The Rise of the Iron Wall!

Chapter 132: See the Intention!

"He was about to shoot, his body weight shifted with his left foot as a pivot... And then, you moved instantly."

"He is cornered on the edge, desperate to launch a cross. And then... The moment his core turned to the penalty box, you also made your move."

"A corner kick scene... Look at here, he was trying to find a hole in our defense, fighting against Jun-kun and Takaaki-kun... The moment he dashed off, you also rushed toward him."

"See? Every move that you made in that game is based on your clairvoyance, which told you the opponent’s intention, not truly the future in a broad sense, when you can see everything in the next few seconds." Kumiko finally finished her explanation, pressing the lock button to make her phone screen go dark instantly.

Higo was so quiet during the revelation process, not even the noisy sound of people around managed to snap him from his own thoughts.

Honestly, this didn’t really change anything. Hell, in fact, Higo could be beneficial with this revelation, as the more detailed his ability was, the more targeted his training could be, bringing more effective results in the future.

However, his mind hadn’t recovered yet after being blown away by the fact earlier. This was something that he had never thought of before, as usually, he just treated this ability as a joke. Now, thinking about his thought in the past, Higo felt his face got warmed, feeling so stupid out of a sudden, wanting to crawl into the closest hole he could find on the ground.

Still...

"Is it confirmed? Legit? I mean, no bullshit?" Higo asked one more time.

It wasn’t like he doubted the girl. No, he knew her credibility, and it would be stupid for the boy not to believe her when he was the one who asked for help in the first place.

This was just a casual question, being uttered to ease his mind and help his brain process everything faster.

Fortunately, the girl didn’t take any offense at that.

"Yup! Everything you see is real"! She chirped happily. "If you want more proof, here let me show you." This time, she got her phone once again, showing the latest record on her phone.

It was the video that they recorded earlier, when Kumiko used the machine to blast so many balls to get her ’data’. She skipped to the last part immediately, and Higo knew exactly what she wanted to show.

"Is it the one where you managed to fool me?" The boy asked, now feeling curious.

"Yup! And see here!" She slowed down the video to one-eighth of the normal speed, letting the boy watch carefully what had happened earlier. "See? I have already set my machine, and right after that, you made a move instantly. Then, I wanted to test my theory, so right after that, I went to the machine once again, and in a split second, I changed the direction slightly, and voila!"

Higo felt the corner of his mouth twitching when he heard Kumiko’s cheerful tone, as if she was trying to reveal a magician’s proudest trick with her video analysis. However, he couldn’t deny it anymore, as the solid evidence was in his hand already.

"At least, this gives us two conclusions." She was back to her serious mode again.

In return, the boy blinked confusedly. "Two? What is the other one?" He asked, tone curious.

"Hush! Be patient, will you?!" The girl shushed him so naturally that it made the boy shut up in a second.

"The first one is, as you can expect, you are reacting based on your opponent’s intent. However, you are so used to it that you have never thought a player is able to change his intention in a split second before the decision is made by the object you are so focused on. That is also probably what is going on in the last game, right?"

Now, when he thought about it carefully, Higo indeed could see that clearly.

Riku, Echigo’s captain, was such a shifty player that every little movement he made could be considered a fake. He could even get through the defense of four people in a blink, so changing his mind in the last second after seeing Higo made a move first would definitely be feasible on his part.

"So, what is the second one?" The boy shook his head, trying to focus back on the conversation again.

"The second one..." Kumiko trailed her words, letting herself be immersed in her melting ice cream for a moment to keep Higo’s curiosity at bay. In the end, she finally revealed, "It is the fact that you can only foresee one object you are focusing on, and you basically tend to ignore the other thing in process."

"...Eh?"

"Yeah, not expecting that, right?" Kumiko smiled knowingly. "I mean, you can see the footage earlier, and you will notice that you react more to the ball, ignoring me, who is changing the course of the machine completely. You are also doing the same in most of the game, reacting to where the ball is going to fly. That’s why you are always able to move faster."

"Wait! How about in the last game? The one-on-one duel?" Higo thought about the anomaly yesterday. However, it seemed that Kumiko had already expected this question, being so prepared for this answer already.

"Well, since it is a one-on-one situation, you don’t have any distractions around you, so your focus shifts from the ball to the person completely. That way, you see him moving even in our prediction, and your ability goes off the board the moment he changes his intention in the process."

Higo pondered one more time, and the more he watched the clip of his game, the more he believed that the girl was right. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any video of the game yesterday, so they couldn’t compare it with the time when the anomaly happened.

Still, even after knowing this fact, it begged another question. "Now... What should we do?"