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His mother once said he has his own life to live. It’s only later that he learns this is a lie.
Mikage Reo is the heir to the Mikage Corporation with 705.8 billion yen in total assets to his name. He gets anything he wants in life to the point where there’s nothing he actually wants. He is blessed in everything. He studies his textbooks for hours every night to ensure he remains at the top of his school’s rankings, carves out time every night to cycle through his gym routine, and spends the little remaining free time he has skimming through the newspaper and checking in on the stock market.
He has parents to please, classmates to impress, and the heavy weight of the world on his shoulders. When the burden starts to weigh on him, he adds extra strength training exercises until he’s strong enough to balance everyone’s expectations.
The first thing he ever wants for himself is to play football. It’s a news article that brings about his downfall: Reo spies the golden trophy in the hands of the recent victors and is immediately consumed by the burning desire to hold the World Cup himself. He rushes through the rest of his homework that night so he can plan how to achieve the first thing he’s ever really wanted.
His parents tell him no. Reo adds football strategy books to his reading list and watches old games during meals and on the ride to school. He gathers a football team at Hakuho High with a little bribery and nearly trips over a boy hunched over his phone in the stairwell in his excitement to start coaching his very own football team. Nagi waves off his apology, too focused on continuing his game instead of the guy who almost bumped into him.
In another life, this stairwell would have been the birth of galaxies. Stars would burst to life in his eyes when he watched Nagi catch a flying phone with the most impressive unintentional footwork, and as he stared at the brilliant treasure standing before him, Reo would realize his life would never be the same ever again.
This isn't that life. Reo shrugs off the cold shoulder and continues to map out football plays.
He encounters many obstacles to this dream: no one else at Hakuho High wants to play football until Reo reminds them of the power and wealth behind the Mikage name. His new teammates have never played football before and none of them are as serious as Reo. His father sends Aomori Dadada Football Club their way in his attempt to get Reo to crawl back to the Mikage Corporation.
Reo has always been a strategist and football is no different; Aomori Dadada is the first battle of his football career and he intends on carving every moment into memory.
His football career is over before it even begins.
Reo breaks past Aomori Dadada’s players for the first half of the match, but inexperience and a lack of proper motivation drags down the rest of his team. Before he knows it, the referee is blowing the final whistle. Reo grits his teeth, thanks them for the match, and screams into his palms as soon as Ba-Ya slams the car door shut.
“Young Master Reo, you did well,” Ba-Ya says.
This is not a lie, because Reo did play well. He scored two goals on his own and got to utilize the strategies he planned in a real match. Reo did well, but the rest of his team did not, and now Reo will never play football again.
Dinner is an awkward affair that night. His father already knows of his loss, because he always knows everything, because he’s the one who paid Aomori Dadada Football Club to challenge Hakuho High in the first place.
“It’s too bad that you lost,” his mother sighs in a tone that suggests it isn’t bad at all.
Reo tightens his grip on his fork before he remembers to not show weakness in front of even his own family. The chef did an excellent job as always in searing the steak he’s eating for dinner. This is no place to be rude. He sets his fork down, takes a sip of water, and focuses on his plate again.
“Mikages do not lose,” his father agrees. There’s a rare smile on his face, and it’s rarer that Reo is the cause even if it’s for all the wrong reasons.
His mother nods daintily and moves on to a topic that she actually cares for. “How are your preparations for Oxford going? You know, it’s the place where I met your father, and we’re both excited for you to continue your studies there…”
Reo has heard this story every night for the past four years and he still has a year of high school left. If he stabs his next bite of filet mignon with too much force, no one mentions it.
.
He thinks of what if that night. What if Reo had been an even better strategist? What if his teammates actually liked football and didn’t need promises of Disneyland trips and idols for girlfriends? What if he found his own treasure, a genius who could follow Reo’s orders and play football the way he envisioned?
None of these things happened. Reo flips his pillow to the cool side and wills himself to sleep.
.
