Inazuma Eleven 3, Book 1 : Morning Twilight

Chapter 25 : Precipice of Greatness

Present, One Day Before the Holy Road Finals. Zeus Academy Strategy Room

"Hey, Hey! Khronoa-san, are you paying attention? We're trying to decide on a formation for our upcoming match against Susanoo you know!"

Looking up brightly as if she hadn't been reflecting on their last match of the preliminaries the past 30 minutes, Khronoa blushed with shame at having been caught and stopped mid-nod, knowing Rhea (who had recovered quickly) wouldn't fall for her bluff.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about some things..."

Reading Khronoa's mind, Rhea gave a tired smile knowing the striker was probably still worried about what had happened in their previous match against Outei, considering it had been announced that Zeus's upcoming opponent was Susanoo Academy, the first 'sister' academy for Project Mars. Watching the match between Outei and Red Matador had done nothing to soothe the member's worries, especially with the horrific reveal of their 'Dark Keshins' and Rhea put down the pointer she was using for their strategy presentation.

Sensing the mood drop like a rock, a man at the door clapped to gather their attention and held his hands around his mouth to form a makeshift microphone in order to bellow "Hey! Don't tell me I wasted my time training all of you the past two weeks! What's with the glum faces everyone??"

Hearing the familiar low voice, Khronoa's yellow eyes blinked rapidly as she took in the view of the handsome man with fair features, calm dark-blue eyes, a sharp jaw and an amicable smile that just by looking at it, raised the team's morale.

"Fideo-san!!"

Jumping down the stairs to the centre of the room, Fideo sat down on the table at the front of the room casually as the Zeus members excitedly crowded around him.

Prometheus, who was Fideo's biggest fanboy on the team, jumped up and down in place while exclaiming,

"I thought you had already left for Italy last night!!

Giving a small "mmhmm" in confirmation, Fideo rested his hands on the table beneath him before a more sombre look spread across his face. "I was heading to the airport when I got a text from Aphrodi-san asking if we could meet up" said Fideo with a certain level of gravity in his voice, while the Zeus members' ears pricked hearing the name of the most famous alumni from their school be brought up.

Squinting her eyes curiously, Selene interrupted brusquely, "So you gonna tell us what all you fancy pro people talked about bro or what?"[1]

After two weeks together, Selene had already warmed up to Fideo and had dropped formalities with him long ago much to Khronoa's embarrassment. Despite the older man reassuring her she didn't mind, Khronoa couldn't help herself from grabbing Selene's fingers from behind to remind the other girl to maintain some degree of formality. 

Smiling with his eyes, used to Selene's way of speech, Fideo looked around before asking in confirmation, "I'm sure you all saw the Outei Tsukinomiya vs Red Matador match last week? Well, after some research and discussion with soccer experts across the Football International Association about these 'Dark Keshins', we've come to the conclusion that...

At the Sun Garden (Kira Hiroto) :

At Hakuren (Tsukishiro) :

At Dragonlink (Senguuji Daigo) :

At Raimon Strategy Room (Aphrodi) :

"We have no idea"

"WHAT?!" yelled out the Zeus members in unison after waiting in suspense for Fideo's explanation on the weird spirit-like things they had seen the Outei members use in their match. Fideo Ardena was a winner of the Ballon d'Or, Captain of Italy's national team, vice-captain of Inter Milan and they knew he was close with many of the leading members of the soccer world in his generation. If he was saying he didn't know then, were Keshins even something of this world?