AN: merry christmas or happy holidays i guess

yeah i dont own captain tsubasa

Chapter 7: Tensions

She fixed the skirt of her dress, making sure nothing inappropriate was showing. It wasn't really that short, but it was nice to make sure sometimes. Better than embarrassing herself at least. Although, if it wasn't for this conference with the coaches and Ayame's insistence, she would have much rather be at home, chilling with pajamas than be here in Tokyo. But she guessed, it'll be worth it. They're going to Tokyo Disneyland after this anyway.

See, the selected people all got calls two days ago that they needed to be in the headquarters to talk about what the plans would be for the upcoming tournament. They probably wanted to give them the schedules for when they would start training. They didn't have much time until the Youth AFC starts, and they probably wanted to make use of the time they have left. It'll take time to adjust to a two gendered team.

She scanned the area and saw that almost everyone was there, both boys and girls. They were all in groups, talking to each other, but even then you could see an invisible barrier between them. The boys were on one side, talking amongst themselves. The girls were on the other side, chatting between them. It seemed like as much as possible, nobody wanted to step into the others territory because of the tension between them. Like, if someone didn't notice the glares Hyuuga-kun and Asaki-san (Noriko-chan) have been exchanging glares with each other. She didn't even know how they could do it for so long. They had to get tired of it somehow, right?

Oh, nope, apparently they didn't. There was another set of glares between them, and Shiori-chan –who's been trying to stop the female Toho captain to stop giving the male Toho captain dirty looks- didn't even bother to chastise her for it.

This was all a lost cause.

She gave out a defeated sigh and scanned the area again. How are they going to win the tournament of they couldn't even meet eye to eye?

"That didn't sound good," a voice interrupted her thoughts.

She turned to her side and saw Tsubasa standing beside her, hands in his pockets. He was also watching the scene before them but she was a little miffed that he was smiling throughout all of this.

"Of course, it didn't sound good," she huffed in annoyance as she crossed her arms. "Aren't you even a little worried that this might not worked out all?"

Tsubasa turned to her and gave her a look that said that he was thinking. "Hmmm…" he hummed. "Not really."

She let her jaw drop in disbelief. She couldn't believe him. Couldn't he see what's happening before them? Both groups are so close to killing each other, it's a miracle they hadn't started yet.

"You're unbelievable," she sighed again, turning away from him.

She heard him chuckle just as she felt his arm wrapped around her shoulders.

"They'll be fine," he assured her, giving her a light squeeze. She couldn't help but lean closer to him, but she was still wearing a worried expression on her face.

"We managed, didn't we?"

She nodded in response. "Yeah, but it's us," she argued softly. "Our teams have always been closed ever since we were young. We always knew how to get along. Seeing everyone else today, I don't think anyone wants to get along."

"Well, everyone else can learn, can't they?" he said her softly.

"It's not that easy," she whispered. "It's bad enough that FIFA, as much as they tried to say they didn't, changed the game drastically. Girls have always been separate, and now they were suddenly combined with a game solely for boys. Now, not only do they have to compete against all the other talented players of their gender, but someone of the opposite as well. And girls, thinking that the boys are looking down on them, will be hell bent on taking that position to prove that they're just as much as great the boys are. They won't ever agree to work together."

"That just means the whole team would be made of Nankatsu players," he suggested with a wink. "We're the only ones who would be willing enough to work together."

She gave him a dry look, before rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"I give up," she cried hopelessly.

He chuckled at her reaction. "Well, if they want those spots, then they better learn to work together, or else we would actually grab those positions."

She hummed in response, and Tsubasa could only kiss her head in comfort.

"It'll work out, I promise."

She really hope it did.

Suddenly, bodyguards in black lined up the sides to make way and block all these… reporters? What? Why were they here? This wasn't supposed to be a press conference. Nobody ever said it was a press conference! What was going on?

Tsubasa immediately let go of her as they watched Coach Gamo and Coach Natsukawa enter the hallway, followed by the assistant coaches, one of them being Coach Mikami. The coaches immediately spotted all of them and quickly walked towards their way, the bodyguards still making sure the press didn't get too close.

"Looks like everyone's here," Natsukawa-san remarked as she scanned the area and met eyes with everyone.

"Good," Coach Gamo said. "Let's get this started."

Natsukawa-san nodded and turned to them. "Come on everyone, let's go to the conference room. We don't that much time. And please ignore the media. They're not coming with us."

The coaches started moving again, and they all followed. The press intended to follow, but they were blocked by the guards, but even then their cameras didn't stop their flashes.

They arrived in the room and immediately took their seats, and as expected, both teams sat on different sides: boys on the left, and girls on the right. Man, even here? Couldn't they just give it a rest?

She sighed yet again, and separated from Tsubasa, proceeding to take a seat beside the other girls. Tsubasa also did the same thing. They both knew that sitting together would just cause more problems than necessary.

When all of them were finally in seats, the coaches started talking.

"Hello everyone," Natsukawa-san greeted them cheerfully. Of course, with the tension in the air, nobody shared her excitement and only stared at her blankly.

