Higo didn’t know what was going on here. It was such an easy ball to pick that he didn’t use his clairvoyance ability beforehand. That was why this really caught him off guard. Not only that, he could feel his body aching, with sharp pain burning in his shoulder. It seemed he fell with his shoulder hitting the ground first, which made that spot hurt the most right now.

FWEEE!

The referee didn’t even blink here, blowing the whistle and sending a yellow card. However, that didn’t mean all the Hakodate Nishi players were satisfied with the decision.

"Oi, Sensei! Don’t you see him moving so fast like that?! This is definitely a malicious attempt!" Makino argued heatedly.

"Yes! Just look at our senpai, being thrown so violently in the air! Is this what you can do in a football game?!’ Ishinori added, wanting to put pressure on the referee.

Sano, the delinquent-looking guy, just stared coldly at the referee, enough to make the man sweat on the spot. His gaze was like telling the referee here, if the man didn’t take any action, he would be rude to him later.

The referee had a cold sweat on his back. Indeed, the scene that unfolded before his eyes earlier was quite harsh and was sometimes deemed a red card. That player with the jersey number 18 ran with all of his speed, jumping in the air even when he knew that the ball was within the goalkeeper’s reach before crashing his body straight into that goalie, killing him in one go.

Still, the boy had just entered the pitch a minute ago, and the referee saw this as him still in his jittery moment. This was a common occurrence for a bench player to get overly excited the moment he stepped on the pitch, so giving him a red card would be too harsh here.

So, in the end, even with the pressure from Hakodate Nishi’s players, he shook his head firmly. "No, the foul is harsh, but not enough to be deemed as a red card. The yellow card is a warning for him to be more careful."

That player with the number 18 just nodded obediently. "Don’t worry, Sensei! This won’t happen again! I apologize for my roughness!" He bowed politely, even giving Higo a hand to get up, giving a positive image of himself in front of the referee.

Seeing his innocent look only made the referee glad that he made this decision. In his mind, there was no way such a player would injure his opponent with malicious intent. If anything, this should be an accident, and a yellow card was enough punishment for now.

Little did he know, though, that on the bench, Jirokichi smirked a little, laughing his ass off inwardly as his scheme worked the best. He could still remember the instructions he gave to his players before the game began.

-A flashback-

"Listen, you lot. Today, there will be a chance that we will meet a brick wall, so I plan to use Mochizuki for an intimidation tactic."

"What?! Me?!" That player with the number 18, Mochizuki, pointed at himself in surprise.

"Yes, you." Jirokichi nodded. "I don’t want you to get entangled with their defenders. No, the heart and the soul of their defense lie in their goalkeeper, and you saw him clearly before. He is too innocent, too clean for this game! Just clash on him once and put fear into him, and BAM! He would never be able to recover for the rest of the game!"

The tactic he spoke of stunned everyone here. While they knew Jirokichi was a cunning old man, no one had ever seen him like this.

"Um... Sensei, is it a bit dirty?" Nishimura asked hesitantly.

"Bah! What do you know about dirty play, Brat?!" Jirokichi glared at him dissatisfiedly. "It is a dirty play if we try to hide it under the rug! But if we admit it directly, it will only be deemed as recklessness, a little bit of rough play that goes out of control! At most, we will suffer from a yellow card, but that’s the price that we are willing to pay to kill that goalkeeper! I mean, would you prefer this or struggling to get through his thick defense?!"

-End of the flashback-

Well, even if the Esashi players were uncomfortable with this strategy, they couldn’t say no to the temptation here. Also, it worked quite well, with Mochizuki only getting a yellow card here, exactly as Jirokichi predicted.

The fact that Higo was still good at standing up also helped alleviate their guilty heart and made them understand more how screwed their old coach’s mind was. The purpose was not to kill Higo directly, but to affect his consciousness for the rest of the game.

Now, whenever a fifty-fifty ball was thrown in the air, Higo wouldn’t dare to act recklessly, deciding to hold back and wait until the ball came at him. This was definitely the best outcome they could hope for from playing such a dirty trick in this game.

Meanwhile, on the Hakodate Nishi’s side, Makino clicked his tongue, clearly dissatisfied with the decision here. Unfortunately, there was no way the referee would be willing to retract it. So, instead, he went to Higo, who was still in a dazed state, and asked, "How is it, Chibi? You okay?"

Higo cringed a moment; the pain in his shoulder hadn’t subsided yet. However, he still gave a nod here, knowing that the team needed reassurance. "Don’t worry, I am just shocked by the collision. Other than that, maybe one bruise or two, but nothing that could bring me down yet."

The captain nodded solemnly before turning to Sano and Ishinori. "I don’t care what method you have to use here, but I want you to scare the shit out of that number 18. He dares to mess with us, so he’d better be prepared for the consequence." 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Both fellow defenders nodded, looking at each other solemnly. They knew that the collision was a blatant attempt to kill Higo, so now, they glanced at their enemy with the killing intention leaking in the air.

"Don’t worry, Senpai, we get this. He will never be comfortable enough in our area."