So here's what I did to this fic; NOTHING. As in, bleh. Oh I might have removed a feeeeeeew gibberish then replaced it with more gibberish. Yeah, awesome right? -Note the sarcasm there-
Oh well... Kill me.
Chapter Eight: Seireitei Soccer Club
September 8, Monday, 7:45 AM
Walk. Just continue to walk and don't look back.
Toushirou curses under his breath, accelerating his pace at each second he hears the steps following him behind. This is pathetic. Why is he even running away anyway?
Oh right, it's because of him. Because he is too dangerous so Toushirou has to get away from him as far as possible.
"Oi, Toushirou! Stop at this very moment! Why the hell are you walking away from me?!"
Toushirou grimaces as he continues to walk, determined not to give in to the urge of turning around to shout at the guy.
"Gaah! Stop! I have something to tell you!"
Still, Toushirou doesn't stop. He glances from side to side, his speed not wavering at once, and notes that they are already drawing the students' attentions. Again.
"Stop! Stop! What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"That should be my question! What the hell is wrong with you?!" It's too late when Toushirou realizes that he has already stopped and faced Kaito. And before he can turn away again, his roommate is already right in front of him, wearing an expression which is too bright for his liking.
"The club recruitments will start today." Kaito tells him, beaming and looking as though Christmas has just come early.
"Good for you," Toushirou snaps, and then quickly turns away. He resumes walking, but not with the same speed as earlier, and lets Kaito walk to his side.
Toushirou appreciates the silence for a while, but he knows that wishing for it to remain for an extended time is too much.
"I'm going to join the soccer team," Kaito tells him, his voice more sober than usual.
The statement instantly washes away any emotion on Toushirou's face. He stops walking and looks at Kaito with that blank expression. "And you are telling me this because?"
"I guess... You're bound to know this sooner or later," Kaito whispers to his feet, as though he suddenly finds something interesting on the floor, but when he looks up, Toushirou doesn't see any sign of the uncertainty he thought was there earlier. "Do you know the reason why I started playing soccer, Toushirou?"
Toushirou doesn't answer, albeit he already knows the answer. He just remains staring at Kaito.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Toushirou wonders if impassiveness is enough to tell Kaito that he's not interested anymore, but even he knows that he's just not completely being honest with himself because, somehow, a little part of his brain doesn't agree with him.
"It's because of you, Toushirou!" Confidence. Pride. Toushirou realizes now that those are the things that often filled Kaito's eyes. So maybe he's not entirely the same to others, but so what? Toushirou still doesn't think that it can make a significant difference. "I really want to see you in a soccer field again, playing, and if possible... If possible, I want to play with you!"
The silence extends, commencing the battle of stares between the two. The fact that everything around becomes completely quiet doesn't even make sense anymore.
"I believe you're completely mistaken." At last, Toushirou's voice totally breaks the spell which briefly put the moment in freeze, "I don't have any plan to go back to playing soccer. You can do whatever you want; it's not any of my business." He once again turns away from Kaito. "But I would sincerely appreciate it if you'll just leave me alone."
Not wanting to hear any more words from Kaito, Toushirou walks away. Vaguely, the words of Kaito still reaches his ears, as the soft wind blows teasingly, carrying the sound, making sure he gets each syllable somehow.
"Sorry, but I can't promise you that."
Toushirou sighs, shoving a hand in his pocket calmly, as he continues to walk away. Is it really possible that Kaito will break his wall?
The corner of his lips curves up in a bitter smile, already sure of the answer. Fat chance. Kaito is just going to waste his time.
•нιтѕυкαяιи•
4:00 PM
"So you came after all," Renji says quietly, looking at Karin, and then he directs his stare to the Seireitei High's soccer field where his teammates are playing. Keeping his eyes there, he continues, "Were you able to convince Hitsugaya then?"
Karin shrugs and watches the students playing at the field as well. "I already expected that I won't be able to get him that easily." She looks around, and asks, "So how am I supposed to get in to your team? Am I still required to show what I've got?"
Karin hears Renji laugh. "Not necessarily," he says, faint amusement in his voice, "All we need is your application form, but if you want an entrance with a bang, then I'm not exactly in place to stop you. The spotlight is all yours."
Karin rolls her eyes. "I'm not an attention-whore. And what about the coach? Where is he, or she, anyway?"
"On leave for a month to visit his parents out of town, and he just left me the authority to handle everything while he's out."
"He must really have that trust in you," Karin mumbles.
Renji grins at her, before looking back at the field and clapping his hands to get his teammates' attentions. "Time out, team! Line up! I have an announcement!"
