Even though Hiro had nothing to do with the aforementioned player, Hiro still felt a little sad after learning about the situation of such an amazing player.
But then again, he wasn’t willing to show his concerns. Thus, he kept his sympathy to himself and decided to change the topic of their conversation.
However just as he was about to speak, Akashi interjected him, “Although I pity him, I think a part of fault lies within him as well.”
Akashi’s words which came out of nowhere, baffled both Hiro and Endo who were conversing with eachother.
Turning his head towards Akashi, Endo gave him perplexing look as he questioned him about his claims, “Why do you think so?”
“He could have very well chosen another team, couldn’t he?” Akashi replied nonchalantly while questioning back the two of them.
Hearing Akashi’s question, Hiro and Endo, both of them pondered for a while.
“Now that you mention about it. Indeed he could have chosen another club. Even if he was an academy player, he could have chosen to transfer to another academy during his high school years.” Mumbled Hiro while making a serious expression.
“But then again Cerezo Osaka’s senior team is pretty good. And they perform equally well as other top clubs in the league. So it’s not a problem if he makes it to the senior team.” Continued Hiro with the same expression on his face.
“Yeah it’s his decision. So let’s not ponder about someone else’s choice.” Saying such, Endo shrugged.
Then he shifted his gaze towards Hiro as he spoke with a bright smile on his face, “Top of the table, winning all 11 games, currently at 11 game winning streak, top goalscorer of the league, internet celebrity, top assist provider of the league, player with the most MVP, youngest player in the league, youngest captain and so on. What do you have to say about your performance?”
With 15 goals under his name, Hiro was dominating the goal scoring charts of his league. And not only was he leading the goal scoring charts, he was even leading the assist charts with 7 registered assists under his name.
Just as Endo revealed such information about Hiro, both Akashi and Rin immediately turned their attention towards Hiro.
Their eyes gleaming with reverence, their face displayed a mixed emotion of reverence, curiosity and excitement.
Hiro who was uncomfortable talking about his achievements with his friends, shied as he tried to avoid locking eyes with the three of them.
Then again while keeping a pretentious straight face, Hiro answered as if such achievements weren’t a big deal for him, “I think my performance is pretty decent. I’m helping my teammates, my teammates are helping me. We’re all helping each other. And because of our efforts, we’re winning the games. What more could I ask for?”
While speaking such, Hiro paused all of a sudden. He then exhaled a deep breath as he continued, “And all in all, I’m enjoying the game.”
For a moment to the youths who were staring at Hiro, it felt like they were listening to an interview of a veteran player who had achieved everything in football. To them it didn’t feel like the words of a kid who had just started his professional football career.
Staring at Hiro looking completely daze, their mind went completely blank for a while.
And while they were staring at Hiro without saying any words, for a while the only sound that resounded around them was the noise of moving bus and the chatters of other passengers seated in the bus.
Finally after a moment of speechlessness, Akashi opened his mouth, “Woah!!! What did I hear just now?”
In a state of trance, Rin too spoke while keeping his eyes fixated at Hiro, “He’s gotten a lot more humble than before.”
While conversing such, after about 15 minutes the bus stopped as they arrived at their destination.
The four of them then got off the bus and headed towards the direction of the amusement park.
The amusement park was grand. Spread in quite a large chunk of land, the amusement park that they were headed to had many rides such as Ferris wheel, rollercoaster, bumping cars and many more. And even more amazing was the fact that each and every ride were amine-themed. For example, the cart of rollercoaster was designed as shenlong from Dragon Ball Z. 𝙞𝙧𝙚𝒂𝙙.𝓬𝒐𝒎
Witnessing the amusement park infront of his eyes, Hiro was mesmerized by just the sheer size of the entrance of the amusement park.
Instead of a door, the entrance of the amusement park was the mouth of a titan. However that entrance was only for people of the age thirteen or above. Fortunately Hiro was thirteen years of age.
For the kids below the age of thirteen another entrance was set up which was themed on doraemon, shinchan and few other kids show based anime.
“Let’s get the ticket guys” excitedly spoke Hiro as he was about to strode towards the ticket counter.
But he was instantly stopped on his track by Akashi. Catching his hands, Akashi prevented Hiro from moving forward, “Wait… I’ll go”
Hiro was a little dumbfounded by Akashi’s request.
Stopping on his track, Hiro looked back at Akashi as he spoke, “It’s okay. I’ll pay for the tickets. You guys stay here.”
Hearing Hiro’s words, Akashi started to get anxious. As if he was hiding something, he replied in somewhat suspicious way, “No… No… Let me pay for the tickets.”
Hiro could very well tell that Akashi was hiding something by the reaction he was displaying. But Hiro chose to remain silent as he nodded his head while agreeing to Akashi’s request.
Akashi then immediately let go of the hand of Hiro as he stormed towards the ticket counter without replying anything.
Just as Akashi left towards the ticket counter, Hiro looked at the direction of Endo and Rin. Looking at them with questioning gazes, he questioned, “What happened to him?”
Endo and Rin both of them shook their head as they feigned ignorance.
After a while Akashi returned from the ticket counter.
“Then shall we head inside guys?” Asked Hiro as Akashi returned back with the tickets.
“Let’s… wait for a while.” Akashi stammered.
Judging by the reactions, Akashi was displaying since a moment ago, Hiro could very well tell than something was not right. But he couldn’t tell exactly why Akashi was behaving as such, thus he had no other choice but to ask Akashi,”But why?”
Faced with Hiro’s questions, Akashi started to panic. His countenance became pale as he began to think of some excuses.
He then let out a nervous laughter, “haha.. look at the number of people queued up infront of the entrance. If we go now then we’ll get stuck.”
“Akashi”
Just when Akashi was nervously speaking such, Hiro heard a voice of a girl coming from behind him. That voice was calling Akashi’s name.
Turning behind to look who was calling Akashi’s name, Hiro’s pupils enlarged as he noticed someone.
His brows knotted as his eyes widened in shock. Totally speechless, he could neither blink his eyes nor could he bring himself to look away.
