AN: Is this chapter supposed to come out this quickly? No. Do I have more important assignments due very soon? Yes. Should I definitely not be writing this fic right now? Yes. Am I publishing this chapter anyways? Yes.

p.s love you guys so much.

-

10. there's no limit (to our explosive chemistry)

The Tengawara match comes with a coalition of people who are insane, people who are tired of the insane people, and people who are victims of the insanity.

All in all, a wonderful day.

(Kirino watches the world burn and thinks, yeah, this is fine.)

-

-

-

Tsurugi only fires one own-goal in the history of Raimon-- but it's supposed to come in the Mannouzaka match, not the Tengawara match.

Which is why, when Kirino sees the boy's fists tightened by his sides-- and the one moment of breathy resolve in his shoulders as they step onto the field-- Kirino realizes what would be coming.

"Kurumada-senpai," Kirino approaches his fellow defender with a hurried whisper. "Fancy a chance to make the coolest opening shot in Holy Road history?"

The senior only looks back at him. "Huh? Shot?"

-

The Captains shake hands, and the Seeds exchange sneers. Though the former are stern and serious, almost polite even-- the latter is full of very obviously suppressed hatred for each others' mere existence.

That's a testament to just how much pressure is laid on the Seed of every team right now, especially the ones that are alone in their assignments, like Tsurugi.

When the whistle blew, Kurama reluctantly shoves the ball in the direction of the other forward.

Instead of passing it back or moving forward-- Tsurugi spins back, and-- with a strong swing-- sends it careening back toward the goal in a jet of dark light.

"Wha-- Tsurugi is firing toward his own goal! What could this--!!"

He turns away when the crowd responds with horrified gasps. This was an obvious sign of internal sabotage, and would definitely raise questions-- but a shoddily constructed story will definitely be better than facing the consequences of letting Raimon win right now.

"Kurumada-senpai!"

"YEAH!"

He looks up, horrified to find Kirino and Kurumada hurrying toward it, as if they've expected it. And, in a unity no one quite expected-- they crossed, and threw their feet forward against the ball.

Arms linked, they brace it back-- the force sending them skidding back until they were nearly two meters away from Sangoku--

--then, with a roar, they rebounded the force right back forward.

"Counter Drive!"

The jet of light, now a mixture of white shadows and churning wisps of smoke-- was sent spiralling forward, all the way across the field-- and right into the opposing goal before anyone could gather their horrified jaws from the floor to attempt to stop it.

"G- Go- GOALLL!!!" the announcer was hyped, "within mere moments of the kickoff we have our first goal! And it's by two defenders, no less! This is crazy!"

The Raimon team was no better. All jaws were on the ground, and the only noise was Kirino and Kurumada making excessively overexcited noises at each other.

"Okay, I wasn't expecting that to work oh my god it worked--"

"Ow ow ow my leg," Kurumada staggers toward the goal post, "okay, but like, never again. How the hell do the forwards do this?"

The next second had Tenma and, surprisingly, Kurama and Minamisawa, in the same sparkly-eyed state as they chased down their defenders and gawked.

"That was SO COOL!" Tenma all but squealed, "what was that? You guys made a hissatsu shoot out of nowhere?! Just like that?!"

"That was epic!" Kurama declares, "hey, me next! Minamisawa, think we could do that one? Like, next shot, us please!"

"Huhhhh I would, Kurama, but the height difference complicates things," Minamisawa teases, earning himself an immediately on-field noogie that came with the angry screech of 'I'll show you the power of the midgets, eggplant!'.

On the other side of the field Tsurugi could only stare, a dead look on his face.

"Hey!" Hayabusa, the Seed of Tengawara, growls, quickly confronting Tsurugi, "what is the meaning of this? Are you out of your mind, Tsurugi? What the hell are you doing?!"

Finally, Tsurugi sets hand at the top of his head and sighs in utter resignation.

With an infuriated roll of his eyes, he groans. He brushes his hair out of the way and looks to the sky-- wondering how far the sun was from here, and how much energy it would take to punt Tenma into it.

"You know what? I give up," Tsurugi mutters.

All blood drains out of Hayabusa's face, and he actually shrinks away slightly. Tsurugi is incredibly gratified by that, honestly.

