Well, first of all: happy Inavember, everyone! To celebrate this wonderful month full of amazing Inazuma art, I decided to translate because… hey, why not. Thing is, it's taken some time to correct this one, so it's not Inavember anymore, so, uh, I guess I'm better off wishing you all a very happy new year instead. May 2019 be kind to you, and best of luck on all of your endeavours!
Now, here's 'why not'. For the longest time (years, in fact!), when I felt like sitting down and writing, I always ended up thinking that I'd better translate instead. You know, to catch up with my Spanish stories and all. I only have a couple of friends who read my Spanish stuff, but… uh, no, actually, just a couple of friends read my English stuff as well. (Btw, shoutout to my faithful Spanish readers, Sam and Pao, and to my faithful English readers, Roxy and… Rae? Sometimes? Not all that often, but often enough to be mentioned.)
Anyway, congratulations, miga! You played yourself as the idiot you are! YOU COMPLETELY CAUGHT UP. There's nothing else to translate. And the next time you feel like writing, you'll actually have to write instead of doing something easier. Boy, 2019 is going to be weird. I haven't been an active writer in years.
I hate myself for being so dumb and I love you all for putting up with me. It's taken years, but I hope you'll enjoy the 8th chapter of The Roar of the Beast! (And, even if you have already done so, please go check out the 9th chapter after this. It's the most personal fictional story I've ever written, so it'd mean the world to me.)
And, as usual, thank you so much to Roxy for helping me out and proofreading this for me!
Handa pursed his lips and shut his eyes tight, reluctant to wake up. A sound that could have been ascribed to a pissed off lawnmower—had such a thing existed—had flooded the room minutes earlier and taken him out of his light slumber, but he refused to open his eyes. He murmured a pitiful 'just five more minutes' and he curled into a ball inside the futon, facing away from the noise.
As much as he tried to ignore it, the sound seemed to inch ever closer. When Handa got sick of it and turned around to check what it was, he jumped as he bumped into Segata's bloated face, who was munching loudly right next to his ear. He was sitting with his legs crossed, leaning forward in a way that seemed unnatural and uncomfortable. Handa squinted at Segata, who returned the stare and began to munch abnormally slowly, but without ever ceasing to produce sounds that more closely resembled those of vermin belonging to the pig family than those of a normal person.
"…What're you doing, Segata-kun?" Handa asked slowly, squinting even more.
Segata blinked a handful of times and put another spoonful of cereal in his mouth.
"Nothin'," he babbled with a full mouth. A single cereal shot out of his lips and hit Handa in the cheek, trickled down unhurriedly and fell on the futon.
Epsilon's former member averted his gaze quickly and sat up before swallowing loudly.
"Why were you making that kinda noise…?"
Segata left the bowl of cereal and the spoon on the floor and sighed bitterly as he scratched the nape of his neck.
"Please understand, bloke. I'm landed with takin' care of the Snoring Beauty 'ere whilst everyone else's takin' care of the interestin' parts: get the trainin' ready, set everythin' up… and all 'em lame things I'd never do even if they paid me for it."
"Why're you complaining, then…?" Handa snorted. Segata didn't reply—he picked the bowl up again and put another spoonful of cereal in his mouth. "So, must I suppose you didn't find a better distraction than to come bother me and watch as I writhed in my sle—?"
"Wow, bloke, this shit's good," Segata cut him short. It was dangerously obvious he wanted to avoid that question. "That friend of yours's got it all, 'Anda. She's pretty, a good cook, and what shit do we give about everythin' else?" Segata laughed frantically at his own sexist joke, but he stopped when he realised Handa hadn't found it funny in the slightest. "Err… What's 'er name again?"
"Ah… Tsukushi Ootani."
"Uh. Well, it sure looks like you two get on. You know, you're shippable or whatever." Segata leant over Handa again and whispered in his ear: "So, since she won't even look at me," and he added a 'she doesn't know what she's missin' 'ere' in a grumble, "why don't you pull 'er instead? You won't tell me she ain't a good catch, eh! And it's clear there's somethin' between you two!"
Segata giggled as he badgered Handa with a succession of suggesting nudges. Handa's face turned bright red.
"T-thing is, she and I, w-well, uh… w-we—"
"IF YOU'RE AWAKE, STOP GOSSIPING AND COME TO TRAIN AT FUCKING ONCE!" Yagami screamed from the floor below. Segata grimaced.
"That bird should consider it's 5 in the mornin' before she starts screamin' like that." He picked on his ear with his little finger and sighed softly. "She ruined my breakfast, and I bet you she ruined more than one person's sleep."
"…Can I eat it, then?"
"'Course not!" Segata blurted out, hugging the bowl. "If you're 'ungry, go tell your girlfriend to make breakfast for you."
"S-she isn't my—!"
The sliding door opened violently. A lock of shiny blue hair covered most of the beautiful features of a face that, unfortunately, was way too used to frowning. Or that was what Handa was beginning to suspect, at least.
"I TOLD YOU TO COME DOWN AT ONCE!"
"Won't you even let me finish my breakfast?" Segata gabbled. Yagami closed her eyes and Handa saw in horror how some of the veins on her neck swelled.
With firm and suspiciously delicate steps, the alien princess snatched the bowl from Segata's hands in the blink of an eye and, before the boy could react, she shoved it into his head with all the love and care her nerves on edge allowed her to display.
"Enjoy," Yagami hissed. She held Handa's hand and forced him to stand up. "Take a shower for once in your life and then come train with us, Zel. And you would better hurry up or you can forget about having a single bite during the entire week."
Yagami pulled Handa out of the room and slammed the door shut in a way that made the whole second floor shake.
"Charmin' till the end," Segata whispered in a neutral tone, still wearing the bowl as a hat and feeling the cereal and milk getting into nooks and crannies of his body that even he wasn't familiar with.
Handa stretched under Ootani's supervision, trying to not pay much attention to her. He had tried his best to keep Segata's words from affecting him, but it was useless. What he felt for his current partner was strong enough to keep old feelings from germinating inside him again, but remembering their farewell and the millions of doubts about what could have happened between them if she had never left filled the young hero-in-training's thoughts to the brim.
