Background[]
Ten years before the start of the story, Kuribayashi moved to Barcelona, Spain, due to professional duties of his father. During his time there, Kuribayashi was scouted by Robert Schrier, one of the scouts of Barcelona FC, to participate in a tryout to join the club's academy.[1] During the tryouts, he met Demian Cant, and due to Demian's lack of physicality and technique with his right foot, Kuribayashi easily beat him. After that, Schrier invited him and his father to watch the match between Barcelona and SC Sabadell. Kuribayashi was greatly impressed by the stadium Camp Nou, and as a consequence of that experience, he decided that he wanted to devote his life to football.[2]
During the match, Kuribayashi was fascinated by the football of Tatsuya Fukuda, who back then was playing as an offensive midfielder for Sabadell and scored two goals for a final result of 2-2.[3][4] At the exit of the match, he ran into Demian Cant, who challenged him, this time with Kuribayashi being completely detroyed. Kuribayashi realised that in a matter of hours, Demian had assimilated Fukuda's playstyle.[4] Kuribayashi strained his wrist during the challenge and was healed by a Japanese girl.[5]
Soon after, Kuribayashi's father was transferred back to Japan, ending Kuribayashi's stay in Barcelona, which lasted for roughly one year, leaving him unable to join Barcelona FC despite the will of their scouts. Back in Japan, he joined Esperion, and five years later, at the age of 13, due to his immense talent, he got the chance to practice with the senior team. Akitaka Shiba offered him a valuable advice about focusing on improving his technique and to change his way of thinking.[6]
Main Story[]
When Ashito Aoi arrived in Tokyo, Haruhisa Kuribayashi was seen training with the senior team of Tokyo City Esperion.[7]
He was also seen secretly observing the match between Esperion's Youth B-team and Seikyō High.[8] That evening, he made his debut with the senior team against Tosu.[9] In his first play, he assisted to Tamotsu Deguchi but he missed the shot.[10] Later, he shot to the post and assisted again to Deguchi for him to score his second and last goal of the match.[11] As a key player in the match, he was chosen to be interviewed by the press, alongside Deguchi.
A few days later, he found one of Ashito's meal plans prepared by Hana Ichijo. Impressed by it, he asked Nagisa Akutsu about Ashito's whereabouts to ask who prepared the meal plan. They both discuss about Ashito's recent switch of position from forward to full-back. He did not manage to talk to Ashito.[12] However, he found out that Hana was the one who prepared the meal plan thanks to the Esperion's cook.[13] He asked her if she could prepare a meal plan for him too, request to which Hana agrees with the condition of him giving advice to Ashito.[14]
A few weeks later, Kuribayashi played in the Asian Champions League in Vietnam, in the city of Hanoi. After the match, Katsumi Mito, Esperion's senior team's head coach, informed him that Tatsuya Fukuda had requested him to return to the youth team, and that his presence in the senior team will be temporarily suspended. He reunited with other youth team members, such as Yoichi Kiriki, Taira Nakamura, Eita Takasugi, Kenta Yoshitsune, Enshin Akiyama and Nagisa Akutsu, as well as coach Fukuda. The latter told him that the reason of being called back to the youth team is because he wanted Kuribayashi not to lose sight of the situation because of the newly acquired popularity, to help him to relax and to tell him to make sure not to get injured.[15]
Kuribayashi watched the first practice of Ashito, Eisaku Ōtomo and Keiji Togashi with Esperion's Youth A-team, accompanied by Miyako Tachibana, Anri Kaidō and her butler.[16] Later on, the four of them went to take dinner at Hinomaru's Eatery, where they joined Ashito, Otomo, Kanpei Kuroda, Yūma Motoki, Taira, Kunitaka Matsunaga and Osieck Mino.[17]
Kuribayashi was chosen as a reserve player in the match between Esperion's Youth A-team and Kashiwa Dai Business High.[18] He entered in the pitch around minute 75 in the second half with a partial result of 1-0 for Esperion[19] and in his first play, him and Yoshitsune created a shot opportunity for Yuma for him to score the second goal.[20] Soon after, Kuribayashi assisted to Yutaka Yamada but he missed his shot. At the end of the game, he received a long pass from Ashito and assisted to Akutsu for the latter to score the third goal for a final result of 3-0 for Esperion.[21]
A few weeks later, Kuribayashi was guided by Ryūichi Takeshima[22] to find Ashito in a bus stop.[23] There, he fulfilled the promise he made to Hana about giving advice to Ashito, and offered him his notes, with all the information he has collected in the matched about football tactics. He also reveals to Ashito his goal of becoming the best football player in the world.
