After being picked up by one of the many vehicles Mika had sent out as part of the search party, Galahad and Leonidas returned unharmed to the hotel where Aphrodi and the others had gathered.
Seeing the large crowd of people waiting for him, Leonidas gave a deep bow before using his tablet to speak.
[I’m sorry for causing such a fuss so late at night and for causing a delay in our schedule. I will do my best to make it up to you all in the future.]
Stifling a yawn, Makoto waved his hand and yelled out “No mind, no mind” while Nariko narrowed her eyes cruelly and licked her lips before slyly saying “Unlike this idiot here, It was a rather big inconvenience to the rest of us so I’ll remember this in case I need a favour in the future little Leo-kun, okay?”
On the other side of the lobby, Serika felt her eyes start to roll back before Nariko could even finish and crossed her arms while counteracting
“Don’t worry about Yamashiro-senpai, Tsujo-kun. I saw her and Naoki slacking off at the arcade downtown on the way home from the bakery. She had noooo plans to do anything tonight.”
Feeling her eyebrow twitch angrily, Nariko gave an evil eye at Serika who shrugged her shoulders and stuck her tongue out at her belligerently.
“Are the two of you all unharmed? Shall I call a doctor here for a check-up? Leo-kun, if you want to go out late at night you should at least bring a bodyguard with you in the future. I’ll be assigning you some later tonight and introduce you to your team, okay? So why don’t you go up to your room and wash up while you wait for the doctor.”
Hurrying him up the elevator, Mika didn’t let the boy get a word in while she pushed him through the elevator doors and stared at him until the doors finally closed and separated the two. Letting out a sigh, Mika walked up to Galahad who had been trying not to laugh as she fussed over the young boy.
“You seem to be doing well for someone who became a nee-san (big sister) only a few hours ago.”
“Oh please, after losing him within those same few hours and letting him end up in a forest for hours by himself, I would think my abilities would be rated quite poorly considering such a subpar performance today.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself, okay Mika? It all turned out fine didn’t it? Besides, you don’t even know how many times I’ve lost Kageyo…”
As the face of his younger brother popped up in his mind after carelessly calling out his name, Galahad fell silent as Mika gave him a sympathetic look.
Patting the taller boy’s shoulder which had slumped over, Mika attempted to redirect the conversation and proceeded to ignore the last comment.
“Thank you for everything today, Galahad. I mean it. I was a bit worried about Leonidas today but judging by his face his expression seemed to have improved considerably after talking to you. You seem to have quite the ability to make people comfortable, don’t you?”
“E-E-Ehhhh”
Rubbing his arm behind his head abashedly, Galahad avoided her sincere gaze of admiration and attempted to spit out a reply while his brain was still functioning.
“N-Not really! It was nothing! Just luck, you know! I really didn’t do much! It was basically just Leo-kun talking to himself you see! HAHAHAHA.”
“Well either way, as the colloquial expression would go, I believe in a scenario like this it would be appropriate to say ‘I owe you one?’ So if you are ever in need of help, I will use everything in my power as heir to the Takinami name to do so. (If you need it in writing, I will have Edmund draft a document for you as well).”
“I’m the one who owes you Mika, so don’t worry about it! I was happy to be of help, it really was no trouble at all!”
“I see…”
“Oh my god, I can’t listen to this anymore!”
Serika, who had been waiting on one of the couches nearby for Mika and Galahad to finish talking, stood up abruptly and began to drag Mika back to their room so they could get some sleep before the bus came in the morning.
“Come on Mika, ditch the servant boy and let’s go! It’s already 22:00 and you said you would watch an episode of ‘Alice in Borderland’ with me before we head to bed, remember?”
Waving her hands helplessly as Serika dragged her into the elevator that had come back down, Mika mouthed ‘Good Night’ to Galahad who was left by himself in the now empty lobby.
Feeling the lingering warmth in his shoulder, Galahad grinned to himself before taking the stairs to head up to his room in a strangely good mood that didn’t evade Hyun-Ki’s eye when Galahad finally came back after the ordeals of the day.
