"This is so good!" Tenma suddenly exclaimed in the middle of breakfast. "What kind of fish is this?"
"It's fat greenling." Tetsukado pointed out.
"Fat greenling?"
"You don't even know what fat greenling is? Fat greenling is a white fish that's about this big, and it's called 'fat' greenling because it has a lot of body fat."
Aoi smiled from the table behind him and their captain. "Tetsukado, you know so much about it!"
"Of course I do! I come from a family of fishermen."
"Oh, that's right." She was about to continue eating when she felt someone's foot nudging hers. Looking up to her left, she spotted Tsurugi doing his best not to smile.
"If you-know-who was here, she'd be asking why it's called 'greenling' if it's white." He quietly muttered.
She covered her mouth so she wouldn't laugh, but Shindou, who was on the third seat of their table, choked on his sandwich.
Tenma looked over with concern. "Shindou-san? Are you alright?"
After a cough, he managed to nod at him, looking like he's struggling not to smile. "Fine. I'm fine." When the brunette turned back to continue his conversation with Tetsukado and Matatagi, he shot Tsurugi a look. "Since when were you into making jokes?"
He only smirked in response. When he turned to Aoi, the girl was focused on her food and pretending the past few seconds didn't just happen. He raised an eyebrow at their behavior, but before he could ask―
"What would you know about me, Minaho? Don't say random things when you don't even know what I've been through!"
Manabe was suddenly yelling at the orange haired boy. Tetsukado got up to stop them, and Manabe was about to protest, but they then decided to simply sit on opposite ends of the cafeteria.
~~~~~
They were soon asked to go to a meeting, but they didn't expect to earn a few compliments from their trainer, which felt like it was as much of an achievement as getting one from Shindou. However, their coach decided to shoot down their excitement by telling them their current level wasn't enough to win the semifinals.
Then, he led them back to the information gate. Or more specifically, a deadend beside it. He pressed a button and the floor opened up to show a staircase leading underground. They couldn't help letting their eyes wander as they went through the halls.
At the end of the corridor, their coach opened a metallic door to reveal a strange room with a large screen on the side. Manabe crouched down and knocked on the floor, deducing it was made from strengthened glass.
Suddenly, the lights switched off, but only for a second before the scene around them was replaced by an endless meadow.
"Matsukaze." The coach called from a little further ahead of them. "Run towards me."
He exchanged confused glances with Aoi for a moment before nodding. "Yes, sir!" He started simply speed walking, before beginning to sprint, and eventually ran with everything he's got. But he wasn't going anywhere. "Coach! What's going on?! I can't get closer!"
Tsurugi lowered his gaze to his friend's feet, just in time to see the ground stop moving just as he stopped running. A treadmill?
"This is a hologram." Their coach explained. "But it does not consist of only images. By sending signals to your brain, it reproduces the same sensations of the real thing."
As if to prove a point, a dummy in a jersey suddenly kicked a ball at Ibuki, who was just barely able to catch the ball. It then disappeared, along with the dummy player.
"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.
Half way through, Mizukawa came down and briefed them on their next opponents. Thailand's Mach Tiger, who won against Qatar's Desert Lion by 5-0.
So by the end of the day, they cleared Level 2.
And, just for their curiosity, tried Level 3.
So if anyone asks... Yes, he definitely loves the Black Room.
Sadly, they can't train in it all day everyday because they still had teamwork drills to go over, so the day after, they did their regular training in the front pitch. They were all beginning to more or less run at the same pace, with the exception of Minaho and Manabe, who appear to be somehow going faster than the rest despite lagging behind just seconds before.
I guess that bridge did wonders for them...
"They're all so motivated!" Tenma said proudly.
He couldn't help his own smile at that. "Yeah. They had me worried at the beginning, but..."
"Tenma."
"What?"
Their senior eyed the group who were still running. "We're missing one person. Look harder."
They did.
Tetsukado was leading them, with Sakura, Matatagi, Kusaka and Ibuki right behind him. Manabe and Minaho were back to lagging behind them for using up too much energy too fast.
Seven there... and the three of us are here...
Tenma blinked. "Konoha isn't here."
Huh. "Now that you mention it, she wasn't here for breakfast either."
"Then, she never came back...?" Aoi asked.
"You know where she is?"
She nodded at the brunette. "I met her in front of the boarding house this morning. She said she was going out for a walk."
And just then, the rest of the team arrived. Manabe and Minaho collapsed on the ground, but the orange haired boy managed to speak before the rest.
"A walk... Do you mean Morimura? She's probably at the park." He took a deep breath before continuing with, "She's usually around there during free time. I bet she wanted to be alone."
"Morimura loves animals, so I've often seen her play with the stray cats in the park." Manabe added.
"But maybe something's wrong?" Matatagi said. "She's always been prompt about attending practice before."
"She seemed pretty pressured about whether it was okay for her to stay on this team or not." Minaho added in.
None of them could deny that the small girl had been barely any help in their previous matches. She also seemed to have the hardest time catching up to them, as well as getting too nervous to move more often than not.
"I'll go look for her!" Aoi suddenly declared. "Tenma, you keep practicing. The semi-finals are close, so leave this to me."
"Okay then. I'm counting on you to find Konoha."
"Yeah!" With a determined look, she ran off in the direction of the park.
"I wonder if Konoha staying on this team is best for her..."
No one could give Shindou a straight answer. Things only got even more complicated when Aoi returned on her own after lunch. And even worse still, their caretaker came over with a letter in hand, stating how the girl wouldn't be returning to the boarding house.
Aoi sighed. "When I talked with her at the park, I should have brought her back..."
"It's not your fault, Aoi." Matatagi said, Sakura agreeing from beside him.
"Morimura is troubled." Kusaka suddenly spoke up. "She's convinced herself that she's a burden to the team. If we don't do something, she might quit."
"... Maybe we should just let her." Sakura said softly. "Konoha is really shy... And it seemed hard for her to play soccer in front of the entire stadium."
"Yes, the weight of representing Japan may be too heavy for her." Manabe stated.
"She doesn't have an aggressive bone in her body." Minaho added. "I don't think her gentle nature is a good match for a competitive sport like soccer."
"None of you understand anything." Kusaka cut back in.
"What do you mean?"
"She's amazing. She saw with just one look that I wasn't facing myself." He then stood up, his back still facing them. "Maybe what Morimura really does want to do is play soccer."
"Kusaka..."
"I think I can understand. What's shutting her off from the rest of the world is what shut me off too. It's like she can't face herself..."
Amber eyes narrowed slightly. A mutual understanding, huh...
"I'll go look for her." Matatagi suddenly said, standing up as well. "I mean, she even left a note. If she wants to come back but can't, that would be sad."
"I'll go too!" Tenma said. "Our match is soon, so the rest of you should continue with practice."
"No, I'll come too." Tetsukado smiled.
"Okay, let's go!"
"Yeah!"
And the four of them left along with Aoi, who lagged behind after a short exchange with Mizukawa. Most of them left the field soon after, losing themselves in their thoughts.
The only one who stayed behind were the remaining two from Raimon. There wasn't much they could do with just the two of them, so they settled on practicing passes. Not that they could fully focus though.
"About Konoha... What do you think about her, Shindou-san?"
"Coach chose her for Inazuma Japan. Therefore... He must have some reason for doing so." The navy haired boy nodded, satisfied with that answer. However, his senior wasn't done. "But whatever that reason is, I have no idea. But with Tenma..."
A smile made its way to his lips. "I'm sure that with Tenma, things will work out somehow." He kicked the ball into the goal.
By afternoon practice, they were all back together, Konoha looking slightly sturdier than before.