On The Side Of The Pitch With You

Resistance Japan

He caught it before smiling at him. "I'm getting pretty good, right?"

Well, if they're talking about how far he's come since they started then... "Yeah."

"How do I say it? It's like, this is starting to get really fun."

Oh, Tenma would love to hear that.

"And it feels great to win." He passed the ball back to him. "The way it's gotten now though, I'm finding just how difficult this is to master."

"I see."

"I wish I can reach your level soon."

He passed it to him again and he caught it rather easily, letting him make a bit of a smug look.

"Maybe soccer works for me better than I thought. After all, I don't have to use my hands."

... No. You don't get to say that when you don't know half of it. He took a look at all the balls scattered in the field before turning back to him. Then, he gestured his head to the bench.

They sat in silence for a while. It was mainly the other boy waiting for him to talk as he was the one who dragged him over. So after gathering the right words, he opened his mouth.

"Be careful, Tetsukado."

"What?" The little laugh in his voice was either because he was nervous or he wasn't taking him seriously.

"Soccer is fun, but if you get impatient about climbing to the top, you'll find yourself being almost flattened by walls wherever you go. It's dangerous to push yourself."

"Are you speaking from experience, Tsurugi?"

Unpleasant memories from a certain hell threatened to resurface. "Yeah."

"But now you're here, so you've managed to conquer that, right?"

"I have a friend who was once my enemy. It was thanks to him that I was able to overcome my walls."

"A friend who was once your enemy, huh... Are you still connected to him now?"

"Yeah. It's a bond that can't be broken even if either of us tried."

"I see..." He hummed in thought for a moment. "I wonder why he wasn't chosen for Inazuma Japan."

"... Who knows." He's been wondering that exact same thing since the day they were all chosen.

"So uh... Is that friend also the one who gave you that keychain?" When he shot him a look, he immediately scooted a little further away. "Sorry, sorry. It's just... I... Or well, we... We've been wondering about you."

"What's there to wonder?"

"Well, for one thing, when we were using the group chat to introduce ourselves, all you said was that you have an older brother. On the other hand, captain told us all about himself, and as for Shindou, well... After finding out he was that Shindou, none of us had any questions left." He explained. "And then, there's also... Uh... Every single one of us had, at least once, seen you by the station in the early morning. Always with a ball in hand... And you always seem upset when you leave... So after everything Minaho said yesterday..."

So it wasn't just the one time he ran into Kusaka. He sighed. "That's someone else. Someone who... I can safely say I have an even stronger bond with. More than even Tenma and Shindou-san."

"That close? Is it also someone from Raimon?"

"You could say that." He stood up, involuntarily turning to the station before letting out a sigh. "Right now, she's somewhere really far away. I'm waiting for her to come back."