NOVEL NEXT Chapter 98: To Bring The World To Your Feet
Haruma stood there with his shoulders slightly slumped, his eyes a mix of nerves and uncertainty as he kept them fixed on Kurogami.
Kurogami didn't say a word, he was just staring at Haruma, steady and unreadable, his silence heavier than any words.
One by one, Raya turned… then Jiho… then Kabuto, Nagisa, Itsuki… until every single Wolf shifted their gaze toward Haruma.
Feeling the weight of all those hopeful eyes on him, Haruma tightened his fists at his sides, as his chest was rising and falling in uneven breaths, nervousness twisting with fear... Fear of letting them down… Fear of not living up to the hope they were placing on him.
But even through the trembling in his chest, he kept his gaze fixed on Kurogami firm, locked, refusing to look away.
Kurogami studied him for a moment, then a small, confident smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Keeping his eyes on Haruma, he spoke.
"Haruma Kusaka… The untamed, The unstoppable… The rogue wolf of the pack,"
Haruma's eyes flew wide open, disbelief crashing into him like a wave. For a heartbeat, everything around him stopped… his breath, his pulse, even the noise of the stadium seemed to fade into a hollow silence.
Unable to process what he'd just heard, Haruma instinctively turned his head, looking around him.
Every single one of his teammates… every one of them still had their eyes locked on him.
Not a single trace of doubt. . Not a single flicker of hesitation. What they had in their eyes was now, belief... pure, unshakeable belief.
Still wearing that calm, confident smile, Kurogami spoke again, firm, steady, undeniable.
"Haruma Kusaka… we can't win without you. We need you."
Haruma's breath hitched the moment the words left Kurogami's mouth. His eyes instantly got filled with tears as lowered his head sharply, squeezing his eyes shut. And in an overwhelming rush, the flashbacks slammed into him.
The countless shots he missed, the nights he stayed behind alone, practicing until his legs gave out, The moments he silently passed water bottles to everyone else, pretending it didn't hurt all returned to him… And woven through those memories, came the voices.
"Haruma?"
"He's just a substitute striker."
"He can't even score from fifteen yards."
"His real job is being a waterboy."
"Dreams aren't meant for everyone."
"Sorry, Haruma… but you're no different."
"Come on, he's easily the worst striker out there."
Just then a loud, sharp beep suddenly began to ring inside Haruma's mind, cutting straight through the cruel whispers and. For a moment, the world inside him completely faded, nothing remained but that piercing tone echoing in the darkness.
Slowly, the beep began to fade, and in the quiet that followed, a gentle stillness washed over his soul. Then, in that silence, a calm, familiar voice came, soft, steady, and filled with warmth.
"And I'm sure that one day you'll not just play… you'll dominate! and you'll see me in the crowd cheering louder than anyone else."
Just then, Haruma slowly opened his eyes, no longer just teary, but they were burning with a fierce, storm-like intensity, the kind that came from years of pain, failure, and quiet desperation.
He lifted his head up, and when his gaze rose to the crowd, it stopped the moment it found her.
His mother, standing there in the sea of faces with her eyes locked onto him, her presence cutting through the noise like a calm, steady light.
In that instant, something inside Haruma tightened and ignited, a quiet aura settling around him as their eyes met.
Seeing his eyes lock onto her, Haruma's mother froze for a moment. Her eyes widened, and with overwhelming emotions she instantly broke open as tears began to stream down her cheeks.
Kento and Ryusei followed his gaze, and the moment they realized who he was looking at his mother, both of them stared at the exchange in pure disbelief.
Haruma's mother then rose to her feet, almost in a rush. Her hands trembled as she brought them together and clapped, loud, full of raw, overflowing energy, a bright smile breaking through the tears which continued to stream down her face.
Watching her with reddened, focused eyes, Haruma's fists tightened until they began to tremble, the emotion hitting him with full force and in the quiet of his mind, a single vow formed.
"To bring the world to your feet."
At that exact moment, the ground staff slammed the goalpost back into position, the sharp thud echoing across the field, and the referee blew the whistle sharply, signaling every player to return to their positions.
