Chapter Text
(⸝⸝ᴗ﹏ᴗ⸝⸝) ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 ~
He hears muffled noises in the background, it almost sounds like someone's talking.. calling him and.. trying to reach out to him, slowly waking him up from a dream.
A dream that feels like it's lasted for an entire lifetime.
Slowly he tries to open his eyes, just as they're blinded by the soft morning ray he sees a blurry figure, the silhouette of a boy engulfed in shadows.
Somehow he feels an oddly warm sensation of familiarity with the unknown figure.
"Muichiro-san please continue to be happy..", callous but warm hands start to gently caress his face, as if to try to comfort him.
Raising up his own arms, and just as he's about to touch the figure, to try and reach him, he's once again blinded by the soft ray of the early sunshine, unable to open his eyes he hears two different voices this time.
He slowly opens his eyes, to avoid getting blinded by the sun ray once more, he sees two distinct figures this time, different from the obscure silhouette he saw before.
In front of his bed, there stood a woman with a rather short stature, with soft brown hair in a small ponytail and kind brown eyes, "good morning Yocchan! it's time to get up, breakfast is ready."
"Did you have a nice dream this time, Yocchan?", beside her there stood a man with short black hair with the matching kind and soft eyes.
"Yocchan..?", he repeats the name, somehow it feels weirdly familiar in a way he can't quite grasp.
The man softly sighs, "did you forget it again? It's your name, Isagi Yoichi..", this time his face is slowly embraced by a saddened expression.
The woman's expression begins to mirrors the man's, and before he can even respond or think he suddenly feels a warm hand careless his head softly, "it's alright Yocchan, we'll continue to remind you as many times you'll need until you'll be able to remember it by yourself..”
"We are your parents and we will unconditionally love you", he hears from the couple.. From his parent’s mouth as he's slowly embraced by the two's big warm hug.
Slowly but surely, he feels the surreal dream fades away little by little from his memories, he's being gently picked by the warm arms of his father and brought to the living room, gently put down on a high chair, in front of the big round table.
The smell of warm and cozy morning immediately starts to envelope his nose, a really mouth watering smell. As he looks up, the view of the breakfast falls upon his eyes.
On the table, there are bear-shaped pancakes all stacked one upon another like a tower, with a small jar of maple syrup in the center.
In front of him there is a considerably smaller cat-shaped plate, compared to the two other normal sized ones placed in front of his parent’s seats, with a small glass of warm white milk next to it. His mother places two smaller sized bear-shaped pancakes upon his plate, while his father slowly cuts them up in much smaller pieces to be eaten easier by a kid of his age.
As he slowly brings the delicious pancake inside his mouth the tv lights up.
There on the screen, it shows a tall, pale skinned man with a muscular frames, framed with white short-spiky hair with serious hawk-like gold eyes.
"That guy!!! that number eleven just scored two goals in 10 minutes!!"
"Who is he?? I’ve never seen him before!!"
"He’s amazing!!!"
<2-0 for Ichinan's high school>
As the crowd went wild demanding the name of the scorer, the boy in question just had that unchangeable blank look as always, his teammates and coach, already used to it, paid no mind and started cheering from the sideline.
"Amazing Isagi-kun!!"
-He's a monster! If it continues like this, we.. The Matsukaze kukuo high school might actually lose!-, contrary to the reaction of the crowd, the opposite's team coach looked livid, already sweating bullets, he immediately called his players for a tactical strategy.
No matter what they did, no matter how many defenders were marking that single boy, he would always slip out of their orb suddenly, like a ghost, get the ball and immediately shoot into the net.
"Somehow we have to stop that boy, the number eleven: Isagi Yoichi of Ichinan's high school!!"
Back to Isagi, no teammate of his on the field tried to celebrate the goal by rushing in to embrace him, after all they were already used to the boy’s avoidance and aversion to physical contact, they weren’t really that interested in eating the dirt.
An excited look overtakes his coach’s face.
-If we continue like this we might actually have a chance to win the nationals-
However he’s immediately interrupted by the words that come out from the young boy’s mouth.
"This is boring.."
A look of surprise flashes on the coach’s face, but immediately he nods reassuringly to the boy, "we’ll take it from here! Trust us Isagi-kun."
His teammates immediately agreed to the words of their coach and all collectively gave the thumbs up to the boy.
Seemingly lost in thought the boy steps out of the stadium absentmindedly, and he’s immediately greeted by the massive hug of a very overexcited dog.
" I’ve never seen a dog that big.. it looks very scary!". He hears the immediate reaction of bystanders accompanied by frightened whispers all around them, “look at its scars.."
Already used to receiving this kind of attention the boy paid no mind to them, "InuGun.."
