Disclaimer: I own nothing from Inazuma Eleven/Go
If there was one word Hakuba could use to describe Seidouzan, it was 'pleasant'. Unlike what many might think given that it has one of the strongest soccer teams in the country coached by Gouenji Shuuya, the former Seitei of the Fifth Sector, the people in the school were nice and friendly. Despite being a school that only accepts talented students, there is no arrogance in the atmosphere, a stark contrast to Teikoku. Hakuba shook his head to rid the memories of his former school.
With a grin, he placed the final touches on the drama prop. Given that the school's festival was coming up the next day, his class had agreed to set up a drama to perform on the first day. Then, he'll be joining the soccer club for a practice match against Raimon on the second day of the festival.
Turning to the class monitor, he gave her a thumb's up. "All done, Kikue-san. Just need to set it for the paint to dry."
"Hm, you've outdone yourself this time." Kikue grinned, returning the gesture. Over at her side, the actors and actresses were practicing diligently. Everyone else was either with their club activities or helping up with the remaining props.
Glancing at the clock, Hakuba realized that he had to go now or he will be late for soccer practice. "I have to go now! Don't touch the props that we painted until tomorrow."
"Got it!"
Hakuba grabbed his bag and slid the door open only to be met with flour flung at him.
"Flour Bomber!" Kikue shrieked as a masked guy flailed around, making strange squeals at his success before running off.
Hakuba only managed to spit out flour and gasped. "Now I'm going to be late for practice."
"You're late, Hakuba." Gouenji chided him when he finally showed up.
"Sorry." Hakuba mumbled as he took his place on the field. Everyone shot him curious looks but stiffened their reactions when they noticed his expression and the flour in his hair, putting two and two together. During the break, Kurosaki approached his kouhai with a sympathetic smile.
"The Flour Bomber got you too?"
"How did you guess?"
"You still have flour in your hair." Masaki pointed out. With an annoyed growl, he said, "It has been two weeks and no one has been able to catch that Flour Bomber! He bombs flour in our faces and run off. No one could catch him. So far, nearly everyone on the team has been flour bombed. Even Saginuma-coach was bombed." He sighed and then became determined.
"But, I will find a way to catch him if it is the last thing I do!" He declared, pumping up his fist. Fire seemed to appear behind him, scaring Hakuba and Kurosaki. The former scooted closer to the latter with wide eyes.
"This is the first time I've seen Masaki-senpai like this." Hakuba whispered at his captain.
"Me too." Kurosaki admitted.
"Oi, you two!" Masaki rounded at the both of them, startling them. "Are you going to help me catch this guy?"
"Um…" Kurosaki and Hakuba exchanged uneasy looks.
"I still have to work on some of the props for our class drama after school…" Hakuba tried to talk his way out.
"And I have to work later after practice." Kurosaki added slowly. "Nee-san said that she'll only help our class with our café preparations if I did an extra shift today."
"Fine." Masaki huffed and punched a fist I his open palm. "I'll catch this guy myself!"
"Should we be worried for him?" Hakuba asked his captain softly.
"No." Kurosaki shook his head after some thought. "Masaki is not the kind of person to do anything ridiculous. If he wants to catch the Flour Bomber, he'll use common sense."
The Next Day
"…I take that back."
Kurosaki stared at the team's goalkeeper with his mouth gaping wide open. Beside him, Hakuba and several others from the team were in a similar state of shock. In front of them, Masaki was dressed up in a tuxedo, which they understood as his class was preparing a butler and maid café…but what stood out was the tux was glittering orange. Also, he was carrying a portable speaker and mic.
"Hey! I'm so afraid of the Flour Bomber! He'll probably mess up my tux." Masaki yelled into the mic. "The flour will mess up my suit and I'll have nothing to wear for my class's café!"
It just so happened, Gouenji was passing by the classes to check out the events each class was doing for the festival. However, he had to do a double take to confirm that the person carrying the speaker and mic was his goalkeeper.
"…Masaki, what are you doing?" Gouenji finally found his tongue.
Masaki hooked up the mic to the speaker and turned to his coach with a triumphant smirk. "I'm trying to lure out the flour bomber. I wore this so that the Flour Bomber will have no choice but to bomb me. And when that happens, I'll wrestle him to the ground and we'll finally have him. Most importantly, I want to know why he's doing this."
"Why is knowing why he's doing this so important?" Hakuba tilted his head in confusion.
