Chapter Text
In uncharacteristic silence, Chigiri Hyoma lay sprawled out on a hotel bed, glancing at the time on his phone. With a hefty sigh, he let his arm, phone included, go limp and hang off the mattress, staring at the ceiling above. After a few moments of deliberation, the red-haired youth rose from the comfort of the bed and walked toward the window, still at an utter loss of how to pass the time. For whatever reason, not long after he — along with 299 other boys — first stepped into the Blue Lock facility, they were all sent home on a two-week hiatus, having not even reached the so-called “Second Selection.”
“Seems pointless to spend all that money transporting us just to hold us for such a short amount of time…” He murmured to himself. Glancing out the window, his mind wandered back home. Unfortunately, his mother and sister had been planning and had subsequently gone on what they referred to as a “girls trip” a few days prior, completely unaware he’d return so soon. There was nobody waiting for him at home, so his mom sent him some money to stay in a hotel; not that he would even like such a long drive back home. And thus Chigiri was stuck between a rock and a hard place; he could certainly just go outside and continue honing his skills as a soccer player, but he had been doing just that — virtually only that — for weeks, and he thought he deserved a break. Pinching his nose bridge in a mild fit of frustration, a thought occurred to him with a brief “Ah” of remembrance. Despite spending so little time in Blue Lock, he had gotten the contact information of several of his “teammates,” though “rivals” would be more accurate in certain respects. Furrowing his brows, he dug through his pocket and fished out three numbers. He found it a bit bothersome that their phones were confiscated, leading to the need to physically write out their contacts, but that was no matter now.
“Isagi Yoichi… Bachira Meguru… Kunigami Rensuke…” He typed their numbers and names into his phone respectively, but was unsure who to reach out to first. Putting a bit of thought into it, he opted to call Isagi. The familiar “brrring” sound rang out four times before his call was picked up.
“Hello?” A rather loud, almost distracted voice, accompanied by the discordant bustle of what could only be a city, spoke. “Who is this?”
Chigiri blinked, not expecting to hear such a cacophony on the other end. However, he snapped out of his initial surprise to offer up his name. “It’s Chigiri. I just remembered that you gave me your number, and I was calling to see if you were free.” He shuffled a bit where he was standing, as it was quite obvious that the other boy was not free.
“Ah! Chigiri! Uhh…” There was a slight awkwardness in his tone, as if he felt bad for being unavailable. Suddenly, a more excited voice chimed in, getting very close to the receiver so as to perhaps be heard over the background noise.
“Chigiri! Isagi and I are in Shibuya right now! How about we meet up?” Such an energetic disposition, along with the unique voice that sounded like a buzzing bee, was impossible to miss.
“Bachira?” Chigiri’s eyes widened a bit, then softened as he recognized the invitation and the former’s cheery “Yep!”, chuckling. “Sure, where are we headed?”
Chigiri could hear Isagi and Bachira fumbling a bit over the address — mostly Bachira complaining that Isagi’s venue selection wasn’t up to his standards, whatever that meant — but eventually they decided on an inexpensive café. Nodding, Chigiri affirmed that this was a good choice, then broached another topic.
“Do you mind if I invite Kunigami along, too?” Chigiri ventured. He was entirely unaware of where Kunigami was right now and if he would even accept, but it didn’t hurt to ask. His question was met with an enthusiastic “Yes” from both parties, so they each said their goodbyes and hung up. With that, Chigiri scrolled his list of contacts until he came across the boy he wanted to call. The phone rang and rang, eventually sending the caller to voicemail. Chigiri, who was examining his nails in the meantime, huffed at this. Before he could send a sassy message to Kunigami’s voicemail, however, the phone buzzed with a text from the opposing number, reading a quick “Sorry! Working out, call later.” Chigiri’s temper was eased by the text, and he made the decision to try again after he got ready. He had already showered today, so it simply came down to the outfit and hairstyle. Staring at his rather unimpressive wardrobe on account of being moved to a hotel last-minute, he grabbed a white undershirt with a frilled neck, paired with a loose black sweater patterned with pink diamonds. Slipping them on alongside gray pants, he peered into the bathroom mirror, thinking about how to style his hair for the evening. Following a “less is more” attitude, he threw it into a bun, checking himself out with an exaggerated smirk and nodding. He exited the bathroom and started putting on his shoes, humming a tune. His phone rang, and he put it to his ear.
