Episode 11: Melfelse: Prologue

One blond-haired boy sat searching through the pile of scrap metal. Many piles of garbage surrounded him; it was the junk yard. Even though the sun beamed harshly down, the boy showed no signs of sweating. The goggles he always wore around his neck glistened in the sunlight.

A blue squirrel-like lemur walked up to the hardworking kid. It held a leaf just large enough to provide itself shade, using it as if it were an umbrella. It pranced around happily, "Liberta! It's finally today, you know!" it chirped.

The boy, Liberta, seemed to not hear the little rodent, so it tried speaking up. No response. The lemur creature started whacking Liberta with its umbrella leaf until finally, it was pushed away.

"Stop doing that!" Liberta growled, "I'm busy, go away Nui!"

Nui frowned and crossed its tiny arms, "Don't tell me you forgot! Als, Als is coming back from Earth today!"

"Hmm…" the boy seemed unimpressed or rather simply didn't care for the news the little lemur brought. Liberta continued on with his search, pulling metal fragments of many sizes from the massive pile.

Sighing, Nui climbed up a pile nearby and decided to just wait for Liberta to finish.

"Haah! Enryuu Houkou!" a small orange-headed girl kicked the ball, enveloping it with fire. A mirage of a massive dragon seemed to appear behind it as it seared through the net.

The girl wiped the dust off her pants and let out a sigh of relief. She was in a boxed room with the only windows found high up near the ceiling. The goal and ball, which was before her, disappeared into many pixilated fragments. The girl turned to a dragon plush, the only other thing in the room, and started talking to it.

"I'm so glad I was able to complete this hissatsu by today…" she smiled innocently.

"You've done well, Komori." A deep yet kind voice resonated from the doll. Its eyes glowed as it spoke.

Komori hugged the plush tightly and danced with it, "I can finally meet Haku-neechan and Han-niichan again!" she was so happy, she started to hum to herself.

She stopped eventually and looked up at the ceiling, "I hope they get here soon…"

The train, Galaxy Notes, ran along the golden tracks it conjured. It has been travelling for several hours already and its destination, Planet Melfelse, was still few more hours away.

"So next question, "What do you eat?" Manabe asked taking notes on his handy Ipad.

Alsius sighed, "Same stuff as you…" she mumbled, "Can you stop with your meaningless questions? You've been asking ever since the ride became smooth; I answered over 60 already!"

"No," Manabe and Minaho yelled together.

"It may seem meaningless to you, but for us, its precious information." Manabe stated fixing his glasses.

"Please… at least ask Naoto or Han instead…"

Minaho shook his head sadly, "Narukami-kun just ignores us and Han-kun just blabbers nonsense. You're the only one helpful here!"

Manabe nodded, "Our very first encounter with aliens, we must get as much data as possible."

"First?" Alsius frowned, "What do you mean?"

"…"

"WHAT!?" the two's voice seemed to have caused the whole train to shake. The entire team came over to check what the commotion was.

"Alsius, are you saying that every team, besides us, that was participating in the FFI Vision 2 were not humans, but aliens?"

"Mm…" Alsius held her ears since Manabe and Minaho were yelling right in front of her. "Don't tell me you didn't know…?"

Minaho put his hand under his chin, "But this would explain why the other teams' data were so different from before this tournament and during. If they were completely different beings from the beginning, it's no mystery they don't match."

"Are you sure, Alsius?" Shindou asked.

"She's telling the truth," Han cackled, "The thought of playing against aliens isn't so bad now that you figured out you've been playing them all the time…"

"So, do you have any idea who the other 2 players are?" Minaho switched topics, ignoring Han completely.

Deeply "hurt", Han sat in the corner of the room they were in, alone.

"Um… well actually I didn't get anything about them either. When the Coach came to our planet the first time, only Naoto and I were chosen…"

Minaho's ears twitched with curiousity, "The Coach has been to your planet before?"

"Yup, he's the one who originally brought us to Earth. It was around the time after the representatives were chosen… we both were bought to Hakuren to practice until we officially became part of the team." Alsius said waving her finger as if it helped her remember what happened.

"Back to the topic on who will be joining," Narukami suddenly spoke up calmly," I have one person that I sure will be joining…"

Everyone turned their attention to the white-haired defender who was leaning against the wall. They all gathered around to be able to hear the name he was about to say.

"Liberta El Mata." Narukami started once his teammates got comfortable, "I heard he has played soccer before. The Conqueror of the Skies. He has amazing jumping power and some say he can fly across the field. His position I think was…"

"Libero." Alsius finished, "He hates being chained to one position, so chose to be a libero.

