Heading Home... Or Not

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By late morning, they had all gathered at the station, fully packed and prepared to go home. Or at least, almost all of them were there.

“Where is Coach Kuroiwa?” The captain asked.

“Are we sure we want to know the answer to that?”

“Shindou, I know what you're implying, and…” Ibuki's lips slowly formed a thin line. And then, “You know what, yeah, I'm on board.”

“Huh?”

“They want to leave him behind.” Matatagi answered Sakura with a smirk. “Good to know I'm not the only one.”

Shindou had his arms crossed. “That man has been more of a menace than Kusaka, Minaho and Matatagi combined.”

“Hey!”

“Ouch.”

“Damn. Gotta up my game then.”

“In any case, we only have a couple of minutes left until we're supposed to leave.” Manabe began. “Aunty said that, because of how far away we are, our chances to warp immediately to Earth are very few. If we don't go now, we'll either have to wait another week, or we go the long way around, which could take us just as long.”

“But… We can't just leave him here, right?” Shinsuke said.

“Honestly, even if we bring him back, wouldn't he just be thrown in jail?” Tsurugi countered.

“Oh yeah, we never talked about that, did we?” Tetsukado spoke up. “Why the hell is there someone called ‘The Emperor of Darkness’ in soccer?”

“Why are we still questioning all this when we've seen all the shit we've seen?” Matatagi retorted.

“Because unlike everyone would like to think, he isn't an alien! He's a human from Earth!”

“Technically speaking, we are also aliens to―”

“Minaho, I swear to god―”

Kusaka, who cut off the defender, was also cut off by the blonde manager.

“That aside―”

“That isn't something you just push aside!”

She ignored whoever that was.

“― Do you think we should try to find him? For Hikaru's sake?”

“...”

“...”

“...”

All those from Raimon went silent.

“Who's Hikaru? I feel like I've heard that name before.” Sakura asked.

“Our teammate from Raimon, and also his nephew.” Aoi explained.

To which Tetsukado immediately reacted with, “That guy has a family?!”

“Which one was he?” Konoha asked in a barely audible voice, likely thrown off by all the shouting.

“The purple haired one. The one not wearing goggles on his chin. Forward.” Kimiko pointed out.

“That kid?!”

“He's related to him?!”

And before they could process the new information,

“Everyone!” Kamata called from the main entrance of the train. “It's time!”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“... Shall… we just go? … Or…?”

Good question, Ichikawa. But none of them could answer.

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