85. HOW THE MIGHTY DO FALL

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Ubers' has to be the most coordinated team of highschoolers (and perhaps, some mildly elder) that you've ever seen.

Then, you think about it a little more—and you start to think that a team like this doesn't suit the Barou Shoei you've always known. The most selfish man you've ever known, and the most self-serving striker to boot—the fallen king.

But now, it seemed he's risen from the ashes like a late phoenix—but as every forced reincarnation story goes—it just doesn't feel quite right. His face is the same, and so is his voice. His hair is an exact replica (with the addition of his new red streak) and his personality, even, has not even changed a bit from what you recall.

But seeing his actions, now, in person—in a game—it's just not him.

You wonder if the rose-coloured lens have simply fallen off or simply have shifted to a different hue—one that doesn't match the crimson of his eyes or the red of your cheeks.

Maybe this was him all along.

Or maybe...

You glance over, to the side. The players dash down the field as you do, Aryu blocking a pass sent towards Kaiser by Ness—stopping it with his glamourous head of hair and earning a swift cheer from Bianca.

His master—Snuffy—simply smiles.

You huff and turn your eyes away.

Being a manager who mainly relies on experience and knowledge of the game itself rather than analytical prowess—you find you've never really been able to understand people like Snuffy and Bianca, who come up with elaborate strategies and smart ways to get past their opponents.

You have something much different.

Isagi intercepts Lorenzo's access to the ball and swiftly moves it away with a motion you'd assume none on the field could've predicted so suddenly—at least, with your kind of vision anyway. Niko rushes into him and slams his foot into the ball and it, expectedly, slides out of bounds.

Niko crashes atop Isagi from the force he used to rush and remove the ball from the striker's grasp, and distantly, you can hear Igaguri yell for a foul to be called from the VAR. It's ignored, obviously—but you see Isagi space out as he seems to realise something...

Which, you'd probably be hearing about later, anyway—so there's not too much of a worry for you.

"What a monster," Hiori remarks. You pause, attention turning towards him, even as the game restarts with Grim throwing in. His cyan eyes are trained with more firey focus than you'd ever seen in him ever before. "Isagi really is somethin'... all the others are, too. The guys on the field have ta be, to survive on that battlefield of a pitch."

He laughs shallowly, and you can't seem to look away from him. "Well... I think I could imagine you on that pitch pretty easily, Hiori."

"Huh. Ya don't say."

You smile a little. "Mhm. You might not believe it, but to make it this far in the pits of Blue Lock—truly, it's no small feat. You haven't shown me yet, but I have faith you're great."

Hiori pauses, eyes falling downwards. "You know, some say it's a fool's errand to believe in somethin' they have no proof of even existin'."

"Then I must really be a fool then, to believe in somebody as careless as you appear to be, Hiori."

If he wants to say something, anything, back to you—he doesn't, and simply chooses to remain silent in observation. With this, your attention returns back to the game and your eyes flitter to the first person you see.

A low growl of frustration escapes the thin lips of Michael Kaiser, and his expression is anything but pleasant at this very moment. To say you don't know why would be a big, fat fib.

Lorenzo stays on Kaiser as a fly does to a rotting carcass. (You find it mildly humourous comparing Kaiser to a rotting carcass—but you digress). Every move Kaiser makes, every glance, every inch forward he seems to get—it's all tracked and trained down by Lorenzo as if the zombie were glued to the emperor. 

It's no wonder why the German looks so pissed off. You wouldn't be surprised if Kaiser jumped on him to get him away, right then and there simply.

You almost feel bad. Not for the fact that he can't do anything—but if only for the fact that Ness is freaking out terribly on the pitch. You're not sure what you'd do to calm down the wizard boy, either—and for that, you feel low sympathies for the emperor.

But you're not too worried.

* You do not speak, so he continues, his head tilted upwards and his gaze focused on the ceiling. "He makes the impossible a reality. His dreams are my dreams. I trust him with everything I am... and Kaiser... is the reason I still believe in magic."

After all—for a man like Michael Kaiser, absolutely nothing is impossible. 

