Fanservice
"Kiyoshi-senpai . . ." said Kagami breathlessly. "We can't . . this is wrong . . ."
"Then I don't want to be right," Kiyoshi said huskily, rubbing Kagami's clavicle.
They were both shirtless and covered in sweat. And Kiyoshi had backed Kagami into the wall, so close their chests were nearly touching.
"But . . . I have a partner. And you have Izuki-senpai," protested Kagami, but it was a token protest.
"Shhh," said Kiyoshi, then pressed his lips against Kagami's chest, letting his tongue trail down his torso, over his chiseled six-pack abs, and lower until –
"Oh my fucking GOD! What the – Burn it! Burn it until it's dead!" screamed Kagami, his eyes reeling from the sight on the screen.
"It's a computer," said Kuroko, deadpan as usual.
"I don't care! Burn it!"
"Noooo!" wailed Koganei. "Don't burn my laptop!"
"What – what is that?" demanded Kagami. "What is it?"
"From the looks of it . . . some slash fanfiction," Kiyoshi informed him.
"What the fuck is slash fanfiction?"
"Fanfiction is stories written by fans," said Izuki, looking highly amused. "And slash is . . . you know. Like Kagami-slash-Kiyoshi."
Kagami looked at him with blank horror.
"Like as in, a couple."
"I don't – what the hell?" Kagami shouted. "Who the fuck would write something like that, and . . . I don't even know what to say about this!"
"There's fanfics like this about all of us," said Koganei. "You have the most, Kagami. But Izuki is a close second. Kiyoshi and Hyuuga are about tied for third."
"What? Hyuuga?" asked Kagami. "But he and coach are dating! Everyone knows that! Everyone has known that since that tabloid picture of them holding hands last Valentine's Day came out!"
"Technically, they're cannon, but some people apparently don't think that's moe enough," explained Koganei. "So they ship him with you, Kiyoshi, and Izuki. Mainly. I've found a couple where he's with Furihata."
Kagami stared blankly again then shook his head. "You know what? I don't know what you just said. And I don't want to know. I want some mind bleach!"
"There's no such thing as mind bleach," said Kuroko.
"There needs to be!" shouted Kagami.
"Don't be like that, Kagami," said Kiyoshi. "Think of the poor people whose writing you're insulting."
"I don't care about them or their writing! Think about the trauma reading their whatever you call it has done to me!"
"You need to pay more attention to other people's feelings, Kagami," said Kiyoshi.
"I don't give a damn about –"
"Think of how poor Kuroko must feel," said Kiyoshi. "He doesn't have any fanfiction written about him."
"I don't feel bad about that at all," Kuroko deadpanned.
"And it must be hard for him, always seeing you get shipped with me and Izuki."
"You can have him," said Kuroko.
"Hey!" Kagami shouted. Then he seemed to realize the connotations of what he said and went completely red. "I mean - I don't – all of you shut up!"
Everyone dissolved into snickers. Except for Kuroko, whose face was impassive as always. When their laughing did not subside, Kagami slammed the laptop closed, as though that could solve his problem. Then he scowled at his partner.
"Kuroko! Go get me some gasoline!"
"Nooooo!" Koganei grabbed his laptop and took off with it. "Don't burn it!"
Kagami chased after him, shouting threats.
The others all watched them go with amusement.
"Well . . ." Kiyoshi said finally. "That could have gone worse."
Once A Team . . .
"Mibuchi-san, Nebuya-san, and Hayama-san . . . your presence has been requested in the main office," said the student who'd been sent there with the message.
No one missed how Akashi's eyes went narrow at the interruption to their practice. There also seemed to be a little curiosity in his gaze as to the reason for all three of them being called to the office. A university scout would have wanted to speak with them one at a time, and would have used one of the offices in the sports building. The most common reason people were called to the main office was for punishments.
"What did you do?" Akashi asked sharply.
The three Crownless Kings exchanged wary glances and shrugs.
"I haven't the foggiest idea," said Mibuchi with a prim shrug.
"I don't think I've done anything too bad recently," added Hayama, earning himself a frosty look from their captain.
"Hell if I know," said Nebuya.
Akashi looked at the student who'd brought the note. He was sweating at being in Akashi's mere presence. "What do you know?"
"N-nothing!"
Akashi hooded his eyes.
"Really! I know nothing about . . . whatever it is. There's just . . . well, a girl was talking to Principal Korabuna, then he stepped out of his office with her still in there and sent me to get these guys."
"A girl?" asked Akashi, clearly trying to piece this puzzle together.
"Yes. Short. Brown hair. Flat. Not a student here. I don't know where she goes to school. Her uniform looked kind of like a suit for girls. The kind with a skirt. And she was wearing sunglasses. Oh, and Principal Korabuna said to come as quickly as possible. That's why I ran all the way here."
