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Axel's POV~

"Are you sure you can get her to come out?" I asked as Caleb opened the door.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Caleb answered before leaving the dining hall.

What made him so confident? I asked myself as I tried to convince myself that Caleb and Alexi were not dating.

I sighed and forced myself to concentrate on the matter at hand; Alexi's too scared to come out and face the team, Austin still hasn't been found and the team is starting to break apart. And it's all thanks to Sue's big mouth. Good thing the coaches managed to knock some sense into these guys or else Inazuma Japan would be goner.

"I hope Caleb can convince her to come out." Marc said loud enough for the team to hear.

"If there's one person who can calm her down, it's Caleb." Coach Hillman said making us all turn to him. "She's been through a lot with him so I'm sure he'll help her out of this one too."

"What do you mean Coach?" Xavier asked.

"Let's just say Caleb is someone who Alexi deeply trusts." He answered as everybody started to listen.

"'Alexi'? Is that her name?" Tori asked and Coach Hillman nodded.

"Alexi Knight." Coach Hillman started, "After the Raimon's victory against Zeus Junior High, Detective Smith called me personally about a young girl they found in one of the stadium's overview room. When they asked her what she was doing there, she told them she was training. When they asked what she was training for, she hesitated to answer but nevertheless told them about how Ray Dark honed her abilities to predict the future in soccer games."

"Really? Is that how you met her?" I asked.

Coach Hillman nodded, "Detective Smith didn't know what to do with her so he asked me to talk to her. And so I did. After learning what happened and what she was caught in, I vowed to help protect her as much as I could. That's one of the reason why I had to temporarily reassign as your coach during the Alieus Academy incident, apart from tracking down Ray Dark."

"What do you mean 'what she was caught in?'" Xavier asked, his green eyes piercing into Coach's gaze.

Thunder rumbled and the darks sky soon started its downpour. The room was beginning to get dark so Willy turned the lights on as we all waited for Coach Hillman to explain. He looked at Coach Travis whom we suspect has an idea on what's going on, but remained silent to let Coach Hillman answer our queries.

"What do you will happen if people found out you had the power to know what can and will happen in a game?" Coach Hillman asked.

"They'll probably be amazed of what I can do." Marc stated plainly.

"No." I said, catching everyone's attention. "They'll take interest in me and use my ability for their gain."

"Precisely." Coach Hillman agreed, "Alexi's skill doesn't only work on soccer matches. She can use them in any game there is; basketball, volley ball, even gambling. As long as the odds are stacked up between two or more sides, Alexi will be able to see the outcome."

Everyone quickly understood, but Jude was the first one to speak, "So if anybody knew about her identity and what she can do, then that means-"

"-that means she'll be in great danger. Gamblers from all over the country –even all over the world would want to use her ability to make them richer." Coach Travis sums it up.

"Ray Dark placed her in a dangerous position." Coach Hillman said, "Luckily for us, no one else knows about who she is except for Dark. And some time after your game with Zeus, the public's attention was diverted to Alieus Academy therefore temporarily closing their interest with 'The Oracle'."

He then sighed and massaged his temples for a bit, "Unfortunately now, the media somehow knew about Alexi's connection with Inazuma Japan, making it twice as dangerous for her. Not only that, Ray Dark is still out there and cause potential harm to Alexi or the team. When that happens, we're gonna have a harder time getting to Alexi than the 'Royal Academy Redux incident'..."

"Wait, so Alexi was caught up in that too?" Tori asked.

"Regrettably, yes. Dark managed to blackmail her into joining him again. He used someone so dear to Alexi that it gave her no choice than to join him again."

"And who might that be?" Shawn asked.

"Caleb."

Just before we could even react, the door suddenly opened with Caleb entering followed by Alexi. And the very first thing we all noticed was the fact that they were holding hands.

As much as I wanted to know why Caleb was holding her hands like that, I couldn't ignore Alexi's current state. She won't look at any of us as her gaze fixated on the ground. Her hair was a bit messy and her complexion looked paler than usual. Her once vibrant-blue eyes looked dull and dark not to mention extremely blood-shot. Caleb lead her to Coach Hillman's side and whispered something in her ear that made her look up to him, then he let go of her hand and went to Coach Travis side, at the right of where Coach Hillman was standing.

"Alexi, we-" Marc started but was cut off by Alexi.

"Before you say anything else, I want to apologize first." She said with her voice a bit hoarse.

