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Seishiro stumbles around the playground, stepping over flailing limbs and the toys littered around. He's too tall for any of the kids to want to play with him, too smart for kids his age and he's also older than most of the kids playing in the playground anyway. He settles into the biggest groove made by the roots of the largest tree, and he curls up with his knees up to his chin.
Mama had thrown him out the house, said something about Christmas preparations when she knew Seishiro knew it wasn't going to be Christmas yet for another month. He just wanted to stay in his room and watch cartoons, not like Mama ever needed him for anything, anyway.
Papa wasn't home for the holidays again, but then he never is. Seishiro is used to being alone. No one talks to him, why did he have to be outside? It's cold and freezing and stinging because Mama forgot his gloves and he forgot to remind Mama about them, so his hands are numb now.
He pouts, moves his fingers around to get some kind of feeling back into them, and picks at the loose threads in the hems of his sleeves. That's when a shadow falls over him — though he's already in the shade. He's shadier? Whatever.
He peers up to find a really, really round face and bright turquoise eyes staring at him. Those eyelashes were ridiculous, Seishiro thinks in the comfort of his mind. The boy? Girl? Besides the point. The point here is, their round eyes, round face and absolutely annoyingly long under lashes make for a really cute face, and Seishiro is oddly reminded of a kitten, like one he'd find while walking home, a small mew coming from the tall grass.
It's also the first time someone has ever started a conversation with him without immediate backing away when he looks at them.
“I'm Rin. Wanna play with me?” the kid holds out the football in their hand, and Seishiro blinks. He hadn't realised anyone would notice him, yet alone wanted to approach him and talk to him. Better yet, to want to include him in some game with them.
Seishiro uncurls from his position, and stretches his legs out. His knees are sore from the prolonged stillness, and he hums out a quiet, “I'm Seishiro.”
He stands up to his full height, and holds out a hand for the kid to take. “Are you a boy?”
The kid, newly dubbed Rin, blinks and tilts their head sideways slightly, like a confused cat. Their eyes are similar to an owl's with their brightness and roundedness, but Seishiro is getting tired from all this thinking and he doesn't want to think anymore.
“Yeah? Am I not?” Rin replies, bemused, and Seishiro tugs their joined hands to lead the small boy towards the grassy patch just further out from the playground.
“Don't worry about it.” Seishiro has never played football before, but he has played volleyball. It's not that different then kicking the ball up before it could touch the court, right?
He was stupid to think that as a child, even if it was easy dribbling and shooting the ball back then, especially now that he has the hindsight of being fifteen years old now. And currently still on the campus of his junior high school after his volleyball practice while all his club members have gone home. He digs around for the pullover sweater he knows he had shoved into his bag this morning, it's one he isn't afraid to lose to a certain someone he's going to drag home soon.
He was running out of jackets and hoodies… He should get his parents to get more for him the next time they return from their eleven months of the year road trip, though his mother has already used her one month this year. He could just buy them online, he knows the stores his parents frequent for his oversized clothes.
Seishiro hums as he leans against the fence around the football field, watching as Rin, who's grown taller now and is almost to his shoulder, kicks the ball into the goal. Rin was the happiest and the most content with kicking balls around on the field. Seishiro is not mature enough, so he huffs out a small laugh at the image he just thought of.
Looking at a teenaged Rin, Seishiro misses the baby Rin, the one who was really cute as a child, with round cheeks and round eyes and a bright smile — now, though? He's slimmed down, and his eyes have narrowed to mirror his older brother's. The length of his limbs that came with growing taller definitely make playing football easier.
And he's prettier, that's for sure.
Seishiro eyes the open gate, where a group of girls had broken in and are now loitering around the stands, cheering for Rin. How troublesome, Seishiro hums in his mind as he watches Rin get progressively angrier, the furrow of his brow, the twitching of his left eye, and the really, really funny curl of his lips as he packs up his things and is about to march over to the girls to say some rude things. Things like shut up, you lukewarms. Don't disturb me.