The boys pause on what they're doing, look at each other as if to ask what's going on. One by one, they run to him, form a two-row horizontal line and then look curiously at the guy standing next to their captain. Only when Renji speaks do their attentions turn to him.
"This is Shiba Kaito," Renji begins, gesturing at Karin, "He just transferred here in Seireitei and he's going to be our new member."
All of the members look back at Karin, as if trying to assess if she's good enough for the team. "How old are you?" one of them asks, giving Karin a look which comes near to a glare.
Unfazed by the guy's look, Karin answers smoothly, "Seventeen."
There is a collective gasps from the players, and a few can't even help but gape. "But you don't even look close to fifteen!" a boy, who looks like a freshman, exclaims.
Karin narrows her eyes at him. One hand on her pants' pocket, she leans close to the boy's face. It's amazing how she can easily intimidate him despite the fact that he's few inches taller than her. "I'm seventeen, probably older than you," Karin tells him emphatically, leaning closer as the boy leans away until he loses his balance and falls, sitting to the ground. Karin grins down at his stunned expression. "What? Do you wanna fight about it?"
"Kaito," Renji calls at her in a warning tone.
Karin straightens up and puts both hands at the back of her head. "Fine," she says carelessly. Looking at the one who asked her the question, she notices that he still has that stare at her. Wow, what's up with the cold reception?
She answers his scowl with a mocking grin. Man, she loves soccer and she's determined to carry out her plan for the sake of seeing Toushirou back to the soccer field, but that doesn't mean she can also keep a maximum tolerance for these brats.
"Where are the others, Akira?" At the sound of Renji's voice, the boy, now known as Akira, stops frowning at Karin and looks at his captain, "If you mean Vice Captain Ikakku and Yumichika-senpai, Captain, I heard that they got in trouble today, and Unohana-sensei has to give them a detention. That said, they'll be late for practice today."
"Eh? Again?" Renji scratches the back of his head. "They seriously need to stop breaking things and then running into Unohana-sensei. That teacher is already running out of patience for them, I think."
Karin notices that Akira is not really listening to his captain. In fact, he resumes frowning at her. Seriously, this guy is starting to get to her nerves.
"So... Shiba-san... Are you any good?" Akira asks tentatively.
Slightly taken aback by the question, Karin doesn't answer immediately. She looks up at Renji and raises an inquisitive brow, while Renji just answers her with a smirk.
"Well, Kaito, this is Natsukawa Akira," Renji says, "The best player among our freshmen."
Karin whistles and then grins at Akira, making the boy stand straight as if being defensive. She's sincerely impressed by that information about him but that doesn't change the fact that Akira is a brat. "So it's a pleasure to meet you, Akira. And to answer your question," she pauses for effect, letting her hands fall to her side, and smirks at the guy, "Why don't I show it to you? And then, you can decide for yourself."
The way Renji snickers and the other members fall into silence, Karin knows she's just given the best answer. She may not be as good as Toushirou, or Ichigo, or Renji when it comes to soccer, but she still was one of the best players of her former soccer team.
An entrance with a bang? It's true that Karin is not a sucker for unnecessary attentions, but right now, the idea doesn't seem to be bad at all.
Natsukawa Akira is good at soccer, Karin will give him that. Nevertheless, there is something completely wrong with the way he plays. More often than not, he plays like it's a one-on-four game. He usually fails to see that he also has his teammates, waiting for him to pass the ball and call for support. It seems that he doesn't trust his team, and that's what it only takes to easily break him.
Karin looks skywards, thinking that this game is going to end soon. She runs straight to her target, a plan already on her mind.
It will be a piece of cake because the guy is too predictable, and Karin knows the exact thing that he's going to do. And just as anticipated, Akira runs straight, his eyes fixed ahead. It's obvious that he cares only for the goal at the moment for he doesn't even spare a glance to his sides. He doesn't even give heed to his teammates near him. A big mistake.
Karin steps right in front of him, and Akira immediately makes an attempt to dodge her. But that's useless because Karin's target is not him, but the ball. Her plan is not to stop him from making a goal, but to steal; not to make a strong defense, but to turn the offense to their side.
Akira is too focused on the thing right before his eyes that he fails to notice the other things around him. Too late when he realizes that mistake, because the other team has the ball already.
Karin grins, running past Akira, not giving him the time to immediately react. She easily jumps over the leg of the player who tries to steal the ball if not to trip her, the ball smoothly flying very close to her feet. That move can be easily recognized as one of the very basic and common tricks of none other than Hitsugaya Toushirou.
