Chapter 36 Flickering ray of hope

As he scored that goal, Hiro ran towards the stands where the supporters of Ookami elementary school were seated and celebrated his goal while raising his fist up in the sky and yelling at the top of his voice “Wooooo!!!!”.

“‘Yeahhhhhhh!!!!”‘

“‘Woooooooo!!!!”‘

The crowd resonated to his victory chant and parroted after him.

The whole atmosphere of the stadium lit up as he scored that goal. The game had completely changed after that goal.

“What are you people doing? Only if you people have jumped, that goal could have been prevented. Just what the hell were you thinking, standing infront of the ball like a mannequin? You’re the walls that’s supposed to block the ball.”

The calm and composed goalkeeper of Ronden elementary school who was quiet during whole match burst out in fury and lashed out at his teammates for failing to block the ball. His face turned as red as tomato in anger.

There was still a minute left before the final whistle of the match. With a minute and additional time remaining, the outcome of the game had yet to be decided.

[Finally Ookami elementary school have decided to use their substitution cards. It seems like they’ll be subbing three players at once. And all three of them happen to be offensive players. They’re subbing their forward and midfielders for defenders.]

After they finished celebrating their goal, the game commenced with the whistle of the referee. They subbed Kurosaki Kuro and Sohei Sato, the wingers of the Ookami elementary school for Yamazaki Kento and Daichi Kamada.

And finally they subbed Asahi Kuon, the central midfielder of Ookami elementary school for Ryouske Ruon who played as a defensive midfielder.

As the substituted players made their way towards the pitch, they parroted the instructions of the coach Miura to rest of the players.

With those substitutions, they started to play in a formation of 6-3-1 with Hiro as the sole striker. They fortified their defence and were determined to defend their one goal lead for the remaining minutes of the game.

It was a do or die situation for Ronden elementary school and they could no longer play defensively. Even though their team was packed with defensive players, the coach of Ronden elementary school didn’t substitute any players. He let the players in the field complete the match.

The players of Ronden elementary school pressed high and showered them with barrage of shots. They didn’t give them any moment to rest. But after saving the previous penalty, something had changed in Endo. He put his life on the line and blocked every shot that made it’s way towards the post.

The referee kept on looking at his watch and as the final minute of the game ended, he added 4 minutes extra.

Witnessing their aggressive pressing gameplay, Hiro was forced to drop deep.

Garou Sato, the forward of Ronden elementary school became even more lethal as the clock ticked.

At 63rd minute of the game with only few seconds remaining, he took the matter in his hands and began to dribble the ball all by himself.

While dribbling forward with the ball, he encountered Ruon on his way. Ruon blocked his course with his massive body. Ruon was a bit overweight and had a massive body.

Garou performed a chop and dribble passed him. Kento and kamada followed after Ruon. To cover for Ruon’s mistake both of them surrounded Garou. However they proved to be inferior against him, Garou performed two chops simultaneously with his both feets.

He performed a chop with his right feet and dribbled past Kento. He then again performed another chop with his left foot and dribbled past Kamada.

After breaking free from three players at once, he found himself infront of the D-box. Upon seeing Garou closing the distance towards the post, Endo started to rush forward.

Upon seeing Endo coming forward and having noone on his support, he was left with only two option. Either he’d have to shoot or he’d have to dribble past Endo.

If it were under any normal circumstances, he’d have picked the later option. But because of the pressure, he chose the first option.

While he was stretching his right leg to shoot the ball, the referee glanced at his watch and was preparing to blow the whistle to announce the end of the game.

“‘Come on Garou! You can do it”‘

The supporters of Ronden elementary school chanted while looking at him with eyes full of expectation. He was their last ray of hope.

As Endo was covering the entire floor, Garou decided to shoot the ball at the top corner because of short stature of Endo. He released the ball from his feet. With slight rotation in the ball, it curved towards top right corner of the goalpost.

Endo jumped with as much force as he could muster and dived towards the ball while stretching his arms out. Even with his arms sticking out, he fell short because of his height. He couldn’t reach the ball. The ball went past him.

Slam!!

The ball hit the top right bar and went out of play.

Beep!! Beep!! Beeeeeeep!!!!

The referee blew his whistle and ended the game.

“‘Woohoo!!!”‘

“‘Hurray!!!!”‘

“‘Yahoooo!!!”‘

The supporters of Ookami elementary school burst out in cheers as the referee blew the final whistle of the game.

Ookami elementary school won the prefectural tournament by defeating the reigning champion, Ronden elementary school in the final with a score of 2:1 and booked themselves a spot in the regional tournaments.

As the referee blew his whistle, the players of Ronden elementary school threw themselves in the ground in a state of disappointment and exhaustion. Pain of losing the game overshadowed the pain they accumulated through fatigue.

Players from the bench of Ookami elementary school burst out in the field as their team won the prefectural tournament.

[Truely unbelievable. The challengers have come out victorious and have dethroned the previous champion of the Tokushima prefecture. The team of Ronden elementary school showed us a brilliant performance. However they still failed to win the match. They came totally prepared but Soccer Whizard was too much for them to handle. That winning goal from him was totally a piece of art which we may not witness from anyone else in the tournament.]

The game between the two teams concluded with the victory of Ookami elementary school. And as they lined up for a last handshake, his gaze once again fell towards Endo and Taki.

“I guess you have really forgotten about me. But it’s alright now. I’m glad that you are doing fine.” Endo exclaimed calmly while showcasing a gentle smie on his face.

Previously when they spoke with each other, Taki had denied the allegations of having met him. When Endo mentioned he was his little brother, Taki blatantly refused the allegations of having any kind of ties with him. That statement alone had broken Endo’s heart into pieces.

Taki continued to stare at him while holding his hands. Unable to hear any response from him, Endo began to walk away. And just as he was about to leave his sight, he heard something;

“Big brother Endo from Children’s cottage orphanage.”

“You still remember me! You haven’t forgotten about me?” Endo turned back and gawked in disbelief. His brows raised in surprised arc, he was stunned to hear the name of the orphanage. “Why are you pretending like you’ve forgotten about me?”

“I’m not pretending. I just want to forget about everything from that time at the orphanage. Although I’m grateful for the orphanage and you, I want to live a normal life away from the orphanage. I don’t want to remember anything related to the orphanage. And moreover I don’t want to remember that I’m orphan.” Taki intoned while looking at him with pained eyes. As if he was suffering from the fact that he was an orphan, he desperately wanted to erase his past.

After his adoption, he had managed to successfully erase his past after cutting his ties with the orphanage. However the appearance of Endo, once again reopened his closed wounds. And thus he pretended to be unaware of Endo when Endo tried to converse with him.

Even though Endo wanted to maintain his relationship with Taki, he decided to accept his feelings and bid him farewell.

After hearing his inner feelings, Endo accepted his feelings and raised his hands towards Taki to offer him one last handshake. “I understand your feelings. I’m just glad that you are doing well. And I guess it might be our last meeting as brothers with each other. So will you allow me to address you as little brother for one last time?”

Taki nodded his head and took his hands. 𝗼𝘃𝗹.𝗼𝐫𝗴

“Please take care of yourself and shine brilliantly my little brother. I’ll always be praying for your success.” Endo exclaimed softly with a gentle smile on his face. And as he was about to depart, he pulled him closer and hugged him.

Taki’s heart was filled with the warmth of Endo’s genuine smile. However he couldn’t express his feelings and remained frozen at his place. With a heavy heart, Taki observed Endo leaving his sight and vanishing into the crowd of players who were celebrating their victory.