He needed her to know what he felt now. He needed her to understand those reactions that lacked any kind of logic.
The midfielder stood up and looked at Ootani, much more intently than usual. She returned the gaze. She had felt Handa was being distant and she knew him well enough to know something wasn't right. Handa took a rigid step towards her and opened his mouth slowly, thinking thoroughly about how to formulate the next few sentences so that his need to vent wouldn't make things even more complicated between them. Ootani was looking at him with expectation: her eternal and comforting smile suggested her old friend to talk without fear, for her work as manager was to listen to him and support him.
"Tsukushi-chan, I-I…"
"Yes?"
Since he wouldn't reply, Ootani moved closer to him and held his hands.
She noticed it as soon as her flesh touched his friend's, and Ootani's smile disappeared: despite his firm steps, Handa was shaking like a leaf. But that was not some nervous trembling, nor was it anything like what he had shown a year ago, when they had parted ways for the first time and the boy was left with a broken heart and an 'I love you' on his lips.
No. Handa was terrified. Ootani could clearly see how cold sweat ran down his friend's hands and fell on hers, drop by drop. She looked at his face again, worried, and his expression was completely different from that from a few seconds ago. Ootani was startled as she saw her friend's eyes, glassy and lacking in life. His shaky breathing contrasted with his cold hands, and it hit Ootani like the suffocating wind from a barren desert.
"Shinichi, what's wrong?" She asked slowly, twisting her gentle face until it turned into an anguished and worried grimace. "What do you want to tell me…?"
Shinichi squeezed Tsukushi's hands carefully in a desperate attempt to hold onto her, to create a link between them both that would allow his friend to understand the unintelligible and would give him the strength he needed to explain it all to her. It wasn't just her comeback that troubled him. It was the helplessness of being unable to get her out of his mind and focus on what was truly important. The feeling of being unable to meet everyone's expectations of him—especially his own. The lack of time to fulfil his many purposes. And, above all, the fear brought upon him by the idea of confirming that, as he had always thought, he really was absolutely worthless. The tireless efforts of his friends had made the seed of hope germinate, and, as weak as the sprout might be, it had become tightly ingrained within him. He now truly believed in his chances to turn into something he himself could be proud of, but if his efforts were to be useless despite all, he knew he'd never be able to recover from that blow.
Shinichi wanted to tell Tsukushi about all that, and about much more. However, whenever he looked her in the face, all of his words would fly away.
There was something in her eyes, on her face, in her very essence, that would make any man falter if he dared look at her from that short a distance. A paralysing sensation; a poison that seemed to seep in through every pore of the body, that polluted the air and pierced into the organism through the mouth and the nose when breathing, corrupting the boy's movements in an indescribable way.
He had never felt anything like that while being with her in the past, not even during their farewell. Was that proof of them having grown apart, or was it simply that America had turned her into a person that, deep inside, he was no longer able to recognise?
A tragically inopportune Segata stormed into the field shouting at the top of his lungs, drawing the attention of all the people who were there. Despite being far away from everyone else, Handa and Ootani were startled as well.
"Mothers, 'ide your daughters: Ryuuichirou Segata, master amongst masters, 'as arrived!" He proudly proclaimed, smiling at himself as he rejoiced on each and every one of his words. He scanned the area with his eyes until he spotted the former couple and screamed: "Quit pullin' girls and move your butt, 'Anda! This master needs 'is disciple in order to shine!"
"A master ought to be able to shine on his own, Zel," Yagami said in a neutral tone that would only come naturally from someone too used to dealing with Olympic-level idiots. "Although you're the most pathetic thing I've ever had the disgrace of laying my eyes on, so I don't know why it comes as a surprise to hear you need to feed your ego comparing yourself to those who are worse than you."
Handa made a superhuman effort to not take that as a personal attack. He failed.
Ootani let go of Handa's hands, and the last snippets of the link they seemed to have created together finally dissolved. They hadn't finished talking about what they were thinking of, though, and Ootani only managed to trouble herself.
Handa shook off those bad thoughts by shaking his head; a habit that had rubbed on him from spending too much time with his captain, most likely. Ootani, as she was much demurer, deeply inhaled and softly exhaled, letting out a great deal of nervousness along with the air. Nowhere near as much as she would have liked to, but just enough to be able to talk to anyone without raising suspicion.
After all, that's what her dream was all about.
Without looking at each other one last time, the couple met with the rest of the group at the centre of the park.
"Listen carefully," Yagami said, addressing the group in an authoritarian tone. Even though she tried to hide it, those who had been under her command in the past could feel in her voice the immense pleasure she took from being in charge. According to her, everyone present was an absolute lost cause with whom wasting one's time wasn't worth it, but that didn't change anything. She turned towards Kageno and Shourin and began to talk: "You two, whatever your names are. Since Ma—" Yagami closed her eyes and pursed her lips, cursing Raimon's captain under her breath for getting her used to calling him that way, "…Since Endou only asked me to take care of that sissy teammate of yours, I refuse to play babysitter with you two as well. Kira will take care of you two by himself if his patience allows for it."
"Sure. It will be my pleasure," Hiroto Kira replied kindly, smiling at his new pupils and at Yagami. "Although I would have loved it if you had seen for yourself how much they have improved. I'm sure you would have been pleasantly surprised, Reina-chan."
Yagami blushed in a second and gave a murderous look to the new CEO of Kira Corporation. Even for a full-fledged adult, playing with Yagami's nerves like that was a risky bet where the possible rewards were ridiculously low in comparison, but a part of Hiroto had always liked risk, be it when it came to soccer, when it came to business or when it came to women. And playing with Yagami meant always walking on the thin tightrope that divided success and failure.
"Let's continue," Yagami said as she saw that the deep stare from her eyes, blue as the sky, had managed to push Kira to the side of the tightrope his business rivals wished to see him at, although they had never had the chance to. "Once the trash has been taken care of," Shourin was about to make a comment about that, but Kageno put a hand on his mouth at the speed of light to keep him from making things worse. Yagami looked at the scene with curiosity, but it only took her a few seconds to look at Handa and Ootani again, "I suppose we will finally be able to focus on the matter at hand. Are you ready?"
