9. tell me what's so strong about you (and I'll protect it)

"We're all pathetic! No one's a perfect interdimensional being. We're just miserable, pathetic human children. And what's wrong with that?"

The consequences of artificial strength and carefully-hidden scars begin to crawl up and ache terribly, but they gather their pieces and trudge on through the snow, toward the final battle. 

The battle with Aliea inches toward the climax. 

-

-

-

"From now on, Endou will be Libero full time until otherwise stated," Coach Hitomiko declares. "Tachimukai. You will handle the goal."

"Y- Yes!" Tachimukai straightens, utterly nervous.

"Alright!" Endou says, beaming.

"Anyways, we're all glad to see you're alright now, Tachimukai," Coach Hitomiko turn to him, "Kurama, I know it was the situation, but don't do reckless stuff like that out of nowhere again."

"No promises," Kurama immediately says.

The reprieve from the final battle begins with Endou going through his grandfather's notebook again. The stadium field is still open, so they thought they may as well get some practice in with it, gathering in their uniforms as Chaos warms up for a practice match.

"The Ultimate Shoot Hissatsu, the Earth," he says. "Everyone pours their energy into the ball, and three people smash it into the net!"

"That sounds difficult," Kidou says, "and vague."

"Ah, The Earth?" Kurama hums, "well, I guess it is pretty strong...Yeah, I guess if we're fighting aliens, we need to use The Earth. I've never led it, though, so I don't really get how it works either..."

Everyone instantly turns to him, lifting their heads from the book and pausing between stretches to just stare.

Needless to say, Team Chaos is treated to the sight of Kidou reaching over and choking the absolute hell out of Kurama, shaking him vigorously and demanding answers while Tsunami and Rika burst their guts laughing.

Aki is blowing the whistle frantically while Haruna holds a yellow card, but the infuriated genius just isn't listening. Natsumi is trying to find the red card, but they haven't used it for so long, it's hidden somewhere in the bags and they don't know where it is.

Gouenji and Endou are trying to drag Kidou apart from Kurama, while Kogure quietly notes to Domon that he will never make Kidou angry ever again.

"Ah, sorry," Ichinose says, turning to the Chaos members and beaming, "could you just give us a second? We'll be back with you in a minute or so."

The Chaos team stares incredulously as Raimon tries their best to separate the two, Fubuki and Tachimukai forming a barrier between them as Kidou just starts going off on the brat about sharing information.

Kurama hides behind Haruna as she sizes her brother up in a glaring match, and surprising absolutely no one, Kidou caves in first, and he turns away in frustration while Haruna huffs in victory, arms crossed. Domon slow claps. Tsunami and Rika are still laughing, but this time, Kogure is pointing and jeering to add fuel to the fire.

In the crowd of Chaos, Heat, standing just around the midfield, sprouts out a short laugh. He desperately hides it, but it's too late, the entirety of Chaos is staring.

This leads to a chain reaction of Nepper cracking up a smile, and soon enough Clara is covering her mouth in laughter too, Droll and Bomber following right after. Almost exasperatingly, the scene of Raimon fooling around makes the giggle pass like a contagion, until Burn is smirking in amusement and Gazel is sighing in resignation, a fond smile on his face as he sees the long-forgotten cheer on all their faces once again.

"...you know, guys," Gazel brings it up first. "We're probably not going to be able to go back to living as humans so easily," he says. "But it's fine, right?"

"Course it is!" Burn groans, slapping him on the back. "Whether we're going to jail or hell, guess what, snowball, you're burning with this lousy crowd the whole way. We'll never have peace and quiet ever again."

"Oh, just think of being stuck in a jailcell with Natsuhiko!" Barra dramatizes, "nooo!"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean, Hana?!" Nepper snarls, offended.

"You're my sleep-paralysis demon, actually..."

"WHAT?"

"I mean, we've always done everything together thus far," Bomber says, "how much more worse could this get?"

They're all laughing again before they know it. For a moment they allow themselves to forget the inevitable and unknown future that awaits them ahead, and they indulged in the present, in the oblivion and the naivete, of just being normal children again.

At the sidelines, Coach Hitomiko struggles to hold back her tears. She lowers her head into her hands and trying her hardest to breathe evenly.

Natsumi quietly passes her a handkerchief, and Hitomiko chokes out a word of gratitude.