Not like the girls would listen. They'll return tomorrow, and this whole process will happen all over again. Seishiro has seen the absolutely incredible amounts of chocolates Rin gets on Valentine's Day alone, because he's always around Rin during that day as a buffer between Rin and the female student body, ever since they were young.
He still doesn't know if he's protecting the girls from Rin or protecting Rin from the girls.
“Ah… it's my cue,” He says to himself, but doesn't move past getting closer to the stands himself, and he waves when Rin notices him.
“Rin-chan, you know your mum has been bothering me about you staying too late at practice.” He says, and he's supposed to be berating, but his own tone of voice doesn't sound scolding, even to himself. Rin raises his eyebrow, and Seishiro watches as the younger boy steps out of the field with his bag.
He tosses the jacket he had taken out of his own closet at Rin, who catches it and immediately dons it. Seishiro takes the duffle bag from Rin and slings it over the shoulder without the strap of his own bag, and he looks over to the girls at the stands while Rin replies to the worried messages from his mother. He sticks his tongue out to the girls, and then pushes Rin towards the main school gates.
“Is Suzuki-san nagging you about the time again?” Seishiro chuckles, and Rin smacks him with his phone. He holds up his hand in defence.
“Alright, no need for any kind of domestic abuse here…”
“Domestic? We don't live in the same house.” Rin scoffs, and they walk hand in hand to the younger boy’s house, where the matriarch of the family rushes out before they even step past the gates and jumps the both of them. She tugs at Rin's cheeks while her son grumbles about being too old for this.
Seishiro would like to remind the boy that he is, in fact, fourteen years old, and definitely not too old for this, but who was he to judge? His parents barely raised him, so he raised himself. He actually dreads his mother returning for a month every year, and his father is never home anyway.
He's seen pictures of his parents more than actually seen them in front of him as real people.
The amount of times Rin has had to force his way into Seishiro's house to bring meals is ridiculous. So is the amount of calls Rin makes to Seishiro just to remind the older boy to eat, sleep and shower. Seishiro likes the attention and care the youngest Itoshi hands out to him on a silver platter, and it's with that in mind that has him draping himself over Rin and waving to Itoshi Suzuki when the woman greets him with a smile.
He asks if he can shower and eat in their house, pretend like he has a family that actually cares instead of throwing him to the wolves and galloping around the world without a care, and as always, the Itoshi parents grin and welcome him with open arms.
Rin pinches him, and Seishiro hisses out in pain. “Your eyes are floaty again. Stop going away.”
Seishiro continues putting his weight onto Rin while his friend steps into his house and removes his shoes in exchange for indoor slippers. Seishiro does the same, though sloppily, and that has Rin turning around and raising an eyebrow at him.
Seishiro shrugs, and places his bag down gentler, in a better position of leaning against the wall, under the watchful eyes belonging to Rin. Rin was certainly bossy, and he was also certainly nitpicky when it came to his things, but Seishiro has been this guy's friend since they were toddlers, so he's had time to grow used to the person that is Itoshi Rin.
Their friendship was quiet, and probably had too much physical contact than necessary, but that's just how they were. Rin pulls and Seishiro pushes. Rin is quick to anger and Seishiro… is quick to follow after, even if he isn't angry. It's a great relationship, clearly.
He gets out of his thoughts in time to catch the clothes being tossed at him. They're a sweater and a pair of sleep pants from Rin's closet and are significantly big on their owner’s frame, but Seishiro is a couple inches taller than Rin so these clothes would fit him just right. At least that's what he gauges from the length of the sleeves of the sweater against his arms. He estimates where the bottom hems of the pants will reach on his legs, and figures they'll be kind of short on him.
Well, beggars can't be choosers, so Seishiro shrugs and goes into the second bathroom on the first floor of the house, and tries his best not to fall asleep under the warmth of the shower. It would be really embarrassing, just like the first time he had fallen asleep in the showers, only for Rin’s older brother to walk into him half asleep and leaning on the wall when Rin had gotten worried enough to ask Sae to check on his friend.
