Tick Tock Tick Tock
One, Two, Three
Tick Tock Tick Tock
One, Two, Three
Hearing the familiar tick of the clock inside his head, Leonidas was able to drown out the roar of the crowd and attempted to stop his hands from trembling as he stood closely behind Mika on the field.
Though he was on the opposite end of the field, Leonidas knew he was here.
Leonidas tried to resist, but his head began to slowly rotate until he found himself staring straight into the red eyes of Ryoga, who was staring at him with daggers in his murderous red eyes forcing Leonidas to gulp, unable to pull his eyes away from the Hakuren defender.
Leonidas knew that by taking Mika’s hand that day and leaving Hakuren, he and Ryoga would stand on the same field one day but he had never expected the moment to come so soon. And now that the two were facing each face to face like these, he was overwhelmed by a jumble of trepidation, uncertainty and distress.
Ryoga had always stood as a symbol of strength.
He was the one who had freed him from that small room.
He was the one who had saved him from the solitude that had kept him prisoner since the day he was born.
He was the one who had shown him the world.
But now…
Now was the time for him to stand on his own two feet and fill the emptiness inside of him with his own strength, Leonidas told himself. Grinding his molars against each other, Leonidas wiped his nose in the sleeve of his uniform and repeated it to himself.
He could do this.
He could be strong, just like Ryoga…
TWEET TWEET TWEET
[LET THE FIRST MATCH OF THE HOLY ROAD FINALS! BEGIN!]
Moving as soon as she heard the whistle, Serika let out a bark loud enough that all the Raimon members could hear,
“Let’s move, just like we talked about!”
5 Minutes Ago
Standing in a small circle in the middle of their side of the field, the Raimon members listened attentively as Serika began to lecture them with her finger moving aggressively to emphasise her points while she spoke.
“Hakuren typically uses a 3-5-2 formation that relies heavily on their strong defence, thanks to Katata-san, which allows for more of their players to play midfield in an attempt to overload our defence. It’s really a formation only Hakuren can pull off because it typically would expose most normal teams to the risk of a counterattack targeting holes in their defensive line but since they know Katata-san can cover for almost any attack, it means their offence is free to do as they please while leaving their goal perfectly secure.”
“So what’s this mean we gotta do, Captain?” asked Makoto while raising his hand in confusion.
“The best plan of action right now is to just focus on defending our goal at the start of the match and wait for an opportunity to attack. Since Tsukishiro never moves at the start of the match anyway, we don’t have to worry about any offensive manoeuvres by Hakuren early in the match. And because Katata-san always plays centreback, all we need to do is focus on attacking from the sides since their left and right backs have a considerably lower performance than Katata-san. So don’t be stupid and try to move upfield early on. We’ll keep the ball secure and maintain man-to-man marking until my signal. Got it you bakas?” asked Serika as she narrowed her eyes while staring straight at Makoto, Gabriel, Sadao and Galahad with suspicion in her eyes.
“Yup Captain! Sure thing!” responded Makoto, Gabriel and Sadao in unison while Galahad just gave her a look of alarm and pointed to himself in confusion, wondering why she was singling him out with the other members of the dumb trio. However, ignoring Galahad and moving on, Serika signalled for the members to move closer together and huddling tightly together, the eleven players put their hands out in the centre on top of one another’s and shouted brightly,
“Raimon! Go!”
Present, Raimon v Hakuren.
Racing forward to mark Tsukishiro, Leonidas’s green hair bounced behind him as he attempted to keep up with the much taller girl, who was being surprisingly active for once and running up Raimon’s field with a casual look on her face.
This wasn’t like Tsukishiro nee-san…
Not having a good feeling about this, Leonidas’s stomach turned and he began to pick up his pace as he followed behind the winter white ponytail that was already deep in Raimon territory.
PRESTO TURN!
[Number 5 Tamenaga-san uses expert footwork to make her way past Raimon midfielders Makoto Rikitake and Sadao Daiguji! And with a clean pass…it connects to Number 8 Furushima-kun!]
SHINPUU DASH!
Watching observantly, now Leonidas was sure something was up with Hakuren…Quickly flipping his head around, he found that he had already lost track of the long ponytail he had been following since the start of the match.
