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墨書 Inktalez
It was practice time for the Raimon Football Team, and everyone was training on the soccer field by the river.
Endou shouted excitedly, "Alright, let's go for it!" Kazemaru dribbled past two players and then passed the ball to Tsumon, who was positioned to the right.
Receiving the ball, Tsumon scanned his surroundings and noticed Someoka was unmarked, so he passed the ball to him. As Someoka ran forward and received the ball, he wasted no time and took a powerful shot. Just as the strong shot was about to score, Endou arrived at the right moment and punched the ball away.
"Hot-Blooded Fist!"
As the ball flew away, gasps erupted from the people on the bridge. The Raimon team paused their actions at the sound. Handa looked at those on the bridge and said, "Hasn't the number of people coming to watch our practice increased recently?"
Kazemaru thought for a moment and replied, "Could it be...?"
"Could it be what?"
Kazemaru suggested a possibility, "Do we have fans now?"
Everyone gasped in surprise. "Huh?!"
"Fans?!"
Endou was so moved he nearly cried, "Our fans..."
This was certainly true; not long ago, the Soccer Club had been on the verge of shutting down, and now there were a bunch of unfamiliar faces watching them practice. The contrast was something that couldn't easily be put into words.
Wanting to show off to that group of 'fans' on the bridge, Endou shouted to everyone, "Alright, everyone, let's hone our special moves even more!"
Just then, a sleek black luxury car came rolling down the slope into the soccer field, startling everyone into quick evasive action. The car stopped right in front of the goal, and a person stepped out from the back seat.
It was Natsumi Raimon.
As soon as she got out of the car, she delivered shocking news to everyone: "From today onwards, practicing special moves is prohibited."
Everyone was stunned. "Huh?!"
Endou pressed for an explanation, "Why?!"
Natsumi pointed towards the people on the bridge. "Did you see those people?"
Endou nodded happily. "I know! Those are our fans, right?"
Natsumi shook her head. "Those people are not your fans; they are scouts from other schools who have come here just to record our playing data."
Everyone was once again shocked, "Eh eh eh eh eh!!!!"
Natsumi explained, "It's generally impossible for a weak team to maintain a winning streak after defeating an empire."
Haruna suddenly understood, "I see! If the opponent comes to scout us, they'll learn about our special moves."
At that moment…
Endou weakly asked, "But if we don't have any special moves, how are we supposed to win?"
"Uh…"
Clearly, Natsumi, who didn't understand football, had no idea what to do.
So she decided to call for help, "Yae, can you come out and say something?"
Everyone looked puzzled, "Yae?"
Just then, the door on the other side of the backseat swung open, and Shiki oozed out like a slime.
Shiki struggled to stand up, looking quite weak. He placed a hand on Endou's shoulder and then heaved.
A mysterious rainbow splattered all over Endou's hands and the football he was holding.
"Ugh—"
"!!!"
"The ball! The ball!"
"Towel!! Towel!!"
After a flurry of chaos, Shiki's complexion finally returned to normal.
"I thought I was done for!"
Shiki shot a resentful glare at Natsumi, "Who told the driver to take the car down from such a high place?!"
Natsumi turned her head aside, pretending not to see.
After dealing with his unusable gloves, Endou asked Shiki, "Yae, how did you end up in that car?"
Shiki accepted a few antacids from Sakata while replying to Endou, "I just talked with the Chairman after school and asked the young lady to drive me here for practice."
After swallowing the antacids, Shiki rubbed his stomach and said, "So? What's going on now?"
Endou recounted everything that had happened to Shiki.
"I see?"
Without thinking twice, Shiki said, "Why not practice our special moves because of this?"
"Eh?"
Everyone was stunned, including Natsumi.
Shiki continued, "Do you understand the saying 'cutting off one's own food supply'?"
"As long as you're strong enough, it doesn't matter how much information your opponent gathers; it will be useless."
"I'm right, aren't I?"
At that moment, Shiki felt a piercing gaze. He turned to see Natsumi with an unfriendly expression.
He quickly corrected himself, "Ahem, what I'm saying is based on the premise of being strong enough, but right now, Raimon doesn't meet that qualification."
The first-year students looked at Shiki with disdain.
