Archive of Our Own

I:

“Who’s that?”

“Who - Oh, him? It’s Hakuryuu. He came with the last batch, the one from last month, and has won every match he’s played since then.”

An impressed whistle. “Woah… He must be good, then.”

“More than good --- amazing .”

Hakuryuu smirked as he strolled by the two guys praising him. He was amazing, he knew, but to hear that others also knew it wasn’t a bad surprise. Not that he cared what they thought, but whatever.

God Eden was kid’s play. From what the other SEEDs had told him before coming here (not that it was much, because the cowards had conveniently forgotten about it), the island was something akin to Hell, but, honestly, he’d been nothing but disappointed since coming here. 

Every day, he and his team (a group of good-for-nothing clowns) played against another one, who was even, surprisingly, breaking the rules of the universe, worse than his. They won easily (of course), and the next day, they played against another different team.

He really expected better from Fifth Sector’s Torturous Training Camp , but. Well, Hakuryuu was that good. He wasn’t called White Dragon for nothing, after all.

-

One day, though, things changed.

When Kibayama, God Eden’s ruler, called him to his office, Hakuryuu’s instincts screamed: something interesting is going to happen. Hakuryuu was a man of instincts, so he readied himself for battle on the way to the room: shoes tied, hands curled, snarl budding.

Every part of him was alert when Kibayama opened the door. That was why, when he saw him , he was classified as an enemy instantly. But then, Hakuryuu recognised who he was, and almost, almost , laughed at his idiocy.

Tsurugi Kyousuke. The other (quote-unquote) genius newbie, people often told him. He’s almost as good as you! Have you seen his hissatsu? It’s great! You have to play him. You must see him play.

Hakuryuu had never played against him. but he’d always been skeptical about his supposed skills. As good as he was, really? Tsurugi didn’t even fit in his radar, let alone be considered an enemy.

Even so, Hakuryuu didn’t take his eyes off him, from the moment he stepped into the room until Kibayama cleared his throat. His instincts were good --- no, more than that --- and it wouldn’t do to mistrust them.

“I’ll be quick,” Kibayama said, staring at his nails disinterestedly. He was always like that --- like they, the SEEDs, didn’t interest him. Maybe they didn’t, but (and here, Hakuryuu flashed him a sharp smile, one Kibayama didn’t see) that would be his downfall. “You two are going to be partners. Ah, ah, ah,” he added, wagging his index finger at Tsurugi, who was scowling and looked ready to argue, “no protests.”

Tsurugi closed his mouth with a click, but he was still scowling. 

Anger bubbled in Hakuryuu’s chest. Who did he think he was, ready to defy authority? It was one of Fifth Sector’s golden rules: your superiors are gods . What a sorry excuse for a SEED, if he couldn’t follow a rule that simple. Hakuryuu also had objections with being his partner, but he wouldn’t voice them, because he was a civilised human being.  

There was, however, one thing…

“Partners? What does that… consist of?”

“Eh, well,” Kibayama said, tilting his neck from side to side (crack crack crack), little finger in his ear. Hakuryuu tried very have not to let it show on his face what he thought about his manners. “Not much. The others have determined you are too good for the first level, so now you’re on stage two. Congratulations! You exchange advice and play against each other and shit. Oh, and also, stronger teams to play against! With just you two. So fun, yes?” 

A flash of a fake grin that soon disappeared into a disinterested shrug. “Any more questions?”

“What does---?”

“No? Perfect. You are dismissed. Shoo, shoo!” He made that handwave. Hakuryuu fought not to tear the limb off. “I have a lot of things to do!”

Hakuryuu rose from his seat, and stalked towards the door. He didn’t hear any steps following him, though, so he turned around, and guess what he found? Of course! Fucking Tsurugi not doing what he was told to!

Scowling and leering, Hakuryuu stalked back to the chairs and pulled Tsurugi out of his by the shoulder. 

“Ow --- what the hell are you doing, Hakuryuu?” he spat, as he dragged him towards the door.

“Hakuryuu- sama for you, Tsurugi.” Hakuryuu dragged the door open and threw his load out. The bastard stumbled, but sadly, didn’t fall, not even to his knees. Hakuryuu closed the door when he himself exited the room. “And you weren’t obeying orders. Seriously, how did you get to be a SEED?”

Tsurugi glared. “None of your business.”

“Well, unfortunately,” he said, raising his eyebrows, very unimpressed, “now that we are partners, you are my problem. And I am yours, too, so tread carefully.”

Tsurugi glared a bit more, but no more shit spilled out of his mouth. Hakuryuu’s ears were relieved --- if he had had to hear any more of that, they would have been in need of some serious washing. He didn’t deign himself to glare back.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Hakuryuu brushed his shoulder with Tsurugi’s, and didn’t even look at him. Hopefully, this would be a sample of how much he did not care about him. And if not… well, there would be a lot more tomorrow. “At the forest’s clearing, six o’clock. Hope you know where it is, ‘cause I’m not going to tell you.”

And, without waiting for Tsurugi’s response, he walked away.

-

Of course, Tsurugi was late. He shouldn’t have been surprised. 

Hakuryuu had been in this damn rock for an hour and a half , sitting in the fucking morning chill. Luckily, he had brought his beautiful, amazing, perfect white leather jacket over the football uniform, but still. How dared he make him wait. How dared he.

And besides, the forest was one creepy place. Hakuryuu always trained here, because the other members of his ex team would come bother him otherwise, but that didn’t mean he liked it; just tolerated it. His back was always itching --- someone watched him, but when he turned around, there was no one.

When Hakuryuu had gotten bored (and cold) enough to be bothered with staying still and started to kick a ball around, Tsurugi finally deigned himself to come. 

“What the hell took you so long, you sad excuse for a human being?!” snarled Hakuryuu, whirling around and resisting the urge to kick the ball into his face. It would make teamwork a lot harder, but that didn’t meet he would let himself be a stepping mat. “We agreed to meet up at six o’clock, not eight.”

“Well, excuse me  if not everyone knows the island as well as you,” Tsurugi sneered back. “If someone had told me where this place was, maybe I would have found it earlier.”

“Well, maybe you should’ve - wait.” Hakuryuu blinked, “you really didn’t know where it was?” 

He had thought everyone knew where this place was --- Hakuryuu spent so much time here he had forgotten this was hidden and that was the exact reason that he spent the aforementioned time here. He had really thought he was just fucking with Tsurugi.

Hakuryuu fought against the urge to scoff. Not even an hour together (thanks to someone ), and they’ve already had their first problem: miscommunication. This was off to a great start.

“...Well, that aside,” he said, and scowled when Tsurugi scowled. “Yes, let’s drop the topic, we don’t have time to lose. As I’m sure you haven’t, I’ve informed myself about this “partners” thing.” He did the finger-quotes, just to be sure Tsurugi got how much he also didn’t want this.

And with “inform himself” Hakuryuu meant “threaten everyone until they babbled what he wanted to know” but whatever. Fifth Sector encouraged violence, and Hakuryuu was more than happy to oblige. 

Tsurugi shifted, obviously embarrassed but trying to hide it. Hah! He had been spot on: Tsurugi wasn’t informed. “Go on.”

Raising his chin, Hakuryuu did. “The partners stage is considered the second stage of our training. We play against stronger teams and against each other, as Kibayama-san said, and we’ll start doing that about next week. Approximately. Until then, we’re going to practice .”

Tsurugi pursed his lips, but didn’t say anything. He decided not to pursue the unhappy expression, and passed the ball at him, a silent branch of solidarity. Tsurugi received it with just a few mistakes in spite of not having been prepared for it (which was a mistake in on itself), and kicked it around a bit.

Not being a complete asshole with others was something very uncharacteristic of him, Hakuryuu realised, hiding a smirk. But he needed to be friends with someone to stab them in the back.

There was one thing he hadn’t told Tsurugi --- one very, very important thing. After a certain period of time, both partners have to have a match amongst themselves, to determine who went out of the island. And Hakuryuu fully intended to win that match.

He was certain he could win right now, even without having seen Tsurugi’s ability; the fucker was just to caught off guard to have as much experience as Hakuryuu, who had been playing since birth, did. However, there was the issue of development.

One thing Hakuryuu had come to see in his many years as a football player was the evolution of his teammates as they had to keep up with him. Granted, they were still light-ages from him, but… they really did improve. As much as it pained him to admit it.

And Hakuryuu may have faith in his own abilities, but he didn’t want to fuck up his chances when they were 100% right then. So… he had to lie. And he would gladly do it, especially to someone as much of a brat as Tsurugi Kyousuke, bother extraordinaire.

-

“Hey, my feet are down here, not in that tree! Pass better, fuck!”

“ Well , maybe if you ran faster, you could receive it. I pass it to where it should be.”

“What are you insinuating?”

“You know what I am insinuating: you. Are. Slow.” A sneer.

“You’re doing everything wrong!”

“No, you are doing everything wrong!”

“Hah? Do you want to fight?”

“Do you?”

“Yes!”

Tsurugi’s forehead was clammy against Hakuryuu’s, maybe because of the lazy afternoon heat, but now this wasn’t the time to focus on that. He had to outglare the fucking --- the fucking--- there weren’t enough insults to describe him, the bitch.