Reo still loves football. He might never hold the World Cup in his hands, but all of that studying and training gave him a deep appreciation for the sport, and now he eagerly shows Ba-Ya his favorite clips and talks about the brilliance behind each play until even her ever-patient smile looks strained.
There’s some secret football program happening in Japan. Reo saw the papers on his father’s desk asking him for a sponsorship before the documents got shredded. Somewhere in the very nation that has always failed to obtain the World Cup, there are 300 high school students fighting for the opportunity to become the best striker in the world.
It’s dangerous to dream about what those players are doing. Reo’s ego is much too large to succeed at not thinking of if he stood a chance in getting an invitation. He throws himself into studying his textbooks and football even harder, because even if he’s never going to lift the World Cup above his head, he can dream about becoming so extravagantly wealthy that he can buy a professional football club.
Two months later, the Blue Lock project holds its first press conference. One month after that, the Japanese Football Union announces a match between Blue Lock and Japan’s U-20 team.
Reo is the first to buy tickets. He makes sure to buy front row seats for the affair. A team of high school players who went through an intensive training camp will display the fruits of their labor, and Reo’s always kind of liked the hardworking guys. He likes geniuses even more though, so if they lose, Reo has the best seats in the whole stadium to see Itoshi Sae’s debut match in Japan.
Mikages don’t lose, and there’s certainly no losing here. Reo cackles as he presses the checkout button.
.
Chigiri squints at the spectators filling up the seats in the stadium Ego somehow had the time and funding to build. He’s already noticed his mother and sister in the stands, and Isagi and Bachira are waving to their parents. Most of their audience are there for Japan's U-20 team but that's alright. They all knew that already, and their presence only means they'll all be watching the crowning of their nation's new U-20 team.
There's one person whose allegiance isn't obvious. A boy with purple hair sits in the very middle of the front row. He's enthusiastically speaking with a woman with gray hair and wrinkles carved by time and kindness. The writing on the poster in his hands would suggest he’s cheering for Blue Lock, but then the wind blows and half the team has to disguise their laughter as coughs.
Next to Chigiri, Kunigami stares at the strange kid in amazement. "Does the other side of his poster have 'Let's go Itoshi Sae' written on it?"
"I like him," Shidou says with a cackle, as if any member of their team has forgotten his bold declaration of how he'd ask out Japan's most promising football player after they won.
"We're going to play so well that he never switches his poster to the other side," Isagi swears.
Chigiri glances nervously at their captain. Rin is growling at the amount of Itoshi Sae merchandise in the stands and the look on his face makes it clear that if the boy switches his sign to support Sae during the game, Rin will launch himself over the railing and tear the poster to shreds.
"Does anyone know who he is?" Karasu asks.
No one has an answer, and before they can ask follow up questions, their beloved captain turns his murderous glare on them.
"Stop gossiping," Rin barks.
Chigiri can't argue with that. He arranges his water bottle and towel on the bench and walks onto the field.
.
Reo is ambitious. It's a strange quality that he's only recently discovered after years of going along with what the people around him wanted him to do, but he couldn't have played football that passionately and skillfully without his ambition even if that dream has since come to an end.
His ambition shines now:
"I would advise against you searching up the Instagram profiles of the Blue Lock players and messaging them to arrange a meeting," Ba-Ya tells him.
Reo ignores her thoughtful advice. "I'm totally going to stalk their accounts and message them," he announces. He made an Instagram account fifteen minutes ago for this sole purpose.
Just yesterday, the Blue Lock players pulled off a dramatically narrow win over the U-20 team. Reo enthusiastically flapped his poster and hoped no one looked too hard at the alternative sign he made using the other side of the paper.
"I'm building my network with the Japanese celebrities of tomorrow," Reo says, his voice dripping in conviction. "My father can't disapprove of me being an entrepreneur."
"I don't think that's what an entrepreneur does," Ba-Ya says, kind as always.
Reo scoffs. He's never particularly liked how people throw themselves at his feet when they know his name, but if it means he'll get to meet the Blue Lock players, he'll use the Mikage brand for what it's worth.