“Looking for me?”
Swivelling his head in response to the gentle whisper in his ear, he was met by Tsukishiro’s usual smile who put a finger on her lips in a “shush” motion and disappeared once more in the wind.
“Sorry, Leo-chan~~ I’ll be scoring first today, okay?”
Hup
Jumping upwards, Tsukishiro trapped the ball sent to her by Itsuka with her chest and in one fluid motion crouched down while the ball began to spin with a blue light above her. Leaping into the air, snow and ice blew Leonidas and the other Raimon players out of the way as Tsukishiro kicked the ball, pulling the icy storm towards the ball which had become the epicentre of a violent, freezing storm.
ETERNAL BLIZZARD~
Salivating at the mouth, Hyun-ki dropped his pen that he usually used to write all of the ideas that flowed in his head during matches and opened his journal. There was no way any words would be able to capture the beauty of Tsukishiro’s shot. How could he capture this image in his mind forever? Not wanting to let the memory fade, the journal in his hands expanded, becoming a huge book that opened wide in front of him.
SLAM
Closing the pages of the book on the ball that had arrived at the goal, the book closed surrounding the ball within its confines.
BOOKMARK!
“Success!” thought Hyun-ki to himself as he wiped the perspiration that had accumulated on his brow, but just as the thought came to his mind, the book flipped back open and pages that had been frozen solid, cracked and began to fly everywhere blocking his vision.
[GOAAAAAAAAALLLL!! Hakuren scores the first goal 10 minutes into the match, with ‘Hakuren’s Winter Lady’ maintaining her 100% success rate in her final Holy Road despite Raimon keeper, An Hyun-Ki’s new hissatsu!! A surprising play by Hakuren that paid off in spades!!]
“What the–”
Left speechless, Serika watched with her mouth open as the scoreboard changed to reflect the goal by Tsukishiro.
[1-0]
This wasn’t part of her plans at all! What was going on! This wasn’t in her calculations at all…
Grimacing, Serika’s pink eyes flashed dangerously, appearing almost blood-red as her fingernails began to dig into the sides of her legs. This wasn’t supposed to be happening! Everything should have gone according to her ‘divine will’! She was supposed to be Raimon’s angel that would lead them to victory!! There was absolutely no way, zero chance that she was going to let this happen again or her name wasn’t Serika Afuro!!!
Growling outwards to the rest of the team, Serika barked out a quick,
“We’re making a counterattack…NOW! Aim for the sides, and defence…Pull up! We’re going all in!!”
Hmph
Blowing the hair out of her face, Serika’s eyes narrowed as she refocused and moved to bring up the ball while directing Mika and Leonidas to make a run left and right respectively to open up her passing options. Fully immersed in the match, all sounds beside the steady booming noise reverberating inside her mind and heart died out and Serika’s cheeks flushed rouge red. This was completely different from training….now it was do or die and if she made the wrong call…
Stumbling as the worries she buried deep inside her heart began to burrow their way upwards, Serika managed to recover and swiftly eyed the approaching Hakuren midfielder that was coming to intercept her.
“Mika! Take it!”
However, upon seeing the ball flying towards her in a beautiful arc in the sky, Mika’s amethyst eyes widened in disbelief.
“What the–”
Pushing past Hakuren fullback Kichiro Kawabe, with some rough movements, Mika managed to run forward and receive the ball whilst sliding and digging her feet into the ground sending grass flying into her hair and face. Flustered, Mika continued to hold the ball while sensing Ryoga to her right and seeing no other options she jumped upwards, summoning an ominous purple mist around her.
PANDORA’S BOX V2!
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Hakuren goalkeeper Ren Ikuma smiled triumphantly seeing the purple ghosts and golden light hurtling towards him and he calmly lifted his arms above his head. Then, tightening his left hand so that it was gripping his right wrist, he pulled his right arm back and punched it forward with all his power. Completing the punch, an enormous snowy-white hand materialised in front of the ball and transformed into an aurora-blue, icy snowflake that held the ball tightly at its epicentre.
