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The philosophy of Blue Lock is something that has been shoved down the throats of every striker in the facility ever since Ego decided to open his mouth to preach such ideals. Not only has it been the main objective of Blue Lock – it is the guide to becoming the world’s best – the ultimate egoist who stands among 299 corpses.
So it’s no surprise that the facility introduces a horde of goal-hungry strikers that stop at nothing to utilize the philosophy of self-centeredness. In every corner, there are monsters, demons, geniuses, and those at the bottom of the barrel, the average joes. Though, this also makes everyone forget that these people are your average teenagers. Teenagers who like to mingle in their little social circles. It so happens that there are strikers that come in pairs. The yin and yang, the combos that work and do not work together, the pairs that make, what you call here in Blue Lock, chemical reactions.
One pair in particular, which seems to be the talk of the day, is notably Itoshi Rin and Isagi Yoichi.
“Where’s Isagi?” Yukimiya asks Bachira beside him, who’s near-inhaling his Karaage dish, after exclaiming that if he squinted hard enough, he can imagine it as Western-style chicken nuggets.
Bachira fails in an attempt to answer Yukimiya, his cheeks full and voice coming out in muffles. Yukimiya distantly hears Barou’s scolding about not speaking while his mouth’s full.
Hiori pipes up next to Bachira in favor of answering for him. “He stayed behind…probably for Rin.”
Bachira nods, swallowing. “They’re in the lockers right now!”
Yukimiya turns back to his Gyukatsu, his glasses tinted in an overpowering glow that hints at something as if his suspicions were proven correct.
Chigiri raises a brow.
“Speaking of Rin and Isagi,” Karasu adds, some tempura breading flying off his mouth towards Barou’s face (who was back to nagging about table etiquette). “So, can we all agree that those two are fucking?”
Nanase, bless his heart, nearly spills his miso all over the table. Nearly. “W-WHAT!?”
“I do see it,” Otoya casually says while holding off Barou from reaching across the table and breaking every bone in Karasu’s body for the mess he has created.
“HUH!?”
“Yeah, I agree.” Chigiri offers a napkin to Nanase, who is still appalled but takes it nonetheless.
“There’s no way they would! They’re just rivals! Isagi-san wouldn’t even have time for that.” Everyone at the table seemed more surprised that Nanase thinks Isagi sleeping around was more unbelievable than Rin doing so. Come on, it's Rin.
“Rivals, aye? That’s how it always starts.” Igarashi gags at the mere implication of Karasu’s words.
“Y-you tell them, Bachira-san!”
Bachira places a thumb to his chin, thoroughly rummaging through his shared experiences with the duo. “Weeeeelllllll, if you put it that way… It’s not completely impossible.”
Nanase sports a look of betrayal before ultimately huffing. “I refuse to believe that.”
“I’ve seen it with my own eyes!” Bachira makes an exaggerated leap from his seat. Everyone in the vicinity braces their food and drinks from toppling over. “Rin-chan may seem like a cold person –”
“It’s because he is one,” Yukimiya interjects.
“ – but he actually has another side to him.”
“If I remember correctly… this happened after we chose Isagi in the second selection.”
Bachira roamed the corridors looking for his best friend to inform him of dinner. No matter how much his monster growls at the thought of consuming food (or was it just his stomach?), he can’t eat without the blue-haired egoist by his side. He had barged into multiple locker rooms; kicked out of plenty, yet they were all Isagi-less.
“Where’s Rin?” Isagi asked Bachira while Bachira dried off the tips of his yellow highlights.
“Oh, Rin-chan is always by himself at the end of the day.”
Bachira now has an idea as to where those two have run off to. He hums a joyous tune to the training rooms.
“Isa –” Bachira calls out, nearing training room D.
“You’re doing it wrong!” A grumbling voice that was oh-so-familiar stops Bachira in his tracks.
“Ugh, hold on, stay in that position.” This was then followed by shuffling noises.
Bachira came here with the purpose to find Isagi, although he’ll have to be a little sidetracked' from that task for a while. He shifts his ears closer to the wall farther away from the door, in fear of accidentally triggering the automatic sensors.
There was silence until…
“Ouch. Ouch. Ouch!” A pained whine can be heard from the voice that he distinguished as Isagi’s.
“Your body just isn’t flexible enough, idiot. What makes you think we can do this?”
“No, no, this position is fine! Keep pushing.” Bachira hears Isagi’s signature pride in his trembling voice but it quickly dissolves into more gasps.
“We’ve been at it for 30 minutes, you can’t even last that long?” Rin’s usual steady voice comes out as breathless.
“Shut up! Ah, shit, I think I’m gonna break this time Rin –”
“This is nothing for a lukewarm moron like you.”
