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Karasu's mother always told him as a child that he had to be very careful with his things, since until he could meet his soulmate he might as well kiss anything he lost goodbye. As a kid, the thought of someone else getting to enjoy your things was enough to terrify him into keeping his room orderly and clean, because it was his stuff, not his stupid soulmate's.
That didn't stop him from misplacing a thing or two from time-to-time, usually it would be something small and not life ending, but just enough to cause an inconvenience in his life. Once or twice he'd found himself desperately tearing through his bag before a quiz for a pencil that had already been transported away by whatever magical force that tied him to his soulmate, or he'd be doing his laundry and notice that once again he was down a sock or two. The worst case scenario he'd had was when he was 12 years old and discovered only after arriving at an away-from-home soccer tournament that his cleats that he'd most certainly had on the way there were no longer in his bag. The cleats themselves were nothing special, in fact he was pretty happy to see them go considering they were hand-me-downs from his older sister and a baby pink colour, but that fact didn't make his parents any less angry.
See, you can't lose something on purpose, a fact that made it impossible to send things to your soulmate to hint about your identity or return the things that they lost by tossing them back into the abyss. If that had been the case, then everything you ever threw in the trash was at risk of ending up in your poor unsuspecting soulmate's room. Losing something required both some level of attachment to it, be it sentimental like to a teddy bear or an essentialistic need like to your hair brush, as well as the realization that the item was in fact missing. This meant that once you noticed something was gone, it was already too late.
After that soccer tournament, he was much more careful of his things.
However, it appeared that whoever was Karasu's soulmate did not hold the same attachment to his things. When they were younger, Karasu would find new toys in his collection at least once a week, and when he'd excitedly show his parent's they would shake their heads and tell him that that wasn't really his, and that he should be extra careful with his soulmate's things, cause he could never be sure what held sentimental value versus what didn't. Tabito made sure to keep his soulmate's things safe inside a box in his closet after that, only taking them out to admire and wonder when he'd finally get to meet them. When he got older, he'd find pencils, loose change, and occasionally homework assignments with near illegible chicken scratches for handwriting, once even a house key which he was sure caused some problems for the other forgetful person.
It was around then that he realized that whoever they were could not keep track of their things if their life depended on it.
In his second year of high school, Karasu figured out that his soulmate was a guy when he opened up his backpack during lunchtime at school to discover a pair of school uniform pants in amongst his things. He waited until he got home to pull them out and really look at them, not that they were anything incredibly groundbreaking on the guy's identity. The pants themselves were a navy blue, about a size medium, and undoubtedly a part of a male's uniform for school, but he could not find any identifying tags, even though there was a spot for him to write his name on it seemed that his soulmate had decided to forgo labeling his things. Once he got past the initial shock, he was surprisingly okay that his destined partner was a guy, after all, he was never fully committed to any girl he'd humoured by accepting their confessions in the past, so maybe this made more sense than the alternative. He told his family his discovery that night during dinner, and was glad when their biggest concern was that whoever this guy was would lose something as important as his school uniform pants, though his parents did warn him to be careful with the information, as many people might not be as open to it as they were.
Finding his soulmate's identity had never been Karasu's largest concern, that title belonged to his dream of becoming the greatest striker Japan had ever seen. Which seemed all that much closer after he had received his invitation to Blue Lock.
Sure, the Ego guy was weird, and spending an indeterminate amount of time locked inside a jail-like facility was less than ideal, but at least he'd get to play soccer all day everyday.
Karasu was placed in Team V and immediately given the comfy rank of 241, the highest rank of the stratum. It did put a target on his back, especially during the first game of tag, but everyone there was mediocre in his opinion so he managed just fine.
Although there was one guy who piqued his interest.
Rank number 242, Otoya Eita. He was quick and had damn near perfected his off the ball movements, he had enraptured Tabito with his play style which was a feat in itself for the hard to impress man.
"What high school did ya play for, Otoya?" Karasu asked him one day during supper.
Otoya looked up at Karasu, his brows knit together, "uhhhh," he said, his gaze flickering back down to the table as he appeared to be searching for something, "Nagoya Koyo, Aichi prefecture. We were supposed to go to nationals but they'll lose with me in here."
