"Fucking dreads," Hiruma says, and cracks his gum, "you should think twice about that scholarship."
Agon scuffs his shoes on the astroturf of the field where Hiruma had called him, that fatty Kurita conspicuously absent. As a favor to his sometimes-partner in crime (and because a chick with a nice ass had agreed to meet with him and the place she chose happened to be close to Deimon), he had agreed to show up and hear him out, but his mouth turns up in a sneer and he crosses his arms over his chest. "How did you even know I applied for that, trash?"
"Your fucking twin told me! Kekeke, he says you can pass the test easy so I'm about to show you something you've never seen before." The boy beside Hiruma, who looks about fifteen years older than he probably actually is, frowns, an expression that reminds Agon so much of Unsui that he wants to punch it off his face. Hiruma finishes with all of his usual flashiness and bravado, "I'm taking a risk on you, fucking dreads. You're about to meet one of my trump cards."
"Aah?" Agon's voice barely changes from his usual arrogant drawl, but Musashi sees his gaze flicker over to him, cool and calculating; it's as if he were staring into the eyes of a predator. Agon decides that he's going to fucking kill Unsui when he gets home for getting him to go out of his way like this. "You're telling me that old man can play football?"
"Takekura Gen. I can kick," Musashi says, deciding that he isn't intimidated in the least.
Hiruma gestures at the five balls set up on kick tees at the 50-yard mark. "He's the legendary Musashi, bastard. Bask in his glow."
"Five chances to kick 50 yards?" Agon raises an eyebrow. He's yet to meet a student- high school or middle school- who can kick that far. Sneering, he says, "Well if you can do it, you might be worth more than the dirt under my feet."
"No," Musashi replies, mouth set in a grim line, "I'm going to kick 50 yards five times," and then proceeds to do so. Each kick is wildly different, rough and uncontrolled, but they all make it through. The most important part- the power- it's there.
"He's taking the Shinryuuji test, but he's not going unless Kurita is," Hiruma says, eyes narrowed.
"As if I want to play with shitty pieces of trash like you and that fat trash on my team," Agon retorts, immediate and automatic. He looks at Musashi again, then turns around and walks away.
Agon doesn't kill Unsui when he gets home- he's in the middle of studying for Shinryuuji's entrance exams. The older twin is bent over a practice book, pencil scratching in decisive little strokes in the margins, a look of deep concentration on his face. The scrawling slows down as he reaches the end of a problem, then stops. Agon glances over his brother's shoulder and decides that he could ace that test easily.
"What do you need, Agon?"
"You called Hiruma," he accuses, even though he's already decided that he could use a freakishly powerful kicker on the team.
"He called me."
"Why the fuck did you tell him?"
"I looked at Shinryuuji's roster," Unsui says, starting on the next problem, methodical and calm and focused. "There's a kicker, but he's only consistent from within thirty yards."
Agon can hardly believe this is the same brother who'd cried his eyes out in front of the shrine only a few weeks ago. "I can kick," he snarls, but he can't make the goal from fifty yards. Most players can't, so it's not as if they'll be at a disadvantage. Besides, with him on the team, how many other sure things does the Shinryuuji Naga even need? Agon takes off his shades, sets them on his desk and crosses his arms over his chest, eyes boring into the back of Unsui's head.
"It's your decision," Unsui says, turning his attention back to his work, "Kurita Ryoukan is getting the scholarship if you tell the coach that you'll just get in the normal way. You already know all this material."
"I can't believe you managed to talk your fucking brother into it," Hiruma says at the entrance ceremony, new robes draped loose over his skinny frame. "Or out of it, I guess."
"He made the decision on his own," Unsui demurs, "Agon knows a great player when he sees one."
From behind him, someone exclaims, "Unsui-kun!"
"Dodge," Hiruma says, and Unsui has no idea what he means, but before he has a chance to comply, he's squashed under 145kg of lineman and swept into a pair of arms as thick as his head. Kurita swings him around in a wide, fast circle, happy tears splashing on the crown of Unsui's head. Musashi joins them after a few seconds of Unsui trying to politely extricate himself, but it takes Hiruma pulling an assault rifle for Kurita to set him back on his feet, swaying.
"Thanks," he says weakly, and Musashi steadies him with a hand on his shoulder. "But I didn't just do it for you."
"Oh yeah?" Hiruma says. "Then why did you do it, fucking monk?"
"Agon's at his best when Hiruma Yoichi is involved," and here Unsui looks at Hiruma, trying to read him as so many other people have before. Agon, who never puts his all into anything unless he's livid with rage, and the one person who can incite it on a whim. Not that he wants Agon to be angry all the time, but with Hiruma on the team, Unsui expects that he'd show up more just to piss off the other quarterback. "So I thought I might as well involve you."
