Hakuren Outdoor Field, Two Hours After the Raimon v Hakuren Practice Match
Serika gave a dubious look at Suzaku who was mumbling something while touching the soccer ball in front of her with a stick. Today, she seemed to be wearing some sort of Greek-styled white dress along with a golden brooch, bright green wig and a golden laurel crown.[1] Watching her move the ball in front of her in random patterns, Serika thought she could hear the older green-head mumbling something like
“I see…power of light…goddess…do it like this….”
She knew Kenji had called her the supposed ‘best dribbler’ in Japan but she was starting to have some serious doubts about joining the two Eisei midfielders for training and began to think about how she even got in this mess in the first place.
One Hour Ago
“Ughhhh”
Plopping herself on the ground, Serika recalled her plays in the match just minutes ago.
Olympus Harmony!
“Sorry, but I won’t lose to dribbling like that!
Serika couldn’t believe that such a normal looking girl had managed to steal the ball from her, and so easily at that. As the center midfielder, it was her job to connect the defense and offense but at this rate…She wouldn’t be able to keep up with the other Holy Road finalists and Raimon would be eliminated in the first round meaning the opportunity to play on the same field as Mika would disappear as soon as it began…
Clenching her fist, Serika tilted her head downwards making her long, blonde hair cover her eyes. She needed more strength, so that no one could stop them. She would just have to keep practicing that hissatsu Aphrodi had shown her before leaving for the training camp. By the end of this training camp, she was sure a genius like herself would be able to master it.
Hmph. Flipping her hair back, Serika put on a facade of confidence knowing the hissatsu was surrreee to come to her easily.
30 Minutes Later
“HAHAHAHAHA. Oh my god!! What is THAT supposed to be!”
Bursting out with tears, Haruka held her stomach while pointing her finger mockingly at Serika who was red faced at being caught in the middle of her practice by the rival midfielder.
Flipping her hair to hide her embarrassment, Serika countered back
“I suppose a brainless cat like you wouldn’t understand what a genius such as myself is working on. I guess I’m just on a different level that you can’t comprehend”
“Oh you’re on another level all right! It’s just so low that I think I’d need binoculars to have a chance of seeing it”
Moving forward, Serika put the back of her hand on the other girl’s forehead which Haruka quickly slapped away while bristling
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Serika tapped her chin while muttering to herself
“That’s strange, you don’t seem to have a fever…”
“I’m not sick you stupid penguin!”
Tapping her index finger along her skull, Serika retorted casually
“Not sick on the outside at least, there might be something else wrong up there for all we know”
Finally at her breaking point, Haruka’s white hair started to fly upwards and she turned her face upwards to stare down Serika, who received her glare and countered back with her own as lightning seemed to spark between the two girls.
“Is this a clash of souls I smell? YOHOHOHO”
Popping up in between them, appeared a bundle of vibrant green hair that was clearly a wig that was attached to a girl only slightly shorter than Serika, whom she recognized as Eisei’s ‘Vermillion Bird’ Suzaku. Clearly, she was just as strange as her profile picture seemed to indicate.
Getting uncomfortably close to Serika, Suzaku stared deeply into Serika’s pink eyes for a long five seconds before checking out the rest of her body. Feeling a shiver run down her spine, Serika pushed the other girl away before yelling
“Who gave you permission to look at me?”
“Hmm, yes yes yes. I think you would be a perfect fit for a Nefertari cosplay![2] How about it? Are you interested? I can teach you everything you need to know! It’ll be perfect, I’ll be Nami and you can be Nefertari! We’ll totally rock an Alabasta arc photoshoot! I already have the other Straw Hats signed up and Nefertari is the last person we need!”
“What?! No! Why would I do something like that, only commoners would be interested in something like cosplay! Besides, can't you see I’m busy practicing something here?”
“Oh you mean ‘Heaven’s Time’? But at this rate you’re going to be here for months trying to learn it.”
“Excuse me?! I think you forget who you’re speaking to. My name is Serika Afuro, Raimon’s Angel and genius midfielder!!”
