"FUCK~!"

"~YEAAAAAAAH!"

The moment the referee blew the whistle, both Higo and Makino screamed simultaneously, looking for each other for a moment before the latter jumped to the former’s hug. The captain could be seen sobbing messily like a toddler, couldn’t bear the emotion that rushed to the peak right now.

"Fuck yeah! History! History!" Jun laughed as he joined the group hug. The others followed from behind, all jumping around crazily.

"Yeah! Come on!"

"We are the best team in Hokkaido! Fuck yeah!"

"Fourth round, here we go!"

Some people on the stand might be confused about what history they made here. Only those from Hokkaido recognized it, and those who knew, they joined the cry. Somehow, just this year, Hakodate Nishi managed to break into Sapporo Otani’s dominance in Hokkaido, and they also broke that team’s record in the national tournament.

This was a blatant attempt by them to overtake Sapporo Otani’s spot as the best high school team in the Northern part of Japan.

Makino could still be seen crying, covering his messy face with his jersey. If all of his fans back home knew he could show such an ugly face, they would be heartbroken instantly. Still, the boy couldn’t care less right now. Three years playing in a school no one knew about, three years suffering silently from having his dream getting crushed little by little- who would’ve thought that in his last ever tournament, he would be emerging like a shooting star?

Under Higo’s hug, he just kept mumbling, ’Thank you... Thank you...’ Over and over again.

Even though this wasn’t their hardest game—hell, today was far easier compared to the game against Shohei High—the weight of them creating history somehow got into Makino’s head. He got overwhelmed by everything, not knowing what else to say.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pitch, all the Hannan University High players fell to the ground immediately, their faces fell, and their breathing was unsteady. The exhaustion hit really hard, and coupled with the thought of them having to go home after this... Some of them could be seen covering their face, probably crying silently in this snowy afternoon.

"Our journey is finally over, huh?" Kei Murakami sighed as he sat on the ground; his gaze was empty. "After three years of fighting... This day finally comes..." Tears streamed down his face as his thoughts flew far away right now.

The boy knew that this team was far from the best. They had been fighting so many up-and-down battles, gritting their teeth just to survive a long and gritty game with a one-goal lead. No one was impressed with their game style, and heck, they themselves even predicted that they would never reach anything better than the top 8. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

However, once they were finally out of the tournament... Realization hit Kei Murakami hard, and he couldn’t even raise his head properly right now.

"Come on, Cap. We need to get going." Taiga Nagai suddenly offered a hand to him. "The weather will get colder, and you will get sick easily if you are not moving. Come on." His friend said, concerned.

Kei Murakami himself just had a bitter laugh here. "We have just lost a game, and you care more about me getting sick?" His tone was harsher than he intended to be.

Fortunately, Taiga Nagai didn’t take offense at that. He just rolled his eyes secretly, knowing that the captain’s emotional state was at its worst right now. "Well, yeah, you cannot change the result no matter how much you cry here. Also, I promised your mother that I would take care of you, so come on!"

Next to them, Jui Hata also offered a hand toward the captain. "Come on, Senpai. We have done great so far to reach this point, and we are getting beaten by a better team. No need to be so ashamed like that."

"I beg to differ. It is still not clear that they are the better team here." Someone mumbled from behind.

"You guys..."

Seeing that all of his teammates came one by one to console him, Kei Murakami felt like a crap here. He was the team’s captain, and it should be his role to stand the tallest when his team was down. And yet, here he was, being dragged away from the abyss by the others. The boy couldn’t help but laugh, and yet the tears still didn’t stop falling from the corner of his eyes.

"Sorry, I am a bit emotional here. This is my last game in high school, and I couldn’t sort things out inside my head." He choked a little, feeling sore on his throat.

His teammates stared at each other with a complicated gaze before Taiga Nagai stepped forward and slapped the boy hard on his back. "What the hell are you talking about?! We are still in the same Vissel team, right?! You are not getting rid of me easily!"

"Yeah, Senpai!" Jui Hata also nodded. "Even though I will only join them properly next year, we will still fight again alongside each other in the future!"

"Even for us non-professional players, even if we wouldn’t play again in the future, we are still proud to be your teammates, Senpai!" Ritsu Onishi choked as he said that, trying to hold back his sob.

"You guys..." Kei Murakami laughed once again, too speechless to say anything else. IN the end, he just invited them all to a group hug one more time, conveying all of his emotion to this small, bittersweet gesture.

After the emotion subsided, they all finally greeted Hakodate Nishi’s players as the winners. Kei Murakami went straight to Makino, giving the opponent’s captain the respect the boy deserved. Meanwhile, Taiga Nagai came straight to Higo, offering the goalkeeper a handshake.

"Good game." The defender said shortly.

"Thank you, you also did very well today." Higo nodded in acknowledgement.

Taiga Nagai stared at Higo for a moment, scanning the boy from head to toe with a complicated gaze. In the end, he just sighed, patting the goalkeeper on the shoulder lightly before saying, "I hope we can get along well, because we will be fighting alongside each other soon."