With Team 2's offensive thwarted and its numbers almost cut in half, it was the perfect time for Team 1 to attack. While a few of their members were on guard, the remainder of Team 1 was devising a plan of attack.
"I have an idea," Rika said quietly. "Though I don't think I can explain how it will work." the others turned to listen to Rika's plan, expecting it to be a long and complex one because of what she said. Instead, it was very short.
"I just need people to get the enemies away from me." Rika continued. "Only one of them can capture me for the plan to work."
Some of Rika's teammates were confused by her plan, unsure of how being captured would get them the flag. But Mion understood what Rika was thinking. "Alright, Chiyo, Kenta, and Haru, go with Rika," Mion ordered. "Make sure that Rika only has one person going after her." With that, the four of them headed for Team 2's territory. Once inside, the others drew most of the defense's attention, leaving only Tometa in pursuit of Rika. She lured him to spot she had picked out ahead of time. The spot where Tometa's teammates would not see what happened. Once they were there, she put her plan into motion.
Rika stopped running , turned around, and got into one of her cute poses Seeing this, Tometa immediately stopped, his face turned red, and he started to stumble. Got him, Rika thought in her mature inner voice. She then quietly said to Tometa, "I'll go to jail now, ok?" Not realizing what was going on, Tometa hastily agreed with Rika and let her walk to the jail. The plan was working perfectly. Tometa's teammates would assume that he tagged her, so that did not try to capture her while she was on her way to the jail.
Once she was there, Rika was able to see where Team 2's defenses were positioned. She watched them for a minute before she began the next part of her plan. Turning to her captured teammates, Rika reached out with her hand and touched each of them. "What are you doing?" Chiyo asked as Rika touched her. "I tricked them into thinking that Tometa tagged me," Rika explained. "Since I'm not captured, I can free you guys. Just wait for me before going back."
Making sure the coast was clear, Rika quickly and quietly ran out of the jail and took cover by the nearest crate. She then carefully headed for the flag. When she reached the open area near the flag, she hid herself and checked for anyone watching. She already knew the watch pattern that Team 2's members used, even if they did not know they were doing it themselves. Waiting for the right moment, when the flag was unwatched for the longest time, she dashed up, grabbed the flag, and headed back to the jail.
Rika arrived back at the jail just in time. Yuto, one of Team 2's defenders, looked back and saw the flag was gone. "They got the flag!" he shouted. While he was alerting Team 2 to the flag, Rika had her freed teammates start back for their side. She arranged them in a small triangle formation, with herself in the middle.
"They freed the prisoners too!" one of the members of Team 2 shouted, not noticing that Rika had the flag. The group continued uninterrupted, while Team 2 hopelessly searched for their flag.
Once the prisoners arrived on Team 1's side, they broke formation and Rika triumphantly held up Team 2's flag. Seeing Rika with the flag, Team 2 immediately called her out for cheating, since a prisoner could not bring the flag back.
"You can't capture the flag if you were just freed," Keiichi argued. "You were tagged."
"Tometa didn't tag me," Rika cheerfully answered. Everyone in Team 2 turned and looked at Tometa, who was thinking back on what happened. He then remembered that he had not tagged Rika and a panicked expression crossed his face. This immediately confirmed what Rika had said. Back in Team 1's jail, both Aya and Shion were again disappointed by what happened. "Yep, boys really are dumb." Aya said. Behind them, Okamura was sitting in the fetal position, still depressed by how he had failed.
The score is Team 1: 2 Team 2: 1
The flag was returned and the prisoners were released. Once everyone and everything was back where it was supposed to be, the game resumed.
"I have another idea," Shion began. "I just need to get a little something first." She moved back to a row of crates and got behind one of them. "Hopefully this plan works better than the last one." Keiichi quietly remarked. "It wasn't my fault that Okamura had a weakness for Rika." Shion countered. Turning back to the crate, Shion grabbed the back side of the crate and started to pry it off. The back came clean off. Inside the crate was an assortment of items.
