After this, the game continued again, and seeing that Higo was fine and ready to go, Kumiko couldn’t help but let out a relieved sigh. It wasn’t just coming from the worry for her best friend, but Higo himself had already become the most important player on the team right now. Without him, the entire defense would crumble like wet paper, and it would be hard for them to recover.

Still, that didn’t mean she would let this go.

The girl glanced sideways to the other bench, snorting coldly when she saw Jirokichi smiling so smugly there. ’You think you can hide your maliciousness behind that innocent look? Well, my team might not be dirty, but we are a team specializing in gritty defense. Get ready, old man. You will regret touching Ryukkun after this.’

She didn’t shout here, just getting up from the bench. It was before the game restarted, and the girl approached Denki quietly on the sideline. "Tell the others to be a little bit ’rougher’ to that number 18 and their captain. Make sure he is not injured, and we don’t show any maliciousness, but make them bruises."

The order was short and concise, and Kumiko herself didn’t show any emotion when she said that. However, this was probably the scariest part here, as Denki couldn’t help but shudder in fear.

’How could such a cruel sentence come out of her sweet mouth?’ He couldn’t help but mutter.

Well, of course, he had no reason to refuse the order. After all, seeing his senpai getting bullied like this was indeed quite uncomfortable. It also helped that one of the targets here was the captain, and the boy with the number 14 was roaming in his own area.

’Oh, well, don’t worry, Higo-senpai, since you cannot have your own revenge, I will have to take it for you.’ He licked his lips unconsciously, getting ready to play.

After this, once the ball flew in the air again, the gritty defense operation finally started.

It began with a simple move, as Denki let Nishimura escape from his defense. Well, that was a deliberate attempt, since Kazawa had been waiting behind him. When Nishimura’s focus was completely on Kazawa, he made a slight push from behind, and right after that, Kazawa didn’t hesitate to ram the ball out of the boy’s possession with force.

BAM! 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"Urgh!" The captain groaned as he fell on the ground, turning around quickly while throwing his hands in the air. "Sensei, a push! That’s a foul, you know?!"

In return, Denki also made his case here, looking at the referee with an innocent look before shaking his head strongly. "No, Sensei! That’s an accident! I just stumbled and lost my balance here! You won’t punish a little bit of recklessness, right?"

The referee felt the corner of his lips twitching here, too speechless at Denki’s words. Indeed, since he had already established the standard here by only giving a yellow card to the foul before, that meant he had to stick with it for the rest of the game. However, doing so would be dangerous, as the game would be far rougher than usual.

In the end, he could only shake his head helplessly and give the boy a warning here. "Be careful with your own movement. I will not punish you, but if you keep doing this small thing under my eyes, I will have to give you a card, you know that?"

"Don’t worry, Senpai! I am a law-abiding player!" Denki mock-saluted the man before running back to the team’s territory.

Seeing this, Nishimura tried to complain, feeling like this should be deemed as a foul at least. However, he swallowed his words immediately, knowing exactly that this was the result of Mochizuki’s attempt earlier.

’Yeah, I cannot complain about the push. This is definitely lighter than Mochizuki’s clash earlier. The referee is trying to ensure his fairness here, so he has to let go of one or two physical collisions here.’

In fact, if it were any other professional player, they wouldn’t care about rationality like this. No, instead, they would whine or complain, anything that could bring the team another advantage. However, at the end of the day, Nishimura was just a high school boy, and he was not thick-skinned enough to pull this shenanigan in the middle of the game.

Still, that meant the rough treatment would continue. He and Mochizuki somehow suddenly became an open target here, getting a punching bag treatment by Hakodate Nishi’s players. They couldn’t even touch the ball for more than two seconds before they kissed the ground immediately, either from a tackle, a push, or even a body charge.

Hell, Mochizuki was even more pitiful here. Even when he didn’t have the ball, Ishinori would still make a slight, subtle movement, either by pulling his jersey gently or just shoulder-checking the boy from time to time. Even though most of them ended up in a foul, no Hakodate Nishi players complained, especially since they didn’t suffer from any cards here.

"Hey, hey! You brat! What do you think the pitch is for, a boxing ring?! How could you let those hooligan boys run rampant like that?! This is an insult toward football itself!" Jirokichi shouted at the fourth referee on the sideline, having voiced his dissatisfaction from a few minutes ago.

Once again, though, the referee just gave him a cold shoulder. "This is the semifinal of the tournament, Sensei. One or two clashes are bound to happen, and it is not like they are the only ones who play rough today, right?" He retorted calmly.

In fact, the fourth referee had been so annoyed by Jirokichi. After all, this was the first time he was being treated as a brat, and as the judge on the pitch, he also had his own pride here, which made him unconsciously put Esashi High in an unfavorable position.

Oh, he would never side so blatantly with Hakodate Nishi. However, in a fifty-fifty duel, he would definitely pick Hakodate’s side more, which would only make things difficult for Jirokichi’s team.

Seeing this, Kumiko couldn’t help but smirk, looking coldly at the old man at the bench next to her. "So, have you felt any despair yet? Don’t worry, Old Man. This is just the beginning. Later, your players will know how hot hell is, and they could only blame you for that."