Chapter 162: Temporary Coach?

Seeing Coach Kurobe, dressed in white, walk to Takahashi's side, everyone running on Court 16 couldn't help but slow their pace, their gazes fixed tightly on the two sitting on the bench.

Oishi was a bit worried and said, "Takahashi is the Captain of Rikkai, after all; the coach should go easy on him!"

Oshitari replied, "We arrived less than 10 minutes late on our first day, a much smaller mistake than Takahashi's. Do you think the coach went easy on us?"

Sanada also frowned. As the Captain of Rikkai, if Takahashi were punished too severely, it would not only lose him his own face, but the entire Rikkai group would also lose face along with him.

Yukimura, however, didn't care much and continued running.

With different thoughts in mind, everyone watched the two sitting on the bench with rapt attention.

A few minutes later, Coach Kurobe stood up.

"Look, look!"

"Now Takahashi is going to be punished."

"I estimate he'll be punished with at least 50 laps!"

However, under their eager and expectant gazes, Kurobe walked straight away.

Takahashi remained sitting on the bench, leisurely turning a page of his manga, and took the opportunity to pick up the cola on his left and take a sip.

Everyone:...

"The coach just left like that?"

Kikumaru felt it was unbelievable.

"Isn't he going to give a small warning for Takahashi's behavior?"

Oshitari was very surprised.

That person in white just now was Kurobe!

The impartial tactical coach Kurobe who not only punished them with laps yesterday because they were late, but also made them write reflections at night!

How is it that today he seems like a different person?

Takahashi openly skipped training, read manga, and drank cola.

Kurobe actually didn't punish him; he just sat for a while and left.

What's even more outrageous is that Takahashi, still sitting in the same spot, was full of smiles, without a trace of dejection.

Oshitari even caught a meaningful smile on Takahashi's face.

This means that Coach Kurobe didn't criticize him at all.

Being the same middle school students, why is the treatment between them and Takahashi so different!

Not only could the Seigaku and Hyotei members who were punished by Kurobe yesterday not accept this fact, but even the group from Shitenhoji couldn't quite accept it either.

They had trained for a full 4 hours.

4 hours!

The training volume was so high!

They were all drenched in sweat and exhausted, yet they all persisted.

Takahashi had mysteriously disappeared for these 4 hours, and now that they finally saw his shadow, he was reading manga and drinking cola on the side.

This formed a sharp contrast with them.

Even though their school motto is "Comedy is King," faced with this scene, they couldn't really laugh.

Yukimura looked at the others who didn't look too good and explained, "Although Captain Takahashi's actions seem a bit unconventional to us, he has a sense of the big picture and won't truly do anything too out of line."

"I think him not training now might be something he communicated with the coach about. This is behavior tacitly approved by the coach."

Everyone couldn't accept Yukimura's explanation.

Only Sanada muttered to himself, "Tacitly approved behavior?"

He always felt that the scene before him was somewhat familiar.

Suddenly he remembered when Takahashi was alone at U17, he received a call from a U17 coach.

At that time, the coach asked him in detail about Takahashi's experience and specifically asked about Takahashi's training situation.

He thought at the time that with Takahashi's lazy personality, he wouldn't be able to adapt well to U17 training, after all, U17 is specifically for cultivating elite high school students.

So the coach wanted to investigate his previous training status to help him overcome this difficulty.

Looking at the current situation, Sanada might have completely guessed the coach's meaning wrong back then.

Takahashi probably wanted to lie flat and slack off at U17—no, self-train—and the coaches felt it was as outrageous as Sanada did back then, but they had to admit that Takahashi's strength is truly powerful.

So they wanted to ask about Takahashi's previous training state, with the goal of seeing whether self-training is feasible for Takahashi.

Unexpectedly, even at U17, Takahashi is still as lazy as ever!

Kintaro in front suddenly turned around and said, "Shiraishi, the coach is here."

Seeing Coach Kurobe, who was talking to Takahashi, walk into their court, everyone was shocked.

They knew that there were 16 courts in this training camp, and there were only three coaches currently, so each court's training was completed independently, and the coaches would not come over to instruct personally.

Now this coach has walked over.

Judging from the situation on the first day of entering the training camp.

Something is wrong!

The visitor is not well-intentioned!

These big words appeared in everyone's minds.

"Attention, middle school students."

Kurobe said loudly, "Given your young age and lack of maturity, unified training without guidance may not be suitable for you."

"Therefore, from now on, I will appoint Takahashi Yanichi as your temporary Coach to oversee your training."

"Due to your poor training state previously, and considering this is your first training session upon entering U17, today we will add one more hour of training as a small punishment."

"Takahashi, I'll leave the rest to you."

As Kurobe spoke, Takahashi also entered Court 16 wearing the red and white official team uniform.

"Temporary Coach?"

Oishi was dumbfounded.

"Huh? An... extra... hour?"

Kikumaru was devastated.

"But Takahashi is a middle school student just like us; how can he be our coach?"

Kintaro was very dissatisfied.

"And he is a first-year, the youngest among us."

Momoshiro spoke up.

However, Kurobe had already strode away after finishing his sentence, paying no heed to their complaints.

"Quiet!"

Takahashi said loudly.

"What on earth is going on here?"

Sanada asked.

Takahashi shrugged and said, "Friends, I didn't expect you all to be chatting away so heatedly while running."

"You didn't take the U17 rules to heart at all, and now look, you've completely angered the Coach."

"Even I've been dragged into having to supervise your training."

Fuji said, "Chatting?"

Takahashi pointed toward a spot behind Fuji.

Everyone turned to look, and it was actually a surveillance camera.

For a moment, everyone fell silent.

Inui Sadaharu pushed up his glasses and said, "Careless, I didn't expect there to be a camera here!"

Takahashi said, "So you'd better just train obediently!"

"Every move you make is being closely watched by the Coach."

Oshitari said, "I just saw the Coach go to find you; could it be that he was talking about this temporary coach business?"

Takahashi nodded and said, "That's right!"

Oshitari continued to ask, "Then did the Coach express any anger regarding the fact that you didn't come to training..."

Before Oshitari could finish his sentence, Momoshiro interrupted him and said to Takahashi, "You openly skipped training to read manga, yet the Coach didn't punish you, while we just talked while running and the Coach actually wants us to add an extra hour of training."

"This is just too unfair!"

Takahashi said indifferently, "Because I demonstrated strength that the coaching staff recognizes."

Atobe immediately chimed in, "So as long as we show enough strength, we can also be like you and not have to train? Or even become a temporary coach?"

Takahashi nodded and said, "Mm!"

Watching Takahashi's movements, everyone felt a stir of ambition in their hearts.

Kintaro was the first to jump up and say, "Shiraishi, I want to defeat a high schooler too, I want to skip training too."

Shiraishi placated him symbolically, "Kintaro, then you'll have to defeat the Oni Jujiro from yesterday."

The cheerful smile that had been on Kintaro's face vanished instantly.