Coach Hillman nodded to us as a sign to let her speak. Seeing this, Marc nodded to Alexi to let her continue.

"I-I'm sorry for the distress I brought you." She started, "I know by now, you guys are afraid because of the things you learned about 'the Oracle' and I don't blame you if you hate me now."

Her gaze landed on Sue and Tori, "You have every right to be suspicious of me, I won't hold it against you." she said as her voice cracked a little, her eyes got a bit watery. Obviously she was trying to hold back a sob. "I've decided to leave the team."

"What? You can't be serious Alexi." I said and all eyes landed on me.

"I am." She answered, "I have to."

"No, you don't."

"I won't allow it." Coach Travis said plainly. "This team won't allow it.

"Coach, I have to." Alexi insisted. "For the pass years I executed every order and followed every direction Ray Dark gave me, and the consequences were grave. And now, this team is being torn apart by fear- the fear of me."

"Alexi, whatever happened in the past is not your fault." I argued. "You did nothing wrong."

Her gaze landed on me with her eyes almost as dark as the clouds outside. In those eyes were the feelings of guilt and self-hatred welling up inside her. "Axel, a man with a knife won't become a murderer unless you teach him how to kill. The capability of doing something is nothing without the knowledge on how to do it. I trained Zeus and taught them what they needed to know." She then looked at us with a pained and weary expression of acceptance, "You're right. I am a monster."

I can only gape at her as I try to say something that can counter what she said. But I can't find the exact words to say. I could tell that the team could feel Alexi's detestation of herself and the she'd done in the past, but no one should hate themselves for the mistakes they've done, right? If they did, how can they move on and face the future?

"Tell us." Marc said with a hint of authority in his voice. "Tell us why you consider yourself a monster, when you're obviously not."

She hesitated at first, she looked really trapped like what she might say will only make her hate herself more, "I've done a lot of things in the past that I'd rather forget. I've hurt so many people without even realizing it. But I didn't know what I did and I never meant to hurt anyone but I did it nonetheless."

"I started out Junior High at Royal Academy. After just a week there, Ray Dark scouted and said he wanted to train me to be team operator; in return, he promised to help me train Austin with his abilities. He told me that Austin was very talented, but he needed me to cultivate Austin's talents so he could become a great player in the future. Because of that, I decided to agree. So I trained with him, he taught me everything I know. He was strict yet reasonable and was an effective coach."

Everybody was listening intently to every single word she said, and was careful that they didn't miss even the tiniest detail. Coach Hillman and Travis were both emotionless and was keeping an eye on us, making sure we were listening and processing the things Alexi said.

"W-What kind of training did he made you do?" Darren asked, his voice squeaked a bit.

"At first he made me learn everything there is to know about the game." She answered, "Then, he made me practice my skills through some video footage of games that he got from Cyborg Junior High. He'd asked me to observe, calculate, and predict what the players will do and when they'll do it, and write it down on a blank notebook. I spent countless nights just to enhance myself, it was hard at first, but I managed to get a hang of it completely. Then, just as the Soccer Frontier started, the commander gave me more and more video footage and asked me to predict what the teams will do and how they'll counter one another. Just like what the guy on TV said. It was really hard for me to do all those but I still pushed myself. I got good at it after a while –maybe a bit too good, and when I did, he told me that the world needs to know I exist."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Ray Dark wanted to the world to know that there's someone like me, someone with the ability to predict the outcomes of the games. So he arranged the facts to be spread. And that's when 'the Oracle of the field' started out. When the mass started to wonder who was really the 'Oracle', the commander just ignored it and stated that they'll find out when they're ready."

Coach Travis sighed, "Unfortunately now, he thinks that the mass is ready so he gave the news stations the tip that 'the Oracle' was working with Inazuma Japan."

"If you knew that this would happen, why'd you asked her to join then?" Sue hissed making Alexi flinch at her words. "Wouldn't it be best for everybody is she wasn't part of the team? She'd be safe and secure living her own life and the team won't be in serious danger because of her."

Alexi covered her mouth with her hand and started to cry. She was muttering something like, "I'm sorry...I'm really sorry..."

I couldn't even imagine how hurt she was; all I wanted to do was to make her stop crying. A strange pain started to grow in my chest as if it was pushing me to go to her and just wrap her in an embrace until she stopped crying.

I looked over to Xavier and knew he was thinking the same thing too. But neither of us didn't have the chance to because just as Alexi started to cry, Caleb was right beside her wiping her tears.