****
Next Morning, Shinkansen from Hokkaido to Raimon
Sunlight fell onto the train car that carried the Raimon team and Aphrodi. Much to Serika and Galahad’s (though he would never admit it) delight, the Raimon and Eisei team had reserved separate cars for the trip back, meaning Serika and Mika were currently sitting across from Galahad and Leonidas as the four discussed topics ranging from trivial nonsense to their plans for the Holy Road Finals such as formations, tactics and enemy scouting.
Looking over the data Kenji had sent them all, Galahad scrolled through the document and murmured rather quietly
“Since the first seed teams from each block won’t be assigned to each to fight each other in the Quarterfinals, that narrows our first opponent options to Outei Tsukinomiya from Block A, Hakuren from Block B, Eisei Gakuen from our Block C or Susanoo from Block D. We already saw for ourselves how strong Eisei Gakuen is in the preliminaries, while Outei Tsukinomiya has been making a name for themselves thanks to the ‘Child of Soccer’ who joined their team this season so we should hope that we don’t have to fight either of them in out first match…Susanoo seems to be the weakest based on their data but Aihara-kun put a note that there’s something fishy going on with their lineup so our best bet would probably be to face Hakuren in the Quarter Finals.”
[Even if Hakuren is the ‘easiest’ out of our possible opponents, we still need to come up with a counterplan for their defence, To be honest, us winning the practice match yesterday can only be called a fluke because Katata-sama wasn’t taking it seriously…If he had then…]
“We should just fight Eisei Gakuen in the quarterfinals and get it over with! With me leading the team how could we possibly lose to that stupid cat girl’s team! Hmph! What do you think Mika?”
Not saying a word yet the entire conversation, Mika tapped her lower lip while she went over the same data Galahad, Leonidas and Serika were currently analysing.
“I’m a bit curious about–”
FWOOOSH
SLAM
“GALAHAD! You guys GOTTA see this!”
“What the–”
Galahad felt his body get shoved to the left as a boy with black hair and heterochromatic blue and green eyes jumped into his chair without warning.
“Daigiichi?! What are you doing here?”
Quickly greeting the other 3 Raimon players, Daigiichi began to pull on Galahad’s arm to drag him out of his seat without answering. Finally succeeding in pulling Galahad up, Daigiichi then turned to Serika who had already started to wave goodbye to Galahad and told them
“You guys need to come too, Suzu-nee said you should see this.”
Bewildered but trusting the Eisei defender’s words, the Raimon team quietly headed over to the neighbouring train car and looked at the Eisei team which had gathered around Seiryuu, Haruka and Suzaku’s table.
Breaking the ice, Makoto gave a quick ‘Hi’ wave and turned to Eisei’s Noritaka to ask
“What’s up?”
Giving a nod of acknowledgement to the Raimon midfielder, Noritaka replied casually
“Outei Tsukinomiya is pulling some weird s**t right now, it’s all over the news. Suzaku can catch you up.”
Eyes turning to the red-headed Eisei midfielder, who today was dressed in a backless red off-shoulder sweater with black tights, a red skirt and brown-heeled ankle boots, Suzaku dramatically turned her laptop to face the Raimon members while pretending to push up a pair of glasses despite not wearing any.
Squinting her eyes to see the screen, Serika read aloud the news article Suzaku had pulled up for them.
“Teikoku Gakuen, Seidouzan, Senbayama, Kaiou Gakuen, and 16 other schools declare the termination of their schools’ soccer programs?!”
After Serika finished reading the title aloud, the Raimon members leaned forward to double check it for themselves and let out a loud
“EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?” in unison.
