8. make some noise (let's charge ahead.)

The team comes around, and the plan proceeds.

Kirino gathers up little pieces of evidence that can be used to expose Fifth Sector's deeds. And as their effort grow, they realize their group has to, too.

Meanwhile, Tenma has a mission.

A very fun mission.

-

-

-

Kirino wakes up with a start.

He straightens from the bed, planting a hand firmly at his head as the disorientation whirls through. He squeezes his eyes shut, clenching tightly at the sheets.

"Kirino?"

He spins quickly, finding Shindou beside him.

The captain yawns, not quite ready to wake up yet. The curtains were drawn, but it was still clearly dark out. A look toward the clock and he groans-- it's four in the morning, of all things.

"Ah, sorry," Kirino says, hating that his voice is raspier than it needs to be.

Shindou cranks open an eye. "What's wrong?" he says, his voice slurred with sleep. Blindly, his hand crawls out from under the sheets, finding Kirino's hand and wrapping his fingers around the wrist.

"N- nothing," Kirino turns away. "Just a bad dream."

That's the wrong thing to say, because all of Shindou's consciousness shoots right back into him and he bolts upright, looking at Kirino closely.

Kirino belatedly remembers that dreams are not easy things to dismiss for him right now.

Shindou grabs him and, apparently he has energy now, so he pointedly reminds him to "stay right there and don't move!" before leaving the room.

He emerges a moment later with hot chocolate.

(Kirino's almost embarrassed.)

"Going back to sleep?" Shindou asks, once they've calmed down.

Kirino shakes his head. "I may as well go for a run," he says. The hospital had told him to use his legs as much as he can, so he could find his hard limit and work from there.

"Then I'll go with--"

"No, no," Kirino says with a laugh. "We all know you need seven hours or you'll conk out in the classroom. I'm not being responsible for that today."

Shindou does the unthinkable-- he pouts. "I can handle it!"

"Absolutely not," Kirino says with extra confidence.

-

Kirino was expecting the run to be uneventful. Classic Inazuma daytime views, the beautiful sunrise by the steel tower-- and the dew-ridden trail.

He hasn't done a relaxing jog like this since he got here. It makes him realize his stamina isn't as great as he's used to (but then again, he had three years of practice to make up for, mentally,) and his pacing, attuned to his older body, is entirely out of whack.

He'll have to work on that.

When he crosses under the bridge, he makes a stop to tie his shoelaces.

"How did you know I'd go this way?" Kirino asks, not quite looking up to the person he was talking to.

Hidden in the slope, laying down like a homeless man seeking a naptime spot-- was Coach Kudou, evidently having a purpose for being there this whole time. He even had a can of coffee, for god's sake. How long has he been here?

Kirino is only assuming he's there for him-- but really, with Coach Kudou, you've got to do everything in halves and hope you're right.

"I didn't," Coach Kudou answers. "But you were looking for me, so anywhere would have been fine."

(Oh, damn it, Coach Kudou, you know everything we get it shut up.)

Kirino scoffs, but doesn't say anything.

The Coach sits up, and fixes a stern eye on the defender. "Now tell me Kirino-- what exactly are you planning?"

The moment he said that-- Kirino's eyes lit up with mischief.

And you know what they say. When you Mixi-max with someone, your psyche ends up changing just a little, somehow.

(That's why Wondeba discouraged experimentation for people who didn't have Keshins. This could cause mental confusion in people who didn't yet have a tight grasp on their emotional states, after all-- so Tenma's generation was the last they ever used the Mixi-max on. Not that it stopped them from running wild.)

Kirino's inner Kariya decides he wants to play.

"I don't know, Coach," Kirino fixes his other shoelace, before standing up and adjusting his wristwatch. "I'd say I was starting a revolution inside of Raimon, but somehow, I feel like that's also part of someone else's master plan. I don't like being made to dance on someone's palm."

He's gratified by the way Coach Kudou just buries his face into his palms in silence.

Then, "don't be reckless now."

"What are you talking about, Coach?" he says, lilting cheekily, "I'm the most careful person on the team, you know that."

