Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Inazuma Eleven GO/Galaxy.

Kurosaki stared in horror at her teammates who obviously heard everything. Hakuba was indifferent to it. Rather, he waved at the girl who was the cause of the mess the Seidouzan soccer team made at the door.

"Hey Cass."

"Hey yourself." The girl smirked and lightly hopped over the pile gracefully. She was clearly not fully Japanese for she had platinum blond hair which was tied in a braid bun despite having similar preriot green eyes as Hakuba. That and her accent was very thick. She was also wearing Hakuren's soccer jacket. She ended Hakuba critically. "You look better than last night. I can't believe you got uncle and aunty to trick me into joining Fubuki-kantoku and Hyouga-kun to watch the Holy Road finals."

"Hakuba, who's this? Your girlfriend?" Koizaki grunted from the bottom of the pile of the players who were scrambling to get up. However, despite being excellent soccer players on the field, they suck at untangling themselves when in a pile in Kurosaki's opinion.

Hearing Koizaki's question, the girl gagged while Hakuba spun away, pressing his hand over his mouth to suppress his laughter.

"Like I'd ever date him!" The girl stuck out her tongue in disgust.

Hakuba nodded seriously in agreement once he managed to get his laughter under control. "There's no way I'd date my cousin!"

All the other people in the room blinked in surprise and exchanged glances. The ones at the door then let out a shocked "EH!?"

Kurosaki blinked and then carefully observed the girl. Her eyes became wide when she realized who she is. "Wait, this is the cousin you have been talking about? Cassandra Hills?"

"The one and only!" Cassandra winked with a wave. "You must be Hakuba's captain. Nice to meet you…"

"Kurosaki Makoto."

Cassandra blinked and shook her hand. "Gracias for looking out for my estúpido cousin."

When Kuroskai became visibly confuse, Hakuba facepalmed again. "Don't mind her. She tends to mix Spanish in her speech when she's mad or agitated."

This perked the team's interest and Kurosaki eyed her curiously. "So you are…?"

"Half Japanese, quarter American, and quarter Spanish. And I was agitated at the fact that Hakuba was stupid, not at you." She quickly reassured her.

Kurosaki managed a smile at the younger girl's forthrightness. "I see."

"What are you guys doing?"

Instantly, the players jumped and realized that they were distracted by Cassandra that they forgot to untangle themselves from the pile at the door. Outside, Gouenji sighed at the clumsiness his team was showing. His eyes drifted to Kurosaki who adverted her eyes and to Cassandra who pointedly ignored him.

"Kurosaki, may I have a word with you?" He requested. The team quieted at this and remembered that Kurosaki was the only one who has not talked with Gouenji since the Holy Road finals ended. Figuring that things were awkward now, Cassandra lightly pushed Kurosaki to the door.

"Go on with him. I'll watch over him and get to know your team."

Her teammates gave her a look that said she had to go which left her little choice.

"Alright." She sighed. As she hopped over the pile, she gave them a pointed look that meant that they had to clear themselves up by the time she got back. They gave her a sheepish wave as she followed Gouenji up to the roof.

"Sit down." He gestured at the bench and Kurosaki did as asked. Gouenji did not say anything at first, but pressed a can of drinks in her hands.

"Thanks." She murmured and took a sip from it. "Is this supposed to be a peace offering?"

"You could say that." Gouenji gave her a wry smile. He frowned and sat down beside her. "I owe you an apology. I know that it looks like I was using the team for my own purpose. But I genuinely care for all of you and I want nothing more than for the team to experience the soccer that I love instead of the Fifth Sectors'."

"Hakuba said something along those lines." Kurosaki muttered.

"I'm not surprise." Gouenji said under his breath.

Kurosaki managed a smile and took another sip. "I can't say that I'm not mad at you for tricking us. But, I cannot deny that I enjoyed the match with Raimon even though we could not finish it…If that was what you were aiming for."

"Partly. I'm glad that you and the team don't hate me though." Gouenji smiled back. "There will be an afterparty at the former Fifth Sector HQ…"

"I know about it." Kurosaki cut in. "Yamato-kun told me about it."

Gouenji gave her a slight surprised, curious look. "Yamato did? When?"

"After the finals." Kurosaki shrugged and gave her coach a sheepish smile. "Now that he doesn't have to follow his father's orders and the Fifth Sector disbanded, he's actually a nicer person. I don't mind being friends with him after this."

Gouenji had a wry smile but did not comment on that. Inwardly, he was amused at what his student said for he knows something about Yamato that she doesn't. Deciding to bring back the main point, he spoke up. "So, the party will be at the main ballroom."

"I hope it would not be as formal as last year." Kurosaki sighed but her smile told the former seitei that she was only joking.

"It wouldn't." He promised. "Raimon and some of my old friends are taking over the preparations. So, the theme is more casual. Though, I recommend that you wear something nice if you want to win more betting cash." He said the last part with a knowing smirk.

"It was only that time!" Kurosaki rolled her eyes in protest. "Besides, I doubt that Masaki and the others are willing to risk their wallets again."