"From here on," Tsurugi gestures at his team, "I'm gonna pretend I'm insane, too."

-

"So uh," the captain of Tengawara, Kita, speaks up. "You guys rebelling against Fifth Sector or something?"

Shindou turns to him with a resolved glance, his renewed fighting spirit backed right up by Ichino.

"Yeah," Shindou says, "Raimon is going to win this."

"W- What," Ichino taunts, though his nervous attempt in channelling a Kurama is obvious, "you got a problem with that? ...Or something?"

Kita crosses his arms and shrugs.

"Not particularly," he says, mildly gesturing at his own team. "Just telling you though, some of these guys get real rough when they're out of my reach. Now that Hayabusa's around, I'm less a captain than 'the spoilsport that yells at them too much'. It sucks."

"Comrade!" Shindou immediately declares, tearfully taking Kita's hands in his own.

"Uh, sounds like you've got it hard on your end too," Kita nods in sympathy.

Ichino winces. "Yeah... and don't worry about that, we kinda expected some rough plays already, when we heard we were going to fight you guys... don't worry though, we got some experience from our own resident Seed."

"Oh really?" Kita feigns surprise, and then smiles. "That makes it easy then. Help me do the dirty work, would you?"

Shindou needed a moment. "...Huh?"

"Oh, and uh," Kita leans in just a little, "I think you guys have noticed already, but #8, Nishinosora, and #10, Andou, are the biggest dicks on the team. Other than Hayabusa, they're the ones you should target the most."

Blinking, Ichino mildly registers this information.

"That's all!" Kita pats them on the shoulders. "Leaving it to you guys, thanks!"

And then he just leaves, rallying his team to get back in position before the ball gets thrown back in.

Shindou and Ichino are left frozen there.

In the distance, Endou laughs dryly. He doesn't need to hear what happened there to understand the flabbergasted, horrified look on Shindou's face.

"Like Coach, like Captain, huh..."

"So, uh... that just happened," Ichino says. "Permission to sic the scaryface team on our new targets?"

"Would you listen if I told you no?" Shindou mutters defeatedly.

"Yes, honestly," Ichino replies. "Except..."

From right behind Ichino's shoulder, Hamano emerges, eyes twinkling in excitement.

"Nope!" declares the midfielder, before launching off toward the rest of the team, "Kurama, Minamisawa! New mission! You'll love this one!"

-

"What's wrong, Tsurugi?" Minamisawa snickers.

Tsurugi grinds his teeth.

"If I don't get enough severance pay for my rent this month, I'm making sure I drag all of you down with me," is his immediate reply. The whistle blows, and Tsurugi steals the ball, passing it almost immediately to Shindou.

Kurama cracks out a laugh.

"Welcome to Crazyland, edgelord!"

"Shut the hell up and clear the way for me to use Death Sword!"

-

In the stands, a different degree of insanity was going on. Former Coach Kudou finds Megane Kakeru and Fudou Akio at the audience, munching on handfuls of potato chips with binoculars, a very familiar pink camera, a laptop, and a really nice headset with an attaching microphone.

(Ah, makes sense. The strict no-camera regulations only apply to everyone that has access to the field. The audience, and reporters, have full access to everything.)

"Do I want to know why you guys are wearing hoodies in this weather?"

The both of them barely flinch at the sudden attention. They simply shrugged, "I was told this is the dress code," and then continued with whatever they were doing.

Former Coach Kudou thinks he might have a headache soon. "I'm busy enough with the Resistance, seriously," he mutters, "did Otonashi put you up to this?"

The dual thumbs-ups confirmed his horrors.

"I wash my hands from this," Former Coach Kudou declares.

"That's okay, we'll try asking Touko-chan's dad to be the responsible adult."

"But he's the prime mini--?!" he stops short and quickly turns around, "I do not want to know. If the Resistance approaches you guys, pretend I never knew you existed."

"Gotcha," Fudou says, taking a sip of his soda, "oh hey, another super rough play with no call from the referee. Note that down, note that down."

"Aye, Coach Kudou," Megane waves dismissively, "huh, from who? Is it #6 the Seed again?"