Handa took a deep breath and raised his hand. It took Yagami a few seconds to let that reaction sink in, more suitable of a Math class than of soccer practice, but she didn't dislike the feeling it left on her body.
"…Yes, Sissy?" Yagami said eventually, dragging her words harshly.
"I, uh…"
Handa was still a bag of nerves and kept looking at the ground. He knew what he had to say, but no words were coming out of his mouth. The lump in his throat caused by thinking of Ootani had grown bigger under Yagami's gaze, which was still as intimidating as ever. He could have easily burst into tears at that time, and he'd have loved to. But tears would be counterproductive in front of someone like her. And, above all, it would make his following words lose all credibility.
Handa puffed up his chest and emptied his lungs very slowly: he was trying to shrink, at least slightly, the lump that kept him from talking. He opened his eyes just enough for Yagami to be able to see them, but what she felt went far beyond anything she could have ever expected to see in him.
Handa's eyes were roaring. They roared despite how glassy they still were. They roared with the fury of the fiercest of beasts, with the determination of a warrior facing their worst enemy. But they roared desperately. That roar wasn't for Yagami, but she was the one who had to see that Handa's eyes were roaring against himself. His eyes reflected his own struggle: a struggle that the beast sleeping within him had to win, no matter how much the victory, supposedly sweet, may end up hurting him.
For the sake of them both.
Yagami nodded slightly. Handa closed his eyes and took a small step forward.
"Yagami-sama…" He began.
"It's decided, Handa," Yagami cut him short with a gesture. "Ootani and you won't train together today."
"Whatta witch, bloke!" Segata grumbled, making sure Yagami couldn't hear him. "What's up with not lettin' you train with your girlfriend?" Segata paused to rejoice on Handa's reaction to the word 'girlfriend,' but his body didn't react as usual. Raimon's midfielder was gazing into the distance, facing Yagami and Hiroto, who were chatting about how to refocus the training session without Ootani. Trying to appear natural in spite of his confusion, Segata continued, "If she thinks your friends need 'er 'elp more than you or somethin' like that, I could let it slide, but she didn't even scorn to give us a reason." Suddenly, an evil smile appeared on his face, and his tone went from carefree to mischievous. "Y'know? I think she's jealous of 'er. She can't stand not bein' in the limelight amon' men. That gynecocracy shit—" Segata turned to Handa expectantly, eager for his friend to ask him about the meaning of that word so he could boast about his extensive knowledge, but Handa, once again, didn't show any signs of moving nor replying. Segata put his hands in his pockets and grumbled, "…That gynecocracy shit's only funny to 'er when she can be a tyrant and govern on 'er own, but when some competition shows up, she gets rid of it by force. …Whatta witch," he repeated.
"No," Handa said eventually with a voice that sounded much more serious and firmer than usual, without even looking at him. "Segata-kun, you may not believe it, but Yagami-sama's… amazing. I didn't have to tell her a single word: she read my feelings in a sec and helped me without thinking about it twice. She knew I couldn't do it on my own, and she pushed Tsukushi-chan away from me herself. I think she also did it to protect me and keep her from being mad at me…"
"Hey, hey, hold your horses," Segata begged, opening the palms of his hands as he scowled. "You mean it's you who did in with my chances of gettin' la— I-I mean, who didn't want to be with Ootani?"
Segata stood in front of his friend, clenched his teeth and punched him in the face. Handa flew a few centimetres away and fell on his back, pushed by Segata's tremendous strength. Yagami and Hiroto turned around upon hearing the ruckus and ran up to them.
"What the fuck's your problem, asshole?!" Segata screamed with his fist still raised and a grimace of rage no one had seen since Raimon beat Epsilon Kai during their fight against the Aliea Academy. Hiroto arrived just in time to hold the arm he had raised, but Segata continued to scream as if nothing had happened: "Do you think that's a worthy way of treatin' a girl who cares so much about you?! I may not be as good at pullin' girls as I wish I were, but even I can see that girl's crazy about you! The stink comin' from 'ow much she loves you can be smelt from Hokkaido, and everyone there's got a cold and a runny nose! And what's worse—you ruined my last chance of pullin' 'er! And what's it all for, uh? Uh!? 'Cause you got tired of 'er or somethin'? Answ—!"
"Shut the fuck up already, Zel!" Yagami shouted, asserting her authority over Segata's bawling with her cold and firm voice. Segata stared at her, mute as a grave, and she proceeded: "It's clear that you're as exceedingly bad at understanding your friends as you are at understanding women. Do me a favour: look at the poor wretch you just punched and tell me what you see."
Segata turned his eyes towards the floor and dragged them across it until he found Handa's face, who was still lying face up. He hadn't noticed before, but, beyond his bruised cheek, his expression reflected tension and concern, and his eyes didn't seem happy at all with the choice he had had to make. Segata thought that, if selfish reasons had pushed Handa to avoid Ootani, he sure was good at concealing them.
"It's… tough to define," Segata grumbled like a kid. "But 'e doesn't look too happy… and it isn't only 'cause I punched 'im."
"You did better than I expected," Yagami told him. A hand gesture was all she needed to make Hiroto let go of his arm, "but I doubt your minuscule brain is able to surprise me with a more thorough explanation, so give it a break and let me explain it to you myself.
"I admit Sissy here has some merit. His eyes are much more interesting than what one would expect, even if it's simply because everything else is pitiful. In them, I've seen a passion that many of you could really use, but there was something else.
"This sissy… is fighting himself. What he forced me to do to him has destroyed him inside, but he has yet to complain or lose heart at all. He's managed to win the fight and to render himself unfeeling to the pain he must be going through. "
"I still don't get it," Segata recognised, scratching his head. "What's the point of all of this? Why'd 'e want to get rid of 'is girl?"
"You ought to be able to answer that question yourself, Zel." Yagami crossed her arms and snorted, sick of the incompetency of those around her. "Sissy is here for a reason: to grow. He wants to stop depending on his teammates and be able to stand up to any rival alone if it comes to that. He's always been a nonentity who's been used as nothing but a link between offence and defence and, because of that, all he knows how to do is assist his more skilled teammates. He's never been good enough for anything else.
