Akari: Believe me, I'm trying to update as fast as I can, but I was too caught up. Recently bought Inazuma Eleven Go VS Danball Senki W the movie. God, the movie was spectacular and poor Fran. That is when I learned about Level 5 in charge of another anime. Danball Senki W! I didn't bother watching season 1, so I watch the second season because of Hiro's debut :3
Hiro is so cute! And I don't want to here any criticism from anyone saying that "You love Shirou, how dare you love another!" or "You have no right to earn his love!" or blah blah. Yeah, I get! But different anime have different characters, so it's fine to just like more than one, sheesh.
And these characters do not belong to us anyway! We're just fangirling! So I watched the entire second season and avoid the third one -_-" Anyway, hope you guys enjoy this chapter!
You're not alone
Chapter 8: Endless Battle, Yearn For Forgiveness
"Fubuki-kun, what's on the menu?" Natsumi asked, clearly delighted to have been left in charge of cooking with Fubuki, while Aki and Haruna went to buy groceries at a nearby convenient store. They were running out of food supply and weren't make it over the week, fortunately they remained in Kyoto a little longer to settle the issue with Epsilon.
From what Fubuki had learned from the team, Natsumi's cooking could have a taste of hell. From the briny onigiri to the overcooked fried rice. He recalled how terrified were the team when he informed Aki and Haruna they would go retrieved the ingredients and Natsumi were to help him in making breakfast. Nonetheless, he had shrugged off their horrified looks as a sign that everything would go through smoothly as long as he was watching her. Besides, how bad could she be?
On the other part, the caravan's kitchen was pretty spectacular with the utensils and it looked like it was required for the school's home economics class. The knifes were new and never have been used, cutting boards were cleaned off of scratches or scars, the rice cooker was probably used a dozen of times and the bowls, plates and other implements were arranged according to their specific order.
"How about miso soup," Fubuki said. Natsumi nodded, determined. "Looks like this is your first time making miso soup, so I'll go slow." Seeing that instant materials these days weren't healthy at all, Fubuki had woken up early into getting ready the ingredients and made the dashi along the process. "First, let's start with heating up the dashi." He grabbed the pot from inside one of the cupboards below the drawer and placed it onto the stove, pouring in the dashi slowly and later turning on the stove with the fire set just above the orange mark.
"Next, soak the wakame." As told, Natsumi dumped a heavy amount of it into the bowl and covered it with water. Reading Natsumi's stare on him, he pointed to the black seaweed, "Wakame is a sea vegetable or edible seaweed. The reason why we're making miso soup because wakame contains one of the highest nutrients in the entire vegetable source. Calcium, iodine, thiamine and niacin are within these. It also helps blood purification and intestinal strength. We soak them in water in order to expand and soften the wakame before dipping them into the dashi."
"Our next step would be melting the miso." Fubuki poured a few scoops of dashi in it and gave it to Natsumi to stir. "Dashi helps to melt the miso. Make sure the miso is dissolved before you add in to the pot." Natsumi nodded and stirred the bowl dumbly with inexperienced fingers, but Fubuki was patient. When the miso was liquified, earning a nod from Fubuki, Natsumi emptied out the contents into the dashi and stirred.
"Good," Fubuki commented. "Our next step is cutting the tofu."
Sparing a glance at the knife, the light gleaming at the edge, Natsumi internally shivered at the thought of actually holding a knife. Her parents never let her handled kitchen contraptions and sharp objects were kept away from her. In the end, Fubuk ended up finishing with the procedure, he didn't want Natsumi to suffer from getting a cut and freak out from bleeding. "I'm sorry," she apologized, blushing at the embarrassment, "I've never associated with anything harmful in my life or actually do some easy chores until I became Raimon's manager."
