Prologue - Butterfingers are truly the worse

Do you want to know what's more disappointing than losing a final? Being the cause of it.

It pains me to say that I, Kiibo Yajin, started an amazing road to the final and ended our miracle run with a spectacular mistake in goal. 

My junior high school, Tokyo Main, has never managed to get out of the prefectural qualifiers in our history at all. The closest we've ever been was placing second in our group. So you can probably imagine the celebrations when we topped our group with an unbeaten record and four out of six clean sheets. We were ecstatic after finding out we topped our group of death.

We were starting to get called Tokyo Main's golden generation when we advanced into the Round of sixteen. Right then, expectations weren't as high since it was our debut in the round. But we breezed through into the finals after a dramatic semi-finals penalty shoot out. The cheering from the students in our school echoed through my ears after I denied the decisive penalty from twelve yards out.

But all good things must come to an end and I caused us to lose our first ever final with an amateurish mistake in the dying minutes of injury time.

We were holding on well with a one-all draw during the entire ninety. To preserve our energy, we all agreed to pass it around the back so we could bring it to extra-time and bring on another substitute and make use of our tired opponents. All eleven of us were in our half while the opposition were trying to retrieve possession.

That was the day when I realized that the time-wasters would always get bit by the footballing Gods. During the last minute of injury time, one of the midfielders carelessly passed it straight to the striker of the other team. As a result, all of them started to go straight into defensive mode. There were badly-timed tackles everywhere, I couldn't command my box nor could I see what was going on.

There were about eight bodies in the box which is why it wasn't a surprise when I saw the ball late and allowed it to slip through my hands. What would have been an easy catch turned into a nightmare of a mistake. Shit. Remembering that game gave me a chest cramp.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I started our miracle run with a clutch on-the-line save to give us a momentum and ended our miracle run with a disgusting error in a crucial time to end the score at two-one.

As if being a goalkeeper was already tough, the comments on social media were wild. Since it was a final, it was being broadcasted and the words I got were brutal.

'What was that mistake LOL! This is the best gk they have?'

'Can we check his bank account? There's no way that could've gone in!'

'Butterfingers lol'

It's been a few months since the final and I still get messages from strangers calling me a useless player. I think I felt a vein pop when I opened up my Instagram and saw somebody telling me to give up.

It's surprising that the least surprising thing out of all of this is that I wasn't fazed when my account has been leaked to the public. I probably should've refrained from bragging about reaching the final on all of my social medias.

What was even worse was that the goalkeeper who did absolutely nothing in the final was selected for the tournament's best squad to play against the best academies in Europe. I had a better save ratio than him but just because of a dumb mistake I was overlooked.

Welp. There isn't much use brooding about the past. I've used it as a lesson to remind myself to threaten the defenders to stop blocking my vision. Seriously, dealing with a backline who didn't know how to line up in a wall was frustrating. Once I told them I wanted four people at my left post, I had two people in the middle of the goal and one on the right post.

Yes. No use brooding over the past because I'll be attending my new high school, Sakimono High School. They are known for their footballing culture and facilities. A number of professional players from Japan came from graduating from this school. I didn't get a scouting recommendation so I had to get in solely by hard work and determination. It worked out in the end as I passed the entrance exams with flying colours!

There are going to be trials held at the end of the week which means that including today, I have five days to practice before it happens on Friday. I've already been working out and perfecting my technique since that final which means that as long as I keep this up, I'll be getting into that team for sure!

That's right. No more Mr. Butterfingers. I'm going to make a name for myself by the time I graduate high school.

That's a definite.