On The Side Of The Pitch With You

Another Division

"Beginning today, you will be training in this Black Room which I have devised."

The meadow disappeared to reveal the room they were in before, but then they were suddenly in a city. On the road ahead of them was a goal.

"For this practice, you must keep the ball as you make decisions based on your surroundings." A ball then appeared by each of their legs. "Bring the ball to the other side while avoiding the steel frames."

"Steel frames?"

Just as Kusaka asked, five of them fell out of the sky onto the road before them. After making a large crashing sound, they disappeared.

"Of course, your safety is secured." The coach said with his ever monotone voice. "Well? Why are you still standing around?"

Clearly because this training isn't normal... Tsurugi could only agree to the voice now permanently living in his brain.

"I'll do it!" Tenma suddenly said.

"Captain!" Sakura's worried tone was enough to tell him it was too dangerous, but he only gave a look.

"Coach said that we won't win at our current level, right? I want to win! I want to win the Asia district prelims and go to the world." He stepped up to his ball and called out, "Please begin!"

"Then, we will start off with Level 1." Mizukawa's voice came.

Just as he started running, the steel frames started falling. With Aoi's warning, he was able to stop just in time before jumping over them. And one by one, the rest of the team followed suit. Aside from Minaho, Manabe, and Ibuki, who were assigned their own training regiments. The first two had to run up and down a bridge that was continuously breaking and repairing itself, while the keeper had to catch shots while moving about in the sand.

Aoi watched them all from beyond the holograms, right by the controls. She sighed as she watched the coach leave, sensing the pang of loneliness about to hit her again. But then her eyes widened.

"Is something wrong?" Mizukawa asked.

"N-No, nothing!" She quickly smiled and turned her attention back to the players' training. Mizukawa-san is staying!

Finally, she has someone to talk to and admire the members' efforts with.

~~~~~

Yesterday wasn't that bad. I guess today's going to be the same.

Tsurugi can't deny that there were some perks to receiving training in God Eden, even with the inhumane way they were treated. Some days, training menus that the rest of the team would label 'too hard' would be just the right level of challenge for him, eating up on his stamina in a productive way.

This was one of those days.

Since it was only their second day, Mizukawa refused to let anyone try anything above Level 1, but that level was nothing for him. Tetsukado and Sakura lagged behind while he was able to skillfully dodge all the steel frames and score a goal.

In the twenty-second break he got before the hologram resetted for him, he was able to spot Tenma going cliff-climbing with Kusaka and Konoha, and Shindou and Matatagi waterboarding. When they were on their actual break, some of them got curious with what other training programs the room had. Someone chose one that involved running away from a dinosaur.

The next day, Mizukawa let them have control over the machine. Tetsukado was curious about Level 2, but seeing the number of frames falling all at once immediately changed his mind.

However, Tsurugi's gaze was met with Tenma and Shindou's competitive ones. When the other eight went for a break, they made a separate hologram sphere to try it out for themselves.