It's probably one of the early reasons why Karin holds a great deal of admiration and respect for Toushirou. She just learned years ago that no matter how simple his moves seem to be, an actual performance of those moves is a totally different story. More than she's willing to admit, the move she just made is still rough as compared to Toushirou's original version and she knows that Toushirou's former teammates can easily see past through that.
Toushirou's moves were always smooth and almost flawless. Karin always enjoyed seeing Toushirou do them. Now, those moves are at risk of disappearing forever, and Karin wants to stop that from happening...
The sound of the whistle signals the end of the game. At the same time, the scene in front of her slowly becomes clearer and clearer. The soccer ball slightly bounces back after hitting the net, while the expression of the other team's goal keeper is hard to determine as it plays between surprise, incredulity and disappointment.
Karin looks down and slightly smiles, not exactly certain for what reason, and then she almost stumbles as she feels someone slap her on the back, really hard.
"That was a great game, kid!"
Karin hops thrice with her right foot, arms flailing, before she totally regains her balance and gets back to her two feet. Karin turns around, only to find herself staring, confused, at the bald guy in front of her. She doesn't really remember seeing him earlier, but she's pretty sure she's seen him on most school soccer games before.
After recognition hits, Karin frowns at him, not the usual frown she gives when she's pissed off. She only frowns because it's a natural thing from her. "You just almost made me lose my lungs," she says easily as if the person she's talking to is someone she's known for long and she's comfortable talking with. Well, in fact, that's how it feels for her. "And I'm not a kid."
"Man, this kid is awesome!" The guy exclaims, practically ignoring Karin, "Wherever did you find this boy, huh, Renji?"
"A friend's relative," Renji answers, "He just transferred here."
Another guy, someone that Karin didn't notice earlier, also joins the conversation. "That was indeed a beautiful game. And you made a rather lovely move back there." He nods, and then puts a hand under his chin. As if he just remembers something, he looks at Karin. "Oh yeah, I'm Ayasegawa Yumichika. And this one here is Madarame Ikkaku," he says, gesturing at the other man.
"I know who you are." Karin does. Completely so. Because even though she watched the games mostly because of Toushirou, she still never overlooked the other good players of Seireitei Soccer Team. "Name's Shiba Kaito." Before she can continue to talk, the other members are already assembling around her, most of them grinning at her as though they find something amusing on her.
"That was a good game, Shiba-senpai!" It's the guy who Karin scared earlier. "I'm Ryuuzaki Shin! Let's work hard together from now on, neh?!" he says, rather cheerfully, and Karin realizes that the boy is so fond of shouting.
This time, Karin actually smiles at him. "Kaito. Kaito's fine, really. And I'm looking forward to that, Shin."
"Alright, Kaito-senpai!"
"He can hear you, Shin. You don't need to shout at him," Renji says.
All members, including Karin, laugh as Shin scratches his head sheepishly. Now that she has the team's trust and respect, Karin arrives into a conclusion that the members are not really bad after all.
She looks around and realizes that a certain member is nowhere to be found. Brushing the realization off, she looks at the red-haired man who is now her team captain. "Anyway, Renji... err... Captain Renji?" She flashes a teasing grin which makes Renji frown at her, before she continues, "Rukia-nee wanted me to tell you to meet her at the cafeteria before six today. It's about your Chemistry presentation, I guess."
Renji sighs. "Uh, alright," he says, looking up at the huge clock near a vending machine. "Then that's all for now, team."
After their brief goodbyes to each other, Karin walks to the bleachers where she left some of her stuffs. There, she finds Akira just about to finish arranging his things.
Without noticing Karin, Akira stands and is ready to leave when he drops his phone just as he gets up. He makes a move to pick it up, but Karin is quicker to bend down and get it from the ground.
She is going to hand it back as soon as she faces him; that's the initial plan, at least. But upon catching a glimpse of the phone's wallpaper, Karin finds it hard to just easily ignore it.
"You're a fan of Toushirou," Karin says, barely whispering, eyes still on the phone's screen. She looks up just to see Akira frown and flush. For a brief moment, Karin just stares at him with an impassive expression, wondering, before she quietly hands him his phone. "I admire him, you know?" she murmurs, not exactly sure why she's telling him this now. "And, I'm not going to pretend to be someone who knows him well, but... I'm pretty sure I never saw him play the way you did earlier."
Before Akira can even ask what she means, she already continues, "No matter how good he is, he never played the game like he was the only one who could do everything. He played with his team. He was never as self-centered player as you are." She turns around, feeling suddenly put out for an inexplicable reason. She is going to walk away without hearing any word from Akira, but the latter's sudden question immediately puts her into a halt.