Kunigami intercepts Ness' pass for the first time this game—and you find you'd nearly forgotten about his presence on the pitch with how he simply stayed on Aryu—and his following actions cause you to plant your face into your knees with a low groan.

Kunigami... you idiot... why do you always choose to go alone?

You still do not know what happened on that day, after he was eliminated. You don't think you'll ever have a clue, actually. Despite this... you can't imagine what must've happened for the team-player hero to go all solo like this. 

Isagi tries to match up with his movements but with all the defenders lined up in front of the goal, it's nigh impossible. Kunigami chops past some of the defenders but it's not until Niko that he's forced to pause—you barely have a clue where the small boy even came from—and it seems as if Niko is about to take possession for a moment.

Until there's a loud battle cry that belongs to none other than Raichi. You'd recognise that noise in your sleep. He uses his broad back to block the frail Niko's path to the ball and it ends with Isagi gaining possession with relative ease.

Looking back on it now, you wonder how it is that Niko had not caught a glimpse of the pointedly loud Raichi Jingo who was rushing behind him—and he who ended up foiling his mental plans.

Mariele laughs. "I can hardly believe an intuitive boy like Niko hadn't seen a rambunctious idiot like Jingo coming. I wonder what was it that was distracting him so heavily."

You can't tell whether she's insulting Niko's or Raichi's intelligence—perhaps both. Regardless, her words make you think a little. "Yeah... I wonder... must've been real important."

"Maybe he forgot to do his bangs this morning."

A small giggle escapes your lips, and all of your built-up tension leaves your body for that small moment.

Isagi is met face-to-face with Aiku at the goal—and considering his choices, he sends a pass towards Yukimiya where he calls out.

It all happens so fast. Lorenzo sprints up in front of Yukimiya, grinning wide as he reaches out for the ball with his lanky frame, yelling out, "Chow time."

... Or not.

Practically biting down on your nails, you watch as Yukimiya's face contorted into one of horror as the ball was swiftly intercepted and stolen from his grasp in an instant. Lorenzo was quick—far too quick to be regular—and the ball flies away, into unknown and dangerous territory.

For a second, all you can hear is your heartbeat. You follow the ball's path with your eyes, and it lands into the grasp of one familiar—yet a stranger all the same. Deep blue stares back at the zombie with as much hate and distaste as he stared at anybody before, "I've been... waiting for this moment."

Michael Kaiser says, eyes wide and pupils slit. Effortlessly, he moves from Sendou's attempt at stealing the ball away, and as Aryu comes closer, he leaps.

Kaiser propels himself off Aryu's back and, doing a leap into the ball backwards, slams his foot forward. The ball flies fast—so fast for a man a good few feet in the air and having to maneuver his body in said air.

"Eat shit, losers."

Kaiser Impact.

You're stunned. Your eyes just can't seem to be pulled away from his form. Nobody could've ever possibly reached that. No—no way in heaven or hell. Your lips are wide open in shock—and even without looking over at her, you can practically feel Mariele's surprise as well.

As the whistle is blown loudly, churning as the goal is screamed out—the words, whatever you wanted to say, were lodged in your throat. As, once again, you are completely and utterly transfixed by Kaiser.

With every passing moment, you're suddenly beginning to realise this is happening more and more often. The longer you spend watching the blonde, making his name known both on and off the field, and proving himself as an ultimate game changer—the longer you begin to stare.

I just... can't look away.

In an act befitting a Kaiser, he lands with perfect grace and even more perfect form. Panting and glaring at both the zombie and Isagi himself—your attention is almost immediately stolen away by Ness.

He screams and cries and yells praises towards his ace, jumping around and leaping like an excited little kid opening presents on Christmas day—even falling to his knees, "Did you see that, assholes?! This is Michael Kaiser's true strength!! This is the ability of a man who's going to be #1 in the world!"

A few moments of silence pass by, with the only sound being Ness panting after his little rant on how extraordinary Kaiser is, before anybody speaks. Unsurprisingly, it is Kaiser. "Hey, Ness...?"

"Yes? Yes, yes yes?!"

Kaiser whips his head around to the brunette and gives him the most bone-chillingly dead stare you'd ever seen him sport. "Shut the fuck up."

