33. THE WORLD 5

note: i'm still pissy about how the anime took lines from them ESPECIALLY LOKI (he literally has like 5 lines in the anime bye) so I'm using the manga for the majority of this part.

if u saw this earlier. im publishing it again bc whenever i do a double update nobody reads it grrr so im doing it again

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YOU

ring out your hair over the sink, then wrap a towel around your shoulders before walking out of the shower room, slipping on your slippers and looking around your new bedroom. Shared with six other people.

You meet Komi's eyes, and both have a silent conversation—as soon as you nod towards her, she leaves and goes into the shower room. It doesn't take too long until you hear the warm water start running again. You sit on a bed beside Bachira, and he gives you a grin when he meets your eyes.

"Oh, hey, [name]." Isagi greets you, and you give him a curt nod in response. You turn your attention towards the television, with a picture of the World 5, and Tokimitsu seems to be geeking out about this subject, given how excited his voice was and how he was blushing.

"That's Luna! The Scion of Royale! The illustrious Spanish club!" Toki points at the blonde, green-eyed man. You weren't the biggest soccer fan in the world, so you didn't really know too many players (really, the only ones you were aware of were the super popular ones, like Noel Noa... and... Noel Noa).

You decided this would be a great learning experience for you. Toki then motions towards a player with a nasty glare and a half-shaven beard, "And Adam Blake! The top scorer in the English league!"

"World-class free-kicker, the freckly Pablo Cabasoz!"

"And the hungry heavy tank from Brazil! Dada Silva!"

Tokimitsu's hands fly over his face and he looks like he has just witnessed a friggin' satanic possession from how frightened he looks, "Oh jeez, this is nuts! Their team's made up of the world's best strikers!"

"Such a glam memory—" you have to physically suck in a breath to stop yourself from laughing at Aryu's appearance. His hair is tied up with a towel, and you mistake him as bald for a second. Without his hair, he's almost unrecognisable. "—are you some kind of soccer facts nerd?" 

"The idea of facing them is making me both excited and terrified," Bachira giggles, and you don't notice how your legs are touching until then—in fact, you hadn't realised you two had gotten so close together. You thought you left at least a little distance between you both. You're so close next to him, that every time he rubs his towel over his damp hair, his elbow bumps into your cheek. "I don't know the guy in the middle with the shaved head, though."

Isagi agreed with Bachira. You take a closer look at the boy, and turn your gaze towards Isagi, "That's Julien Loki. He's a pretty young French player—but is scary talented. He's younger than me, and is playing in the actual leagues already."

Isagi blinks owlishly in surprise when you explain it like it was second nature, "The guy's the same age as me, and he's already good enough to be playing for his national team?"

Aryu smirks, a self-satisfied (glamorous) expression on his face when he removes the towel from his head and lets down his long head of dark-brown hair, "Can you even imagine? If I defeat him, the world will finally have to acknowledge what a fabulous player I am."

Isagi looks at Bachira, then at you, "By the way, where did Rin go?"

"Oh, about that," Bachira giggles, kicking up his feet and crossing his legs. He covers his mouth with his hand, "He goes off on his own at the end of the day."

Isagi nods, and with one last goodbye, he walks off into another room. Now, you're left here with Aryu, Toki, and Bachira, and you just remember something. You sit up, walk over to your bag and grab your notebook (with your own ballpoint pen attached to it), then quickly kneel at the table in the middle of the room.

Curiously, Bachira stands over you and peeks down at what you're doing. You rip out a page of your notebook, and click your pen on the paper, bringing out the inked tip. You tap your finger against your cheek, staring down at the paper.

Bachira sits down beside you, elbows on the table holding his head up when you see him peer at you from the corner of your eye, "Whatcha doing?" Curious as always, you smile, then scribble down something at the top of the lined paper.

"Writing to my pen-pal." Bachira moves closer when he hears your words, a childishly excited expression on his face when his head basically leans on your shoulder as he tries to get a good look at it.

"I wanna see! Can you mention me?" He asked, a sense of wonder to your words that you just can't seem to deny. You agree and laugh, and write down the next line with Bachira mentioned in it. He giggles, rocking back and forth in his cross-legged position, "Yay!"