“You’re just saying that ‘cause you’ve done it multiple times, fuck, I said to stop doing it so hard.” Isagi hissed.
Bachira immediately forgets what he was here to do. He has both his hands clamped to his mouth, his heartbeat erratic.
“Maybe dinner can wait.”
Horror descends onto Nanase’s face after he hears of Bachira’s story. It’s not like the rest of the table reacted any differently. Even Barou, who usually tuned out their mindless chatter, froze in his seat, his piece of pork hovering in the air between his chopsticks.
For someone who had witnessed such a scene, Bachira happily chewed on the last remaining portions of his rice.
Chigiri was the first to break. “Wait what happened during dinner afterward?”
“Oh, Rin-chan and Isagi weren’t there for dinner. I ended up going to sleep and woke up to both of their beds empty. I checked the training fields and they were doing laps so early in the morning.”
“Where do they get the energy to do laps after that workout they ha –” Hiori smacks Karasu by the shoulder.
“I don’t know. They were acting like normal.” Bachira leaves out the part where he thinks their normalcy was also a little more different after that night. Bachira would catch Isagi glancing towards Rin after he makes a successful backheel shot. Rin would catch these glances, make a ‘tsk’ sound then look away. Isagi’s face would turn tomato red when he realized he did it subconsciously. It took a while for Bachira to put the pieces together that Isagi instinctively looked to Rin for praise.
“Ah! Perfect timing,” Bachira waves over two of his former roommates, Tokimitsu and Aryu, who were on their way to check out more of the menu in the cafeteria.
“You guys remember how Isagi and Rin acted when we roomed with them, right?” He gestures to the rest of the Blue Lock boys on his table. “These guys aren’t convinced the two aren’t –”
“Fucking,” Otoya helpfully finishes for Bachira.
Aryu twirls a lock of hair between his fingertips, something he usually does when thinking hard about something. “Of course, we know something’s been going on between those two. Have you seen the way Rin looked at Isagi after he made that glam play?” He further exaggerates this by flipping that lock of hair over his shoulder, imaginary sparkles flying everywhere.
Chigiri, Bachira, and Barou knew what he meant by ‘glam play’ as the three were the witnesses to how Isagi surpassed Rin’s playmaking in the team red versus team white match-up.
“He looked close to devouring Isagi right there on the spot. Physically.”
“Yeah, yeah!” Tokimitsu nods from behind Aryu, holding both their trays. “They were very handsy with each other.”
“Handsy?” Hiori tilts his head to the side, silently asking for more elaboration.
Aryu and Tokimitsu are sure one of Rin’s veins has popped. Their mandatory language study eventually led to Rin almost beating the lights out of Bachira after that paper plane throw. Tokimitsu, despite such a strong physique, even had problems with holding Rin back from escalating his fury.
“Noo, stop!” Tokimitsu cried out.
Bachira ducks, a big smile on his face. This, of course, makes Rin even madder. “I’m sorry! Super sorry! My baaad!” His English apology was nowhere near genuine, given how much he was giggling.
“Calm down, Rin-kun!” Tokimitsu had to result in pleading for Bachira’s life, if not for the abrupt stop of Rin’s flailing arms.
“Oi, you.” Rin suddenly calls. This makes Tokimitsu take a peek at Rin’s face, who still looked very vicious but calmer than just a few seconds ago. Aryu, who was still nursing his bitten tongue, also stopped to see Rin calling the attention of Isagi.
Isagi takes off one of his earbuds. “Yeah?”
Tokimitsu takes this as a sign that it’s safe to let go of Rin’s torso now that he’s focused on Isagi.
“Did you do the paper I gave you?” Paper? What paper?
Isagi shows Rin the paper that was previously sitting on his lap. “Are you going to check it?”
Rin grunts as affirmation and makes his way toward where Isagi was sitting. He moves over some of the books scattered around and plops himself beside him.
Aryu and Tokimitsu halt their studying to observe the two. Bachira was still on the floor, distracted by his book, content with just murmuring to himself the names of the twelve months in English.
Rin looks over the paper Isagi hands him and they sit there wordlessly for a while. Isagi still had one earbud off in case Rin decided to make remarks.
“Not bad. You used to not even know what half of these words mean. This time, you got a 10 out of 10.” Tokimitsu’s jaw hangs open. That was the closest to a compliment Rin has ever given anyone. Ever.
Isagi grins. “I told you I was worthy of being your rival.”
“Don’t go having a big head now, this is basic English vocabulary. You’re nowhere near my level.” Isagi only rolls his eyes, as if he expected that response.