"Hand me the program we got from the tournament workers," Reo asks. "I have DMs to slide into."
If Ba-Ya disagrees with his line of thinking, she doesn't show it. She passes him the newspaper article listing all of the player's names along with a smile.
.
Reo rents out a private room at one of the best restaurants in Ginza for the night. He had sent the location and time to the Blue Lock players he could find, but while most of them had opened his message, only a few of them had responded. While Yukimiya had eagerly accepted the invitation to discuss long-term scheduling tips, Kunigami had notably responded by calling him a scam and blocking him. Reo’s Instagram was terminated shortly after, and he’d bet a good chunk of his stock investments that Kunigami was the one to report his account.
He has familiarized himself with the roster of both teams that stood on the Blue Lock field by now. Ba-Ya helped him track down all of the articles that mentioned the fateful game, and Reo sent himself down a Wikipedia rabbit hole as he read the pages of all of the U-20 team players. He’s ready for whoever walks through that door, and if Ba-Ya says his hands are shaking when he drinks half of the water in his cup, then it’s from excitement and not at all nervousness.
Six people show up.
It's not a full success when ten people said they would consider his invitation, but six is greater than zero, so Reo brushes off his disappointment and stands up to greet his guests.
Aryu walks in with more confidence than the remaining five combined, flicking his hair over his shoulder and then raising his hand in a wave in one fluid motion. Yukimiya shares how excited he is to have a chance to discuss ten year plans as they shake hands. Next to him, Tokimitsu stumbles over his feet to copy the motion, his grip deceptively firm considering his shaking breath as he introduces himself. Otoya flashes a peace sign, and Tsurugi stiffly nods before rushing to adjust his glasses when they threaten to slip off his nose. Karasu is still lingering near the door as he hangs up his coat, and he closes the distance with a nod.
When they’re finally all seated, Reo raises his knife to clang it against his water glass. He isn’t quite sure what announcement to make, but it feels fitting, and he’s always thought it looked fun at the dinner parties his mother likes dragging him to.
On the third hit, his glass breaks in half. Ba-Ya immediately leaps into action by safely removing the broken glass to make sure no one cuts themselves, and she slips out to see where she can properly dispose of the mess.
Reo is left in front of six strangers holding a knife and the remainder of his dignity. They stare at the heir to the Mikage Corporation guiltily rolling the evidence of the crime back into his cloth napkin, and all at once the silence is broken by laughter.
“Did he plan for that to happen?” Tsurugi asks his friends in an intended whisper. It doesn’t really work when Reo can still hear his voice despite the size of their room. It’s extra insulting coming from a guy who thinks the napkin should be tied around his neck like a bib before they’ve even glanced at a menu.
“Why would anyone plan for that to happen?” Reo demands. Tokimitsu politely pours him a new glass of water, and as Reo accepts it, he hopes the embarrassment isn’t too obvious on his face.
The laughter doesn’t stop. Aryu tries to disguise it as a cough into the crook of his elbow. Karasu unrolls his cutlery to grasp at the napkin so he can attempt to gracefully cover his mouth, but his hasty speed only sends the utensils clattering to the floor.
This only makes them laugh harder, and this time, Reo can’t help but smile along as Otoya leans back too far in his chair and barely saves himself by clinging to the table. Tokimitsu swiftly saves the pitcher of water from the resulting reverberations that run through the table, but Reo’s new glass of water isn’t as lucky. They’re only five minutes into their dinner and the second glass of the night has already broken.
Ba-Ya enters the room again to see seven boys losing their minds over a fallen fork, a tipped over chair, and another broken glass.
“Young Master Reo, is everything alright?”
There is a puddle of water and broken glass on his plate. His napkin has been unrolled once again to try to soak up the damage. He needs to apologize to the restaurant staff later for the mess they’ve made.
Reo beams at Ba-Ya and tells her that they’re doing just fine.
.
