A/N: This took place a few days before Gouenji met little Tenma and gave him the soccerball. I've always found it weird how he actually gave Tenma that ball AFTER he was done perfecting his hissatsu technique and BEFORE Endou and the others came. The hell is up with that? Well, can't argue with hyperdimension soccer logic. Don't get me wrong, this is my favorite anime and I wouldn't want it any other way. Just sayin' xD. Also, I've posted this on my wattpad account before. I just remade it and posted it here! Do enjoy~

I may or may not put this as part of my other story, The Origin of the Flames, when I reach that part in Okinawa (for who knows when) but I assure you that you DO NOT have to read that to understand this.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything! I'm poor!

= That One Beautiful Sunset =

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!" A powerful scream coming from a mysteriously hooded young man accompanied by a raging soccer ball that hit the goal post disrupted the silence of an open soccer field. Not that it actually affected anyone since the field was only surrounded by trees in the first place.

"Something's... still missing..." said the young man wearing an orange jacket and brown pants, catching his breath.

Although he didn't want to, he needed to take a break. Exhaustion was not exactly the cause. There was still something missing to his new hissatsu technique. He knew it lacked something but he couldn't tell what.

He sighed and grabbed the soccerball. Without looking for a particular spot, he lay down on the empty soccer field. He raised the ball to head-level and stared at the perfectly drawn lightning bolt on it. After a few seconds of silence on that position, he closed his eyes subconsciously putting the ball on his right side. He let the memories of why he drew that lightning bolt seeped onto his mind. He saw flashes of the precious time he spent with his teammates and friends whether they were practices, matches, tactic discussions, or even just hanging out with them. He couldn't express enough how much he missed all of them so much. Then, the pain of the last exchange of words he had with his bestfriend reached him..

Gouenji, you… are you really leaving?

Are you really going to leave like that?

After losing to them…

Aren't you upset?!

After they tore apart our school and did that to our friends…!

Gouenji!

Sorry, Endou.

I can't fight with you.

Gouenji…

Make sure… you come back!

"Endou…" he mumbled quietly. 'Everyone, please wait for me a little longer,' he said in his thoughts.

Now filled with enthusiasm, though hardly showing it, Gouenji stood up immediately before he even opened his eyes again, or atleast that's what he planned on doing but instead…

Chu!

He was surprised on what he saw while he was still partially up, of which of course meant that only his upper body was. A brunette right at his face, or more precisely, at his lips!

For some reason, his brain failed to absorb what's happening at that moment. Even at his frozen state, the beautiful sight beheld his eyes. He saw the most beautiful violet-pink ovals he had ever seen. He thought it was like lavender and sakura flowers mixed together in perfect harmony, with pink overtaking the other color making them a dark shade of it. They were mesmerizing enough to keep him in a sturdy and uncomfortable position for three seconds straight. He never remembered liking both colors but as it stood, he could even call them his favorite now.

The colors were apparently just at the tip of the iceberg because right now his senses were taking in a very alluring aroma right now. He felt calm for a scent of vanilla indulged his brain, taking all of his problems with it. He felt his tensed muscles softened. His eyes, his nose, even his lips. He felt something soft there. He knew he did. Before he even tried to find out what was or were the soft thing or things his lips were pressing, he was pushed back by some powerful force focused on his chest, making him fall on the ground, again. Luckily, the hood of his jacket didn't fall off with him.

"What do you think you're doing?!" A figure of a girl shook him back to his senses. He found it hard to see because of the sun behind her. Gouenji partially got up again trying to block the light that had made its way on both his eyes.

He finally stood up on his feet, now having a better view of the girl. He didn't fail to notice the brush-up brown shoulder-length hair caressing her shoulders from time to time as it swayed because of the faint wind. The falling strands from her head was at the same shade of the many leaves falling on mid autumn. He found it interesting how death could actually be inclined to beauty. It looked so soft to him that he even wanted to touch it. He did realized it wasn't the best move to make at the moment.

It didn't took long before he deducted that the two of them are of the same age. She wasn't as tall as him but she was close, only short of two inches even without adding his hair to the equation. Other than her height, everything else, including facial features and how she handled herself, suggested his deduction to be correct.

She was wearing a violet sando designed with cute little scattered soccerballs which appealed to the ace striker greatly. Who would've thought someone could look 'cute' while wearing printed soccerballs. It was complemented with a slightly dark pink jacket on top of it and her jogging pants with the same color.