“Actually, this app really helped me. It translates Japanese paragraphs to English through audio.” Isagi jerks backward to show Rin the app on his phone. Rin scoots over, then the most unexpected happens, he places a hand on Isagi’s thigh.
“I can’t see shit, your text is too small. Fix it.” At this point, Rin is almost completely behind Isagi while Isagi was halfway leaning on Rin’s chest.
Aryu and Tokimitsu exchange widened eyes.
Bachira who was present that day but had no idea this transpired behind his back, looked more eager. “Whoa, really? I never noticed that!”
Aryu scoffs, remembering how adamant Rin was about not being their English tutor. “Rin’s favoritism is sickeningly obvious.”
“That doesn’t prove anything.” All eyes turn to Igarashi. “That could’ve been just regular skinship, you know, good sportsmanship and all that.”
Hiori leans his cheek on his hand. “I don’t think that was what you’d call ‘good sportsmanship’.”
“Whatever, you get my point. Those two are just like that ‘cause they’re obsessed with each other.”
“Yeah obsessed with each other, which is why they’re getting freaky in the sheets.” Karasu’s smirk makes Igarashi stumble on his words. “That’s not what I meant! Obsessed as in… they’ve been chasing each other so that they can surpass each other. That’s what rivals are.”
“You shit shows.” Barou finally speaks for the first time, violently chewing on his curry. “Isagi is my rival. Don’t you dare compare our rivalry to whatever the fuck Isagi has with eyelashes. Let me make that disgustingly clear.”
Igarashi shrivels up in his seat. Nanase comes to his defense. “But we’ll never truly know. There’s a chance Rin is just giving special treatment because, no offense to you senpais, Isagi-san is a lot more bearable than all of you…?”
The three former roommates nod at each other.
“I guess he has a point. I can be a little…anxious during our language lessons.” Tokimitsu sheepishly rubs a spot on his nape.
“I suppose I can’t help it. I’m high maintenance after all.” Aryu dramatically strikes a pose, feigning hurt with his hand on his chest.
“Hmm, let’s see.” Bachira stands up to scan the room. He spots a familiar purple, accompanied by a colorful variety of other hair colors on the table next to theirs. “Them!” He points towards that table. “Maybe they have their own experiences?”
“Ah, Bachira wait –” Before Hiori could deter whatever Bachira had in mind, he was already on his way to the table.
He slams both hands on the surface, startling the others, namely: Gagamaru, Reo, Nagi, Raichi, Kurona, Zantetsu, and Nikko. Albeit the strange combination of players, they seemed to have had a peaceful feast before Bachira’s intrusion.
“Do you guys know what’s been going on between Rin-chan and Isagi?” Bachira goes straight to the point while sneakily throwing looks at Kurona’s soba, who was slowly inching the bowl behind his arms to keep it hidden from Bachira’s prying eyes.
The rest only give confused stares as an answer.
Nagi lazily lifts his head. “Why? What happened to Rin and Isagi?”
“Like if you know if they’re dating or –”
“Fucking.” Yukimiya has given up on being subtle as he stood with Bachira in front of their table.
“Yeah or that!”
“HUH!?” Raichi almost chokes. Nanase can only empathize. “Go ask someone else! We’re here to become the number one footballers in the world, not the number one love life speculators!”
“I’ve noticed something about Isagi.” Reo wasn’t even looking at anyone when he said that. He had a closed hand under his chin, a bored downcast of his eyes, and his finger circling the rim of his bowl.
“What?” Raichi cannot fathom why these suckers would even entertain such ridiculous questions.
“Reo?” Zantetsu, his seatmate, was suddenly interested in what he had to say. Half of the cafeteria thinks so too as most have already stopped eating.
“It was during the tryouts,” He continued, a serious look in his eyes.
Reo stumbled into Isagi on pure chance. He didn’t think anyone would occupy the monitoring room until he caught sight of a mop of dark blue, smashing the remote buttons quite aggressively. He was switching between recordings of Nagi and Rin. It seems that every play he watched made him exhale more and more frustrated breaths.
The sight would have been comical if it weren’t so relatable. His situation with Nagi still left itself unresolved in his mind. He wandered all the way here to try and reason with himself out of this empty feeling.
Whether he regretted it or not, he let his presence be known to Isagi.
Contrary to his on-field personality, Isagi was a decent guy who listened to Reo ramble on about his dilemma regarding whether to join Nagi’s team or not. He still listened even if he was letting himself bare with these thoughts of inferiority. Reo started to question why he even held such a grudge against Isagi in the first place.
“If he sees how weak I am, I feel like he’ll just move even farther away.” Isagi had lent him the remote, now being gripped to death by Reo. He feels the haunting fear of what Nagi would do if he had chosen his team for the third selection tryouts, only to be disappointed with Reo’s half-assed performance.