-

"And this is my buddy, the pegasus," Ichinose says. "Technically my leg's still under recuperation, so I wasn't allowed to use any hissatsu shoots above the level of Spinning Shot. So I haven't seen this guy for a bit."

"You were using Tri-Pegasus and Phoenix a whole bunch though."

"Well, I was kicking it with you guys, I guess that's okay?"

Kurama finds himself running a hand across the mane of the fiery blue pegasus for a long while. It's very docile.

"Oh, Kurama, you like him?"

"Well... I guess?" Kurama says. Gently batting it away when it chews on his hair. "Horses are rare."

Somehow, the conversation of improving hissatsus brings everyone to summon any animal they could into the vicinity. (Which includes Kidou walking around with an armful of penguins but no one's willing to criticize him for that.) Rika and Touko are surrounded by butterflies, ranging from petite to absolutely nightmare-inducingly huge.

"How do you guys even summon animals anyway?" Tsunami asks, "didn't you summon a shark one time, Kurama? Teach me that."

"Not unless you go swimming with sharks when surfing or hunt them for breakfast."

"Do dolphins count?"

"No," Kurama says. "How about you focus on your surfing instead? You've got a solid concept already, you don't need any animals."

Tsunami whines, leaning onto Sidewinder the Snake God. "Awh, but I want an oversized intimidating nightmare fuel as my hissatsu!"

"Quiet before Snake God-sama eats you whole."

Practicing hissatsus all over the field is fun, definitely. Over in the corner, Gouenji and Endou are discussing the semantics of summoning a Majin, because Tachimukai can't make Asura show up again, which sucks.

"Right now, our offense is decent, especially with the addition of Aphrodi and Fubuki, but our defense needs some work," Coach Hitomiko says.

"Well... Kurama," Kidou turns to him, "got any more big future moves to share?"

It's too late to try and think of new moves from scratch now, so other than taking them from Endou Daisuke's notebook, they've got the Kurama cheatsheet to refer to.

"Huh? For what?" Kurama groans, "I'm depressed about Sidewinder failing again, could I have some time to be an edgelord?"

"Well, be an edgelord faster, we need something for our defensive line."

"Can't you find a way to make Sidewinder stronger?" Ichinose suggests. "I mean, we evolved Tri-Pegasus to the Phoenix, and Dragon Crash into Wyvern..."

"Uhh, well, evolving the animals is a little tough..." Kurama murmurs, arms crossed, "I don't know how Someoka does it, but like... evolving predator animals are... kinda... you know... I don't exactly want to die..."

"Eh? Is it really that hard?" Fubuki says.

"I don't even know why you can use Wyvern Blizzard, honestly... or how Gouenji can use Dragon Tornado" Kurama says. "How the hell did you get the Wyvern to acknowledge you?"

"Ah, no, that was Atsuya," Fubuki says.

"Right! Bear hunter!" Kurama balks. "You're not afraid of anything are you?"

"But if that's a factor, should we go hunt a bear for the experience?" Fubuki suggests, beaming. "Coach Hitomiko did say we were headed toward Mount Fuji soon."

"You're just going to casually suggest that? Seriously?" Kurama groans. "Okay fine..."

"We might as well have all the animal-summoning players go for it," Domon says. "Who knows, it might make Phoenix stronger."

"Would that help with summoning Majin too?" Endou asks.

"Kids, I am still listening," Coach Hitomiko says, her voice low with a threat. "Do not for a second think I am allowing that to happen."

"Bummer."

"Killjoy!"

Kidou sighs. "Kurama, focus. We need something defensive."

"Uh..." Kurama turns around. "Have you tried jumping onto someone else's feet and just being launched across the field?"

"Why?" Kogure asks, slightly appalled.

"That sounds like Inazuma Drop but with half the logic and as a defensive move," Kidou says. "Can you take this seriously?"

"That sounds fun!" Tsunami beams, snagging up Kogure before he can run away, "what's it called?"

"Rage Jump Defense, last I heard."

"It's real?!" a few people had to retort.

"Ah, and, wouldn't hurt to get Ultimate Thunder in our arsenal too," Kurama says. "We have Gouenji, so it should be a piece of cake."

"I assume you need kick power?" Gouenji asks.

"Wait, how many things are we going to attempt?" Rika says. "Anything for me?"

