Chapter Text
“This sucks.”
Have you ever felt something nagging at the back of your mind, saying that there’s something going on inside you. Something that was once a part of you had been sealed or buried deep in your mind? But for your sake, you can’t figure it out? And you feel like it’s bound to give you an identity or existensial crisis or an unholy combo of the two. And the thing is, you’re too scared to know, but dang it, your mind is telling you to fuck around, find out?
Well, unfortunately for Shindou Takuto, that’s the predicament he has found himself in. And it had caused him to lose focus in class, and therefore, not understanding the lesson. But he could care less right now, he was too lost in his mind to even care.
Goddamn it. He really was going insane. Nope, not from the soccer communism,not from space or time travel, or saving the world. No, he thought he and his friends had seen it all, but boy, he hasn’t. He hasn’t realized, he had only scratched the surface. Of what? Well, that’s gonna come sooner.
While waiting for their next teacher, everyone is busy chatting or gossiping about whatever latest trends there is. Which, the prodigy couldn’t understand. He was pretty different from his peers, his lifestyle, ways of interacting with others, stemming from his rich life, had made that obvious.
Still not snapping from his crisis, Kirino notices he’s deep in thought, and sighed. “Something on your mind?” the pink hair asked.
“…”
“A little.” The brunet replied sheepishly, knowing it’d be pointless to lie from his best friend. Kirino chuckled as ‘he’ patted Shindou’s back, and asks “Well, what’s bothering you?”
“Nothing much. Just a small existensial crisis. I don’t know myself anymore.”
“Oh geez, you really just had that? I thought you had yours weeks ago?”
“Look, I just came back from space. It took me sometime to actually process it.”
Shindou retorted as he huffed, rubbing his palms on his forehead and groaned.
Kirino laughed a bit and said “Well it looks like it’s going well.”
The brunet just sighed, shaking his head.
Meanwhile, Tenma, Shinsuke, Kariya and Hikaru are playing “Rock, Papers, Scissors” while Aoi and Tsurugi watches them. As the minutes went by, their adviser came into the room, startling the class as they all scrambled to get back in their seats. The adviser paid this no mind, and instead, talked to another adult outside the classroom, the words “transfer student” ringing clear in the class. Buzzes of murmurs and whispers were then heard.
“A new student? At this late in the school year?” Tsurugi wondered. “They must be either lucky enough or had bribed that easy-to-get chairman again. Or both.” Kariya snickered, earning a sheepish sigh from Aoi. Meanwhile, Tenma, Shinsuke, and Hikaru, though not as dorky as they were back then,(because seriously, facing Fifth Sector and time travelling with the threat of a highly advanced government organization(aka El Dorado), and a “terrorist” group made up of children with genes you could just edit up like code on a computer(aka Feida) is really gonna mess you up)were talking about how would it be great to have a new club member since their third-years are gonna go to university the next year.
“Hey, do you think maybe we could recruit the new student in our club?” Tenma gleefully chuckled while looking at the other two. “Maybe we could!! It’d be nice, since our seniors are close to graduating.” Hikaru replied, while Shinsuke thought, “I wonder how different things would be if we enrolled earlier into Raimon? Or later? We wouldn’t have met each other by then!”
This caught the other trio’s attention, Aoi heaving a sigh before looking at her childhood friend and the others with a mom-like smile. Tsurugi looked at them thoughtfully, while Kariya loomed away, the others unaware that deep down, he’s glad that they’re his friends.
The transfer student, who they didn’t know was listening to their conversation(with her sharp ears. No, both literally and figuratively, she has sharp ears. Pretty hard to hide, but at the same time, it’s practical especially when you want to listen to a specific conversation,like what she’s doing right now), smiled at Shinsuke’s thought about how different would the circumstances be.
“Oh Shinsuke. You don’t know, we all have already met.”
—————————————————————————————————
Yokihada Arazen, the new girl’s name(?), was disinterested with the adult’s conversation. Internally sighing, she gazed at the inside of the classroom, hyperfocused at the group of soccer club members chattering lively. She knew Kariya and Hikaru, but somehow, her mind put them out of the picture, focusing on Tsurugi, Aoi, Shinsuke and Tenma. Especially Tenma.
It’s not that she was a huge fan of them. (Liar. You’ve been watching them ever since hearing Shindou and Kirino joining the club. You’ve been in tune when you heard about the first years joining. You were suprised when you heard Tsurugi was a SEED. You even brought the initiative to yourself to kill whoever dumbass adult had the guts to actually actively attempt to assassinate any of Raimon’s members, because Fifth Sector really was going too far. You were frustrated when you heard from your Dad on why the country’s acting different about soccer. You were frustrated when you heard about the threat from the future, fretted about how are theydoing.You were scaredthattheywerentgonnamakeitoutaliveandthatyouwerentgonnaseethemagain-)
(Stop lying to your self.) But the thing is, she actually enrolled in Raimon, due to a motive. What that motive was, only she and a few others knew. But it did involve a few members, and you know who those are already. Why are they involved? Well, lets just say that they’ve been childhood friends. Simple as that.
