Chapter Text
If you were bold enough to talk to Isagi, and even bolder to ask whether he believed in anything supernatural, you'd get a very different answer from other kids and teenagers. Maybe you'd be ignored. But if you were lucky, the answer would come short and dry: “depends.”
Isagi wasn't the type to believe that a miracle would fall from the sky just for him, but he also wasn't stupid enough to deny the existence of something beyond human comprehension. He would never mock gods, entities, or spirits. On the contrary, he showed a certain silent respect. He had left offerings at temples before and, from time to time, even prayed in churches, half without faith, but carefully. He didn't think he was important enough to become a target of the supernatural. He was convinced that if something up there or down below really existed, it wouldn't waste time looking at him.
But he couldn't have been more wrong. Not when one moment he was in his room and suddenly his eyes closed into darkness and, instead of his soft bed, a hard and somewhat warm floor embraced his bones.
A cacophony of voices hit him like lightning on a rainy night, pain pierced through his eardrums and skull, strong accents that he could barely tell were Japanese, screams and everything expected from a place that resembled hell.
Sitting with his hands over his ears near a wall, Isagi tried to locate himself, or at least understand the situation. It was either that or throw himself on the floor and hope he'd lose his hearing.
It didn't seem like a kidnapping, not when there were more people than he could count, or rather, hear. The lights still being off only worsened the claustrophobic feeling most of them already had.
"Que se passe-t-il ? Charles, encore des blagues idiotes?"
"Warum ist alles so dunkel? Was zum Teufel ist hier los?"
"Cazzo, qualcuno mi ha calpestato un piede!"
Even with his hands trying to muffle the overwhelming amount of noise, it was almost useless. Voices mixed together, there were several different accents, English, French, and something that sounded like German.
Everyone seemed too consumed by their own fears and conflicts to notice the teenager sitting near the wall, and the darkness sure didn't help.
'So this must be what hell feels like. Sounds reasonable compared to what Dante wrote.'
Isagi barely had time to think before the lights turned on and faces could finally be seen and recognized. The strong yellowish lights revealed not only the people there, but the environment too.
A massive room, which explained the absurd number of people inside. It looked like a movie theater, a screen covering an entire wall sat turned off, and the fact there didn't seem to be any doors or windows only made everything worse.
"Where are we?" One voice stood out from the rest, it belonged to a red-haired woman.
"I have absolutely no idea." A black-haired boy with a white headband answered quickly, looking shy and somewhat scared.
"Hm, kidnapped and maybe soon to be dead?" A light blue-haired boy with a strand falling over his face tossed the words into the air.
Beside him, a tall guy with a somewhat intriguing aura replied, "don't make this any weirder than it already is, Hiori."
"This is ridiculous." The voice that echoed inside Isagi's head and struck his eardrums made him freeze.
Not even if his memories were erased a million times would he forget the boy standing in front of him. Itoshi Rin, someone he definitely did not want to see. Isagi's eyes betrayed him, scanning the room in search of the other constant. If Rin was there, another familiar face had to be there too.
And he found him.
Itoshi Sae was there too, standing a few meters away from Rin, his expression unreadable, though Isagi assumed it was confusion. Even after spending time with the older Itoshi, Yoichi had never managed to understand him a hundred percent, maybe not even twenty percent. A deliberate and extremely annoying enigma.
What the hell was happening after all? His gaze swept across the room again, wanting to focus on anything except the brothers in front of him. And
Afraid one of them might look at him or recognize him, even if that was nearly impossible with the distance and the crowd in the way, he still shrank further into his corner. Using his lime green scarf like a shield that would protect him from their eyes.
Glancing around the room again, Isagi noticed a pattern. Snuffy, Julian Loki, Chris Prince, among many others, they were all soccer players, including himself. That made him curious, but no less tense.
Before another collective breakdown could explode in that disturbing place, a loud noise drew everyone's attention toward what seemed to be the center of the room, right in front of the giant screen. The white smoke put everyone on alert, but they were even more caught off guard when a small rabbit appeared from the middle of it.
"Animal experiments?" Hiori, from what Isagi heard, got smacked by his friend immediately after.
There were really all kinds of people there, not limited to Japanese ethnicity or nationality. A bulky man trembled like a leaf on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but seemed to calm down a little when he saw the cute rabbit in front of him.
