Act 1: Beating Heart
Segment 4: Breakup
Chapter 4-7: Gate 111
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WE League begins inaugural season with stunning INAC Kobe Leonessa victory
NNK Sports | Published 2021.09.13 10:25
The WE League started its inaugural season today with as full a slate of games as possible, and with an incredible offensive showing.
The crowds at Noevir Stadium Kobe were treated to a 4-0 victory against Omiya Ardija Ventus. The hosts INAC Kobe Leonessa commanded the game from start to finish, with all goals in the first half.
At the top of the afternoon, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Urawa Reds Ladies travelled to Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza and claimed a 1-2 victory, disappointing the home crowds, who were hoping for a better showing for the home opener. Despite the loss, the fans were positive, with many staying late to console the team with chants of "More victories to come!"
Then, the day was split in three as MyNavi Sendai Ladies hosted Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara to a 1-1 draw. Home openers would continue to be unfavourable for the hosts, as Chifure AS Elfen Saitama would go on to be defeated 0-2 by Sanfrecce Hiroshima Regina, and Albirex Niigata Ladies dropped their game 2-3 against AC Nagano Parceiro Ladies.
As part of the WE League's social responsibility and women's empowerment initiatives, the bye week given to JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies is a WE Action Day. They will host Chifure AS Elfen Saitama next Monday for their home opener.
LEO: 3 (1-0-0) | +4 (4-0)
REG: 3 (1-0-0) | +2 (2-0)
PAR: 3 (1-0-0) | +1 (3-2)
RED: 3 (1-0-0) | +1 (2-1)
MYN: 1 (0-1-0) | 0 (1-1)
STE: 1 (0-1-0) | 0 (1-1)
JEF: 0 (0-0-0) | 0 (0-0)
ALB: 0 (0-0-1) | -1 (2-3)
BEL: 0 (0-0-1) | -1 (1-2)
ELF: 0 (0-0-1) | -2 (0-2)
VEN: 0 (0-0-1) | -4 (0-4)
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Monodramon squirmed. Lomamon was squeezing the life out of it. "Lomamon… please, I need… to breathe…" Lomamon wasn't listening. "Loma… mon…"
Gabumon tapped Lomamon on the shoulder. "Hey, Lomamon. You're choking Monodramon."
Lomamon finally let Monodramon go. The purple Dramon wheezed and collapsed onto its rear. "Thank Zhuqiaomon…"
"Why aren't you either of you coming back for winter?" Lomamon complained. "Amedramon is doing it!"
Kazuhiko sighed from across the room. Lomamon hadn't been very pleased to find out he would not be returning from London – not for a very long time, in fact. He had no plans on leaving the UK until his first year of classes was over. After all, the housing lease was expensive, and he wanted to take this as his opportunity to see the city and the country for himself. He knew that after he went to full-time work, he may never get the chance for a very long time.
He wouldn't be returning to Japan until the beginning of July.
Takaharu asked Satsuki, "There's no way?"
"Takaharu, my family is already in the hole. We're basically hoping Makoto and I can get paid enough to make it back in a reasonable amount of time." She sipped a glass of water. "Sure, I could fly back early, but that's two flights worth of money I don't want to spend. I can't spend it." She looked around with guilt. It didn't feel right, heading off to university. She could have just stayed here. But she had done it already, and the photos Ryuta had sent back were reminding her of the images she had seen herself on a rare vacation opportunity she had once with her family, when they visited Los Angeles for a few days.
"Yeah, I get it. It's… it's just the way money is sometimes." Takaharu finished his glass of water. Hideji and Fujie were fussing and helping Kazuhiko pack.
Falcomon walked by to give Monodramon and Gabumon a hug. "Make sure you remind Kazuhiko and Satsuki to send photos and videos!"
"I will," replied Gabumon. "Satsuki, you'll have time to see the West Coast, right?"
"I'll try," she replied. The idea of spending money on travel to San Francisco or San Jose was not appealing.
"Monodramon!" Kazuhiko yelled from across the room. "You see my Vital Bracelet?"
Monodramon had recovered enough of its breath to respond. "Isn't it in your backpack?"
"Ah, if it was… I mean, it should be! I thought I put it in there." He unzipped his backpack and double checked, rifling through the items. "Tablet, brushes, sketchpad… pastels…"
"Are those in your backpack? Couldn't you have put those in your big bags?"
"You never know when inspiration will strike, Monodramon. Oh, found it! That's not the box it should go in." He moved the bracelet from his box of pastels to a storage case with his other DiM cards, then zipped his bag back up. "Now that should be good!"
