The Rise of the Iron Wall!

Chapter 331: The End!

"YEEEEEES!" The first one to react was Higo. The boy was the closest one to Hiroshi, so it didn’t take long before he jumped onto the younger boy’s back. "COME ON, HIROSHI! COME ON!"

Then, everyone followed. All the Hakodate Nishi players ran frantically to the penalty box, celebrating their hard-earned win today.

"COME ON! THIS IS HAKODATE NISHI!"

"WE ARE STILL HERE!"

"GODDAMNIT, HIROSHI! THAT CELEBRATION IS THE COLDEST ONE I’VE EVER SEEN!"

"YES! YES! YES! YES!"

Everyone was jumping and dancing around with laughter here, getting rid of all the anxieties that they had for so long today. Hell, even Kazawa and Fujinaga, the two players who suffered from the red card earlier, also joined the fun. The latter, particularly, did something so outrageous that it had to be stopped by the others.

"Come on, Ref! Think further! You cannot cancel the pen! You cannot give the game away again! Come on! Think again, ref!"

The mocking dance that he did in front of the referee was indeed a little bit too much, and while the others had already lost their respect for the man, they still didn’t want to get any additional punishment here. In the end, being the adults in the room, both Makino and Kuroki had to drag the boy’s ass to the team, forcing him to focus on the celebration rather than provoking the referee.

As the hero today, of course, the celebration was centered around both Higo and Hiroshi. More the former than the latter, since even though Hiroshi had a good game with one goal and a decisive penalty, the team wouldn’t be here without Higo’s amazing effort. Still, they both enjoyed the hero’s treatment right now, getting paraded by their teammates as if they had just won the fucking World Cup itself.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pitch, all the Shohei High players were so down. Some of them were even crying, just realizing that their tournament was truly over. It was always difficult to get knocked off in a penalty shootout like this, only losing by sheer luck.

Of course, the one who regretted this the most was Kawabe. The boy somehow lost all of his toughness here, staring at the ball that was still rolling on the ground with hollow eyes. In his mind, he recalled everything that happened earlier, especially the two penalty kicks that he missed today.

’Only scoring one out of three fucking penalties... I am fucking pathetic...’ He laughed bitterly, not even realizing tears were rolling down the corners of his eyes. ’And just with that... My high school tournament is over...’

"Come on, Hiroki..." Sakura, the team’s manager, patted him on the shoulder. "Don’t blame yourself too much. You know that their goalkeeper is abnormal, right?" She said, trying to console the captain.

"Yeah, but I am the fucking number 2 player in the country..." Kawabe laughed hollowly. "Fuck with that rank! Fuck with all the professional invitations! I cannot even carry my team past the second round for the whole three years! I am so fucking pathetic, and this is so fucking disgraceful!"

Sakura could only listen in silence, knowing that the boy needed to vent his frustration right now. It wasn’t like she disagreed, also, since if half the reason they lost here was Higo’s miraculous performance, the other half should be Kawabe’s shitty penalty execution skill. Still, she would only say that once the boy was calm enough to receive that criticism.

"I know that you are not in the mood here, but at least you have to greet Roshi, you know?" Sakura decided to change the topic. "Also, talk a little to that goalkeeper. If he could do that all the time, you both would be teammates sooner or later." She hinted at something here.

"Wait, ye mean..." Kawabe widened his eyes in realization, catching the girl’s hint.

"Yup! He has a big chance to come there as well, so go and greet them both!" She pushed the boy lightly.

Kawabe didn’t need to be told twice. He went straight to the opponent’s celebration, attracting everyone’s attention. Some, like Fujinaga or Hori even tensed for a moment, wondering if he wanted to cause a trouble here.

To everyone’s surprise, the boy went straight to Hiroshi and Higo. Those two boys, still getting drowned in excitement, turned around to Kawabe.

"A good game, Senpai." Hiroshi, as the kouhai for the two boys around him, became the middleman here, starting the communication. "You almost got us today."

In return, Kawabe just snorted sarcastically. "No need to say that, Roshi. Ye win fair and square. Even better, probably. Even with that dodgy referee decision, we still couldn’t bet ye. Ye guys deserve to win."

Higo was taken aback by the boy’s bluntness in admitting the referee’s bad decision. He would never hear that from anyone else, but Kawabe, despite all of his flaws, was always an honest person.

"Ye also did crazy today." Kawabe offered a handshake to Higo. "Honestly, this is probably the best single performance I have ever played against in ma life. Without ye in front of the goal, we would’ve won by a lot. We are unlucky to face ye here." Even though his tone was still full of dissatisfaction, Kawabe’s praise toward Higo was genuine.

"Ah... Thank you!" Higo blinked for a moment before accepting the handshake. "Your performance is also quite crazy, by the way. The two shots that were wobbling in the air really caught me off guard."

"Oh, that fucking Ronaldo Knuckle?! I trained days and nights to perfect that, ask Roshi if you want!" The boy grinned widely when he remembered his attempt in the game earlier. Even though he was still salty for losing the game, Kawabe admitted, albeit begrudgingly, that losing against Higo and Hiroshi was not that bad. "Anyway, I am Hiroki Kawabe, this brat’s senpai in the middle school. Nice to meet ye." He introduced himself while rubbing Hiroshi’s hair fondly.

"Senpai, can you stop doing that?!" Hiroshi just clicked his tongue in annoyance, trying to dodge the attack.

"Ah! My name is Ryusuke Higo. Nice to meet you." Higo introduced himself politely as well.

"Oh, I know it." Kawabe grinned. "Anyway, this is not going to be our last meeting! Get ready, Ryusuke Higo, because soon enough, we will become teammates!"

His declaration only met a dead silence, as Higo’s jaws dropped in shock. In the end, the only response he could muster was... ’What the fuck?!’