The next few hours were spent with the two most unimpressed pairs of eyes watching him get swaddled in blankets and force-fed food under two other dutiful pairs of eyes belonging to the parents. It's embarrassing remembering it, and Seishiro scoffs at the memory.
He steps out of the showers, and barely dries the water dripping off of his frame properly before he dresses himself quickly. The clothes are a bit tight on him, especially at the joints, but that was to be expected when the guy who owns the outfit he's currently wearing is a certified pipsqueak.
He settles next to Rin at the dining table, who's still wearing the pullover Seishiro had given him even after his own shower, and presses his hands together in a short word of thanks with the family before digging in. He’s never had anyone to do the before eating phrase with at home before, his parents are always too busy or nowhere to be found as Seishiro fixes his own food.
He hasn't made his own meals in years, not since he met Itoshi Rin and the rest of his family. Seishiro smiles slightly as he savours the cooking of Rin's father, and the view of Rin stuffing his face full, making his cheeks puff out like a chipmunk.
Cute, Seishiro thinks and takes a spoonful of the food in front of him, nodding at Rin's father when the man passes by to get drinks from the refrigerator.
Was this a good time to tell them that he's gotten a request to attend a school in Tokyo next year?
Seishiro is waiting for a match on a game when his phone rings and he jumps from the suddenness of the noise. It's a sheer difference from the in-game music and sound effects, and he peeks over at the contact while he moves his mouse around gingerly towards the cancel matchmaking button.
He picks up the phone just as a match is found, and he frowns at the missed opportunity, and declines the match. He cancels the matchmaking, and presses his phone to his ear, and he greets, “Rin? You never call me this late.”
Seishiro knows this, because it's currently almost eleven and the sky is midnight blue. The sun has set a while ago, and Seishiro knows Rin prioritises his training, and is usually training nonstop at this time. Rin just doesn't call between the times of the darkening sky and the peeking out of stars scattered about the sky, and now that he's calling, Seishiro is a bit worried.
Rin's breathing is deep, and he hiccups once in a while while sucking in breaths like he's unable to breathe, and Seishiro furrows his brows at the strange and unusual depth in Rin's voice as he recites exactly what his older brother had said to him just earlier. He pushes his chair away from his desk by rolling away with the wheels, and he turns off his computer while he stands up to settle on his bed.
Rin was a silent crier, but Seishiro could always tell when he was sobbing. The slight hitch in his breathing, the small trembling of his hands and the sudden need to sit down. All signs point to Rin’s emotional state, and while Seishiro can't see Rin right now, he knows the younger boy was sobbing. It was obvious to him, at least.
“Sei… I don't want to play football anymore.” Rin says, his voice shaking, as if afraid that Seishiro would condemn him. Like Seishiro would hate him over this, over Rin changing his mind when Seishiro himself couldn't even hold enough motivation to go ahead with the basic necessities of life, so who was he to judge Rin for making a decision? While definitely a life-altering decision for someone who takes football as seriously as Rin does, if the boy thought Seishiro was as terrible of a person as his older brother, he'd be hurt.
Seishiro falls backwards onto his bed, and he looks up and out of his window, where the snow has started falling rather heavily. He hopes Rin gets to somewhere warm soon. He hums, and Rin sucks in a small breath on the other side of the call in response.
“Then don't,” Seishiro replies to the unspoken question, and he turns to his side. He presses onto the speaker function, and sets his phone upright, leaning on his pillow. “Your brother doesn't want you to play with him in mind, right?”
Seishiro doesn't understand how one can just break their younger brother's heart like that, and he's an only child. Rin has idolised Sae for as long as Seishiro's known him, and apparently, has idolised his older brother as soon as he could crawl, based on childhood stories told by the younger boy’s parents. If this was upsetting to him, he doesn't even know how devastated Rin must be. He doesn't even want to imagine it. It was painful.