“I have no idea… What I should do…” The words that Nagi spoke when he abandoned him during the second selection still rang loud as ever. Being this weak in front of Nagi will… surely be the finishing blow. Would he finally throw Reo away? Forget him? Forget their promise?
“Same here, Reo.” Reo looked up to meet Isagi, whose gaze was elsewhere. He followed his line of sight, currently glued to Rin’s face in the monitor.
“To me… Rin is the same thing.” Reo was caught off guard by the absolute look of yearning in Isagi’s eyes.
“That if I don’t fight him right now, he might go off to a place where I can’t reach him.” Both boys watch as on-screen Rin turns a dangerous sport, full of ugly competition and ego, into something graceful. He kicks the ball, on par with perfection itself, straight into the net. A goal that is never less than dazzling in its own right.
“That’s the one thing I don’t wanna regret.” Isagi overcomes his initial confusion. In its place, there’s newfound determination. On his voting card, he circles the letter A above the avatars of Rin and Shidou.
“We usually go after the people we want to stand by our side, right?” Isagi casts a smile.
Reo snorts. He feels his heart lighten just a bit. Who knew Isagi was this contagious?
“W-what? Nothing’s funny!” Isagi sputters.
“No, it’s just that… All this time I was questioning if I was worthy to be by Nagi’s side. But here you are, permanently announcing your place in Rin’s life like you belong there.”
This causes Isagi to flush. He hides the bottom half of his face behind his voting card. He refuses to meet Reo’s eyes, let alone glance at Rin’s figure in the monitors.
“I want to compete with him on the world stage… of course, I have to be there for that.”
Reo raises a teasing eyebrow. “That’s gonna take a lot of time then.”
“Whether it’s 10 years, 20 years, or…”
“Or forever?” Reo enjoys the color on Isagi’s face turn a shade darker than what it was a moment ago. Isagi remains quiet, though Reo can already tell what the answer was.
‘That sounds like a proposal, Isagi.’ Reo doesn’t voice that thought aloud.
“You guys should’ve seen him. Isagi looked like he was seconds away from exploding just from how much he was blushing.” The rest of his table, along with plenty more, gape at such bold declarations from Isagi.
“Ooh, sounds like Isagi reaaallyyyyy wanted to keep a close eye on Rin-chan!” Bachira now had his hands on the soba Kurona begrudgingly offered to him.
“More like a tight leash on him.” No one knows how Karasu keeps coming up with these creative comments. Hiori gave up long ago on smacking him.
Zentetsu pushes up his glasses. “He sounded very integrated.”
“You mean infatuated, stupid Zantetsu,” Nagi corrects.
“Oh yes. Thank you.” Zantetsu ruffles Nagi’s hair as thanks. “Wait, what does ‘infatuated’ mean?”
“It means,” Raichi propped a leg next to him on the bench, an arm resting on his knee. “That idiot is head-over-heels for Rin.”
“Finally joining in on the gossip, huh?” Raichi dismissed Yukimiya with a wave. “Fuck off, I’m just telling you all the hard facts.”
“It’s not like Rin isn’t any less guilty.”
This is what makes everyone’s interest perk up again.
“What do you mean?” Gagamaru and Nikko ask at the same time.
“I’m saying it’s mutual, idiots.”
Raichi watched as Shidou and Rin go at it across the penalty area, pushing, shoving, and everything. Some others sit back and watch the two chase after the ball from the live feed.
It was the fifth match of the third selection tryouts. The rest who had finished their matches all sat to watch. He can pick apart a few names. There were Barou, Hiori, Nanase, Chigiri, and a few more players from other teams. Isagi came into the monitoring room late, sleep still evident in his eyes, and sat next to Hiori.
Rin and Shidou exchange insults, now touching the goal line. Blue lock man ran to intercept the ball moving at a rapid pace but Rin was just a little more in the lead than Shidou, having enough space to land a kick to the ball, securing team A’s victory with a score of 5-4.
Raichi doesn’t have the time to admire that spectacular goal before a fight breaks out between the wonder duo of the match. Teammates and foes alike scramble to get them off each other before someone lands themselves in the infirmary, or worse, the emergency room.
Raichi knew it was coming when Shidou decided to aim his knee toward Rin’s face. There were gasps from around him. The spectators could only watch as Shidou jumps into the air to deal a deadly blow, not satisfied enough with breaking Rin’s nose.
“I’M GONNA CRACK YOUR SKULL, RIN-RIN!”
Ego decides he had enough of watching the strikers he raised fight like preschoolers.
A ‘bzzzzt’ sound rang through the field. He had stunned Shidou, or what he likes to call it, used the anti-riot electric shock function on his bodysuit, and rendered him unconscious.