"Pen-pals are so glam," You don't even notice how Aryu leans over your head, and you only feel the tickle of his hair on your cheek to notice his presence, "But it would be even more fabulous if I was in it too. The world must know about my glamness."

"Okay, fine," you suck in a deep breath, scribbling down a few more lines that mentioned Aryu. "There. I said you were super glamorous too."

"So glam. You've just ranked up to super glam, [name]." His big hand rests on your head as thanks, and you deadpan when Tokimitsu comes over and looks at the paper with wide eyes. He nervously stands behind you, fiddling with his fingers as he mumbles something.

You don't catch what he says, so you lean in a little closer and place your hand near your ear, asking, "Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

He squeaks and makes a noise of surprise, scrambling back. "AAAAh!! I didn't say anything! I'm so sorry!" A cold sweat runs down your back at his expression, and you worry you may have actually broken him.

"No, it's okay, I just—"

Bachira tugs you back by your shoulder, pointing at the paper and dipping his head down to look at it, "[name]! Tell your pen-pal about my awesome dribbling!"

"Do I have—"

"You should tell them about my wonderful haircare routine," Aryu flicks his hair back and forth, sparkles flying around him.

Suddenly, a door swings open behind them, and there stands a red-faced, deadpan Komi who has her hair wrapped up just like Aryu earlier, "How about she tells them about how you all won't leave her alone?"

You snort at her words, and have to physically ignore the offended looks you receive from your reaction. Komi takes a place beside you, a gentle smile on her lips, "I haven't really heard of many people having pen-pals. I think it's pretty cool."

You nod, now blocking out the strange-sounding argument ensuing between Aryu and Bachira, with Tokimitsu trying to calm the situation, "Mhm. My mother brought up the idea because I was a pretty lonely kid, so I started messaging a person all the way across the world. I had to adjust to speaking English, though. But since I was already learning it at school when I was 15, it was a lot easier."

Komi's eyes crinkle up, and her cheeks stretch out even farther when she talks—and you think her face kind of looks like a cute mochi. "Honestly, that does sound fun. Have you ever met them?"

You nod, writing down a few more lines of words. "Yes. It was a little bit awkward at first, but we actually get along quite well now. I haven't seen him a year or two, though." You laugh a bit, fondly smiling as you remember the memories. "It was kind of hard to communicate since my English was kind of broken, but it's much better now."

"That's pretty impressive, being bilingual. I am too." She shows off her pearly white teeth, and you curiously peer over at her. You ask her what language she speaks, and she replies, "I'm actually from South Korea, so I can speak fluent Korean. I can also speak a little Vietnamese."

Your eyes widen and your lips part slightly in admiration at the girl in front of you, "That's really cool. I never would've guessed." You both laugh with each other after that, and you spend the rest of your night tucked in a blanket while thinking of how to finish off your letter.

You enjoyed your time with Komi and the others that night, and for a little, you forget about the game happening the next day.

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You zip up your jacket halfway, and sling your bag over your shoulder, looking down at the contents to make sure everything you needed was in there. You count the water bottles, pens, notebooks, shinpads... Oh.

You quickly rush over to your bedside table and grab a piece of paper, stuffing it into the cooler bag before walking towards the doorway, where Komi is waiting for you. She sends you a cute smile when you rush up and catch your breath when you slow down to walk beside her, in the prison halls, "Hey."

"Hi." She motions for you to pass her your bag. "Tokimitsu said he'd carry it," she nudges her head over to where he stands, fiddling with his fingers and a flush on his cheeks. She grins when she takes ahold of the straps and passes it over to the boy, "So, you excited?"

You sigh and shake your head, a tired smile on your face, "Kind of. I don't really know them, but aren't they celebrities?"

"Yeah, they are. I didn't think about that," Komi taps her chin, a thoughtful expression on her face. It's soon replaced by a mischievous one, and she grins at you, "Do you think I should try and get a photo?"

"Totally," you nod with a serious expression. After a few seconds, you both burst out into laughter, covering your mouth with your hand when you receive a confused look from Bachira. 

When the laughter dies down, you look back at Komi.

She's cool.