"How cute."
"Welcome, visitors! I hope all of you are comfortable." The voice was soft like a cotton cloud. It really was a small rabbit, similar to a stuffed animal. Its long blue ears were adorable, and its outfit was strange, a tiny clown hat and jester clothes or something like that.
"Ah! It talks!" shouted the same nervous boy from earlier. At least now everyone seemed equally shocked.
"I know I have nightmares at night, but this is crossing the fucking line." Whispered a guy with a split tongue. "I wanna wake up from this stupid dream."
A short bald man projected a Buddhist prayer, but quickly stopped and stared at the rabbit in disbelief.
"Is this some kind of punishment from Buddha? Talking rabbits don't exist, is this the Bardo?" he exclaimed in a shrill voice that Isagi personally classified as irritating.
"More like Naraka," someone else muttered, someone Isagi couldn't see clearly. Honestly, his eyesight was way above average, but there were so many people in that place he wouldn't be surprised if he had a panic attack.
"Please, calm down," the rabbit tried.
"Talking rabbits don't exist, especially floating ones!" Oh right, the rabbit's paws were hovering a few centimeters above the floor.
"I don't exist? How cruel. Don't tell me you're all this skeptical about mysticism?" As it continued after seeing some of their expressions, Isagi noticed one person in particular staring with a gleam in his eyes, a dark gleam, but still. "Then tell me, how are you all understanding each other? You're speaking your native languages right now."
Oh.
"Whatever, we can understand each other and apparently the supernatural exists. But who are you and what do you want with us?" The shrill voice of the glasses-wearing man, who through bits of conversation Isagi learned was named Ego, spoke up. His tone carried an almost threatening authority.
small chorus of agreement followed Ego, eyes shifting from the man to the rabbit.
"I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? How rude of me. My name is Shito, and I'm here to guide all of you toward a destiny. I am a high-performance guide." His expression quickly shifted into something slightly more arrogant, clearly showing off his rank or whatever the hell that meant.
A man with short white hair raised his hand to speak, his accent strong and his voice so imposing that Isagi almost shivered just from hearing it.
"A guide to destiny? Could you explain better why we're here?" Everyone's eyes focused on the other brave voice daring to speak under the strange pressure of the room. Isagi felt like his heart was about to crawl out through his stomach, Noel Noa was there!?
Now he just wanted even more not to be in that place.
The rabbit seemed to think for a moment, though it was obvious he just wanted to build suspense. One little paw rested against his chin, and then, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, he whistled.
"Besides showing you your futures? You're going to entertain me."
It was a simple sentence, but it seemed to sink into everyone's hearts there, including Isagi's, who was already thinking about disappearing from that place with his green scarf.
Maybe if he wrapped the fabric tightly enough around his neck and-
"What does that mean, are we your lab rats or something?" Ego seemed determined to get answers, or maybe just incredibly bored. Isagi wondered how someone could stay so calm in this sea of anxiety. The man also ignored the desperate looks from his partner beside him.
The stuffed rabbit, or that's what Isagi had nicknamed it, had the audacity to look surprised and almost offended.
"What?! Of course not! I can't hurt humans, that's against the rules! Besides, don't all of you here have something in common?" Already floating at a considerable height above the floor, he rose even higher. Destroying the last traces of skepticism about magic or supernatural beings. "Think a little."
"Something in common?" Anri, the woman standing beside Ego, seemed to think for a moment. Looking around, following her lead, everyone else looked around too. Spotting several memorable figures.
"Aside from the redhead over there, we're all men." A glasses-wearing boy stated confidently, pointing at the redhead Isagi remembered speaking earlier.
The same person looked at him in disbelief. "I'm a man too." He pointed at himself as if he couldn't understand how someone would think otherwise.
Hm?... Isagi felt embarrassed inside.
He'd thought he was a girl too, obviously with small breasts and well-built biceps, but who was he to judge?
"Noel Noa, Chris Prince, Itoshi Sae, Michael Kaiser, Hugo, Don Lorenzo, Snuffy... Are all of us here soccer players?" the woman asked, sounding somewhat skeptical.
Isagi felt satisfied with her statement, though her tone sounded more like a question than certainty. His hypothesis had been right, but that didn't make him any less tense or anxious. Quite the opposite.