“Tch, they’re crazy…” Raichi sighs. Not a new thing in this facility. “Looks like that match is over.”
Raichi turns behind him in time to catch Isagi bolt out the door.
“Isagi!?” Hiori shouts in hopes of bringing the striker back. He was already long gone.
“Where the hell is that scumbag going? I’ll go get him.” Raichi gets up to follow Isagi. “Nobody hog the showers when I get back, I called dibs so if there are no vacant ones, I’ll kill you.”
Chigiri had the audacity to retort back. “Yeah, yeah, just don’t go wasting the shampoo. Your hair is still greasy even without it.”
“Why, you –” Raichi was tempted to go back to the monitoring room to teach that spoiled princess a lesson, but decided against it.
He walked the halls, still pissed off. He was murmuring curses under his breath until more powerful voices overtook it. Members of teams A and C were chattering amongst themselves on their way to the lockers. He also passed by Shidou’s unconscious body on a stretcher. Someone says he’ll be detained in the punishment room.
“Where’s Isagi?” He asks his former teammate, Bachira. Tokimitsu was also next to him, nervously twirling his fingertips.
“We saw him run across the hall. I think he’s heading towards Rin-chan.” Bachira and Tokimitsu look at each other, a knowing glint in their eyes.
“Okay?” Whatever this secret bullshit was, he wanted to be in on it. He held off on asking any further as there was a bubbling feeling in his gut that told him he was gonna find the answers to that soon.
He didn’t have to walk any farther, Rin and Isagi were right there, sharing a bench. Isagi’s back was facing him so he only had a clear view of Rin. His face was fucked up, especially the bridge of his nose.
Raichi, for some odd reason, didn’t feel the need to disturb what was unfolding before him, so he hid behind the corner wall. He felt like the ultimate creep right now, but the position those two were in was just far too interesting. If he walked in on them right now, the spell would break.
Isagi, with all the gentleness in the world, pressed a cotton ball full of brownish liquid to Rin’s wound. Rin hissed.
“Stop that.” Rin tried to pry Isagi’s hand away from him.
“Don’t be a baby. You know it’s your fault this happened in the first place.” Isagi used his left hand to shake away Rin’s iron grip on his wrist.
“The antennaed freak started it first –” Rin flinched. The cotton ball pressed firmly on his skin.
“You could’ve just ran, but no, you wanted to fight back.” Raichi was amused at how much Isagi nagged like a wife or a mother. Rin couldn’t do anything but glare holes at Isagi as he put down the antiseptic and reached to open a band-aid.
“That isn’t necessary. Don’t even think about putting that on me.”
“Rin, he grazed your skin. Look, there’s still blood coming out! After I went through all that trouble to go to the infirmary because your stubborn ass wouldn’t.” Isagi pouted, still tearing off the band-aid cover, ignoring all the grumbled protests.
“Look, look, it has elephant prints on it, isn’t it cute?” Isagi uncovers it to show off the band-aid design. Rin’s glare sharpens while Isagi stays unaffected.
“Fine, you’re such a drama queen.” Isagi tears off another band-aid. “Does white sound good to you?”
Rin looked to still be against the idea but the blood was rolling down to his mouth and it was annoying. He nods, reluctant.
The unthinkable happens when Isagi softly cups Rin’s right cheek. This triggers Raichi’s flight response. Now this feels like he really is intruding on something. The fact that Rin wasn’t even pulling away and letting this happen fries Raichi’s brain.
Rin didn’t have the decency to just close his eyes, no, he had to watch Isagi work. He shamelessly stared at Isagi, like he had made the universe himself. Isagi on the other hand, remained oblivious to this (or was he just used to it?) and focused on his hands.
The band-aid was successfully planted yet Isagi’s hand was still on Rin’s cheek. Looks like it’s not leaving any time soon.
Rin finally closes his eyes, then leans into the touch. His hand comes up to cradle Isagi’s own and Raichi thinks he’s seen enough.
He leaves. The showers sound very tempting right now. He just hopes none of those idiots got to them before him.
“When I got back from the showers, Isagi was on his phone back in the monitoring room!” Raichi complained, his voice booming louder as he rattled on. “The little shit looked so relaxed, meanwhile I was losing my mind.”
“I was with him at that time. I noticed he got back and asked him where he ran off to.” Chigiri was able to link up his memories with Raichi’s timeline. If he can remember correctly, that was around five o’clock, an hour before dinner was served. He was reviewing past games with Isagi.
“Yeah, princess was with us, and so were these two.” He points at Hiori and Nanase. They nod in confirmation.
“And Isagi’s answer to that question was,” Raichi lifts both hands up, making air quotes, “‘I was busy babysitting’.”