It was difficult to see Tsurugi’s mouth from the angle he was in, but Hakuryuu managed. His lips were pulled into a sneer almost as pronounced as Hakuryuu was sure his was, but not quite there.

He didn’t know how to pass! He didn’t know how to pass and Hakuryuu was saddled working with him! Really, this was hysterical --- a joke from some hi-la-rious god above, who found it funny to torment him. First his mother, then his sister, and now his reputation as someone who didn’t spend a lot of time with idiots. What else was life going to take from him?

Eventually, they pulled  away from each other. Hakuryuu had enough dignity not to cross his arm like a minus-five-year-old, and he was honestly amazed to find out Tsurugi wasn’t either. He was almost tempted to give him a modicum of respect just for that, but then he thought about it and no way. Fuck teamwork.

The sun was already setting and all they had achieved was kill a damn tree. They had an upcoming match against an assumedly better team, in three days or so, and, as always, Hakuryuu would have to do everything by himself.

A vicious, toothy grin stretched from cheek to cheek, almost breaking his face in two halves. He ignored Tsurugi tensing before him as one thought slammed into his brain like a demolition ball: 

This was going to be fun .

-

And it was. 

At first.

Two (well, one) people playing and winning against a full team was something idiots would consider quite the feat, but it was nothing Hakuryuu hadn’t seen or done before, what with the team he had earlier.

It should have been easy. It would have been, had Tsurugi not interferred time and time and time and time and time again. Taking ball from him, not passing it, shooting and being stopped, and all that sort of fucking-ups.

...Okay, Hakuryuu had to admit this team was maybe kind of a little above the average level he had ever fought against, but still . He was sure that, without Tsurugi, he could have won with his eyes closed! 

But life was like that, and Hakuryuu had to adapt.

In spite of his many difficulties, he managed to pull their score into a winning one, although by a smaller margin than he would want. But whatever, he had to make-do.

However, just when the match was seven minutes from ending, something terrible happened. Okay, not so terrible in retrospective, but it was painful. Something painful happened.

One of the guys from the other team, a tall, burly bastard with the dumbest face Hakuryuu’d ever seen, let out a guttural growl and ran, like a wild beast, his --- its? --- steps making the ground tremble. The guy had been looking more unstable with each goal Hakuryuu (and occasionally Tsurugi) scored, but - this?

Hakuryuu didn’t have time to react. The fucker hit him, like he was the red cape attracting a fucking bull. For a guy so enormous, he sure was fast.

Hakuryuu hit the ground fast, dizzy, breathless, and his left side was howling . He had half a mind to glare at the referee, who hadn’t even pretended to get the whistle close to her lips to call out the foul, but really, practically all of him was focused on not dropping unconscious.

“Hakuryuu!” Someone shook his shoulder, and he hissed in pain. The hand immediately went away. “Hakuryuu!”

The owner of that obnoxious voice was undoubtedly Tsurugi, recognisable because it was loaded in his usual hiss of fury. It wasn’t directed at him this time, though, with was both strange and embarrassingly comforting. Hakuryuu squashed that second feeling.

“Get the ball, you fucking idiot,” Hakuryuu gritted out through his teeth. “Or they’ll---” The unmistakable cheers of a satisfactory goal emerged in the background, “score. ...Look at what you’ve done.”

Tsurugi growled, “Are you serious?”

“Of course I am, you shitty excuse of a SEED---” The pain decided that moment was the perfect one to make itself known again, although it had never been forgotten, not even one little bit. Fuck, this was going to ache tomorrow. However, Hakuryuu still had enough dignity to pull himself together and utter Fifth Sector’s motto: “Winning is everything.” 

“You---”

“Boys,” the referee’s annoying, bored drawl floated up to them. It sounded close. When had she gotten so close? “If you don’t get up in the next thirty seconds, I’ll have to make you quit the match. And you don’t want to lose, don’t you?” 

“Are you kidding me, is -- is this a joke, he’s on the floor---”

“Thirty,” the referee drawled, one finger up. “Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight.” Two, three figers up.

Tsurugi snarled, but, somehow (“Twenty-seven.”), it sounded halfway panicky. If Hakuryuu (“Twenty-six.”) weren’t dying from pain right now, he (“Twenty-five.”) would have mocked him. As (“Twenty-four.”) it was, he just focused all his energy (“Twenty-three.”) in sitting up, and then actually (“Twenty-two.”) standing, to end this weird situation.

His (“Twenty-one.”) knees were kind of pathetically wobbly (“Twenty.”), but he could walk and, with enough (“Nineteen.”) willpower, he would run and make the (“Eighteen.”) fucking bull pay (“Seventeen.”) for the damage caused.

“Okay,” he almost wheezed. “I’m ready.”

“Sixtee--- Oh, alright.” And, just as simply as that, the referee turned around and blew her whistle, restarting the match.

-

They won the match, but just barely.

A one point difference wasn’t a bad score when two against eleven, but it was one of the worst Hakuryuu had ever gotten. (He wouldn’t --- would not --- count that one match… One match he was going to stop thinking about right now.)

The guy who had violently mauled him had roared and roared and roared, but, even though he clearly wanted to, he didn’t attack again. For his own good, of course, because this time Hakuryuu was prepared for any kind of aggression, and he wouldn’t stand for it. Once was one time too much.

And, about the other member of their two-man team---

Tsurugi… Well, he quite honestly didn’t know what to do about him. The guy had shown an unusual and very embarrassing display of affection in the middle of the match, and it was unwarranted and against the rules. And he, as his teammate, had to scold him.

That thought made his stomach tighten, but he ignored it. He had to do what he had to do.

“Tsurugi,” he called at the boy’s retreating back. Now that the match had ended, they had half an hour to return to their assigned rooms. “Wait.”

Tsurugi turned around, still scowling. It seemed more forced than the usual irritable one, though, which was just another clue that something was seriously wrong.

“What,” he said, crossing his arms.

“What the hell was that earlier?” Just as Hakuryuu wanted to, his voice came out perfectly calm and just the right touch of intimidating --- exactly the way a leader’s voice should be. 

“What happened earlier?” Tsurugi’s eyes slid away. Oh, so he was going to play difficult, huh?

“You know, when I was in the floor. And stuff,” he answered, somewhat lamely. He shouldn’t let this minor slip-up ruin his upcoming lecture, though, as annoying as it was. “Because of you coming to me, the other team scored against us, and that is not acceptable---”

“This again?” Tsurugi’s low growl, he was ashamed to admit, startled him. “Are you so brainwashed you are ready to give up your body for Fifth Sector?!”

After a bit of perplexed silence, Hakuryuu broke into cruel, rhythmless laughter. “You don’t know - what giving up your - body is,” he said in between laughter. Soon, he was wheezing, clutching his stomach. “You - don’t know anything!” 

Two hands grabbed his shirt, and, before he had time to blink, Hakuryuu found himself nose to nose with Tsurugi. His yellow eyes were creepier when this close, especially when practically crackling fury.

“You’re the one who doesn’t know anything,” he said, almost a whisper, but so charged with emotion it was just more than that. “I don’t know how you could remind me of my brother.”

He maintained the position a few seconds more, and, then, he pushed Hakuryuu backwards and stomped away. And Hakuryuu - he just stood there, ass in the grass, watching his retreating form with electricity crawling down his body, almost shivering.

This, he could later pinpoint, was the first time he really noticed Tsurugi Kyousuke.

II:

Life went on as usual. Well, not as usual, because he’d only been with his partner a couple of days, but they’d established a routine.

Hakuryuu and Tsurugi didn’t speak of that match again, not even when Hakuryuu appeared the next morning with a blue and purple torso, visible even through the sleeves of his uniform. It wasn’t that he was ashamed to talk about it, or that he thought that chilling feeling was anything more than the wind, but…

But. 

The new routine wasn’t hard to get used to: train during the morning (at seven o’clock the earliest, ‘cause Tsurugi was always bitching about not being an early riser and he didn’t want to deal with that every morning), eat, train some more (this time alone; he could not stand to be all that time with Tsurugi), and, sometimes, have a scheduled match. Oh, and go to sleep.

It was in that third stage of the day that he found himself right now. 

Training in the creepy forest wasn’t exactly calming (it set his entire being on edge, in fact), but it was kind of like a test of courage Hakuryuu went through everyday. If the day came that he didn’t pass it… Well, he wouldn’t be himself anymore. 

However, that day he was more on edge than usual. And that meant amazingly on edge. The eyes that were following him seemed to have doubled, and, honestly, he was getting kind of tired of that fucking feeling.

“Who the fuck is there?” he said, not for the first time. He whirled around, just to complete the routine, but he almost had a heart attack when he did.

There was a boy there, sitting on one o f the ugly statues that were scattered around the forest. 

...That. Hadn’t happened before.

“You called me?” the boy said amicably, tilting his head with a smile. The feather-like things that hung from his dark hair tilted with it. He was short, slim, and Hakuryuu could probably take him in a fight, but there was something… off about him, like he wasn’t quite there.