No not really. It’s not simple.
Shit, she thought. How is she stressing over something- no, nevermind, She got herself into this, she got herself into this. She could’ve just moved on, but nope. She had to choose jumping back into the rabbit hole they escaped from and dug deeper, looking for any answers and all she got were few of those and more questions. Not to mention, dragged both of her parents into this.
“What the actual fuck am I doing with my life.” She thought, mumbling in a whisper, scratching her neck. Where if you looked really close, there seems to be something black etching on her skin.
When the adults were done talking, the class adviser smiled at her, and said “Well. Time to meet your new classmates, Miss Yokihada.”
Arazen just sighed, and said “Go figure.”
Entering the classroom, she was stared at. Partly because she’s a new student, but mainly? Her attire. Seriously, she just, grabbed the girls uniform, replaced the bow with an actual necktie, replaced the blue skirt with an black-violet argyle patterned skirt, grabbed a black vest and placed her pins on it, had cuffs and black fingerless gloves on her hands. Fingertips that seemed to be naturally faded with pink, thigh-high black socks and ankle boots. Add a wild fluffy mess of blonde hair with a pink-orange ahoge, and she will look straight out of an anime.
While everyone murmured and whispered about the new student, Tenma was locked into gazing at Arazen, with the girl giving him what seems to be a knowing smile. Her lips curve up ever so slightly, and her eyes glinted, like a fox’s.
It made him gulp, because, you know that feeling that Shindou just felt earlier? Well, Tenma felt that too, but, of course, he’s oblivious to it. Well, not too much, previous events kind of brought his naivety down, but, it’s just that he couldn’t pinpoint what he was feeling.
He didn’t know why, but Arazen’s gaze gave him that feeling.
“- so please make her feel welcome here. And if you have time, show her around the school ground, help her get familiar here, okay?” The adviser chirped up, which recieved either forced or compliant okays from the class. “So, any questions?” The adviser asked, and Arazen internally sighed and chuckled, while keeping her resting bitch face on.
“Oh boy, I know those questions are gonna come. Go on, shoot em.” She thought.
“Uhm, so, is it true you’re from abroad?”
Bingo, one predictable question down.
“Well, yes, for one. I’m from America, frankly.”
This made the class interested, while it made her internally irk. Neurotypicals.
Then Tenma’s hand raised up, making the class either sweatdrop or groan, as they knew he was gonna ask if she played soccer. Which she kinda guessed too, but it was one of the questions she wouldn’t mind answering.
Probably because she’s also a soccer dork, though not as much as him.
“Matsukaze, we already know what you’re gonna ask; “Do you play soccer?” One male student slightly mockingly said, making the class either giggle lowly or chuckle snidely, while Tenma’s face reddened a bit.
The class adviser openly said he did not approved the student’s behaviour, which then the student replied “So? It’s kinda annoying that he asks the same question over and over. No offense, but not everyone’s a soccer freak like you are.”
Oh you. Time to prove that jerk wrong eh?
“And unfortunately for you, I am one of the others who are soccer freaks, so if you have nothing else nice to say, might as well be quiet for my sake.” She snapped at the male, making the said student blush and groan in embarrassment, and the rest of the class just looked at her. The emotion? She didn’t know, nor did she care, since she’s focused gazing at Tenma, Shinsuke and Hikaru’s excitable faces, Kariya’s grin, Tsurugi’s small smirk, and Aoi’s slight smile.
“Any more questions?” Arazen asked, seeing if the class has anything more to pester her about. When no one answered, the teacher immediately tried to elevate the tension by assigning Arazen, to sit right next to Tsurugi.
Great. Now she can actually monitor her friends in case it happens too early. For both of their liking anyways. And, honestly, she’ll be amused if it turns out that Tsurugi is famous like Shindou and Kirino are. Because she can see the other girls giving her dirty looks as she walks towards Tsurugi, where her seat is. While getting herself settled, the navy haired striker casted a bit of a glance at her. Just out of curiosity, nothing else.
(Another lie. Truth is, he also got that existential crisis feeling that Shindou and Tenma also experienced, literally when he saw Arazen. Something in his mind was screaming, he knew her. He knew her. He just couldn’t remember who she was, or how did they meet. Who is she? Why is she here? Who is she?Who is she?Whoisshe?Whoisshe?Whoisshewhoisshewhoisshewhoisshewhoisshewhoisshe-)
“-gi? Tsurugi?” Arazen whispered while gently waving her palm in front of him. He was staring at her while he was having his crisis apparently, which made some of the nosy ones think he had a crush on her.