"It's okay," Fubuki said. "Just look at me." Rubbing his fingers over the wakame that had expanded, he gave a satisfied look and have it dipped into the dashi. The heat had been turned down as splashes or light-orange jumped. Letting the fire did it's job, he waited awhile longer before turning off the heat completely. Pouring a bit onto the tiny food taster plate, he tried it and smiled. Perfect. He turned to Natsumi, "And that's how you make miso soup. Would you mind serving them to the guys while I'll clean up?"
Natsumi nodded and took off with the pot in hand. Fubuki smiled to himself at her childish impression. No matter how mature she characterized herself as, everyone's heart will always have a soft spot within them. Finishing with the dishes, he made his way out and found the team setting their bowls on top of the table while taking a seat, smiles on their faces. The meals were professionally applied with cut spring onions and garnish in each bowl.
What the next thing he predicted was unexpected, the atmosphere had grown heavier as the team started hacking or had their faces twisted in an ugly manner.
"Fubuki, I thought you made it with Natsumi?!" Someoka rasped, nearly choking at his own breath.
Fubuki placed his hand onto his chin. "I did. I even tasted it."
"Then, how?!" Domon choked out, his voice losing.
"Will all of you quiet down. It's delicious, so stop complaining," Shana said, pouring another bowl for herself.
"Shana, that's enough! You don't have to—"
"I weren't bother to take seconds if it was life threatening," Shana interrupted Someoka. She pointed to all of their bowls and said, "If Fubuki is in charge of cooking and was watching over Natsumi, nothing can come out wrong with the dish. Natsumi," she said to Natsumi, who in turn, stumbled at her call, "try preparing the meal once more, think you might have gone wrong somewhere around there."
Natsumi nodded weakly. Pouring another bowl, the team squinted their eyes and watched her fingers rubbing and spreading tiny bits over the miso soup she'd served.
"What is she doing?" Kurimatsu asked.
"Maybe she's adding salt…" Ichinose trailed off, his eyes went wide. "What is that?!"
Natsumi looked at the serving with confused eyes. "What do you mean 'what is that'? It's vitamin... and protein…"
Beats of sweat rolled down their brows. "Who would put vitamin and protein tablets in meals?"
"Wait, you don't?" Natsumi asked, withdrawn by the comment.
Shana casted her deadly violet eyes around, amused by the amount of audience around the school's compound. On one side of the field, Manyuuji's soccer club members gathered and waited for Epsilon's arrival. The other side was Raimon observing from the sidelines, patiently and somewhat had a small amount of their hairs standing up. Unlike Hakuren, the student population here went below the charts of average numbers, she couldn't blame them. The school itself was a dormitory educational institution that provides a place to live and food by their paid finances, but in return, the lack of presence and interaction between parent and child.
Today would be the deciding match and the end of it. If they win, humanity would be saved and all answers will be written down in history, nothing allowed Raimon to lose in this match. A disturbing feeling crossed her mind, the air dropped and breathing became hard. The sky engulfed into darkness as the colour of sky-blue vanished along the progress, bright-green leaves hauled out from the intense wind, hairs stood straighter and paralysed, the fishes that were visible swam out of sight and that driven Shana on edge—not that she would ever displayed it in front of anyone, but it still bothered her how vigorous could their aspect be.
Even standing in a distance away with a patch of grass under her feet, branches of needle leaves above, an old trunk beside her, she could feel they're coming. Black shaded clouds attracted to a point and spiralled around before a pillar of light blasted down onto the pitch. Her eyes burned from the blinding light as she withdrew, an arm sheltering her eyes as they narrowed slightly. Once the light cleared, she closed her eyes as the discussion with Epsilon begun and from the atmosphere the crowd was admitting, the negotiation didn't go as planned by Manyuuji.
How Kageta refrained from having a battle and rejected their demand, how Fukumi cursed and shouted at Epsilon with screwed-up phrases, how the Tenjin twins organized themselves in well-mannered positions in terms of serving the purpose of the school's motto that was said to change four years ago during the Football Frontier, how the current captain, Kakita, stood by and listened to their so called 'deliberation' when Desarm appeared to be transfixed mostly on Raimon rather than them, how few minutes of silence had hampered into screams and gasps, how the other intact part of the school crumbled before her eyes as they reflected like a mirror, how provoked and resentful and furious were the members of Manyuuji, everything disappeared like dusts being swept away by the wind. Because she knew that the real battle
starts now.