Hakuryuu clenched his hands to stop them from shaking. His instincts were screaming; they’d never been like this before.

“Are you the one who’s been watching me every time I set foot in this stupid forest?” he demanded, full of bravado he didn’t quite feel. It had been a long time since he’s been this… This…

“...Mm.” The boy tilted his head to the other side, and looked at the cup of a tree, apparently lost in thought. “If you noticed that, I wonder why you kept coming back.” His eyes slid to him, and Hakuryuu, contrary to his desires, froze. That freely-given admission was far more chilling than a lie. The boy beamed. “I’m sure it wasn’t a comforting sensation!”

“That’s none of your business,” he snapped, and didn’t take a step back out of pure force of will. 

“Hmmm… Yes, I guess it’s not.” He was still smiling. He was still smiling, and that was the creepiest thing Hakuryuu’d ever seen.

A breeze rustled the tree leaves, which made them both look at the sky. The dark, dark sky, full of stars and with a full moon right in the middle of it. Which was perfect, because now he could go away to sleep while it technically not being a cowardly escape.

He turned around, ignoring his everything telling him not to turn his back to the boy, and walked away, a little faster than usual. But just a little, because he was not fleeing. He was just very, very sleepy, and in a hurry to go to bed.

He could feel the boy’s eyes, now a familiar sensation, digging into the back of his head.

-

If Hakuryuu had to choose one word to describe himself, that word would be stubborn . Yes, he was a stubborn bastard, which, of course, meant he had to go back to the forest the next afternoon, no matter how much he didn’t want to. It hadn’t been broken by Tsurugi, and hell, he wouldn’t let his routine be broken by him .

“Oh! You’re back!” the boy said when he saw him approaching, smile morphing into a slightly parted mouth, coupled with a blink. Sadly, it soon returned, full force with all its fake politeness and creepiness. “I thought I had spooked you out.”

Hakuryuu scowled darkly, but didn’t say anything. It would have been a string of colourful insults, anyway. 

He just started kicking the ball against a tree close to the boy, maybe with more force than necessary. He was just kind of hoping he would kick it wrong and it would kicking in the face --- but, let’s be honest, it probably wouldn’t happen. Hakuryuu was too good for that---

“You’re doing it wrong.” The boy’s soft voice cut through the creepy silence, and Hakuryuu was startled enough to actually not hit the three. Unfortunately, it flew to a direction the boy was not in, so he was left unharmed. 

“What,” he snapped, stomping to pick up the ball.

The boy drummed his fingers against the statue he was perpetually sitting on.Why was it here, anyways? He would have to research it. “You’re doing it wrong,” he repeated, cheerfully.

...Breathe in, breathe out. Take criticism well, Hakuryuu, no matter how bluntly it was given. That was the key to improving, Hakuyuu. There was no need to stage an assassination plan involving strangulation, Hakuryuu. Calm down, Hakuryuu. Calm down.

“And why is that,” he gritted out, grinding his teeth together.

The boy jumped off the statue, his feather things jumping with him, and his hands went to Hakuryuu’s ankle. Hakuryuu instinctively kicked to free himself, but the boy’s hold was surprisingly firm. 

“Be still,” he commanded, and Hakuryuu felt compelled to obey. “Your ankle is in the wrong angle when you kick. It should be like this, see? But you have it like this.” Along with his explanation, the boy minutely moved his ankle to illustrate it. Hakuryuu let him.

When the boy removed his dirty hands from his ankle, Hakuryuu stretched it and kicked the air  a couple of times. Then, the ball. 

“Like this?” he said when the ball slammed against a tree with more force than ever. 

The boy clapped. “You learn fast, Hakuryuu-kun.”

-

“What’s with you these days?”

Tsurugi’s grumpy, rage-bubbling-underneath voice broke the (surprisingly) peaceful silence they had come to find themselves in during their morning training. 

In fact, Hakuryuu thought that was practically the first time they’ve spoken since… that. (His left side stung at the reminder. It had already healed, but… it sometimes did that. Hakuryuu didn’t even flinch.) Maybe they’d exchanged a few grunts, and, when they were feeling polite, a “what the hell are you doing,” or an “oh my god how can you be so bad at this” or even an “I hate the day you were born”. But no more than that.

And now, they were onwards to their first conversation. His mother was right: times really did change.

“...What in the world has made you think that it’s any of your business?”

Of course, if Hakuryuu could avoid making small talk with him, he would be happier for it --- and Tsurugi would be too, he was sure. He was never, ever, ever in the mood for talking, and less so with this asshole here, so he would cut this short. 

Tsurugi crossed his arms and glared. “You’re, unfortunately, my partner. And something is making your playstyle change. That makes it my business.” One hand on his hip, Hakuryuu smirked and didn’t say anything, just relishing the way Tsurugi’s scowl deepened with each second passing without an answer. “Well?” he finally gritted out. “Are you going to say anything?”

“No.” His smirk widened and Tsurugi growled at him. He left it at that, though, instead kicking the ball. It shot by suspiciously close to Hakuryuu but, fortunately for Tsurugi’s continued well being, it didn’t even brush him. Hakuryuu threw him a warning glance, though.

Honestly, not even Hakuryuu was sure why he didn’t want to talk about the mysterious boy in the forest. Not with Tsurugi, because he didn’t ever want to talk with him, but in general. The idea of speaking about it made his hackles rise. 

(Well, that was a lie; he did know. It was because he wanted to figure him out by himself. It was… his secret. And Hakuryuu, like the dragon he was named after, was very zealous with secrets.)

-

“What’s your name?”

Hakuryuu had been wondering about that for a long, long time. Okay, they’d only known each other for a few weeks at most, but still. He hated not knowing what to call the boy in his head when they other knew his and flaunted it very obviously.

“Eh…” Finger to his chin, the boy hummed and looked at the rustling leaves. After half a minute humming, he beamed. “I think I won’t tell you!”

Hakuryuu tried not to growl. “Why?” he asked, pained at having to be civil. The boy’s presence commanded too much respect for Hakuryuu to challenge him at something.

“It’s more fun this way! Your face when I say your name and you realise you don’t know mine is great, Hakuryuu!”

...That didn’t mean he didn’t want to, however. His fingers twitched, suddenly overcome by the desire to strangle some necks. He restrained himself with the little surviving instinct he had left in that moment.

He decided to change tactics: another question. “What are you doing here?”

“I live here,” he said, simply, closing his eyes as another breeze tickled their skin. His smile wasn’t present, but he gave off that kind of content aura anyway.

“Are you from a team around here?” Hakuryuu hadn’t ever seen him in a sports uniform, just on that weird half-school-uniform half-suit he wore, but, well. With his… entire self being like that, he was probably on one of the highest levels. Which was great, because, while Hakuryuu didn’t like sucking his superiors up, that didn’t mean he didn’t like being recognised by them. 

The boy still kept his eyes closed. “Hm. You could say that.”

“Which one?”

One of the boy’s eyes opened, and he had a little smile on his face, almost amused. “Don’t you ever get tired of asking questions I won’t answer?” 

“Yes!” Hakuryuu growled, eyebrow twitching. “So answer them!”

The boy, slowly, very slowly, craned hi s back until it was touching the statue he was always sitting on. Then, he let his body fall with a plof. And he didn’t move, not even when Hakuryuu snapped at him, survival instincts long gone, that he got up. 

Asshole.

-

Hakuryuu had conflicted feelings about this, but - they ascended through  the ranks so quickly they were practically soaring. 

And it wasn’t all thanks to him, which was where the conflicting feelings lay . Tsurugi was… good. More than good, in fact. And that left his mouth tasting bitter and his tongue feeling numb. 

It had been a long time since - since Hakuryuu had fear of being surpassed---

But no. No, that wasn’t true. He wasn’t afraid, he was never afraid --- just… cautious. Maybe Tsurugi was better than he imagined, but Hakuryuu still had the cat on the fucking bag. He would get out of this godforsaken island and play real matches against real teams, not two on eleven with and against newbies. 

(He ha d to play against his brother , and he couldn’t let himself lose sight of his objective, no matter how much he wanted to. He repeated his mantra again, just for good measure: get strong, get ready, and defeat him.

Get strong, get ready, and defeat him.)

...What was he speaking about again? Oh, yes, their - his - their… the amazing breezing through the ranks. They - he… Pairs, trios, teams had all been played against, even blindfolded, with a hard ball or with tricky stadiums (who had had the brilliant idea of the pinball one? Hakuryuu’s arm had been aching for weeks after that).

And now, according to Kibayama, keshins would be the focus of the next however much time it took to develop them. “You can’t be a proper SEED without them,” he had droned, leafing through the pages of a porn magazine. Hakuryuu had tried very hard not to be unimpressed.

And so, with those words, the next step on his training from Hell started. And, this time, as he would soon come to discover, it really deserved its name.

-

Hakuryuu collapsed on his bed, and, not even bothering to kick his shoes off or cover himself with blankets or do anything but let out a weak murmur, closed his eyes.

When he cracked them open again, the sun was annoyingly peering through the blinds he had left slightly open the night before. 