Mika crossed her arms before resting her right elbow on her left arm so she could rub her bottom lip as she thought back to their preliminary matches against Teikoku and Seidouzan. Despite their failure to make it to Holy Road Finals yet again, their soccer program had a prestigious history and was still one of the top programs in the nation which was a rather impressive feat considering Japan’s Youth Soccer was currently ranked 3rd in the world as of last year’s FFI. To terminate their soccer program so abruptly like this would definitely make waves in Japan’s Youth Soccer industry…and this was only considering Teikoku Gakuen.
Seidouzan, Senbayama, Kaiou Gakuen, and scanning the list of schools, Mika recognized most of the names written, with schools like Mindouzan and Genei Gakuen all among the top ranked soccer teams in the nation. For all 20 of these schools to announce they were ending their soccer programs on the same day couldn’t just be a coincidence…
Something larger was likely at play here.
As if reading her mind, Suzaku continued to explain what she had discovered from her information network.
“Don’t worry, it gets juicier! After some quick detective work, all of these schools shared one thing in common…”
Taking a deep breath in, Suzaku made a ‘Hurry Up!’ motion to Suguru who was standing behind her chair and caught by surprise. Widening his eyes, he hurriedly took out his phone and played a dramatic drum roll effect.
Badum Badum Badadadadada
“All of these schools reported losing a practice match to Outei Tsukinomiya or Susanoo Academy in the past two weeks!”
Hearing this, Galahad furrowed his eyebrows and looked to Kenji who was crouching diagonally to him and typing on his laptop furiously, presumably looking into everything Suzaku had just brought to light.
“Outei Tsukinomiya? Isn’t that the new team that formed last year and were also the runner ups of last year’s Holy Road?”
Pushing up his glasses which reflected a bright white light, Kenji nodded his head in affirmation and replied
“That’s correct in one sense Yozora-kun but wrong in another. While it’s true they formed last year and made it to the final round against Eisei Gakuen, none of their members from last year remained on the team for this year’s preliminary matches and…
Kenji wiped his glasses and put them back on as if he couldn’t believe what he was reading
As of 7 hours ago they have reported yet ANOTHER line-up change excluding the ‘Child of Soccer’ and their goalkeeper ‘The Weeping Maiden’ … meaning we can consider their current line up as basically an entirely new team.”
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Clap Clap
Applauding encouragingly, Suzaku gave Kenji a thumbs up before adding on.
“You’re a quick one aren’t you? But have you seen their line up yet? Besides ‘The Child of Soccer’ and ‘The Weeping Maiden’, the JYSA has no records of them ever playing soccer at official matches before. Not to mention a little birdy at Outei told me none of the members have even touched a soccer ball before this year. You should be able to see why once you read their names.”
Hopping into the conversation, Serika scanned the list on Kenji’s laptop herself and read the names aloud.
“Umika Gujin”
“Junpei Gujin”
Not recognizing any of the names so far, Serika fell silent and began to glare at Suzaku thinking the older girl was pulling their legs but when Suzaku gave her a serious look back she continued reading aloud.
“Yokunaba Fukushima?!”
Like THE Yokunaba Fukushima? I loved her in ‘We Will Meet Tomorrow” and “When the Last Bird Sings”!!
Finishing up the list for Serika who was busy gushing about some person he had never heard of, Galahad read the last two names out
“Kotarou Kawabata and Kairaku Enkai?”
Ears pricked and their attention grabbed, Nariko and Makoto pushed Galahad out of the way so they could check out the faces of the two players Galahad had read aloud.
“YOOOO, That’s awesome!! I love Kairaku! He makes the best videos, you know him right Gabriel?”
“Oh not bad…it’ll be fun twisting that pretty little face of his into a mess of tears hahaha.”
Picking himself off the floor, Galahad looked at the two third-years strangely and asked
“You know these people?”
Rolling her eyes twice, Nariko walked back to lean on Naoki and replied
“Why don’t you pay attention to anything other than Mika for two seconds, puppy-kun and crawl out from whatever rock you live under.”
Sighing, Nariko began to pick at her cuticles in disbelief that she had actually had to explain who Kotarou Kawabata and Kairaku Enkai were, while continuing
“Kawabata-san is a famous teen model. He’s in almost as many commercials and ads as Seiryuu-san over there while Enkai-kun is a popular social media star.”
