Endou's introduction to the team at the moment was not a very welcomed one, considering the team was a hair trigger away from breaking down. Many knew that the Fifth Sector was going to send in a new coach after getting rid of Kudou but they were not expecting someone like Endou to take up the position. First he told them to gather at the riverbank for practice after school, then he said that it was to win. No respectable coach from the Fifth Sector would tell them to win.

And Shindou unsurprisingly called in sick and left before classes started. As such, the team was reluctant to obey the new coach.

Thus, when the final bell rang, only Shinsuke, Otonashi and the managers gathered at the gates where Endou was waiting for them.

"Right, let's head off." Endou clapped his hands and started off to the riverbank field.

Otonashi walked beside him while the managers and Shinsuke chatted a little way back. Seeing that they were distracted, Otonashi whispered to the former captain, "Endou-san, did Kudou-kantoku arrange this?"

"Yeah. He told me and Aki yesterday. It was quiet a shock." Endou shrugged nonchalantly.

"Shouldn't we tell the other players that? They think that you were sent by the Fifth Sector to control Shindou-kun and Matsukaze-kun."

But Endou shook his head. "It's better to let everyone assume that and learn to trust me in their own time. If it gets back to the Fifth Sector that they were hacked, the results could be disastrous."

Otonashi nodded in understanding despite not happy with the idea. With Tsurugi on the team, they had to be very careful of what they do. As much as she trusts the team, she knows that some of them have hot tempers and could accidentally let something slip.

"I wish that they can see that you value their love for soccer over the Fifth Sector soon. So that they can enjoy soccer once again." Otonashi confided to him.

"They will." Endou said with the same determination from ten years ago that made Otonashi believe him and the team he led to overcome any obstacles.

They eventually arrived at the riverbank and to their surprise, Tenma was already there. He was clearly practicing his dribbling on the walk path tiles.

"Tenma!" Aoi called out to her friend when she shook off the shock. Tenma paused in his practice and waved at them excitedly.

"Hi guys!" He chirped as he ran over to them. "Aren't you guys supposed to be in practice?"

"Are you supposed to be in bed?" Midori retorted gruffly as she folded her arms. "Aoi said that you were sick."

"My fever broke late last night. Aki-nee just wants me to stay home for the day just in case. But she let me come out to practice when my fever didn't come back by noon." Tenma grinned.

"It's good to see that you are up, Matsukaze."

Tenma blinked at the person who spoke that and his eyes widened in shock and he nearly dropped his ball. "You're...Endou Mamoru! The legendary goalkeeper and captain of Inazuma Japan!"

Shinsuke was unable to contain himself and burst out. "And he's our new coach!"

Blinking dumbly, Tenma looked at his friend then to their new coach who was smiling sheepishly.

"EH!?"

XXXXXXXXXX

After getting over the shock of having a famous soccer player as their coach, Tenma and Shinsuke started training under Endou who allowed Tenma to join in. Aoi had a soft smile as she helped Shinsuke practice his heading while watching Tenma out of the corner of her eye. The coach was watching Tenma practice his dribbling around cones and gave tips on how to be faster. It was a relief that Tenma was back to normal after what happened the day before.

Tenma caught her staring and gave her a grin before resuming practice. Aoi sighed inwardly with a smile. But she was still concern with the conversation she had with Tenma yesterday.

An hour into practice, Endou decided to change things up. "Okay, next drill!" To their surprise, Endou joined them. "Tenma, dribble while coming after me! When I make the call, pass to Shinsuke."

"Okay!" The two players eagerly joined their coach in running after him and passing the ball with each other.

"What a weird coach." Midori remarked.

"That's Endou-san for you." Otonashi smiled. "Always a soccer freak."

"Heh. The only people I can think of that can match him in freakiness are those two." Midori snorted.

"That's not far off." Aoi chuckled nervously as she joined them at the bench. Movement on the stairs made her pause and look up. There stood Tsurugi the punk who was watching them with a bored expression yet had a calculated look in his eyes.

"Ignore him." Otonashi advised her when she realized who the blue haired girl was staring at. "He has not caused any trouble so far."

"It's only a matter of time until he does. The Fifth Sector could not get their hands on Tenma yesterday. Who knows what they will do in the future?" Aoi frowned as she spoke to the teacher softly so that the other two managers wouldn't overhear.

"I know you are worried, but I trust Endou-san to protect him and his players." Otonashi tried reassured her. "Right now, the Fifth Sector will probably leave us alone for a while because of the Holy Road. Once it starts, they cannot do anything openly like they did on with the match with the Black Knights. And Kudou-kantoku told me that he will continue to secretly monitor them and warn us if they try to do anything."

"Let's hope that they don't." Aoi said with an uneasy sigh. "Tenma...I say this with all the love and affection as a friend, but he never causes trouble but trouble always finds him."

XXXXXXXXXX

The training that Endou set up was vigorous. It was no surprise that Shinsuke was panting and sweating heavily. But compared to Abel's training to make him summon out his Keshin, it was relatively tame which is why he was less winded than his smaller friend.

