*Kazuto's POV*
Ah yes, my favorite spot was here.
The green grass, white stripes, and two goal posts combines were a sight to behold. The feeling of having the ball at your feet, surrounded by teammates, opponents, and spectators, was simply exhilarating.
Now all I needed to do was find the football club application form.
"Watch out…," a voice shouted out.
Suddenly, I was almost knocked to the ground when something hit the back of my head. Once I managed to regain my senses, I saw a ball rolling in front of me.
I used my foot to stop the ball and scooped it up. Then I noticed a boy with a short ponytail haircut was walking towards me.
"Sorry for hitting you; I was just practicing for the football club application," the boy smiled sheepishly, then scratched the back of his head.
"Oh, it's nothing," I shrugged as I threw the ball back to him. However, since I was not focused, I threw the ball deviating from its intended target.
Luckily, he caught the ball perfectly with his left foot. That's quite a fine first touch not gonna lie!
"Sorry for being nosy, but you don't seem to be Japanese. Are you half-blooded or a foreigner?", I asked curiously after studying his features.
The boy standing in front of me appeared more Latino than Japanese.
"Oh, I was born in Brazil," he said, shrugging. "Only my grandfather was Japanese." He paused for a moment before continuing, "After my father's passing, I came to this country. You see, I wanted to learn more about my grandfather's home country." He finished with a goofy smile.
Ok, so a Brazilian of Japanese origin was applying for the football club? No wonder he was so good with the ball. Brazilians were like a different breed when it came to football.
"I am sorry for your father's passing." I gave my condolences to a strange Brazilian boy I had just met.
"He's been gone for a long time." he sighed sadly. "By the way, you can just call me Minuano. What's your name anyway?" He turned back to his cheerful attitude and asked for my name.
"Call me Kazuto," I said. "You know what? Just tell them you're Brazilian and they'll instantly take you in."
I was not joking.
Minuano? Where have I heard that name before? It felt like I had heard it somewhere.
"I'm not really sure," he replied with a chuckle. "All the Japanese players I have encountered so far have been playing very well."
"You're too modest," I shrugged off. "Anyway, do you know where the football club applications are posted? I may not be as good as you but I would like to participate in the club."
"Actually, I am the worst player in my hometown.", Minuano chuckled. "I believe you will do well here."
After going through the application process for myself and Minuano, we both went back to our rooms to change into more comfortable clothing suited for playing football.
After the warm-up session, the club began the football assessment test for the participants.
Tianwu Chen's POV
His new life in the Philippines wasn't as bad as he had thought it would be but maybe this was due to the fact that he was born into a wealthy family. His father was a high-ranking bureaucrat in the national power grid consortium so his life wasn't bad at all. In fact, it was quite extravagant.
About the poor and beggars he met on the street, as much as he wanted to help them, he didn't know how. Giving them money no doubt would do more harm than good but sometimes, his kindness won him over so he still gave them a bit to let them survive a meal or two.
In his past life, he had watched various documentaries about the poverty and the dark side of Filipinos society. But when experiencing it first hand like this, he could only feel pity towards these unfortunate people to be born and dwelled in poverty, which was roughly about 20 millions people in this islandic country. That was a huge number.
No wonder most of Filipinos youngsters were trying to emigrate to find a new chance. There was no future in here.
Enough of this country's internal affairs for now. How many years had been since when he last met his wife and daughter? It had been so long.
It had been about 13 years since he reincarnated into this world. 13 years since he last met his old family. 13 years of loneliness.
It sounded so surreal when he had these thoughts considering he was only 16 years old in this world. But many 16 year-old teens in Phillipines had become parents already so it was not really far-fetched in this land.
There was no point to worry about this country, not now. He had something to attend.
He didn't know if this was a blessing or a curse but he had an eidetic memory in both of his lives. This ability helped him learn languages, arts and music with relative ease. However, it also prevented him from forgetting the pain from his memories, especially the memories from his previous life which should have been filled with happiness but instead it had became the worst nightmare.
