Chapter Text
The air was cold as sae walked through the front gates of blue lock. It had been a long time since he’d been surrounded by so many other people and the air in the packed hall was starting to feel suffocating He peaked out from under his hood to look at all the new faces but he found he didn't recognise any of them.
It had been so long since he’d had any interest in soccer so any new stars wouldn't be familiar and no one so far had caught his attention. Sae watched as an odd looking man made his way to the front stage
. . . . He was the same man who had called him via his old manager convincing him to give soccer one last try. He began a speech all about ego and selfishness and sae found himself unable to look away.
This was the type of soccer that sae had been promised a kind of soccer that could make him regain his spark. The speech finished with minimal interruption and sae watched as the first soccer hopeful made his way through the back of the stage. . . As he made his way through sae made sure to keep his hood pulled down worried that his brother might recognise him.
Rin had received his letter just the day before he got his call and sae knew he was exited for the new opportunity even though he would never admit it. Sae knew that it would be no good telling Rin about his own participation in the project since he wasn’t even sure yet if a future in soccer was something he still wanted and it would do no good to get his little brothers hopes up after so many years living in despondency.
He quickly made his way through the clean white hallways of blue lock occasionally being knocked into by taller players who hadn’t noticed him in their excitement. He followed the signs on the walls till he finally reached the room marked by the letter he’d read on the pack that a young woman had handed to him on his way through.
The room was labelled with a letter Z.
When sae opened the door he was met by a scene of pure chaos. There was screaming and shouting and far too many half naked teens throwing sweaty clothes like projectiles for sae’s liking.
There was even one kid with half dyed hair taking a nap on the floor and sucking his thumb. He walked to the corner of the room to try and get changed in a space of relative peace. As he pulled his shirt on sae sensed a pair of eyes staring at his back.
He spun around to glare at the boy with dark hair and blue eyes who seemed to have suddenly decided that the colour of the floor tiles was terribly interesting. “Go on” he said though the boy only stared at him with an innocent look on his round face.
Sae sighed deeply. “Come on it obvious you want to say something so just get it out before you burst” The boy looked him up and down for a moment before deciding to speak. “It’s just well you look a lot like a football player I used to watch on tv.. a player who quit a couple of years ago”.
Sae paused for a second thinking about his answer. He supposed it made sense that at least one person in the place recognised him, after all it was only two years ago that he was being considered for the new gen 11 but some part of him had hoped that he could just start fresh.
“Whoever you think I am you’re wrong just give me your name and I’ll give you mine and we can start from there”. The boys eyes went wide in understanding and a kind of awe that sae hoped he wouldn”t cling to any longer. “Isagi Yoichi.. you?” “Sae itoshi”he deadpanned before turning back around to pull on his New Jersey.
The sleeve read the number 300 and Isagis read 299. Sae remembered that there were only 300 players in this process which meant that Ego must have ranked him last which meant that he was part of the worst team in the whole place. It made sense that he’d been placed so low after not playing for so long but he still scoffed at Ego’s audacity.
They made their way into the next room and Ego explained the rules of the new game over the tannoy. Since he was lowest ranked sae started off with that ball. He pushed it around with his toes for a moment while reviewing his options.
He looked at the kid on the floor for a moment before deciding it was too easy and instead aiming his shot at isagi. As the ball collided with his shoulder sae was glad to see he didn’t look at him with betrayal. That was good it meant he didn”t take things personal that was a good trait for a high level sports player.
Sae observed for the rest of the time as isagi team up with the yellow haired boy who’d only just been asleep. He watched in disgust as the white haired boy who was eventually kicked out threw a hissy fit like a child. He vaguely recognised that boys name “kira” sae thought maybe Rin had mentioned him at some point while watching tv but he couldn’t be sure anyway that didn’t matter now as the boy finally made his way past the sliding door and out of sae”s life for good.
After the first knock out ended the number on the sleeve of his shirt rose to 275. Sae assumed that was because someone in every single team had been kicked out. The surviving members of team Z made their way to a large room that they would spend the rest of the first selection in.
Ego explained the rules of the round robin tournament and how blue the top scorer of the unqualified teams would be able to go through to the next selection. As a midfielder that wasn’t the best news for sae but he supposed that it wouldn’t really matter if his team got knocked out now. he could just see it as a sign that he had made the right choice in Spain and he could go back to his normal life, no matter how much Rin bemoaned his choices.