She looked over her shoulder. Fubuki sat on the grass, had his legs propped up half-way to his chest, hands wrapping around below his knees and simply stared at the events unfolding before them. His eyes voided of any emotion and had a hint of torment in them, what led a frown on her face was the thin line he made. His lightish yellow shirt seemed to have dulled under the shade of the tree and somehow took up the meaning of the dark shorts he was wearing. His pale skin got paler and shone without the support of light, his spiky white hair had people thinking he might have covered it up with snow or was born to be someone special that inherited unstained or uncontaminated features, his baby bluish-grey eyes were off and now wondered over the boundary of repentant and wretchedness. His wolf ears had one standing straight up while the other one hunched down, his tail lay sprawled beside him as it dipped in the soft consistency of nature.
She approached him, zoning out the cries in the middle of the match and the defeated. She didn't care for any of them, the ones who rejected his offer to help, the ones who criticized him yet he wasn't at fault, but everything wasn't her decision to decide, it all comes to the team's. She stopped beside him, a hand resting on her hips. "So, what's your next move?"
He leisurely stood up and sighed. "With Megane being unable to play, we'll just have to go with ten players." What bad luck they had, but it was the same thing with or without Megane, they were at the disadvantage.
"Alright, let's go." Shana said, leading the way as she strode past Fubuki. Leaving the patch of grass that confined nature, now entering a total different dimension. Everyone's attention were on her and eyes of expectation, fear and submission gawked at her, her partner wasn't any different at the treatment. "Looks like you've made up your decision," she said to Endou who gave a determined nod.
"What decision?" Kurimatsu asked. Then a thought occurred to him. "W—wait, you don't mean we're playing with only ten of us?!"
"What? No! I don't want to!" Kabeyama shrieked. "I'm going to need a toilet break. If you would excuse me-"
"Care to repeat that again," Shana growled and sent a glare, leaving his body frozen up in fear.
"Do you guys have any better idea?" Endou retorted to his teammates. "We can't allow Aliea Academy to do what they want." He brought his fist onto his other palm. "We need to end it right here and now. Stalling time won't help. We need answers and the fastest way to do that is to face the main core of all of this madness."
"Not the easiest way though," Kazemaru said, earning a moping Endou. He turned to Fubuki and asked, "Any idea?"
Fubuki shook his head. "There is one—"
"No," Shana cut him off. She knew too very well of his answer to that question.
Fubuki rolled his eyes.
"We're not letting you play as the eleventh member. You don't know how much of a risk we're putting you in the match, we'll be walking right into their trap while they sit there and waiting to collect their prize. I don't care how we're going to win this match, but no way are you going out there and that's final." Shana sighed when she saw a bit of hurt in his eyes. Seriously, she couldn't tell whether he was pretending or not. She softened and ruffled his ears. "You still can help us in your way. Collect data while our matches are going and make use of those eyes of yours, just inform us if anything dangerous is coming. Remember the promise your former teammates made with you and I especially don't want to hear your brother come complaining to me when you get captured or dissected. That guy already pisses me off and you know very well that both of us don't get along too well." She grabbed his shoulders and gave him a smile that she had only given to him or Sayaka. "More importantly, you're doing this for me. I don't want you to suffer any more than this."
It took less than a minute for the words to sink in, but he understood. "Alright, but we're still lacking one player."
"Kogure. He's a member of the soccer team and quite troublesome. He seems to think that everyone around him is an enemy." Fubuki rose an eyebrow. "He is placed on reserves for the time being, but I don't blame his mischievous acts. Apparently, he was betrayed by his parents when he was young and left him. We picked him up from the train station and took him in until he is ready to walk his own path, but with how his personality going on like this, i'm troubled that that day won't come. Pranking everyone once in awhile out of revenge and resorting into disturbing training if we unintentionally anger him."