The purple-haired boy watched as the other shuffled around in his seat, swinging his head around to peer at the table in different angles, even checking out the floor, "have you seen my chopsticks?" Otoya asked, lifting his food tray to check if they'd somehow made their way beneath it to hide. Karasu shook his head with a raised brow before glancing down, not really planning to help out the bewildered boy with his search since he'd finished his meal and wanted to take a shower before lights out. Fate had a different plan however, as there beside his tray was a pair of chopsticks that most certainly were not his, since his pair was still securely held in his hand.
"They're right here," he sighed, rolling them across the table to Otoya's waiting hands and thankful expression, "be more careful or else you'll send 'em off to yer poor soulmate."
A couple of their mediocre and boring teammates who always sat at their table chuckled at Tabito's scolding, but both of the top two players paid them no mind, having already filed all of them as not worth their time in their minds. "Oh, she's gotta hate me at this point," Eita sighed, pausing to say his thanks for the food before diving in for his first bite, "I'm always losing stuff."
Karasu chuckled, thinking about his own forgetful soulmate, "you can't be any worse than mine, they're basically helpless." He chose to hide his soulmate's gender, not out of fear or shame of being judged, but simply because it wasn't anyone's business, "I've gotten everything from homework to a house key."
Eita gazed back blankly as he pondered what Karasu just said and chewed his food, "I've definitely lost all that stuff and more," he answered once he'd swallowed, "but mine just loses socks and pencils basically. Works out usually cause I never remember to bring a pencil to school so I just use hers." Karasu snorted and stood up to return his now empty tray, "sounds like she's got her shit together, maybe it'll rub off on you."
The Assassin made his leave from the group and Otoya hummed contently as he enjoyed his meal, pleased with the side dish of hamburger he had earned as the number two ranked spot for their stratum. He was interrupted from his peace however as one of his teammates (he was pretty sure his name was Saramadara) asked, "you've seriously never gotten anything better than a pencil from your soulmate?"
Once again Otoya pondered the question, he didn't spend much time worrying about his soulmate, he was pretty content thus far with hopping from girl to girl, finding his soulmate probably meant he'd have to stop that, "ehhh, when I was younger at a soccer tournament I got a pair of pink cleats from her, my parents figured she was probably playing on a girls team there and tried going from team to team there to track her down but it didn't work." He shoved another bite of food into his mouth and continued speaking even before he swallowed, garnering a look of disgust from his teammate, "came so close to finding her when I was only 11, can you imagine?"
"Would have been crazy," the other boy agreed before turning to talk to someone else who didn't talk with their mouth full of food.
---
It was later that week that Karasu found a new lost object from his soulmate, and it nearly knocked him on his ass out of shock.
He was getting out of the shower and was reaching for his towel when he noticed that on top of it was a Blue Lock issued toothbrush. At first he figured it was just his own since everyone had the same toothbrush here, that was until he remembered that it was most certainly still in his locker where it was supposed to be. Karasu curled his lip in disgust and shook his towel so the toothbrush would fall to the floor, disgusted that it had been on something he used to dry himself with.
That was when the reality of what the toothbrush meant hit him.
His soulmate was here, at Blue Lock, among the 300 strikers.
Once he'd dried off, Karasu took the liberty of tossing the culprit of his racing thoughts into the garbage, no one would want to use a toothbrush that'd been on the floor anyway. This just left the question of who is his soulmate was. Someone in this stratum? Someone on Team V?
God, what even are the odds of something like this happening?
He was tempted to just start asking around to see if anyone had lost a toothbrush, but what if they put two and two together and figured out that his soulmate was both here and a guy. (Okay, maybe Karasu was a little scared of how people might react to him being gay. He didn't want to give them a reason to look down on him). He'd just pay attention and see if anyone was asking around about a toothbrush. With that he returned to his room.
Unfortunately, if it was someone on his team, no one made anything clear for the rest of the evening, Karasu honestly hoped that it just meant that it wasn't one of the people on their team and not that his soulmate was forgoing brushing his teeth.
---
The first selection came and went, with Team V moving on undefeated thanks to Karasu and Otoya's combined efforts, he'd go as far as to say that the two of them were the perfect duo. Karasu found Eita's attempts at overtaking him amusing, but he never doubted his abilities to do so and as such the white-haired boy pushed him to new levels of playing that he'd never thought attainable. So when it came to the second selection asking them to make groups of three, Karasu was glad to see Otoya sitting there waiting for him, having completed the first stage long before Karasu.
