The stadium erupted. Hyuga punched the air, nearly dropping a crutch. Ryoma didn’t celebrate. He looked at Tsubasa, who smiled and nodded. “Interesting,” Tsubasa mouthed. Score: 3–3. Both teams exhausted. The “Rise of New Champions” tournament rules meant no extra time—direct penalty shootout. But Ryoma wanted to end it now.
He didn’t shoot. He passed —directly off Wakabayashi’s extended fist. The ball rebounded high. Ryoma jumped, twisted in midair, and delivered a falling volley into the opposite corner.
Then he remembered: in the game’s JP version, there was a hidden mechanic. If you perfectly timed a normal dribble between two tackles, you unlocked a “Momentum Chain.” No flashy moves. Just perfect basics.
“You’re not a genius, Hoshino. But geniuses fear players like you.”
Tsubasa closed in. Ryoma didn’t shoot. Instead, he back-heeled a blind cross —a move he’d practiced 5,000 times in the game’s “Training Mode.” The ball curved unnaturally, landing perfectly at the feet of Touho’s striker, Sato.