"I just want to! Okay?" Masaki huffed and resumed yelling out in his speaker while walking down the corridor.
"Ok…" Gouenji trailed off, not able to say anything more. He glanced at his other players, thankful that they are still sane. "And what are you guys doing?"
"Just watching Masaki-senpai trying to lure the flour bomber out." Tsutsumi shrugged. "Then we have to help our classes with our class activities."
Gouenji sighed as he continued watching the goalkeeper make a fool of himself. All this to lure out the flour bomber…
As much as he agreed that something had to be done about that guy, he felt that Masaki was taking it too far.
"Hakuba! Bad news! Bad news!" A voice rang out from the opposite side of the corridor with hurried footsteps.
"Kikue-san?" Hakuba frowned, turning around just as Kikue skidded to a stop in front of him and grabbed him by the collar.
"It's a disaster! A disaster!" She shook him hysterically.
"W-whap-p?! W-alp's p-pon-g-g?!"" Hakuba stumbled over his words, unable to breath or speak properly with the shaking.
"Kikue-san, let him go. He needs to breath." Hyuuga sweatdropped while prying the class monitor off a dazed Hakuba. "Now, slowly tell him what's wrong."
"The tree and the gravestone props! They're ruined!" Kikue cried, flapping her arms frantically.
This snapped Hakuba out of his daze and he cried out in horror. "What in the world happened!?"
"Himeko tripped and spilled paint over the tree prop! And Io fell down over the gravestone and flattened it!"
"Oh my goodness." Hakuba lightly slapped his cheek in disbelief.
"You need to salvage them now! There's only two hours before the play starts!" Kikue grabbed Hakuba by the wrist and pulled him back in the direction she came from. However, they did not get too far before the same masked person from yesterday jumped out in their path and bombed flour onto Kikue's face, causing her to stop suddenly in shock. Hakuba could not stop in time and accidentally crashed into her, sending them sprawling on the floor. The masked person jumped around in his ridiculous dance and ran off.
"NO!" Masaki yelled into his mic as he dashed forward. "Don't bomb her! Bomb me!"
"Forget that!" Kurosaki slapped his forehead. "Help them up!" He said as he and Tsutsumi went over to help Kikue and Hakuba up. "Are you two alright?"
"I think so." Hakuba grimaced as he dusted off the flour off his clothes. Seeing his class monitor's sorry state, he paused to help her but she pushed him away.
"I'll be alright. Go and fix the props before we're doom!"
Seeing his hesitance, Kurosaki placed a hand on his kouhai's shoulder. "Go. We'll help Kikue-san."
"Alright." Hakuba reluctantly nodded and ran off to his class.
"We better get out of here before we get bombed." Koizaki muttered as he turned to leave the place.
"Relax." Hyuuga threw a friendly arm around his shoulder. "We should be safe. The Flour Bomber only strikes once a day. That's something everyone knows."
But just as the words left his mouth, the Flour Bomber jumped out from the corner and flour bombed them.
"Not again! Why can't you just bomb me!?" Masaki threw the mic down on the floor in frustration.
"What was that about only striking once a day?" Koizaki deadpanned at Hyuuga who let out a sheepish laugh.
"…Sometimes he strikes twice."
Another day skip…
"But why?" Masaki punched the bench in frustration. The team was currently getting ready for the practice match by warming up. "Why would he go around the school Flour Bombing people?"
"I don't know why he wants to do it. But I can tell you that that flour is irritating to wash off." Koizaki grumbled as he and Kurosaki, Hyuuga and Amase joined him to take a quick drink of water before they went back to the field. Hyuuga nodded in agreement to that testimony though he's less bothered by it.
Kurosaki sighed and looked around. He frowned when he realized that someone was missing…
"Has anyone seen Hakuba?"
Everyone instantly forgot about the Flour Bomber and looked around, realizing that said defender was not around.
"Not since he left to fix his class emergency yesterday." Masaki frowned with a shake of his head.
"Sorry I'm late!" Hakuba called as he joined them at the bench, panting heavily.
"Try not to make it a habit." Kurosaki lightly chided him as they allowed him to plop down on the bench and catch his breath.
"I can't help it." Hakuba groaned as he rubbed his hair. "My classmates and I spent half of the night trying to get Kikue-san's head out of a bucket and cleaning up the props and the mess."
"What…?"
"Don't ask." Hakuba cut in with a huff.