"Aaand, another. Oh, look, the referee decided to call it this time. Raimon's got an injured player now."

"Seriously, is the whole Inazuma Menace Legion in on this?" Former Coach Kudou asks, slightly dreading the answer.

"Of course not," Megane says, and Kudou might have breathed out in relief before the boy adds, "we're keeping Endou in the dark for now cause he's the prime suspect in Fifth Sector's investigations."

Why did I ever have hope?

Quietly, Former Coach Kudou walks away. Internally, he thinks he should be proud of all this initiative, but at the same time, he's also the one who knows most about the horrors of this team if you let them run as wild as they can.

And well... if this interferes with the Resistance, at least it'll be Hibiki's problem, not Kudou's.

-

Tengawara wasn't a terrible team skillwise or anything-- but if they could allow three players to score two goals last time when they let their guard down, there was no way they could win against Raimon either way.

Well, to some degree, anyways.

"Okay, Minamisawa out. Shinsuke, get in there," Coach Endou directs. "Tsurugi and Kurama, keep the two-top formation-- Ichino, take Minamisawa's old spot on middle-left."

With a pained grunt, Minamisawa is led to the benches, where Aoi rushes over with an ice pack.

Halftime at a score of 2 - 1 (in Raimon's favour) came with the unfortunate realization that Minamisawa had to be switched out before his foot broke for real. They've been playing without Hayami and Shinsuke on the field, but it seems they'll have to bring Ichino up on the formation.

Akane hands Shindou a bottle of their drink as the team frustrated over the situation that unfortunately didn't look as promising as they'd hoped.

"It's one Keshin against the other, right?"

"That just means he can score as much as I can," Tsurugi says, "it's not like I can keep marking him indefinitely. How about you figure out how to master your own Keshin, Shindou?"

"Ack," Shindou turns away, "even if you say that..."

"Speaking of Keshin..." attention turned toward Kirino, "didn't you say that you and Tenma had one too?"

Kirino immediately dismissed the claim, "no, no. We're worse off than Shindou right now, let's stick with our usual tactic instead of aiming too high, alright?"

Tsurugi grinds his teeth. He's been doing most of the work thus far. "People who aren't Seeds can't possibly master their Keshin--"

"Someone give Tsurugi a chop to the head before he gets overconfident."

"He already is."

"Well, hit him anyway."

Kirino watched with mild interest as the team collectively charge at Tsurugi, and he sees the moment Tsurugi prepares to elbow them out of his personal space before hesitating because wait, people are watching, earning him some very fervent cheek tugs by a Shinsuke that somehow got on his shoulders.

"Damn it those guys. I mean, it's great they actually got called out on their foul this time, but geez!" Minamisawa rants, "talk about being absolute sore losers..."

"Now, now, everyone, I know you're all hungry for murder, but don't retaliate--" Endou whirls back around with a warning, zeroing in on Kurama's almost murderous glare. Oh no. "Shindou! Make sure no feet get broken."

"Yeah, Kurama, don't stoop to their level," Shindou steps forward, setting a hand on the forward's shoulder. "Aim for the ribs instead."

Endou's palpable disappointment could be felt from the other end of the bench.

Kirino had to furiously hold back his laughter.

"If you guys need a scapegoat, I can do it," Tsurugi says, "I know how to foul without being seen and I hate Hayabusa with every fibre of my being."

"Hey, what's with you guys!" Tenma snaps, approaching them angrily. "Don't play foul! That's mean! This crude, unfriendly turn of events isn't enjoyable at all, it's not soccer!"

The team stops harassing Tsurugi for a moment.

Then, "oh no! It's a cinnamon roll and I'm allergic to sugar!" Kurama screams, acting like he's been assaulted, "get it away from me! Aggghhh! It burns!"

Immediately, Minamisawa plays along, reaching for his face, "my EYES! Mercy!"

Instead of getting angry, Tenma actually starts tearing up. "Hey, I'm being serious here!" he says, though he can't suppress the sniffle that comes after. He looks more miffed than genuinely hurt, though.

Hamano actually reaches over to hug him, because "ah, a precious child. Don't worry about the mean guys, we're here with you."