"That's right!" The rabbit smiled wider than ever before, showing a few sharp little teeth. "Everyone here is a soccer player, and most of you are strikers. I'm here to show you destiny!"
Intrigued, a wine-red-haired boy raised his hand. He quickly spoke up, "Destiny doesn't change even if we know about it, so how is this anything more than a waste of time?"
"So that's how you think?" the creature questioned.
Not feeling intimidated, he answered, "Are you going to try to persuade me otherwise? You'll show us the future, some people won't like it and they'll try to change it to benefit themselves. Isn't that what you're planning?"
"You're very straightforward, Vivian." So that was the burgundy-haired boy's name. "But tell me, even if you knew what awaited you in the future, would you try to change destiny?"
"Why would I do that? I shouldn't change what destiny has reserved for me." A gear shouldn't follow the opposite course just because it wants to, that's not how destiny works.
The creature let out a shrill laugh that echoed throughout the now silent place. "That must be why he hates you so much."
Hugo blinked, confused just like the others around him. "Who? God?"
"Wow, being hated by God must be one hell of an achievement. Isn't he supposed to be an extremely benevolent being?" commented an older blond man covered in tattoos.
"Are you religious, Lavinho?" asked a bulky blond.
"Should I be?"
"That explains why you're like this."
Yoichi blinked slowly, partly agreeing with the boy. Once he knew the future, Isagi would try to change his own destiny, but only if the future was extremely awful.
Beside him, a dark-skinned young man with short hair silently nodded in agreement before speaking. "Not to ruin your fun, but siding with Hugo here, what kind of destiny could possibly await us that we need to discover right this second? Wouldn't it be wiser to just let everything follow its course?"
"We can't change destiny anyway, going against the tide is far too simplistic for players like us. Just be benevolent and send us back," muttered the same wine-haired boy.
"Says the guy hated by God," muttered a lanky guy with gold teeth and skin so pale he looked like a zombie.
The creature interrupted before Hugo could answer. "Who said 'he' was God? I mean, he could be considered one on the field, but it's not that extreme."
"On the field, so that means it's a player?" A new voice finally spoke up, belonging to a brown-haired boy with glasses. He looked so handsome he could've been a model.
Shito seemed satisfied with the direction the humans in front of him were taking. His eyes focused on a single point at the back of the room. Isagi felt even more despair, it looked like the magical rabbit was staring directly at him, and only him.
Fuck, he must've still been too disoriented by the cacophony and overwhelming atmosphere, he was even imagining things now.
"Humans are quick and rational, I like that. Think of it this way, there is a moment where all futures intersect, a butterfly effect where everyone's destiny is connected." The smile might've looked cute to most people, though Isagi doubted that. He was sure those same cute teeth would bite into his throat.
"Isn't the butterfly effect kind of a fragile chaos theory to mess with?" A purple-haired boy raised his hand. Beside him there was a white sloth leaning against the wall trying not to fall asleep, or was that a human?
"True. I can't imagine a moment where everyone here would cross paths. I mean, we're soccer players, we'll probably meet on the field someday, but not everyone here." Hiori's friend added.
"It's impossible for this guy here to meet Noel Noa." The angry blond with sharp teeth pointed at the monk, who looked back at him in disbelief.
"I understand your doubts, but what if I told you it's an opponent on the field so powerful and magnetic that every single one of you will face him? Does that catch your attention more?"
"We have the best player in the world right here," Ego pointed at Noa with visible disinterest, "if that's who you're talking about, that's nothing new to anyone. You're wasting your time."
"Eh? But I never said it was him."Now the air really grew heavy.
The possibility of another player as good as or even better than the world's number one threatened the global podium itself.
"Get to the point, you damn rabbit. Stop playing games!" The voice and presence of that player were so imposing they made him seem like a king giving orders.
"I'm not going to tell you, silly little humans. I'm going to show you."
The rabbit smiled and spun through the air as if this were all just some circus performance, as if Yoichi couldn't feel his legs trembling.
Out of fear or pure instinct, Isagi tightened the green scarf around his neck even more. Feeling the fabric nearly suffocate him, he had nothing to do with any of this! He'd stopped playing a long time ago, so why the hell was he still there!?