"Was that challenge a bit difficult for you, Karasu? I've been waiting at least an hour for you to get here," Otoya teased when he'd made his way over. Karasu grinned back and gave him a light shove, "yer the one who chose to wait for me."
Fortunately for Karasu's alleged tardiness, Otoya had taken the liberty of recruiting a third for their team so they were able to leave the waiting room as soon as introductions were finished.
Yukimiya Kenyuu proved to be a strong choice on Otoya's part, his speed matching well with Eita's swiftness and his one-on-one prowess worked well with Karasu's ball keeping skills. He could draw in opponents and hold possession to limit the number of people Yukimiya would have to face all while Otoya got into the perfect position to score.
Karasu made sure that their combos were perfected before they made the decision to challenge their first team, they'd be going into the rivalry battle more or less blind since Karasu had not seen many others from their stratum here (likely due to them being carried by himself and Eita), so they had little to no info on their potential opponents. After yet another hard day of practicing, the three of them were relaxing in the baths.
Karasu had his eyes closed and head tilted back as he tried his best to soak away the aches from all their training, unfortunately his zen was disturbed by the sound of frantic splashing to his right. He peeled his eyes open to see the source was none other than his youngest teammate reaching around the bath water. Karasu sent an annoyed look to Yukimiya who shrugged, "Did'ya lose something, 'Toya?" he asked when the boy didn't stop after another ten seconds.
Otoya pouted and looked at his teammates, "yeah I dropped my comb in the water."
Karasu chuckled and Yukimiya shook his head, "well," Yukimiya said, "it's probably already off with your soulmate now." That was when Karasu felt something plastic brush against his foot, he peered down through the water to see the comb and chuckled, "not yet, I see it here." He reached down and pulled the Blue Lock standard comb to the surface and tossed the flimsy thing to Eita's waiting hands, "oh that's awesome, you're beginning to have a better track record of finding my things before they get sent off to my soulmate than my mom."
Beside Karasu, Yukimiya tilted his head but said nothing. "Yeah well, you shouldn't be bringing yer comb with you into the bath," he scolded, "yer asking to lose it that way."
"Man, now you sound like my mom too."
Karasu splashed at Otoya who swiftly dodged and hopped out of the bath, scampering a safe distance away before he could make a second attempt, "I'm going back to the room," he called, wrapping his towel around his waist for decency before disappearing into the changeroom area.
After he silently chuckled to himself, Karasu settled back against the side of the bath, "do you often find Otoya's things for him?" Yukimiya asked, once again forcing Karasu to peel open his eyes.
Tabito pondered what Yukimiya was implying, because by the tone of his voice he could tell this was not such an innocent straightforward ask, "just his chopsticks once back in the first selection, they'd rolled over to my tray."
Yukimiya raised his eyebrow slightly, "and then his comb, that he'd most certainly lost and should have already have been sent to his soulmate, floated into your possession without him noticing where it went?"
Oh Karasu realized, that was what he was implying. "Are you asking if 'Toya and I are soulmates?" Karasu asked, "cause he seemed pretty damn certain his was a girl, when we talked about them."
Yukimiya shrugged, but then tilted his head, "but you aren't so sure about yours?"
He stiffened, way to go, Tabito, he thought, good job keeping that secret. "Look man, I'm not asking in an accusatory way," Yukimiya said, raising his hands defensively, "it's cool, you don't have to answer."
Karasu worried his lip, but decided it was already out in the air anyway, "yeah, they're a guy, I've figured that much out through the stuff they've lost," he admitted.
"That's nice, best I've figured is that they're a first year as of this school year at this high school in the Wakayama prefecture. Found an orientation manual in my locker on my first day of year three," Yukimiya laughed airily, "the school's an all boys school so I guess my soulmate's a guy too."
Karasu brought his knees into his chest for support and smiled, it was nice to talk so openly about this with someone, "I also know they're here at Blue Lock," he admitted, "I found one of the tooth brushes with my stuff once."
Yukimiya squinted his eyes, "and you don't think it's Otoya," he said blankly, not even bothering to ask it as a question.