He still remembered vividly his wife's final phone call, his daughter's painful cries each night, and his brother-in-law's health deteriorating day by day as if they were moments away.
But if he had the choice to retain those memories or not, he would always choose to cherish them without hesitation.
To remind himself why he was here, what he was fighting for.
Kaworu had promised him he still had a chance of meeting them again. At first, the idea that Nagisa Kaworu was the one who guided him here sounded so… impossible.
But then, his in-laws revealed themselves who they really were. To say his mind was blown away would be a huge understatement.
He came to a conclusion; logic couldn't explain what he had known and experienced so far. There was no point in trying to understand it.
Shaking his head, he tried to clear his thoughts as he moved toward his destination. He shouldn't be late; he had waited for this moment ever since he came to know her.
He had admired her a lot ever since he got to know her in this world. This was no doubt his best chance to attend her performance before the disaster struck this land.
For 13 years of loneliness, he must have something to cope. And she was one of them.
"Brother, are we here yet?", a small girl was pulling her brother's shirt and asked timidly.
Tianwu then turned his head to his little sister. Her eyes were shone with impatience.
"Just a few hundred meters left, Tianwen.", he reassured her as he grabbed her hand to guide her through the street of Manila.
"But I am tired, brother.", Tianwen pouted and stopped on her track.
"Ok then.", Tianwu chuckled and he lowered himself, "I will carry you around, my little princess."
The little girl beamed happily then she jumped onto her brother's back without a second thought for a piggy ride.
Two siblings walked quietly. Eventually, they had reached their destination.
He stopped in front of a large theater, putting Tianwen on the ground. Two security guards approached him and asked him for his ticket.
Tianwu gave them an acrylic card then the guards opened the door to let both of them in.
Tianwen seemed to be a bit intimidated by the sheer size of the theater and the huge number of people inside it. She always grabbed her brother's shirt helm tightly.
After both he and Tianwen had sat on their seats, the MC walked to the middle of the stage.
"Ladies and gentlemen, today we are pleased to announce the arrival of one of the most prominent talents of this generation, hailing from Italy. Please welcome, Selena Florence."
The hall erupted with applause and cheers as an extremely beautiful dark brown haired girl wearing a black gothic dress appeared behind the curtain. She gave the audience a light bow before beginning to walk toward her cello. Fortunately, Tianwu had purchased VIP seats, allowing him to appreciate her beauty fully.
The way she walked was so elegant. No doubt her music would be extremely beautiful too.
"She...she is so beautiful.", Tianwen who was sitting next to him commented in awe. It seemed like his sister had been completely charmed by Selena already.
"She's not just beautiful, you'll see the reason why soon," Tianwu chuckled at his sister and patted her head lightly.
Besides her superb musical skills and great beauty, another reason why Tianwu admired Selena was because she reminded him a lot about his wife's favorite character from a gacha hack-and-slash game, whom was also his favorite character.
Both had great talent in art and music as well as the elegant and glamorous beauty, not to mention they shared the same name.
He prayed that her fate would not turn out to be as tragic as he knew it.
And thus, the stick was placed on the cello's strings.
*Kazuto's POV*
Now came the most exciting part – a football match between two teams. Conveniently, there were only eleven players left, including myself and Minuano, after the assessment test.
The remaining participants will form a team to play against the football club itself. Those who perform well in the trial match can officially be picked up by the club.
"I trust you, Minuano. Now show everyone what a Brazilian footballer can do.", I tried motivating my new friend as I patted him on the back.
But the Brazilian boy didn't seem to be amused by it.
"I told you, I am the worst one in my hometown," he sighed as he stretched his legs at the center of the pitch.
"It might be what you said but you are still the greatest hope for our team.", I replied, "You are the one performing the assessment tests the best."