“Hello?” He propped the phone against his shoulder so that he could lace up his shoes.
“Hey, I saw your call. Sorry I couldn’t pick up, I was busy.” A deep apologetic voice sounded on the other line. “Is this Chigiri?”
Chigiri smiled triumphantly to himself. “Yes, it is. I was just calling to ask if you wanted to link up in Shibuya. Isagi and Bachira are there already. No problem if you can’t make it though.” Finished with his shoes, he leaned back a bit on the bed.
“Oh, sure. I’m actually in Edogawa right now.” Kunigami declared.
“Hmmm? Edogawa? I’m surprised.” Chigiri started twirling his hair around his index finger absentmindedly, a teasing tone creeping into his voice. “I honestly didn’t take you for an outdoorsy guy like that.” His remark was met with a sheepish laugh on the other end.
“Yeah, it snows a lot where I’m from, so I like taking advantage of seeing all the greenery whenever I can.”
Chigiri shot up from his half-lean. “Ah, I forgot about that! You mentioned you were from Akita, right? Man, that must be brutal in winter. Sure, it gets cold, but it hardly snows in Kagoshima.” Temporarily pulling the phone away from his ear, he shot a look at the time again, to which he exclaimed that he should probably get going soon.
“I’ll text you the address, okay? I don’t want to keep the others waiting too long.”
“Sounds like a plan, princess. I’ll be there in around 25 minutes.”
With that, they said their goodbyes, and Chigiri equipped a crossbody bag before heading out the door. It was a roughly 15 minute walk from his hotel to the decided location, a piece of cake for his impressive legs. In what felt like the blink of an eye, he had arrived to see two of his friends sitting at an outdoor table, crumbs of what might’ve been croissants on napkins in front of them. Isagi, upon spotting Chigiri, stood up and waved, beckoning him over with a smile on his face. Bachira grinned in tandem. The pair was dressed up, Isagi donning a black button-up coat with a green undershirt, black pants, and a rather large brown crossbody bag. Bachira had a more adventurous outfit on, high-waisted overalls over a white undershirt, and over that, an open black shirt. His accessories consisted of a white duffel bag with matching headphones, a yellow bucket hat, and an almost comically large dolphin pin. Despite his better judgement, Chigiri thought he actually pulled off the otherwise atrocious outfit. They exchanged pleasantries, and Chigiri assumed a chair facing the two.
“What did you two get?” Curious about the menu selection, he gestured to the crumbs.
Bachira, ever the opportunist, jumped on the question. “I got a pan… pan oh… uhh… pan oh chocolate?” Despite his enthusiasm, he seemed unable to pronounce whatever it was he got. However, Chigiri pieced the wobbly puzzle together, offering his best pronunciation of “pain au chocolat” he could muster.
“You could’ve just said chocolate croissant, you know.” Isagi said, baffled.
“You can’t even pronounce croissant, so you have no right to scold me!” Bachira protested. Chigiri watched in amusement as the two duked it out over who said it more accurately, rising to go inside and order something for himself. Musing over the pastry options, he selected a strawberry Danish and returned to the table, where Isagi and Bachira had moved on from their feud and were now chatting about Blue Lock. Chigiri resumed his spot while biting into his Danish, content with simply listening to them talk as he ate. Suddenly, the conversation stopped as Isagi’s eyes flitted to something behind Chigiri, the former waving. Raising a brow, Chigiri turned in his seat to see a smiling Kunigami approaching, wearing a simple light orange sweater accented with darker orange stripes. Chigiri’s eyes moved down to glance at his dark and rather unorthodox pants, which had a small skirt-like layer. Well, he wasn’t one to judge. Looking back up, an orange and white tie was loosely wrapped around his neck, and he held a beige tote bag.
Chigiri waved, a friendly smile on his face. “I’m glad you could make it.” Isagi and Bachira assented while Kunigami lowered himself in the empty chair next to Chigiri, nodding.
“Thanks for inviting me.” Kunigami said. After a second or two of thinking, he asked, “Any plans, or are the Great Egoist Four just going to sit around and munch on scones?” He put on the dramatics for the “egoist four” bit, which elicited chuckles from the other three. However, perhaps sensing that his words could be taken badly, he amended them with “Not that I mind doing that, of course.”