I couldn't explain how I felt at that time. I was sad, angry yet thankful for Caleb for helping out Alexi. But it didn't feel right; I wanted to be the one to help her. The worst part of this is that I absolutely have no idea why I was feeling this way, all I know it that it's because of Alexi.

Am I starting to like her?

The idea of it made my face warm up a bit, should I take that sign as confirmation?

"I asked her to join the team because it needs her." Coach Hillman stated boldly, completely disrupting my train of thought. "If you haven't notice it yet, she was able to help us beat Australia. I don't have to explain myself nor my decisions concerning this team. That's what trust is all about isn't it? putting your faith on someone and his decisions. So if you don't trust my decisions, then it means you don't trust me."

Once again, everyone fell silent.

"I'm sorry." Alexi said, breaking the silence. "I'm the one who's responsible for this mess."

"No it's not." I argued, "Ray Dark could've trained anybody to-"

"No he can't." she answered as she bowed her head.

"What do you mean?"

"He can train anybody to be a great tactician, but he could never find anybody that can do the same things I do."

Caleb took a few steps away from her and everybody's attention was focused on her once again.

"Because I am different." she then looked up to us.

Everyone gasped as we stared at how her dull-blue eyes, slowly changed into violet, then to silver, then gold, then to red and then back to blue. It left us speechless. Even Caleb looked stunned because of what happened.

"Alexi, y-you just showed them..." Coach Hillman barely whispered.

"If they're going to hate me, it might as well be because of who I really am." She said as he balled her fist, "A monster."

"Ray Dark somehow knew about my ability." She said looking at the ground again. "But somehow, this is only a curse for me, not an gift. I don't know how I got it or how it really started but from what I learned, this is the reason I can predict things so accurately. My iris changes colour depending on the situation. Violet, for predicting something that may happen in the future. Silver, for predicting what can help a team win, in other words, the advantages. Red, for predicting the weak spots, injuries and disadvantages. And it only changes to gold when a leading team secures victory."

We were all too stunned to talk but somehow, we managed to understand everything.

Alexi then fell to her knees, "Ray Dark has been using my curse to secure Royal Academy's victories. He didn't tell Jude and the others because he didn't want them getting involve, he only needed them to win and he used my abilities to make that happen. He'd show me a video footage of Royal Academy and their opponent's previous matches and asks me to predict who's the winner, then he'll use my predictions to make sure Royal Academy always wins."

"T-that can't be." Jude said from behind me,

"I'm sorry. That's why there's no place for someone like on this team. I've trained Zeus Junior High and caused so many players to get injured and ruin their dream of playing soccer happily. I've caused so much harm and destroyed countless of dreams. I don't deserve to be here!" She starts crying again. "When I found out what was really going on from Coach Hillman, I hated myself so much. I resented those decisions and regretted every mistake I made. Especially when I found out that I even got an innocent girl get in a comatose, because of what I did."

I could feel myself tense up. A little girl? Comatose? She couldn't possibly mean...

"What do you mean?" Xavier asked.

"It was before last year's championship match between Kirkwood Junior High and Royal Academy." She said. I felt myself tense up even more, as I listened to every word she said, "The day before the game, Dark made me watched both of the team's recent games and asked me what I think. I told him that there was no way Royal Academy can win their upcoming match and that Kirkwood would definitely win. He was furious for a while, studied the notes of observations I made and then commanded me to never watch the game. So I did what I was told. Then the next day, just after the match, I found out that Royal Academy did win after because one of Kirkwood's star player's sister got into an accident."

Almost everybody's eyes were now on me. They know the little girl she was talking about is Julia.

"Knowing that I was somehow to blame for that little girl's accident was enough to make me think that I'm a horrible person. I can never fix the mistakes that I made!" she said in a pained voice, "I'll leave the team. But when I do, please.... I'm begging you to take care of my brother Austin."

Her voice became softer but still audible, "He doesn't have anything to do with this. And please, when I leave...don't tell him why I left. I don't want him to hate me... I don't want him to know the horrible things I've done... I don't want him to know that I failed to be a good sister to him."

Before we had any time to react, the door swung open and a soaked figure dashed right in towards Alexi and knelt down to embrace her.

"Nee-chan, please don't leave the team." A soaking-wet Austin begged as his eyes began to tear-up. He then pulled away from Alexi who was speechless at that time and stood up.

