Disclaimer: I don't own Ao no Kanata.
Shindou was standing near Satou and Rika in preparation, while Asuka was standing near her friends in preparation.
"This is it, ready?" Masaya asked.
"Yes, I'm going to do my best!" Asuka said, rapidly smacking the sides of her cheeks with her hands, evidently nervous.
"I'm not sure what sort of moves Shindou can do, but be on your toes," he advised.
Asuka nodded and flew up. Likewise, Shindou flew up.
Shindou understood she still wasn't that good at FC, or the others for that matter. This wasn't a serious match, but meant to help them improve. Of course that didn't mean he wasn't excited to play against her.
'Hmm, how should I approach this with Kurashina?' Shindou thought.
Once Shindou and Asuka were signaled at the starting point on the FC grid, they took off. Asuka gasped at his speed.
"Quick, go to the next buoy, he's too fast!" Masaya yelled.
"Right!" Asuka said, doing as told.
As she waited at the line leading to the next buoy, Shindou approached.
"Now!" Masaya said.
"Here I go-ah!" Asuka missed her swipe.
"So this is Shindou's strength," Misaki said.
"Not even close," Satou stated with confidence. "This is only a mere fraction of President's strength. If he actually tried, your friend would have zero chances."
"Yikes, he's nuts!" Mashiro exclaimed.
Shindou lowered his speed down some, giving Asuka enough room to keep up with him. "I hope you don't mind me flying next to you," Asuka said.
"Whatever could you be planning?" Shindou asked, grinning.
Asuka tried to touch his back, but he dodged easily and appeared behind her.
"You're too naive!" Shindou stated confidently, touching her back for a point, and on gaining her balance, she looked at the water with an expression of relief for not falling in. "And you take too long to read a situation!"
He quickly knocked her off balance and touched her back again. Masaya clenched his fist, feeling frustrated.
"Asuka," Misaki said with a sad look.
"It's not looking good," Madoka said.
"Shindou-san is doing well like always," Rika said, smiling at him.
"Naturaly," Satou said proudly.
"Is this all you have?" Shindou asked as she panted.
"...Not yet," Asuka muttered as Shindou grew curious. "Not yet!"
Masaya stared at her, and smiled. "Yeah, that's the way!" he said. "You're far from done!"
"You have strong resolve, I like that," Shindou complimented, and then dogfighted her to prove a point.
Asuka tried touching him, but he swiftly dodged and touched her back for another point. Asuka grunted but didn't give up.
"This time...!" Asuka yelled, trying to touch him but he kept dodging.
"You seem to be enjoying yourself," Shindou started as he kept dodging. "But you lack strategy and skills as an All-rounder. Do you not feel ashamed of that?"
"I do," Asuka admitted, before her face grew serious enough it surprised him. "But that's if it's me alone! What I lack, Masaya-san can feel that void and give me strength!"
Masaya stared from the ground, smiling at her. "Listen, we're going to try your Air Kick Turn again," he started. "But first let Shindou think you're running away from him, then as he comes toward you the next time and knocks you down, take that chance and attempt it."
"Roger, later Shindou-san!" Asuka said, flying away.
"Oh? What are you up to?" Shindou asked as he touched the next buoy for a point.
Just like before, Asuka waited. She allowed Shindou to knock her down towards the water. Just as Shindou charged in to score, Asuka stopped in place at the last second with her Grav-Shoes. Shindou narrowed his eyes, and then witnessed her spin upwards, dodging him.
"What!?" Shindou asked, for once completely surprised that he missed.
Asuka flew back around, and he was unable to get out in time, thus his back was touched for a point.
Masaya's team cheered in applause at her scoring on Shindou, while Masaya smiled at the success. The match ended, but Shindou was clearly happy regardless. Asuka stared down at Masaya, smiling at him while panting.
She and Shindou came down near the others. "I saw it, your potential," he told her. "I want to see you progress even further by the tournament coming up."
"I will," Asuka said.
"Good, I suppose this is where we leave," Shindou said. "I'll see you all in the tournament."
"I wish you all a good day," Rika said, lowering her head politely.
So Shindou's team left, while they watched them leave. "Masaya-san," Asuka started as he faced her. "Shindou-san was really amazing. I, I want to get even better so I can face him in the tournament."
"I'll help, anytime you need it," Masaya said.
The others smiled at them. "Though it may be me who faces Shindou-san in the tournament," Misaki said. "I want to take a crack at him."
"How about just worrying about getting better first?" Mashiro told Misaki exasperatedly.
"Arisika is correct," Aoi said. "We've still got time before the tournament comes around."
"Besides if Mashiro doesn't improve, Satou will be on her like no tomorrow," Madoka said while Mashiro paled.
"As soon as we get back, we train! Do you hear me!?" Mashiro flipped in panic.
"Yeah yeah," Misaki casually said.
Once they got back to their land, they went their separate ways home. Mashiro wanted to train, but Misaki eased her into not pushing herself anymore today. Though Asuka stayed with Masaya for a good chunk.
"Thanks for what you said against Shindou about you and me," Masaya said.
"Mmm, you are the one who gives me the strength I lack," Asuka said in a sweet voice. "And you were the one who came up with the plan to get Shindou-san by surprise. That's why I said, for my lack of experience, you help me."
"I see," Masaya said, looking forward thoughtfully. "You know, I was pretty upset at myself when you were doing bad against him. I didn't know what to do or what I could say. I'm not completely used to this coaching thing after all. But when you refused to give up, it kind of threw back in my resolve to help you through the match."
