NOVEL NEXT Chapter 292: Stupid Provocation
When all the players – including the Thunder's – went back to the bench, the first thing Shou did was smack Tondo's head hard to get his point. "What the hell, Tondo?!" Shou hissed furiously at the middle blocker. "Why in the hell did you decide to be a lunatic and provoke the fans?! You will not be able to go home in one piece, for God's sake!"
"Ouch! Sorry, sorry! That's my fault!" Tondo apologized quickly, didn't want to be at the end of Shou's ire. The blocker gulped nervously when he saw the coach was looking at him with a blank face. "I cannot help it, though! They acted so domineering and arrogant that I wanted to shove those words back into their mouth! They deserve it!" He said, trying his best to justify his action.
Well… Except… It only made things worse.
"You idiot child…" Kawaki sighed tiredly. "How could you diminish all of your one-year experiences playing in this league and break the most important rule in an away game? Never provoke the home team's supporters, for God's sake! No matter what the outcome the referee decided, things will be ugly after the game."
Tondo gulped once again at the coach's words. After calming down from whatever adrenaline rushed into his head before, the blocker was calmer now and could see why his action was stupid. Still, things had already happened, and no matter how much he regretted it, he couldn't turn back time to fix his mistake.
"So, what is going to happen now?" Riku couldn't help but ask.
"Well, a lot of things can happen, but it mainly depends on how well the referee and the Phoenix's players managed to calm down the people there," Kawaki said, his eyes staring at the other side of the court. Read new chapters at empire
Currently, the coach was in discussion with the Phoenix's coach while all the players wearing orange jerseys rose from their seats and tried their best to talk to the supporters. The Thunder players winced unconsciously when they saw some of the supporters arguing with the Phoenix's players while glaring ferociously at them. The situation seemed to get more heated as time went by.
Yuki and Riku themselves also started to get worried. Even though they hadn't said anything to each other, they knew what their friend was thinking about right now as their eyes were wandering around to search for a petite girl with glasses on the stand. When five minutes passed with their search did not meet any results, they started to panic.
'Damn, Kato-san, where the hell are you? Should you be on the right stand?!' Yuki bit his lips worriedly.
Fortunately, they were in Japan right now, not in the other countries in Eastern Europe or God forbid South America. No offense to the countries in that part of the world, but Yuki saw a documentary about football in those areas in the past, and he knew people from there were infamous for their crazy fanatism when talking about sports, and things ended up violently quite often to his liking.
Even though in Japan, some of the professional clubs – mostly football – had their own fanatic supporters, they spent most of their time cheering their team in a creative way and never forcing the game to end with violence. In fact, a game that ended up in violence that involved supporters had never happened before in this country. That was probably why Japan was often said to be one of the best countries to watch sports with family.
"Okay, we have a term here." The voice of the referee came to the Thunder's bench and snapped Yuki from his thought. "They are willing to continue the game, but the number 11 guy has to apologize directly at them first."
"Eh? Me?!" Tondo asked, his eyes widened in surprise.
"Yes, you." The referee nodded firmly. "Honestly, I don't know what kind of demon possessed you before, but you make a grave mistake here. Even though they look like ordinary citizens, most of the old guys over there are important people in their company. Hell, I could see a guy from parliament there, and just a few words from them would be enough to ban you from Fukushima for the rest of your life."
Of course, it was a big lie. No position in the Government had enough power to ban someone from coming to their territory. However, the referee achieved what he wanted from the threat. Tondo gulped, not expecting the repercussions would be that far. Although he wasn't a Fukushima native and had so few businesses there, it would be horrible to get banned from the entire prefecture. What if he had something important to do here? And what if he became a professional player and had to play here in the future?
It seemed Kawaki also thought the same as he patted Tondo's shoulder encouragingly. "This is it, Tondo. Prove yourself that you are man enough to admit your mistake."
Yuki could see the hesitation on the blocker's face. Then, a brilliant idea suddenly flashed through his head. "Sensei, can I come with him too and be the moral support?" He asked out of nowhere.
This time, not just Kawaki and Tondo, but everyone who heard that – hell, even the referee – turned their head at Yuki as if he was crazy. Tondo's expression also changed quickly from confusion into a hopeful one, wishing that Yuki indeed wanted to accompany him. Curious, Kawaki asked, "Why do you want to join?"
"I… Don't know." Yuki shrugged. "Maybe, because I am a Fukushima native too and I want to communicate with them directly, I guess?"
Kawaki's face softened at Yuki's words. He knew the glasses boy's background. He was one of so many victims of the tragedy a few months ago that killed more than thousands of people before he had to go to Tokyo and live in a small orphanage. The story of his time in the volleyball world was inspiring, rising from zero into a player his caliber in just six months. That showed how talented Yuki was for the game, and today's match was just an emphasis on that.
However, with all the talent inside the boy's body, Kawaki forgot that Yuki was one of the victims just like most of the people on the stand. Even though he didn't know about them at all, at least he would want to connect himself with the people who suffered from the same fate. So, with that thought in mind, Kawaki finally relented and agreed with Yuki's request.
"Okay, you can join, but I will supervise you both." Decided the coach.
"Really?!" Yuki's eyes shone brightly. Of course, he wasn't going there to do all the things Kawaki imagined at all. No, he wanted to go there to search for his friend with a better view. However, what the coach didn't know would never hurt him, or so that was what Yuki convinced himself after hiding it from the old man.
"Yeah. Come on, let's do it now. We don't have all the time in the world, you know?"
"Yes, Sensei!"