Woken up from his sea of regrets, he slowly registered his words and smiled. He admired how Nijimura learned to read the entire atmosphere and knew how to drop the subject if needed. "Well, isn't that far more interesting for the better. After all, fate isn't predictable nor controllable."
Haruna looked trouble at the team, but what could she do, but managed the drinks and towels?
"Kaa-san left me at the train station while she left to grab something. I waited the whole time, but she never came back. She betrayed me and left without a single word." His eyes dead and lifeless and he looked far away from a distance that she couldn't quite reached it. He was deep in thought and Haruna respected his ordeal, the stinging in her chest was lifted and she knew both of them were happy to have shared their stories instead of keeping hold of it.
"Kaa-san wanted to get rid of me and she got what she wanted," he shrugged, as if he didn't care about what he felt back then and she knew he had moved on. "That's why I find it hard to trust anyone else. I thought that pranking them would ease my pain, but it only made things worst when they finally gave up and forced me into cleaning the school instead of soccer practice." He knew that tricking his teammates into traps and messing up their training were wrong, but he did it out of attention. He never wanted to be left behind to scrape up things while they got the fun.
"I don't think they hate you," Haruna said. Both of their eyes finally locking onto each other. "Sooner or later, you'll know their true intentions."
Haruna stood up and extended a hand towards him. "Nice to meet. My name is Haruna. Otonashi Haruna."
He took her hand with a small smile. "Kogure Yuuya."
Before Fubuki could speak, Haruna pushed Fubuki out of the way, inducing a yelp from him as he fell while the others sweat-dropped from her rough action. "I believe I know someone!"
"Fubuki, you're okay?" Shana asked, helping him out.
"Ee—eh…" Fubuki managed to crack a smile. "Just a little dizzy…"
Shana looked at Haruna and growled, "Oi, you violent—"
"I believe I know someone," Haruna repeated, her fists clenched together, looking at Endou.
"Don't ignore me!" Shana snapped and soon, she had her teeth bared like a dog's as she glared pointedly at Haruna.
Raimon backed away and noted her demonic aura spilling out, but Haruna still had her eyes sparkled and continued, "It's Kogure-kun!"
"Kogure-kun?" Endou echoed.
"He's a reserved member for Manyuuji's soccer club. I haven't checked his states, but something's bound to change if he joins," Fubuki said, still having one arm held by Shana to steady himself. "There must be something behind his removal from the starter position. If you guys remember, his movements aren't just basics you get from regular training."
"So, how do we get this guy to join us?" Domon asked, rubbing the back of his head. "The match is going to start in a few minutes and by the looks of it, Epsilon doesn't seem too happy about waiting and Manyuuji are helpless at the moment. The match just finished six minutes ago. Any more than waiting will result the destruction of the entire school of Manyuuji."
"Then we just have to play without him for the first half," Endou said. "Let's just hope that he'll come by the second half."
"Hi, thank you so much for waiting soccer fans! Right now we will commence the match between Raimon and Aliea Academy's first rank team, Epsilon! As of foretold by Epsilon's goalkeeper, Desarm, the match will be," Kakuma sucked in a breath, "ending in three minutes!" Raimon gasped as Desarm gave them a devilish smirk. "And that's the final condition of this match. Now, let's move on! Oh, what's this?! With Megane out of the pitch, Raimon will only be playing with ten members! Will this ruin the formation for Raimon?"
"Three minutes?" Endou gritted his teeth together.
"What should we do, Fubuki-san?" Haruna asked frantically, panicking at the time limit given.
