While everybody were celebrating their victory against Tokyo elementary school in the final of national championship, Hiro noticed Akashi blankly staring at the scoreboard at the top of the stadium.
Smack!!
“Yoh!! What are you doing over here while acting all lost?” Hiro smacked his back gently and began to question him.
“Argh!! This sensation of pain feels too real to be a dream. So we did manage to win the national championship huh?” Akashi bewilderingly exclaimed while coming back to his senses. He was having trouble discerning between reality and dream.
“Of course we won. If you’re still having trouble discerning between reality and dream, then I can hit you once again. Haha!” Hiro revealed a evil grin as he began to prepare himself to hit him one more time.
**** ****
As they won the match, a lot of people began to leave the stadium. Since most of them were supporters of Tokyo elementary school, they weren’t interested in staying behind to watch them lift the trophy.
“Uhhhh~ So I guess this is it. Shall we head out too uncle?” Luna inquired as she began to stretch her body which had gotten stiff after sitting for a long time.
Eric remained completely silent. As if he was lost in some kind of thoughts, he was contemplatively staring at the pitch infront with his chin resting on the top of his folded hands.
“Uncle!! Uncle!!” Witnessing his unresponsiveness, she reached out for him.
“Yeah!!! Were you saying something?”?Eric replied upon coming back to his senses.
“Yeah I was asking you, if we should leave or not? You’ve been acting really weird.” Luna intoned while staring at him.
“Sigh~~”
“Let’s leave.”
As Eric took a deep breath, he stood up from his seat and took out his sunglasses which he had tucked in his shirt’s pocket during the match. He then put on his round shaped sunglasses and began to walk away. As they started to leave the stands, Eric casted one last glance at the pitch.
“Boy you really are something else.”
**** ****
With few supporters remaining, everybody expected the cheers of the spectators to die down. But on the contrary, those few supporters who were present in the stands to support Ookami elementary school began to cheer at the top of their voice.
[Even with so few spectators, the stadium feels as lively as it was before the start of the game. Those few supporters of Ookami elementary school are truly adding vitality to the stadium.]
After receiving their medals for attaining second position in the national tournament, the players of Tokyo elementary school began to leave the stadium with their head bowed down. They couldn’t look the supporters in their eyes.
While leaving the stadium, Akutsu made his way towards Hiro. “It was fun to play against you. I’ll be graduating this year and we won’t get to meet for a year. But I hope next time when we meet, we could meet as teammates rather than enemies.” Akutsu mumbled and expressed himself.
“It was fun playing with you too. I’m sure we’ll get a lot of opportunities to play together in the near future.” Hiro replied as he extended his arms forward to perform one last handshake with Akutsu.
Akutsu took his hands and smiled. He then ran towards his teammates.
“Sigh~~”
“Damn!! That was scary.” Hiro released a deep breath as Akutsu left his sight.
As geniune as Akutsu’s intentions were, his smile was creepy as hell. And Hiro wasn’t used to seeing him smile. He rather preferred his serious expression than his smiling face.
**** ****
[Now onto the finale. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the new champions of Japanese elementary school level football tournament; Ookami elementary school]
As the commentator announced their team’s name, they began to walk towards the stage to receive their medals.
Unlike the time at prefectural tournament, an actual stage was set up in the stadium, this time around. With the banner of National Championship hung in a temporarily prepared metallic pole and a slightly lifted wooden platform, the stage was set for the trophy celebration.
As they walked up the stage, a gentleman in black suit handed them their medals. With a wide smile on his face, he congratulated the players as they received their medals from him.
That man was the head of ministry of sports and youth of Japan. He was the sports minister of Japan.
“Congratulations for winning the championship. You played really well.” The sports minister spoke as he shook hands with Hiro.
Since Hiro was the captain of the team, he was the last one to receive the medal.
“Thank you sir for you praises. It means a lot to hear those compliments from you sir.” While shaking hands with him, Hiro bowed down his head to him.