CRYSTAL BARRIER
[CLOSE BUT NO GOAAAAAL! Keeper Ren Ikuma protects Hakuren’s goal securely with a new hissatsu ‘Crystal Barrier’!! Perhaps he learned it from Hakuren alumni, Katsuya Shirosaki? Regardless, it looks like it’ll be even tougher now for Raimon to make a goal and you can tell they’re feeling the pressure!! Will they be able to recover or is this the end of the line for Raimon?]
Unsurprised at the easy catch of ‘Pandora’s Box’, Mika ran up to Serika who was catching her breath and asked with a mix of concern and interrogation in her voice,
“What was that Serika? Rikitake-senpai was wide open, why didn’t you use him? Kawabe-san was completely on top of me when you passed so I didn’t have a clear shot at the goal, you should’ve seen that.”
Serika stood silent for a few moments with her head lowered before turning her back to Mika and replying with annoyance in her voice,
“Well! Well…That hakuren defender was just so small I didn’t see him! Humph!”
Eyes blinking, now in utter bewilderment, Mika stepped back while Serika ran off and tried to process the nonsensical and childish answer. Judging by the tips of her ears that had turned pink, however, Serika had probably gotten the message so Mika’s mind wandered back to the opposite side of the field where Hakuren’s defensive line was standing strong.
Sigh
Mika trusted her instincts that had been honed over the years with her tutors and she knew…
This was going to be a rough match…
Tweet Tweet Tweet
“HAHAHAHAHAHA. HAVE A TASTE MY ULTRA SUPER DUPER AWESOME NEW SHOOT!!!”
Standing at the right corner of the field, Makoto crossed his arms while laughing maniacally as ice spread rapidly underneath him in a bold path towards the goal. Giving a harsh kick to the ball that dug into the ice beneath him, the icy shoot careened towards the goal in an angular curve which was met by a rectangular, green barrier tinted by rainbow lights.
FREEZE SHOT!
AURORA CURTAIN!!
[Yet another nice catch by Hakuren’s keeper today! Ikuma-san seems to really be at top form today, as Hakuren shows why their defence is truly a different class from the other Jr.High teams in Japan! Judging by what we’re seeing here, it seems this might be the second consecutive year Raimon is eliminated in the quarterfinals!!]
Not enjoying that little bit of commentary at all, Serika began to feel the pressure continue to mount upon her shoulders with every second that went by and the scoreboard remained at the aggravating [1-0] which seemed to be mocking her while she continued to haphazardly shout commands across the field. Despite her efforts though, Raimon had little success as the match continued with Hakuren’s iron defence stopping every shoot or offensive manoeuvre they made effortlessly.
GOD KNO—
SNEAKING RAID!!
PANDORA’S BOX V2!
CRYSTAL BARRIER!!
ILLUSION BALL
ICE GROUND!!!!
Tweet Tweet Tweet
[AND THAT CONCLUDES THE FIRST HALF! WITH THE SCORE REMAINING AT 1-0, Hakuren appears to be content with a one point lead making no moves to score after that exciting first goal by Tsukishiro!! On the other hand, despite Raimon trying every trick in their book, all of their plans have been thwarted before they could even begin! Let’s see if they have any more tricks up their sleeve in the second half!]
Meanwhile Up in the Stands
“Aww, seems like they’re having trouble against Katata-san despite all our super training together!”
Leaning forward so far over in his seat that he was almost about to fall over, Daigiichi looked upwards curiously where Seiryuu was watching with his arms folded in front of him, seemingly displeased with how the match was going judging by his body and facial expressions.
“Whoddya think is going to win, Aniki?” asked Daigiichi innocently. Despite already having an idea of who was going to win in his mind, he wanted to make sure he and Seiryuu agreed before saying anything. Seiryuu paused for a moment as if debating whether he could be bothered to answer or not before finally opening his mouth to reply cooly,
“If they were going to let themselves be led by the nose by an idiot like Ryoga then they shouldn’t have even bothered to show up in the first place.”
Daigiichi nodded his head up and down so fast his head began to spin and answered enthusiastically,
“Yeah you said it Aniki! I can’t believe they haven’t figured out Hakuren’s tactic yet that we all definitely know what it is hahahahhaahaha…”
Voice trailing off weakly, Daigiichi rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, not really sure what Seiryuu had meant by his answer, but fortunately was saved by Haruka rolling her eyes in annoyance and cattily adding on,
“Big bro! You know you have to explain it clearly to Daigiichi! His brain isn’t big enough to handle half-answers!”