"That's not an assurance, Hamano," Sangoku remarks, dryly. "You're chaotic neutral."

"But yeah, all jokes aside," Kirino finally enters, interrupting Kurama and Minamisawa's dramatics, "all threats should be empty. We're here to play slightly rough soccer, not initiate schemes of who can play the dirtiest or how much we can mock the other team without the crowd noticing. That's just the plot of a bad anime."

"He's right!" Aoi picks it right up, huffing angrily, "it's funny to give them a taste of their own medicine, but we're rebelling to play soccer! We're not making a statement if we don't do this with honest sportsmanship!"

Tenma cries, genuinely relieved, "thank god, Kirino-senpai and Aoi, I knew I could count on you to be on my side!"

"I've got no opinion on accidents though, specifically on #10 for the risky ankle cruncher he pulled," Aoi immediately says, a mischievous smile curling onto her face, eliciting a depaired wail from Tenma.

And everyone in the team (except Sangoku and Kirino) unanimously cheered.

"I never thought I'd see the day," Kirino mutters to himself, "Tenma is the sane one right now. Am I dreaming right now?"

"I want to retire," Sangoku grumbles into his shoulder. "When did Shindou join the insanity legion? He was my last hope."

Endou watches the entire thing unfold with a stiff smile on his face.

"Well, uh," he gives Ms. Otonashi a shaky thumbs up, "this is out of my hands now! Coach Kudou probably had some plans for me becoming the coach of this team, but you know what? I'll just apologize later with some sake."

She huffs. "Only if you treat me some too and keep it all a secret from Nii-san."

-

Needless to say, it wasn't too hard to win from there.

Tsurugi, in his pompous habitat, decided to show Shindou how exactly one goes about to summon and wield their Keshin.

Shindou then proceeded to pull grade A prodigy bullshit and imitate it perfectly, and even managed to shoot off a Harmonics already.

"I did it! Thanks, Tsurugi!" Shindou says, honestly happy with himself.

Tsurugi balks as an excited Shindou and Tenma hound him for more tips. "What the-- I wasn't doing it to help you! Don't come near me!"

"Hey hey do you have a Keshin Shoot too, Tsurugi? Show us, show us!"

"Absolutely the hell not!"

Kirino sits out for the latter half of the second half simply because he was much too flabbergasted to play at that point.

"I'm sorry, Fei, I think I just broke the common sense barrier in this timeline," Kirino says defeatedly. He can imagine Oda Nobunaga and Shokatsu Koumei (two tactical assholes) being completely thrilled by this turn of events.

"Did you say something, Kirino?" Minamisawa asks.

"No, nothing," he says.

"By the way, where did Akane go?" Endou asks, "I thought she was here just a second ago."

"To the locker rooms," Minamisawa says. "She went to... change the battery on my left hearing aid. We had permission from Ms Otonashi."

Huh.

"Ah, I see," Endou notes, turning back to the match, though he was a little suspicious.

It's a little known fact that Minamisawa even had them-- they were hidden behind his hair most of the time, and he doesn't even need them to hear well enough during a match (Shindou has always led him with God's Baton, which also helped)--so it made sense he wanted them now that he was on the bench.

"So, the real reason?" Seto Midori prompts, leaning in closer to the senior.

"She asked for an excuse to go to the locker room and I gave her one," Minamisawa boldly admits. Then, a snide grin, "by the way, Midori, I think it's about time you joined the crew."

Right on cue, Kirino comes over with a clipboard-- Ms Otonashi's, it seems-- and sits down between them, flipping up the pages to a business card with a single logo on it.

It's a logo pretty familiar to Kirino, but only slightly for anyone else in the know.

(It's the El Dorado logo. Because if Kirino is playing this scheme, he's going all out.)

"So, Midori-san, forgive the cliche, I've been trying to get them to change the recruitment phrase but I've been vetoed a little too unanimously--" Kirino says, "--do you have a moment to hear about our lord and saviour, Sakka-sama?"

-

A sharp string of trumpets give way to electric pianos-- the ripping of a guitar interrupts the tune, and fades away to the beginning of the El Dorado podcast.