“Yeah, but do you even know what type of hissatsu ‘Heaven’s Time’ is?”
“Do you?”
“I can figure it out~”
“...”
Not sure whether or not to believe the red, no, green-haired girl in front of her, Serika dreaded admitting it, but she had already been practicing it for a week without any progress while Aphrodi refused to give her any more hints telling her to work it out herself. If she really could give her a hint then…
Sensing a moment of weakness, Suzaku decided to strike and gave a victorious grin that resembled the Cheshire Cat.
“So are you interested? I’ll help you and all you have to do is sign here and become the last member for the next anime convention in Tokyo with my team”
Swallowing a gulp, Serika shut her eyes tightly and fiercely scribbled her name on the girl’s phone while warning her
“However, if you can’t teach me properly, then the deal’s off”
“Of course! Pleasure to do business with you Afuro-chan. Or should I just call you Vivi?”
“I’ll grant you the honour of calling me Serika so don’t ever call me Vivi!”
Present
Serika would never admit it, but she did have hope that the Eisei midfielder would be able to give her some useful advice considering the skills she had shown off during their match against Raimon and Hakuren but after showing her one video of Aphrodi using ‘Heaven’s Time’ in a pro-league match, the girl had just crouched down and begun mumbling to herself ever since.
She knew she shouldn’t have had any expectations of a cosplayer.
Getting up, Serika got ready to leave when she felt someone tug her uniform. Looking down, her pink eyes were met by the yellow cat eyes of the other Eisei midfielder who had stuck around for whatever reason.
“You’ll regret leaving now, everyone else has too”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I guess you really are as stupid as you look. Just because she likes anime and manga a little more than most people, everyone calls her a creepy weirdo and treats her like some sort of pariah. Why should Suzaku-nee have to change or hide who she is just because you all have some sort of twisted prejudice? At least Suzaku-nee is honest about what she likes while ‘adults’ lie and pretend to like things they hate.”
Looking at the shorter white-haired girl who had wrapped her arms tightly around her bent knees and had hidden half her face in her arms, Serika paused and was about to speak when she heard an exclamation of joy from Suzaku.
“Got it!”
“?!”
Serika checked her watch, it had only been an hour and she said she ‘got it’?!
Stretching her arms out, Suzaku smiled widely and replied
“Yup, this should be good enough for practice. Let’s try it out, come on, you and Haruka try to steal the ball from me”
Half in disbelief and half curious whether the Eisei midfielder had actually managed to figure out the dribble hissatsu, Serika just nodded and moved to steal the ball while Haruka got up quickly and followed behind the blonde.
Face turning serious, Suzaku raised her right hand slowly in the air and snapped her fingers sending out a wave of light in tune with the snap that turned the world gray. As Serika and Haruka froze, Suzaku effortlessly walked past the duo and snapped her fingers again, retracting the gray light and creating a tornado that blew both of them away.
HEAVEN’S TIME~
Getting back up from the ground, Serika looked in front of her where Suzaku had disappeared and then behind her where she saw the girl appear as if she had just frozen time. Gritting her teeth in frustration, Serika knew that meant she had succeeded. How? She was supposed to be a genius, even Uncle Aphrodi had said so! And yet, that weird otaku, no, Suzaku had only needed one hour…
“Ta-Daaaa, cool right?”
“.....”
Serika fell silent as Suzaku looked up expectantly, waiting for her to respond. It seemed…that right now at least…she wasn’t as good as she thought she was. Looking up with determination in her eyes, she shouted
“Please, teach me how you did that.”
Giving her a thumbs up with her left hand, Suzaku tapped her chest with her right fist confidently before replying
“Of course, that’s what I’m here for! You’re not leaving until you can do it perfectly!”
5 Minutes Later
Having calmed down and waiting for Suzaku to get some glasses to “make her look smarter”, Serika and Haruka were sitting down while Suzaku stood in front of the duo.
“So, why don’t you tell me what type of hissatsu ‘Heaven’s Time’ is Serika?”
