Episode 9: VS Storm Wolf
The cones were lined up in a zigzag. Narukami kicked the ball slightly forward to dribble it around each one, however, the ball refused to roll in direction he wanted. Fixing each knocked down cone every time they fell, Narukami kept trying. He was starting to get frustrated because he wasn't making any progress. It was getting dark, but the field was far enough away so it wouldn't disturb anyone's sleep.
Narukami finally sat down to rest. After taking a few sips of the water he brought, he got up once again and tried the drill again, "I need to be able to bring the ball up at least a little. I can't just defend…" the thought clenching his teeth with anger.
"Naoto? What are you doing here?"
In front of him Tetsukado stood with a worried look on his face. It was morning already, however, Narukami realized he wasn't in his room. He was outside in the field, leaning against the goalpost. Most of the cones were toppled over.
"Did you doze off while you were practicing?" Tetsukado laughed.
Narukami rubbed his eyes, "What time is it?"
"6 am," Tetsukado replied, "I was doing my morning jog, when I saw you, soundly asleep, on the field full of cones… so I thought I wake you up. Today's the day of the finals you know…"
"Thanks," Narukami mumbled getting up on to his feet.
Tetsukado kept staring wide-eyed at Narukami's face, "Do I have something on my face?" Narukami asked.
"Sorry…" Tetsukado quickly looked away, then asked nervously, "Where did you get that scar on your forehead from?"
Narukami realized that his headband was loose revealing his large scar above his right eye. He quickly hid it behind his hand and fixed his headband over it.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to…"
"Thanks…"
"Well, its breakfast soon…" Tetsukado started, "We should get back."
Narukami nodded and the two left for the cafeteria. Neither of them said a word for the whole walk.
"FFI Vision 2 Finals, Shinsei Inazuma Japan VS Uzbekistan's Storm Wolf's match is about to begin!" the commentary's voice rang throughout the entire stadium.
By the bench, Kuroiwa Coach was announcing the starting eleven. Many shocking gasps were heard amongst the team members. Shindou, Tenma and Tsurugi were benched.
"What are you thinking, Coach!" Shindou yelled. The three were the only ones who have played soccer before the tournament, everyone else had just started playing about a month or two ago.
"Who's going to be captain…?" Tenma asked.
Kuroiwa Coach just handed the captain's band to Tetsukado in reply. Tetsukado flinched. He didn't think he was worthy of being captain. He was one of the people without a hissatsu. However, he finally took it, seeing that Kuroiwa Coach wasn't someone who would change his mind.
The match was about to begin. The players of both teams took their positions on the field. Shindou, Tenma and Tsurugi sat down on the bench. Shindou crossed his arms looking sternly at the field, while Tenma and Tsurugi remained calm.
Alsius stood up front next to Matatagi taking Tsurugi's position; behind them was Narukami in Tenma's position; Han stood near the defense line where Shindou usually was.
Matatagi looked doubtfully at Alsius, "Can she really do Tsurugi's job?" he whispered to himself.
The whistle blew and Alsius tapped the ball to Matatagi. Instead of back passing like he usually did, Matatagi started to dribble upwards.
Storm Wolf's forward stole the ball by sliding at Matatagi. With incredible speed and passing skills, the ball was brought instantly in front of the goal.
"Gold Rush!" Spinning the ball with his feet, the ball buried itself under the ground eventually emerging and headed straight for the goal. The ball was surrounded by small gold nuggets.
Ibuki tried to use his hissatsu, "Wild Dunk!" He was too slow, completely missing the ball.
When everyone thought that Storm Wolf got the leading point, Han slipped behind Ibuki and kicked the ball back past the shooter. No goal.
"What!?" the keeper gasped looking behind.
Han stared down at Ibuki and sneered, "I see shat you lack now, Munemasa."
"Don't suddenly call someone by their first name!?"
Tetsukado received the ball, "Move up everyone!" he instructed passing the ball to Sakura.