"Soccer should be played freely. If we win, we celebrate. If we lose, we cry on each other's shoulders-- these blood, sweat, and tears are what makes soccer the soccer we love! If you think so as well, then we welcome you into our cause."

Akane walks through the hallways of the Tengawara Stadium, making her way back toward the Raimon locker room.

Strangely enough, a pink and white hoodie was draped over her shoulders, half-worn as she fiddled with what might have been a hearing aid, might have been a wireless microphone, around her ear.

"Spare a moment of your day-- and we shall unveil the truth. This is El Dorado on the field, and today, we have a lot to say."

Aoyama sits in the hidden room of the Kidou House, streaming it all live on their website.

With the match going on, the people in the stadium hardly noticed. This time, it wasn't an interruption on all devices in the world-- this time was just a stream on their website.

But they still raked in hundreds of views-- and Aoyama saw that as an absolute win.

"People may wonder after yesterday's broadcast-- why does this happen? Why isn't anyone revolting? Why are the teams still playing, and why are the coaches, even some that may be trusted soccer players of a higher caliber, denying their involvement in any of the truth?"

People were listening to the stream, watching it on the website-- and rapidly, it reached the ears of the press. The soccer match was not interrupted, of course-- but there was a clear disarray.

The players and coaches-- not even Kakima Ayumu, the announcer, was aware of what happened until after the match ended. The 'no-cellphones' clause ended up working horribly unfavourable in their direction, it seemed.

Akane clicks a button at the edge of her hearing device-- and a slot opens, revealing a little, but fully functional, hidden camera.

Reaching into Tsurugi's locker, she takes out a phone.

"Allow me to tell you about the Seeds, and the hold Fifth Sector has on them."

-

The video didn't show whose locker it was, never said who the phone belonged to, or even showed any phone straps or wallpapers that could be used as identification-- it barely even showed the screen of the phone aside from the messages-- but Yuuichi would recognize that red flip phone anywhere.

So imagine his horror, when the laptop set before him began showing him everything.

From the orders to 'destroy Raimon'-- but 'spare the one with the Keshin, we're interested in that one'-- and finally the horrifying exchange-- 'you do know your brother's surgery counts on our benevolence, don't you?' and the almost chastised response, 'yes, sir'.

Names were never mentioned.

(But he knew instantly.)

His hands were trembling. He didn't think he could breathe.

Two knocks on the door wrench Tsurugi Yuuichi right out of his thoughts-- and his confused, fearful eyes come to a stop at the sight of his visitor.

"What's wrong, Yuu-tan?" Kazunari asks, stepping in with a cake box. "You don't usually look that spooked to see me, right?"

Yuuichi barely manages to compose himself, turning briefly toward the broadcast before turning right back to him, unlatching one side of his ear buds-- but he couldn't focus.

"Ah... no, it's nothing, Kazu-kun, just..." his eyes stilled slightly on the visitor. "Seriously, where the hell did you come from?"

"You're such a cold person. I'm the only one from our class that still visits you, you know?"

"Stop depressing me, I know I have no other friends, okay?"

A deep sigh.

"Honestly, I think I may have..." Yuuichi sets a hand on his forehead, the other clutching tightly against his sheets. Then, deciding against the polite speech, "...I fucked up, big time. As a big brother. What the hell do I do now?"

Kirino Kazunari blinks at that.

Then, opening the cake box and furiously tearing it open, he slams it down on the overbed table. Finally, he shoves a fork in his direction.

"I'm glad you asked. For now, we're both going to eat a whole cake and rant like drunk men," he orders. "Here's your fork." 

Tsurugi Yuuichi stares. 

It really is a whole cake in that box, and that's honestly impressive how Kazunari is just digging into it like he planned to do this all along. Did Kazunari come here intending on ranting his heart out too? Was it younger brother troubles, he wondered... but honestly? He's not going to ask. 

"Did you sneak in some beer too?" Tsurugi prompts hopefully. 

"We're underage, and this is a hospital," Kazunari raised a brow at his incredulous suggestion. Yuuichi chuckles at that.

Then, Kazu takes a thermos out of his inner jacket pocket.

"Of course I did."