Coach Kudou gives him a very unimpressed look.

"I won't interfere with you," he says. "But if you ever get out of hand..." He trails off.

There's really nothing he can threaten here without sounding like the Coach he isn't anymore. Or Fifth Sector, depending on the angle.

"Just stay safe," he says, having nothing else in his arsenal.

He's getting a headache, from the looks of it, and Kirino's gonna brag about this to everyone. He gave the cryptid arsehole a cryptid payback-- that sounds like something Hikaru would say.

"Is there anything you need me to do?" the Coach finally offers, because they both know that was the point of this impromptu meeting.

Kirino blinks. Then he extends both his hands like a child would ask for otoshidama on New Years, "your eviction notice, please?"

Coach Kudou sighs. "I'm definitely going to regret this, aren't I?"

Kirino beams, "not if you keep what I do a secret from the Resistance!"

Coach Kudou almost drops his coffee, which is a very good sign.

-

The next day goes better than expected.

Tsurugi is silent when they meet for morning practice. Maybe because he already has his next orders laid out, whatever they are. Everyone gives him a wide berth when he passes by, and the guy takes it cooly.

"Amazing," is the first thing Shindou manages to say when they get to the field.

Because against all expectations, they've got a full club today.

And most of them are incredibly excited to get started. One of those is Hayami, and Shindou briefly wonders if it was going to start snowing. Hayami hasn't been this excited for anything since that one history class about the three kingdoms.

"I realized that I shouldn't give up on my dreams," he says with the straightest, most serious face he can muster.

Shindou is honestly freaked out by those serious eyes, and when Hayami grabs his shoulders he wants to scream in horror.

But Hamano appears behind him, blocking out his escape route. Then he seriously, very sternly adds that "never give up on soccer. Soccer will prevail. Believe in the soccer that believes in you."

Shindou wants to call an exorcist.

Meanwhile, Kurumada has Kirino's shoulders in his hands, staring at the defender with all the determination of a mother on black friday. "We want to save soccer, Kirino. Right? We're saving soccer, no matter who gets in our way! Definitely! We'll be here with you every step of the way!" he declares, tearfully.

Kirino only manages a horrified, bewildered, and very awkward, "uhm. Yeah... okay. I appreciate it, Kurumada-san. Thank you."

Shindou is slightly less composed. "Wha- urk-- dude, can all-- wait, all-- Can all three of you calm down?!"

In the distance, Midori yells out excited roars of "kill Fifth Sector dead! We won against aliens! We can win against adults!" to the confusion of the other managers on the bench.

Ms Otonashi's face is looking slightly red, like she's suffering from second hand embarrassment of some sort.

Well, at least they've come around.

"Hey, Amagi! You could've caught that pass. Get your head in the game!"

"Even if you say that..."

But Kurama and Minamisawa are acting like nothing happened, even berating the ones that aren't taking practice seriously enough-- which is pretty much the direct juxtaposition to what originally happened.

And to make it stranger, Amagi is quite literally the only one still having doubts. Sangoku is conflicted, but compliant. Everyone else is just eager to get things going, even if Kurama and Minamisawa were only doing it out of spite.

Kirino isn't sure how to feel about it at all.

"I can't get motivated when all this is going down."

"That's exactly why you should be motivated!" Kurumada says, loudly, "can't do anything when you're depressed! We've already got an edgelord, don't need another!"

"Correction, we have two," Hamano corrects.

"Wait, who are you counting?" Minamisawa raises a brow at the count.

He knew there was a drama queen club (cough, Hayami and Shindou,) the borderline-delinquents club that takes care of shit talkers (Amagi, Kurumada, and Kurama,) and the parent club (Kirino and Sangoku, with Hamano as eccentric uncle,) but an edgelord club?

"Well that would be you, Minamisawa," Hamano counts, then looks behind his shoulder, "and I'm counting Tsurugi. He's the literal definition of one."

"Huh?!" both of them collectively react to it, because even Tsurugi, who was only half listening he swears, is baffled.