"What's a libero?" Sakura asked.

Tenma answered her question, "Libero means free. In soccer, it's a player who plays in defense, but also is capable of running up to offense as well."

"Liberta El Mata, huh?" Minaho smiled, "I would like to meet him…"

Kuroiwa Coach sat on his chair, facing the opposite direction of his guest, Tetsukado. The man seemed to already know what the crippled defender had to say answering before the question was asked.

"You're still useful to the team, which is why you are still here."

Tetsukado was surprised, but protested, "My leg's never going to heal! I don't see any benefit in me being here with the team. I'm just luggage."

Kuroiwa Coach smiled, showing his white teeth, "You're leg will heal, I assure you of that."

"What?"

"Our conversation is over, leave."

Being unable to say anything else, Tetsukado bowed and slowly stumbled out of the Coach's room. As he made his way towards his room he saw Tsurugi towards him in the hallway. When they walked past each other, Tsurugi finally spoke.

"Are you uncomfortable being here?" Tsurugi asked.

Tetsukado looked down at his feet, but didn't say anything. Tsurugi waited for a bit and then walked away when he realized it was better to leave the injured boy alone. Tsurugi knew of the pain of not being able to play soccer is like; his brother is going through it as well.

Standing alone, Tetsukado held his free hand on his forehead. "I know whinning isn't going to change anything, but… I can't give up on soccer like I was able to give up boxing…" he whimpered to himself.

After the long journey, the train finally came to a stop. Peering our through the window the view wasn't an endless void of stars and darkness, but earthy ground and tall factory like buildings.

They have arrived at Melfelse.

The doors of the train opened and one by one, the players exited. Stretching their legs and inhaling the fresh air around them, they all examined their new surroundings. Someone anticipated their arrival and was waiting outside of the building closest to them. The boy approached them.

"Welcome home, Kurogane Haku aka Haku, Narukami Naoto and Kurogane Han." The thick blond pig-tailed boy smiled. He looked very frail and feminine in appearance. He wore a robe-like top and didn't have any shoes or socks on his feet even though he was outside.

"Sh-Xion-san!?" the three suddenly tensed up and stood straight, hands firmly by their sides.

Xion walked around, inspecting each player. Everyone couldn't help, but copy what the other three had done and stood in the same manner. Xion finally came to a stop and faced Tetsukado.

"Is this the one, Naoto?" Xion asked closing his face on Tetsukado.

"Y-yes!" Narukami stuttered. Sweat started rolling off his chin.

"Hmm… this will be expensive, you know." Xion peered at Narukami, but Narukami didn't change his expression. "Whatever, do as you wish. Lapin is in his cave as usual."

Narukami forced a nod. Xion then proceeded to Kuroiwa Coach and lead him inside the building standing before them. The coach instructed them to do whatever they pleased before he disappeared. Everyone finally was able to relax when Xion was out of sight.

"Who was that guy… I didn't like being near him for some reason…" Tsurugi huffed. He too, was sweating.

"Xion de Balisk. He's our organization's boss." Even the carefree and arrogant Han was trembling. "D-don't want to get on his bad side."

"Or-Organization?" Kusaka repeated.

"Just say we work for him…" Alsius said. "Hey, since we can do whatever, why don't we split up and give you guys a tour of the area." She suggested.

Narukami shook his head, "I have somewhere to go. Shin, you're coming with me!" He grabbed Tetsukado by his hand and led him in the opposite direction of the building.

After some discussion the group was split like so; Ibuki, Shindou, Sakura, Matatagi, Manabe and Minaho with Alsius and Tenma, Tsurugi, Morimura, Kusaka, Aoi and Minori with Han. The two went their separate ways, promising to meet back here in 3 hours.

"Are you sure you're fine with only 5 players?" Xion asked Kuroiwa as they sat on the couches adjacent from each other. A table sat between them with a cup of freshly brewed coffee for the each of them. Xion grabbed his cup and took a sip from them as Kuroiwa answered.

"Time has already changed a lot. This is enough. Do you not trust that I will keep our promise?"

Xion snorted softly, "Of course I don't trust you, however, "trust" isn't always what moves people. I thought it might be a good opportunity to unleash their beast powers."

Kuroiwa smiled, "So you know of it?"

"All in our organization is capable of it. What surprised me is the fact mere earthlings were found to have it as well. Enough of that. Tell me, Kuroiwa Ryuusei is this team's victory assured?"

"That is not for me to answer." Is all what Kuroiwa Coach said in response.