Chapter 124: A Deep Talk With The Coach

"Because he is a human?" Rana asked before laughing at her friend, "you are wrong my dear Mera."

"How come?" Mera asked with one head while the other two were focusing over Jim in the distance and his team in the proximity, "he is a human leading a bunch of newbies. Look he even had six Bulltors… wait a minute…" her six eyes shone again before she added, "don't tell me… it's him?"

Rana didn't answer with words but with a wide and confident smile. "Damn! I heard a lot about him… never thought he would up the game and aim for the ace league."

"He… is just quite different," Rana honestly said in one of the rare moments where she spoke up her mind in front of anyone, "and he didn't only gain six Bulltors, he also had himself two Twisex over here."

"And a famous couple as well," Mera nodded with one head while the other glanced at the Saga and Tina, "I still can't believe such two came here without creating a fuss."

"All Twisex are famous," Rana said before adding, "and I believe he was acting low key with these two, except for yesterday when he created the same fuss you are speaking about."

She then returned to Kro and gave him a deep glance. "You didn't answer my question yet," she simply said and Kro felt a shiver over his spine.

For him, for everyone… Rana was so scary, in obvious contrast to Mera whom he wouldn't regret being shouted at by her. "Who else? It's him of course," he hurriedly said and Rana only smiled and said nothing except glancing at her friend.

"Interesting," Mera only said this while her three heads were focused over Jim. "He is playing in a good way," she commented.

"Let's start the work then," Rana said before changing her tone and attitude to be so serious, "we are a team of disciples, of the first year mainly. We can't pay you now, we are too poor to do that. So the deal is if we manage to get ourselves to the main league, then you can be paid."

"C'mon," Mera gave her friend a blaming look, "y'know I'm in this not for money. I don't need that, but I need this."

"Business is business, and you'll get paid but in time," Rana stressed over this and Mera gave her a sudden military salute by putting her hand across her chest. "Acknowledged coach," she said and her words and salute forced Rana to smile and lessen her attitude.

"Alright, go and meet your squad," she said before adding, "you are free to decide how you'll train them, I won't interfere at how or when."

"Can I add more?" Mera asked as she glanced at the four girls, "they are just lacking in number."

"Add as much as you like," Rana said before stressing, "but don't overdo it."

"C'mon, y'know me… I will do it in Mera style."

"We are doomed then," Rana hit her forehead with the palm while Mera ignored her reaction and went to her new cheering squad.

"Why is no one here yet?"

As the tests went on, the time passed fast and the general picture of the main team and substitute team were now created.

However as the ten o'clock passed already by half an hour, Jim was suspicious. He was clear that Mark's words were perfectly heard by all, and the reaction he spotted in the early morning made him have high expectations.

"Don't be this dejected," Rana moved to him while leaving the rest of the team training. "I'm sure those other teams that appeared out of nowhere stole the hype out of you."

"I don't care about them," Jim said while sighing, "we just need some names in a few places here and there."

"That's expected," Rana chuckled as she knew he was referring to the weak players in his main team, "after all we just got started and it's natural to have some holes here and there."

"But other teams are well prepared than us," he turned to glance at her while adding, "we need to be in much better shape than them."

"Winning isn't only about who got the better formation than the other," Rana seriously said, "or else how come those big names up there got defeated across the long league from much weaker teams?"

"Then it's about what?"

"Determination," she confidently said, "mind set, the general spirit of the team… in fact many things," she smiled as she regained a distant memory before grinning. "In one of the matches I played at the Lionesse team, there was one hitter that was superstitious to a degree you can't imagine."

She laughed shortly before pointing to her shoulder guard, "she believed wearing a certain set of shoulder guards would secure the victory. At this game an accident occurred and we lost a couple of stuff including her arm guards. You can imagine how disastrously bad we played in this season and she couldn't be replaced easily as she was our top player."

"The ace?"

"No, a decoy," she said before warning, "don't think you are the only star in the team. Aces are cool, but at many teams strong names will shine in other positions as well."

"I understand," Jim nodded before glancing over the two teams competing together, "so you think what is our strongest fort?"

"You of course," she laughed, "I didn't mean to discourage you. Other than you I might say that the Leivy kid is a real surprise to me."

"I never thought he would be this cunning," Jim smiled.

"You were watching?"

"From time to time," he tried not to stir her anger and he managed to escape unscathed from this.

"Alright, but don't get used to this," she evilly smiled, "from tomorrow you'll have to play with the others… After all, I believe the first preliminary match will be held tomorrow or the next day at most."

"Can we train before the match?"