Kuribayashi was called up again with the senior team by the time of the match between Esperion's Youth A-team and Tokyo Vans, a match he could enjoy as a spectator.[24] During the half-time, he talked to Kiriki, who was having a very bad performance in the match, and urged him to do something about his passes not being well-received by his teammates.[25]
Thanks to an agreement between Fukuda and Hernán Garulla, Kuribayashi was called back to the Youth team to play specifically against Funabashi Academy High. When Taira Nakamura revealed his plans to retire after Funabashi's match, Kuribayashi, Kiriki, Takasugi and Akiyama met to discuss about the importance of winning to honour Taira's career in Esperion.[26] Kuribayashi was chosen as a starter against Funabashi.[27] With the aid of his teammates, Esperion implemented successfully the five-lanes strategy.[28] He let a pass from Yamada through his legs to let the ball reach Takasugi in the first goal of the match.[29] During the half-time, Kuribayashi asked Ashito why in the last play (which resulted in a counter-attack) he did not send a cross to Tōji Kobayakawa. He suspected when Ashito said that he did not see him.[30] He felt at unease during the second half, since he did not understand how Ashito was playing.[31] He tried to help him anyway, and the next play ended up in a counter-attack. Trepone Rufin scored and Enshin Akiyama got injured after clashing with the post while trying to save it.[32] After Trepone scored the second goal in a penalty kick committed by an Ashito who saw a red card in that action,[33] Kuribayashi's spirit did not fell, and was able to drag with him Akutsu and Takasugi. The three of them made a play that ended with Takasugi assisting to Akutsu, who scored the last goal for a final result of 2-2.[34]
After Funabashi's match, he was summoned by Tatsuya Fukuda and Jun Kase, who handed him his professional contract. Kuribayashi was going to be promoted to Esperion's senior team one year before the end of his three-year period in youth. He was surprised by seeing in the contract that it was expiring as soon as Kuribayashi was 18. Kuribayashi realised that this meant that Esperion would get no transfer fee after him going overseas. Fukuda told him that he wanted Kuribayashi to open a path for others and Kuribayashi was Esperion's bet.[35] The first person Kuribayashi told about this was Taira and he met with him to ask him why was he retiring. Soon after, he had a press conference regarding his recent promotion to the senior team.[36]
Two months later, already in the senior team, he had already scored four goals and produced six assists in the J-1 League.[37]
Kuribayashi went to the funeral of Chihaya Akutsu, Nagisa Akutsu's mother, by petition of Jun Kase. He thanked Chihaya for having a son who became such a good center-back.[38]
Due to his fatigue, he did not participate in the first training day of Ashito Aoi and Yuma Motoki with the senior team. He watched it alongside the journalist Aoi Kaneko, who was covering for it.[38] He explained Kaneko how does it felt to be in the senior team, comparing it to putting a puppy in a group of wolves. That evening, the two of them went for dinner and were lately joined by Ashito. Kuribayashi talked about Ashito's decision of sticking to Akitaka Shiba, commenting he helped him too in his first days in the senior team, and revealed his plans to go overseas in two years, specifically to Spain.[39] The day after, he met Ashito and Hana, and revealed that in the past he lived in Spain and that he can speak Spanish.[40] He also commented to Ashito that he is not involved in any kind of romantic relationship with Hana.[41] He did participate in the third day of training of Ashito and Yuma with the senior team.[42]
Esperion's Youth A-team won the Takanadonomiya Cup against Ganon Osaka and this allowed the team to participate in the Alkass Cup in Qatar. After knowing that Esperion was going to cross paths with Barcelona FC, he asked Jun Kase to ask Garulla to let him play with Esperion's Youth in, at least, that match.[43] After being negated that, he forced Kōichi Midorikawa, a member of the public relationships' department to put him in contact to Garulla himself. He managed to be put in contact with Garulla, and was allowed to participate in the match against Barcelona.[44] Akutsu witnessed Kuribayashi talking to Garulla about Demian Cant and both met in a coffee shop to talk about Kuribayashi's past.[1]
After his arrival to Qatar, he watched the first match of the tournament between Aspire Qatar and Real Madrid, where he saw Akutsu.[45]
He was chosen as a regular in the first match against Barcelona FC's Youth team.[46] Esperion was overwhelmed in the first minutes, but Kuribayashi took charge of the situation and alongside Kiriki and Ashito, they started to counter Barcelona's midfielders with their playmaking.[47] They managed to create an opportunity for Kuribayashi that was aborted by Sino Ascari.[48] At the end of the first half, Kuribayashi intercepted a shot from Kiriki, and used the ball to score.[49] This goal tied the game 1-1.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Volume 32 Chapter 330
- ↑ Volume 33 Chapter 331
- ↑ Volume 33 Chapter 333
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Volume 33 Chapter 334
- ↑ Volume 33 Chapter 335
- ↑ Volume 30 Chapter 304
- ↑ Volume 3 Chapter 24
- ↑ Volume 6 Chapter 55
- ↑ Volume 6 Chapter 56
- ↑ Volume 6 Chapter 57
- ↑ Volume 6 Chapter 58
- ↑ Volume 7 Chapter 65
- ↑ Volume 7 Chapter 71
- ↑ Volume 7 Chapter 72
- ↑ Volume 12 Chapter 118
- ↑ Volume 12 Chapter 121
- ↑ Volume 12 Chapter 123
- ↑ Volume 12 Chapter 125
- ↑ Volume 13 Chapter 133
- ↑ Volume 13 Chapter 134
- ↑ Volume 13 Chapter 136
- ↑ Volume 14 Chapter 144
- ↑ Volume 14 Chapter 145
- ↑ Volume 15 Chapter 153
- ↑ Volume 16 Chapter 164
- ↑ Volume 17 Chapter 177
- ↑ Volume 18 Chapter 180
- ↑ Volume 18 Chapter 183
- ↑ Volume 18 Chapter 184
- ↑ Volume 18 Chapter 189
- ↑ Volume 19 Chapter 191
- ↑ Volume 19 Chapter 193
- ↑ Volume 19 Chapter 199
- ↑ Volume 20 Chapter 201
- ↑ Volume 20 Chapter 205
- ↑ Volume 20 Chapter 206
- ↑ Volume 20 Chapter 207
- ↑ 38.0 38.1 Volume 27 Chapter 281
- ↑ Volume 28 Chapter 291
- ↑ Volume 29 Chapter 297
- ↑ Volume 29 Chapter 298
- ↑ Volume 29 Chapter 301
- ↑ Volume 30 Chapter 310
- ↑ Volume 31 Chapter 320
- ↑ Volume 34 Chapter 344
- ↑ Volume 34 Chapter 346
- ↑ Volume 35 Chapter 358
- ↑ Volume 35 Chapter 359
- ↑ Volume 36 Chapter 366
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TBA