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

Defying the Gods

It's finally here! The match of Teikoku versus Zeus where all of Shizumi's secrets reveal themselves and the reasons behind them.

        What?! Teikoku lost to Raimon?! It was the day after the match, also known as the day which the finalist teams were announced and presented to the public. Sakuma just told me the news, and I could barely believe it. He also told me a bunch of other stuff, something about not working under Kageyama anymore and that Raimon almost died since the ceiling fell off or something like that, but I could barely understood as he was talking so fast and Genda kept on cutting in and talking over him. I wish I had been their yesterday to see what really happened. Well, at least Teikoku still can still compete since they were the champions last year.

        I sat at school in one of the classrooms with a few others who were also interested in watching the TV broadcasting team announcements. There were 16 teams in total competing, and Raimon was there too, including Endou and Gouenji. But something strange immediately sent me on alert. The last team to be announced, a team recommended by the committee called Zeus Junior High, didn't show any of their players. The announcer told everyone that it was because Zeus could not make it today, but I knew what Zeus was actually plotting. It was the same strategy I had used for years. Don't show your moves to the opponent first, always observe from a distance before you strike.

        Later in the day when the soccer club came back, Kidou told me to stay after practice. At first I thought he was just going to make me do more of his ideas of fun to make my life worst, but then something about his tone and the way he stared at me, emitting a different aura even though I couldn't see his eyes through the goggles, told me that it was something important and serious.

Time Skip

        "Minna, rest well tonight! Tomorrow is the first round of the official Football Frontier and we have to win this time!" the brown haired captain shouted to the team after practice. When everyone had left to either the clubroom or the main building, I walked up to Kidou. "What is it?" I asked quietly so that nobody could overhear.

        "I want you to play as a sub for the official rounds," he replied in a volume that matched mine.

        I was quiet surprised that he would say this, and felt alarmed at once. He must have somehow figured out my secret. Well, I did have the suspicion that he would since he had the brain of a genius, but I didn't actually prepare for the fact that he would.

        I smirked revealing my left canine teeth in a way that was so not Shizumi. "So you figured it out. Seems you've done your research well, but you should know that I don't play soccer anymore."

        For a second, he looked a little scared at my sudden change in aura from that shy girl to this, a side I hadn't shown in such a long time since...a long time ago. "Then wear the Teikoku jersey under your manager tracksuit tomorrow. I'll give it to you tomorrow morning disguised as a box of chocolates," he told me, "Only reveal yourself if it's really necessary."

        "So you also sensed it, right?" I asked, my tone dropping even more serious and grave. He nodded. "Something evil is hiding in the Football Frontier. We have to be careful."

Time Skip to Next Morning

        As we were waiting in a random crowd for the bus driver to get here in front of the school, Kidou walked up to me as we agreed to. "Yesterday I noticed you staring at the chocolates on display in a sweet store when we went for a walk, so I bought this for you," he said, or more like announced actually, and pulled a flat box out of his bag and handed it to me.