Burn

Haruo was currently tapping through a stepping ladder with each of his feet tapping each square at least 5 times. He was performing that exercise like a madman and accelerate into a sprint forward to receive a cross from Chigiri that also ran from his left fullback position at the back.

When the ball came to Haruo's feet, he took a short glance at the position of the goalie Gagamaru and fired a shot at the goal.

Unlucky for Haruo. The ball slammed at the left goalpost and went flying back to the midfield.

Haruo only grimaced a little. His shots were not on point at all with his increased speed. The ability to make a clean finish became much harder at increased velocity.

You had to adjust your balance and posture in the split of a second to compensate for the increased speed that would make aiming harder.

His coordination between his feet and body became a rigorous mess.

Haruo was always more of a technical player that only got to perform physical traits better since he now had a young body again.

Now that his physical traits started to oversteer, his technique started to falter and become rather sloppy.

With a ball that was unmoving, that was not really a problem. But Haruo should slowly adjust himself to the increased pace of matches. If not for that then at least to the increased pace of himself.

Besides his own technique not being able to catch up to his increased speed, Gagamaru was also diving after the ball as if he knew which way it would go.

"Alright, I think that is enough for today. Thanks for going into the goal today, Gin." He clapped Gagamaru's back.

"Next time it is your turn.", answered Gagamaru back while picking up the ball.

"Sure, why not. I think tomorrow I will take a little relaxation day and try myself inside the goal. You too, Chigiri. Thanks for joining the agility training."

"No problem. I also benefit from this training. My old senses start to reform themselves and I get the feeling back in my feet on how to run. But I never knew you were so fast. Did you hide that?"

"It's not really that I hid it. It only becomes more troublesome if I am too fast. From the 25 runs, I only managed to make 13 of them count. And only 7 went into the goal. That is a freaking disaster as a striker..."

Haruo already figured he needed to put some intensive training into his technique even though it was already at A ranking.

The problem was that his [Lightning Starter] acceleration and [Phantom Fast Feet] speed already had both increased in rank after he started to get a feel to his new speed.

They were now both at an S+2 rating and he already had the feeling it was not even the cap. Even Chigiri managed to boost his running talent to S+3.

Haruo wondered if it was thanks to their increased focus on speed training that brought them to this result.

The improvements felt unreal and cheaty. Yet he also felt amazed and happy that his skills improved through his own effort.

Own effort...right. He was shameless enough in stealing abilities from others but he also did put his own effort into them to make them his own. It was a thought he would not so easily just ignore.

Looking back at the redhead, Haruo was guessing from the way Chigiri talked it was also clear to think that he had been even faster before he got his injury. That meant he only took current-level abilities that were not calculated with the potential of improvement.

Only those famous players could give him those skills and he had a feeling his body right now would not yet be able to handle them just like his running.

Taking a glance at Chigiri's knee, it was not too surprising that he got that injury in the first place. His physique was barely looking enough to support the strenuous sprints he performs.

"Chigiri, you should also start working on your thighs more. The more muscle you have, the lesser will be the chance of getting an injury there again. You got less muscle than me but keep running so fast. I can already feel the burn in my legs so I don't want to even know how you feel. Don't overdo it.", said Haruo now after scratching the back of his head.

That was of course a little bit of a lie since with Haruo's improved muscles and the newly gained [U] skill that prevented him from receiving an injury so easily. It was much easier to keep this up.

Chigiri on the other hand was looking rather brittle.

One also only had to see them under the shower. Haruo had a massively chiseled ectomorphic body type that martial artists would normally have and Chigiri only had an athlete's basic body with a somewhat greater thigh girth.

"Hmm, thanks. I will keep that in mind." Chigiri smiled softly and his eyes wandered over to someone that was entering the training field.

Noticing his gaze, Haruo also turned around and saw Anri walk over to them.

"Sugewara-san, get under the shower and dress up. You got 15 minutes.", she said after joining them. Anri even made sure to set a timer on her phone.

"Huh? I don't remember buying another massage session. But I won't say no to it~." Haruo grinned sheepishly.

Anri frowned and looked at Chigiri and Gagamaru. Gin only nocked his head to the side and Chigiri shrugged his shoulders.

"Get moving..." Her words were now a little bit more commanding than before. The had a little bit of chillness in them.

Haruo was a little bit surprised. Not wanting to get her even angrier he waved to the other two and jogged off. "See ya guys later, I guess. Oi, moonshine! Just put my phone on my futon when you are done recording!"

Igarashi who was doing a small break and holding his phone to record the training nodded and focused himself back to record some of the training from the others.

Come to think of it, he never mentioned it, did he?

All the players here mostly did training on their own accord without a real coach being close by.

From time to time Ego would come knocking and telling a few things but otherwise, everyone was thrown into the water to learn how to swim.

It was one of his reasons behind how they would learn football from the ground up.

Haruo on the other side thought they just used up their budget for something else. And it probably was already small enough as it was.

But one had to wonder how they managed to get this stadium for the project in the first place. Anyway, most of the money probably went into building all 5 stratum buildings around the main stadium.

That aside, after Haruo finished up and wore a comfortable dark blue tracksuit with the blue lock logo on the back he came over to Anri.

"So, what exactly is going on that I am being picked up from training?", he asked. Haruo was after all quite curious about this.

"You will soon see. Just follow me." Anri didn't look like she was in any mood to discuss his question.

"That bad...?" Haruo only sighed lightly and follow in silence.

They both left the complex and entered a small provisional building.

"Please sit here and wait for a bit.", told Anri and left the room.

Looking around Haruo was a little bit confused. He even frowned a bit and sat down on the folding chair.

Waiting for what seemed to be 10 minutes the door opened again and in came the coach himself, Jinpachi Ego.

But he was not the only one entering. What surprised Haruo the most was the woman walking after Jinpachi.

"Mom?" Haruo could not believe he saw his mother here. Especially since contact with family was basically prohibited unless you got your phone back or managed to earn yourself a free day outside with 10 goal points.

And it was not like he had no option to contact her at all. So it made him also slightly worried what this was about.

His mother came over to him and hugged him gently. Then looking at him and squeezing his cheeks she smiled. "You sure lost a lot of weight. Are you getting enough food here?" Her voice sounded rather worried.

"I am fine, mom...."

"We are not here for that." That voice brought Haruo frowning deeply after he heard it. A Japanese man clad in a trenchcoat suited for the lower temperatures of the winter season also came inside.

His black hair was neatly combed and the sides kept shorter than the top. The small goatee only framed the stern-looking face and let anyone seeing this person focus on the deep blue eyes.

Haruo's mood suddenly made a deep plunge into an abyss. His soft smile he had when seeing his mother visit him disappeared to never appear again.

"Father...What are you doing here?", asked Haruo. He also made a questioning look to Ego.