Hakuryuu groaned and rolled over, drowning his face on his pillow. Soon, it turned out that the drowning part was a little too literal for his tastes, so he had to roll back to his initial position, almost becoming blind in the process because of the damn sun.

When he finally assimilated the situation and came to the unfortunate conclusion that he had to get up of the bed, he tried to resist fate by pulling the blankets over his head. But, alas! It didn’t work. The covers were way too thin, because Fifth Sector was rich enough for a thousand of stadiums with myriads of tricks but not to provide their SEEDs with decent things. He had had to buy his toothbrush.

Eventually, he got up, glaring at his reflection in the mirror. Fucking mornings. And fucking yesterdays that left him feeling like shit. Fucking balls and fucking Tsurugi and fucking---

At that thought, Hakuryuu’s stomach protested. Not because of hunger (although yes, he was starving), but because, as he discovered when he raised his t-shirt, it was turning a shade of black that was starting to rival the mysterious forest boy’s hair.

Hakuryuu took a deep breath, and swore. Fucking football.

-

(When he had signed up for this, the contract had had a clause that said something like this: You can get hurt and injured and worse. If you die, it’s not our responsibility.

Of course, it was all written in almost unintelligible contract jargon, but, after staring at it for half an hour, Hakuryuu could say with confidence that he had understood the thing. 

...But he hadn’t really understood . Not the pain, not the injuries, and certainly not the worse. He had just believed himself to be above all those things, but, although he certainly was, he also wasn’t.

He was good, great, but not perfect. And even though he wanted to ignore that fact, he knew the truth, deep deep down.

And that hurt more than he wanted to admit.)

-

The ball was shot. At his side, Tsurugi grunted, receiving it with his stomach and being dragged a few steps backwards afterwards, leaving friction tracks on the floor.

Hakuryuu glanced at him from the corner of his eye. Not fully, because he had already made that mistake--- there! A ball was shot, and Hakuryuu received it with his feet angled the way the boy told him. 

He loathed to admit it, but that advice had propelled his shooting strength like a rocket. He was probably alive thanks to that, because at the speed the balls were going --- Hakuryuu dacked under one as it flew past. Yeah, one could blow his head at any second---

A ball slammed into his back, throwing him into the wall. “ARGH!” he screamed, clutching his bloody nose. “FUCK! This hurts!”

“Say that---” Tsurugi ducked under a ball. “---again!”

They exchanged glances, and, in that moment, just before a ball slammed into each of them and sent them at various hard surfaces, there was a spark of solidarity. Yeah - it was a cheesy, cheesy thought, and if Hakuryuu hadn’t already puked earlier, he would have now.

-

Hakuryuu believed it --- but only out of respect, not proof --- when Kibayama told him that the way to unlock a keshin was with a little pain. Little, of course, used ironically, because it hurt a bit more than that. (An ironical bit, but they wouldn’t get sucked into that particular cycle.)

It was a leap of faith, but, after a long time in the air, he landed on safe ground.

Well, to be more precise, Tsurugi did. When he saw a giant purple monster emerge out of his back, Hakuryuu went faint. And then red. Who the hell did he think he was, to develop a keshin before him? 

“Congratulations, Tsurugi-kun,” a robotic voice blasted through some speakers he had never noticed before. “You may ascend to: phase three.”

In that moment, Tsurugi smirked at him, eyes shining with hubris. Hakuryuu clenched his fists, shaking. How. How dare he.

Then, everything was blurry. His gravity center shifted and, suddenly, he was on the floor, staring into unnatural, inhumane yellow eyes, the size of his head. It doesn’t have pupils… Hakuryuu thought, and his eyelids dropped closed.

-

He woke up to a white ceiling and an even thinner blanket than the one he had in his room. He kicked it off, ignoring how petty it was - wait, why didn’t his legs move? The blanket was still covering him. Why couldn’t his legs move?

Hakuryuu tried to move them again, but they only shifted sluggishly. He tried to keep panic down, but when he tried and failed to move his arms, his fingers, his neck and even his toes, his traitorous heart, the only thing that seemed to work right in his fucking body, was threatening to burst out of his ribcage---

Calm down, Hakuryuu. Calm down. You are clearly in a hospital. You are probably in a Fifth Sector hospital. Even though you may not know why you’re here, probably someone will come here soon and explain everything. Or else. Yes, yes, you don’t know how, but you will ruin their bodies and break their lives if someone isn’t here soon.

That thought comforted him, and, daydreaming about tearing someone’s limbs apart, the wait for the nurse to come was pretty short, almost like minutes, even though, looking at the clock, it had been hours.

“Fucking finally,” he tried to say, but it came out like “fucjofjniofae fiocmninf”. He ignored the burning in his cheeks.

“Mm. Can’t talk, huh...” The nurse clicked open a pen, and wrote something in his inner wrist. “Can you move anything?” Hakuryuu glared. He wrote something else. “No? Good, good… Do you know what day it is?” Hakuryuu glared more intensely. Was this a joke or was this guy that dumb? “Oh, you can’t talk, that’s right. We’re going to have a bit of a problem here, then.”

“Yuorefhnoenror.” You don’t say . “Sthugpith.”

“I can still read tone, you know,” the nurse said wryly, not moving his eyes from the text of his wrists. He was writing an entire book there, it seemed. “Don’t be sarcastic, or I won’t tell you what happened to you. I assume you have a case of minor memory loss?”

“...Mmmhoaeh!” I have, you fucker, so do your job or you won’t like what comes next, whatever it is . 

The nurse hummed, finally lowering his arm. His practically blue, ink-splotched arm. Hakuryuu was unimpressed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

He wanted to nod, but he settled with, “Mmphhg.”

“Well.” The nurse scratched his head with his pen, sheepish expression on his face. He couldn’t be serious. “...Huh, what was it that happened to you? Let me check, just a sec.” And, promptly, he leisurely strolled out of the room. And came fifteen minutes later. Fucking incompetence.

“I’m back, honey.” What the hell? “Well, turns out you developed one of the biggest keshins ever recorded in history. Congratulations!” He clapped one, two, three times, spaced the same time from each other. “You have now ascended a stage on your training. Stage three? Probably. I expect to see you a lot around here, then, which is the bad news about it, by the way. Break a leg.”

“...” I won’t end up here again. I prefer dying than see your face ever again, dipshit , he thought, even though his stomach was exploding into fireworks of pride and joy and some other feelings he couldn’t begin to identify.

-

Hakuryuu smirked, lifting the ball with his feet. “How does it feel to have a worse keshin than me, Tsurugi? Huh, huh? How?”

“Bigger doesn’t mean better!” Tsurugi snapped, but the way he lunged for the ball betrayed that he had, indeed, been offended. Good --- he deserved it for being an absolutely horrible partner, surpassing even his previous team, whose name he’d already forgotten.

Hakuryuu, who had seen the move coming, just kicked the ball a little higher, and Tsurugi’s foot missed its mark. “Hah. Has your mediocre keshin stolen all your barely-passable skills?”

“I’m better than you .” And with Tsurugi miffed, the subsequent match was much more fun. Boring, as always. but a little less.

III:

“I’ve heard you’ve developed a keshin, Ha-ku-ryuu.”

That familiar calm voice shattered Hakuryuu’s concentration. And, with it gone, the purple cloud looming over him disappeared. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Hakuryuu turned to face the boy from the forest, who was somehow sitting in that statue even though he hadn’t been here when Hakuryuu arrived. “Didn’t you see I was busy?”

“Sorry,” the boy said, obviously not at all sorry. His smile was slightly tilted to the left, but it wasn’t quite a smirk. “You shouldn’t train all day, though, or you’ll overexert yourself. And you’ll end up in the hospital again and I won’t see you,” the boy added, and pouted playfully, eyes shining with amusement. “You’re so fun to tease, Hakuryuu. What would I do if you disappear again?”

Die, if I have any luck , Hakuryuu thought, but there was no heat behind it. Even though the feeling had diminished, Hakuryuu still felt like he was an underling before this boy. That didn’t mean he would let himself be a stepping mat, just… He wouldn’t be too disrespectful, that was all. And, besides, he kind of liked him --- as much as he could like another living being, of course, which was very little.

“Could you be quiet and let me concentrate?” he implored, but surely, it would come to nothing---

The boy shrugged. “Okay.” 

...He wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Hakuryuu closed his eyes, and focused on his inner voice again.

Minutes later, he found out why the boy had been so lenient. 

“If you’re going to stare at the back of my head so much, why did you agree in first place?” Hakuryuu snapped, opening his eyes to find the boy smiling innocently, chin resting on his intertwined hands.

“I wanted to see how much you lasted.” His eyes flickered to the sun, and then back at Hakuryuu’s face. “Eleven minutes and thirty two seconds, more or less. That’s a good time. Congratulations.”

Hakuryuu breathed in and out, in and out in and out, during an entire minute. Then, he closed his eyes again and ignored the boy out of sheer willpower, no matter how much he stared, talked or poked him. 

He couldn’t find his inner voice, but it was worth it to hear the boy’s steps fading away, coupled with a “...hmph!”