“Then find something that doesn't bring him to mind.” Seishiro finishes his words. Seishiro doesn't know why he feels like he's just shifted something in the world, but the air between them is suddenly looser and less tense, and Seishiro hears Rin breathe properly for the first time in the last few minutes.
Rin goes silent on the other end, and all Seishiro hears is the soft whirring of vehicles driving past, the crinkling of the remaining leaves on tree branches in the mild wind this night and Rin’s soft breaths. Seishiro calls out Rin's name, only to get hung up on with a quiet bye-bye.
Seishiro blinks, and looks at the screen of his phone, which has returned to his previous page, an open direct message to his online friend on discord. Seishiro sighs and shakes his head. He already knew Rin was like this, why is he still surprised?
He settles in for bed, since he's already lying on it, and his appetite for gaming has died with that phone call. He replies to his friend with a quick sorry man something came up, and as his friend types his reply, he continues with let's play tomorrow.
Tomorrow, he'll be walking home from school and watch the group chat messages just get worse and worse with each passing second when a picture from Rin comes up in a notification, it's of the younger boy holding a bow in his hands and Seishiro blinks. He will search up the sport, and Kyūdo comes up multiple times, all links to websites and news articles that don't tell him anything about the sport.
Huh.
There's almost nothing about the sport of Japanese Archery online, so he settles for bothering Rin until the boy sends over any kind of information. He returns to lurking in the group chat, at least until someone calls him out.
Shit. Not good.
Seishiro settles into the benches beneath the large outdoor tents set up at this particular archery meet-up venue. He's still wearing his volleyball jersey and shorts, having rushed onto a taxi over to Rin's match right after his own practice match at school, much to the leering of his teammates and jokes about girlfriends coming up. He's skimming through the information pamphlet he took from the front desk, when an elderly man sits next to him.
Seishiro glances at the man, then shifts his duffle bag around to accommodate the man's legs. The elderly man is talking to a small child sitting on his lap, probably his granddaughter. Seishiro thinks small children are cute, if they aren't screaming his ears off.
He looks back up as the two teams walk into the large dojo with a high ceiling and bow towards the adjudicators. He spots Rin immediately, with his dark hair and teal eyes that just seem to be brighter than even the sun above them currently.
The archers kneel pretty far back from the shooting position that Seishiro has seen from Rin's personal training sessions that he's sat in on through a video call. They bow once more, take a few seconds to get into position at the shooting line, place two arrows down as they kneel, before waiting for the announcers to call for them all to start.
It's a bit slow for Seishiro's tastes, but Rin looks the calmest he's ever been while playing a sport, so Seishiro will tough it out too, for Rin.
Seishiro takes a photo of Rin and his team as they stand and move their feet into the proper position, holding their bows above their heads as they set their first of two pairs of arrows. The haya, from what he hears from the elderly man next to him, talking softly to his granddaughter. Rin’s team goes first, and Seishiro watches with bated breath as Rin starts first, setting his first arrow with practiced ease, moving his bow downwards while pulling on the bowstring in one movement.
Seishiro blinks — and the arrow goes flying, stabbing through the target with a thwomp while the twang of the arrow releasing from the bow echoes through the venue somehow. The score board turns, and a circle appears in place of what was previously blank.
Rin sets a shooting rhythm for his team, and the other team, as the first shooter.
The sharp sound happens seven more times after Rin, but it sounded different for every archer. Seishiro likes Rin's best. He isn't biased, he swears, though his fingers are crossed behind his back, so he wouldn't trust himself.
Rin nails every shot. Only one is a bullseye, but all four of his arrows pierce through the target and everyone around claps and cheers for him. Rin settles back down while his team continues shooting.
Seishiro watches as the opposing team end their turn, and Rin’s team comes out victorious. Seishiro claps, and no one seems to be cheering loudly like the audience would at a volleyball match, so he doesn't do anything drastic. What he does do, however, is ambush Rin as his team is walking down to the entrance, since this was the last game of the day.