"However, at some point, something within him… resounded, I suppose. Not even he knew what it was, but it already pushed him to come here once and ask for Hiroto's help, apparently. Time and his own efforts have made the sound louder and louder, and he can hear it clearly now. The echo of that sound has spread all over his body and, now, you can even notice it in his eyes, much like it happened to me before.
"But that sound, that… roar that pushed him to improve himself, has stumbled upon something he wasn't expecting. Something dangerous for him, because it's a battle he already lost in the past. And the same wolf, disguised as an innocent sheep, has come to get in the way of this new path he's chosen to take.
"Now, tell me, Zel," Yagami said very slowly upon seeing that Segata was having a terribly rough time understanding the situation. "Would it be any good for Sissy to have stepped away from Raimon if he's going to get hooked to playing under Ootani's supervision and care?"
Segata, without even complaining about Yagami calling him by his alien name constantly, lowered his head and tried to reflect.
"Whatever is causing that sound is getting closer and closer to the surface, and Sissy must train it thoroughly so it'll be ready at the moment of truth. If he lets his potential develop under the influence of third parties, his beast will be little more than a domesticated puppy, unable to roar by itself. What he needs isn't a lapdog that will follow his orders word by word, but a wild beast that scares his rivals off without anyone else's help and will still accept to follow his instruction. If he ends up relying on someone again, he might never stand up again. And I doubt such a weakling would be able to withstand a hit like that.
"It's his last chance, Zel. Handa is betting everything on one card, and as much as it may hurt him now, he can't risk losing."
Handa was happy to see that, although for just a second, Yagami had acknowledged his value and had called him by his surname instead of "Sissy." When The Genesis's second-in-command finished talking, Handa nodded, still under the influence of his inner beast. If it hadn't been for that, he thought, he would have broken down and cried halfway through that talk, but he managed to hold himself back and all he had to do was rub his eyes to keep his composure.
"Yagami-sama," Handa said with a low but firm voice—a voice unlike his, "I'm ready."
The princess smiled.
"About time, Sissy."
Ootani was unable to understand and, hence, she roamed about the Ohisama-En looking for the answer to a question she didn't even know. All she knew was that Handa wanted to tell her something, but she couldn't imagine what that might be, and her frustration only spawned more doubts. What was troubling him all of a sudden? What could have caused such a drastic change in his attitude overnight? Those were questions she didn't know how to answer and, for as long as she were there, far away from the boy for whom she had crossed half the world, she wouldn't be able to solve them. But she couldn't approach him just like that; they had banned her from doing so. It was a vicious circle there was only one obvious escape from: to wait. Although that was something she could not allow herself the luxury of doing, for later could be too late.
But she had never been the kind of person to let herself be overwhelmed by trouble. Her brain worked fast, efficiently and logically: the brains of an Einstein and the looks of a Garbo, as many had recognised in the past. If he couldn't just approach him, she thought, she would need a great excuse. An infallible excuse.
She opened the door of a random second-floor room, one of those at the end of the corridor. She saw a bed pressed against one of the corners of the room, and as soon as she stepped in, she felt a very specific kind of darkness, old and forgotten, engulfing her. A person less familiar with such feelings might not have noticed a thing, but she was able to recognise the pain stuck to the walls, fluttering in the air. Even when it was clear that a long time had passed since that darkness had disappeared, Ootani could feel the traces of sadness that still hadn't left that room completely. It was a sticky kind of darkness, a difficult one to ignore when it's present; a feeling only natural to the sorrow that comes from guilt. Ootani got worried, but only until she took a second step forwards. Only then could she finally notice the warmth of the light that had shone in that place, and it felt as if her body had been freed from all sorrow in an instant. It was impossible to know what had happened there, but she had no doubt that the problem was in the best possible hands.
Her suspicions were confirmed when she took a look at the desk. There, she found a notebook open at the first page which looked quite old by then, but with only a few words written on it. Most of them were crossed out or violently scrubbed.
At the top of the page, underlined as a title, one could see a single name she knew well, but, obviously, not quite as well as the author of that notebook.
Ootani smiled with motherly love and an ounce of guilt for not recognising that feeling earlier. She sat on the chair next to the desk, borrowed a pen and a page from the notebook and began to write down her infallible excuse.
The sun had reached its zenith, and a heat wave typical of the first compasses of summer mercilessly fell over the Ohisama-En. Although those inside the orphanage would need nothing but to get rid of a blanket or two to feel comfortable, those unlucky enough to find themselves at the big garden, the ground of which was still marked by the impetus and violence of some of the inhabitants of the orphanage, would have to face much more unpleasant temperatures. Despite that, it felt like something normal, because Kira's skin tone, which was white as milk during his youth, had noticeably changed throughout the years. Nowadays, it showed a colour that, while not tanned, was still much healthier than it used to be back then. Nonetheless, Kira had had to take off his always unpolluted branded jacket and throw it on the ground before the training began in order to face the unexpected climate that razed the area.
The president of the big Kira Corporation faked a puff. He wanted to make them believe he was having a hard time keeping up with them now that they were attacking together, but Kageno and Shourin hadn't put up much of a fight that day. The previous day's progress had vanished in the ether, and they seemed to be even worse than they were when they first arrived at the Ohisama-En. Kira's experience in taking care of kids told him something was wrong, and it was that same experience that urged him to make use of his best diplomatic skills to solve it, for negotiating with business rivals was, to a great extent, like dealing with a sulky baby.
Also, he thought, there was a chance that the moment might have come.
"That… wasn't bad, guys," Kira lied, trying to not make it too obvious, "but I think you're acting strange. Is everything all right?"
Kageno and Shourin looked at each other, but it was the much more outgoing Shourin who spoke up.
"You see, Kira-san… We talked about this last night and neither Kageno nor I think we're getting any better with this training. Raimon players never give up, but—!" Shourin tried to find the right words, but he couldn't continue.
