The Rise of the Iron Wall!-Chapter 103: Timeskip - Spring Break
After they all went back from Sapporo, there was no massive celebration at the school. Well, they just got third place here, so Kumiko rejected the headmaster’s idea for a gala dinner or something crazy like that.
Fortunately, the headmaster was an understanding man, so he shifted the budget for that celebration to the football team, and now, their financial situation was definitely getting better.
Higo also spent the next few days being a salted fish. It was fortunate that the spring break was far from over, so at least he was able to sleep longer to recover.
Of course, the boy also didn’t stay idle. He still remembered the homework that his mother gave him, so the boy asked Kumiko to introduce him to a team to watch, which the girl accepted readily.
’Sure! What kind of team do you want to watch? Is it the one that scores a lot of goals? The one with beautiful gameplay? The one with a crazy pressure that suffocates their opponent to death? The one who is like our team, playing a cocoon defense and striking back dangerously?’
The boy had a sweat drop on his forehead at the barrage of questions he received from the girl. This was also the first time he realized how serious Kumiko was about football, and also how knowledgeable she was in this regard.
In the end, though, after struggling to pick for himself, Higo finally let the girl decide it for him.
’You are the veteran here, so pick me one that can make me fall in love with the game!’
The requirement was not high, but it was definitely tricky. However, Kumiko didn’t blame her best friend for such a request. She knew that at this point, to find a purpose for himself, Higo needed to fall in love with the game first, so watching a game with a good atmosphere was necessary here.
’Hmm... Shall we go to Barcelona’s game? No, you will say the game is too boring. Real Madrid? No, their magnet is the star’s power, and if you don’t know anyone else, it will not be a good game. Manchester City? No. Liverpool? No, no. Hmm.... What should I pick... Ah, I know!"
In the end, after having her brain spinning so hard thinking of any international game that could attract Higo’s attention, she decided to pick up a local game here, where Consadole Sapporo would have to fight against Urawa Reds Diamond in the J-League.
The reason she chose this one was simple. Since he wanted to fall in love with the game, it was better to tie the boy emotionally, and what better way to do that than his home ground team?
Even though it wasn’t technically one, since Hakodate didn’t really have any professional team, since Kumiko had been Sapporo’s supporter for a long time, she could also guide him better here.
Moreover, she was lucky to drag Higo to watch the game when the opponent was the Urawa Red Diamonds. The team with the home base in Saitama Prefecture had the biggest fan base in Japan, and even though it was a 4.5-hour journey from their place, more than 1000 supporters still came from Saitama just to support their team here.
That dedication, the passionate supporters, and everything that happened off the pitch, funnily enough, became the biggest reason why this sport attracted Higo’s attention. He himself didn’t really care about the gameplay, knowing that, except for anything outrageous, he wouldn’t really understand what was going on there.
So, after watching the game until the end, Higo finally made up his mind here.
’Yeah, sure! I will be Consadole Sapporo’s supporter with you! Let’s see them climbing higher together, okay?’
Kumiko’s face flushed red when she heard this. Even though she knew Higo didn’t mean it, in her ears, this soft confession was enough to melt her heart on the spot. Fortunately, there was no one else around, so she didn’t really feel embarrassed here.
Back to Higo, though, while he himself wanted to stay under the kotatsu for as long as he could, Kumiko would never allow him to do that and waste his talent. No, even though the team was still on holiday, the girl still dragged him to go out, forcing him to join her morning run every day or do any other light training session to keep his physical state at its peak.
It wasn’t much, but at least the work kept his body from getting rusty.
Kumiko also paid attention to the other players. While there was no team training since they were still in the middle of the spring holiday, she still required each one of them to progress, checking their physical state and nagging each one of them whose weight had increased too much.
Hell, she even set a whole menu for Jun’s diet and called for the boy’s mother to help force the discipline, realizing that the boy couldn’t stop eating once he was home. Higo shuddered at the so-called wealthy recipes, so close to vomiting at how unpalatable the food was.
’Salad? Broccoli? Asparagus? Cabbage? Damn, is she going to turn him into a rabbit?’ He didn’t forget to send a silent prayer to Jun, knowing that it was going to be torture for the boy.
As Higo was entangled with his new routine, time passed by quickly, and before he noticed it, the boy had already found himself preparing to go back to school. Not for the school time, per se, since there were still a few more days before the holiday was over. No, it was for a completely different matter here.
"Ryukkun, are you ready?!" Kumiko shouted in front of the house.
"Wait a sec!" He shouted back, still trying his shoelaces carefully. "Anyway, what is the rush here? The ceremony will only end in forty minutes, right?" He asked.
In return, the girl pouted slightly. "Come on, Ryukkun, don’t be lazy like that! The others have been waiting for us at school, so we need to be quick! We also haven’t packed our presents yet!"
"Fine, fine..." The boy shook his head in exasperation. Once everything was ready, he nodded slightly, getting up and walking to her side quickly. "Well, come on! What are you waiting for?!"
