There's definitely something weird about this match. With her powers still activated, Shindou's thoughts became audible to her as well. We're not able to take back the ball at all. Are they really keeping their word and not looking at our thoughts? But if they are looking... His gaze turned to their brunette forward. Why is Matatagi the only one able to get the ball? But then, right before Matatagi reaches the goal, they make sure to bring him down. What are they thinking?!
Just as Kimiko was about to mentally compliment Shindou for his sharp observations, Matatagi was roughly tackled. The two responsible stood above him and said something, but she wasn't able to hear what it was. The commentator, Ducksgun, was speaking over them.
"Sazanaara has stopped moving! Aren't they going to attack? Matatagi lays prostrate on the ground, unmoving!"
The others ran to check up on him just as he started getting up again.
"Matatagi, you're not hurt, are you?" Tenma asked.
"Y-Yeah..."
Then, Powai suddenly burst out laughing. "Oh, come on! 'You're not hurt are you?', 'Yeah...'. You're talking to each other as if you're friends!"
"'As if' we're friends?" Tetsukado repeated.
"What are you talking about?" Manabe questioned.
"Quit playing your little game of friendship already. And you!" She pointed at Matatagi. "If you have something that's on your mind, say it out loud!"
... Oh. Oh, that's what they were doing. Kimiko kept her mouth shut as she watched. As cruel as it was to think this way at the moment, she was just glad that it wasn't her that they were reading.
"We're able to see crystal clear what you're thinking. This is how you've always thought about them!" Powai began to mimic Matatagi's voice. "'You guys keep dragging me down.', 'I'm not able to bring out my abilities because you're all worthless.'."
The others turned to him in surprise. The enemy team were all smirking.
"You don't trust anyone." Powai continued. "'Even if I left it to these guys, they can't get the ball back. There's no point expecting them to do anything right.', 'Stop acting like you're my friends!'."
"M-Matatagi..."
The brunette took some steps away from them, finally, openly showing his glare. "What's with you guys?! That's right! That's the kind of person I am! But what of it?! People can't be trusted!" His tone changed, becoming even more sure of himself. "That's right! I've never trusted any of you even once! Why are you guys able to put your trust in total strangers?! I'm not that naive! I just kept acting like I was a good guy! That's me! That's Matatagi Hayato! I won't let any of you criticize me for who I am!"
Well... He's got a point. Kimiko didn't know his past, and, truthfully told, she wasn't interested in how he came to become who he is now, but she did agree with him. After all, the last time she placed all her trust on someone she didn't really know, it resulted in the giant scar on her back.
"There's nothing to criticize." Tenma suddenly said, offering his usual, sweet smile. "I'd been feeling that there was some part of you that didn't trust us. But why did you hide that? Why did you try to show yourself as a good person in front of us?"
"Why...? Because that's the mature thing to do."
"No."
?
"You hated yourself, didn't you?"
Wha―?! Tenma, that's―
"The truth is, you wanted to trust us, but you hated yourself for being unable to do that. You pretended because you want to be closer to us than anyone. You want to trust your friends more than any of us, isn't that what you're thinking?"
"That's not true! I'm different from you fresh-face nerds all eager to spend your days in Happy Land! I'm a bad guy!"
"So what if you are a bad guy?" It was Ichikawa that spoke up next. He had a similar smile to Tenma as he spoke. "There's no one who doesn't have a bit of an evil side to them. Even I am not as good of a person as the roles I play suggest."
That statement was hard for her to digest seeing how nice he had always been, but maybe it was also because she had been comparing him to his descendant too much. The thought intrigued her. What would a 'bad guy' Ichikawa Zanakurou look like?
"That's right." Tenma nodded. "Any one of us has evil inside."
Tenma, you are a puppy. Coming from your mouth, I believe that even less.
"But it's up to us to get past that and accept it. All of the good things and bad things about you are what makes you Matatagi Hayato! All of them are what makes you my friend, Matatagi Hayato!"
It was silent for a good few seconds, before Matatagi gave them a smirk. "Seriously... You're an interesting guy!"
