"That must have been hard for both of you...." Tessa said after James exited the room.

"If you're going to be sympathetic then direct it towards Hideo only, I gave him my word and wasn't able to keep it."

"You won't stop trying though."

"Yeah. They'll be reunited some day." James nodded, "anyway, I'm going back with Endou and the others, I'll see you in about a week."

.............................................................................................................................................

"James!" Haruna smiled when she saw him coming towards the 4.

"Sorry for taking so long to get you all out of there." James apologised, "Kagey-- uh, cage training was really hard."

"Cage training?" Kidou repeated, "were you about to say Kageyama?"

"Don't be silly Kidou, he died." Endou said, "it was just a slip of the tongue."

"Y-yeah Endou's right." James nodded.

"Hey, you guys, do you think Coach Kudou would say yes if I asked him to arrange a friendly with Little Gigant?"

"Yeah, it could be a stress reliever too so go ahead Endou."

The four of them boarded the helicopter and the pilot set off for Inazuma Town and the four of them quickly fell asleep in what was a thrilling end to the day.

When they arrived in Inazuma Town shortly after. The three boys decided to walk Haruna home and after, Endou went back to his house while James went with Kidou to his house.

"Are you okay James?" Kidou asked as they stood outside his house.

"Apart from my body aching I'm fine why do you ask?"

"You can't fool me James. Is it just about Luke or is there something else?"

"Well before we rescued you guys we went to Orion's bases in Rio de Janeiro and London. At the latter, there were twins but then I encountered Luke and he got the girl and I told the boy that I'd get his sister but I failed to do so when we rescued you guys. They're only like 3 or 4 so obviously he took it pretty hard...."

"I see..... well sulking about it isn't going to change anything. You're just going to have to prepare for the next time you have the chance."

I'm wondering when I'm going to find my mum too but that's a story for another day.....

.........................................................................................................................................

"Welcome everyone to a friendly between the previous finalists of the Football Frontier International! Inazuma Japan vs Little Gigant, what a game this promises to be!"

"We meet again Endou." Daisuke smiled, "I'm glad you're safe after hearing what happened to you."

"Let's just hope to play a good game!" Endou grinned.

"Yeah, especially since this is my last."

"Y-you're last!?"

"Yup, my last as Little Gigant coach anyway."

"Don't scare me like that!"

"I'll be going around Africa and trying to spread football to different areas."

"Wow!"

"That's why this game will be a good game Endou."

"Of course!"

"But I might still have an FFI or two left in me." Daisuke winked as they went to their respective benches.

IJ lineup (3-4-3): Endou (C). Fubuki, Tobitaka, Kabeyama. James, Kidou, Fudou, Kazemaru. Toramaru, Gouenji, Hiroto.

"Guys this is our rematch against Japan." Rococo started, "let's show them that we've improved more than they have!"

"Yeah!"

Endou won the coin toss so it would be decided that Japan would get kickoff for the 1st half, with Gouenji and Toramaru standing over the ball to take it. Once the referee blew his whistle, Gouenji passed the ball to Toramaru who gave the ball backwards to Kazemaru.

Kazemaru ran forward with his blistering pace but Maxi was able to stay with him and quickly enough, he was surrounded.

"Kazemaru, let's use Route of The Sky!" Kidou said, "Route of Sky!"

Kazemaru jumped and saw Fudou in the air behind him so passed to him. Fudou then passed to the airborne Kidou who scanned the field quickly and upon seeing that all his options were heavily marked, decided to go backwards.

"James!"

"Right!" James said as he jumped but Drago had already got to the ball before him and was charging towards the goal.

"Get your head in the game James!" Fudou warned as Japan's players came back to defend.

Drago pinged the ball to Gooshu but Fubuki jumped in the air and was propelled by Kabeyama to head the ball to James.

"Take it Fudou!" James said as he volleyed it to Fudou.

"Fudou over here!" Kidou said.

He received the ball onto his chest and used "Shin Illusion Ball" to get past Yuumu, he then passed to Hiroto who used "Tenkuu Otoshi V3" with Walter in position to use Ground Quake.

"No, Walter, let me handle it!" Rococo smirked.

Walter complied and as the ball came to him Rococo used "Zetsu God Hand X"[1] to stop the shot.

"Zetsu!?" Japan chorused as Rococo smirked and gave an explanation.

"Recently I found that there are evolutions that go beyond what we know!"

Rococo threw the ball to Windy and he passed to Ryuu who used "Zigzag Spark" to get past Gouenji, he then passed to Gooshu who used "Heat Tackle V3" to render the trio of Kazemaru, Kidou and Fudou useless.

Little Gigant continued their attack and were swiftly advancing to a retreating Japan defensive line until James suddenly rushed forwards and used "Shin Refraction Prism" to get the ball off Goushu.

"Nice work James!" Endou called out.

He played a pass through to Gouenji but Walter used "Shin Ground Quake" to stop Gouenji from getting the ball.

Little Gigant worked the ball to Yuumu and Goushu was running beside him, they passed the ball between them quickly and now each of them had their own football, which they both kicked and the two balls combined into one and charged towards the goal, "Dual Strike V3!"

"It's evolved up to V3!" Endou grinned, "but I've gotten better too - God Catch G5!"

"Good job Endou." Kidou smiled.

