A few days had passed and a lot had happened for the team.
First of all, Axel had left the team which, of course, didn't really leave a good impact on the rest of the team.
The second thing was that Tori's father came back. To be honest it still wasn't very clear for the rest of the team what had really happened with him while he was at the alien base. But whatever it was it sure wasn't great.
After a day of improvising their own training, they were now in Hokkaido. They were here for the striker of their team named Shawn Froste. Some of the team members were excited to meet him, because of all the rumours. Everyone except for Kevin, who still wasn't over the fact that Axel had left the team.
"Got you!" Bobby said when he hit Nathan with a snowball.
"This is going to be easy. Don't get tired Bobby." Jude said to his team member.
"Not so arrogant. We just started." Eric replied to them.
"Don't think that you can beat us!" Lily said to the opponent.
"You have to win this battle and consider that a direct order from mister Raimon himself!" Nelly said to Eric, Lily and the rest on that team.
And thus the snow battle began. After some time they had to stop because they were going to have a practice match against Alpine.
"That's it for today." The coach said even though the match wasn't over yet.
"That was so incredible, Shawn. That was seriously a good shot. You just blew us away." Mark said to him.
"You guys were great too. You were the first one to stop it. I'm really impressed."
"I know one thing now and that's that I wanna play soccer with you!"
"Same with me. And not just you, with this whole team. I'm sure that we all will play some great games."
"Well then, mister Shawn Froste. I'm officially asking you to join the Inazuma Caravan." The coach said to the boy. "Will you come and play with us?"
"Sure, I'd be happy to."
"Congratulations, you are Raimon's new striker."
"Thank you, the pleasure is all mine."
Everyone was happy to hear that, but Kevin wasn't. He stormed off and Mark quickly went after him.
After Mark came back with Kevin, Celia told them the news that Gemini Storm was challenging Alpine. So they decided to don't waste time such longer and went to train together.
However, it didn't last long before Kevin lost his temper again. The reason behind this one was because it was more that, Shawn played all alone than with the team.
"What's your problem? You didn't see Eric and Jude? You could totally pass to them, but you completely ignored them."
"But...but that's my style. That's how I play."
"Yeah well, maybe it is, but it isn't the way your new team plays. You're part of the Raimon Eleven now. So you better learn to play our way."
"But your style is so slow and boring. It's like playing with turtles."
"What did you say?! Slow and boring?!"
"Keep calm, Kevin," Eric said to him while he and Bobby tried to hold him in his place and wouldn't attack Shawn.
"Getting angry like this isn't going to solve anything," Lily said to him.
"It is true that some teams build their playing style around their best player." Willy then informed the rest. "I don't see what's wrong with that."
"Yeah, well I do. They're them and we're us. Whatever speed we move at, we can't let this guy do his own way. Forget it, buddy, you will never replace Axel."
"I'm not sure about that. We will have to speed up a little." Nathan commented.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"Face it we all have to have Shawn's speed. Especially when you want to steal the ball from Alius Academy. Or else we're done and the same will happen last time."
"That's right you have to be the wind," Shawn replied.
"The wind?" Mark asked confused.
"Come with me I will show you what I mean."
They all walked to the back of the school where the ski track of the school was. The players of Alpine stood on the side of the track with giant snowballs. Shawn showed the rest what he meant by being the wind, he snowboarded on the track while the rest pushed the giant snowballs down and Shawn could perfectly dodge them.
"I have never been on a snowboard in my life. I really want to try it out." Mark said excited and right at that moment he lost his balance and fell on the track.
"I'm curious about how this is going to go," Lily mumbled a bit.
"Did you do this before Jude?" Celia asked her brother.
"Maybe once or twice."
"What about you Lily and Tori?" Silvia asked them.
"No, I haven't done this ever before," Tori replied.
"I never snowboarded before, but I did go on a ski trip once. And my feet were hurting so much at the end, but I did have fun with that at moments. So, hopefully, this will go good as well." Lily said to her.
After a day full of snowboarding they finally had dinner. They were all very hungry, but you couldn't expect anything else after such a long day. When they entered the dining room they all were a bit disappointed to see a little amount of food on their plates.
"Th-this is it?" Jack asked a bit sad.
"I-I wish there was a little more..." Mark said also disappointed.
"I'll just keep asking for seconds then!"
"Sorry, no extra servings tonight. You will have to do with whats's on your plate." Mister Veteran said while showing the pan.
"What?" Everyone asked.
"Coach her order. We've prepared a meal that boosts muscle strength in order to help you speed up." Nelly explained.
"I've even calculated the calorie content perfectly," Celia said happily.
"Also, once you take a bit, be sure to chew thirty times before swallowing," Silvia instructed them.
"Thirty times?" Mark asked shocked.
"It will help with better absorption as you're digesting."
"Alright, Jack! We will do this to win. Let's chew thirty times!" Mark encouraged his teammate.
"I hope that we will get more in the morning," Lily said to Tori who was sitting next to her.
"I hope so too," Tori replied. "Hey, but tonight we don't have to sleep in the tent right?"
"No, we get a room here. Why?"
"Everyone a separated room?"
"No, every room is per two. The managers have one room with the three of them and we are roommates. Once again, why?"
"That's great. I have snacks in my bag." She whispered to Lily.
Lily lit up and whispered back to her. "Me too."
"Thet's great!"
"I know right. At least we can eat something else than then only this."
Today was just like the day before the only different thing was that they had a big breakfast. Just like they hoped for.
The whole day they practised more on their snowboarding technique until the evening. And the last thing that had happened that day was the match against Kevin and Shawn. It did help for them, especially Kevin. It made him feel a lot better and more worthful for the team itself.
"Ow Lily and Tori." Celia walked over to them.
"Yeah?" They replied in unison.
"Next time when you're eating snacks in your room and you want to hide it. It's best not to throw the trash in the trashcan that we also use. And overall just better hide it in your backpacks."
The rest of the team just looked at them in a bit of a shock.
"Noted," Lily replied with a sedate look on her face and her arms crossed in front of her chest.
"You guys had snacks and didn't even share it with us?" Jack asked a bit hurt.
"We just hadn't enough for everyone. So, it wouldn't be fair to give it just to a few people." Tori explained to him.
"I don't feel really that bad about it. I can't sleep when I'm hungry. I had to eat something. Besides, it's not like I didn't try to resist it, but it's hard when you know it's there." Lily said with a little hint of apology in it.
"I'm sure you did Lily. But next time invite me too. I have snacks too you know." Mark said to her.
"Really? Does everyone carry snacks with them on this trip?"
And almost everyone replied yes, except for Jude, Kevin and Nelly.
"That's so awesome!" Jack said excitedly. "Next time we should just come together and share everything."
"Yeah!" The rest of the team replied while laughing with it.
"Really? So much commotion about a bit of food?" Nelly mumbled a bit disappointed.