"I'm happy to hear that," Asuka said softly. "Masaya-san, let's work hard!"
"Yeah, we will," Masaya said, and then they came to the point to part. "I suppose this is where we go our seperate ways."
"Yes," Asuka said. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Masaya said, and watched her walk away. His eyes slightly glazed in her direction before he left towards his house. 'Give her...strength.'
He then walked home. The next day, Masaya went to the gym to have Asuka and Misaki build up their stamina via running about. Both girls had their white shirts and black bloomers.
"Catch me if you can!" Misaki dared Asuka, who was chasing her.
"I won't lose!" Asuka excitedly said.
"If I may ask, what are you having them do?" Minori asked near Masaya.
"Training their stamina," Masaya said. "It's good practice to improve it. If I recall you're Mashiro's classmate, right? Where is she?"
"Still doing a test," Minori said. "She's buckling down real hard for it. I finished mine, but she hasn't, and she made me go away so as to not bother her."
"Is that so?" Masaya asked.
As Asuka ran after Misaki, she sunk in thought. 'Not enough, this isn't enough!' she thought. 'To reach Shindou-san's level, I have to get stronger! As a player, as an All-rounder! Isn't that right, Masaya-san.'
"How's their progress?" Shion asked, walking over to him.
"Good, but they can do better," Masaya said, observing.
"A shame Mashiro isn't present," Madoka said.
"Can't be helped, she'll get here when she gets here," Masaya said, then focused on Asuka. 'She needs to improve her dogfighting.'
Asuka finally had to stop to rest. "What do you think of my performance Masaya?" Misaki asked, grinning at him for an answer, but comically pouted as he walked over to Asuka as if he hadn't heard her. 'Ignored!'
"Stop for now," Masaya ordered.
"Couldn't tag her..." Asuka said, rubbing her head with a hand nervously.
However, he shook his head. "Keep at it," Masaya told her. "This is the whole point of this training, to help build up your strength and stamina."
"I understand," Asuka said, smiling at him.
"Good, now I want you to run a few laps around the gym!" Masaya ordered, to which she did as he told.
"Such an eager girl she is," Madoka mused.
"Yeah, she has so much spirit, it's off the charts!" Shion stated with a fiery tone while his hands were out in a tiger fashion.
"He's got a point," Misaki said.
"Even I'm in agreement for a change," Madoka said.
Meanwhile with Mashiro, she was still doing her test.
"Ah geez, I hate tests!" Mashiro complained, tapping the top of her paper with a pencil. "Okay, concentrate, you've got this. If you can just get this stupid sheet done, you can go to the gym and hang with Misaki-Senpai."
The girl nodded to herself so as to affirm her resolve. The boy next to her sweet dropped at how insanely fast she was writing her answers.
'...Is she even reading before putting answers down?' he questioned.
With that, Mashiro got up and ran to the teacher in a few minutes.
"Arisika-not so fast!" he yelled as she ran, shoved the test paper in his hands and bolted out the door. "No running in the halls...she is so hyper today for some reason."
"*Huff huff* I hope I'm not too late!" Mashiro said as her running in the halls drew attention from a few people. On getting to the gym, she breathed in relief like a warrior making it to his base in time, only for her face to pale and her eyes to water with a comical eyeless expression. "I'm too late!? No waaaaay!"
"Eh?" boys in the gym blinked at the girl slouched to the ground devoid of life.
After school, Mashiro ran super quickly to Misaki's classroom, and on getting up, Mashiro hugged her tightly.
"W-what's the matter with you!?" Misaki asked, completely thrown off by how fast she just threw herself in her arms.
"I went through a hard test so I could spend some time with you!" Mashiro comically cried. "And then I finally finished, and you all were done and left the gym!"
"We're not your babysitter," Misaki said, trying to push Mashiro off, but Mashiro held on way tighter than usual to the point Misaki couldn't even move her at all.
"Oof, looks like Mashiro is not happy," Madoka said nervously, sweat dropping.
'Goodness, this girl needs so much attention,' Misaki thought, sighing and then softened up. Rubbing Mashiro's head and placing a hand behind her back, she continued. "There there, I'm sorry you missed us, so calm yourself."
Mashiro groaned, like a girl being encouraged by her big sister.
They then went to the trailer and carried on training in the air while Masaya coached them.
Later at night, a copter landed on the beach. Two figures emerged out of it. The copter's brand read "Avalon" on it.
"At last we've arrived," came the first girl's voice.
"Yes," the other girl said with no emotions behind her voice.
"This will be the place, the destination where we will make our FC known to the entire world," the first girl stated with an arrogant grin. "Since we're here, Saki, why not let loose for a moment?"
"Roger," Saki said, still no emotions as she turned on her Grav-Shoes. "Avalon Grav-Shoes...activate!"
The particles in her Grav-Shoes expanded to a green color, while Saki herself emitted an intimidating look and flew into the sky.
A/N: Do not expect this Irina and Saki to be like the anime ones. They may seem the same at first, but I promise you they're going to go in a way different direction than you think. I think they should have had Asuka face Shindou at the training camp over Misaki. I mean, Shindou was interested in her, and having Asuka get a point on him during practice with a pro move would make the fact he is eager to face her at the tournament make more sense because he can see the potential she truly has first hand instead of merely watching. Another thing is this would have given Asuka more drive to get stronger than the anime where she just trained without any real motivations.