Chapter Text
“You forgot to inform me? Ego!”
Anri was very much upset with the man who sat in his chair, editing the camera footage, his hands working fast against the keyboard keys. He didn’t even glance her way as she angrily walked up to him.
“Did I? Oh well. So, was it Noel or Loki that let the truth slip? My bet is on Loki.” The guy didn't seem to be affected by her anger one bit. Her cheeks puffed up and an angry blush slipped onto her face.
“Ah! You make me so angry sometimes! Why didn't you inform me? I could've helped you set the scene and the date environment better. I'm a girl, y’know?”
His hands stilled.
“You're a grown woman, actually. And why does it matter whether you’re a woman or a man?”
“As a girl , I'm a lover of romance! I know how to make a person swoon.” Ego doubted that. “If I was more involved with the project I would've given it my all and helped produce a more dreamy video!”
“I've purposefully cut you out of this project for that reason. Anri, isn’t your schedule already packed as is?” Ego turned in his chair, finally looking at her.
“Wha-Why?”
“You would get too invested by this and lose all interest in other duties of yours.”
“No, I wouldn't! Why would you think that? Besides, you could help me by actually taking care of yourself!”
“Not interested. The romance manga under your pillow was enough proof. I mean, Aquarium dates between a normie girl and a delinquent, really?”
“You absolute pervert! You've been to my room? Shame! The nerve!” The now red faced woman started to hit his shoulder multiple times with her fists, yet there was no pain. Despite that, Ego still responded to each hit with a monotone ‘ow’.
“Would you calm yourself for one minute? I'll allow you to oversee the rest of the editing if that’ll stop this pathetic assault.” He slowly pulled out another chair for her to sit in, trying to pacify Anri.
“Hmph, you better!” She sat with her arms crossed, grumpy. With a hand pressed to the chest the woman exhaled, calming herself before a determined smile overtook her face. “Let's get to work!”
“Women truly are terrifying.” Ego quietly commented, as if he had never spoken with a girl before on any other level than professional, which is quite probable in his case.
“What was that?” The guy lazily put his hands up, surrendering.
“Nothing. Let’s get to work.”
“By the way, why did you choose both Rin and Yoichi as the first duo?” The woman looked through the video footage from the date, inspecting the interactions between the two boys.
“The world has their eyes on those two, Isagi’s clear win in the U-20 as well as Rin’s impressive play during the match… ever since the second selection those two have been going head to head, fighting 1v1 even outside of the football field.” Anri sweatdropped at an imaginary scenario of those two boxing in a cafeteria or at the beach during a holiday, before she went back to the subject at hand.
“Yes, but that was way before, right? Now the only serious rivalry that the fans see and talk about is the one between Isagi and Kaiser, no?” She brought up a fair point.
“Who said this was Isagi Yoichi’s only date?” The man crossed his legs, laying a hand on the upper knee
“Ah! You plan to exploit him?” Unbelievable, she thought.
“He’s not the only one here.” Ego showed her a tablet with footage of two different people.
“No way, isn’t that Itoshi Sae? And-”
“Shidou Ryusei. Amazing coincidence, isn’t it? A double date episode. What a gift from a football god.”
“Yes, the coincidence is quite impressive. However, Itoshi Sae isn’t part of the Blue Lock. Can we really use this footage?” Her face reddened as she saw the carnivorous kiss between the two men shared on the Ferris wheel.
“We will as long as we buy the permission. Here, catch.” Ego passed her the phone. “Itoshi Sae’s private number is already imputed in, all we need to do is negotiate the price. Good luck, dear Anri.”
“Hold on! You want me to do this?!” The woman panicked, holding the phone with both her hands. “Why won’t you do this?”
“Because I don’t want to.”
“Ugh! Fine.” She didn’t want to argue so she looked at the screen to see the phone app with the string of numbers already written in, all she needed to do was press the green button. Her eyes shifted, determined, while Ego hummed in curiosity as he saw her pumper herself up quietly before making the call.