The discomfort radiated off the blond. As someone as straightforward as Isagi, he was not one to be so cryptic about things. At the time, those four brushed it off. It was weird, yeah, but the hint was as clear as day.
“That still proves my point, they’re like that because it’s casual skinship! You guys don’t actually think they have something going on, right?” Igarashi pipes up. Even from the other table, his voice was audible enough to have people scorch glares at him.
“Wait, you all aren’t joking…?”
“Your blind ass just never noticed it, Igaguri!” Raichi crosses his arms. “You’ll get it once you see it.”
Igarashi was about to make up another argument, but it was interrupted by a strong grip on his head. From the grip alone and the general aura shrouding him, he was well-acquainted with who was behind him.
Shidou’s obnoxious presence immediately leaves those on Igarashi and Reo’s tables on guard.
“What’s going on here?~” Shidou lets Igarashi's head go, who was not aware that he was slowly lifting him. A shit-eating grin adorns his face, genuinely curious about what his fellow Blue Lockers are up to now. No one expected to see Shidou out here right, like a free man, after the U-20 match.
“We were talking about Rin and Isagi.” Eyes snap toward Gagamaru. He shrugs, the only one who had resumed eating. The tense atmosphere flew right over his head.
“Oh ho ho. Is that so?” Shidou makes himself at home next to Igarashi. An arm wrapped around the poor monk. They can only pray that Igarashi doesn’t get suffocated to death.
He says with much more conviction than anyone could have anticipated, “Those two are definitely fucking.”
Isagi was high in victory. He blasted that winning goal for team A in the first tryout match. Shidou approaches him from where he has fallen due to Nanase’s tackle.
Shidou has to admit, that last play was explosive as hell. He had not only surpassed him but also Rin in the same match. The look on his face screamed maniac, monstrous, deranged. That’s the kind of face he wants to see in the world of football.
Little Itoshi didn’t appreciate it as much as he did.
“Hmph. What do you mean ‘super goal’?” Oh? So he was listening earlier. Shidou notes.
“You can’t even explain how you pulled off your own shot. You just stole it from me on a fluke.” Rin looks down at Isagi as if he were gum stuck to his shoe. “Isagi, you really piss me off.”
Shidou steps forward, in the mood for a little taunting. “Just admit it number one. A second-rate guy who can’t praise other people’s brilliance is just third-rate, you know?”
Shidou leans closer, whispering “Or are you afraid your little boy toy over there is getting more attention than you? At least for the last play, Isagi Yoichi was number one.”
With this, Rin snaps. Now that the game officially ended, he had free reign to beat this guy into a pulp without sacrificing a card or two.
Rin must’ve been pissed because he was able to throw in some clean punches. Shidou mocks him, seeing more red. What kind of number one is he if he cannot give credit where credit is due?
He faintly hears the shouts of his teammates, then two pairs of arms pulling him back with as much force as they could muster. The VAR breaks him out of his thirst for violence, announcing preparation for the next match.
He shrugs off the arms around him now that Rin has stomped a good distance away. He looked like a child in the middle of a tantrum. Someone would have to deal with that edge lord.
As if hearing his thoughts, Isagi Yoichi runs after Rin. There were a few “Rin!”s and “Wait up!”s thrown in there, but Rin ignores him.
The next time he sees the under eyelashes junior is when he was roaming the halls to look for vending machines. He was not alone, in fact, he was standing very close to a particular blue-eyed striker.
“Oh? Will you look at that?” Shidou caught Rin’s hands resting on Isagi’s shoulders. His demeanor was less tense, softer even. Shidou smirks. Isagi Yoichi is the only one to ever pacify fake number one’s temper.
Once Rin’s eyes had landed on him, he pulled his hands away from Isagi in a flash. He stepped back just as quickly, as though his proximity with the boy burned. Shidou even doubted seeing that in the first place. He was certain, even upon seeing it for a millisecond, that what he saw was true.
Isagi noticed his presence later than Rin. He questioned Rin’s odd actions, then turned to see what soured his mood once again. The mortification colored his face just as swiftly.
What Shidou found suspicious was not Rin’s hand placement nor was it how close they were, but what truly rang a bell in his head was Isagi zipping his jacket all the way to the collar, weirdly on instinct.
“What are you doing here, you vermin?” Rin’s cold tone was just too hard to resist. Shidou’s cocky smile grew wider.
Shidou ignores the daggers of unfiltered hate being thrown at him. He opts to deal with another interesting thing. He makes his way toward Isagi instead. “Now Isagi, what are you hiding?”
“I –” Isagi fails to articulate his words properly. He shrinks under the intense scrutiny of hot pink eyes; his body language growing smaller and smaller.