Endou threw the ball to Kazemaru who used "Shin Fuujin no Mai" to get past Shinti and then passed the ball to Fudou who used "Shin Killer Fields" with Kidou to send the ball through to Toramaru but an alert Walter used "Shin Ground Quake" as soon as Toramaru received the ball.

Walter passed to Maxi and he used "Air Ride V3" with a teammate to get past Fudou, he kicked the ball into the air for Drago and he used "Double Jaw V3" but this was stopped again by "God Catch G5".

"Endou, pass it here!" Kidou shouted with a nod towards Fubuki, "James you slot into his position!"

Kidou dribbled past Yuumu and then passed to the charging Fubuki though he was right behind him, Gouenji and Toramaru made runs drawing Windy and Walter away leaving Hiroto free.

Fubuki passed to him and along with Kidou they used "Big Bang G3!" but Rococo stopped it with "Tamashi The Hand G5" as the half-time whistle blew.

"As expected they've leveled up as well." Coach Kudou started, "for the second half we'll bring on Sakuma for Kazemaru."

When the second half started, Rococo came forward and took the kickoff pass from Drago and blew past the forward trio, he flicked the ball over Kidou's head, nutmegged Fudou and spun past James and Sakuma before flicking the ball over Kabeyama.

"Let me show you another interesting thing, here I come Endou!"

"Bring it, Rococo!"

"X Blast S!"

"What's going on with their hissatsu evolutions!?" James said.

"I'll stop whatever you throw at me!" Endou said, "God Catch G5"

"Is Endou getting pushed back?" Sakuma mumbled.

Endou was able to push the shot onto the crossbar and caught the rebound.

"You've gotten better Rococo." Endou smiled.

"Of course, so have all of you."

Endou allowed Rococo to make his way back to his goal before throwing the ball to James and running out of goal, "Make sure you don't lose it!"

"Yeah!" James nodded as he started to dribble forward.

James linked up well with the Teikoku trio and once Endou was ready they used "Shin Killer Fields" to send the ball to Gouenji, Toramaru and Endou who used "Jet Stream G3" which was stopped by "Tamashi The Hand G5".

"There it is! The hissatsu that won it for Japan last time has now been stopped by Rococo!" The commentator screamed.

"What an amazing shot." Rococo mumbled, "guys, let's show them that we've improved too!"

Drago now had the ball and passed to Gooshu who sent the ball behind him to Maxi, Rococo again burst forwards and the two used "Air Ride V3" to get past Gouenji, Maxi then gave the ball to Rococo who used his pace to get past the Teikoku trio and was now in a tussle with James.

"You're quite fast, being able to keep up with me!"

"Well I used to be a sprinter."

The two struggled for the ball and Rococo smirked, "But there's something missing from you today as if you've got your mind on other things too!"

Rococo then feinted and then accelerated away as James was fooled.

"Stop Rococo, defence!" Kidou and Fudou chorused.

Tobitaka and Kabeyama came forward to take the ball off Rococo with a double slide tackle but Rococo evaded both of them, "Drago, Goushuu - let's do it!"

Rococo passed the ball to Goushu who rested the ball on the laces of his boot and spun as he was covered in fire, he then kicked the ball into the air and Drago then set up to do Double Jaw but as the skull behind the ball snapped shut Rococo jumped and kicked the ball like he does for X-Blast at the same time, "Heated Dragon Blast!"

Fubuki tried to take some power off the ball by kicking it and Endou then used "God Catch G5" but the shot went through, making it 1-0.

"Did you like that Endou?" Rococo smirked playfully.

"What a powerful shot......"

"A shot that broke through God Catch...." Gouenji mumbled.

"Sorry guys, that was my fault, I shouldn't have let Rococo through like that." James said.

Japan took kickoff with Toramaru passing the ball to Gouenji, he then gave the ball backwards to Kidou he passed to Fudou who then passed to Gouenji but he lost the ball to Maxi and with minutes remaining, Little Gigant went for a counter attack, he quickly used "Air Ride V3" to get past the Teikoku trio and then passed to Goushu and along with Drago and Rococo who sprinted out of goal as soon as they got possession used "Heated Dragon Blast".

"Zetsu Prism Refraction!"

The shot continued on its path towards goal and Endou used "God Catch G5!" he was getting pushed back but the defence backed him up and stopped the shot. Endou threw the ball to James and ran out of goal, Maxi came in with a slide tackle but James jumped over him and dribbled past Yuumu before releasing the ball to Toramaru.

He dribbled past Windy and then used "Jet Stream G3" with Gouenji and Endou.

"We won't lose!" Rococo shouted as he let out a battle cry, "Tamashi The Hand G5" and was able to successfully stop the shot as the final whistle blew.

"And there you have it! Little Gigant have won this friendly, emerging the victors, winning 1-0!"

"We probably should have tried to use Comet Inferno." Kidou said as he came beside James.

"Comet.... Inferno?" James repeated.

"The hissatsu that me, you and Endou did to win the finals James!"

"Oh yeah! I remember now, I completely forgot about it."

"Don't you have photographic memory!?"

"Yeah I thought I did too.... I still remember everything from when I was younger, I don't know why I forgot about Comet Inferno."

"Maybe it's just your mind that's stressed from the recent events, we should just leave it for now......"