The intense stares pricked at Shiki's body, but he ignored them and said, "Moreover, it's true that everyone relies too much on special moves."
"Football isn't just about practicing special moves."
Shiki raised his fingers to count, "There are many fundamental skills to practice, like passing, dribbling, ball control, teamwork, stamina, and so on."
"Setting aside those practices that take a long time to show results, stamina training is quite beneficial."
"After all, during the match against Wild Junior High, you should have noticed something, right?"
Everyone pondered for a moment before Shaolin Temple raised his hand and said, "We need super powerful special moves to score!"
Fists were ready.
"Wrong!"
Shiki looked at Shaolin Temple, who had a bandage on his head, and continued, "If your stamina is good enough, the joint defense in the second half won't just last a few minutes."
"I'm not wrong, am I?"
Everyone fell silent because Shiki was speaking the truth.
"So now you all need to start running!!"
"Eh? Eh? Eh?"
"I'll time you."
Kurimatsu timidly asked, "Huh? Doesn't Senior Yae need to run?"
Shiki turned to Kurimatsu with a friendly smile. "Sure! I'll run a few laps while you run a few laps."
That friendly smile appeared to Kurimatsu as a devilish grin.
"No way!!!"
"Phew~ Finally managed to pull that off."
As Shiki sighed in relief, he caught sight of Haruna sneaking a laugh.
"What's wrong, Otonashi?"
Haruna shook her head. "I just feel like Senior Yae and Natsumi have a rather unusual relationship."
Shiki stroked his chin and said, "It is indeed quite unusual."
"It's a twisted fate..."
Natsumi exploded, "What did you say!!!"
Seeing Natsumi angry, Shiki quickly reassured her, "No, no, I was just joking, just joking."
Confirming that Natsumi wasn't really mad, Shiki answered Haruna's earlier question. "She's kind of my... benefactor, I guess?"
Shiki smiled wryly. "After all, without the Chairman, I might not have been able to attend school at all!"
Haruna was surprised. "Wait, wait? So you got in through the back door!!"
Shiki waved his hand and hurriedly explained, "No, Otonashi might not know this, but I'm a transfer student!"
"There were some issues at my original school, so I transferred from there."
"But it was quite last minute, so not many schools would take me."
"At that time, Raimon Chairman helped me a lot, which is how I ended up at Raimon."
"So I'm really grateful to the Chairman."
At this point, Shiki squinted at Natsumi. "And ever since then, the wild young lady has been looking for trouble with me countless times."
Natsumi retorted, "What do you mean I'm looking for trouble? You were the one who bumped into me all dirty!"
Shiki countered, "I was helping out the baseball club! Of course I'd get dirty! And I apologized to you!"
"Who apologizes by saying 'Oh, sorry' like that?"
"I..."
Just as the two were bickering back and forth, Tsumon suddenly shouted while running halfway: "Hey! What’s that strange thing over there?"
Upon hearing this, they immediately stopped arguing and turned to look in the direction Tsumon was pointing.
Two silver-gray trucks were slowly driving towards the soccer field.
As they got closer to everyone, the sides of the trucks opened up to reveal a bunch of strange equipment inside, along with two people standing there—one with a spiky hairstyle and the other with short pink hair.
Shiki pulled Natsumi and the two managers behind him. "Get behind me."
The others from Raimon began discussing among themselves.
"If it's just reconnaissance, isn't it a bit overboard?"
"Or are they from a TV station?"
"How could that be? This isn't TV station equipment."
At that moment, Haruna jumped out from behind Shiki. "Everyone, don't worry, these are our opponents this time, from Mikage Agricultural School."
"You gathered information on them?"
"Yeah, I used the skills I learned in the journalism department."
After saying that, Haruna shared her laptop with Shiki.
"The people here are the goalkeeper and captain, Shinmori, and the ace forward, Kakeru."
Shiki took the laptop and examined it closely. "The investigation is very detailed; if you didn't say anything, I would have thought it was done by a professional."
"Hehe~"
Someoka looked disdainfully at the two by the car. "They came here to scout us directly!"
Shiki also glanced at them and said unhappily, "How can professional players come to scout at the opponent's practice field? If everyone did that, no team would need to practice anymore."
