With the first week of school in the books, the Competition season can officially begin at Zonzai High. The sun is just starting to set on Roka Arena as students and the general public bustle about in the warm, evening air. The Club find themselves taking in the sights of the commotion of their first competition.
“D-do this many people come to see these thangs?” Mari nervously asks.
Yuudai looks around, “I’m kind of shocked that there are this many people here too.”
Rina crosses her arms. “Perfect! It’ll be nice to have a crowd around as we climb our way to the top!”
Katsuki walks up to Rina. “You can drop the act. There’s no one around, so you can be just as jittery as the rest of us.” She gestures to the other members, who appear nervous in their own way, save for Saito, who yawns.
Before Rina can answer a whistle rings out. The Paranormal Club turns to see Yamato, Aika, and the green haired boy walking over to them.
Yamato walks next to Yuuri. “If you guys look this shocked out here, wait until you see the matches!”
The green haired guy splits away from the group and slides over to Rina, “You know, these matches have a tendency to get real...hot!” He says, looking her up and down.
“And they can also be really lame, just like you Haru.” Aika says, dragging him away.
“Wait, I didn’t get her number yet!” he pleads to the shorter Vice President.
Kirika stomps her foot, “Did you come over here to be massive creeps? Or did you just want to break the rest of our bones?”
Yamato laughs, “We actually came to see if you wanted to come watch the match from our secret room.”
“All of us?” Yuuri asks “We’re a large group after all.”
Yamato nods, “There should still be plenty of room even with you guys in there!”
Kirika quickly turns away from the group, “You can count me out! I will not go into any ‘secret room’ with them!”
Yuuri thinks for a second, “Well, who else wants to watch the match from the stands?”
Cerys stretches, “Yeah, I’m watching this one from the stands. It’s hard to match the excitement levels watching from a TV.”
Suzaka jumps in, “Yeah! Nothin’ gets me hyped up like seeing a buncha other people hyped up!”
Hotaru holds up his notebook, “Watching from the stands should provide the optimal view to take notes on our future opponents.”
Katsuki nods. “If I’m watching super powers I wanna see them with no broadcast delay.”
Yuuri looks at the group forming around Kirika, “Wow...that’s a lot more than I expected. I guess we’ll split in half then.”
“That’s fine!” Yamato smiles. “We better hurry though, the match will be starting soon and we need to make sure we can see the opening ceremonies!” She looks over to the group heading to the stands, “And you guys will need to get your seats!”
Katsuki scratches her head. “Shoot! You’re right! Come on guys, we need to go now!” She begins ushering the group along with her as they make their way into the arena and find a way into the stands.
***
Due to their late arrival, the only section they manage to find is further up towards the top of the arena.
“Are these really...the best seats...we could get?” Hotaru asks, trying to catch his breath. “My legs...are a lot shorter...than yours.”
Suzaka looks at Cerys, who promptly holds a hand up, “Say one word and I will throw you off this arena.”
The group looks down towards the front of the stands, where a large following of people sit, all dressed similarly. Some hold up signs for the Idol Club, while others wave glow sticks about.
Kirie looks at the group confusedly, “There are a lot more people crazy about the Idols than they ever were about Soccer.” She thinks a bit more, “I still don’t know what the Idol Club actually does.”
“How is that even possible?” Katsuki asks her. “Even outside the school the Idol Club is pretty famous, and regardless you went to school with them for a whole year!”
“How does a Japanese girl not know what an idol is anyways? Are you from somewhere else originally?” Hotaru asks.
“Yeah!” Kirie’s smile begins to vanish once he looks at her, “I’m from...up North! We don’t have idols where I come from.”
Hotaru can’t ask a second question as cheers from the crowd erupt. The Idol Club takes to the field, making their way over to the stands where their fans are to greet them. Their opponents also enter the arena and begin stretching in the opposite corner.
“It’s startin’ already?” Suzaka asks the others.
Kirika pulls her phone out and checks the time, “I wouldn’t think so. We still have fifteen minutes left.”
Katsuki looks around the arena, “How did this place fill up so quickly, we don’t even have that many students!?”
“There’s not much else to do around here,” Kirie answers, “So the locals always come to watch!”
Suzaka nods, “I get it! It’s like seein’ a real life superhero anime!” Nods come from other club members as the only male in the Idol club starts to play to the crowd while warm ups are going on.
Hotaru observes the boy, “He does seem to enjoy showboating.”