Bowing head when accepting compliments was a gesture of showing respect. And since Hiro was younger than the sports minister, he was required to bow his head while accepting the compliments in order to show his respect towards sports minister who was way older than him by a mile.
“Hoho…, Players like you are the future of our country.”
As they retracted their hands, Hikaru Matsuyama, the sports minister of Japan handed him the trophy.
As he took the trophy from his hands, he began to stare at the trophy in his hand in awe. With a shape that resembled a wine glass and a handle bar on each side, the trophy was painted in gold. With few fake jewels embedded in it, one could hardly tell if it was a real gold trophy or a fake one.
“You can see it all you want when we get back. But will you hurry up now?” Akashi yelled as he witnessed Hiro staring at the trophy in his hand.
“Yeah Captain!! Your teammates are waiting for you. Right guys?” Ichijo Ryu yelled.
“‘Yeah!! Hurry up.”‘ His teammates yelled as he was taking time to come up to the stage.
His teammates had been eagerly waiting for him since a while.
Coming back to his senses, he rushed towards his teammates. As he prepared to lift the trophy, everybody began to wiggle their hands and chant;
“‘Hoooooooooooo!!!!”‘
Just as he lifted the trophy, they yelled;
“‘Wooooooooooooo!!!”‘
“‘Championes!! Championes!!”‘
Jumping and singing, they began to celebrate. The celebration continued for a while. The supporters were enjoying the trophy celebration and so were the players.
The players took turn to lift the trophy. The family of players who had flown to Tokyo to watch them play, poured on to stage to celebrate with them.
After handing the trophy to his teammates, he rushed towards the sidelines where his parents were happily clicking his photos with smiles on their faces.
“Dad, Mom, let’s join the celebration!” He exclaimed as he got closer to them.
“No, No, it’s your moment. Go celebrate it with your teammates.” His mother replied.
“Yeah you should go celebrate it with your teammates.” Takashi added.
Even though they didn’t mean anything negative, their response saddened him. Since he couldn’t celebrate such victory with his parents in his previous life, he desperately wanted to celebrate his victory with his parents in his present life.
“At least let’s click a picture together?” He intoned while sniffing his snot. With tears forming in his eyes, he was on the verge of crying.
Despite being a grown up adult from inside, he couldn’t control his emotions this time around. There was still a soft spot around his heart for his parents. His eyes turned red as tears began to form in his eyes.
Upon witnessing his sad face, they immediately went over towards him to console him.
Momo quickly grabbed his hands and began to wipe away his tears with her bare hands.
“Don’t cry now. It’s a moment of celebration. So it’s not good to cry at such moments. Now let’s go celebrate the victory.” Takashi exclaimed, trying to cheer him up.
Takashi took his hands and lifted him up. While carrying him on his back, Takashi went towards his teammates. “Let’s go Champ!!”
They then joined his teammates to celebrate their triumph. The celebration continued for a while.
“Akashi!!” Hiro called out for Akashi who was singing and dancing with his teammates.
Akashi however was so much engrossed in the celebration that he couldn’t listen to his voice.
“Aaaa….kaaa…shiiii…” He yelled at the top of his voice.
This time around Akashi heard his voice and walked towards him. “Yeah Hiro? You need me for something?” Akashi mumbled.
“Yeah!! Can you take a picture of us?”
“Us??” Akashi failed to notice his parents because of the commotion going on.
“Yeah can you take a picture of me with my mom and dad?” Hiro pointed behind him at his parents.
“Hello Mrs Takahashi. Hello Mr Takahashi.” Akashi immediately greeted his parents by bowing his head as soon as he noticed his parents. .
And as he handed his phone to Akashi, he ran towards his teammates. He then brought the trophy and joined his parents.
While placing the trophy in the middle, he bit his middle. With his mother and father accompanying him, Akashi took the picture of them three together.
“This picture looks really good. We should definitely frame this and hung it on the living room. Don’t you agree honey?” Momo exclaimed while pointing at the picture in her smartphone.