If they were only players or people involved with soccer, then why was someone like him there? If it had only been some mistake from that damn rabbit, it should've already been fixed by now. Though he doubted that, with all the power it had, the rabbit would make such crude mistakes.
"An opponent on the field who's not the best in the world?" Rin let his deep and irritated voice be heard. "Don't talk nonsense, we know very well there'll always be rivals on the field. If you're going to talk about stupid shit like destiny, then get to the point."
Yoichi agreed somewhat reluctantly, the rabbit seemed to speak in riddles or stupid mind games, and he hated mind games.
Still, the moment it mentioned an opponent on the field, the crowd quickly became excited. The others looked interested, especially the ones who definitely weren't Japanese.
"So one single rival skilled enough to face all of us? That guy must be valuable." Isagi had the feeling the “valuable” the zombie referred to leaned more toward monetary value.
The rabbit continued, "I know everyone here is a bunch of true egoists, and that nothing besides soccer would catch your attention, strikers. So let me ask you this, wouldn't you like to see how the future of soccer was born?"
Leonardo Luna smiled faintly and, in a condescending voice, said, "I'm not interested in watching great Noel Noa being born." Drawing laughter from every side, even from some who tried to hide it. That wasn't the case for Chris Prince, who laughed openly.
The rabbit rolled its eyes. "I wasn't talking about him. Besides, the question wasn't for you people, who are still at the foundation of soccer. I want to ask the big bosses." It pointed toward the back of the room.
"So then, what do you say, Ray Dark?" The elegant long-haired man with the neatly groomed beard didn't react to the mention of his name, actively ignoring the murmurs of shock surrounding him.
Ever since arriving in that strange place, he'd remained quiet. Unfortunately, it seemed he wouldn't be able to continue that way. Beside him sat the great Noel Noa, looking just as stoic as he did.
"You're putting a lot of expectations on him. I wonder if the boy is really that good." he asked, his deep voice echoing throughout the room.
The rabbit shook its head. "Such a dry response. Well, I expected that already. What I'm about to show will be useful for all of you. The weaknesses, strengths, and abilities of my favorite player."
A blond guy with chopped blue streaks looked notably uninterested, while his partner, faded purple hair and intense eyes, looked like a child on Christmas morning, doe eyes shining brightly at the rabbit floating in the air and proving the supernatural existed.
"And who would that person be?" The question came from yet another beautiful person, older, with heterochromatic eyes and a small beard on his chin. "A guy around our age, I assume."
There were too many people in that room, each with their own peculiarities. Isagi could tell that just from looking around, but if he had to guess a rival as good as the rabbit described, he'd throw Sae into the lions' den.
"Why would I tell you? That ruins the fun." The creature smiled. Isagi wondered if it even had muscles in its face, smiling that much had to hurt. "But I can say he's in this room."
"Ha! What a huge reveal, there are thousands of people in this place." Shark teeth and dehydrated blond hair commented.
Someone else touched his shoulder. The same redhead from before. "Don't worry, peroxide blondie, you're definitely not the one he's talking about."
The blond didn't look happy at all. He snapped back with irritation and mockery in his voice. "I have a name, princess. It's Raichi to you, got it?"
A vein popped on the redhead's forehead. "Princess? have a name!"
"What? If you didn't like it, should I call you Queen instead?" The redhead looked one second away from punching Raichi in the face. A strong hero prevented physical violence from breaking out, orange hair and calm eyes as he stepped between the teenagers.
"I think it'd be better if you both calmed down, we still don't know why we're really here." He separated them, and like some noble knight, he didn't forget his manners. "By the way, my name is Rensuke Kunigami."
"Thanks for the intervention, little hero." Kunigami blushed slightly at the nickname, and Isagi found himself thinking about how the orange of his hair matched the pink on his cheeks. "But physical aggression is strictly forbidden here, verbal aggression is fine, of course. Avoid physical violence, or I'll have to calm you down the hard way."
A shiver ran through Isagi, and the threat hadn't even been directed at him. The blond clicked his tongue and moved a little farther from the redhead. Yoichi had already seen enough to know he didn't want to participate in that horror show anymore, he didn't even fit the requirements to be there.
"Does anyone else have any questions?"
The overwhelming majority raised their hands.
"Great! Glad to know you all understood everything. Should I seat you all now?"
