"Our first match?" Mark mused. "Alright coach, who's it against?"
"Anima Sana Junior high. The match is in one week." He said before informing them of their training menu for the week before the match. When all of that was over, he left them to continue with their training. They all did their training with one thing in their minds: Anima Sana.
"I wonder what kind of team Anima Sana is?" Ryan said as he plopped himself on the ground during their water break.
"The last time we played them, they were really strong, and hard to beat." Nathan said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, we really struggled," Axel remarked remembering the injury he got during the match.
"Yeah, but remember they were being controlled like robots," Jude said, "so it was kinda like going against the perfect human."
"But they are no longer being controlled so they are just playing like normal football." Jack informed the group. "They even played against Rampart Jr. while I was there during the last FF and they were still as strong, if not stronger."
"I remember watching them playing against Raimon. Anima Sana looked like a whole new team. Like they had been cleansed and were playing to their full abilities." Brianna said as she remembered the exciting match.
"Oh, the one with the Backwater Island players?" Tristan joined and Brianna nodded at that.
"Well," Mark said getting up, "We should all prepare well for the match. We don't know what to expect so be prepared for anything. But whatever happens, we will just go out there and play our football!" He ended with his fist pumped in the air instantly filling the whole team with enthusiasm.
"YEAH!!" they shouted as they headed back to practice.
As Brianna was walking to the field, she noticed Peter was still sitting on the bench and as she looked closer, he had the same look that he had on the other evening. Staring at the ground holding his head like he was feeling dizzy. When he noticed her staring, he tried to straighten up and look like he was OK, but his efforts proved futile.
"Are you feeling alright?" She asked when she walked up to him.
"Yeah, just a bit exhausted," he chuckled. "That training menu was a bit hectic. Anyway, why don't we go back- oh" He had tried to stand but as soon as his body was supported by his legs, he immediately felt dizzy and fell but was luckily caught by the girl in front of him who led him back to the bench.
"I think you should see the nurse-"
"No, I'm fine-"
"Peter, you need to go-"
"But-"
"Look, I know you don't want anyone to worry about you but you should worry about yourself. This may be something serious and if you don't get checked to make sure it's nothing to worry about."
The boy looked at the ground not showing any signs of getting up any time soon.
The girl gently but firmly made him get to his feet, "I'll walk you-"
"No!... ah... I mean, I can take myself," He said before hurriedly leaving the field, passing by the managers, almost knocking them down.
"Where is he going?" Silvia asked Brianna.
"He just has something to take care of, he'll be back," she answered so as not to make the head manager worry.
"Brianna! COME ON!" Patricia yelled from the field and the said girl rushed toward her and they resumed practice.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AT ANIMA SANA.
The players dressed in grey uniforms are in the middle of their... training??... if that's what you would like to call it.
The field is empty.
Instead, they are all in a dark room, staring at bright screens. Headphones, on. No one making a sound.
A boy with messy yellow hair and sharp, blood red eyes, lies against a wall with his arms crossed over his chest watching them from the front of the room.
After a few minutes, their captain, Neil Turner (Shimozuru Arata), removes his headphones and walks up to the boy with a look that shows that he had had enough of what the weird boy had put his team through. Once he was just at arm's length away from the yellow haired, the said boy looks up at the captain with a disturbed look. "What?" he spat.
Neil began in his usual calm manner, "You do realize that our next opponent is Raimon Jr." He didn't even wait for the shorter boy to reply. "We shouldn't be cooped up in this room. Instead we should be busy practicing and improving our teamwork and individual strengths."
"Are you questioning these methods?" The boy asked raising an eyebrow.
"I am." he said with no hesitation. "I don't think cramming strategies and formations is going to help us win against Raimon. We need to really train."
Go stopped leaning against the wall so that he can stand right in front of the pink-haired captain and uncrossed his arms. "Need I remind you who you are talking to?" He said as he narrowed his red eyes that looked like they were swimming with seriousness making the weight of his words heavier and this made the taller boy step back a bit. "What I say, goes. You are in no position to question these orders, do you understand? Now you better get back to your station before I begin thinking of punishing you for going against orders and you know the consequences of doing so."
