Disclaimer: I don't own Ao no Kanata.
"Kagami-sensei, I need to make this clear," Masaya told her firmly at the teacher's lounge. She had tried to hint him to join when he came to watch practice before, and he wanted to stop her from trying anymore. "I helped Kurashina once because she needed help, but I am not interested in joining the club, understand?"
"...Very well," Aoi relented. "I intended you to do it because I thought it would help you regain your passion for the sky, but I understand if you don't want to do it."
"Thank you," Masaya bowed before leaving. Later, the girls under Aoi formed the club at last while he walked home. 'I was never really friends with anyone but Misaki in all honesty, and I could hardly call Kurashina my friend yet. Thing is, I'm just not the best with a bunch of people. Hence I prefer to be by myself most of the time. Besides...the FC part of me should stay buried as is. I've no interest in entering that world again, so I shouldn't involve myself with the club, or I might get dragged into joining. Oh, seems I'm home.'
Going in, he sat his stuff down and watched TV. Outside, the wind seemed to stop, as if to be down at Masaya's choice.
Next day, Aoi called Masaya to the teacher's lounge and had a grim look.
"I'll cut to the chase, I had to quit as coach of their club," Aoi stated.
"Why are you telling me about this, and why would you have to quit?" Masaya asked curiously.
"Because a lot of teachers along with the Principal thought it was too silly of me as a teacher to wear myself to the bone doing my already assigned roles and the club," Aoi started. "Fact is they're right, I should be putting all my focus on my responsibilities as a class, health, and P.E teacher."
Since she quit the club, she was positive Shion would still need a better FC coach than himself. Aoi didn't know anyone here who had the coaching experience besides her and Masaya, and she was out of the question.
"Listen, I understand your feelings, but they really want to form this club and play FC," Aoi said gently. "Are you sure you won't reconsider, at least for them?"
"I get what you're saying, but," Masaya said. His answer was not going to budge. The club had nothing to do with him after all, even though he understood what Aoi was saying. "If I joined it would save the club, but I have my own life to live, and I won't force myself to join a club that has to do with the very thing I want to stay away from. I do feel bad for them, but they have their own life just like I have mine, and I'm not responsible for their problems-I'm not their coach or a part of said club, this is something they have to deal with on their own. That is my decision, and it is final."
"I understand," Aoi said.
So he again left after a bow.
Lunch eventually came, and he ate alone as usual.
Elsewhere, Aoi walked over to the girls, as she hadn't delivered the news of her withdraw from the club yet.
"Everyone!" Aoi said, gesturing the four to come outside with her. Once they did, she continued. "I'm sorry to say, but I had to quit as your coach."
"EH!?" the girls exclaimed.
"Why?" Asuka asked.
"I have my own duties as a teacher, whether it be teaching class or looking over all the work everyone turns in, or looking over the things I need to present and discuss," Aoi said. "I also have my obligations as a health and P.E teacher. That takes up more than enough of my time as it is. To act as your coach all the time along with all of that would be too tiring to do. I really would love to coach you all, but my responsibilities here come first before all else."
The girls lowered their heads while having sad looks. Just then, Misaki hatched an idea.
"Wait, what if we ask Masaya to join!?" Misaki posed.
"Right, with him joining-" Mashiro started just as positively, but Aoi stopped them.
"No, that's not possible," Aoi said, shaking her head for a moment.
"How come?" Madoka asked.
"Because I talked with him twice, and he was very firm with me on the matter," Aoi said. "He isn't joining the club."
"No way..." Asuka muttered.
"Anyway, you should leave him alone about it," Aoi told them. "He's made his case pretty clear to me where he stands."
The girls low spirits sunk even lower.
Over the next few days, they tried to practice under Shion's order, but he quickly proved inept to be an FC coach.
"Enough," Madoka said sadly, causing Shion to stop practice. "It's just no use."
"Yeah, I wanted Hinata-kun to take my place, but he refuses all my attempts," Shion said downheartedly.
"With your amount of bugging, of course he won't," Madoka pointed out while sighing as Asuka, Misaki and Mashiro came down.
"Ahhh, let's go home," Misaki said in a bored tone, finding that the training wasn't getting them anywhere.
"Guess we've no choice, huh," Mashiro said.
"Mmm," Asuka said sadly.
