I don't own Inazuma Eleven nor do I own its characters~
The sun beat down upon his back as he trudged down the sandy dunes. He knew he was going to die- he could feel it in his bones. It had been a full three hours since he had drained the last of his water and now he was stranded in the middle of the blazing desert underneath the scorching sun with no hopes of survival.
Technically, he was a dead man walking. He knew it wouldn't be long till he began to hallucinate due to lack of fluid and wondered what it was like to die of dehydration.
If someone had told him he would die of dehydration a week ago, he would have laughed at them- unable to imagine the terrible necessity of water till now. He squinted his eyes against the bright light and in the distance, he was able to make out a beautiful girl running towards him from a small white cave.
I must be going crazy.
His mind signaled to him that it was a mirage so he closed his eyes and sighed as his knees sagged underneath the combined weight of his torso and his despair. His hands clenched as he hit the burning sandy ground and he immediately turned to the Lord to help him through the painful ordeal known as death with ease.
He could hear the girl's screams echo over and over in his mind.
Maybe she was an angel- here to help him to get to the other side. He fervently hoped he had been good enough to be permitted into Heaven. He scrutinized her feebly as she neared him and his eyes confirmed what his brain had earlier assumed.
The girl had flowing white tresses and wonderfully pale skin. She stood out against the bleak desert sand and although it was apparent she was running for all that she was worth, he knew that she was too late to help him now.
He was going to die without assistance to relieve the pain of losing his soul. His entire being was craving water- even if it was only a tiny minuscule drop.
No more heat. I can't stand it anymore. Please let me go to Heaven.
His heart beat wildly before everything started going black.
I hope the others remember me and don't feel sad about my death. I hope Fudou forgives me for everything I've ever said to him which was mean…. Even if that guy really asked for it at times.
The world was spinning before him and he blacked out just as a pair of soft hands reached him- falling into the darkness whilst a voice screamed from the shadows.
Floating in the middle of the darkness, all he could remember was his memories with his friends. He reminisced about the good old days when all of his friends had been united and hadn't gone their separate ways – when they had played soccer together and when their friendship had been unmarred by suspicion and animosity.
When they had trusted each other with their lives. When they had been like brothers, laughing and kidding around.
A pang of loneliness shot through him like a bullet. It had all been that girl's fault. It was surprising really, what a girl could do to a guy. Surprising how a single girl could change a guy so much that he was almost unrecognizable later on. The damned bitch had come into their midst like a sheep in wolf's clothing and had destroyed their trust forever.
Nothing had been the same since she came and disrupted the balance all four friends had shared for so long. As the memories rushed at him, he began to panic. It was too much to handle. All the things he had managed to keep at bay were now loose- ready to wreak havoc upon the remnants of his sanity.
He tried to run from them but his feet seemed to be frozen in time, unable to move a single inch. He watched in horror as the tide of his repressed memories washed over him- swallowing him up like a tsunami does a beach. All he could do was curl up and hope it passed quickly but in vain.
It was after a long stretch of time when the tide receded but those excruciating moments had been painful enough to seem like eternity.
He could hear voices now- gentle voices which soothed his ravaged mind and were like a balm to his aching soul. He opened his eyes and shook his head to clear the foggy mist surrounding him. The voice seemed so much clearer now- so much more alive and filled with grief and hope.
He squinted, trying to see past the fog in order to locate the person to whom the voice belonged. He wanted to see the person who was whispering such beautiful lies into his ear. Suddenly, he spotted a distant light- faint but visible through the thick fog.
He jumped up, ignoring the shrieks of pain from his partly numb and aching body- focused only on reaching the light. Deluded and delirious as he was, he could still feel that the light was better than the darkness he was currently in.
His only hope was that it wasn't a snake which had been feeding his soul gilded lies upon a silver platter to attain his attention just to steal his soul. He stumbled toward the light, hands outstretched and a strange glint in his eye.
He wouldn't give up no matter what. As he neared the light, his doubt slid into oblivion. No snake or devil could ever fake warmth like the calming bright light. He finally reached it and as the light bathed him, he felt at peace.
He could feel the memories raging against their cage but he merely smiled- his face upturned towards the light as he let the barriers he had built up come crashing down around him to release the evils in his mind.
His only consolation was that whoever was sending the light down on him would let no harm come to him and the panic he felt at fist instantly evaporated, leaving him to revel in the warm white light. As he was basking in the radiance, he was suddenly reminded of the fair haired angel who had been running towards him.
He smiled unconsciously and closed his eyes as a slight tug pulled him up into the air- remembering the way her face had seemed anguished when he had blacked out.
