On The Side Of The Pitch With You

Reaching the End

"... I think so too." Sakura agreed. "Until now, all I thought about was making myself look good. But that feeling I had when I worked together with everyone to win..."

Minaho and Manabe exchanged smiles. "That goes for us too."

Konoha nodded.

"Let's do this, everyone!" Ibuki suddenly called out, smirking. "We've made it this far already. I want to go even further than where we are right now. I don't want to lose in a place like this!"

"Even further..." Tetsukado nodded at himself. "Yeah... Let's do it, everyone!"

You better do it, or I'll be mad at you for all of next week!

He pointed a smirk up as he took his position at the center of the field. Without replying to her thoughts, he started the next kickoff.

Matatagi tried to run past them with his speed, but the enemy had more skill to take it from him. But it being done out of anger, the ball was headed for Kusaka instead of his own teammate. He passed to Manabe, who got it to Shindou, and then Minaho and Tenma.

"Sakura!"

The pink haired girl caught the ball and started running up. An opponent went to take it from her, so she stopped in her tracks. She started spinning, a pink light rising from her toes, forming a hoop above her head. She grabbed it and leaped, surrounding her opponent in swirling pink ribbons, getting through.

"Beautiful Hoop!"

She passed it back to Kusaka, who turned into his berserk form and scored their next goal with Kyoubou Head.

"Alright! One more point to go!" Tenma cheered. "We can do this!"

"Yeah!"

But the next round got even tougher. After Storm Wolf's kick off, they moved even faster than before. Minaho managed to steal the ball with his Copy Cut, passing it to Tenma, who tried to score with Shin Mach Wind, but the goalkeeper was able to stop it using his own hissatsu, Twist Reach. Eventually, they got through them and made it in front of Ibuki, who wasn't able to stop a surprise hissatsu attack from their captain.

"... We couldn't keep up..."

"Is this the end for us...?"

Immediately, the team's spirit fell once again. But Tenma kept his up.

"What's wrong, guys? It's not over yet! We want to move ahead even further, don't we?"

"But it's a two point difference..." Tetsukado said.

Sakura looked down. "We're short on time, and it's not only one point we have to take back but two..."

"Then, we'll get two points at the same time!"

... Wow, even for Tenma-level positivity, this is... He couldn't help a smile forming as he exchanged nods with their senior.

"Two points at the same time?!"

"Yeah! We can catch up that way!"

"But captain, this isn't baseball." Kusaka interjected. "We can't get two points at the same time."

"We don't know that until we try!"

Tetsukado sweatdropped. "But it's just not―"

"Wait." Manabe suddenly said, pushing his glasses up. "It's possible."

"HUH?!"

~~~~~

"Those are the faces of someone with a plan." Kimiko muttered to herself as she continued to watch. Her eyes met with her best friend's for a moment, letting her show him a curious smile. She got a smirk in return. "I'm going to love every second of this."

It was Inazuma Japan's kickoff. Tsurugi kicked to Matatagi, who made a back pass all the way to Minaho. The orange haired boy headed it over to Ibuki, who caught it.

"Move up!" The keeper ordered.

And they all did.

She felt her jaw dropping. "Whoa! I haven't seen this kind of strategy since Ragnarok!"

The obvious move for Storm Wolf to take after that was to head over and try to make a pass cut after the ball was thrown, which they did, but Ibuki was able to jump even higher and, with his basketball skills, throw even further.

"Minaho!"

The orange haired boy received it perfectly. He passed to Shindou, who gave it to Kusaka, and then Nozaki. A defender managed to steal the ball from her, but Tetsukado was in his way, looking more than a little nervous.

"Tetsukado!" She heard Tsurugi yell not too far away.

Suddenly, he looked more focused. If I don't want to be eaten up, look at everything without looking away.

'Eaten up'?

He did a few jumps before going into a fighting stance. His body moved side to side, and he used the moment to steal the ball back from his opponent. "Footwork Draw!"

"Tetsukado!"

"Captain!"

Tenma was in the right spot to make the attack. "God Wind!" And it went in before the keeper could react.

The score was 3-4. They were still one point behind.

And then, it was time for Storm Wolf's kickoff. Within seconds, Tsurugi stole the ball and used Bicycle Sword right then and there. From above, it looked much like an arrow as it headed into the goal.

"I-Incredible! Inazuma Japan catches up to their second point almost immediately!"

... WHAT THE HELL?!!!

She was smiling. Or at least, she felt like she was, but with how big her mouth had opened, she wasn't sure it could be seen that clearly.

They... They predicted their movements! How did they do that?! It's obvious when you have a birds-eye-view like I do right now, but... But they...?! A-And that was so fast?! And, and, and―! Oh my god, KYOUSUKE, YOU'RE SO COOL!!!

Will you SHUT UP?!

She jumped when his voice entered her head.

Thanks for the compliment, but I can't celebrate my own goal with you screaming in my head like that!

A-Ah... Sorry, I got over excited... I didn't realize my ability activated.

I didn't say you can't do that, I'm just telling you to not YELL.

Ack―! Okay, okay! I get your point! She let out a small chuckle and smiled down at him. Go get that final point, Kyou! You can do it!

~~~~~

He gave her another smirk before turning his focus back to the pitch.

They barely had any time left and with Storm Wolf's kickoff, the ball was in their opponents possession. Three of them got through to their defense. Tetsukado went to take the ball while Manabe and Minaho tried to mark their ace. However, the pass was made to the other one, who was heading straight for Konoha.

For a moment, the little girl froze up. But then a bright aura surrounded her as she jumped and took the ball.

The stadium went to a standstill for a brief moment to recover from the surprise, but Tenma's call got it to move again as he received the pass. He got through with Z Slash and handed the ball to Matatagi, who got the goal with Parkour Attack.

The match ended with 5-4. Their win.

"ALRIGHT!!!"

Just as Tenma yelled and pointed his fist to the sky, waves of light shined down on the whole stadium. The audience turned quiet, Storm Wolf's appearance changed completely, and a spaceship appeared in the sky.