"You didn't think to say that sooner?" asked Akashi, then nodded to his senpai, giving them permission to leave practice.
"What do you think this is about?" asked Nebuya as they made their way there. They walked quickly and didn't bother changing out of their workout clothes.
"We're probably in trouble again," said Hayama. "At least they'll regret calling us out of practice. We stink!"
Mibuchi gave a delicate little sniff of disgust. "I don't understand why neither of you wear functional deodorant."
"We wear deodorant! It's functional! Why do you think I smell this good?" Nebuya shouted.
"You should also try washing your gym clothes once in awhile," continued Mibuchi. "Maybe invest in some cologne."
"I don't care enough to do something that prissy! And I especially don't care about looking or smelling presentable in front of . . . whoever this is coming to bug us during practice!"
Minutes later, all three were singing a different tune.
To their surprise, their principal was outside of his office when they reached it. He was in the small reception area outside his private office, where people were made to wait. Korabuna fixed them with a look that was stern and condescending, and slightly disgusted with their appearance (and smell).
"Tuck your shirts in, at least. Then go on in," he told them, glaring. "And be on your very best behavior. If you act in any way that embarrasses Rakuzan, or comes across as rude, you won't like the consequences."
So they tucked their shirts into their shorts and went in, still with no clue what this was all about.
Their visitor had her back to them when they went in. She was looking out a window that was curiously open, even though it was raining and windy outside. But that open window did do wonders to cancel out the smell of their sweat, much to Nebuya's annoyance.
"Hey," Nebuya said impatiently. "We're missing practice. What do you want already?"
The girl turned around and took off the large tinted glasses she was wearing that had hid most of her face.
The three Uncrowned Kings' jaws dropped in perfect unison as they realized who they were face to face with.
Aida Riko. Japan's sole female Jaeger pilot.
By her expression, she was not impressed with their manners.
"I . . . I . . . sorry!" Nebuya stuttered, wondering, as his two teammates both were, what business the leader of the Seirin Six could possibly have with them.
"A-Aida-hime. Th-this is a surprise," said Mibuchi, bowing low. "W-we weren't expecting . . ."
Hayama just bounced on the spot with nervous energy, eyes darting back and forth between the female Jaeger pilot and his teammates.
"At ease, men," Aida said, no longer looking quite as annoyed since they'd amended their reactions and their manners.
Hayama forced himself to stop bouncing. Nebuya looked around uncertainly, not sure exactly what that expression "at ease" was supposed to mean for high school basketball players. Mibuchi studied Riko carefully.
"I'm sorry, Aida-hime, but is something wrong? You look wan."
That was true, the other two saw. Her eyes were a little bit puffy, like she'd been crying, and there was sadness clinging to her like a scent.
Riko nodded. "You remember Kiyoshi Teppei?"
"Of course. He was our old teammate. And he pilots Iron Heart. But you know that. Sorry. Wait, is he alright?"
"His grandparents just died."
The three Uncrowned Kings all winced.
"His grandmother passed away last night. Heart failure. His grandfather passed on in his sleep sometime early this morning."
"Awwwww . . . Kiyoshi . . ." said Hayama.
"Yeah. He's about like what you're probably imagining, right now," said Riko sadly.
"What can we do?" asked Mibuchi. "Is there anything we can do?"
Riko nodded again. She pulled three small white envelopes from the breast pocket of her suit's blazer and held them out. "The funeral is going to be this Saturday, in Tokyo, in the evening. After your Winter Cup playoff match. We're keeping this under wraps as much as possible. Even if word gets out, the funeral is going to be private. Invitation only. I think, and Teppei's copilot agrees, it would mean a lot to him if you three were to come."
"Then we'll come," said Nebuya. The other two nodded without hesitation.
Riko smiled at them for the first time since their meeting. It was a tight, tired smile, not really happy, but grateful all the same. She gave them a low bow. And there was something surreal about it. She wasn't overly graceful or beautiful in her movements but, well, she was Aida Riko. It was like having an anime heroine bow to them. They quickly and clumsily gave bows of their own. Even Mibuchi was less graceful than usual in his befuddlement with the situation.
"Thank you," said Riko, then she replaced her sunglasses. She left without another word.
They stared after her, but she was quickly out of sight.
"Did that really just happen?" asked Hayama once Riko was gone.
"I'm wondering the same thing," said Mibuchi, staring in the direction where Riko had disappeared.
"Yeah . . . but man. Poor Kiyoshi . . ." Nebuya said, grabbing one of the funeral invitations.