“According to some analysts ‘Heaven’s Time’ is a form of hypnotism that lures their opponents into a trance while some say using the divine power of the gods the user actually freezes time. Frankly, neither seem plausible to me and Uncle Terumi didn’t bother to clarify. If I had to take a guess, it’s similar to ‘Olympus Harmony’ and uses some sort of dribbling technique to mimic the freezing of time”
Satisfied with that answer, Suzaku pushed up her fake glasses and explained
“You’re on the right track, you can think of it as a natural evolution of ‘Olympus Harmony’ which uses beautiful dribbling in order to distract the opponent. Now, Serika, do you know what the sympathetic nervous system does?”
“Of course I do, the sympathetic nervous system is the main system involved in triggering the body’s ‘fight or flight’ response in response to external stimuli…Wait…So…”
Realizing that she had picked up the hint she had laid down for her, Suzaku proceeded with her explanation.
“Exactly. In most scenarios, when exposed to a threat we either A) Fight B) Flee. However, what about animals that freeze up when exposed to a threat so powerful there is no option to fight or flee. Giving up, they numb their brain by shifting brain activity from the ventromedial prefrontal cortex to the periaqueductal gray region in order to reduce mental trauma and initiate a ‘freeze response’ essentially shutting down their brain’s response to stimuli”
Waving her hands in confusion, Haruka interrupted the two who had quickly become drawn into their own world.
“Hold up, hold up. What does any of this have to do with learning ‘Heaven’s Time?”
Not looking at Haruka with derision for once because she was so intrigued by Suzaku’s explanation, Serika summarized it for her concisely.
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“In essence, ‘Heaven’s Time’ is an evolution of ‘Olympus Harmony’ where the user uses god-like dribbling that is so perfect, anyone who faces them simply shuts down and freezes up, meaning that for the opponent, time has in fact “stopped”. The snap facilitates this, by drawing attention away from their feet in order to better establish the illusion that their dribbling can’t be followed.”
Clapping her hands excitedly upon realizing that Serika had comprehended everything she had wanted to convey, Suzaku followed up saying
“Yup! That’s why Serika was stopped so easily by Darika-chan in the practice match. She has good spatial perception and positioning but her dribbling doesn’t match up at all with her brain. It’s clear that she was taught all the fundamentals by Coach Afuro but she’ll need more than that if she wants to keep up with the rest of us in the Finals.”
“Well I could’ve told you that at the beginning without all that fancy talk, there’s a reason I call her Penguin Princess after all”
Hearing Suzaku voice her exact thoughts aloud and Haruka expound on her point, Serika was a bit miffed but knew the two girls had a point.
“So what’s your plan?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Giving the ball a light kick to Haruka who stood up to receive, Suzaku gave her one command.
“Crush her”
“Finally, that’s the best thing you’ve said all day Nee-san!”
Turning towards Serika who was looking at the two bewilderedly, Suzaku replaced her glasses with sunglasses and took a whistle out of her pocket.
Tweet Tweet
“Get to work, soldier! No lazing around for you! If you can’t beat Haruka at least once then you might as well give up on ‘Heaven’s Time’ right now!”
Tweet Tweet
“You heard her Penguin Princess, might as well pack up and go home now! There’s no way I’ll lose the ball to a beginner like you!”
“Hmph, if it was Suzaku then it would be 30 minutes but since it’s you, I’ll only need 15 to take the ball back!”
Both having confident grins on their faces, Suzaku watched as Serika and Haruka charged each other in the middle of the field. They both had good expressions, judging by their current playing, they would both improve a lot over the course of the training camp at this rate. It looks like she’d have to do some secret training of her own if she wanted to maintain her role as the main female lead of the story after all.
