A/N: I know there's a VN, but I'm going off of the anime version, not the source material. Just so you know, the anime chopped out all romance with Masaya, so don't get the wrong idea. I'm simply adding in romance in this story since the first season didn't have any.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ao no Kanata.

Masaya was training the three girls like usual. He'd just returned to FC entirely, having regained his passion for it. As a prodigy, he still had moves up his sleeve he hadn't used the first time he was back in action. The three girls were impressed by his skills, and Asuka was ecstatic at how great he was. Right now though, Misaki had fully mastered flying without balancers. Mashiro on the other hand has not had the same result.

"A-aaagh!" Mashiro yelled as she tried to balance herself.

"Calm down! Put more weight and try to balance yourself!" Masaya commanded.

"That's impossible!" Mashiro yelled as she started flying toward the sea, but Masaya flew down and caught her.

"Boy boy," Misaki said exasperatedly.

"Mashiro," Asuka said worried.

But they were in practice so the two kept going.

'It's just like before, I'm unable to keep up with them!' Mashiro thought feeling helpless.

"That was a good effort," Masaya said gently. "Let's try again tomorrow."

Mashiro didn't respond, but felt down. Later after the others left, Masaya sat in the trailer looking over the results of their practice. Just then the door opened, revealing Mashiro.

"Mashiro? What are you still doing here?" Masaya said taking his eyes off the notes.

"Well, teach me how to fly without the balancers!" Mashiro said as she bowed. "I really, really want to get better, but I, I-"

"I understand," Masaya said walking over to her.

"Thank you!" Mashiro said happily, to which Masaya smiled back.

'This is just like when I begged Kagami-sensei to be taught her moves.' Masaya thought.

Mashiro didn't want to ask Rika each time she had an issue. Rika had her own matters to deal with and went to a different school, so this time she asked her coach.

After they walked out and Masaya put on his FC gear, he spoke up.

"Mashiro," Masaya started. "I noticed when we practice, your body weight is lighter than Asuka and Misaki. That makes it a lot harder for you to get a proper balance with no balancers. But I have a solution."

"A solution?" Mashiro asked with interest.

Without reply, Masaya grabbed Mashiro's hand, turned on his Grav-Shoes and flew with her. He then put an arm around her back and pressed her next to him.

"W-wait, what are you-" Mashiro started, flustered by the action.

"You can't fly with balancers off yet, so I'm going to turn off mine," Masaya said. "After that, I want you to stay in my arms and fly with me."

"But what if you slip and I lose control!?" Mashiro panicked.

"Don't worry," Masaya said gently. "I won't let go of you, I promise."

Mashiro stared at him for a few moments in surprise, but then nodded. She turned on her own Grav-Shoes while Masaya turned off his own balancers on his Grav-Shoes. She was the one who couldn't get decent control in that state, so she put her Grav-Shoes on normal. As they flew Mashiro noted how different this was from when she does it. He was perfectly in control, no unbalance at all. She remembered how he was a prodigy since a kid according to Shindou, and he certainly proved that when he fought Asuka at the time. In no time flat, he quickly mastered his balancers off like Asuka, and then Misaki followed suite.

"This is awesome!" Mashiro said in awe as they flew together.

"You can do it too with some practice," Masaya said smiling.

Later on after they were through, the two flew home together.

"How come you didn't play FC with us from the start?" Mashiro put the question. "You would have been a great help, and even beat Shindou probably."

"...It's because I had given up on FC long ago before that," Masaya started in a more serious voice.

"Huh?" Mashiro said in surprise.

So he explained his past. "As a child I was called a genius, a prodigy," Masaya said. "But one day I got chosen to represent Japan, and I got cold feet. Things got worse from there, as I lost to a beginner. Never had I felt so worthless as an FC player. I was so consumed in despair that I quit FC altogether."

Mashiro had no idea he shouldered that kind of burden.

"But, I've learned ever since you guys played," Masaya said. "Some things are just too much fun to run away from. You guys helped me regain the passion to start playing again."

"So that's why you started playing again," Mashiro said gently.

"Yeah," Masaya said as he formed a smile. "That's why I understand how you feel. Feeling like you're not good enough, I was there before. That's why I want to do everything I can to help you."

"...Masaya," Mashiro said touched.

Eventually, they split up for their respective homes after saying goodbye. Just before that Mashiro requested something of Masaya earlier in the next morning, to which he was fine with it. After getting home, Masaya yawned and made his way into bed, needing his rest. Meanwhile Mashiro went home and got a good rest for the morning, but not before having a 'conversation' with her pillow about hyping her up for training.

The following morning, Asuka and Misaki got up early due to wanting to have some practice before school. After getting to the usual practice location, they noticed Madoka observing upwards. Following her direction, they saw Mashiro and Masaya practicing.

"That's the way, improve your stamina! You need that to maintain balance when you do fly without the balancers!" Masaya stated.

"Yes!" Mashiro responded as she followed his orders.

"She's getting better," Misaki noted.

"They were already here when I got here," Madoka said.

"Really?" Asuka asked.

As they watched, they noticed how the two were having fun. Masaya then had her use her strength as a speeder to keep up with his movements. After they were done, Masaya spoke up.

"Yes, we'll stop there," Masaya said. "We'll practice again after school."

"Right!" Mashiro responded.

After the two landed down together, Madoka spoke up.