The relaxed feeling he had, faltered the moment his light obsidian orbs met hers. Hers, as beautiful as they were, showed fiery rage. If that wasn't enough to completely get him out of his trance, her threatening and fierce voice made sure to snapped him out.

"S-Sorry. What was that again?" With all his honesty, he still hadn't realized what he actually did. All he knew right now was that this young woman in front of him was upset and he had to do everything in his power to help her. The first thing he planned to do was listen to her, although unbeknownst to him, he already ignorantly failed at it.

"I said. What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Clearly, she was enraged. He could even see it on the thick red streak on her face, or was that embarrassment? It was honestly hard to tell.

"What? Me? I wasn-" he stopped and his brain processing finally came to life again. He knew now the cause of her lashing and wanted to make up for it at all cause. Technically, it wasn't his fault, it was obviously an accident but he just really wanted her to calm down. Seeing her angry like this made him feel.. weird. It somehow made him angry at himself too. He couldn't tell what it was exactly but he definitely do not want her angry, especially at him. "I'm sorry. I really am sorry. I didn't mean to do that, I swear," he bowed with all of his sincerity hoping it was enough. He knew it was a long shot but it was the only thing he could think of doing. He finally stood his height only to find a disbelieving scowl on her face. He knew it, she wouldn't believe him. Well, at least he tried.

"Tch. This is what you get for checking on 'unconscious' strangers, huh," an obvious annoyance showed on both her face and her voice but was immediately replaced with a taunting smirk. "So, is this supposed to be a prank? Am I supposed to laugh now?"

"I-uh," he was taken aback. How could dark features reside on her peaceful looking face. The worse part of it was how he was actually the one responsible for it. She certainly was beautiful, he admitted. It pained him so much to be the cause of such a crime. He stared at her apologetically while still looking for the words that could make her feel better. He certainly was feeling the guilt now.

"Fine then, this is what we'll do. I'll reach for your arm here, take you to the police, and then-"

"What?! You can't do that," he took a few long steps back before she could even try to reach his arm.

"Excuse me?" She raised an eyebrow while crossing her arms.

"I mean, I'd rather that things won't come to that. Please," he calmed down immediately and bowed again. He really was pleading now. The gesture wasn't just to ask for sympathy, he knew well he couldn't be found out. It dawned on him how dire the situation was becoming. Going to the police was surely the last thing on his to-do list.

He was suddenly reminded by Detective Onigawara's words before he was left here. 'Until we ensure the safety of your sister, you'll have to hide here on Okinawa. To make this operation a success, you must only interact with Hijikata and his siblings. The best place to hide is in the crowd, afterall.'

He definitely cannot be found out. He raised his head and continued, "Everything was just a misunderstanding. Please believe me." He bit his lower lip. This is definitely gonna be a problem. Everything he have gone through all this time, the pain of being away from his friends and family, would all just disappear because of a freaking accidental kiss. He couldn't even get himself to be angry at her. She didn't know anything, that much he could be sure of.

"Ohh. Now, you have manners. Explain," she ordered him but he didn't mind at all, for some reason. He was even willing to comply, if it wasn't for the fact that he couldn't. He knew what she was asking and it was that one thing he couldn't tell, besides his identity of course.

He looked at her as earnestly as possible. "I can't," he finally answered painfully, gritting his teeth. He saw her face shifted slowly to a relaxed state, ending up with an almost poker face. 'Finally,' he added in his thoughts while not purposely mirroring the change on her features, with a relieved sigh. She wasn't smiling yet but he thought this was at least a start. Wait. Since when the hell did he decided he wanted to make her smile?

She then crossed their distance with three swift steps and stopped directly in front of him. She stared directly at his dark-colored orbs. To say that he was shocked was an understatement. He could hear his own heartbeat. But that sound didn't reflect fear. It didn't happen often but he knew how his heart beat when he's afraid. Rather, this sound was somewhat the same as whenever he plays soccer in an important match, not to say that there was a match in his life that wasn't important. That intense thump coming from his passion of the sport, the excitement from fighting stronger opponents, and the pride of showing everyone all their hardwork as a team. It sounded all so similar to what he could hear at this instant and God knows why he was hearing that right now, he just hoped she couldn't hear it too.

He also felt the heat travel up his face because of her intense stare. He knew so well how his cheeks are in a much darker shade of red than hers earlier and this do not please him one bit. He even realized his throat had gone dry and found that dehydration was the most possible reason, all while ignoring the others of course. That was quite the most uncharacteristic thing he've done today. What took mere seconds seemed like an eternity to him, in a good way.

