Inazuma Eleven 3, Book 1 : Morning Twilight

Prologue : End of an Era

The dark skies and heavy rain cast a gloomy atmosphere on the field as the 22 players furiously continued to battle it out with only 1 minute remaining. A tall boy with marine-blue hair could be heard yelling "Haruka, now!" with a "Coming right up, brother!" quipped back quickly in response. Over the boom of thunder a deep roar could be heard.

"Dragon Genesis!!"

[GOALLLLLL!!!!!!]

"And the Match between Eisei Gakuen and Raimon Jr.High concludes 7-1 making this the first time in 3 years that Raimon will not be moving to the finals of Holy Road" cried the announcer.

"It seems that Raimon was unable to fill in the gap left behind by legendary midfielder, the Wind of Revolution, Matsukaze Tenma, while this also starts off Eisei Gakuen's first appearance in Holy Road with a bang. Will Eisei Gakuen be able to keep up the momentum or will they fall to Hakuren Jr. High in the semi-finals? Find out here next week, or catch the live-stream from home as this fiery Holy Road heats up!"

As the announcer was wrapping up the match, the Eisei Gakuen members could be seen quickly surrounding the blue-haired boy in celebration.

A black-haired boy could be seen addressing the striker

"Huh, Looks like Raimon isn't much without their captain, Tenma right aniki ? It's a shame he graduated last year... at least then the match would've been more exciting" he sighed.

However, the blue-haired boy didn't appear to be listening as he continued to watch the Raimon players exit the field.

With eyes narrowing and a bit of an eerie grin creeping up on his face he replied back "I wouldn't be so sure about that... you... never know when there's a wolf hiding in sheep's clothing".

Finally, pulling his eyes away from the exiting Raimon team he turned back to his teammates he shouted

"Good job team. 2 more matches and the championship title is ours. Let's make sure to devour our next 2 opponents the same way we did Raimon."

The team cheered back and began to make their own way to the lockers as they left the field in victory.

*******************************************************************

Raimon Locker Room

"DAMN IT!" cried a red-haired boy as he slammed the locker door with his fist. He quickly turned around to face a rather tall girl who had a calm-face as she was taking off her cleats.

"YOU! Demon Queen, hah! Ace Striker?! Bold words from a girl who only scored once the entire match! I knew we shouldn't have trusted a first-year with a starting position, much less as a forward... If we had just passed the ball to me...."

The girl who hadn't appeared to be listening to the tirade finally turned to look at him. With large, deep, purple eyes she was both beautiful and intimidating. Even sitting, she exuded an aura of royalty that was palpable in the tense room. Opening her mouth, the red-haired boy faltered as she replied

"Ganeko-senpai, may I remind you that I have never called myself such frivolous titles like 'Demon Queen' or 'Ace Striker' and was instead given those by the media who wanted to capitalise on my strong performances in the preliminaries? In addition, If you had an issue with me being on the starting lineup rather than complain to me, who has no control over who starts, that should have been brought up with Couch Kudou earlier though I see no reason why that would be an issue because I outperformed everyone else on the Raimon team as a forward"

Akuma Ganeko's eyes opened wide in shock as he began to stutter "Y-Y-YOU BI–"

The girl interrupted him again before he could finish

"There's no need for such vulgarity Senpai. Whatever emotions or grudges you bear towards me will be irrelevant going forth. There's no need to continue playing soccer without a team. Goodbye everyone"

The girl ended her speech with a slight, elegant bow as she picked up her bag and exited the room.

"Wait up Mi–" called out a tall, blonde boy as she was leaving, however he looked back when he felt a hand grab his shoulder.

"Ganeko-senpai?" The boy's green eyes could be shaking in what appeared to be distress as he questioned the older boy.

"And just what do you think you're doing Galahad?" Akuma asked with a sinister smile on his face.

"We gotta stop her senpai! She's the best striker on the team and she's only a first year! We wouldn't have even come this far if it wasn't for her. We can't just let her leave like this, we need to go after her before she leaves!"

"Oh? You're right, silly me, how could I have forgotten? A once in a millennia genius has once again graced Raimon, go after her Galahad..."

As soon as Akuma started talking, Galahad liked what he was hearing and began to move towards the door again, but as he looked down and saw the shorter boy's eyes, sarcasm and spite were dripping from his eyes, and he stopped. Galahad began to feel a bit uneasy as Akuma paused, and leaned in towards his ear...

"We all know what a good boy our little Galahad is. But, just think about how many times you've started this year... and... about anyone special who might be disappointed in your performance... or should I say... lack thereof. Mmmh, okay?"

While Akuma continued to smile, Galahad's eyes continued to flicker between the door and his senpai. Eventually, he turned his face towards the floor and sat back down. Draping a towel over his head, his face could not be seen.

Akuma gave a little smirk, and thought to himself

"That's what I thought, the freakin' idiot. After we finally got rid of that nuisance. I suppose this one is usable at least."

The smirk turned into an arrogant grin as he turned to face the rest of the team. "Anyone else got any issues?" he asked as if daring anyone else to speak up.

One boy rolled his eyes in contempt, while a girl sitting on a boy's lap had a playful smile and was heard lightly laughing but besides that, the rest were silent.

"Good"

*******************************************************************

"I will be leaving the Raimon Jr.High football team, effectively immediately. I will send the formal documentation as soon as possible. Please let me know if there are any issues with the paperwork."

The black-haired girl gave a 90 degree bow.

"Your coaching skills were highly efficacious, I can understand why so many teams are scouting you abroad. It was a pleasure learning soccer from you this season Coach Kudou"

With another deep bow the girl turned around but paused as she heard a deep voice speak up.

"Soccer will be waiting"

Without turning around, the girl's lips turned upwards slightly

"Well, then I think it will be waiting for a long time then"

"Goodbye Coach Kudou"

Slam

As the door closed, the girl left and the shadows enveloped the room...