"Why were you two here so early?" Madoka asked, with a subtle amuse to her voice.

"I asked him to," Mashiro told her.

"Why?" Misaki asked.

"She still needs to improve before she turns off the balancers, so I'm training her," Masaya clarified.

"Hmm, didn't you say something about wanting to help me?" Mashiro teased, making him near lose his composure.

"Hey!" Masaya said calmly with slight red cheeks, feeling embarrassed about her bringing up personal talk in front of others.

Mashiro grinned and then grabbed him by the hand. "C'mon, we still have time to eat," Mashiro said.

"Yeah yeah," Masaya sighed.

The others watched them leave. "She seems more friendly with him than usual," Madoka said as an amused look crossed her face.

"I wonder what they talked about yesterday," Asuka wondered.

"Dunno," Misaki said.

Just before class started, Mashiro greeted Misaki, or as she called her 'Misaki-senpai'. Masaya was use to this, as it was too usual, and Misaki is just in a whatever mood in the morning due to her suger levels. But before she left she waved goodbye to Masaya, to which he waved back as a response.

"Hey, how's she doing?" Asuka asked him.

"She's getting a little better," Masaya said. "But it's going to take a while."

"Well, you're training her so I'm sure it'll work out," Misaki said.

Masaya didn't reply, as he thought about Mashiro. After school, Masaya and co headed for more practice. Masaya put his attention exclusively on Mashiro, as he was the one training her, and the others were perfectly fine on their own without the balancers. He had noticed she wasn't doing well when he returned to FC and practiced with them, but he was so busy with helping Misaki at the time who was utterly determined to fly without the balancer limitation.

"Alright, just like before, try and keep up with me," Masaya said. "This time I'm going to be more quick."

"Yes!" Mashiro responded.

The two flew straight, and Masaya made many fancy turns and spins, which while at first threw Mashiro off, she was able to eventually start getting more consistent with him and quickly time her reflexes. Masaya then had her try to score a point on him, which she was not able to touch him.

"As expected, he's strong!" Mashiro noted. "But I can't give up here!"

With renewed determination, Mashiro eventually managed to do a fake out and hit him in the back, scoring a point. Masaya then in retaliation scored multiple points effortlessly.

"Next I want you to try scoring a point on a buoy while attempting to avoid a dogfight with me," Masaya commanded.

"Roger!" Mashio responded.

She attempted to avoid him, but Masaya quickly blocked her with ease. As this continued it was proving hard to avoid him.

"If you feel cornered, give up on the battle and take a shortcut," Masaya said. "As you know, some players will try to start a dogfight with you to score points that way. Another method is you can try to fly past them to the current buoy in a split second they're off-guard, but you have to have perfect timing, otherwise they will manage to hit you before you make it past them."

Mashiro nodded, heading his advice.

After a while, both stopped, getting a bit tired.

"Good, let's stop there today," Masaya said just before his face turned into a panicked one. "Hey wait a minute!"

Mashiro, feeling she was good enough turned off her balancers. However, she immediately regretted it.

"Yaaaaa!" Mashiro yelled as she plummeted down.

She was falling fast, but Masaya caught her and quickly turned the balancers on.

"That was too reckless!" Masaya said exasperatedly.

"And I thought I could do it," Mashiro said teary, and then her cheeks became slightly red as she yanked her hand away from him. "How long are you going to hold my hand!?"

"I was worried about you!" Masaya said, a bit incensed at her. "You could have gotten hurt!"

Mashiro's pseudo flustered angry expression changed to a guilty one.

"Sorry," Mashiro said averting his gaze.

"Listen, don't do that again until I say so, okay?" Masaya asked, lowering his voice to a gentle one.

"I got it," Mashiro conceded.

"Hmm, he wasn't like this when he trained me," Misaki said with her arms crossed. "Something seems different about him."

"It's spirit!" Madoka's brother said.

"Hey onii-chan!" Madoka said in annoyance.

"I don't get it," Asuka said.

Later, the co ate at a restaurant.

"You guys worked hard," Madoka said, looking at Masaya and Mashiro.

"Good grief, to think she faked me out to get a point," Masaya said casually.

"Right, Masaya didn't take kindly to that and retaliated full force," Misaki said.

"Couldn't you have been gentler?" Mashiro pouted.

"Yeah yeah," Masaya said uncaring as the others laughed at them.

"Tehee, Mashiro was like a cat after her mate," Madoka teased.

Mashiro's face lit red at what she suggested. "W-wait a minute!" Mashiro said as Madoka grinned.

"And you Masaya, you seemed to be having a blast with her," Misaki said with a smile. "A lot more than you were with me."

Masaya didn't respond, but for some reason he felt nervous and unable to speak. "I'm just training her," Masaya was able to get out.

His delayed reaction didn't go unnoticed by Misaki, but she said nothing.

"Anyway, this food is delicious!" Asuka said as she ate.

Masaya and Mashiro inwardly had sighs of relief at Asuka's timing. And so the conversation went to more casual ones. Masaya went home after saying goodbye to the others while Mashiro went to her own place. As Mashiro was flying home, she spoke.

"Another day of training complete!" Mashiro proclaimed triumphantly. 'But I still couldn't use the balancers turned off, and I made Masaya-senpai worry over me, and he's the one making the effort to train me because he wants to. I have to do my best so as to not put his efforts to waste. Isn't that right, Masaya?'

Mashiro smiled at the last part.