He looked us all in the eyes and bowed, "I hope you can forgive my sister for the wrong things she did in the past." He said. "I know we can't change the past, but I'm begging you...PLEASE DON'T KICK MY SISTER OUT OF THE TEAM!"

Austin looked like he just went through a lot today, which I'm guessing is he did. He then looked back at Alexi and knelt down in front of her, "I heard everything you said Alexi... and you were wrong, you didn't fail in being a good sister to me. In fact, you're a great sister!" he smiled a bit, "I don't care what the world thinks about 'the Oracle of the Field', it won't change the fact that you're my sister and that I'll love you no matter what. If you still want to leave nee-chan, then promise me you'll wait for me safely at home."

Alexi just smiled and hugged Austin as a response.

After a while, Marc went towards them and held each of Austin and Alexi's shoulder. "Alexi doesn't need to leave the team."

The siblings looked up at Marc who helped both of them to stand, "What do you mean Captain?" Alexi asked.

Marc turned to us and we in turn, nodded back to him, "In behalf of the whole team, we'd like to say sorry for doubting you." he said sympathetically, "We should've trusted the Coaches more. We're sorry for believing those rumour about you and we're sorry for making you cry."

Alexi shook her head, "C-captain, I should be the one to apologize."

"No, you shouldn't." Marc answered, "You're part of this team Alexi, you've proven to us who you really are. You're more than what you're entitled to. You're not just 'the Oracle', you're also Alexi Knight. So, can you ever forgive us and stay in Raimon?"

Alexi looked shocked yet totally touched by what Marc said. Her eyes started to get brighter again as she scanned the whole room, earning smiles and apologies from the team. Her eyes landed on me for a second, but it was enough to get my heart racing, this was something I need to get used to from now on.

She then looked at the Coaches, then at Austin and then at Caleb, who in return, nodded at her. "Would you still accept me, even if I'm like this?" she asked. She must be talking about her so-called 'curse'.

"Of course!" Marc answered happily, "We're a team right? We treat each other like family."

"If that's the case," for what felt like a long time, she finally managed to bring out that hear-whelming smile of hers, "I'll be honoured to stay in the team."

The team cheered as Austin happily embraced her sister. Coach Travis and Hillman both let out a sigh of relief and Caleb made his way to the windows, probably to get some fresh air. He opened the window and looked out into the rain, completely ignoring the thankful looks Alexi was giving him.

Almost one by one the team apologized and welcomed her back to the team. Even Tori and Sue managed to apologize, though I did spy Sue giving Alexi dagger eyes.

"It's great to have you on the team Alexi!" Xavier said as we made our way towards her.

"I'm really glad you were able to forgive me for the things that I've done..." she said and smiled a bit. Gods her blue eye look gorgeous....

"Don't worry." Jordan smiled as he pats Alexi on the back, "Me and Xavier did worst thing than that, and look at us! We practically belong here now!"

Alexi smiled for a bit then looked down with a sad expression. Somehow, I knew what she was thinking of.

I handed Austin a towel first to dry himself off, then I went to Alexi and handed her the other one. "Here, you're a bit wet from hugging Austin." I said with smile.

She smiled back and uttered a simple "thank you" before getting the towel.

"You know, I happen to know who the little girl was, the one you were talking about." I said out of the blue. "She's my sister."

Alexi, Xavier, Jordan and Austin's eyes were all on me but it was Alexi who first spoke. "A-Axel... I... I'm sorry for what happened to h-her.."

Her voice was cracked a little and she said it in a pained tone. I can see it in her eyes how she regretted her mistakes, how she wanted to say sorry. But I just smiled.

"Remember that little girl at the park? The one you helped out the day we met? That's her." I told her, "Sure I was upset about what happened to her, but right now, I'm just glad she's ok." I then chuckled a little, "Now don't you dare say it's your fault she got into that accident-"

"-but it is my fault.." she cuts me off.

"It's not, believe me." I smiled softly at her, "And even if it is, I'll forgive you because you never meant to hurt Julia in the first place."

"I want to meet her..." she answered plainly, her eyes boring deeper into mine making my face heat up. "Please Axel, let me see her."

~~~~

And that's a wrap!

I'm sorry it took so long to update this but I've been pretty busy :3

Sooooo, how was the story? Did you understand the explanation? If you have any questions or critiques, just leave them in the comment box :3

Thanks so much for reading guys and I hope you continue to support me and my stories. Please check out my other works, the new one is "My Inazuma Eleven Gallery" hehe it has daily updates soooo yeah!

Watch out for the next chapter!

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