Glad that she had said it for him, Daigiichi rubbed his nose thankfully and waited for Haruka to finish her explanation,
“I can’t believe that stupid penguin girl hasn’t noticed it yet! Ugh, so frickin’ annoying! What did Suzaku-nee and I waste all that time for then during the training camp, if she wasn’t even going to make it past the first match! Even someone with an ape brain like you should have noticed it, Daigiichi. Think about Raimon’s movements and what Ryoga has been doing the entire first half! Doesn’t something seem off to you?”
“Off?”
Tapping his chin contemplatively, Daigiichi’s eyes got smaller and smaller as if squinting them would help him come to the answer. However, knowing he wouldn’t be able to explain it in words, Suzaku tousled Daigiichi’s black hair roughly to grab his attention from behind him and decided to give him the answer,
“It’s simple. He’s…”
Concurrently, On the Field
“Isn’t he compressing the field?”
“What???”
Galahad felt strangely embarrassed as the Raimon members all turned to face him after musing aloud to himself. Forcing his discomfort down, he cleared his throat a few times before repeating himself a bit louder.
Ahem
“Isn’t Katata-san compressing the field right now? I’m not 100% sure but Mika should’ve been able to score by now and I thought something was weird so I’ve been paying attention from the backline and it looks like by avoiding Ryoga in the centre, we’ve been too focused on playing in the sidelines which is limiting our shooting paths…”
Gulping loudly, Galahad looked around nervously where the Raimon players seemed to be nodding their heads thoughtfully except for Serika who was looking at him grimly and looked as if she were about to speak up. Thus, preparing himself for the verbal abuse that was about to come out of her mouth, he was surprised when he heard,
“Then what do you want us to do?”
“Huh?”
“We have no choice, none of us have the attack power or skills to beat Katata-san in a one v one and the instant we try to coordinate offensive pressure on their centrefield, their centre midfielders pull back to press us.”
Running her hand through her hair in an irritated manner, Serika sighed and added bitterly with an uncharacteristically defeated tone in her voice,
“Frankly, we’re lucky they haven’t taken any of the opportunities we showed to apply any offensive pressure on us . We’re already stretched thin as it is and we’re running Mika and Rikitake-senpai ragged!”
Hearing those words, Galahad looked over at Mika who was sitting and panting exhaustedly while Ikue was trying to help massage the older girl. However, seeing the blonde boy look at her apologetically, Mika gave him a faint smile and waved him off.
“I’m fine, there’s no reason for concern. It seems that I’m still a bit lacking….that’s all.”
Then, turning her head to face Serika, Mika steeled her eyes and began to stand up unsteadily.
“We don’t have any options. I’ll lead the offence through centrefield. The key to the match will be getting past Katata-san, so I’ll take responsibility–”
Ugh
Leaning on Ikue, after stumbling due to her fatigue from almost single handedly trying to get past Hakuren’s defence in the first half, Mika sighed tiredly while Leonidas watched from the sides…
It was all his fault.
Sensing Leonidas’s hesitation to face Ryoga, Mika had covered centre and leftfield for him while he hadn’t created any useful passing opportunities at all in the first half. He had told himself that he could do it and contribute to the team but now he was just holding them back…
No…
He wouldn’t let this continue! People were relying on him now and he wanted to meet those expectations. Leonidas didn’t want to be the same shadow of a person that was trapped in the confines of that room with only the clock to keep him company. He couldn’t go back there after tasting the sweetness of playing on the field…
[I’ll do it.]
“???”
“I-I’ll do it” whispered Leonidas so softly that the Raimon members weren’t sure if that was him or their delusions of desperation.
“You?” asked Serika with disbelief dripping from her voice despite not intending to be so malicious. From a completely objective standpoint, Leonidas hadn’t made any scoring opportunities in the first half, and so she had a tough time trying to imagine the small boy fighting the current number one defender in Japan by himself. About to turn him down, Serika was surprised when she heard Mika spoke up before her,
“Thank you, Leo-kun. We’ll leave it to you then.”
“What?! We will?!”