“Eh, he’s kind of always like that,” Katsuki responds.
“Uh, how do you know that?”
“I already knew about them before I went here. Mako’s my personal favorite.”
Cerys watches the boy doing flips on the field, “Alright Haruhiko, show me what you’re capable of.”
Kirie looks over to the short redhead girl. “Oh you like Haruhiko too Cerys? I hope you’re ok with waiting. He has a lot of girlfriends already.”
Cerys gives her a quizzical look and Kirie continues. “I see him talking to different girls all the time.”
As the group deciphers another Kirie sentence, a whistle blows. The two clubs make their way to the far right side of the arena where a podium is being set up. Once both teams are in position, lights cut out, the waving glowsticks from the Idol fans providing light for that area. A single light soon shines down on the podium to reveal Roka in a fancy black dress.
***
Yamato leads her small group through the tunnels of the arena, the music above them pouding dully. They soon find themselves at a door guarded by the blonde third year of the Games Club.
“Sayaka, what are you doing?” Yamato asks.
She quickly responds, “Guarding the room. I was keeping an eye out for intruders.”
“Who told you to do that though?” Yamato looks at her with confusion before turning to Aika and Haru, who shake their heads.
“I’m fulfilling my role for Lady Gedou.” Sayaka gestures to Akina.
Akina’s eyes cut holes through the blonde, “Call me that again and I will find something to throw you off of.”
Sayaka bows deeply, “I apologize, Lady Gedou.” Aika shakes her head and moves past her to open the door. The group enters into a dimly lit room, the only light being provided by a wall of monitors, each with a different angle of the arena.
Haru takes advantage of the situation and slides back over to Rina, “Don’t worry, if you don’t like the dark, you can always stay close to me.” He snaps his fingers as sparks leap from them.
“Don’t worry, I can do that too.” Rina snaps her fingers, causing larger embers to leap off of them.
“Fire huh? It perfectly complements your cool demeanor miss…” Haru trails off, realizing he never got her name.
“Rina and don’t call me miss!”
He smiles, “Your wish is my command Rina.”
She walks away from him and scans the wall of monitors. “You guys have this place to yourself?”
Yamato grins, “Yep! It took us some time to get the cameras hooked up to the monitors, but now we can see just about everything in the arena!”
Yuudai also watches the monitor wall, “This is amazing!” He looks back at Yamato, “How’d you guys get access to this room?”
Yamato shrinks back a bit and she looks coy. “T-this was the original AV room for the arena when it opened, but when they finished construction on the press boxes, they moved it up. I helped them clean it out and sort of...kept a copy of the key for myself.”
“Then why are all these monitors here?” Mari asks.
“Well, when they finished the permanent AV room, they decided to get newer monitors to go with the cameras.” Yamato says, before leaning over to call out to the second year girl with short, brown hair sitting at a control panel, “How close are we to gametime Kyo?”
She frantically waves her hands up and down, “Everyone quiet! Roka’s on stage now!” The crowd quickly gathers around the monitors as Roka begins to speak.
Roka gazes from her podium, backdropped by a blocked off area of seating with a giant screen towering over the stands.
“Hello Japan!” The tiny principal exclaims, “Welcome to the third year of Zonzai High’s Competition series!” The crowd erupts into cheers, loudly pouring through the speakers in the room.
“To kick us off, we have the Idol Club up against the Yosakoi Club! Don’t expect these two to collab any time soon. There’s a buncha BAD BLOOD between them and we’ll see who comes out on top as they duke it out in a…”
Roka pauses as the screen behind her begins cycling through a myriad of options. After 15 or so seconds, it finally settles on the image of a soccer ball as fireworks go off behind her. Roka imitates the sounds of the fireworks, oblivious to the mic still being hot before finally finishing her sentence, “SOCCER MATCH!”
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The Games Club nods along with what Roka’s saying. The Paranormal members watch on in confusion.
“Is...this how all the competitions are decided?” Yuuri asks, “We find out when we go out into the arena?”
Yamato waves her hand, “Don’t worry! You get told what the competition is when you get to the locker rooms for game day. This is all just pageantry for the people in the stands.”
They turn back to the monitors as goals are being moved out onto the field and lines are being painted by the stadium crew dressed as referees.
“Let’s start off with tonight’s designated home team, the Idol Club!” Roka gestures to her right as a second spotlight shines down.