She finally released him from the wonderful torment by taking a step back, "You don't seem to be lying." He watched her adorable analyzing face amused, adorable to him at least. "But.." she continued. She immediately took the soccerball he left on the ground using her right foot. She balanced it perfectly on her knee after kicking it. "What about we do this instead," he watched in awe as she skillfully played with the ball with her feet and bounced it on her head. "Why won't we play a little game?"

He blinked in surprise to this. Not much on the mentioned soccer match, he could see that she's definitely owning every boys who were reigning the soccer field, mostly to the fact that he hadn't heard anything about someone as skillful as her in the Football Frontier, "What kind of game?"

"One-on-one. First to make two goals wins. This is my goal, that one's yours," she calmly said while pointing at the goalpost on her back and the one opposite her, respectively. He nodded smiling. Her way of talking reminded him of himself. Short but powerful. Hence, it always got the point across.

They placed the ball at the very center of the field, positioning themselves with equal distance from it as each other. They were both way farther in front of their goals yet still showed that they were going to protect them no matter what. "After three," she added.

1

2

3

"Now!" They said in chorus after hearing the imaginary whistle that blew in their heads.

They both got onto the ball immediately and kicked it at the same time. Gouenji overpowered her and took possession of the ball but she immediately got in front of him and won't let him get passed.

'I may have more power but she's way above me when it comes to speed and balance,' Gouenji thought while still trying to get passed by sidestepping, of which he failed at. She stole the ball and ran on the other side of the field going even faster than before. He tried to chased after her to no avail. Because of her amazing speed he didn't make it in time and she scored the first goal with a normal shoot. It was a normal shot but saying that it was anything normal would be lying in Gouenji's mind. The shot was a bit sideways, favoring her right foot and giving her whole body's power on it. He estimated that it equaled the power of his fire tornado.

"That's one for me. I guess I know now why you need training," she said in a monotone making the striker flinched.

"I'll get it next time," he answered with a resolved tone. "I think I'm starting to see it," he quietly added to himself rather pleased.

She now placed the ball at the middle of the field again, both now in position. Right after it's time, she immediately snatched the ball and started running but to her surprise it's him that's blocking her path this time and he won't let her pass.

'What?! Don't tell me he purposely let me get the ball first!' She thought slightly annoyed. 'No matter, he won't get the ball from me,' then she jumped high above him.

The platinum blond saw it and he described it as 'like the earth itself pushed her up!' He's convinced that she might actually be a Goddess since even Mother Nature was apparently on her favor, both on her looks and techniques. She reached the ball and kicked it while in mid-air with a tilted overhead shot.

'Amazing!' He thought astonished, "But you won't score." Gouenji immediately stopped the ball with his left foot before it flew to the goal and shot it to the other side of the field adding the force of her kick and straight to the goal. She didn't have time to react since she haven't landed yet and the ball was coming too fast.

'What power! He shot it from the other side of the field yet it didn't even slow down,' she added in her thoughts, amazed by him. "That's a really powerful shot. Too bad power isn't the only thing used in soccer," she said softly to herself smirking.

"You're not bad yourself," he answered smiling genuinely taking what she said as a compliment. He didn't miss her flinched slightly at the thought of him overhearing her monologue, it was quite amusing. He shook his head very slightly, he shouldn't be thinking of other things while he have a game to win. 'The way she moved earlier, what if…' he told to himself while having his right hand on his chin and walking away.

The ball and both of them got to their positions and stared fiercely at each other. It's almost sunset and the place is getting more of a darker orange every second. Suddenly a tensed breeze filled the air around them but it didn't scare nor make the two hesitant, in fact they even felt overjoyed. Overjoyed to be against a strong opponent ofcourse and some other weird feeling in their guts that was kinda making their lunch turn upside down. It was one of the longest 3 seconds of their life.

"Now!" Both shouted and ran to the ball. It was a long and steady fight, none of them were planning to give up. Each time the other gets the ball, the other gets it back.

'Is he matching my speed?!' She thought while the ball was once again stolen from her. "Give that back!" She said annoyed.

"Sorry, can't. I have to win remember?!" He teased while running the pitch.

"Grrr!" She growled while running and once again got in front of him before he got in front of the goal. "I won't let you pass!" She shouted.