Immediately after hearing his name from the boy’s soft spoken voice the huge Great Dane gets a sudden, intense burst of energy and starts to run in frantic circles or sprints wildly to release his pent up happiness and excitement.
After that whole ordeal he slowly sits down obediently waiting for the boy’s next order. His yellow vest now in all glory before the flock’s eyes, in big bold font <emotional support animal>.
And so, the crowd goes silent at the revelation, giving the boy and dog duo enough time to silently scurry away undetected.
InuGun confidently leads the boy on the way to home, sometimes stopping at times, for when the air headed boy gets absorbed by whatever distraction. That ranges from a specific shape of a cloud or a random butterfly that flew a little too close and grabbed all of the boy’s attention.
And at last they arrive home, all thanks to the reliable InuGun of course.
Entering the Isagi household the duo is immediately embraced by their mother's warm hug, as she affectionately pats Yoichi's head she asks, “did you have fun at the game?”
"I don't remember.. ", replies Yoichi as he tilts his head lost in thought.
"Still, even though we both have no interest in soccer we can tell it is something you really enjoy", replies his father fondly.
"That's why we made those pork cutlets, right? It is a dish eaten after a soccer match for celebration!", adds his mother as she coaxes the duo to sit down. She brings a hot plate of pork cutlet in front of Yoichi's bowl and immediately goes back to the kitchen to re-emerge once more with a bigger bowl of unseasoned pork cutlet for their little cute InuGun-chan.
The family amusedly watches as his tail sways up and down repeatedly, hitting the ground without a stop, from the overwhelming excitement.
Just as they all sit down, his father slides him something on the table, "By the way, a letter came from you Yocchan!"
"it's from the Japan Football Union!", adds his fathers excitedly.
They watch in anticipation as their son slowly unwraps the letter and waits for his reaction.
".. it's a summon", replies Yoichi slowly, after a really long time of silence.
His parents both look at each other at the same time and share an amused look.
-He was definitely spacing out while reading it!- they both thought smiling.
They both scoot closer to get a look of the letter, "a special player training program?"
This time they both had that enthusiastic gleam in their eyes, "this is an amazing opportunity! Yocchan, I'm sure that this time you'll finally be able to find strong rivals!"
He nods his head absent-mindedly at his parents enthusiastic reaction, mulling over their words.
His school soccer team, for the better word: sucked. And so did the opponent he had to face too, it was always the same kind of game just with different people.. He only joined the soccer team in his second year per his parent’s request..
He kinda hopes that the program will bring him a bit of excitement at least, he isn't so naive to believe that he’ll honestly find strong opponents anymore, after all Japan has been known to be incapable of producing good soccer players, maybe he'll have more luck trying overseas.
But still, he feels a certain magnetic pull that's tugging him towards the letter.
-what if I…-
The day of his departure he’s immediately being smoothed by his parents worried concerns and unadulterated affection.
"Are you sure you brought all the necessities Yocchan?", came from his worried mother, as she hurriedly checked his son's belongings once again.
By her side, his father just chuckled affectionately, "your mother is just a bit worried but we’re both really proud of you!" Despite his reassuring words it wasn’t as if he was any better, the man spent the night before rereading the summon letter for the seventh time to make sure to have caught all the important information right.
He feels his father excited-shaking hand stroking his head affectionately, and he’s immediately smothered by his mother’s eager hug, "if you get lost and your phone is dead, remember to give a trusty adult the slip alright?"
While being drowned by the hug of both of his parents he feels something long but thin repeatedly hit his thigh.
As Yoichi turns around to find the culprit, he's face to face with Inugun's complicated expression. The great dane looked very conflicted at this moment.
<<At one paw he was really happy that such an amazing opportunity was given to his extraordinary Yoichi-sama!! But.. on the other one, he wouldn't be able to see him for who knows how long!! And what If Yoichi-sama got lost?! Or what if some mean human tried to hurt him?!! His Yoichi-sama is really incredible and beautiful, but sometimes he wanders off in his thoughts and loses his focus, which causes him to get often lost, that's why he had to personally accompany his human to school!! And without him around, who will protect Yoichi-sama from no good humans!!!! >>
"There is also a power bank at the bottom of the bag", adds his mother while gently petting little InuGun-san head reassuringly.
"Are we being too overbearing right now?" Asks his father with an apologetic smile noticing the almost bored expression of the young boy, "it’s just that this is first time you’re going out alone, without InuGun-chan", as if to prove his point the mentioned dog lets out a small bark uncharacteristic of his big stature.
When he makes his way to the doorway, he turns around to meet his family gaze one last time, they’re all filled with unconditional love and pure adoration.
"We are proud of you, go Yocchan!"
As the young boy takes his first step outside the comfort of his home he hears a quiet sound: a soft click, as the tab of one piece slides into the blank slot of another.
...
The sound of a puzzle being assembled.