On The Side Of The Pitch With You

Sengoku Era II

"If you fall asleep, I'll drop you in the river."

"Kay."

"You're quite a pair, you know that?" Nishiki's comment caught their attention. "It's real' easy to tell how close you two are. Unlike me and Midori, you two genuinely get along even while you fight."

"I like to think our banter keeps things from being boring." Kimiko replied, smiling slightly. Her friend, on the other hand, didn't comment. "After all, I don't think you can call it true friendship when you can't tease one another."

"Haha! That's true!"

That was when Professor Aruno suddenly appeared. They listened to his explanation about why Shindou couldn't MixiMax with Nobunaga. To put it shortly, it was because the ex-captain's vessel wasn't strong enough to synchronize with Nobunaga's aura. And to make things more complicated, because of how big the warlord's aura is, it couldn't be stored in the MixiMax gun's memory, so they needed to transfer it to Shindou at the exact same time it was taken from Nobunaga.

This would likely be the case for every single one of the strongest eleven in history.

As there was no helping the first time failure, Professor Aruno advised that Shindou trains to better understand Nobunaga and become someone who's compatible to take on his abilities.

"MixiMax is, after all, the fusion of two separate lives."

Interesting... Kimiko opened a single eye that stared at a certain brunette. So Tenma managed to take on Shuu's aura because they were compatible... Hm?

Both her eyes opened when she accidentally accessed one of his memories. Yuu-san? He MixiMaxed with Kyousuke? ... In a timeline where Kyou quit soccer... She glanced at her friend, who's attention was still on the group. Does he know...?

"Takuto-sama!" A girl with black hair in a single bun came running, carrying a rolled up paper on her back.

"Okatsu-san!" Shindou blinked at her. "What's brought you here in such a hurry?"

"You might get to meet Nobunaga-sama again!" She said, smiling up at him.

"I can?!"

"The village head had just notified me that I have been chosen to serve food at the banquet for cherry blossom viewing that is being held by Nobunaga-sama."

"Banquet for cherry blossom viewing?"

"That's it!" Wondeba suddenly yelled.

The piece of paper Okatsu carried was a diagram of the venue. He pointed out where Nobunaga would be seated, but before he could go any further, he was interrupted by Okatsu's mother's call.

"Tasuke has disappeared!" The woman yelled in a panic.

"Tasuke?!"

"Someone saw him being taken away by men."

"Was he kidnapped by the Shiroshika?" Shindou asked, though he didn't need an answer. That seemed to be the most likely case.

"We have to go save him!" Tenma said, his eyes already burning with resolve.

Tsurugi shot him down. "But we don't know where they've taken him."

"Let's go get Toukichirou-san." Shindou suggested. "He may know something."

~~~~~

He did, in fact, know something.

He actually knew more than they thought he would as he was immediately able to lead them to the Shiroshika's base. They raided the place in hopes of getting Okatsu's brother back, but found more than they bargained for.

Beta was controlling the group of kidnappers.

That led to a soccer match that would decide what'll happen to them. Toukichirou suggested that, since they were short on five members, they should just use Tasuke and his four friends, who were also kidnapped.

Kimiko was too tired to completely process the match, but she knew that it started out rough with how the five only knew how to kick a ball, and not actual soccer. It only got worse when they realized that Beta must've shared her own power with the Shiroshika team. The others took it slow and taught them step by step, and while things went downhill at first, things started looking up in the second half.

Toukichirou changed the line-up and made the five newbies all go in defense. Using one of the most basic trap strategies, Tasuke's slide got them the ball and the rest of the team were able to bring it up to the goal, Tsurugi scoring with his Keshin Armed.

In the next whistle, the Shiroshika's attacks were much faster than before. They managed to reach the goal in no time at all.

"I have something I want to protect too!"

Shinsuke's yell startled her. Her eyes flew open just in time to see Shinsuke accomplishing Keshin Armed. And it boosted their confidence.

Shindou moves up with his Kami no Takuto in play. He controlled the direction of the game and got the ball to Nishiki without having it be stolen once. The ponytailed boy then called out his keshin and used Bushin Renzan to score the tying goal.

And from there, they only continued winning.

10 to 2.

When the match ended, Beta was gone, and the commentator had disappeared along with the pitch. Toukichirou rounded up the Shiroshika members and interrogated them on where they've taken all the other kidnapped children.

They found out that the one behind the group of kidnappers was Imagawa Yoshimoto. He was a warlord that was in opposition with Nobunaga, and Okatsu stated that she heard rumors about the man needing more soldiers to advance to the capital.

"I can't believe Imagawa Yoshimoto was behind the Shiroshika." Wondeba stated once they were back to the comfort around the ash pot later that night. "It's said that he's the closest in this time period to obtaining rule over the entire country."

"Hah! That's dumb!" Toukichirou interjected from his position, laying down behind the bear.

After the match, they had made sure all the children they managed to save, that being the five they temporarily recruited to the team, went home safely. The man had arrested the Shiroshika before following them to the temple, saying he wanted to be present in case they ran into any more trouble.

"It's Nobunaga-sama who is the closest to ruling the country." He yawned. "Imagawa is no enemy."

Shindou brought his face closer to the pot, signaling the others to do so as well. "That's true. Historically speaking, Nobunaga crushed Imagawa Yoshimoto in the Battle of Okehazama." His voice was kept at a whisper so Toukichirou wouldn't hear.

"But with Protocol Omega meddling with the timeline, there's no guarantee that it will turn out that way." Fei stated.

"It'll grow even harder for us to approach Nobunaga once the battle starts. We'll have to do it before then."

"But how do we sneak into the banquet for cherry blossom viewing?" Tenma asked.

They all looked down, pondering on what they could do, before they suddenly heard a thud.

Midori chuckled. "Looks like Kimiko's finally passed out."

Tsurugi groaned. "Get off." He shrugged his shoulders back and the blonde girl fell to the floor, still sound asleep. "You've got to be kidding me."

Aoi couldn't help a smile. "Well, there's no point in losing sleep over it. Let's wake up bright and early tomorrow and continue thinking then."

They agreed, and after dragging Kimiko to the girl's side of the room, they all headed for their own rugs and turned the lights off.

... And before an hour could even pass, they were turned back on.

"We're going to dress up as dancers?!"