Current Time, Opposite Side of the Field
“So there’s 3 main classification of defenders that people use to simplify the different types of defenders, there’s 1) Power-type 2)Speed-type 3) Balance-type. They’re basically what they sound like and it’s important to know what category you’re in when you first start playing so you can know what you need to focus on while you’re training. You’ve already seen Hakuren’s Katata in action and he’s the perfect example of a balance type while I’m a speed-type for reference and your teammate Gabriel is a power-type. You’re pretty tall and you seem to be pretty built so I’m guessing you’ll be suited for a power-type, center back position. Whaddya think? ”
Galahad blinked a few times trying to follow along as Daigiichi enthusiastically did a crash course on defenders after they had agreed to meet up to practice and frankly he was feeling a little embarrassed about how little he knew about the defender position. Not sure of whether he’d be more suited for a power type of balance type position he raised his hand to pause the other boy who was getting ready to continue his monologue.
“Does it matter whether I pick power-type or balance-type right now?”
“Mmm, not really to be honest. Most people will just fall into the balance-type if they’re not very confident in either their speed or power and you’ll be training both anyway. It’s just a matter of whether or not you want to focus on a certain defensive style or specialize in certain hissatsu types and you can always change later on”
“I see… then I guess I’ll go with the balance-type for now”
“Alright, but like I said it won’t matter for the first few days of our training because it’s pretty obvious that you don’t know anythingggg about being a defender. I’m guessing you played as something else right? Maybe…midfielder? No wait! Don’t tell me, were you a forward?”
“Yeah, how could you tell?”
“I knew it, that’s how most forwards are when they get assigned as defenders! It’s really funny, you guys are like fish out of water, just bumbling around trying to follow the ball like a zombie hahaha. Well, not aniki! He’s awesome at everything, you know one time when Doi got sick during our match against–”
By now, Galahad was getting used to Daigiichi getting easily distracted and engrossed in random topics, especially if Seiryuu got brought up so he just sweatdropped as the Eisei defender began to ramble. Based on Daigiichi’s stories, Seiryuu was basically a god which annoyed Galahad more than he would like to admit but he still hadn’t figured out a way to get Daigiichi to stop once he started storytelling so he just waited patiently until the other boy was done.
“Oh yeah, where was I? Anyways, you need to change your mindset now that you’re a super awesome, best position (well best position except for striker) in the entire world, DEFENDER. You’ve definitely built some good lower body and core strength but you’re completely wasting it! Like earlier today, I thought my heart was going to explode seeing you rush into that shoot like some sort of headless chicken!”
Hearing Daigiichi critique his performance in the earlier practice match, and basically call him a daft idiot made him feel double rubbish since Daigiichi wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed himself but thinking back to the match, he knew he had a point so he continued to sit sadly while Daigiichi went off on him.
“People think being a defender is just being aggressive all the time and rushing after the ball like a mad dog but that’s only one part of our job. Really, what you need as a defender that’s different from a midfielder or forward is patience. Waiting for the opponents to make a mistake or when they’re at their weakest and then strike. You want to pressure the opposition but don’t lunge for the ball too early. That’s the mistake you made when you were stopping ‘Ice Tornado’, the only reason ‘Total Eclipse’ worked was because you used pure power to stop it. It worked today but you can bet that it wouldn't work against Aniki!”
“What was wrong with my timing?”
“Everything! It’s just the basics, the two time points where a shoot hissatsu is most vulnerable to a defensive hissatsu is right when they’re about to strike and they haven’t put all of the power into the shoot yet or waiting for the moment right before the shoot is about to enter the penalty box when the shoot has lost the most amount of power. Between the two options, the first is more likely to succeed but you have to be careful if the striker has their guard up because they could lure you into a feint if you’re not careful. Since you have the power and right build, you were able to stop ‘Ice Tornado’ but you’re wasting your strength by trying to defend it when it's at its strongest and it’ll only hurt you in the long run if you continue to blindly run into other shoot hissatsus like that.”
Typing up mostly everything that Daigiichi had just said into his phone, Galahad gave another look at the black haired boy standing in front of him with a look of newfound respect. He knew that JYSA had ranked him as the second best Jr.Youth defender in Japan but he truly hadn’t realized the work that had gone into it until now.