Satsuki glanced at her phone. "Oh, good. We're on time."
"Yeah, I know, I know. I'm slow."
"You have too much in your head at one time, Kazu," Satsuki replied. "Not easy to focus when you do."
Kazuhiko had a pained smile. It was always burn first, cool after. He knew her well enough by now. "Time to go everyone."
Yuuka was clutching herself. This felt just as painful as when Ryuta flew out, because after this, Takaharu and Lomamon would be on their way as well.
Satsuki put her hands on Yuuka's shoulders from behind. "Aah! Oh my…"
"Yuuka, you know it's not the end of the world."
"I do."
"You keep looking like it is." Yuuka didn't respond. "We're all in the same boat, you know? Takaharu's off doing his own thing. It's not like anyone else is at his university campus. Three of us are all on our own too, and Asuka's travelling Japan most of the year. We can all commiserate."
"I…" Yuuka started. Missing Ryuta hurt. Missing Satsuki and Asuka hurt more. They were her best friends, the three of them. Not being able to see any of them for months was painfully long. "I don't know what I'm doing with myself."
"Weren't you going to start a pastry shop?"
"I don't know anymore. I keep having doubts about it. I'm not sure it's the right thing for me to do, but I have no other options. I can't think of anything."
"Hey, neither can I." Satsuki looked Yuuka in the eyes. "You think I have a single clue what I'm doing with myself?" Yuuka gave her an exploratory stare. She didn't? She always seemed like the kind of person who had a vision for herself.
"I thought you said you were going to get into cosmetics design."
Satsuki blew a raspberry as she laughed, and then sat in a chair across from Yuuka. "Plans change. Interests change. I must admit, I don't know about chemistry anymore. I truly don't. But it's too late to cancel."
"But then what are you going to do instead?" Yuuka asked.
"I have no idea," Satsuki shrugged and smiled. "I'll figure it out when I get there, on my own. I need to learn to do that, and so do you." Yuuka did not look convinced. "I know it's tough, but the only way to learn these things is to get thrown in the deep end and swim."
"That's very dark of you."
"What did you expect?" Yuuka let out an amused breath. "Seriously, though, our train is at 1:46 and we're nowhere near Kinshicho Station." Satsuki got up from the chair and grabbed her bags. Her parents had already seen her off that morning – they had to work, after all – and Makoto was having a conversation with his professor regarding the next steps on his master's thesis.
Hideji thumbed through a bunch of UK pound notes. "Did you take the old notes we kept from last time I went?" he asked Kazuhiko.
"I did, why?"
"You can't use those anymore. Here, I got these exchanged this morning. I can take the old notes back for exchange." He swapped the cotton pound notes with the plastic ones and put the old notes back into the bank envelope. "Sorry we can't go with you to the airport, Kazuhiko. We wish we could, but…" he said, flicking his watch, "too many meetings." They were both already working from home, and this was just an opportunity between meetings and sessions to help him prepare.
"It's fine, dad." The two of them embraced, followed by Fujie.
"Keep that dragon out of trouble, okay? I don't want to hear from Scotland Yard that you caused a stir."
"I will! Monodramon, you heard that?"
Monodramon gulped down an apple juice. "Yep! I'll keep my claws to myself!" Kazuhiko had a feeling that would be harder than he would like, but… such was Monodramon.
Takaharu held out a hand. "Hey, guys, let me help. You shouldn't have to carry so many bags yourself."
"Ah, me too, Satsuki," added Yuuka. "Falcomon!"
"Hey, Gabumon," Falcomon said before jumping into Yuuka's phone, "by the way – help Satsuki out, okay?"
"I will!" Gabumon knew exactly what Falcomon was talking about. Satsuki had, of course, brought it up several times by now, how much she was trying to find a way out of her predicament. It wasn't easy with so little funding.
Monodramon disappeared into Kazuhiko's phone. Takaharu had to encourage Lomamon again that four months would go by relatively quickly, so they would be able to see Ryuta and Amedramon at least over the winter break. It took some time, but eventually Lomamon nodded and jumped into his phone as well.
Kazuhiko waved his parents farewell, and they made their way out of the Shimizu apartment and to Kinshicho Station. It was some time after the lunch hour, so the station wasn't terribly busy. Perfect time to go to the airport with bags. To passersby, it might have seemed like all four of them were flying, what with Kazuhiko's two large bags, backpack, and tablet bag, as well as Satsuki's single bag and many other smaller carry-ons.