"Wait, I'm looking into it," Fubuki said. He sat on the bench and crossed his arms around his chest. His eyes aimed at the right side of the field where Epsilon positioned themselves as lines withdrew out from all the body joints and muscles from top to bottom, numbers and icons started materializing from it. Their readings returned back to the way it was. He narrowed his eyes and tried to focus on their chests whether he could spot the same crystal shaped object that hid their weaknesses or any crimson warning that might appeared, but nothing came out. With this distance, I can't find anything. He deactivated scan and rubbed his eyes from exhaustion of using it.
He turned to Hitomiko and shook his head. "Sorry, I can't find anything different from this distance." Hitomiko nodded and turned back to the field. He knew that the only way to figure out was to go nearer and examine them in a better angle, but that would mean going through with it again.
Desarm grinned when the smaller teen submitted into his hold. Fubuki took heavy breaths from the earlier torture as Desarm loosened up a bit. "Fubuki Shirou, Otou-san requests for your presence. I would very much like for you to cooperate with us, unless you want trouble?" Unbeknown to himself, he had unintentionally activated scan. Lines, numbers and icons appeared, but for some particular reason, it was… uncomfortable.
The closeness they were in and how Fubuki felt powered over by the aura admitting from the said teen. He never felt this close before to the power that gave the aliens the upper hand and his scan had drilled down into the very core. His body grew weak, he began swaying when Desarm had released him awhile ago. Black spots clouded his vision as he dropped his head slowly. Darkness slowly crept from each side of the screen. The last thing he'd saw was an extra line in red being added on Desarm's chest as a crystal shape glowed. Numbers and icons kept flashing in similar red materialized on the line.
"It's time for the kickoff!"
Beep!
Kidou took the ball up front with Someoka tailing beside him. If they planned to finish this within three minutes, then expecting Kogure to come by that easily had the percentage lowered around one or two percent. The only option visible in his mind was winning this game with or without the kid. If they were twice as smart and stronger than Gemini Storm, everything comes down into outsmarting the enemy. They didn't need to worry about their defense as Shana was appointed there, but offense was indeed important.
Less than few yards later, he was marked by the female forward with her hair tied into two large circular-looking discs that resembled flowers or the head of an electrical fan. The yellow clippers that held her dark turquoise in place looked like a screw while her white highlights took up the shape of the wings of a propeller. He met her teal eyes in a showdown and the grin that grazed her lips. He tried breaking through from her tight defense and mindful for a fact that giving any openings to her would be writing his own death wish. He brought the ball to the right and left, but he knew that her eyes were on the ball with sharped assiduousness.
Her eyes followed his movements perfectly and for a moment, she thought he would have charged right through her until the ball moved faster than it's usual pace and that shocked her. "Illusion Ball!" The ball doubled over each other and flew around the strategist as she tried to pinpoint the location of the actual ball.
Taking advantage of the situation, Kidou dribbled past said girl as she flailed around, screaming, "Maquia hates man like you!"
Kidou had a beat of sweat rolled down his cheeks. Although I'm only fourteen. "Ichinose!"
"Nice pass," Ichinose commented with a grin when the ball landed accurately to his feet. Closing in on the goal, two defenders retreated away, giving him a clear path for him toward the goal. Why? He saw Desarm smirked at him. "Still acting tough?" he mumbled, smiling. He summersaulted backwards and spun on his hands, wind churning around his form and finally disappeared behind a tornado of silvery cyclone. "Spinning," he chanted, the wind bringing the ball up in the air, the tornado subsided as Ichinose kicked the ball, "Shoot!" A blast of yellow and orange surrounded the ball as it travelled toward Desarm. Desarm held up a hand as the ball slammed into his hand, erupting into smoke.
Endou raised a fist. "Yosh! That should do it! One point!"
"He did it!" Haruna exclaimed.
Shana tipped her head slightly lower, her glare hardened toward the smoke, her shoulders stiffened. Something's not right, it's too easy.
Stealing a glance at the scoreboard, Fubuki reverted back to the smoke with his arms crossed over his chest. The whistle hasn't blown yet.
The smoke twistied and turned around each other, fading away and beneath all of that stood Desarm, tossing the ball up playfully, mocking everyone with his signature smirk.