Wait…He hadn't seen her face before her blacked out. He instantly opened his eyes- puzzled by his discovery to come face to face with a wide-eyed girl who was, at the moment, nearly dead on her feet. He immediately yelped in surprise and shock, wildly searching the room for a clue as to where he was.
Maybe he was in Heaven. She was an angel after all- an angel who had just saved him from the clutches of the darkness inside him. He saw her jade orbs widen with shock and then fill with sudden, sparkling tears. Why was she crying if he was in Heaven?
A sick feeling consumed him and made his heart dropped to his feet. Hadn't she meant to rescue him from the darkness? Was she going to toss him back into the black? Back into Hell?
There was no way he was going to stand that. Not while he had the power to do something about it. He couldn't go back to that bottomless black hole- the dark pit which seemed to feed upon his devastation and deepest fears.
He was instantly on his feet, raving and sputtering whatever came into his mouth. He didn't know what he said during those agonizing five minutes but the angel immediately silenced him with a look and ushered him to sit down on what he saw was the bed upon which he had been lying until now with a wave of the hand.
He sat down cautiously, eying the holy creature with wary eyes- ready to bolt at any moment- his eyes searching for a sign of escape.
"Why can't I stay in Heaven? I know you have to follow orders and everything but can't you just let me stay?" He hadn't meant to say it but it was just as well that he had blurted it out. It had been the very question which had been tormenting his thoughts since the moment he had entered the darkness. The angel's head spun around to gaze at him- numerous expressions flitting on her face as she fixed him with a gaze of shock.
He suddenly felt ashamed of himself even before she opened her holy mouth to speak. He couldn't question the Lord's decision. It was not his right- he must have done something to offend the laws of the Lord which was why he had been subjected to the pain and the never-ending darkness.
He cast his gaze down on the ground when he felt something warm make its way into his hands. He looked at the bowl of soup with curiosity and shock as he heard the angel laughing softly. He stared at her with fascination.
His mother had once told him that angels were so beautiful that they dimmed everyone else by comparison. She had been right about angels being beautiful but this angel seemed to brighten everything else in its presence. His mother had been wrong or maybe this angel was simply special.
He continued to watch as she doubled over with laughter. Strange. He had never thought of angels as females- Come to think of it, he had never really paid much attention to the matter at all but now his mind reeled with curiosity and wonder.
He watched as her shoulders shook with laughter and her eyes glittered like emeralds set in her face. Her hair was not platinum white, rather it was the soft white of clouds with a few black streaks like the signs of dark storm clouds in the midst of white fluffy cotton and she was slightly tanned, not the ghost white he had seen on the plains. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and smiled at him, revealing a perfect set of even white teeth which flashed at him brightly.
He was thrown off his lane of thought by the smile. Her teeth were not exactly perfectly even although they had seemed to be so at first glance. They were a little crooked and her hair was not flowing smooth either but had a slight wave in them which made it seem rather kinky on the whole.
Now he was really intrigued. He had always thought angels would be perfect. What kind of an angel was this? He waited for her to calm down while he quickly surveyed the room they were in.
"What's the matter?" He asked her, cocking his head to the side- perplexed by her sudden fit of hysterical giggles.
"You thought you were in Heaven!" She burst out, the lines of her laughter still etched upon her face. He stared at her in complete and utter bewilderment. Of course he was in Heaven- wasn't he?
But the truth began to sink into his mind. The room he was currently in was nothing like the fields which his mother had described to him in his youth. Where were the robed pure ones? The flowing rivers of holy water and the other promised gifts?
This room was filled with musty old furniture and ancient thread bare Persian rugs. He could have sworn the white box-like object on the wall was an air conditioner which explained the cool air. No, this wasn't heaven which meant-
"You aren't an angel." He said it slowly, testing it out. It was more of a statement than a question but she nodded regardless of it. He saw the light in her eyes which showed that she was still amused but he also saw the tiny sliver of pity in her eyes.
She pointed to his now-cold bowl of soup. "Drink it. You'll feel better if you do."
He cautiously raised a spoonful to his mouth and tasted it, decided it was delicious and drained the entire bowl clean in a few moments. She watched him while he greedily gulped down the water she offered him before answering his unspoken plea for information.
"I was outside because I wanted to see the sun shine after a hard day's work. Imagine my surprise at finding you, half-dead and unconscious on the desert floor. What the hell were you doing out there anyway? You would have been a goner if I hadn't brought you here! Daddy said that there was no point in trying to save you but I tried anyway. And I'm glad I did."
