Chapter 115: Please... Accept Me In The Team

"I heard you, old man," she said but Jim didn't feel any anger in her tone. "Go back kid, tomorrow will be a very busy day for you."

"Thanks master," Jim thanked his good response over the master here or else he would have been punished by the fiery Rana. He hurriedly returned to his team and retreated back to their dorms.

"Wow boss," Rick wasn't the only one excited here as he just kept jumping around while adding, "twenty thousand academy coins! Holy moly she was very bold."

"And generous," Saga couldn't help but laugh.

"You just don't see her play," Roo said in much pride like this was something he had a hand in to happen, "she was always famous for not having slow burn play."

"What's that even related to what we are saying?" Rick asked in an irritated tone as the way the two Kroaks were acting were getting already on his nerves.

"What's slow burn play?" Deno asked.

"She hated preparation," Kro ignored Rick's remark as he added, "in the game we should first prepare the ball to disrupt the enemy formation and give time for our ace to be in perfect position to score."

"This is called standard or classic game play," Tina said before explaining, "as for others they might call it a slow burn play."

"But her… she was famous for holding the unbreakable record of the direct assists to score," Roo said in much pride that annoyed Rick, "during the last ten years this record kept itself from breaking and no one even considered this would be broken anytime soon."

"She used to directly throw the ball to the ace?" Jim asked and the two Kroaks both nodded in unison in a funny way. "Just matches her personality," Jim remarked.

"Hahaha, you didn't see her in play," Kro laughed.

"She also holds another record," Roo said as he tried to control his laughter but couldn't, "the record of being expelled from games in one league and also in the entire career of a single pro player ever."

"Damn," Rick couldn't help but vent some of his frustration, "did we call a beast to be our coach?"

His remark made everyone realize something… she would also be this fiery and violent with them all while training them.

Even the two excited Kroaks felt some doubt and their faces told Jim how frightened they were.

And Jim knew they should be, after all they only spoke about her as a legendary player, not a person they had to deal with constantly.

He still held the memory of her morning class fresh in his mind.

"Here we are," Jim said as they reached their small mansion, "let's just sleep well tonight and forget all the stress and hope for the best."

The night was overwhelming with events, and now they had to sleep well for the next day.

He didn't doubt that the first training session with her would be very explosive.

If one thing he heard about her made him quite comfortable then it would be that she was offensive in the game.

He hated those defensive natured games, and having such an offensive coach would reflect deeply over their play style.

After all the game was won by scoring more goals in the opponent's line, not by defending your own and not scoring at all.

"You guys…"

The next morning came and when he descended downstairs, Jim was shocked to see many of his team still staying awake till now.

And their faces and puffy eyes told him they stayed up during the entire night.

"Sorry boss," Rick led the rest to apologize, "we decided to take the day off and stayed up during the night to explain things about the game and discuss all the tactics and other plans."

"Take a day off?" Jim was surprised more by this, "you… c'mon, we have a coach who should be buried by these worries, not you!"

"But many of us here don't know anything about the game," Kro stepped in to support Rick, "plus we already discussed with Saga and Tina, and they are in their room doing the uniform for us."

"Even they… sigh," Jim couldn't help but shake his head, "I hope this won't bring any problems for you."

"We can miss three days in a row or a week separately before getting into trouble," Roo said.

"I… alright, just go and have some rest then," he refrained from admitting his negligence of this rule, "I don't know when we'll be summoned to train but it won't be earlier than this afternoon."

He knew Rana wouldn't ask him for training before finishing the long day of classes.

"By the way," Deno said and stopped Jim from getting outside, "we selected a name for our team."

"Which is?" Jim asked while not caring much about the name.

"Fairosse," Deno said, "it's a derivative of the fairy pantheon we belong to."

"Strange name," Jim muttered, "but I like it. alright I'll leave things here for you. Don't overexert yourselves and get some rest… something tells me you'll need it."

'Y'know they are just excited about this, nothing more,' the old man said while Jim went towards the inner campus.

'I know,' he inwardly sighed, 'but I don't want them to be so tired when we train tonight. After all this will be the first and only training session we'll have before the matches the next day.'

'Sometimes sheer will overcome anything,' the old man said, 'let them have their moment and have fun, I'm sure they can handle this.'

'I hope so.'

Just as he reached the campus, he found many staring in a strange way towards him. Some had mocking glances while others gave him envious looks. "Damn," he softly cursed, "I totally forgot about what I did back at the dancing ball."

Just speaking of which his gaze met Moora and the next moment her face turned red before hurriedly evading his gaze as she ran towards a different direction than his.

"I heard many things about you already," the fox kid said before laughing, "you did great yesterday… epic!"

Jim could only sigh before spotting Lim coming from far, as if he was running. "Come with me now!" he suddenly said before grabbing Jim's arm and went directly towards a secluded corner.

"Sorry, I didn't mean any ill to Moora," Jim hurriedly said as he didn't plan anything to happen with her and what happened yesterday was just a natural event.

"What?" Lim was startled before shaking off his head as if he realized what Jim was speaking about, "I don't care about what you did, and in my opinion I think you did great back there in the ball from beginning to end."

Jim was puzzled and then Lim said, "I heard something else… are you going to participate in the ace league?"

"Oh," it hit Jim, "you are referring to this," he added and the stern gaze from Lim made him realize this simple decision might hold deeper significance than what he initially thought. "I'm," he simply said.

"Please," suddenly Lim descended on his knees in a move that totally took Jim by surprise, "please let me join your team, please."

"L…im," Jim couldn't help but stutter as he never expected such a reaction.

"Please, I'll do anything you want," he hurriedly said before adding, "it's the ace league, the most honorable thing that all dreamt of and never had the chance to achieve. I can be a good hitter, no, I'll be a perfect hitter, the one you are looking for."

Jim couldn't get what was going on here but all he could do was to pat on Lim's shoulder as he said, "C'mon, we are friends. If you want to join, then it's ok for me."

"Really?" Lim raised his eyes with shimmering tears out of joy, "thank you, thank you for this, thanks a lot," he kept thanking him till Jim really became annoyed.

"C'mon, let's go," Jim said, trying to escape this awkward moment, "we too have classes to attend. Prepare yourself afterwards as we'll have our first training session."

"Indeed," Lim stood up as he wiped his tears of joy, "I won't be late, ever late in the training."

Jim noticed that he didn't ask him about anything, making him believe the news about what he did late at night had already found its way to many ears, inside the campus and inside the academy.