"Don't group me in with him!"

"Don't group me in with all of you!"

And so begins the argument again, though it's about anything but Fifth Sector's tyranny this time. Minamisawa argues being put in the same group as Tsurugi even by metajoke, and Tsurugi is trying to establish that he isn't part of their social circle. Neither of them are succeeding.

Meanwhile, Shinsuke and Tenma watch it all unfold from a safe spot behind Sangoku.

"So, Tenma and Shinsuke," Kirino says. He managed to escape Kurumada's speech of manliness when he was distracted, "wanna go practice over there, away from all this?"

"Uhm..." Tenma's jaw is still dropped from the scene, "can we?"

"Oh! I wanna," Shinsuke turns over, uninterested in the other seniors, "can you show us your hissatsu again? It was so cool!"

"That's right!" Tenma says, suddenly remembering the instance in the game from yesterday, "I want to see it too, if possible! Please?"

"Sure, sure. Let's just walk away slowly so they don't notice us."

It's chaos, and because Shindou is still trying to quell the excitement emanating from a currently adrenaline high Hayami (and Sangoku is busy facepalming) practice is forgotten and the commotion doesn't ease at all.

Ms Otonashi watches the scene in defeat.

Ichino yawns, sitting on the bench and honestly glad that today's practice is lax and he doesn't have to focus on it at all. He and Aoyama had spent the whole night dealing with the website, filling it up with more content before they could publish it bit by bit.

Needless to say, he didn't get much sleep and he wanted some now.

They seriously needed at least one adult to help out in their plan, if they wanted it to work. Right now it was a little more than a pet project.

So he was thinking, now-- who would fit the bill of an adult that would help them without question? Coach Kudou? Kirino had refused to include their coach in this plan, though Ichino didn't quite understand the reasoning behind it.

(Seriously, Kirino didn't even want his brother knowing about it. For someone taking one dramatic risk of their lives, Kirino really didn't take risks in the weirdest places.)

"Hey hey, what's going on here?"

And that's the scene Endou walks into that day-- one overly enthusiastic manager, a defeated club advisor, a handful of players actually practicing in the corner, and a motley crowd of nonsensical arguments that honestly just look like kids fighting over superhero movie opinions or something.

Anyone that isn't included in that equation just sits around at the sidelines, looking exhausted by everything.

Endou thinks he loves it already.

-

Hayami, Hamano and Kurumada are absolutely ecstatic when the legendary goalkeeper Endou shows up as their new coach. Especially after learning about the whole alien battling saga from Ms Otonashi.

It still shocks the living daylights out of everyone, though.

Ichino actually takes a moment in his half-asleep state to register it-- and when he does, he shrieks. Shindou is similar in his late reaction-- but unlike Ichino, his jaw drops and he absolutely loses his voice for a full minute.

Kirino smirks at the captain. "I was right, wasn't I?"

Just a couple days ago, he'd jokingly suggested the possibility of Coach Endou coming back. And there he is. And he's going to make a point out of being smug about it.

Shindou's speechless. "But this-- you've-- I-- but, Kirino, you can't be-- oh my god." This made absolutely no sense and he can't believe Kirino's wishful thinking is coming true. Maybe this revolution is possible after all, with this stroke of insanity.

(He should change their team slogan to "Insanity is IN" or something.)

A few people look their way in confusion, but Kirino doesn't entertain them with a response. They seem to understand that mischievous grin, so they don't ask either.

What really confuses everyone is when Akane greets Endou, and Endou awkwardly responds back like a nervous dad trying to hide his embarrassment in front of his daughter's friends.

Seriously, how do they know each other again?

Anyways-- Coach Endou clears his throat, and gets his head back into the situation, trying to hide the slight embarrassed flush on his cheeks.

"I expected to find you guys a lot more down than this," he admits, honestly taken aback.

In the distance, Tsurugi mutters to himself in agreement. "They're not supposed to be this excited about impulsively starting a rebellion, but what the hell."

