The next day after the celebration banquet, Hiro spent his day exploring the city with his teammates. Even Kaoru who had previously vowed to exclude himself from exploration until after the match joined the rest in exploring the city.

Although he didn't get many minutes on the pitch, he still got to play. So, he was satisfied with the amount of minutes he had gotten on the pitch. After all, he hadn't expected to get a lot of minutes to begin with.

Spending a whole day exploring the city they enjoyed their stay in Georgia.

Then the next day they boarded the plane to Brazil.

It took them quite a while to reach their destination. Inside the airplane, Hiro had many encounters as some people recognized him due to his performance in the exhibition match against Georgia.

To a great extent, his popularity could be attributed to the opposing number seven who had many fans who monitored his actions closely.

Someone completely unknown had demolished their favorite player's team. So, how could they not take notice of him?

Until now, he was relatively unknown in the world.

But after delivering a marvelous performance in the match against Georgia, Hiro's reputation had soared to new heights.

After a long comfortable flight, the plane entered the Brazilian territory.

"We're here," Tatsuki exclaimed excitedly, his eyes glistening with joy. "Look it's Jesus" he added nudging Hiro as he tried to inform Hiro who was seated right beside him.

The journey was going to be long. And Hiro wanted to take the opportunity to explore the land of football to its fullest. So, Hiro was deep asleep.

Feeling the touch, he drifted awake.

"What...?" Hiro asked in a half-awake state.

"We have arrived in Brazil," Tatsuki said excitedly.

As he heard the mention of their arrival, he slowly opened his eyes. Then he pushed Tatsuki to his seat before stretching his head to take a peek outside the window.

Just as he looked out of the window, a magnificent gigantic stone statue of Jesus stood before his eyes. It seemed as if the statue could touch the clouds.

Even from a distance, he could clearly see the statue. As for other structures, it seemed like scattered ants when looking from above.

Hiro's eyes glistened with awe as he looked through the window. At the same time, his head buzzed with excitement. Finally, he arrived at the nation which was famously known as the land of football around the world.

It had been his wish from his past life to visit this nation once.

The country that birthed legends of the game like Pele, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho, Kaka, and many others, he couldn't help but wonder what it'd look like.

Would there be people playing football everywhere he went like the rumor he had heard previously?

Until the plane began to descend, Hiro kept on fixedly staring out of the window. Though his actions irked Tatsuki, he wasn't concerned about him the least.

As the plane began its descent, Hiro suddenly felt unusually light. The sudden feeling made him clench his fist while at the same time, it made him hold his breath. Though he desperately maintained the calm on his face, he was a bit terrified.

Only after the plane's successful landing did he heave a sigh of relief.

The feeling of weightlessness that he'd get during the plane's descent, he could never get used to it.

After they landed, Seko gave him a strange look before asking him, "Are you really terrified of the plane's descent?"

Hearing him, Hiro blinked his eyes before rolling his eyes away from him, "You're scared of ghosts. So, why can't I have a fear of landing?" he replied coldly.

How did he know that I'm scared of ghosts?

Hearing the mention of his phobia, his expression changed. He hadn't mentioned his phobia to him before. So, how did he find out that he was terrified of ghosts?

He became alarmed as he heard the mention of his phobia.

Immediately, he tried to defend himself, "Who... said that I'm afraid of ghosts?"

Well, seeing him warily making his way to the restroom at night after staying up watching a haunted movie, Hiro could tell that he was afraid of Ghost.

But even though he had noticed his fear, Hiro never mentioned it.

"Naoto," Hiro answered briskly shifting the blame to Naoto. Then he stood from his seat to leave.

So, it was Naoto who had sold him out.

Upon the mention of Naoto, he darted his eyes to Naoto, glaring at him.

If it was Naoto then it made sense. After all, he was the only other person than his parents who

was aware of his phobia.

They then exited the airport.

The sun was almost at its zenith. Sparse clouds were floating in the azure blue sky, masking the brilliance of the sun at times.

Some people were gathered in a certain stadium.

Bam!

"Your shot has improved quite a lot, Thiago," Gabriel who was a robustly built player praised

the effort of his friend Thiago who had a rather lean and tanned body.

Just now, Thiago, a tanned skin guy with curly hair had fired an impressive shot from a distance. Perspiration could be seen on his face to a great amount, a testament to the hot and humid climate of Brazil.

Even though he was praised, Thiago didn't look happy. Instead, he had a rather complacent look on his face. It was as if he was unsatisfied with the results.

Noticing the frown on his friend's face, Gabriel couldn't help but address his worry, "You don't look happy about it. Is something boggling you?"

Heaving a deep sigh, Thiago said in a low tone, "I don't know but I still feel like I'm missing something. Like I can comfortably nail the shots in training. But in an actual match, I don't know why I keep missing by a hair's breadth"

Thiago often shared his thoughts with Gabriel. And the two were rather close to each other despite playing in different leagues. Gabriel represented Arsenal while Thiago played for Fluminense FC. So, there wasn't any need for him to hide his worries from him.

Though they had started their career together Gabriel had already gone on to play for a top- six club of the premier league while he was playing for a team in the Serie A which constantly struggled in the relegation zone.

However, it didn't mean that he was jealous of his friend's success. It was just that he was starting to feel ashamed to call him his friend.

He was well aware that his friend never thought about him in such a way.

But he couldn't help thinking about it.

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