The crowd wildly cheers. “Tonight, everyone is competing so give it up for President Haruhiko Izumi and Vice President Eriri Motoba!”
The two students step out into the spotlight. Haruhiko, a tall boy with short black hair begins blowing kisses to the crowd while Eriri stands next to him, her long black hair getting caught in the breeze.
Yuudai hears a sigh next to him and sees Aika slowly fidget in place as she intently looks at Haruhiko, “Are you ok?”
Aika snaps out of her stupor and glares back at him, “Mind your own business!”
Roka’s voice comes back through the speakers, “On the other side, for team Yosakoi, we have President Hazuki Sekiya and Vice President Naomi Motoba!”
The two girls walk up on the opposite side of the podium as a third spotlight shines on them. The cameras pan over the two and a small blurb of their information appears on the screen.
“Clairvoyant… Flight…” Yuudai reads, “Wow that’s really cool!”
“Seems pretty simple to me,” Rina says with her arms crossed, “I don’t see what good flying or using clarinets will do in a fight.”
“Clairvoyant means to be able to see into the future, not play clarinets,” Aika scoffs, “Sheesh, use your brain.”
“I’ll be using my fists if you keep ta-”
“Hush, Rina,” Yuuri interjects, eyes locked onto the screen. Rina crosses her arms and pouts.
On the TV, Roka’s hands energetically fling upwards. “Okay folks, now it’s about time I explain the rules for Exploding Golden Goal! Good thing neither of these guys are against the Soccer Club!” Roka chuckles at her own joke while the crowd remains mostly silent.
The wheel wipes away and is replaced by a block of words and an image of a burning soccer ball. “The rules are as such! A slightly bigger than normal metal ball will be used to play with! It’s normal Golden Goal rules, the first team to score wins! Everything you know about soccer rules still applies here! But when a club lets that ball slip by…”
An image of the metal ball sliding into the net appears. The screen flashes with a large cartoony BOOM.
“The whole thing explodes! Why? Because it’s cool!!” Roka giggles, “The ball and nets are equipped with the latest goal-line technology, so there’s no way for a screw up to happen! Anyway, these guys have 45 minutes, one half, to get this done! In the case of a draw then both teams will LOSE!”
“Sheesh, kinda harsh eh?” Saito comments.
“Ah mean, makes sense,” Mari shrugs, “don’ wan’ no stall tactics inna spectacle ‘vent.”
“It’s nothing unusual,” Yamato says, “Roka is always coming up with rules and ways to keep the matches as exciting as they can be.”
“It really does feel like a new sporting event,” Yuuri mumbles.
Yamato turns to her with a smile, “That’s the aim of the game, Yuuri.”
“What do you mean?” Rina asks.
“Well, Zonzai is most of the country’s only exposure to the supernatural. The school wants to make us look fun, exciting, like a different kind of athlete with the promise of treating and raising us well enough to let us roam free in the rest of the world.” Yamato explains.
“Oh,” Rina says blankly, “Well I guess that’s cool.”
“Ain’t it jus’ gonna scare folks if’n they only see us blowin’ up shit’n punchin’ each other?” Mari asks, arms crossed.
“Ehhh, so far it’s not raised too many issues…” Yamato trails off.
“Hey, it’s starting!” Yuuri points to the screen.
***
“Three!”
The Idols are spread out. They almost manage to mimic a professional soccer team. Almost.
“Two!”
Hazuki calls out from the net to get her club’s attention. She gives them a thumbs up.
“One!”
Lucy places the ball at the center of the pitch and speeds off as fast as she can before being caught in the center of the battle.
“GO!” Roka exclaims at maximum volume.
The pink-haired Yosakoi girl whistles and kicks the ball upwards. Naomi flies up to receive the ball. She begins to juggle it with her legs.
“Ohh! Immediately going to the sky! As expected of Naomi’s hummingbird-like quickness!” Roka commentates, her voice echoing through the arena as it has been the whole day.
“Easy peasy!” Naomi sings while taking aim. She kicks the ball above her and flips upside down to prepare a bicycle kick before stopping. She gasps and ducks out of the way. A torrent of flames occupies the space where Naomi once was. The ball flies through the flames and hits the ground, now glowing a bit.
“Tch, too slow.” A red-haired idol says from below. She wiggles her arm as smoke comes off of it.
Naomi zooms back into the center of the camera, “Oi, Mako! Watch where you’re firing!”
