Redemption

Chapter Two

Life on the Inazuma Caravan was pretty different, to say the least.

There were the mundane things, like school, because being a government mercenary apparently didn't preclude one from having to fulfill their mandatory education requirements. That was a good thing, actually, because Fudou had been worrying about how he'd even manage to get accepted into a school after this whole mess was over, given his record. It would be so easy for schools to say that he wouldn't be able to fit in with the curriculum because he had missed all those months of school. He needed all the advantages he could get.

He dialed the only number he had saved in his speed dial. One, two, three rings, and then the line opened.

"Hello?"

"Mum. It's me, Akio."

His mother gasped. "Akio! How are you doing? Tell me more about your travels. Have you been getting enough sleep?"

"We just stopped off at a small town. We're staying in an inn tonight, so I should get enough sleep."

"And do you always stop at towns every night?"

He couldn't hide anything from his mum. Fudou bit his lip to stop himself from smiling and mulled for a few seconds over what to say. He didn't want to worry her too much.

"When we're traveling, we have sleeping bags. It was a bit uncomfortable at first but everyone else seems used to it."

"That's good, dear. It seems a bit strange that they wouldn't ensure that you all stay somewhere nice every night and get a good night's sleep, though."

"Yeah. Sometimes it can't be helped, I guess. They should know best though. Anyway, get this. They gave me a cellphone to keep in contact with the rest of the team and so we can stay in touch with our families and friends. Everyone has one, the government is paying for everything. This phone even has Internet. Unlimited data, too. Wonder if they'll let us keep it after this is all over. So, yeah," he trailed off, suddenly conscious that he was kind of throwing their poverty into his mum's face. "I mean, it's pretty neat. I can email you and video call you and stuff."

His mother laughed weakly. "How are you getting along with your teammates?"

"Practice is all right…" Fudou knew his mother could hear the blatant untruth in his words. In the few practices they'd had since he joined, his teammates had refused to really play with him. The white-haired one, Fubuki, was practically avoiding him obsessively. He never saw him outside of practice, and even in practice, he was somehow always standing on the other side of the field. The only people on the team he had actually talked to had been Endou, Kino, the manager girl, and the substitute goalie. Tachimukai was his name, right?

He coughed to break the silence. "Well, I'm still not fitting in with the team yet. It'll take some time, but we play together so much that it shouldn't be long. Anyway, I've got to go now. I've gotta get back for dinner."

"Bye, Akio. I love you and call again soon. Remember to keep your charm from the temple with you. Stay safe."

After he hung up, Fudou couldn't help but scoff. Fitting into his team would take some time? The understatement of the millennium.

A quick and dirty way to understand the social politics of the Inazuma Caravan at a glance would be to look at its seating arrangements. People who sat together were usually pretty good friends. The people in the rows ahead and behind were usually on good terms with each other.

Ever since Fudou had moved in, he had sat alone. The rows in front of and behind him were sparsely populated, to the extent that the rest of the team squeezed in with each other more to compensate.

Did they seriously think he wouldn't notice?

No, his teammates weren't idiots. They just didn't care.

He returned just in time for dinner at the inn, which he was actually mildly looking forward to. Fudou's experience of traditional inn food was limited to the television, because god knows ryokans charged a fortune for some reason considering all they gave you was food and an old room. Well, the people on TV always seemed to find inn food really good.

The meal was simple but had an appetizing aroma, and he dug in. It had been a while since he ate something to enjoy it in addition to replenishing his energy.

Well, what do you know. He felt bad to be thinking this, but. Yes.

It was better than his mother's cooking.

"AAAAAAAHHH!"

Crying and a mischievous gremlin cackling erupted from the table to the far right.

"C'mon, Kogure!" Kabeyama wailed. "Don't do this when we're staying in an inn for once! This is really good food!"

"Usshisshisshisshi!"

"Why me all the time? Prank some of the newer guys! You still haven't pranked Fud-"

Kabeyama's eyes widened, and he sent a shifty glance Fudou's way. When he saw that Fudou was looking back, he jumped and averted his gaze. "It's nooooot faaaaair!"

Fudou was conscious of all the eyes on him now. Even some of the people who sat off at a distance to the rest of the team had paused, wondering how he would react.

"Ah!" Aki said loudly. She slammed both hands on the table and stood up. Her eyes were narrowed threateningly. "Kabeyama-kun! Are you saying that what we make isn't good enough for you?"

"How dare you? Behave, Kogure-kun! After all we do for you!" Haruna stood up as well, folding her arms and glaring at the two boys in the spotlight.

