AN: so uh late update?

yeah i dont own captain tsubasa

Chapter 17: Semifinals

They were back in the doctor's office. The doctor was having a last minute check up on his shoulder and she figured she as well tag along, seeing that he would just tell everyone that everything's fine even if the doctor told him that it was worse that.

So here she was standing in her soccer sweatshirt and pants as she waited for the doctor to finish evaluating his injuries. Her game wasn't until about 45 minutes at the other stadium. Ayame went with the boys to watch the Toho game, which was about to end if the clock in the room was right.

She noticed him flinch as the doctor pressed a point on his arm.

"Aren't you a tough guy," the doctor remarked as he put more bandages around his shoulder. "Normally, people would be screaming by now."

Tsubasa made a sideways glance at her with a teasing smirk on his face. "I can't be showing how unmanly I am before a girl, doctor."

She rolled her eyes at his statement. "Ugh, just shut up and get yourself fix."

The doctor laughed at their banter and turned towards her. "Ah you youngsters make me laugh damn much. Can you just press right here?"

"Sure thing," she answered as she pressed on the spot the doctor told her too. She felt her heart speed up again, but she ignored it because she didn't to feel like a hormonal teenager right now. She was helping him get better damnit.

"So, you guys have your semifinals too right?" he asked.

"Yup, but's not until later," she answered, careful to not get in the way of the doctor. "Akane-buchou gave me permission to see you guys and isn't expecting Ayame and me until thirty minutes before our match starts. We'll probably be gone before your guys' game starts."

"Right," he said as she separated from him. The doctor inspecting his work once again to see if he missed a spot.

"Tsubasa!" the door opened and in came the boys, Ayame walking lazily behind them.

"Toho just beat South Uwa and they're definitely in the finals," they informed him as Ayame walked to stand beside her.

"Hyuuga told me that he was expecting us in the finals," Wakabayashi added.

He smiled up to them. "Then we just have to win this match then. We can't ruin his expectations now, can we?"

"Right!" they agreed.

"Or maybe because you promised Daichi that you would play his Kojiro-nii-chan in the finals," Ayame yawned. "You just didn't want to break your promise to him."

"… And that too," Tsubasa added. "I don't really want Daichi running to me crying. It's hard making him stop."

The whole room erupted in laughter from what he said. She didn't exactly know what they mean because Daichi runs to her whenever he's so upset but she could always stop him. Weird.

"You're all set," the doctor said. "That's all I can do for you."

"Thank you, doctor," he said. "But can I ask for a favor? Can you write 'must win' right here?" he pointed at his shoulder.

"Huh," the doctor said as he got out a permanent marker. "Sure thing," he answered but then he looked at her and offered the pen to her. "But I'm sure this young lady here would be better doing it. Everything is better with love, right?" The doctor said as he gave her a wink.

"D-doctor!" she exclaimed in embarrassment as she knew that everyone in the room was giving her knowing smiles and sly smirks. She only glared at them in return.

"Alright," she sighed as she took the pen and walked closer to him. "Here?" she asked as she pointed at one spot. He nodded and she took off the cap on the marker and wrote on his bandages.

"'Absolute Victory'" he mused as he read the writings. "I thought I said 'must win'."

She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "I thought that was better."

He smiled. "You're right," he said. "It sounds way better."

She smiled back. "Now get out of here," she told the boys. "Don't make Furano and Matsuyama-kun wait. And don't show your face to me if you lose, you here?" she added teasingly. "Nankatsu is going to get both National Titles this year."

They grumbled and complained but they all went out of the room agreeing to her statement.

"I'm going ahead," Ayame called out as she went the opposite direction. "I'll meet you outside."

She nodded her head. "I'll be right behind you!"

Her cousin didn't look back, but raised her hand to tell she heard her.

That left the two of them again.

Now, the awkward silence start. Well, maybe on her part. She remembered what she did when they were last alone to together and she just wanted to hide herself under a rock just reminding herself of what she did.

How fuck did she even have the courage to just ran up to him and hug him?

"So," she started as she played with her sweatshirt's drawstrings. "Take care out there, okay?"

"I will," he said. They stared at each other for a long time, neither of them speaking. She thought she needed to say something but, she couldn't find what to say.

"I, um," she played with the hem of her sweatshirt this time. "I better go. Ayame's probably getting irritated by now and we need to be with the others soon."