"Spinning Shoot doesn't make the goal! It's still down to a tie between the two! Who will take the lead," Kakuma shouted, the microphone clicked at volume of his voice.
"I guess we need Someoka," Ichinose mumbled.
For the first minute of the match, Epsilon was playing with Raimon. They were like puppets attached to strings by the puppeteer that moved them. Plainly tugging at one another and finally, the strings snapped off with them hanging on the last thread of survival. If this single strand split, it only means certain demise. Shana wasn't please at all, defense were firmed around her with at least three person marking her—sometimes four—prohibiting her for a countermeasure or stopped the ball from scoring. Someoka had tried scoring with his evolved and now newly Wyvern Crash, but was effortlessly blocked by a single hand.
Haruna clasped her hands together. "If only we had Kogure-kun, then…"
"Looking for me?"
Haruna recoiled from the smaller teen beside her. "Kogure-kun! Where have you been all this time?"
"Waiting."
"Can you go—" Her sentence was cut off when she observed him carefully. He wore a light-yellow T-shirt, blue sleeves and collar, fitted along blue shorts, but what centred her attention the most was the symbol imbedded to his left chest that she knew all too well. The word repeated in her head as she smiled. "Thank you."
"Don't get this the wrong way," Kogure scowled, looking away. "I'm just returning the favour. Most of all, I don't want to see my school fall."
Beep! "Goal! That's the fifth goal for Aliea Academy! Someoka's Wyvern Crash has proved to be useless towards Epsilon's goalkeeper, Desarm! With Shana marked by four to five players each second, the goals are increasing! The score is 5-0 in Aliea Academy's favour. Raimon has requested a new formation with a new member joining!" He flipped through the tiny little book that he kept all this time. "Kogure Yuuya will be taking Shana's position in defense while Shana will be moving up to a forward with Someoka! One minute left on the clock! Will Shana be able to make a turn around with this?"
"Looks like you finally decided to show up," Someoka grinned.
"Don't look so happy that we're behind five goals," Shana repulsed, glaring at Someoka who flinched. "You're lucky that Epsilon didn't demand Fubuki to be handed over to them if they've won or you'll be the first one to taste my wrath!"
Someoka held up both hands in capitulation, trying to calm the fuming blunette down. "I know, I get it!"
Beep!
"Don't think that having the full team here will make any difference," Desarm said, frowning. "Nothing will change. Just surrender."
"There is a difference," Endou grinned, slapping his palms together in a clap, earning a raised eyebrow from Epsilon's captain. "Now that we're completed, we can do anything!"
Without a word, Desarm tossed the ball to one of his defenders, Moll. She accepted the pass and eased through Someoka before passing to Swarm. He grinned, revealing his teeth as he sneakily bypassed Raimon's defense. He chuckled when up facing with Ichinose. "You cannot beat me even if you try. The plants say: without the green, brown is utterly useless."
"Isn't it the other way around?" Ichinose countered, smirking when the other glared at him through his green bushy hair. With a charge, Ichinose stole the ball, but loses it to Zel. "Shit," Ichinose cursed under his breath.
"You're still a hundred years too early to beat us," Zel remarked. "I'll make sure you go crying to your mama!" The ball was lifted off the ground with purplish-black congregating around the ball, solidifying the substantial vibration needed. "Ganymede," he said, drawing back his hands and flung to the ball, "Proton!" From Epsilon's side of the field, the ball was hurled toward Endou with related colour trailing behind it. The ball flew past their heads as they ducked out of the way, even his own teammates were frightened by his sudden shot.
"Endou!" Kidou shouted.
Endou got ready in his position, palms out. Then looked up and realized Kogure was in the way of the ball.
Kogure stood still for a second, drowning in the cries toward his temporary captain and later switched to him. He was in the way, where the bullet was speeding here, at this very spot. He looked ahead and the ball terrified him, but he weren't move or run. It was time for him to step up for once. Always hiding behind someone's back and doing tricks and setting up traps for attention, always finding hard to trust someone, but he wanted to change for himself and… her.