Meanwhile, Daigiichi took a glance at the taller blonde who was shining with a blinding yellow light of admiration that made him stick his nose up with glee. It really was worth all that studying last night! Feeling the need to brag a little, put his hands on his hips victoriously and looked sideways to look cooler while asking the other boy
“Impressed arentcha?”
However, watching Galahad begin to give a little clap of awe Daigiichi began to feel sweat run down his back as he started to stress. What was he supposed to say after this? He was starting to forget everything that Hiroaki had told him to say after this point in the lecture. AHGGG. This is why he never did well on exams, his only strategy was to study the night before the exams and then the things he needed to know never seemed to stick in his brain long enough to be of much use. Panicking as Galahad looked at him with continued expectation in his eyes, Daigiichi began to stutter.
“Y-Y-Yes so as y-y-you can see. Only when a d-d-defender studies as much as myself can—”
Oof
“Don’t mess around you little brat. I knew it would end like this so don’t worry. Nee-san will handle the rest, for a price that is…”
Daigiichi looked up at relief and then horror when he followed the hand that had just landed on his head to the person that it belonged to.
“Hiroaki-nee!! What are you doing here?”
“Saving your sorry butt from embarrassing the rest of us. Now move over, it’s my turn”
Watching Galahad move over to make space for Daigiichi and Hyun-Ki who had followed Hiroaki over to the two boys, Hiroaki took a look at the 3 of them, specifically Galahad unsatisfactorily, and pushed up her glasses while sighing.
“Sorry about this kiddo here, he’s still got a lot to learn so I hope he hasn’t been too much trouble”
Waving his hands in front of him, Galahad assured Hiroaki that it was the exact opposite.
“No, no no, he’s been a lot of help actually! I’m pretty new to all of this defender business so I have a lot more to learn than Daigiichi does.”
Giving a wry smile at this, Hiroaki pushed up her glasses again to hide her satisfaction at his response. Daigiichi was so innocent that she was worried at first that Galahad was just another person with malicious intentions but it seemed that at the very least she could trust Daigiichi's selection of friends for himself.
“Yes well, Daigiichi tends to defend based on his instincts rather than with his brain so pretty much everything he told you just now is something he can do without thinking about meaning he won’t be of much help to a beginner like you.”
Hearing Hiroaki’s explanation for while she had intervened in their practice, Galahad took another glance at Daigiichi was rubbing his nose with a sheepish grin on his face. The gap between their skills was getting larger and larger the more he learned about him…
“What’s most important for a defender, especially a centerback like you, Galahad-kun, is to always be reading where the game is going, and being conscious of where the ball is as well as the attackers and your own teammates. As the centerback, while you aren’t the playmaker you’re still the player that establishes from where a play is going to begin, making your role the most important among the defenders.
I saw in your data that you used to be a forward right? That must be why you kept insisting on keeping the ball in play like an idiot when you should have just kicked the ball out. As a defender, your job is to protect the goal. You’re not skilled enough to do anything fancy so if the ball is going to be stolen or you need to stop enemy pressure just kick the ball out as far as you can and leave the creative stuff to the attackers, got it?”
As Hiroaki continued her lecture, she continued to get angrier and angrier with her voice getting louder correspondingly until she was basically shouting. Thinking back to their previous matches, Hiroaki felt particularly aggrieved that everything she had just said that Daigiichi was supposed to be doing as centerback ended up as her job because he couldn’t be bothered.
Now on a roll and unable to be stopped, the three boys silently sat there while she finally let everything that was bothering her off her chest.
“And what were you THINKING just rushing into the Hakuren offense like that after recovering the ball! If you see an area so congested like that, it’s impossible to play securely through the middle without risking ball possession for a newbie like you!!! You’re putting more pressure on your goalkeeper playing the way you are now!! GAH! AND YOU!!!”
Unable to find an opportunity to interrupt the older girl, Daigiichi, Galahad and Hyun-Ki sweatdropped and continued listening to her until the sun began to set.
After Dinner, Hakuren Hotel
“Ahhh that was refreshing~~ I won’t even charge you for that one, it’s on me”
Feeling a bit disgruntled after having his ear chatted off by Hiroaki for almost the entire afternoon, Daigiichi gave her an unhappy look in the recreational room where the Eisei, Hakuren and Raimon members had ended up gathering.
