https://youtu.be/pKf7YSXEBn4

I remembered Zeus getting the upper hand.

I remembered Gemini Storm getting the upper hand.

You wanna know what the difference was?

We usually found a way through them.

They stole from us with ease. They managed to get past our defenses. They know countermoves to the techniques we put out. Even though Kidou and Fudou were the main strategists on the field, somehow I had to find a gap.

"...try focusing on---"

That voice again, but this time I didn't hear the rest of what it said. Try focusing on what? On the players? On the team? On their techniques? There's too many assumptions. A wrong assumption could lead into a bad end.

When the midfielder passed the ball to the defender, Toramaru was the one running to get it.

The defender just kicked the ball to the captain. 

"I'm not gonna let you have your way!"

Akio intercepts the pass.

"Now! Dual Typhoon!"

Kazemaru, Shirou, Kabeyama, Jousuke, and Tobitaka run up and went to their positions. On Akio's side was me, Shuuya, Tobitaka, and Kabeyama. On Kidou's side was Shirou, Toramaru, Kazemaru, and Jousuke. Our side runs up first, followed by Kidou. As we were about to be blocked, Akio does a back pass to Kabeyama and passes it to Kazemaru. Another set of the opposing team tries to block them as well, but Kazemaru passes it to Kidou who passes it to me. I pass it to Akio, and already the captain was going to stop us. Toramaru runs up just as the captain was going to block us. Quickly, Akio kicks the ball to Toramaru and does "Gladius Arch". 

The ball was surrounded by six swords that were spinning alongside the ball.

"All right, it's ours!" I hear Jirou shout.

"Big Spider!"

Eight arms come out of the goalkeeper's back (I hid behind Shuuya: I am deathly scared of spiders no matter how tough I am) and he stops it. He kicks it to the forward, and already he runs up.

I run back. I hear protests from Kidou but I still run back, blocking him.

He scoffs at me. "You think you can stop me?"

"I don't think, I know." The forward does his best to get past me, but I was persistent. I wasn't going to let him and his team to get away with this. "Move it, girl!" He shouts at me. I still block him. I already feel the frustration coming from him. 

'Left, left, then right. Right, middle, around, left, then right. Middle, right, right, left...' I was already having a hard time keeping up. By blocking him, the momentum of his shoot getting in the goal would be a three percent chance: A technique is mastered by one's body, mainly stamina. If your stamina is low, the less powerful the technique becomes. I'm glad that Kageyama's advice worked for once... I thank him for that.

"Careful!" The voice shouts at me. The forward growls and quickly gets past me, already heading for the goal. 

"GAN, SHAN, DWAN!" We hear Endou Daisuke shout. 

"Gunshot!"

"Gan! Shan! Dwan!" Endou makes an attempt, but it fails.

0-2. 

"It's not Gan, Shan, Dwan! It's Gan... Shan... Dwan!"

Now I know where Endou's weirdness comes from. But then again, his weirdness manages to make miracles happen, believe it or not. And this coming from me.

Our kickoff, and we're back where we started, but much more farther back. We can't get the ball back. Our passes are intercepted.

I remember The Empire's way of knowing our moves.

I remember Orpheus's counters and risks.

The difference? Same as the first two questions: We usually found a way through them.

The forward does a high kick, high jump, and harshly kicks the ball without using a technique. Now we're just being mocked:

"Gan, Shan, Dwan!"

For a moment, I saw something come out from behind Endou. I can make out a silhouette that's similar to Majin the Hand.

Right behind that silhouette was also a small girl. 

It disappeared, and the ball was bounced back. Each time one of the players kicked the ball, Endou manages to make it bounce back. At this rate, he might not keep up. 

"Control your energy!" We hear Endou Daisuke shout again. "Use the full force of your body more!" 

"---your full force---" The voice was sounding like static, but I can make out the next few words: Try focusing on your full force. What did that mean? But, doing that was normal, right?

"Gunshot!"

"Gan... Shan... Dwan!"

I see the silhouette again, this time a little longer. Electric static was surrounding it. 

The little girl was behind the silhouette. She had short, cyan colored hair, was wearing an old soccer uniform, and had sapphire blue eyes.

Now I know who the voice belonged to.

It was mine.

Endou stops it, and the ball hit the post instead. The whistle blows, signaling the end of the first half.

We all went to the benches. My mind was still processing on what I had just seen. Why me? Wait, let me rephrase that: Why was my younger self asking for help? And how come I was the only one who saw it? This was confusing. What was happening? 

I was so lost in thought that the only thing that snapped me out of my thoughts was Natsumi saying that Kabeyama and Tobitaka should be put up as forwards. Not only did that snap me out of it, but I manage to process on Natsumi's explanation.

"...forwards act as forwards, the midfielders act as midfielders, the defenders as defenders, and that's all. Because of their complete separation of roles, their defenders lack the abilities as a midfielder to keep the ball, to bring the ball to the front."

"To break through that, you're saying we should mix up the defenders and midfielders?" Kidou breaks the confusing silence.

"Let's try it." Shuuya says, putting a hand on Kidou's shoulder.

"But I can't shoot the goal." Kabeyama says nervously.

"So what if you can't? Just stealing the ball, going up ahead, getting past the players; Heck, even passing the ball is considered a big help on the field." I say out loud. I see everyone look at me. "Why are you all looking at me like that...?" 

"Sorry," Haruna laughs sheepishly. "It's just that, your advice reminded me when you were watching the Occult Match. When Someoka did Dragon Crash the first time, and you explained it right then and there."