"What's wrong? Worn out?" Endou smiled at Shinsuke.

"Not yet!" Shinsuke quickly pushed his exhaustion aside. He was having too much fun to stop.

"That's the spirit." Endou then turned to Tenma. "You're doing better than I expected."

"My brother is a soccer player. He used to train me back at home." Tenma explained, but not going into specifics.

"I see." Endou nodded in understanding. They resumed their little game until the ball rolled over to the stairs where Tsurugi was watching. Shinsuke and Tenma became wary but Endou seemed pleased weirdly.

"Oh, you came Tsurugi. Could you get the ball for us?"

"What?" Tsurugi narrowed his eyes at the coach who remained unfazed.

"Let's play soccer!" He called out his famous catchphrase to try to convince him. But at the benches, Otonashi winced as provoking the SEED might not be a good idea, considering their situation.

"It makes my blood boil...your 'let's play soccer' that is." Tsurugi fumed at the coach's enthusiasm. It was becoming clear to him that Endou Mamoru was not sent by the Fifth Sector. But he had no idea how did the Fifth Sector make such a blunder. He will have to ask Kuroki to check and see if the Fifth Sector's systems were tampered with. But for now, he will see how long Endou Mamoru can act like this.

"Oh." Endou remained oblivious to Tsurugi's silent threat and suddenly turned around and called, "Hey! Don't stay back there, guys! Come out!"

To Tenma and Shinsuke's surprise, most of the seniors save for Kirino, Shindou and Minamisawa came out of their hiding places where they were watching them practice, sporting sheepish and wary looks. Some of the wary looks were directed at Tenma who winced and stood up.

"I'm sorry losing control and scaring everyone yesterday." Tenma bowed in apology for his out of control moment.

"Stop with the apologies! It's getting annoying." Kurama snapped, making Tenma flinch and quickly straighten up. But Sangoku narrowed his eyes at the forward and lightly smacked him over his head.

"What was that for?" Kurama growled.

"Stop being rude to the newcomers." Sangoku gave him his patented no nonsense glare. Turning to Tenma, he nodded. "Apology accepted. We understand you did not mean it." When Sangoku says that, it means it is final and no one can argue with him.

Endou then took charge of the situation by having the players gather in front of the goal, despite some of them still distrusting him and wondering how they were roped into this. "For starters, show me your kick strength. One shoot each."

Seeing how the seniors were reluctant to obey the coach, Tenma was about to volunteer first. But he paused and changed his mind when he caught sight of Kurama's angry face.

"Who should go first, kantoku?" He asked the coach instead.

"Why not Kurama?" Endou inclined his head at said forward, having guessed Tenma's intentions.

"Fine." Kurama spat. He kicked the ball at the goal with all his might to be over with it. But he was not expecting Endou's praise.

"Nice shot. Just what I'd expect from Raimon's forward."

Kurama turned away with his seemingly perpetual angry expression. This coach was driving him mad! He was supposed to be from the Fifth Sector yet was acting differently from what they'd expect!

"Next is Hamano." Endou called out. One by one after that, each player shot a ball into the goal. And Endou always praised them when they did. Last was Tenma and he eyed the ball nervously. To this day, his aim was not the best since Abel was more focused on training him on dribbling and Keshin summoning. So he was not confident he can shoot the ball into the goal.

Nevertheless, with an encouraging nod from Endou, Tenma took a deep breath and kicked the ball...which hit the goalpost and bounced over it.

"Ops." Tenma scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

Endou gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it. That kick power was pretty intense. We can work to improve your aim."

That drew alarmed looks from the senior players. Tenma's less than perfect aim was what saved them from disobeying the score order. If Tenma did get better, there's no doubt the next time it happened, Tenma will get Raimon in trouble.

Tenma was aware of their looks but mostly ignored them. He hasn't told anyone but Aoi, but he was determined to play fair and freely, no matter the rules set up by the Fifth Sector. And Shinsuke and Endou will back him up on it, he knew it. Eventually, he'll find a way to convince them to play real soccer too.

"Last is Tsurugi!" Endou suddenly said, making everyone gasp and turn to look at the SEED. "You're the only one left."

Tenma bit his lip to hide his smile. He had a feeling the coach saw what he did and wanted to confirm it by provoking the punk to show his plays.

With an angry grunt, Tsurugi slowly made his way down to the field. Endou had moved to stand in front of it in his familiar goalkeeper position. Tensions were high as no one dared to breath. Tsurugi and Endou were locked in a stare down...until Tsurugi made the first move with his hissatsu shoot.

"Death Sword!"

Everyone watched with baited breath for Endou to catch it or use a hissatsu to stop it. Only he didn't. Instead, he closed his eyes and tilted his body to the side to allow it straight into the goal.

"What!?" Tsurugi hissed in shock. Everyone else was gaping at the coach, perplex with his actions. It only got worse when Endou actually praised him for nearly shooting at his face!

"That was an amazing shoot! You're good."

"Tch. What a joke" Tsurugi growled and stormed away. Tenma could not help but coughed to hide his laugh. Everyone now looked at him with weird looks.