"I guess you could call this a weapons cache." Shion said as she reached into the crate. She began to shift through the various items in the crate, occasionally pulling one out to inspect. The first item she pulled out was a baseball bat that she had borrowed from the school. Since weapons like that were not allowed, she quickly returned it to the crate. The next item she pulled out was a taser. Holding it pointed towards the sky, Shion pressed the trigger and the taser came to life with an electric crackle. A scary look came over her face as the electric glow illuminated her face.
"I don't think you should use something like that here, Shion." Rena nervously said.
Shion's face changed back to normal as she returned to reality from... where ever she went off to. Putting the taser back, Shion resumed search the crate. She did not have to search long before she found what she needed.
"Here we go," she exclaimed quietly. Pulling her hand out of the crate, she now held a small canister in her hand. On the canister was a loose ring connected to a pin near the top of the canister. Is that a hand grenade? Keiichi and Rena thought. Maybe the taser would have been better. Meanwhile, Shion had replaced the panel on the crate and had turned around to face Keiichi and Rena. Seeing the looks on their faces, Shion raised her hands and reassured her friends. "No, no. It's not something dangerous."
"So it's not a bomb?" Rena timidly asked.
"Well, it's not the kind that kills people." Shion answered.
"That reassuring." Keiichi said sarcastically.
Shion ignored Keiichi's sarcasm and continued. "For my plan to work, I'll need some help." She looked around their defensive line and saw that Aya was nearby. She worked out great in the last plan, Shion thought before she quietly signaled her to come. As soon as she saw Shion beckoning for her, Aya crawled over from her position to meet with Shion.
Shion leaned over and whispered something into Aya's right ear. "You got it?" The little girl quietly nodded. Shion carefully handed the canister over to Aya.
"Alright," Shion said. "Let's go."
Together, Aya and Shion carefully crossed the border into Team 1's territory. The two weaved through the crates, doing their best to avoid being seen. At the first line of defense, Shion peeked around the crate and spotted Kenta and Rika on the far side from them.
She's not here, Shion thought.
They slipped past them and moved on. When they were about half way to the flag, they found their target. Shion spotted her sister not too far from where they were. Shion pulled her head back behind the crate and signaled Aya.
Mion peeked out from behind her crate. The other team had tried some rush ins, but they had failed. Mion was trying to figure out what Team 1's next move would be when she heard a noise. She turned towards the source of the noise and saw Aya's face peeking around the end of the crate. When Aya realized Mion had seen her, she quickly withdrew behind the crate and started to flee. Mion got up and gave chase. Aya was not going very fast. It seemed that she was tired. I guess I can't expect everyone to still have energy this long into the game, Mion thought.
Mion was almost in reach of Aya when she noticed something. In Aya's left hand was a small, metal canister. Her other hand was holding a ring on the top of the canister. "Wait, is tha..." Mion was cutoff by a loud hissing sound.
The place where Mion and Aya were was now covered in a thick cloud of smoke. The smoke rapidly spread and covered about half of Team 1's territory. About half their team was caught inside the cloud, while the rest were watching its perimeter for anyone trying to get out.
While inside the smoke screen, a few of Team 1's defenders saw the Shion's silhouette in the smoke. Coughing because of the smoke, they ran towards Shion. Meanwhile, Mion, who had been blinded by the dust was now regaining her sight. "We have *cough* to run, Shion *cough*." Mion heard Aya saying urgently nearby. Mion was just about to grab Aya when something got a hold of her from behind. Looking back, Mion could barely make out three short people grabbing onto her.
"We got you Shion *cough*!" Mion heard the voice of Chiyo exclaim.
"What are you *cough* idiots doing?" Mion demanded as she tried to shake them off. However, her three teammates ignored her and fought to hold onto what they thought was Shion.
"I'm not Shion. *cough* I'm Mion." Mion protested.
"Oh no, *cough* they got Shion!" Aya cried out as she ran away from Mion. That did not help Mion's situation.
While Mion was trying to clear the misunderstanding, the real Shion was sneaking around the chaos. The enemies, who had not gone to catch Aya and who they thought was Shion, were distracted by the spectacle going on and were not as alert as they should have been. On top of that, Shion had tied her hair to make herself look more like her sister.
