Rei Kageyama shivered in his sleeping bag. His stomach rumbled, he had not eaten in days, and the last thing he remembered consuming was a mouldy piece of bread. As the night went on, the colder it got, Rei started thinking about his situation. What he could do to earn some money, he needed money to fix his life he hadn't seen his family in years, they ditched him when they realised they could not provide for him. He sometimes decided to look up at the sky and wondered where they were and if they were doing okay he liked to think they were doing well on their own without him. But sometimes he loathed it, he wondered if they were doing the worst. However, sometimes he loved to imagine that they required him, and they rued the day they left him on the side of the road at seven years old. He wanted to prove something to them, and he did not know why. He knew he was better than them. So he thought about his skills. The only thing he knew he could do well was football, but when would a boy from the slums play in Japan get scouted, let alone play in the J-League? "Of to work at the local KFC", he thought.
He woke up back to the same old repulsing smell of the slums, he really needed to get out, so he got up and strutted to the park. The park was a place in, the only place where people could play together threw as no unnecessary shootings or shady drug deals would go down. The park was where everyone and anyone could get around a play some football, baseball or any sport, today everyone was playing some the beautiful game Rei joined into the game of five versus five.
In this first minute, he received the ball from one of his teammates and he was one on one with the defender he dribbled a couple of yards and then pulled off an elastico. Then he put the ball through his legs and sprinted away from his defender, who looked on stupefied. Chipped it above the keeper, making the score 1-0 for his team.
"Stinky got Pace ", one of the other team's players said. Some guys laughed. Rei put one finger up." ooh", some guys whispered "ooh it's on then whoever scores the most wins," the same player said "twenty dollars if I win vice-versa",
It was on from that point on, the tension during a relaxing five versus five turned into a bit of a competitive rivalry game. Rei had the upper hand as he had scored until the other team's player attained the ball after some brilliant off-the-ball movement, and he nearly finished it. But alas, his header missed by a mere inch.
As the game went on, The player kept on using his amazing off-the-ball movement to get past Rei's team. Rei tried to understand his movement but still could not seem to understand how he was always free to get a pass or create a goalscoring chance.
As there were only about ten minutes left in the game, the tension became so high you could have cut it with a knife. The pressure was so high that even an old man stopped to watch. But the thorn in Rei Kageyama's team's side was the orange-haired kid with astounding off-the-ball movement. On a corner that would most likely be the last corner of the game, the orange-haired kid darted in behind and was about to get a header that would most definitely be a point to the opposition. But there was another person jumping as well, it was Rei Kageyama jumping like a wild-caught salmon and clearing the ball as the timer ended.
"Yeah, Let's go!", Rei's team cheered. They had won, and Rei had probably been the best player in the game. "These feet are magic!", Rei internally thought, Rei then proudly walked to the orange-haired male and held his hand out "How did you read that"," how did you see me?" The boy asked, "You use people's blind spots to get past players, that is extremely impressive", Rei replied." Well, you are impressive as well", Orange hit back." So what's your name then", asked Rei "Naruhaya Asahi" "We should play again sometime what's your phone number," Naruhaya said. "I don't have one" admitted "Well then we will meet again by fate my friend," said Naruhaya "We shall"
Rei took the twenty bucks from the bet and went to his local K.F.C. and ordered a family meal and ate some very good food, "I'm stuffed I should train football more often, so I can get some more of this good food" wondered Rei. Rei returned home with his, sleeping bag. "It was a good day ", Rei theorized.
The next day it was another day, but it was not a weekend it was a Monday, and it was time to go to school. His high school, 'Megariku High School' Rei got on his navy blazer and white collared shirt, and some ragged Converse sneakers.
He arrived at school and played a bit of football with a wall for a bit and then went to class started. Rei knew today was the day he would try and get on the football team, the day went very quickly and soon the mid-season football try-outs would begin, and he wanted to be in the squad.
"Listen up boys, we have mid-season try-outs we need to bolster the squad we are trying to reach Nationals this year, so we need to bolster the squad none of you are safe", Coach bellowed. Rei looked around the players and saw a familiar orange-haired male, it was Naruhaya, he smiled at him, and he reciprocated. Rei felt a bit calmer as he saw a familiar face in the crowd of unknown young boys trying to join the team.
They started with some dribbling around some cones, then onto a little one-two game where you had to get past the defender while passing in a two versus one situation.
They then did some shooting drills, where Rei scored ten out of the fifteen shots. After this shooting drill, the team was called in for a little scrimmage.
"Boys, I need To show you me what you got and why you should be on this roster"
"Aye Coach!"