After walking for a bit, they went their seperate ways and went home. Asuka got to her room and layed on her bed. After taking her wing piece off of her hair, she held it up in the air.
'Is it really no good?' Asuka thought. 'Can I...really not get to play Flying Circus? It seemed like such a fun sport, being able to play in the skies.'
Misaki sat on her bed, feeling unmotivated like she did before joining the club.
'Just when I found something so exciting,' she thought.
Mashiro sat in the restaurant her mom runs with her hands on her cheeks, while her elbows rested on a table.
'I may not have been that into it, but I thought it was really fun,' Mashiro thought.
Shion had a hand on the club trailer. "We finally had the club revive, and then it just fell down as quickly," he lamented sadly. "Maybe it's time I give up. Hinata-kun and Aoi won't join, and I lack the skill to coach them effectively.'
He started to tear up and sob, but Madoka embraced him in a hug from behind.
"Onii-chan..." Madoka said, seeing how truly sad he was rather than his exaggerated ones.
And so ended Kunahama's FC club.
From here on, Masaya's life continued like normal with him usually by himself. Asuka was pretty down about not being able to play FC, but she had no choice but to comply and accept it. Misaki reverted back to her totally lazy nonchalant nature she had before joining the club, and Mashiro passed the days with her like normal. As for Shion, he put serious effort in his homework as a way to cope with his club having had to be given up on. Madoka liked the effort, but she still felt bad for him losing the club.
Shindou and Satou made it to the finals in the first tournament, but were taken out by Saki and her Birdcage. In the Fall tournament, Satou made it to Saki in the final round, but she was easily defeated by Saki who didn't even have to unlock her balancers.
"Heheh, hahahaha!" Irina laughed from the ground arrogantly while her arms were spread out. "We've done it, we've proved our beautiful FC two times in a row! With this, FC will change! Kagami-sensei, I hope you're proud of my success with your FC."
Satou was in the air, panting while Saki hovered above her with a cold emotionless look.
"Darn, she's just too much!" Satou lamented.
'Boring, is there nobody in FC who can truly compete with me?' Saki thought while sighing.
Saki then flew down to Irina, and they made way to the trophy ceremony. Here they were given the trophy while the crowds praised them.
Saki thus won both the upcoming and fall tournament, which pushed her Birdcage as the new evolution to FC. Aoi was not happy about it, but had to learn to accept it. Furthermore, not everyone played using the Birdcage, and still played usual FC. There was some bad blood between some players over whether or not the Birdcage was healthy for the game, a debate that continued on and on with no signs of it ending.
Many years later, an adult Masaya in another town stared at the sky.
'Even now I wonder...did I make the right decision way back then?' Masaya thought. 'It was so long ago, and yet I still wonder. Finding something I can be earnest in, is challenging. Even my bike paper delivery gives me no excitement. Perhaps...I should have made a different choice. Was it regrets I felt to this day, or merely longing for simply passing the days for the heck of it in the club? Either way, what's done is done, the past can't be changed. What we do have is the lives we live now. Who knows, something that I truly enjoy doing may still come up. Until then, all I can do is wait and live my life like usual.'
THE END.
A/N: Shindou didn't enter the fall tournament in the anime as an FC player, and since Asuka wouldn't have played FC, Saki would have easily won the fall tournament just like the previous one. I've seen some people say that Aoi could have coached the girls if Masaya didn't join, and she wouldn't have been able to. People forget Aoi has her own obligations as a school teacher, a P.E teacher and health teacher. Yes, she thought Masaya was fit to coach them, but she obviously would have had that other stuff to consider as well. If she didn't have all her duties at school, she probably would have coached the girls in the anime. Even if Aoi did join, I think she would quit pretty fast for obvious reasons. Not to mention Aoi outright even alludes twice that she's not qualified to coach them, and that Masaya was more fitting of that role than her in the anime (again, she has her own school duties and obligations). Madoka obviously wouldn't coach, because she doesn't have the experience, and Shion desperately wanted a better FC coach than himself. Even if he did coach, he's too inexperienced and impulsive to train them very well, so they would get nowhere and just call it quits. Bottom line: If Masaya did not join in the anime at all, this would have changed the entire show (and not for the better) and caused negative outcomes. So those who may think he could be taken out and things would not change, think again. The fact of the matter, is Masaya joining the club was the biggest blessing in disguise for the anime.