Chapter Text
Tenma stood on the walkway between the school and the football building. He watched as the principal and Coach Kudou exited the latter, the coach holding a bag over his shoulder and walking down the stairs towards the parking, the football van standing out amongs the other faculty cars.
The principal walked towards Tenma himself, passing behind him and giving a small nod to which Tenma responded with his own nod, moving to leave. It was done. Coach Kudou was no more.
Obviously, Tenma didn't know the man too well but he was still disappointed that he had to go. His refusal to take Tsurugi off the pitch when the other first year was so clearly defient to Fifth Sector's orders…
"Coach!"
The call pulled Tenma out of his thoughts as he looked up to see Shindou panting, having ran to get to the coach. How had he learnt that the man was being fired? He must live relatively nearby to have made it all the way here. Curious, the midfielder approached to hear what they said.
"Shindou."
"I'm sorry, it's my fault. If I hadn't taken that shot…"
"You are wrong, Shindou. My work here was already finished."
The captain looked up at the now ex-coach with confusion as the man cut off his apologies.
"Eh?"
"Tell me something. Do you remember what you felt when you kicked the football into your rival's goal?"
"What I felt?"
Shindou looked confused and conflicted, breathing still seemingly a bit erratic. Kudou must have seen something Tenma couldn't see from where he was, because his lips curled into the smallest smile.
"Never forget that sensation."
And with that, he began walking away, leaving Shindou and the school behind. Tenma soon did the same, making sure Raimon's captain wouldn't see him.
It was quite late already, the sun was bringing almost no light anymore. He paused almost subconciously at the riverside pitch for a few moments before continuing all the way to Kogarashi Manor.
"Aki, I'm back. Sorry for being so late!"
Aki popped her head out of the kitchen at his voice, giving him a little amused smile.
"Welcome back Tenma. I knew you wouldn't last a school month without staying out late. Did you lose track of time playing football at the riverside again?"
Tenma let out an embarassed chuckle almost reflexively, scratching his cheek as a bit of color grew on his face.
"Aki-nee, don't be mean... I didn't get here late because of that this time."
Aki must have noticed the way his tone changed because her smile turned into a gentle worried frown. Why did she read him so well? Or why was he that obvious?
"What happened, Tenma?"
"It's nothing horrible, not really. It's just that the coach left. I-I don't know the details of why but we should get a new one soon enough. That's all."
Aki moved closer and put a hand on his shoulder.
"You can still feel bad or weird about it, there is nothing wrong with that, especially if you don't know why it happened. But you are also right in that you'll get a new one. It'll be okay."
"Yeah... Everything will work out somehow."
"Just relax and keep playing the football you love. And come eat dinner, it's going to go cold if we stand here for much longer."
Tenma huffed lightly again as he followed Aki to the table. He bit his tongue all the way there, feeling the burn inside his chest. It felt so wrong to lie to her. But he wouldn't stop, he couldn't. It's what he had to do and he would see his determination through to the end.
With his resolve reinforced, he let the conversation move onto other topics. Talking about school and hearing Aki talk about her own day in return. Miss Yone and Mister Akai had started a fight over lunch, again. Sometimes the other residents acted more like children than Tenma himself.
"You already know this, Tenma, but feel free to bring your friends over whenever you want. Shinsuke was a nice kid and I would like to meet your other friends too. Maybe have Aoi come around too, I haven't seen her in a while."
"Of course I know. I'll ask her if she is available one of this days. And Shinsuke will probably come over again soon... But I don't know about the others, the veterans seem quite busy and already have their own places to visit after school. But I'll try to bring Tsurugi over."
"Tsurugi was the other first year, right?"
"Yeah, yeah. He is a bit mysterious and doesn't talk a lot but he is very passionate about football and the team, it's admirable."
That's how they spent the rest of the meal, chatting about his teammates and the football club. Having to omit all the odd details and avoid talking about Fifth Sector was hard but he made it through until they were done eating and Tenma could finally go to his room.
As soon as the door was closed, he sighed and plopped down onto his bed, leaving his school bag on the bedside table. He took out his phone and looked through his messages until he found the profile of the new coach they would send to Raimon.
He didn't recognise the name, and the man looked kind of plain. Tenma supposed that was to be expected as he was meant to be more of an observer than an actual coach. Just there to make sure all the players followed Fifth Sector's rules.
... Tsurugi wasn't going to like that. Shinsuke wasn't going to like that. Akane and especially Midori and Aoi wouldn't like that.
The new coach would at least keep Tsurugi out of the pitch so there wouldn't be a repeat of what happened against Prodigy Grammar.
Tenma took a deep breath. Everything would work out somehow. He breathed out and let a small smile tilt his lips as he set his phone aside again and laid down to try and sleep.
By the time Aki looked into the room to check on him, Tenma was already dreaming. She smiled as Sasuke came inside after her and climbed onto Tenma's bed to sleep beside him.
"Goodnight Sasuke. Good night Tenma."
Satisfied, she closed the door and left to go to her own room upstairs.