-

Now that they had their keshins, Tsurugi and Hakuryuu were ready to ascend to their next stage: actually getting a keshin to appear on command, especially without passing out. Sounded easy, wasn’t.

Hakuryuu had hoped that his pairing with Tsurugi would be short-lived. Yes, he knew they would have to fight it out, but. But he had been deluding himself, hoping, contrary to common sense, that having a keshin would be the end.

On the contrary, now they had to spend more time together, unfortunately. Mornings and half the afternoons. When Hakuryuu heard that little tidbit of information, you can guess he was ecstatic (not).

“Could you stop breathing so loudly?” a low, annoying voice broke the silence that had settled in the training room. 

Hakuryuu cracked one eye open, and took a deep, deep, deep breath, making sure to be as noisy as possible. “No,” he said, and closed it again.

“I can’t concentrate---”

“Then don’t.”

Someone grabbed his arm. Well, not just someone; it was obvious who it was, and Hakuryuu opened his eyes and mouth once again, ready to give Tsurugi a piece of his mind. A big fucking piece, mind you. 

Right in that moment, the speakers crackled, and a robotic voice said, “Tsurugi Kyousuke, Hakuryuu, stop fighting.”

Hakuryuu’s mouth clicked closed in an instant, and, with a huff, Tsurugi retreated. 

-

Eventually, Hakuryuu unlocked his keshin.

...Once again, a minute after Tsurugi. Hakuryuu tried to ignore the sting, and failed spectacularly. Fucking Tsurugi and his fucking keshin. But he’d see --- he’d see --- when they had a match. Hakuryuu’d destroy him.

And, besides, Tsurugi’s keshin was tiny when compared to his. And --- and this was important --- he tired a lot more than him; or he looked like that at least: hair disheveled enough to be sticking to his forehead, sweat was rolling on his skin, tracing a path from his forehead to his neck and dangling on his chin, hot breath puffing out of his pink lips…

Hakuryuu unstuck his eyes from him. What the hell was that?

... Anyways , that meant Hakuryuu, who wasn’t tired or panting or sweating or whatever (even though he did feel a bit light-headed), was better than him. Period. There was no need to think about it ever. 

-

...This was a bit guilt-inducing  awkward to think about, but. 

But. 

But right after that, Tsurugi collapsed. One second he was up, even though wheezing and his hands clutching his knees, and the other, sprawled on the floor, paramedics rushing into the room. 

And. Hakuryuu felt like he had a duty to visit him, as his partner and superior teammate. (He didn’t feel guilty for insulting him seconds before the fall. He didn’t .) Something Tsurugi hadn’t done when their roles were reversed, than God.

“What are you doing here?” Oh, fuck, Hakuryuu knew that voice, though it was more amused than he had ever heard it. “Here again so soon? Wow, I thought you said you wouldn’t land here again---”

It was that fucking dirty nurse. Without even bothering to look at him or his stained wrists, Hakuryuu turned around and walked away, not saying anything, not even when he heard the damn guy snickering behind him.

Fucker.

-

Hakuryuu was nothing if not stubborn, so of course he tried again. This time, watching around the corner every time he turned one. Fucking Fifth Sector regimes, landing people in the hospital and making Tsurugi be in the deep end of the building. And fucking weeklings who let themselves be landed here.

Apparently, being sneaky had a serious disadvantage: when people noticed you, they noticed you hard. That was how Hakuryuu ended up being physically kicked out the hospital for “”””disturbing the patients”””” by some furious doctors.

Assholes.

-

As his mother always said, the third try was the charm.

Hakuryuu hoped it was damn true --- no, he was sure of it, because this time he had the answer to both his problems: a disguise. Not a simple one, mind you, because Hakuryuu didn’t half-ass things, so he 1) sneaked in some poor sucker’s room; 2) stole one of her dresses (the poor fucker was apparently a girl, but one never knew), and 3) put it on, without difficulties, because he was that awesome. 

Needless to say, he looked striking in it. Especially with his long, pearly hair cascading down his back and contrasting neatly with the fiery red of the dress. The clothing fitted him like a glove (which, by the way, he was also wearing), hugging him in a way that made his vivacious curves stand out---

Yeah, who was he kidding, this was one of the most embarrassing moment of his life. The dress was hideous .

However, that didn’t matter --- he had to see Tsurugi, even if he had kind of forgotten why he wanted to already. He did whatever he put his mind into, after all, and this wouldn’t be the first exception.

And, yeah, third time’s the charm was a real thing, yes. He just had to hide his face with his hair, not speak, not act like he didn’t have authorisation to be there, and, in less than ten minutes, he was in front of Tsurugi’s room.

Hakuryuu smirked as he opened the door.

The first thing that came out of the room was, “What are you doing here? And - is that a dress ?” 

Hakuryuu’s smirk didn’t fade, but it did certainly still. Why? It wasn’t as if he came expecting a warm (or even polite) welcome, although after all he had gone through to get here… A little acknowledgment would have been nice.

But well, it was obvious this would happen, coming from this beast without manners here.

“Visiting you, asshole.” 

Scowling, Hakuryuu strolled into the room and slumped on the nearest chair to the door. A bit belatedly, he remembered to cross his ankles so as not to grant Tsurugi the honour of seeing his underpants. Going by the grimace on his face, though, he had seen it. Oh well. “And yes, it is a dress. Do you have a problem with it?”

Tsurugi’s face had gone blank, but by the time Hakuryuu had finished his sentence, the stupid smile was already back. “...Yes --- that colour doesn’t suit you at all. Seriously, red ?”

“Shut up.” His cheeks, very embarrassingly, heated up. The traitors. He cleared his throat and puffed his chest and said, “I couldn’t find another - what am I even saying, of course it suits me! Everything suits me!”

Tsurugi raised both eyebrows, very, very, very high, until they disappeared under his hairline. “ Yeah ,” he said simply. Hakuryuu felt as if a blood vessel would burst---

Keep calm. This was, unfortunately, a hospital. And he was here, though it was difficult to say just by looking at him, to be a good visitor. Unfortunately.

Now, what did good visitors do?

...Oh yes. Small talk. 

“Hm, yes. So. Did that asshole who calls himself nurse come by here? You know, the fucker who writes things in his arm.” Tsurugi didn’t say anything, but his lips did twitch minutely. “He has!” Hakuryuu crowed. “What did he do to you?”

Tsurugi looked away, fingers clenching on his so-thin-it-didn’t-deserve-to-be-called-a-blanket blanket. It crumpled like paper. “He made jokes. Really bad jokes. I felt myself dying.”

He nodded sagely. “I know. He did the same to me,” Hakuryuu said, even though he didn’t know. The nurse was very serious when dealing with Hakuryuu, so maybe they were speaking about different ones. That didn’t matter, however, because Hakuryuu was the master of small talk and he could roll with it. “So---”

“Why are you visiting me?” Tsurugi interrupted him. Hakuryuu stomped on the urge to get angry. Stomped hard , because, amongst the many, many, many things he hated, being interrupted was the sixth. And that was a stratospherically high number.

He crossed his arms. “Why does it matter?”

“You’re behaving weirdly and it creeps me out. Are you trying to get revenge for me developing a keshin before you ?” Oh, he had gone and said it. And here Hakuryuu was trying to be nice.

“Mine’s bigger!”

“ Mine’ s stronger.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

....Oh, this gave him a wonderful idea, as (almost, he was reminded by the fiery red out of the corner of his eyes) all his ideas were. His finger tapped his arm thoughtfully. “Then, you wouldn’t doubt of yourself it I challenged you to a duel, wouldn’t you? There’s no way you would refuse it?”

“Of course not!” Tsurugi growled, and kicked the blanket off and slinged a leg over the bed and into a slipper. “Where and when? Now? I’ll crush you.”

Everybody would kill him for getting a patient out of his bed (turned out they were right with the disturbing-people thing, the intuitive fuckers), but, well, that was only if they caught him. And they wouldn’t, even if this was a small, closed island, because he was that awesome and knew everywhere like the back of his hand.

“Yes. Now.”

“What do you mean now?” a voice came from the door, a very familiar noise. Yeah, it was the nurse again. Hakuryuu didn’t even bother to turn around, and instead let out a pained sigh. “What’s happening now?”

“Nothing,” they chorused, looking at each other and then away.

“That,” the nurse said slowly. “Doesn’t sound good. And why are you in a dress now?”

“Go fuck yourself,” Hakuryuu answered calmly, and left the room.

As he was walking towards the gates (which was a bit hard with his high-heeled shoes, but he had always had good balance), he --- wait. He had forgotten to give Tsurugi a real date, now that the nurse had come and ruined everything.

Mulishly, Hakuryuu went back and called, not even bothering to open the door, “Tomorrow, the usual place! I don’t care how you get there, but be there at one! Fucker.”

The nurse whiney voice slipped through the door, watered down by its wood. “What does he mean ? I need to know!”

-

And, as always, Tsurugi was late.

“What’s your excuse this time?” Hakuryuu said when he heard steps, not even bothering to open his eyes. “You can’t get lost so many times.”

“I had to sneak out,” Tsurugi bit back, feet rustling against the grass as he approached. “Because, you know, I was interned in a hospital. Who is this?”