The girl with the smoking arm looks over, “They weren’t that hot, don’t cry about it.”
“Hard to not ‘cry about it’ when I see a big ol fireball flying at me…”
Mako takes the ball up and begins cutting her way down the pitch. Yosakoi members attempt to intercept the ball or tackle her but she keeps her distance with organized flames. Parts of the pitch singe and burn from Mako’s retaliations.
“Yo! Makoooo!” A male voice calls out, “It’s me Haruhiko! Pass it on over here!”
Mako observes the scene and quickly passes to the pretty boy across her. The two are now storming down the field, some of their clubmates following closely behind. A Yosakoi girl with a sunflower in her short brown hair cuts off Haruhiko.
“Not so fast buddy, that ball’s mine!”
Haruhiko smirks, “I wouldn’t be so sure sweet stuff~”
“Sweet st- Wait that’s not gonna worr… work… aga…” She dazes and her words slur. A blush comes across her face, “Waahh… Haruhiko~”
“Ahhh man, not this nonsense,” Naomi mutters.
“Ohhh, it looks like Haruhiko’s charms have swooned over Makoto!!” Roka leans into the mic, “While under his charms, she won’t be able to do… much of anything!”
Makoto wibbles and wobbles around in place. Haruhiko moves on past her. He looks ahead to find an available player, but due to Makoto’s mishap, there are no other players in the open field. Mako calls out to Haruhiko from just outside the box.
“Right to ya, Mako!” He swiftly passes the metal ball to his fiery teammate. Mako receives the ball with her right foot and aims ahead at the net. She nails the ball with the side of her foot, sending it soaring towards the upper left corner of the Yosakoi net.
Pomf.
The ball lands square into Hazuki’s hands as she flops onto the grass below her.
“W-Woah!! A heroic effort by the Yosakoi keeper!” Roka exclaims.
“Man,” Mako sighs, “You’re not gonna make this easy are you?”
“Wouldn’t that, ngh…” Hazuki gets up to her feet. She smiles, “...be too boring for you guys? I thought I’d make it fun.” She holds the ball up over her head and hurls it over to a nearby defender on her team.
“This looks like it’s going to be much more fast-paced than your typical soccer match, everyone!” Roka calls out, “The ball means a lot more to these guys than it uhh...normally would!”
After the first shot, the play becomes much more back and forth. The ball makes its way up and down both sides of the pitch with members from opposing sides continuously taking shots at one another. Naomi’s attempts at another sky attack have been nullified. There are constant watches on her from the Idol Club. Similarly, the Yosakoi Club has been preventing all near attacks thanks to Hazuki’s incredibly accurate call outs.
“Ngh, this stalemate is making me fall asleep,” Naomi yawns and begins to descend back to the ground. On the way down a harsh invisible force sweeps at her legs, sending her down hard. She grips at her head, “Agh! What the…?”
“Be careful on your landing, sis,” Eriri says to the downed Yosakoi member. Naomi looks up into Eriri’s matching red eyes. “You could really hurt yourself.”
“I don’t exactly count on invisible forces projecting at me when I plan my flights,” Naomi snarks back, “Shouldn’t a referee be giving you a yellow or red card right now, Eriri?”
“You would be right, little sis,” Eriri brushes her ponytail behind her, a smile on her face, “But I don’t seem to see anyone out here designated to do that.”
“The ball wasn’t even anywhere near me!”
“Naomi, get up!” A voice calls from behind the two. The pink-haired girl from the Yosakoi club passes the ball within a second of her heads up. Naomi gasps and attempts to quickly struggle back to her feet. Eriri brushes by with a slight shove, or at least it appears as light. Naomi falls back down hard.
“Thanks for the pass!” Eriri runs ahead with the ball.
“Love you too!” Naomi mumbles, lying on the floor for a bit before her pink-haired clubmate helps her up.
“Yachiru, why’d you stay back here to help? You could’ve gotten the ball back.”
“That looked like it hurt, I couldn’t just leave you here.” She responds with a smile.
Naomi sighs, “...thanks.”
“The action is heating up! Sparks are flying and so is dirt!” Roka says. The timer in the stadium is now at the 25-minute mark. “The field is mostly still looking good, er, save for the several splotches of mud, dirt, scorch marks, and torn up grass! Actually it looks terrible, good job everyone! Our two clubs are really going at it to get this ball!”