Jumping in, Makoto added, “Yup! You should check out his videos, Galahad-kun! He does all sorts of random videos like travel vlogs, eating competitions, concert reviews, movie reviews…if you can think it, he’s done it!”
Musing over the newly discovered information, Kenji murmured curiously to himself
“An actress, a model and an influencer…what–”
Interrupting his thoughts Haruka, who was disinterested in the news and lazily messing around with Seiryuu’s hair who was currently napping next to her, scratched the inside of her nose with her other hand and asked bluntly
“So basically Outei Tsukinmoiya is going around and shutting down the soccer programs of any school that loses to them?”
Brushing her long hair out of her face with her hands, Suzaku replied unhesitatingly
“It seems like it”
Meekly raising her hand, Ikue looked upwards at Serika who had taken Daigiichi’s seat next to Suzaku and was helping herself to the snacks on the table.
“Why is Outei Tsukinomiya ending all of their soccer programs Captain-san?”
Serika shrugged her shoulders in response while Suzaku checked the time on her phone and began to rummage through her bag for something.
“We should know soon so don’t you worry your little head off okay, cute little manager-chan!”
Ikue fell silent as clasped her hands nervously in front of her while Suzaku began to set up a black stand on the table and a very large screen that had expanded from a small rectangle which she always brought with her so she could watch anime while she travelled.
Unsatisfied with their current information, Kenji lowered his laptop and asked curiously,
“What do you mean by that, Suzaku-san?”
“Oh, you haven’t heard? Outei Tsukinomiya announced they’ll be having an exhibition match against the Red Matadors today in…3 minutes!”
“What?!” shouted the Raimon members in unison.
“Yup! They announced it about an hour ago on their fan site. See?”
Galahad bent over to take a look at the phone where it indeed showed an exhibition match was scheduled between Outei and the Youth Spanish National Team today.
“Why is Outei Tsukinomiya holding a match against the Red Matadors today? The Holy Road Finals are starting in two weeks, are they really going to reveal their strategies this early?”
Mika agreed with Galahad’s questioning murmurs, while adding,
“The Red Matadors ranked 7th at last year’s FFI so they’re certainly not going to be pushovers for Outei Tsukinomiya…”
Mika trailed off and was about to ask Kenji who the captain of the team was when Suzaku loudly hushed everyone in the car.
“Shhhhhh!! It’s starting!”
Outei Tsukinomiya vs Red Matador, Holy Road Stadium
[WELCOME FOLKS TODAY AT HOLY ROAD STADIUM WHERE WE’LL BE SEEING THE FIGHT BETWEEN HOLY ROAD RUNNER-UPS FROM LAST YEAR, OUTEEIII TSUKINOMIYAAAAA AND THE NATIONAL TEAM HAILING FROM SPAIN, RED MATADORRRRRRR!!!!!!!!]
Cheer Cheer Cheer
[WITH OUTEI TSUKINOMIYA HAVING A COMPLETELY NEW LINEUP, WHO KNOWS WHAT SORT OF PLAYS THEY’LL BE SHOWING US TODAY UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF THEIR NEW CAPTAIN…]
Walking into the stadium, the two teams lined up side by side with the Red Matador’s red uniform with yellow stripes contrasting with the plain, black uniforms of Outei Tsukinomiya.
Standing in the middle of the line-up stood a boy with spiky, pink hair that was swept to the left cold, grey eyes and a yellow arm band on his left arm who looked upwards at the announcer who yelled his name with dramatic flair.
[NOSAAAAAKKKA YUUUUUMAAAA!!!]
Eyes devoid of any flickers of emotion, Nosaka had a blank expression on his face as he clenched his right fist tightly.
It was finally time to begin…
Project Mars.