"And me?" Touko asks.

"Uhh..." Kurama frowns, "I don't know... "

"Wait, whatever happened to you and I practicing Double Tornado?" Gouenji says, suddenly reminded. "We should get back to that, honestly."

"Stop! You almost killed Kurama last time, why are we trying that again?!"

"If Back Tornado is okay, I can try?" Domon offers. "The heights still don't work though."

Ichinose is very worried. "Enough, we don't have enough players or time for all of this!"

"Aaand, I guess, if we're talking about hurried defensive hissatsu, we can't forget One-Night-Castle? It's a three-person combination move."

"Somehow, asking him is so much more efficient than trying to decipher your grandfather's journal," Kidou says. "I don't know why we didn't try this before."

Endou frowns. "On my grandfather's behalf, I am offended. Is Grandad still relevant?'

"Oh trust me, he IS," Kurama says, "it's ridiculous how persistently relevant he is! Can you believe the things he thinks up, we had to travel through time and space to fulfil his dream team!"

"You did what that sounds so fun???"

"We nearly died twelve times!" Kurama yells, grabbing his hair. "They said his legendary writings were some kind of secret code and we travelled through time to figure it out."

"It was horrible handwriting, wasn't it?"

"It was horrible handwriting!" Kurama groans. "And to make matters worse we found out a while later that someone who could read it was right in the hospital two blocks away and we didn't actually have to travel back in time to find the actual person."

"...Why didn't you just ask Endou?"

"Oh he was kinda dead."

"I was kinda WHAT?"

"Stop! Enough! Stop it!" Natsumi charges into the conversation, waving for attention, "we're going to be here all night if we go on like this!"

-

It's mortifying, for the horrible news to take over the television and radio stations with the destruction of an industrial area of town, crushed and destroyed as if a bomb had erupted in the middle of it. People were evacuating, injured being led off to hospitals and much more disaster relief still occurring. There were people still missing. No one was dead yet, though.

The footage revealed aliens once again. The Genesis, declaring their name louder than before.

"They... they moved first," Touko gasps, "no... I just... I just told my dad it'd be fine, too..."

"Hey hey... that's ridiculous," Burn frowns, "one thing we do is to not kill people. He's definitely inching too close to that line for comfort."

"I'm sorry– what?" Kogure raises a brow, "you guys reduce all those schools to rubble and you're saying you guys actively tried not to kill people?"

"After landing so many in the hospital, no less?" Gouenji also doesn't quite like the implication.

"Hey, we were playing alien with powers on the godzilla scale," Gazel says. "But we haven't exactly killed a human before, you know? None of us have been willing to start."

"Dad didn't particularly tell us not to... but he said it was fine to just make a huge scene. I think we just personally agreed not to actually kill anyone, and we actively made sure the buildings were empty before we destroyed them," Burn says. "I mean, getting charged for manslaughter kind of complicates things."

"I guess this means Gran doesn't care about our promise anymore..." Gazel says, face sunken.

"Foolish Prime Minister, this is your last chance. If you do not accept our terms, Operation Genesis will throw the whole world into total chaos."

"What— the whole world? They're not stopping at Japan?" Megane is appalled.

"Yeah?" Burn raises a brow, "why would aliens only specifically attack Japan and ignore every other country like— I don't know, the US?"

Kurama looks away, very uncomfortable. "...well isn't that what everyone is wondering..."

"I mean, it's not like the other countries aren't already on full alert with this alien business..." Touko says, "we have been getting financial aid for most of the rebuilding work."

"Wow, humanity is cool," Tsunami murmurs. "They're not uh, sending military or anything, right?"

"Papa stopped them for now, but it's just a matter of time," Touko says.

"Well we definitely can't let them send any now," Endou grimaces, "Hiroto's human!"

"Humans, but with," Kidou glances toward Gazel, then does finger quotes to reiterate, "powers on the godzilla scale."

"But with this kind of firepower in scale, if we head into war now, the war efforts will be spearheaded by..." Natsumi trails off. Her next words are a murmur, "Genesis..."

The Kira Corporation thought deeply, but not deeply enough.

If international warfare happened now, sure, they may stand a great chance of winning with the technology of the Aliea meteorite. But if they advance so soon, so immediately, then the only ones capable of utilising that power would be Team Genesis.