Nodding her head, Mika looked confidently at Leonidas, who was opening and closing his fists methodically, and explained,
“Leonidas is someone the Takinami Corporation has recognised for his abilities, there should be no doubts regarding his capabilities. He’s just as qualified as the rest of us to be standing on this field now.”
Though he knew she had good intentions behind those words, Leonidas squirmed a little hearing the respect in Mika’s words as he wondered whether he would be able to live up to those expectations and what would happen if he wasn’t able to meet them…
Now hesitating a bit, Leonidas was about to grab Mika’s sleeve to stop her from praising him anymore but it was too late and he heard the older girl continue with palpable assurance radiating from her being.
“I trust him.”
Sigh
Hearing that, Serika hid her face with her hand and knowing that they had no other options, she consented reluctantly,
“Alright, we’ll proceed like that then. I’ll create a path for Tsujo-kun and then it’ll be up to him. Everyone, keep to your marks and make sure no one else interferes, got it?”
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Wasting no time, Mika did a quick back pass to Serika who received the pass smoothly and with fluid connecting passes brought it upfield.
Ryoga watched silently as Raimon’s movements seemed to have changed after halftime, and looked to his right and left at the other defenders and glared at them to get into formation. It seemed that Raimon had figured out their tactic, but it didn’t matter. As long as he was defending the goal, they had no chance of scoring.
HISSATSU TACTICS : TOXIC GLACIER!
Ignoring the menacing glacier that had taken over Hakuren’s side of the field, instead of trying to run to the sides to avoid it, Serika raced towards it straight on as she made her way past the first layer of Hakuren’s defensive line.
OLYMPUS HARMONY!
“Tsujo-kun!”
Huff Huff
Upon receiving the pass, Leonidas began to run as fast as he could, darting across the field to where Ryoga was standing and waiting for him. Solid and unmoving, the black-haired defender stood firm as a rock, as if challenging Leonidas to come closer.
Leonidas continued to dribble straight towards the centre of the field where the only thing between him and the goal was Ryoga while telling himself that it was okay. However, the closer he got to the older boy, the more the air became heavier and the quieter the field became.
Tick Tock
Leonidas recognised this sound…
No…
Not now…
Tick Tock
Go away!
Go away!
Tick Tock
No.
NO!
Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock
Faster and faster.
Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock
Louder and louder.
The ticking of the clock completely overwhelmed his senses and Leonidas felt himself being drawn away from the field and closer to the comfortable room where he always escaped to when he was afraid, with the familiar clock that would never stop ticking. While that sound had always comforted him when he was alone, he no longer needed that clock and didn’t want to be reminded of that time anymore.
However, no matter how hard he tried to block out that resonant ticking his head, it continued to reverberate across his entire being and Leonidas felt as if his mind were splitting into a messy pile of scattered fragments. Tears began to drip silently from his face as Leonidas finally found himself face to face with Ryoga and now split between the overwhelming self-doubt that was screaming out to him as the gap between the two became painfully apparent, and his desire to score a goal for his teammates, Leonidas let out a gut wrenching cry of pain as he began to spin at the centre of a fierce blizzard with a pair of feline red eyes flashing in the icy winds.
PANTHER BLIZZARDDDD!
With a strangely furious expression on his face, Ryoga’s blood red eyes glinted dangerously as he began stamping his feet on the ground. Shaking, the field beneath them began to crumble into an array of broken pieces under the powerful tremors and rising from the ground arose a pristine, perfectly smooth, giant throne of ice with sharp edges and made of a rich, sapphire blue. Sitting in the throne, was a grandiose old man in resplendent robes of snow, and a sceptre laying on his lap that matched the rose red of his crown. The elderly man looked down lazily at the small panther blizzard that was approaching and opened his mouth ever so slightly such that a hazy, white fog descended onto the field and transformed the field into a frozen wasteland.
SIGH OF THE FROZEN KING!!
[AMAZINGGGGG!! Hakuren’s ‘Adamantine Glacier’ reveals a never before seen hissatsu ‘Sigh of the Frozen King!”. What an intimidating hissatsu!!! It looks like Katata-san has been training ever since his failure to block Seiryuu’s ‘Tenkuu Otoshi’ in last year’s Holy Road SemiFinals and is showing off the results now!!]