Endou beams at him, apparently acquiring super hearing, "that's nice and fine, ain't it! Soccer should always be like this. All of you are one and together, and that's awesome!"

When the coach asks them to go to the riverbank this time, everyone is still noticeably confused by the need. They had a perfectly available field-- two, in fact, indoors and outdoors-- and yet, they're going out of the school for it?

"You can see something there that you can't see here."

That confuses them even more.

Kirino hums at that. He hadn't been here to really see it the first time around-- he went to Shindou's house, skipped out, and then came back in time to see Tsurugi try to take Coach Endou's head off with Death Sword.

(And this time around, Kirino managed to find out earlier on that Coach Endou was taking the season off for a broken arm. ...Come to think of it, maybe Coach Endou didn't use a hissatsu back then because of his barely healing arm? That really explains it.)

But Kirino didn't hear clearly what it was that they 'couldn't see in school' back then. Maybe he'll find the answer to that this time.

"I want to learn from Coach Endou!" Tenma says, surprising everyone as he's the first to speak after Coach Endou leaves the field. "Coach Kudou told me that too-- that we have to find our answers with soccer, and work together with the new coach."

"Me too," Shinsuke says. "Hey, you think Coach Kudou knew it would be Coach Endou?"

And that really makes sense, doesn't it-- Coach Kudou was a very vocal coach. Was.

He only got quiet nearer to last year, and most of the seniors found that strange. Though, at the time, they'd only dismissed it as the Coach feeling resigned to the situation as well.

"He did tell me he knew he was getting fired," Shindou admits, "I think he understood that better than anyone else, and that's why he made preparations beforehand..."

That was probably the most logical conclusion. But this wouldn't have been possible normally-- so Coach Kudou must have had connections higher up the chain of command.

(And that sounds ridiculous. Didn't they all hate Fifth Sector?)

"I really can't see Fifth Sector approving of this, though," Hamano admits. "The first thing he says is that we're aiming to win. I mean-- I'm all for it, but it's strange."

"Yeah, it's suspicious," Amagi says, "think he's gonna sell us out?"

Minamisawa shrugs, "what's another sellout when we've got a Seed in our midst?"

Tsurugi scoffs at that. At this point, his entire presence here was just an excuse for them to diss him out whenever they wanted. Maybe he should leave.

He was a Seed, alright, but even he had no idea what the hell was going on here. He'd been told time and again to stay on standby-- because unlike most Seeds that are sent to problematic schools, he was alone here. That meant there was little he could literally do outside of waiting on orders-- not that Seed work was ever anything clean, anyways.

"I don't trust this," Sangoku says.

Tenma balks, "eh? I mean-- I get it, but... it's Endou-san we're talking about here. I'm sure he's--"

"I'm sure," Kurama interrupts, emphasizing with a sharp tone as he stops Tenma from talking with his hand. As usual, he adores the idea of disagreeing with Tenma. "He's got something up his sleeve that he isn't telling us."

Minamisawa agrees with that notion, and so did the rest of the third years. "He's being cryptid and vague," he says. "I've had enough of this mystery man vibe from Coach Kudou already."

And really, they all know that feeling.

Sometimes they really want to grab the older man by the collar, and yell at him to just 'tell us straight out! We don't have time for some last minute plot twist nor do we have the patience!' so they can get it over with, but alas...

(In hindsight, that's probably where Coach Endou gets it.)

"I'm going," Kirino says, if only to earn their gobsmacked reactions.

It takes a moment, but Hamano agrees. "Me too, then! I want to talk to him more about the alien invasion stuff," he says, giving Hayami a side eye that indicates he said that particular point simply to rile up his little geek friend, "and what's the worst that can happen anyways?"

"Oh, me too!" Hayami says, obliviously falling for Hamano's bait, "there's a lot I still haven't asked Otonashi-sensei yet. It'll be faster to just ask Endou-san about it, right?"

"You still have stuff to ask?" Ms Otonashi says, exasperated.

"Yay! We got Hamano-senpai and Hayami-senpai along!" Tenma says, "let's all go together, right? I'm sure it'll be fun!"

