Kumo despises the sight of color. Ghosts are always colorless, but he, despite being a ghost, is orange. In the ghost kingdom, he is the only one who is not colorless! Because of this, the other ghosts constantly tease and ridicule him with insults and jokes. Of course after getting hurt over and over again poor Kumo finally settled into a deep sadness, one that could not be fixed as it seemed.
This greatly concerned the Ghost King, the ruler of the Ghost Kingdom, for he was also Kumo's father. The King put a lot of thought into how he could fix his son's sadness. After much deliberation he thought it would be best to send Kumo to Earth, just for a change in environment.
Who knows, after being there it might help him gain a new perspective for himself. And so soon after, Kumo was all set to head out to Earth. But right after landing, he discovered a terrible truth - he had landed in a country that was completely surrounded with a variety of colors. Colors, the one thing that he despised the reason for his depression! He was definitely in a pickle now, he thought.
As soon as he sets foot on the colorful land named "Bangladesh", Kumo realized that instead of his state of despair getting treated, he would fall into an abyss of even deeper misery. He got flashbacks to the taunts he had to go through, and how the other ghosts had nicknamed him "Stained Hopper". The tangerine flames of the sunset seemed to just be salt on his wounds; And the green blades of grass beneath his feet just reminded him of his envy of the other black and white spirits.
The colors around him pained him so much he just couldn't imagine how he would find the slightest bit of happiness here. The people he was watching were just as loud as their surroundings - over emotional, hectic, and just too much. But soon he noticed a different issue!
The most distressing behavior of these humans was that they seemed to fuss a lot about flags of different colors. Mostly it seemed that they were divided between two different colored flags. One group of people was shouting over a sky blue colored flag while the other half did the same over a green and yellow flag. According to the posters and debates Kumo was hearing, they were fighting over which team would win something called
"The World Cup". Along with the constant debate, they are also creating undesirable incidents once in a while as retaliation to something the opposing team may have done to them.
Citizens of the same country were fighting and arguing with each other for the participating teams of totally different countries of the world. What an odd situation!
Kumo heard that they have fought amongst each other surrounding the simplest of topics and he cannot understand the purpose for which these folks create battlegrounds for these different colors. He feels as though he is trapped in a maze - just struggling to understand his new environment.
He also couldn't comprehend why twenty two individuals are chasing one round ball that is at least thrice smaller than themselves. Why most of those individuals are keeping the ball only at their legs, but two people in front of some large nets keep grabbing them with their hands is also a big mystery to him.
He is starting to feel curious as to why the majority of earth dwellers are so obsessed with this "Football World Cup". He becomes quite intrigued to know what football is.
Kumo used his powers and blew a loud breath into the sky. This was his signal for Hazabarala, the ghost who came along with him from the ghost realm, to appear. Hazabarala's skin tone is too dark to see with the naked eye, for he is darker than the blackest of inks.
On the latter, his heart was pure white, filled with kindness for Kumo. "Hey tell me, why are the people of the world talking so much about football? What kind of game is it? Why is everybody chasing a ball? Don't you think giving one ball to each of them will solve the matter?"
Kumo rattles off question after question, too impatient to wait for an answer. Hazabarala lets out a hearty laugh that seems to never end.
After ceasing he says, "The rule and appeal of this game is keeping the ball in your possession and then sending it to the opponent's goal post. Sending the ball into the goal post is called a goal. If twenty-two players are given 22 balls, there will be nothing to play!"
"Why are the players wearing such bright jerseys though?" said our inquisitive little ghost.
"They like the colorful jerseys. Some teams play in black or white jerseys too. Each team has a unique color and design for their jerseys."
Kumo thinks about Hazabarala's answer and before asking, "Can we start playing football in our kingdom?"
Hazabarala laughs in the same manner as before again, which makes Kumo deepen his voice a little since he didn't feel as though he was being taken seriously! "Don't laugh off the matter. If humans enjoy playing football, why can't we as well? There is no joy in the ghost realm!"
"We can play football with human skulls," Hazabarala says jokingly. "We will return to the ghost realm with the skulls from the human graveyards."
Kumo's eyes widened from such a morbid comment, "No, not a human skull! I will take the ball."
"Ball?" Taken aback, Hazabarala scratched his head.
"Why can't we bring the ball back with us to our own land?" said a pouty Kumo.
Hazabarala was still scratching his bald head while replying, "You are the son of the ghost king. If you ask, he may allow you to take a ball. I will inform him about it. But you cannot bring a ball back without his permission."
Kumo felt such excitement, "I know that! Oh you must convince him Hazabarala, I know this will make me a little happier. I absolutely must go back with this ball object."