It wasn’t a full minute before the call ended and she sat back down next to Ego.
“How’d it go?” He glanced her way.
“Itoshi Sae wants fifty million.” The bangs covered her eyes as her head was directed towards the floor.
“Yen? How generou-” This time Anri cut off Ego.
“American dollars.” She replied with a tone so defeated, yet the man didn’t see what was the big deal.
“Oh well. Do the transfer.” His reply shocked the woman, startling her out of the defeated state.
“Are you crazy? We don’t have the funds for such a rash decision.” He didn’t listen to her. “Hey!”
“Pff, did you forget that we found a gold mine?” Surprised, she followed his gaze towards the screen, where footage of Isagi Yoichi played, it was the moment where Rin gave the boy food, sitting down next to him. “If you’re still scared, then we can release it as two separate episodes. The subscriptions will pay back what we’re about to spend. Even if a couple sponsors pull out for showing an episode centered around two guys in a romantic setting.”
“Eh…It might not be shown in some countries. You'd take that risk?”
“Naturally, people need this change and we’ll take the first big step, emerging successful. Now, get to work.”
As the two edit the footage the woman starts to feel guilty, she takes her hands off the keyboard and places them in her lap, sighing quietly until Ego looks her way.
“What now?”
“I feel kind of scummy, lying to the viewers like this.” Anri looked down, while the man rolled his eyes.
“This is the reality of reality TV shows, little Anri. Almost every show is cut to make some characters more favorable or unfavorable, depending on what the director wants viewers to feel.”
“Not all of them, right?” Ego didn't respond, so she repeated. “Right?”
“...”
“Argh, I grew up watching reality TV shows and believed them all to be real! Geez.” The girl seemed to be extremely disappointed by the realization, so Ego remained quiet, keeping his other comments to himself.
She, with a pout on her face, went back to editing.
“Hmph, at least here I can be the one deciding to have the footage stay as close to the reality as possible. I can stay true and honest to BLTV fans.” Ego looked at the woman whose eyes showed more resolve.
“That's the spirit, little Anri.”
The two were at the part where the boys went to get food for Isagi. Rin dragging the other boy by the wrist.
“Rin Itoshi, sure can be forceful even off the field.”
“Hm, some people like that, don't they? Especially girls that hide romance mangas under their pillow or bed. They seem to like the tough boy with a kind heart underneath all the coldness.” Anri ignored how he still managed to tie this imaginary situation back to her and instead nodded as he hit the nail on the head. That's right, a delinquent with a heart of gold is a surprising hit with young girls. “How delusional. In the end that promotes getting into troublesome relationships, no?”
“Ego! People know that fiction is fiction, so let the girls dream!” Anri responded a bit strongly, considering that she likes that trope quite a bit.
Before the man could respond, a recorded voice line from the footage cut their pre-argument short.
“Tch, It wouldn't feel as great winning if you're not giving it your all. That's it.”
“Ah, yet another display of Rin Itoshi’s egoistic-” Before Ego could go on a rant about the player, he was cut off by Anri.
“Itoshi is a tsundere!”
“Little Anri, what was that?” Ego was somewhat surprised at the loud exclamation next to him, he even looked straight at the woman who had almost stars in her eyes.
“I…oops. It just slipped out.” Ah, she was so embarrassed, looking down at her lap with a red face and wide eyes, her lips straight like a toothpick.
“Ah… Ah, um. Yes, that was quite an odd reaction, but even more so the fact that you cut me off to say that.”
“I am so sorry!”
“No, I should've expected that no one in this sport is safe from a little insanity. Little Anri, are you a fujoshi?”
“What?! No!” She defended herself, looking quite offended.
“Huh? No way. You’ve been here when you were younger?”
“Yeah.”
“Rin…"
The woman gazed at the interaction with curious eyes, but on the inside she was giddy at the shoujo romance moment.