"Fun, you say..." Shindou sighs, "is this really a situation to have fun in? We involved ourselves in something quite serious, you know?"

"That's exactly why we should have fun now!" Aoi says, and Tenma echoes belatedly in agreement. Shinsuke pipes up a second later that he's in agreement as well.

Sangoku and Shindou sigh at that.

Honestly, it really does feel like they need to take this seriously, like the Resistance. Buck up and be prepared for any countermeasures, that kind of thing.

But that would be like going straight into Fifth Sector's palms to be crushed.

Plus, all these kids ever wanted was to have proper fun. The Resistance may be taking this seriously, but right now they weren't part of the Resistance.

They should act like kids and have fun, because they're not here to start a war-- they're here to get back the joy of soccer that they've lost, simple as that.

"Soccer is all about having fun, right?" Kirino decides to offer up his input. He grins when eyes turn to him. "They're watching us now-- that's why all the more, we should have fun, if only to show them that we don't care."

"Kirino-senpai, that's a nice way to put it!" Tenma sparkles, stepping forward. "And you're right!"

"You're getting a little repetitive there, Tenma," Kirino warns him. He rests a hand on the junior's head, turning to everyone else. "It's not as if we have much to lose if we go-- we can decide after school, right? Let's go back to class for now or we'll be late."

The seniors sigh.

"Alright! Race you to the clubroom, Tenma!" Shinsuke declares.

The midfielder squawks, "no fair, you got a head start!" he whines, chasing after him immediately. He doubles back to add that, "Aoi, you can go back ahead of us. Oh and Tsurugi, see you in class!"

"Don't run in the hallways!" Aoi reminds them, but they're already a speck in the horizon.

At the same time, Tsurugi fumes, "don't greet me like we're friends!" he yells, but it also falls on deaf ears. Then he mutters angrily, "I'd have gone without you telling me!"

Something was just soothing about watching the first years interact like that. From the expressions on everyone's faces-- resigned, but in a satisfied way-- Kirino thinks they agree with him.

It's a nice change from the ever-present hostility from last time around.

Kirino likes to think he's turned this route down a very good way. There's nothing else to do but keep going from here on-- and he'll have to work with what he gets.

Second chances don't come thrice, after all.

-

"Kirino, you absolute madman," is Aoyama's greeting to their beloved defender when he sets a very pristine but already-opened envelope on his desk. "I don't know if I love or hate you."

"Neither is fine, you can have Ichino," Kirino replies immediately.

"Polyamory is valid."

"Then I respectfully reject."

"You're cruel!" Aoyama whines, "I'm heartbroken! I might take a day off for this!"

"Sorry Aoyama, homosexuality stopped being considered an illness about half a century ago. So you can't call in sick with the gay anymore."

"Curse you, common sense!"

Ichino just stands at the doorway, glaring at them in sheer bafflement. "Every second I leave you two alone, your conversation starters get worse..."

Kirino sits in the seat before Aoyama. That isn't his assigned seat, but that doesn't matter at the moment. Aoyama inspects the envelope, looking inside for a moment just to confirm his suspicions-- and yep, it's Coach Kudou's walking papers. Seriously?

Ichino groans, "how did you even get that?"

Kirino just smiles, not intending to answer at all.

"I'm guessing this means we're making our move today?" Aoyama asks, "you're a slave driver, you know that?"

"Well, our team is coming around a lot faster than expected," Kirino says. "At this rate, we can start recruiting a lot easier, you know?"

"Tsurugi is still around, you know? We can't be careless," Ichino tells him, taking a sip of the hot chocolate in his flask, just to wake himself up a little. "And by recruiting, who do you even have in mind?"

Kirino smiles.

"Oh, I regret asking, please don't tell me," Ichino turns away immediately.

"I have a couple in mind, but we can start by turning some of the smarter evils in our club to this side," Kirino says.

"Smarter evils?" Ichino inquires. "Would that be the intimidation group or the studious group?" The former includes Kurama, Kurumada and Amagi, the latter includes Sangoku, Shindou, and Hayami.