The rest of the night goes smoothly. Reo asks them about their time at Blue Lock and how they stumbled into playing football in the first place, and his six guests are more than happy to answer after he says he’ll be footing the entire bill. They talk over each other as they share stories about the horrid meal system in First Selection, Ego’s hellish training schedules, the brutal matches against the international players, and the sweet victory over the U-20 team. By the time their steaks arrive, Reo has finished giving his stock market predictions and has moved onto discussing how to start a business.
Reo’s always had a lot of friends, and yet none of those friends were ever real. These six people are attracted by his family name just like everyone else, but they treat him like a normal person and they cycle through barely coherent conversations over football and fashion and future plans. In theory, this dinner is the same as every other fancy dinner party he’s been to, yet it doesn’t hurt to smile as he listens to others talk.
“Whose style of football do you admire the most?” Tokimitsu asks. “Why did your Instagram account get taken down?”
“I think a combination of the Itoshi siblings’ football would be unbeatable, especially in the U-20 league. I also think Kunigami from your Blue Lock team reported my account as fraudulent since he didn’t believe any Mikage would DM him,” Reo answers without pausing. “What’s up with that?”
Karasu carries the conversation next. “A lot of us were skeptical of your account. You had only a few followers and no posts, and the Mikage name is well known so it wouldn’t be unheard of to use your name in a scam. Kunigami was pretty vocal about us not responding to your messages in our group chat.”
“We almost didn’t come. He made Bachira pull out and warned the rest of us that our Internet safety skills were lacking,” Otoya says.
“I had my doubts, but I thought it would be worth it to see if you were real,” Yukimiya offers. “It’s not every day that you get the opportunity to debate what the best calendar app is with a Mikage.”
“I wanted to eat dinner here,” Tsurugi says shamelessly. Reo can’t say he dislikes his honesty. Tsurugi stabs another piece of his steak with his fork, lifting it to the light to admire the perfect coloring. “So Mikage, what do you think of dentists?”
“A necessary evil,” Reo decides. “What will you all do now that Blue Lock is done?”
Their chaotic conversation comes to a brief pause as six pairs of eyes burn Reo with their intensity. Tsurugi has even taken his eyes off his damned steak, and that’s how Reo knows they’re dead serious about fighting to become the best striker in the entire work.
“Blue Lock isn’t over yet,” Yukimiya tells him. “It can’t be over when we’re just getting started. You’ll see us again soon.”
There’s a conviction the six of them share that Reo will never be able to feel himself. He wishes he knew how it felt to believe so strongly that he could become the best striker in the world, that he could play football in the first place. Football is still the first thing he’s ever wanted for himself; now he can’t even stand on the field as a player. But he’s the son of a businessman, the heir to the goddamn Mikage Corporation, and he’s known for a long time that football is much greater than the eleven players that stand on the grass when the whistle blows.
His parents had laughed at his dream of winning the World Cup and then made their heir promise he’d never pursue it again. Despite the laughter that weaved its way across their room throughout their dinner, Reo thinks that none of them would laugh if he shared his ambition of keeping his connection with football alive with them.
It’s still too early for him to speak that all into existence yet. There are other plans whirling into place in his mind right now, and he settles for focusing on this first. Blue Lock had been nothing when the first set of documents were fed into his father’s paper shredder. The six people sharing a table with him are proof that Blue Lock has turned itself into much more than nothing.
“I’ll see you again soon,” Reo echoes. He has every intention of turning these words into truth.
.
Karasu 10:21
Group photo from dinner yesterday. Sucks to be a loser that missed out on meeting Mikage Reo
[Download file]
Otoya 10:22
lmao and u thought it was a scammer
best steak of my life
Igarashi 10:22
YOU MEAN WE MISSED A FREE STEAK DINNER WITH THE ACTUAL HEIR TO THE MIKAGE CORPORATION???
Tokimitsu 10:23
He was very easy to talk to and had a lot of interesting things to say! I enjoyed meeting him.
Tsurugi 10:24
He’s an idiot. But a rich one whose willing to buy you steak. Very good steak
Karasu 10:24
*Who’s
But yeah get fucked
Kunigami 10:27
The important thing is that he might not have been who he said he was. But I’m glad to hear he was real and that you all had a good time
Otoya 10:29
didn’t you report his account for fraud
Kunigami 10:29
Ah.