His dribbling, shooting, passing, and body control techniques were so insane that they made everyone on the pitch in awe during the assessment test. The coach wanted to recruit him right away but Minuano refused it because he wanted to play in this trial match as a participant.
"We will see. Our opponent is no doubt extremely skillful and prominent.", he replied back to me.
He put the ball at the centre point of the pitch as our team had the ball first. He would be the striker of our team.
The football club was also moving to their designated positions, waiting for the ball passing.
I wondered how was Kiana doing at time now. Mei had promised me she would help her around the school so I entrusted that Tuna to Mei. It wasn't like she would cause any problems. She had attended schools around the world to find her dad after all.
"Kazu-senpai...", suddenly I heard a familar voice calling out for me.
As I moved my gazes towards the source of the voice, I saw a certain Tuna was waving.
But a more surprising factor was Mei coming with Kiana. How the Queen of the school was also coming with Kiana?
Every students who were at the football field all seemed surprised at the sudden visit from ME Corp's heiress herself. Mei had never visited any other clubs at all beside Student Council.
But then the whistle from the referee interrupted my train of thought. Minuano started the kick-off and passed towards me.
My heartbeat was beating faster than ever as andrenallin was pumping into my veins. I had waited for this moment. Immediately, I saw the opponent team's attackers were trying to put pressure on me to force me giving up the ball.
Mei and Kiana had come here, I must not play disappointedly to be disqualified. With that thought, I scanned my head around to find a solution. And I saw Minuano was waving his hand to signal me passing him the ball.
I executed a feint to evade the player was trying to mark me and moved the ball forward. As I had big enough space, I passed a long ball to the running Minuano.
My long ball was accurate enough for him as he flawlessly executed the first-touch then dribbled through the hole between centre back and right back. As a result, he managed to go one on one with the goalkeeper. The opponent goalkeeper was trying to cut down his shooting angle as he left the goal post and tried to prevent Minuano.
But as the worst Brazilian footballer he was, Minuano performed a perfect chip shot and the ball was resting at the back of the net.
He just had scored a goal. And I just had provided an assist.
This was the best...fucking...feeling ever. SIUUU.
*Tianwu's POV*
"Hey Wen, do u see my wallet?", Tianwu asked his sister worriedly as he was searching for it through his pockets.
"Uhh...no, I don't.", his sister answered cluelessly while was eating the sausage.
Tianwu intended to buy for Tianwen some street food on their way back home, but he couldn't find his wallet.
It was very unlikely he was being pickpocketed because he always keep it safely inside the innerpocket of his jacket except when...
Fuck, he took it out once to search for his handkerchief during in the theater. It seemed like he never put both of his wallet and handkerchief back to the innerpocket. It was very likely they were still lying at his seat.
He needed to go back to the theater and search for his things.
But he needed to take care of Tianwen first. With that thought, he made a call.
"Yes, young master.", a voice answered respectfully at the other side of the line.
"Lee.", Tianwu started, "We are outside of the theater. Please prepare a car and take Tianwen home. I need to find something."
"I am at the other side of the road, young master. Your father asks me doing some errands and luckily it is near the theater.", Tianwu's butler explained.
He immediately scanned his head around and when he stopped his gazes at a blue car, the window was opened and revealed a blonde haired man waving at him.
"Is that Lee?", Tianwen pointed at that blonde haired man and asked his brother curiously.
"Yes he is.", Tianwu answered with a chuckle. His family's butler was always too reliable.
Lee drove the car and stopped right next to two siblings. He then gave Tianwu some cash to pay for Tianwen's food.
After finished eating, Tianwen opened the door of the car then hopped inside. She expected her brother would do the same but...
"Please taking her home first. I need to find my wallet.", Tianwu stated.
Lee furrowed his forehead at Tianwu's words.
"But young master, some money isn't really worth the risk. You can easily remake anything you have lost. Your mother will be very unsatisfied with me if I drove young mistress home without you.", the blonde haired man replied discontentedly.