This stuttering mess was not the Isagi who had scored that winning goal. This was the off-the-field Isagi that rivaled a volcano about to combust. How amusing. He still had an unrelenting grip on his zipper, which made Shidou’s curiosity bloom more.
Shidou puts an arm on the wall next to him, caging him between his and Rin’s bodies. He reaches for the shaking hands covering the zipper. Then they were slapped away.
“Get the fuck away from here. No one invited you into our business, antennaed freak.” Rin shielded Isagi’s body. His chin was pointed high, a challenge to dare raise his arm again.
“‘Our’ business, huh? And what could that possibly be?”
“Once again, nothing concerning you. Now piss off, annoying bug,” Rin spat.
Isagi has not uttered a single sound as he ducks into Rin’s shadow. That one was strange too. From the bits and pieces of encounters he had with him, Isagi wouldn’t hesitate to be confrontational when it came down to it. However, protecting that zipper is apparently far more important than protecting his pride.
Rin lacked the bite for a fight too. Yes, he was fuming, but it was a more protective kind of anger rather than a ‘I want you buried six feet under me right here, right now’ kind. He meant it when he told Shidou to go away.
Shidou gives in, both his arms up in surrender. “I’ll stop bothering you two~ See you next match.”
Igarashi coughed up a storm, his hands latching onto his neck which was red from how much it was squeezed to death by Shidou. Shidou crosses his legs, he mocks a contemplative stance like he can’t quite put a finger on his thoughts. “I’m 99% sure Isagi was hiding a hickey.”
Bachira spits out Kurona’s soba. Kurona looks down at his fallen food in despair. “A HICKEY!?” Bachira shouts as if that was the only scandalous thing he has heard all night.
“Or multiple hickeys, we can never be too sure.” Shidou makes sure to highlight that precise detail to the tee, unbeknownst to him, all who knew Isagi and Rin are gripping at the lone sanity they have left.
Once the monk has settled in on regulating his breathing, he scoots farther away from Shidou. “I give up tryna convince anyone in this room.”
Igarashi spares a glance at Nanase from across the table, the only one who was on his side on this; not one of the gossip girls on the fence with this whole Rin-Isagi agenda. Nanase starts to sweat at the attention. “Okay, I do admit, that was strange but…”
“This is too much to think about before bed. I’m not letting you dimwits ruin my schedule.” Barou gets up and proceeds to march toward the sleeping quarters.
“Yeah, I think… I need some rest. See you all later.” The speedster, Chigiri, also puts away his tray.
“That’s a discussion for another day, we’re free from this hell tomorrow. Let’s celebrate!” Karasu yells enthusiastically, dragging Otoya with him in their victory dance back to the dorms.
“Yeah, good night y'all.”
“This gave me a headache, good night everyone.”
“I shall catch up on some beauty sleep. Does anyone have that glam face wash? My spores need deep cleaning.”
“I’ll see you all tomorrow – or hopefully!”
One by one, the strikers filter out of the cafeteria. The U-20 victory still had them feeling giddy even under the covers. They think about the countless opportunities that have opened up for them now that Blue Lock was under the world’s spotlight. Some dream of a luxurious life ahead of them, some imagine more challenges awaiting every corner, and some see this as just the beginning.
Unfortunately, the U-20 victory was not the only thing holding their brains captive as the curious case of Isagi Yoichi and Itoshi Rin remained fresh.
Isagi breathed in the fresh air of Shibuya. This is the first time in a while he’s been blessed with the aroma of car engines and greenery and not the bland smell of Blue Lock. It was a nice change of scenery apart from the gray and blue concrete.
He starts his two-week break back home, where his parents would not stop showering Isagi with praise about his U-20 goal and speech. His next course of action was to, of course, meet the people he considered his inspirations and rivals.
He arrives at the cafe.
“Oh! There you are, Isagi.”
“Hey there!”
“Sup, Bachira, Chigiri!”
The three former Team Z members take in their freedom while sipping on hot drinks and sugary lattes. Isagi giggles at how Bachira points out the similarities between Blue Lock and a jail. They also preen the attention the Blue Lock team has been garnering in the media.
All of a sudden, Chigiri’s eyes snap wide at a group of people sitting in another cafe across the street. He has seen those guys before. Isagi smirks to himself. The faces of Otoya, Tokimitsu, Karasu, Aryu, Yukimiya, and Reo greet him. Isagi has never been happier to see these guys.
For once, he feels serene here. He doesn’t have to worry about teammates or opponents coming to kill him with their murderous eyes (as if he isn’t any better) on the field. No cramming football videos in one night or worrying about strategy in a game that decides his future for him. Just teenagers having fun for once. Teenagers that are discussing the stock market? How to start a branch of apparel? He doesn’t get it either but he’s fine with talking about anything as long as he’s in the comfort of his friends.