Ryoga kicked the ball to the side haphazardly and ran towards Leonidas who was clutching his chest on the ground in front of him. Leonidas’ dead, orange eyes screamed in pain, despite the boy’s silent cries and Ryoga felt the same frustration as he did when they had first met in the junkyard two years ago.
It was so fucking annoying.
Unable to contain the boiling rage a second longer, he grabbed the collar of Leonidas’s uniforms and shouted at him,
“FIGHT ME YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!! I SAID FIGHT ME WITH EVERYTHING YOU GOT!!!”
“FIGHT ME!!”
Repeating it over and over again, Ryoga had to be dragged away by his teammates while the referee awarded him a yellow card and Mika and the others ran to check up on Leonidas. In the distance though they could still hear Ryoga shouting murderously across the field at Leonidas letting out guttural cries that sounded more like that of an animal than a human.
“FIGHT ME YOU BASTARD! FIGHT ME!!!”
Mika attempted to block Leonidas’s ears but he pushed her hands away and sat down on the field. Knowing enough was enough, Mika waved to Aphrodi to get Leonidas off the field but was surprised when the boy grabbed her uniform sleeve with his left hand and wiped his eyes with his right hand.
“One more. One more time…”
Leonidas knew Ryoga was shouting right now for his sake in his own twisted way.
Since the day he could remember being conscious of the world, Leonidas had always been alone. It was hard for him to understand what being a part of the world felt like and he often felt himself drifting in and out of reality only to be brought back by the steady tick of the clock that always dragged him away from the monochrome world of solitude.
He had no understanding of basic concepts and what little he did know was perverted at the hands of his mother who could only offer the salvages of her broken soul. Though those dregs of motherhood allowed him to sustain himself for as long as he did, what was broken could never make something whole and so Leonidas, though he didn’t know it then, was incomplete.
Then…
Ryoga had created cracks in the sky of his world and showed him a completely different world outside of the one Leonidas shared with his mother.
However, the closer Leonidas got to the world of light and colours that Ryoga had shown him, the more terrified he became. What if that light disappeared one day and all he had to return to was the broken world that he had never known was broken before? What if this was all just a dream? A wonderful dream that Leonidas hoped would never end…
But one day…
Everyone must awaken from their dreams and if that happened, Leonidas knew he would lose his mind, leading to him refusing to change.
And so, Leonidas stepped into the world of light but continued to carry the familiar nothingness inside of him.
Completely devoid of joy, sorrow, anger or emotions of any kind, instead Leonidas chose to serve Ryoga with everything he had because Ryoga was all he knew in the strange, strange world he was now living in. And though Leonidas told himself he would never fall for the temptation of the blindingly warm light of the outside world, deep within the void of his mind, he knew.
He knew that he didn’t want to bear this pain, loneliness and despair any longer.
Leonidas wanted to chase after the Ryoga that shined so brightly, like a blazing sun that never set.
Leonidas wanted to eat Kinoko no Yama every day.
Leonidas wanted to play soccer and have lots of friends!
Eat meals at a full table with a family…
Go to school…
Never worry about being beaten each night…
Leonidas wanted to be happy.
But…
But Leonidas was a weak person…and he was unable to take that step towards making his dreams into reality.
And the only person who knew the depths of the desires slumbering within him was now shouting at him across the field.
This was the final push…
His last chance to change…
To take everything he wanted in the palm of his hand so he would never have to be with the terrible nothingness ever again because Leonidas couldn’t do it anymore. He didn’t want to be the same, weak self that could do nothing but cry silently to himself in defeat.
Leonidas was going to be strong.
So strong that he would become his own light and his own sun…
Because Leonidas was going to enjoy every minute of his life from now on.
He would cherish his friends, his teammates, and every moment of his life in the amazingly colourful world that he had always hesitated to reach out to, without any more fear, trepidation or apprehension.
Leonidas would start it all now.
Smiling with the most peace and tranquillity he thought was humanly possible, Leondias reached a state of serenity as the scattered fragments of Leonidas’s mind began to come together and he let out a soft whisper that carried across the wind to the black haired teen still screaming at the top of his lungs.
“Thank you Katata-sama”
But…
"I’m going to win.”