Riccardo and Nishimura were walking through the school.
"So, what are your training sessions usually like?"
Nishimura thought for a moment.
"Incredibly relaxed..."
"Is that supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing?"
"Most of our training sessions are run by our assistant coach, Coach Suzuki. He tries to teach us what Coach Ishii wants, but the results... leave a lot to be desired."
"I see..."
The two entered the changing room and found Kaneko alone, frantically rummaging through his sports bag.
"Where did I put them...?"
After a few moments, he finally pulled out his football boots and let out a sigh of relief.
Only then did he realize that Riccardo and Nishimura had been watching him the entire time.
He froze for a brief moment before quickly regaining his usual arrogant composure.
"What are you staring at?"
He hurriedly put on his boots and walked out of the changing room, leaving the two of them exchanging puzzled looks.
Riccardo sat down on one of the benches.
"Well... that was unexpected."
"Yeah..."
A few minutes later, they arrived at the pitch, where the rest of the team was already waiting.
Shimizu noticed them and raised a hand to greet them.
"Hey—"
But he suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Riccardo and Nishimura looked at each other in confusion.
"Did we do something?"
Nishimura turned around and noticed Coach Ishii standing behind them.
Everyone was surprised to see him.
"Good morning!"
"Good morning..."
The team returned the greeting with obvious hesitation.
Coach Suzuki soon walked over and stood beside him.
Nakamura leaned closer to Tanaka.
"Now this almost feels like a real football club."
"I still can't believe it..."
Coach Ishii shot the two boys a glance as they quietly chuckled before stepping in front of the team.
"From today onward, I'll be personally leading all of your training sessions."
The players looked at one another in disbelief.
"First, the usual warm-up with Coach Suzuki. After that, grab some footballs and cones."
The team completed the warm-up before collecting the equipment.
Once everyone was ready, Coach Ishii stepped forward.
"This Friday, we'll be playing a friendly."
The players' eyes immediately lit up.
Nishimura took a step forward.
"Who are we playing against?"
Coach Ishii paused for a moment before answering.
"Maebashi Ikuei."
Almost everyone reacted with excitement and surprise.
Only Riccardo looked confused.
"Who are they?"
Yasuda walked over to him.
"Maebashi Ikuei won the National Tournament last year. They're an incredibly strong team, packed with talented players!"
"Exactly," Coach Ishii continued. "This match will help me evaluate the squad and give you a chance to put the tactical systems I'll be teaching you into practice. There are less than two weeks left before the National Qualifiers begin, so get yourselves ready. I'm going to push every last one of you to your limits."
Nishimura watched as the coach walked toward an area of the pitch where he had already set up a training course with cones and mini goals.
Shimizu walked up beside him with a smile.
"Finally... after an entire year, I can honestly say we're about to have a real training session."
[Much later]
Even Shimizu had collapsed onto the ground, completely out of breath.
The rest of the team was just as exhausted.
Riccardo rested his hands on his knees, panting heavily.
"Mamm' mij..."
Coach Ishii looked over the players with satisfaction.
Then he picked up a football and tossed it to Kaneko.
"Alright, one last drill for today... rondo! Form a circle. Tanaka and Nakamura, you're in the middle."
The two protested in unison.
"Why!?"
The coach looked at them with a mischievous grin.
"I saw you two having fun earlier. Now it's your turn to entertain the rest of us! And I want Aoki in there too. I want to test your interceptions."
The players quickly formed a large circle as instructed.
Coach Ishii placed several cones around them to mark the boundary.
"Alright... stay inside the cones and no more than two touches. The goal is to complete thirty consecutive passes. The losers run two laps around the pitch!"
Shimizu shuddered.
I really don't want to run two laps...
Riccardo studied the distance between the players and the cones.
There's barely enough room for two steps... with this many people, managing the space won't be easy.
"Alright, begin!"
Kaneko started play by passing to Koyama, who laid it off first time to Sugimoto.
The sudden pressure from Tanaka nearly forced him into a mistake.
Sugimoto let out a sigh of relief.
"That was close..."
The ball reached Ono, who took two touches before playing it to Nishimura, only for Tanaka and Nakamura to immediately close him down.
That's an awkward pass...