"Handa told us… it might not be about training, but about… discovering something…" Kageno said, minutely weighing each and every word that came out of his mouth. "Something we'll never see… if we only play at Raimon… and like Raimon…"
Kira slowly let the air out through his nose, composing a soft smile as his lungs emptied. He breathed in again and said, "So that's what Handa-kun told you, eh?" Kira's smile grew bigger. "Then, what do you see?"
"I don't know…" Shourin admitted, downcast. "I don't even know what it is I'm supposed to see."
Kageno shook his head, feeling just as helpless.
"I see…" Kira tilted his smile and tapped his chin, pretending to be intrigued. "Why do you think he said so?"
"He asked us to help him…" Kageno muttered to himself, but loud enough to let them hear it. "But he didn't tell us what he wanted…"
"What did you answer, then?"
"We told him to count on us, of course!" Shourin jumped. "Whatever it is that he needs, we'll be with him! We're friends!"
"So he asked for help," Kira repeated, now giving his voice an intriguing tone. "That seems hard to believe, to be honest."
"W-we can help him as well as any other member of the team!" Shourin grumbled.
"That's not what I meant," Kira laughed, shaking his hands to play it down. "But, if he was so interested in training with you, why isn't he here now… or why aren't you with him?"
"We'd like to, but it was Yagami-senpai who sent us here!" Shourin remarked, but Kira shook his head.
"I know, but Handa-kun could have said anything to avoid that: talk to Reina-chan, object… or, well, pout like he did yesterday. Anything. But he didn't. He allowed himself to be isolated without a complaint, even when Reina-chan has kept him away from that girl who came here solely to help him. Yesterday, he was begging you to not abandon him, but, today, he seemed to be the one who tried to stay away from you all."
Kageno averted his eyes quickly—although no one noticed it—and whispered, "…He already saw it… While he was alone, Handa discovered the reason why Coach sent us three here… and has been sending us signals all this time so we'd realise it…" Kageno shook his head and clenched his fists, furious at himself. "How could I be so blind…?"
Shourin, oblivious to everything else, tried to explain him exactly how he could have been so blind, but Kira managed to pounce on him in time to cover his mouth before he could say something inappropriate.
"H-have you found anything out, Kageno-kun?" Kira struggled to ask while struggling with Shourin to keep him quiet.
"Kira-san… You knew from the very beginning, didn't you…?"
Shourin stopped struggling and looked up. Kageno wasn't moving in the slightest, and his eyes were aiming at Kira. The powerful president quickly let go of Shourin and adjusted his glasses as he looked in every possible direction. After a few seconds, he pretended to be surprised in a very unconvincing way and pointed at himself.
"Who, me? O-of course not! Endou-kun never tells me about anything, ha ha…!"
"Because he doesn't need to…" Kageno argued, lifting his head slowly until it was completely upright. "You're a world-level soccer player, Kira-san… I'm sure you knew what Coach was up to as soon as he phoned you… And in spite of that, you've made us train blindly all this time… instead of telling us directly… All this training… all this wasted time… was just a… worthless cover, right…?"
Kira started laughing nervously and pulling the collar of his starched and terribly uncomfortable executive shirt, which was suddenly hotter than ever before. He couldn't see them, but he could feel Kageno's dark eyes drilling his vital points with the accuracy of a surgeon. Despite having dealt effortlessly with Yagami's extremely hateful gazes for almost twenty years, he had never felt something like that. He didn't know his body could produce such cold sweat, nor tremble so much from sheer fear in such an imperceptible way to the human eye. Every muscle in Kira's body tensed and heated up, getting him ready for a danger he could feel on his flesh, but couldn't explain or even imagine.
However, all those feelings ceased at once, leaving no other trace than a wet back full of sweat. When Kira gathered the courage to look at Kageno again, he was surprised to find him bended forward in a deep bow meant for him. His long, purple hair was touching the ground with a few centimetres to spare, which created a thick curtain around his face that covered him even more than usual.
Kira blinked and adjusted his glassed, for real this time. He opened his mouth to say something, but Kageno got ahead of him with a whisper:
"Thank you…"
Shourin tilted his head and wrinkled his tiny nose, unable to understand the situation in the slightest. Kira breathed in deeply and held his breath: he didn't know if Kageno would want to say anything else, but he didn't want anything to interrupt him in that case—not even his breathing.
"The point was to find that out ourselves… to understand on our own what we are lacking…" Raimon's gloomy defender whispered eventually. "It's the same thing Handa wanted… and I'm sure it has something to do with his idea, too… You knew that; that's why you made us train that way…" His voice began to shake, and his hair trembled along. "It seemed so… normal…"
Kira tried to force a guffaw that ended up turning into a long sigh of relief. He didn't know if Kageno had done so consciously, but he had caused a reaction on him that hundreds of seasoned executives had been trying to achieve unsuccessfully. It had been as hair-rising as spectacular: he had felt himself on the ropes even before engaging in battle, and that was anything but normal.
Kira couldn't help but remember the words Endou had said ten year ago during the FFI—words that, at long last, had begun to make sense: 'You might find it hard to believe, Hiroto, but every single player at Raimon is incredible in his own way. The problem is that you need to get close to them to realise how much they're worth.'
Kira smiled at Kageno when he straightened up and, then, looked at Shourin, who was still unable to understand what all of that was about. Kira squinted and continued smiling, but for a very different reason: at that moment, what he wished for the most was to be able to get a glimpse of the true power lurking within that small, big-footed body. The curiosity was killing him, but, now that he had begun to believe Endou's words, he knew the wait wouldn't disappoint him.
Kira picked the ball up and tossed it at Kageno. All he had left to do was wait.
Ootani went down the stairs quickly and ran across the entire Ohisama-En towards the door, ditching her exquisite manners for a minute in order to arrive at Shinichi's side as soon as possible. In her right hand, she held a carefully folded sheet of paper, for she didn't want the presentation of her infallible excuse to be ruined by a couple of wrinkles on the paper.