"I don't know, he said 'she' this and 'her' that when we talked about it," Karasu said defensively, his cheeks glowing red. Yukimiya looked exasperated but said nothing as Karasu rose and exited the water, "good talk man, I'll see you back in the room."
Once he was alone in the water, Yukki placed his head in his hands and audibly groaned in frustration, how had he ended up with such dumb teammates.
---
Karasu had become hyper aware of Otoya's every actions from that point on, from the way he gracefully ran up the field to the less coordinated way he ate his food, and much to his horror, Yukimiya also seemed to be noticing his new attentiveness to the boy.
"You're staring again, Karasu," he warned for the third time during practice, and at that point he was just grateful that Otoya was not so perceptive of anything not soccer related.
They had finally challenged a team to a match, and Karasu could not be more excited to have something else to focus on. Of course that night while they were preparing their uniforms for the next day Eita entered the room after getting a snack and asked, "has anyone seen my phone?"
Yukimiya smirked and turned to Karasu, "yeah, Karasu found it."
Karasu frowned, "no I didn-" he began to say while smoothing out the wrinkles from his jersey but froze when he felt the lump beneath the material. He lifted the top fold to see that there, where there most certainly had not been a phone just seconds before, was in fact, Otoya's phone. He was gonna murder Yukki for this. "Just kidding, here," he said, tossing the IPhone recklessly to its owner who scrambled to catch it.
"Thanks, man," he said before continuing into the room.
Karasu stood there in shock, not sure how to proceed with this newfound knowledge that he had been spending nearly every waking second for the last month with his soulmate without even realizing. He heard Yukimiya chuckle to himself from beside him as he shooed Karasu out of the way to fix his now unfolded uniform for him, "told you so," he sang under his breath as he did so. Tabito slowly glanced over his shoulder to peer at Otoya who was climbing up into the top bunk of the bunk bed, "you gonna get yer uniform ready for tomorrow, 'Toya?" Karasu asked the boy who was oblivious to the way his heart was about to beat out of his chest.
Once he was settled he waved his hand in the air, "tomorrow's problem."
Karasu swallowed the lump in his throat and moved to climb onto the bottom bunk of the bed, his entire body felt like lead. His night was more or less restless, it took every ounce of strength in his body to not toss and turn, know the entire bunk would shake if he did. He felt his phone buzz beside him and he figured 'why the hell not use it, he's wide awake anyway'.
Toya: dude
Toya: I can feeeeel you thinking. go tf to sleep
Karasu smiled and swiped into the chat.
Karasu: Why are you awake?
Toya: horny
Toya: jkjk
Toya: thinking about tomorrow i guess
Karasu involuntarily blushed at the first message, but shook it off, Otoya was weird and weird people said weird things sometimes.
Karasu: Dude, we're gonna crush them. What are you even scared about?
Toya: idk
Toya: what if we lose and one of us get stolen
Toya: sorry thats cringe
Toya: its just playing with you has been really fun
Toya: yukki too yea but I'd survive if he got stolen
Karasu: And you wouldn't survive without me?
Toya: shut up don't make it weird
Toya: go to sleep. need you at your best
Karasu: Night Toya
Toya: night <3
He stared at the heart for a solid minute before he finally turned off his phone. The only reason he wasn't on his stomach and kicking his feet in the air at that very moment was because he was still in the room with the very person making him feel this way. Somehow, he did manage to fall asleep after that, although his dreams were filled with a certain emo boy with green streaks in his hair.
---
The next morning the trio ate in a peaceful silence before making their way to the bedroom to pick up their uniforms. "I'm just gonna use the washroom," Karasu informed his teammates as they passed the door to it in the hall, the two boys nodded and he ducked in.
Otoya was humming a small tune aloud as he and Yukimiya continued to the room, neither saying a word until they had closed the door behind them. "Ugh," Otoya groaned, flopping himself onto Yukimiya's double bed, "I still need to get my stuff ready."
"Off my bed with your gross germs," the model said, flicking the back of the perpetrator's head as he moved to the dresser that held his and Karasu's things, "should've done it last night with us."
Mumbling into the mattress, Otoya managed to giggle out a "that's what she said."
The boy sighed and looked inside the drawer that should have held all of Otoya's things, "where's your jersey?" he asked confused, he could see his socks, shin guards, shorts and the body suit they all wore while playing, but his red number 33 jersey was nowhere to be seen.
