Chapter 21: Opening ceremony

After thinking for a while, he decided to name his channel as;

“Soccer Wizard”

Although the name sounded a little bit childish, yet he was quite proud of the name he had selected. Since football was mostly referred to as soccer in Japan, he chose soccer instead of football, even though he preferred football more.

And even though he never believed in magic in his previous life, he had somehow magically regressed back in time. And since he had also gained a system, he considered himself something like a magician, that’s why he decided to add wizard to the name of the channel.

“And with this, my channel is created.”

He exclaimed with a smile on his face.

“Watch your back Mr.Beest, I’m gonna be the most subscribed newtuber. Hahahahahahahaha”

He laughed maniacally.

“Oh right! But that’s not my goal.”

He came to a sudden realisation and the smile on his face faded away.

“My goal is to become the best footballer in the planet. And I’m only uploading videos as a means of making money for a short while. So I’ll pass on becoming the most subscribed newtuber.”

“Consider yourself lucky Mr.Beest that I’m not doing newtube seriously. You can keep your title, consider it my gift to you.”

He finished his sentence with a smug look on his face.

He exclaimed as if he was doing a favour to Mr.Beest by not taking newtube seriously. He was too haughty.

“Now that the channel is established, I should post my video.”

“But what should I name the title?”

After creating his newtube channel, he was about to post his video but he couldn’t think of a suitable title for the video.

“Little boy playing football??”

“Nah!”

“Juggling the ball for 500 times without dropping?”

“Nah!!”

“Just what should I name the title??”

He exasperated.

He couldn’t come up with any decent name for the title. He kept on pondering over the name for the title. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t think of anything decent.

“Argh! Just why is it so hard to come up with a decent name for the title?”

Failing to come up with a decent name for the title, even after thinking for a while, he started to get frustrated. Just then he threw his phone aside and laid down on the bed with his face facing upwards.

“Right! I should make use of the knowledge of the future and decide the names which can act as a clickbait so that I can get a lot of views.”

As he was laying down on the bed, a sudden thought penetrated his mind. He then grabbed his phone and began to type.

“I scored five hundred goals from five hundred freekicks.”

After coming up with a title for his video, he posted his video and slept early.

“Hiro! Are you still asleep?”

His mother made her way towards his room while yelling. But just as she entered his room, her eyes widened in shock.

“Oh! You’re awake??”

She was shocked to find him awake.

Usually he’d be sleeping around the time she walked into his room. But today he was awake and not only was he awake, he was already dressed as well.

“Yeah it’s the matchday today.”

He replied while packing his jersey.

“Matchday?? Isn’t it holiday today?”

She mumbled.

“Yeah matchday. The prefectural tournament begins today. Didn’t I already tell you about it?”

He replied.

“You did. But why are you going? I mean, you aren’t even selected for the team. So why are you going?”

She bewilderingly questioned.

“Huh! Who told you that I wasn’t selected?”

He replied.

“Then why were you crying previously?”

“Wha- What do you mean by crying?”

He stammered upon remembering the embarrassing moment when he cried in her arms.

She noticed his flustered face and decided to change the topic.

“So you’re selected for the team?”

“Yeah, I’m the starting player.”

“Where will the match take place??”

She questioned.

“It’s gonna take place in the community football stadium. The preliminaries will be held at the local football stadium and the matches from round of 16 to semi final will take place at the stadium of Sakura FC football club.”

“And finally the final match of the prefectural tournament will be held at one of the national stadium where the international games are played.”

After packing his bags, his mother dropped him off in school. Even thought the game started at 10 AM, all of the starting players were required to show up in school before 8 AM to discuss tactics.

“Here comes our Soccer Wizard.”

Akashi greeted Hiro as he entered the auditorium.

Just then all of the players started to congratulate him all of a sudden. Hiro couldn’t figure out why they were congratulating him for no reason.

“Hmm… What’s the occasion today?? Why am I getting congratulated all of a sudden?”