It isn't too long until you and your team have finally made your way through the prison halls, and you find yourself in a bright, overbearingly so, room that was decorated in a much different and stranger way than any other place within Blue Lock. Already, you were getting a strange sort of vibe from here.

You all walk on the field, and there stands the World 5, and already, it's like they emitting some sort of overbearingly intimidating aura. They all certainly look the part—young to middle-aged guys who just scream that they're confident in their abilities. You make eye contact with Komi one last time before you look forward, a smile on your face.

"Damn, they're scrawnier than I thought!" You remember Tokimitsu mentioning his name was Silva. He laughs heartily, a grin on his face. The guy next to him—blonde, with a beard and a noticeable British accent, looks a lot less amused.

"See? The Japanese aren't known to be muscular at all. Now pay up that ten grand you owe me—you lost the bet," His arms are folded under his chest and he eyes each of your players up and down. His name is Blake, right?

Tokimitsu shivers, hands covering his cheeks when he splutters out, "It's like... they're totally making fun of us."

"Are they speaking English? I got no clue." Bachira hums with a confused expression, turning his head to you. "You can speak English, right, [name]?"

You grimace, "Only a little."

Silva laughs again, jabbing his finger in Blake's direction with a sly grin, "You're probably gonna use it to play around with women, right?"

Instantly, at those words, Komi makes an uncomfortable face and shifts a little closer to you. You don't stop her, but you don't say anything either.

Blake scrunches up his nose with an obvious distaste for the man, "Huh? Oh do shut up. You came to Japan to work part-time."

You almost don't notice Rin coming up from behind you and walking up towards the two older men without hesitation, and amazingly, he speaks with perfect clarity, "Hey! What do you mean? Is this game like a part-time job for you?"

"Wh—Rin!" Isagi gasps, eyes wide with wonder. "You can speak English?!"

"You learn something new every day," Komi peers out at him over your shoulder from behind you. "What are they saying?"

"Yeah, that's right!" Silva says. "It's not like I came to this facility between tours to make chump change, right? Right, Mr womanizer? You're already 30, huh?"

Blake shoots him a hard glare, brows furrowed down even angrier than they were before, "I'm only 26, I'll kill you, bastard. I have a reason for coming to Japan, to sightsee and mess with women in kimonos. Then soccer comes next. Aren't you the same, Cabasoz?"

You look at the guy next to him—significantly shorter—with bright rainbow hair and honey eyes, and just as his nickname implies, freckles dotted all over his cheeks. "Yeah. I wanna go to Harajuku. I want to see this adorable place called Harajuku with my own eyes."

Silva bends down slightly to be at eye-level with the Argentinian, "Although you say that, you're the cutest yourself, aren't ya?! Gahahah!"

Blake scoffs, "Baby-faced narcissist."

Cabasoz only pouts, cheeks puffed out in a way that makes him look even more child-like than before, "I'm the cutest 23-year-old, right? My only rival is Pikachu."

"I heard Pikachu," Komi whispers from behind you, which makes you giggle a little. You turn your head away when Cabasoz looks at you.

"Those guys... it seems like they only came here to play around." Aryu narrows his eyes and twirls a strand of his long, silky hair around his finger. Tokimitsu gasps and looks at his buddy, asking if he can also speak English. "No, I can only understand, because I listen to Western music. I'm currently learning how to speak..."

He puffs his chest out and places his hands on his hips, "My name is osha (glam)!"

"Huh?! Osha isn't English!"

Rin glares at the three men, a hollow, blazing look in his eyes when he tilts his head and his bangs fall back, "Let me tell you this: all of you top stars... I'm going to crush you. Your little Japanese sightseeing trip is going to turn traumatic."

Blake and Cabasoz don't respond to his words, only Silva lets out a strained laugh with his brow twitching, "Well, aren't you a bold one.. little brat."

A laugh suddenly cuts off whatever tension had suddenly started filling the room, and both Rin and Silva are unable to stand any closer to each other due to the other blonde guy, Luna, standing between them with his hands on their chests. "Alright, that's enough. The three of you should act like adults."

He opens his eyes to reveal they're a striking green, and he smiles charmingly, "You're Rin Itoshi, right? I've heard the rumours from Ego, and that little green-haired girl."

You instantly know who he's talking about—the girl who showed them around and was promptly traumatized by the experience. 