Children.

It was a good idea in theory, but just so horrible in morality. Using the meteorite to enhance their bodies, to weaponize children for war. To use these children to strengthen Japan's military forces.

To send children into war.

"I think we really need to tell my father everything," Touko says. "I don't want to get the military involved either, but if we can get them to let us settle things, with soccer, I'm sure—"

"When the fate of international politics are at stake, it's not going to be so simple, even for the Prime Minister," Kidou says.

"We have to save Hiroto," Endou says. "Genesis is the last one, right? Then—"

"Nagumo! Suzuno!"

Nepper and Rhionne rush over, frantic.

Heat is doubled over on the ground, coughing violently into his hands. He covers up as much as he can, but no one misses the red edging around his lips, speckled with disturbingly purple bile. Clara is on Gocker's back, face pale and unconscious in much the same state.

The group rushes over to the other side of the field almost too harriedly.

"Rejection reactions?" Gazel recognizes it immediately, heading to Clara's side and Burn takes Heat by the shoulders, "this is bad— dad would know what to do but we can't go home now..."

"What the— what's going on?!"

"Girls, go get some water!" Coach Hitomiko calls immediately, and the managers jerk right into action.

"We need to get them to the infirmary now!"

-

The team leave Chaos in the infirmary to watch over their own.

"They're asleep for now, but it's only a matter of time before the symptoms get worse," Coach Hitomiko says. "Touko, I need you to call your father and get the Ministry of Health on the situation. It's similar to what happened to Zeus, albeit on a greater scale... they'll figure it out."

"On it, ma'am!" Touko says. "I guess it's time to really come clean with him, then."

"I'll call my father as well," Natsumi contributes.

Kurama sighs. "I guess in any world, power comes at a price, huh?" he murmurs.

"The Aliea Meteorite is otherworldly power, after all," Kidou says. "I guess it was only a matter of time before it started affecting human bodies negatively, especially used so liberally and without precaution, just in reckless pursuit of strength."

It hurts. Because from Aphrodi to Sakuma and Genda, they've all fallen prey to this same curse in the form of manufactured strength.

And Kurama knows that this sickness— this chronic illness of humanity to always pursue something stronger, to always aim for power in the equivalent of godhood— will never end.

The Second Stage Children. The SEEDs. The Keshin, Armed, and Mixi-max. Even the Hissatsus in their purest form, from the Majin to simple elemental enhancements, changed them somewhere deep inside, little by little.

And though the differences were only minimal at first, no one missed the way Tsurugi changed, most of all. From the raw instincts of Wolf taking over his senses, to the undying determination of Okita Souji, coming through with a psychological yet inevitably present chronic ache through his very being.

It's inevitable that this growing pursuit for power eventually inflated into the birth of the Second Stage Children, who were fated to die early, agonizing, and meaningless deaths.

(As time went on, humans gained greater powers that began to break the limits of humanity. Maybe it was inevitable that things took to the scale of universal, dimensional, and then it all came bursting when the balance of the world couldn't handle them again.)

(Perhaps, this strive for greater competition in soccer was what led to the dimensional rupture that destroyed Kurama's world, to begin with.)

(Maybe... it was all inevitable, as long as soccer continued to be played this way.)

Maybe Hitomiko was right. Maybe Kurama should promise not to do anything without going through them all yet.

"Let's start practice."

Surprisingly, it's Aphrodi that says it first. Eyes turn to him, and he stretches his arms over his head until a satisfying pop clunks from his shoulder. He brings his face into a smile, and pats on Endou's shoulder.

"People need time to recover, but oncoming battles wait for no one, right?" Gouenji adds, agreeing with him. "They'll come back when they're ready to."

Just like I did, it goes unsaid.

The world moves on, and those that are taken down will trail along, they will be left behind. But soon enough, they'll recover their strength and catch up twice as strong.

And so, starting with Endou, confident steps follow, and soon enough, the will to practice and perfect their new ultimate moves comes to them, twofold.

(They'll leave the injured behind. They're not being abandoned. They have to keep moving forward, so the injured can rest up with all the ease in their hearts that the battle will be won in the hands of their comrades.)

Kurama smiles, reassured.

They're much stronger than he could ever be.

He brings up the rear, noticing Fubuki standing aside, not quite ready to step back into the light as he clutches his scarf, deep in thought.

