responsible for their loss because he didn't manage to protect the goal during overtime.
"But it's over and we need to look forward to the future. We had a great time, everyone was awesome. Your pass today was cool-looking, Kudo. Your insight was amazing, Hikaru. And Fubuki, that goal? Wow. And-" Hiroto continued, looking from person to person. It seemed to slightly cheered the players up.
"And you too Hiroto. All those saves!" Hikaru shouted excitedly when Hiroto finished down the line. Everyone pitched in a "yea" or "awesome" for their captain and proud faces beamed up at Hiroto.
"You guys..." Hiroto looked from grinning face to grinning face and his own face lit up as well. "We were pretty amazing today, weren't we?"
"Damn right we were!" Reiji hollered out and a cheer of consensus followed.
"There's always next year," Hiroto continued as the cheers died down. He turned to Fubuki, "You lead them to that championship next year."
"Aw captain, don't get sappy on us!" Fubuki answered, but a smile was hard to hide.
"Fine, fine. This might be my last chance saying this, but I had fun as your captain. Reiji, Hikaru and I will graduate come Spring, but you guys, do your best!" Hiroto said with a fond smile.
"You guys make us proud to say you were our upperclassmen too!" Daisuke, the soon to be vice captain, called out.
"Can we get food now?" Everyone knew which person the question was from. Hikaru just stood at the side, grinning sheepishly with his hands rubbing his tummy as his teammates turned to him. "What? Losing makes me hungry?"
"Everything makes you hungry!" Terumi grabbed Hikaru around the neck in a chokehold, "We're going to miss our excuse to eat next year."
"Alright, how about we go party before we have to study for the exams?" Kudo spoke up and everyone groaned. "What? What did I say?"
"Don't remind us about the exam!" Hibiki rolled his eyes, not surprised that the wingback, also quite book-smart was worried about the exams.
In about two weeks, the end of the year exams will be held and afterwards, it was time for graduation. Hikaru will probably not see many of his teammates before graduation except for Reiji who was in a few of his classes.
Starting in April, Hikaru and Reiji will be heading for Kaio while Hiroto had to move to another city, thereby starting school far away. However, the soon-to-be-former captain promised that he'll take his team and see Hikaru and Reiji at the country's championship.
Beside Reiji, Hikaru will have Akari accompanying him to Kaio. Akari's academics was high enough to get accepted into Kaio. Hikaru would never tell Akari that he was glad to have her support during Junior High as well otherwise she'd hold it against him.
But first, exams. Hikaru groaned at the thought. The next two weeks or so will be hell.
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It's been about three months since Akira first met the boy with the blond-dyed bangs and his first loss to someone his age. During the first month after the boy's sudden appearance, Shindo didn't come back to the salon and Akira knew nothing more about Shindo then his name and his skills.
Akira had started wondering if the person and the match had been a fragment of his imagination that he somehow created, but Ichikawa-san had been there and the bus pass he held onto proved that the mysterious boy was real. He does exists.
His father and the other professionals that come by his home on a daily occurrence were pressuring him to enter the pro world. Akira was hesitant and unsure; if there was someone out there that could defeat him, he wasn't prepared enough to go into the pro exam. He found himself wanting to defeat the other boy as proof that he was ready for the Go world.
A while ago, his father had, after their nightly game, laid out a game in progress and asked Akira to solve a situation. Akira had glanced at his father in askance, only to receive an urging stare before looking over the game. He noticed that the level of the person who played the game was probably not a pro; as a matter of fact, their skills weren't near his own either.
"Father?" Akira asked again, in confusion.
"If you were black, where would you play next," the Meijin simply said.
Akira looked down again and searched for an answer. It took him quite a long moment, but he managed to find the answer. He took a black stone between his forefinger and middle finger and placed the stone down at 1-2.
"Hm, I see it took you quite a while to see that too," the Meijin commented, arms crossed in front of his chest as he bends over slightly to see where the stone was placed.
"I apologize, my skills aren't-"
"No, no. I expected as much," the older Toya waved away his son's concern.
"Is there a reason you showed this to me, father?" Akira asked. The situation was a bit tricky and it took him a while to play his hand, but it wasn't anything too difficult.
"The other boy solved it with just a glance," the Meijin stated and stared directly at Akira, gauging a reaction.
Akira froze. "The other boy?"
"Yes, this morning at the Children's Go Tournament, a boy came and disrupted the game by pointing out that spot aloud and he did it with just a peek at the game."