In the meantime, sitting in some bean bags at one of the corners of the room, Galahad, Serika and Mika were busy discussing the results of their individual practice during the day.
“Ughhhhhh.”
Letting out a loud groan, Serika was lying upside down on her beanbag with her feet in the air doing some sort of strange dance with her feet as she recalled the smug smile Haruka had given her after successfully keeping the ball away from her the entire day.
“That stupid cat!!”
Righting herself up and slapping her cheeks until they were pink, Serika took a look at Mika who was sitting thoughtfully upright in her bean bag and Galahad who was checking out the notes he had written on his phone. Curious as to what Mika had been up to the entire day, Serika tapped the other girl’s knee with her foot and asked
“How about you, any progress today Mika-chan?”
Snapping out of her thoughts, she gave Serika a soft smile and tilted her head slightly before replying
“Mmm. Training with Seiryuu has been much more fruitful than I had initially anticipated. However, I’m still lacking something…”
A little annoyed that Mika had decided to train with the Eisei forward before she could ask her if she wanted to train together, Serika puckered up her lips in annoyance at hearing the Sieryuu’s name brought up and muttered
“I could help you too if you asked me…”
“What did you say, Serika?”
Twirling the bottom of her hair with her index finger, Serika continued to mumble but slightly louder this time.
“Just…if you wanted me to, I guesssss I could take some time in my schedule to help you out. Only if YOU wanted me to though, I’m completely busy myself as you can see training ‘Heaven’s Time’ so it would be inconvenient, but I couldddddd make an exception for you since we’re friends after all”
“That’s alright Serika, it’s more important that you train with Haruka and Suzaku-san for now. I believe Seiryuu already has plans to take me hiking through the mountains tomorrow anyway.”
Falling from the bean bag hearing Mika’s stone-cold reply, Serika flipped her hair back twice in dissatisfaction before climbing back onto the bean bag and deciding to give Mika a resentful look for the rest of the night.
Galahad, who had been drawn to the conversation upon hearing Seiryuu’s name, opened his mouth to speak before closing it realizing he was in no position to be criticizing the other boy considering his own performance today and sat back down in the bean bag unhappily. Seeing this, Mika half tilted her head to which Galahad waved it off and distracted her.
“Have you guys seen the match between the Youth Urawa Red Diamonds and Kashima Antlers today? I watched it during dinner with Daigiichi and Yukimura-san showed off a completely new hissatsu that was pretty ace.”
Nodding nonchalantly, Mika typed on her phone before bringing up the match to show Galahad.
“You’re talking about ‘Panther Legend’ right? It was indeed an excellent hissatsu debut and final match for Yukimura-san considering he also announced after the match he would be transferring to a Pro team in Germany in a few weeks.”
“Really? I had heard the rumours but I didn’t know he had announced it officially already.”
“Yes, you can see—“
Ding Ding
Getting a Line notification, Mika paused to check her phone before standing up alongside Serika who seemed to have gotten a message at the same time. Looking down at the blonde boy who was still resting in his bean bag, Mika explained
“Tsukishiro created a group chat with the female players and instructed all of us to go to the Onsen today in order to accelerate the muscle recovery process. I have heard that the Hokkaido hot springs are particularly superb so we agreed to meet up after dinner when Tsukishiro notified us”
Sticking her tongue out at Galahad, Serika decided it was the perfect opportunity to mock Galahad who looked a bit lonely being left by himself.
“Yeah, it’s not Co-Ed either so don’t get any weird ideas about following us Servant Boy”
“I wasn’t planning on it Afuro-San!!”
“Sure you weren’t! Byeee~”
Grabbing Mika’s hand and pulling it lightly, Serika rushed the black haired girl so they could catch up with Hiroaki, Haruka and Suzuku who were already waiting by the door for the Raimon girls.