Following his words, Ness' expression drops into one of depressive shock. His eyes widen and face grows even whiter, as Kaiser ensues his explanation at how his goal wasn't all that great, and for Ness to not act like it was the saving grace of all humanity. "What, are you fucking stupid? You think I'll be happy scoring a goal by feeding off Yoichi's scraps like a goddamn hyena?"

To be honest—you couldn't see what he meant.

Maybe it was his strange sense of pride as an ace striker, or maybe it was because he really just did hate Isagi that much—you aren't quite sure. 

Whatever it was... you couldn't possibly understand.

"I don't get why... he's saying that. Kaiser... that goal was one of the greatest I'd ever seen." You murmur, lowly, finally finding the sense to regain your voice. "How could he possibly say he could've done better?"

"Kaiser has always been like this, and I believe he may always will be," Mariele speaks, slowly and simply. Your gaze shifts away from the scene before you and turns towards her lovely face—now etched with a serious look. "He is hungry. Starving for more. To score better. To play better. To be better. He's never going to be satisfied, not until the day he dies. He could be the best player in the world, and even then, he'd still crave more."

Hiori manages to catch wind of her words, and leans back in his chair, laughing lowly—"The curse of bein' an egoist, huh? Never feelin' satisfied. Always that voice inside ya head screamin' I want more, gimme more. I'll never understand it."

—yet it sounds rather humourless. 

"... Still. It sounds nice." You say, mindlessly. Fiddling with the ends of your jacket, distracting yourself. "To be so into something... so utterly consumed by your love for something... that you can never get enough. To have something like that... I think I'd feel full just thinking about it. Wouldn't you say, Hiori?"

A quiet second passes before he answers. "Yeah. Guess that wouldn't be too bad, now would it?"

You smile at his response but don't spare him another glance.

"Bastard München sure is strong. What a twisted, abnormal two-pronged attack you came up with, Noa."

Even from the other side of the room, Snuffy's voice and unnameable European accent is absolutely unmistakable. He snaps a headband around his hairline and smiles as Noa responds to his rival sitting across, "... I wish you would call it revolutionary."

"No. Your tactics are not beautiful." Rising from his seat and throwing his jacket behind him (which happens to land in Bianca's lap, and the lady seems rather disgusted as she tosses it away from her), "Time to crush this eye-sore, oddball team."

"Back off, Snuffy," Noa warns with a low tone. "Don't make my job harder than it has to be."

"... [name]. Ranze looks to be injured." At the sound of Mariele's voice, your head snaps up. You look around on the field for the shark boy, and see Isagi holding his leg up and stretching it—in the fashion you do when one has a leg cramp. 

You deflate in your seat. "Mariele... when you say things like that, maybe you should be more specific. I got scared."

She smiles her practically perfect grin. "I'll keep that in mind. Master—are you going in, now?" 

The snow-haired man nods, face practically unchanging as he slides his jacket off, and Mariele begins to fold it. "Yes. [name], you know the procedure for cramps like that, right?"

With your nod of conformation, you head out onto the field beside your master. He spares you one last glance as you duck down beside Kurona, "I'm sure you'll get the recounts of the game from Mariele, later."

... Is this his way of telling me not to worry about missing out?

You find a smile forming on your face at his awkward way of... "comforting" you. 

You snap back to Kurona, placing your hands on his arms and speak as calmly as you possibly can, "Can you stand up by yourself?"

He tries, but stumbles a bit when he tries to hop on his ankle. You steady him and help him rise upwards—slinging his arm around your shoulders as he hops away with you, off the field. 

Mariele spares you a strangely knowing smile—and you find yourself rather confused until you look beside you, and catch Bianca's unreadable stare as she helps out two of her own players.

In the corner of your eye, you look at the field once more. 

Kaiser is giving Noa a boilingly cold stare, lips taut downwards and eyes slit like that of a feline. You shake your head, blinking away the image from behind your eyelids. 

Oh, how the mighty do fall.

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* 76 — THE MAGICIAN

note: hi guys its. been a minute huh. well. maybe expect updates a bit more frequently because i have ideas now!!! anyways. ill probs put fanart next chapter i just needed to get this out so bad