While they were goofily making their way towards the locker room, his eyes wandered at the crowds and suddenly he caught a glimpse of a familiar person at the seat above the tunnel.
Witnessing the sight of someone familiar to him, he paused midway all of a sudden to take a better look at the person. 𝗻𝐨𝐯𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
“What are you doing over there? Hurry up! Or else the coach will scold you.” Akashi spoke while looking at him and interrupted him.
“Ahh!! I thought I saw somebody familiar in the stand.” He got distracted by Akashi and couldn’t see the person clearly.
Once again, he looked at the seat where he witnessed the sight of the familiar person. But that seat was occupied by a girl with blond hair and white skin.
“Is it a girl? Hehe…” Akashi chuckled as he made his way towards Hiro. He then started to look at the stands infront. “Ohho!! You’re taste is truly unique. I didn’t expect you to be interested in foreigners.”
“No it’s not her. There was another person sitting in that seat.” Hiro tried to reason with Akashi. “Yeah! Yeah! And that person happen to be a white blond chick. Hahaha….” But Akashi kept on teasing him.
“Akashi senpai are you a part of the gang?” Keiji Togashi, 2nd year defender of Ookami elementary school interrupted them from behind.
“No! Which idiot told you that?”Akashi erupted as he heard the statement of Togashi.
“Nobody did. It’s just you speak like a gangster and you dress up like one too.” Togashi stammered and took a step back in fear.
Most of the times Akashi spoke in gangster slangs. Already 4 feet 11 inches tall at the age of 11, he was a year older than Hiro. And because of his appearance and the manner of speech, people often mistook him for gangster.
“Pft- Hahaha…, Yeah right he’s a member of a gang. A very dangerous one. You might have heard the name of the gang ‘Fearless Oni gang’?” Hiro chuckled.
Togashi nervously shook his head.
“So I was right. You are indeed a member of a gang.” Togashi exclaimed in fear.
“No! I’m not a gangster. Just stop scaring him already and stop joking Hiro. You might mislead him this way.” Akashi exasperated and began to stare at Hiro as if he would swallow him alive.
“Okay! Okay! Don’t look at me like that. I was kidding okay. Hahaha…, He’s not a member of a gang. It’s just his grandfather used to be one of the Yakuza’s in his younger days. Akashi here is just a normal student.” Hiro reassured Togashi that he was only joking about the things he said earlier.
“Okay! Now let’s head to locker room. Or else coach Miura will eat us alive.”
**** ****
“What are you looking for uncle?” The girl with blond hair exclaimed while looking at a man in his early thirties, bending down in his seat, scavenging for something beneath the seat he was seated.
“Argh!! There it is. My notebook. Just how the hell did it reach that far? ” The man was looking for his notebook which he accidentally dropped during the time of the game. He was struggling to reach his notebook.
“Note? Uncle please speak in English.” While the girl was speaking in english, the man was speaking Japanese. The blond girl was having difficulties understanding the man’s words.
He stretched his fingers to reach his notebook which had somehow fallen beneath his seat. Just as he reached his notebook, he stood up and began to dust his clothes.
“Do they not clean the stadium at all?” The man exasperated as he was dusting his clothes. “Ahh right! What were you saying?”
“Oh yeah I forgot that you don’t understand Japanese very well. Haha…, I’m sorry about that.” The man apologized goofily, forgetting that he was still speaking Japanese.
“Pleasespeak in English uncle.” The blond girl exasperated.
“Was I speaking in Japanese again? Hahaha…, My bad. Sorry! Sorry!” Even though he was apologizing to the girl infront, it was clear from the way he spoke that he wasn’t even sorry for his mistake. “Where are the players?”
“Urgh!! Did you already forget that it’s halftime?”
“Yeah right!! I forgot about it. Hahaha…”
“Just how the hell did you even manage to be a licensed agent in Europe with that clumsy attitude of yours?” The blond girl intoned as she witnessed the clumsy attitude of the man infront, while contorting her face in disbelief. She was clearly annoyed by his clumsy behaviour.
Having majored in sports science, the man she was talking to was one of the lesser known agent of Europe. Born from a Japanese mother and British father, he was one of the youngest licensed agent in Europe. Though still not famous, he would go on to manage world class players in the near future.
Dressed in a set of Hawaiian shirt and sorts, he had a sun hat on top of his head. With a shade of sunglasses covering his eyes, he was dressed in a way that seemed like he was on a vacation.
With brown eyes, sharp nose and chiselled jaw covered with patches of golden beard, one could hardly believe that he was already in his thirties.
“Just you wait and see my niece Luna. I’m gonna be the best agent with the best player under his wing one day. And everybody’s gonna remember the name Eric Parker. Hahaha….” He laughed maniacally while announcing his name, all of a sudden.
“There he goes again. Lost in his own delusional fantasies. And just how many times do I need to tell him to speak in English. Urgh!! Leave it. I don’t even care now.” Luna exclaimed in her muffled voice.
She was clearly annoyed by his behaviour. However since she had seen that side of him several times already, she didn’t even bother to explain her annoyance to him. She was already fed up of his self indulging behaviour.
Luna was the only daughter of Eric’s elder brother Kevin Parker. Born and raised in England, she didn’t know any Japanese. Since her mother belonged to a British origin, everybody conversed in English in her home.
And the only time she heard Japanese was the time when she visited her grandmother’s place and when her father conversed to her grandmother.
Since her grandfather had already passed away in his early sixties due to heart condition, her grandmother lived all by herself. Both Eric and Kevin offered her to move in with them several times, but she rejected them each and every time they asked her.
And everytime when she asked her why she didn’t want to move in with either her father or her uncle, her grandmother always replied that the home she resided reminded her of her beloved husband.
Also Eric and Kevin normally talked to each other in english, she could rarely hear them converse in Japanese. That’s why her Japanese was very weak.
“Just why are we even here uncle?”?Luna questioned Eric who was still laughing maniacally.
Eric paused as he heard her voice. He then perplexingly looked at her and replied “Don’t you know that already? We’re here to visit your grandmothers homeland.”
“Yeah I do know about that. But what are we doing here in a kid’s game?”
“This is one of the biggest school level competition in Japan. And you’re asking what are we doing here? Also you’re a 16 year old kid yourself. So what right do you have to call this kids, kids?” Eric began to blabber without stopping.
“Don’t call me kid. I’m already a grown up. I’ll soon leave the house for university after I complete my highschool in few years and live independently.”?Luna exasperated.
“Also why are you scribbling on your note? Are you here to recruit some players?”?Luna continued.
“Hell no! Why would I recruit asian players. With all due respect to asian players, they are not talented enough to make us huge money. They don’t get signed for huge amount of money in european markets. And if they’re not signed for huge amount of money, I can’t make money. So no, I’m not here to recruit players.” Eric sternly declined her claims.
Since Eric believed that asian players were not up to par with European or South American players, he had never ever considered even in his dream to recruit any asian players.
Also since the market value of Asian players were not too high in European markets, he couldn’t make money out of Asian players. Thus he avoided signing any Asian players.
And him being there was pure conicidence. He just coincidentally happened to be in Tokyo around the time of the final. And since he had a lot of free time, he went to the stadium just to enjoy the match and get entertained.
However even when merely spectating the match, he couldn’t control himself from noting the details of players in his notebook out of his habit. He wasn’t noting their playstyle to recruit them.
In simple terms he wasn’t there to recruit or scout players, he was only there to enjoy the game as a spectator.