Musashi runs a hand over the beginnings of stubble on his chin, then nods. "I'm finally starting to see how you two are related."
"How are they alike in the fucking least, fucking old man?" Hiruma asks, completely rhetorically, mouth already curving up into a wicked grin.
"Something like... they both hate to lose, right?"
"This place is pretty fucking shitty, Unko," Agon says, kicking his suitcase into the closet of their dormitory, tipping a futon out of it and then flopping on top. "And we're across the hall from that trash."
Unsui rooms with Agon because they're siblings and everyone else is too scared to live with him. Unsui's fine with it because Agon won't spend much time there anyway and Agon's fine with it because Unsui keeps the place clean and stays on his own side. Agon's already got his phone out, raising it over his head and pointing it at the window, face breaking into a smile when he finally gets a signal, lighting up like a little kid's.
He also gets a text, which is when his expression shifts into a smug grin and he dials back instead, voice low and smooth and calming... which means he's definitely talking to a girl.
Unsui ducks out of their room and down the hall to greet the rest of their dorm-mates.
Kurita sets down approximately 140 kilograms worth of shotguns, rifles, machine guns, photographs and football paraphernalia on the floor in the middle of Hiruma and Musashi's room. "Okay," he announces cheerfully, "that should be all of it!"
Musashi's eyeing the pile like a math or geometry problem, as if trying to figure out how they can stow all the weaponry into their closet without giving away that Hiruma's keeping an arsenal in his room, but decides that they can figure that out for later. Besides, the owner of said guns is pulling out a blueprint approximately in the shape of a bunker the exact shape and size of their room. "It might work," Musashi muses as he takes in the measurements, "there's nothing under this dorm."
Kurita's looking between the pile and Hiruma- torn between wanting Hiruma to be happy and oh god my best friend is an absolute lunatic. "Can Takekura Construction take on a side job, Musashi?"
"Yeah. I'll be enough for this job, but it'll take a few weeks."
Hiruma nods, pulls his laptop out of his backpack and sets it on the low table in the center of their room. There's no wireless so he whips out his phone and piggybacks on its signal instead.
"We're finally here," Kurita says breathlessly, running to the window and sticking his head out of it, breathing in the wild mountain smell of Shinryuuji's surrounding forest. "It's hard to believe, isn't it?"
"We're finally here," Musashi repeats, as if reassuring Kurita. He's pacing around the room, counting the steps along each wall, already tallying the materials they'll need.
Hiruma snorts. "About fucking time."
Agon meets Cerberos and Unsui doesn't know if it's love at first sight or an intense and immediate hatred. Unsui assumes both: the dog is a monster the likes of which only people like Hiruma and Agon can truly understand and appreciate, but he's still Hiruma's dog so Agon dislikes him on principle.
Of course, Cerberos is a small dog and he's made a lot of enemies over time; most of them he can handle on his own but on the day he really meets Agon he's drastically outnumbered and Agon comes across a crowd of much larger dogs surrounding him, he stops to watch. Cerberos holds his own like a pro, but he's wearing down when Agon decides to step in; not so much because he has any modicum of respect for the dog, but now Hiruma owes him a favor for bailing out his shitty mutt.
That doesn't explain why he tosses food scraps to the dog whenever he's in range during lunch, though, or why Cerberos runs past Agon whenever he gets in over his head or why Agon usually aims a few kicks into the pack of trailing mongrels, enough to send at least a couple running away with their tails between their legs.
It's a little ironic that Agon's relationship with a dog is miles better than with its master, but it's not as if Cerberos is going to go around telling everyone how good Agon is at belly rubs (the one-in-century prodigy is good at everything and he's not about to let anyone forget it, even if it's a dog).
Agon is also convinced that Hiruma times his dorm drop-ins precisely to hours he's hung over and trying to sleep in.
He bursts into the room, guns blazing, looking for Unsui on Sunday mornings, the one day they don't have practice (not that Agon goes anyway) that his brother uses to study, so he's quiet instead of lifting the 20kg weights he keeps in the closet or doing push-ups with textbooks on his back.
Agon always decides that as soon as his head stops pounding and someone turns off the sun, he's going to crawl out of bed and make sure Hiruma never fucking walks again. The plans never really materialize; Unsui usually insists they take the discussion out of the room to let Agon sleep off the night before, and he usually gets back right when Agon wakes up for real, usually with some food (twin telepathy has its benefits). Agon supposes that his brother is far too used to deflecting and rerouting and distracting complete psychopaths.
(No, the irony isn't fucking lost on him.)