"Fubuki, are we going?" he prompts, nudging his head forward.

Fubuki lifts his head with a nervous smile. "Ah... yes, I'll be right there."

He steps forward, but his steps are hesitant. He takes another, and he stops, turning back toward Kurama, toward the infirmary room door, where Burn and Gazel watch them go.

"...is this really okay?" he says. "Being left behind by everyone, but still thinking that you'd have a right to stick around... I don't know. Do you guys feel that way for the previous Aliea teams, too?"

Burn and Gazel look him in the eye.

"...they were weak," Burn says. "That's true, but..."

They didn't know. The primary effects of the Aliea meteorite that involved heightened senses and emotions— they faded, they're fading even more after a night away from home. They're still there, but they're starting to give way to confusion and confliction in their very minds.

"Of course we do," Gazel says, hands tightening over his elbows. "We compete with each other. Gemini Storm and Epsilon— they're filled with friends, brothers and sisters that we grew up with. Of course we want to see them come back to our side."

"Re-education was always just extra training to come back stronger. It was never supposed to be expulsion, removal, and never seeing them again."

"It was never meant to be like this."

"So of course, if given the chance..." Gazel says, "once all this is over, we want to be together again. It doesn't matter who's stronger or weaker, and who's better at what over the other. We just have to reorganize the teams so it'd all balance out. Then we can all play together again, like we used to."

"We wouldn't say no to any of them crawling right back," Burn says. "Where else would they go?"

Fubuki's fists are clenched.

"But.. isn't that kind of pathetic?"

Burn snorts out in laughter.

"Pathetic?" he says, almost incredulously. "We're all pathetic here, dumbass! We're human, that's normal."

Fubuki blinks in surprise.

"The worst part about being an alien is needing to put up that ass of a charade, you know?" Burn says. "Reize and Desarm, those guys. It's only because they put up that intimidating superiority act that we got this far in the first place. Would you believe us if we told you both of them are absolute dorks that would start crying for mercy if you put a radio playing their own announcement at them in front of their bedroom door?"

"...you did what," Gazel had to say, exasperated.

"That's so mean," Kurama says, "but that is such a good idea I am stealing it."

Burn snickers. "We're all pathetic! No one's a perfect interdimensional being," he says. "We're just miserable, pathetic human children. And what's wrong with that?"

-

"I Mixi-Max because I feel more complete with them," Kurama admits, when Fubuki asks. "They can do things I can't. That's why I borrow their confidence, their power, because that's what the team needs."

"So you regard yourself incomplete without them?" Fubuki asks.

He means no offense.

"I too, feel incomplete without Atsuya," Fubuki says. "I don't know how to let go of him, even though I know... deep inside... that I can't have him any more, ever again."

And Kurama feels this, too.

Does he feel incomplete without them? He does. He feels incomplete without his Raimon, without Asura, with half of what he used to be able to do. Nothing is right, down to his height and the braces on his arm keeping his functioning limbs together.

"I feel wrong," Kurama says. "But I'll have to get used to this."

It's fine. He's got a hole where his heart is, but there's nothing he can do about it but grow stronger around it from now on.

"No one expects me to be perfect. I don't think I can ever be perfect," Kurama says. "And well, that's fine."

"...but is it really?" Fubuki says. "Doesn't it ever feel... like you're never as good at the people you borrow your powers from?"

Kurama stops in his path, taking a deep breath.

"Don't get me wrong," Kurama says. "In the same way I borrow powers from my friends, my friends, they borrow powers from me, too. They need me, just as much as I need them."

Tachimukai didn't take one of Kurama's stronger powers, he took on Kurama's aura, because that's what he needed. He took Asura.

"But Atsuya's the only thing keeping me going," Fubuki says. "He's the one with the power, with the ability to stand up to the members of Aliea. I... I can't do the same."

This team can't hold on with someone as weak as Fubuki taking up a slot on the team. It's one thing for Megane to be here, since he's not actually playing much at all, another thing for Fubuki to tag along so uselessly, when he joined to contribute his strength.

"Then I guess you're just like me!" Kurama beams.

And suddenly, all the worries in Fubuki's mind are blown right away.

"I used to be the number eleven of the team, you know," Kurama says, leaning right into Fubuki's side, "then this asshole came in and took my place, we were basically forced to give it to him. And then I got shoved out of my spot for the midfielders who had stronger moves than I did. It was so frustrating!"