Watching them leave and the door close silently behind them, Galahad went back to looking at his phone but felt the rec room was a little deserted now that half of the people who were in there had left. Sighing he went back to reading his notes that he had taken while Hiroaki was monologuing :
Rule One
1. Defenders have to give attackers no time to think and no space to attack.
Rule Two
“?!”
Galahad’s eyes bulged while his hands started to fly around as he felt himself flying through the air and landing atop the bean bag that Mika had just been on a few minutes ago. Looking backwards he saw a boy with blue and green eyes looking at him expectantly after jumping with full force onto the bean bag Galahad had previously been sitting on. Sighing with amusement, Galahad reoriented himself before asking the other boy
“What’s up Daigiichi?”
“I’m bored, go get Hyun-Ki and let’s go too!”
“Go where?”
“The onsen obviously! If we’re lucky, the snow monkeys will show up and we can play soccer with them in the hot spring!”
“Aren’t the snow monkeys only known to show up in the Nagano prefecture hot springs?”
“Not these ones! We came last year and played with them after training almost every day!”
“Hehehehe, that does sound interesting. Monkeys would be a most worthwhile source of inspiration for my next chapter…”
“What the—, Hyun-Ki when did you get here?”
Looking at the bespectacled boy who had popped up behind Galahad’s head and joined in the conversation, Galahad put a hand over his heart to calm himself down while the other boy shrugged nonchalantly.
“I’ve been here the entire time watching you all from the fireplace”
“You were inside the fireplace?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
Stunned by his logic, Galahad blinked a few times and decided that this was just typical Hyun-Ki while Daigiichi grabbed the two and started dragging them to the door.
“Since we’re all here then let’s go!”
Hakuren Onsen
Ahhhhh
Letting out a deep sigh, Galahad relaxed deeper and deeper into the hot spring until only his eyes were left above the water. He felt like he was turning into his granddad who went with his nan to the onsen almost every week before they passed away. Maybe because he had been more stressed than he realised or the Hakuren hot springs were really that special, but the water did indeed seem to have a healing effect as he felt all the tension in his muscles leave his body.
Closing his eyes, Galahad was determined to block out the noise from Daigiichi who was currently swimming in a nearby spring after becoming crestfallen seeing that his monkey friends weren’t present in water today. However, only a few minutes later he heard a loud shout from across the wall followed by some wailing that sounded suspiciously familiar. Reopening his eyes Galahd looked towards the wall that separated the men and women’s baths in concern only to hear a snide voice come from across the bath.
“Trying to take a peek, you pervert? I guess it’s true when they say it’s always the nice ones that are the most twisted. What an a****le”
Turning his body to look at who had spoken up, Galahad narrowed his eyes until the steam cleared a little only to see the Hakuren co-captain, Ryoga Katata, looking at him with disgust.
Attempting to explain himself, Galahad stood up quickly to argue back
“What! No! Didn’t you hear that noise! I was just worried something had happened!”
“Sure pervert.”
Hearing the commotion, Daigiichi swam over, walked out and jumped into the pool beside Galahad to defend him.
“Galahad isn’t a pervert, Katata-san!”
“He’s only interested in the Ojou-sama!”
“......”
Facepalming, Galahad felt his face start to get red and thought he was going to faint. He had just wanted to relax for a little while….and why did everyone think he liked Mika?!”
“Would you all shut up or am I going to have to sew all your lips together myself?”
The Raimon, Eisei and Hakuren boys all looked upwards at the deep voice that came from the spring above them that Seiryuu had taken over and was presiding over like it was his personal territory. Looking at them haughtily, the blue haired boy stood up and made his way to leave the springs when he paused when in the middle of the spring that Ryoga, Galahad, Daigiichi and the others were in. Turning to face Ryoga, he smirked before saying
“Don’t worry about the pervert, he doesn’t have the guts to peek”
Eyebrow twitching at the immature remark, Galahad stood in front of the Eisei captain and warned him in a low voice.
“Don’t get cocky just because Mika is tolerating you right now…”
Brushing aside the blonde youth, Seiryuu replied
“Mika isn’t weak enough to need your protection and if you have something to say why don’t you prove you’ve got the skills to back it up on the field. As far as I can see, you’re just a dead weight dragging a talented player down.”
