The next morning, I forgot what had been stuck in my mind last night. Really, what could be more important than winning the next match? Yes, that must have been it, nerves must have been making my mind go in circles. After all, we still haven't perfected the hissatsu that me, Someoka, and Kazemaru were making. We had to really speed up our progress, yesterday's plans had been completely soiled, but it wasn't all for nothing. At least Raimon trusts me now. Or at least for now. We won't be able to tell how far that bond goes until we get on the field.

Time Skip to After School; Gouenji's POV

It was already forty minutes into practice, and Inoue was still missing. I was seriously starting to get worried. It isn't like her to be late by so much or to skip practice. She probably went someplace secluded to go train who knows what. I know she is getting a little jittery about our next match, but we all are. Especially Kidou, these days he is going crazy I wouldn't want to train with him, because it would result in me being his beating bag. Not a nice thought.

Though I had really been looking foward to training with Inoue again, but we never really had the opportunity. The first day we were never paired up together, and practice was quickly interupted by Ichinose. Then the next time, Endou, Domon, and Ichinose was hogging the field for Tri-Pegasus, not that I was complaining since it did help us win against Senbayama. After that, it was rare that we ever got any chance for some real, serious one on one training. Endou was always rounding me up to help him or to encourage me to make another joint hissatsu with Kidou or Ichinose. But who I really wanted to make a move with was Inoue, though she seemed more interested in working with Someoka and Kazemaru instead. I didn't completely understand nor forgive her for fooling me and all of Kidokawa into thinking that she was a boy yet. I mean, think about it, she saw us all changing. That counts for something. Though thinking back, she never used the locker room to change, so I couldn't be sure.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Kidou beckon me over. I knew what he wanted, but I shook my head. He returned with a frown that had an edge of firmness in it then pointed casually at his bag when he thought no one was looking.

I sighed in defeat, then grimaced and gritted my teeth, and walked over to the back of a tree which Kidou was casually moving toward, where we couldn't be heard.

What both me and Kidou missed was the same pair of grey eyes watching our every move.

Neutral POV

"Ah, where could Sakurai be? We can't practice a joint combination hissatsu without the setting member!" Someoka shouted in frustration as he, Kazemaru, and a tailing Kabeyama who was struggling to catch up started making their third round around the school trying to find the said striker.

"Somehow, I think we will be looking for her more than we will be training today," the teal haired boy panted. The other defender collapsed on the ground. "Can we take a little break first?" he asked in an unmotivated voice. It was no wonder though, for they had already searched the whole campus in the scorching heat longer than any of their patience's worth. And right now all of them were going to snap.

"I swear, when I finally find her, I'll..." the pink haired striker cursed under his breath. The classmates standing nearby all inched to the side of the hall after hearing Someoka's threats, which were too grotesque to mention right now. Kazemaru tried to calm his friend down, but you could easily tell that his heart wasn't in it, because all he wanted to do was lie on the ground like Kabeyama right now.

"Now where haven't we already searched?" Kazemaru pondered this question, only half aware that he was talking out loud as they continued to storm down the school grounds. Suddenly, a light bulb seemed to click in Kabeyama's brain, and he exclaimed, "The Inabikari Training Center!"

There was a moment of silence for the brilliance to settle in. "Why didn't we think of that?!" Someoka shouted to the sky (although they were indoors right now) while Kazemaru said the same thing, but in a much more mild, defeated tone. "Wait, but how did she find out about that?" Kazemaru questioned. "Hmm..." the three put their heads together to think, then finally, Someoka said, "You know, she is friends with Gouenji, and she seems pretty close to Kidou too." "Aha!" Kazemaru snapped his fingers, and the three set off toward the Inabikari Training Center.

That was the problem for Raimon sometimes, you see why they were often laughed at? Because without a brain, they were just there for comedy relief. Thank goodness they had Kidou, Gouenji, and Ichinose now.

Time Skip

"Hey, you in there? Sakurai?" Kazemaru called out into the dark training, ahem, torture chamber. But it was immediate after opening the door that someone was indeed training in there, and it was an intense training. There were loud clangs that resounded through the big room as the sound that was made when a soccer ball meets metal pounded over and over again.

When there was no reply, the threesome walked down the alley to the underground pit, where a girl or boy, you couldn't really tell because he or she was facing backwards although they all knew it was the lady they were searching for, with black hair and wearing the Raimon jersey finally came into view. Not trusting Someoka because of his earlier rant, Kazemaru put a firm restraining hand on the pink haired boy's shoulder, which both he and Kabeyama knew was no use if Someoka was really serious about pounding someone to a pulp.

Thankfully, it didn't look like he wanted to charge at all, so Kazemaru's grip loosened, but he kept it there just in case. You never know with Someoka.

The three stood there for a while, watching Shizumi, who didn't seemed to have noticed them. Finally Someoka cleared his throat, and the girl caught the ball neatly on her knee (must have learned from last time) and turned towards them. "Yo," she greeted. Now that she was facing them, they saw how disheveled she looked from the training. Her hair was plastered all over her face, and sweat was trickling down her skin. She seemed to have lost her usual solemn composure, but the intensity in her eyes were just as strong, if not more. They were that haunting pomegranate eyes which seemed to glow from within, sealing your death and daring you to defy her.

"Looking pretty good out there," Kazemaru stuttered, trying to ease the awkward tension as he, Someoka, and Kabeyama watched while Shizumi was panting and trying to regain her energy. "Yeah, ready to do some practice for our combination hissatsu?" Someoka asked, but there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

The girl either didn't hear it, or chose to ignore it. "How high have you guys got to?" she asked. "Huh?" Someoka instinctively asked. I was just as confused as him, and a glance at Kabeyama told me he was too. What was she talking about?

"For your boost jump. I've got about to that thing," the girl pointed at one of the metal supports on the ceiling, which was really high indeed. It took a moment for the info to finally click in the three boys' minds. "Sakurai-san, you never told us to practice this," Kabeyama said with a defected sigh. After all that searching, when she was practicing her part already?

"I clearly remembering myself telling you guys that first we needed to get your boost jump's height to match my shoot. Well, I decided to start training for my own part while you guys did yours. There's no time to waste before the match. And Someoka, I suggest you practice shooting Dragon Crash from a direct pass."

After being ratted out by their teammate, they all hung their heads. It was true what she said, that they couldn't waste any time, but they were still a little angry at her for ditching them. "Look," Someoka hissed, "If you can't work as part of a team, then the team is over."

"Well if you can't catch up to my pace, then we might as well be over anyway. We'll never beat Zeus at the level you guys are going at."

The atmosphere became thicker than before, and Someoka and Shizumi glared at each other , both refusing to admit their defeat. The one-eyed defender noticed this, and tried to make peace between them. "Guys, Sakurai is the only one who has seen Zeus's power other than Kidou, and so far all the things she has said is acurate, so we'll take for granted that we aren't strong enough. But that isn't an excuse to blame us either. We're a team, guys. We can't be wasting precious time arguing right now."

His words seemed to work. Shizumi shifted her gaze away, and Someoka grunted an apology. "Okay, let's go back to the field now. We should practice there together," Kazemaru said, emphasizing his words on the "together", and walking in the middle of the two with a hand on each's shoulder giving a warning grip just for safety precautions, they headed back outside.

I wrote this to be connected to the next chapter but ended up deciding to split it because the next chapter will be very climatic (tho I'm not spilling anything yet), so I'm sorry this is very boring and sounds like a filler chapter. I wanted to delete it, but the only important part was Gouenji's POV and it was too short by itself, so here you go. I will try to make up for it in the next chapter.