“And you need an hour and a half to sneak out of a building? Pfft. Start an hour and a half earlier then.” Finally, he opened his eyes, only to see Tsurugi frowning at--- ...yeah. “This is someone whose name you don’t need to know. It’s top secret. And he wanted to stay, so he did.”

The boy waved, smiling as always. “Hi. I’ll be your referee,” he said. It was the first notice Hakuryuu had of that fact, but Tsurugi didn’t need to know that. In his eyes, Hakuryuu was omnipotent and omniscient. Which he was. Almost.

“Yes, what he said.” He nodded at him, and the boy nodded back. The fucker. “So, let’s start---”

“What are the rules?” Tsurugi interrupted him yet again. 

“Don’t. Interrupt. Me.” Tsurugi didn’t say anything. The - big fucker. (...Huh, he was in serious need to expand his insulting vocabulary.) “Have you heard me--- The rules are,” he amended at the boy’s pointed cough, “if you steal the ball from me, you win. If you don’t, I win. Haven’t you ever done something like this?” said Hakuryuu, who had spent his first month here challenging people with keshins and winning.

“Who cares,” he snapped back, which, obviously, was a no.

Who the hell did he think he was? One couldn’t speak to him like that and live to tell the tale. Hakuryuu invoked his keshin and kicked the ball. Hard. It slammed into Tsurugi’s chest, making him fly into a tree, and rolled back to his feet.

“Wasn’t that a bit harsh?” the boy commented, twirling one of his feather things. He didn’t look very worried about it, so Hakuryuu didn’t bother with a response.

Tsurugi managed to get up, spitting blood in the process. “What. The hell. Are you doing. Hakuryuu?”

“Hakuryuu- sama .”

Tsurugi ignored him. Hakuryuu breathed in, out. “The referee didn’t say the match had started.”

The boy blinked. “I have to do that?”

“Yes,” Tsurugi said, at the same time Hakuryuu said, “No.”

“Okay.” The boy nodded. “Then, start.”

Tsurugi was already in the ground, not after squawking embarrassingly in the process . He scrambled up in less than a second, and glared . 

Hakuryuu shrugged, smirking when the ball rolled back to his feet yet again. “Hey! He said to start.”

Tsurugi huffed. “I haven’t even called out my---” SLAM! Another ball hit him. “---keshin. What the hell? Stop!”

Hakuryuu couldn’t make the shiteating grin disappear from his face. This was so fun! His keshin vibrated with a laugh, and Hakuryuu, far from being surprised, laughed along with it. 

-

In the end…

In the end, Tsurugi won. 

But - but it was just because he got lucky! Hakuryuu kicked a ball at his chest and in that moment he fell, and dodged the ball and scrambled to it and got it! Just a lucky, lucky, lucky accident. The boy had called him out the winner (more out of amusement than anything, Hakuryuu suspected), and…

And...

…

...

...Hakuryuu was self-aware enough to know he was lying to himself. Tsurugi had won fair and square, pained as he was to admit it. 

(Hakuryuu was worse than him. Hakuryuu would lose the right to go away from the island. Hakuryuu would never defeat his brother. Hakuryuu…

He...)

Ugh.

He needed to step up his training. By a lot. The boy and Tsurugi had made him relax in their mediocreness, and this was what happened when one left old habits by the wayside. Starting tomorrow, Hakuryuu would wear weights on each leg!

IV

Kibayama breathed in, hands in front of his face as if in a prayer, and then let out. He repeated the process a few times, each of which Hakuryuu sank more and more in his chair and tried not to show it. 

“Why did you think,” he started in an unreadable voice, eyes closed in pain, “that wearing thirty-kilo weights on each leg would be a good idea?”

“Uh…” Hakuryuu said. One would have thought that encouraging players to hurt themselves was exactly the kind of thing Fifth Sector would do, but no . They had to be illogical and now here he was, with Kibayama, like some misbehaved kid at the principal’s office.

“Answer my question, Hakuryuu.”

“...My brother also did that.”

Kibayama heaved a sigh and slumped against his chair. His fingers tapped a book on his desk. Fifty Shades of Shuuji , it said. “Your brother,” he echoed. “The one playing in Spain?”

“...Yes.” Where was this going?

The fingers stopped. “He’s not SEED material. Don’t use his methods.”

Hakuryuu resisted the urge to snap that his brother was a perfectly fine player, thank you very much, and instead cocked his head and asked, “Doesn’t Fifth Sector encourage this sort of things? Like with the keshin development, I ended up in the hospital.” After a brief thought, he added, “This is asked with the due respect, of course, sir.”

“What? No, no, no.” He wagged a finger. “That was controlled hurt. It’s different! Doctors are ready if there are emergencies! And, besides... those are orders, and these aren’t.”  He smiled kindly. “That’s what makes it right!”

Hakuryuu twisted his lips and nodded. It made sense --- a twisted sort of sense, but sense nonetheless. However, this left him with a problem…

“How can I improve, then?” he asked. Hopefully Kibayama would do his work for once and not send him to another---

Kibayama’s pinkie disappeared into his ear, and when it emerged again, it was holding a big ball of --- ew . What the hell ? Hakuryuu was here, right in front of him! “Eh, who knows. Go ask someone who knows about training regimes.” Kibayama blew the big ball of ew, and he tried not to shiver from the sheer disgust.

...Wait, had he just sent him to another person?

Of course he did. Why did Hakuryuu dare to hope, again?

-

After searching in the entire island for someone not scared enough of him to give him a training regime (it ended up being the boy in the forest, because who would be if not him), Hakuryuu’s routine changed.

It was rewarding, but… (kind of empty).

He didn’t spend nearly as much time with Tsurugi. One one hand, he didn’t like Tsurugi’s company --- he hated his guts, as someone would say. On the other, that also meant he couldn’t spy on his progress for the approaching confrontation. 

But it also meant he would win his duel against Tsurugi (which he suspected was coming up soon --- there wasn’t anything else left to do on the island aside from leaving it). He would not see his progress, and, when they fought it off, Hakuryuu would come out of nowhere and break him. 

(...That thought didn’t make him as happy as it should.)

-

Hakuryuu blinked. Striking yellow eyes blinked back.

“What are you doing here?” they said at the same time, Hakuryuu tacking a “the fuck” in the middle.

The here in question was the forest, in the middle of the morning. More exactly --- Hakuryuu checked his digital clock --- at four hours and four minutes in the morning. Five minutes, now, but who cared.

“Not your business,” Hakuryuu retorted, instead of saying he couldn’t sleep like a baby.

He slumped on the statue the boy always sat on. Immediately, a chill crawled down his neck, and he let himself slip from it and fall to the floor. ...He was so not going to think about that.

Tsurugi, apparently, was. “How pathetic,” he commented, raising his eyebrows with a little smirk dancing on his face. It was as if he thought Hakuryuu cared about his opinion about him. Which he didn’t, obviously.

“Who are you calling pathetic, you sad sack of - shit?” he said, but it wasn’t as heated as usual. His finger twirled with a leaf of grass, softly enough not to uproot it.

Tsurugi pointed at him with his chin. “You.”

They fell silent.

The only thing that disrupted the silence was the sound of Tsurugi’s ass hitting the ground as he sat, closer to Hakuryuu than he would like --- less than a country apart, that is. Hakuryuu kept playing with the grass, and Tsurugi, as he found out after various sneaked glances, just stared at the starry sky.

What the hell was he doing here?, he thought as he looked at him from the corner of his eyes. And why wasn’t he kicking him out? He didn’t want to ruin the atmosphere, true, but just by being here Tsurugi was - doing that. Yes.

Suddenly, Tsurugi’s head shifted, and their eyes met. 

Hakuryuu quickly looked away, at his hands, who had already uprooted a bunch of grass. Hakuryuu felt sad all of a sudden. This was sort of a metaphor of his life --- try not to do it and do it anyway. Hah.

...That sounded so wimpy. Ugh, nights didn’t do him good, and less so nights with Tsurugi.

Who was still staring at him. 

“What’re you looking at,” he said, quietly. Then, louder, “I know I’m handsome, but it’s very disgusting. Your eyes---”

“Could you shut up?”

Hakuryuu was tempted not to do it out of sheer spite, but honestly, he also wanted the silence back, so he did. Rare of him, on them, but he wasn’t in the mood to argue. He just closed his eyes, rested his head against a tree and… 

-

“Oho, Hakuryuu and his friend! I didn’t expect to see you here so early!” was the first thing he heard.

Hakuryuu cracked his eyes open, and rubbed them to remove the rheum. Two black eyes, dark like the night, stared back at him, too close for comfort. Breath tickled his skin, and Hakuryuu’s heart stopped on its tracks.

“...What the hell, boy?” he grumbled when his heart-attack subsided. “I was sleeping, there’s no need to behave so cree - wait, who is my friend?” A finger pointed at Tsurugi, who was still sleeping on the grass, an uncomfortable expression on his face. “Oh. He’s not my friend.”

The boy tilted his head. “Why were you here so early?”

Hakuryuu held back a jaw-breaking yawn. “What time is it?”

“Six. Quarter past six. Why were you here?”