Ootani left the orphanage with a long jump and sped up even more. She moved way faster than anyone would've expected from a girl with the face of an angel: it felt as if she had grown the wings she very much deserved and were flying above the pavement thanks to them, gracefully, like a butterfly dancing with the wind. Her movements were beautiful, as well as efficient and precise: she wouldn't take a false step nor make any movement in vain. That run was nothing but a perfectly measured choreography, studied, practised and memorised until it turned into yet another movement of her own body, as natural as breathing. However, no one did she find while offering such an angelic show, and no one saw what Ootani was truly capable of.
She heard voices a few metres ahead and she braked as delicately as she had started. Not a sigh, not a puff, not even the slightest trace of tiredness on her face. That was part of her dance as well, for a brilliant start is worthless without an ending that will make it justice. Ootani began to walk again like the lady she was, and a distant voice took over her frenetic rhythm.
"No, no and NO! You're completely WORTHLESS!"
Ootani gave a sudden start and hid behind some bushes, looking at the scene from a prudent distance.
The sun was already shining with an orange colour, and its light casted long shadows upon clashing against the items and people at the park. Light makes no distinctions, but Handa, lying on the ground, casted a much shorter shadow than Yagami, who stood in front of him with the might of a mountain in front of a mere man, and whose shadow stretched, or so thought Ootani, way farther than those of Hiroto or Segata, even though they were all pretty much the same height. Only the humongous trees that flanked the park could put Yagami's palpable grandness in the shade, and even their shadows seemed less spectacular than hers because they all merged together, creating a swirl of light and darkness that, rather than impress, offered a little and peaceful shelter to all of those who decided to rest next to them.
Handa staggered as he tried to stand up. Once on his feet, he clenched his fists and hammered his feet in the ground, like he had already done so many times, and with an increasingly weaker voice, but just as determined as ever, he exclaimed:
"Once again, please…!"
Yagami gave Raimon's midfielder a look of deep rancour and turned her back on him.
"Come on, Reina, give him another chance…" Hiroto begged. Yagami made wild gesticulations to be left alone and folded her arms.
"You're so mean, bird," Segata huffed. "'E almost got it, too…"
Yagami looked daggers at him and took all of his will to complain away, turning him, at the most, into a scared puppy.
"Handa." Yagami's voice, although melodious by nature, resounded like thunder when she was angry. She was trying to keep her calm, but the din of her voice reflected her true mood. "I won't sugar-coat it for you, because I don't want to give you false hope and you don't deserve me to do so either. I admire your goals, but you're a lost cause. You're nothing, you've never been anything, and, all things considered, you will never be. You haven't even been able to improve nor grow in the slightest under my tutelage, and that requires some off-the-charts levels of ineptitude."
"Maybe you're just bad at teachin'?" Segata answered back sarcastically. Yagami looked daggers at him again, with even more fury than the previous time.
"Stepping away from Ootani to try and become stronger on your own has amounted to nothing: you're still as helpless as you were when you arrived here," Yagami continued. "You can only grow by clinging onto others, and it's obvious you get lost as soon as you're left alone. You're nothing but a parasite that takes advantage of others to be of any worth."
Ootani opened her eyes wide from her hiding place. She wasn't able to catch a glimpse of all the details yet, but understanding Handa's feelings and the reason why he had decided to step away from her calmed, partially, her heart's thirst for answers.
Hiroto, hurt by what Yagami was telling Handa, turned his eyes towards him. However, his eyes didn't find the battered Handa they expected, but a firm Handa that, albeit trembling, hadn't allowed himself to be intimidated by the princess's words. He held his ground, impassive, snorting loudly through his nose like an enraged bull, mooring onto that specific point on the ground as if he feared he'd lose all of his strength if they managed to move him from there.
"Take that back!" Shouted a voice behind Hiroto. The Genesis's former captain turned around upon seeing the fear in Handa's eyes and found Ootani, who was moving towards Yagami with determination. The princess huffed.
"I don't regret anything I said," Yagami blurted out curtly.
"Then, you haven't looked at him properly, or you aren't willing to see what's in front of you," Ootani replied. "I only just got here, and I can already tell Shinichi isn't the same he was this morning. The boy who couldn't even tell me he needed to train alone has gone as far as to challenge you, Yagami."
Yagami turned around and looked at Handa, who clenched his fists and toughened his expression—within his possibilities—as soon as their eyes met. Yagami frowned in a menacing way, but Handa wasn't daunted and replied with the same gesture. Yagami blinked, only mildly surprised by all appearances, but genuinely impressed deep inside. Unlike Hiroto, she never intended to motivate Handa with her words, but seeing how they hadn't made him lose his confidence brought back to life for a split second the trust that, at some point, she had placed in him.
"He looks… different," Yagami admitted, without averting her eyes from Handa nor showing even the slightest sign of weakness. "But, either way, he hasn't improved in the slightest."
"That isn't true either!" The manager objected, frowning as much as her sweet face allowed her to. "Just because he hasn't mastered what you want to teach him yet doesn't mean he hasn't grown stronger!" Ootani made a long pause to look at Handa, during which Yagami never stopped looking at her, trying to understand what a girl like her saw in someone as worthless as him. Ootani breathed in after a few second and, with total conviction, she said: "I'm sure Shinichi could beat you one-on-one!"
Handa wobbled and fell on his butt.
"Ha-have you gone bonkers, Tsukushi-chan…?!" Handa whispered, trying his hardest to not sound offensive. "I can't possibly beat Yagami-sama the way I am now… And even if I could, it'd be 'cause you're—"
"Shinichi, I know you didn't want me to be close so you could grow without relying on me…" Ootani cut him short in an even lower tone. "But you have spent the whole day fighting alone and I can notice you have changed a lot thanks to it. I'm so glad…"
Handa lowered his head and rubbed the nape of his neck. He was still feeling insecure in front of Ootani. She smiled at him kindly and nodded at him.
"This is your fight, Shinichi. I know you can win, whether I am here or not. But I will be—not because your strength depends on me, but because I want to see you win with my own eyes. And when you win, I will be the first one to congratulate you."
Ootani's smile grew bigger, and Handa had no choice but to return it. He didn't know whether he could win or not, but he knew that, regardless of the result, it would be his and his alone. He was alone, but he didn't feel like so.