As they waited for a Rapid Sobu and Yokosuka to Zushi, Takaharu asked, "Are you two going to miss each other?"
Kazuhiko and Satsuki gave each other a look, then burst out laughing.
"I'll take that as a no."
Satsuki recovered first. "I think we need a bit of time to ourselves for a while. It's been fun, though."
"Yeah, I feel like I've about reached my limit for sarcasm this year," agreed Kazuhiko. "Not that I hate it, it's just…"
"It's a lot?"
"I'm afraid it is sometimes. I still love you for it, though." The train arrived with a mildly uncomfortable amount of people on it. They boarded anyway. "Actually, you know what? It has been a year. It's been a year since we met them, all six of us."
Takaharu hadn't even been keeping track. "Oh, right! It has!"
"A year goes by fast," murmured Yuuka. "Well, fast when you're enjoying it."
"What, you don't need time away from Ryuta?" asked Kazuhiko.
"I… he was getting better, and I wanted to be there for that," Yuuka complained. Kazuhiko and the other three nodded and murmured their agreement.
An amused grin spread across Takaharu's face. "Remember that time we were needling him about a love journal? Yuuka, does he actually have one?"
"No!"
"Good, that would be weird if he did."
"He's not that hopeless!" she protested.
Satsuki raised her eyebrows. "That leaves just one among the six of us then." Yuuka sputtered, while Kazuhiko and Takaharu glared at her suspiciously. She was clearly referring to either one of them, or to Asuka, and they were both sure it wasn't Asuka. She wasn't a romantic at all. Then they glared at each other.
"It's you," they said in unison, pointing at each other. "Hey!"
Satsuki and Yuuka clutched each other to stop from falling down with laughter as the train announced the next station to be Shinagawa. They would have to change here and catch the Keikyu to Haneda. Kazuhiko groaned. "This is exactly what I mean."
Satsuki wrapped an arm around his shoulders as they waited for the next train to come. "Come on, Kazu, let me have that one. It was good."
"Okay, fine. But was it me you were talking about?" She didn't answer, but she flicked her eyes repeatedly at Takaharu while he wasn't looking. Kazuhiko snickered and gave her a thumbs up.
The airport-bound train arrived, and they made their way in. "So, who flies first?" asked Yuuka.
"I do," replied Satsuki. "Poor Kazu has to wait another, what, six hours after that?"
"Six hours?!"
"It was his choice."
Kazuhiko replied sheepishly, "It didn't make a lot of sense to take the train back and forth on the same day, so I figured I can handle myself for a while."
"What about Monodramon?" retorted Takaharu. They all knew how active it wanted to be.
"I- oh… that might be hard, heh. Oops." He adjusted his glasses.
By the time they reached Haneda Terminal 3, Satsuki's flight was already on the departures board with a gate. She didn't have too much time. Kazuhiko and Satsuki waved goodbye to Yuuka and Takaharu as they both went to self-check in to send their large bags away, then proceeded to airport security. Kazuhiko and Satsuki lingered around nervously, waiting for their stuff to go through. "You think the x-ray machine is going to affect them?" Kazuhiko asked.
"I hope not. We should have asked Ryuta, but… he also didn't say anything. I guess it's fine, then."
"Right." At least neither of them had gotten kicked out of their phones. That had happened once to Kazuhiko when he'd forgotten to charge his phone; Monodramon fortunately had only popped out in a park late at night. He had to smuggle it up to his apartment without anyone noticing, but that wasn't so bad.
They picked up their bags from the security scanner table. As they walked away, Satsuki asked, "Gabumon, you good?"
"I'm good, didn't feel a thing," it replied.
"Nice." Her flight was posted for Gate 111 and had started boarding. She would make it though. It was literally right in front of them, after all. She checked over her papers just in case. "Passport, visa, school forms…" she mumbled as she went through her files. "Looks all good." She inhaled, then exhaled deeply. "Kazuhiko, I joke, but… It's going to be a long time."
"I know. It's painfully long. You sure I shouldn't try to visit?"
"We're both students. Re-entry is going to be complicated. Plus… I'd rather you save the money. We can always talk on video chat."
"I'm aware, it's just that I truly will miss having you here." They embraced one more time, tightly. Satsuki wished she had seen this coming. Maybe she should have taken notice, way back when, in their last year, when the topic came up. Too late now. Maybe the break from each other would do them some good anyway. "Have a safe flight. And enjoy Los Angeles! I hear it's nice all year."
