Kazemaru first notices something's wrong when Kidou informs him that he is to be the reinforcement committee member for Teikoku Gakuen. It's a confusing decision - why would he be chosen for Teikoku, when Kidou was the obvious choice? - but that's not quite it. He has the distinct, uncomfortable sensation that something is very, very wrong, that it shouldn't have happened like this. Something else should have happened today, but it didn't. A glance at his friends, troubled expressions on their faces, at Endou - briefly, an image flashes in his head of Endou's face, twisted in a horrible expression of fear and shock, and then it vanishes, and Endou smiles widely, his grin bright as ever. The goalkeeper's gaze sweeps the circle, coming to rest on Kazemaru, his grin replaced with a look of slight confusion.
"Kazemaru looks like he's seen a ghost," Kidou observes calmly as he comes back from retrieving his water bottle. "Did something happen?"
Kazemaru shakes his head, quickly avoiding Kidou's piercing stare by intently watching the school building, and then, just as before, another image replaces the imposing building - a twisted mess of rubble. The Raimon lightning bolt on the front of the school is the only object left intact, covered in dust under a darkened sky. In a second, the image vanishes, and Kazemaru stares at the undamaged building.
"Kazemaru? Kazemaru!" Endou waves a hand in front of Kazemaru's face. "Are you listening? I said we should probably start preparing to leave for our schools."
"S-sorry, Endou…"
When he arrives at Teikoku, when he meets the all-too-stiff team, another image overlays his vision. A lineup of the team right in front of him, a purple glow radiating from under their shirts, their eyes gleaming with that same unnatural purple. Kazemaru watches Sakuma warily, the forced smile on the captain's face replaced by a wide, insane grin, his hair lengthening and straightening into spikes. A gap appears in his eye patch, revealing a glowing copper iris surrounded by a black sclera. With every blink, the image switches; Teikoku seems normal one second, albeit a bit awkward and unfamiliar, and then they wear maniacal grins, staring with empty eyes, and this image is so horrifyingly familiar, almost too familiar, as if he's seen it before but can't place it, and he nods slightly, only distantly hearing Sakuma speaking.
"Hey, Kazemaru." A voice drifts from behind him, and Kazemaru whips around to find goggles staring back at him. Kidou again. "There's no need to look so terrified."
"Kidou!" Sakuma's smile shifts into one of slight relief, but Kazemaru is too distracted by the unnerving grin he sees instead. "Have you come to visit?"
"I was just checking in on Kazemaru. Maybe I'll play a bit of soccer."
Alone in his room, Kazemaru runs a hand through his hair, and sighs slightly.
Am I going insane…?
Movement at the edge of his vision catches his attention, and he turns to see it. The mirror? Something flickers over his reflection, he jumps backward, covering his eyes with both hands, this can't be happening. This cannot be happening. His reflection grins back at him, his pupils shrinking so much his eyes look almost like a cat's, swathed in a sweeping black cloak, and his hair floats loose in waves just above his shoulders. A glowing, purple crystal hangs from a chain around his neck. The image is all too recognizable, but this never happened… had it? He would have known if he had looked like this. These are not his memories, where are they coming from? Destroyed Raimon, possessed Teikoku, horrified Endou - he's never seen these before in his life, and yet they tug at his thoughts, like a name caught on the tip of his tongue.
Kazemaru glances at his reflection again, and the image is gone. He stands there alone, in Teikoku's colors, meeting his own fearful gaze in the mirror.
When he meets Fubuki Shirou, at the choosing ceremony, when their eyes find each other, something is familiar-yet-unfamiliar about him.
"H-have we met before?" Kazemaru searches his memory, but can only recall seeing him from afar as Hakuren played Raimon. He blinks once, and Fubuki suddenly is wearing the fluffy white scarf that his brother (Atsuya, was it?) always wears, his slight smile is a wide, wild grin, his eyes flare with glowing gold. Kazemaru flinches, rubbing his eyes, and dares to look again. Still Fubuki Shirou, the same as always, giving him a concerned look from gray eyes.
"No. I don't think so. I'm Fubuki Shirou, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise. I'm Kazemaru Ichirouta." Kazemaru holds out an unsteady hand to Fubuki, whose eyes are flipping colors now - gold, gray, gold, gray. The faint ghost of a white fleece scarf hovers around his neck.
"Kazemaru-san, why do you look so worried?"
"I-it's nothing, I'm just a little nervous, I guess." But he remembers events that have never happened the more he stares at Fubuki - how Raimon had played Hakuren, trying to recruit Fubuki (this was all wrong, they hadn't, how could they?), snowboarding behind the school as Fubuki watched silently (they hadn't ever visited Hakuren, why?), so many times they'd spoken and laughed and played together (he'd never met Fubuki before this) - it's all false - they don't even know each other - they've never played each other, let alone played together - until his thoughts are such a mess that he can't tell truth from fake anymore, and yet the only questions that come up - why is this happening? Whose memories are these?