"Ah, Hamano-kun and Minamisawa-san," Aoyama guesses.

Somehow, Ichino only pales and nods at that. Kirino has to admit-- if there was anyone in the club that would hide a body one day and come back smiling the next, it would be those two.

(Especially Hamano. Kariya was terrified of that guy and he never said why.)

"Them aside, we need to get some adults as well," Ichino says, "it's too risky with just us kids... or is it less risky if we keep it within ourselves?"

He's not sure. An adult would have their name in some known part of society, after all, unlike them. It's much more risky-- and thus, much harder-- to find an adult like that to help them.

"Doesn't hurt to get a few," Aoyama says, "we could get people who can actually write, actually report, and actually get solid evidence..."

His words trail off.

Then Ichino clears his throat, slightly embarrassed, "is it just me, or does that sound exactly like Otonashi-sensei?"

Aoyama hides his laugh with a cough, recomposing himself, "okay, one down, let's decide on a few more in our next meeting, then." Well, that was certainly uncomfortably easy. 

Anyways. 

"What about Subject Edgelord?"

Kirino chuckles at that, "let's think about everything when our site goes online. And about Tsurugi... well, I wouldn't worry if I were you. I'm sure he'll come around soon enough."

Ichino and Aoyama stare skeptically at his carefree smile. "You have something planned?" they ask.

Kirino hums, "not exactly, but yeah."

Ichino and Aoyama grimace in unison. "Let's pray for Tsurugi," Ichino suggests, sitting down and holding his hands together. 

Aoyama follows, bowing his head. "I hope his sanity remains intact by the end of this."

Kirino makes an offended noise.

-

For Tenma, the situation was frustrating. He joins Raimon with high expectations to play soccer, only to find out there's a tyrannous government at the head.

"Tenma, you have one mission!" Kirino-senpai had brought him aside to tell him one day, speaking with all the regality of a squad commander.

"Yes, sir!" Tenma had saluted, eager to obey.

Then Kirino gave his best grin. Then, in all seriousness, he lifts a thumbs up and gives one prompt, simple command-- "annoy the heck out of Tsurugi. That's all."

Huh?

Now that was unexpected.

But not at all unwelcome.

Instead of a protest, Tenma simply felt the dredges of a deeply-hidden rascality build up in his chest. "Can I really?" he asks, unable to suppress his excitement, "no repercussions or conditions or rules?"

Kirino gives him a skeptical look.

"Uhm, keep his dignity intact at least," the senior says, carefully.

Tenma clicks his tongue.

"What was that?" Kirino looks on warily, "Tenma?"

Tenma turns back around, beaming innocently, "nothing!" he says. Raising a resolved fist, "you can count on me! I want Tsurugi to join the team too, so I'll do my best!"

"Ah... right. Do your best," Kirino says.

To begin with, all of this nonsense started with Tsurugi, didn't it? Tenma is usually the unassuming sort, but he's notoriously stubborn about getting exactly what he wanted.

Which brought us to this situation now.

"Oh! Tsurugi, are you coming to the riverbank?" Tenma asks halfway through the door of their classroom. School's over, so all that's left to do is change and run.

A few of their classmates are looking at them. Obviously, because Tenma is loud, and also because everyone knows about their resident I-don't-wear-the-assigned-uniform.

(Seriously, what's with that? Tenma's going to ask later.)

Shinsuke had run ahead, so Aoi is left to wince at the scene before her.

"No," Tsurugi spits the words, just to be spiteful.

"Ehh, really?" Tenma asks, dragging the words just to be obnoxious, "I would think you'd be interested so you could keep an eye on us... Guess not?"

Tsurugi's face heats up in realization for a short moment-- but Tenma's already gone. Aoi is left trying to decide if she should address that or just go after the boys before she loses sight of them.

Tenma beams when he hears Tsurugi screech behind them.

"I would've done that without you brats telling me what to do!"

-

And somehow, they catch Tsurugi at the front gates. The Seed had probably overtaken them while Tenma and Shinsuke went to change into their jerseys.