Isagi made a “hmmm” sound, indicating he was in thought. Timidly, he placed his hand on the back of his head while offering up a small smile. “You know, I actually hadn’t thought of what to do… before we invited you guys, Bachira and I were just walking around window shopping.”
“The monster inside me is saying that we’re open for suggestions.” Bachira said, eyes brimming with such sincerity that it was unclear whether or not he was joking.
“Ah.” Chigiri placed his fist on the open palm of his other hand. “How about we do karaoke? You can’t have an outing in Shibuya and not do karaoke.” A chorus of “ooh”s and “yeah”s sounded from the group.
Pulling out his phone, Kunigami typed for a few seconds and then looked up, jerking his head in a general direction. “There’s one four minutes away, should we get going?” As a response, they all got up, picking up their trash and their bags and whatever else they had with them.
“Lead the way, hero.” Chigiri shot a thumbs up at Kunigami, who had the directions to the karaoke lounge pulled up. Skirting through the busy streets of Shibuya, the quartet managed to get there all in one piece. They began walking to their booked room, but were interrupted by the sound of women shouting. Curious, the four turned the corner and saw a rather dramatic scene unfolding before them.
“You’re awful! Who’s this bitch?” A pretty lady was shooting an accusatory finger into a room while another walked out, this one exclaiming “What the hell! You said this was a date!”
“Just wait a minute..! Why can’t the three of us just enjoy ourselves?” A not-so-apologetic sounding male voice grabbed the exiting woman’s hand, which in turn got him a slap on the face.
“Don’t touch me, you cheater!” She screamed. The other woman flipped her hair and clutched her purse, storming off. “Drop dead! I can’t believe this!”
“Yikes.” Bachira said.
“What a bloodbath.” Isagi grimaced, and Chigiri averted his eyes as their group passed the door of the womanizer, but not before catching a glimpse of his oddly colored hair and heterochromatic eyes.
“Sure am glad that isn’t me.” Chigiri chirped. It was a rather long hallway — mostly due to the fact that this karaoke bar in particular was very popular — but they were almost to their room.
“I’ll never understand guys like that.” Kunigami heaved a sigh, shaking his head. He pushed open the door and held it for the rest to filter in, resulting in some teasing.
Bachira entered first, bowing far too low than would ever be necessary for even a formal meeting, let alone friends going to karaoke. “Thank you, hero! I’ll never forget this!” Giggles erupted from Isagi and Chigiri, both of whom tried — and failed — to stifle them after Kunigami glared at them. After some time, Bachira lifted his head and allowed Chigiri to step through.
“Wow, what a gentleman.” Chigiri fluttered his eyelashes theatrically, and Kunigami smacked him lightly on the arm with his free hand, rolling his eyes.
Isagi shot an apologetic look at Kunigami as he entered without incident. With that, the group gathered in the karaoke room, but were at a loss as to who would start. Looking at one another in awkward silence, Chigiri couldn’t bear it any longer and, with a groan, picked up the remote and a microphone in each hand.
“Since I guess I’m in a room with three middle school girls right now, I’ll go first.” He clicked through the song library until settling on his favorite, Blue Bird by Ikimono-gakari.
Kunigami perked up. “Hey, you never told me you were into Naruto.”
Chigiri looked back in mild surprise, humming. “Well, I guess it never really came up, considering we were more focused on survival. You like it?”
Kunigami ran a hand through his thick ginger hair. “It’s not my favorite, but yeah. I like a few of the intro songs, too.” He sounded like he would’ve continued talking, but Chigiri made a hasty shushing noise as the lights dimmed and the music started to play. The other boys began to sit down, basking in the vocals. When the song was done, they clapped as Chigiri wiped a bit of sweat off his pretty face.
His grin was tinged with a bit of nervousness. “Sorry, guess I got a bit too into it.”
“It’s fine!” Isagi reassured him. “You were amazing! Once you let your inhibitions go, you’re really an awesome guy!”
Chigiri flushed, brushing his bangs to the side as the others agreed and praised him. “Who wants to be next?” He held out the microphone that he had previously been gripping as though his life depended on it. Bachira swiped it, a mischievous smile growing on his face as he grabbed an unsuspecting Isagi by the collar and brought him over to the screen.