He took a step back.
The girl who had coincidentally found him by the play, during the flashback of one of the scenes; the girl who had chased after him; the girl who led him to an alleyway and exposed the history of her life; the girl who actually succeeded in prompting him to speak about his; the girl who understood his motives behind his act in a different point of view; the girl who had corrected his negative nature of thinking; the girl who had offered a hand and he took it.
Another step back.
The door was in front of him with the key in his hand. When opened up, the brilliant light blinded him and he would hesitate. His feet frozen up in ice and sooner, he would turn back away from the door because he knew better to switch sides, but stopped to a voice behind him. He would turn and a hand would reach out from the light, he would take it. The hand was soft and almost as small as his, but felt like a pillow to him.
A step back.
He rose his head in acknowledgement of the ball coming and he would stop it. Maybe luck would be on his side and he would perform it once more. Few months ago, he had discovered he had a new ability in defense, but it was an 'accident'. Maybe he could do it once more, but he needed more space to try it out. He backed away.
"Kogure-kun, look out!"
And he tripped.
Everything ended for him.
Kabeyama, one of Raimon's defenses had fallen along with the others because of Epsilon's rough plays, had been behind him with his legs outstretched for anyone to trip over and Kogure was the first victim. Unexpectedly, his body reacted to the fall and the ball got caught between his legs and the next thing he knew, he spun. Not a regular twirl, but spinning like a tornado on his head. He stopped and fell hard onto the ground, the grass cushioning his fall. He got up shakily and realized everyone was staring at him in wonder, jaws dropped. He didn't remember correctly how - what - had he done, but he certainly understood one thing, he stopped the ball.
He stopped the ball. Alone. Without any help.
He smiled for the first time and gave a loud cheer.
Shana gathered her thoughts together and turned back. "Pass it to me," she said, Kogure passed the ball to her as she advanced and evaded Epsilon's defense. Her eyes kept pointed to Desarm, her rage rising, her mind craved for his suffering and most of her, she wanted all this to end.
Desarm laughed, haughtily. "What can a mere normal shoot do to me?"
Shana stopped, her head hung low while the ball was under one of her feet. "I'll make you regret even facing me." She rose her head slowly, shadows from her face began creeping back under her bangs, like she was removing a mask. A mask that camouflaged the true demon inside her. White whirled around her while lightish-blue circled around her figure, her blue hair ruffled by an invisible wind, her eyes darkened into dark-purple, like a crystal moulded into a morning glory. She unhooked her foot from the ball and spun the ball into the air. Ice began pilling over from every direction she could think off. She spun twice in the air, "Eternal," with extra amount of force, her foot clashed at the ball, "Blizzard!"
"A hissatsu?" Endou said, amazed.
The ball flew past Desarm and froze the entire goal with it. Silence hung in the air.
Beep! "Goal! Finally, finally! Raimon is able to score a goal! Shana's hissatsu, Eternal Blizzard, has finally made a debut!"
Beep! Beep! Beep!
"And that's the whistle for the end of the three minute match! 5-1, Epsilon wins!"
"This won't be the end," Desarm said. "You guys have great value to Aliea Academy. Listen humans," he raised his voice, pointing a finger to them, "In ten days time, we'll fight you again!" To Shana, he said, "That was a relatively good shoot. You have my interest," he commented. And they were gone, no big entrance or 'poof', but gone.
Fubuki strode past dozens of closed stores, each having their own advertising poster or critical amount of bulbs lighting up the banners. He could make out the difference in their sizes and shapes, colours, interior and exterior designs without ever catching a glimpse of it. Candy shops should be full of aroma from the sweets, colourful wallpapers, brightening colours around and a warm smile from the lady at the counter. Fish market should smelled and stunk of dead corpses—except this was only regarding marine creatures—of crabs, squids, jellyfish and mostly fish, the walls white and dirtied, seafood laid out in an open, the guy running the place would be fat and slightly silly and a jokester. The morgue was Hell for animals, having their insides dug out and chopped into pieces, hung on by strings or hooks, blood everywhere, the butcher would be cunning and sly, playing with the knife and slicing and skinning and selling.