Akira glanced back down at the board. With a glance? Akira thought and something akin to excitement overcame him. "Did he have blond bangs?"
"Hm, Ogata-san mentioned that he did. Is he the boy you're looking for?" the Meijin inquired. If so, the other boy's skills were great indeed and he can see how Akira could've lost. He was now more curious to play the boy himself.
"Yes!" Akira almost shouted and risen in his seat. He saw his father's slightly alarmed face before he realized his outburst. "I'm sorry. It' just..." Akira had so many questions to ask. Did they find out who the boy was? Was his skills that amazing? Akira went with the first question.
"No, unfortunately, the boy ran away before Ogata-san or Mori-san could get much out of him."
Akira was almost sure that it was Shindo that they were talking about. He seems to like running off after making a commotion. Akira thought wryly.
"Will you be taking the pro exam this year?" the older Toya asked.
"I- I don't know yet," Akira admitted.
"The boy you're waiting for, if he's as good as that, I'm sure it won't be long until he enters the pro Go world. You can wait for him there."
After talking with his father, Akira decided to take the upcoming pro exam in the Fall. He was going to use summer break to prepare himself for it. Summer break was still a few months away and he needed to get through school first.
It was the first week at Kaio Junior High and the principal had coerced Akira into taking a look at the school's Go club. Kaio boasts one of the strongest Go club in the region and their fame would increase if Toya Akira, son of the great Toya Meijin and prodigy in his own right, would become a member. Akira knew this, but there was no way that he could deny the principal's request. So he had to endure a tour of the Go club facilities with Yun-sensei who is in charge of the school's Go club.
"I'm sorry Yun-sensei, but I'm planning to take the pro exam and I won't have time to engage in much activities outside of that," Akira replied to Yun-sensei's urge for him to join the club.
The principal wouldn't have none of that. "I understand, but if you could just drop by every now and then, it would- oof" The principal collided with someone when they turned the corner.
"Are you alright?" Yun-sensei asked as he helped stabilize the principal.
"Geeze, what the heck?" the other voice groaned.
Akira blinked. He couldn't believe it. "Shindo Hikaru?"
"Huh? Oh, wow. Small world," Shindo replied when he saw that Toya was wearing the same uniform he was. He rubbed a sore spot on his head that took the burnt during the collision.
"Why are you running in the hallway, young man?" the principal asked, the jolly face that he gave Akira before gone, replaced with a stern and irritated one.
"I wasn't running," Shindo denied and hurriedly looked around for something. "Anyone know what time it is?"
"It's a little pass 3 o'clock," Yun-sensei replied and showed Shindo his watch.
"Oh man. I'm late for club practice!" Shindo grimaced and was about to bolt when Toya suddenly grabbed his wrist to prevent him.
"Club? You're in the Go club?" Toya asked, not noting that he was being rude to the principal and Yun-sensei for ignoring them. If Shindo was in the Go club then maybe he should -
"What? There's a Go Club? I'm in the Soccer Club!" Shindo announced and tried to wiggle his wrist away from the other boy. What is with Go player and grabbing my wrist? Hikaru thought with a scowl remembering the incident weeks ago.
"Soccer club?" Toya blinked in surprise and his hands loosened enough that Shindo could get away.
"And I'm late!" Shindo exclaimed and ran passed Toya.
"No running in the hall!" the principal called after, but Shindo had already turned another corner.
"Do you know the other boy?" Yun-sensei asked.
"I-I. Not really. I'm sorry, but I have to go," Toya said, still confused. All he knew was that he wasn't going to let Shindo run away again. He bowed to Yun-sensei and the principal before running after Shindo with an 'Excuse me.' to the adults.
"No runn- Oh nevermind," the principal sighed. If such a polite student as Toya Akira was running through the hallway..
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A/N: Welps, there you have it. Akira, a little out of character? Probably, but my defense is desperation breeds OOC-ness. This chapter was kind of a pain to write and quite rushed.
A lot of the soccer terms I use are from the internet (so please correct me if I'm completely off the mark) since I only know the name of only few play styles and positions.
It seems each chapter is getting longer. Coincidence? Yes, pretty much so don't expect much.
Next Chapter: Chapter 5 - NetGo and Light (?)
You won't see the next chapter til maybe early January - if lucky. Winter holidays are usually a super busy time for me (and probably you guys as well). So I hope you all have a wonderful ending to 2012 and I'll see you guys next year!