"Endou-kantoku, you're interesting." Tenma merely grinned at the coach.

"Glad to hear that." Endou grinned back. The poor Raimon players had no idea what to make of this. "That's all for today's practice."

"Just one shot?" Hamano asked, his confusion mirrored with the other players.

"So what is it we weren't able to see from the school grounds?" Kurama scowled.

"You all came here to train for winning, right? Then you've seen it." Endou gave a wink at Tenma and Shinsuke. "The faces of your friends with their goals set for victory. The faces of people who want to play real soccer."

Tenma had a secret smile at his coach's words despite the senior's uneasy looks. "I see." He now understood why Abel respected the goalkeeper so much. He certainly lived up to his reputation of his love for soccer.

"Hm, what was that?" Shinsuke looked at his friend but he shook his head.

"Nothing." Tenma shook his head.

"I'll be waiting for you at the school grounds tomorrow." With that they were dismissed. Tenma quickly grabbed his bag as he waved at Shinsuke and the managers.

"I'm going to go back first."

"I'll go with him and make sure he gets back safely." Aoi quickly offered and ran after her friend, leaving everyone to stare at them.

"What's got them in a hurry?" Midori frowned in confusion. Everyone shrugged as they didn't have answers.

XXXXXXXXX

After putting a distance between himself and the riverbank, Tsurugi whipped out his phone to call his handler. He needed answers and he needed them yesterday!

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Tsurugi jumped at Tenma's approach. His eyebrow twitched as the brunet came closer and placed a hand over the forward's phone to snap it close. "What do you want!?" He hissed.

"You will regret it if you tried to get Endou-kantoku fired." Tenma's lips turned up slowly into a smirk.

"You can do nothing to the Fifth Sector. Your warnings mean nothing to me." Tsurugi narrowed his eyes at him.

"If that is the case, then go ahead and make the call." Tenma removed his hand from the phone. "But, I don't think you will."

"Why is that?"

"You'll destroy more of yourself." Tenma narrowed his eyes at Tsurugi. It was not his steel glare but it was edging into it. "You love soccer more than anyone else. Your shoot just confirmed it."

"What?!"

"No one can make that kind of shoot or have your skills if they didn't have the slightest bit of passion for soccer. No matter how much you say you hate soccer, your plays betray you."

Tsurugi took a step back, pain written over his face. "That's not...!"

Tenma sighed as he also backed up. "Think about it, Tsurugi. If you remove another coach who loves soccer, will you be able to forgive yourself when you get what you want from the Fifth Sector?"

Tenma turned to leave. But he paused and tilted his head back at Tsurugi with a smirk. "By the way, do tell Kuroki-san I said hi and that he can find the men he sent to kidnap me at the nearest police station."

"What-!?" Tsurugi tried to grab Tenma's shoulder but missed when Tenma ducked away.

"I have a guardian angel now. So it's pointless for him to try again. In fact, she has the evidence she needs from this attempt to implicate him." Tenma gave him a wink and walked away, leaving a now scared Tsurugi behind.

'Just who in the world is Matsukaze Tenma?' Tsurugi shruddered.

XXXXXXXX

"Are you alright?" Aoi asked him when she saw him approaching her hiding spot where she watched his interaction with Tsurugi from a distance.

"I'm good." Tenma sighed tiredly. "It's a good thing Dahlia came in this morning. Otherwise, the Fifth Sector might have succeeded this afternoon. Although," Tenma gave her a wry smile. "Aki-nee was not happy that they trampled her garden."

Aoi stifled a giggle at that. She tilted her head at a woman following them inconspicuously a distance away. "With Dahlia-san around, I feel a lot safer."

They walked in comfortable silence until Aoi asked him a question, "What are you going to do with the Fifth Sector now?"

Tenma paused in his step and drew in a breath. "I'm not going to obey them, that's for sure." He gave her a serious glance. "I now know where I heard the name Fifth Sector before. The person who hurt mama that night said it."

"Tenma." Aoi looked at him startled. It then morphed into worry. "You can't possibly be thinking..."

"The person who hurt mama has to be part of the Fifth Sector. And I can find him by fighting against the Fifth Sector."

"Don't!" Aoi grabbed his arm. "Tenma, he attacked your mother. It's too dangerous for you to chase him. You were lucky to have been hidden in the closet that night."

"I know." Tenma hissed, clenching his fist tightly. "But what he and the Fifth Sector is doing is unforgivable. Forget fighting the Fifth Sector to find him, I need to find a way to bring down that organization so that we can play real soccer freely!"

Aoi released his arm with a pained frown. "But Tenma..."

Seeing this, Tenma gave her a reassuring smile. "I promise that I will not confront him if I find him. And I will not drag the members of the soccer club into it. This is something that I will handle myself. If they don't want to go against the Fifth Sector, I won't pressure them to. But I also won't turn my back on my soccer."

Aoi bit her lip but nodded. The look on Tenma's face told her that it was impossible to change his mind and he did promise not to drag anyone else into it. But she was still worried. Glancing back at Dahlia, she decided to give Abel a call and see if he can talk Tenma out of it.