Suddenly, the game resumed. Matatagi dashed towards the Sazanaraan who had the ball and stole it off of him. When another tried to stop him, she ended up getting blown back, holding her head.
"Just try and stop me!" He leaps high into the sky, the ball still at his feet. Then, he was surrounded by a bright blue light. A falcon flew fast and, with its claw, thrusted the ball into the goal. When the light dissipated, Matatagi had... quite a new look on him.
"Goal!" Just as Ducksgun said so, two whistles came. "There's the whistle signaling the end of the first half! The first half ends with Earth Eleven tying the score!"
With a Soul, nonetheless... She took a quick peek into his mind. "So, on top of Fox and Lion, we now have Hayabusa." I wish it'd call itself its English name, though. Its current name reminds me of... that guy. She mentally punched away the memory of the Seed. She heard from Kita back during their Resistance Japan days that he wasn't too bad of a teammate anymore, but still... No. Just, no.
"Hm? Did something change about him?" Aoi muttered suddenly, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"You mean besides the blunt personality he has now?" Shinsuke sweatdropped.
Looking closely, she finally realized what it was. "His hair changed. Part of it got lifted up and turned blue."
"E-Eh?!" He squinted slightly before his eyes turned wide. "You're right! How did that happen?!"
"MixiMax... is what I want to say, but..." The MixiMax guns are still in the future, and he wasn't hit by any large energy like Taiyou and Zanark were... Or is it... She blinked. "Was his true aura in his Azul so powerful that, when it overtook the fake, passive aura he tried to maintain, it changed him physically as well?"
"T-That kind of thing can happen?!"
"I'm purely speculating!" She quickly said before anyone could quote her on it. "I'm no expert on this subject. I'm just thinking about it from the perspective of someone who has used MixiMax. It could be something completely different that no one has ever thought of before." Maybe Shuu will know something since he's a spirit himself, but it's not like I can just say that.
"It's my turn now." Suddenly, the helper, who had been sitting quietly on the bench, walked to the field. A Sazanaaran muttered something, and she retaliated by extending her hair, wrapping it around her. Then, sparks surrounded her and the Sazanaaran's hair turned into a pale color before she fell unconscious. "Anyone else with a problem?"
No one else on that team objected.
"What the heck..."
"Hilary Flail." Manuuba kept his voice low as he eyed their way. "She's a Faramian, just like Barga Zachs. Rumors say her hair could drain someone's life energy... Sounds like they were right."
She nodded slowly. "Right. Aliens. Of course they all have weird powers."
"You're one to talk."
"Shut up."
~~~~~
"The real fight begins now. I, Hilary Flail, will exterminate you." The Faramian sneered. The air around her was far more menacing than Barga's. Then, she turned to the rest of her team. "You guys! Watch my Azul closely and send me passes!"
They don't seem to like her all that much, but seeing what just happened to their teammate earlier, it didn't look like they had much choice.
Kimiko shook her head slightly. Now's not the time to be thinking of the enemy. She looked down at her hands. They were glowing ever so slightly. This one's going to be tough.
"Don't be slow!" Matatagi suddenly spoke up, smirking. "I don't need anyone who can't keep up with me."
Aoi sweatdropped. "It's great that Matatagi is showing us his honest self now, but..."
Shinsuke nodded from beside her. "He's way into it..."
The next half wasn't any better than before. In fact, it may have gotten worse with Hilary on the pitch. Kusaka charged ahead, thinking that it would be easy with her lack of ability to see his mind, but he was wrong.
"Jack Knife!"
She was a violent one, just like Barga. To top it off, the Sazanaarans seemed to be reading her thoughts as well, going to places she needed them to be and making her the center of their attack.
Just as Minaho failed to stop the enemy, Matatagi ran back and covered for him. "Go ahead and read my thoughts if you can!"
Though even if he could steal the ball back, if the others can't support him, we can't attack. Kimiko frowned as she watched him get stopped by another Waterfall. At this rate...
They could only play defensively.
Whenever one comes to attack, they'd tighten the back and stop them with three people or more. At the very least, this would prevent them from advancing further. A Sazanaaran tried a long shot with his Bubble Boil, but Ibuki stopped it with Rising Slash.