And Tsurugi is evidently caught off guard.

"Tsurugi! You're coming with us?" Shinsuke asks, holding his and Tenma's bag of spikes.

"No I am n--"

"Anyways, Tsurugi," Tenma interrupts.

"Don't speak over me."

Tenma takes his spikes from Shinsuke, Aoi hustling after them with water bottles. "I've been wondering, but are you allowed to wear your Fifth Sector uniform?"

"Don't call it a Fifth Sector uniform, it's just a uniform!"

"Now that I think about it... why don't you have the school assigned uniform?" Shinsuke falls right in step with them, and Tsurugi curses loudly, suddenly realizing they're on either side of him now. He needs to escape-- crap, Sorano is behind him! He's trapped!

"Maybe," Aoi breathes harshly, barely catching up to them before they slowed down to match Tsurugi's pace, "it's because, you know... he just transferred..."

"Ooh! Right," Tenma says, "so you only got assigned to Raimon at the start of this year? Seems pretty last minute."

Tsurugi tuts, "you're telling me," he mutters, almost annoyedly.

Seems like resident edgelord Seed isn't too happy about his sudden transfer either, and the three first-years immediately latched onto it.

"What, they didn't give you a Raimon uniform?" Shinsuke asks.

"Huh? Why would they do that?" Tsurugi returns, "to begin with, I was supposed to go right back after I took over your club, not stay here and attend school."

Now that was news.

Tsurugi may have been slated for the leader of the Black Knights, whatever that Raimon replacement team was. After they got themselves a spot in the club, Tsurugi, an evident superior in the ranks, would be able to go do other work. Didn't always need eleven seeds to assert absolute strength, after all.

So Tsurugi had to get the uniform and get settled into school-- that is, if Fifth Sector doesn't decide to pull him out of Raimon in a few weeks to do something else.

Awaiting orders as he was, he just hung around.

"But are you allowed to not wear the assigned uniform?" Tenma asks.

"Well, transfer students do it all the time," Aoi explains to him, "you know, if there isn't much of the year left anyways, or if they can't afford the uniform, or if they're waiting to receive it from the tailor. The school gives a leeway if you inform them about it first."

"Ohh..."

A pause.

"Ah, but what about lodgings? Do they at least pay for that?" Shinsuke wonders, "they can't be expecting you to foot a bill to a hotel, right? Raimon doesn't have dorms, after all."

Silence.

"You're telling me that the soccer government with an unnecessary, gaudily-constructed building in the center of Tokyo would not pay for your accommodations while they make you travel across the country?!" Tenma yelps in horror. "That has to be illegal!"

Tsurugi doesn't answer that either.

"You should protest, Tsurugi!" Aoi has to agree for once.

"I live nearby, so there isn't a need," Tsurugi says, "that is none of your business, anyways."

"Oh, that's a relief," Aoi's shoulders sagged. "Still, though, that's really the least they could do for all of you guys. I know Seeds are kind of like their soldiers or something, but don't tell me they actually treat you like the military?"

Tsurugi looks away.

"...What was that silence?!"

"Tsurugi, you're a kid, you know! You're telling me you Seeds actually go through a semi-military regime?!"

"Just gimme a sec, I'm going to cry."

"And I'm going to call the police."

"Could you guys quit it," Tsurugi barks sharply at them, genuinely irritated at this point.

Aoi has her phone in her hand, Tenma's testing his tear glands, and Shinsuke still has that flabbergasted expression on his face.

"Wait," Tsurugi freezes, "why am I walking with you guys?!"

And immediately, he turns around to make his way through Aoi, back toward the school building. Because, high hell or heaven burning above, he is not going to do anything to be associated with them. Even if it means walking the long way around a straight road.

Aoi and Shinsuke simply watch as he goes.

Tenma clicks his tongue in annoyance, "darn it, we almost made it past the turning before he noticed."

Aoi smiles, resigned, "better luck next time, Tenma."

Shinsuke takes out his phone, "can we still call the police, though?"