The floor was dusty the lights flickered and half the cones were just upside down trash bins
But Amano stood in the center like it was Wembley
Hibiki drew on a dirty whiteboard with the passion of a mad architect
"This isn't just about football this is about systems"
Amano tilted his head
Hibiki stabbed the board
"Every club has a system they trust too much. A pattern. A rhythm. It's like jazz turned into an algorithm"
He tossed a marker over his shoulder
"And that's where you come in. You're not part of any pattern. You are the mistake in the equation. The bug in the code"
Amano blinked slowly
"You're saying I'm chaos"
"No" Hibiki smirked "I'm saying you're the developer"
---
That night Amano faced a team of grown men who didn't know his name
Warehouse match rules were brutal. No referees. No substitutions. No respect
But Amano didn't flinch
He started as a center-back. Then rotated to right-wing. Then midfield. Then false nine. Each move unannounced each shift unexpected
One man on the opposing team barked
"Who the hell is this kid playing everywhere like he owns it?!"
By the time Amano played goalkeeper and still assisted a goal with a long-range drop-kick they stopped asking
They started doubting themselves
---
Hibiki laughed as he scribbled more lines on his whiteboard like a kid designing a video game
"He's a phantom programmer rewriting the game in real-time"
Meanwhile across town Rei stared at her screen watching a grainy warehouse stream on a shady forum
She zoomed in
And paused
His eyes
That blue flicker again
No jersey
No number
Just a shadow in motion
And for the first time she whispered not his name
But his myth
"…The Ghost Playmaker"