The field of Teikoku Academy was mostly silent as they waited for their coach. The only sound they could hear was the impatient foot tapping from the bench area. The rest of them were working on their stretches while admiring their new uniforms. Right as they finished lining up, a brunette in a white tracksuit appeared.

"You're all here. I'm your coach, Fudou." He said. "From here on out, you guys will be fighting Inazuma Japan."

"Inazuma Japan?"

"Why us?"

"It was requested by Coach Kuroiwa. Just training them won't be enough. He wants us to crush them by any means necessary."

They all understood the message behind that. Nodding at each other, their white haired captain smirked. "Let's do it, Coach Fudou!"

"That's what I like to hear."

"Oi. You're alright with that, right?" Their goalkeeper turned to the one who was still standing on the side. "We'll be destroying them, so that means no playing nice."

"Whatever." Came the reply. "Can I go now? I hate this place."

"You better keep up on your solo training then." The coach said. "The match will be two days after the semi-finals."

"That far away?" The purple haired striker asked, surprised. "With that team, do they even stand a chance at getting that far?"

"They will." The response came from the side of the pitch. "They can't afford not to."

"'Can't afford'...?"

The coach held a hand up, stopping their conversation. "Right then. First of all, let me tell you the real reason why you weren't chosen as representatives of Japan."

~~~~~

Their opponents for the finals were decided the day after their match. Uzbekistan's Storm Wolf. After that, they continued each of their assignments.

As usual, Minaho and Manabe went to study up on their opponent's moves. As usual, Tenma was watching over most of the team's dribble and pass work. And as usual, Shindou was keeping watch over Tsurugi and Ibuki's training.

Even after catching a dozen of his shots, the ash brown haired boy was still unsatisfied. "We'll continue."

Ibuki was still determined to prove his worth no matter what, so he got back to the front of the goal without protests.

Just as he was about to shoot, footsteps came up from behind him. "I don't get it." Tetsukado's voice. "Why is Shindou always so hard on Ibuki?"

"You should be worrying more about yourself."

His whole body stiffened before giving him a bit of a sour look. But it wasn't completely uncalled for. A lot of time had passed since Shindou offered his advice, yet the ex-boxer still hadn't improved by much.

In the afternoon, Funaki suddenly called them over to the side. He informed them that they'll be having a practice match the next day, but the coach stopped him from informing them what team they'll be playing against. Either that, or their trainer didn't even know who they were and was just fulfilling his job of telling them about said match.

Whatever the case, it didn't matter.

As usual, after most of the others had turned in for the night, he snuck out to practice alone on the yacht harbor grounds. Or so he thought.

When he got there, the field was already littered with balls. Tetsukado was the one practicing his kicks. When one ball bounced off the goal post, right to his feet, he made his presence known by making a light pass.

He caught it before smiling at him. "I'm getting pretty good, right?"

Well, if they're talking about how far he's come since they started then... "Yeah."

"How do I say it? It's like, this is starting to get really fun."

Oh, Tenma would love to hear that.

"And it feels great to win." He passed the ball back to him. "The way it's gotten now though, I'm finding just how difficult this is to master."

"I see."

"I wish I can reach your level soon."

He passed it to him again and he caught it rather easily, letting him make a bit of a smug look.

"Maybe soccer works for me better than I thought. After all, I don't have to use my hands."

... No. You don't get to say that when you don't know half of it. He took a look at all the balls scattered in the field before turning back to him. Then, he gestured his head to the bench.

They sat in silence for a while. It was mainly the other boy waiting for him to talk as he was the one who dragged him over. So after gathering the right words, he opened his mouth.

"Be careful, Tetsukado."

"What?" The little laugh in his voice was either because he was nervous or he wasn't taking him seriously.

"Soccer is fun, but if you get impatient about climbing to the top, you'll find yourself being almost flattened by walls wherever you go. It's dangerous to push yourself."

"Are you speaking from experience, Tsurugi?"

Unpleasant memories from a certain hell threatened to resurface. "Yeah."

"But now you're here, so you've managed to conquer that, right?"

"I have a friend who was once my enemy. It was thanks to him that I was able to overcome my walls."

"A friend who was once your enemy, huh... Are you still connected to him now?"

"Yeah. It's a bond that can't be broken even if either of us tried."

"I see..." He hummed in thought for a moment. "I wonder why he wasn't chosen for Inazuma Japan."

"... Who knows." He's been wondering that exact same thing since the day they were all chosen.

"So uh... Is that friend also the one who gave you that keychain?" When he shot him a look, he immediately scooted a little further away. "Sorry, sorry. It's just... I... Or well, we... We've been wondering about you."

"What's there to wonder?"

"Well, for one thing, when we were using the group chat to introduce ourselves, all you said was that you have an older brother. On the other hand, captain told us all about himself, and as for Shindou, well... After finding out he was that Shindou, none of us had any questions left." He explained. "And then, there's also... Uh... Every single one of us had, at least once, seen you by the station in the early morning. Always with a ball in hand... And you always seem upset when you leave... So after everything Minaho said yesterday..."

So it wasn't just the one time he ran into Kusaka. He sighed. "That's someone else. Someone who... I can safely say I have an even stronger bond with. More than even Tenma and Shindou-san."

"That close? Is it also someone from Raimon?"

"You could say that." He stood up, involuntarily turning to the station before letting out a sigh. "Right now, she's somewhere really far away. I'm waiting for her to come back."

"'She'...? Oh, is it the 'Kimiko' person Sorano mentioned before?"

Ah... He forgot he was there when they had that short conversation. "Yeah. That's her alright."

"So the ball's for playing with her again?"

A smirk made its way to his lips. "No."