-

"Ah, yes? This is Kidou Yuuto. Huh? Do I want to join the 'big brothers that are tired of this shit' club? Uh... I'll consider, but who am I speaking to?"

-

"WHO TOOK MY PHONE AND BROADCASTED IT ALL OVER THE INTERNET?!"

...is the first thing Tsurugi yells upon entering the Raimon Caravan.

Thankfully, though the broadcast broke down the contents of the texts-- though it connected this to similar events in other games too, not just Raimon-- it did not specifically say that the Seed in question was Tsurugi.

It could be argued that the common public do not yet know Tsurugi is a Seed.

(Which he is grateful for if only for the fact that reporters won't be hoarding his brother's hospital room for all this mess.)

Hayami was operating Ms Otonashi's laptop, and the seniors of the team all squeezed into one corner of the bus to get a view and stay within earshot. The livestream had ended, but the recording was still up. The entire internet was abuzz all over again.

Near the front, Kirino was sharing snacks with Shindou, watching the same stream from Shindou's phone. Shinsuke and Tenma watch overhead from the seats behind them, Aoi and Midori leaning in to get a better look.

"Huh? Tsurugi, you're going home on the bus today?"

"You think I can walk around in the open after what happened?!" Tsurugi snaps, "I'll get dragged into a van and I'll be missing before sunset!"

"...okay, so Tsurugi just likened Fifth Sector to a kidnapping agency."

"Akane, tell me you recorded that, please."

"I did! Currently taking a picture to commemorate!"

"This is no laughing matter!" Tsurugi raises his voice. "It was in the locker room, so I know it was one of you! Forget being fired, if they get me, I'm either getting assassinated or deported right back to God Eden and if either of those things happen I will curse you all for seven generations!"

"Guys, I like this Tsurugi a lot more than the edgelord we had up until now!"

At that much-too cheerful exclamation from Shinsuke, Tsurugi makes a choked, devastated noise, arms reaching up to strangle the air in a sort of furious half-threat only suppressed by the remaining dredges of his human morals.

"Are we just going to ignore the 'deported' part of that sentence? We are?" Hayami asks, then, when he receives no answer, "alright then."

"Don't worry, if El Dorado takes Fifth Sector down, you'll be fine," says the very unimpressed Minamisawa, currently fiddling with a game on his phone while Hamano and Akane watched on.

Tsurugi reaches an epiphany. "This was all you guys' plot to get me out of there, wasn't it?!"

"What are you talking about, Tsurugi?" Tenma asks, approaching him. "But that's great! Now you can live without listening to their orders! By the way uh... should you be calling Yuuichi-san?"

"Goddammit Tenma you met my brother for like half a minute and I still don't want you anywhere near him!"

"Let's all go visit him with a basket of fruits next time!"

"Are you listening to me?!"

There's a sniffle in the crowd from Kurumada and Amagi, "goddammit Tsurugi! You were doing it all for your brother? This is tragic! How dare Fifth Sector use you like that!"

Sangoku pats Tsurugi on the shoulder, looking a little teary-eyed himself. "Don't worry, Tsurugi! We're all on your side now. We'll do all we can to help!"

"I don't need your pity!" Tsurugi barks. "Whoever the culprit is--!!"

"Now, now, Tsurugi," Endou pats him on the head, "how about we sit down first before the reporters come crashing in? Let's all have dinner somewhere before we go home, how about it?"

"Yeah!" Tenma says, taking Tsurugi by the arm while Aoi latches onto the other side almost naturally, "c'mon, you haven't seen the full stream yet, right? They're talking about Seeds!"

Tsurugi mutters some obscene swear word under his breath, but allows himself to be shoved into a seat, Shindou bringing the phone over mid-bite of his pocky as the unidentifiable voice continued to speak about Seeds and the purpose they served in each soccer team.

He found himself sighing, leaning back almost contentedly against the seat.

Ishido Shuuji's chances of winning the Holy Emperor elections this year is quite literally a complete bust. Why even try, at this point?

"So, where can we find a place to eat that won't immediately flood us with interview questions?" Endou asks.

Ms Otonashi has her phone out, "well, we're definitely not eating at your house, so I'll try calling someone that can actually cook."