"In the drawer-," he said lifting his head and realizing that the drawer was exactly where Yukimiya was looking, "it's not in there?" Otoya rose from the bed and padded over, peering in with his glasses-wearing teammate in disbelief. "I swear I put it back in here."
Yukimiya raised his fingers to pinch the bridge of his nose, "how are you this incapable of keeping track of your things, Otoya?" The younger opened his mouth to defend himself but he was just shushed, "it was rhetorical, don't answer. We'll just have to wait for your soulmate to get it."
Otoya raised an eyebrow, "I don't think that's gonna help, Yukimiya, I don't even know who she is."
Just then Karasu stepped through their door and hung around in the doorway, "looking for this?" he asked, holding up a jersey with the number 33 plaster on it.
"Oh thank god you found it, thought it was gone for good for a second there," he said relieved moving to grab the jersey from his friend's hands. There was a loud resounding bang behind him and he turned, startled to see Yukimiya with his head pressed against the wall, the boy pulled his head back and slammed it forward once more for good measure before Eita questioned, "are you good, Yukki?"
Yukimiya turned slowly and gave the most gut-wrenchingly disappointed glare he could muster, "you, are the biggest idiot I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. I thought Karasu was dense."
Karasu chuckled and tossed Eita his shirt, stepping into the room and making his way to the disgruntled man to clap his shoulder reassuringly. Yukimiya turned to him and said, "deal with this, I'm getting water," as he scurried out of the room.
Otoya's brain went into overdrive as he tried to figure out what Yukimiya was so upset with him for, and there was no way he could be more dense than Karasu. "Where'd you find it anyway?" he asked while turning the material over back and forth in his hands, "I swore I put it in the drawer."
"Clearly not," Karasu sighed as he began to dress himself into his own uniform, "I found it on the counter beside the sink in the bathroom."
Eita was shocked, "why the fuck was it there?" he asked no one in particular.
Karasu cocked an eyebrow at the boy as he secured the drawstring of his shorts, "if I had to make an educated guess," he said moving to his bottom bunk to sit down while he put on his shin guards and cleats, "it probably got there for the same reason I found your phone, your comb, your chopsticks, and your school uniform pants."
A lightbulb went off in his head, "how'd you know I lost my uniform pa-". He froze as he realized what Karasu was saying, and Yukimiya had tried to say earlier.
"You," he said looking at Karasu in shock.
Karasu smirked as he met Otoya's gaze, "me."
Otoya began to move against his own will as he climbed into the bunk beside the other boy, "why did you have pink cleats?"
The laugh that escaped Karasu's lips was music to his ears, Otoya was mesmerized just watching as he tossed his head back and his eye crinkled shut, "they were hand-me-downs from my older sister," he explained through his giggles, "not all of us were rich enough to get our own things."
Eita just shook his head and smiled, still processing the shock that he was in front of his soulmate, let alone that his soulmate was Karasu. "I really assumed you were a girl this whole time cause of that," he said breathlessly.
"Yeah, sorry," Karasu apologized, scratching the back of his neck, "I've had some time to get used to the whole 'my soulmate's a guy' thing, so if you want some space to figure it out that's cool."
Otoya had never shaken his head so quick in his life, "no no no no," he said desperately, grabbing at Karasu's bicep, "anyone else, maybe yeah I would have needed time, but it's okay, cause it's you."
Karasu's face flushed bright red, and Otoya's followed suit almost immediately after the words had left his mouth, "you're so lame," Karasu chuckled, and Eita frowned, "just kiss me, you loser."
For once, Tabito didn't try to argue or tease the boy as he snaked a hand up to cradle his face, his eyes flickering down to Otoya's lips before pulling him in close. The kiss was short and sweet, with just a hint of exploratoryness to it that came with first kisses. Eita cheekily pressed forward to deepen it for a split second before pulling away, a trick he had learned that always made the other person try to chase him for more. Karasu did try to follow his lips as he retreated until he realized why Otoya had pulled away.
In the doorway stood Yukimiya, who looked so relieved that Karasu had to wonder just how much emotional stress they had caused him. "As thankful for this as I am," he said pulling off his normal glasses and stepping into the room, "we need to get ready, the game starts in ten minutes."
Otoya jumped up, "sir, yes sir."