Inazuma Eleven 3, Book 1 : Morning Twilight

Chapter 27 : Holy Road Finals! Vs Hakuren!

Tick Tock Tick Tock

One, Two, Three

Tick Tock Tick Tock

One, Two, Three

Hearing the familiar tick of the clock inside his head, Leonidas was able to drown out the roar of the crowd and attempted to stop his hands from trembling as he stood closely behind Mika on the field.

Though he was on the opposite end of the field, Leonidas knew he was here.

Leonidas tried to resist, but his head began to slowly rotate until he found himself staring straight into the red eyes of Ryoga, who was staring at him with daggers in his murderous red eyes forcing Leonidas to gulp, unable to pull his eyes away from the Hakuren defender.

Leonidas knew that by taking Mika's hand that day and leaving Hakuren, he and Ryoga would stand on the same field one day but he had never expected the moment to come so soon. And now that the two were facing each face to face like these, he was overwhelmed by a jumble of trepidation, uncertainty and distress.

Ryoga had always stood as a symbol of strength.

He was the one who had freed him from that small room.

He was the one who had saved him from the solitude that had kept him prisoner since the day he was born.

He was the one who had shown him the world.

But now...

Now was the time for him to stand on his own two feet and fill the emptiness inside of him with his own strength, Leonidas told himself. Grinding his molars against each other, Leonidas wiped his nose in the sleeve of his uniform and repeated it to himself.

He could do this.

He could be strong, just like Ryoga...

TWEET TWEET TWEET

[LET THE FIRST MATCH OF THE HOLY ROAD FINALS! BEGIN!]

Moving as soon as she heard the whistle, Serika let out a bark loud enough that all the Raimon members could hear,

"Let's move, just like we talked about!"

5 Minutes Ago

Standing in a small circle in the middle of their side of the field, the Raimon members listened attentively as Serika began to lecture them with her finger moving aggressively to emphasise her points while she spoke.

"Hakuren typically uses a 3-5-2 formation that relies heavily on their strong defence, thanks to Katata-san, which allows for more of their players to play midfield in an attempt to overload our defence. It's really a formation only Hakuren can pull off because it typically would expose most normal teams to the risk of a counterattack targeting holes in their defensive line but since they know Katata-san can cover for almost any attack, it means their offence is free to do as they please while leaving their goal perfectly secure."

"So what's this mean we gotta do, Captain?" asked Makoto while raising his hand in confusion.

"The best plan of action right now is to just focus on defending our goal at the start of the match and wait for an opportunity to attack. Since Tsukishiro never moves at the start of the match anyway, we don't have to worry about any offensive manoeuvres by Hakuren early in the match. And because Katata-san always plays centreback, all we need to do is focus on attacking from the sides since their left and right backs have a considerably lower performance than Katata-san. So don't be stupid and try to move upfield early on. We'll keep the ball secure and maintain man-to-man marking until my signal. Got it you bakas?" asked Serika as she narrowed her eyes while staring straight at Makoto, Gabriel, Sadao and Galahad with suspicion in her eyes.