On The Side Of The Pitch With You

Black Room, Updated

Tsurugi turned back to the purple haired boy. "Manabe, what other data was in that chip?"

"Let's see." He tapped on some keys before reading whatever popped up on screen. "There's data of every single player who participated in the Holy Road tournament, with a few updates on their key players, like the ones who were in Resistance Japan. And then there's... 'God Eden'. Despite my research, I've not been able to uncover what that is."

I guess there's no harm in telling them the bare minimum of it...? He sorted out his thoughts quickly before replying with, "It's a soccer training facility on a faraway island for kids from the age of ten to fifteen. It was closed down not too long ago for being too dangerous, though."

"I've heard about that." Matatagi suddenly said, coming up from behind them. "I'm from Kaiou Academy, so I recognized Namikawa from yesterday. He was my classmate, and I always hear him boasting about the rigorous training he did to become a... 'seed'?"

...Well then. "SEEDs were what they called those who go through training there. I think the analogy is that they 'plant' those kids to different schools to... help the soccer clubs in those schools grow..."

"How interesting." The last person he hoped was listening to him, Minaho, was there. Listening to him. "You sure know a lot about it, Tsurugi."

There's no hiding it, I guess... He'll just have to hope they won't dig any further into it. "I was one of them, and Hakuryuu too. I was only there for about a month, but even that was enough to boost my abilities so far."

"Wow, I had no idea you were entrusted with such an important job."

He kept himself from laughing in disdain. "Yeah..."

"Well, if it's that handy, then why did Chairman Gouenji lock the higher levels?" Matatagi asked. "We could use that kind of training right now."

"Like I said, the facility was closed down due to how dangerous it was." He pinched the bridge of his nose, doing his best to push those memories out. "Rather than training... It was more like a fight to survive. Only the strong and lucky made it out of there with their sanity intact. I can't count the number of children who left the island not because of orders, but because they were physically and mentally unable to continue their regimens."

"That's awful..." Tetsukado suddenly said, walking up to them. He was looking up at him nervously. "But Tsurugi, you were one of the lucky ones then, right? It looks like you made it out alright."

Suddenly, the keychain in his sleeve felt heavier than it was before.

"... Just barely." He gave him a bitter smile before turning to the panel. There were five sections under the 'God Eden' option. "The mountain terrain is to build stamina, the river is to build up kick power against its flow, the wall is for physical strength and concentration, and the ocean is to improve your cardio-pulmonary functioning. Even though you're all at Level 2 right now, I suggest trying Level 1 first just so you'll be able to measure the difficulty for yourselves."

"Understood."

Minaho's ear twitched as he looked over the options. "What about the last one? It's completely locked, but the label sounds interesting."

Manabe pushed his glasses up before reading it. "'Cannons'?"

Why did you have to ask? "I don't recommend it. Or rather, I can't. It's the most inhumane training of them all. Even if you had mastered soccer and managed to complete every single training in this facility, I'd still advise you against it." They looked doubtful and curious, and he knew that there was a possibility of them trying to hack it open when he wasn't around, so he warned them with the one thing that he hoped would work. "I won't allow even Tenma or Shindou-san to do it."