The Rise of the Iron Wall!-Chapter 4: The Ideal Goalkeeper!

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! It hurts!" Higo yelped as the scratches on his arms were getting cleaned thoroughly by his best friend. "Kumiko-chan, can you be a little bit gentler? I am a patient here, you know? A patient!" He whined, trying to escape from the girl’s grasp.

In return, Kumiko frowned, grabbing Higo’s arm tighter before pulling him closer. "Stay still, Ryukkun! If you keep moving like that, it will take longer, and you will be in a worse situation!" She scolded sternly. That was enough to shut the boy’s mouth, as he treated it as a threat.

Right now, they were in the school’s clinic, as Kumiko helped the boy, treating all the scratches and bruises that he suffered from the training session earlier. While Higo was so flustered that he could be alone with Kumiko, he was still quite miserable here, as the girl’s image changed from the gentle angel into a monster who was sent by heaven to torture him.

Yeah, for all the beauty and brain that she possessed, it seemed first aid was not in her arsenal. Kumiko’s attempt to treat the wound ended up quite roughly, with Higo only feeling more pain as time went by.

"Well, who told you to dive so heroically like that?" Kumiko smiled amusedly as she saw her best friend still cringing from the bruises.

"Oh, how could it be my fault now? It is you who said that I have to prevent a goal, whatever it takes! And now you blame me for following your instruction?!" Even though Higo had a crush on the girl, that didn’t mean he was a complete loser and simp. No, he could still get angry at her when she did something outrageous like this.

"...Yeah, it is me who said that, right?" Kumiko’s gaze softened a little bit. Her mind somehow recalled what happened earlier.

-A little flashback-

"Yuji-kun, it is your turn now! Get ready!" Kumiko called out.

"Yes, Senpai!"

Right after the whistle was blown, the boy with a headband to prevent his hair from covering his eyes started running. However, once the pass was sent, he was taken aback slightly. Not only him, but the others also gasped, finding it to be difficult.

’The pass is so close!’

Yeah, Hiroshi sent the ball to the fifty-fifty area in between the player and the goalkeeper, not close enough for the goalie’s reach, but still close enough for the player to send the ball to any spot easily.

Kumiko tensed for a moment, staring at Higo intently. Inwardly, she thought, ’What would you do with this kind of ball, Ryukkun?’

"HA! I get this!" Yuji grinned as he recoiled his right foot, ready to launch a powerful ball that should be an easy goal for him.

However, before he could do that, someone suddenly flashed in front of him, and before the boy could react to that, he felt a strong impact that knocked his balance instantly.

BAM!

"Urgh!" Yuji groaned as he rolled on the ground.

It wasn’t out of pain, of course. Even though he was just a first-year student, the boy himself was a veteran footballer, and he had already mastered the way to fall without getting too many bruises or pains. No, he groaned out of surprise, because the flash that he saw a moment ago and the one who was responsible for knocking him out was Higo, the temporary goalkeeper that Kumiko ’forced’ to play for them right now.

In a split second before he launched the shot, Higo suddenly rushed forward, cutting all the space for him to aim. As he was within the goalkeeper’s reach, the older boy didn’t hesitate even for a second, sliding forward to get the ball with his hand. Now, Higo had already cut the attack and had possession, and if it were a real game, he would be able to launch a quick counterattack.

"Damn! That’s awesome, Higo-senpai!"

"Yeah! You move like, ’Woosh!’ And Yuji goes like, ’Argh!’ It is so satisfying!"

"Who would’ve thought that you have a talent to be a good goalkeeper?!"

For a moment, Higo was overwhelmed as he was surrounded by the other players. However, a single cough from Kumiko was enough to make them stop, and they spread apart simultaneously, wanting to see the confrontation between the two.

Silence fell on the field, and Higo had a sweat rolled on his back as he got nervous from Kumiko’s silent treatment. Fortunately, this didn’t last long, as she finally uttered a single question here.

"It is a shooting drill, so why didn’t you give Yuji-kun a chance to shoot?"

Everyone was stunned, not expecting the girl to pick up even something so petty against her best friend. Higo also reacted the same, but in the end, he just shrugged as if it was not a big deal.

"Well, you said earlier that my job is to prevent a goal, right? You didn’t specify what I could and couldn’t do, so I just stopped the attack with the best way that I could think of in that split moment. I’m not wrong, right?"

-End of the flashback-

As she recalled Higo’s answer, Kumiko couldn’t help but nod. Indeed, the decision was not wrong. If anything, that was the answer she wanted to hear the most.

In her mind, shot-stopping ability was something that could be trained so easily, and it wasn’t something special in the first place. No, for a goalkeeper to be special, he had to have a consciousness to use everything to prevent the ball from crossing the line. That was the goalie’s first and most important responsibility, something that usually took a long time for a young goalkeeper to understand.

For Higo to be able to think that way in his first-ever session, this just cemented the idea inside her head that he was the most ideal goalkeeper for the team. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Um... Kumiko-chan... I don’t like how you look at me..." Higo wilted slightly, getting intimidated by her gaze. Even without his clairvoyance ability, the boy knew that she had a devious plan for him.

True enough, after she was dragged out of her daydreaming, the first thing the girl blurted out of her mind was a nightmare for him.

"Ryukkun! Join the football team!"