Just as Hiro revealed his jersey number, one of the player who was standing beside him, abruptly looked towards his direction with his eyes wide open as he heard Hiro’s voice.
While almost every player present in the field were trying to find out the identities of the top players, he had accidentally found the player who was at the top of the food chain.
But within few breathes, his expressions changed as a feeling of envy and fear surfaced within his heart.
He then became extremely vigilant of Hiro. Grabbing on to the clothe of another player beside him, he whispered while gesturing with his eyes, “He’s the guy with jersey number 1”
“Wait… Isn’t he the current top scorer of East League?”
And just like that one after the other, the news regarding Hiro being the player with jersey number 1 spread all over the field just like wildfire spreading on dry grassfield. In no time almost everybody knew about the identity of the player with jersey number 1.
“It would have been ridiculous if you were not invited.” With a cheeky smile on his face, one of the player who recognised Hiro muttured.
While some of the players in the field couldn’t recognise Hiro, almost every player present in the field immediately recognised Hiro as they looked towards his direction.
Distracted by the announcement and their personal issues, they hadn’t noticed the presence of Hiro earlier. But now that they witnessed Hiro’s figure, they immediately become wary of Hiro.
And as everybody got their jerseys, Kazan lifted the speaker and announced, “Now then everybody go and get changed. The training will begin after 20 minutes. So if anybody fails to return to the pitch by then, something bad might happen to them.”
Casually saying such words, Kazan ordered the players to get changed.
And the way he spoke so lightly of the consequences made him look like a person with sadistic personality.
As instructed by Kazan, every player returned within the given time frame. And not even a single player got late.
After that Kazan once again swept his gaze across the players queued up infront of him. And as he finished looking at the players, he announced, “Now that everyone’s here. We’ll begin the training with a match. Players will be divided into five teams. The representatives of the team will be the top 5 players. So players with jersey number 1 to 5, please come infront.”
Answering to the call of Kazan, Hiro and other four players stepped infront.
And while he recognised two of the player among those four, one of the player whom he recognised was completely out of his expectation.
Short black hair, sharp deep black eyes which resembled snake eyes and a mean looking face, it was Akutsu.
Exchanging looks with Hiro, Akutsu lifted the corner of his mouth as he smiled at Hiro. And even his smile seemed a bit sinister because of his mean looking face.
And even though his smile gave chills to some of the players who were looking at him, it still didn’t intimidate Hiro.
Instead, Hiro just smiled back at him and nodded his head as if he was greeting Akutsu.
Hiro then swept his gaze at the player with jersey number 3.
Tanned skin, robust body, double chin, he had a very manly appearance. As if he was somekind of Hollywood actor from the late 90’s, he was Kiryu Daichi High School’s ace defensive midfielder.
And even though he appeared a little older than the players present in the field, he was infact only 16 years old right now.
‘So you’re here as well Takeshi Ono’ thought Hiro as he looked at his figure.
Hiro then shrugged as he looked towards the direction of other two players whom he couldn’t recognise, ‘May be they’re from West League. But Akutsu isn’t from the East League as well.’
Just when he was contemplating about the identity of the top five players, he was distracted by Kazan’s voice.
“These five players will be the representatives of 5 teams. They can also choose to be the captain or they can appoint the captain from the players in their team as per their wish.”
“But you may ask what’s the point of being representative if the only thing you could do is choose the captain of the team.”
“However that’s not the only authority which they’ll be granted. Being the representative of the team, they can decide on the strategy of the team. In short they’ll be acting as the player manager.”
Just as Kazan mentioned about the authority of the representatives, almost everybody’s face displayed a mixed emotion of fear and envy. While there were few who showed no changes in their facial expression. Apart from those few, everybody’s face looked quite anxious.
“Not only can they decide the strategy of the team, they’ll also get to choose two players for their team. However remember as I’ve mentioned before, the rankings will change on daily basis. So if the current representative can’t hold onto their position, a new representative will appear.”
“Then that new player will also get the benefit of being representative. And naturally along with the position, they’ll be able to enjoy the power as well. Teams will also keep on changing everyday.”
The fact that they were allowing the representative to choose only two player was because of two reason. One was because of unfamiliarity between the players and the second and most important reason was to balance the team. .
Despite granting the representatives the power to make their own strategy, they still couldn’t allow one team to have all the good players.
After Kazan finished explaining the details, he then asked the representatives to choose the player. According to the sequence of their jersey number, Kazan let them pick the players. .
Thus, Hiro who had the jersey number 1 got to pick first.
Without any hesitation, Hiro named the two players whom he wanted in his team, “Goalkeeper Shun Yabuzoe and jersey number 7 Yutaka Inoue”
Updated from .𝘤𝘰