The first time they assemble as Inazuma Japan, in the training facilities, Kazemaru watchea the entirety of his new team, feeling a growing sense of unease. He doesn't belong here, there's another team waiting for him if only he can figure out who and where they are, he stares around at this entirely new team surrounding him and it's both his and not his, there's a growing feeling of wrongness in him, it's the wrong team, and he struggles against his rising panic. His eye catches on a flash of bright blue amidst the midnight hues of their soccer uniform, and it's Gouenji in a sky blue and white uniform. Blink, and he's wearing the same uniform as all the others again. The voices of his teammates surround him, familiar-yet-unfamiliar, of course because he hasn't known his new teammates long enough yet, but it's also something else, these voices are the wrong voices, some of them are not supposed to be here and others are missing. The sound grates on his ears, intensifying a headache beginning to form, and he huddles forward on the bench, pressing his hands over his ears and closing his eyes, he tries to block it all out because it hurts, like a phantom pain. Behind his shut eyelids are hissatsus that he's never seen and matches he's never played in, and a few times, a fleeting image of a team in a sky blue uniform.
"Hey, are you okay? Oh, geez…" Someone's talking to him. He's not quite familiar enough with their voice to identify them yet - of course he's not, this person isn't his teammate (they are! He thinks it's Mansaku, and when he hears someone refer to the voice as Mansaku-kun, he knows it is).
"Kazemaru?" That is most definitely Endou's voice. He looks up. His friend seems concerned, but his sunny smile breaks out again when he sees Kazemaru looking back up at him. For a second, everything is normal, until Endou's form blurs and doubles. Two Endous, identical smiles. Kazemaru hunches over his knees again, pain pulsing at his temples. Movement around him.
"Leave him alone, minna." Kidou's voice.
Somebody sits down next to him. He glances sideways at the unexpected warmth. Gouenji. Kazemaru double-checks the uniform, and relaxes slightly when he sees it's the same one they all wear, dark blue with bright strips of red capping the sleeves. On his other side… Haizaki, staring off to the side grumpily, as if forced to stay there. Kazemaru peeks at him again. But then suddenly the silver-haired forward becomes Sakuma, his uniform sky-blue again, and Kazemaru jolts backward, nearly knocking Gouenji off the bench. Gouenji catches him around the shoulders to avoid falling, his yelp calling the attention of Haizaki.
"Whoa, Kazemaru, what happened?"
Sakuma is gone just as quickly. Haizaki's visible eye narrows. Kazemaru presses his face into his hands, trying to ignore the pain in his head. "Sorry. I just need a minute."
He doesn't see the shocked gazes of the others, or hear Endou telling them to get back to practice.
When he practices Spinning Fence, alone, privately, something's different. A shift in the tornadoes he creates, a shift in the wind speed, faster than ever before - then, once, the tornadoes merge, with a fiercer wind than he's ever managed, and instead of "Spinning Fence," he finds the words "Fuujin no Mai" on his lips.
And the technique roars, stronger than Spinning Fence has ever been.
During their first match, when Kazemaru uses "Fuujin no Mai" instead of "Spinning Fence," he can practically feel Endou's shocked gaze burning into his back. He's told Endou about Spinning Fence. He hasn't told him that it's changed.
He doesn't dare look at the Korea team, because the second he met the captain's gaze, when they were lined up on the field, the team flickered and changed, their shirts flashing bright red. The players had changed, he'd recognized two players from Eisei Gakuen, and a familiar shimmer of golden hair. Aphrodi? But then they were gone, and Kazemaru was so dazed that he completely missed the start of the match.
"Kazemaru!" Endou shouts, and Kazemaru realizes that the shot is headed directly towards his head.
Being roommates with Tatsuya is incredibly stressful. Any time he so much as catches a glimpse of his roommate, images flood his memory - at first, they'd been of him as an enemy, his hair spiked straight up, but then those memories had blended with snapshots of them playing together in that cursed bright blue uniform, he keeps seeing it everywhere, it only reminds him of how many "memories" he has, and he would've gone insane long ago if not for the nightly escapes he makes by taking walks outside until it's far too late for anyone to be up, until nobody is on the sidewalk to trigger another overwhelming set of memories and his thoughts are his own again. Tatsuya's always asleep when he finally steps back into his room, and then Kazemaru can avoid looking at him.