"Please never let Natsumi hear you say that."

-

"Someone leaked my DMs so now the corrupt government agency I used to work for is hunting me down to silence me, and my brother is also out for my blood because I didn't tell him I was working for soccer Hitler, so now I have nowhere to go because they know where I live. Can I stay here for the night?"

Every player in the Raimon Caravan was treated to the sight of Kino Aki's slowly contorting facial expressions as she tried to figure out if she should be surprised, confused, empathetic, flabbergasted, or horrified.

"Now that's a sentence you don't hear every day," Kurumada says, "when you put it like that, it uh.. You know... sounds kinda sad."

Kurama and Amagi are dying of laughter. "S-" a loud snort, "-soccer Hitler! He said it! He said soccer Hitler with a straight face!"

"I aspire to reach that level of apathetic edge," Minamisawa says, genuinely in awe.

"Sorry, Fei, I just destroyed Tsurugi Kyousuke's entire character," Kirino mutters melancholically into his own reflection in the window.

"Did you say something, Kirino?"

"No, nothing."

Deciding to save the woman from the awkward situation, Endou steps out of the van. "Oh hey, Aki! Long time no see!"

"Aki! It's been so long," Ms Otonashi escapes the car to greet her long-time friend with all the cheer of an excited teenager.

Aki responds in turn, taking her hands in her own and squealing. "Haruna! Look at you! Going all expensive businesswoman on me, geez, that was supposed to be Natsumi's job, you know? I see you haven't ditched the reading glasses."

"Well, guess who transcended all expectations and-- well, pretty much fit the stereotype, actually. What about you? Is it going well with you know who?"

"Oh, stop teasing me! You know you don't have to ask that every time!"

"Oh no, once they get going on the reminiscing train they'll never stop," Endou mutters, catching the attention of very confused teammates, especially Tenma, at this point.

More teammates began to alight from the caravan, watching their advisor and the matron of the Kogarashi Manor interact like long time besties.

"Uhm... I heard you two were classmates or schoolmates, but..." Tenma mutters, bewildered, "uhm?"

"Huh? Aki didn't tell you?" Endou turns to him.

"That!" Tenma zeroes right in, "you're on a first name basis?!"

Endou winces at the very skeptical looks from everyone, "hey, hey, c'mon, kids. Chill with the-- please do not make a gossip feature about this, Akane, I can see you-- plus, I'm married. Aki and I have just been childhood friends for a very long time, alright?"

"Eh?!"

"Why are you so surprised?" Endou adds, "Aki and Otonashi were the managers of Raimon Eleven when I was playing, you know? Of course, in Inazuma Japan, too."

"HUH?!" came the much-too-loud exclamations.

Jaws dropped. And hell, Kirino was shocked, too.

Whether by design or by sheer saintly ignorance, Kino Aki had invited the team over to the Kogarashi Manor countless times, and they had been made known of the coach's friendship with said woman-- but never have the adults actually revealed to the team that they had been the managers, and by extension, actual members, of Inazuma Japan.

"Wait, Aki-nee, you didn't tell me that!" Tenma is understandably very peeved.

Suddenly garnering a whole lot of attention, (though Haruna was very proud of suddenly being viewed in a whole new light,) Aki chuckles, looking away a little bashfully.

"Oh uh... I didn't think it was important?"

"You didn't think it was important to tell me, who has been dreaming of Raimon Junior High my whole life, that you were the manager of the most legendary Raimon soccer team in current history?!"

"Now now, let's all go eat di--"

"Don't change the subject!!"

"--nner, and oh, before I forget. Tsurugi-kun, you're of course welcome to stay the night!" she beams, "or the whole year, if you want. How can I leave a homeless student out on a summer night like this? I already have one freeloader--"

"--I am your cousin--"

"--so what's one more?" Aki smiles. "The building's a little old, but I hope you're fine with that. Beggars can't be choosers, after all."

"Ah yes, I will... deal with it," Tsurugi didn't know how to keep up his edgelord image when confronted by a nice and caring older lady, it seems, because he's reverted to polite speech. "Thanks very much, I'll be in your care."

"AKI-NEE!!" Tenma continued to demand attention, only to be ignored.