"Ehh... that sounds tough. How did you handle it?"

"I didn't! Those assholes are still at the top of the team and I mostly warmed the bench," Kurama groans, hand thrown into the air. "But you know, we don't need to throw words like 'perfection' or 'strength' or even 'victory' around. Sometimes, it's good enough to just let loose."

"Just... let loose?" Fubuki asks.

"Yeah," Kurama says. "And if I mess up, well then, everyone else is around to pick up the slack, right? Your explosive side is 'Atsuya', isn't it? But what about 'Shirou'? Aren't you tired of being the nice twin? Don't you ever wanna go ape shit sometimes?"

Fubuki balks at the wording. "Going... oh?"

Kurama extends a hand as they step into the stadium, out into the light, to where the team gathers and the grass begins. "Promise it'll be fun."

Fubuki chuckles.

"You know what? You're right," he says. "Atsuya always gets to do that, and I think it's a little unfair. I wanna be feral, too! I'm a wandering snow child and bear hunter as much as he is, after all."

Everyone hollers for him and Kurama to hurry up, they need to practice their hissatsus soon, and Fubuki can't help but step forward into the hand that's given to him, unexpectedly enthused.

"Other than the Mixi-max, you really don't have anything left?" Fubuki wonders. He clutches at his scarf. "Should I put my scarf down?"

Kurama chuckles. "Nah, keep it on," he says. He turns back, his hair falling gently over his eye. "I style my hair how someone else used to do for me. I dribble the way my best friend showed me how. I pick fights the way one of my seniors once showed me the ropes. I keep a piece of them with me, always, and there's nothing wrong with that."

Fubuki Shirou walks on.

-

When Kurama steps up onto the Inazuma Caravan again, it almost feels unreal how comfortable he's become, as part of this team.

He likes it here, all things considered. Just thinking about the fun memories made him happy, and he indulged. He indulged, because here, they propagated. He didn't have to linger on the thoughts of never meeting Minamisawa again when there were so many distractions around.

He sits by the window, and though no one outside is who he craves to see, he's highly amused enough just watching Touko and Natsumi get chewed up by their fathers for reckless endangerment while Endou and Kidou try their best to take some of the blame. They're all getting scolded to no end.

Kurama sits down and Fubuki finds the empty seat behind him. Everyone else gets so easily settled, and the trip to Mount Fuji begins with a cheer of determination.

He gets so comfortable. Too comfortable.

He just wasn't prepared to jerk awake as the caravan comes to an abrupt, turbulent stop. Kurama crashes onto the seat in front of him as Furukabu slams the brakes, and the bus of people stand up to see what's going on.

"OUCH!"

"A bag flew and hit me on the head! Ow! What did we even put in that bag?"

"What the— woah. That's one hell of a violent river."

"That's strange. There shouldn't even be a river here. The Aliea Meteorite must be changing the very landscape...'

"Coach Hitomiko, don't you know another way around?"

When Fubuki stands up, a rough, almost desperate grip on the end of his scarf sends him sitting right back down, and he turns around in confusion.

"Kurama?"

Kurama's got another arm snaked right around Fubuki's immediately, clutching at his shirt, holding him in place.

"What happened?" Kurama demands.

(It's so whispered, so desperate.)

Kurama doesn't look up. Doesn't lift his head from between the seats. His eyes are stuck, somewhere far away.

And Fubuki immediately knows what's going on.

"It's okay," he says, inching immediately closer, "just— we hit a rock, I think? And there's a river in our way..." Fubuki hitches a breath when Kurama grapples at his limbs a little too hard, but he allows it, and Kurama clings, so desperately— his hands so firm yet so weak, trembling—

"Don't get up. It might be dangerous."

"It's okay, Kurama," Fubuki says, "just— calm down, okay? Take a breath."

Everyone's standing up, calling out in confusion about what's going on in the front of the car.

Kurama clings frantically, clawing into Fubuki's clothing, and Fubuki looks up to see Gouenji has noticed. A single nod and Gouenji is ushering everyone to be quieter with a sharp hiss.

"Don't get up. Don't move, you'll just get thrown around when the impact gets us. We need to hide. Hide. Or."

That's how he broke everything, unable to do a thing but suffer.

