Hello!

Sorry for the silence! I've been sick. Nothing very nice. But now it's over *yay*


/Steel tower plaza was it, right?"/ Meiko thought bored. Right after school she went there. She didn't even really know why. Maybe she wanted to talk to Endou, maybe she wanted to apologize, even though she didn't knew for what. Maybe she just wanted to see him. It had been years that she saw him playing soccer and she was eager to know if he had changed in any kind of way. But until now she had seen nothing. Because there was nothing. She had been alone on the plaza for at least an hour, sitting on the top of the stairs up to the tower and she began to get really bored. She wondered if it just had been a bad idea. If she should just go home now. But than a boy with platinum blond hair walked absent-mindedly past her, looking at the scenery of the city.

"Gouenji Shuya ..." she mumbled to herself, low enough so he wouldn't hear her. Suddenly a shock went through her body, she jumped up and hid herself behind an information sign next to the stairs. Her heart raced. She had seen a familiar goalkeeper coming up to the tower. When she heard a cheerful voice she startled. It felt so weird. She had wanted to see him, but she couldn't control herself. She hadn't talked with him for years. At least not alone. There had always been someone who could give her the feeling of distance. Thinking about talking to him without that distance made her feel uncomfortable. They had been something like friends in kindergarten but since than they had never talked again and she didn't know how Endou was thinking about her. Did he consider her a friend? Did he not care for her at all? If she talked to him like he was a friend, would he think she was rude since they were not? And if she talked to him like they were strangers, would he feel hurt because he thought they were friends? Meiko didn't know what to do. In her imagination she could only do bad and that wasn't a good point to start from.

She listened to Endou talking something about Gouenji playing no more soccer. She sighted. Not this again, she thought. Did that guy only have soccer in his head?

"You sure talk a lot" She heard the platinum haired boy say. Than something about becoming the best soccer team if Gouenji joined from Endou. But the striker refused.

"Than why did you kick the ball yesterday?!" She heard Endou yell. She couldn't understand the rest. Silently she waited for a sound she could identify, but there were just some weird noises. Slowly she crawled to the edge of the sign too look what was going on. Gouenji was nowhere to be seen. Instead there was just Endou, having a tire bound to his back, swinging a tire that was attached with a rope on a tree. When the tire swung back to him, Endou tried to catch it. The girls jaw dropped. That tire looked heavy. Plus he had extra weight on his back that grounded him but certainly was a burden too. When the tire met the boys hand you could see just how much strength it costed Endou to not get pushed away by it. It didn't surprise her much that he was actually thrown over. She chuckled low enough for him not to hear. Of course he couldn't catch it. What did he think? A low-class player like him could have never done that. Her gaze was set on him. He stood up, got himself in position and swung the tire again. Meiko was irritated. Once again the boy was thrown over. Still he stood up again and swung the tire again. Was that boy insane? Didn't he get that that was just too much for him? She starred at him, trying and trying again. She was sure Endou was mad. The only thing he got from that were bruises. And they wouldn't help fighting Teikoku.

"They are merciless." She could hear Katematsu say. A shiver run down her spine. Would they crush that boy? That boy that was mindlessly wrecking his own body? Would they laugh at him? Would they show him just how weak he was? And would he stand up again? Would he laugh it of with his famous grin?

Meiko could feel her heart starting to race. The sound of the rope stretching, the tire meeting with Endous body, his collision with the ground and his heavy breath. It was music in her ear. The excitement rose inside her. She felt something she couldn't describe. Her eyes couldn't lose the soccer freak as if he had cast a spell on her. Again and again he swung the tire. Again and again he was thrown over. Again and again he stood up to try again.

The sun slowly sunk and the girl still sat in silence, watching the soccer boy when suddenly a yellow light appeared around the boy as he tried to catch the tire again. Meiko leaned forward, standing on the ground with her knees and her hands. He was going to hold it. He really was going to make it. Excitement and joy overcame her. So maybe he was right for trying? Maybe she was wrong for doubting him.

No. She was right. Like the countless times before, he couldn't withstand the pressure of the tire. She sighted. How could it have been different?

"That's some messy special training." a teal haired boy ripped her out of her trance. She blushed furiously and crawled back behind the information sign. What the hell was she doing? She shouldn't watch Endou fail the whole time. She was wasting her time. Instead she should have practised herself. Her training fell out rather short today. But she was sure surprised to see Kazemaru Ichirota visiting the soccer boy. She had known that those two had some kind of connection but hadn't the sprinter got better things to do than visit the idiot? When she looked at the two boys again, seeing that Endou showed Kazemaru the notebooks of his grandfather, a strange feeling overcame her. She knew those books. She had seen them some times when she was little. It felt so nostalgic seeing them from afar. But she felt the urge to see them up-close. She wanted to see the scribbles and smell the old paper. A shiver went over her spine. She was freaked out by herself. First she spied on the soccer boy from behind a sign and than she got such weird feelings from seeing him and that notebook. She felt like a stalker. It was so weird. She didn't even know Endou that good. If she thought back, they played two or three times but it hadn't been a deep friendship. She felt that just being here was ridiculous.

She buried her face in her hands.

"You're serious about defeating Teikoku, huh?" Meikos heartbeat increased again. The teal haired boy had dared to ask the question that was burning up in her. She didn't know Teikoku, no, but if Katematsu said they were a serious threat than they couldn't be to easy to defeat. Actually she had seen a little terror overcoming her captain as he told her about that strange team. And in that moment a bit of concern had overcome her. Was that why she had come here? Was that what she wanted to talk with Endou about? She didn't knew herself.

"Yeah." She looked up. He was serious? But … he couldn't! He would need training. And a lot of that! But there was nowhere where he could train. Except for here. Or maybe down at the riverbank. But he needed all the time he could get, including the school time. And they wouldn't get any of the fields there. Just what was he thinking, going into such a serious fight without preparations?

"I'll join you and that spirit of yours." Meiko dared to look at the boys again. The sprinter and the goalie shock hands. "I'm joining. What about you guys?" Her heart stopped. Was she found out? Oh no! What should she say? How could she defend herself? How could she act as if she was not doing what she actually had been doing? She tried to think of something, but her head was empty all of the sudden. She was screwed.


To be very honest, I don't like the chapter. I actually want the story to not have a lot of the original episodes in it (like, litteraly) but for this chapter I felt the need to do it because it's important to understand Meiko. So ... yeah. Next chapter is going to be better. Probably.

I actually also have completly typed out the next two chapters of "Matter of the heart" ... on a typewriter ... and I'm to lazy to type it out again ... sorry ...