.
When Reo walks into his father’s office the next day, it’s with a business proposal in hand. His father shot him down before because Reo believed in football as a sport. But football is a business too, and this is what motivates Reo to place the manila folder on his father’s desk.
It’s not public knowledge yet, but Mikage Corporation has been developing an instant translator, and the results finally started to look promising a few weeks ago. Reo has listened to more than a few hushed phone calls at the dinner table over how a large test pool will be selected. Blue Lock’s next stage will feature the perfect people for this project, which Reo knows after he called Ego’s assistant and called himself a representative of Mikage Corporation.
The five minutes it takes for his father to review his proposal feel like an eternity. Reo’s stomach sits on stormy oceans as it churns and his heart beats faster and faster from the threat of drowning.
“I thought we agreed you would never play football again,” his father finally says. He sets the paper down, and there is only soft disappointment in his eyes as he faces his son.
Reo does not want to talk to his father right now. He is consulting the CEO of Mikage Corporation on an opportunity to increase the power and wealth behind the company he’s painstakingly built. He straightens his posture, clears his throat, and looks the CEO of Mikage Corporation in the eyes.
“We did. I’m not playing football. That does not mean that other avenues have closed. Partnering with Blue Lock as they start their next television special will put Mikage’s name and technology out there. Japan’s national interest in football has increased after the Blue Lock U-20 match, and everyone’s eyes are on them as they return in a week.”
“What do we do if our product fails?” the CEO challenges. “Our team has tested it for several languages, but none of the testing has been public and none of it has involved this many people. What if this exposure only damages our reputation?”
Mikage Corporation is one of the largest businesses in all of Japan. It consistently produces the next generation of technology and their investments always pay off. Reo has seen the power Mikage Corporation has amassed at business conferences, dinner parties, and within their own house. More importantly, he’s spent the past seventeen years watching how hard his father works.
“It wouldn’t fail, because Mikages do not lose,” Reo tells him. The words have been pointed at Reo as a weapon before, but he has no intention of doing the same. For all of the grief Reo has with his status as the Mikage heir, he knows Mikage Corporation rises to the challenge and does everything in its power to go above and beyond.
There is no disappointment in his father’s eyes now. There is none of the steely demeanor he dons for his work as CEO either, and for a moment, it’s easy for Reo to pretend the emotion he’s wearing now is one of pride. “I will give the Japan Football Union a call tomorrow to learn more about their television series. Your proposal will be kept in consideration until then.”
Reo gives his father a sharp bow and excuses himself from his study. When the thick doors close behind him, Reo pumps his fist in the air and marvels at the taste of victory. It’s as sweet as his six new friends promised it would be.
.
His new Saturday routine is to catch up on the Blue Lock TV content he’s missed through the week. The matches have been awesome, and when Ba-Ya watches them with him, she chuckles as Reo loses his mind over the sheer coolness of Kaiser Impact. His father even joins him for the Manshine City and Bastard München match as Mikage Corporation’s partnership with Blue Lock only causes their name to further permeate throughout the world.
His parents may be allergic to expressing anything that isn’t disappointment, but dinner that night is his favorite meal, and Reo takes the small acknowledgement for what it is.
The Blue Lock TV subscription includes a generous dose of drama too, and Reo’s able to enjoy it all with extra commentary from his friends. He’s kept in touch with them all, and while Reo’s phone has ten million contacts, these are the first that he truly treasures.
Tsurugi is, surprisingly, the one he talks to the most. They’d hurled the word “idiot” back and forth at each other that night, and they’ve continued rallying the insult in their text messages. Dumb Zantetsu is probably the only person in the world stupid enough to openly call the heir to the Mikage Corporation an idiot, and Reo accepts the challenge with glee.
“Young Master, is there anyone you’re cheering for today?” Ba-Ya asks in the last week of Blue Lock TV matches.