“What the hell Seiryuu!”
Rushing over like he was about to attack the taller boy, Ryoga angrily began to foam at the mouth like a rabid animal.
“Don’t waste your time with this piece of garbage, you’re going to be fighting ME in the Holy Road Finals and I’ll show you who's REALLY the best player in Japan!!”
Not even paying attention to the Hakuren defender, Seiryuu attempted to climb out when he felt a hand pull him backwards as Ryoga went in for a punch. Twisting his body while he was falling Seiryuu was about to do a spiral kick to deflect it but both Ryoga’s hand and Seiryuu’s foot were caught by two pale hands.
“WHO THE HELL–”
“Ah, jeez. What troublesome kouhai…Can’t you see you’re bothering everyone else here?”
Yawning, a lean young man with spiky navy-blue hair that had two strands hanging from each side of his face and teal eyes let go of the two teens before giving them all a harsh look of disapproval.
Bowing his head immediately, Seiryuu respectfully replied
“My apologies, Yukimura-san”
On the other hand, Ryoga didn’t appear sorry at all and put his arms behind his head before following up
“Yeah, yeah. Sorry sh**ty senpai”
Taking another look at the blue-haired man, Galahad was surprised to see that it was in fact the famous ace striker for the Youth Kashima Antlers that he had just been discussing with Mika and Serika an hour ago.
Feeling a bit disgruntled at having to stop such a petty fight, Yukimura decided to complain while he kept the Jr.High players prisoner.
“Jeez, can’t a guy catch a break around here? I finally come back to Hakuren to relax for the first time in a year before I head off to Germany and check in on my Kouhai and what do I see? Tsukishiro leaving the team in the hands of this crazy animal. Luckily for all of you here, Tsujo-kun was kind enough to inform me what was going on before anything escalated so why don’t we stop it here for today? Got it?”
Seeing Ryoga stare daggers at him behind Yukimura, Leonidas took out his table and quickly wrote up
[My apologies, Katata-sama. You already have two disciplinary strikes with the school so I thought it would be prudent to call over Yukimura-san”
Letting out a noise of disgust, Ryoga simply got out of the spring and began to walk out while Leonidas followed behind him and seeing this the others similarly began to disperse. Motioning to Daigiichi it was time to go for them as well, Seiryuu hopped out of the spring and began to walk towards the exit when Yukimura called out from the spring.
“Hey Seiryuu, if you ever get bored playing in the kiddie pool then we’ll be waiting for you in the Pro League. I saw your practice match against Hakuren today, if you can keep up with Tsukishiro-san then you should have no problem in the big leagues.”
Watching the Eisei striker give a slight nod of appreciation, Galahad clenched his fist. If Seiryuu was getting acknowledgement from the Pros already then he was going to have to work even harder than he was right now in order to catch up…
Leaving the onsen shortly thereafter, Mika and Serika saw Galahad from a distance walking back to the hotel leading to Serika waving and calling out
“Servant boy, hey servant boy!”
However, lost in his own thoughts about his plan for the training camp, Galahad kept walking without hearing the calls from Serika and quickly began to increase the distance between them until he was out of their sight.
Eyebrows furrowing, Serika turned to Mika who was next to her and quizzically asked the other girl wondering if she had mistaken someone else for Galahad,
“That was the servant boy right?”
Despite her initial concern that the “Sad Galahad” from before had made a return, after taking a closer look at Galahad’s eyes, Mika realised that there was a resolute spark in them that hadn’t been there before. It looked like she was going to have to work hard to level up as well before he left them behind in the dust.
“I wouldn’t be worried about him Serika, come on let’s go. An early and sufficient rest is necessary for optimal efficiency during practice”
Beginning to jog, Mika waved her hand to which Serika sighed and began to follow behind, hiding a smile growing on her face. This was everything Serika had hoped for and there was no way she was going to let anyone take this happiness she was feeling right now away from her…