Rin flinches when Seishiro comes up behind him, and places an arm around his shoulder. The team greets Seishiro warmly, they recognise him from the video calls Rin has regularly, and he waves back at them. Rin frowns when he turns to look at Seishiro, and the taller boy can't contain his mirth, which was obviously immediately noticed by Rin.
“Seishiro, stop smiling,” Rin says, and elbows Seishiro in the side, “You didn't tell me you were here?”
Seishiro groans, and unlatches his arm from Rin's shoulders to soothe the pain blooming in his side, he surely would not be surprised if a bruise forms at the exact spot Rin had elbowed him. “Augh. Domestic abuse…”
“Again, we're still not living together.”
Seishiro huffs, rolling his eyes, and takes Rin's equipment from him, he makes sure to hold the cloth covered bow and the quiver attached to it gently, and doesn't dare jostle it too much. After all, they're not his, they're Rin's.
Rin's team had left a while ago, probably when Rin and he were bickering, and Seishiro is glad for that. The walk to the bus stop is comfortably silent, with the two of them stepping in sync, Seishiro taking bigger steps to match up with Rin, and Rin slowing himself down when he notices the taller boy start to lag behind.
Seishiro holds out his hand when they near the bus stop, and Rin takes it. Seishiro looks at their legs as they stand underneath the shade provided by the bus stop’s roofing, and Rin looks out onto the road for their bus. Seishiro thinks of a bright smile, purple hair and the most expensive smelling cologne he's ever smelled in his life.
He doesn't use cologne or anything, but Rin does and Rin doesn't like the especially strong scents, and the purple haired boy’s cologne had burnt Seishiro's eyes. He smelled like money, and he was talking about football and the World Cup for some reason — Seishiro doesn't really get it. He had just caught his phone before it slammed into the ground and shattered to oblivion. All he really remembered was that the guy's teeth were ridiculously white. Like, super bright.
But looking at Rin, who's content with never seeing his brother again, but still in a dilemma between Itoshi Sae and the sport he had used to love and getting an apology, Seishiro makes a decision just then as their bus pulls into a stop in front of them. Rin lowers his hand, and he pulls on their joined hands to drag Seishiro to board the bus.
Seishiro taps his card, and lets Rin pull him to where they were going to be standing for the next ten minutes as the bus goes about its route. Seishiro is on his phone, messaging his captain before pressing onto the new contact in his phone.
hey, really odd timing capt but im leaving the team, joining the mikage guy in the football team. it’s for my childhood friend, he types and sends it to his captain. He waits until his captain comes online to see his message before he starts typing his response to message the Mikage, a quick and short: im agreeing to your football club thing.
His captain sends his regards, and Seishiro is just grateful that he doesn't have to explain himself further. He looks back at his best friend while his phone goes crazy with the vibrating. Rin is looking out of the bus windows, leaning back into the crook of Seishiro's arm, the one holding onto the poles for stability. Seishiro is completely fine with being Rin's anchor.
He looks down at his phone and blinks. Wow, this Mikage guy was an insane texter. Thirty messages in two minutes? They were all paragraphs too. He sends a thumbs up emoji and mutes the guy.
Seishiro alights after Rin, and walks down the familiar route past the pier and the glittering sea to the Itoshi’s house. The sound of the waves rocking and splashing against the stone of the pier walls and the salt he can taste in the air. The people biking, making the two of them stand aside to let them pass.
Seishiro missed this. He should visit more, maybe actually see his parents for once. They had decided to stay in their house more after he had moved into his Tokyo apartment, and while he had a friendship-like relationship with his parents since they just let him be, and he was sure he was missed, he hoped Rin's parents would still be accommodating after all this time. They're the only pair of parents he's ever tried to impress before.
“Why are you floating away again?” Rin's voice breaks through his mind fog, and the furrow in his brows show his worry. Seishiro hums, and pushes Rin forward through his own house’s gates with a finger.
“It's nothing. Don't worry about it.” Seishiro says and Rin raises an eyebrow in response, and it's infinitely worse than the way his brows were turned down earlier. Rin rolls his eyes, and unlocks the door. He turns to look at Seishiro before he opens the door.