Today, PXG is playing against Bastard München. The reality show’s marketing team frames it as an epic battle between Kaiser, Blue Lock’s breakout star Isagi, the younger Itoshi sibling, and the wild forward Itoshi Sae once praised. Three of his friends are in PXG and one is in Bastard München. Karasu has been a steady presence in PXG since the first match and Tokimitsu’s first appearance was in their second match, and Yukimiya has cooled down since his feud with Kaiser and Isagi.
Zantetsu has been left on the bench for PXG’s matches. In their fourth and final match, he stands on the field for the first time. Reo lets out the loudest whoop of the season when Loki calls for his substitution, and while he’d greatly prefer for Zantetsu to not know how he excited he was for his friend, even an idiot can probably guess when Reo sent him thirty texts about his explosive acceleration and precise crosses.
The competition for a spot on Japan’s U-20 roster is tough. Zantetsu leaves Blue Lock with a good starting offer from FC Tokyo but without a ticket to the U-20 World Cup. On the day training starts for Japan’s new U-20 team, Reo takes a break from studying and the two of them rent out a karaoke booth for three hours and sing until their voices are hoarse.
Reo isn’t too far away from where Zantetsu’s new team plays. He’s even busier than before in his third and final year of high school as he prepares his university applications, but he sets aside time to watch the first match Zantetsu is slated to appear in. He buys a jersey and the tackiest hat he can find and screams whenever Dumb Zantetsu has possession of the ball. At the end of the night when he drives back home with Ba-Ya, there’s an autograph on the brim of his hat.
All of the Blue Lock players are adjusting to their new lives as professional football players, all of them just as busy as Reo is. Their schedules don’t stop them from continuing the steady stream of text messages that flowed before, and while Reo’s acceptance letters and graduation pale in comparison to their football feats, his friends bombard his phone with well wishes.
His high school graduation ceremony is rather boring. The speeches are long and his classmates are trying to use their final moments together to network with the Mikage heir. Reo doesn’t think any of the friendships he made here will last very long, and he still can’t help but resent his makeshift football team for not trying harder against Aomori Dadada. The distance between Oxford and Tokyo is vast, and he’s grateful for it as he’s stuck shaking hands with not just his classmates, but their parents trying to get into his good graces.
His own parents have no time for a high school graduation. That’s fine, because Reo doesn’t want to treat his graduation as an opportunity for business and schmooze with the other heirs to wealthy corporations, the children of politicians, the young celebrities, or even that one gamer from their school who went viral for his streams. Ba-Ya is here, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, and this is more than enough for him.
“Is there anyone you want to say goodbye to before you leave for the last time?” Ba-Ya asks.
Reo has gotten pulled aside by countless classmates and underclassmen. He’s said his farewells to his teachers. Their principal congratulated him on his acceptance to Oxford and thanked him for his father’s donations to the school earlier. His school year may be starting in September, but Reo is flying to England by himself in two weeks to spend time with his cousins and get used to living abroad. Time is short, and there’s one person he’d like to spend it with.
Out of everyone he’s met in Japan, he’s going to miss Ba-Ya the most. At this conclusion, Reo gently slides his diploma into his pocket. He’s not quite sure what Ba-Ya’s employment contract says about her charge hugging her, but he envelopes her with his arms anyways.
“I’ll still be at the Mikage estate when you leave,” she reminds him, as if this is the same as always being by Reo’s side for as long as he can remember.
“Thank you for all these years,” Reo mumbles into her shoulder. “Now let’s go home.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
.
Reo loves college. He loves living alone and not having his parents breathe down his neck and not having everyone’s eyes constantly trained on him. He loves how his Economics and Management courses actually challenge him and push him to think. He loves taking the train and boarding the double-decker buses and renting a bike and going to all these places without getting followed on the streets.
They don’t know much about Mikage Corporation here. Sure, it has international recognition, but the people here don’t know what the Mikage heir looks like. Here, Reo goes through his rebellious age as he sticks his feet on the coffee table and marvels at how no one chides him for it. Here, Reo learns from a classmate to stick his tongue out for selfies and he decides that’s the greatest pose ever. Here, Reo is allowed to love football, and he sings up as a manager to the university's team and has the time of his life laying out cones and fetching water.
