The next morning, Hiroshi asks if he talked to Ryosuke at all. Hiroshi says that he didn't talk to him at all, but that he heard that he had benched himself. He doesn't know what to say to his friend, but he's determined to go to his brothers' school in Shikoku. He's not going to let this happen to him, he says, because he has learned so much in his time at the university. He tells Hiroshi that he has been waiting for the day to come, and that the moment they lost, his mind was "blank" . He wanted to play, too, even if the team still lost. He says that part of him got really excited thinking about how the team's turn is coming, and he wonders how a guy like Hiroshi could get stuck in the bleachers. He wonders if the third-year players are going to follow their coach's lead, and says that the upper-class players have to pull back, but the "next generation" will believe in their coach and follow him.