Amano didn't play this time
Coach Hibiki benched him on purpose
"Rest your legs. Stretch your brain. Watch"
That was the order
And Amano obeyed
He sat with a bottle of lukewarm water and a notebook on his lap
Not taking notes for himself
But for the ones playing
"Masaki's drifting out too early…Koji's falling for the fake step…Shun is only pretending to cover space"
He muttered things like a coach with a personal grudge against logic
Next to him, the assistant coach peeked at his notes and frowned
"Why are there drawings of crows and question marks?"
"They're symbols for vision collapse"
"…Right"
On the pitch, their team was struggling to hold formation
The opponent wasn't stronger
Just smarter
Using simple decoy movements and weak passes that looked stupid on purpose
But Amano saw it
And he smiled
"They're not here to win. They're here to confuse. Just like us last week"
---
Halftime came
Hibiki gathered the team in a circle
But then tossed the marker to Amano
"Explain it to them"
Amano blinked
"Seriously?"
"Be the ghost off the pitch too"
He stood
Faced his teammates
Held up the board and drew something incomprehensible
"This is their trap. This is what you're falling into. And this…is how we become the glitch in their code"
They didn't fully get it
But they trusted him
Amano sat back down for the second half too
Didn't step on the pitch
But he stood
And yelled codes like:
"Chop the strings"
"Fake the fake cut"
"Play blindfolded intuition"
Weirdest calls ever
But it worked
The other team broke formation within ten minutes
Couldn't keep up with the chaos they once controlled
And when the final whistle blew
Amano still hadn't played
But he was the reason they won
The bench that sees everything
The ghost coach
The mastermind
And he never even touched the ball