“Mama has been asking when you were going to be coming back to visit. She's going to shriek when she sees you.”
Seishiro is thankful for the warning, but the Itoshi matriarch had pipes. Her scream was probably heard by the whole neighborhood, but Seishiro is just happy someone other than Rin is glad to see him.
Seishiro looks through Rin's wardrobe for something to wear while Rin takes off his Kyūdo outfit to show the tank top and shorts he was wearing underneath. Rin scurries around, hanging up his clothes properly and passing the hangers to his mother.
Seishiro uses this time to dig out one of his old hoodies from the back of Rin's wardrobe and a pair of pants he had worn a while ago when he had stayed the night. It fits him still, somehow, and he washes up in the secondary bathroom as per usual whenever he used to regularly visit after school.
It's nostalgic, almost. He hasn't been back in almost a year, after all.
Seishiro gets an odd letter in the mail when he gets home that day. It's for him, with his full name and address on the envelope, but the sender was something called a ‘Blue Lock Project’. A search brings up absolutely nothing, and he's kind of worried.
He tears it open after a long shower spent looking up at the ceiling light in hopes of not falling asleep from the soreness already setting into his limbs and the exhaustion he feels now that he isn't running around. And thinking about that strange letter.
It unfolds into some essay about him being accepted into some football programme that was largely unknown, weird, kind of creepy, and he's pretty sure this was a scam. He isn't being watched as a potential victim of some gruesome kidnapping and murder crime, is he?
Seishiro blinks. Wow, very gorey thoughts. Way out of his personality.
He's been listening to Rin talk about true crime far too much, he fears.
He's about to tear the letter up and toss the pieces into the rubbish bin when Reo texts him with a bunch of words that he doesn't even bother to properly read, skimming through everything and getting a summary of: Hey! Did you get a letter for a football camp too? My father says it's legitimate, so let's check it out!
Seishiro replies with his favourite alien stamp collection, this one with the silly thing holding up a thumbs-up, and swipes to press on Rin's contact. A picture of the same letter, a bunch of question marks, and a voice note that just expresses his genuine confusion and concern.
Very Rin. Also he was demanding a response.
Odd for this programme to know about Rin, but maybe it isn't so far-fetched considering Rin’s old middle school football career is still talked about even after two years. But it has been two years, and Rin clearly has not touched a football since he quit.
i got the same letter too, he types back. it's legitimate, apparently. will be joining.
Ok, Rin responds, and they leave it at that. It's the last message sent between them because just the next day, right after school, he's pushed into a limousine, gets his phone and many power banks charged and a glass of non-alcoholic apple cider to sip at while they drive to where this project is taking place. It's some tall building, and it has absolutely nothing to show on the exterior.
He's not getting kidnapped willingly, without his consent, is he?
He and Reo walk through the doors and — it's… like a survival game. One that was popular in the media. Like Alice in Borderland… or something. And with a large projector screen behind some guy with an insane build.
A large group gathering, some insane guy on a stage, rambling about strikers and egos and football, the sudden feeling that if they moved even an inch, they'd die? Very Danganronpa. Very Your Turn To Die. Very… what's another game?
Oh. Very Nonary Games vibes. Except with more people. And less doors. And less numbers. And less point-and-click to find evidence, because there's no evidence to be found unless it's for a crime that hasn't been committed — kidnapping and murder of one Nagi Seishiro and two hundred and ninety-nine other teenage males around his age range — or like, tax fraud. The guy on the stage looks like he'd commit tax fraud.
Then some lunatic runs forward straight into the doors, and opens the floodgates of three hundred teenage boys rushing in after him, pushing against each other to get in first. Seishiro watches, until he's dragged by Reo and through those doors too. How troublesome…
Seishiro immediately buys his phone and charger back the moment he scores enough goals. He's the main scorer on the team, despite everyone being ‘strikers’, and he's sure it's because Reo keeps passing to him and that other guy with the glasses. He assures Rin that he's fine, just exhausted, sick of this place already, and rants about how boring everyone is.
this place sucks, he texts. these ppl are so boring can they pls get better?