***
Murmur Murmur Murmur
[WHAT IS GOING ON FOLKS? IT SEEMS THAT THE FACE OF OUTEI TSUKINOMIYA’S CAPTAIN, NOSAKA YUUMA, HAS APPEARED ON ALL OF THE STADIUM SCREEN?!”
Closing his eyes triumphantly, Nosaka held his arms out confidently as the cameras focused on him, meaning his face was now streaming across the globe as he had planned beforehand. Speaking into his headset he loudly declared,
“Hello citizens of the world! Rejoice! We have come to save you all from the pathetic and feeble soccer that you have grown accustomed to! You have deluded yourselves and poisoned soccer with your weak-minded drivel about perseverance, hard work and shallow positivity but today we will show you what TRUE soccer is. STRENGTH is the only thing that matters, and the inadequate and flawed should stay off the field… forever .”
Nosaka paused to allow his words to sink in and took a breath to continue passionately
“That is why we have begun PROJECT MARS!
Project Mars is the next revolution of soccer and it has already begun in Japan. We will save the pitiful players who have been tricked into playing their fake soccer under the guidance of the sick, flawed and antiquated programs that are destroying our nation…and reopen new soccer programs across the nation that train the next generation of soccer players with intelligence, rationality and perfection. We have already seen success with our very own ‘daughter’ team, SUSANOO ACADEMY who are the first generation of graduates from Project Mars. They continue to meet our expectations and have flawlessly passed through the Holy Road Preliminaries with ease…
I understand that you may have doubts right now and I am a man who always believes that actions speak louder than words so we will show you at the Holy Road Finals! The ‘Undefeatable Eisei Gakuen’, ‘Guardians of the North, Hakuren’, the ‘Mighty Gods of Zeus Academy’ ‘The Legendary Dragonlink’ and even the famed ‘Raimon’ will all fall before our might at Holy Road!”
“And today… TODAY IS A PROMISE! A promise that after Japan, the world is next! No one will have to suffer any longer from the nightmare of fake soccer and only TRUE soccer will remain. If you wish to deny our ideology then challenge us! Prove you are right through battle! But I swear…
Outei Tsukinomiya will NEVER lose as long as I am captain.”
Taking off the mic headset, Nosaka passed it to one of the employees as he gave a look of warning to the Red Matador captain, Leandro Velasco, before gathering up the team who were giving him a wide range of looks from mild respect to second-hand embarrassment to indifference.
“You heard me, I want a flawless victory today. If you want what I promised, then you need to fulfil your side of the bargain. Crush them, leave no traces of even their existence on the field. Dismissed.”
Waving his hand, the members began to disperse while a rather tall, doll-like girl with porcelain skin, short dark-blue hair and enchanting pink eyes ran up beside a boy of similar height was yawning as he drowsily rubbed his eyes in an effort to wake himself up.
“Yuyu-chan sure is worked up today, huh Aki-chan? That expression of frustration! The determination!”
Cheeks turning bright pink, the girl wrapped her face in her hands and lifted her nose excitedly.
Sniff Sniff Sniff
“Oh he smells so wonderful right now. It makes me want to rip off his face right there and preserve it in glass forever. Oh! How wonderful that would be! I want to keep it! I want to keep it!”
Stretching his shoulders as they walked, the boy readjusted his panda neck pillow with a dejected expression after being forced by Nosaka to leave his panda blanket on the side with their coach and managers. Giving a lazy look at the girl who was hugging herself breathlessly while imagining trapping their captain in a glass box for eternity, the white-haired boy yawned and managed to get out a few words.
“Buuuuut, theeeen you wouldddddn’t be ableeee to seee all of captainssss’ otherrrrr expresssionssss.”
Mmmmmmmm
Tapping her chin, Umika pouted ad scrunched her Al face up in irritation
“You’re so annoying Aki-chan, blehhhhhhhh”
“TAMAKI! UMIKA!”
“Oops! Looks like we made Yuyu-chan mad! Teehee!”
Skipping over to the goal, Umika put on her gloves and sat down as she began to draw the faces of her teammates in the turf while singing gleefully.
