A Playful Match, A New Hobby

"Wanna play football?"

'I'd be lying if I told myself I wasn't interested. But don't we lack the necessary ball boxes or whatever they were called?'

Kumi thought as she looked around.

'I guess I could set up something similar with the curtain I have by tying it to some trees. I don't know what might come of it though. I doubt the kids know some bigshot and stealing one curtain from a rich mansion shouldn't be a big deal so showing it to anyone wouldn't cause a problem. A new hobby wouldn't hurt either.'

Kumi weighed all the pros and cons quickly in her head.

"Why invite her?"

Arito, the cyan-coloured ponytail boy asked Kamunomi.

"We'd have four then. A two versus two scenario. That would be fun, right?"

"The teams wouldn't be quite balanced."

Arito refuted.

"Who cares? The harder it is the faster we get better!"

"Fine. I'm not against it. I'm just shocked you'd even invite a girl anywhere for that matter."

"What do I seem like to you."

"Monkey."

"Hah?!"

'Might as well. A sport isn't the worst thing to have as a hobby.'

She thought as she spoke a moment later before Arito and Kamunomi could continue arguing.

"Sure."

The duo turned their eyes to her, who was still sitting on the hill with a neutral expression like nothing had happened.

She turned toward Lushiki who sat next to her and gestured for the ball.

Lushiki handed it over and stood up quickly with a shy expression.

Kumi squeezed the ball slightly.

'Well, it has a good amount of air inside at least. I think that's what's inside anyway.'

She stood up and let the ball fall to the ground and watched it bounce before catching it with her foot.

Passing it to the side, Lushiki catched it with his hands. He looked from Kumi to the ball and back while thinking.

'I didn't know someone could do something like that. Holding the ball with your foot?'

As he and the other two were in a slight daze, Kumi turned around and climbed up the tree easily. From inside the hole in the tree, she took the curtain and jumped onto the ground.

Gesturing to Lushiki to follow, which he did, the two made their way to two trees where Kumi set up the curtain to imitate a goal.

"What are you doing? And where did you get that?"

"It's how you play football."

She took the ball from Lushiki and let it fall to the floor.

"Hit the ball."

She kicked the ball and scored a goal.

"Inside the box."

She looked back at them while grabbing the ball from the ground.

"Isn't the winner of football the one who holds the ball the longest?"

"No. That's idiotic. There's no game there. No seeable rules. Nothing interesting. Nothing fun."

Kumi talked, a little more than even she herself was expecting.

'Did I actually like the sport a lot in the past? I can't really remember.'

"Then how is this different."

Arito asked.

"Two teams against each other. The one with the most points wins."

"How do you get points."

"Hit the ball in between those two trees and get one point."

"That's it?"

"In football? Basically yes."

"Let's try then. Do we use the same box?"

Arito questioned.

"No. You two use those two trees there as the markers for your box."

"Me and Kamunomi against you and Lushiki."

Kumi glanced at Lushiki who didn't seem like he was going to move.

"Seems so."

"Okay. Nice to meet you by the way. My name is Arito."

"Kumi. Pleasure. Let's start."

She dropped the ball on the floor and passed it to Lushiki.

He received it but was surprised by the sudden start so he wasn't exactly prepared.

Kumi then looked him in the eyes and said "Get past them."

She then ran behind the duo who were both making their way straight to Lushiki.

Lushiki felt stressed as he saw both Kamunomi and Arito rush at him.

But in his distress, at the back and near the enemy goal, he noticed Kumi who was gesturing to him to hit the ball to her.

Hitting the ball as Kamunomi and Arito were both extremely close to him, the ball flew and bounced on the ground as Kumi appeared before it and hit it right in the centre of the goal. A volley.

'Ah. That's how it feels.'

Kumi thought as the ball bounced back from the bushes that were between the two trees.

Lushiki also felt something. The game had changed. It felt a lot more fun.

The rest of the game continued similarly. It ended with a 5-0. Kumi scored four out of the five goals.

"How did we lose!?"

Kamunomi yelled in despair as Arito was on his knees panting.

"For some reason... this feels unfair."

Arito said in between breaths as he wiped his face of sweat.

"Kumi and Lushiki are an unfair team!"

Kamunomi expressed his belief while laying on the ground, also out of breath.

Lushiki was doing okay in the stamina department himself. In fact, he was exhilarated. He had never had such fun before.

Kumi was doing absolutely fine, not even a bead of sweat was shed in this roughly 20-minute game.

"You had no defence. No tactics. And no offensive potential."

She said as she kept the ball from touching the ground with precise and well-timed traps.

'But it was fun. I should play some football during my time off. I should get my own ball at least.'

She thought as she passed it to Lushiki.

She then turned and took down the curtain.

"I want a rematch! With Lushiki on my team! We'd score like over 20 points if he passed to me like that all the time too!"

Kamunomi yelled as he tried to get all the sweat off his body by jumping.

"Learn how to actually play first."

Kumi said as she was folding the curtain. Before anyone could say anything else, Kumi said something first.

"I'm leaving."

And so she left, a new hobby under her belt and a dirty curtain over her shoulder.

"Aargghhh! Come on! Back at home, we need to teach this to the others and get better so we can beat her next time! Lushiki! You're on my team next time!"

Kamunomi yelled as he stomped off, Lushiki following close behind trying to calm him down while holding the dirty football in his hands. Arito was silently following the duo while dusting himself off.

"Yeah. We need to get better. Definitely."

He said loud enough for the other two to hear him.

...

"Kumi was amazing I hear! She did all these crazy ball tricks and kicks to get the ball in the box! At one point, Kamunomi was trying to steal the ball from her but she bounced it on her foot and he missed and fell and then she got a goal!"

"I hear she is a super good game player that no one can beat! I want to play with her too!"

"Do you think Arito and the rest are going to play today too? I want to watch!"

"Yeah yeah! Me too! It's so new and fun!"

The children that Arito, Kamunomi and Lushiki lived with had heard bits and pieces of their match with the legendary Kumi and started making their own. The new football had become a hit and it only took two days.

Kumi herself had no idea about this.

...

'Another day, another preparation done, another sun set, another meal enjoyed.'

Kumi recounted what had happened today as she walked to her room.

'Nothing particularly interesting or bad has happened. Just another peaceful day. If I remember right, training should start again tomorrow. I hope I can play a little football sometime soon too.'