“A duet, huh?” Isagi winced after freeing himself from Bachira’s sudden grasp. “Do we both know the lyrics of at least one song..?” He shot his newfound singing partner a dubious look. Bachira waved his hand dismissively, eyes glued to the screen as he scrolled one-by-one, checking off any potential songs that the two of them knew. At long last, the duo settled on a popular track that anyone who had visited a grocery store in the past two months would know, breaking into a surprisingly harmonious duet. All the while, Chigiri was examining the small menu of parfaits and drinks, cringing at the prices.
“Look at this. 2,300 yen for a small parfait.” He whispered to Kunigami, incredulity in his tone.
“This place really is a tourist trap, after all.” The taller boy whispered back, shrugging. Sighing, the pair turned back to their friends and listened to their shockingly pleasant — albeit chaotic — voices. When finished, Isagi and Bachira turned and gave each other a double high five, hyped-up “yeah”s and clapping resounding through the room.
“Well,” Kunigami dusted off his pants while getting up. “I guess I’m next.”
Bachira handed him the microphone and skipped off to sit down. Kunigami stretched, one arm in the air and then the other.
“Hey hero, this isn’t a workout, you know. You’d be better off stretching your vocal cords.” A light snicker emerged from Chigiri’s lips.
Kunigami puffed out his chest in defiance, making a flapping gesture with his unoccupied hand. Chigiri rolled his eyes in response, but made no further comment as Kunigami landed on a song. The three non-singers sat back and listened as the one holding the microphone gradually got louder.
Chigiri cocked his head with a small smirk, crossing his arms. Could it be that he's shy about this sort of thing? He found his eyes drawn to Kunigami’s face, which was painted with an expression of fun. It was only when the song ended and Bachira prodded him on the cheek that Chigiri realized he was staring. The trio clapped, causing Kunigami to turn his head and blush, protesting the praise.
“How much time do we have left?” Bachira propped himself up on the booth seats, kicking his feet while looking up inquisitively at each member of their little group.
“I think we’ve still got an hour or so left, let me check.” They watched as Isagi approached the phone posted by the door and pressed a few buttons. He nodded, making polite sounds before ending with a “Thank you” and hanging up.
“45 minutes, but we can extend it for 700 yen per 15 minutes.” He gestured to the phone with a thumb over his shoulder as he sat down with the rest of the group.
“Hm.” Chigiri put a hand on his chin. “I think 45 minutes is good, right? It’s getting late anyway, and we only have four people.” He looked toward the others, who nodded in turn. And so, with a cheeky smile, Chigiri once again claimed the microphone. 45 minutes passed in a flash as the four teenagers got more and more into it. All that was left was to decide what to do now that their choral retreat had ended.
Bachira raised his hand. “Sorry, my mom wants me home before midnight, and it’s an hour long ride on the subway! You egoists will have to decide on something without me!”
“That’s fine, Bachira. Do you need money for the fare?” Isagi offered it to the brunette, but was met with a shake of the head. As the two deliberated over whether or not Bachira had enough pocket money on him to afford the subway ticket, Kunigami looked pensive, which Chigiri took note of.
“Hey, Kunigami, what’s up?” The redhead raised a brow, waving his hand in front of Kunigami’s face as if to snap him out of a trance.
“Ah, it’s nothing, really. I don’t want to burden you guys.” This response only made Chigiri’s frown deepen, and he poked further.
“That’s not an answer. What’s making you make that face?”
With a sigh, Kunigami finally conceded, averting Chigiri’s piercing eyes. “Well, I live almost eight hours away, and I’ve got nowhere to stay for tonight.”
Chigiri blinked. “Oh, that’s it? You can just crash at my hotel, man. It’s not far from here. It’s got a couch you can sleep on.”
Kunigami bowed. “Thank you very much.” Chigiri snickered at the melodramatic display.
Isagi joined in on the conversation. “So I guess we’re all heading home?”
“I guess so. Do you guys want to hang out again tomorrow?” Chigiri asked.
Isagi responded first. “Sorry, Chigiri, but I can’t. My parents want to prepare a big feast for my return, and I’m supposed to help with it. Seems a bit overkill, doesn’t it? We weren’t even gone for that long…” The last two sentences of his lament trailed off in a peeved but still fond tone.