"Yes! I mean no! It's delicious!" Kabeyama shook his head frantically, and Kogure was chiming in, too, now that Haruna had involved him in the situation. The situation devolved into the standard Inazuma Caravan bickering.

Fudou looked away.

The next day, Coach Kira announced that they would be having a training match. Fudou didn't bother looking up – at the moment, they had twelve players. Evenly divisible, but a match with six players was ridiculous.

"I'm dividing you into teams of six players each." Apparently she didn't share his opinion.

Fudou just raised an eyebrow as he felt the collective weight of eleven stares. Well, there was no way this was going to end well.

"Tachimukai-kun, you have the left goal. Fubuki, Kidou, Kabeyama, Touko and Ichinose join him," Hitomiko said. Fudou let out a silent sigh of relief. At least she didn't have the stupidity to put him with Kidou.

"Endou, right goal, along with Rika, Domon, Kogure, Megane and Fudou," she continued, eyeing them. "You will play to first goal."

Not for the first time, Fudou wondered if she was mad. First goal? They had only six players! How was he ever supposed to formulate a strategy with –

Fudou cut off his mental rant as he realized what he was thinking. He had got so used to practice, he'd forgotten that this wasn't Kageyama he was dealing with. This wasn't Shin Teikoku. He wasn't a gamemaker here, and no one would listen to him anyway.

Mutely, he followed the rest of his 'team' and settled into the open spot they had so graciously left for him. Right opposite Fubuki, in fact, who was studiously avoiding so much as glancing in his direction.

Rika started the kickoff and Fudou moved up with the rest of them, hugging the left sideline. Ichinose stole the ball from her and he moved back. Forward and back and forward and back – the team was so eager to keep the ball on the right side that it bounced out of bounds nearly twenty times.

Fudou stood along on his side of the field and blinked. He knew what he'd done to them, what Shin Teikoku had done to the members of Raimon. He knew that he'd sentenced at least two players to the hospital. He knew, objectively, that they must hate him.

But he had not been prepared to deal with this… this utter rejection.

He stopped as the ball moved forward again, Rika bypassing Ichinose and aiming for the goal. Tachimukai easily batted her shot out of the air and tossed it to Kabeyama, who moved up the field.

He wondered whether he should make the effort, whether he should initiate a reconciliation. But then he saw Ichinose's icy glare and decided to stay out of it.

Glancing at Hitomiko's cold expression, Fudou knew that this wasn't what she intended when she brought him on the team. But that was her problem, not his. As long as he got paid, he saw no reason to interact with a team that hated him. No reason at all.

Scowling, he scuffed the grass, taking a grim satisfaction in destroying a small piece of the field. He was so engrossed in his task that he almost missed Endou's shout.

"Fudou!"

Startled, he turned and watched the ball fly at him. For a second, he was too shocked to move – then he regained his composure and trapped the ball easily, turning to the empty field that awaited him.

He smirked and ran forward, his mind already calculating strategies to bring down the defenders – Kabeyama he could fool with a feint, Fubuki required a little more trickery while Kidou… he didn't think he could get pass the genius gamemaker.

But no one came forward to block him. He stopped at the goal line and turned – they were all standing in the same positions, looking away from him, as if he wasn't even worth their notice.

Turning back, he looked at a bewildered Tachimukai. He glared at him with all the anger churning in his stomach and felt a vicious thrill as Tachimukai flinched. He lined the ball up with the goal and gave it a savage launch.

Tachimukai missed and the ball connected solidly with the net, swishing. Fudou watched it spin and felt empty.

He walked away.

It was Tachimukai who found him sulking in a nearby empty playground.

Fudou was staring idly at the dirt, one hand curled around the chain of the swing as it moved slightly. He barely looked up at his teammate's approach. He was probably only here to tell him that Hitomiko had changed her mind. He was no longer a member of Raimon – he'd have to go back to Ehime and see the smirk on Officer Taiya's face and…

Fudou was suddenly aware that Tachimukai was speaking. "…didn't expect it," the sandy-haired boy said awkwardly. Fudou stared at him blankly. Tachimukai's eyes widened, and he shook his head frantically. "Not that it wasn't a good shot!" He waved his hands about. "It was amazing – it was really powerful! I don't think I've ever seen a normal shot so powerful!"

Fudou stared and waited for him to leave, but it seemed that the backup goalkeeper was waiting for a response.

"Thank you," Fudou finally muttered, hoping that was enough.

Unfortunately, Tachimukai took it as an invitation and took the swing next to his, grinning. "Do you play forward?" he asked.

"Midfielder," Fudou replied, confused. Was he actually trying to make conversation?

"I'm a midfielder too," Tachimukai said brightly, before drooping. "Of course, you already knew that."