Neil was taken aback a bit but reluctantly walked back to his station. He knew that he stood no chance against the male at the front of the room. Heck, even their coach was just just a speck of dust that the boy could just flick away. He could not see any way out of their predicament.
He put on his sound-cancelling headphones and focused his eyes on the screen in front of him. He just saw figures in different formations. He sighed as his mind want to the beginning of their problems...
Flashback. (A week ago)
" Ok, everyone." Wagano Kakumei, the coach, said grabbing the team's attention. "The Football Frontier is about to begin so we will need to train with more resolve if we want to win our matches."
"Yes sir!" They answered in unison then went to the field to resume their training.
The practice went well with the team pairing up and doing various activities. Two particular forwards were practicing their shoots against the goalkeeper when one of them decided to start a conversation.
"The football frontier, huh? I can't wait to play against the other schools in Japan," Jonathan Seller (Yamagishi Seri) stated with a happy sigh while the other two nodded in agreement.
"I really am looking forward to playing against Raimon." Gedeon Poe (Oma Nao) said with a smile. "Especially now that some of the original members are back. I want to experience the soccer you guys played with them."
"We don't even know if we are gonna play against them or not." Jonathan said to the keeper.
"It's not a matter of 'if' but 'when' " Neil broke in, "We are bound to play with them because we are in the same preliminary block, but we don't know when exactly."
"Oh," Jonathan acknowledged it. "Well then yeah, it will be nice to play against them again. The last time we played, it was memorable. Even though we lost, it was kind of like a breath of fresh air, like becoming a whole new team."
"Wow," Gedeon mused. "One team can leave such an impression on people?"
"Well, Mark Evans and his friends are special. They somehow always have that effect on others." Neil said with a gentle smile before looking up at the sky, 'Mark Evans, we're coming!' he thought.
Just then there was a commotion coming from the field entrance. The coach had left a while earlier because he was called for an urgent yet brief meeting, but he hadn't returned. The players thought that he was finally coming back but instead, a slim, tall man in shades walked onto the field closely followed by a boy, about their age, with messy yellow hair and red eyes which scanned the field and the players on it.
The team gathered together and Neil took the initiative of going to the two 'visitors' to get answers to the two questions that were hovering in all the teen's minds: 'Who they were and what they were doing there.'
Before he could even utter a word, the man decided to begin speaking, in a rather loud voice, "From this day henceforth, I will be the coach of this team!" He said perfectly punctuating his sentence.
This took everyone by surprise. They were all speechless hence could not do anything to stop him from continuing.
"You will be taking orders from me and under no circumstances will any of you go against them. This here is Adrien Figgins, he will make sure all of you follow the orders to the letter. Do I make myself clear?"
At this point, Neil had recovered an began, "With all due respect, sir, but we don't even know who you are. You can't just come in here and start taking control without any identification of permission from the administration. And I would like to know where our coach is."
"Well, silly boy," Adrien finally spoke up, "We have the necessary validations to be here and your coach is here standing right in front of you all." He finished gesturing to the man beside him.
The team shared glances then nodded to their captain before he spoke again, this time with more confidence and resolve that before, "Well, we will not listen to anyone other than our rightful coach, Coach Wagano!"
"You don't get it, do you?" Adrien chuckled before looking at the captain dead in the eye, his red eyes glowing making the grey-eyed male feel inferior under his gaze. "You don't have a choice."
End of flashback.
Neil sighed, still staring at the bright screen. He took a glance at his teammates and felt a pang in his heart. All of them, staring at the screens, made them look like robots. But if you were to look closer, like the captain did, at their eyes, you could see a pool full of grief, defeat and weakness. His teammates were suffering, and he couldn't do anything about it.
He fixed his gaze back at the screen in front of him utterly defeated. He closed his eyes having had enough of the brightness of the screen compared to the dimness of the room.
' I thought we would be able to play a proper match this time. I owed it to Thomas to play a good match with you. Not only that, but I really wanted you to see how much we have changed from the last time we played. But now, you will be playing with the same robots you played with last time. I'm sorry Mark. I'm so sorry Thomas.'
(Thomas Feldt - Sugimori Takeshi)