"Most of the year. I'll be away when it gets nasty and hot, too, so I should be fine." She placed her flight card in her passport to get ready to board. "See you in summer."
"See you in summer." Kazuhiko watched her disappear into the crowd of people. He didn't want to linger. It would get the tears started if he did. He fled to the fourth floor, where all the restaurants and shops were, and then up to the top deck. It poked right out over her gate. At least he would be able to watch her plane leave.
Satsuki turned around as she neared the gate doors. Kazuhiko had already walked off. "Figures," she muttered to herself. He probably ran so he wouldn't start the waterworks in front of everyone. Kazuhiko was anxious, to be sure, but he was like that because he genuinely did care for all of them. He was the one, after all, who had put it in her head that maybe she should pursue her passion, like he was, even if that meant telling Etsuko and Gaku that they had wasted at least a term of tuition. She wanted to see how her term would play out first before making that call, but she was also aware that spending that money was painful.
She recalled that Gaku had mentioned in passing that he always wanted to get to know American cuisine more, as he was rather tired of working with European styles so much, and her mom was also looking to branch out. So, if the both of them were trying to find something new, and they both said that they were willing to leave the day-to-day operations to someone else…
Attention passengers onboard this flight JL16 to Los Angeles, this is your captain speaking. We'll be pushing back momentarily. Flight crew, please do final checks.
She took out a journal, like Kazuhiko had recommended she do to keep her notes and started scribbling.
Kazuhiko sat with a cappuccino in hand, like he usually did, watching as JL16's status changed from Boarding to Departing. He got out his phone. "Monodramon, there they are." A wide-body plane backed away from Gate 111, bearing Japan Airlines livery.
"Ah… Bye, Gabumon." Monodramon looked downbeat, after all of that activity earlier. "It's really going to be nine months, isn't it?"
"Yeah, it is. But there's a lot to see in London, Monodramon. Time will go by quickly! So many museums and buildings and parks, ahh, I don't even think I'll have time for all of it!"
Monodramon heaved a heavy sigh. "At least you like these things." They watched together as the plane backed onto the taxiway, then turned, and rolled away. Kazuhiko looked up the time on the board. Just about on time for an airport this busy. He finished his cappuccino and got up with his bags. It would be another six hours before JL41 departed, enough time to do a lot of shopping and eat dinner. And somehow, someway, he was going to have to get Monodramon out for a bit to eat.
The airport was so busy that people just seemed to be glazed-eyed, waiting in place for their flights. Perhaps hiding Monodramon wouldn't be so hard after all in here.
Falcomon woke to the sound of Yuuka moving around. It looked over at her phone. It was unusually early, even for her. It closed its eyes. Yuuka was worried about them, wasn't she? "Yuuka…"
"I'm fine."
"Are you?"
Yuuka looked up from her college studies. It was a Friday morning, which meant that this was a bit unusual. "Yes."
"You're up early."
Yuuka sighed. "You remember what Mariko said yesterday, right?"
"That she wanted to retire and rest a while? I do."
Yuuka grimaced. They could probably be fine with Nagisa's university salary and pension, but she didn't want to mooch off her parents like this indefinitely, as much as they tried to reassure her that she could live with them for whatever length of time she wanted or needed. Besides, if she were to marry Ryuta…
She shook her head. Ryuta was cute, funny, and mildly damaged, but it was only one year. It was too soon to think about him in particular. Whoever it was, she didn't want to have to live in this place. There was no room for four. Whatever she did would have to be sufficient enough to afford her a place of her own.
She stared at a blank notebook. It wasn't for college assignments. It was one of those idea books that Kazuhiko had said she should try keeping. She stared at the empty pages.
"I keep coming back to the same idea over and over again, Falcomon. I don't think it's good enough."
"What is that idea?"
"I want to start my own pastry shop. I don't think I can live on my own with that income, though. Not here, in Sumida, anyway."
Falcomon hopped next to her. "Are you sure? I see a lot of them out there, and they seem okay."
"You know, a lot of these places fail within a few years." It was a relatively true statistic; food businesses did fail quite frequently. Margins were perennially tight and demands perennially intense. The business could break anyone.
"Then you need to find what makes them not fail. I'm sure there are lots of places out there that have been around for a while."
Yuuka shook her head. Most of them operated on a ridiculous throughput. She didn't exactly want to just have a mall store or something. She still wanted to be unique enough to attract some attention.
"What about Satsuki's parents? They might know something," Falcomon said.
Her parents? They ran restaurants. Maybe there were enough similarities. "I can try."