Spotting a tiny gap, Nishimura threaded the ball through with the outside of his right foot.
It reached Yasuda, who quickly moved it on to Riccardo.
But Aoki read the pass perfectly and intercepted it.
"Got it!"
"Damn it!"
Yasuda stepped out of the circle while Aoki took his place.
Aoki restarted play by passing to Ueno, who immediately laid it off to Shimizu.
Tanaka charged straight at him.
Shimizu noticed his legs were slightly apart and calmly slipped the ball right through them with a perfectly weighted touch.
He then looked at him with a teasing grin.
"Fuck! Why is it always you!?"
Tanaka increased the intensity even further, sprinting relentlessly from one player to the next.
The ball reached Kaneko, who was immediately closed down by Nakamura and Aoki.
He controlled it, looked up, and noticed Riccardo completely unmarked.
But he ignored him.
Instead, he passed to Hamada.
Caught off guard by both the pace of the pass and Tanaka's immediate pressure, Hamada could only poke the ball up into the air.
"Watch out!"
The ball dropped into Riccardo's area.
As it came down, Tanaka and Nakamura rushed him simultaneously.
Riccardo glanced around in an instant before cushioning the ball with a right-heel touch, guiding it to his left.
Then he used his strength and acceleration to step in front of both of them.
Tanaka was speechless.
What kind of monster is he...?
Without the slightest effort, Riccardo played the ball to Kaneko.
Kaneko couldn't hide his surprise at how effortlessly he had dealt with such a difficult ball.
And I'm supposed to compete with him...
Without even looking, Kaneko played a no-look pass to Nishimura.
Seeing the level of the rondo rising, Nishimura smiled.
With his very first touch, he flicked the ball sideways with his heel to Ono.
Ono drew Yasuda's press with his first touch, cut back toward the centre of the circle, and played an outside-of-the-foot pass with his right foot to Tamura.
Tamura returned it first time to Noguchi.
The defender, however, miscontrolled the ball, and Tanaka stole it away.
"Nice one!"
Noguchi gave him a high five.
"Great interception!"
The two immediately swapped places.
Tanaka stepped into the circle with a satisfied grin.
No one's taking this spot away from me! There's no way I'm running two laps around the pitch!
He restarted play immediately by passing to Kaneko.
After a few quick exchanges, the ball came back to him with Yasuda closing in.
With a quick touch, he switched the angle and fired a firm pass toward Aoki.
But Noguchi stretched into a slide and intercepted it.
Tanaka froze.
"Sorry... but I have to take my spot back!"
Noguchi patted him on the shoulder while Tanaka slowly walked back into the circle wearing a dejected expression.
Shimizu burst out laughing.
"Don't beat yourself up over it. You just got dispossessed by our best defender!"
Tanaka immediately caught the sarcasm.
"I swear, the moment you get stuck in the middle, you won't touch the ball again!"
Shimizu met his gaze with a defiant smile.
"Relax... I'm never ending up in there anyway."
[At sunset]
The players completed all thirty consecutive passes.
Almost all of them collapsed from exhaustion.
In the end, Tanaka, Shimizu, and Hamada were the ones left in the middle of the circle.
Tanaka and Shimizu both wore despairing expressions.
"I lost because of this idiot..." Shimizu grumbled.
"Shut up..."
Coach Ishii and Coach Suzuki walked over to the group.
"Excellent work."
Coach Ishii picked up the ball.
"That's enough for today! Tomorrow I'll start teaching you our tactical systems. And don't forget, I'm still deciding the starting eleven for this match and the ones that follow, so give it everything you've got if you want to earn your place."
The players slowly began to leave.
Tanaka, Shimizu, and Hamada tried to blend in with the others.
"Not you three."
They froze in their tracks.
"Go run your two laps."
The three of them trudged back toward the pitch with gloomy expressions.
"Alright..."
They reluctantly began their first lap.
Coach Ishii and Coach Suzuki watched them in silence.
"After all this time... it finally seems like this team genuinely interests you."
Coach Ishii took his eyes off the players and looked at him.
"Yeah. This year, I finally have players who understand football the way I want it to be played."
Coach Suzuki smiled faintly.
This year's going to be fun... After all these years, I'll finally get to see Ishii Takumi's real football again.