Mion had thrown the teammates who had tried to capture her onto the ground and was now getting back at them for their idiocy when the smoke started to dissipate. Looking up, Mion saw that the flag was now in Shion's hands. "You idiots, *cough* the real Shion just stole the flag!"
Hearing this, Shion picked up the pace and made a run for the border. Thanks to the diversion, Team 1's defensive line now had a hole in it. Mion realized Shion's plan instantly and ran to intercept her, but was too late. Shion crossed the border and scored. As Team 2 cheered Shion's success, Aya ran up to her. Shion turned towards her.
"Great job, Aya" Shion said as she gave Aya a high five.
The score is Team 1: 2 Team 2: 2
After Shion's success, both sides began launching some covert attacks on each other. Neither side had much luck at first, until Shion was able to reach the flag again. Thanks to Emi and Yuto, she had grabbed the flag, but now they had been captured and Team 1 was on their way to get her. Shion tried to run for the border, but was blocked by the enemy. She saw one of her teammates, Shun was close and was not cut off. Shion tossed the flag to Shun and he immediately took off for the border. He ran as fast as he could, barely managing to avoid running into someone. He was almost to the border and was sure of his success. I did it! He thought to himself. When suddenly, his left leg refused to move forward. Losing his balance, the boy fell forward onto the ground and was caught be Team 1.
"What happened?" Shun said, unable to figure out how he just suddenly tripped. Shion, who had been captured, saw immediately what had caused it."A trip wire!" She knew immediately who had set that up.
With the last attack a failure, Team 2 was again in a bad position. Many of their players had been captured, making it difficult for them to launch an attack without sacrifices their defense. Keiichi was sneaking into Team 1's territory to retrieve their captured comrades, when Team 1 launched an attack. They sent four people into Team 2's territory. One of them, Chiyo, was able to bypass the defenses and get the flag. Her teammates moved to buy her some time to get back, but were quickly captured.
While they were being dealt with, Rena moved in and tackled Chiyo down to the ground. As she fell to the ground, Chiyo throw the flag forward, as if to try and pass it to an invisible teammate. Meanwhile, Keiichi, who had just freed the prisoners, returned. He and Shion noticed Chiyo's throw but did not immediately figure out what she was doing. Once the flag hit the ground, they realized what she was doing.
"Rena, the flag!" Shion shouted towards the young red hair. Looking up, Rena saw what Shion was shouting about. Their flag was moving towards the border, but it was not being carried by anyone. Rushing to the flag, Rena tried to grab it. It was almost at the border and Rena dove at the flag, but it suddenly sped up. Rena landed face first on the ground and missed the flag, which continued to move as if by itself. It passed through the border and stopped just after of the first row of crates, where it was grabbed by a small hand from behind the crate.
A moment later, Satoko crawled out from behind the crate, with the flag in her left hand and a reel in the other. She stood up and exclaimed, "Look what I caught". Satoko then raised her left hand up to her chin and started to laugh.
The score is Team 1: 3 Team 2: 2
The game continued on. Both teams employed clever tricks and tactics until at last the scores were tied at four. This was a classic moment, were the game could go either way. Keiichi, Rena, and Shion decided that they should go together to capture the flag, and leave everyone else on defense. They were half way there when they were spotted by the defenders, who immediately gave pursuit in the form of a small group.
Shion decided to buy Rena and Keiichi some time, so she turned towards their pursuers and charged at them. The defenders of Team 1 were confused by Shion's actions to see what her plan was. When they reach each other, Shion did not stop. Instead, she ran right into them, causing something like a car pile up. This gave Keiichi and Rena the time they needed to get to the flag.
Just as Keiichi grabbed the flag, he heard a commotion behind him. He quickly turned around and saw what the shouting was about. Team 1 had also launched an attack and Mion had not only managed to avoid getting intercepted, but had made it to the flag.
They got our flag too!
Keiichi started for the border as fast as he could. Rena gave him some cover from the defenders who had recovered from their collision with Shion. Mion was almost across the border when suddenly a hand reach out for the side and grabbed her leg. This caused Mion to trip just short of the border and gave Keiichi enough time to cross and score the winning goal.
Final score is Team 1: 4 Team 2: 5