Hexball League opens: Tokei Hex beat Fukagawa 5–3 (2 corners) — Ritsu Kishiura takes three sides; 'I didn't use my tail'
The 2026–27 Hexball League season opened on the night of the 8th, with Tokei Hex beating Fukagawa Pelicans 5–3 (2 corners) in the opener. Ace Ritsu Kishiura, 24, took three sides, equalling the record for an opening match. Attendance was 18,200 by the organizers' count.
The Bayside Arena was full an hour after the gates opened. The opening match of the most-watched professional sport in Hinokuni brought together the two of the Hex League's twelve clubs that call the bayfront home.
Fukagawa pushed early, taking three sides in the first half while Tokei Hex reached the break with one. The Tokei bench did not stir. "We expected to concede the first half. Fukagawa spends everything early. We spend in the second," the manager said afterwards.
Ritsu Kishiura turned it. A side four minutes into the second half, a second at nine, a third late — three sides in an opener equals the league record. The third came with two corners, and that single side settled the match.
Kishiura is a third-generation Drifter with ears, eyes and a tail. Hexball has a rule that no player may touch a tailed player's tail — and another that no player may touch the ball with a tail. After the match Fukagawa asked the officials about the tail; video review ruled it had not been used.
"I didn't use my tail. You'd know. It hurts when it's touched," Kishiura laughed. "Two of the three sides — it wasn't so much that I hit the side as that the side came to me. On opening night the sides are kind." Players in this sport often talk this way.
Fukagawa's captain: "We emptied the tank in the first half, as we always do. We lost the second half to a team that spends in the second. Two corners is a small margin for an opener." Fukagawa finished fourth last season; Tokei Hex were third and are chasing a first title in two seasons.
Elsewhere in the opening round, Naniwa Six held off Hokuto 4–4 (3 corners), and Owari won on two sides from a new signing transferred from Kan'yo. The league runs to March, 22 matches per club, and this season doubles as selection for the Torek Cup (biennial; next in 2027).
In the stands was the wall racer Rui Migiwajima, 17. "I don't understand hexball. But when Kishiura jumped, it made the same sound as the eighth tier of the wall."