Confusion spread across everyone's faces. There were a lot of blond people there, and among them, a short one standing near Loki questioned loudly,
"Eh? But there's nothing here, are we supposed to sit on the floor?"
"You're already sitting on the floor, Charles," Julian reprimanded.
In response, the blond shrugged and stuck out his tongue in a mischievous face. "I got tired of standing."
Yoichi felt the same. He'd barely interacted with the people there, including soccer stars, but he already felt exhausted. Slowly, he leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor, maybe if he were sitting instead of standing, he'd think better.
But instead of a hard and uncomfortable floor, he felt something soft as cotton beneath him. Looking down, he saw himself sitting on a ridiculously soft armchair, a delicate cushion resting against his back, the color palette a forest green similar to his scarf. It was strangely luxurious.
Sweeping his eyes across the place, he realized it wasn't only him who had received a comfortable seat. Everyone there had one, all in different colors and slightly different designs, but no less luxurious or comfortable.
"I don't think I'll ever get used to this magic stuff." He muttered so quietly he could barely hear himself.
"Cool, my favorite color!" Isagi flinched when he heard a loud and cheerful voice beside him. The boy's chair had bright sun-yellow upholstery.
The boy beside him looked around his age, short hair with a somewhat messy cut, but the thing that stood out the most was the two colors in it, yellow and natural brown.
"I didn't see you there, what's your name?" When those sun-yellow eyes met Yoichi's sky blue ones, the latter felt warmth bloom in his stomach.
When was the last time someone had looked at him with that much intensity?
Instead of looking away like he occasionally did, he simply froze. But that didn't discourage the other boy. On the contrary, he looked even more excited.
"You're cute," the boy blurted out without any filter. "My name's Meguru Bachira, I play soccer too, I'm a striker." He kept talking without caring about the lack of response.
Isagi took a deep breath internally before answering the first question.
"Yoichi Isagi."
"Hm?" Maybe Bachira's sense of personal space was broken, because he leaned so close to Isagi's face they were nearly sharing the same chair.
"My name, you asked. My name is Yoichi Isagi." Isagi could've sworn he saw actual stars in Bachira's eyes. He should warn people before shining brighter than the sun, so Yoichi could close his eyes and avoid going blind.
"That's a pretty name, Isagi. I like you!" He couldn't tell whether that was a good or bad sign.
He wasn't really introverted, he just knew when to stay quiet. Because of his shy nature, making real friends was much harder, just like any other kind of social interaction. But seeing Bachira stare at him like Isagi was the only thing in that massive room, he couldn't help but feel warm.
"If everyone's comfortably seated, should I begin?" It was a rhetorical question. The rabbit immediately did what it intended to do.
The screen, once swallowed in darkness, lit up with a single phrase, almost like a title.
Hypersensitivity.
How funny, Yoichi had something similar. Now he felt a little sympathy for the poor player.
"Hypersensitivity? What's that supposed to mean?" asked the guy who'd mistaken the redhead for a girl, the one Isagi heard was named Chigiri.
"Are your glasses just for decoration, dude? Can't you read?" asked the rich-looking purple-haired guy.
The other didn't seem offended. Slowly removing his glasses, he answered seriously, "I read that wearing glasses makes people look smart, so I wear them."
The purple-haired guy looked like he wanted to smack his own forehead. Beside him, some foreigners laughed quietly.
"So this is the level of Japanese players? Looks like lightning really doesn't strike twice in the same place." Commented a German guy with slicked-back hair and narrowed eyes.
Ignoring the side conversations, the creature continued. "Have you ever heard the phrase that says you need to understand the past to predict the future?" the creature asked with the air of a wise elder.
Anri frowned. "I'm pretty sure that's not exactly how it goes."
The screen brightened, showing a vast aerial view of Tokyo, imposing buildings and lights surrounding one of the biggest cities in the world.
Tokyo? That was the Itoshi brothers' hometown. If Isagi connected the dots from the rabbit's descriptions, then the genius rival of everyone really was the older redheaded brother. How fun.
Could he leave now that he knew that?
"Tokyo? Why is the screen showing Japan?" Chris Prince questioned, confused just like many others.
"Where did you think the future player who changes destiny would be born? England?" Shito mocked.
Everyone there, including Isagi, looked somewhat stunned. It wasn't surprising, Japanese soccer was mediocre at best.