“Lalalalalala”
*******
Tweet Tweet Tweet
[THE KICKOFF STARTS WITH RED MATADOR IN POSSESSION! Under the leadership of their veteran captain and ace striker, Leandro Velasco, Red Matador has risen up the world rankings, making it to the top 8 in last year’s FFI! We expect a strong performance from them today as well!]
5 Minutes Into the Match
[Red Matador makes their way up the field with their characteristic aggressive plays while Outei Tsukinomiya is helpless to stop them!]
Nosaka watched as the players in red boldly charged through the centre as if challenging them to stop them. Smirking, Nosaka waved his right hand to move the defensive line up and let out a laugh of pity.
Those trash players didn’t even know how worthless their soccer was.
“UMIKA!”
Giving the girl standing in front of the goal a warning shout, Nosaka watched as she took a relaxed look at the incoming Red Matador forwards. She and Tamaki were the only ones on the team that did as they pleased, but their skills were worth the risk so he had brought them along for their world debut match despite some misgivings.
Meanwhile, Leandro of Red Matador didn’t let his guard down and he rushed toward the goal ahead of his teammates, trusting they would connect the ball to him. Considering Outei was the second highest seeded team in Japan, they couldn’t afford to let their guard down and so he resolved to get an early goal to gain some much needed momentum.
“Leandro!”
Receiving the ball smoothly, Leandro disappeared from sight as the ball bounced once off the ground. When the ball touched the ground, the area surrounding the goal quickly turned black as 12 long guitar strings appeared in the air. Reappearing, Leandro swiftly kicked the ball in a zig-zag pattern resembling a flourish of notes in quick succession.
Alzapúa!!!
“Oh, yes, yes! More, More, MORE!”
Umika watched the incoming shoot with a small grin on her face. This was a start at least…but she needed more to satisfy her hunger for a beautiful shoot.
Sigh
Well, she might as well use this garbage hissatsu Yuyu-chan had taught her then.
Punching her fists together, Umika began to charge up power in her hands then smashed them together once more to form a circular shield with a moon in the centre. Leaning back she lunged forward to stop the shoot with the purple shield.
Royal Shield, Gross! Blech!
[NO GOAAAAAAL! ‘The Weeping Maiden’ of Outei Tsukinomiya perfectly stops Ace Striker, Leandro Velasco’s strongest shoot with ‘Royal Shield’!!! Nothing less from the current Rank No.1 Goalkeeper in Japan! As a Japanese myself, I can’t help but be proud of all of this new talent we’re seeing this year!!]
Kicking the ball in an upwards arc, Umika waved to Leandro who was still standing frozen in place, stunned at how easily his strongest hissatsu was stopped, and cheerily called out to the opposing captain.
“LEANDYYYY-KUUUUUUN! Try a little harder okay? Just a little more okay!! You can do it Leandy-kunnnn!”
Hearing the obvious taunt, Leandro clenched his jaw until he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked where his teammate was standing.
“No mind, Leandro! We knew they would be strong, but it’s not over until it’s over, right Captain?”
Leandro pursed his lips and then slapped his cheeks until they turned bright pink. HIs teammates were right, as captain he had to lead the team no matter how strong the opponents were.
“Come on everyone! We’re not giving up until it’s over! Let’s just keep hitting them hard until it works!”
Nosaka, who was standing nearby, heard this and snorted.
This was exactly what was wrong with the world’s soccer, however it would all be over soon.
This pathetic soccer…
Once Project Mars succeeded…
***
[Red Matador is coming back for vengeance as they make their way through Outei Tsukinomiya’s defence with ease!! Will this be a repeat of their last attempt to score the first point of the match or will Outei be able to successfully fend off this fierce attack?]
Oh yes! It was even more intense than last time!
