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Ness sighed in exasperation. He was supposed to be out today with Kaiser (tagging along with Kaiser), touring famous spots in Japan as their vacation after the Blue Lock project wrapped up.
But suddenly, Anri approached him. She stopped Ness and told him that his day off had been postponed by one day because he had to do an interview in response to questions from Blue Lock TV fans.
Ness remembered interviews like that because he’d once helped Kaiser, who’d suddenly lost control during an interview. Ness didn’t think he’d be getting an interview like that because—well, generally speaking, Ness thought only representatives from teams outside Japan, who received plenty of questions from fans, would be the ones to get interviewed. And he didn’t consider himself interesting enough for anyone to have questions for him or be curious about his opinions.
On his way to the interview room, he ran into Charles. The French boy smiled at Ness.
“Nessiee, where’s your Kaiser? Are you all alone?” Unexpectedly, Charles spoke to him.
Ness gave a polite smile. “He’s on vacation. Yeah, I’m on my own.”
“Oh!! Just like Loki—he’s on vacation too right now, and I’m stuck with these interview questions.” Charles said with an exasperated sigh as he recalled that Loki had told him earlier that morning that he had an interview today.
Luckily, the interview questions weren’t too boring.
“All right then, good luck with your interview, Nessie!!”
“Ah, yeah—umm… thanks? Charles?” Ness looked awkward as he responded.
Fortunately, the blond-haired boy had already walked away from Ness, humming softly with a cheerful stride.
Ness stepped into the room where he would be interviewed by Anri. he sighed, trying not to look nervous and putting on his usual smile.
After a brief briefing and opening remarks from Anri, who was about to ask Ness a few questions, the event officially began.
“All right, Ness, here’s a question from someone. Are you ready to answer?” Anri opened the conversation
Ness tried to put on a sweet smile as Anri kicked off their conversation, even though he really didn’t want to answer any questions right now.
Besides the nervousness he was feeling—since there were now several cameras trained on him, ready to record his answers—Ness was also lamenting his fate, if only he weren’t here, he might be enjoying a vacation with Kaiser.
“Yeah, I’m ready,” Ness replied, he fidgeted with his fingers, which were clad in black gloves (like the ones he often wore on the field), to distract himself from his nervousness.
“Among all the Japanese Blue Lock players, is there anyone you admire?” Anri raised an eyebrow as she finished reading the question.
“Wow, I’m curious about that too. So, what do you think, Ness? Is there anyone?” The woman looked at Ness with interest.
Ness let out a rough sigh. He thought for a moment.
A Blue Lock player who caught his attention? One he admired?
Could he say, Kaiser?
Instinctively, his thoughts immediately turned to the forward with the blue rose tattoo on his neck. But Ness quickly realized that Anri clearly meant a Japanese player, and Kaiser wasn’t Japanese.
All right, then—who was it that caught his attention now?
From the very beginning of the Blue Lock program, Ness wasn’t even interested in paying attention to anyone there (since, in his opinion, their skills weren’t good enough to warrant his attention), but ever since Isagi Yoichi and the other Blue Lock players proved themselves, Ness’s view of them had changed slightly.
One of the players who caught Ness’s attention the most was, of course, Blue Lock’s number one, Itoshi Rin. Hearing that surname, Ness recalled that there was a member of Gen 11 named Itoshi Sae. The two of them also bore a striking resemblance to one another.
“He must be Itoshi Sae’s younger brother—just from his skills alone, it’s clear he’s different from the rest,” Ness thought when he first saw his play.
“...That’s Itoshi Rin.”
•••
Just then, Kaiser paused the interview video he was watching. His brow furrowed slightly. His expression looked displeased.
“He dares to pay attention to someone other than me?” Kaiser smiled wryly. His grin looked strange because he was grinding his teeth, clearly annoyed.
Today, almost the entire Bastard Munich team had the day off to tour Japan after the NEL ended. And normally, Kaiser wouldn’t be here alone—in a park that had become his final destination after he’d finished exploring.
Yesterday, Ness had come to his room late at night, asking what Kaiser was planning to do today. And when Ness found out that Kaiser was going out to spend his day off, the little pup immediately whined, saying he wanted to come along. No matter what happened, Ness would follow him.
Even though Kaiser refused, Ness stubbornly insisted time and again that he would come along. In the end, Kaiser reluctantly agreed.
“Going for a walk with Ness? I guess it won’t be that bad. At least I won’t look lonely if I’m walking by myself,” Kaiser thought, even though he had initially refused to let Ness come along.