“Well… Bachira? Kunigami?” Chigiri turned to the other two.
“Well, I guess since I’m rooming with you for tonight, I’d be available. I’ll probably head home tomorrow night though.” Kunigami said.
A sudden knock sounded on the door of their room, and their heads turned.
“Probably an employee telling us to get out.” Isagi walked toward the door as it opened, and his hunch was revealed to be correct. In the end, they were ushered out, and Bachira confirmed that he, like Isagi, would be unavailable for most of the day tomorrow. All four walked to the station and said their goodbyes, leaving just Chigiri and Kunigami to walk back to the hotel. They walked in relative silence, only breaking it to chat about this or that, enjoying the other’s company.
“It really is annoying that Blue Lock is in the middle of the mountains. Couldn’t they have chosen a better spot for it?” Chigiri announced as they neared the building. Kunigami shrugged, hands in his pockets.
“I guess they can’t help it, considering people from all over the country were chosen.”
“Hm…” Chigiri couldn’t help but ponder as the cold air caressed his face. Even still he couldn’t quite wrap his head around the true intentions of Blue Lock and its mysterious director, and how such a program came to be. Before long, they had arrived at the lobby, a respite from the night’s chill. Quietly, so as to not disturb other guests, they scaled the steps up to the third floor and found themselves in Chigiri’s room.
“You can just drop your stuff anywhere. Couch is over there, I’ll be in the bathroom.” Chigiri said, flicking on the lights.
“Thanks again, really.” Kunigami emphasized, to which Chigiri waved a nonchalant hand.
“Don’t mention it. It wouldn’t be fair to make you stay at some shitty motel nearby. Consider it even for the time you gave me your curry.” He began heading toward the bathroom.
Kunigami turned, puzzled. “Wasn’t that a trade, though? So we were already even.”
Chigiri stopped in his tracks. “Oh. You’re right. Just consider it a good-natured favor, then.” Having no more to say, he entered the bathroom and left Kunigami to his own devices. He didn’t have as much product as he’d like with him at the moment due to the hotel arrangement, but a facial cleanser and a single hair mask would do for tonight. His mother and sister were due to return the day after tomorrow, so he could manage. As he brushed his teeth, he reminisced about the day, humming. When finished, starting with the forehead, he meticulously lathered his face and then rinsed it off, moving on to thoroughly applying the hair mask, which he would keep in for ten minutes before rinsing. He didn’t feel bad that he was potentially hogging the bathroom, but just to be courteous, he exited as he waited for the hair mask to do its job.
“Bathroom’s free.” Chigiri said with a yawn, going over to sit on the foot of his bed. He observed as Kunigami got up from his makeshift spot on the couch, then went back to scrolling on his phone.
I wonder if there’s any news about Blue Lock… I mean, the building stands out, doesn’t it? In a spark of intrigue, he searched it up, but to his surprise, there were not many relevant hits. Occasionally he found uninteresting articles about the floor plan and the Japan Football Association’s “big plans”, but other than that there was nothing. Carelessly, he brought his hand up to his hair to twirl it, forgetting there was product in it.
“Damn.” The boy hissed, getting up to go wash it off. In good timing, Kunigami exited the bathroom, making way for Chigiri to enter.
Kunigami flicked off the main light, leaving only a secondary light to dim the room as he said goodnight. Chigiri returned the goodnight, saying that he would be out and turn the lights off entirely soon. He ran the shower and leaned over to wash the mask out of his hair, mind still consumed about Blue Lock. After his hair had been adequately rinsed, he patted his hair dry with a towel and brushed it, looking at himself in the mirror before finally leaving the bathroom and turning off the light, using his phone’s flashlight as guide to make his way toward his bed. Tucking himself into bed, his mind wandered to his current situation. It certainly wasn’t unusual, rooming with Kunigami. After all, during the brief time he spent in Blue Lock, his sleeping quarters were occupied by not only the two of them, but the nine other boys in Team Z. Despite this understanding, Chigiri could not shake the bizarre feeling he had. Wiggling deeper into the covers of the bed that had suddenly become far more uncomfortable than before, Chigiri Hyoma closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.