Late at night
While the academy lights dimmed and most players were passed out or still grumbling over Keisuke's board domination
Coach Matsuda sat in his office
Alone
Until someone knocked
Not a player
Not staff
It was Headmaster Yoneda himself
The man rarely showed up in the football wing unless it was serious
"You saw what he did?" Matsuda asked
Yoneda didn't sit
Didn't blink
"I saw more than that" he said
"He's doing what your generation couldn't"
Matsuda leaned back
"He's just a kid playing puppet master
It won't last"
"But what if it does?" Yoneda replied
"What if he's not trying to be part of the system
But rewrite it?"
Silence
Matsuda turned toward the window
Out there
Keisuke might still be awake
Mapping his next five steps
"I can stop him
Shift the spotlight
Bury his momentum before it becomes dangerous" Matsuda said
Yoneda chuckled softly
"You don't stop a storm by yelling at the clouds
You adjust the sails or get swallowed"
Before he left
Yoneda dropped a sealed envelope on the desk
"International scouts will be at the inter-academy exhibition next month
Keisuke will play
And you won't clip his wings"
Matsuda stared at the envelope
His fingers tightening
Outside
Keisuke stood under the empty goalpost
Not training
Just…thinking
No ball
No coach
No noise
Only calculation
If anyone had been close enough
They might've heard him mumble
"It's time to make the world my chessboard"
And just like that
Chapter 60 ends with two grown men sweating over a kid who still hadn't even shown half his cards