"Oh, uh, sure," he replied as he scratch the back of his neck.

"I'll see you guys later," she said as she turned around to walk out of the stadium.

"Sanae-chan!" she heard him call out to her. She turned back to him and watched as he looked to be contemplating something.

"I- good luck out there," he finally decided to say.

She smiled at him. "Hey, don't worry about us," she assured, "I told you, didn't I? Nankatsu would be bringing both National Titles home this year. We'll be fine."

That made him smile. "You're right," he nodded. "We will definitely win both Nationals."

She smiled even wider. "And you better believe it," she said.

She gave him one last wave before she finally left. They both knew that both of their teams would try their hardest to make that come true.

She might be going to worry for them in this match, but for now she has a game to win.

Their match from Furano ended quite splendidly, and he had fun throughout the whole game. Matsuyama and his team were great opponents. They gave it everything they got, which gave them all a hard time getting a goal. He knew that they were hard workers and he respected them for it. Their team got along quite well. Though, it seemed they were already buddies since junior high when the guys competed with the first years of Furano High. Their first year manager also seemed to be great friends with Sanae so that might also helped build their friendship. She was quite the friendly person.

The guys and the others from Furano even had a contest on whose good luck charms were better, considering they were wearing headbands around their heads. They said it was made by their manager, Fujisawa-san. It was supposed to be her way showing her support.

"That's awesome guys," Taki remarked. "But we have one too. See," he took her pendant from under his shirt, showing it off for the guys in Furano. "I think ours is better."

"I- I don't you should have said that Taki-kun," he chided lightly. "That's a little bit rude."

"Are you telling me you're embarrassed by Anego's charm?" Taki asked disbelievingly. All his other friends seemed to have the same reaction as Taki and even the senpai-tachi seemed to be expecting his answer.

Oh shit.

"W-what? No! I'm not embarrassed by it! I'm even wearing it ri-"

"How could you? When she worked so hard to make this for us. Oh, wait until she finds out about this."

"Guys!"

"'Anego Boys'?" one of the players from Furano scoffed after he read the writing on the charm. "What kind of name is that?"

"Guys," Mastsuyama chastised his teammates, "don't be li-"

"Don't make fun of Anego's hard work!" Kisugi defended. "She poured all her blood, sweat, and tears making this!"

"But didn't Anego say this didn't take long for her to make?" Misaki, who stood between him and Wakabayashi, whispered to the both of them. Wakabayashi gave Misaki a look that conveyed, "the fuck should I know?"

"Oh yeah?" the members of Furano challenged. "Well, Fujisawa worked on our headbands all night long! She worked hard making them, and they are better than your stupid charms!"

"Guys!" Matsuyama scolded. "Don't say that about Nakaza-"

"Well, I would like to know that I've been wearing this charm for more than three years now, therefore it is so much better," Izawa finally joined in. "I'm not going to let that insult slide."

"Well, we're not letting that insult to Fujisawa's hard work slide either!"

"Oh yeah? Bring it then?"

"You're on!"

They could only watch in exasperation and sigh in defeat as their teammates glared at each other.

"Why are we friends with such idiots?" Wakabayashi asked as he shook his head.

"Just let them be," Misaki said, "Anego does have a big part in their lives. They have a lot of respect for her and can't stand anyone badmouthing her."

Wakabayashi only sighed again as he chuckled. He turned towards Matsuyama, who also looked exasperated by his teammates.

"Sorry about them," he apologized to Matsuyama. "They just get a little overboard when it comes to Sanae-chan."

"Me too," Matsuyama turned to him with an apologetic smile. "Fujisawa's been with us as long as Nakazawa-san is to them. Overprotective doesn't even begin to describe them when it comes to Fujisawa."

"Yeah, same here," he agreed, then his eyes went towards the headband on the other guy's head. "The headband looks great by the way. You can see Fujisawa-san really did work hard on it."

"Thank you," Matsuyama said as he felt for the headband. "The charm Nakazawa-san made looks cool too. She definitely made it with all her heart. Where is she by the way? I don't seem to her around or hear her for that matter."

"Oh, she's at her own semifinals at another stadium," he answered, unconsciously feeling the charm under his shirt.

"Oh yeah, the girls did have the Nationals the same times as us," he remarked.

"Yeah," he said.

Then Matsuyama gave him a challenging smile. "So about the good luck charms," he started. "Why don't we settle that on the field? Though I'm sure Fujisawa's headband will help us win this match.