"We can't get out. We have to get out of here," he says, over and over. "We need to get away. Before it gets us. We can't. We can't stay here. We can't—"

That's how he lost everyone.

That's how everything ended.

"Kurama, I need you to listen to me," Fubuki takes him by the face, "just— look at me."

"Where did everyone go?"

Kurama finally looks up, but his eyes are nowhere near Fubuki's.

"I can't hear anyone. Why can't I hear anyone?"

Why did they all go silent? Is everyone dead?

Ah, suddenly, Kurama wanted to cry. Suddenly, he wanted to scream. Suddenly, he just didn't want to know anything anymore.

"Kurama, hey—" Fubuki presses firmly onto his back, shifting as little as he can to grasp back firmly, resolutely, groundingly, "just— listen to me, you need to breathe—"

How did it feel like to breathe again?

"I want Minamisawa," he pleads.

And then, he falls silent.

-

Kurama wakes up to the sound of the team hollering at each other over the river, a combined effort to haul some logs over the river to form a makeshift raft and bridge.

He's exhausted. So exhausted, he can't do much but feel dizzy, sweaty, and confused by why and where he is. At the very least he knows he's on a mat, partially covered by the tent, laying on the ground.

"You collapsed," Haruna says, her voice a softness that she usually doesn't lower herself to. "Can you get up? I brought water."

It's nostalgic, so Kurama allows himself to be nursed. The water is warm. The world is distant, and he doesn't feel all there. Haruna speaks softly but she doesn't stop talking. In the distance, he can hear everyone working together, occasional yelps and cries when someone inevitably falls or plays pranks on each other in the tides. ]

Coach Hitomiko notices him awake, and she asks him a few grounding questions, and Kurama answers them easily. She then prompts him to get more rest, and he obliges.

He doesn't want to do anything else.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Haruna prompts.

Kurama closes his eyes. "The caravan crashed."

And he says nothing else.

"I see," Haruna relents. And she asks nothing else.

Kurama just wants to wallow in this confusing numbness in his chest, because the second it's gone, he knows he'll be consumed by despair, by the heartrending hopelessness of losing everything he's ever loved, all over again.

"It's okay," Haruna says, as he drifts off again. "Just take your time. We'll definitely wait for you to catch up. In the meantime, I guess everyone's just got to pick up the slack, eh?"

Kurama's never been more relieved to hear that.

Nothing is alright, and he just wants to feel nothing for a while longer.

-

"Welcome back!" Endou greets, when Kurama joins the crowd again for some cream stew around the campfire.

Gouenji casually hands Kurama his portion, and Kurama smiles, seamlessly finding himself in the midst of the conversation once more. Apparently, they had the plan of making a bridge over the river to get the caravan across, and it's succeeded. Hopefully, there won't be anymore roadblocks herein.

"I hate mountain rides too," Fubuki says. "So don't worry about it."

Kurama nods.

Somehow, they were talking about it. About Atsuya, about Hakuren, about anything. Endou brings up his grandfather and the incident that happened so long ago before too.

"I'm glad we managed to win Football Frontier," Endou says. "Though, I don't think Grandpa could predict aliens!"

"I don't think your Grandpa could have predicted the scale of which Inazuma Japan could be either," Gouenji says, "I still think it's ridiculous that Aliea picked soccer as the medium to destroy schools with."

"I mean, they loved soccer to begin with, so fair enough I guess?" Touko says, "I mean, if they were compelled to destroy the world and were physically enhanced to do it, might as well do it with a skill they've already got, right?"

"This doesn't give me good vibes for the future of sports," Ichinose says, "aren't there like, laws against artificial enhancements? Eventually we're going to find a way around it."

"Isn't that the whole dilemma?" Domon says.

"Yeah... even if he didn't use it for weapons," Aki sighs, "I think Aliea proved a good point about raising our level of soccer skill against the world."

"Hey, soccer's not fun like this!" Tachimukai says, a little upset. "Most of the fun is getting stronger on your own!"

"Imagine artificially handling the level of soccer in our country," Natsumi says, "that's just a recipe for disaster. When it all comes crumbling we'll be dealing with years of trying to restabilize the playing field."

Kurama sighs longsufferingly. "Yeah... it took us about three years to actually win the preliminaries again..."