“By the way, Isagi… Where’s Rin?” Yukimiya asks all of a sudden, a complete change in topic from what he was discussing, or rather arguing, with Karasu. Weren’t they talking about how much the Titanic 2 movie sucked just a while ago?
Rin?
Everyone stops their conversations, anticipating Isagi’s answer.
“Uh, I don’t know. Maybe he’s at home or something?” If he had to guess, Rin is probably by the seaside, the one where he and Sae used to go when they were young.
“Why would you guys assume I know where Rin is? We don’t stay in contact!” Isagi was beginning to get defensive now that he was put on the spot.
The strikers give him a variety of side eyes.
“Really? I thought Rin-chan would be with you.” Bachira toned down his usual cheery voice, a more skeptical one in its place.
“Huh? Why would he be? You all know that guy’s a loner.” Isagi is getting more uncomfortable the more his teammates stare. They’re acting like they know something he doesn’t.
“Right, right. We were just thinking…” Reo stirs his coffee painfully slowly. “Isagi, um, we just have to ask…”
“Come on, spit it out.” Isagi’s spatial awareness is keenly aware of this heavy atmosphere. His impatience grows thinner the more Reo stalls.
A saucer clinks against the table.
“Okay, look man, are you dating Rin by any chance?” Karasu could not take this anymore. Hell, he’ll lose more sleep if he doesn’t find out the truth everyone’s been dying to know.
Isagi stares some more. He blinks.
Is that what this is all about?
The two-week break is nearing its end. Isagi is still high on the fun day they had at the beginning of the week. They went to the arcades, played ping pong, and went bowling. At one point, they convinced him to do karaoke. To say it was a disaster was a mere understatement. That broken high note that came out of his throat still makes his ears turn red ‘til this day.
He had met more familiar faces, Aiku and Barou being the two additions to their rowdy little group. Furthermore, he had met quite a bunch of admirers and fans, his confidence growing immensely.
For the last day, he wanted to keep it down low. A fun little outing for himself and his other companion. Just something nice and relaxing to end the week.
To Isagi, relaxation involves dribbling past Itoshi Rin, only to have his moves perfectly predicted and thwarted. Rin manages to steal the ball back from an unsuspecting Isagi.
Isagi moves for a counter but gets faked out by Rin. Isagi is a fool. A fool that fell for that feint of his. His block was barely any use to stop Rin from kicking the ball straight into the net.
“That’s 2-1, Isagi.” Rin wipes the sweat crowding on his eyelids. “You never learn, do you?”
Isagi curses this genius. Rin being in the lead does not temper his excitement, instead, it fuels his motivation to make that next play worth it. Being with Rin is exciting in general, even if it was a mock match 1v1 on a field by the side of the road. Anywhere with Rin is exciting. Rin is exciting.
Isagi grabs his water bottle. What greets him isn’t the Blue Lock brand water bottle he was so used to, but a bright red one, his own. Well, it’s not like it will matter since he’s coming back to Blue Lock tomorrow anyway.
“What? Already tired? We haven’t even passed the 30-minute mark.” Rin makes a jab at Isagi. He never changes.
“Who do you think I am? My stamina is not that weak.” Isagi turns to Rin, offended at even the idea of being underestimated this much. “Just let me hydrate, damn it!”
“Hurry up then. I can’t wait to beat you.” Isagi sighs and puts down the water bottle next to Rin’s own. Rin is just so full of himself, he wonders how he puts up with this man.
They start the next round, and Isagi is already coming strong in the offense. Rin adjusts, aware that Isagi’s play style is very experimental and is bound to change throughout the match. What he’s judging here is the execution.
“You know, Rin.” Isagi was heaving right now and he thinks he can start some conversation.
Isagi successfully breaks through Rin’s block. His dribbling is still rough and needs improvement but Isagi makes it work. “I was with the guys a week ago. The cafe I told you about.”
Rin doesn’t slow down, right on Isagi’s tail. “What about them?”
“They told me something interesting.” Isagi’s almost at the penalty area. Rin doesn’t let this induce panic in him. He lets his brain flow, with countless possibilities, and countless moves at his disposal. There’s an endless arsenal of what Isagi is capable of. This keeps him on his toes, a constant guessing game. Isagi, his rival, his other half.
“They suspect we’re dating or fucking… or both.”
Rin enters Isagi’s line of sight, blocking his view of the net. Like an angel that has descended from above to claim your life, he beautifully, miraculously, with such a calm expression, takes the ball from him once again,
“Good. Took them long enough.”
and scores.