Hearing Lee's explanation, Tianwen's expression became difficult. No doubt Lee would be reproved by his mother if it happened.
His parents were always worried about his and Tianwen's safety because Philippines wasn't a safe and secured country after all. There had been a lot of kidnapping cases for ransom and his parents were afraid that he and Tianwu would suffer the same fate.
He understood Lee's concern but he must find that wallet. It contained a thing much more important than mere money.
"OK, how about this?", Tianwu sighed, "I will go searching just for 10 minutes. After that, I will return.", he proposed.
His butler put his hand on his chin to think and after a while, he was soften up.
"OK, please come back soon and be careful, young master. I will wait for you.", Lee sighed and gave his approval.
"It won't be long.", Tianwu said then sprinted toward the theater.
Luckily the theater was still opened as there was still a few audiences left chatting with each other. He hurriedly ran to his seat and searched it thoroughly but...
Nothing.
His wallet and handkerchief were nowhere to be found. He had left them on his seat and they were gone. There was nothing left on or under his and Tianwen's seats.
It was very likely his things had been salvaged by someone.
Tianwu let out a deep sigh of dissapointment and let himself fell to his seat. There was nothing could be done.
Beside money, his wallet also contained a very special piece of parchment. It used to be a hobby helping him gone through the time of loneliness.
Ever since he reincarnated into this world, he couldn't be harmonized with his surroundings. His mind was far older than his body.
He forced himself getting along with the children around his 'supposedly' age, trying to meet his new parents' demands and trying his best to cover his true thoughts to the people around him.
13 years of wearing a diligent child's mask, he was so tired of it. No one could ever understand what he had been through. And what would people think if they knew there was an adult inside the body of a child?
But luckily it wasn't too hard for him, he could still endure it. He was Tianwu Chen and Tianwu Chen was born from a wealthy bureaucratic family. If he could meet his parents' demands as an excellent and diligent child, he could do whatever he wanted without his parents' questions.
His parents wasn't too strict as a typical ethnic Chinese family. They still left him a lot of freedom or even spoiled him a bit. Maybe that was because he always met their expectations in academic and art studies.
And then, a letter came.
It didn't have sender's name. It only contained an address in Milan, Italy.
The content of the letter was just a simple introduction and a pressed iris flower sticking with the parchment. It wasn't much but that was the first time ever he received a letter like that so he wrote back.
He never expected it would be answered.
But 2 weeks later, the replied letter came.
Tianwu could feel the earnestly and gratefulness in each words of her letter. She was hoping they could talk to each other more frequently through letters like this.
After reading that letter, for the first time of his new life, he didn't feel that much lonely anymore.
He could pour whatever was harboring inside his chest into the letters. The sender and receiver were anonymous anyway. The only information they knew about each other was just nationality.
Just like that, two souls separating thousands of kilometers away had found a way to connect their hearts and minds.
Only through those letters, he could truly be himself.
But everything must come to an end. After six months of constant exchanging letters, in her final letter, his penpal pleaded him not sending letters again. She never explained why.
It had been four years from that time. Tianwu's penpal must be tired of the letter communication things.
But those times always held a place in his memories, so he always kept the final letter as the keepsake in his wallet.
Tianwu let out a bitter chuckle. He had lost the keepsake but the memories had been deeply carved inside his mind. He couldn't forget them even if he wanted to.
It should be other way around.
While he was still deep in thoughts, a hand was poking on his shoulder.
*Kazuto's POV*
Although we had an early lead, but we were still forced to stay back defensively as the opponent was trying their best to push an equalizer.
Beside Minuano and me, the quality of our team's players was inferior compared to the football club. We could only manage to score a surprising goal at the start. From that moment, the defense system of the opponent team set out an only task, marking Minuano as much as possible. That's why he couldn't have many chances for the rest of the match.
They had also tried their best to drill my team's defense and luckily, either we could block them or they were unlucky at the final shot.