Kidou chokes on his food. "Are you implying something like that actually happened?"

Kurama grimaces. "So there's this organisation called Fifth Sector that tried to police the standards of soccer... yeah... I think I know where they got the idea from now..."

"Dear lord, what is wrong with the future?" Kogure is appalled. "Is the future okay??"

"No..." Kurama says, "like, we were so close to getting back on a level playing field, you know. This term's Holy Road finals was where the adults said they'd really determine if our country could stand a chance internationally, but..."

Kurama sighs, face falling back into disappointment.

"Holy Road?" Endou asks. "What's that?"

"Ah... that's what we're calling the Football Frontier now," Kurama says, "sounds kinda cool, doesn't it?'

"Sounds epic," Tachimukai agrees.

"Why couldn't we just... stick with 'Football Frontier'...?" Kidou asks. "What are they making soccer out to be with a name like that for our tournament?"

"If people in the future all have Keshin and Mixi-max like you, then the Football Frontier must look insane," Endou says, enthused.

"I think at some point, it might be more tactical to restrain from Keshin and Mixi-max," Gouenji says, "not everyone has them, so it kinda seems like it'd get overwhelming really fast."

"Funny, because you're the one that passed that new rule," Kurama says, chuckling dryly.

"What?"

"Mixi-max was eventually ruled as human experimentation, and it all got banned on a dimensional scale," Kurama admits. "I mean, we didn't give a crap about those rules when playing for fun, but we banned it internationally, to keep things fair in official tournaments."

"Wait... that thing you keep using is ruled as what?"

"It was something so bad??"

"Wait, Kurama, there must be a reason they ruled it as such, right? Are you sure it's fine you keep using it, then?"

Kurama hums dismissively, "it's fine, no big deal," like it's an answer he's had to give many times. He finally takes a bite of his food and brightens immediately. "Wait, holy crap, this is the legendary stew recipe in the Raimon Soccer Club road trip camping guide book!"

Aki blushed immediately, "it's the what?!"

Endou jerks upright immediately, pointing at her with a spoon. "SEE? I always told you this stew recipe belongs in a recipe book and passed down for generations!"

"Are you the culprit?!" Aki squawks.

"Ah, no, the author is actually... Domon Asuka..." Kurama helpfully informs.

"DOMON," Aki wails. "This is embarrassing!"

Domon protests. "You can't hold me accountable for something I haven't done yet!"

"The Raimon Soccer Club has a camping guide book?" Gouenji is more exasperated by that. "Why... do we need that? We're a soccer club?"

Kurama gestures vaguely in everyone's general direction.

There's a very dry "oh," across the circle.

"The future is such an intriguing place indeed..." Kidou murmurs.

"Trust me, your generation set the precedent." Kurama smiles as the banter continues.

On one end, Kogure has slipped tabasco into Megane and Kabeyama's food again. He also tries it on Aphrodi, but Aphrodi snags him right up with Heaven's Time and now the menace is strung up to a tree by the vines. Touko and Rika are playing angel and devil, whispering in Haruna's ears and trying to convince her to let him down or not.

Tsunami, Tachimukai, and Fubuki are discussing their own strange school road trips, which differed greatly due to the different places they've come from. Natsumi was also part of the conversation, but her idea of road trips is so drastically out of the realm of the peasants that the other three are simultaneously very envious and very upset.

Endou, Kidou, and Gouenji are still huddled around the center of the campfire, talking about hissatsu and whatever else. Domon tries to curry favour back from Aki, who's very miffed, and Ichinose's joined in, because a grumpy Aki is something no one wants to deal with.

Kurama watches, and he's content. He's content with the idea that this Raimon is alive and present and all here.

Of course it's not alright. Of course, it all hurts. Of course, he'll never be alright again.

But for now, and for the rest of his life... perhaps, this is enough. There are holes, gouged out from his chest, but he can only find ways to fill them in and move on.

("Surely, we'll meet again someday.")

("...right?")

He brushes his hair away from his face with a sigh.

One day, he'll be fine.

It's okay if that's not today.

He'll allow the anguish, the anger, the reverie and the melancholy— he'll let it all fester and build up in his chest, driving toward his head— so that one day, he may be able to turn it into strength.

Spite and envy has always been Kurama's greatest motivator.

He is the manifesto of Asura, and he has to live up to that privilege.