“Not your business,” he said for the second time, getting up, then stretching, and then walking up to where Tsurugi laid peacefully. His lips parted with each breath he took, and, sometimes, his leg would twitch at the same time his brow did---

Hakuryuu kicked him in the ass. And watched with amusement how he scrambled to get up, losing all of his dignity in the process (not that he had any in first place). Satisfaction bloomed low in his belly, mixing with the other weird feelings.

When Tsurugi managed to get up, it was with a bed head the shape of a tilted flame. Hakuryuu stared at it for a few second and then---

“Stop laughing,” Tsurugi growled, but the flush in his cheeks only made Hakuryuu crack up harder. “I mean it!”

“Oh - oh my God! Your face !” Ah, ah, his stomach hurt! 

Five minutes later, life found Hakuryuu wiping wayward tears from his eyes. He was sitting on the floor, having doubled over on the minute two of the laughing attack. It was  bit exaggerated but - but! He couldn’t help it! Every time he looked at Tsurugi, he saw his hair and his cheeks and his - his pout and he couldn’t stop it. 

“Are you done,” Tsurugi gritted out, head tilted sideways and eyebrow twitching. Hakuryuu had the feeling he was only in that position to avoid showing his hair and---

Two minutes later, after being patted in the back by the boy in the forest when he almost asphyxiated, Hakuryuu answered, “Now I’m done.”

Tsurugi huffed.

-

V

Eventually, The Day came. 

When Kibayama called him to his office, Hakuryuu’s instincts went haywire. This was The Day all caps, the day where he and Tsurugi would face off and he would get out of this damn island, and it was thrumming in his veins --- he knew it down to his very bones.

A grin break through his face, sharp as a knife. 

The first step was almost done , and he could taste it.

-

…

-

...Hakuryuu lost.

-

…

-

…

-

Hakuryuu lost , and the worst thing was that he couldn’t blame it on anyone else other than himself. It was a fair and square fight, and a fair and square win.

He whirled around on his bed, burying his face in his pillow. Of course, that movement only caused his blankets to tangle with his legs, so he had to undo the movement, untangle the mess, and repeat the action, this time more delicately. That had removed all the heat from his everything. (No, that was a lie. It was still bubbling, just under the surface.)

But argh! Hakuryuu’s fist flew from under the blankets and hit the wall.

“Fuck,” he gritted out, cradling his hurt hand. Hot, traitorous tears slipped from his eyes. “...Fuck.” He hated that small voice. It wasn’t suited for him. He was something ferocious, a fucking dragon, and he didn’t deserve to be here, three days stuck in his room of his own volition, like an animal trapped in a zoo, unnatural.

...His habitat was on the outside, and who knew when he would step there again.

The room’s temperature suddenly dropped. Fucking Tsurugi.

-

The face-off went like this:

Kibayama explaining the rules. “You have to blah blah blah…” Hakuryuu not listening, focused on Tsurugi’s eyes, who were in turn focused on Kibayama.

A whistle blowing, them calling out their keshins at the same time. Hakuryuu smirking, smirking until his left cheek hurt, because of being sure he could win this. (Not winning---)

Them kicking the ball at the same time. It almost exploding, shooting upwards, at the ceiling, and bouncing all around the room. Running after it, and kicking down the other, without mercy. 

His keshin growling, Tsurugi’s unsheathing his blade back. Having been prepared for this moment, expecting it even, and showing all his aces up his sleeve. Fighting, toe to toe, the ball forgotten at the side. Or at least, forgotten by Hakuryuu.

Him being distracted by the fight, and Tsurugi dashing for the ball. Hakuryuu realising what was happening, a second too late (he’s always too late---), and chasing after him, like a mad man possessed. 

“NO!”

It not being enough.

The whistle blowing again the moment Tsurugi set foot on the ball. Hakuryuu falling to his knees, eyes staring at nothing. Kibayama bellowing, “Tsurugi wins!” and Hakuryuu almost not hearing it.

-

He didn’t get up for three hours. And only then, it was because some guards came and pulled him up.

-

Tsurugi sailed out of the island the next morning. Hakuryuu didn’t come to see him off.

-

He slept for two days. The third one was spent rolling in his bed --- his sweaty, sweaty bed, holed in a sweaty, sweaty room, whose windows hadn’t opened in days. Hakuryuu was tempted to flee outside just for the smell, but, then again, he had a bit more pride than that. And he was still sulking.

It was on the fourth day when someone knocked on the door.

When the cries of “fuck off!” and similars didn’t seem to deter the knocker, Hakuryuu painfully and very, very, veeeeeery slowly, just to be spiteful, got up and walked up to the door. He opened it.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

It was the red-haired bastard of his last team, the one that was full of forgettable weaklings. Really, Hakuryuu only remembered this particular individual’s face because of his hideous hair, but he couldn’t for the love of everything remember his name. Not that he cared. 

Hakuryuu stared at him. He had forgotten how horrible his hair was, really. That colour burned his eyes, and it covered the fucker’s right eye like a dog’s tail covered its deep, enormous anus. His mouth was pulled into a line, and he pushed Hakuryuu to the side as he stepped in.

“Nice to see you too, Hakuryuu.” He sniffed the air. His lips disappeared into his mouth. “Has someone died in here or have you not bathed in days?”

Hakuryuu’s eyebrow twitched. Who the hell entered someone’s sweet home and started spewing shit? “Fuck off - you.”

The bastard heaved a sigh. “Seidou Dan. Why am I not surprised that you’ve forgotten my name? Do you even remember who I am?”

“Of course I do, Seidou ,” he said, raising his chin. “You’re from that team. The one we were in. Shining,” he tried. He didn’t ask if he was right, because he was sure he was. He was always right. (Except with Tsurugi… Fucking Tsurugi.)

Seidou blinked, and his shoulders relaxed. “Oh, you remember a basic fact about me. What a surprise.” He twisted a hand, a grimace on his face. It made him even uglier. “Anyways, you must be wondering why I came here.”

Yes. “No.”

“It’s certainly not for your personality,” he continued, as if he hadn’t heard him. “You see, I’m here with a proposition.”

“A proposition?” Hakuryuu asked despite himself.

Seidou nodded. “A proposition, yes. You see… We want you in our team again. As… as a captain.”

“No way,” he said immediately. “You’re too weak.”

“Let me finish!” Seidou said, face twisting into something vaguely desperate. The change was so startling Hakuryuu actually obeyed. “Look, I’ll admit you… were a lot better than us the last time we played, but . But we have also gone through hellish training, the same as you!”

Hakuryuu’s memory flashed to the time that bastard cracked his ribs in his first match with Tsurugi. (Losing against Tsurugi.) When a ball almost blew his head off when developing his keshin. (Losing against Tsurugi.) Actually developing his keshin and being stuck in the hospital. (Losing against Tsurugi.)

A hand on his cocked hips, Hakuryuu said, “I doubt it.”

Seidou’s fingers twitched but he kept his face level . “Then come see us play. You’ll believe me, I swear.”

“Why should I?” A smirk danced its way across Hakuryuu’s face. It felt stilted and awkward, but it was the first one in forever.

The mild satisfaction was, however, ruined when Seidou grabbed Hakuryuu’s collar and dragged his face near his. His smile flew off, as quickly as it came. “Look, man,” he hissed, venomous as a snake. “I know you’re one of the best players around here. But you know what? You’re still a loser. If you were better, you wouldn’t be in this godforsaken island in the first place.”

Hakuryuu spat , a big, disgusting ball of spit flying from his mouth to Seidou’s eyes. He yelped, and his hands left Hakuryuu’s collar to go cover his offended organ like a wounded animal. He still glared with the force of… something, though.

“What the hell ?”

“Get out of my room,” he said, ignoring the stinging sensation in his chest. When Seidou didn’t move, he added, “ Now. ”

“Fuck you, Hakuryuu.” He turned around and flashed him the bird just as he crossed the door. “Fuck you. And, by the way, your hair is horrible!”

“...You wish,” Hakuryuu retorted, when he was long gone.

-

In spite of himself and his common sense, Hakuryuu ended up showing to the practice. 

“What the hell, man?” Seidou said once he saw him, eyes wide, then narrowed. All stares turned to him, ominous. “You spat in my face. In my face! And you end up coming anyway? What do you think you’re doing?”

“Shut up, Seidou. I felt magnanimous this morning and came to corroborate your statement. It better be true.” Nobody moved. Hakuryuu bared his teeth. “What are you waiting for? Move !” He clapped.

After a still second, everyone obeyed, though not without a fair share of glaring and huffing and puffing. Hakuryuu mentally shrugged --- who cared about their opinion. Hakuryuu didn’t, and that was the only important thing.

-

...He had to admit it, even though he really, really didn’t want to: they weren’t all that bad.

Seidou stole the ball from some other guy, did a backflip to dodge another, and shot into the goal. The goalkeeper stopped the shot with one finger. The guy --- who, by the way, was as ugly as a troll --- passed it to the dullest bastard he’d ever seen, and then he--- he invoked a standard chess keshin. Another guy with pale blue hair invoked another and... they clashed, waves of power exploding out...