After settling down his new team decided to introduce themselves. He found out that the name of the boy who’d teamed up with Isagi in the first challenge was called Bachira. Other people of any sort of note were. Kunigami, chigiri, kuon, gagamaru and Raichi.
The next day they were all forced to rise early in order to do some training before their first match against team V. Sae didn’t know anything at all about the players they were going against and he knew very little about his own teammates not even their weapons. It wasn’t ideal really at his time in Re al sae had always gone out of his to research his opponents in order to find the best way to overcome them and he really hated walking in blind.
Most of team V seemed pretty nondescript except on tall boy with overly gelled hair who seemed to move like a trapped predator, sae was pretty sure that he was the only one to watch for but depending on his own teams abilities that boy could be a real threat.
Isagi had won the position of center forward and sae was happy to take his usual position on the midfield though he did feel bad for the poor guy pressured to stand in net. Sae wasn,t too sure if his old abilities would come back to him very easily after so long away from the sport so he decided to take a back seat and observe as the match kicked off.
Isagi started with the ball but to the shock of no one it was instantly taken by Raichi who feared loosing his spot at blue lock if he couldn’t score goals. He lost the ball pretty quickly too and soon the entire game had completely devolved into a free for all.
It was pathetic really if any striker in Spain ever acted like this sae would completely ice them out till they got their act together. He watched in annoyance as the tall boy steamrolled through the crowd of players and ran up the field completely alone.
Sae could have tackled him but he hoped that an early the loss might finally kick his team into gear. As the goal whistle went off the screen revealed the tall boys name as Barou. He wasn’t massively skilled in sae’s opinion but in a place like Japan he probably existed above most other soccer players.
It seemed that the early show of dominance had convinced Barous team to rally around him but it seemed that team Z was still on the back foot. As the next kickoff started with team Z doing the exact same thing they had before sae turned to catch Isagi’s eye in order to share an annoyed look with him.
After another completely avoidable goal from Barou sae finally decided to take action and the next time Barou tried to sprint past him sae stepped in his way and skilfully stole the ball from the taller boy.
Barou threw him a shocked look but sae completely ignored him as he made his way up the field. He looked at his passing options and felt sorely dissatisfied with what he saw. He decided to pass the ball through a tight gap in-between a couple of players to Isagi who stood in a relatively uninstructed path to the goal. Isagi made his way up to the penalty box before making a last second pass to Bachira who buried the ball in the net after someone threw themselves in isagis way in a desperate attempt to stop the attack.
When the buzzer sounded most of the team ran up to congratulate Bachira for his goal. Sae turned to go back to his starting spot when he felt a familiar pair of eyes burning the back of his head. Isagi walked up to him with a wide grin on his face. “That pass was amazing sae it was almost like something was pulling on a string through the air”; he said clapping sae on the shoulder. Sae scoffed. “This team doesn’t deserve a goal at the moment their all there celebrating like they haven’t been completely useless this whole time” “Does that annoy you” asked Isagi. “Of course it does I won”t pass to anyone who doesn’t deserve it but that means my options only consist of you and Bachira”
Isagi grinned widely like sae had just declared him to be Noel noa’s second coming. “Then we’ll make sure that the team becomes worthy of your passes for the next game so then we can have a guaranteed win right?” Sae sighed again “yea maybe” He was starting to think that maybe going out of his way to join this blue lock wasn’t really worth it. He wondered if maybe Ego would let him dip out early but he doubted it and he would probably get a lecture about seeing things through to their natural end from his parents once he got home. The game ended with a score of 4-2 after a last minute assist to Kunigami from Isagi. Team Z had continued to preform poorly but as they walked back to their common room the general consensus seemed to be that they had to get their heads in the game before the next match which sae was relived to hear. He wasn’t sure if he could bear watching another game like that. ——————————
He and Isagi sat side by side during dinner across from Chigiri and Bachira. Isagi listened to Bachira ramble on about who knows what as sae picked at his rice. He missed home, he missed all of his routines and he missed all his stuff. He wasn’t used to this new environment and his clothes were beginning to irritate his sensitive skin.
The drone of Bachira voice had begun to drill into his skull and he was starting to feel pretty miserable. “..ae sae sae” he looked up quickly. “Huh what” the other three were staring at him and he realised that they’d been calling him name for quite a while.
