Work Text:
Meeting a Legend
Kouji and Izumi had been friends since they were in Kindergarten. And as it happens with this type of friendship, they’ve been attached to each other ever since and did almost everything together.
Almost being a quite important detail here. Because the one thing they couldn’t agree on was which types of sports were better. While Izumi was more into artistic sports, like figure skating and dancing, Kouji has always been more interested in sports that “looked cool”, like soccer or basketball.
And then there was Koujis newest love.
“Come on Izumi! I swear you’ll like Skateboarding too! Its not just about being fast and cool, it’s got all kinds of tricks that can totally look like dancing, too! At least give it a try!”
Izumi could feel his eyebrow twitch. Kouji had been trying for weeks now to get him to join him in his skating. While he had been skating for around one year now, he had gotten way more enthusiastic about it lately.
“Alright already! Will you shut up if I learn how to stay on one of these deathtraps without falling off? Because I’m not investing my time into learning tricks, but if it gets you off my back, I guess I can do that much.”
Koujis eyes sparkled as a grin stretched across his face.
“Really? You mean it? Hell yeah! Alright, since you probably don’t want to spend any money, you can use my spare board. We can get it right after school today and get started!”
Izumi narrowed his eyes at his friend.
“How do you even know if I have time after school today?”
He got a blank stare in answer.
“Dude, we’ve been best friends for more than 10 years now. We’re even in the same class. I practically know your whole schedule.”
“Tch. Whatever.” Izumi looked away, but he couldn’t stop the little smile tugging at his lips.
SSSSS
It took about 3 weeks for Izumi to skate safely without falling off his board, losing his balance or other problems, and while he still didn’t want to learn any tricks, he had to admit that this was more fun than he would have thought in the beginning. It kind of annoyed him though, that now Kouji was dragging him God knows where to get who knows what.
“Kouji, you still haven’t told me what we’re doing!”
“Don’t worry about it. Remember when I told you that Skateboarding has a lot of different aspects to it? Well today I’m gonna prove it to you. We just need do get you a badge to allow you entrance. I already made sure that you’ll get one, we just have to go to the meeting point for it.”
“A badge? To allow me entrance. To get where? You’re not making any sense!”
“Just trust me. It’ll be awesome. Wait, this is where we’re supposed to meet up.”
Izumi took a deep breath and tried not to kill his best friend.
“Can you at least tell me a little bit about what all this is for?”
Kouji grinned at him.
“We’re going to S tonight!”
Izumi blinked at him in confusion.
“S?”
“Yeah, It’s a somewhat secret meeting point for Skaters and also a super cool racing track by the old mines.”
“And I’m guessing the badge comes in with the ‘kind of secret’ part?”
“Exactly. Though some of the more popular Skaters can bring in their fangirls without one I’m pretty sure you’re not in the mood to pose as one of those.”
“Of course not!” Izumi screamed angrily at his laughing friend.
When a tall dark-skinned guy with a white hoodie and purple sunglasses walked close to them Kouji suddenly made some sign with his fingers, and before Izumi even really knew what was going on he put something into the pocket of his jacket.
“What the hell, do you guys have to make this look like some kind of drug deal or is that just you looking super suspicious?”
Kouji spluttered.
“It’s not that weird! And since it’s supposed to be a secret, of course you can’t just give these badges out at a store or something. So, once you have the connections one of the guys from S gets one to you as fast and inconspicuously as possible so no connections can be made. One of the reasons for that is also, that a racers identity inside and outside of S are supposed to be separate from each other, and this is one of the ways they try to keep the skater’s anonymity intact.”
“Hm…I see. Still looks super suspicious though.”
“Now listen here you little...Hey! Wait for me!”
But Izumi was already skating away from his cursing friend, laughing along the way.
SSSSS
That night the two friends snuck out of their homes and skated towards the S grounds.
“So…are there any rules in this place? Like, do I need to stay away from certain people or something?”
“Hm…not exactly. Skating is a pretty free sport after all, and most people here follow the same principle. Just try not to piss anyone off, or you might get pulled into a Beef.”
“A what now?” Izumi asked in confusion.
“A Beef.” Kouji answered. “Pretty much a race between two racers from the top of Crazy Rock down into the building at the bottom. And, no offence Bro, but a beginner like you would probably hurt himself. Usually there’s also some kind of price involved that the racers settle on before starting.”
“Yeah, no offence taken. Isn’t that…dangerous though?” He asked slightly worried.
“Of course, it is! But that makes it just that much more exciting!” Kouji exclaimed, a bright grin stretching all over his face.
Izumi just stared at his idiotic friend for a moment, let out a defeated sigh and concentrated on not falling off his board. He felt slightly more unstable on it today compared to normal. Was it out of nervousness? Shrugging it off he followed his friend to a big open space.
“This is where most skaters hang out, try out new tricks or follow any Beefs happening from the screens over there.” Kouji pointed to some big screens.
Izumi was in shock.
“What the hell. Who even pays for all of this stuff? Is this shit even legal?”
“Well, I don’t really know who pays for it, I haven’t been involved with S for too long myself now. I’ve heard a few rumors about some mysterious Skater who supposedly created this place, is super rich and still pays for it for his own benefit, but I’m not sure.”
“Alright, cool. That still doesn’t answer my question if this is legal!” Izumis voice kept growing louder as he glared at his friend.