Hiro was baffled by the sudden burst of congratulations.

Coach Miura kept his cool and commanded everybody to get seated. After that nobody dared to speak a single word. And then he began to explain the tactics.

“We’ll be playing Endo as the sweeper keeper and Hiro will be playing as a deep lying playmaker. For this tactics to work out, we need to get Hiro involved with the ball as much as we can. Did everybody understand what I’m trying to say?”

“‘Yes sir!!!”‘

Everybody shouted.

“Okay then let’s win the game today and progress forward.”

The coach ended the discussion after carefully explaining the tactics to everybody present in the auditorium. .𝘤𝘰𝑚

Then all of them started to board on the school bus to leave for the venue where the match was going to take place.

Since Ookami elementary school was a private school, it owned quite a number of school buses. And infact many of the students who studied at Ookami elementary school commuted to and from school via school buses.

Hiro couldn’t take advantage of the facility provided by the school bus because of the remoteness of his neighbourhood. The school buses didn’t operate to his neighbourhood because of the lack of students who studied in Ookami elementary school from his neighbourhood.

And even though he was sponsored by the school, they couldn’t still operate the school buses to his neighbourhood for him alone. That’s why he used to commute to the school via train.

While they were commuting towards the venue of the match, Hiro looked at Akashi to inquire him about the earlier incident.

But Akashi didn’t seem well. He kept his eyes closed and lips sealed. He covered his mouth with one of his hands and grabbed his stomach with his other hand. He was suffering from motion sickness.

Seeing him in that condition, he decided it would be better to keep his mouth shut for the time being.

After commuting for about 15 minutes, they reached the venue where the match was going to take place.

As soon as the bus stopped and opened it’s door, Akashi stormed outside.

“Uwah!! Uwah!!”

Akashi started to puke.

However he couldn’t puke anything beside liquid. His stomach was completely empty. There wasn’t even a single solid substance in his stomach to make it’s way outside his mouth.

“Coach! I’ll catch up in a while.”

He exclaimed while looking at the coach.

The coach took a peek at Akashi’s condition and agreed to his request.

“Okay! But come fast.”

The coach and other players started to head inside the stadium. However, assistant coach Honda decided to stay back to keep an eye on them.

“Here have some water.”

Hiro handed a bottle of water to Akashi.

“Uwah!! Thanks for the water.”

After drinking some water, Akashi felt a little better. His complexion returned back to normal and his puking stopped as well.

“Are you alright?”

Hiro inquired.

“Yea- Yeah!”

“Then shall we head inside?”

Akashi nodded his head.

They started to head inside the venue. Since it was their first time in that venue, they didn’t know where to go. And if not for Honda san, they’d have directly entered the pitch without even changing their clothes.

They managed to find the changing room with Honda san’s assistance.

“The opening ceremony is about to begin, so change your clothes ASAP.”

The coach exclaimed.

Except Hiro and Akashi, everybody in their team had changed their clothes. Without uttering a single word, both of them got dressed instantly.

“Akashi?”

“Hmmm??”

“How did you know about the name of my newtube channel? I’m sure that I haven’t told you about it.”

“Oh! About that you’re quite famo-”

“You two, keep quiet. It’s our turn to enter the pitch”

Coach Miura interrupted as Akashi was about to say something.

And as they made their way towards the pitch, Hiro noticed something unusual. There were surprisingly a lot more spectators in the stand, even though the tournament was a elementary school level tournament.

There were about 700-800 people in the stand. That number was very huge for something like an opening ceremony of a prefectural tournament for elementary school kids.

In comparison to previous years opening ceremony which recorded about 100 spectators, current estimation of 700-800 spectators was astronomical.

“Why is there so many people in the stand?”

Hiro whispered.

“For you”

“Huh! I didn’t quite get that.”

“You seriously don’t know about anything?”

Akashi inquired, bewilderingly.

To his inquiry, Hiro simply shook his head.