~~~~~

"It's time."

"Look at them all. So complacent."

"This assignment is almost too easy. We shouldn't even need the month of practice we had."

"Remember, we're not here to play."

"Right." The captain turned to the one in a hoodie. "Then, would you like to do the honors?"

Without a word, the ball was taken from him. With a particularly hard kick, it was sent to the eleven who were still doing stretches. As predicted, Tsurugi was the one to notice the ambush and kick the ball back.

Without a moment's delay, their captain jumped up and redirected the ball's trajectory to the ground, causing a large smoke screen to appear. By the time it dissipated, they were all standing on the field.

"Hakuryuu!"

"It's not just him. They're all..."

"You will be playing against them." A white haired man, who they all knew to be Coach Kuroiwa stated.

"These guys are Resistance Japan." Their own coach said. "And I'm the coach, Fudou!"

"Resistance Japan?"

Their captain stepped forward with a smirk. "It's been a while, Tsurugi."

He returned it with one of his own. "I wasn't expecting to face off with you again in this way."

"We've come here today to crush you." The purple haired striker said, tossing his bangs to the side.

"Crush us?"

"Let's take this time to introduce the members of my Resistance Japan."

And right on cue, Hakuryuu took the lead. "I am Hakuryuu, from Team Zero of the former Fifth Sector."

"Minamisawa Atsushi." The purple haired striker said next. "Gassan Kunimitsu Junior High."

"Yukimura Hyouga." Blue haired boy with ice blue eyes. "Hakuren Junior High."

"Namikawa Rensuke." Another blue haired boy with a scar over his eye. "Kaiou Academy. Give us everything you've got today, you scallywags!"

"Kurosaki Makoto." A brunette with a white headband. "Seidouzan Junior High."

"Makari Ginjirou." A green haired boy with a white scarf covering half his face. "Hakuren Junior High."

"Kita Ichiban." Orange hair with green eyes and a white bandana. "Tengawara Junior High."

"Mahoro Tadashi." Red hair going down to the side of his face and brown eyes. "Genei Academy."

"Kishibe Taiga." Dark blue hair going down to his neck with light blue eyes. "Kidokawa Seishuu Junior High."

"Senguuji Yamato." Long pink hair and blue eyes. Their goalkeeper. "From Dragon Link."

There was a short pause afterwards. Their last member wore a light blue jacket over the red jersey, and a white hood covered their head. It was hard to tell their gender. They didn't bother saying anything and instead chose to simply walk to the back of the pitch.

Fudou clicked his tongue but turned back to them with a smirk. "Those are my eleven."

~~~~~

"Their team is full of amazing members." Manabe stated, holding his tablet up and reading on their statistics. "Almost all of them are strikers."

"So they're a team with incredible offense." Matatagi concluded.

Minaho frowned. "Defending is going to be a tough task."

"Don't worry. I'll stop them." Ibuki stated confidently, glaring at Shindou. "Just watch me."

"But they said they're going to crush us." Matatagi reminded.

Tenma narrowed his eyes before nodding at them all. "Okay, everyone! The world is almost within reach! Let's win this and ride on the momentum!"

"Yeah!"

As they headed to their positions, he couldn't help staring at the one in the hoodie. They hadn't moved from their spot in the defense since the introductions. It didn't even seem like they were interested in playing. But that wasn't what bothered him.

Why does that jacket look familiar?

"Tsurugi?" His attention was caught by Tenma's call. He had a worried look on him. One that he's been getting quite a lot recently.

"It's nothing." He reassured.

"Are you sure?" He eyed the one in the hood before turning back to him. "Hakuryuu and the others are one thing, but that person..."

"Yeah. We know nothing about them." His gaze went to the other forward standing beside him. "Matatagi, be careful when going on the offense. We don't know what position that person specializes at, much less their skills."

"Got it."

Trainer Funaki went to the center of the pitch with the ball, stating that he would be the referee. Once he was back out of the lines, he blew the whistle.