The Idols begin to pick up some momentum. Eriri and Haruhiko have been putting in quite the effort into stun locking opposing forces. The other members of each club are more focused on whatever one on one matchup they’ve locked themselves into, with the ball being a second priority.
“Hup!” Eriri takes a shot at the net. Hazuki once again blocks the ball out with no effort.
Haruhiko clicks his tongue and suddenly feels a tug at his arm.
“Haruhiko, this isn’t gonna work,” his curly brown-haired clubmate tells him, “She’s calling our every attack.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” He responds.
“No, but like, I have a point here,” she continues, “We know Hazuki isn’t as athletic as some of the rest of us. We have to take advantage of that.”
Haruhiko nods and turns to the girl, “Alright Kotoha, what’s your suggestion?”
“Easy, we just have to perform an unrelenting attack!”
“Well, it makes sense but it isn’t going to be that easy. What’s your plan?”
Kotoha scans the field to see where the ball is before continuing. “Well, we just need to stack the penalty box, right?”
“That’s going to expose our defense, though,” Haruhiko says.
“Well, it’s gonna have to be an all-out attack, duh.” Kotoha replies, “If we strike hard enough, fast enough, and with enough numbers, we shouldn’t have to worry about defending a counter-attack.”
“I mean…” Haruhiko pauses, “I guess it can work. Have you filled in everyone else?”
Kotoha gives a thumbs up, “We’re all waiting on you to lead the way, prez!”
“Lead the way?”
“Yeah, we can’t beat the future sight girl so you’re gonna have to swoon her attention over.”
“...Alright, sounds good to me. I’ll make this quick.”
Haruhiko turns to Hazuki, his eyes burning with determination.
“Ohhh, there he goes,” Kotoha says to herself. She turns to her club and makes some sort of motion to let them know it’s happening.
“What, you gonna charm me or something?” Hazuki taunts the pretty boy.
“Aw c’mon, what makes ya say that?” Haruhiko asks with his arms out.
Hazuki puts her hands to her hips, “I mean what else can you do?”
Haruhiko clicks his tongue. “Well, it’s not like you can defend it anyway, my dear~”
Hazuki clutches at her chest and shuts her eyes. She had looked at him right in the eyes on accident, completely falling for his trap. She struggles, trying to keep her eyes closed and mind clear.
“Oh, it looks like I was right! Glad my attractive face and charming qualities are saving me once more.” Haruhiko chuckles.
The ball heads steadily towards the idols’ net. The Yosakoi club marches on, unaware of the reasoning behind the idols crowding the box.
The Yosakoi boy with the ball suddenly stumbles forward and loses control. An Idol club member with short brown hair grows up from the grass and kicks the ball over to her party.
“Oi,Renge! I could’ve stepped on you and killed you, you know!” The tall redheaded Yosakoi member yells to her.
“Yeah, but I’m way more careful than you think, so don’t worry.”
The Idol mob receives the ball and begins to make their rush to the left alone net. The redheaded Yosakoi boy grabs Renge by the leg. She reacts with a yelp, but suddenly she finds herself morphed into some kind of ball.
“Heads up!!” The boy yells as he throws the now ball-shaped girl into the mob. She crashes into them like a set of bowling pins. Upon contact, she poofs back to her normal shape. Her limbs smacking into unsuspecting members.
“W-Woah! Looks like a trump card was countered with a trump card! The Idols have all been bumped and rumped, they have no one on their feet right now except the flirty boy!!” Roka exclaims.
A more mature looking Yosakoi girl with her blue hair done into a ponytail picks up the now unattended ball and takes a quick shot to the Idol net.
Eriri grits her teeth and looks over at the net, “Karen! Plan B!!”
The orange-haired girl puts on a wide smile as she claps her gloved hands together.
“Finally, some action!” She exclaims, locking onto the ball, and pulling her fist back. Once it comes within mere inches of the keeper’s box, Karen delivers a swift punch. The sound of her fist meeting the metal ball rings through the stadium, as it rapidly soars across the pitch.
The redheaded Yosakoi boy yells out, “HAZUKIIIIIII!!”
It doesn’t help though. The ball slams into the opposing net before Hazuki can even look up. The scoreboard rings, the score now reads one to zero. And sure enough, there’s an explosion on the losing side of the pitch.
“Wow, that’s the game! Kinda anticlam… anticlum… boring.” Roka yawns, “But anyway, there you have it! Game, set, match! Your winning team is theeee Idol Club!!”