“This! Ego, let's use this shot! This moment!”
“You've read my mind. Now then, how should we edit it?”
“At the shot of Isagi's soft look, add the sound of a soft wind! Gentle classical music, romantic and dreamy! Add flowers at each corner! No! Make it a pink vignette!” Anri spoke so much even Ego couldn't keep up, but at least he knew what the woman was looking for, more or less.
It took no more than a couple of minutes until the two were done with the scene, but there were more remaining.
“Eh, it is a shame though.” The woman sighs as she looks.
“What is it, little Anri?”
“Such a couple would be popular, too bad it isn't real.”
“Oh, but I wouldn't be so sure about that, hate is but a heartbeat away from love, or so say love-struck idiots.”
“Ego…” the woman couldn't believe he said something so poetic, even if it was followed by an insult to romantic souls everywhere. “It also seems a shame that this would be the first episode of your series.”
“Huh? What are you getting at?”
“Well! It’s like you’re giving the viewers what they want already from the start, like a show’s grand finale being shown at the very beginning.”
“What do I propose I do? Tease the viewers? Now that I think about it…it doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Nice job, Anri.” He praised her like a dog after it performed a trick. “Would you like a headpat for your hard work?”
“Argh, I just think we should show a couple lower ranked players and gain the interest of viewers over time. And not pull out the ‘big guns’ at the very start.”
“Hm.”
“Plus! If we hold this episode back and release others first, we could gather the sum that Itoshi Sae asked for instead of risking it all and thus creating the double date episode.”
“Hm.”
“Erm, what other arguments could I use here?” She asked herself as she wanted to convince Ego.
“Hm.” The man pulled the camera to the cafeteria where the unaware players ate after the exhausting training. His finger pressed an intercom button. “Mikage Reo, Nagi Seishirou, Alexis Ness, Micheal Kaiser, Hiori Yo, Bachira Meguru, Kunigami Rensuke, Chigiri Hyoma, Isagi Yoichi. Come up to Room 20A in five minutes.”
“Those nine? What are you planning, Mister Ego? Also, which room is that?”
“Let us stock up on a few episodes then, Anri.”
“Eh? All at once?!”
Julian Loki and Noel Noa spied on the two adults working, being unnoticed, even if Loki almost laughed loudly a couple of times.
“Is that the birth of a new bond?” The younger player asked, amazed.
“Ah, I wonder what will happen when those two finally put their full minds together.”
“By the way, I never expected Miss JFU to be so into romance of the youths.”
“Spoke one of the youths himself.” The white haired striker responded. He wasn’t really that interested in what Ego gets up to in his spare time, but still followed the younger player here.
“Hah.” Loki chuckled at Noa’s stoic face.
“With this duo, I suppose we can expect high quality episodes. Those two have all the skills necessary to make Ego’s little whim a reality.” The older master wondered.
“Haha, romance sells, doesn't it? I wonder if those two are… otakus.”
“Otaku…” Noel Noa looked at the two people working, discussing the audio quality, before nodding. “They're united by the two passions that can finally coexist and become prosperous.”
“I'll definitely be the first to watch. Hey, wanna have the marathon together?”
“I wouldn't mind stretching out my legs. Why not?” Loki looked confused for a bit before laughing.
“Oh, I meant a marathon of Blue Lock romance episodes, once they come out. I could even get the rest of the ‘Masters’ to join. I know Snuffy and Lorenzo would like a little company, or camaraderie.”
“Ah, I'd rather not.” Noel raised his hand, firmly refusing.
“Oh, why not? It'd be fun, unless…you don't want to see Kaiser or any of your other players edited to look like normal teenagers in love?”
“I'm pretty sure Ego wouldn't go that far.”
“You're right and people seem to like the selfish emperor of Bastards just how he is. But you'd have to join! I want to see your first reaction.”
Hah, fine.”