"Really?" Akira asks quietly, and Karin is surprised to hear that however demanding the question may be, there still is no clear bite on his tone. "Then why did he leave just after his team lost? He thought it was his entire fault. Wasn't he also being selfish then? He should have also let his team take some of the blame, because he was not the only one, and he shouldn't have left. So why?"
Assurance. Excuses. No, Hitsugaya Toushirou was not selfish. He had his reason for doing that. At the lack of dispraise in his words, Karin knows what exactly the answer Akira wants to hear is. And if it happens that their roles are reversed, that is also the answer that she would rather have.
But in the end, she can't bring herself to say it, and she realizes then that even she doesn't know a thing about Toushirou, about his reason for playing soccer and about his reason for leaving the field that Karin thought he loved. All this time, everything is just her own assumption.
"I don't know..." Because that is only the safest answer that she can give. "Actually, I wanna know myself." Finally, she walks away from him.
Just as she turns in a corner, she stops and looks up, watching the clouds slowly—too slowly—move and transform into some funny shapes. Nice though the clouds are, Karin would still rather have the cloudless sky where she can have a clear view of the endless blue.
She sighs, closing her eyes, wondering. Is she the one who doesn't understand everything? Is she just fooling herself all along? If Toushirou wasn't being selfish, then why indeed did he leave without considering his teammates' feelings?
Did he even really love soccer in the first place?
"Oh, fuck it," Karin hisses, silently scolding herself, unable to believe that her resolve was just about to waver.
Hitsugaya Toushirou wasn't being selfish. He had his reason for doing that. A reason that is obviously holding him back. A reason that Karin will get from him no matter what the cost is. A reason that she will shatter if she can.
All for the sake of getting him back to where he really belongs. All for the sake of returning a favor. All for the sake of seeing that rare smile again... that smile for which Karin loved the first time she saw it.
Toushirou's love for the game. His passion. Karin had seen it, like a crystal clear water, and she never doubted it. So why would she now?
She resumes walking, her resolve, which was about to break earlier, renewed.
It's a game she chose to play, a game she has already started. It's a game she is determined to finish. And hopefully, a game she will win.
"Just a moment please, Shiba-senpai!"
Karin turns around just to see Akira running to her direction. Albeit thinking that the guy follows her just for further argument, Karin still waits for him.
Akira stops, panting, his hands on his knees.
"Look, Akira, I don't want any more—" but Karin falters as Akira surprises her by dropping his hands to his sides and keeping his head bowed in front of her.
"Please, Shiba-senpai, help me with my game style in soccer!"
Slack-jawed, Karin stares at him, wondering who this guy is and where in the world the untrusting Akira has suddenly gone? "Who the hell are you?" she easily voices out her thoughts, up-front as she naturally is.
It's hard to tell whether Akira is offended or amused by the question based on the lopsided smile that he gives when he straightens up. "I'm sincerely sorry for the way I acted back there, Shiba-senpai."
Karin stares at him incredulously, still unable to believe the sudden change on Akira's behavior.
"Look, Shiba-senpai, frankly speaking, I didn't like you at first."
That finally gets a response out of Karin. She scoffs. "The feeling is mutual."
Ill-at-ease, Akira looks down at the ground, shifting from one foot to another, as he mumbles, "But that changed as soon as I saw that move you made earlier." He looks up at Karin, his lips curving up in a faint smile. "That's my favorite among all the signature moves of Hitsugaya-senpai. I thought I'll never be able to see it again."
"But my version wasn't nearly as good as Toushirou's, right?" Karin raises an inquisitive brow.
"No, it wasn't," Akira answers honestly, still smiling.
Not expecting the straightforward answer, Karin frowns. Someone has to teach this guy what a white lie is, because he will surely not pass in case he's courting a girl. He doesn't know how to flatter at all. "Thanks," Karin says dryly.
"But it still gave me the hope, that move. I guess Hitsugaya-senpai's soccer is still not dead after all... Maybe... Even if he's never going back to the field—"
"He's going back to the field."
Akira looks at her, puzzled. "Huh?"
"I'm going to bring him back." Karin narrows her eyes, making sure that she makes herself clear. She doesn't already want to hear any more lame statement about Toushirou never going to play soccer again. "I still haven't lost my hope on him. Have you, Akira?"
There is a pregnant pause before Akira smiles and answers, "No. I guess not."
"Good," Karin says, turning away from the guy, "And by the way, about your earlier request, I'm not sure if I can contribute to you that much. Everything's still up to you after all, but I'm willing to share what I've got to help you." She walks away, a small smile slowly adorning her lips.
Yep, those brats aren't really that bad after all.