“How the fuck does he look like someone who has a crush on me? He is literally having an existential crisis!?” Arazen screamed in her head out of exasperation as she took a peek in the nosy student’s minds, and in Tsurugi’s. On impulse, she gave a silent glare at the ones who are being nosy, causing them to either silently yelp, or turn their heads away, while the lesson was still ongoing.
Neurotypicals, honestly. She thought.
———————————————————————————————————————
It was lunch time, and while the students can be see walking around and meeting up with their own circle of friends, chatting, gossiping, and doing typical teenage stuff.
Meanwhile, Arazen was sitting alone under a tree, not eating, she’s already done with hers. Instead, she seems to be busy writing something, jotting down notes in her journal. Which was written in English, so that not many people would understand what she was writing. It helps that her penmanship made it harder for those who can read English to read.
And no, she’s not writing her thoughts and feelings down, that shit’s reserved for another notebook. What she’s currently writing down was a list of things to do while she’s here monitoring her friends(or are they? Are they still considered her friends? Would they consider her one? It’s been a long time. And even if they remember her, they’ll surely hate her in the end. She caused too much damage to their psyche anyways. Too much. And she paid the price with her friendship to them).
Such as checking to see if there are still Anomalies on the loose(seriously, just how many of those fuckers did those bastards create?), if there are rogue experiments around Inazuma Town that she can turn in to Ms. Airi(bless Miss Airi’s soul, and thank soccer she was lucky enough to encounter her. Miss Airi has been a huge help in the matter of Ele-Chimereans, and right now, she’s gonna need more help than ever), and maybe visit Mr.Aphrodi and Mr. Hiroto and Mr. Midorikawa to check on them(bless them too, they agreed to keep her actual identity secret, and Mister Hiroto and Mister Midorikawa even helped her forge documents to help her pseudonym Yokinada Arazen seem more legit.).
(She’s gonna have to pay those people back someday.)
A small fond smile crept up her lips, grateful for having some of the few good people in the world on her side. Guess the world still has some good in store for even the ones who had seen the most fucked up shit in it.
Meanwhile, the first-year soccer club kids were catching up to some of the second years, namely Shindou, Kirino, Ichino, Aoyama, and Nishiki. Akane and Midori were busy hanging out with the other three second years(you know who they are).
“-a new classmate? Well that’s good for you.” Kirino fondly said.
“And for us! Apparently she plays soccer too! We might have a new member this year again if she ends up joining.” Tenma added, with everyone getting what he means, and all of them agreed.
“Heard ya’ll soccer players talk about me?” Arazen suddenly chimed in as dangled upside down from the tree, a cheeky grin on her face.
Cue the startled grunts from the second years, the screams from Tenma, Shinsuke, Aoi and Hikaru, a girly scream from Kariya, and a held back gulp that made Tsurugi choke, which Nishiki aided with the Heimlich Maneuver.
“What…the..fuck?!” Tsurugi said as he gave Arazen a bewildered look, while the rest were in varying tones of “Language!!” and Tenma was like “Guys! Not the first time he swore!”, making everyone look incredulously at him. Apparently, Tenma’s not as innocent as everyone would initially think, as he actually had swore himself a few times, but only when he hurts himself on accident. And even then, he never had gone to saying “fuck” yet. And it all happens in private, away from everyone’s knowledge, even Aki’s.
But back to the, apparently, “funny as fuck” scenario, as said by Arazen, she howled in laughter as she kept dangling upside down from the tree, face reddening and tears of laughter dripping at her face. Until she falls, yelps with a “Woah!?” and lands face first, making everyone worry.
“Arazen!! Are you okay??” Aoi worried, which was met with a thumbs up from the girl, who chuckled as she rolled up, meeting everyone’s worried and/or concerned faces. Because seriously, who laughs after falling from a tree like that?
Well, she does. After regaining her senses, she sits up, looking at everyone, and says “So I guess I owe ya’ll an apology for worrying you like that.” in a sheepish manner. Everyone either sweatdropped or sighed, and after that, they all resumed chattering with each other, now including Arazen in the mix.
Surprisingly for them, Arazen, Shindou and Kirino get along pretty well, to the point that they eventually slip into conversing in fluent English, confusing the rest. Though Kirino’s not as fluent as the other two, ‘he’ still had a fun time chatting with them.
While they ate lunch(sans Arazen, she already ate hers), the new girl would often poof Aoi’s hair up, playing with it fondly, or either give headpats to Shinsuke. Which they both didn’t mind.
Somehow, Arazen thought, shit will go down the very moment she decides to join the soccer club, and it won’t be for the reasons her soon to be teammates would think.