Grinning widely as she thought to herself, Umika waited with anticipation as the three Red Matador forwards approached the goal in a triangle formation. Then splitting off, the first crouched down and waited as a large tree appeared from underneath him and lifted him high into the sky. Once the tree finished growing, he gave a kick to the ball, which appeared to be melting, back to the ground where the second forward gave a spinning kick with her right foot making a grotesque monster appear beneath the ball before it could touch the ground. As the monster slowly lifted its body off the ground, the melting ball that had landed on its back hovered in midair until Leandro dashed forward and hit the ball with as much force as he could, turning the ball a bright orange as it barreled towards the goal.
La persistencia de la memoria!!
Umika’s entire body flushed bright pink as she saw Leandro’s face of pride, with full faith written all over his face, that the incoming combination shoot would score without fail.
That was perfect. It was beautiful.
But it will look even more beautiful soon! Oh, how badly she wanted to preserve this moment, forever and ever!!!
Yes! Yes! YES!
The THRILL~~~~
The tantalising thrill stimulated her senses as her blood began to race.
Sighhhhhh
Letting out a long sigh, Umika’s face turned deadly serious as she began to radiate a murderous energy from her body. Closing her eyes, she slowly reopened them and her pink eyes turned so dark it resembled a light red as she whispered in a low voice.
DARK KESHIN : Schneeweißchen, The Living Doll
A dark shadow began to twist and throb from Umika’s body as it began to materialise slowly, piece by piece until a beautiful woman with flowing, black hair and a bright red, European-style dress was formed. With chilling blue eyes, the temperature of the entire stadium dropped multiple degrees until all of the Red Matador players began to shiver as the horribly beautiful woman stared at them with lifeless, ice-blue eyes.
Overflowing with confidence with the mysterious woman behind her, Umika began to make a rectangle with her fingers and moved her fingers so the incoming blazing-red shoot fit within the rectangle and licked her lips greedily. Racing forward without restraint, Umika punched the ball with her fist upwards into the air while following the ball in the sky to give it a kick violently back to the ground. Then, disappearing from the air she reappeared on the ground, with her arms outstretched, as if waiting to hug the falling ball and upon contact with her hands the ball transformed into a delicate, small doll that fit perfectly in her palm.
HINA, HINA BECOME MY HINA~~
[.....]
Unsure of what had just happened, the audience and even the announcer remained speechless as Umika began to make various victory poses with the ball caught safely in her hands.
[W-W-WOW! I’m not sure what that was but ‘The Weeping Maiden’ stops Red Matador’s strongest combination hissatsu ‘La persistencia de la memoria!’ as if it were paper!!!]
“That was great Leandy-kun~~~ But I know you can do better right? More, MORE, MORE! I want more!!!!!”
Beginning to salivate, Umika called out to Leandro who was on his knees with a look of despair on his face.
“T-That was our strongest… How did she—”
Similarly, the other two forwards were on the ground, with the life drained out of them and seeing them unable to get up, Umika’s smile turned into a frown as she began to cry from disappointment.
It was so close…Yet nobody had been able to satisfy her yet. She wanted more beauty! More despair!
Sigh
Putting her hand along her right cheek, Umika sighed to herself. At least, Yuyu-chan had promised this match was just a warm-up. If he was lying and their matches in the Holy Road Finals ended up as equally disappointing as this one she would just have to murder him for lying to her.
Teehee
“YUYU-CHAAAAAAAAN”
Relieved that Umika had actually done her job for once, Nosaka accepted the ball and gave a fierce look to the boy who was sleeping in the middle of the match using that damned panda neck pillow he refused to leave behind. At least he had managed to convince him to leave the stupid blanket at the bench….
“Tamaki…”
“Yeah Yuuma-kun?”
“Do whatever you want”
“Sureeeee”
Giving the white-haired boy a hesitant look, Nosaka slowly kicked the ball over to Tamaki who quickly stretched his arms before casually beginning to dribble with the ball.
“You’re not going to get past us!”
