March 24th 2025
Ren stood in the doorway, a dumbfounded look on his face.
'Why is Kisaki here!?'
Is all he could think about.
Kisaki just stood calmly in the doorway, "Um, I missed the bus back so could I stay here with you?" He asks.
'Wha_!??'
"Don't you live in Tokyo!?" Ren asks.
"Yeah."
"How do you miss your bus then!?"
"I dunno... Can I stay or not?"
Ren was, at first, very opposed to the idea, but then he thought;
'I can 1v1 Kisaki!'
"Sure... You can stay... Why'd you choose me? Why not go to someone else on my team?"
Kisaki decided to walk in, he leaves his shoes at the door.
"Because that goal you scored was really cool."
Ren was a bit confused... It wasn't that cool of a goal.
"It was pure luck though... The keeper deflected it and it landed to me."
Kisaki's face turns to shock at hearing this.
"I thought you passed it to your left winger, then ran to that spot on purpose in case the Left Wing missed so it would land at your feet..."
'I'm not that good!'
"How are you so good at football?" Ren asks.
Kisaki definitely thinks for a bit, while he does keepie ups with a football.
"Ah could you not do that inside?"
Kisaki doesn't listen.
"I dunno... Just kinda comes to me. Like apparently most people don't see a bunch of outcomes to your pass and etc." Kisaki says as he moves on to doing around-the-worlds.
"I'm a bit confused..." Ren says wimpishly. He sits there standing awkwardly while Kisaki cooly dribbles the ball.
"You know when you have the ball you can pass it straight to your teammate, but they'd have to slow down to gain control. Or you could through-ball which allows them to keep pace. Or you could cross it which would allow them to gain control in a number of ways, waiting for it to fall to their feet, header it, control with their chest, etc. I can basically play those scenarios out in my head, like if I through ball my teammate will continue running which means he's more likely to shoot, in that case I position myself to where it'd fall if it missed, but if a defender's there I can position myself for a cross. You know?"
"No... No I don't..."
Ren thinks for a second.
"Teach me..."
Kisaki looks up with a 'Are you sure?' look. Ren nods his head.
"Alrighty, I am your guest after all"
They meet outside at the football pitch near Ren's house. "I noticed what I think is your biggest problem." Kisaki says.
"What?"
"Your shooting." Kisaki passes the ball to Ren. "Take a curved shot to the top-right corner."
Ren places it like a penalty. He slams his foot into the ball, but it doesn't have enough curve and slams off the cross-bar.
Kisaki then steps up and takes the same shot. But Ren notices something when Kisaki hits it.
'It's a knuckle ball!?'
It curves beautifully into the top-right corner.
"Kisaki! How do you knuckle ball!?" Ren grabs Kisaki's shoulder. "I need to know!"
"Well... Uh... You just... Hit it here..." Kisaki hit the ball at a pin point spot on the ball.
'How much of a prodigy is he if he can just feel out a knuckle ball!?'
"Here... You try..." Kisaki throws Ren the ball. Ren runs up to kick it.
'Okay so if I remember... He hit it slightly to the left of the centre.'
He slams his foot into the ball and it doesn't do anything, because he can't aim that fine.
"You're too forceful with it..." Kisaki is clearly very bad at teaching, and it looks like his head is going to explode thinking about what he's going to say.
About two hours pass
'This has got to be it!'
Ren gracefully taps it with force in the correct spot, with the arc of his body just right and then...
The ball gracefully glided into a beautiful curve and slammed into the top-right of the net.
"YESS!!! I LEARNED THE KNUCKLE BALL!" Ren celebrates. "Hey... Kisaki... 1v1 me..."
"uh... Sure..."