At the sharp crack of sound, Kurogami turned his head just enough to look over his shoulder, his eyes locking instantly with the Tyrants who were already standing firm, staring straight at the Wolves with cold, unflinching intensity, creating a charged, breath-tightening moment where pride, tension, and raw defiance collided in the air like a war moments away from breaking.
Kurogami met their gaze with a cold, unblinking stare. Beside him, Kabuto wore a faint smirk, Jiho's eyes burned with barely restrained fury, and Raya followed Kurogami's line of sight with his usual focused calm, now all of the Wolves locking their focus on the Tyrants.
Haruma, his eyes still reddened and burning with new intent, slowly lowered his gaze from the crowd, and the moment his eyes settled back on the field, he locked onto the Tyrants, meeting their hostile stares head-on, no trace of fear was left on his face.
From the Tyrants' side, Kazutora stepped forward, planting himself at the front of his team, his cold, fierce stare fixed on them without a blink.
Kurogami and Kazutora were now staring at each other, intense enough to feel like they were staring straight into each other's souls. Behind them, the rest of the players from both the teams were locked in their own quiet standoff.
Without breaking his gaze from Kazutora, Kurogami finally spoke,with his voice low and calm.
"We are running riot on them!
Hearing those words, Kabuto's wild smirk stretched wider, Jiho's teeth clenched harder, Itsuki exhaled a slow fog of breath, Haru rolled his neck with a quiet crack, and Raya kept his cold, unwavering stare fixed ahead.
Kurogami then finally turned away from Kazutora's stare down and began walking toward the nets. The others split up across the field, moving into their positions with silent determination.
Through the low murmurs rippling from the crowd, Kurogami stepped in front of the goal. He stopped, turned to face the field, then slowly lowered his head. Closing his eyes, he drew in a deep breath, steadying himself as the atmosphere tightened around him.
Slowly, he opened his eyes, and as he lifted his head, he instinctively turned his head to his left toward the crowd and suddenly, he froze.
His eyes widened. His breath caught in his throat, as if he'd been struck by a jolt of lightning.
There, in the stands, was a ten-year-old Kuroto Shikyo, bouncing on his seat, clapping with explosive joy and overflowing energy.
"Kuro! Kuro! Kuro! Kuro!"
He was shouting with his voice slicing through the stadium noise.
His chants echoed brightly, his smile wide and cheerful, his happiness radiating so strongly it felt almost infectious.
Kurogami's eyes instantly welled up, his gaze locked on Kuroto as his entire body trembled at the sight.
Kuroto quickly met his eyes and raised a small fist to throw a punch into the air with pure energy.
"Come on, big brother! You can do this! Come on Kuro!... Kuro! Kuro! Kuro!"
Kurogami squeezed his eyes shut, tears desperately began to spill out and ran down his face even as he tried to hold them back.
With his eyes still closed, he quickly wiped his tears off and whispered softly to himself,
"This one is for you, Kuroto."
Just then, Kurogami's expression hardened. His jaw clenched, muscles tightening as he dropped into a low crouch, his body moving with sharp, fluid control. Only then did he spread his arms wide like an eagle preparing for flight.
And then it happened.
Behind him, shadows surged upward and a pair of colossal wings burst open, vast, dark, and commanding, spreading across the entire goal like a living barrier. Their silhouette swallowed the light, stretching from post to post as if the field itself had bowed to his presence.
Kento's eyes snapped wide in sheer shock, and Haruma's mother mirrored the same expression. For a moment, neither of them even breathed, their gazes remained firmly locked on Kurogami in utter disbelief.
But then, slowly, a wild smirk began to crawl across Kento's face. His eyes gleamed as a single thought thundered through his mind:
"I knew it…! I knew it! There was no way Kurogami wasn't the chosen one! The Dark Winged… the Black Kallor has awakened!"
Kento kept smirking wildly, his eyes locked solely on Kurogami, refusing to blink, thrilled by what he was seeing.
Meanwhile on the field, Kurogami stood with his face still lowered, his stance was firm and unshaken. Behind him, the vast shadow of dark wings stretched wide, and a heavy, violent aura was seeping from his skin which was spreading outward like a storm of black smoke, swallowing the space around him in a manic, overwhelming surge of power.
Kurogami stood at the center of it all… calm, deadly, awakened.