A Rival You’d Wish You Hadn’t Made 34

“How can this be?”

“It’s the sport… you can’t always win. It happens.”

“Hell no! Not to us, man!”

In the Inazuma dressing room, before the thunders’ coach was about to shut the door and begin the post-match team talk, a few of the players had started bickering amongst themselves.

One in particular, Rensuke Harudera, who was the main man in midfield and was tackled the hardest, was evidently pretty angry about the result. The goalkeeper, Shota Nagai, who would probably be seeing Reo in his nightmares tried to calm him down.

But the midfielder who didn’t seem quite done yet, turned to a Kohei who hid his head beneath a towel, choosing to pick a bone with him.

“Why didn’t you tell us they would play like that? Aren’t they your ex-teammates? You said we didn’t have to worry much about them!”

Slowly, Kohei looked up, still expressionless. As he opened his mouth to speak, their coach raised his voice, cutting everyone and everything off.

“That’s about enough!”

He rarely did that, if ever, and even Rensuke understood that it was time for him to zip it and listen.

“Today’s loss isn’t Kohei’s fault. Not Rensuke’s, nor Shota’s.”

At his coach’s words, Kohei nodded thankfully, yet the demons within him didn’t even begin to be put at ease.

“Today they played so we couldn’t. Their game was the perfect counter to ours. They put us under pressure, made us hesitate and second-guess ourselves. And that’s where we lost.”

The silence and atmosphere in the dressing room was dry and oozing a very strange feeling. All eyes were somber, and heads downturned. Inazuma only knew how to win. They rarely dropped points, let alone lose to a newly promoted team. It had to be their worst match in years.

“I am at fault for this, as much as you are. When playing, I need you to be calm, no matter the pressure. Today we showed we’re still inexperienced. But we will learn from this. And we will come back stronger.”

Everybody nodded, without providing the usual cheers. The Thunders’ stayed silent, as their coach clapped his hands.

“Okay, now go home, get some rest, and we go again tomorrow.”

As his teammates filtered out of the dressing room one by one, Kohei’s heart still weighed as heavily if not more than before. His friends and teammates seemed to be disappointed still, but their coach’s words gave them hope. They understood they weren’t all at fault.

Although it still hurt them, the weight off their shoulders seemed to lessen.

But the weight Kohei felt only seemed to multiply. He had hoped Moriyasu’s words would alleviate the pain, and set his mind at ease. But it didn’t.

Not one bit.

How could he lose to Hinami? His very own former team? Didn’t he leave so he wouldn’t lose again? So he could be the best?

All that loss seemed to accomplish was show that he was taking steps back, instead of forward. And Kohei simply couldn’t accept that.

Never mind the loss… The way it came, and from who he had lost to…

Stung all the more.

To the Hinami 10. The mysterious player who had taken his place, and did what he himself couldn’t.

He was dating his childhood friend, and made the fans forget about Kohei altogether.

That was unforgivable.

For the first time, his long lost rival from that day 7 years ago, was a mere afterthought. Yurei was now his target.

The man to beat.

As Kohei left the dressing room, albeit lagging behind his teammates, Manabu Moriyasu stayed, watching his players filter out.

When he saw the last of them leave, and waved them goodbye, his calm and serene eyes turned dark, pure malice pouring from their pores.

The pencil he was clutching snapped violently, his teeth grinding.

“Takehiro Gonda…”

The Inazuma coach uttered. He couldn’t let that loss, that newly formed grudge go. No matter what.

❖ ⚽ ❖

“WE ARE HINAMI, NAH, NAH, NAH!”

“WE ARE HINAMI, NAAAH, NAH, NAH, NAH!”

After every win, be it big or small, or anything in between, it seemed to be a ritual to celebrate like you’ve won the cup. Although Gonda was bound to break it up sooner or later, speaking about having a long way to go for celebrations just yet.

The cheery atmosphere in the dressing room though after such a game was purely unbeatable.

“Reo, how did you even stay up after that guy latched onto you?”

“Yeah, he was dead set on bringing you down, no clue how he didn’t get a red for the effort alone.”

Totori and Hatate commented while Umio and the twins where enjoying a good ol’ chant and dance.

“I guess he was just that eager, right?” Toraichi smiled. He probably knew the feeling.

“Yeah, it just felt like anything other than scoring would be a failure. All I could see was the ball on my feet and the goal in front of me.”

Reo felt lighter as those words left him. He felt lighter after every second that passed in fact. Winning that game with 3 goals on his name suddenly made him feel like he was on top of the world once again.

If only that thing didn’t appear again…

Again and again, time after time, that same vision of himself kept reappearing after every game. It didn’t matter if he played well or not, if Hinami won or lost. That hallucination of his younger self, sitting by the corner all depressed would come back after every game no matter what.

“Way to go superstar.” Shuna bonked Reo on the head with a sports drink, seeing how he was completely lost in his thoughts.

While everybody chuckled at the coach assistant’s prank, the young couple shared a silent smile.

“I told you we’d win, didn’t I?”

“That you did.”

As none of the two looked like breaking eye contact, Toraichi huffed.

“Get a room you too.”

Another laugh around the dressing room, one that also caused Reo and Shuna to look away in embarrassment.

“Reo you bastard you really are dating Shun—“

“Oh, shut up you!”

Before Umio could go into angry believer mode, Hatate grabbed him and sealed his big mouth shut.

Just in cue, Gonda entered the room, and everybody reflexively stood up.

“Congratulations for the win, everyone!”

“Aye!”

The team cheered.

“Now, as you’re all well aware, it’s time for midterms, so football activities will be halted for the next two weeks.”

“Booh…”

Evidently, the most boisterous members of the team didn’t like that, while others laughed at the rebellious reaction.

“I know, I know. I didn’t like midterms either. But if one of you flanks the tests, I am obliged to suspend you from the team for a month. If you don’t want that to happen to you, you better study up!”

“…”

“And best believe, the school’s punishment will be the last thing you will need to worry about…” The coach’s eyes glinted menacingly, relaying on the fact that slackers would not under any circumstances be tolerated, “Am I clear?”

“Yes coach Gonda...”

“’Kay, now that that’s settled, let’s get a move on.”

The team talk was brisk and short, the celebrations were lively, fun and brief and soon Hinami were on the way back, and football would take a few weeks to be back once more.

Reo thought, that maybe a bit of self-reflection was in order. Or maybe he could finally get around to questioning his beloved about things that had been plaguing him but couldn’t find the time to talk about otherwise.

Perhaps this time off would do some good, after all?