Until then, Handa had thought that what Endou wanted from him was for him to learn how to fend for himself, how to fight alone, how to be more independent to be able to shine as an individual. But, now, he didn't seem to be learning how to be an individual player, but an important part within a whole. Could that be what his captain was trying to teach him from the very beginning?
The midfielder shook his head and slapped his cheeks, like he had seen his captain do so many times to get rid of useless thoughts. He took a couple of steps forwards and he stood in front of his rival.
"Let's finish this quickly," Yagami snorted. "You have a single opportunity to steal the ball from me. Your little buddies have played this game before, so I assume you know the rules."
Handa nodded firmly.
"Heh… It looks like something has changed a bit, after all," Yagami said with a cheeky smile on her lips, straight from her best days as a player for Aliea Academy. "I must admit I'm curious."
Yagami stepped on the ball, waiting for the signal. Handa ran his hand through his forehead, therefore removing part of the sweat that had accumulated there due to the training and his nerves. When Hiroto raised his hand, they both got ready, and when he suddenly brought it down, the first one to move was Yagami.
Recalling her days as an alien, Yagami hurled herself on Handa with her body completely bent forward, aerodynamic as an arrow. Handa, startled by the horrible memories that way of running brought back, decelerated unconsciously, but he recovered his composure after a couple of seconds and launched himself at her again with everything he had.
When they were about to clash, Yagami shot the ball up to the sky by kicking it in the middle of a backflip. As soon as she touched the ground again, she propelled herself and jumped after it with all of her might, eventually rising above the ball. In the middle of the jump, The Genesis's second-in-command turned upside down, making sure that Handa, still surprised by the sudden jump, was right under her.
"Meteor Shower V3!" Yagami shouted.
Yagami smiled at herself and threw an incredibly powerful kick at the ball, which burst into fierce flames and multiplied, creating dozens of small, incandescent meteorites that fell on Handa with fury. Raimon's midfielder shuddered when he saw those meteorites falling on him, but he managed to get over his fright and he reacted quickly.
He threw a single kick, so powerful that it moved a huge mass of air along with it. He dragged the kick to its limit, moving all of that air upwards, which swirled violently and formed a terrible tornado.
"Cyclone Kai!" Handa exclaimed, witnessing how his hissatsu extinguished the fire from the meteorites and gathered them into a single one again, throwing both the ball and Yagami into the air. The princess recovered from the blow quickly and controlled the ball with her chest before falling on the ground delicately. She licked her lips and Handa offered her a competitive smile.
"Not half bad," she admitted a split second before charging at Handa again, opting to dribble him cleanly that time around. Handa managed to block Yagami's feints and keep her from moving forwards, albeit just barely. Yagami took a step back and moved the ball from one foot to the other, staring at Handa intently.
He's better than I thought… Yagami thought. He seems to be moving way better than before.
Yagami noticed Handa's face. The sweat on his forehead shone with the sunlight, lending an imposing air to his serious expression. His medium-length hair was being stirred by the afternoon breeze, waving softly over his face. Suddenly, his eyes looked back at Yagami, who was petrified in front of them. She had never seen eyes like those. Sparkling, bold, eager to fight. Or so she thought.
Yagami blushed in a matter of seconds and was startled upon feeling the warmth of her own cheeks.
Ootani showed a very tiny grin of satisfaction.
There was something in Handa's eyes, on his face, in his very essence, that would make any woman falter if she dared look at him from that short a distance. A paralysing sensation; a poison that seemed to seep in through every pore of the body, that polluted the air and pierced into the organism through the mouth and nose when breathing, corrupting the princess's movements in an indescribable way.
W-what the Hell is wrong with me…?! Yagami wondered, panic-stricken. I… I can't keep my eyes off him… He's so… s-so… Yagami gulped before even thinking that word at all, …attractive…
Making the most out of that unexpected moment of weakness, Handa acted. He took a small leap backwards, faced Yagami and brought his index finger and thumb to his mouth, placing them instinctively under his tongue. He got ready to blow.
But he didn't.
Yagami was still so entranced and self-absorbed, staring at the ground, that she didn't even react to Handa's attempt at using a hissatsu. The midfielder only had to approach her carefully and bring the ball towards him to win, and Yagami didn't offer any kind of resistance. The only movement she did was bring her hands to her face as Handa moved closer to her, as if trying to hide it. Handa, however, couldn't even imagine why.
Once he had the ball and had taken it slightly away from Yagami to make sure it wasn't a trap she was setting up, he cautiously brought it to Yagami's side of the pitch, claiming the victory for himself. She was still not reacting, though, so he approached her again and moved a hand in front of her face.
"…Yagami-sama?" Handa asked with his usual innocent face. The unwavering warrior he had turned into minutes earlier seemed to have vanished off the face of the Earth without trace.
After a few seconds, Yagami reacted. She uncovered her face, let out a brief, confused groan and looked at her feet. There was no trace of the ball whatsoever.
She raised her gaze and saw Handa, who offered her a small smile. There was no trace of the boy she had seen either, nor of the effect he had caused on her. He was back to being the usual Handa: the same boring Handa, the same useless Handa, the same Handa that made her wonder how he had managed to win the affection of someone like Ootani. Although, somehow, part of those doubts had been clarified after playing against him face to face.
"Winner: Shinichi Handa," Hiroto announced with a wide grin. Segata charged at Handa like a kamikaze, tackling him into the ground and messing up his hair as he congratulated him with a very loud voice. Hiroto approached him as well, but he was satisfied with winking at him and giving him a thumbs up. Handa returned the gesture with difficulty as he tried to free himself from Segata's dangerous hug.
Yagami fell to the ground as well, but she didn't need anyone's help to do so. On her knees, she looked at her hands, which were still trembling, with excessively open eyes. She was trying to understand what had happened to her, but she couldn't. Ootani walked up to her and delicately gave her a helping hand.
"Confused?" She asked, offering her a tender smile. Yagami accepted her hand and huffed, for it was the only way she had of answering affirmatively at that moment. Once she was on her feet, Ootani looked at Handa. "It's not your fault; you did great. He has simply grown more than you expected."
