17 Going Places

It was once again the day before the match and the last day for Team Z to rest.

Haruo once again let himself get a nice massage from Anri and relaxed. When they were finished he stretched himself and could feel his body screaming in happiness.

And that better be the case after he spent his last points on two consecutive seasons.

Looking over to Anri who washed her hands again Haruo could see that she looked rather tired today.

"Why such a downcast face? Feeling tired? Do you want me to give you a massage today?" Haruo wanted to know what was up at the forefront and suggested something daring since with today's season he was now able to do massages as well.

[Physiotherapist: A+2 devoured from -Anri Teieri-]

The whole rush of information in his head about the anatomy of a human was sure something unexpected. But now he felt he could basically name all muscles and their functions.

He could even relieve himself from most muscle pains but for a complete massage, it was not enough since it was impossible to reach your own back and other hard to reach regions.

Anri looked back at him with a raised brow. But seeing his serious expression she just took it as it is.

"Are you fooling around again?" From that reaction, Haruo could feel that she was in a rather moody mood today.

"No, that is my genuine offer..."

"And why would I let an amateur touch my body? You are probably only aiming at that!"

"Whoa! I am not that kind of man. Even if it is tempting." Haruo smirked now. "If I misbehave you can just see it in the recordings, right? I promise to behave. So the offer still stands."

Anri looked at him with a frown. Then she closed her eyes and sighed. There was clear temptation on her mind to get some relaxation.

"Fine. But if you dare to do something I will make sure it will be the last thing you do in Blue Lock." Her face looked rather scary at that moment and Haruo could only smile wryly.

'That is exactly why I am not going to do anything funny....' Haruo wondered what really happened to have her mood so bad. She was not even talking the whole season and it felt rather awkward.

A little bit later when Haruo had changed into a clean set of pajama after showering he stood ready with his sleeves rolled up.

Anri entered the room with a little bit of a blush. It was not every day that you would wear a bikini in a place that was not the beach.

Haruo on the other hand enjoyed the view he saw while rubbing his hands with aloe very oil. Anri had a very slim figure that was also pretty firm with lines of muscle showing at her abdomen.

The bikini she wore was showing every bit of good points she had. Especially those two round objects on her chest area.

Haruo made an appreciative smile and gesture for her to lie down.

Anri was hesitantly doing that and when she was on the table she suspiciously looked at Haruo. The moment he placed his hands on her back she felt the warm touch.

But before she could say anything she noticed how Haruo's concentration seemed to have shifted towards performing the task.

She could feel how he actually performed a pretty decent massage. It even slowly let her relax. No, she can't! She couldn't!

But at the end she did.

"You are really tensed up. Is work being hard lately?" Haruo asked while running up her back at her spine.

"Mhn~" A sweet little moan came from her and Haruo just stopped for a split second continued with a smile.

Anri had a bright blush on her face noticing her own reaction and stood firm not to answer. But after receiving this good massage she just melted at some point.

"It's all Ego-san's fault! He is keeping me do all the chores while I am the boss here. He sits around in front of the monitors doing nothing but eating instant junk food that litters his whole room. And I end up cleaning everything up. Then there is the laundry from all you guys and your massage seasons..."

Haruo smiled wryly after noticing she started letting loose of her pent up anger.

"...And if that is not enough those old foggies try to undermine this project at every point they can...Why is it that they are so dispassionate about football?"

"It could be because they only see the financial worth ever since the team never performed beyond expectations..." Haruo suggested.

"But that is not football..." Anri buried her face. "I hate it how they view football."

Haruo squinted his eyes. There was little to change about such a thing. Officials would only see the money that a sport could generate. It would otherwise not be worth engaging. Even the players are people that would go for the money since they offer their physical bodies that could at most be at their prime for a few years.

"Don't get worked up so much over the people that are living in the past. Japan sadly has this mentality to preserve the old while discarding everything that could bring fresh wind into things."

Anri stood quiet at his words and that remained for quite a while until Haruo noticed her slowed breathing.

She actually had fallen asleep. So Haruo chuckled lightly and performed the necessary massage on her backside and stopped at that.

Taking a few towels he covered her body with them and made sure they worked like a warm blanket.

"Good night and sweet dreams, Anri-san." With that Haruo left the room to get some sleep himself.

But before he went straight under his blankets he replayed some of the team's training on his phone and looked at the last recorded footage where the whole team was doing some endurance conditioning.

Everyone but Haruo that is. Haruo could see himself stand at the sidelines and hold a football in his hand while observing them. The team seemed to slowly build itself around Isagi that became an influential player in Team Z.

With each day that passed this team became an even greater cohesive group.

Turning off his phone Haruo could only sigh. These times would probably end at some point. Everyone here dreamed that same dream of going professional.

But he knew better to keep his hope low even if he knew he could become so much better.

The speech from Ego-san had just reminded him of that fact.

Then rubbing his left shoulder he thought about the new number. He was being ranked second of this group now. It brought him somewhat of a bitter feeling.

The new criteria for a better ranking eluded Haruo since Ego only said something about the importance of the goals.

Not the amount of them but their importance was key. Thinking about it Isagi sure enough made a contribution to at least one goal and even scored 1 in the last game.

And they were always important enough to turn the tide around. Smiling now, Haruo thought about it a little bit more and thought that he figured it out.

Whatever, as long as they win he doesn't care about the ranking for now.