She smiled at him reproachfully, her eyes friendly and cheerful- the haunted look having vanished now that he was conscious and talking. He suddenly understood why she was so intrigued.
She probably never had any visitors. Living out here in the barren desert- a no man's land, had cut her off from the world outside,
She hadn't been exposed to the cruel ways of the world which was why she had tried so hard to save him. He suddenly felt himself overcome with gratitude.
"Thank you. For everything." He whispered, not quite trusting his voice at the moment. He averted his eyes as she nodded briefly, understanding the emotions behind the simple statements and the unspoken words which clouded the atmosphere.
Then, just as she was about to say something, a sudden booming voice startled them both- nearly making them jump out of their skins.
"ANNIE! Come here IMMEDIATELY!"
The voice obviously belonged to her father because the girl addressed as Annie jumped up and left the room without a backward glance- leaving him to gaze at the door she shut behind her. It was a few moments before he shakily got up to his feet and made his way out of the room unsteadily- using the wall to support his movements.
He spotted a burly man with a mane of copper hair talking to Annie condescendingly, his face holding an expression of exasperation. He seemed to be irked with her about something she had done. He suddenly scowled and snapped at her to shut up and stay in her room.
With his weight pressing down on his knees and almost forcing them to buckle beneath him, he stared at her with scrutiny to see that her face was pale and her hands were clenched and shaking although she said nothing to indicate that she was offended and angry.
She didn't look like an angel anymore. She looked more like a normal teenage girl now- her eyes narrowed while she spun around and stomped away down the hallway- to some other room perhaps. He was making his way over to Annie's father when he caught sight of himself in a mirror on the wall.
Tumbling white locks met his eyes and a cold metallic eye patch which he had acquired through surgery. His eye had been pierced and wasted in a car accident which had left his loved ones with no choice but remove the damage done by the twisted metal.
After the car accident, Sakuma Jirou had never been the same. He had revered life and had always been a bit more serious- considering his second chance a miracle granted to him by the Bountiful.
He had not minded the setback it proved to be in soccer and neither had he cared about how ghastly it made him look- caring only about the fact that he was alive and cherished it.
And now he had eluded Death's cold, morbid grasp yet again. He had never been more overwhelmed with gratefulness and love. He smiled back at the teenage boy in the mirror and the smile widened when the image smiled back at him.
Well, he mused; at least he had gotten a tan while he was at it. He chuckled and moved on and in a few minutes, was deep in conversation with the burlesque man who was apparently Mr. Matsukaze. Sakuma managed to convince him to call Japan's national security service and soon, he was wrapped in the comfortable blanket of thoughts- ensured that he would be home soon. He hated the desert.
He should have never come out here in the first place but he was an adventurer by nature and he had wanted to see it with his own eyes-well, eye.
He had loved it from inside the air conditioned tour bus where there was plenty of water but when the bus had a stopped for a pit stop, he had managed to get lost and that was when Annie had found him- unconscious and nearly dead from lack of water underneath the boiling heat of the sun.
He stepped outside the quaint little house and a sudden rush of hot air blasted into his face to greet him. He winced but made his way out anyway, closing the door behind him to keep the sand from entering the neat hallway. While he was outside, he suddenly had the feeling that someone was watching him and the hair on the back of his neck prickled.
He turned around to see Annie standing there, hesitant and hidden in a small recess where the sun could not reach her.
"Hi!" She said softly so as to avoid alerting her father of her location. He smiled back at her, his single eye brightening. She was his only friend here in this desert. She had been the one who had saved him when everyone else had given up. He felt a sudden rush of affection for the girl in front of him.
"Right back at you! What are you doing here? I thought you were inside." He whispered back, making his way towards her. If Annie had been afraid of him before, she did not show any signs of it now- smiling at him brilliantly from the shadows.
"There's a back gate you know but you wouldn't know about that. What's your name anyway?" She was smiling mischievously now, her viridian eyes aglow with light.
"I'm Sakuma Jirou and you?" They both knew he already knew but he asked her anyway to show that he wanted to hear it from her instead. He knew from the sudden sparkle in Annie's eyes that she was grateful for this slight act of mercy on his part.
"Matsukaze Annie. Oh! I guess your bus is here. See you later Sakuma!" And she was suddenly out of sight, seeming to vanish into thin air. Sakuma turned around to see that the bus was indeed making its way towards the ram shackled house slowly. He felt a smile tug at his lips as he stared into the distance.
He was finally going home. Maybe he could even get his friends back. As he turned towards the sunset, he knew one thing about his future for sure. He was never going to forget Matsukaze Annie.