But when it was time to leave, very early in the morning, Ness was already knocking on his door. Kaiser, who had just woken up, opened the door. Looking disheveled as is typical when just waking up, he stood in front of Ness, yawning occasionally.
“What’s up? Isn’t it a little too early for you to be bothering me, Ness?”
“S-sorry! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you, but—” Ness stopped speaking, he seemed hesitant to say what came next.
Kaiser watched him with one eyebrow raised.
“I wanted to tell you that I don’t think I’ll be able to go with you today, Kaiser. I’m sorry. Last night, after I got back from your room, Anri sent me a message. She said I have to do an interview with her today. I have been asked some questions by fans. I’m sorry I won’t be able to go.” Ness lowered his head and closed his eyes. He was really afraid Kaiser would get angry.
But to his surprise, the young man’s response was simply…
“Oh, okay.”
“Y-yeah?” Ness reflexively lifted his head.
“Yeah, okay. I said it’s fine, Ness. Go ahead—I wasn’t expecting you to come anyway.” Kaiser said indifferently.
Ness smiled, trying to hide her disappointment. He hadn’t expected Kaiser to get angry because he wasn’t coming along, or at least for him to be sad—wait! What was Ness actually thinking?! There’s no way Kaiser would be sad just because of Ness!
But there was no denying that Ness was indeed a little disappointed (he should be used to it by now)
“Oh, I see,” Ness nodded faintly, lifting his head to look at Kaiser. “I hope you have a great time out today, Kaiser! Sorry for bothering you—go back to sleep if you’re still tired. I’ll be going now!”
Before Kaiser could react, Ness had already walked away after waving once.
“Well, maybe Anri should learn not to ruin someone’s vacation.” Kaiser yawned before heading back into his room and closing the door.
And here Kaiser was now, sitting on a park bench. Exhausted from walking around, he intended to rest while watching the interview his puppy had given. But what he felt after catching a glimpse of the interview was frustration and anger.
While watching it, Kaiser had thought to himself with confidence.
‘Stupid Anri—she probably doesn’t know that Ness has never admired or paid attention to anyone but me. Of course he did that because the Blue Lock players don’t deserve Ness’s attention! Especially Yoichi!’ Kaiser thought at the time.
And it felt like it was just a minute ago that he’d thought that with such certainty. Ness’s answer in the interview, however, slapped him back to reality.
“…That’s Itoshi Rin.”
Itoshi Rin… since when has Ness been paying attention to Blue Lock’s number one striker?!
Damn it! The thought of Ness secretly keeping an eye on another attacker right behind him made Kaiser feel betrayed! Without realizing it, he squeezed his second cola bottle of the day in frustration (you guys probably know why that second cola bottle got crushed:v )
“Just you wait, Ness!” Kaiser growled angrily.
•••
[Extra time]
“Kaiser! How was your walk today? Was it fun? I hope you enjoyed your walk. You know what? Anri was really annoying today! She asked me—”
“Shut up, Ness!” Kaiser rudely cut Ness off.
He turned to glare at Ness, who was following him like a little puppy.
“Don’t talk to me! Just go talk to that Blue Lock player you admire so much!” Kaiser said irritably. He immediately walked away from Ness when he realized his tone sounded more like someone sulking than someone angry at Ness for interrupting him.
Well, it wasn’t really that distracting, though. It was just that Kaiser was still annoyed by Ness’s answer during the interview earlier that afternoon.
Ness blinked in confusion, surprised by Kaiser’s anger and bad mood. He intended to follow after him, calling out the striker’s name.
“Stop right there! Don’t follow me or I’ll hate you, Ness!” Kaiser warned without even turning to look at Ness.
Dejectedly, Ness obeyed the order. He felt both sad and confused about Kaiser’s current behavior.
Actually… what did Ness do wrong? Why, after coming back from his outing, did he look so annoyed and take it out on Ness? Was it because of the billboard displaying Yoichi’s photo? (Ness had seen it too when he went with Gesner to help the man buy a souvenir for his girlfriend)
“It must be because of Yoichi! I should’ve gone with Kaiser so I could’ve blocked his view and kept him from seeing that stupid billboard with Yoichi’s photo!” Ness snorted in annoyance.
Meanwhile, Yoichi, who was with Rin, and Rin both sneezed at the same time, to their surprise.
They looked at each other before Isagi finally blurted out.
“Someone must be talking about the two of us with bad intentions.”