"You look like you already warmed up. Do some light stretches and get ready." Kurosaki nodded at Raimon who were already getting into position on the field.
Taking a deep breath, Hakuba nodded and followed Masaki out to the pitch. Up at the center, Kurosaki and Tenma shared a brief handshake.
"I'm glad that we get to play again, especially today." Kurosaki greeted them. "After the match, you and your friends can enjoy the school festival."
"Hai!" Tenma replied enthusiastically. "I really want to finish our match from the Holy Road finals! You and your team are so strong which will make this match fun!"
Kurosaki chuckled lightly. "Indeed."
They nodded at the ref who nodded back and put his whistle in his mouth. The moment he let out a sharp whistle, the Flour Bomber jumped on the field out of nowhere and flour bombed the ref!
"What!?" The Raimon team gasped. The Seidouzan team were however ticked off by this. This was their chance to have a full match with Raimon and it was being interrupted again! By the Flour Bomber no less!
"Lend me the ball for a second!" Kurosaki suddenly stole the ball from Raimon and kicked it with all his strength at the Flour Bomber who was trying to run away. The Flour Bomber saw this and instantly jumped away. The ball continued its path and smashed into the divider that was fencing off the field, leaving a medium size crater in it. The Flour Bomber let out a cold sweat and ran in the opposite direction.
"You're not going to get away with this!" Masaki ran up to him to intercept him with fire in his eyes. This made the Flour Bomber yelp and backed away, only to be met with Tsutsumi and Koizaki blocking his way.
Behind the mask, the Flour Bomber's eyes darted around nervously at the three Seidouzan players who were closing in on him. In a ditch attempt to get away, he spun around and leapt over the dividers, hoping to get a clean get away. But he did not anticipate the petite figure jumping at him and knocked him down, dazed.
Hakuba let out an impressed whistle as he and the other players leapt over the divider. "Who knew you had it in you, Kikue-san."
Kikue, slightly dazed from knocking down the Flour Bomber, scrambled off him and allowed Munemori and Kurei to haul him up, trapping him so he won't run away.
"What's going on?" Endou whispered at his best friend who was torn between feeling proud that his players finally caught the Flour Bomber or exasperation at how they handled it.
"Long story short, we had a Flour Bomber running around the school flour bombing people." Saginuma answered for him with a satisfied grunt.
Easy for him to feel proud of his students, Gouenji thought. He was a victim of the Flour Bomber before.
"Take his mask off!" Snapping back to where his players still had the Flour Bomber captive, the blond coach felt just as curious as his players as to who the Flour Bomber is so he ran over to join them but stayed behind the divider.
Kikue had the honors of yanking his mask off and threw it on the ground, revealing a boy around their age.
"Aha…!" Masaki yelled and tried to come up with a name for the unfamiliar face of the Flour Bomber. Everyone, including him, frowned when they realized that they had never seen him before.
"Who's that?" Amase cocked his head at his captain who only shook his head for he felt just as confuse as they were.
"Hey who are you?" Masaki finally demanded.
"I'm Goro. Goro Toru." The boy shrugged. The game was up, no point in resisting.
"Do we know you?" Hakuba enquired.
"Nah. I go to Itazura Jr. High." Goro clarified.
Everyone exchanged glances at this. This would certainly explain why no one could catch the Flour Bomber. He was not part of the student body all this time.
Masaki then decided to ask the question he was dying to ask. "So why are you flour bombing people in our school?"
"I dunno. Just bored I guess. My school's on semester break and my mom bakes. So she had a lot of extra flour." Goro shrugged again, waving the empty container which held flour before. Seidouzan's students' jaws were wide open at his offhanded, lame excuse.
"Ok…" Masaki trailed off. Several school guards arrived on the scene having being alerted by Saginuma to haul Goro off the school grounds. Munemori and Kurei were going to hand him over to the guards but Hakuba held up a hand to stop them.
"Hold on. There's something I want to do." He pulled off the last container of flour from Goro's belt. He passed the container to Masaki. "Please do the honors."
"With pleasure." Taking cue, Goro's captives released him and took a step away just as Masaki flung the flour into Goro's face.
"Now, you finally know what it feels like to be Flour Bombed." Hakuba laughed with his friends.
"If you are done with your revenge," Gouenji cut in as the guards hauled off Goro. "We still have a match with Raimon to play."
"Right!" The Seidouzan players happily headed back to the field to resume their interrupted match with a now confused Raimon.