Okay, maybe more than that. But Hakuryuu wasn’t going to think about it with words, because he had some pride.

When they all gathered around him, he only crossed his arms and smirked. “I’ll be your captain.” 

The team --- his team now, again, apparently --- looked at each other, and then at him. A long moment passed in silence, nobody moving. His smirk didn’t waver. Then, the smaller one nodded, solemn, and the rest imitated him a second after. 

Seidou was the first one to speak, “Welcome back to our team, captain.” 

-

“Long time no see, Hakuryuu,” the boy from the forest said when Hakuryuu felt like going there again. He jumped --- he had forgotten the boy existed.  “Congratulations on being a captain again.”

Hakuryuu tsked. “It’s nothing to congratulate me about.”

“Ohohoh?” The boy grinned mischievously and suddenly, their noses were touching. Hakuryuu took a step back, decidedly not gulping, and his back hit a tree. “Is this about your loss?”

He didn’t flinch, but the words felt like a slap on his face. “So what? It’s not your business. Leave it.”

The boy raised his arms as he stepped back, slowly. He was still grinning. “I was just curious.”

“...Anyways,” said Hakuryuu, leaning coolly against the tree. A sense of curiosity hit him again, “tell me your name and I’ll forgive you.”

“Nope~”

Argh.

VI

Life went on, surprisingly unchanging. 

In spite of Tsurugi delaying his plans, Hakuryuu persisted with training until dawn. Only, this time, he had a not-so-useless team at his side. Maybe they were still worse than him --- who wasn’t, though ---, but he could work with that. 

Fifth Sector had more levels to climb for the losers, as much as Hakuryuu hated to think of himself as such. The challenges weren’t easy, but he and his team still flew through them as if they were nothing. It was oddly satisfying, to not do things alone.

-

“Victory for Unlimited Shining,” the referee called in a monotone. “End of the match.”

There was a disbelieving silence in the pitch, which lasted for the amazing amount of .5 seconds. After that, the world exploded into noise.

The other team cried in defeat, all as one. Some dropped to the ground, sobbing as if their mother were dead, while other stayed standing, looking to the sky with miserable expressions on their faces. 

His team, on the other hand…

Two midfielders hugged as if it was the last thing he’d ever do, jumping and crying and shouting. His goalkeeper hissed and clasped his forward’s shoulder, who was laughing like a hyena, so loud Hakuryuu’s ears were ringing by the end of it. A defender was singing a victory song.

Hands grabbed him by the back. No matter how much Hakuryuu struggled and resisted, he ended up flying into the air, being thrown by his damn traitorous team.

“We won!” they chanted at the same time they elevated him, ignoring the other team’s laments. “We won! We won! We won!”

“Yeah,” whispered Hakuryuu. An embarrassing fucking grin spread through his face. “We won.”

-

His keshin, Seijuu Shining Dragon (Hakuryuu hadn’t given him that name; it had suddenly materialised on his mind one morning after an exhausting night of meditation) pummeled everyone and everything into the ground. Of course , Hakuryuu wasn’t expecting any less.

-

Tick, tock.

Tick, tock.

Tick, tock.

Tick, to---

The clock slammed into the wall; no one knowing who did it. Hakuryuu’s hand returned to his lap unsuspiciously. His eyes were kept closed, out of sheer willpower.

Fucking clock, not letting him concentrate. Fucking tick-tocking, stopping him from focusing on his inner being. And fucking inconsiderate Hakuryuu of the past, for not turning it off earlier. What the hell was he on before? Dumb-drugs? It certainly looked like that

...Well, he should start to concentrate right about… now. He was ready for it. Come on…

…

…

His stomach rumbled. 

“Fuck,” Hakuryuu said under his breath. Why hadn’t he eaten before starting to meditate? It didn’t matter that it was eight in the morning, he should have known… Wait, it wasn’t his stomach rumbling per se. It was - something in it.

Oh yes.

Ah, Seijuu Shining Dragon. His loyal friend. His faithful companion through and through. Was it him, making his stomach vibrate?

Yes , he said. Well, he didn’t say anything, but the way his stomach rumbled was telling enough. 

Why?

Three question marks flashed through Hakuryuu’s eyes.

He didn’t know?

His chest tightened. No , he hoped it meant: he better not be trying to kill him--- His chest tightened even more. No!

Hakuryuu got it, Hakuryuu got it, no need to make his lungs burst. Did he want yes or no questions, then?

Yes.

Was he doing it to… annoy him?

No .

To… stop Hakuryuu from communicating with him?

No.

To… tell him something?

A second of not doing anything, and then more stomach-vibrating. ...Yes? (Really, his keshin was a master of voiceless communication. A genius, just like his invoker.)

Hakuryuu gave the thought a few minutes. What the hell would an incarnation of his deepest feelings for football want? Honestly, if he hadn’t conversed with it previously, he wouldn’t even had believed he had feeling (his eyes watered at that), so…

Maybe he needed to reassess the question: what could a damn overgrown puppy dog trapped in the shape of a majestuous dragon possibly want? Especially one tied to an owner as awesome as Hakuryuu?

...Did he want to play around with him?

His stomach flipped. Yes! Yes!

...Okay.

-

One day, months into the new routine, Hakuryuu came to a realisation: staying here was the best thing that could have happened to him.

Going into the world before he was ready wouldn’t have helped him realise his top potential, not like Fifth Sector did. Sometimes, in the darkest hour of the night, Hakuryuu wondered how low Tsurugi had fallen. News from the outside world didn’t reach the island, but they didn’t need to for Hakuryuu to know Tsurugi was stuck in the level he left the island with. 

The outside world wasn’t challenging at all, Hakuryuu remembered. That was why he became a SEED, after all. Why he wanted to go out of the island before he could milk it to its maximum capacity was a mystery.

(But no, it wasn’t --- he knew. He knew he had been scared, scared of not being the best, of losing against someone like he lost against his brother. He had just wanted to take a dip into superficial water and go away, not wet but thinking he knew how to swim.

But he wasn’t scared anymore, because he knew he was the best, and he had the best team. There was no way he would lose --- could lose.

Tsurugi was probably a coward like he had been, too.)

(He wondered what would have been of him if he had gone out of the island and challenged his brother as he planned to. 

...He would have probably crashed and burned after losing against him, and left football forever, becoming another member of mediocrity. The thought brought a shudder into his body.)

-

The wind blew against his face, and he breathed along with it.

Okay, this was easy; now, next step: do the motherfucking hissatsu. You can’t have spent all of two month working in a single hissatsu, and not developed it yet. You can’t do that, you were better than that.

(Unless he wasn’t..)

But this was no time for thinking. He had to be one with the wind, feel the storm, connect with the hurricane. Every hair the wind moved, he was aware of it. Even with his eyes closed, he could predict what it was doing, what it was destroying. 

There - there was a tree, thrown into the floor, then carried away. A deer held on with all its might to the grass. The river, already overflowing because of the rain, was being pushed towards the settlements.

Hakuryuu opened his eyes, and the world around him came to a sudden stop. There was nothing blowing on his face, pulling him off the ground. In the eye of the hurricane, there was just him and his ball.

He knew what he had to do.

“White Hurricane!”

A yellow beam shot out of the ball the moment he kicked it. It cut through the storm and slammed into the nearest tree, tearing it apart.

Hakuryuu smirked. Finally.

-

The boy in the forest disappeared one day, and never showed his face again.

(It probably was a coincidence, but---

But the last day he saw him, Hakuryuu offhandedly commented the team about him, something about how he played with someone in the forest. The team reported to Kibayama, he knew, because they may be good players, but they were also ass-lickers. Kibayama --- he wasn’t someone one could trust, even if he was a competent leader. 

...But yes, this was a coincidence, for sure.)

-

Tap, tap, tap , went the ball, as Hakuryuu kicked it time and time again. It flew over his head, and he kicked it with his heel, then it flew over his head again and he kicked it with his toes. He repeated the idle process while he tried not to shiver.

There were eyes staring at him again, but this time, there were more than two. It felt as if at least eleven people --- no, eleven creatures stared at him with his every moment, analysing everything he did, every breath he took, every time he shifted.

And it wasn’t the boy; at least he didn’t think so. Hakuryuu had turned around (discreetly, as to not alert his watchers) to look at the statue more than a few times, but no matter how much he desired it, the boy didn’t appear.

(It made Hakuryuu’s heart clench in a strange way.)

The staring continued that day, the day after that, and the day after that, until, eventually, he stopped coming. It wasn’t a chickening out --- he just… couldn’t bear to look at that empty spot on the statue.

-

Hakuryuu never thought about Tsurugi. At least, not much.

But sometimes, in the quiet of a sleepless night, his mind couldn’t help but to wander to that first moment, the moment when Tsurugi turned his back at him after being attacked by that beast. Embarrassingly, it was carved into his mind, into his eyelids, even more so after Tsurugi had gone away.

But those were short moments. After a few seconds, Hakuryuu, frustrated with himself, rolled around and tried to suffocate himself with a pillow before his mind travelled to the quiet question on the back of his head.

(What was he doing now?)

-

It wasn’t long before he discovered it.