Seeing their forwards stopped so easily, the rest of the Red Matadors became more determined to protect the goal and ran to steal the ball back from the relaxed, Outei midfielder who, unlike the rest of his team, appeared to be rather weak.
Hup
Tamaki gave a bored look to the three defenders who were charging towards him in a line and kicked the ball with his right heel behind him leading to the ball arching beautifully over the first Red Matador defender’s head.
Then, with brilliantly swift movements, before the other two defenders could even process where Tamaki was, he had already disappeared and reappeared behind them.
[AMAZING!!! I CAN BARELY BELIEVE MY EYES!! AFTER PULLING OFF A PERFECT HEEL FLICK, JAPAN’S ‘CHILD OF SOCCER’ PROVES WHY HE DESERVES THE TITLE WITH A CLEAN TRANSITION INTO A DOUBLE NUTMEG PAST RED MATADOR’S DEFENCE AS IF THEY DIDN’T EVEN HAVE A DEFENCE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!”
Standing in front of the goal, Tamaki paused before looking upwards at the sky. Ryouhei-kun was always shouting weird names when he was scoring goals so maybe he should try it out too.
But…
What was it again???
“TAMAKIIIII!!!!!”
Startled, Tamaki looked backwards at Nosaka who gave him a look as if he was about to murder him and then began to pantomine ripping apart his prized panda blanket with a knife.
“Welp. Guess it was time to shoot then. We’ll just go with this for today then” Tamaki thought to himself.
WHATEVER KICKKKKKKK!!!
Ripping forward with sonic booms, the ball barreled straight for the goal head on as two defenders quickly rushed to the sides of the Red Matador goalkeeper. The two defenders began to make strange circular movements with their hands while the goalkeeper pounded the ground with his hands making an intricate and formidable basilica emerge from below.
LA SAGRADA FAMILIA!
[GOAAAAAAAAAAALLL!! I HAVE NO WORDS!! OUTEI TSUKINOMIYA IS COMPLETELY DOMINATING!!! WILL RED MATADOR BE ABLE TO MAKE A MOVE AT ALL THIS GAME OR WILL THEY REMAIN HELPLESS THE REST OF THE MATCH?!]
“Finally earning your keep Tamaki. I was worried that we were wasting club funds feeding you those useless panda mochi snacks all the time!!”
Tamaki slouched over while the tall, silver-haired boy next to him slapped him on the back roughly. Giving him a languid look, Tamaki closed his left eye while giving the other boy a look with his right eye and replied
“Mehhh. I’m doneeee todayyyy. Now gimmeeee some snacksssssss Ryouheeeiiiiii”
Turning deadpan, Haizaki groaned and covered his face with his right hand in frustration.
“I spoke too soon. Gah. Whatever, go switch out! At least you didn’t score an own goal this time...”
“Shoullllldddd I?”
“NO! Now switch out already!!”
Pushing the white-haired boy, Haizaki couldn’t relax until he saw Tamaki roll himself up in his panda blanket and plop his body on the bench for sleep. He was enough to finish up the rest of the match.
***
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[AND WITH THAT, OUTEI TSUKINOMIYA WINS 11-0 WITH A TOTAL, PERFECT VICTORY OVER THE RED MATADORS! It looks like ‘PROJECT MARS’ will be all over the news today!! JUST WHAT WERE THOSE MYSTERIOUS ‘DARK KESHINS’ WE SAW BEING USED TODAY AND WILL ANY TEAM BE ABLE TO STOP THEM IN THE HOLY ROAD FINALS!! LET’S FIND OUT WHEN HOLY ROAD RETURNS IN TWO WEEKS! SIGNING OFF AND GOOD NIGHT!]
Nosaka walked forward and curled his lips up cruelly at the fallen Red Matador players who were collapsed on the floor as if they were dead. Patting the defeated captain gently, Nosaka leaned in to whisper,
“I don’t have to say anything do I?”
Then, standing back up he caught up with Haizaki as the two walked back victoriously.
This was just the beginning.
Project Mars has begun.
Part 1 FIN