My Father's Secret

Chapter 60

Excitement kept her heart palpitating at an extraordinary rate throughout the whole paper. Kimiko tried to calm herself with deep breaths as she flipped through the pages. To her left side, she noticed Tsurugi sitting with his arms folded across his chest, staring out the window.

Is he done? Thats definitely not possible. Everyone else is still furiously scribbling things on their paper. How is he so relaxed?

He must have seen Kimiko staring at him because he flashed her a smile and winked at her. She quickly looked away but found herself trying to hide the grin on her face.

When the timer sounded, the teacher ordered everyone to put down their pens and she came around to collect the answer sheets.

"How was it?" Tsurugi asked when he caught up to Kimiko in the hall.

"Do-able" Kimiko replied. She was just about to ask him if he had finished the paper but was cut off when Tsurugi spoke up.

"Come on, lets get to practice. Coach Kidou is probably waiting for us"

Everyone was gathered inside the club room when Kidou-san took his position in front. Kimiko noticed that some of the players were still upset about Kidou-san's training routine as she slipped into the seat beside Tsurugi. Kidou-san first started off by explaining the reason behind the intense training he had forced everyone to go through as per Haruna-san's advice. The players finally understood his reasonings and actually appreciated what he has done for them.

Next, Kidou-san announced the next opponent, which is none other than Kidokawa Seishuu.

Oniichan's school! What if he's the coach?

The announcement of their next opponent aroused some excitement and talks in the room. They had lost to Kidokawa Seishuu in the semifinal round in a fair match last year. The thought of having to go against them again made everyone worried.

Kidou-san started discussing some tactics and someone brought up a point about how two of the players on the team, who were brothers didnt get along so well and constantly argued.

"Maybe we can use that to our advantage" Kidou-san suggested, "Its best if we know any weaknesses the opponent might have and use that as our way to get around them"

***

On the morning of the match against Kidokawa Seishuu, Kidou-san and Haruna-san were debating wether Kimiko should play in the match, with Haruna-san opposing the idea.

In the end, Haruna-san eneded up winning the argument, so Kimiko sat on the bench as the whistle was blown. Amagi-san was quite upset he wasnt in the starting line up, so Kimiko tried reasoning with him.

What was more surprising however was the identity of Kidokawa Seishuu's coach. Disappointingly, it wasn't Gouenji-san as Kimiko had hoped. It turned out however to be Aphrodi, the same person as the teenage boy she had seen in one of her onnichan's matches. He was the captain of Zeus, the team that effortlessly brought Teikoku to their knees.

Looks like this match would be harder than we thought.

Neither Kidou-san nor Aphrodi knew how the Water Stadium worked, so when the ground suddenly disappeared, separating the field, their brains got to work.

Kidou-san was able to think of a very strategic tactic, Flying Route Pass, that enabled the team to pass in midair to avoid the pitch downs.

Someoka-san flew back to Japan on that day from Italy to see Nishiki. turns out, he was Nishiki's coach when he was training abroad. He reached the stadium right at half time and gave Nishiki and inspirational speech plus onigiri.