Rin sends back an owl stamp, it's new, and probably one of those paid ones. Seishiro huffs at the side eye the owl gives him, and sends back one of his alien stamps.
Rin texts back, Maybe you're just not on their level, have you thought of that?
“Annoying brat,” Seishiro hums. He tells Rin as much. The message is read, but left unanswered, and Seishiro thinks that's the end of today's conversation with Rin until the younger boy sends a picture of the outside sky. Reds, yellows, oranges and even purples dye the previously baby blue, and the sun dips beneath the buildings that line the streets.
Good luck.
Seishiro hums, the corner of his lip lifting up into a smirk. Cute. The second selection was ending, and he's sure he'll need that luck for the next.
He's led to a dark room the next day, everyone still remaining in the programme is gathered, and Reo won't look at him. Seishiro is fine with that, he says, like a liar, but he's feeling infinitely lonelier even with Barou and Chigiri standing next to him, looking up at the screen where Ego was dishing out harsh remarks and the Top Six strikers in the facility.
His icon shows up with a flair of dramatics and sound effects, and his name comes through the speakers.
Two selections gone by, and he's come out as one of the Top Six. The number one striker, some dyed blond-pink freak, immediately starts a fight with Bachira, who's a rank lower than Seishiro at number six.
Seishiro pays them no mind. Reo's on the screen, looking worse for wear, and immediately after this selection is the match against the Under-20 team. The same team that Itoshi Sae was going to be playing for, told to them by some odd holographic spinning image of the teen, his each and every trait written out in paragraphs like a diagram from some science textbook.
Thinking of Sae makes Seishiro just a little testy. Or pissy, as Rin’s foul mouth would say. He'll just have to win the match for Rin, and to open up the path towards winning the World Cup with Reo.
He was never the best at multitasking, but he can definitely learn.
They get rooms to themselves, but with roommates. He ends up with Bachira and Yukimiya, the number four striker, and it's almost fun. Seishiro snickers at the mental image of Sae being some godly being, brought forward by Bachira. He doesn't say he knew Sae personally, because he never did. Sae was just the really reclusive older brother of his best friend back home who tended to his injuries whenever he tripped and fell. The same older brother who bought Seishiro's favourite things just so Rin didn't have to always run to the store with Seishiro in tow.
The same older brother who tore his younger brother in halves, in fourths, in eighths, even sixteenths, and threw him aside, scattering pieces of Itoshi Rin to the salty wind blowing from the sea.
Sae was not a friend, but he was the older brother of Itoshi Rin, and even Seishiro could tell he loved his younger brother immensely.
So he's going to beat Sae, for Rin. It may not put back the pieces, but paper can be recycled and remade, even if it doesn't look the same anymore.
The U-20 match comes a little too quick, in Seishiro's opinion. It arrives with a lack of air in his lungs, lining up behind Isagi and the feeling of his heart beating like a rabbit, about to jump out of his chest cavity, and his skin tingling when Sae walks forward right next to him.
He doesn't glare, like he knows Rin would, but he nearly does. He watches the redhead from the corner of his peripheral view, and exhales a pointed little breath.
Sae barely twitches. Annoying.
The cheers from the spectators in the stands are thunderous, and Seishiro winces at the sudden return of his hearing after a moment's pause of nothing but shrill screaming.
Seishiro pictures the expression on Rin face, had he continued football and be on the field with him, running around to capture the ball from the members of the Under-20 team, stealing the ball from Blue Lock’s Isagi Yoichi, the captain of the team, and Seishiro snickers lightly.
The feeling that Rin is watching stays with him even halfway through the first half of the match, after one goal from Itoshi Sae, and it bolsters him to try harder.
He can't be an embarrassment in front of Rin, after all.
He steals the ball from an unrecognisable face as it falls from the sky, feinting and kicking the ball up into air again, aiming and shooting — it flies past the defenders and the goalkeeper, and with a loud Swish! and the deafening shrillness of the whistle blows through the speakers.
