Inazuma Eleven 3, Book 1 : Morning Twilight

Part 1 Epilogue (1/2)

After the Red Matador vs Outei Tsukinomiya Match

[Hello viewers! I'm Eri Kobayashi and I'm here with TBS news (Tokyo Broadcasting System) reporting live from Holy Road Stadium where Outei Tsukinomiya completely dominated the Spanish National Team with an astonishing 11-0 victory. To my left, the rising star and considered by many to be the best youth player in Japan, himself, Tamaki Takashima! Due to his skills in the pre-season and preliminaries, Outei was about to flawlessly make their way to the finals, and is now one of three teams along with Eisei and Hakuren to remain undefeated at this point. Due to his beautiful plays and 'perfect' soccer skills, this young player has earned himself the title 'The Child of Soccer'! Let's find out how Takashima-san feels about this overwhelming win today!]

Ignoring the cameras and microphone that the reporter was holding out to him, Tamaki stifled a yawn and buried deeper into his panda blanket that he had reunited with after the match. Lurking in the comfortable darkness, he felt a mixture of annoyance and confusion bubble up within him.

Nosaka had promised him that he wouldn't have to do anything bothersome like this if he joined the team and up to now this had remained true, with Tamaki successfully avoiding post-match interviews, promotional activities and even obsessive fans due to Nosaka's interventions. Unfortunately for him, Nosaka was nowhere to be seen and Tamaki was forced to admit to himself that he was now trapped.

Wriggling around in his blanket, Tamaki's face popped back out with a deadpan expression after allowing his earlier annoyance to dissipate in the wind. It was more annoying to waste energy on being angry so Tamaki decided the best thing to do would be to get the interview over with as quickly as possible.

"What's upppp?"

Sweatdropping at seeing the midfielder's unenthusiastic face and expressionless voice, Eri decided to ignore the teen's attitude and thought to herself

"Hold it in Eri! You'll be the first to get an interview with Tamaki after this!! All for that bonus money the boss promised for whoever could get the first exclusive interview with Outei Tsukinomiya's new ace midfielder!"

[So, Takashima-san. Despite being a second year, this is your first time participating in Holy Road correct? What parts of your game have you worked to improve as the season has progressed and what have you learned as a player as a member of the team?]

[Parts of yourrrr gameeeeee?]

Slouching his shoulders from within his panda blanket, Tamaki tried to think about it for a minute then replied nonchalantly,

[I haven't learned anything muchhh. Soccer is pretty easyyyyy I guessssss.Yeahhhh]

[Err–Then, let's talk about the match today. The Red Matadors are currently ranked 7th in the world for their youth soccer and are one of the strongest teams in Europe at the moment. Did the other team do anything that was surprising strategically or did they do basically what you expected them to do?]

[No. Easyyy to predict]

Clutching the microphone a little tighter at this point, Eri reminded herself once more.

"It's for the money Eri. It's for the money!!"

[You heard it here first! For 'The Child of Soccer', Red Matador was "easy to predict!". If that's the case, then I'm assuming you talked strategy with your coaches before the match then, right? Did the team implement the plan the coaches laid out for you all or did you end up having to deviate based on the plays?]

[No coach. Just Yuuma-sannn.]

[Oh, Yuuma as in Nosaka Yuuma and the new captain? Tell us more about that, has Nosaka-san been training with the team for long or—]