After thinking for a moment, Shiki called a stop to everyone who was running. "Let's not practice today. Natsumi, we need to catch up with what you discussed with Chairman today."
Natsumi nodded in understanding.
Noticing that Raimon was about to leave, Shinmori and Kakeru from Mikage Agricultural School walked over.
Someoka stepped in front of Shiki and the others. "What are you planning to do?"
Shinmori glanced at Someoka before looking at the others. "Why aren't you continuing your practice?"
"What?"
Shiki emerged from behind and said irritably, "Do we need your permission to decide whether or not to practice today or where to practice?"
Shinmori replied expressionlessly, "No, I just wanted to say that if you're worried about your special techniques being leaked, please don't be too concerned. We've analyzed your abilities and special techniques and already know where your strengths lie."
Someoka laughed in disbelief at those words. "What nonsense are you talking about?"
Kakeru chimed in from the side. "Rin'oka Ryouga, forward from Raimon Junior High School, rated C."
"Why is my rating only C?!"
Kakeru pulled out a strange pair of glasses from somewhere, with ratings for Raimon players constantly popping up on the lenses.
"Handa Shinichi, midfielder from Raimon Junior High School, rated D-."
"Eh..."
"Kurimatsu Teppei, defender from Raimon Junior High School, rated D."
"Shaolin Temple Step, midfielder from Raimon Junior High School, rated D-."
...
Kakeru went through the ratings of all the Raimon players before looking at Shiki, Endou, and Goenji.
"Finally, we have the only three who can hold their own from Raimon."
"Endou Mamoru, the goalkeeper of Raimon Junior High School, rated B."
"Shuuya Gouenji, the Forward of Raimon Junior High School, rated A+."
"And finally..."
Here, Kakeru paused for a moment. "If the information is correct, you are our greatest threat."
"Yae Shiki, the Forward/Defender of Raimon Junior High School, rated SSS."
Everyone was stunned. "SSS?!?!"
Kakeru continued, "To confirm the accuracy of the data, we need to have a match with you."
"Huh?"
Shiki waved his hand dismissively, as if shooing Kakeru away. "No way! I'm not an idiot."
Shinmori glanced at Kakeru, and Kakeru immediately understood what Shinmori intended to do.
"Then I can't let you go."
Kakeru pulled out a soccer ball from who knows where.
He threw it directly into the air, and with a burst of flames from his right foot, he infused all the fire into the ball as he spun in mid-air.
"Blazing Tornado!"
A technique that should only belong to Goenji was unleashed by Kakeru.
Everyone was dumbfounded. "That's Blazing Tornado..."
"Hey! What are you doing?!"
While everyone was mesmerized by the Blazing Tornado, only Shiki remained unfazed.
Behind Shiki appeared many little angels, and amidst their music, a massive door stood tall before everyone.
"Heaven's Gate!"
Heaven's Gate forcefully blocked the raging tornado.
The strong winds left several scratches on the door.
The fierce flames caused some cracks to form.
In the end, the sturdy door successfully held back the tornado.
Shiki, having blocked the tornado, immediately grabbed Kakeru by the collar and angrily shouted, "Who were you aiming that ball at just now?"
Kakeru, still expressionless and robotic in demeanor, replied, "That's how I can bring out your true power."
Hearing this, Shiki laughed in anger. "Is that so? I agree to your match request; if I lose, you owe me an apology!"
After discussing the rules of the match between both sides, it was decided that Shiki would take three penalty shots from twelve yards out, and if he scored more than half of them, he would be declared the winner.
Since Shiki had just been sitting in Natsumi's car not long ago, he was now warming up beside her. Natsumi approached Shiki and shook her head. "Honestly, you could have just ignored them. Now they’ll know your strength."
After stretching his ankles, Shiki picked up the ball at his feet and looked at Shinmori. "I can tolerate other things," he said, "but what just happened is unacceptable."
With that, Shiki headed straight to the penalty spot with the ball.
Natsumi sighed. "Seriously! I thought he would stay calm."
"Maybe it's because..." Goenji chimed in, "the ball he kicked earlier was aimed at you guys." He pointed at Natsumi, Miki, and Otonashi.
