On The Side Of The Pitch With You

Three Kingdoms Era III

They explained their situation to the three warlords plus Taiyou in detail. Afterwards, Shinsuke went up to the blue haired man with a frown.

"Do you have a second Liu Bei?"

"Hm? What is it, Shinsuke?"

"Um... Back there, you were a failure as a goalkeeper."

"Failure? What do you mean?"

"It's important for each person to fulfill their given role in soccer. Especially the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper needs to protect the goal properly!"

Kimiko had an awkward smile on her face. Well, not that I don't agree, but seeing Endou-san in some of his matches...

Liu Bei isn't Coach Endou, though. Her friend pointed out. He's a stranger to us and soccer, so we can't trust him about it that easily.

True...

"Protect, eh?" The man suddenly smiled. "Alright, leave it to me!"

Shinsuke didn't seem satisfied with that answer, but left it be for the time being. They then entered another room, this time with platforms all separated by deep holes. The doors had suddenly closed itself behind them too, leaving them with no way out.

Before them, there were...

"A ball made out of rope... A blazing fire... And I guess that's... a candlestick?" Tenma said, pointing at them one by one. "What does it mean?"

"Not a clue."

"Don't fret over it." Liu Bei said. "If there's a fire going, we just have to put it out."

"I was just thinking that we should extinguish it too!"

They all decided to just ignore Zhang Fei's self-corrections from then on.

"Wait!" Shindou called. "Then what about the ball and candlestick?"

"No idea."

"Eh?!"

"That's so irresponsible!" Shinsuke protested.

"But if we keep hesitating, we'll be stuck here. Zhang Fei!"

The man clad in red twirled his spear and sent a gust of wind flying towards the fire, putting it out. And right that second, the platform beneath them disappeared.

They slid into a large underground tunnel and suddenly found themselves flying out a trap door.

When they came to, Midori was first to get up. "Hey, we got dumped right back to the front door!"

"Appears that way!" Liu Bei laughed.

Shinsuke was not pleased. "This isn't funny! Now we're taking even longer to get inside!"

"So what? All we need to do is start over."

"The goalkeeper―"

"That again?"

Swallowing his anger, the small boy looked down. "The goalkeeper is the last point of defense. That's why he has to be cautious."

"There's no point being cautious if you won't be active about it."

"What I'm trying to say is―!"

"Alright, alright."

After several minutes of walking, they returned to that room. Shinsuke told Liu Bei to stay back while they solve the problem, not wanting a repeat of what just happened. The man only smiled and kept his head up.

Fei picked up the ball of rope and stared at it for a while before turning back to them. "Maybe this ball has a trick to it?"

Tsurugi turned to the ball and his eyes widened when he noticed it and both the fire and the candlestick's heights were lined up incidentally. "I see... Fei, give me the ball."