On a serious note though, this gives me flashbacks to the early Esperion days when Ashito could only imagine plays where he himself was the finisher. Ashito was taught to look past such concepts and was told directly by Fukuda he could never be a forward again, but this might be the one time...
It makes me wonder how long some people in this comment section have actually followed the manga for. Like if people can't handle Ashito's weak mentality now, let me warn you, it's gonna be a long while yet before things change. This has been the basic way of developing Ashito's character for...
To be fair, in the last 10 years or so it has become a lot more common for many countries to ban competition in sports for kids aged 6-12, only introducing it beyond age 13. I can't say if this prevents clubs and academies from handpicking stand out kids and give them special treatment early...
In case anyone is reading through this manga for the first time, notice in future chapters how Tomoko actually keeps her skirt shorter from this point on in the story. She always had it down by her ankles before, but from this chapter onward she keeps it a bit above her knees. Not as short as...