Eisei Gakuen's Hissatsu

A Penny For Your Thought

(In Tatsuya's POV)

Tatsuya was on the terrace of Sun Garden looking at the stars. He was overwhelmed by what had happened in the past weeks.

The Football Frontier Autumn Tournament had started and Eisei Gakuen had made it to the nationals.

They had won all their matches too to make it to the Championship Finals.

The Championship was almost at their fingertips and yet it seemed so far away.

After all, how could they expect to win against the original Raimon Eleven who had re-grouped. It would be a tough challenge. He sighed.

He thought about the fight that lay ahead. Their tactics would be no match against Kidou, The Absolute Commander of the Pitch. In their current state, there was no way they could stop Gouenji's Last Resort. And maybe... just maybe, Cosmic Blaster might get through Endou. But he doubted this too. It seemed a bit hopeless. But he wasn't ready to give up. No. They would practice until their bones crumbled. After all, they had a week before the championship game.

Tatsuya was lost in these thoughts when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and smiled to see Midorikawa and Hiroto making their way to him.

Ever since their Quarter Final match against Seishou; in which Midorikawa scored the final goal that gave Eisei its victory, Hiroto and Midorikawa had gotten along much better and Hiroto had made a new friend.

If you could call them friends. It was more like Hiroto wasn't trying anymore to curse and turn his green haired teammate into a green frog. However this was an improvement coming from the God Striker.

After the match, Haizaki had looked murderously at Midorikawa and then at Hiroto, "Oy curly hair, next time, we'll win".

Hiroto replied smugly, "Haven't you learned your lesson not to go up against a God". Haizaki glared back evilly.

Haizaki and Hiroto may have gotten closer while on Inazuma Japan but their competitive spirit and bickering was still ongoing.

After Hiroto's quip, Haizaki openly showed support of Raimon and even held some practice matches with them to help them bring down Eisei. Not that Raimon needed it.

A video taken during practice of Haizaki yelling like a thug at a scared Kurimatsu (which left Kidou face palming in the background) had gone viral among the members of Inazuma Japan. This of course had caused a chain reaction.

Inazuma Japan members were now picking sides.

All of Inakuni remained neutral with the exception of Kozoumaru, who to nobody's surprise was on Gouenji's side.

Fudou picked Eisei's side hoping to beat Kidou.

The Fubuki brothers, Mizukamiya and Sakanoue sided with their Ex-Reinforcement Committee Members.

Aphrodi sided with Eisei as they lost the Semi Final match to Eisei.

Ichihoshi sided with Hiroto and the rest of the Outei members followed as well.

Bets were exchanged between the two sides even with some outrageous conditions; like the losing side would have to shave their head (Aphrodi in particular was a bit anxious about this) and eat a full plate of their ex-coach Zhao Jinyun's orange homemade fried rice that nobody had liked (Nishikage in particular was troubled by this. He knew who would end up eating Nosaka's plate).

This of course spurred everyone into action. All the five supporters of Eisei had visited for the past two days to help them train.

Ichihoshi and Nosaka had spent hours with Tatsuya trying to come up with a strategy that would hold up against Raimon.

Nishikage had dedicated himself to leveling up Saginuma.

The two self proclaimed Gods had gotten along well too until Aphrodi mentioned another roller coaster ride as part of training.

All Fudou had done was tease and pick fights with Nagumo. Eerily enough, it had the desired effect of making Nagumo work harder.

Midorikawa was the first to break the silence among the three. The worry clear in his voice. "Do we even stand a chance?" Tatsuya did not know how to respond. They all just sat there staring at each other as Saginuma, Suzuno and Nagumo arrived. The new comers easily caught onto the atmosphere of the terrace.

Tatsuya finally voiced his thoughts. "I do not know if we have a chance at winning the championship. But we should try our best. Practice hard and give it our all"

"Tch, as if we already aren't", countered Hiroto looking at his worn out teammates.

"We need to stop worrying about the outcome. We are all too focused on winning. We need to take some time away from those thoughts", Tatsuya responded.

It was Suzuno who came up with the idea, "We could go to the training camp below Mt. Fuji where the five of us went for summer training".

The other's face lit up except for Hiroto who didn't know what they were talking about.

Tatsuya remembered that time well. It was one of the best memories in his life. It was at this camp that he had used Ryussei Blade for the first time.

In fact this was where Saginuma mastered both Wormhole and Drill Smasher, Midorikawa learned Astro Break, Nagumo learned Atomic Flare and Suzuno learned Northern Impact.

The minute he thought about the camp, he felt a strong urge to return there. He couldn't explain it, but he felt like a strange power was pulling him towards the camp.

He said with a shrug, "It might be a good idea. The mountain air and change of scenery might help".

Hiroto, who hadn't been to the camp looked unconvinced but didn't argue.

"It is decided then... All that is left now is Hitomiko's permission", said Nagumo happily.