Sometimes I left my position and tried to score a goal. But I was extremely unlucky in this day. Twice, my efforts had been denied because of post and crossbar.
My team couldn't hold on forever. Just a moment of losing concentration, the opponent's forward had scored an equalizer.
I had tried my best tackling and blocking in the whole game but well, I had my limit. I couldn't hold on forever. Also my team couldn't help me much.
And then, from a corner, a header was scored.
We had lost the game although all of us had tries our best and had an early lead. But it was a deserved loss.
They were just better.
I let myself fall to the grass and looked at the blue sky. Although my team was lost but I had played my best.
I rated my performance was 8 on 10. It should be enough for me to be qualified.
After a time period I didn't know, two sihoulettes appeared in my field of vision.
"You seem enjoying yourself here, Kazu-senpai.", a white haired beauty named Kiana said with a smug smile.
"Just lamenting my loss.", I smiled, "but being cared by two beauties is a great heal for my soul."
Mei shook her head as she was chuckling at my words. Kiana seemed even smugger because of my compliment.
"Just to let you know senpai, I heard the coach had officially picked you as the new member for the football club.", Mei announced.
"What is your choice, Kazu-senpai? Are you going into football club or going into Kendo club with Mei-senpai?", Kiana asked me curiously.
This was a tough choice.
Hmm, football club sounded nice, but it didn't have Mei.
But...I fucking love football.
The whole reason why did I consider Kendo club in the first place was solely because of its Club President.
Should I really go into the club with the only reason like that?
I couldn't delay my choice this time. I had tried both sports and this was the time I made up my mind for a choice. Football or Kendo(plus Mei)?
*At a cafe in Nagazora*
"My lord, the Sovereign of Anti-Entropy has come.", a brown haired maid announced as she bowed respectfully.
"Send him in.", Otto waved his hand, Rita nodded and she went outside.
Just a moment, a brown haired man wearing glasses was guided to the seat in front of the Overseer.
Rita poured two glasses of wine and gave each of them to the Overseer and the Sovereign.
"Leave us.", Otto ordered, the maid bowed one last time before closed the door behind.
"So...", Welt Yang began, "I see you want to meet me.", he said as he raised his toast. Welt Yang never dared to lose the eye contact with Otto Apocalypse.
"No need to be that strained, Joachim.", Otto smiled friendly and drank his wine, somehow it even made Welt Yang to be more vigilant.
"It is hard to not be alerted when talking with you, Otto.", the Sovereign snorted, "Just go into business right away, what do you want from me? I assume you don't set a meeting with me just to announce I will be Theresa's surbodinate."
"You are right, although I really want you helping Theresa more.", the blonde haired man said, "I want you encouraging whatever Cocolia is doing. Third Impact in Nagazora must be happened in one way or another."
"Cocolia? What the hell is she doing?", Welt Yang questioned in surprise.
"Ah, nothing much. It is very likely she wants to transform Raiden Mei into Herrscher of Thunder. She assumed Herrscher could be controlled I believe so.", Otto shrugged and drank his wine.
"What?", Welt questioned shockingly, "And you know about it but not doing anything against it?"
"It is a fixed event in time, it must be happened in one way or another.", Otto explained, "If it didn't happen as it intended to be, our universe would very likely to be discarded from the Imaginary Tree and became bubble universe. And I can assure you the consequences to our world would be much worse than Honkai itself."
Welt Yang turned silence at the revelation. If a Impact broke out in Nagazora, millions of citizens in this city would be suffered.
But what Otto said was true, a consequence worse than Honkai would be another problem the world had to deal with.
"Well, that isn't the main reason why I set up a meeting with you today.", the Overseer said broke the Sovereign's line of thougts, "There is a way to really end all of this, all of the suffering this world has been endured for thousands of years because of Honkai.", Otto stated seriously.
Welt Yang's eyes were widen in surprise at Otto's words.