Chigiri shrugged a bit before speaking. “Isagi was just saying that when the teams all together we should share what our best skill in soccer is so kuon can make a better plan for us all in the next match if your ok with that” sae shrugged. “You mean our weapons right?.. I think it’s a fine idea I really don’t care” he sighed again before going back to his plain rice and pickled radish.
Isagi laughed good naturedly “He thinks it’s a great idea Bachira” who must have been the one to propose the idea in the first place “I’m sure he’s just grumpy because we lost” sae sent him a scathing glace but decided it wasn’t worth arguing over.
After dinner sae was itching to pull his covers over his head and drift off to sleep but Bachira and Isagi dragged him to the middle of the room to sit between them as the whole group shared their weapons like they were doing school icebreakers.
“I think my main weapon would be my jump” started kuon. “Oh oh mines my dribbling” shouted Bachira far too loudly for sae sensitive ears, he smacked him lightly on the back of the head to stop him from wiggling back a forth and even with his whining sae could tell he wasn’t really hurt.
Kunigami continued on. “I think my main weapons probobky my physique” “Mines my direct shot” said Isagi. “Mines my aim and passing ability” sae grumbled still exhausted from spending so much time in a new unfamiliar place.
They eventually made it round the full group till it reached Chigiri who looked down at his feet his long hair sliding over his face. “I don’t know if I really have a weapon” he said quietly and sae could tell that there was probably a story there but he was nowhere near the mood to delve into that.
“Come on” said Raichi brashly “you must have something we’ve all said ours so don’t think you can sneak out of it” sae ran his hand down his face. “He doesn’t have to say if he doesn’t want and anyway it’s not like your footballs anything special” sae didn’t stick around to listen to his huff of indignation as he made my way back to his corner of the room to face-plant into the futon.
The conversation between the rest of the team continued for a couple more minutes before they all came to join sae in sleep.
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He tossed and turned for hours but he couldn’t find any sleep everything was unfamiliar and thus uncomfortable to sae. If ever he couldn’t sleep as a child he would go find his brother but in recent years and especially now that wasn’t at all on the cards.
When he saw Isagi get up in the gloom and make his way out the door he decided to follow along. He filled the other boy into the team Z training room where they both quietly started their own training with little conversation which was how sae liked it.
Sae focused on practicing difficult shots into the net to make sure he still had all of his old skill. He could tell that Isagi seemed to want to say something as he watched shot after shot brutally curve into the net from what seemed like impossible angles but mercifully he decided to keep his mouth shut to focus on his own shots. “Oh wow that was a pretty gnarly curve sae” he turned around to find the source of the slightly nasal voice and he flinched a little as he made eye contact with Bachira who was stood way too close for comfort.
Isagi laughed and pulled him away by the shoulder. “Come on Bachira don’t bother him too much, you wanna train with us?” He asked. Sae decided not to mention that he hadn’t given his consent to be pulled into their little training party but he decided to do an extra loud sight instead and mutter “lukewarm” to himself.
“Your weapon is dribbling right Bachira?” The other boy nodded with an energy that even managed to look exhausting to sae at that time of night. As sae watched Bachira skilfully dribble past Isagi in order to plant the ball in the net sae was suddenly reminded of his time in Spain. A time when he could dribble past while youth teams without breaking a sweat.
He used to call it beautiful destruction. Watching his opponents make the first move before devouring them with his own skills. It used to be his favorite feeling in the world before he lost his passion but watching Bachira dribble now with so much life and energy even if it was a different style it made sae feel like maybe there was a good reason to give soccer another go.
Possessed by the moment of nostalgia sae came up behind Bachira stealing the ball and dribbling his way through both him and Isagi before shooting into the net. For a moment things were quiet as he rebelled in the moment before Bachira cheered and ran up to him jumping up and down like an exited puppy. “That was incredible sae I knew that you were just like me and Isagi” sae squinted at him.”huh what do you mean?” Bachira laughed again. “I mean that you have a monster inside of you just like us”
he looked to Isagi for an explanation but he just shrugged. Deciding he couldn’t be bothered to ask he sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time that day before forcing out a quick goodnight and making his way back to the team Z dorm room hoping that this late night training had tired him out enough to finaly sleep.