"You may be right on that one." Gouenji slowly nodded. "Even so, I do hope that all of you will enjoy yourselves. You have every right to after everything that happened today."

"We will." Kurosaki promised with a nod.

Later when Kurosaki went back to Hakuba's room, the atmosphere tensed for her teammates were unsure how to bring up the 'Yamato topic' without making things awkward. Fortunately for her, Cassandra got fed up with the tense atmosphere so she dragged Kurosaki out to hang out, promising her cousin to see him again before she went back to Hokkaido.

"Mah~ I'm not sure why your friends are tensed around you, but it was getting suffocating." Cassandra remarked when they were away from the hospital.

"Sorry about that."

Cassandra blinked at her and waved her hands dismissively with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I didn't mean to jab at you with that. By the way, do you want to go clothes shopping? I didn't bring anything to wear for the party tonight."

"Um, sure." Kurosaki nodded. She figured that she would joining in the shopping spree as well since she didn't have anything to wear at her parent's mansion and she didn't want to go all the way back to the school's dorms just to pick an outfit since it is about an hour's drive away from Tokyo.

"Magnífico!" Cassandra cheered. Noticing the blank look from Kurosaki, she gave a nervous laugh and scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry, I mean, great!"

Kurosaki could not help the chuckle that came out from her mouth then. "It's alright. So, where should we go to first?"

By the time they had found what they needed, it was two hours since they started shopping and Kurosaki was downright tired. They had hit at least five stores but it wasn't their fault that they couldn't find what they wanted that easily. Turns out, she and Cassandra shared the same taste of American style fashion so finding a store that suited that was hard.

"I got a ton of accessories with me so we can skip that." Cassandra casually remarked when they stopped at an ice cream store beside the local ice rink to rest.

Kurosaki managed a teasing smile. "Why do you have your accessories with you now but not clothes?"

Cassandra let out a small chuckle. "I always bring my collection of hair accessories with me. It just so happens that my jewelry accessories are part of the storage."

Kurosaki laughed at that. They sat in silence to eat their ice cream for a few minutes. As Kurosaki finished up hers, her eyes drifted to the ice rink. "I heard from Hakuba that you're good in ice skating."

"Just moderately." Cassandra shrugged modestly.

"Oh?" Kurosaki half closed her eyes in amusement. "I bet you are better than I would ever be."

"You never know until you try."

Kurosaki's eyes fell at that comment as she reminisced something. Cassandra noticed that her companion had fallen silent and frowned in concern. "Kurosaki-san?"

Kurosaki snapped out of her thoughts with a light intake of breath. "Oh, sorry, I was thinking of something."

"What?"

"The first time I went ice skating." Kurosaki replied with a wry smile. "A…friend of mine dragged me to the ice skating ring near Seidouzan. It was my first time and my friend was no better than I was. Needless to say, I have no desire to go ice skating again for a long time."

Cassandra stared at Kurosaki observantly and her eyes flashed incredulousness. "No way! You were on a date with a guy then!?"

Kurosaki nearly lost her grip on her ice cream and her eyes became very wide at the blond-haired girl. "W-what gave you that impression?"

"Your hesitance in calling your friend a 'friend'." Cassandra grinned.

It was then, Kurosaki saw the similarities in Hakuba and Cassandra. She inwardly groaned, silently loathing the family's observant trait and shrewdness. "…Alright, it was a one-sided date. I was dragged by my so-called boyfriend to a date in the ice skating ring."

"So-called boyfriend?"

"Long story short, my parents made me date Senguuji Yamato." Kurosaki rolled her eyes in exasperation.

Cassandra's mouth formed an 'o' in understanding. She gave her a sympathetic smile. "I think this may not be what you want to hear, but that's sad."

"…Yeah. I guess you can say that."

"So what happened at the ice skating date? You make it sound like you fell down every few seconds." Cassandra grinned.

"Every second was more like it." Kurosaki let out an uncharacteristic groan. But then a smiled found its way on her face. "But, I couldn't help but feel that we got closer then. Before that, I disliked him a lot. Right now, I think we can get along better as friends."

Cassandra raised an eyebrow and tapped a finger on the table thoughtfully. "I don't know. What you told me and the impression I got from him from the match…" She trailed off and then smiled instead. "Never mind."

Kurosaki narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Because of the similarities of personality and mannerisms between the cousins, she could tell that Cassandra knew something and was not telling her. Nevertheless, experience with Hakuba told her that it was not wise to press Cassandra to tell or she'll only run around in circles.

"We should get going." Cassandra stood up, throwing the now empty ice cream bowl and trash into the bin beside the table. "We can go over to the hotel that my uncle, aunt and I are staying at and get ready for the party."

Kurosaki sighed as she realized that her companion was right. Nevertheless, she was anticipating and dreading the event because she'll be meeting both Yamato and her teammates. But, she knew that she could not avoid this forever and might as well clear things up with her friends sooner or later.