Snuffy looked genuinely surprised. "It's really admirable, considering France seems like a factory for brilliant players. I thought we'd get a second best-in-the-world player from there."
Beside him, the zombie, Don Lorenzo, laughed quietly. "They're not that good."
"Looks like lightning really does strike twice in the same place. I'm impressed this shitty country would create another genius." Mocked a blond German with blue streaks, not caring about the furious looks from almost every Japanese person present.
"It's not like Germany is that much better." Indifference overflowed from Sae's voice. Not that he cared what anyone said about Japanese soccer, it was no secret it was complete garbage. Still, it wasn't like someone like Kaiser had that much room to talk.
Yoichi could've sworn he saw disbelief and rage physically manifest where the Germans were gathered, which, by the way, wasn't that far from him. Especially from two in particular who, judging by the aura they gave off, were probably the best on the team.
"Defend it all you want, it's not like having only two particularly gifted kids is enough to change all of soccer. A team is made up of more than two people." Kaiser shrugged, and just like Sae, didn't bother looking at anything besides the screen ahead of him.
"The kids seem pretty high-strung." Chris commented, finding the whole circus amusing.
"You're far more childish than the children, if you don't mind me saying." Noa didn't even look at the Brit while taking the jab.
Isagi couldn't deny he was somewhat surprised. Who would've guessed someone as methodical and serious as Noa could be so sharp-tongued? They really do say people aren't the same in person as they are on screens.
The blond clicked his tongue. "I'd never lose my patience over some random teenager, Noa. They're nowhere near my level anyway." He shrugged.
"Pff." The rabbit laughed quietly, drawing the blond's attention. "Sorry, I just remembered a funny scene."
Isagi's gaze drifted toward one specific person. The man with the bowl cut and glasses kept drawing Isagi's attention, always with a bored or apathetic expression, but now, instead of the usual, his eyes shined beneath his glasses. Not with Bachira's cheerful gleam or that purple-haired German's excitement, but something rougher, darker, something radiating from the depths of his ego and arrogance. He looked familiar, but Isagi couldn't place from where.
The former player felt a chill run through him now, but couldn't look away from the man who radiated antisocial personality disorder vibes. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, the sun stepped into his line of sight and stole his attention away.
"Hey, Isagi." Bachira planted himself directly in his field of vision, determined to occupy all of it. "Isn't it exciting knowing our soccer isn't completely hopeless? We have two geniuses now."
He agreed with Bachira's statement, but the word genius brought him a certain discomfort. Obviously someone capable of rivaling Itoshi Sae himself was probably a genius on the field too.
"I don't think there are only two." His low voice didn't reveal all the anxiety twisting inside him from the extremely stressful situation.
Bachira looked at him curiously, so Isagi had to continue.
"Tokyo is the Itoshis' hometown. Maybe the great rival that'll change Japan is him." The details went far beyond that, but Bachira didn't seem like the type to pay attention to some stupid theory, especially from someone like Yoichi.
The two-toned boy broke into a huge smile and nodded enthusiastically. "You're really smart, I didn't think about it that way!"
Isagi had always considered his body cold, constantly searching for warm blankets and avoiding freezing rain. But he felt heat climbing up his cheeks now, subtle, but still there.
He quickly looked away. How embarrassing, blushing after so long, and over such a dumb compliment. The boy thought. Too bad Isagi had turned his face away and didn't see the fanaticism in Meguru's eyes.
"It's just a dumb theory," the boy whispered, still embarrassed and refusing to look at the bee.
The streets were in full frenzy, people rushing so they wouldn't be late for work, and fashion styles you'd probably only find in the vastness of Tokyo. Far away from everything, at a playground distant from all the cacophony, a small child sat on a wooden bench.
"A kid? I thought we were going to see a player." questioned the purple-haired boy.
"We're gonna watch his childhood? That's kind of boring," Leonardo Luna muttered with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
The image zoomed closer to the child, the little sprout of hair no longer the only thing visible. Instead, it revealed a cute face, cheeks pink from the cold, blue eyes as calm as the Pacific Ocean, and blue hair dark enough to resemble black.
Sitting like a porcelain doll, the boy barely moved. His trembling hands resting on his lap from the cold were the only thing about him that seemed alive. He looked up at the sky, his ears twitching slightly, and in a calm low voice he said:
"Snow."
