November 4, 2021
Seated inside a bus, Hiro and his teammates were on their way to Chiba Middle School which was located about 25km south to their hostel.
With manager Nozomi and coach Fuji seated in the front seat beside the driver, the rest of the players were seated in the passenger seats.
Most of the players in the bus were pretty relaxed. However there were also few players mostly the ones who got promoted from the reserve team, who’s face looked pale and pretty tensed.
With their brows frowning, some of them were bitting their nails, while some of them were joining their hands, praying to god.
Among them one was Shunta, who was seated right next to Yuya at the 3rd row. Coming from a Buddhist family, he was a follower of Buddha.
Clenching his bag tightly with both his hands and closing his eyes, he was intensely praying to the Buddha to bless him and help him in the match. And one could tell just by looking at him that he was extremely anxious about the match which was going to take place in a moment.
Yuya who was seated right next to him wasn’t paying any attention to Shunta and he looked completely fine. There wasn’t even a spec of worry in his face. And Hiro who was seated right behind them alongside Shun looked pretty excited about the match.
With his lips curling, Hiro wasn’t able to stop himself from smiling while thinking about the match.
“Someone seems pretty excited about the match.” Yuya who was seated infront of him chuckled while turning his head behind.
While maintaining the smile on his face, Hiro replied, “Hahah… Yeah!! I’m just excited to test my skills against another team after so long. And I’m also excited to play some competitive matches.”
Since it had been a long time, since he last used his skills. He was pretty excited to use those skills once again.
Also he still had an unused golden ticket which he had acquired after completing the quest ‘Impress the Kenzaki brothers’ from two years ago.
Since there wasn’t any need for him to use that ticket right away, he had been saving that ticket for his time at the youth club.
Hearing his cheerful voice, Shun who was seated right next to him joined in on the conversation. He then spoke sounding somewhat sarcastic, “I guess those training matches and lunch break matches weren’t competitive enough for our star player.”
“It’s not like that.” Hiro mumbled and tried to deny Shun’s claims.
“I know! I know! Hiro can only be satiated by competitive matches. And those matches were not competitive enough for him.” Shun continued to tease him.
“Hahah…. Yeah!” While nodding his head, Yuya burst out into laughter as well.
While the three of them were cheerfully gossiping with each other, suddenly all of a sudden, Yuya stopped laughing. ．𝙘𝙤𝙢
With a quizzical look on his face as if he remembered something, Yuya then spoke, “Ahh speaking of lunch break matches. What happened to that Masao guy? I didn’t see him after that time when he played with us.”
And as the topic of Masao was brought, the radiance and the smile on the face of Hiro quickly faded away.
Upon witnessing Hiro’s face, Shun who was smiling beside him quickly dropped his smile and looked at him seriously.
Hiro then frowned his brows and replied in a serious tone, “He didn’t come to school after that day. The teacher simply told us that he was sick. However when the teacher was telling us about the reason Masao couldn’t attend the school, I couldn’t stop myself from suspecting Masato and his gangs. And just as I looked back-”
While telling them about Masao, Hiro paused all of a sudden. His face darkened as he lowered his gaze.
“‘Then what?”‘ Yuya and Shun yelled while rising from their seats.
Their loud voice reverberated all over the bus and it was heard by everyone in the bus. Hearing their voice, the other players in the bus all turned their attention towards them.
Perplexingly staring at them, they couldn’t help but wonder why they looked so worked up.
“Shun, Yuya, what are guys doing. Sit down!!” Manager Nozomi yelled while glaring at them.
‘”Sorry sir!!”‘ Both of them then apologized and sat down.
“‘Then what Hiro?”‘ They then whispered meekly asking Hiro to finish his sentence.
“I…. Saw…. Masato and his sidekicks laughing.” Hiro replied meekly.
Although they were shocked to hear about the deeds of Masato and his gangs, they didn’t react like how they reacted a moment ago.
Infact they didn’t say anything at all for some moments. As if they were lost in some kind of deep thinking, they began to ponder something. And suddenly the atmosphere around them got ghastly silent.
Finally after a moment of thinking, Yuya broke the silence by opening his mouth.
“Something must have happened to Masao and they must be behind Masao’s absence.” Yuya mumbled meekly while demonstrating a serious expression on his face.
“I agree!!” Shun nodded his head in agreement.
“But what could have happened?” Hiro questioned with a quizzical look on his face.
“May be they hit him.” Shun mumbled.
They then began to think of different scenarios. However they couldn’t come to a conclusion, since none of them actually knew much about Masao.
**** ****
Finally after a while, the bus stopped infront of the Chiba Middle School.
And as the bus stopped, the three of them decided to stop talking about Masao for the time being.
“Okay!! Everyone let’s go.” Saying such, manager Nozomi and coach Fuji hopped out of the bus with their bags.
All of the players followed suit and started to exit the bus one after the other.
And as all of them exited the bus, manager Nozomi began to call the names of the players.
Just as manager Nozomi finished calling the name of the players, an old man with silvery grey hair with a dad bod dressed in a comfortable tracksuit walked out of the entrance of the school ahead and approached manager Nozomi.
“You finally made it Nozomi.” The man spoke in a friendly manner while extending his hand towards manager Nozomi.