It had been awhile since they'd seen their old teammate. They'd been busy with basketball matches. Kiyoshi had been busy killing giant monsters in a giant robot. They hadn't even tried to get in touch with him because, well, since he'd become a national hero it felt like he was kind of unapproachable. It felt wrong to want to call him up and see if he wanted to catch up over lunch when literally the whole country wanted a piece of him and all the rest of the Seirin Six. They'd felt like trying to do so would be like being too opportunistic, or just a waste of Kiyoshi's valuable time. But if Aida Riko and Kiyoshi's copilot were right, it seemed like Kiyoshi felt differently, and suddenly the past didn't seem so far away.
"His grandparents were all he had, right?" asked Hayama, frowning at his own envelope.
"They raised him. They were the only parents he ever knew," said Mibuchi. "He's all alone now."
"No. He's got . . . Y'know. His team," said Hayama, awkward with the emotional issue.
"Both his teams," said Nebuya gruffly.
"Both? Oh." His friends looked puzzled for only a moment before getting his meaning.
Both his teams.
Old and new.
Recruitment: First Batch
"I don't quite know what to think about this," said Riko, upon being informed that every other country with a Jaeger Program had been trying to copy her training methods, and getting horrible results. The stack of documents on the desk in front of her were a testament to those. "Did you ever think of just asking me how I did it?"
"What do you think I'm doing right now?" asked Marshal Stacker Pentecost, head of the collective Jaeger Program, and a former pilot himself.
Riko held her ground against the taller and higher ranking man. "I think it's clear a lot of time could have been saved by coming directly to me and asking. My actual methods – the ones which instilled drift compatibility amongst my team – are very difficult to imitate, and depend more on the candidates than the coaching, but I am more than willing to share what information I have. Or at least what theories I have."
A slight smile tugged at the corners of Pentecost's mouth. Riko was pleased. It seemed her professionalism impressed him. That felt like a big accomplishment considering how hard she and all the Seirin Six had to work to be seen and treated as adults.
"Then sit," said Pentecost, indicating a nearby chair. "And share your theories. Then we'll put them to the test. We need to find more pilots and fast."
"Then it's a very good thing that I have six potential new pilot candidates identified," said Riko. "You're not Japanese, so I don't expect you've kept up with any of our high school sports teams."
"Other than the Seirin High Basketball Team? No. And only you guys because you're out killing kaiju instead of playing basketball."
Riko gave a nod of acknowledgement. It wasn't quite a compliment but it was close. "Last year something happened in the sports world that caused a minor stir. At a prefectural swim meet, the winning relay team was disqualified when three swimmers from one school spontaneously brought a swimmer from a different high school onto their relay team to swim for them."
"That doesn't seem very smart of them."
"Perhaps not," said Riko, "but to me it was the first indication that they might be drift compatible. Or I suppose I should say, drift compatible with one another."
"Because they're close friends?" Pentecost asked, a little bit of sarcasm slipping into his voice.
"No. Because they're close friends and they're a team," said Riko. "It's a mistake to confuse being friends with being a team. And vice versa. That, I believe, is the mistake that all the militaries trying to replicate my success have been making, sir."
"Explain," Pentecost requested.
"It's difficult to put into words, but if I were to sum it up . . . people become friends because they click, or because they get along, or have common interests. People are a team because they have a common goal that they're working toward together. Most of the time especially with sports teams, that goal is to win. But sometimes winning is only part of the overall goal," Riko tried to explain. "Sometimes the overall goal is something different."
"Then what is it?" Pentecost wanted to know.
"I imagine it can vary from team to team," said Riko. "But for us, and I think for these swimmers, what we wanted . . . what we really wanted was to be there for each other unconditionally. To protect and support each other, and to find the broken places in each other and fix them, and stand guard to make sure they were never broken again. My theory is that desire, combined with our training to work together, and complement each other, was what made every one of us drift compatible with at least one other member of our team."
"So, if you're right, these swimmers you've scouted are drift compatible too," said Pentecost. "You found six you said?"
"The four who were on the relay team. The one who gave up his spot for the swimmer from the other school. And another boy from the other school who is close to them as well," said Riko. "With your permission, I would like to recruit them and test my theory."
"Permission granted."
"Thank you, sir."
"And if these candidates work out? Do you have others in mind?"
Riko's smile was grim. "A couple."
The Calendar
Sakurai was blushing.
That alone was enough to get Aomine curious. Aomine had long since evolved passed the point where he blushed at any sort of reading material. But he'd never taken Sakurai as the sort to like gravure or similar publications. But there was an unmistakable blush on his cheeks as he tried to hide whatever it was he was looking at in his notebook as the basketball team ate lunch in the gym.
"What's this?" asked Aomine, snagging it.
"H-hey! Give it back!" Sakurai squacked almost immediately.
"Huh? This is . . ."
"Give it back!"
Familiar faces grinned at him from the glossy cover of the calendar. Not a magazine or photo book after all. A calendar. And not even a dirty one.
