Life As Teikoku's Manager (an Inazuma Eleven f.f.)

Patching The Bonds

Please forgive me for the lame title :P

Next Day at Practice

        I was just finishing stretching, ready to start practicing our new hissatsu again, when Aki called for us to gather up. Me, Someoka, and Kazemaru exchanged an anxious glance. If we wanted to use this on Zeus, we had better at least finish it, not to mention perfect it so that it would be stronger and have a better success rate.

        "Minna, today we won't be playing soccer!" she shouted, sending a wave of shock through the members. From behind the clubroom Haruna wheeled out a beat up metal utility cart. With a quick glance, I saw that there were strips of neon yellow and orange ribbon, each about a foot long. Huh? Were we going to tie these around the goal post or something to decorate for an event? If it was, these were pretty tacky colors.

        As if reading my thoughts, Haruna continued. "We will split you up into two teams, and the game you will play is one that will help with hand eye cordination and observing your surroundings. The first team is Handa, Sakurai, Kurimatsu, Shouri, Kageno, Max, Shishido, and Kabeyama. Second team is Endou, Gouenji, Kidou, Ichinose, Megane, Kazemaru, Domon, and Someoka. There is no team captain," I could already immediately tell that my team was at a disadvantage, almost as if it had been placed like this on purpose.

        Until it dawned on me that maybe it was.

        I snuck a glance towards Kidou when no one was looking, and sure enough, he was trying to hide a smirk but failing miserably. He caught me looking, and gave me a cheshire cat grin. It was only for a second, but the glare left his goggles and I could've sworn I saw him wink.

        "Ne, Inoue, are you okay?" Gouenji asked me. "Huh?" I turned to look at him. "You're face is red," he told me. "It's nothing," I said, then turned away. He replied by giving me a clueless look.

        "Okay, so the object of the game is to pull the belts off the other team. Every player gets two ribbons, first team is yellow and second team is orange. You can decide to work alone or make a strategy with your team, it is all up to you. The game starts and ends with the blow of the whistle. You are out when one of your belts are pulled, and each game is five minutes long. The team with the most members remaining is the winner. Come grab your belts now," Aki shouted.

        Pretty soon, we ended up on the soccer field with ribbons tucked into our waistbands. Shishido kind of tagged along with me, and Kabeyama was following us but still kept his distance. The others, Handa, Kurimatsu, Shouri, Max, and Kageno, were in one big clump and gave us, mostly me, evil glares. So they still didn't trust me, but hey, I'd rather have two hesitant allies than none at all. While we had two clumps with one guy staggering behind a group, the other team was already evenly spaced out, obviously planned and well, mind you. Sometimes, I have to admit even Kidou's leader qualities and strategist commands are pretty first rate.

        Haruna blew the whistle, and our short five minute game started. It wasn't actually all that easy of a game I realized after the first two minutes. You had to run, duck, and dodge all while bending down to pull another person's ribbon. And that wasn't easy when you had someone who was clinging on to you, not literally but still. They became a responsiblity for you, which is hard to manage in this every man for themself free for all game. And you couldn't use your hand to slap someone else's away, so truthfully, it was pretty hard to save Shishido when he almost got out. Thankfully, I pulled him out of the way just in time, Kazemaru's fingertips grazing the neon yellow strip.

        While the two of us were running around like headless chicken being chased by Kidou, Ichinose, Kazemaru, and Endou as they tried to pull our belt, Handa, Max, Kageno, Shouri, and Kurimatsu weren't doing so well either. They were back to back in a pentagon box formation, but that meant that they couldn't move around freely and twist in all directions to avoid grabbing hands like I could. They were currently fending off Someoka, Gouenji, Domon, and Megane, the four swooping in in perfect timing so that one attack would leave an opening for the next. Their defense was on the verge of breaking through, and it couldn't hold for much longer. As for Kabeyama? He had been too far away for me or Shishido to help, and was already out. The orange ribbon that Domon had been waving around earlier and now tossed to the ground to be trampled by the rest of us was proof.