"'You're the one who named it? And it's not a naming sense, it's just a logical shoot since it involves the aura of a blue-scaled and red-eyed dragon that has been extinct for several decades'." Aki chuckled, doing her best impression of me.

"You give advice in an odd way. But, it helps!" Kabeyama says to me. "Remember during the preliminaries?"

"Kabeyama! Shuuya! You can do this! You can do the Inazuma Drop! All of them are working hard, so don't you dare give up!!!" Kabeyama remembered the words so clearly that I said before, I actually manage to give a small smile. 

"That's what I should be seeing." Endou says to me. "An important player who helps in the smallest ways, yet gives big results." He turns to all of us now. "Right, then let's do it!"

"Yeah!"

We did the positions that were switched. Kabeyama and Tobitaka up front, Shuuya and Toramaru in the midfield, and Kazemaru and Akio at the defense. 

Their kickoff. Akio intercepts a pass. Shuuya gets past one of the players. Though the positions are mixed, that confuses the opposing players. 

Defenders get the ball from Kidou. Kabeyama manages to block them.

Toramaru has the ball. He and Shuuya do a combined shoot. The goalkeeper fails to stop it.

1-2.

"The Hurricane!"

2-2.

"Shinkuuma V2!"

Tobitaka passes it to Shuuya. On instinct, Toramaru and I run up. I've seen the move, I can copy it. That's what I can do. 

"Grand Fire!"

The flame-engulfed ball gets past "Big Spider", and we have a three-point lead now. 

"I gave you guys the strongest power there ever was, yet you weren't able to use it properly!" We all stare a Garshield in disbelief. He was really blaming the team he created for this defeat? Honestly...

The familiar sound of a helicopter comes into view, and lands down on the field. I recognize it as Garshield's escape route, but then four men in black suits show up. The fourth men was holding of what seems to be a leash, and three people were locked on it.

I widen my eyes in realization. "Those guys." I say. "Those guys were the ones who started it!" I shout.

"I told you we would get caught, but did you listen to me? No! You never did!"
"Shut your mouth for once, Luciano."
"This was our fault, Kuro, Luci. I can admit that."
"Oh, shut up, Lutz."

"Silence. Everything you will say can be used against you." The man says angrily. He looks a little bit like Kiku, only he's much more older and he looks Chinese. 

"Who are you?" Garshield asks them with indifference.

"The international police. Garshield, you're under arrest." One of the men in black say.

"You have played with fire a bit too much, Garshield." We turn to see Kiku and Detective Onigawara. "If only you'd left the island when you had the chance." The detective continued.

While Garshield was doing a rant on saving the world, the police had already taken him away, along with the team. 

"In the end, they were just another one of his pawns." Hijikata says. 

"Now that you mention it, I feel sorry for them." Haruna says. I felt sorry too. No one should be used as a pawn.

"Thank you, Mamoru, for protecting Daisuke's soccer." I see Rococo come up to us, holding his right shoulder. Even though the injury was a bit visible, he was still smiling at Endou. "And frankly, I'm surprised." Rococo continues, "You were able to win against those enhanced humans with your strength." 

"No. That's because we had Daisuke-san's advice to guide us." Kidou says, already putting on his humble side.

"Kidou, I think maybe it was our own power." I say while shrugging. They look at me, then back at Rococo, who was still smiling. "You were able to make plays exactly according to direction."

"Rococo..."

"But we won't lose in the finals." Of course they won't.

"Ah, also, you've improved a lot, Rena." I look at Rococo with a small smile. 

"How does he know you?" Kazemaru asks me.

"Remember when I said that I had an old teammate?" I reminded him. He looks at me confused. Aki blinks before saying, "You did say that. And you said that same teammate ended up in the hospital."

"That's me." Rococo does his old closed-eye smile.

A moment of silence...

"EH?!?!"

I expected that of them. Natsumi looks at me in shock.

"You have your mother's fighting spirit." Endou Daisuke says to me. "Heck, even your grandmother had that spirit." 

"Good luck at the finals. Like I said, we won't lose." Rococo says to us.

"We don't intend to." Endou smiles back.

I see my younger self again. I look at Kiku (I didn't even know he was still there), who was staring at the direction she was at. 

Kiku was smiling.

"Arigato." She smiles at him then disappears as the wind blows against the trees.

"It appears that Rena is finally free." Kiku turns to us, still smiling.

"Wait, are you saying that...?" Endou looks at me. I was just staring at Kiku in shock.

I was... free?

"The Artemis Key was inside of your friends." Kiku concluded. Though his expression was stoic, you can still see the smile on his face. Like he's finally relieved. "It was unexpected, really. In the end, you're still you." 

"Rena, are you crying?" I hear Rosa ask me.

I touch my face: She was right. I was crying. Not out of fear or sadness, but of joy for the first time in ages. 

"Thanks." I say, giving a real smile. "Thanks for bringing me back."

https://youtu.be/sMr3kCNYg-c

A/N: ANOTHER UPDATE?! Well, yeah. This was long to write, really. But, tada! Rena's finally free! No more nightmares, no more fear of being replaced; She's officially back to her old self. Also... I forgot to mention that this book will end soon. Just four chapters left actually. 

BUT! I planned a little something. Actually, a few somethings:

>Sakuma Rena in the Inazuma Eleven Movie: The Strongest Army Ogre Attacks
>The Epilogue
>Sakuma Rena in Ares/Orion
>Sakuma Rena in GO, GO Chrono Stone, and GO Galaxy

There's more, but these are the new ones. I also have a New Gen fic. So wait for that to come up hehe. Until next time!