Sakura then passed the ball to Matatagi. The opposing team's defense was charging at him to steal the ball back. Alsius noticed this and tried to get her teammate's attention.
"I'm the one who has to get a goal…" Matatagi muttered ignoring Alsius. The ball was quickly stolen.
"What are you doing…" Narukami sighed standing infront of the Storm Wolf player, "Jirai!" multiple lightning bolts shot up from the ground, pushing the opponent away from the ball. He passed to Kusaka.
Kusaka was winding up for a shoot, however, the opposing defenders were ready for it. Two of them held each other's feet and started to spin upwards becoming like a razor, "Spinning Cutter!" Kusaka was flung away and Storm Wolf's counterattack began.
The ball was quickly shot at the net. Han stepped ahead of Ibuki and saved the goal once again.
"What? Not only once, but twice my shot was stopped?"
Ibuki was furious, "What are you doing? Protecting the goal is me, the keeper's job. Don't interfere."
Han glared at Ibuki, "since when was protecting the goal only the keeper's job? They're 11 players in soccer for a reason… you seem to be making some misunderstanding."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Ibuki growled.
Han smiled, "Sakura!" he passed the ball.
Sakura smiled confidently even as the opponent charged towards her, "I'll show you my hissatsu, my results of my training!"
Conjuring a pink hoop, Sakura started to do a graceful hoop dance, leaping past the opposing midfielder, "Beautiful Hoop!"
"Wow, Sakura! When did you learn that?" Tenma cheered from the bench.
"Matatagi-kun!" Sakura passed the ball up to their forward, he was completely free.
"Parkour Attack!" Moving swiftly around the field, Matatagi finished with a back kick towards the goal. The ball soared inside the net winning the first point for Inazuma Japan.
"G-goal!" the commentary obviously showed surprise with his words.
Ibuki stared at Han, "did you know about Nozaki's new hissatsu? How?"
Han cocked his head to the side in question, "I'm no esper, there's no way to tell exactly. I just knew I wouldn't be able to bring the ball alone so trusted Sakura to do so." He added, "You're a lot like what Narukami used to be like…"
"Narukami?" Ibuki mumbled.
Storm Wolf resumed the game. Once again they were quickly in front of the net trying to score only to be stopped by Han every time.
"Han! Stop being like Shindou! Leave the net to me; I'm the keeper!" Ibuki kept yelling every time and Han finally lost patience.
"Stop whinning, wannabe keeper!" Han's yell echoed across the stadium, creating complete silence. As he yelled, Han turned facing Ibuki and kicked the ball at his face.
Ibuki fell backward and the ball flew over the net.
"Ow…" Ibuki sat up holding his sore face. "What was that for!?"
Han grabbed Ibuki by the neck of his uniform looking him right in the eye," Soccer isn't a sport where one person bears all the burdens. Forward, Midfielder, Defender and of course, Goalkeeper; doesn't matter where you play, what matters is the fact you're a team."
All eyes in the stadium were on the two of them. Han had yelled so much even the audience sitting in the very back was able to hear the lecture.
Han bit the bottom of his lip and added softly, "Rely on us a bit more, huh" he finally let go of Ibuki, "You're the only position capable of seeing the entire field the whole time."
Narukami snorted softly to himself, hands on his hips, "Those are the soccer version of the words you gave me…"
The Storm Wolf midfielder placed the ball for a corner kick. Ibuki stared at his hands, thinking about what Han had said to him. "Not for myself, but for the team…?" clapping, Ibuki quickly focused back on to the game, "Doesn't hurt to try, right?"
The ball was kicked to an open field player. For some reason the only one who was unmarked and had an open path towards the goal. Ibuki instructed Minaho and Manabe to stop him. Even though they were unable to, the defenders were able to minimize the possible places the Storm Wolf player could shoot from his current position.
Ibuki pulled his fist back and took a few steps towards the incoming ball. As it came in front of him he swung his hand upwards creating a yellow shockwave which flung the ball up. "Rising Slash!" Han received the ball.
