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~~~
God, I really should be getting some sleep, I thought as I padded quietly down the hall, careful not to make too much noise with my cleats. But after a shitty match like that? There's no way. A grim determination had settled over me. Especially after what Ego said.
As I made my way down to the field, I pondered ways that I could improve my 'weapons'. I'd already figured mine was my dribbling skills as well as my speed and agility. But how do I improve them? What's the next step?
Heading into the locker room where the storage closet was, I was surprised to find one of the ball bags already missing. So someone had the same idea as me, huh? I thought, making my way through the door and onto the pitch.
I was met with the sight of a brown haired boy with yellow undertones performing a similar drill to the one I'd been doing the first time I snuck out. I waited until he'd made the shot, ball rocketing into the upper ninety, before gaining his attention.
"Bachira! Hey!" I called, jogging to him as he turned to face me. I didn't even notice he was missing when I left... "I wasn't expecting to see you here."
Bachira beamed, walking forward to meet me. "Hey Saito! I'm surprised to see you out so late after our game today."
"Me too," I said before scratching the back of my neck sheepishly. "I honestly couldn't stop thinking about what Ego said about our weapons. I mean, after a match like that, how could you not?"
He sighed, turning somewhat serious. "Yeah, we do really need to utilize what he was saying, especially if we want to win our next game." His long face didn't last though, not that I expected it to with someone like Bachira. "But I'm sure we'll figure it out!"
"I hope so," I smiled, also finding it impossible to stay bothered when around Bachira. "Wanna do some 1v1's and maybe practice our weapons?" I joked lightly. 
"You're on!" he said brightly, passing me a ball. "But you start. You had a crazy run in our last play of the match today. I wanna see it in action!"
We did some 1v1's for a while and even helped each other with some set pieces, before finally calling it quits for the night. 
"I was wondering," I spoke up as I handed him one of the waters I'd retrieved from the locker room fridge. "In the match today, why do you think Isagi didn't go for goal?"
Bachira paused what he was doing, staring off into space as he recalled the moment. "You know, I was wondering the same thing earlier," he said before shrugging. "Maybe he's just not used to taking the shot. Some guys are like that."
"Yeah, it makes sense. I just hope he works through it," I voiced thoughtfully, an image of the blue haired boy surfacing in my head. "He's not gonna last long if he doesn't fix that."