Rin froze completely at the image, trying not to show it on his stoic face, though his eyes trembled slightly. The one face from his childhood he would never forget no matter how many decades passed, still carrying the same purity and softness his memories remembered.
"Yoichi?" The name slipped from his thoughts as he stared at the screen like the little boy would materialize in front of him.
"You know that kid?" questioned a guy with a white streak in his hair.
Luna looked from Rin to Sae, the similarities appearing like a light in the dark. "You're Sae's little brother, right? What's your name again?"
"The apathetic guy has a brother?" Chris questioned, not remembering Sae ever mentioning having one.
Rin ignored whatever insect was buzzing in his ear, staring at his brother beside him and expecting to see the same reaction he had. To Rin's surprise, Sae looked even more frozen than him. His face showed nothing, but Rin could tell how shallow his breathing had become.
"That's a cute kid," Anri murmured. "But who is he?"
Rin glared at the rabbit, which seemed to be having the time of its life with all this. If looks could kill, the rabbit would already be burning in hell.
"Why are you showing Yoichi?" Rin tried to stop his voice from coming out through gritted teeth, but failed miserably.
Bachira saw the child and took a few moments to notice the resemblance to a certain person. His body moved first. He turned toward the quiet boy beside him and quickly understood where the familiarity came from.
"Isagi..." The word died on his tongue when he saw the boy beside him frozen, staring at the screen like he was questioning whether any of this was real.
Meguru usually didn't notice these things, but ever since the blue of that sky struck him like lightning, he'd become hyperaware of anything involving that boy. Isagi looked pale, even paler than usual, unconsciously curling deeper into the scarf around his neck.
Bachira didn't know why or how, but the first thing he'd seen when he woke up in that strange place and the lights turned on was that boy. Curled up near the wall and paying attention to everything and everyone, something drew him in. Maybe it was his beauty, or the energy radiating from him, but the monster inside Meguru was ecstatic, wild and noisy inside his head, filling all his thoughts with nothing but that boy.
He never ignored his instincts, and he wasn't about to start now. But when he approached a little, he noticed how the boy seemed to react to the proximity, his body suddenly tensing even though he hadn't even looked at Meguru.
Choosing to wait, he saw the perfect opportunity when the chair beside the boy stayed empty. It was even his favorite color, it had to be destiny. The same destiny the rabbit kept talking about.
When he got closer, he realized how shy the boy was, which only made him even more adorable. And his eyes were a fascination all on their own, a deep indigo like a rare jewel. Unbothered by the boy's silence, he kept talking, remembering that everyone there was a soccer player, which probably meant the boy was too. That only made him even more fascinated.
Then the boy answered with his name, and Bachira considered it a personal victory. Isagi looked at him with doe eyes, like he wanted to hypnotize Meguru, though luckily for the indigo-eyed boy, he'd succeeded long before that.
Isagi looked even more charming when he spoke, sharp like a fox, bringing up points Bachira hadn't even considered. When he started talking, Meguru silently begged him never to stop, and when he praised him, it felt like his entire world had turned upside down. The boy's flushed face looked like a constellation of shining stars.
"Isagi, are you okay?" Overcome with concern, he touched Isagi's shoulder, watching the boy flinch slightly from the sudden contact.
"Ah, I got distracted." He redirected all his attention back to Bachira, almost like he was trying not to focus on the image in front of him. Meguru really shouldn't find the fact Isagi's full attention was only on him so enchanting.
Looking closer, the resemblance between both boys was undeniable.
"You were really cute as a kid." For once, Meguru carefully measured his words so he wouldn't make the person in front of him uncomfortable.
If Isagi noticed, he didn't say anything. He only smiled faintly and nodded. "I was kind of sensitive as a kid."
Bachira smiled. He'd lost count of how many times he'd smiled in such a short amount of time. "I was a troublemaker kid, that's why I didn't have many friends."
That wasn't the only reason, obviously. Cruel children excluded him for being weird, but Meguru never considered himself some social outcast. He had his monster, after all.
"I didn't have friends either, we're pretty similar."
Oh, Isagi, don't make me even more hypnotized than I already am.
"Yeah. That's why we're friends now." The two outcasts fitting together like the perfect puzzle piece.