"Huh? Is that the disaster relief calendar that the Seirin Six modeled for?" asked . . . someone. Aomine couldn't be bothered to keep track of everyone's names. There were even a couple regulars he didn't know. But that was besides the point.
"Disaster relief calendar?" asked Aomine, looking through the different months' pictures, even though every one of them had different pictures of the Seirin Six posing in swim trunks. Except Aida Riko, who was in a tankini, which showed off how disappointingly flat she was.
"You know, for the proceeds to go to the people who lost their homes in the kaiju attacks," said . . . whoever he was. "There are still places to be rebuilt even in Tokyo."
That sounded like a good idea to Aomine. He might have even bought one, if the Seirin Six had been wearing actual clothes. If they'd been in their basketball uniforms or their battle armor. Or if Aida Riko had been featured more in her swimsuit, even though she wasn't as well endowed as he usually liked his women. She was something special. Even he would admit that.
"Most of the people who bought that one were girls," said another guy whose name Aomine didn't care to know. "Since they're all, you know, half naked."
"Everyone dresses like that when they go swimming! Besides, I bought this one because of Aida-san," said Sakurai, a bit defiantly, and very unapologetically.
"What?" asked Aomine. Then he stopped to think about it for a second and realized, yeah, Aida Riko could definitely be Sakurai's type, considering he liked cute, little things. He couldn't deny that Aida Riko was cute. And her chest size fell into the category of little things.
Sakurai clenched his jaw. "She's cute. And . . . I wanted to see if Kagami-sama's copilot was really in the calendar. He is."
"What?" demanded Aomine. "He's in this?"
He immediately started flipping through the pages again, looking more carefully.
"Ah! I'm sorry! He's only in one picture and they deliberately make him not very visible or recognizable."
That was an understatement, Aomine saw when he found the picture that it had to be. Kagami Taiga was on a beach with his copilot at a very bright time of day. He and his partner were rough housing, and Kagami had him in a headlock. Some lens flare effect had been added to blur out the copilot's head. It was so warped in that area, you couldn't even tell what color his hair really was, and the angle was done so that it was hard to tell how tall he was. All that was clear was that he was shorter than Kagami by at least a head. And that he had two tattoos: RimFire's symbol over his heart, and a band of flames around one bicep.
Come to think about it, Aomine noticed Kagami had those same marks in the exact same places.
"Kagami's got tattoos," he said, voicing his surprise out loud.
"All of the Seirin Six have tattoos," said Sakurai.
"They do?" Aomine flipped back through the pictures and saw he was right. Every one of them had their Jaeger's symbol tattooed over their heart. Even Riko, though her tattoo was higher up on her chest than the boys' so as not to be indecent. "Cool."
"They have tattoos? What? Aren't they all underaged?" said one of that year's freshmen, trying to pry the calendar away from Aomine. Aomine shoved him carelessly aside.
"They're the Seirin Six. No one's going to tell them they can't get tattoos," Aomine said.
"What's surprising is that they managed to keep it a secret when they got them," said Wakamatsu, looking distinctly more mellow this year, now that he was captain, than last year when he was just a punk. He gave Aomine a look of weary distaste but didn't start tearing into him like he always had before. "Usually those guys can't even show up at Maji Burger without being swarmed."
Aomine turned back to the page featuring Kagami and his copilot, and looked back at it. He couldn't quite put his finger on it . . . heck, it was probably just in his head, but he felt like there was something familiar about Kagami's copilot. Like he should know him somehow. That was ridiculous, since he couldn't see the guy's face, or hair color, but he still felt like he should know him.
Well, the guy was a basketball player. Maybe Aomine had played against him in middle school. Something else caught his eye. There were a few lines on the copilot's chest that looked like they had been drawn there. Maybe they were a defect of the picture. Or they could have been scars. But Aomine personally didn't know anyone with scars like that.
Still, he felt like he should know this person. And not just in passing. Something was nagging him in the back of his mind, making him feel like he was missing something important.
It would be another year before he figured out what.
The begining of Fanservice and some of the dialogue was based off of an episode of Supernatural where a fangirl who ships Sam and Dean was writing a fic about them. No copyright infringement intended. Happy April Fool's day, btw. Did I get anyone to raise their eyebrows or blink in disbelief?
Next chapter the Generation of Miracles are getting recruited and arriving at headquarters. Next chapter I'm also going to try writing a kaiju fight. I have very little experience writing fight scenes, but I'll try not to disappoint! Oh, and also, I'll be borrowing some characters from other animes for cameo appearances, but they won't have major parts or anything. This just saves me the trouble of having to create OCs that would fulfill the same roles. You're not going to have to watch other animes to get what's happening or anything.
Please review!