"You say it as if you'd known from the get-go, Ootani," Yagami retorted, a little calmer already.
"I didn't know, but I suspected it." Ootani grinned even more. "I've suspected it would happen at some point for a very long time now, but I knew as soon as I saw him again today. He has improved a lot by your side, Yagami. Thank you very much." Ootani dedicated her sweet smile to the alien princess, and she couldn't help but return it.
"What happened, then? How could I possibly feel that way because of someone like…" Yagami gazed at Handa, who was still unable to get rid of Segata no matter how hard he tried. He was offering quite the pitiful show, "…him?"
"Because of his skill: Ikemen Up."
"His what." Yagami asked immediately with a completely plain voice. Ootani let out a small guffaw.
"Skills are abilities hidden within the body of certain people. Sometimes, they are innate; other times, they emerge thanks to training, like in Shinichi's case. His skill, Ikemen Up, gives him the advantage when it comes to facing women. We…" and she made a strange pause, "…freeze in front of him."
Yagami went silent for a few seconds, with a face full of extreme weariness.
"That's… pathetic."
"Well, but he beat you," Ootani laughed happily.
"…It's still pathetic. And useless, since he'll be facing a men's team."
"You might be right, but besting you under his own steam has done him much good—I know it. He has managed to defeat a rival he thought unbeatable, and knowing he can do it will give him the confidence he needs." Ootani turned towards Yagami and offered her a determined smile. "I promise your efforts won't be in vain, Yagami."
"You better be right, Ootani. Otherwise, I'll kill him with my own hands."
The sun began to get lost among the trees. Seeing how the night was already falling upon them, the group returned to the Ohisama-En.
It was late, incredibly late. Everyone was already asleep in their respective beds and futons—even night owls such as Kira and Midorikawa. Handa, self-satisfied, had dozed off right after having dinner, and Kageno and Shourin seemed to have made some progress in their own training as well, although they didn't have time to talk about it. Segata and Hiroto had decided to sleep next to Handa once more to keep him company during his last night at the Ohisama-En. Kageno and Shourin slept together in a small free room, like they had done the previous night.
Everyone was asleep, except two people.
It was late, incredibly late, but they couldn't have talked at any other hour. She was unable to subject herself to such humiliation in public, and he was, according to many, too condescending, even though he didn't even know what that word meant. She would never admit it, but she had been really looking forward to that moment all day long. He was simply content with getting to hear her voice every day, for she was very important to him. And late, incredibly late, was the only moment when they could be alone and give in.
The other person was still restless. She hadn't been able to understand the single person she had to understand and that worried her. She had studied so much to get ready for that moment, but 'one can never be ready enough,' she told herself. Despite those words, she had got tired of tossing and turning in bed and had decided that wandering about the orphanage would be more productive. Then, she saw her.
Ootani heard a very faint voice coming from the entrance to the orphanage: a voice much sweeter than she imagined, and way sweeter than her owner would have ever used in public. Holding the receiver of the phone gently, Yagami whispered. Once she had got close enough, Ootani could distinguish the voice coming from the receiver: a loud and happy-go-lucky voice that not once tried to hide its nature and echoed in the silent walls of the house. She couldn't quite hear what it said, but the tone was unmistakeable.
"Yes… Yes, I'm fine, but I don't like it when you go around talking about our secret places. That park was supposed to be only ours, idiot." Yagami talked with a gentle smile on her lips that she would have never shown had she had that person in front of her. "It's been a tough day, but I'm fine. How are you?" Happy voices echoed in the walls. "Heh… I'm glad. I knew I had nothing to worry about. Nothing bad ever happens to idiots." Yagami's smile grew even bigger, but it became slightly smaller when the person at the other end of the line talked. "Well… He has had a few problems and I got mad, but, when I think about it, he didn't do such a bad job either… I think I have been too harsh on him; he might not have deserved that. I'm very sorry…" Yagami looked down, profoundly regretful now that she had calmed down, but a few words from that person were enough to bring a smile back to her face. She opened her eyes more than usual for a few seconds, as if she were paying close attention. After that, she let out a small and very sweet laugh and continued: "You were right: he has some very interesting eyes despite appearances. He might not be the strongest, but he has something that makes him special… But it looks like he can't see it himself, and that makes him try even harder. He has a lot of spirit." The voice happily resounded in the walls again, and Yagami laughed softly upon hearing it. A few seconds later, her smile disappeared again. "Ah… No, I haven't been with your other friends—sorry. You only asked me to take care of Shin-shin, so I spent the day with him…" The sound at the other end of the line became so soft that it stopped echoing in the walls. Yagami tilted her head to the side of the receiver, leaning against that invisible voice. She smiled in a much softer way than before, but her expression was brimming with feelings that, again, she would have never shown in public. "You're welcome. I'm happy to have met him… I hope he will do better in the next place." After a few seconds, Yagami tingled from head to toes and opened her eyes wide for an instant, trying to face feelings that she still hadn't even tried to forget and that made her face shine with a reddish colour under the faint moonlight. "I-I…" She stuttered, holding onto the receiver with all of her might, squeezing it, "…love you too, Mamoru-kun…" She smiled as if she had got rid of a huge burden, laughed upon hearing the last words and hung with a melancholic 'see you tomorrow' that seemed to hurt her soul.
Tsukushi then came out of the shadows, offering Reina an understanding and friendly smile. Reina, who had noticed her presence from the very beginning, looked away.
"It's… stuff of ours," Yagami argued. Tsukushi approached her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"I know. I'm sorry—I had to borrow a page from your notebook and I couldn't help but notice," she smiled. Yagami frowned slightly out of sheer instinct, but it didn't take her long to relax her expression again. Somehow, it didn't matter to her anymore. "I don't know what might have happened between you two, but I get the feeling it's beautiful. I'm sure he would love to know you have tried to come up with a hissatsu for you two."
"…I hate myself for that. I don't get what anyone could see in an idiot like him, and despite that… I can't help but want him close. It's… difficult to explain."
"I hope you can understand what I see in Shinichi, then."
Yagami smiled.
"…I guess so."