It was getting more difficult to keep his disinterested expression – Fudou almost chuckled.

"So, did Aliea destroy your school, too?" Tachimukai asked.

"…No," Fudou said after a pause, remembering the purple stone and feeling something wrench in his chest. "No, they didn't." He'd managed to destroy it all on his own.

"Oh," Tachimukai said, letting his voice trail off.

Fudou wondered when he was going to get to the point – obviously Tachimukai was here for something, and the sooner he asked for it, the sooner Fudou could reject it and go back to sulking.

"Um," Tachimukai said nervously, his face red. "Um, will you train with me, Fudou-san?"

"What?" Fudou asked, certain he hadn't heard properly.

"Will you train with me?" Tachimukai asked again. "I, um… Endou-san is a really good goalkeeper and well, everyone is busy with their individual training and your kick was really powerful."

Fudou looked at him, bewildered. "Why would you want to train with me?" He just managed to bite off the 'why don't you hate me?' and remembered that Tachimukai hadn't seen him in Shin Teikoku.

"Because you're really strong!" Tachimukai smiled. Fudou just started at him, a bit taken back – him? strong? – but decided it couldn't hurt.

"Okay," he said cautiously, still not sure that it wasn't a trick. If Tachimukai started laughing at him, he was going to kick him in the face, probation or not.

But Tachimukai just kept up the grin. "Thank you so much, Fudou-san!"

Fudou was saved from having to reply by Haruna, who burst into the playground, gasping for air.

"They're… here…" she panted when she caught sight of them. "Epsilon's… here."

Fudou and Tachimukai ran to the field, Haruna behind them. Sure enough, Epsilon stood there, wearing the red and black uniforms he'd seen so often on TV. In person, they looked so much more malevolent, red eyes glinting in faces twisted by evil. They all wore the same, slightly eerie smile.

"What is Epsilon doing here?" Tachimukai whispered as they joined the back of the group.

The one in the front turned, as if he'd heard. "We are not Epsilon. We are Epsilon Kai!" He laughed grandiosely. "And we will crush you!" Fudou flinched backwards – they had the aura of the Aliea twisted around them.

"Did Genesis send you?" Endou asked, and Fudou inwardly wondered who Genesis was and how many bloody teams Aliea had sent out. He knew that the man behind all of this was giving away the crystal like candy, but this was getting ridiculous.

And to think that Fudou had actually felt honored that he'd been given the Aliea. It was starting to seem like the only requirement to possess the Aliea stone was being between the ages of twelve and fifteen and possessing a talent for football.

"No." Another player stepped forward. "We are here by the will of Desarm-sama and we will show you what happens to those that defy Aliea Academy!"

Desarm swept his gaze over all of them, grinning when he met Fubuki's eyes. "I will break you," he said, smile widened in anticipation. "And it will taste sweeter than all the power in the world!"

Fubuki jumped and curled in even further on himself. After one last leer, Desarm and Epsilon Kai retreated to their side of the field and settled into position, waiting.

Fudou followed Raimon back to the caravan, where they started getting ready. The temple charm his mother gave him was lying on top of his uniform. After a moment's deliberation, he grabbed it, tying it round his neck. He needed all the luck he could get.

"What do we do?" Touko asked in a low voice, "We have only twelve players and –" She looked at Fudou and flinched when she saw him looking back. Fudou sneered.

"I will organize the formation," Hitomiko said. "If we don't win against Epsilon Kai, we won't stand a chance against Genesis." Her furious look silenced all complaints before they began. "Ichinose and Rika will play as two-top. Kidou, Fudou, Touko, Tachimukai as midfielders. Kogure, Fubuki, Domon and Kabeyama as defense. Endou in the goal. Megane on the bench."

Fudou froze – he was next to Kidou? This was not going to end well.

Predictably, Ichinose was the first to respond. "You can't be serious, coach!" he protested. "This formation is ridiculous! You can't –"

"I can, Ichinose-kun, and I will," Hitomiko cut him off. "And you will follow my orders or you will be off this team. And that goes for anyone else who chooses to sacrifice teamwork for past grudges."

Fudou winced – that was pretty specific.

"Your behavior at training was despicable," she continued. "And a repeat will have those responsible kicked out. Do you understand?" Everyone, including Tachimukai, was carefully not looking at Fudou.

"Yes, coach," they muttered in unison, before taking their places on the field. Fudou jogged to the left center and took his place as midfielder. He snuck a glance to his left. Kidou was staring straight ahead, giving no indication that he noticed Fudou.

The referee blew the whistle and the match began.

a/n: Also crossposted to AO3 (nutellafueled). Please leave a review and tell us what you think!