"Okay," she drawled warily as she looked at everyone. Then, the both of their eyes met. There was an unspoken question on her gaze of what's wrong everyone. She could only give their coach a tight lipped smile.

"I don't exactly know what's going on," she continued, "but I guess I don't have to. We can go straight to business I suppose."

She took a sip from the glass of water on the table.

"Though, we have to apologize about the appearance of the media earlier. We told every one of you guys that these wasn't a press a conference, and it's not. Unfortunately, they still appeared, probably thinking they can get anything since this is the first time all of you were together."

Again, there was nothing coming from them, but she did notice some glares and dirty looks being exchanged.

Natsukawa-san cleared her throat. "Moving on. Let me start by introducing ourselves. Hopefully, all of you already know us, but for formalities' sake, we still have to do this. As you might already know, I am Natsukawa Kaede, one of the two main coaches. The man beside me is Coach Gamo Minato, which I also hope you recognize as the boys' coach as well as the other main coach for this tournament."

She turned towards Coach Gamo, who nodded to them in greeting. Natsukawa-san turned back to them and continued.

"The lady sitting beside me is Nagasato Rei. She'll be assisting us in helping you guys be better players, as well as the man beside Gamo-san, Mikami Tatsuo. Some of you knew of his issues, but let's be thankful that he's finally well and willing to lend us a hand."

This brought smiles to a few of them, most notably Wakabayashi-kun. He was concerned for the health of his personal coach after all.

"With that over, we will now proceed to what we called you for. If you please, Gamo-san," Natsukawa-san then turned to Coach Gamo, who nodded and cleared his throat.

Everyone suddenly sat straighter, waiting for the plans and scheduled they were going to be given. Ayame already took out her phone to put it in her notes and calendar. Good, they'll be needing it.

"Look, I'm going to be straight up," Coach Gamo confessed. "We'll be asking a lot from all of you. This a new thing FIFA's trying out, and we're all new to this.

"First of all, training will be longer than the two weeks I originally planned for the boys before the first round of the qualifiers. Since we haven't exactly tried out an official team made up by girls and boys, we have ask you to be at Tsumaigo by the third week of September, a whole four weeks before the round. You might think that's a lot of time, but we need to adjust to having this kind of team. It's harder than you think."

"Remember, you're not just playing against a team solely consisting of boys or girls, but a combination of them. Whatever you thought of the other national teams, get rid of them. With this new team, who knows how strong everyone have become," Natsukawa-san added.

"Right," Coach Gamo agreed. "That'll be something we need to discuss as well. A new team means new team dynamics. That's going to be one of our main agendas once we start training.

"Secondly, training will be harder than before. We want to bring out all your talents, and we all believe that you have the potential to be the greatest players Japan has seen yet. You guys are called the 'Golden Generation' for a reason. We're not going to let that potential to waste."

Coach Gamo then took a deep breath.

"And lastly, we ask for your cooperation," he said. "I know that you boys are probably thinking how unfair it is that the girls have to join you, but trust me, it'll be worthwhile in the end.

"To be honest, I was skeptical about this at first, but then I remember one man's remark as I sat with at the airport, waiting for my flight. We were watching Nationals, and they just finished the boys' finals. Then, they showed a replay of the girls' match. He said, 'Can you believe the youth soccer players today? They get better and better each time. Just imagine a field where both girls and boys play together. That much talent would be amazing to see.' I didn't think much about it at the time, but I was reminded of it when this was proposed to me."

Suddenly, Coach Gamo gave a confident smile. "And as I look at you guys, I couldn't agree more."

She watched as everyone looked at him with surprised looks.

"You guys are world class players. You've brought to Japan both the boys and girls Junior Youth titles, and if we all work together, I believe that you can bring this one home too.

"I know it's hard to make this work, but I promise you, everything will be worthwhile in the end," he concluded.

She couldn't help it, but there was a huge smile on her face. Coach Gamo's speech must have moved everyone. She didn't feel the same amount of tension as before. It didn't exactly leave per say, but it was enough that it didn't feel scary anymore.

There was even people who began to take little glances to each other, a contemplative expression on their faces.

She exchanged looks with Tsubasa on the other side. There was a small smile on his face, thinking of the same thing she did.

Maybe, this could finally work.

"I hope you think about what we told all of you," Natsukawa-san smiled. "Because that's all we have actually. We're still preparing your training regimes, and we're sure it should be ready by the time we start training. We are going to have three days of separate training before combining you. Sort of like a warm up. After that, that's when the real business starts."

"Yes," Coach Gamo agreed, "and we expect that you'll give your best."

"Thank you for coming, and we hope to see everyone in Tsumaigo in September."

Everyone started to stand up, and started to leave the room. She and all the other Nankatsu players grouped together, whispering about the information they just heard. They were still skeptical about all of this, but it didn't stop them from being excited.

They still might not know it's going to work, but it didn't hurt to try.

Now, time to go to Disney and relax before everything starts.

End Chapter