"Let's see about that!" After saying this a demon-like creature suddenly appeared behind him and threw him up with its hand. He got to the ball that flew away earlier and shot it exactly the way she shot the ball in midair before. She froze in amazement and watched the ball go straight to the goal accompanied by intense fire.

"I guess you have my thanks for helping me with that move," he said sincerely after landing on his feet with ease.

"Flames?" She thought while ignoring what she heard. "Y-You're Okinawa's Flame Striker?!" She said surprised.

He was caught speechless. He remembered Hijikata mentioning a rumour about some mysterious hooded figure shooting with flames by the places where he trained. They both concluded it must be him since it only started to spread when he started training. 'Shit,' he cursed himself while mentally facepalming. Now, he was sure he couldn't get out of this.

She noticed his reaction and the masked suffering she guessed he was experiencing. "Anyways, you've won. I won't bother your training anymore," she said purposely changing the subject while looking away. She now steadied her eyes at the sunset while hiding some few shades of red on her face of which the other didn't fail to see.

"So, that's it. Not even a sorry for shouting at me?" He said with a sincere smile after walking to stand by her side.

"Don't push your luck…" she softly said with a faint smile, still failing at hiding her face from him that was now redder than before and made Gouenji laugh softly.

"What are you laughing for?!" She shouted at him annoyed.

"Nothing," he said with a warm smile that made her growl again.

They both fell silent but it wasn't an awkward one. They watched the sun together on its last moments of existence for the day, it was mere seconds before it sets.

"Can I know your name?" The platinum blond broke the silence. These words of his made her blush even more but she still tried to kept her composure and answered while still looking at the sleepy sun just beyond the trees.

"I-Isn't it rude to ask someone else's name before giving yours," she managed to answer.

"Oh. Right. Well, my name is-" he stopped at the middle of his sentence. The brunette looked at him warmly. "I can't…" he managed to say while giving her an apologetic smile.

"I know you can't," he looked at her with confusion. "Mr. Flame Striker has a reason for wearing a hood. Even an idiot can tell you're hiding," she added. It's now her time to give him the warm smile.

He felt his face warm up on that. That was one hell of a smile. 'She's a real smart one, too,' he added while answering her with a thankful smile.

"Ranko… that's my name," he, again, flashed her a shocked expression. It honestly just showed on his eyes yet she understood what he's portraying perfectly anyways. "I need to go, Mr. Flame Striker. Until next time," she looked at him unemotionally.

He took it as disappointment of not knowing his name. It hurt him a bit but he knew the mention of his mere name to hers could put her on danger. He was reminded of his sister who was held captive by aliens. If he ever got another loved one on danger again, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself for it.

He pursed his lips as he watched her back, walking away. Could he really accept the fact that they might never meet again. He definitely couldn't find her with just her first name, right? But he is from Raimon and they won the Football Frontier. She would recognize him, wouldn't she? But what if she won't?

Her distancing figure got him more anxious, which was saying something since Gouenji Shuuya do not get anxious easily. Every part of his being was shouting for him to call her back and to tell her his name. But he couldn't, he shouldn't. But she was a smart girl, she could handle herself. But they were aliens, even a grown bodybuilder or the smartest scientist in the Earth wouldn't be able to protect himself! 'Don't, Shuuya. Don't do it.'

"Wait!"

She looked back. Her violet-pink orbs focused on his hesitant ones. Then, silence reigned once again.

"It's okay. We're gonna meet again. I'm sure," she reassured him with a hearty short laugh that sounded like music to his ears. She completely understood. He was sure he felt his heart skipped a beat at that and now his throat was dry, again.

"Of course. I'll see you, soon," he managed to find his voice. "Then, I'll give you my full name. I expect to know yours, too, Ranko." He teasingly said. She could tell he was serious while looking at those sharp dark eyes of his and so she continued to walk away after waving with a smile. The flame striker waved back and watched her vanish in the forest.

"Until next time, Ranko," he said looking at her direction where she and the sun disappeared away to.

= Fin =

A/N: If you didn't know who she is, she's Arakumo Gakuen's (Amemiya Taiyou's team's) coach, Karibe Ranko. I've always been a shipper of these two. I found it impossible for them to not have an occasional 'talk' with Taiyou on the team. Gouenji seems to be somewhat close to Taiyou and of course the latter's close to his coach. So, of course THEY ALWAYS TALK! I love them together so respect~! Also, I found her extremely beautiful! Her adult version is the cover, btw!

Criticisms are highly appreciated~!