"Maybe," he said in a smug smile. "But these charms carry Sanae-chan's unending support and we're definitely not putting it to waste."

Matsuyama offered his hand for him to shake. "May the best charm win?"

Tsubasa shook his hand. "Yes."

Well, they won the match, but he didn't get to talk to Matsuyama-kun after that. He rushed off out of the stadium. Apparently Fujisawa-san was leaving for France on that same day and Matsuyama-kun had something to tell her.

He wasn't one to pry so he didn't ask any more about it. Besides, his friends dragged him towards the other stadium where the girls were supposed to be playing. Apparently if they run fast enough, they could make it to the beginning of their overtime. They didn't even bother changing and just bolted out of their stadium as fast as they could. Wakabayashi-kun grumbled along the way, but he was running as fast as the other guys.

He didn't want to admit, but he wanted to see her play again, even if just for a small while.

They arrived to see their other friends holding out the banner, but they all had concerned expression on their faces. They turned to where they were looking and saw both her and Ayame having people wrap one of their legs in athletic tape. Those two girls didn't seem to look concerned at all as they chatted animatedly with their coach.

"What happened?" Taki asked as they moved towards their friends.

"Anego and Ayame landed horribly as they tried to battle for the ball in the air just before the second half ended. They wanted to at least score another goal in the last minute but that happened instead," Morisaki explained. He left in their second half to watch the girls' half instead.

He turned towards her, and watched as she pulled up her socks back up her knees, covering the tape. The speaker announced that extra time would start shortly and the two girls stood up, grabbing onto Shiori's hands who offered them.

"Anego!" His friends shouted.

She turned around to face them and he couldn't understand how in the world she could look so unconcerned over her injury.

"Oh hey," she greeted them with a huge smile. "You guys finally had your match done? Did you guys win like I wanted?"

"Yeah," Kisugi answered. "But that's not what I wanted to ask about? How's your leg? Are you alright?"

"Oh that?" she gestured to her right leg, "Don't worry about it. It's not that bad. You know those Toho girls. They don't ever want to lose."

"They had to wrap you in athletic tape!"

"Which I can take off right after the match," she rebutted. "I'm telling I'll be fine. It's not as bad as Tsubasa-kun's. Which, by the way," then she turned to him, "how's the shoulder?"

"It throbbed, a little," he said.

"We had to go back to the doctor after the second half," Wakabayashi told her bluntly. Tsubasa gave his friend a dirty look.

"Tsubasa-kun," she gave him a small glare.

"What?" he tried to defend himself. "We won in the end. Besides, aren't you injured yourself?"

She sighed and shook her head. "We'll talk about this later. Yes, even my injury. But I have to go, I have some Toho butt to kick."

Unluckily, there was a nearby Toho player getting out of their bench area and into the field.

"I heard that," she retorted as she walked past Sanae.

Sanae turned to her with a cheeky smile. "What are you going to do about it, Asaki?" she asked.

"Kick your ass back," she answered as she continued to back, not even looking back to her. "You should start going to the field. The whistle's about to ring."

Sanae replied by sticking her tongue out at the Toho player.

"Well, you heard the queen," she said teasingly. "I'll see you guys later."

They called out well wishes to her as she ran back to the field. He knew his friends were worried about her. He was quite worried as well. But seeing her laugh and smile with Ayame and another girl from Toho, he thought that maybe they didn't have to worry.

It's her they were talking about.

If she said that it's no problem, then it was no problem. She would definitely win them the game, whether the injury was severe or not

The whistle blew again, starting the game and she ran.

His breath hitched.

She looked very beautiful with those little wings.

End Chapter

AN: heh, oh Tsubasa what are we going to do with you? At least Matsuyama can admit his feelings for Yoshiko (i might be a tsubasaxsanae fan, but damn matsuyamaxyoshiko ship is beautiful). Also i think the Furano players were quite fond of Yohsiko. They did willingly put on the headband without any complaints and thought it was cool. So them comparing whose thing was better was quite cute in my head, i dont know about you guys. There's also this tiny piece of my mind that Tsubasa (when he finally man up and asks Sanae as his girlfriend), Matsuyama, and Misugi would be having this weird rivalry about whose girlfriend cares more about them, in a totally passive-aggressive way. They're such dorks for their girls.

Anyway, that's it for now! Thanks for reading and please review. See you next chapter (its huge)