"Huh?"
"He was the only one who reacted in time. I also zoned out for a moment. If the three of you had actually been hit, the consequences would have been dire."
Endou exclaimed angrily, "That's just too much!"
Goenji glanced at Shiki, who was preparing to kick the ball. "So he just wanted Mikage Agricultural School's players to apologize to the manager."
Everyone turned their attention to Shiki, each with their own thoughts.
For his first shot, Shiki unleashed his signature move.
"Cloud Piercing Arrow!"
A high-speed arrow sliced through the sky.
Shinmori crossed his fists in front of his chest, and at that moment when his fists glowed, he jumped up calmly. "Dimensional Pocket!"
A massive shockwave radiated from him.
The instant the arrow made contact with the shockwave, something strange happened; it seemed as if the ball entered another dimension, losing all its speed and almost hovering in mid-air.
Just as Shinmori was about to seize the ball, the Cloud Piercing Arrow suddenly accelerated and began spinning rapidly, piercing through Dimensional Pocket with force.
1-0
Shinmori looked at his right hand and clenched it tightly. "Next time, I won't let you score."
Shiki smiled. "I hope after the next shot you'll be able to say that as easily."
For his second shot, Shiki once again executed Cloud Piercing Arrow.
"Cloud Piercing Arrow!"
Shinmori also utilized the Dimensional Pocket to respond.
“【Dimensional Pocket】”
Just when everyone thought that the Cloud Piercing Arrow would pierce through the pocket again, the pocket firmly wrapped around the arrow, snapping it in half.
Shinmori spoke to Shiki, “I caught it.”
Shiki replied disdainfully, “I hope you can catch the next one too.”
“Bring it on!”
While Shiki and Shinmori were fiercely battling it out on the field, Kakeru had already put on his glasses outside the court, recording data on Shiki.
“The data doesn’t seem right…”
“Yae Shiki’s rating isn’t that high at all.”
Unable to hold back, Endou exclaimed, “What’s with all this rating stuff?”
Perhaps in a good mood, Kakeru responded to Endou, “That’s a system developed by our school.”
“It evaluates a person’s score and threat level based on multiple data points.”
“And for Yae Shiki, according to the information provided by ‘that esteemed person,’ the threat level is SSS, making him the strongest among all high school players.”
At this moment, some First Year students began whispering behind them. “If Gouenji Senior is so strong and only has an A+, then what about Senior Yae…”
“Yeah, thinking back to our match against Wild Junior High, we were completely exhausted while Senior Yae seemed to be taking it easy.”
“But if he really is that strong, wouldn’t we have easily won against Wild Junior High?”
“That just means Senior Yae has been hiding his true strength.”
Just as they continued discussing Shiki’s abilities, the third ball began.
The third ball was the most crucial one.
Shiki lifted the ball with his foot and shot it into the air.
Day turned into night, stars connected, and a centaur appeared in the darkness.
As Shiki unleashed a powerful shot, a nebula followed suit.
“【Sagittarius Bow】”
“【Dimensional Pocket】”
But this time, even the humble pocket couldn’t contain the vast nebula; it burst open, and the nebula surged into the goal.
The victory of this match was claimed by Shiki.
As the defeated party, Shinmori and Kakeru readily admitted their loss. "We lost," they said.
Shinmori and Kakeru approached Natsumi and her group. "I'm sorry," they said before leaving.
Someoka exclaimed, "What kind of attitude is that from those two!"
Back in the truck, Shinmori and Kakeru discussed what had just happened. Kakeru glanced at Shinmori. "Shinmori."
"Yeah, the second set of data from the doctor was indeed fake, but..." Shinmori stroked his chin. "Although it doesn't match the second set of data, Yae Shiki's abilities are definitely stronger than what was indicated in the first report."
Kakeru continued, "Then we should revise Yae Shiki's evaluation to A+."
"We'll use this system as a basis for practice moving forward."
"Got it." Kakeru looked at the numbers reflected in his glasses.
‘(The probability of defeating Raimon Junior High School is 99%)’
"We're going to win."
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-(Author Gulu's note)-
Although my updates are slow, I hope you all are satisfied with the word count! (Said weakly.)
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