Fubuki hugged himself and shivered. Somehow that never occurred to him of having a distorted image of a butcher.
Few hours ago had Epsilon declared another match in ten days and disappeared out of thin air without any grand entrance. And Shana's hissatsu which created a new path for the team. The managers probably had flattened each other like fitting into a narrow box while he narrowly escaped another one from Haruna's tackle and she ended up knocking down Kogure who grunted and if he was not mistaken, blushed from the gesture. And that was the first time Kogure had revealed any other emotion besides grumbling and disagreeing.
After that, Coach Hitomiko had recruited Kogure into the Inazuma Caravan. It took time convincing from Manyuuji's side, but it took little effort in doing so. Fubuki and Nijimura had been friends since four years ago during the time when Kiseki no Sedai had recently been formed, they weren't completed and hadn't gained the title yet. After losing and gaining new members, their talents were the talk of the world. Anyway, he'd performed a check on Kogure and was fascinated by his states. Yes, he wasn't all that being strong or muscular or whatever, but perhaps his strong point had been the opposite of strength.
A memory occurred to him and he giggled. After Epsilon left, Shana was instantly surrounded by them, a bunch of laughing and hyper-active five-year-olds. He thought she would be a victim of their choking hugs. But that wouldn't happen in life. Shana threatened anyone who dared even so much as touch her, she would make a living hell out of the guy, whether he liked it or not. She even added her piercing gaze in the threat, stunning, but reassuring that she was indeed the Shana. It would be weird if she had agreed on a hug from them, but she willingly had hug both him and Sayaka more than anyone could count. So what was the difference between Raimon and them?
He looked up at the gigantic building that withstood dozens of rooms and entered the auto-doors which comes with sensors and identification check within a second of anyone going past it. Parents or maybe siblings waiting by the provided seats. Doctors and nurses squirmed around the building to building, some barking out orders while others had not time to squeak and complied. They were like an army of military soldiers being commanded by a general. Hectic. Frustrating. Running around in circles if they were confused on their roles. Forget about military soldiers, they were like rats running from cats.
He went to the counter and spotted a lady ravished in her computer. She looked up and smiled despite the bags under her eyes and the fatigue in her body. She withdrew her hands from the computer and brought out a pass and asked, "Are you here for visiting hours?"
Fubuki nodded. "I'm here for…"
Stepping into the elevator of the complete white building, he punched in a button as the doors obediently closed and gravity around him moved up against it. He felt light-weighted in here, he was fighting against mankind's most unpredictable enemy, gravity itself. The aluminium walls reflected his image clearly. The walls were spotless, he noted. He heard the expected sound of thump thump below him, even the second floor he was going past could hear the footsteps echoed off the walls, or maybe it was his ears saying. His ears were like detectors of sounds, not as charged up during the hospital few days ago, but enough to catch anyone whispering nearby.
The elevator made a ding and slowly came to a stop at the third floor. The doors opened up as he stepped onto the cleaned tiles, the light from above travelling around the walls. Doors, left and right, were the same, but different came from them. One door was neutral on his right while the left had smelled like someone had vomited. Up ahead were coughing and hacking, far more worse than when Raimon had ate Natsumi's 'healthy' miso soup.
He went to the end of the hallway, placing a hand on the knob, twisting it and walked in and said, "Excuse me." He closed the door behind him and changed the flowers in the vase. He pulled up a chair and sat by the bedside, watching and waiting for the figure.
The figure set his book down and beamed at Fubuki. "Hey, O—chibi."
Fubuki smiled and nodded in acknowledgement. "Long time no see, Araki-san."