But then, he let out a chuckle.
"You care about the world, really?", Welt Yang chuckled as if it was the funniest thing he had ever heard, "Then what about Kallen Kaslana?", the Sovereign asked back.
Otto's expression turned gloomy at the mention of Kallen. But then, he readjusted himself.
"I know in the past we have...contradictions. But I hope we can reconcile with each other in the present and the future.", Otto's words made Welt Yang furrowed his brows in annoyance, "This is the best shot I have to bring her back without sacrificing the world. The 13th Herrscher of Previous Era had brought me here accross time and space to give me another chance, and I will not waste it.", Otto's eyes were shone with determination.
Welt Yang's eyes were widen in shock at the sudden revelation from Otto. 13th Herrscher of Previous Era? Another chance?
"Elysia had promised me she could bring Kallen back to life but she couldn't descent into the world. Tell me Joachim. If the daughter of God herself asks you to resurrect her so she can end the suffering in this mortal realm, what is your answer?", Otto asked seriously.
Welt Yang still wasn't recovered from his shock. Athough he had a lot of experieces and was a genius in his own right, he still couldn't comprehend what Otto was just saying.
Otto wanted to ressurect a child of God? And who was the 13th Herrscher of Previous Era?
And how could Otto be so sure that he had met that child of God?
"Are you insane?", Welt Yang blurted out.
"Insane is a strong word, Joachim. I would say...I am ahead of the curve.", Otto put his hand on his chin and answered.
"Whatever the plan you propose, it is mostly for your selfish desire. Nothing more, nothing less.", Welt Yang stood up and declared.
"Too bad that isn't my plan.", Otto laughed amusingly, "It's just my interests are aligned with that plan so I accept it."
"What?", Welt asked back.
"We are nothing but just chess pieces to the players chosen by higher Gods and Goddesses. Those high beings are even beyond Honkai or even Imaginary Tree just to let you know.", Otto smirked amusingly.
"There is nothing we can do beside accepting the wheel of fortune. I would prefer to roll along with it rather than be crushed by it.", the blonde haired man finished and sipped his wine.
Welt were even more in shock after hearing what Otto just had said. Of all people, Otto Apocalypse himself believed and accepted fate? Wasn't he the one fighting against it for most of his life?
But the way he spoke, he didn't lie. No, it was the opposite.
Otto strongly believed that his dream would be fullfilled.
Welt Yang wondered...how could Otto Apocalypse of all people have such strong conviction? Did his meeting with the child of God change him like that?
Also what did Otto mean when he said 'another chance' from 13th Hersscher of Previous Era?
Author's notes: Hello guys, first and foremost is I am extremely grateful and happy for you guys' love and support for my fanfic. I am so sorry I cannot update this fic more consistently because I have a lot of irl stuffs and my health isn't always in prime condition. Damm, no doubt I must increase my body training.
Another problem is writing is hard, very hard for someone isn't a native English speaker. I must always double check my grammar, fluency, etc... but I still make mistakes sometimes. Those works no doubt have taken a lot of my energy and motivation.
Enough of weeping, I have a lot of ideas and visions for this fic but my executions are not as good as my ideas, especially in details.
About two siblings Ana and Kazuto, maybe some of you guys might have suspicious who could be their parents in their previous lives. A big hint, the parents are from an anime/manga reborn in the real world then gave birth two siblings. Their populairity is on par with Eva. It plays quite an important role why God Kiana and Elysia chooses two siblings in the first place.
About the new OCs, well they are not OCs at all. I believe many of you guys knew these characters I have implemented xD. I am lazy af so I just use the existing characters. Of course those characters belonged to their original creators, I just borrow them for my fic.
Also Honkai will not be the end of this storyline, but that is far future. I must find the closure of this story first.
Finally, I am very appreciated for anyone has supported me and my work. Pls leaves kudos and subcriptions if you enjoy it.