Here, Reo is just Reo and not a Mikage, and he cherishes these three years for the rarity that they are.
There are a few Blue Lock players in the Premier League. Dumb Zantetsu and Tokimitsu may be in Japan, but Aryu, Karasu, Otoya, and Yukimiya have all gone abroad, and they’ve complained to him about needing to learn a foreign language while also transitioning into playing professional football. Reo calls them in English to force them to acclimate to the language, and soon enough, Chigiri from Manshine City and Kunigami from Chelsea ask for English lessons in exchange for game tickets.
During his next free weekend, Reo boards the train to West London and meets Kunigami at his flat. Kunigami’s flat is spotlessly clean and the warmth of the curry he makes for Reo is better than anything he’s eaten ever since he moved. For a moment, Reo wonders what it’d be like to have a perfect partner like him if his epic romance with Chigiri from Blue Lock TV didn’t have a thousand YouTube compilations.
“I’m sorry for reporting your Instagram account two years ago,” Kunigami says, his tone overly polite for someone whose monstrous strength shines in anything and everything related to football.
Reo raises the plate he’s scraped clean. “I’ll forgive you if I can have seconds.”
When Chigiri comes to Oxford three weeks later, Reo’s television decides to malfunction and only shows Love Island. They split greasy takeout and choose a favorite contestant, and when their pick is the first to be dumped from the island when they fail to couple up, they take an hour to strategically choose another Islander to root for. Their next choice is eliminated only a few episodes later.
Reo likes Chigiri and Kunigami. He texts them regularly to share memes, calls them once every two weeks during the school year to practice English and Japanese, and visits Manchester or London during his breaks. Chigiri bought a Switch recently after getting inspired by a YouTuber and Reo plays Mario Kart with him so he can train for when he duels Dumb Zantetsu again. Kunigami’s cooking is just as good as the cooking of the Mikage family’s head chef, and it’s certainly far better than Reo’s own cooking, and Reo always leaves his flat with leftovers packed away in glass containers.
It’s fun to visit them individually. It’s even more fun to visit them when they’re together, because Reo’s first real friends were six people who tried to make him laugh. Now that he knows what friendship is, he wants to surround himself with that bright laughter to stave off the icy chill of loneliness.
It’s just that when Reo spends time with the both of them, he remembers that Chigiri and Kunigami aren’t exactly friends.
When Reo left for Oxford, his mother told him to keep an eye out for a partner. When Reo calls his family about his time at school, his mother likes to ask about the level-headed girl with her sights set on a future Parliament seat or the boy whose identity as Belgian prince isn’t as well-concealed as Reo’s status. He made the mistake of telling her about his college friends once, and now he has to sit through her reminders that college is the best time to form social connections and find a partner.
Reo isn’t even quite sure what love is, because his father sits at one end of their long, long dining table and his mother sits at the other, because they have always done their best to maintain a distance with their own son. The warmest love he’s known is the love Ba-Ya has shown him, and even this will forever be limited by the paycheck his father hands her. Reo has been precocious in his early years though, and yet she stayed until he was eighteen and has continued to stay with the Mikages, and this must mean that love is somewhere in the equation.
When Kunigami discusses the latest football rumors with Reo, Chigiri leans against Kunigami’s shoulder. Two of their Blue Lock friends, Bachira and Isagi, visit for a birthday, and the three of them quietly gather the spare blankets because Chigiri and Kunigami fell asleep on the couch. On a trip to London, Reo helps Kunigami assemble a kotatsu he paid an exorbitant amount of money to ship so he could surprise his boyfriend when he arrives in two hours. In Manchester, Reo taste tests Chigiri’s seaweed soup as Chigiri embarks on a quest to show Kunigami proof that his cooking has improved.