"So, you're Sae Itoshi's little brother, right? Your brother was pretty well-known within the organization." Luna chuckles lightly, looking away. "If you're really his younger brother, you also probably have amazing talent. I was eagerly anticipating playing against you."

"He seems nice," Komi unlatches herself from behind you and tries to subtly glance at the man without him noticing. "Should I ask for a picture?"

"I don't know..." You squint, listening as he keeps talking to Rin. Despite his cheerful demeanour, he sounds strangely condescending.

"Anyways, this is a pretty interesting idea. To develop such a project to make Japan the best in soccer." He laughs, shoulders shaking as he talks, "Although, Spaniards becoming the next Sumo grand champion sounds more plausible. To waste this much wealth on such a fruitless expedition... Japan really must be a thriving country."

Rin scrutinizes him with a hard stare, eyes darkening, "You trying to be funny, bastard?"

Luna seems shocked at Rin's harsh tone, and chuckles nervously, shaking his head with a smile, "Hm? Ah, sorry! I was complimenting you, y'know?" He gives a bright, stunning smile that almost makes your eyes hurt. "To gamble your life on something that might not even come true... you guys must be the world's biggest masochists!"

You swallow thickly, eyes narrowed at his ridiculing. You're sure the others aren't able to understand exactly what he's saying, but it's abundantly clear that he doesn't take any of you seriously. 

Suddenly, Loki walks up and places a hand on Luna's shoulder, eyes narrowed, "Hey, that's enough, Luna. You're going too far." Luna looks back at him with a confused expression, blinking owlishly at the French man.

"What? Why? Did I say something weird?" 

You deadpan, brows lowering, Either he's playing dumb... or just super oblivious.

Loki turns towards you all, a smile on his face while he points over at Luna with his thumb, "I apologise, everyone. This guy has a nasty personality. Putting those selfish grown-ups aside... It's nice to meet you."

At the sight of him, a smile crawls onto your face, and you step forward, digging into your bag for something. Komi makes a confused face at your sudden movements—but it seems to not falter you, as you grab your note and hold it out to him.

"Sorry, I forgot to send you a note last week." You hide your mouth behind your hands. "Sole of the deep."

"Oh, it's no worry," he takes the letter from your hands and gives you a charming smile of his own, "Fried tofu with all the frills."

You erupt in a fit of chuckles, and so does he, so much so you have to turn your head away and slap your hands over your mouth.

"What?" Komi asks aloud, eyes squinted as she tries to figure out what's going on. She walks up to you, head tilted to the side so she can get a good look at your face.

"You know that girl, Loki?" Cabasoz blinks up at him, eyes flitting from him to you.

"We're penpals," you both answer simultaneously, except for the fact you say it in Japanese so that your teammates can understand. The look of shock on their faces was absolutely priceless—something you'd never forget.

"WHAT??" Tokimitsu yells out, hands slapped over his cheeks. How he reacted would've been more appropriate if you'd just told him his mother died.

"Having such a pen pal is so glam."

"Seriously?" Bachira blinks like a frog, lips stretched out in a wide grin after it sinks in, and he laughs. "You really are a surprising person, [name]!"

Loki looks back at you once more, and his lovely French accent fills your ears. "Ah, how have you been? I heard Blue Lock is... tough."

You pause for a moment, trying to find the English words, "Blue Lock is fun. It is a good job for me. How is your mother?"

"She's well." He chuckles, placing a hand on your shoulder. "I hope your sisters are well, too. Your English is very good now."

"Thank you. I've been practising." You adjust the strap of your cooler bag and fiddle with it on your shoulder. It was getting heavy, and really, you'd like to sit down. "I shouldn't hold you up any longer. You should start the game now."

"Right—" Surprisingly, Rin talks. "I want to crush you as soon as possible."

"Aha," Loki gives your team a closed-eye smile, and without an inch of nervousness or hesitation, he says, "Let's have a good match."

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note: i know the whole trope of you know this famous person omg haha is so bad but i literally cant think of any other way for you to connect yourself with him otherwise. also like he's on pxg so. and im in love with him lol .

also kind of unrelated but. komi and [name] are so princess bubblegum and marceline coded.