Until one day, Tatsuya is sitting up with the lights on, waiting for him when he comes back. Kazemaru tightens his ponytail nervously, avoiding eye contact. The elastic band snaps, and he yelps, more from surprise and anxiety than pain.
"That's the first time I've seen you with your hair down," Tatsuya remarks pointedly, and just hearing his voice… Kazemaru resists the urge to press his hands against his ears and curl up in a tight, pitiful ball on the ground.
"Oh?" Kazemaru tries to force a smile, carefully examining the ground. Based on Tatsuya's face, he needs to work on faking emotions. "Wh-why did you wait up?"
"Look. We have to talk about your sleeping schedule." Tatsuya goes straight to the point. "You definitely have to get more sleep."
Kazemaru whips his head up in surprise, and Tatsuya holds his gaze, trapping it in his own. Neither can seem to look away.
"T-Tatsuya, what are you talking about?"
"Kazemaru, what time is it?"
"I d-don't have a watch..."
"It's about three o' clock. You always come in around this time. You stay out for hours. It's way, way too late. Do you remember what happened at practice?"
"I-"
"Kazemaru, you fell asleep. In the middle of practice. On the field. I passed to you and you promptly collapsed."
"S-sorry…I'll try to get in earlier…" That's not right. He hadn't fallen asleep, had he? The afternoon had been a blur. He might have. He must be far more tired than Tatsuya thinks he is - he can't think straight. He can't process anything right now. He can't seem to focus, and Tatsuya seems to know it, because he guides Kazemaru straight into the bed
Kazemaru can tell that Tatsuya's frustrated with him whenever he goes in at 2:30, just to satisfy him by coming in earlier, but those are not the worst of his problems just then. He went out walking for a few hours by habit, lost in thought, and only realizes that it's raining hard when Hiura runs out of the building and Asuto immediately runs after him, the two shrieking with laughter and running through puddles. Hiura crashes into him, and then Kazemaru also realizes he's shaking with the cold, and his hair is plastered to his back, soaking wet.
"Sorry, Kazemaru-san!" Hiura blinks in surprise as he realizes that he's crashed into a wet, cold, and quite distracted Kazemaru. "Eh… were you out here this entire time? It's really late… you've been out for a long time... "
Someone grabs his arm from behind, making him jump, and Asuto's face reads, Oh shit. Kazemaru knows it's Tatsuya before he turns around. Tatsuya's hand is only faintly warm on his numbed skin.
"You're right, it's getting really late," Tatsuya says cheerfully, giving Kazemaru the stare of death. "That's why Kazemaru's going inside with me now, so he can sleep for once. You guys, don't stay up much later either."
"Hiura, it's cold," Asuto complains. "Can we go back in?"
Tatsuya and Kazemaru stand in silence as the two friends dart back inside, and only then does Tatsuya's face soften slightly, and he leads Kazemaru back in.
"I-I'm not that cold," Kazemaru protests as Tatsuya smothers him in blankets.
"It's kind of hard to believe that when you're shivering so hard the bed is shaking," Tatsuya points out dryly.
"My hair is wet."
"Of course it is. You just went walking in the rain for hours."
"Th-that's enough blankets!"
"After a chill like that, dry clothes and hair are barely going to help."
"Just let me suffer and be cold," Kazemaru complains. "Overheating also exists."
"I'm doing this so you can't escape and go back outside."
Kazemaru presses his lips together. "Why did nobody tell me about this side of you?"
Tatsuya chooses to ignore that comment. "We should both go to bed. It can't even be called late anymore, welcome to the early morning."
"H-how did it-"
"It was three when I dragged you back inside. Go to bed."
"But-"
"Go to bed."
"I-"
"Kazemaru if I have to repeat myself one more time-"
When their alarm rings a few hours later, the loud noises feel like physical pain, pounding around inside Kazemaru's head until he feels like it'll explode. Kazemaru presses his hands to his ears and curls up on his side, trying to think past a splitting headache, cheeks flushed and breathing uneven. Tatsuya sees everything as he shakes Kazemaru, who manages to mumble something out but trails off mid-sentence, and falls silent.
Where his skin had been ice-cold before, it's now far too warm. Tatsuya touches Kazemaru's forehead, trying not to bother him too much. Kazemaru curls up into a tighter ball again, shivering uncontrollably as Tatsuya lets him go and hurries out of the room to look for fever medication.
He passes Asuto and Hiura in the hallway. The latter looks unwell, the rhythm of his steps slightly uneven as he holds Asuto's arm tightly, his skin paler than normal. Asuto seems to be supporting him more than he's supporting himself. Tatsuya runs down the stairs until a loud thud and a yelp from Asuto prompts him to look back.
Hiura's collapsed.