In the next round, Konoha somehow managed to get the ball and passed it to Minaho. But instead of giving it to Matatagi, he turned and made an own goal.
...
What?
She blinked. Once. Twice.
And then she turned to the scoreboard. 1-2, Sazaanara in the lead.
"Everyone, let's go score points!" Minaho suddenly cheerfully declared.
Things only got more and more confusing from there. Minaho kept getting in everyone's way. He'd steal the ball from his teammates, pass to the Sazanaarans, let them through the field... Acting as if he were the enemy.
"So... What do your mind reading abilities tell you about that?" Manuuba asked right next to her ear, making her jump slightly.
She glared at him. "Don't do that again." She rubbed her ear, warming it back up. Apparently, Manuuba's race has cold breaths. Stopping herself from shivering, she answered him with, "Just watch."
He raised an eyebrow at her before leaning back on his seat, complying.
Things got more and more confusing as it progressed, but strangely enough to everyone else, Shindou wasn't complaining. He merely said to ignore the detective's son and advance on their own. The ten of them had to fight against twelve, and no one on the field, aside Minaho himself, had any idea why.
Until...
"I'll stop him!"
Just as their enemy said so, Minaho stopped moving, letting the ball bounce ahead. Suddenly confused, no one saw Matatagi dashing in and taking the ball for himself. They also didn't realize how close he was to the opponent's goal, so all he had to do was run ahead, call out his Soul, and even the score.
2-2.
As everyone stood there, bewildered, Minaho started explaining. "It's spontaneous plays. We've been thinking about all sorts of ways on how to beat them and win, so maybe not thinking at all isn't so bad once in a while. Don't think too much about how you should beat them. Just play with the ball."
And then the field descended into absurdity. The front passed to the back, the back went to the side, the side to the front, and the front to the back again, and then back to the front. No one knew why or how, but Kusaka ended up with the ball twice, so seeing as passing didn't work, he decided to just dribble the ball up the field... Except that he didn't dribble up the field... He went back to who gave him the ball the second time, that being Konoha, and they fought for the ball for a bit before she kicked it away from him. He went over to get it back just as a Sazanaaran went after him.
That Sazanaaran went past him.
Kusaka's so confused at what he's doing that he's not thinking about doing anything at all! Kimiko had to cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing too loudly. "A-Aoi..."
"Y-Yeah?" The blue haired girl had quite the look on her face. It was clear that she was struggling to understand what was happening.
She hid her smile by holding a certain red tablet up. "D-Do you think it's okay for me to record this whole thing?"
"Eh...? You mean the match?"
"As long as you do not upload it on the internet, I do not believe there would be a problem." Mizukawa replied in her place.
"Thanks!" So she hit the record button.
"The hell are you doing?" Manuuba muttered from beside her again.
Keeping the tablet steady with one hand, she used her other to cup one of his pointy ears and whisper into it. "For the real Kyousuke."
He gave her a look but said nothing more on the matter. She turned back and focused on the circus in front of her.
With how they were just randomly passing, they managed to get the ball further and further up the field. Ichikawa was the one to receive the ball at the other end, but as his thoughts were focused on scoring, the enemy keeper was able to stop him.
Hilary got the ball next and she used Jack Knife to once again get past Kusaka. Minaho ran into to stop her, a bright light surrounding him. The light faded to reveal a giant owl. The area around them suddenly turned dark, and all that they could see were the owl's eyes. It blinked all around Hilary before going through her. When the owl disappeared, Minaho had the ball.
Fukurou, huh? She could see the coach smirking from the corner of her eye.
"Everyone!" Minaho suddenly called. "Close your eyes for three seconds!"
Everyone did and counted down in their hearts.
"Now!" Suddenly, the ball was right in front of Shindou, who kicked it away instinctively. Kusaka was the receiver.
The moment you open your eyes, you respond reflexively to the ball without giving them time to read your thoughts. You can get points without trying to get points. I call it... the "What? I'm Not Ready! Here Goes!" strategy!
Ichikawa was last to receive it, and upon opening his eyes, his Soul roared loud and clear. Taking the enemy by surprise, Earth Eleven won, 3-2.