Chapter Text
It was coincidence that Michael Kaiser happened to catch wind of Isagi Yoichi's presence in Germany. An off-hand comment from one of his team-mates when they were all in the locker room, cooling off after practice. Something about paparazzies gong crazy over a stray shot of Blue Lock's Demon King, Isagi Yoichi near the airport in Munich. Apparently he's been spotted in other airports in Europe as well. France, England, Spain. All throughout the month!
"Has a bit of fame gone into the head of this Digga?" they were laughing. "He beats our Kaiser one time and he thinks he's free to go sight-seeing instead of training for World Cup, eh?"
They stop laughing once they notice Kaiser nearby. They start looking guilty, as if trying to hide some-thing. As if trying to spare him from remembering his shame. Kaiser sends them a glare and in an icy voice asks them to spill every thing they knew about this little rumor of Yoichi being in Munich.
It was coincidence, is what he planned to tell Ness, if the mid-fielder ever caught on about his stunt and confronted him on it. Lately, he has been keeping a hawk's eye on him. Never pushing, never prodding. Always watching, observing. That god-forsaken gaze. The eyes filled with empathy as he called him, a piece of shit like him, human. The audacity.
Michael Kaiser had never been human. When he'd thought of himself as one, he had got stuck in a fort of arrogance and comfort. And when he'd thrown it all away and dove into a new-found freedom, he was once again cast into despair. Gods chosen emperor, yet all fate wanted seemed to be for him to fall.
<Let it be then! This Kaiser won't give up on the throne so easily.>
Rationally, there was no reason for him to be meeting Yoichi. Theirs was a relationship that began and ended on field. Football rivals. An enemy to devour and crush. Nothing more, nothing less.
<...Our contract is over now...>
Kaiser did not know anything about Yoichi. But if he knew anything, it was that if Isagi Yoichi was indeed in Germany, there was only ne place he would be at.
And that's where he was, leaning against the glass wall of a coffee shop just outside the stadium exit. A swarm of people came rushing out as the match ended. Some cheering and talking about it in gushing voices, some down-turned and dark-faced, not a single tremor of sound leaving their lips.
And Michael thought, 'Ah, it truly would be a coincidence if among this sea of strangers I happen to find that guy with the blandest face(unbelievably bright metallic blue eyes).'
It would truly be a coincidence.
...
Or some might call it fate.
The crowd had thinned. There was no flash of the impossible blue. Michael had almost given up when, like a wave of autumn leaves crashing into your face from a sudden gust of wind, he spotted that infuriating sprout.
The bane of Michael's life...was smiling. With the hideous green scarf wrapped around his neck that made his cheeks look like steamed buns. Hands clenched tight in childish excitement. A hazy look in his eyes, almost as if he was in- .
Kaiser decided that seeing Yoichi smile pissed the hell out of him. And the fastest way to get him to stop smiling...
"It's been a while, Yoichi."
Kaiser smirked as Isagi's face changed in an instant. Eyes morphing into a glare, lips open in a feral snarl, he could almost see the veins popping near his forehead.
Ah. He'd missed this.
"Kaiser" Yoichi said his name with such venom, it sent chills into his bones. "What are you doing here?"
What he was doing here? What he was doing here! Oh silly clown Yoichi! As if Michael himself knew.
"Obviously, I came here to meet you, Blue Lock's ace striker Isagi Yoichi."