"Looks like you finally understand, Ibuki…" Shindou smiled.
Han quickly passed the ball up, "Naoto!"
Narukami received the ball. Instead of passing the ball immediately like he usually did, Narukami started to dribble forwards.
"Huh? Wasn't Narukami unable to dribble?" Tenma gasped.
"Rolling Cutter!" the Storm Wolf defenders rushed to steal the ball.
Narukami was ready for it. He suddenly accelerated sprinting past the Uzbekistan players' hissatsu and flinging them away with the sparks he left on his tracks, "Denkousekka!"
"Yes, I did it!" he cheered, "Let's get point number 2, Haku!"
Alsius and Narukami kicked the ball together casing it to spin, gathering energy around it. And both of them kicked it once again towards the goal.
"Icicle Sparkler!" the ball was enveloped in ice and electric energy giving Shinsei Inazuma Japan their second point.
The whistle blew indicating the end of the first half.
Ibuki sat on the bench to drink his water when Shindou approached him. After staring at the keeper for a bit he finally said, "Looks like I can finally acknowledge you as a keeper, Ibuki." And then he left.
Ibuki couldn't help but smile. Shindou had finally trusted him to protect the goal.
"Let's keep this up, Captain." Kusaka smiled handing the ex-boxer a drink.
Tetsukado looked up and forced a smile.
"What's the matter?"
Thinking for a bit Tetsukado sighed, "Why am I the captain… why isn't captain playing."
Kusaka rubbed the back of his head, "Well, we can't really do anything about it… you've been doing great great! So, you know… don't beat yourself up."
Tetsukado smiled, "Yeah, what's happening is happening, so we have to work with that don't we…"
"If we win this match, it'll finally begin…" Alsius whispered to Narukami and Han.
Narukami frowned, "Don't try to think too far ahead, Haku. The match isn't over yet."
"Yeah, sorry…"
The second half started and still the 3 Raimon players sat on the bench.
"Why aren't those 3 playing?" "Aren't they the only ones who played soccer?" "It's the finals, what is that coach thinking?" Various mummers were heard from the crowd.
Storm Wolf started the match with the ball. They swiftly dribbled the ball past the defenders. "Silk Road!" the forward past right by Han and he was right in front of the goal. He looked as if he was going to shoot, but passed it across to another player at the last second.
"Gold Fever!"
Ibuki was caught by the feint and the ball was shot into the net. The score was 2-1.
"Tch… they got us good on that one." Mumbled Han.
"It's okay guys," Tetsukado yelled, "Keep up our leading point!"
Both teams fought hard, stealing shooting, dribbling but neither side was able to get close enough the net. Only the players stamina seemed to be decreasing. Time up was drawing near and the Storm Wolf players were starting to get more desperate. Pushing Minaho and Manabe aside, the ball was directly ahead of the goal.
"We're not going to lose to you!" he yelled.
Tetsukado quickly moved between the forward and the goal.
"Heh, you're the only player without a hissatsu. I'll easily dribble past you, Silk Road!"
Tetsukado smiled, "You really think that?" Performing the footwork from boxing, Tetsukado broke through the Silk Road and stole the ball, "Footwork Draw!"
"We can't let you get this point!" Tetsukado dribbled the ball forward. A Storm Wolf player slid to steal the ball. Unable to react quick enough, the slide hit Tetsukado's leg causing him to fall over.
The whistle blew indicating the end of the match. Even though they won, Shinsi Inazuma Japan couldn't rejoice in their victory quite yet. Tetsukado still lay on the ground, holding his leg in pain. Narukami was the first to run up to him.
"Y-you're leg…" he gasped. Tetsukado's leg was bent in the wrong direction.
"We have to bring him to hospital immedieately!" Aoi stuttered, tears rolling down her cheek at the sight of the broken leg.
Tetsukado lost consciousness from the shock. "Shin!" Narukami cried out.