Silence.
Seishiro falls onto the ground, rolling around due to remaining momentum, and he slowly plants his hands onto the grass, lifting himself up to sit on the back of his feet, and he pants slightly from the adrenaline of the goal. He looks back at the goal, where the ball sits underneath the net, and the U-20 team stare in speechless shock.
The stillness of the stadium is broken by a loud cheering from the Japanese Team’s side of the stands, where a singular figure dressed in Blue Lock’s signature colour stood, jumping up and down frantically, hands cupped around his mouth to project his cheers out onto the field.
Familiar dark hair, one side falling longer and into his eyes, same pretty face from a few months ago, the same jacket he had stolen from Seishiro’s closet years prior clinging onto his much taller frame compared to then. Grey, so, so grey, and clashing with the bright blue of his scarf, wrapped around that elegant neck.
Seishiro feels like he just got his first breath of fresh air, and lifts his arm up to pump his fist, celebrating his victory with the one private secret he had that no one in the facility knew about. He points his fist at Rin, and feels the corners of his lips lift up in a small smile at the childish laugh brightening up the younger athlete’s face. He wishes he could hear that beautiful sound, but he will just have to make it happen again, sometime later.
The other spectators have started cheering, tentatively, alongside Rin, but Seishiro is just a bit too focused on the younger boy and doesn't really register the sudden bundle of noises behind him.
Seishiro is suddenly crushed under the weights of three persons; The laugh from Bachira, the happy cheering from Isagi and the soft chuckles of Chigiri as the redhead drills his knuckles into Seishiro's head tells him exactly who has jumped onto his back.
He doesn't mind.
He takes one last look at Rin, who's started waving his arms once his attention has been caught, and Seishiro feels like he could fight the entire world and win.
Blue Lock wins, and Seishiro doesn't really feel it yet. His blood is flowing through his body like an extremely violent rush of a river, and his hands are shaking from the underlying adrenaline, but it doesn't register to him, fully, that they have won.
He started this. He created the opportunity for Bachira and Barou and Isagi to score, and it feels incredible. Perhaps it's not very egoistic of him to feel good about creating a path for his teammates to score, but damn him if he's going to feel bad about being the first goal.
Seishiro rushes over to his biggest fan, and pulls him into his arms on a whim, squeezing him in the tightest hug ever. Who cared about shame? Itoshi Rin, Itoshi Rin, was here and cheering the loudest for Nagi Seishiro, and that was all that mattered.
Seishiro lifts Rin up and spins them around with a chuckle, feeling like he could float right there and then. He only puts Rin down when he gets hit and yelled at. His body shakes with his laughter as he runs back to the field, where his team was waiting in a line.
He returns to the locker rooms with the team, and they're all gathered around after a quick shower. Seishiro isn't particularly listening, too busy imagining Rin’s smile and everything else that gets him feeling a little bit warm, and maybe a little lovestruck too, when debriefing starts. He has a bottle of water in hand, and the tacky feeling of drying sweat on every surface of his skin, and the buzzing underneath that same skin gets him just a little bit too energetic.
He can't wait to get Rin within an arm's threshold again — at least, after a proper shower and the longest nap of Seishiro's life.
An interview is forced onto him, and Seishiro wants to choke Ego. He's seated on an, admittedly, really soft and plush sofa seat, but the lights are too bright and the clothes he's wearing are too itchy and stiff.
The mic is shoved into his face, and he blinks at the interviewer’s smug expression.
“Rin and I?” Seishiro asks, tilting his head in bemusement. He scratches at his neck as the interviewer leans forward, probably recognising a journalism scoop.
“Huh? Is it not… obvious? We're boyfriends.”
Then Seishiro flinches as he realises something, and he holds his head in his hands. He mutters, “Oh no… Rin’s going to murder me…”
He sends multiple texts to Rin’s phone, despite knowing it was futile. Rin was currently in class, after all.