Were these Oumihara people seriously supposed to be soccer players? Every way Burn looked, all he saw were a bunch of idiots. A kid in front of him fumbled the ball. Over there, someone missed a pass. But the worst part-they weren't even trying! They didn't care they slightest whenever they made a mistake, and they kept marveling stupidly at Raimon's plays. In fact, all they were doing was goof off! Burn was so irked by Oumihara's actions that he didn't observe Raimon much. Not that he really needed to.

He wasn't the only one who was irritated by their airheadedness, it seemed, because Natsumi stood up to leave. The other two managers stood and grabbed onto her, pulling her back. He wished that he could leave.

With a sigh, he turned his eyes back to the sea of idiots scrambling about. Wait...one of them wasn't moving. Burn looked over to a kid with light blue hair, glasses, and headphones. He simply stood while the rest of his team messed around, his finger moving as if to a beat. To a beat...? He couldn't be... Burn laughed at himself. There was no way that guy was counting Raimon's rhythm.

Rika ran up, charging toward the ball. It was clear that she'd be able to get it. But then-

"Raise up the tempo! 8 beats!"

With those words from Headphone Guy, the guy on the other team was able to easily push past her. Did he say something about there being no way he was counting Raimon's rhythm? Oh. Never mind, then. That's definitely what this guy was doing. Burn was almost impressed-but as soon as the rest of Raimon figured out, all they had to do was change their rhythm.

Burn watched as Raimon's plays slowly started crumbling. The forwards charged past them easily, even avoiding Touko's hissatsu. However, the Aliea captain could tell as soon as he saw their hissatsu shoot that it wasn't powerful enough to break past Endou. Sure enough, he caught it easily with Majin the Hand.

Instead of being upset about their shoot being blocked, however, all of Oumihara's team burst into a cheer of "Yay!" In the distance, the coach congratulated Endou on his save. Burn sweatdropped. He didn't know how much more he could take. The celebration on Raimon's part was short lived, though. As soon as Rika got past Tsunami, their plays started to dissolve again. Burn sighed in disappointment. He thought that at least one person on Raimon would've been able to figure it out, but it looks like that was not the case.

Or...maybe one of them had. Burn caught Kidou staring at the Headphone Guy with furrowed eyebrows. The next time the game got paused, the goggles playmaker gathered all of Raimon's players around the goal, explaining something to them. Burn smirked to himself. At least one of Raimon's players was living up to his expectations.

After that, it didn't take long for Raimon to get the game back on their side again. However, the change in their rhythm was the same every time; Burn knew it wouldn't take long for Headphone Guy to figure that out. Oh well-the game was almost over, anyway.

Burn was honestly a little bit disappointed that he didn't get to play in the practice match at all. As he suspected, Headphone Guy had indeed been able to pick out the irregularity in their rhythm and been able to work around it. Raimon was still able to hold out, though, and in the end, they won. Endou had even grasped the edges of what could turn into a new hissatsu. Interesting, Burn thought. Very interesting.

At the end, though, the overly-friendly Oumihara team had prepared a barbecue for Raimon. Burn was not looking forward to that. Well, everything except for the food part. He was excited about that. Just not the forced socialization.

Still, he couldn't help but watch the antics of the others, drink in hand. Raimon and Oumihara had just fought against each other, but here they were, chatting it up happily with one another. In one corner, Kidou was talking with Headphone Guy about what Burn could only assume was his tactic. Tsunami and Endou seemed to be excited about something, because they were quite animated. Fubuki was even being hit on by the short Shell Girl.

It perplexed him.

His emotions must have shown on his face, because he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to face the Prime Minister's daughter. "Can I help you...?"

"What's with you, grumpy face?" ...Grumpy face? "You're standing out here by yourself. Aren't you gonna talk to anyone?" She tilted her head as she asked.

Burn stared at her, unsure if he should voice his thoughts. He took a sip of his fruit juice-which was actually quite delicious-and shrugged a bit.

"Well, come talk with everyone, then," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing ever.

Burn furrowed his brow. "I don't get it. You just fought against these people. Why are you all getting along so well with them?"

Touko looked at him as if he were crazy. "What do you mean?"

"It's just like I said."

"...Well...we're not playing against them anymore. After everything's over, we're all friends. I'm sure that's what Endou would say." She grinned upon saying the captain's name, but Burn could still see a hint of condescendence in her eyes.

"Touko! Come over here!" Rika suddenly called out from a short ways away, waving. Touko shouted a response and ran over to her friend.

Burn looked over at everyone else once more, scanning the crowd, but this time, he pondered Touko's words. Raimon was certainly different.