After the interview was over, Kumiko was quite satisfied. Honestly, she didn’t ask much, just an outlet to vent her grievance in the last couple of months. Fortunately, that reporter, wherever she came from, just let her speak whatever was on her mind, so the girl could just release all the tension on her shoulders as well.

However, now that her rational mind started to take over her head again, the girl couldn’t help but bite her lips nervously here. ’Did I say too much there? Will it bring problems to the team? Hmm... Maybe I should ask Mom how to handle this...’

Well, asking her mother was indeed the safest bet here. She had done that a lot of times in the last couple of days. After all, Yumiko Shishida was a national-level reporter, and her connection spread wide across the country. The woman was also angry at the treatment her daughter received here, and coupled with the article by the Daily Sports, this was enough to trigger her temper.

"Just say what you want, Kumiko-chan! Curse if you have to! Don’t worry, I will make sure that tomorrow, the news will reveal everything with no lies!"

That was the declaration that her mother made, and honestly, Kumiko didn’t have any reason to doubt it. Still, it was one thing to have that thought, but she didn’t really have a bad feeling about lashing out in front of the media; somehow, she could foresee the worst-case scenario that could possibly happen.

"Oi, Kumiko-chan! Here!" Kuroki’s shout suddenly snapped her out of her worry. "Come on! Give one or two pep-talks here!" He waved at her while the other players were waiting for the girl around the bench.

Seeing this, she couldn’t help but shake her head here. ’Oh, screw it! Let’s let tomorrow’s problem be solved by tomorrow’s me! For now, just focus on what is in front of me first!’

With that mentality, she coughed a little bit, enough to silence the players there. Some were waiting eagerly, being impatient for the praises coming out of her. It wasn’t like she was stingy with praise usually, but everyone knew that she would always be genuine. It also helped that she would always drop a bombshell in a situation like this, so they couldn’t help but wait until the girl opened her mouth.

"Okay, first things first, our best player today, let’s give a round of applause to Kenji!" She shouted, triggering a big round of applause from the players.

"Hell, yeah!" Kenji laughed boisterously, his handsome face plastered with the wicked expression as if he were a screwed-up old man. However, no one really cared about that now, as they all slapped the boy’s head quite hard to celebrate the announcement.

"Haha! That’s how you should do it, Kenji!"

"Come on, don’t act so shameless like that! You are just the executioner, but Takaaki and the others are the ones who build it up for you!"

"Yeah, you bastard! Don’t think you can act so high like that in front of us, Bastard!"

"Ouch! Ouch! Stop it, you Bastards!" Kenji clutched his head in pain. However, it was clear by the laughter slipping in between that this was just playful banter. "Hey, if you don’t like me getting the MVP, try to get it yourself! Try to score two goals in the national tournament!" He smiled smugly.

"Okay, okay, let’s not dwell on this for too long." Kumiko coughed, interrupting the bickers here. "Fujinaga-kun is right. This is not something that Kenji-kun alone could pull. Denji-kun also played a big role in discovering Naoya’s weakness, Takaaki-kun with the precise pinpoint pass, and the defenders who worked harder than anyone to maintain the lead... Everyone has their own role, so let’s give a round of applause for us here!"

Everyone just clapped politely, not going too crazy with this. At this point, the excitement had already subsided a little bit, and while they were still quite happy, they knew that this wasn’t like the game against Sapporo Otani, either in the stakes or the intensity.

"Lastly... I think every single one of you knows about my deep resentment against the Daily Sports, right?" She asked.

The others just twitched the corner of their lips, amusedly. At this point, no one on the team didn’t know about her beef with the Daily Sports. Well, it was more like a one-sided beef, since Kumiko herself was just a nobody in front of the mighty Daily Sports, but no one really dared to mention this.

"Well, you might be ecstatic here, since I have just called them out in my last interview!" Kumiko continued, dropping the bomb out of nowhere. Hearing this, some of the boys who were still drinking couldn’t help but choke instantly, staring at the girl in disbelief.

"Are you serious?" Makino asked in exasperation.

"Of course, I am! Not only that, but I also called out the crappy organizer for targeting us during the pitch test yesterday!" Kumiko chirped happily as if she didn’t just doom the team to hell. "Oh, also, don’t worry about the legal repercussions behind my action. I mean, this is just an open criticism that most of the senior coaches here often speak to the media when they see something they don’t like, so this is not something new." She waved off the silent concern nonchalantly.

Kumiko also deliberately left out the fact that she asked her mother for help here. The girl was currently at the stage where she wanted to stand on her own feet and do everything alone, so admitting that she used her mother’s connection was definitely not possible.

"So... Is there any repercussion besides the legal one that we have to pay attention to?" Higo asked, sighing in resignation.

At this point, they all couldn’t bear this anymore, just wanting to hear everything from Kumiko’s mouth directly. The girl herself also felt guilty here, but in the end, she said it bluntly, "Well, at most, you will just be the villain of the tournament. Still, with how everything is unfolding today, I am sure you wouldn’t really mind, right?"