London and Manchester are not close. Both of them are extremely busy for most of the year. He’s listened to Kunigami’s worries that they might drift apart in a long-distance relationship and Chigiri’s fears that they’re still too young to face everything that has yet to be thrown at them.
Reo isn’t quite sure what love is, but when he sees the love between Chigiri and Kunigami, he can’t help but want to know what love feels like.
.
His college graduation is great. Ba-Ya flies out and Reo makes sure to take plenty of photographs with her and the robes he paid a small fortune for considering their thin and scratchy material. The pride in her eyes snuffs out any thought that she’d put up with Reo if she held no love for him at all.
He lingers in London for two more months, tying up loose ends and waiting for his lease to end. He’ll be working when he returns to Japan and these last few months need to be savored before he’s stuck clocking into work at nine every morning for eternity.
“I am going to die alone,” Reo mourns to Kunigami. He had tried to complain to Dumb Zantetsu about the lack of romance in his life, but Zantetsu had just hung up on him. Kunigami is too nice to ignore him, and Reo capitalizes on this weakness of his. “I have no romantic prospects and now my mother is worried I’m unlikeable and she wants to find me an arranged partner because I’ve never gone on a single date.”
“Don’t be dramatic. You’re only twenty-one, you have your whole life to find love,” Kunigami says. His words carry no weight when Reo has seen engagement rings in his Google search history.
“I should have downloaded Tinder in college.”
Kunigami leans over to smack his shoulder. “That would have gotten you nowhere.”
Reo buries his face in Kunigami’s throw pillow. The texture is firm while still cushioning Reo’s head; leave it to Kunigami to track down the best throw pillow in existence. “But we don’t know that.”
Kunigami sighs. The display in front of him is at least a little less pathetic than the time Reo had a similar meltdown with only a month until graduation and he decided to channel his frustrations by plucking out toothbrush bristles. That should have been the first sign he’d have to intervene in his nonexistent love life.
“Look, if you’re up for it, Hyouma has a friend that he’s been trying to set up,” Kunigami offers. “He’s some streamer that Hyouma likes watching and they became friends over some football clips. I’m pretty sure he lives in Tokyo, so you could meet up once you’re back.”
Reo takes a moment to consider it. He has no clue who Chigiri’s mystery friend is, but he likes Chigiri and trusts his judgment after adding Bachira and Isagi to his list of former Blue Lock players he’s befriended. One date wouldn’t hurt, and if it went badly, then Reo would at least have that experience. It’d be like how people said you only got better at interviews after sitting through several of them, and didn’t dates have a lot in common with interviews?
He poses this question to Kunigami. Kunigami tosses a throw pillow at him. “No. Stop being such a business kid.”
Reo catches the pillow and hurls it back. It falls limply to the ground before it reaches its final destination, and the pity in Kunigami’s eyes puts a frown on his face. “Fine. Tell Chigiri I want to meet his mystery friend. No harm in trying.”
.
“Are you Reo?” a voice asks.
Reo looks up from where he’s been nervously texting Zantetsu about the first date of his life. “Yeah that’s–”
In another life, galaxies would have burst into existence in a narrow stairwell. In this life, Reo looks up to meet gray eyes and feels the world screech to a halt.
“Nagi Seishirou,” his date says to introduce himself. “Chigiri sent me here.”
Reo’s mouth runs dry when he realizes just how tall Nagi is even though he’s hunched over as he waves. The hazy window light catches on Nagi’s hair, and every fiber of Reo’s being wants to run his fingers through it to see if it’s just as impossibly soft as it looks. He stares into dark, dark eyes lit by swirling stardust and feels gravity yanking him into a never-ending freefall.
He’s learned a lot about love recently. There are countless friends he’s made from dreams he thought were once unattainable and destined to fail, an attendant who has stayed for so long for someone who may as well be a grandchild, and people who like Reo not because he’s a Mikage, but because he’s just Reo.
This is his own life to live, his own life to find love in.
As galaxies begin to bloom in this world too, Reo thinks he’ll learn more about love soon.
“I’m Reo. Nice to meet you.”