Kouji, noticing the danger he was probably in, started sweating and stepped away from his friend, got on his board and started a tactical retreat.
“Kouji You stupid Asshat, get back here!” As Izumi got on his own to follow after the idiot, he only had a moment to realize that his board indeed was more unstable than usual, and before he knew what was going on he landed on his back, his board rolling away from him.
“Izumi!” Kouji was already running back to him to make sure he was alright.
“Ouch, that kinda hurt.” Izumi said while rubbing his backside, trying to ignore his friends worried looks.
And then, suddenly there was a whole lot of chattering going on around them.
“Yo, that’s Mecha!”
“One of the Legends? Oh my God, I’ve never been so close to one of them!”
“But what’s he doing here alone? Aren’t they usually going around as a Team?”
“Nah, but he’s always together with Snow. No idea why he’s not here now though.”
“Are you alright?”
At that question, Izumi looked up and right into soft and friendly Amber eyes.
“Um…yeah, thanks for asking.”
“That’s great!” The red-haired stranger said with a big grin. “This is your board, right? Mind if I take a short look at it?” He questioned.
“Go ahead!” Izumi encouraged him. When he glanced at Kouji, he noticed that his friend was looking at the stranger in seemingly frozen shock. Before he could question him about it though, the redhead spoke again.
“Hm…your wheels are pretty loose. No wonder you fell down so easily. Wait just a second.”
Only now did Izumi realize, that the young man was wearing a toolbelt and before he could say anything, a wrench had already been pulled out and his wheels fastened.
“There, now you shouldn’t really have any problems with it anymore.” He put a hand to his chin in a thinking pose. “Though it doesn’t really seem to be your own board anyways, right? It fits you relatively well, but I think a few adjustments to make yourself an own, customized board could go a long way to help you get better fast.”
Izumi looked at the redhead in shock. “How did you know all that?”
With a chuckle the man replied “I actually saw you and your friend skate here from the entrance. I have a good eye for people’s style and how to support that with adjustments to their boards. My nickname here after all is-“
“Mecha!” Was suddenly screamed by an annoyed voice.
The now named Mecha turned around and looked at the person calling him. Izumi could now see a black-haired teen with cat themed clothes on.
Mecha gave a sheepish chuckle.
“Ehehe. Hey Miya, what’s up?”
A tick seemed to form on the Teens head.
“’What’s up?’ What’s up is, that you boyfriend has been going on all our nerves for the last 15 minutes, because he lost sight of you and you didn’t answer your phone. And what do I find? You, sitting around chatting and fixing boards again. I’m actually not even surprised, but fucking remember to inform one of us the next time you pull shit like this, or else I’ll Beef you, you stupid Slime King, so I can put a leash on you and not have to deal with a panicking Snow every. Single. Time!”
Mecha just gave his friend a lopsided grin.
“Yeah yeah, I’m coming already. No need to scream at me, you Video Game Freak.”
That earned him an angry glare, and before the situation could further escalate, he got up. But before leaving he searched for something in his pocket.
“Where is it…ah, there it is!”
He pulled out a slightly crumpled card with the name DOPE SKETCH on one side and an address written on the other. Handing it to Izumi he said: “I know some of the workers at this place. They’re all really good at what they do, reliable and fairly prized. Why don’t you and your friend go by there some time? Sorry, I would have liked to chat more, but I really have to go now. See you…um, what are your names again?” Mecha laughed and scratched the back of his head.
Izumi got up as well and offered him a smile.
“I’m Izumi. And that idiot right here is Kouji.”
“Alright then, Izumi and Kouji. See you again.”
Mecha gave a little wave, went over to his impatient friend and together they took off on their boards.
When they were put of sight Kouji seemed to finally come out of his frozen stupor.
“Oh. My. God. Izumi, do you have any idea who these two were?!”
Izumi raised an eyebrow.
“Well, as far as I understood from our conversation, they are called Mecha and Miya.”
Kouji grabbed his shoulders and looked Izumi straight in the eyes.
“They are two of the six Legends!”
“…The what?”
“The Legends! Six super good Skaters that came together as a Team a few years ago. They’re Cherry Blossom, Joe, Shadow, Snow and you just met Miya and The Mechanic! Though everyone just calls him Mecha for short.”
Izumi stopped his friends rambling for a second.
“The Mechanic?” he asked.
“Yeah. He makes, adjusts and fixes all of the Legends’ boards. Excepts for Cherry’s, he won’t let anyone touch his AI super creation. Though I’ve heard rumors, that he sometimes helps with new algorithms.”
Izumi just blankly stared at his friend.
“…And this guy just fixed my board?”
“Yes.”
“And gave me a recommendation for a skating shop?”
“Yes.”
“And talked to me like it was totally normal?”
“Yes!”
They both quietly looked at each other for a moment before breaking into equally large grins.
“SO AWESOME!”
SSSSS
That night, while watching the different skaters and races, Izumi really fell in love with skating. Everyone had their own style, whether it was fast, strong, elegant or still clumsy. But what they all had in common was the freedom they seemed to feel whenever they made a particularly high jump, and the joy written on everyone’s faces as they did what they loved so much. Kouji was absolutely right. It was cool, but it was also artistic. It was like dancing, and at the same time not at all. And from now on these two would regularly learn new tricks together, come to S and just enjoy the one sport they both equally loved.